May 09, 1994
- In a decision that has the potential to change the wrestling industry, Chuck Austin, the jobber who was partially paralyzed in a match by Marty Jannetty, was awarded $26.7 million dollars by the jury in his lawsuit against WWF, Jannetty, and Shawn Michaels this week. It's one of the largest judgments ever awarded in the history of sports and threatens to change business practices in how promotions deal with using inexperienced jobbers. Dave recaps the injury and says many of wrestling's biggest stars testified in the case. Austin claimed he had been told to do a forward roll when taking the move, which others testified is the wrong thing to do. Austin landed on his head and broke his neck. Many wrestlers watching backstage on the monitor at the time testified that they thought Austin had been killed. Bruno Sammartino was shown a video of the injury and was so outraged that he became the key expert witness for the plaintiff (this, of course, was back during the years when Sammartino would take any opportunity to try and ruin Vince McMahon).
- In the 3 years since the accident, Austin has regained some feeling in his arms and legs and is able to get around on crutches, but can't control his bodily functions and has constant stinging and burning in his hands and legs. Austin's suit initially only asked for $3.8 million and in closing arguments, the lawyers raised the request to $7 million. It's considered extremely rare for a jury to award a plaintiff more than what is asked for, and especially super-duper rare for them to award more than six times more. Some of the money is for medical bills and the rest is for pain and suffering for Chuck Austin and his wife and children. WWF was found 90% negligent, Jannetty 5% negligent, and Austin himself 5% negligent. WWF will owe $23.5 million (which will be covered by insurance) and Jannetty owes $1.3 million personally. WWF is planning to appeal the decision and try to get the award lowered, which several lawyers Dave spoke to believe is likely to happen and WWF won't end up actually paying nearly that much. Due to Florida law, in order to file the appeal, WWF must put a percentage of the money up in escrow first, which, funny enough, is exactly the situation Gawker found themselves in when they lost to Hogan in Florida and didn't even have enough money to put up and file the appeal.
- Shawn Michaels was originally named in the suit, but the judge dismissed him, ruling that Shawn played no part in the injury. Michaels did testify on behalf of WWF and Jannetty during the trial. At one point, they brought mats into the courtroom and had Jannetty perform the move on indie wrestler Dean Malenko in front of the jury, to prove that it's not a dangerous move. Jannetty also testified that he asked Austin if he was okay after the move and believed Austin was simply selling and that's why the match continued, with Shawn Michaels performing a splash to end the match. Dave thinks this case may set a precedent and open up the floodgates for other past jobbers, and indeed, another jobber has already filed a suit, claiming he was injured in a match with Tatanka in 1992.
- It's the 2nd time in two weeks that WWF has gotten hit with major lawsuit losses (Ventura's case being the other). Essentially, it boils down to WWF having a credibility problem. Their reputation as con men and liars is so bad that juries simply don't buy what they say. Based on the agreement he signed, Ventura shouldn't have won his case, but the jury believed him when he said WWF lied to him. As for the Chuck Austin case, WWF have a dozen wrestlers, including all the other men in the match, backstage agents, and veterans like Gorilla Monsoon and Gerald Brisco all testify that Austin had expressed no concern over taking the move, but the jury didn't buy it. It wasn't helped by the wrestlers often contradicting themselves or trying to "work" jurors during their testimony. For instance, Monsoon testified about his 1976 angle with Muhammad Ali (relevant because of Ali's inexperience as a wrestler) and Monsoon essentially tried to convince the jury that the match was a shoot and that he basically beat up Ali. The main takeaway from all this is that the wrestling industry has to fix its credibility issue because the general public won't stand for being worked like a bunch of marks.
- After a 9 year retirement, the original Tiger Mask, Satoru Sayama returned to the ring last week at New Japan's Fukuoka Dome show, the largest stadium in Japan, in a dream match against Jushin Liger. The result of that dream match? A nightmare. Sayama came in overweight and wrestled on the mat, doing no flashy high flying moves he used to be known for. The crowd heavily booed the match as it went on. Sayama was expected to headline the Jan. 4 1995 Tokyo Dome show against Antonio Inoki, but this debacle will severely damage the drawing potential of that match.
- Also on this show, Inoki defeated Great Muta in the main event, the Hellraisers beat the Steiners, and Rick Rude regained the WCW International title from Sting. Dave doesn't know it yet, but Rude also suffered a career-ending injury in that match.
- The first Triplemania II show took place this week also. It was said to be a great show, but they only drew around 9,500 people, which was bad to the point of being an embarrassment for AAA since they've been routinely selling out other, less important shows recently. And last year's Triplemania show set an all-time Mexican attendance record. The main event of this show was a clusterfuck. It was a hair vs. hair match between Jerry Estrada and Heavy Metal. The idea for weeks had been that Estrada would lose, but then Heavy Metal no-showed two recent events and was in the dog house, so the day of the show, they changed it to Heavy Metal losing his hair. Then, during the middle of the match, they changed plans again and got word to ringside that they wanted Estrada to lose. From there, the 2-out-of-3 falls match fell apart into confusion and they ended up doing a 4th fall for some reason. So then Estrada lost but he wasn't happy about the plans being changed and he broke the cord on the electric shears so they couldn't cut his hair. Someone in the back found some scissors and they brought those out and convinced Estrada to sit still long enough to cut some of his hair off before he stormed out. As a result of this whole mess, Estrada has been suspended for 3 months by AAA and Heavy Metal was suspended for 15 days and the match is said to be so bad that it won't air on TV.
- WWF's King of the Ring takes place next month and the main event looks to be Roddy Piper, returning to the ring for the first time in a couple of years facing Jerry Lawler, which should help boost the buyrate some. For the tournament, only 4 names have been announced so far: Razor Ramon, IRS, 1-2-3 Kid, and Jeff Jarrett. Of those 4, obviously Razor seems to be the most likely winner but there's still expected to be 4 more names added. Also, at this PPV, they will induct more wrestlers into the WWF Hall of Fame, currently only occupied by Andre the Giant.
- After previously cancelling shows they had booked there, AAA is taking a gamble once again by booking shows in New York and Chicago next month. Both cities have large Spanish-speaking populations, but it's the first time they've attempted to run shows outside of the Southwest and Lucha Libre has no history of any sort of success in those cities.
- Dave says that by the time you read this, he's relatively certain that Hulk Hogan will have signed a deal with WCW. With all the legal issues they're facing, there's simply no way that WWF can match WCW's offer and the 21-day deadline runs out this week.
- At a recent UWA/AAA joint show, UWA champion Canek and AAA champion Konnan got into a legit fight during a 6-man match and the other wrestlers had to come into the ring and pull them apart. There's tremendous legit heat between the two stemming from when Konnan worked for UWA as a rookie (Dave doesn't elaborate). AAA wants to do a big champion vs. champion match between the two at Triplemania II-B, but Canek doesn't want to do it anymore. In retaliation, AAA is pulling all its big stars from working UWA shows, which is basically the only thing keeping the struggling UWA alive at this point. It's expected that UWA's president and other UWA wrestlers (who will make less money if the AAA wrestlers aren't on the show) will pressure Canek to do the match in order to keep the AAA relationship alive.
- Eddie Gilbert is running as a Republican nominee for County Clerk's office in Henderson, TN and the election is this week. Gilbert's mother is the chairperson of the Republican party in the county. In an attempt to soften his image for the election, Gilbert has been wrestling as a babyface recently.
- Tonya Harding did an interview with Inside Edition and when asked about the AJW wrestling offer, she talked as if it was still being negotiated. A made-for-TV movie about Harding aired this week and also acknowledged the wrestling offer.
- The Headshrinkers won the WWF tag titles last week from the Quebeccers. Afterward, Pierre and manager Johnny Polo walked out on Jacques Rougeau, so this should be how they write him off TV. Rougeau recently gave his notice and plans to retire and open a gym in Montreal.
- A Current Affair did another story on wrestling this week, about the Hogan/HIV test that was mentioned last week and have now managed to spread the rumor nationwide that Hulk Hogan has AIDS.
- Luna Vachon has been working TV tapings but missing house shows. WWF's suspension policy allows suspended performers to work TV so as to not mess up storylines, but Dave hasn't heard anything about her being suspended, so he doesn't know what's up.
- Diesel did an interview on Jerry Lawler's King's Court segment and explained Shawn Michaels' absence by saying he's out injured but will be back soon. In reality, Shawn missed the tapings due to being in Florida for the Chuck Austin trial.
- Ludvig Borga apparently won't be returning, no reason given.
- Curt Hennig did an interview with Wrestling Flyer magazine and said he won't be returning to WWF because Vince McMahon won't meet the price Hennig wants to return. Hennig is in a good financial position and said he'd be glad to wrestle if Vince pays him what he's asking. It's well-known that WCW and Ric Flair specifically want Hennig to come there, but he's under contract with WWF until November, so if it happens, it won't be until after that.
- WCW has been hinting that a "6'7, 300 pound blonde haired former world champion" will face Ric Flair at Slamboree, and the obvious implication is that they want fans to think it will be Hulk Hogan. In reality, Barry Windham is scheduled to be the mystery man to face Flair at Slamboree, but that may be in jeopardy now. Windham told WCW officials he had a doctor's release to return to wrestling after having knee surgery last year. But he has yet to be able to provide WCW proof of that and WCW doesn't want to risk Windham getting hurt again in the match and putting them in a bad legal situation if he hasn't been cleared by a doctor. So for now, the whole thing is up in the air (they eventually figured it out and Windham worked the show.....and promptly re-injured his knee. Didn't wrestle for another 2+ years. Whoops).
- King Haku is now in WCW, working as Meng.
- WCW had a TV taping scheduled in Atlanta on 5/3 but had to move it up to 5/2 at the last minute because nobody remembered to reserve a production truck for the 3rd. And since President Clinton was scheduled to be at CNN that day and since there were Braves and Hawks games happening that day, WCW wasn't able to get a production truck for that date, so they had to move the show up at the last minute.