Wrestling Observer Rewinder

January 02, 1996

Hello. Let's get this party started! I have all of 1996 written up and so far, this is my favorite year of these that I've done. So anyway, you know the drill, every Mon-Fri unless real life gets in the way. Let's do this!
In an effort to combat falling buyrates, WWF is trying to bring in several surprise names for the upcoming Royal Rumble. They have contacted Dan Severn, Jake Roberts, Ultimate Warrior, Rick Martel, and Vader among others. Jake Roberts has been out of the national spotlight for 3 years and retired last year to go into religion and has vowed he would never return. If he does, he probably has the most name value for WWF fans of anybody on the list other than Warrior. Vader is a proven PPV draw and WWF needs heels, so it seems like a good fit. But Vader is used to making big money and he likely has lots of options in Japan. He's also 40 years old and coming off a serious injury and it's been years since he worked a schedule as grueling as WWF's. As for Dan Severn, he's iffy. Standard UFC contracts state that their fighters can't work PPVs for other companies, but it's possible that Severn's contract is different. Even if he can do it, Dave doesn't think UFC would be happy about it.
It's believed that Ultimate Warrior is the most likely to return, not just for the Rumble, but on a full-time basis. Several sources in WWF have told Dave that it's happening, while others seem unsure. Whether it's a good idea or not is another story. Warrior turned down a $500,000-per-year deal with WCW, so you'd have to assume he won't be coming back to WWF for anything less than that. It's a lot of money for a guy who probably won't move the needle that much. Furthermore, Warrior is notoriously a pain in the ass to deal with and furthermore, the business has drastically changed since Warrior was in WWF last (pre-steroid trial). The focus is on smaller, athletic guys who have great matches. Warrior most certainly doesn't fit that mold. Warrior has also made it clear in the past that he won't go back on the road without a guaranteed deal and McMahon's longstanding policy is that he doesn't do guaranteed deals. So if he breaks that policy for Warrior, then you have to assume guys like Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart won't be too thrilled about earning less than him.
Dave looks back over how the business changed in 1995. He talks about the things he expected (declining buyrates due to more PPVs, regional promotions like USWA and SMW getting weaker, Diesel failing as WWF champion, etc.) but then lists all the things that no one ever could have predicted: WCW going head-to-head with Raw and actually winning the ratings war sometimes, UWFI in Japan basically collapsing, UFC surpassing both WWF and WCW on PPV, etc.
As for 1996, the big story to watch is the Monday Night Wars. WCW has the momentum right now and Turner Broadcasting seems committed to sticking with it. There's also the question of how ECW will fare if/when they get on PPV this year. The way the business is changing, ECW is pretty much going to have to get on PPV soon in order to keep thriving. As it is now, they basically operate on a shoestring budget from show-to-show that could collapse at any time.
From here, Dave gives his predictions for the year, by promotion: WWF: they will likely build the company around Shawn Michaels ("the best all-around performer in the United States") but Vince has seemingly lost his Midas touch and can't seem to create successful new stars anymore so that will continue to be a problem. And the competition from WCW is going to be a headache, to the point that McMahon acknowledged in a recent interview that he would consider moving Raw to another night if necessary. Basically, things don't look good for them going into the year. WCW: Nitro has been a big success and has knocked WWF back onto the ropes. They have more talented workers than WWF and they have more TV exposure with all of Turner's networks. From a television standpoint, WCW is killing WWF, but they're doing it at the expense of giving away PPV-quality main events on TV each week, which could hurt buyrates. Plus their house show business is non-existent. But most importantly, they have Turner's money on their side. WCW can afford to keep fighting WWF while operating at a loss. WWF can't. It's a huge advantage for WCW so expect that to continue. NJPW: they were by far the most successful company in the world in 1995 (and 1994) and Dave expects more of the same. They're basically on fire right now. AJPW: Dave predicts they will continue to have awesome matches, but the company is stale, has made no new stars, and has shown no signs of wanting to change, so expect attendance to continue to decline as it did last year. AAA: they have the deepest, most talented roster in the world and they're all still in their 20s. So expect the great shows to continue, but the Mexican economic crisis shows no sign of stopping and that's going to hurt them financially and attendance-wise. EMLL: they don't have the same economic problems as AAA because they own most of the arenas the shows are at. So EMLL will continue to trudge along and probably not much will change for them. In fact, given the economic crisis, Dave thinks they may surpass AAA and become the #1 company in Mexico again simply by remaining stable. All Japan Women: same as AJPW, awesome matches but hasn't created new stars and is getting stale. They'll be fine for this year, but they better start preparing better for the future or 1997 will be a different story. ECW: for such a small, regional promotion, their influence has been felt worldwide. Companies around the world are beginning to copy their style and their fans are showing up to WWF and WCW PPVs and practically hijacking the shows and they've created more new stars in the last few years than most of the other companies combined. But despite being so popular and innovative, they're limited by the adult nature of the product as far as getting TV deals and things like that go. Dave expects them to continue to grow, but probably not much bigger than they are now unless they make major changes to the product, but that would risk alienating their hardcore fanbase. USWA: somehow this promotion always seems to survive, the last of the territories. They had a horrible last-half of 1995 though. but Dave thinks they'll still be around next year, possibly stronger than they are now, because the people running it know their place and they know their fans. They're perfectly happy being a small regional and aren't trying to rock the boat or grow beyond their means.
From here, Dave gives his predictions for the year, by promotion:
All Japan Women: same as AJPW, awesome matches but hasn't created new stars and is getting stale. They'll be fine for this year, but they better start preparing better for the future or 1997 will be a different story.
Missy Hyatt's lawsuit against Turner Broadcasting, WCW, and Eric Bischoff was settled out of court this week. The terms of the settlement and the things said in the depositions will remain confidential. Hyatt said she's happy it's over with and even though the depositions must remain confidential, she still plans to write a tell-all book about her experiences in wrestling. Hyatt is now working as Vice President for Paradise Films and says there is no truth to the rumors that she is going to WWF. (I don't know what "Paradise Films" was in 1996, but in 2017, googling it pulls up nothing but porn links).
On TV, Gene Okerlund teased a story for the WCW Hotline about a former world champion announcing his retirement and to call for details, as if it was a late-breaking story. When calling the hotline, Okerlund revealed it was Ricky Steamboat, who's last match was a year and a half ago. Okerlund said WCW is holding a retirement ceremony for Ricky Steamboat at the upcoming Nitro in Atlanta. However, there are no plans whatsoever by WCW for a Steamboat retirement ceremony and Steamboat hasn't been contacted by WCW at all. In fact, Steamboat is actually in a lawsuit with WCW over breach of contract for the way he was fired after his injury. When asked about this, Okerlund's explanation is that he was just reporting a rumor of a retirement ceremony for Steamboat. Dave is pretty much just disgusted by what a sleazeball Okerlund is.
WCW is still negotiating with Def Jam Records over the name Public Enemy. The record label owns the name for the rap group. Paul Heyman previously had a deal with them to allow him to use the name for that tag team and now WCW is trying to get the same deal in place. But until then, their debut has been delayed.
Rey Misterio Jr. is working on two bad ankles, and apparently the pain was so bad that he couldn't even drive himself home after a recent show because pushing the gas and brake pedals was causing too much pain. That being said, his matches are still great and he's not missing any bookings.
A fan in the balcony at an AAA show threw something at Psicosis, and so Psicosis ran into the crowd, up to the balcony, and beat the fan senseless. It was apparently so bad that the police were called but when they arrived, Psicosis was backstage and had already taken his mask and gear off and everyone told the police he had already left, when in reality, he was right there in the locker room the whole time. But since even the police didn't know who he was without the mask, they didn't know any better and left. Dave suggests changing his name to El Fugitivo.
Atsushi Onita attended his first wrestling show since retiring in 1994, appearing at an FMW show. After the main event, Mr. Pogo challenged Onita, and the newspapers are reporting that it's the beginning of an angle for Onita to come out of retirement (it would take all of 1996 to get there, but eventually, yeah).
The Bruise Brothers might be going to ECW for a short-term deal. But one of the brothers, Ron Harris, is reportedly looking into becoming a full-time policeman, since he has a family and that job has actual benefits and wrestling obviously doesn't. He takes his policeman's exam in January.
Shane Douglas is almost definitely returning to ECW but they may delay his in-ring return for several months in order to give ECW fans enough time to forget his embarrassing failed stint in WWF. So he might just be doing TV promos until then.
On Nitro, Steve McMichael joked that Madusa shouldn't have thrown the WWF women's title in the garbage because it's more fitting to throw it into kitty litter. Dave says McMichael's announcing isn't even up to the level of what goes in kitty litter.
WCW is interested in bringing in the Rock & Roll Express (it eventually happened way later in the year).
John Hawk (JBL) worked a tryout match at the latest WWF tapings, with Uncle Zeb (Dutch Mantel) as his manager. He got good heat for a guy who the crowd was totally unfamiliar with.
The story of Ahmed Johnson's match against SMW star Buddy Landel at In Your House is this: Ahmed was originally scheduled to face Dean Douglas, but he was injured. Vince McMahon and Jim Ross tried in vain to convince Douglas to work the match, but he refused due to his back injury. Without a backup plan in place, the company asked Buddy Landel to go out there and work the match and get squashed in order to help Ahmed get over. Landel was going to be rewarded by being given a spot on the WWF roster. So he did the match and lost to Ahmed in under a minute. Landel then worked the tapings the next night. And then at the next tapings, he slipped on some ice outside the arena and messed his ankle up and now he needs surgery, so his WWF future is in question (indeed, that was pretty much it for him. A few years later, he worked a couple of house shows and dark matches, but that was it. Tough break.)
There's talk of doing an angle with Sunny where her 91-year-old husband passes away and leaves her a lot of money which she uses to buy the services of a major heel.
On the In Your House pre-show, they named one of pigs in the hog pin "Terry" as a shot at Hulk Hogan.
Vince McMahon did another AOL online chat with fans last week. Among the highlights, he said UFC "is a completely different form of entertainment than the WWF. However, if the fans want to see a very violent style of wrestling, they know where to get it. ECW." Vince later said that ECW isn't his cup of tea and he hasn't spoken with Paul Heyman in years. Heyman and WWF have a working relationship, but it all goes through Bruce Prichard, so Dave says that's probably true. As for Public Enemy choosing WCW over WWF, Vince said Ted Turner is throwing large sums of money at wrestlers just to keep WWF from having them and said WCW wouldn't know how to market Public Enemy. He said WCW choosing to run a show on Monday nights shows no regard for wrestling fans and is motivated by greed. He called Hulk Hogan a "selfish and shallow human being who believes he can con wrestling fans into thinking he's as great as he was years ago." He criticized WCW for portraying the Giant as Andre The Giant's son. He also wondered when was the last time WCW gave their wrestlers a legitimate steroid test. Dave says Vince makes some decent points, but he also criticizes him for being a hypocrite, especially in regards to the steroids and greed comments and for not showing any regard for wrestling fans. "How much regard for the wrestling fans of America did McMahon show when he was putting everyone out of business?" Dave asks.
Joey Styles writes in to talk about the latest UFC and WWF PPVs. Let's see what he has to say: "I gave the Ultimate Ultimate a big thumbs up. I'm a huge mark for their shows but their play-by-play guy isn't loud enough for my taste. I give In Your House the middle finger. How dare they refer to ECW as "barbaric" only to emulate us when their buy rates slide."
A few people write in about the demise of SMW and with thoughts on Jim Cornette. Darryl Van Horn (aka "Sinister Minister" James Mitchell) writes in and basically reminisces about how great SMW was and how thankful he was to work there. Another guy writes in and says he's a successful businessman with a lot of money and he's friends with Buddy Landel. He says Landel approached him about investing in SMW. The guy says he would have gladly done it but Cornette refused, saying he didn't think the company could be saved and he didn't want to lose anyone else's money. He praises Cornette's integrity and says most other promoters would have seen him as a "money mark" and would have gladly taken the money. And finally, another guy writes in and says he can no longer support Cornette because of the way he shit-talks WCW and ECW and thinks it's disingenuous that he has nothing bad to say about WWF, because he conveniently works there. But he's still sad to see SMW go.