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Falls
Count Anywhere
09-28-04
Welcome to Falls Count Anywhere! My name
is Chris and Rick Steiner is a big, scary man
RAW
We opened things with a talk from Eric Bischoff. Bisch was
getting good heat for saying that the audience was too stupid
to decide the details of the matches at Taboo Tuesday. He
talked a bunch and then HHH came out and ran down the crowd
some more. This was a solid, old school heel promo that
I enjoyed. Shelton Benjamin came out and challenged HHH,
Bisch distracted him while HHH blindsided him and ordered
the match started.
Shelton
looked a little tentative, but the match was pretty solid.
HHH worked over the arm, but about halfway through, he switched
the arm he was working on. That’s a rookie mistake
there, meat. The match went a good amount before HHH got
hisself dis-qual-o-fied for hittin’ poor Shelton with
the belt.
They
aired another Simon Dean segment. He’s good in the
role, but I don’t see it working any better than the
DDP inspirational speaker gimmick.
Rosey
and Hurricane, who seem to be some sort of strange tweener
tag team, beat Tajiri and Rhyno in a match that could best
be described as brief but interesting. Honestly, Rosie is
a decent moving big man. Rhyno did a series of shoulder
blocks, only the last of which knocked Rosie down. Rosie
won with that big swinging Sidewalk Slam. Not a great match,
but not a total waste of time. Hurricane didn’t look
as good as normal, and Tajiri was his kicking usual self.
Kane did an interview about losing the baby
and preparing to murder Gene Snitsky. He was intense, but
still, he’s feuding with a jobber. Snitsky then squashed
Val Venis, which is a sad testament to the career path of
Val Venis. He really was one of the hottest wrestlers working
in 1997 and 1998.
Ric
Flair and Randy Orton had an amazing interview segment where
Randy Orton called Flair HHH’s lap dog. Flair said
he had trouble with Orton calling himself a legend and started
listing off legends. He mentioned Mick Foley was a glorified
stuntman, which was a cheap shot, but it will probably build
to something. Flair gave this look like he wanted to agree
with Orton, but they just walked out. Great segment.
Tyson Tomko ruined the Christian and Tomko
vs. Shawn Michaels and Chris Jericho. Still, it had moments.
I really appreciate the Flying Forearm.
William
Regal and Eugene did a segment where they debuted all the
possible match types that Eugene and Bisch could meet in.
There was a guy in a maid’s outfit, a guy in a dress
who seemed far too comfortable in it and the guy who they
had his hair cut. The funny thing is, as often happens,
the clippers didn’t seem to be working, so they used
scissors. Bischoff came out and said some stuff, and for
some reason he kicked the guy in the barber chair. Bad segment.
Speaking
of bad segments, they had the initiation ceremony for Christy
with Trish, Molly and Gail. They jawed a bit and then showed
a promo from Carmella. Man, was she awful. They then announced
that Christy’s first match would be a Handicap Bra
and Panties match, which basically meant that the heel girls
would hold Christy while they pulled off her clothes. She
then said that she was fine with her body, though she did
do a good job of acting like she was ashamed, but then came
out as a slut. She’ll be on pole number six in twenty
minutes.
The
main event featured Randy Orton losing his No DQ match to
lose his spot in the possible main event at Taboo Tuesday.
The match was ‘eh in my eyes, but there were a lot
of things that worked and once there were the run-ins, it
got some heat. It wasn’t long and it turned into Flair
teasing that he was against HHH, but then he hit Randy Orton
with a chair.
All in all, not a great episode, but there
were a few good things. Stuff is still happening too fast.
NEWS
TNA wrestlers Johnny Devine and Andy Douglas were both stabbed
outside a club in Nashville. The Observer reports that after
leaving the club, they got in a fight which left Devine
with rather severe internal injuries that caused him to
require several hours of surgery. Douglas was cut in his
thigh and was released from the hospital. No suspects have
been caught yet.
There’s
a ton of talk right now about Chris Candido. Here’s
what it comes to and who’s been talking: Candido wrote
a letter to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, where he
mentions that he and Tammy Lynn Sytch have both cleaned
up, a point that has proven true by those who know them.
They’ve burned more bridges than Sherman on his march,
but there are those in WWE who have talked to them lately.
One name that keeps coming up is Tom Pritchard, the recently
fired member of the WWE’s training and recruiting
staff. Pritchard and Candido were the Bodydonnas for a couple
of years, and supposedly they talked a few times. Did this
have anything to do with Pritchard’s firing? No, but
it does show that they’re back in the eyes of those
in the WWE’s Boiler Room. He makes a good heel, SmackDown!
is weak on heels, and that’s where I’d see him.
James Cornette has also, at times, been a friend of Candido’s.
Charlie Haas and Jacky Gayda are engaged.
This is no surprise, as it’s another case of those
that work together ending up together, also known as what
cost Benoit his push in the late 1990s.
FlashBack!
The stabbing of the two TNA boys brings to mind the most
famous murder in the history of Pro Wrestling, that of Rikidozan.
His murder in 1963 was a huge blow to Japanese wrestling,
and one of the saddest moments in the history of the game.
Kim Sin-nak, Rikidozan’s actual Korean
name (though in Japan he used Mitsuhiro Momota), had done
very well. He had rolled much of his wrestling money into
real estate and other investments. He owned a golf course
and at least one hotel in addition to his wrestling and
boxing promotion. He also owned a fashionable night club,
which is what led to his death. The Yakuza, the Japanese
Mob, were always very much involved in the Night Club culture,
and remain so through today. He made some deals, a few of
which probably involved financing at least two clubs, with
a local boss. The Yakuza, even today, has a lot to do with
ticket sales, as they will buy huge blocks of tickets at
‘discount’ and resell them to the major events.
Club Riki was thought of as THE place to
go for cool jazz music in Tokyo. Right next to the only
pizza place in Tokyo, Club Riki was doing great business,
and that business attracted Yakuza who wanted to party with
movie stars and all the other famous clients of the Club.
Rikidozan went out partying one night, ending up at the
New Latin Quarter Club.
There
are a few different versions of what happened and three
of them I’ve heard told from people who were around
Japanese wrestling at the time. The most plausible is that
Rikidozan got into an argument with a Yakuza guy who worked
for one of the other bosses than those he aligned himself
with. The story goes that he stabbed him, and then rushed
to the hospital. They told him he’d be fine and stitched
him up. Another version has it being a planned hit, with
the assassin actually peeing on the blade to ensure that
Rikidozan would die of an infection if he lived.
The
final, and the most interesting, focuses on the aftermath.
This is likely more legend than anything else, but Fred
Blassie was fond of telling this one. After the stabbing,
Rikidozan managed to beat up his attacker and run him out
of the club. He went to the hospital, but refused to stay,
returning instead to his own club and singing Mack the Knife
with the band.
No matter
what happened that night, he never wrestled another match.
He grew ill and on December 20th he died of peritonitis.
He was 39. Following the murder, Yakuza involvement in Rikidozan’s
affairs, and in pro wrestling in general, came to light
for the first time. This led to a shunning, though with
Giant Baba and Antonio Inoki coming up, it didn’t
last long. Still, until the 1980s, that remained the most
famous wrestling murder.
That’s all for today, but on Friday
I’ll be looking at the other stabbing that changed
the course of wrestling and still has serious implication
on Hall of Fame voting. The murder of Bruiser Brody.
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