Wrestling Observer Rewinder

January 15, 1996

After $30 million in losses over the last 7 years, WCW finally turned a profit in 1995. The company added a lot of expenses last year (a new weekly live show being the largest) but still turned a profit, though it's reportedly only a small profit. But there should be an asterisk beside this because in large corporate structures like the Turner Broadcasting empire, you can move expenses around under different umbrellas. For instance, Hulk Hogan's salaray is one of WCW's largest expenses, but it's believed that it is part of the Turner Home Entertainment budget and not the WCW budget, so it doesn't necessarily affect WCW's bottom line on paper. There are other recent changes in how Turner pays for WCW's shows that have helped. Furthermore, the 1994 Halloween Havoc and 1994 Starrcade money didn't actually hit the bank until 1995, so that helped too. So even though WCW turned a profit in 1995, it's only because you have to take into account all of these technicalities. Furthermore, there were some expenses that should have been counted for 1995, but WCW has chosen to wait and add them to the 1996 books instead in order to make sure 95 ended up being profitable because, since the Turner/Time Warner merger, there's a lot more pressure to show a profit. Dave thinks they'll have a harder time being profitable in 1996 though and explains why, but it's all a bunch of number crunching and stuff.
NJPW's Jan. 4 Tokyo Dome show took place, headlined by Keiji Muto vs. Nobuhiko Takada. It's the 2nd time a show main evented by them has sold out the Tokyo Dome and this show drew the 2nd largest live gate in wrestling history. The largest gate was just a few months back, for the first Muto/Takada match at the Dome. Between those 2 shows, it officially means that Muto vs. Takada is the biggest money drawing feud in wrestling history. This was also the culmination of the UWFI/NJPW feud, ending with UWFI pretty much dead and buried but still making Takada a huge main event star that NJPW can use in the future to headline shows in 1996.
The biggest surprise of the Tokyo Dome show was Vader vs. Antonio Inoki, which apparently stole the show in a surprisingly great match. The 53-year-old Inoki allowed himself to take a Cactus Jack-like beating in order to get the match over as a classic and many have called it the single best performance of both Vader's and Inoki's careers. Dave hasn't seen it yet, but he's been told it was close to 5 stars (when he eventually sees it, he gives it 4.25). It's also worth noting that Vader was the only foreign talent on the card and the last Tokyo Dome show in October had no foreign talent. NJPW used to depend on foreign stars to help carry these big shows but they're doing such good business nowadays that they really don't need to anymore.
AAA's television deal seems to be up in the air now after a disagreement with Televisa. The issue comes from Televisa ordering AAA to run all of its TV tapings in the Mexico City area to save on travel costs. AAA president Anthony Pena balked at it, saying with AAA and EMLL both running twice a week in the city, it would kill the market. Televisa wouldn't back down from the demand, so Pena pulled AAA out of their deal with Televisa. AAA has another meeting scheduled with Televisa this week to try to work out the situation but if that fails, AAA will need to get on another TV network as soon as possible. And no matter where they end up, it will still be significantly less TV exposure than they get from Televisa. Given the economic situation, if AAA doesn't land a good TV deal quickly, wrestlers will likely panic and start jumping ship to EMLL.
WWF took a major shot at WCW this week with another Billionaire Ted skit that strongly implied that Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage are on steroids again now that they're no longer in the WWF. Vince McMahon also issued a "challenge" to Ted Turner for WCW to implement a stronger steroid policy. Vince claimed the segment was satire, which is basically their way to try to avoid a slander or libel lawsuit, which many in WCW were discussing the next day. WWF also aired skits with a character called Scheme Gene, parodying Gene Okerlund's 900-hotline teases. Dave says the criticism about WCW's drug test policy is legitimate, but notes that the only reason WWF has a strict drug policy today is because they were basically forced to by bad PR and legal pressures.
As for WCW's response, so far it's been light. Eric Bischoff called the upcoming Rumble PPV the "Royal Fumble" and pointed out how WWF is raising PPV prices and said WCW gives away their best matches on free TV because they care about the fans. Dave says WCW comes off as whiny with the name calling while WWF's skits are funny as hell and make valid points, even if they are hypocritical. But if it keeps up, Dave thinks both groups will just come off looking petty and childish.
Public Enemy had their final match in ECW at an event called House Party 96 last week and defeated The Gangstas in a typical wild brawl. After the match, several wrestlers and Paul Heyman, along with many fans, all got in the ring and did the cabbage patch dance. The big news from the show, however, was an angle where Beulah announced she was pregnant and said the Tommy Dreamer was the father.
Both WWF and WCW's December PPV numbers are not good. Starrcade did a 0.36 which is the second lowest buyrate in company history. Meanwhile, WWF's In Your House PPV last month did a 0.33 which is their lowest ever. WWF is raising the price of upcoming PPVs so even if the buyrates stay this low, they should be a little more profitable. By comparison, the most recent UFC PPV did a better buyrate and they were competing with a Mike Tyson fight on free TV the same night (which set ratings records). Furthermore, even the replay of the UFC PPV a few days later did a better buyrate. And it's still worth reminding people that UFC has no weekly TV show like WWF and WCW have to promote their events.
Hulk Hogan filed a lawsuit last week against a Minneapolis woman and her attorney, accusing them of extortion. Reportedly, the woman and her lawyer accused Hogan of some sort of "reprehensible conduct of a sexual nature that went well beyond harassment." They sent Hogan a letter, threatening to file charges against him and threatening to sue him, but said they would be willing to settle the matter financially and keep it secret. Hogan, of course, denies the claim and says the letter is an attempt to extort him, so he's suing them. No specific details of the allegations have been released by either side. The woman at the center of the case reportedly worked as the P.R. person for Hogan's Pastamania restaurant at the Mall of America. Whatever happened is alleged to have taken place on Sept. 4th, the night Hogan was there at the Mall for the first WCW Nitro episode. USA Today and all of the local Minneapolis news outlets covered the story and A Current Affair is believed to be working on a piece about the story. Gene Okerlund has claimed he was with Hogan the whole day and nothing happened and said he'd be a character witness in court. "That's just what Hogan needs is Okerlund in a courtroom as a character witness. The last guys who did something that stupid were named Ken Patera and Masa Saito and they wound up in prison for three years," Dave says.
Dave examines what it means to "draw money" in the business these days and says really, it's more the promotion than the star. Even a strong draw won't do good business in a weak promotion and on the flip side, a promotion like NJPW which has been on fire the last couple of years has sold out shows with many different people on top. That being said, Dave looks at shows that drew more than 10,000 paid and sees who headlined the most shows as well as PPVs that grossed more than 1.5 million. Since NJPW had significantly more big shows, they tend to dominate the list. Keiji Muto and Shinya Hashimoto both headlined the same number of 10,000+ shows, but since one of the shows Hashimoto headlined was one of the North Korea shows (where fans were basically ordered to attend), Dave doesn't count it and settles on Muto as the top drawing star of 1995. As far as Americans go, Diesel headlined 10 shows over 10,000+ and then you get down to Vader, Shawn Michaels, and Hulk Hogan who each headlined 4.
Dave then breaks down what key factors drew money. 7 of the top names on the list are perceived as legends (guys like Inoki, Hogan, Flair, Perro Aguayo, etc.). Then you look at size. 40% of the top draws are guys who are under 235 pounds. The biggest draws seem to be between 30-34 years old. He also studies a whole bunch of other factors (workrate, perceived toughness and charisma, whether holding the title matters, etc.). It's all pretty interesting to go read if you're curious, but nothing newsworthy.
A new TV service provider in Japan called Digital TV is starting later this year and is discussing plans for a 24-hour wrestling channel, which would also feature shoot-fighting combat sports as well (UFC, K-1, etc.). Most of the top wrestling companies in Japan (like NJPW, AJPW, RINGS, JWP, etc.) already have contracts with other TV companies. So most likely, this would be the smaller promotions getting TV deals. They'd also probably go after the American promotions as well.
In USWA, Doug Gilbert won their version of a Royal Rumble and as a result, he will be participating in the WWF Royal Rumble.
Rob Van Dam also debuted at the recent ECW show and beat Axl Rotten. Van Dam is expected to be a heel. Shane Douglas also returned to a great reaction but didn't wrestle. The crowd chanted "Dean Is Dead" and Douglas vowed to teach Bubba Ray Dudley to speak perfect English.
Wrestling legend Danny Hodge just filmed a movie called One More Shot about amateur wrestling. Dave says Hodge was probably born 40 years too soon because if he was in his prime today, he'd probably be wiping the floor with people in UFC and notes he's the only man to hold national championships in both amateur wrestling and boxing (having become a national Golden Gloves champion in just one year after he started boxing).
On the latest Nitro, they had to cut the camera mic while Brian Pillman was at ringside because he was apparently cursing up a storm and after the match, Pillman spat at Alex Wright. On commentary, Bischoff said, "Don't be surprised if you don't see Brian Pillman in WCW a lot longer." Dave says the irony is that the more out of control Pillman has been, the better he is as a heel and says he's the best heel in business right now but everyone in the locker room is afraid of him because they think he's too out of control to work with.
Jacques Rougeau is talking to WCW about coming out of retirement to go there and wrestle. He also still wants to work with them to promote shows in Montreal.
The latest on Vader is that he's only committed to working the Royal Rumble so far. He's negotiating with both WWF and NJPW about becoming a regular for both but he hasn't picked one side or the other yet. He has also postponed his scheduled shoulder surgery so he can work the Rumble. Jake Roberts is also expected to work the Rumble but nothing else so far. Dan Severn has officially declined WWF's offer to participate.
Vignettes for Cactus Jack started airing on WWF TV this week but he won't be debuting at the Rumble and likely won't work a PPV match until Wrestlemania.
Sabu contacted WWF about working the Rumble as well and even proposed a finish that would let him get eliminated and still protect him. The idea is he would eliminate someone and then do a plancha over the top rope onto the guy through a table, thus eliminating himself without realizing it. Paul Heyman is against the idea because they plan to do an ECW PPV this year and he doesn't want any of his guys, especially top stars like Sabu, working PPVs anywhere else. WWF seemed interested and the ball is pretty much in Sabu's court if he wants to do it. Heyman has reportedly offered Sabu more money to turn it down.
It has been reported in some media outlets recently that Shawn Michaels inherited $2.5 million from a wrestling fan that he didn't know that recently passed away. Turns out it's actually a true story. It happened a few months back but word just got out because Michaels has attempted to keep it quiet. Michaels plans to continue wrestling although he could obviously retire right now if he wanted to. When asked about it at the Wrestlemania press conference in Fresno, Shawn got angry and said "No comment" and told the reporter to never bring it up again (I still don't know what the story is on that. It's been years since I read Shawn's book but I think I have a vaaaaague recollection of him talking about it maybe? I think he's also still denied it in recent years so who knows).
Davey Boy Smith's trial for aggravated assault starts later this month in Calgary and is being called the highest profile trial in the city in years. Smith is accused of severely injuring a man in a bar fight back in 1993.
A woman named Ashley Allen was originally going to play the role of Sister Love (Brother Love's sister) but that has been scrapped. She was recently shown in a video with Hunter Hearst Helmsley so she may end up being his valet. "Either way, it's clear she's going to have a major role this year." (Turns out not so much. I can't find anything about this woman at all. Searching "Ashley Allen wrestling" just pulls up a bunch of results about the girlfriend that Bram assaulted in 2015. So who knows).
There was discussion of having Steve Austin debut with a name less silly than The Ringmaster but he still ended up debuting with that name after all, so no such luck.
There have been a lot of complaints about the Goldust character from fans at shows because he's often fondling himself in the ring.
John Hawk (JBL) is expected to debut with WWF after the Rumble.
Al Snow will debut at the next tapings with a new gimmick.
On to the letters section: One guy writes in and says Eric Bischoff should give up because WCW will never be the #1 wrestling promotion in this country. Another writes in to say Bischoff is brilliant and WWF should move Raw to another night and says Vince is a defeated man.