* Sandman did have a legitimate family emergency that prevented him from being at ECW's PPV last night. A close family member found out about a serious medical condition last week. ECW owner Paul Heyman encouraged Sandman to stay home and be with his family members, some of whom flew in from out of state to be together.* Gary Albright spent most of his career in Japan with the UWFI and All Japan. NTV broadcast the news of Albright's sudden in-ring death of an apparent heart attack at the start of their program this weekend. They showed his final match against Masao Inoue Dec. 3 in Tokyo. Steve Williams held up a picture of Albright as the bell rang ten times in his memory. Williams and other wrestlers gave brief comments about what Albright meant to them.
* The big news today on CNN and the financial networks is the Time Warner-AOL merger. It doesn't seem the merger will affect WCW, which is owned by Time Warner, in any way immediately. In the long-run it could help their positioning on the Internet. AOL is actually acquiring Time Warner for $140 billion in stock equalling 55 percent of the company. The new name of the company is AOL Time Warner Inc. AOL chairman and chief executive Steve Case will be chairman of the new company if the merger goes through as planned. Ted Turner, who is vice chairman of Time Warner, is backing the move. He owns 9 percent of Time Warner's outstanding common stock.
* WWF tapes occupy 13 of the 20 spots (8 of the top 10) on the latest Billboard video sales charts in the Recreational Sports category. The top tape is "Austin vs. McMahon," followed by "Rock, Know your Role," and "It's Our Time, Triple H and Chyna." It's significant to see the Triple H/Chyna tape jump up from no. 9 last week to no. 3 this week, showing some momentum. The only WCW tape on the charts, "Sting is Back in Black," placed no. 18 after having dropped out of the top 20 in recent weeks.
* WWF wrestlers participated in a tag team tournament in Puerto Rico on Friday before returning to the U.S. for the 1/8 Minneapolis house show. Val Venis & Ricky Santana, The Head Bangers, and Los Boricuas were the final three teams. Venis & Santana won the three-way finals. Other WWF wrestlers on the card were Billy Gunn, X-Pac, Gangrel, Crash Holly, Kaientai, and D-Lo Brown. Rikishi Phatu, Mark Henry, Mideon, Prince Albert, and Road Dogg were all originally scheduled, but didn't participate. A few of the wrestlers also participated on a show the night before.
* The current edition of Oklahoma Today features a cover story on Goldberg, with sidebar articles on Danny Hodge and Bill Watts.
Thanks to Christopher Michaels
