Thank you for the info!

People I've interviewed told me it was a professional camera crew, maybe RealTV (not sure what that is, but some TV crew). It was in LA, so there were no shortage of camera crews by Hollywood.

It was definitely October 1997.

The official story is that someone in the crew refused to hand over the tapes. And so that person, being a professional, easily could have edited this highlight reel (perhaps in an attempt to sell it to a documentary filmmaker). It does beg the question of why a professional would jeopardize their career to steal tapes of someone who wouldn't be famous for another 2 years.

The conspiracy theory is that the full footage is being suppressed so he won't be seen losing the battle (he got 2nd place).

Thanks again for checking out this mystery!