WRESTLING GLOBE NEWSLETTER

EDITION NUMBER 22

16TH JULY 2001

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www.geocities.com/wrestlingglobe / www.evanswrestling.com

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IN THE WRESTLING GLOBE NEWSLETTER THIS WEEK

LATEST NEWS - LAWLER NOT RETURNING TO THE WWF

THE PURORESU RUNDOWN - MUTOH DEFEATS WILLIAMS + ALL JAPAN TITLE CHANGE

T & A (Trivia and Answers)! - WCW SPECIAL

THE DANGER ZONE - BOOKER T CAREER PROFILE

THE MIND'S OBITUARY - WHAT THE UPCOMING WEEKS IN THE WWF COULD BE

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LATEST NEWS - by Matt Singh and Andrew Evans

Here's this weeks news…

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THE PURORESU RUNDOWN - by Andrew Evans

(Credit all information: www.puroresupower.com)

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T & A (Trivia and Answers!) - by Andrew Evans

WCW SPECIAL

1. The final "Clash of the Champions" event (number 35) took place in which year?

2. What links the following WCW events? Battle in Seattle, Boston Brawl, Malice at the Palace, Profiles In Pain and L.A. Melee.

3. Who provided the voice of the "Black Scorpion"?

4. What huge occurrence took place on 7th July 1996?

5. Peter Gruner is the real name of which WCW wrestler?

6. What title was introduced to WCW on 21st November 1999 at Mayhem?

7. True or False? The WCW World Heavyweight Title has changed hands at the last 4 WCW Spring Stampede PPV events.

8. Vince Russo stole the WWF's "Hell In A Cell" gimmick for WCW, but what did he re-name the match type as?

ANSWERS ARE GIVEN AT THE END OF THE NEWSLETTER!

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THE DANGER ZONE - by Martin Walton

BOOKER T CAREER PROFILE

With the WWF Invasion angle finally picking up some much needed momentum, I thought that this week I’d take a look at the career of the top WCW guy - namely Booker T.

Real Name: Booker Huffman.

Height: 6'4".

Weight: 240lbs.

Birth Date: May 1, 1965.

Hometown: Houston, Texas.

Booker T endured a very tough childhood. Both of his parents passed away before he was 14, and this led to Booker going off the rails somewhat and joining local gangs in the Houston area. Older brother Stevie Ray, who eventually became a strong influence in Booker’s young life, rescued Booker from his life of crime. Booker went on to work security and bouncer jobs during his early 20’s until by luck, he saw an advert for a wrestling school on local Houston TV.

In 1988 and at 23 years of age, Booker entered a local wrestling school and was instantly a natural. This led to Booker making weekend appearances at local independent shows for the next couple of years while he worked full time throughout the week. Things got moving in 1991 when Booker started working for Texas All-Pro wrestling, which was running shows in the Houston-San Antonio area. Booker was immediately assigned with his first gimmick, as the infamous G.I Bro, which was later brought back to life by the useless Vince Russo. Booker enjoyed a successful time in All-Pro and eventually lifted the Heavyweight Title in April of 1992 by defeating The Night Breeder. After impressing talent scouts, Booker was signed up by the Dallas based Global Wrestling Federation who had a weekly television slot on ESPN. However, Booker didn’t go alone… his older brother Stevie Ray went along with him, and the two tagged for the first time as The Ebony Experience.

The two were a big hit in the promotion and enjoyed two successful reigns as GWF Tag Champions and often worked with veterans Gary Young/Steve Dance and Axl/Ian Rotten.

Although the GWF was a big step up from Texas All-Pro, Booker’s big break occurred in May 1993. The Ebony Experience were booked onto a card in Dallas to honor Kerry Von Erich who had recently passed away. The break occurred when a certain Sid Vicious was suitably impressed with the green tag team. Later that month, Sid rejoined WCW and put in a good word with WCW officials regarding Booker and Stevie Ray. WCW acted quickly and immediately offered Booker and Ray contracts.

However, Booker didn’t exactly get off to the best of starts in WCW. Sid got into the ear of the bookers and actually came up with a gimmick designed to get Booker and his brother over… to say it was incredibly offensive would be an understatement. Sid actually came up with an idea that would have Booker and Ray wheeled out in-front of the cameras in matching prison uniforms and chains while Southern White boy Colonel Rob Parker would be portrayed as their manager. Suffice to say that Turner legal advisors shot down the slave gimmick immediately and it was back to the drawing board for Booker and Ray. WCW finally got their act together and named the new team as first the Chi-Town Heat before sticking to the Harlem Heat moniker. Heat barely went noticed in the first months until they raised their first WCW World Tag Team Titles by defeating Pretty Wonderful for the straps on 8th  December 1994 in Atlanta.

For the next two years, Heat went on to trade the straps with likes of Stars and Stripes (Bagwell and Patriot), The Nasty Boys and Dick Slater and Bunkhouse Bunk. Although they raised the tag team titles a record 7 times in the process, Heat’s achievements meant very little in a division that nobody cared about. The fact that Heat were an average team did little to help matters. Things picked up in the summer of 1996 when Kevin Nash and Scott Hall entered the promotion, quickly becoming the kings of the tag division by downing Harlem Heat for the straps at Halloween Havoc 1996. Unfortunately, that proved to be the last time for a while that Heat were ever considered contenders for the straps, and they drifted aimlessly throughout 1996 and 1997 with feuds against the likes of The Public Enemy and Konnan/Hugh Morrus. It seemed that WCW had given up on Harlem Heat, yet that all changed towards the end of 1997.

As a result of Booker’s improving ring work, he was allowed to work the single matches on Nitro towards the end of 1997 and was involved in a number of tight matches against Curt Hennig and Jeff Jarrett. The WCW booking team of Kevin Sullivan and Terry Taylor suddenly began to see major potential in Booker and decided to push him as a singles star. His first success came on December 29 when he toppled Disco Inferno to raise the then valuable WCW World TV Title. Booker then moved onto a feud with Rick Martel and the two traded the TV Title. Booker was on a roll at that time and things would get even better for him as he was then maneuvered into a high profile feud with Chris Benoit in March 1998. They contested two consecutive 15-minute draws on Nitro and butted heads at Spring Stampede in a cracking match. Things took a minor dip on May 4 when Fit Finlay downed Booker for the TV Title. However, this led to the now legendary best-of-seven series between Booker and Chris Benoit to determine the number one contender for the TV Title with Booker coming out on top at the Great American Bash. He went on to topple Finlay for the TV Title later that night.

At this point, Booker was marching up the card and looking awesome. However, he had been working through a knee injury for the majority of the year and needed major surgery to repair it, which in turn ruined the potential feud with Bret Hart that was lined up for him. Following his match against Bret Hart at Bash at the Beach 1998, Booker hit the sidelines for the remainder of the year. He eventually returned in early 1999, but the WCW he returned to was a very different WCW to the WCW he had left. Kevin Nash now was the main booker and the promotion was gradually in freefall due to idiotic booking decisions. Booker was immediately programmed with the Steiner Brothers upon his return in a forgettable feud. Things got even worse when he was thrown back together with his brother in the summer of 1999 and the two clashed with the Jersey Triad (DDP, Bigelow and Kanyon) throughout the summer months in another forgettable series although they did capture the semi-important tag titles at Road Wild 1999. Unfortunately it got even worse. Harlem Heat faced off against the downright terrible West Texas Rednecks, and the two traded title wins. Booker had lost all momentum and was struggling as the year came to a close.

Thankfully, things looked up for Booker when he removed around 280lbs of dead weight from his back when he parted with Stevie Ray, but the bad news was that he was now actually feuding with Stevie! Not only that, but Stevie Ray actually managed to recruit the worst wrestler in modern history in Big T (Ahmed Johnson) to be his new tag team partner. As a result, Booker recruited Billy Kidman and the two had an uneasy relationship as they battled Harlem Heat 2000. Just when it seemed that it couldn’t get any worse… redemption came when (gulp) Vince Russo was brought back as head booker in April 2000 and all existing storylines were dropped. In the "new" WCW, Booker was uneasily placed in the top heel group - the New Blood. Booker clashed with Sting at Spring Stampede in a good match, but soon split with the New Blood and proceeded to feud with them and in particular Shawn Stasiak. Russo being the "Genius" that he claims to be, proceeded to revert Booker T to his old G.I Bro gimmick and have him join up with the abysmal Misfits in Action faction. Luckily, the gimmick died a quick and sudden death and Booker was freed from its drudgery. At this point, several former WCW workers filed a racial discrimination lawsuit against WCW, which relates to the next period of Booker’s career.

As July 2000 came to an end, Booker was granted a title shot at WCW World Heavyweight Champion, Jeff Jarrett, on a edition of Thunder just before Bash at the Beach. Booker and Jarrett tore the house down in a fine match in which the fans, for the first time, saw Booker as a legitimate contender. On the day of Bash at the Beach, Russo and Hogan came up with a special "shoot" based storyline to allow Hogan to avoid doing the job to Jeff Jarrett. Spurned on by his recent performance against Jarrett and the looming racial discrimination lawsuit, Russo decided that Booker would substitute for Hogan in the main event and in turn win the WCW World Heavyweight Title from Jarrett, and that’s what exactly happened as Booker rolled over Jarrett to capture the title. The only problem was the fact that Booker wasn’t ready for the title. He’d even lost on the under-card of Bash at The Beach that night to Kanyon and had been wasting time with his useless brother for the past year or so. Despite this, Booker gave it his all during his first reign.

Booker started off by managing to hold onto the title against Goldberg in two high impact matches on Nitro before downing Jeff Jarrett at New Blood Rising in a fine match. He then want on to trade the World Title with Nash before coming out on top of a bloody cage match at Fall Brawl against him. Booker was picking up momentum on a weekly basis while winning the at-first hostile fans over. That all changed when Vince Russo decided he wanted to be the WCW World Heavyweight Champion. As Russo lifted the World Title in an ultra lame cage match following a miscued spear by Goldberg, you could just feel all of Booker’s momentum drift away as the pillock with the pen lifted the World Title. Russo immediately vacated the title on the following Thunder, and Booker and Jarrett butted heads one more time for the vacant title on the October 2 edition of Nitro. Booker defeated Jarrett to win his third WCW World Heavyweight Title. With Russo sent home, Booker moved into a feud with Scott Steiner and they clashed several times, with Steiner eventually dropping Booker for the title at Mayhem on 26th November 2000. Following the loss, Booker hit the shelf with a knee injury and a cracked sternum.

He finally returned to WCW in February 2001 and resumed his feud with Scott Steiner, but ended up downing Rick Steiner for the WCW US Title at the Greed PPV. Literally days later, the WWF purchased WCW, which in turn turned the promotion upside down. The final ever Nitro was announced for 26th March and the WWF made it very clear that Booker was going to be one of their main men in the new WCW. This of course led to Booker rolling over the injured Scott Steiner for the World Title on March 26. As WCW was put to rest for the time being, Booker signed with the WWFE and entered a new phase of his career...

Booker made his WWF debut in the main event of King of the Ring as he entered through the crowd to ambush Steve Austin and set up the highly anticipated WCW invasion angle. Booker was immediately pushed as WCW’s top star and faced Buff Bagwell in the first ever official WCW match on WWF television. Unfortunately the fans just flat out refused to cheer Booker and the rest of WCW over the WWF, which led to a swift change in plans with WCW suddenly turning heel and joining forces with ECW, as we all saw this week on Raw. With the focus very much being on Booker now, it’s vital that he can adapt to being a top class heel in order to counter the WWF faces. I, like everyone else (that probably includes the WWF writers!) have no idea where the WCW angle is going but I do know that Booker has worked his ass for years now and really does deserve the spot he currently has. We can only hope that the people in power at the WWF offices recognise this, and don't panic if fans don't take to Booker straight away as a legitimate main eventer.

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THE MIND'S OBITUARY - by James McGill

I was so overwhelmed by the brilliance of Raw and Smackdown this week that I have decided to wheel out the dreaded fantasy booking column for Invasion and the following weeks of WWF television. I think it's important to look at the mechanics of this angle though.

Clearly the most important member of this WCW-ECW vs. WWF angle is the singing sensation, Steve Austin. JR was really building up how desperately the entire company depends on The Rattlesnake during the post-match beat-down of the other four Team WWF members on Smackdown! The question is, will the old Stone Cold return and save the day, or will he produce yet another vile heel turn? To say this has divided the online wrestling community is something of an understatement. There are calls for his obvious defection to WCW which would simultaneously add credibility to this ridiculously un-over group and spice up the impending Rock feud even more; or he could save the WWF, become a mega-face again and ruin all their efforts at getting him over as a heel. Now, I'm sure you can tell my view on this: he should join Team WCW. The main criticism of this is the belief that we'll never see Austin on Raw again, but that is nonsense. It seems at this point that a WCW television show is nothing more than a pipe dream, so it's not like Austin would be relegated to a show drowning with jobbers. ECW won't be back on television either, for obvious reasons. People, these groups are FACTIONS and nothing more. There will be no other TV shows because frankly there are nowhere near enough big names to carry Raw, Smackdown!, and another show. Ratings have plummeted in recent months; do you honestly think Vince is going to risk losing more money by creating another blockbuster show? I don't. This is the ultimate three factions in wrestling history, and it's certainly a step up from The Corporate Ministry.

But look, here's the problem. The WWF team has Austin, Angle, Taker, Jericho and a returning Rock to name but a few. This is the best they have. ECW has Tazz, RVD, Rhyno and The Dudleys. This is they best they have. WCW has Booker T, DDP, Chuck...O'Haire (Did Lillian really say that on Raw?) well anyway, this is definitely *not* the best they have. This is the problem: WWF and ECW are at full strength while WCW consists of two part-time main eventers and a bunch of heatless mid-carders. For this angle to work, and if it does it will be the biggest ever, then WCW absolutely needs a superstar in their ranks. Since Goldberg etc are still refusing to return, then the unpredictable Austin seems the most appropriate choice. Anyway, on to the fantasy booking!

Wait a second, I just realized that Team WCW-ECW hasn't even named their team yet. Oops. We'll just pretend that their team consists of Booker T, DDP, Shane and The Dudley Boys. I hope it's RVD instead of Shane but I have my doubts. And does anyone know if it's elimination rules? It's gonna be hard to have a ten-man tag match last 30 minutes without things getting really confusing. I'm starting to regret fantasy booking this event!

Okay, throughout the show JR keeps pointing out the fact that Austin hasn't arrived at the building. The fans are getting restless, and Vince comes out mid-show to cut an emotional promo pleading for Stone Cold to show up. The match starts and he's still nowhere to be found. As the match nears it's conclusion with Team WCW-ECW getting the upper hand, the glass breaks and Austin walks toward the ring with an incredibly intense look on his face, the belt draped over his shoulder. The crowd is obviously going berserk at this point, or at least in my head they are. Shane runs at Austin and gets shoved out of the way and the crowd is just eating it up. He enters the ring and stunners D-Von and the crowd is getting louder. Stunner to Bubba Ray Dudley... then he stuns Undertaker and walks out! DDP crawls over and makes the count while a shocked crowd watches Austin depart with a smirk on his face. Vince has somehow made it to ringside during the match and the show fades out with a close-up of his anguished face while JR is screaming in the background about how we should tune into Raw tomorrow to see what this By God Rattlesnake has to say about these heinous actions.

So now it's Raw and Austin has the opening interview slot. JR builds up the tension by asking, "What side is Stone Cold on?", since he also stunned two ECW members at the PPV. Vince comes down and BEGS Austin to stay with he WWF, and after some desperate efforts, Austin hugs Vince... then kicks him in the stomach and stuns him! JR waxes lyrical about what an evil SOB that Rattlesnake is while Shane comes out. Austin's music stops and Shane and Austin stare at each other... and hug. Throughout the show a thoroughly deflated Vince has to put up with some amusing theatrics with Kurt Angle, who demands he get a shot at Austin tonight. Vince agrees and the main event of Raw is Angle, accompanied by Vince, versus Austin for the By God WWF Title. After a close battle, Austin goes for the kick proceeding the stunner, but Angle grabs his leg and applies the Angle-lock (Ankle-lock). Stone Cold is ready to tap when Booker T, DDP and the rest of the WCW jobbers run in. They lay a beat-down on Angle and Vince and the crowd is upset, when suddenly IF YA SMEEEEEEEEEELL hits the speakers and The Rock runs in and oh my God he's laying the Smacketh down on all the WCW jobbers... and then there's only Austin left. The crowd is obviously going ape-shit at this point while the Rock extends his arm and makes the 'come get some' gesture. Austin, standing outside the ring, looks like he's gonna leave but he suddenly changes his mind and it's Austin and Rock going at it in the centre of the ring. After trading punches, Rock gets the upper hand and punches Austin over the top rope to the joy of JR, the fans and me. Show closes. On Smackdown! they can have the verbal battle, leading to the much anticipated line, 'My Name is Stone Cold Ste..' 'It doesn't MATTER what your name is!'

I find it doubtful that any of the above will take place, but I kinda wish it would.

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TRIVIA ANSWERS - by Andrew Evans

1. 1997 - 21st August.

2. They were all "Internet Events" - audio of these events was broadcast on the Internet.

3. Ole Anderson - the Black Scorpion actually turned out to be Ric Flair.

4. The heel turn of Hulk Hogan, and the formation of the New World Order (nWo).

5. Billy Kidman.

6. WCW World Hardcore Title.

7. False - the title didn't change hands at the 1997 event (champion Hulk Hogan did not wrestle at all), but did in 1998 (Randy Savage over Sting), 1999 (DDP won a 4-corners match over Flair, Hogan and Sting) and 2000 (Jarrett over DDP). There was no Spring Stampede 2001.

8. Caged Heat.

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