Wrestling Observer Flashback – 01.27.97

Wrestling Observer Flashback – 01.27.97

It’s time for the ROYAL RUMBLE.

– After some worrying ticket sales early, the Royal Rumble in San Antonio ended up drawing the second-largest paid attendance in US wrestling history. The total number of people in the building ended up at 60525, with 48000 paid and a gate of $480,013. In fact, the turning point proved to be the Taco Bell discount coupons, which allowed people to buy tickets for between $5 and $7 and moved 20,000 tickets in the last couple of days before the show. However, while the number of people in the building was huge, the tickets were so cheap that the gate was dwarfed by many other shows over the years, although the sheer volume of people made this is a success.

– The bigger story of the show was Steve Austin winning the Royal Rumble in a swerve devised by Vince McMahon because too many people had figured out that Bret Hart was winning it leading up to the show. Dave notes that this is classic reactive booking, rather than proactive booking. Reactive booking means you’re not in control of your own story and you’re just playing catchup rather than controlling the forces. (I believe we had a pretty notable example of that this week.).

– Dave does note that this is fine, because we all know we’re still ending up at Wrestlemania with Bret Hart v. Shawn Michaels for the WWF. (Of course!).

– Overall, not a good show. The Rumble itself was a one man show carried by Austin, and Shawn had a terrible match by his standards due to the flu. Really, the crowd and their reactions saved the show and salvaged what would have been a disaster of a card on any other night. Dave, however, was bothered by Vince McMahon calling the crowd “capacity” even though they announced 60,000 people themselves and had been saying 71,000 was a sellout for weeks leading up to the show.

– Oh also, they finally got Jim Ross to start wearing a black cowboy hat after bugging him for years to try being “Good ol’ JR”. (I doubt that will stick.).

– The show was generally panned by the live audience, aside from being happy that Shawn regained the WWF title in the main event. Also despite the heavy Mexican makeup of the crowd, no one knew the AAA guys and the match was a flop live.

– In a dark match, Venum & Perro Aguayo Jr. beat Mosco de la Merced & Maniaco in 10:00. A good opener but the crowd wouldn’t react to anything. **1/2

– Octagon & Tinieblas Jr. & Blue Demon Jr. beat Heavy Metal & Avismo Negro & Histeria in 14:00. Said to be the best match on the show. ***

– Mascarita Sagrada Jr. & la Parkita beat Mini Vader & Mini Mankind in 4:29. No real heat for anything and they weren’t allowed to do any of their big moves anyway. ½*.

1. Hunter Hearst Helmsley pinned Goldust to retain the IC title in 16:50. Dave notes that the signing of Mr. Hughes is particularly scary, since he couldn’t even “adhere to the rigid behavior requirements of ECW” and he managed to get a job with the WWF. (Where’s the Dark Side of the Ring episode on that guy?). Goldust was booed heavily in the stadium, so apparently the babyface turn isn’t taking like they expected it to. The crowd was mostly cheering for Marlena when she was shown on the screens. Goldust managed to rub a cigar in Hughes’ face, but that allowed Hunter to hit the Pedigree and retain the title. Dave’s summation of Hunter thus far: “He has potential, but at this point he’s being pushed only on potential and politics, and because he’s got a good head of hair.” (Well shit now he’s REALLY in trouble then!).
2. Ahmed Johnson beat Faarooq in 8:48 when the NOD interfered for the DQ. “Better than expected” is the only note. *1/2
3. Vader pinned the Undertaker in 13:19. Crowd was dead after the entrances and they didn’t have a good match. They appear to be moving towards Paul Bearer as Vader’s new manager, since he’s on the road full time anyway. Bearer hit Undertaker with the urn outside, allowing Vader to throw him into the ring and pin him with the Vader Bomb to win. *1/4
4. Hector Garza & Perro Aguayo & Canek beat Jerry Estrada & Heavy Metal & Fuerza Guerrera in 10:56. Match had no heat at all, and even worse the screens were all turned off for the match and so no one in the building could see what was going on. Although the announcers gave the match more respect than WCW would, they also didn’t have a Mike Tenay who actually knew who anyone was. *
5. Steve Austin won the Royal Rumble in 50:29. The intervals were supposed to be 60 seconds, but they stretched it out to 90 in order to give Shawn Michaels more time to recover from the flu. This was the Steve Austin Show, as he lasted 45:00 and eliminated 11 people. (That’s rookie numbers these days!). “Razor Ramon” entered third and got thrown out in 27 seconds, so he’s obviously done for. Austin came in #5 and saved the match. Although they did a gimmick where he would clear the ring immediately and then be left alone for long stretches. Mil Mascaras was in the match and looked better than he usually does, but didn’t want to sell for anyone. (Say it with me…NO YOB). Davey Boy Smith was acting like a total babyface before the match and got thrown out by Owen Hart “accidentally” to end his night, furthering their impending split. They were saying that Mascaras accidentally eliminated himself because he didn’t know the rules of a Royal Rumble. Dave quips that he’s so old that he was probably in the first Battle Royal ever and would likely claim to have invented them, so that seems an unlikely explanation.

At this point, we get STORY TIME WITH DAVE. It seems that Vader is responsible for 2 Cold Scorpio being in the business, because he was at an indie show in Denver and saw him working there, and then recommended him to New Japan and got him a job there.

Back to the match, as Bret Hart threw Austin over the top at 50:00 but the refs didn’t see it, which led to Steve dumping out Vader and Undertaker and Diesel and then Bret Hart to win at 50:29. ***. This made the crowd really mad because there was already a bunch of screwjob finishes and they didn’t want to see one in the Rumble too. It actually led to Vince McMahon getting booed when his face appeared on the screen after the match. (Maybe it was a heavily female crowd?).

6. Shawn Michaels won the WWF title from Sid in 13:49. Shawn was of course a giant babyface and Sid was a complete heel. Sid was mainly doing long chinlocks in between the run-ins and ref bumps intended to disguise Shawn’s illness. Shawn used a TV camera for a near-fall and then won the match with the superkick. **

– Nitro saw the WWF doing big numbers and said “Hold my beer”, drawing their own all time record with 17,000 for Nitro at United Center in Chicago on 1/20.

– They also did a fairly hot Clash of Champions on 1/21 in Milwaukee, with about 6800 in attendance.

1. Dean Malenko won the WCW Cruiserweight title from Ultimo Dragon in 15:07. Malenko was subbing for Jushin Liger, but they still had an off the charts match between both guys are incredible. Dean won with the Texas Cloverleaf, which is double incredible because Dean got kicked in the back 5:00 and hurt his spine to the point where his lower body went numb for the rest of the match. ****1/2
2. Scotty Riggs pinned Mike Enos in 2:26. Riggs didn’t get over here. *
3. Chris Jericho & Super Calo & Chavo Guerrero beat Konnan & La Parka & JL in 5:27 when Jericho pinned JL with a top rope rana. Fast paced, hot match, despite none of the guys having any credibility on TV. ***1/2.
4. Harlem Heat beat Renegade & Joe Gomez in 3:44. ¼*.
5. Masa Chono pinned Alex Wright with a Yakuza Kick in 4:30. This was just a backdrop for the Nick Patrick stuff. Patrick kept slow-counting Wright and favoring Chono, which was funny because the crowd hated Wright and cheered Chono anyway. *1/2.
6. Eddie Guerrero pinned Scott Norton in 5:36. DDP ran in and gave Norton a Diamond Cutter, giving Eddie the win.
7. Chris Benoit pinned Kevin Sullivan in 5:06 of a falls count anywhere match. They did the exact same match as on Nitro, but switched winners, so it was lacking something. Benoit actually broke a chair on Sullivan’s head, which is against TBS guidelines. (Pretty sure murdering your wife and child is also against TBS guidelines.). ***
8. The Steiners beat the “The Lazy French Canadians” in 6:55. (How do you say “sick burn” in French, I wonder?). This was Scott’s return from back injury, and he’s got a weight belt now to support his back, and he didn’t take any bumps or do anything requiring agility. (That’s what we call foreshadowing in the biz.).
9. Lex Luger beat Scott Hall via DQ in 10:29 when the usual people interfered. Not good. The Outsiders and Steiners got involved in a brawl and wouldn’t sell for each other, which Dave notes doesn’t bode well for the PPV on Saturday. (THAT’S the red flag for him? Oh man he’s in for such a treat then.). *1/4.

– Request TV has finally confirmed the ECW PPV debut for 4/13, from the ECW Arena. Main event is Sabu v. Taz, of course. Still no second date announced, which Dave thinks might be a problem if they go into this one without anything to hype.

– Vampiro turned down the role of an immigration officer on a soap opera because the character was supposed to “rape and murder illegals in the United States” and neither he nor the promotion was OK with that. (I know some people in the Republican party who would probably think that character is a hero.).

– To Memphis, where Jerry Lawler’s friend and business partner Larry Burton is doing such a shitty job of running the promotion that everyone is threatening to quit.

– The newest gimmick in Memphis is Mike Samples going “Hollywood” and being managed by Jeff Conaway from “Taxi”, I guess since Andy Kauffman is dead and can’t make it.

– To ECW, where they’re no longer pretending that Rick Rude’s identity is a secret, although he’s still wearing a mask. Mike Awesome also returned and looked better in this appearance. The Scranton show actually drew 1500, among the biggest crowds in ECW history.

– Stevie Richards is getting a megapush leading into the PPV, as he no longer backs down from Raven in confrontations thanks to the BWO being such a hit.

– To WCW, where Dave notes Souled Out looks like a pretty bad show.

– Randy Savage returned on the 1/20 Nitro in Chicago, doing a sit-in strike and claiming to be “blacklisted” by Eric Bischoff.

– Don Frye has been doing interviews addressing rumors of him replacing Mongo in the Four Horsemen, and he said that he hopes that it happens. (That sure would have been one way to go…)

– On the Robin Hood Nitro, everyone in WCW was under the impression that the Hogan-Giant match would only air in the first couple of commercial breaks and not be a show-long deal like TNT turned it into.

– Kevin Sullivan and Chris Benoit continue working everyone into a shoot with their feud, as they got into a “real” brawl at a local bar in New Orleans on 1/13. It seems that Benoit was pretending to make out with Nancy and Sullivan “caught” them and punched Benoit in the face. The deal is apparently intended to work WCW wrestlers…but oddly there wasn’t anyone from WCW at the bar that night. (Oh well, I’m sure they know what they’re doing. They’re professionals!).

– Dave also notes that the Sags/Hall fight was a shoot, but once Sags is back from the injury, they’ll likely do a few matches to capitalize on it. (Joke’s on him, Sags never returned from that injury!).

– Steve McMichael was bragging to the Chicago papers that he makes “mid six figures” working for WCW. Dave notes that he made $350K to announce, although he doesn’t know what he currently makes “doing whatever it is he does now.” He also notes that he basically just shows up every week for his one interview now, carried by his wife, and doesn’t even bother practicing in the ring anymore.

– On the 1/20 RAW, which Dave calls the best one in a long time, Bret Hart quit the WWF over the Rumble result, which led to Steve Austin calling him a crybaby and a quitter. This led to Vince walking away from the show because he was so upset about Bret quitting. (So many layers to this one!). Dave noted that this was the second straight night where Steve Austin carried the show, and he’s the premier all around performer in the country right now.

– They only taped two episodes here, because they’re doing the live deal on 2/13 because of the dog show, and then there’s no details on what future episodes of the show are going to look like.

– Not only are the Windham & Bradshaw ripping off the Blackjacks in their new gimmick, they’re actually going to be CALLED the Blackjacks.

– 2/20 in Knoxville is going to be a Smoky Mountain reunion show of sorts, with the SMW guys on the show doing their old gimmicks as opposed to the plumbers or Bodydonnas or whatnot.

– And finally, they’re doing a tournament from 2/20 – 2/26 in Germany to crown the first European champion, with the show airing live in Germany in some form. (Who knows, maybe it’ll air in North America, too!).

And that’s the news and I’m OUTTA HERE.