Wrestling Observer Rewinder

February 12, 1996

The purpose of the Billionaire Ted skits is apparently to publicly expose the millions of dollars in losses WCW has suffered in recent years, as well as making drug allegations. On top of that, WWF has filed a complaint with the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) alleging predatory business practices by WCW. The overall idea is to paint a very negative image of WCW's financial situation and its business practices as publicly as possible before the Turner/Time Warner merger takes place later this year. The hope is that they can cause Turner and Time Warner enough trouble that they drop WCW before the merger just to get rid of the headache, which would basically kill the promotion. WCW is a small spoke on the wheel of the Turner empire and losing it wouldn't hurt Turner at all, but it would destroy WCW. In recent years, Time-Warner sold off its interest in Six Flags because the parks weren't profitable and they dropped several rappers from the record label due to negative publicity. WWF hopes to prove WCW is not profitable and give them bad publicity in hopes they get dropped (kind of a brilliant plan, actually).
The FTC complaint is in regards to WWF's attempt to secure a Saturday noon time slot for syndication in Memphis, but WCW swooped in and took it from them by using CNN as a bargaining chip. Basically, the station was told that if they want to keep CNN, they have to give WCW the time slot that WWF was going to get. Dave says that sort of thing is frowned upon in the industry but it's not unusual and WWF filing a complaint about it is more of a desperation move than anything.
This week's Billionaire Ted skit portrayed Ted Turner as someone who squandered $40 million of stockholder money (rather than his own) on "rasslin'". WWF also attempted to purchase ad-space in the New York Times and Wall Street Journal with a photo of Ted Turner and a message saying, "Attention Stockholders: Has Ted Turner lost $40 million dollars of your money in his personal vendetta against the World Wrestling Federation? Where are these losses reported in TBS financial statements?" Both newspapers turned it down, although a modified version was later accepted and will run in an upcoming issue of the Times. As for the planned Huckster vs. Nacho Man match at Wrestlemania, Eric Bischoff has decided not to pursue legal action to stop it, believing he would be playing into McMahon's hands if he tried (since the whole premise of this is that WCW is the big bad bully trying to legally threaten WWF).
On Nitro this week, the power cut out during the main event for several minutes, cutting off the broadcast. When they came back on the air, Eric Bischoff repeatedly blamed the event on sabotage by WWF. Vince McMahon was infuriated by the accusation and the assumption that WWF would attempt to do something illegal like literally sabotage the arena while they're on the air (the paranoia is gettin' real...). Anyway, the real reason was due to construction nearby (this becomes a bigger deal later).
Also during Nitro, a really strange thing happened with Brian Pillman that may finally lead to the end of him in WCW. During a tag match, Pillman and Sullivan stopped selling for each other and eventually tagged out. When they got back in, the match completely fell apart as the two seemed to be shooting on each other. At one point, Sullivan went to gouge Pillman's eyes when Arn Anderson jumped in to separate it, shouting "Not the eye!" Pillman kept not selling things and eventually walked out on the match. Backstage afterward, Pillman and Sullivan reportedly had words, with Pillman complaining that Sullivan wasn't selling for him. Pillman has been dangerously close to getting fired for weeks now for his erratic behavior.
The Davey Boy Smith assault case in Calgary wrapped up this week and went to the jury but there was no verdict as of press time. The big news coming out of the trial was that Smith was forced, under oath, to admit that wrestling is fake on the witness stand. The trial stems from a fight between Smith and someone at a night club who reportedly asked Smith's wife Diana to dance and may or may not have made a rude sexual comment to her. The victim says Smith beat him up (using wrestling moves) and slammed his head to the ground, causing him permanent, serious brain damage. Other witnesses say Smith dragged the guy over to the bouncers and then walked away and then the guy tried to attack Smith but slipped on the wet floor and hit his head when he fell. Smith had to testify that you can't do most big wrestling moves in a real fight because they require cooperation between both wrestlers.
At the latest WCW Disney tapings, The Giant and Zodiac (Beefcake) turned babyface. The reason is because they're both friends with Hogan and Hogan wanted them turned face so it wouldn't be weird when they're all seen hanging out together in public. The Giant recently moved to Florida near Hogan and Hogan is basically grooming him to be the next Andre. Zodiac's new name after the face turn looks to be The Clipmaster and was basically just the old Brutus Beefcake gimmick, with the shears.
There was an incident at the hotel in Orlando where all the WCW wrestlers were staying, when a man held a woman hostage in a hotel room and later threw her out and barricaded himself in. The SWAT teams showed up and evacuated the entire hotel, including many of the wrestlers. They eventually tear gassed the guy out. What's notable about the incident is that Brian Pillman (of course) stayed in character outside the hotel the whole time and kept trying to get back in so he could apprehend the suspect himself. After police got the guy and brought him out, Pillman kept trying to get close and was giving the guy the 4-finger Four Horseman signal as they put him in the police car.
On that same night, Public Enemy member Johnny Grunge was arrested for DUI after taking a WCW production van on a joyride. The van was reserved for WCW security official Doug Dillinger and it's unknown how Grunge got the keys. He has no prior arrests, so it's expected he'll just get a slap on the wrist.
Dave clears up a misconception about the ratings war between WWF and WCW. The truth is, when it comes to cable ratings, WCW has pretty much always had better ratings than WWF because they've been on cable (on TBS) for decades, going back to the Crockett years. But the real money was in syndication and that's where WWF always had a huge advantage. But the way the TV industry has changed in the last few years, syndication isn't as important anymore. The real money now is in cable. And because WCW is kicking WWF's ass in the cable ratings, everyone is talking as if it's something new. But WCW has always been winning the cable ratings battle. It's just that cable ratings weren't that important until recently. The only real difference is that now, the companies are going head-to-head and people can look at the ratings side by side and see WCW winning. But WCW's Saturday night TBS show was routinely beating WWF's Raw and Prime Time Wrestling shows for years. They just weren't on at the same time and syndication was more important.
UWA wrestler Elegante Blanco was shot and killed last month after an argument with some other men turned violent. All the promotions in Mexico dedicated shows to him.
A Current Affair was at the latest ECW show filming for a segment planned to air later this year (here's a video with an MSNBC segment on ECW from 1999, but the 1996 Current Affair segment is at the end of the video. So...enjoy both I guess).
911 has left ECW. He was either fired or quit, depending on who you ask. Apparently the problem stems from him not wanting to put over Sabu or Taz. They buried him at the New York show, saying he was too scared to come out and face Taz. This led to Bam Bam Bigelow debuting (with WWF's permission, as he's still under contract to them) and fighting Taz.
Chris Jericho and Juventud Guerrera both debuted in ECW this week. Jericho beat Rob Van Dam in his match. Juventud debuted because Psicosis got stopped at the border because his work visa had expired, so Rey Misterio Jr. brought Juventud instead. WCW is pressuring Konnan to get Juvi and Misterio to come work for WCW instead of ECW.
Antonio Inoki is trying to get Terry Funk to wrestle a retirement match at his big multi-promotional show later this year. Dave says we've all heard Funk talk retirement before but he thinks it's really for real this time. Sure, Dave. Inoki also wants Dan Severn and one of the Gracie family members to agree to work a shoot fight.
Inoki also wants to get this event on PPV in the U.S. but considering all the politics with so many promotions involved, that's going to be a tall challenge. WWF has already offered to handle the PPV aspect but WCW said they wouldn't participate if that were the case, so Inoki is looking into a third-party to handle it. The original name of the event was World Wrestling Festival but it will be changed because Eric Bischoff didn't like it, feeling it was too similar to WWF. As for inter-promotional matches, WCW has agreed to let their guys work with the Japanese wrestlers. AAA and EMLL have agreed to let their wrestlers work with any other wrestlers except each others. And WWF is refusing to allow their people to participate in any inter-promotional matches at all.
On WCW Saturday Night, they repeatedly showed clips of Kevin Nash (currently Diesel in WWF) with his Vinnie Vegas gimmick in WCW, losing matches.
WWF wrestler Rad Radford had a seizure and passed out recently and spent the next day in the hospital in critical condition. At one point, he stopped breathing for a couple of minutes. Word is he passed out at night in front of a friend's house in the pouring rain and wasn't found until the next morning by a neighbor and was rushed to the hospital. He recovered and is now out of the hospital and is expected to be out for a month or two (this was the real start of the downfall for him. The seizure was from a Soma overdose and WWF later released him and he died 2 years later from another overdose).
Latest word is Cactus Jack's WWF name will be Mankind The Mutilator.
And finally, Dave ends off with this little one-sentence nugget: "There is very much talk and/or concern that either/or both Diesel and Razor Ramon may go to WCW after their contracts expire."