Wrestling Observer Rewinder

August 28, 1995

We open the issue talking about both WWF and WCW's dwindling syndication numbers and how the war between them will now be fought on cable on Monday nights. WWF Raw will be live every 4 weeks, while WCW Nitro will be live every Monday night, which gives WCW an advantage because they will often know what WWF is going to be airing weeks in advance and can counter-program against it (or, yanno, just give away the results on TV). Nitro will be a money-loser out of the gate because TNT is only giving them $38,000 per week for the show, which isn't enough to book arenas, cover taping expenses, fly in talent, etc. You can also expect bigger and better matches, title changes, and big angles, which may hurt PPV buys since both companies will likely be giving away marquee matches for free, trying to beat the other. WCW has the advantage of being able to lose money, since they're backed by Turner and have been losing money for years. But WWF is privately owned and they have to stay profitable to survive.
The latest on Lex Luger is that Sting has been trying to get WCW to bring him back. Luger has made a lot of money in wrestling in the past. His original WCW deal was for $500,000 a year and his WWF deal is around $350,000 a year. But now, WCW is only offering him a $1000-per-match deal, with no guarantee on how many matches he gets and mostly seem interested in bringing him in as a heel to put over Hogan, without much interest in him beyond that. Luger's contract reportedly expires in mid-October (yeeeah, about that...) and given the lowball WCW offer, Dave thinks he'll stay in WWF.
Too Cold Scorpio is the latest ECW star that WCW is trying to poach. Paul Heyman wants to keep Scorpio and has talked to him about making Scorpio the top heel and champion. But ECW doesn't have contracts and Heyman is wary of putting the belt on someone, just to have them leave. Scorpio has reportedly told Heyman he won't go back to WCW for less than what he made there before ($120,000) and WCW isn't offering nearly that much to most guys these days.
Paul Heyman and Sabu reportedly had reached a secret agreement for Sabu to return to ECW, but that fell apart when WCW came calling. Heyman is still trying to negotiate with him and if Sabu decides to come back to ECW rather than go to WCW, Heyman has promised to build the promotion around him as the top star, but most likely, Sabu is headed to WCW.
Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, and Dean Malenko all signed 90-day contracts with WCW because they reportedly wanted to stick together. So if WCW doesn't work out, they can all get out together. Obviously, they're doomed to midcard purgatory as long as Hogan is running the main event scene, but the good news is most shows will have at least 1 awesome match with those guys on the roster.
Adam Bomb officially quit WWF last week after a meeting with Vince McMahon, who attempted to change his mind. Bomb was unhappy that his career was going nowhere and was especially upset about being asked to do a 30-second job to Henry Godwin. Bomb has 6 months left on his contract and lawyers on both sides are working on getting him released early.
The lawsuit of jobber Chuck Austin, who was injured in a 1991 match with the Rockers, was settled out of court this week. Austin had won a $26.7 million dollar settlement last year, which WWF and the insurance company appealed to get lowered. Sources say the settlement is somewhere in the $10 million range, which will be paid by WWF's insurance carrier. Chuck Austin is expected to get about $7 million, with his lawyers getting the other $3 million.
Cactus Jack beat Terry Funk in the finals of IWA's King of the Death Match tournament in a no-ropes, barbed wire explosive time bomb match. The match was said to be extremely brutal. It was the first job Funk has done in Japan in 2 years, and should significantly elevate Jack's reputation in Japan (this is the match that solidified Cactus Jack's reputation and WWE has shown clips of it several times. However, I myself first learned of this match back in the 90s from a tape called Stranglemania, which was put out by the Insane Clown Posse. Basically, what happened was ICP bought a bunch of death match VHS tapes from Japan, dubbed over them with their own commentary, and released it in America. They changed people's names. Terry Funk became Drunk Terry Flunk. Cactus Jack became Cactus Sac. So on and so forth. Anyway, say what you want about ICP, but their wrestling commentary is fucking hilarious. Here's the full Stranglemania tape, which is most of the tournament. Funk vs. Jack is the main event. If you want the non-ICP version, here's the Funk/Jack match, with Mick Foley commentary).
Dave gives his personal opinions for some of the best ofs for 1995. For wrestler of the year, he argues for Mitsuharu Misawa or Shawn Michaels. Onita for best babyface. Cactus Jack for best promos. Eddie Guerrero for best technical wrestler. ECW for best TV show. etc. etc. Just Dave's opinions. The real awards don't come until the end of the year.
Billy Jack Haynes took a scary bump at a USWA show last week and it was initially thought he had broken his neck. Turned out the paralysis was temporary and it was a stinger. He suffered a severe concussion on the bump as well but luckily will be okay and will only miss a few shows (he was back in the ring 2 weeks later, but only wrestled a handful of matches after that and quietly retired 2 months later).
Diamond Dallas Page has started using a move he's calling the "Diamond Death Drop" as his finisher. Really it's just an Ace Crusher.
Lanny Poffo is heading in to WCW, as a favor for Randy Savage.
WCW is getting rid of Nick Bockwinkel as the TV commissioner. Larry Zbysko offered to take on the role himself and even former WWF figurehead president Jack Tunney called WCW, offering to play the part. No word on who will eventually be getting the role.
Depositions are currently taking place in the Missy Hyatt sexual harassment lawsuit against WCW.
The Eliminators (Perry Saturn and John Kronus) got a tryout at the latest WWF tapings. No word on how it went.
Rob Feinstein writes in with the longest letter ever, explaining his situation with ECW and the whole owing money/messed up tapes mess. After Feinstein's letter, Dave responds and, having spoken to Paul Heyman about it, gives Heyman's response. It's a bunch of he-said-she-said, but it's kind of an interesting insight into ECW business practices at the time, so fuck it, this is a slow issue so let's just reprint the whole thing:
Here are the facts regarding my situation with Extreme Championship Wrestling. I was the exclusive videotape distributor for ECW. I not only dubbed the tapes for them but I was also responsible for sending out the tapes to their customers. During May of 1995, I was told that Tod Gordon was going to be leaving the company and that all back bills would be paid by HHG or Global Distributions (Richard Freeburg, who handles ECW merchandising). At that point in time I was giving them 60 days to pay me on invoices and I also gave them a $5,000 credit limit, which they went over. Paul Heyman called me up and told me that if I were to give them a payment plan over the next six months on the balance that they owed me, which was $5,022 at the time, that all future bills would be paid within 30 days instead of 60 days. I told Paul if he could pay me $837 on the first of every month until November that I would stay, plus any new bills he would have to pay me within 30 days. It was agreed and we started with a clean slate.
In late July, I called the company that supplies me with envelopes that I use to send out ECW tapes. I was told I was unable to order new envelopes for ECW because they hadn't paid their balance of $280.81. I informed Paul of the situation and was told by someone else who runs the merchandise department to just pay the money and I would get reimbursed for it. I paid for their envelopes and then when I asked to get paid back, I was told to put it on a 30 day invoice. That was never how it was done in the past. In the past when I ordered envelopes for ECW, the bill went to the ECW office and it was paid by them. I never had to pay their bills. I was also told that money was tight at the time and I was getting worried.
On July 29, I sent Paul Heyman and Global Distributions a fax telling them that on August 1, a payment of $837 was due and also that a regular bill was due for $245.70. I let them both know that I could no longer fund their business and I wanted the money on time. On August 1, I called them and asked them where my money was and was told that the $245.70 was in the mail and that if I wanted the $837, I would now have to go directly to Heyman because Global Distributions was no longer going to pay me the remaining four payments of $837 and that Heyman would have to pay me because Global Distributions was tired of paying for Heyman's back bills. I called Heyman and Paul told me that I would get the $837 but I should be patient, which at this point I had heard too many times. There were a lot of games going on between Global Distributions and Heyman and I was put in the middle of it by both sides.
On August 3, Paul and I spoke on the phone and he told me that he heard I was going to get paid at the shows over the weekend. On August 4, I was in Jim Thorpe, PA and I never got a penny. The next night I was at the ECW Arena and I never got a penny. I knew that I was getting worked by someone and I didn't complain because I didn't want to quit that weekend because I was working those shows. On August 6, I spoke with Paul and I told him that there was no checks in the mail and I was mad and he told me the same story, that he would take care of it. On August 7, I called Global Distributions and told them I quit. Paul called me back and was furious at me for quitting when I was being more than patient. I had done so much for that company and I cut them so many breaks that I felt it was time for them to treat me with the respect I deserved.
As far as the comments in last week's Observer from Heyman saying there was such a high percentage of tapes that had to be re-dubbed for free due to poor quality and that was the reason I shouldn't get my money was a joke. My address was on every package that I sent out. If people returned tapes, they sent them back to my office. If someone called the ECW office to complain about a tape, they would tell the person to send the tape back to me. Once in a while someone would send a tape back to the ECW office but I would get it from them, and then send them out a new tape. On August 14, I had a meeting with Global Distributions to try and work out our problems and I asked them about that problem and was told that Heyman was just going to say that so he didn't have to pay me and that they only had four tapes returned at that time in the office. It's even funnier, because when I got a tape sent back to me and I had to correct the problem, I never ever charged ECW for it. If it was my fault, I paid for both the tape and the postage. I never went to ECW and had them pay me for my mistakes. We had like four returns a month out of 300 videotapes. I never charged them a penny when I had to re-dub tapes so they don't have that as an excuse. Why was I never informed there were all those bad tapes being sent back that Paul claims they had to re-dub and where did all those tapes go? The office never got them. I never got them. If Paul had them re-dubbed elsewhere, who did it since I always had the master tapes? It's a lie.
The other main issue he brought up were the tapes being sent out late. Here are the facts. One week after a house show at the Arena, Paul puts an ad on television for a videotape of that show. The ad usually says for immediate delivery, which causes all of our problems. People see the ad, order the tape through the 800 number and then expect the tape within six weeks. I have told Paul over and over again that he can't put on TV "for immediate delivery" because he doesn't hand over the master tapes to me until six or seven weeks after the ad hits the air. For example, "Enter the Sandman" was the 5/13 arena show. I didn't get the master until 8/4. Hoodies, Chokeslams and Barbed Wire was the 6/17 house show and I didn't get the master until 8/4. So when people order videotapes through ECW, it gets sent to Global Distributions and they give me a printout, which sometimes doesn't happen until three weeks after the order is made. Sometimes I get the order but I don't have the master tape that they went, so I have to sit on their order. As soon as I get the master tape from Paul, I can get everything out within a week. I also just bought new equipment for ECW two weeks before I quit which would have really sped up the process as long as I had the master tapes. Recently Paul had stopped telling people that they were going to get their tapes shipped out immediately so it looked like that problem had been fixed. The Three Way Dance is another example of this problem. It took more than eight weeks for me to get the tape and ECW was taking orders for that show before it ever took place, so people were really pissed when they didn't get the tapes for more than ten weeks.
I wish Paul would have listened to me when I would try to tell him the way things should have been done. He is a very busy man and I wish him all the luck in the world with ECW. I'd be willing to come back at anytime after this problem is resolved, but things have to be done the right way and I could make the videotape business run very smooth.
Rob Feinstein Langhorne, Pennsylvania
And now, Dave's response, after speaking with Paul Heyman: