Herb's 1991 Summerslam notes:
OK...this is only tangentially WWF related but the context of the back to back notes made me laugh:
A while back, when the departure of Sid Vicious from WCW seemed
imminent, I mused that this may be a good thing for WCW, giving them
the opportunity to turn to a more wrestling oriented style. Perhaps
they'd push wrestlers with high work rates and great ability, and try
to get the public to dismiss the "bigger is better" notion. Then,
when Owen Hart began in the group, I mused that they had the perfect
opportunity to start a light- or mid- heavyweight division within
WCW. After all, they had Owen, Brian Pillman, and could negotiate to
get Jushin Riger and other New Japan small stars. It seemed like
a great idea as far as the fans were concerned.
Well, it looks like WCW actually had that plan all along. The push
that Brian Pillman has received works into the plan, you see. Brian
has been pushed as a super-talented wrestler with lots of heart, who
really only loses because he's attacked by much larger men, like Sid
Vicious and Barry Windham. This is meant to work Pillman in as one
of the key players in a lighter weight division.
At the June 12th CoC, WCW will announce the creation of a Junior
Heavyweight division. The choice of name for the division is important
because of two reasons. First, it is the same name that New Japan uses
for it's smaller weight division. Second, they've avoided the negative
impact of the light- or mid- heavyweight label.
This division will present all kinds of opportunities. There is a
large number of wrestlers in the independents who are small, but
otherwise exceptional workers. These are guys that Vince would never
touch unless they lived in a pharmacy for a year first; this is an
untapped talent pool. Pillman is the obvious choice to lead the league
for the most part.
It's expected that Jushin Riger will be brought in when they have the
tournament to crown the first WCW Junior Heavyweight champion.
- As I mentioned a couple of week's back, Paul "Avalanche" Neu debuted at
a WCW taping. He is playing the character of T.N. News, a rapper.
Purely by coincidence the WWF will have a show in the Busch Stadium in
St. Louis on July 14th (an outdoor show), the same day that WCW has
their Bash PPV from the Baltimore Arena. The WWF card will feature
Hulk Hogan vs. Sgt Slaughter with Randy Savage as special referee
- you read that right - and the Ultimate Warrior vs. the Undertaker,
with the loser to be carted out in a coffin, doing the stretcher
match one better.
WrestleFest 91 - St. Louis, MO - Busch Stadium - July 14, 1991 (19,000; 14,500 paid)
Roddy Piper, Jake Roberts, Road Warrior Hawk, and WWF IC Champion Mr. Perfect were all no shows; Piper was in Los Angeles filming a movie while the other three were injured; a match between Bret Hart and Ricky Steamboat was scheduled but the card was changed due to the no shows
Col. Mustafa pinned Jimmy Snuka (sub. for Jim Duggan)
Ricky Steamboat pinned Pat Tanaka
Kerry Von Erich fought the Warlord to a double count-out
Bret Hart & Virgil defeated Ted Dibiase & IRS when Hart pinned Dibiase
Davey Boy Smith defeated Typhoon (sub. for WWF IC Champion Mr. Perfect) via count-out
The Big Bossman & Road Warrior Animal defeated the Mountie & WWF Tag Team Champions the Nasty Boys in a handicap match; the bout was to have been a six-man tag but Road Warrior Hawk was injured
Jim Duggan (sub. for Jake Roberts) (w/ Andre the Giant) pinned Earthquake
The Ultimate Warrior defeated the Undertaker in a casket match
WWF World Champion Hulk Hogan pinned Sgt. Slaughter after guest referee Randy Savage came off the top onto the challenger as Hogan was caught in the Camel Clutch, moments after Slaughter threw Savage to the floor and Gen. Adnan threw powder in Hogan's face; after the bout, Hogan and Savage celebrated in the ring together
Vince has been trying to get some golden oldies to appear or
even work at the Busch Stadium card, just to show his love for
the history of the sport. Lou Thesz, Harley Race and Jack Brisco
have all declined.
- The Trooper is rumored to be coming in (He got a bunch of try out matches)
- Tito was given the El Madator gimmick so that Konnan could come in as the new Mexican blowjob babyface.
- Sid was given a 600K a year contract by the WWF.
Hurtful:
Again, as reported already, Tugboat has capsized and resurfaced as
Typhoon. This tub of lard will team with Earthquake under the name
The Natural Disasters. They are set to feud with Andre The Giant
and Jake Roberts.
WWF is trying to sign Steve Williams and Kevin von Erich.
- Dino Bravo is back in again with the WWF and lined up to be carried
by, err..., I mean feud with, Bret Hart.
- Bruce Pritchard, whom we know and *love* as the red-faced Brother Love,
has been canned from his office job with the WWF. Apparently he
had some disagreements with John Fillipelli (who produced NBC Sports
World) and got fired. Fillipelli has taken over Pritchard's job
as the head of WWF production.
The rumour mill is swirling that Pritchard will be called on by
his good buddy Dusty Rhodes to work in WCW, as either an announcer
or a manager.
Hawk is out with a hernia. Any LOD tag matches will become Animal
single matches, although the change won't be advertised. There
was some talk about bringing in Animal's brother, Marc Laurinidas,
best known as The Terminator, but they decided against it.
Wayne Bloom & Mike Enos, formerly the Destruction Crew, will debut
this weekend on the WWF syndies. We'll get to see how bad their
gay gimmick is, and how useful John Tolos is as a manager.
- Interesting rumour has Brian Pillman jumping to the WWF. He has missed
some WCW dates recently.
-The WWF was set to start sending talent to the IWCCW to get extra dates.
First Summerslam card from Herb and he's O for 3:
Summer Slam will be subtitled "A Match Made In Heaven And A Match
Made In Hell." This past weekend's syndies had Vince McMahon
asking Randy Savage whether he and Elizabeth were as close to "tying
the knot" as rumours that Vince had heard were suggesting. Randy
stammered around a bit and I forget his exact response. In any
case, the marriage of Elizabeth and Randy Savage in the ring is
almost certainly going to be the "Match Made In Heaven". I'm
led to believe that the "Match Made In Hell" will be Hulk Hogan
vs. The Undertaker.
It's expected that Ted DiBiase will interrupt the wedding of
Randy of Liz to set up his feud with Randy Savage.
Also, Sid Justice will make his debut at the event, facing Curt
Hennig in an Intercontinental Title match.
Jesus! Round 2 and he's just WAY WAY WAY Off:
Everybody is saying that the headline match at SummerSlam will be
Hulk Hogan & Ultimate Warrior vs. Sgt. Slaughter, Colonel Mustafa,
& General Adnon with Sid Justice as the referee. I'm hearing
conflicting reports that the line-up will in fact be: Hulk Hogan
vs. Sgt. Slaughter in a Desert Storm match (to blow-off their
feud), Nasty Boys vs. Legion Of Doom for the tag belts in a
2-out-of-3 falls match, Sid Justice. vs Curt Hennig for the
IC belt, Big Boss Man vs. The Mountie in a stick match, Roddy
Piper & Virgil vs. Ted DiBiase & Sherri, Earthquake & Typhoon
vs. Jake Roberts & Andre, Ultimate Warrior vs. Undertaker. We'll
have to wait and see what happens.
The wedding of Randy Savage and Elizabeth (already married for
seven years) will also take place on the card. As someone guessed,
Lanny Poffo will return for the wedding. He'll be Randy's best
man! Could the WWF actually recognize their relationship? Sherri
Martel will be the maid of honour. No doubt Sherri will somehow
cause a disruption and be joined by Ted DiBiase to set up his
feud with Savage. We'll see the film of the proposal on one of
the upcoming weekends. When asked to marry Randy, Elizabeth
responded "Ooooooh Yeeeaahhh!"
Rumours have Bad News Brown returning from Japan to take on the
Barbarian on the card. And Dr. Death Steve Williams will debut
as well.
- Dr Death is to join Paul Bearer after Summerslam
- Hogan's post SSlam feud with be with Warlord. (IIRC they had one match total, not counting SSeries 90 and Rumbles)
@King of Summer Kamala "He worked Hogan under a hood in WCW w/ Barbarian" God Damn it Kamala, I think you're right
As mentioned last week, the WWF struck a deal with IWCCW to have it's
wrestlers work there. The first batch of wrestlers to work in IWCCW
are Tito Santana (before being recycled), The Sheepwhackers, and
Koko Ware.
Ok Find these results people.
It's expected that the Randy Savage vs. Ted DiBiase feud will
somehow involve another heel wrestler after a while and that Savage
will once again join forces with Hulk Hogan to take on the heel
combo.
- WCW fired Dan Spivey because of how open he was during the Dr Zahorian trial
Lotsa talk about Hercules failing a drug test with the WWF. He's
been suspended for 6 weeks and will be replaced by Dino Bravo at the
house shows. With this happening so close to the steroid trial of
George Zahorian, some are assuming that Herc got caught using the
juice. This is pretty funny, since the WWF actually encourages that
they use steroids. Hercules was suspended for using cocaine. Vince
doesn't care what you use as long as it doesn't make him lose money,
and if it happens to make him gain money, he'll encourage it.
- Some fallout from the George Zahorian trial:
Rick Martel has been sent out for the next SWS tour by Vince. You've
got to avoid the issue by sending you're known steroid abusers out
of the country, dontcha know. After the Zahorian trial heat cools
down, we'll see Rick again. At the Zahorian trial, it was mentioned
that Rick has suffered liver damage from taking so many steroids.
In WCW, they just take their known steroid abuser, Dan Spivey, and
book him into an impossible situation by asking him to job for newcomers
until he refuses too vehemently and gets fired.
Some rumours about the future of Ric Flair from a pseudo-reliable
source. Apparently, Ric Flair met with the WWF officials yesterday
in Stamford, and was offered a two-year deal worth an estimated
$2.5 million. Flair has agreed and will start with the WWF on
October 1st. He will be free from the WCW on August 1st.
Initial talk has Flair coming in as a babyface, and eventually
turning heel and teaming with Ted DiBiase. Flair will become the
six-million dollar man (perhaps a little jab at Steve Austin?)
and the two million dollar men will be managed by Sherri Martel.
There's typos and then there's this:
There's talk of Kerry von Erich turning heel and bringing in his
brother David to form a tag-team.
Earthquake is apparently on his way out from the WWF. He lost to
Sid Justice at a recent taping and to Jim Neidhart at a house show,
so he's certainly being booked as if he were going.
Earthquake leaving fits in with the apparent dropping of the
Andre & Jake Roberts vs. Natural Disasters feud. I'd expect from
the matches at SummerScam that Andre will get involved in the
Natural Disasters' match. Perhaps they'll contrive an injury to
explain EQ leaving. I expect that Andre will then feud with
Typhoon.
Bad News Brown is coming back to the WWF. I mentioned this before
I believe. He is going to come in as a babyface and will be noticeably
different thanks to his full head of hair.
Apparently the Ultimate Warrior has quit over the steroid testing
policy that the WWF is going to adopt. There is supposed to be
a steroid test in the WWF some time in the next week - this was
announced to the wrestlers in advance. Unfortunately for some,
UW included, it takes a little longer than a couple of weeks to
get the stuff out of your system when you are taking enough to
kill a horse. This rumour may just be brought on by the UW no-showing
a WWF TV taping.
Assuming that the Ultimate Warrior hasn't quit the WWF, I think
that everybody is barking up the wrong tree in predicting his
heel turn at SummerScam. We all know that the Ultimate Warrior
is booked on top all over North America against the Undertaker
after SummerScam.
Final Summerslam preview
Randy and Elizabeth Poffo will also re-affirm their wedding
vows, or, for the marks, get married for the first time. It's expected
that Roddy Piper will be Randy's best man, although I liked the idea of
bringing in Lanny Poffo for the job. The Maid of Honor will apparently
be picked from the crowd. It's expected that Sherri Martel will
interrupt the ceremony.
So we finally get to the big PPV!~! Herb's Blog after SSlam:
Sorry, but I don't have anything to post today.
I've spent most of this week on vacation, cleaning my new apartment,
which was rather filthy. I move on Saturday and still have a lot to
do.
It appears he never reviews the PPV, but goes right into Survivor Series fantasy booking and continuing to talk about how Macho vs Dibiase was planned and Savage balked and wants to stay retired.
