February 19, 1996
- Vince McMahon has come out guns blazing against WCW. In the past week, he filed a complaint with the FTC, claiming TBS is using unfair business practices to try and destroy WWF to achieve a monopoly over the wrestling industry (oh the irony!). He also took out anti-Turner ads in several issues of the New York Times financial sections (aimed at stockholders). WWF lawyer Jerry McDevitt also sent Eric Bischoff a letter demanding an apology for WCW's insinuations that WWF was responsible for the power outage on Nitro 2 weeks ago and another letter to Ted Turner personally about WCW allowing blading and promising blood on PPV. On the surface, Dave says some of this comes off as desperation and many in WWF are surprised by all this because business is better right now than it has been in a long time. Rumble is expected to do the biggest buyrate of the year and Shawn Michaels on top is consistently drawing big crowds to shows and TV ratings are up. The public perception (based only on TV ratings) is that WCW is winning the war. But the reality is that WWF is still winning everywhere else that matters (house show business, PPV buyrates, merchandise, turning a profit, etc.)
- Vince believes this situation is entirely different from when he put the territories out of business 10 years ago. According to Vince, the main difference is that he only wanted to expand his territory and it wasn't his intention to put the other companies out of business (HA!). He also says it's not fair because he used his own money in WWF's expansion and had to be profitable to survive, while WCW is burning through Ted Turner's money and has been operating at a loss for years. Dave spends the next several paragraphs delightfully pointing out all the ways Vince purposely tried to kill all the territories, using many of the same tactics (and worse) that Bischoff is using now. In fact, it was partly Vince's predatory attempts to run Jim Crockett out of business that forced him to sell his promotion to Turner. Vince McMahon's territory rampage is partly responsible for creating WCW under Ted Turner.
- So far, Vince's crusade has paid off in small doses. Bischoff was forced by TBS lawyers to apologize on Nitro for claiming WWF caused the power outage, and TBS officials have ordered Bischoff not to make any comments on TV or to the media about Vince of the WWF until after the Time Warner merger goes through. Bischoff is reportedly frustrated about the gag order, since he had planned to come out swinging against WWF on Nitro this week but now he can't.
- Here's the letter Vince McMahon sent to Ted Turner regarding WCW allowing blading and leaked to the public in hopes stockholders will read it:
- "Dear Ted: Since there has been no response to my repeated request and you and your pro-wrasslin' company stop the practice of self mutilation, I can only assume based upon the last two weeks of Nitro that the practice of self mutilation (slicing oneself with a razor blade) is not only condoned but encouraged. As you know, Hulk Hogan has been bleeding all over the place the past two weeks. There have been numerous references on your wrasslin programming that this weekend's double cage match will be so violent that one opponent will be "bleeding to the point of no recognition." This encouraged practice of self mutilation is disgusting, violent, potentially infectious and completely contradictory in every way to your testimony before Congress in June of 1993 and contrary to your 1995 participation of "Voices against Violence." Notwithstanding numerous unprecedented predatory practices against the World Wrestling Federation, if you continue to promote self mutilation, I hope your stockholders hold you accountable for this unethically, guttural, potentially unhealthy practice."
- Vince has reportedly met with USA officials about moving the time-slot of Raw, hoping to have the show start an hour later. A lot of people think that would be a mistake since starting the show later would eliminate a large chunk of the kid audience. If that happens, you can expect WCW to expand Nitro to 2 hours. Vince thinks that would water down Nitro and help WWF win. WCW seems excited at the prospect of expanding to 2 hours, saying it would let them have longer, better matches.
- McMahon's FTC complaint also alleged contract tampering, specifically with Diesel. Vince claims WCW (through a third party, not a WCW official) offered Diesel a 3-year deal for $750,000 a year. Dave says if that's true, Diesel would be a fool not to take it and most expect him to leave WWF when his contract is up in the spring. It's well known Hulk Hogan wants to bring in Diesel as a new monster heel to feud with. It's believed WCW is also interested in Razor Ramon, who has been unhappy with the WWF travel schedule and about having to feud with Goldust. WCW also allegedly tried to pull The Bushwhackers and John Oulette away from WWF while both are still under contract. And finally, WWF continues to claim that Lex Luger was still under contract when he showed up on Nitro last year. WWF has always maintained this, but Luger and everyone else involved says he wasn't. The fact that Luger still works for WCW and hasn't been sued yet shows that WWF probably doesn't have much of a case on that one. WCW is reportedly offering everyone big money guaranteed contracts, which Vince has always refused to do.
- Davey Boy Smith was acquitted last week in his trial on aggravated assault charges. The judge ruled Smith acted in self-defense when the victim approached Smith's wife at a bar and said something vulgar to her and tried to make her dance. Smith grabbed the man in a front face lock and dragged him over to the bouncers. The victim says Smith then slammed him on the ground in a powerbomb-like move and several wrestlers testified that a move like that requires cooperation and that the injuries weren't consistent. Other witnesses testified that after Smith let the guy go, the man lunged at Smith but slipped and fell and cracked his head on the floor, leaving him with severe, permanent brain damage. Smith is still facing a civil suit from the victim, but its chances of success aren't great either.
- Brian Pillman may be gone from WCW after an incident at the SuperBrawl PPV last week. Last week, Pillman and Kevin Sullivan's match on Nitro broke down into a bit of a shoot and Pillman has become almost legendary recently for erratic behavior behind the scenes and on-camera and has been kept away from other wrestlers because he has so much heat with people. At SuperBrawl, Pillman faced Sullivan in an "I respect you" strap match. They brawled before the match started and seemed to be really laying into each other before Pillman grabbed the mic from a totally confused referee and said, "I respect you, booker man" and walked out, flipping off the crowd as he left. At this point, there was genuine panic backstage and Arn Anderson was sent out, in street clothes, to work a match with Sullivan that ended in a weird no-contest when Flair convinced them to stop and work together against Hogan.
- Backstage, Pillman and Bischoff got into a huge argument in front of everyone, with Pillman sarcastically telling Bischoff, "Sorry about your 12 minute strap match" and then left the building. The next night on Nitro, it was only vaguely referenced, with Bischoff making a comment about there only being 3 Horsemen. Pillman has been telling friends he expects to be finished with the company. Disco Inferno has been the only wrestler so far to question things, saying "they're working the boys." Dave says if it's a work, it's one of the most elaborate ones in recent memory, saying none of the boys knew and everyone in the production truck panicked when a scheduled 12 minute match ended after 1 minute. If this is real, Pillman will definitely be fired for this, so if he keeps his job, we'll know if it's a work.
- Eric Bischoff talks about the Pillman angle
- Recently-retired former WWF VP Pat Patterson was backstage at WCW SuperBrawl, along with AAA president Antonio Pena, among others (Warlord, Brian Blair, etc.). Dave doesn't talk about it as if it's a big deal, but Patterson being there seems like some spy-shit, even though he technically didn't work for WWF anymore. We all know how loyal he is to Vince.
- Antonio Inoki has moved his inter-promotional show (now called World Wrestling Peace Festival) to June. WWF asked him to move the event back to avoid conflicting with their show schedule and because they had a PPV scheduled the next night.
- Former WCW wrestler Ranger Ross was arrested last week and charged with being involved in 5 major robberies as well as arson and embezzlement and admitted to all the charges at a court hearing. Ross reportedly robbed 4 banks and a grocery store and attempted to burn down the City Clerk's office in order to cover up evidence that would have implicated him for embezzlement at his normal job (he worked for the government collecting fees for the probation office).
- Rick Steiner is apparently planning on going to law school.
- Atsushi Onita's pending un-retirement is rubbing a lot of people the wrong way. Onita has been slowly working an angle that is expected to lead to him coming out of retirement but fans in Japan greeted his appearance at a recent show with catcalls like "Go home!" "Go away!" Retirement stipulations are expected to be honored in Japan and Onita went on a year-long retirement tour before his final match last year. And now, less than a year later, he's on his way out of retirement. Other wrestlers like Riki Choshu and Tenryu have publicly come out saying Onita attempting to return so soon is bad for the image of wrestling and they wish he wouldn't do it.
- ECW is opening a wrestling school next month called the House of Hardcore, with Taz and Perry Saturn as instructors.
- Dan Spivey just had a knee replacement and is also in need of a hip replacement.
- Ric Flair is probably the hottest heel in the business in America right now, which Dave says is amazing when you consider he's almost 47 years old and WCW has tried repeatedly to kill him off for the last few years.
- Bischoff held a meeting with all the wrestlers before the latest Disney tapings and ran down Vince McMahon, saying that WCW was kicking WWF's ass and that they made a profit for the first time ever. He also told the wrestlers that WCW was planning to move their headquarters from Atlanta to Orlando later in the year. And finally, they did a drug test on "most but not all" of the wrestlers (I'm sure you can guess who didn't have to take one) because of all the comments WWF has made recently about WCW not drug testing.
- Sherri Martel was fired by WCW last week. On the 2/5 Nitro, she was booked to destroy Rob Parker's car with a baseball bat, but she apparently showed up to the show "in no condition" to go through with the angle. She's been on thin ice for awhile after no-showing last year's Japan tour so they fired her.
- Correction on last week's story of Johnny Grunge's DUI arrest. Turns out it wasn't a WCW production van, but actually a van from the hotel they were staying at that had been reserved for WCW crew. The hotel gave Grunge the keys, believing it was okay since he was with WCW. His DUI was a .08, so just barely above the legal limit. It's rumored he may be suspended 6 weeks.
- Chris Benoit has signed a new $150,000 per year deal with WCW and is planning to move from Edmonton to Atlanta.
- Wrestlemania 13 next year is almost a lock to take place in Pittsburgh (nope).