Friday, January 28, 2000

Alex Marvez's weekly look at professional wrestling
Scripps Howard News Service
By ALEX MARVEZ

Bill Stone received a rough introduction into how seedy the pro wrestling industry can be.

Stone, of Virginia-based FOS-STONE Productions, was the promoter/producer of the Heroes of Wrestling pay-per-view held last October from Bay St. Louis, Mo. Stone expected a smoothly run event with stars from yesteryear that would remind fans more of the cartoon-like product from the 1980s than the current “soap opera in tights” presented by the World Wrestling Federation and World Championship Wrestling.

Instead, the Heroes show was such a disaster that Stone has no interest in getting involved in wrestling again. Some of the low-lights:

Abdullah the Butcher intentionally cut himself and bled like a stuck pig, something Stone wasn't expecting or wanted.

Yokozuna and King Kong Bundy refused to lose via pinfall, a situation that a weak match-maker couldn't rectify.

Jim Neidhart showed up at the arena with only 20 minutes remaining in the show after missing four flights during the day.

Jake Roberts was so intoxicated during the main event that he placed his trademark snake between his legs and made lewd gestures to the crowd.

Most of the matches, especially Nicolai Volkoff and The Iron Sheik vs. The Bushwhackers, were terrible because the performers were too old to wrestle for an extended period of time.

And perhaps most importantly, Stone said his company will barely break even financially after Heroes generated fewer than the 41,000 pay-per-view orders he hoped entering the event.

“There was just not enough interest on the pay-per-view side and candidly I didn't like the show as well,” Stone said. “I don't think senior wrestling works. Obviously, when some of these guys are brought into what the WCW and the WWF does with them by making them just a part of things, I think it does work. But as a stand-alone event, it didn't work.

“I also think the show could have been better. But even if it was, we still didn't have enough people watching it anyway.”

Stone has scrapped tentative plans for several more Heroes of Wrestling shows in 2000, which is a wise move considering the current state of the industry. Pay-per-view shows from promotions besides the Big Three (WWF, WCW and Extreme Championship Wrestling) have flopped for more than a decade, dating back to the lousy Universal Wrestling Federation cards presented by the late Herb Abrams.

“One risk going in was that wrestling fans are a very young demographic and there was a chance they wouldn't be interested in this,” Stone said. “That bore out. It seems to be true there were not enough older people that said, `I remember this and I want to pay to see it again.'

“I thought we would have a friendly product. Instead, guys were trying to bleed and we had a drunk guy with a snake between his legs. While the show was going on, I started thinking, `When does the plane leave?'”

ETC. — Ric Flair returned to the WCW on this week's episode of Thunder, cheering Sid Vicious from the stage during the main event. Flair was unable to procure his WWF release. Chris Benoit, Perry Saturn, Eddy Guerrero and Dean Malenko are all WWF bound ... The WWF once again had female frontal nudity on a pay-per-view show although not the type anyone wanted to see. Mae Young, 77, took off her top as part of a bikini contest on last Sunday's Royal Rumble pay-per-view show ... Bobby Duncam Jr. died earlier this week at his home just outside Leander, Texas. Duncam, 34, was on leave from WCW to rehabilitate a shoulder injury. The cause of death is unknown. Duncam had received a push in 1999 as a member of the West Texas Rednecks ... The WWF was forced to cancel its Tuesday night Smackdown taping because of heavy snow in Baltimore.

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

Q. Whatever happened to Ahmed Johnson? — Kleo Moore, Anderson, Calif.

A. Johnson (real name Tony Norris) recently debuted in the WCW as Big T. Norris appears to have gained a significant amount of weight in his two years away from the ring.

(More wrestling news can be found at www.wrestlingobserver.com. Questions can be sent to Alex Marvez c/o the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, 200 E. Las Olas Blvd., Fort Lauderdale, Fla. 33301, or e-mailed to amarvez@sun-sentinel.com. Please include your full name and city of residence. Because of volume, no phone calls will be accepted and letters will not receive a written reply.)

(Alex Marvez writes this for Scripps Howard News Service.)