January 23, 1995
- I hate to shill stuff on these posts but I feel like I should probably mention that the Observer is having a sale today where you can subscribe for $3.99 for a month. If you ever wanted to see what it's all about, this is about as low as the price ever goes. I think it automatically renews each month though, so if you're only wanting to sample it, be mindful of that next month.
- Dave decides to start the issue by taking a look at Hogan's effects on WCW from various perspectives now that his original 6-month contract has ended:
- 1. Quality of Shows: Dave says the quality has gone down drastically since Hogan arrived and filled the roster with his friends (Duggan, Beefcake, Avalanche, etc.) and the total burial and forced retirement of Ric Flair. Plus Steamboat's retirement and Steve Austin being out due to injury didn't help either, but those weren't Hogan's fault.
- 2. TV Ratings: ratings have gone down slightly since Hogan arrived but not significantly. But considering what they're paying Hogan, the ratings shouldn't be going down at all or even stagnating. They need to be going up and the fact that they aren't is a huge blow to the company. Clash of the Champions ratings where Hogan has appeared have gone up, but only barely high enough to offset what his salary costs the company.
- 3. House shows: the shows Hogan has worked have done good business, especially the European shows. Problem is, Hogan only works a handful of house shows, so it doesn't benefit WCW much in the long run. If they can get him to agree to work more in 1995, it would be a major benefit to the company.
- 4. Merchandising: Hogan sells a metric fuckton of merch, which you think would be good for WCW. But Hogan makes such a huge percentage of the merch sales that WCW barely makes any money from it so that doesn't help them either. And finally, the big one...
- 5. PPV buyrates: The first 2 Hogan PPVs were a success, but they also come with some asterisks. The first match with Flair was a dream match that PPV audiences had never seen before. The 2nd was a career vs. career match. Huge celebrities and massive amounts of money were spent on promoting those shows. But they can't keep delivering huge stipulations and heavily promoted dream matches every time Hogan works a PPV. The Starrcade main event with Beefcake was the real test and that buyrate came in as a disappointment. Hogan main eventing against all his 1980s WWF buddies isn't going to do good business going forward.
- So overall, was it worth it? Dave says that Hogan seemingly has kept WCW afloat and even increased revenue a little bit, but it may have been offset by what they're paying him. But for now, it's seemingly been a slight success overall. But it's also painted WCW into a corner where losing Hogan would likely be the downfall of the company, which isn't a good position to be in. Hogan negotiated himself a pretty much perfect deal and he bent WCW over a barrel by doing so and now WCW has no choice but to keep giving Hogan what he wants because they can't afford to lose him.
- Dave now decides to look at business trends over the last 3 years for WWF and WCW, looking at TV ratings and house show business. Must be a slow week. Long story short: both companies began to decline rapidly in mid-1992 and have yet to really recover.
- WWF seems to be promoting the upcoming Royal Rumble more on the appearance of Pamela Anderson than with anything having to do with wrestling or the workers.
- The plans for another AAA PPV in April have been pushed back to June and even that is tentative. Televisa is the parent company of AAA and they don't see AAA as a priority, so they're not rushing or jumping through hoops to meet with WCW and negotiate another PPV.
- Dave notes that AAA is absolutely going to need the U.S. market this year because the Mexican economy is tanking. American dollars are currently worth much more than pesos so it's going to be vital for them to establish themselves in the United States (similar to how WWF has done more frequent European tours recently because the American business is down).
- Cactus Jack and Terry Funk faced each other in a barbed wire match for IWA in Japan and the match got rave reviews. Both men suffered lots of cuts and Funk suffered 2nd degree burns when Cactus Jack hit him with a flaming chair. This isn't the famous King of the Deathmatch show that everyone remembers. That one happens in August.
- A wrestler named Scott Studd debuted in USWA last week and got over pretty well (that would be Scotty Riggs).
- Jim Cornette is upset about the flak he's been catching for his racial comments at shows in his feud with the Gangstas. The line that upset a lot of people was, "If you came to flap your lips, you'll kill half of this building." Cornette said there weren't any black people at the show (so that makes it okay I guess?) and he says that you'll hear worse on network TV every night. "To me, the babyface needs to say what everyone in the building wants to say and I just said it. It got a big pop every night," Cornette said (here's a shoot interview clip with Cornette and New Jack and the Gangstas time in SMW, but it doesn't really address this angle. But it's the best I could find regarding their relationship).
- ECW ran a few shows in Florida this week and Dave just offhandedly mentions that Razor Ramon was backstage at the Orlando show.
- Dave says that, for whatever it's worth, about 85% of the pro wrestlers he's spoken to in the last month believe UFC is a work. Some of them have no real good reason for thinking that other than they don't believe someone small like Royce Gracie could beat larger guys. Dave notes that he also knows wrestlers who believe boxing and even the NFL are works and that it's all predetermined so, yanno. Basically, a lot of wrestlers are stupid.
- Fuerza Guerrera announced his new promotion called Pro Mexicana Lucha Libre (PROMELL for short) and they have taken basically every wrestler away from UWA except Canek who is part-owner of UWA. Several AAA wrestlers are also going to work for the group, since it's basically an AAA-sponsored promotion, with the idea that AAA and PROMELL will have an inter-promotional feud. That's pretty much the end of the road for UWA.
- The suspensions of several AAA wrestlers (Rey Misterio Jr., Psicosis, etc.) have been reduced from 2 months down to the end of this month. So they should all be back in the ring within the next week or two.
- Jean Paul Levesque gave notice to WCW that he is leaving to go to the WWF. Word is he turned down a contract believed to be between $1,500 to $1,800 per week from WCW. Levesque's decision was made primarily on WWF's track record when it comes to creating new stars. Even though WCW promised him a tag title run, Levesque believes he has a better chance of becoming a true superstar in WWF, especially because they seem focused on pushing new, young stars heading into 1995, even if he won't make the same guaranteed money he'd make in WCW. Eric Bischoff was reportedly furious over Levesque's lack of loyalty, saying WCW plucked him out of obscurity and this is the thanks he gives them in return. Dave says that, after the way WCW treated Ricky Steamboat by firing him while he was injured, Bischoff has a lot of nerve to talk about loyalty. Levesque did a job to Alex Wright on the Main Event TV show but refused to job to Sting the next night for WCW Saturday Night, saying he had done enough jobs on TV. He will continue to put over Johnny B. Badd at house shows until he leaves next week.
- Randy Savage has done a lot of radio interviews lately, plugging WCW shows which has them thrilled. On Mike Tenay's radio show, several callers confronted Savage about his comments last year where he insulted Hogan and called WCW the minor leagues. Savage said he and Hogan patched up their issues and that anywhere he wrestles is the major leagues and thus, WCW is now the major leagues.
- 7'1, 440-pound Paul Wight was backstage at a recent WCW house show and may be hired by the company. To the best of Dave's knowledge, he's only ever had one match so far at an indie show a few months ago.
- Tony Schiavone was reportedly paranoid that WCW was going to re-hire Jim Ross and he would lose his job, and was being difficult to work with because of it. But now that WWF has hired Ross back, Schiavone is reportedly much easier to deal with now. Bill Shaw never forgave Ross for double-crossing WCW by bringing Vince McMahon onto their radio show after he left the company in 1993, so it's unlikely Ross ever had a shot at coming back anyway.
- At a recent Raw taping, a weightlifter came in and ran off King Kong Bundy. Dave says the guy's name is Mark Henry. (Dave says this happened on the 1/16 episode of Raw. I guess this happened during a commercial break or dark match or something? Because I don't see that on the Network and even googling doesn't pull up anything about Mark Henry appearing on Raw in 1995. His "official" debut wasn't until a year later.)
- Maxx Payne's WWF name has been changed to Man Mountain Rock and he's doing the guitar rocker gimmick.
- Bob Backlund has already been pushed down to prelim status, working with Adam Bomb at house shows, after winning the world title from Bret Hart less than 3 months ago. It was expected he would be phased down, but not this quickly and this far.
- Jim Ross is already back to doing commentary, co-hosting the Action Zone shows with Todd Pettengill. The 2 have no chemistry together and Dave says Ross refuses to even acknowledge all of Todd's dumb jokes, so the whole thing is a mess.
- In a recent promo, Shawn Michaels called Diesel a cowardly lion and said he'll send him back to Oz. Cute.
- Texas wrestler Tony Norris, better known as Moadib, got a tryout at the recent WWF tapings (and thus, Ahmed Johnson was born).
- Jim Neidhart is either suspended or fired, Dave has heard both so he's not sure (turns out fired). Meanwhile, Bull Nakano is no longer suspended and is back on the road facing Alundra Blayze every night.
- Chris Candido will likely be brought in as a Mighty Mouse-type babyface because despite his small size, he's actually deceptively strong (Vince has been trying to get a Mighty Mouse gimmick going for somebody for over two decades now).