Herb's 1996 summer Tidbits!
- The alternative universe NWO:
There's lots of talk still suggesting that "Blood Runs Cold" will be
a three man ninja team, with Bryan "Crush" Adams and Hakushi being named as
two of the three guys. The Observer reports that Adams says he's not going
to WCW and that Hakushi going is unlikely. It also reports that David
Ashford Smith (previously Yoshi Kwan and Chris Champion of the New Breed)
will be one of the threesome.
- Bulldog is trying to quit WWF. Smith has been a main event player for the past year, did he really want to go be a bench player for WCW?
(Oh... Herb clarifies that the new signees like Mero have perks that the established guys do not).
- HBK making friends and having meh main events:
The Observer writes about the Shawn Michaels vs. Davey Boy Smith
match from In Your House, "The finish that aired, the double pin
finish, was the planned finish for the PPV match. However, neither Michaels
nor Smith supposedly knew that their match in Florence was airing on the
PPV and thought they were simply doing a house show match and would be
doing a different finished than planned. The real match would take place
two days later as part of the make-good show. At one point during the
match, the signal got to referee Earl Hebner, who informed both wrestlers
that the match was airing, that there would be no rematch on Tuesday and
that they were to change the match, shorten the match to it into the PPV
window and go back to the double pin finish. by this time, they had already
done a number of restholds building to a longer match. Because of the power
outage, the crowd live wasn't as responsive as expected and Michaels by
this point already knew the match was below par and apparently felt it was
beyond redemption. In addition, some of his concentration on the match was
taken away by a heckling fan at ringside, and his swearing at the fan
calling her a fat cow while being held in a headlock by Smith wound up
turing other fans in her ringside section on him. This only frustrated him
more, with him eventually exploding at the guy who cued the music in a
post-match outburst that was aired originally but was edited out of the
replay. It was a two-way street, as Smith was also apparently frustrated by
everything that was going on. Both Michaels and Smith were said to have
been upset with the quality of the match and the decision not to have a
rematch on Tuesday."
- Owen Hart may want to leave WWF as well.
- Jim Neidhart is set to debut as an unknown gimmick, WHO knows?
- Shawn vs Hennig is expected to carry the WWF post KotR to Survivor Series.
Who's the 3rd man? The Mountie?
The identity of the third man that will team with the ex-WWF guys is
unknown and it's suggested in the Observer that it will be kept a secret
right up until the show. Because of WWF contracts, it cannot be Jeff
Jarrett, Bam Bam Bigelow, or Ted DiBiase. Other former WWFers that are
coming in to WCW include Pierre Oullette & Jacques Rougeau (The Quebecers)
and Mo & Mabel (Men On a Mission). Those that are criticizing the "Hostile
Takeover" angle forget that all of the above seven guys are coming in,
bringing the "invaders" team up to a minimum size of ten.
- WWF is planning to run Toronto's stadium with Shawn vs Vader in Aug. (Later Herb says Sid vs Vader and Shawn vs Goldust)
- Has Herb come around on Undertaker yet?
The lowlight for me was, you guessed it, the
Undertaker match finish. Maybe we'll get lucky at a boiler will explode in
their "boiler room match" on the next show; I'm almost that desperate to
never have to see the Undertaker again.
Undertaker's gimmick DOA?
Many people are reporting that this card will mark the end of the
Undertaker gimmick.
- Even with Bret not under contract, Hart vs Shawn is penciled in for Wrestlemania
- The Harris Boys will give up their ECW push to make more money as a WWF jabroni team.
Herb reviews Summerslam:
WWF's SummerSlam has the exact opposite summary: lousy undercard, pretty
good main event. Boy, have things turned around from the mid-1980s. The
undercard was filled with ** matches, some because the wrestlers involved
were physically unable to work (Skip), some because the wrestlers involved
can't work (Jake Roberts, Sid), and some because the wrestlers involved
don't feel like working (Owen Hart, Goldust). The only standouts in the
undercard were Sunny, who has tremendous star presence and is easily the
top woman in the big two because of it, and Marc Mero. There was a fan at
ringside dressed like Goldust and another dressed like Shawn Michaels.
During Mero's match with Goldust, Mankind came out and called Sable "Mommy"
before scurrying to the back, so maybe this is Mero's next opponent.
Mankind's boiler room match with Undertaker was pretty lousy. The early
portion of the match was pre-taped to avoid any mistakes and they did an
expert job of splicing that with the real action when the wrestlers burst
through the boiler room doorway. It was nonsensical brawling for the most
part, with Mankind taking some of his trademark bumps, including the
"Nestea plunge" bump from the apron. The strong storyline at the finish had
Paul Bearer turn on Undertaker after a six-year-long relationship. They
dragged this out way too long for my tastes and followed it up by having a
group of druids come out from the back to carry the Undertaker away. At
least he didn't levitate again. This whole storyline might be entertaining
to ten year olds, I suppose.
The main event of Shawn Michaels vs. Vader was
about as good as you'd expect, although the finish with two restarts was a
little weak. Still, the main event is enough for me to give this show a
thumbs up. During one of the pull-aparts between restarts, Shawn Michaels
echoed the words of so many before him, telling Pat Patterson to "get [his]
hands off of [him]."
- Herb mentions Austin is verballing attacking Bret on TV, but also writes that he hears Hart may come back as a heel.