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Wrestling Today's Date:

Falls Count Anywhere

09-28-04

I'm on pole five.

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.

so...blunt.
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.

Oh so predictable...
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.

The man in action...
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.

Chris Garcia

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