• OLD SCHOOL HISTORY (December 31, 1994) – WWF Superstars of Wrestling
On this day in 1994, the World Wrestling Federation aired an episode of their weekly TV show ‘WWF Superstars of Wrestling’.
This episode was pre-taped at the Mid-Hudson Civic Center in Poughkeepsie, New York and featured matches, promos & storyline segments on the road to the ‘WWF Royal Rumble 1995’ PPV.
Here’s the card:
WWF Tag Team Championship Tournament Quarter Finals: The New Headshrinkers vs. Owen Hart & Jim Neidhart
– Razor Ramon vs. The Brooklyn Brawler
– Kwang vs. Buck Quartermaine
– Henry Godwinn vs. John Paul
– Aldo Montoya vs. Mike Bell
WATCH: Carmella’s Sexy Dance:
• Eric Bischoff Reveals Reason For Fast Count During Major WCW Match
During a recent edition of 83 Weeks podcast, former WCW President Eric Bischoff talked about the fast count during Starrcade 1997 main event between Hollywood Hogan & Sting for the WCW World Heavyweight Title.
Below is what Bischoff said about WCW referee Nick Patrick’s claim of Bischoff telling him to do the fast count (credit to Wrestlinginc for transcript):
“Maybe, if at some point during the course of the day – I know this is going to sound smarmy and sleazy, but I’m trying to avoid it – people who have listened to the show and have been listening to the show for the six months that I’ve been doing it, I think it’s six months, realize that I’m not afraid to take any heat or responsibility for some of the stupid sh*t that I did. I’m not. I have no qualms about taking responsibility for the bad decisions I’ve made or mistakes that I’ve made along the way. I’m not going to take it here at least not where I don’t deserve it.
Now, here’s how Nick Patrick may have been telling the truth to a degree: if at some point during the course of the day Kevin Sullivan or Hogan or Steve would’ve come to me and said, ‘okay, we’ve got it figured out – here’s what we’re going to do,’ great! As long as it got me to where I needed to be. Again, the end always hangs on the beginning, as long as that show ended exactly the way I wanted it to end, I really didn’t give two sh*ts how we got there.
When it came to a match of this high profile with personalities as big as this, and this high profile, I would have made sure the referee was in the room while the finish was being laid out, okay?
It’s not like on the way out to the ring the talent would get together and say, ‘this is what we’re going to do.’ The referees should engage or should have been engaged laying out the finish of the match as much as the two principals in the ring. That’s the way it’s supposed to be.
But if Nick would have come up to me at some point during the day, if I had been told, ‘here’s what we’re going to do,’ I would have communicated that to Nick and said, ‘get your a$$ in the room, and get with the guys, and make sure you understand what they’re going to do, so you know, so you’re not hearing it from me secondhand.’ That could’ve happened and that could’ve changed throughout the course of the day as it often does, even to this day.
I had a brief conversation with him. I mean, I don’t hear it as much anymore or read it as much anymore, about what a hothead I was, or how I would lose my temper, or that I was out of control. That wasn’t true. I very seldom lost my temper.
Right now, me losing my f*cking cool, and yelling, and screaming, and throwing sh*t is going to change absolutely nothing. As I usually say, the bullet has already left the barrel. I can’t put it back. It’s gone. Now, all I can do is focus on trying to fix it. So did I confront Nick? Yes, I did. Did I lose my mind, and did I scream, and did I yell? Did I corner him and say, ‘how the f*ck could you possibly do this?’ None of that happened.
It was a conversation that was probably less animated than the one I’m having with you (co-host Conrad Thompson). And it probably sounded something like, ‘Nick, what the f*ck?’ He would have told me whatever happened or how it got miscommunicated, which was clearly the case here. It was miscommunication. It wasn’t Hulk Hogan working a gimmick. It wasn’t any of that.
It was poor communication. Simple as that. It just irks me to have to still listen to people espouse this narrative of ‘it was just another Hulk Hogan plan!’, By the way, he would have gotten nothing out of it. He wouldn’t have made $0.10 more with one finish than he would have with another.
I’m not going to fire a guy, I’m not going to fire Nick Patrick, because the communication between the principals involved in the match and the referee sucked. I’m not going to fire him for that. There was a lot of confusion. There were a lot of people involved.
One of the biggest mistakes probably during my time in WCW was not firing a whole f*ck bunch more. That I’ll cop to and maybe I should have fired Nick, but I don’t think it was Nick’s fault. I think it was the agents’ fault and I think it could have been the talents’ fault.”
