Taped from Dallas, TX
Airdate: January 11, 1985 (taped 12/25)
Attendance: 14,000
Hosted by Bill Mercer
Can Lance defeat Rude to become American champion? What will happen when Sunshine and Missy get their mitts on one another? Plus, a BONUS match! Grab your partner, and let’s dance a jig to some holiday Texas ‘rasslin’!
Antonio Inoki Passes Away Aged 79
Inside The Ropes is saddened to learn of the passing of wrestling legend and New Japan Pro-Wrestling founder Antonio Inoki at just 79-years old.
WWE Drops Another ‘White Rabbit’ Tease Easter Egg With More Links To Bray Wyatt
The “White Rabbit” mystery continues.
Max Dupri Turns On Maximum Male Models
Max Dupri has turned on his Maximum Male Models on SmackDown as he teases a return to his former NXT gimmick of LA Knight.
Backstage News On Plans For Toxic Attraction Joining Main WWE Roster
Gigi Dolin & Jacy Jayne were expected to move to the WWE main roster following their recent debut on Smackdown, but an injury has delayed that plan.
Vince McMahon Wanted Top Tag Team To Make WWE Return In 2022
Vince McMahon was reportedly considering bringing a pair of former tag team champions back to WWE before his retirement in the summer.
NJPW Founder Antonio Inoki Makes Rare TV Appearance [Video]
Wrestling icon and founder of NJPW, Antonio Inoki, has made an appearance on a charity television show in Japan and sparked concerns about his health among fans.
Happy Wednesday Everyone!
This week we’ve got three matches from New Japan World as we look at the BVD Cup, which was a four man tournament held between Antonio Inoki, Gerard Gordeau, Sting and Tony Palmore at the Tokyo Dome in January 1995.
Ostensibly it was little more than an excuse to put Inoki over by having him beat some non-regular New Japan guys, but it ended up being a less than smooth operation owing to both Gordeau and Palmore having little or no experience competing in worked matches, meaning they were thus wildly out of their element, leading to some very…”interesting” bouts to say the least.
Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan are in the booth for a new round of television tapings in Des Moines, Iowa. According to thehistoryofwwe.com, these tapings took place on July 17.
Hello You!
Seeing as we’re just under a week away from Wrestle Kingdom 14, I thought I’d do a recap of one of the earlier New Japan Tokyo Dome spectaculars from 1996, as I happen to own the DVD for it.
I honestly can’t recall when I bought this or even where I got it from, but I think some of the matches from this are on New Japan World if you want to check them out. It looks like a rip of the official Japanese release, so that probably means they’ll dub out a lot of the entrance themes with wacky in house music. Hey, New Japan didn’t become the biggest wrestling company in the world in the mid 90’s by spending loads of dosh you know!
The 1996 event was built around guys from the UWFi group coming in to face New Japan guys, as well as one of the big matches on the countdown to Antonio Inoki’s retirement as he took on Vader. Vader was, I think, a WWF guy at this stage, or at the very least was on his way to the WWF in time for the Royal Rumble, so this was one of those occasions where Vince McMahon decided to be accommodating for whatever reason and let him work the Dome show.
I’ll look to have reviews for both nights of 2020’s Tokyo Dome event, hopefully quite soon after they happen as both shows fall on weekends this year and it’ll be in the morning time over here in the UK, so I should have enough time to watch them baring some kind of issue.
Anyway, less wittering from me, let’s watch some chuffing wrestling!
–The promo poster for this show is odd as it makes it seem like Ric Flair is the babyface since he is “seeking revenge.”
–Eric Bischoff and Bobby Heenan are doing commentary and they are live from St. Petersburg, Florida. Bischoff is substituting for Tony Schiavone who is on the shelf with neck surgery.
–A video package hypes Harlem Heat, spliced with a generic promo of how they are going to beat the Nasty Boys tonight.
–Tony Schiavone and Bobby Heenan are in the booth and they are taped from Atlanta, Georgia.
WCW Prime on April 24 featured one original bout, which was not the Blue Bloods vs. Fantastic bout that was promoted the previous week:
–Eric Bischoff and Bobby Heenan are on studio duty for today’s broadcast. Heenan argues that Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, and Jimmy Hart are not happy about Ric Flair being reinstated.
–Bischoff hypes WCW’s trading cards that are coming out this week. He notes that the Diamond Doll is nowhere to be seen on Diamond Dallas Page’s card. Heenan says that is simply because there was not enough room on it.
–Eric Bischoff and Bobby Heenan are doing commentary and they are live from Atlanta, Georgia. According to thehistoryofwwe.com, the show drew a packed crowd of 785, with no one having to pay for their ticket.
–Gene Okerlund; in the heel locker room with Avalanche, the Butcher, Colonel Robert Parker, the Blacktop Bully, Bunkhouse Buck, and Meng; urges fans to call 1-900-370-3WCW to vote for who they wish to see wrestle in the main event. The calls cost ninety-nine cents. The babyface locker room, where Tony Schiavone is, features Sting, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, the Guardian Angel, and Dustin Rhodes.
Live from Tokyo, Japan
Airdate: January 4, 1992
Attendance: 50,000
Will Chosu or Fujinami unify the G18/IWGP title? Can Chono win the WCW World title? Will Muta and Sting keep their peace against the Steiners? Let’s find out!
