Scott
Watching Raws from 1994 and just saw the coin toss to decide who faces Yokozuna first out of co-Rumble-winners Bret Hart and Lex Luger...
Luger calls the toss and wins the right to face Yoko first meaning that Bret has to face Owen in 'suitable competition'. If Luger would've lost he'd have had to face Crush (who had a thing going with Savage at the time).
Was the plan always going to be Bret/Owen, Luger/Yoko (1st) & therefore Savage/Crush or would they have honoured the coin toss if it had had the opposite result? Surely Bret/Owen had to have the Wrestlemania moment as it did? What was the talk around that time?
Sorry to shatter any illusions you might have, but they switched to a fake two-headed coin before the coin toss.
A worked business is going to have a worked coin unless you are WCW and you don't work the wheel so a coal miner's glove match is selected for Sting/Jake The Snake at Halloween Havoc 92
ReplyDeleteI do laugh at how Tunney couldn't even wait for Luger or Bret's entrances to switch the coin off-camera, he had to do it right there on-camera immediately after Vince makes a big hullabaloo about it being a legit coin.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvTNyKIGXiI
ReplyDeleteI knew that's what you were linking to!
ReplyDeleteDamn you, you beat me to it!!
ReplyDeleteDude is actually a pretty solid guy. Used to do tape trading with him years ago.
ReplyDeleteSorry Vince
ReplyDeleteThe "It's still real to me" guy, or the emailer?
ReplyDeleteConstantly played on the Howard Stern show. Love that clip
ReplyDeleteIt's still real to me guy. Pretty sure he got to be on Jimmy Kimmel for that too.
ReplyDeleteI love that story so much. I mean, you're a worldwide wrestling company, you're building to a particular match (I don't even remember what, now), and then you forget to rig the wheel? Even for WCW, I mean, wow.
ReplyDeleteEspecially considering Coal Miner's Glove match was something, that I'm sure no-one was familiar with at the time. I certainly wasn't. Even when the match was explained to me, I was like...
ReplyDelete"So the guy get's a glove to wear if he climbs the pole to retrieve it?"
They forget to rig the wheel, and then apparently only do ONE TAKE? Turner owned how many networks and studios back then, and nobody thought "hey, let's rent this studio out for a few extra hours and shoot a few extra takes"?
ReplyDeleteMy reaction was the exact same.
ReplyDeleteop loves kayfabe
ReplyDeleteThe wheel was rigged. Spelled out clearly in the Observer at the time. They had to do a gimmick match without blood and figured people wouldn't feel ripped off at seeing a bloodless Coal Miner's Glove Match.
ReplyDeleteWell, leaving aside that the wheel was rigged and worked perfectly, I'm pretty sure the spinning was done live and in front of the crowd.
ReplyDeleteThat was the reasoning, or at least part of it. In addition to blood being a non-starter, they decided to go with a match that hadn't been done on PPV before. It could have stood to get a little more build and explanation.
ReplyDeleteThat's the first time I've ever heard that. I'm not disagreeing with you (That was way, way before my time reading the Observer and such), I'm just surprised I had never heard that. The story has always been that WCW didn't rig the wheel. Thanks for the information.
ReplyDeleteWatch out. There are a lot of Meltzer deniers around these parts.
ReplyDeleteYeah, let's not get one of those debates started again.
ReplyDeletehe had the same coin two face used...
ReplyDeleteWould have loved to see Bret unearth footage of the coin switch and then start bitching about how Tunney is trying to screw him. Guess that's three years too soon though
ReplyDeleteFor some reason, I remember Ludvig Borga being the hypothetical opponent Luger would have faced if the coin-toss went the other way.
ReplyDeleteI remember Jake teasing the "Spinner's Choice" the most… maybe that would have been a 2/3 falls Coal Miner's Glove Match!
ReplyDeleteIn kayfabe, why did Luger pick first? You wouldn;t think Yoko had good enough conditioning to work two matches in one night and if Bret did get past him somehow, you'd think it would take a lot of him as well. Granted, by winning KOTR the year before, Bret had already proved he had the stamina to wrestle multiple matches in one night but still.
ReplyDeleteEven JTG tricked Shad once with a 2 sided coin to get into the Rumble match.
ReplyDeleteLuger had a long-running feud with Yokozuna and had been contractually denied another shot at him. Kayfabe-wise, I can see Luger being so eager for revenge against Yoko that he wanted to fight him immediately.
ReplyDeleteIt's odd that JTG represented Crime Time in both of their Rumbles, as you would've thought that Shad would've been good for a power spot or two.
ReplyDelete