September 30, 1996
- If you're reading this, shout out to Wale for hosting my favorite segment of the year last night, you did awesome! I gotta take issue with you DQ-ing the Usos though. The battle should have been over by ref-stoppage after the Xavier line. There was no coming back from that. Ethered.
- Dave believes this past week might have been the most important Monday night battle so far. WWF had lost the last 2 weeks in the ratings by record margins and this week was the beginning of the new fall season of TV (nowadays, WWE calls it the "season premier" of Raw, which still sounds stupid for a show that never takes a break but whatever). And it was the climax of the Razor Ramon/Diesel angle, which Dave calls the biggest flop since the Edsel (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edsel). For a guy who always criticizes announcers for making dated references... Anyway, it was a live Raw, not taped (this leads to Dave talking about how the rise of the internet is going to start hurting taped shows but it's not a big deal now because Dave estimates that probably less than 2% of WWF's audience are internet/newsletter fans). It was also the night after a WWF PPV (which saw the beginnings of a WWF/ECW relationship, more on that later). And finally, they had the finals of the IC title tournament. All in all, it was as stacked a show as WWF could produce.
- Result: WCW absolutely crushed them yet again. Dave thinks WWF's TV has reeked of desperation lately.
- Jim Ross ended up being the scapegoat for the terrible Fake-Razor/Diesel angle. They made their debut on Raw (funny enough, Scott Hall and Kevin Nash had been on WCW earlier in the hour, saying "Accept no imitations") and Jim Ross cut a worked-shoot promo about having left a good job in Atlanta to be in WWF and that he's the best announcer in the business, but was taken off TV and fired by Vince McMahon after his Bells Palsy attacks and made references to the steroid trial and essentially ripped Vince a new one. He then basically claimed he was the one who sabotaged the company by purposely allowing Scott Hall and Kevin Nash to leave. It's believed this whole thing may lead to an angle with Jim Ross leading an outsider group of guys who used to be in WCW, such as Brian Pillman, Vader, Steve Austin, etc. But the angle is so dead right now that there's serious talk of just dropping it entirely.
- Several weeks ago, Vince McMahon contacted Paul Heyman about forming a working relationship between WWF and ECW to work together against their mutual enemy, WCW. The 2 sides plotted a fake shoot angle which took place at WWF's recent In Your House PPV in Philadelphia, where Heyman, Tommy Dreamer and Sandman were at ringside and got involved in a match briefly. The next night on Raw, Taz showed up and jumped the barricade with a sign saying "Sabu fears Taz" and Jim Ross briefly acknowledged ECW as a promotion that runs in a bingo hall looking for attention. More stuff happened when the show went to commercial (which Paul Heyman demanded, so it would seem more real) such as Vince McMahon screaming at Taz and it got over great with the live crowd.
- Dave thinks it's a fine idea, but it shows Vince's desperation about WCW kicking his ass. And it's good news for ECW because it gives them exposure, but in the end, it's not an angle that will draw money or spike ratings because ECW is virtually unknown to most of WWF's audience. It was a huge story in the internet and newsletter world, but in the overall scheme of things, it did pretty much nothing for the average WWF fan. It definitely helps ECW though, because it positions them as a renegade group which is exactly what Heyman wants. Dave thinks a WWF vs. ECW inter-promotional feud could work in the future if done correctly. But as of this week, there are currently no further plans in the works past what happened on Raw. Paul Heyman is said to be against the idea of doing a real inter-promotional angle because ECW has spent years trashing WWF on their shows and it wouldn't look good to their audience for ECW to be openly working with WWF in any significant way.
- Anyway, as for the the rest of WWF's latest In Your House PPV (subtiteld "Mind Games")...the show was headlined by a phenomenal Mankind vs. Shawn Michaels match. There was some concern that Shawn would get booed (he's been getting a lot of that since he recently posed for Playgirl magazine) and that Mankind would get cheered, since he's kind of a legend in Philadelphia due to his ECW days. Mankind did an interview before the show to get over as a heel, saying he was glad to no longer wrestle in front of bingo halls in front of unappreciative fans. During the pre-show, Vince McMahon and Jim Ross on commentary mentioned a local wrestling promotion with very vocal fans and told people they may hear strange chants. Before the show, when Heyman, Sandman, and Dreamer were at ringside, Dreamer kept leading the crowd in ECW chants and Heyman kept flipping off McMahon at ringside. Most people in the crowd thought the whole thing was a shoot. Anyway, as for Shawn vs. Mankind, Dave gives it 4.75 stars and basically says the weak finish is the only thing that kept it from being the match of the year.
- Michael Jones, formerly Virgil in the WWF (which was a knock on Dusty Rhodes, who was the NWA booker at the time) debuted in WCW under the name "Vincent" this week which, of course, is a knock on McMahon.
- Dave goes on a long bit about how UFC's popularity has waned. A year ago, they were beating WWF in buyrates and getting all sorts of media coverage. But now, even John McCain seems bored with trying to get it outlawed, the mainstream coverage has all but dried up and PPV buyrates are plummeting because all the top stars like Royce Gracie, Dan Severn, and Ken Shamrock are never around anymore and no real marketable, dominant stars have replaced them. Basically, it's beginning to look like this UFC thing is going to end up being a fad, something that was pretty popular for a minute, but then fades into obscurity. Dave writes a LOT more about it but I won't cover it all here. But point being, that was pretty much the case and they were probably heading towards going out of business until Zuffa stepped in and saved them in 2001.
- The oldest promotion in the world, EMLL in Mexico, held a 63rd anniversary show. Dave gives a brief history of the promotion and says that even though business is down these days, they own most of the arenas they run at and so they pay no rent so they're pretty financially secure.
- Speaking of EMLL and AAA, they have reportedly reached somewhat of a peace agreement after both sides had talks and have agreed to no longer raid each other's talent. Dave suspects it won't last long.
- USWA's latest show in Memphis only drew 450 fans, which is one of the lowest in history for them. During the show, Jerry Lawler announced that WCW Nitro will be in Memphis in October and told fans it'll be on TV for free so they shouldn't pay to go to it. And said if they wanted to go, they shouldn't buy tickets because there will be free tickets all over town. Lawler said the last time WCW came to Memphis, they gave away over 7,000 freebies and also mentioned a radio station that would be giving them away. Basically, Lawler did everything he could to try to convince Memphis fans not to go to Nitro. But word is they have already sold over 1,000 advance tickets so it looks like it's going to be a strong crowd regardless.
- Luna Vachon and Vampire Warrior are working in USWA for now but are reportedly heading to WWF soon.
- AWF was scheduled to air on syndication in multiple major markets after buying their way into them a couple months ago, but they already lost their New York TV deal before it even aired and things aren't looking good for them (yeah, they'll be out of business soon).
- Superstar Billy Graham is scheduled for another hip operation this week, on his left hip. He just had surgery on his right hip 8 weeks ago.
- Super Calo dislocated his elbow in a Nitro dark match against Rey Mysterio Jr. and will be out for awhile.
- Latest word on Olympic gold medal winner Kurt Angle is that he's interested in competing again in the 2000 Olympics and therefore won't be accepting any of the offers that WWF and WCW are throwing at him.
- The NWO "took over" Nitro this week because most of the main WCW guys were working in Japan. The Giant did commentary and was actually pretty good. Dave also says Kevin Nash "is one funny dude" and pretty much made the show entertaining even if there wasn't much wrestling.
- Jeff Jarrett is expected to join the NWO when he's legally able to jump to WCW. There was interest in bringing in Bam Bam Bigelow but he had a lot of problems with the Kliq in WWF and that was one of the reasons he left. With Hall and Nash and Sean Waltman (Syxx) all being in WCW now, Bigelow may not be heading in after all.
- The Nasty Boys have been working house show matches against Hall and Nash and were upset because they worked to get themselves over as babyfaces and wouldn't sell, which left the Nasty Boys to get booed and look stupid since they're supposed to be the faces. The Nastys have been complaining to Hogan about it.
- WCW contract updates: Ric Flair's contract runs through Nov. 1998 but he's talked about wanting to take time off to spend more time at home with his family. Dave doubts he will. Randy Savage's contract reportedly runs out sometime in November of this year and there's legit concern that he'll return to WWF because he's unhappy (and Dave adds, "don't even think for a second that WWF won't take him back.")
- J.J. Dillon starts with WCW this week, but Dave doesn't know what his position will be. He doesn't think it'll be on-camera (eventually, but not yet).
- At the end of the Fall Brawl PPV, Hogan actually wanted to give Elizabeth a piledriver, but Bischoff overruled it because he was afraid Ted Turner or other Turner network execs would be upset about it.
- The organizational chart in WWF changed this week. Linda McMahon was previously "President" of Titan Sports, while Vince McMahon was CEO. However, the position of President has been eliminated. Vince McMahon is now listed as Chairman of the Board and Linda McMahon is co-CEO along with someone named Neville Meyer, who was recently hired and has a background in movies and Broadway. Meyer will be in charge of "expanding the company," whatever that entails.
- Jim Cornette and Sunny have both been taken off the road because they're co-hosting the new WWF Livewire show on Saturday mornings and need to be in Stamford. Jake Roberts will also be taken off the road in October because he's going to start working full-time in the office.
- Indie wrestler Steve Corino worked a dark match at the latest Raw tapings in Hershey, PA, using the name Tom Cosati. The reason Corino used the name is because there's a real indie promoter in the area named Tom Cosati that nobody likes, so Corino used his name and got beaten.
- Also at the Raw tapings, Hunter Hearst Helmsley cut a promo on Mr. Perfect but he botched it repeatedly and they had to do 3 takes to get it right.
- Sunny and Sable got into a planned fight during the Marc Mero/Faarooq IC title match on Raw and at some point, Sable accidentally stiffed Sunny in the eye during the fight, upsetting Sunny backstage.
- The Roadie is being brought back to WWF after signing a 5-year contract, which Dave says is mind-blowing considering his track record (he failed a drug test and walked out on them last year). He'll be coming in as The Real Double J, Jesse James Armstrong and they exposed the idea that he was the one who sang Jeff Jarrett's songs, in order to bury Jarrett since he's heading to WCW.