The Heartland Wrestling Alliance (based in Cincinnati, OH) made its annual leap onto the national wrestling radar in August, as it hosted the Brian Pillman Memorial (and the accompanying Mark Curtis Fantasy Camp). Traditionally featuring the combined stars of the WWF, WCW, and ECW, this year's event still featured wrestlers representing all three acronyms, though some of the special-ness was lost since, in reality, everybody knew they were all cashing the WWF's checks.

Still, on August 8 and 9, there was an undeniably special feel to the gatherings in Cincinnati. On Wednesday the 8th, about a dozen fans participated in a Fantasy Camp dedicated to the memory of former referee Mark Curtis. They took to the ring and learned some basics from trainers such as Terry Taylor, Hugh Morrus, Bill Alfonso, and -- most memorably -- Ricky Steamboat. In fact, Steamboat stole the show, delivering a 30 minute seminar on heel/face psychology and its proper application. During the segment, Steamboat actually worked as a heel against Terry Taylor, marking his first public wrestling appearance as a heel EVER.

The in-ring product was front-and-center on Thursday the 9th, as the Pillman Memorial Event and preceding Indie Showcase packed the 2000-plus seat gym at Oak Hills High School. The show's highlights included the usual pomp and circumstance as Melanie Pillman and her children participated in show-opening ceremonies and were later presented with a check for over $40,000 to go to the Pillman Fund (the largest amount generated by the Pillman Event in four years of existence). But besides the special feel of honoring the memory of "The Loose Cannon," there were some notable events that would have been worthy of mention no matter where they took place.

The Island Boyz, developmental talents for the WWF, stole the "Indie Showcase" portion of the show; though they started as heels, the fans were in awe of two 300-pound ass-kickers and immediately got behind them to the extent that they had to improv a post-match segment in which the Boyz (Kimo and Ekmo) repeatedly destroyed their opponents AND the referee while the fans chanted "One more time." Cool stuff, both as a sign that the Boyz might be ready for the big time and because it was reminiscent of the crowd participation moments that took place in the golden era of ECW.

Dean Malenko also stole headlines by making an announcement that was perceived, at the time, as a retirement speech. After making Justin Credible submit to a Texas Cloverleaf (it was a Malenko/Saturn vs. Raven/Credible tag match), Malenko told the crowd that the time was coming for him to no longer be an active wrestler; he thanked them for all their support over the years and left it at that. Malenko later had to re-iterate that it was not an official retirement announcement, and he was just trying to say that he'd be moving into other aspects of the business in the near future, but that he'd very probably be wrestling again, too.

Other show results included: Terry Taylor beat Ricky Morton (w/ Jim Cornette) in a match officiated by Ricky Steamboat... Steve Corino defeated David Flair... Lita defeated Victoria... Evan Karagias (w/ Missy Hyatt) beat Chris Candido (w/ Tammy Sytch)... Mark Henry beat Hugh Morrus... in the main event, the Hardy Boyz beat Edge/Christian and Dallas Page/Chris Kanyon in a three-way tag match.

The other indie to make some noise in August was Main Event Championship Wrestling, which was being bankrolled by an Indiana lawyer and was making claims that it would soon be a viable national promotion. After shows in July in which MECW "invaded" a southern Indiana indie, the company booked the former ECW Arena in Philadelphia for a big TV taping. It was a free show, designed to jump start interest in the promotion.

The 8/11 show packed the Arena (1200 were in the building, and many were turned away), and was highlighted by a main event in which Sabu beat the Sandman to win the new MECW Alternative Title (a variation on the Hardcore Title concept, I guess). Some of the other key match results were: New Jack over DeVito... Danny Doring and Chris Chetti over Christian York/Joey Matthews... Buff Bagwell over Jack Victory... Curt Hennig over Chris Harris to retain the MECW Title... Public Enemy over the Full Blooded Italians to retain the MECW Tag Titles... and Simon Diamond over the Blue Meanie.

However, there was trouble from the get-go. Not only was there a noted lack of leadership and foresight, which resulted in Steve Corino (the NWA Champ) being foolishly booked to lose a match to Buff Bagwell (a stipulation Corino would not agree to, and which resulted in Jack Victory replacing him while Corino collected a paycheck for simply cutting a promo before the match), but money was increasingly a question mark. Despite claims of millions of dollars of financial backing and a national syndcation network to air this first TV taping, no TV outlets could actually be confirmed, and informed estimates had MECW already in debt after paying upwards of $100,000 to run the Philly show (which was, again, a FREE show).

MECW may have made some noise in August, but they would soon begin a retreat into the background.

Jerry Lawler went public with the details of his split with Stacey Carter, and later in the month, their separation advanced to divorce proceedings....

SummerSlam is announced to be the last WWF PPV to be distributed by DirecTV, following the expiration of a temporary agreement signed earlier in the year...

Rhonda Singh -- perhaps best known for a stint as "Bertha Faye" in the WWF -- died early in August...

Billy Kidman suffered a knee injury that would eventually keep him out of action for a substantial portion of the fall...

Booker T suffered a calf injury, and wound up sitting out several dates, including the 2001 Pillman Memorial Show, so that he'd be rested up for his main event spot at SummerSlam...

Rob Van Dam and Jerry Lynn -- who spent the better part of 18 months feuding in ECW, having great matches all over the place -- wrestled a solid 7 minute match on Heat; making some fans angry is the revelation that the original match was a few minutes longer and that several highspots had been edited out for the TV broadcast...

Terry Taylor was heavily rumored by inside sources to be affiliated with the new MECW promotion, but revealed to me -- in an interview at Pillman 2001 -- that those rumors were false and that he'd take a wait-and-see approach before committing to the group...

The World Wildlife Fund took the World Wrestling Federation to court over use of the "WWF" moniker, and won; the Wildlife Fund folks contend that the Wrestling Federation's use of the initials violates an agreement they had reached over domestic and international use of the name back in 1994, and a judge agreed with them. Various appeals allowed the WWF to continue using its initial unabated, and have tied this matter up in the courts to this very day...

Though it didn't receive the same press as the Pillman Memorial, there was also a memorial show for Terry Gordy in mid-August that included WWF personality Michael Hayes wrestling in the main event (teaming with Terry's son, Ray); though he was unbilled, Triple H made a brief appearance and cut a promo about Gordy in a classy move...

SmackDown! was live for two weeks in August, because the WWF had already booked buildings for the shows, anticipating using the Thursday shows for WCW programming; instead, the live shows commemorated the 100th edition of SmackDown! and also served to debut an all-new look for the show (including new logos, music, and entrance set)...

Stephanie McMahon's breasts -- noticeably fuller upon her return to TV as owner of ECW -- became a matter of obsession with some fans; it got to the point where Steph's breast enhancement was finally worked into the on-air product, so that Chris Jericho and the Rock could use it to generate comedic material...

Edge won the IC Title, and in the process, unleashed his "brother" Christian's latent jealously; the two would be feuding within a month...

WWF Excess debuted in the 10pm timeslot on TNN on August 25; ratings were abysmal for the mostly-recap show, despite an appearance by Triple H; with the debut of Excess, the world saw the demise of "WWF Superstars" which had been the Fed's flagship starting with its 1986 debut, up through the 1993 debut of RAW...

In August, Triple H finally began showing up backstage at TV tapings and PPV events; he had kept himself completely away from the business for three months as he focused on his rehab in Birmingham, AL...

Dallas Page's "stalker" storyline with the Undertaker came to a decisive halt after Taker continually beat Page, and after Page even did the job to Taker's wife, Sara; the decisive defeats allowed him to be written off TV for over a month, so that he could allow his injured knee to heal...

During a conference call with investors, Linda McMahon revealed the new time table for WWFE to be running two distinct promotions was "early 2002," a timetable that would disintegrate upon the November destruction of the Alliance and be quickly rejuvenated upon word that the WWF would run two distinct promotions, both under the WWF brand name....

Kane was hospitalized and missed some shows in late August with a severe infection in his elbow...

The WWF signed former Nitro Girl Sharmell "Paisely" Sullivan and former ECW Female Fighting Phenom Jazz...

ECW Triple Crown Winner Mikey Whipwreck announced his retirement following a farewell tour (scheduled to wrap up in October)...

"Angle's insistence on doing the Pledge of Allegience was right up there on the Cheese-o-meter with anything Hulk Hogan ever tried... but the crowd bought it. Kinda weird to see such blatantly old school tactics actually WORKING for Angle..." -- OO registers early unease with Kurt Angle as a top babyface, 08/03/01

"On Monday, I was quite fond of a RAW which has been widely panned. Hmmmm... What's even more odd is that it comes a week after I was finding holes in a RAW that everybody else seemed to love. What's going on? Some kind of temporal anomaly where I'm one week out of phase with the rest of the universe?" -- OO can't get in synch with other reviews after crediting the proper placement of comedy skits as a reason for liking the 8/5 RAW, 08/07/01

"Hey, Miller, you're usually hilarious and all, but this might be a good time to take notice of what the XFL and Trigger have in common. And then, fer chrissakes, STOP BEATING THEM." -- OO tries to be all clever by using an obscure reference to poke fun at Dennis Miller and his XFL jokes, 08/07/01

"I had no idea why Kanyon walked into the building with a WWF tag belt at the Pillman thing Thursday. Man did I feel like an idiot when I found out he and Page had won the straps at SmackDown! No, wait, I mean, screw you, Kanyon, for spoiling my enjoyment of the taped show!" -- OO registers confusion upon seeing Kanyon with a tag title belt at the Pillman Memorial a day before seeing him win the titles on SmackDown!, 08/10/01

"Hey, I won't open myself up to all sorts of questions about my manhood by saying I don't find Steph's breasts interesting... but, honestly, they're roughly as interesting as they've been for the past 2 years. And keep in mind that for 2 years, nobody was cutting 20 minute promos about them." -- OO struggles to be both lecherously heterosexual AND reasonably logical at the same time with regard to Stephanie McMahon and 20 minute promos about her newfound ultra-chesty-ness, 08/15/01

"Smart fans don't like that Taker's an old guy getting this huge push when he doesn't deserve it at the expense of younger talent. Well, sorry folks, but Taker's going on third from the top, and the guy he squashed last night was like 8 years older than him." -- OO on the idiocy of fan accusations about the Undertaker, 08/20/01

"There's something about Austin's raging machismo that allows him to make a serious angle out of using heavy machinery... but something about Angle's persona makes it seems really contrived (which is why I think they should have put the gimmick on early and played it for laughs, instead of as the main event)." -- OO on a possible reason why the Angle/Milk Truck main event to 8/20's RAW was so unsatisfying, 08/22/01

"It didn't help that the lack of an entrance ramp pretty well telegraphed that SOMEthing like this would be happening, and they still made those of us who had figured it out wait till the final 2 minutes of the show to get our pay-off... but I'm sure now I'm just being an asshole about it." -- OO on another possible reason why the Angle/Milk Truck thing sucked, albeit one that only applies to assholes like OO, 08/22/01

"There is an old comedy equation, dating back to the ancient Greeks that postulates "Midgets = Hilarity," and it's been proven right time and time again. But what the wrestling world sometimes tends to forget is the supporting axiom that says -- just as with any performer -- you can't give a midget shitty material and expect it to get over. And that's what the Fed did on Monday: they had a midget who kinda looked like Booker T and who could sorta do the Spin-a-roonie. And that was it. That's what they sent him out there with. Even the Rock, who is usually good at keeping things moving on the stick, seemed lost for how to advance the segment(s) a couple of times. Not good." -- OO finds yet another reason to bitch about the 8/20 RAW, 08/22/01

"In any case, I hope the authorities are ready to re-issue my Vince McMahon Ass-Kisser card... after ripping RAW apart, I'm back on the bus: that was a damned fine SmackDown." -- OO likes the 8/22 SmackDown!, and returns to its usual form (not realizing there actually would be a Vince McMahon Kiss My Ass Club later in the year), 08/24/01

"WWF.com has a big write-up featuring the nostalgic memories of a lot of the WWF wrestlers who grew up watching SuperStars when it was THE show to watch each week for WWF fans. I know league bowling and WWF SuperStars was the Saturday morning routine for me for years... Actually, the write-up was a slap in the face, in a way: made me realize that all these guys I'm watching on TV are like my age. In the case of the Hardys, a year or two younger, even! In my best Comic Book Guy voice: 'Oooh, I have wasted my life'." -- OO on the demise of "WWF Superstars," 08/24/01

"The same people who pooh-pooh RVD because he's 'nothing but a highspot machine' are usually the same ones who claim not to see the appeal of a bra and panties match. Hey, I'll worship at the Altar of Chris Benoit with you, but I also still think that ladders and tables and tits and ass have a place on a wrestling show." -- OO's smart fan status is once again put on probation after this shocking revelation, 08/24/01

WWF SummerSlam (08/19/01) -- The Rock's return to PPV was a successful one, as he added himself to the short list of men to hold both the WWF and WCW Titles by defeating Booker T in the show's main event. Earlier in the night, Steve Austin got disqualified in a title defense against Kurt Angle, saving his title. Other match results: Edge brought the IC Title back to the WWF with a win over Lance Storm... the Dudley Boyz and Test beat the APA and Spike Dudley... X-Pac defeated Tajiri to win the WWF Light Heavyweight Title... Chris Jericho beat Rhyno... Rob Van Dam retained the WWF Hardcore Title by beating Jeff Hardy in a Ladder Match... Undertaker and Kane beat Dallas Page and Chris Kanyon in a cage match to win the WWF tag team titles.

Tajiri beat X-Pac to take the WWF Light Heavyweight Title (8/06)... Dallas Page and Chris Kanyon beat the Acolytes to win the WWF Tag Team Titles (8/7)... Undertaker and Kane beat Chuck Palumbo and Sean O'Haire to win the WCW Tag Team Titles (8/7)... Edge beat Lance Storm to win the WWF IC Title (8/19)... Undertaker and Kane beat Dallas Page and Chris Kanyon to win the WWF Tag Team Titles (8/19)... X-Pac beat Tajiri to regain the WWF Light Heavyweight Title (8/19)... the Hurricane beat Matt Hardy to win the WWF European Title (8/27).