October 14, 1996
- The question of where Bret Hart will end up is reaching a fever pitch. WWF had been planning for Hart to return at Survivor Series to face Steve Austin, but WCW has reportedly offered him a guaranteed contract for at least 3x more money than he has ever made in wrestling. Hart has said before that he isn't interested in returning to WWF unless they make him champion, which Vince has agreed to. Dave says Bret is in the best bargaining position of any wrestler in history. Aside from Hogan, he's pretty much the only person in the business in a position right now to just sit back and take bids and probably come out making more than a $1 million per year and in the case of WCW's offer, more like $3 million per year, which WWF can't come close to matching. The WCW offer made many in WWF panic because at 39-years-old and arguably in the late stages of his career, that's almost an impossible offer to turn down and many think it's likely that Bret will choose WCW. But money reportedly isn't Hart's main concern and he's still weighing his options. Hart has told people that if the right acting job comes along, he would readily turn away from wrestling entirely and move on to the next stage of his life. He was recently in Los Angeles doing voiceovers for an episode of The Simpsons.
- The IWA deathmatch promotion in Japan has folded. Dave talks about how the death match promotion managed to draw over 28,000 people to a show just last year (the show with the famous Cactus Jack vs. Terry Funk match). But after losing all their top draws like Terry Funk, Cactus Jack, The Head Hunters, and the booker jumping to FMW, the promotion has tanked and finally they decided to close the doors. While detailing the history of IWA, Dave mentions all the crazy matches they had and talks about a Bathhouse Deathmatch with guys brawling into a steam room full of naked women. I mean, how could I not google that one?
- Ric Flair is expected to be out for the rest of the year due to a torn rotator cuff that will require surgery. Flair will turn 48 while he's out recovering and after a 24 year career where his body has taken a beating every single night, it's expected that he'll need to be protected in the future if he wants to continue wrestling. It's expected he will be given a Hogan-type schedule when he returns, where he only work major shows and probably be more of a manger for the Horsemen. The plan is for Jeff Jarrett to take his place in the Horsemen when he joins the company. (Ha, not quite buddy. Flair continued to work a full schedule, including house shows up until the very end of WCW and then worked a pretty regular full-time schedule in WWF, also including house shows, up until he "retired." And then, of course, TNA...).
- Dave decides to examine the numbers behind the NWO angle. Without a doubt, the NWO storyline is the most talked about angle in years and many people credit it for being what finally put WCW ahead of WWF as the #1 promotion in the U.S. But when you look at the before-and-after numbers, things aren't quite what they seem. Dave looks at several months before NWO and then the several months after NWO and compares them.
- Pre-NWO, WCW actually averaged slightly bigger crowds at house shows (3,592 average before, 3,063 average after). So when it comes to actually drawing paying crowds to come see shows, the NWO angle actually hasn't done anything in that regard and in fact, there was a slight decrease. Since Hogan won the title, it hasn't been defended at house shows, so that may be part of the reason, but even before Hogan won it, when Giant was champion and defending the title at every house show, it didn't make a dent, so the belt itself doesn't seem to have much of an effect on drawing crowds.
- Monday Nitro TV ratings are up slightly since the NWO angle (average 2.20 rating before, now averaging 2.23 after) but this is actually more impressive than it seems. Ratings usually go down during the summer, and the fact that they went up is actually pretty impressive and seems to correlate right with the moment Scott Hall debuted. So yes...the NWO definitely draws TV viewers. But that isn't the only reason. This is also about the same time Nitro expanded to 2 hours and that helps the averages. The ratings increase is a combination of both factors. But it is also slightly offset by the fact that both the Saturday and Sunday TV shows ratings have decreased.
- PPV buyrates are also up slightly since the NWO debut but not significantly. But if you factor in the money that Hall and Nash are making, the buyrate increase doesn't cover it. So for instance, WCW is making an extra $48,000 a month due to the uptick in PPV buys. But Hall and Nash's salary is $60,000 per month each. So basically, they're paying more for the NWO guys than they're making back on PPV. Basically, WCW is losing money on the deal because Hall and Nash haven't been a big enough PPV draw to offset what it costs to have them. Dave compares it to Hulk Hogan joining WCW in 1994 and says that the difference there was night and day. Hogan basically doubled WCW's PPV buys when he debuted. The NWO angle hasn't had nearly the same effect.
- TL;DR: the NWO is the talk of the business and one of the best angles in years, but when it comes to drawing money, it hasn't really made any difference and, on the PPV front, is actually losing money. But luckily, WCW can afford to lose money. Their main goal seems to be hurting WWF and as long as they're doing that, they're probably happy with it.
- Sandman regained the ECW title due to a last-minute issue with Raven. Apparently there are some personal issues with Raven that will keep him out of action for an unknown amount of time (Dave doesn't say). Raven was scheduled to defend the title that night but no-showed the event. The Rock & Roll Express were scheduled to work the show but also no-showed and Paul Heyman figured he needed to do something to make it up to the fans, so he booked a title change. Stevie Richards subbed for Raven, with Raven's title still on the line and Sandman defeated him to win the title. They filmed an angle after the show that will air on TV next week to explain Raven's absence, saying that Sandman reportedly filed papers to get custody of his son back and when Raven found out, he took Sandman's son and wife and left the country.
- Bam Bam Bigelow is scheduled to be the first major American pro wrestling star to participate in a shoot match. Bigelow is expected to face Kimo Leopoldo in a shoot fight show in Japan next month for a promotion called U Japan. Word is the promotion was throwing huge money at a lot of American wrestlers. Their first choice was Vader who apparently turned it down because the show takes place the same day as WWF's Survivor Series. They also were interested in either Terry Gordy or Sabu for the fight before finally deciding on Bigelow. Bam Bam is expected to receive between $70,000-85,000 for the fight (Bigelow later claimed he got $100,000 but that's disputed). Dave says Paul Heyman tried to get them to book 911 for the fight, figuring it was a no-lose situation. If 911 lost, it doesn't matter because Heyman hasn't been using him anyway. And if he got lucky and won, Heyman could bring 911 back to ECW as a legit shoot fighter. But they turned that down. They discussed using Taz but Heyman has long-term plans for Taz and felt it wouldn't be worth the risk for him to go and get embarrassed in a shoot fight.
- The smallest crowd in the history of Memphis wrestling attended USWA's latest show. They drew only 372 fans and made $1,800. Dave blames the poor line up and general lack of stars. With Randy Hales, who ran the promotion, stepping down recently, there's a lot of questions about what the future holds for USWA (they've got about a year left, but it's gonna be a rough year).
- WWF's plan to do a live Saturday night TV show with a more adult theme is back on the table. No word on if it will be a cable show, a weekly or monthly show, or possibly even the original weekly PPV idea, but they're discussing it again.
- There's major behind-the-scenes issues between AAA president Antonio Pena and Konnan regarding the low pay for many of the wrestlers, which has led to many of those wrestlers choosing to take WCW bookings instead of working AAA shows. It's believed that Konnan and the WCW wrestlers (Rey Misterio Jr., Psicosis, Juventud Guerrera, and several others) may be jumping ship to the PROMELL promotion. Speaking of PROMELL, that promotion is being re-named Promo Azteca. Konnan is basically the leader of the group and if he jumps ship, they'll follow (sure enough, he did and they did, but we'll get to it).
- In ECW, they did an angle where Shane Douglas attacked Pit Bull #1, who is still out recovering from a neck injury. PB#1 was still wearing the neck halo (he actually hasn't needed it for about a week but wore it for the angle) and when Douglas attacked him, it scared people so much that even the ECW crowd went a little quiet. PB#1 was taken out in an ambulance. When Joel Gertner tried to announce Shane Douglas as the winner, Tod Gordon and Paul Heyman both attacked Gertner (yeah this one was mildly famous. Can't find any free video of it on the interwebs but it's on the WWE Network. Hardcore TV episode 182 and it's an awesomely realistic angle).
- Paul Heyman is interested in bringing in Lance Storm (yup, he'd be there in a couple of months, rat tail and all).
- Vince McMahon attended the recent Cauliflower Alley Club banquet honoring wrestling legends. It's the first time McMahon has attended one of these events. In fact, in 1991, they ran the banquet in Los Angeles the day before Wrestlemania 7 and even though they were all in town, not a single WWF person attended. Vince was there to accept an award for his father, Vince. Sr. Dozens of other WWF wrestlers or people associated with the company attended this year. Word is Capt. Lou Albano was the talk of the evening, because people complained about his behavior and many said he outright ruined the evening by being drunk and obnoxious. The Conan O'Brien show people attended and tried to get wrestlers on camera answering questions about politics (this is pretty hilarious. A bunch of wrestlers cutting promos about Bill Clinton and Bob Dole. Including drunk ass Lou Albano).
- Bruno Sammartino recently read Lou Thesz's autobiography and was furious about how Thesz portrayed him. In the book, Thesz said he respected Sammartino as a person but felt he was overrated as a wrestler and said that in a shoot, he could beat Sammartino easily. Of all the things said, that last one is what Sammartino was most upset about.
- Harley Race's ex-wife Yvonne was on Oprah Winfrey's show this week, talking about having been in an abusive marriage (in his autobiography, Race refuses to mention her name and pretty much just says it was a really bitter divorce and even in the book, he says he doesn't want to talk about it because he's trying to forget it. So seems like that wasn't a great marriage).
- Jeff Jarrett debuted on WCW Nitro as a babyface and the plan is reportedly for him to replace Ric Flair in the Four Horsemen. He beat Hugh Morris with a figure four.
- WWF bought commercial time during Nitro that aired throughout most of the country. Right before Raw started, a commercial aired saying "Make the switch to Raw" and another commercial hyped the upcoming Buried Alive PPV. It didn't make a difference though, as WWF got crushed in the ratings yet again. For those curious, WCW is winning the adult demographic by a huge margin. The kid demographic is about even. And WWF is winning the teenage demographic. But it's the adult viewers that are making all the difference.
- Olympic gold medal winner Kurt Angle has reportedly decided against doing pro wrestling so all negotiations he's been having are pretty much done. And he was never heard from again.
- It's looking like Randy Savage may be finished with WCW after the upcoming PPV, when his contract expires (yeah, but he wasn't gone long).
- There's apparently heat between Hall and Nash and Hulk Hogan. Hall and Nash are reportedly tired of playing background characters to Hogan and are also upset about how much money Hogan is making compared to them.
- Lots of news on the new WWF Livewire show. Vince McMahon appeared on the episode to get over the angle with Jim Ross and talked about WCW some, mostly that they have lost millions of dollars and that Ted Turner has a vendetta against him. They talked about the 2 times Jim Ross was fired by WWF, and they basically implied that Ross had been "talking to the wrong people" and Dok Hendrix then said "stupid sheet writers" (Dave says Ross was fired for giving an interview to the PWTorch, although he wasn't employed by WWF at the time he did the interview. It was printed after he was rehired, and then he was fired for it). Ross later called into the show blaming Vince for his Bells Palsy attacks, saying the stress put on him by Vince caused it. On the same episode, they also introduced a character named Vic Venom, being played by Vince Russo. Russo has been writing columns in the WWF magazine and basically does an "I'm a real journalist" gimmick and makes veiled shoot comments. A lot of people liked the character but Dave wasn't a fan. In even more news from the same episode, Paul Heyman called into the show as "Bruce from Connecticut" before being revealed as Heyman and went off on Vince for stealing ideas from ECW. And finally, at one point during the episode, Sunny talked about how the live chat room conversation was buzzing over Vic Venom and Vince McMahon being on the show, but they accidentally showed the computer screen and it was all an endless stream of "I love you Sunny!" "Hi Sunny!" "I'm glad you dumped Skip!" and whatnot (this is a really interesting episode and worth watching in full).
- WWF is trying to get Mr. Perfect to give up his Lloyd's of London disability policy because they need him to return as a babyface, especially if Bret Hart ends up not returning. He's scheduled to return to TV next week and they're hyping it up, comparing Mr. Perfect's return to Michael Jordan's NBA return (this turns into a pretty nasty beef pretty soon that costs Perfect a lot of money).
- Jim Ross and Bruce Prichard were both promoted in front office roles, as VP of Wrestling Administration and VP of Talent Relations respectively.
- Regarding the WWF/ECW inter-promotional angle, there's currently no plans for any matches between the two sides, but the angle is still ongoing. On ECW TV, they aired "pirated" footage from the WWF tapings where Taz jumped the rail and the angle is supposed to lead to WWF threatening a lawsuit over it.
- Sunny has received a new guaranteed announcer's contract now that she's no longer on the road and managing anymore.
- A super ECW-mark named Paul Sosnowski writes in and praises ECW and disputes some of the incorrect reporting about ECW in the Observer. Dave responds and says that he doesn't attend the live ECW shows and the reports he gets usually come from correspondents he trusts who were there, but that he always tries to report any corrections. He also says that he almost always talks to Paul Heyman, and Heyman goes into detail with Dave about angles and other things going on in ECW. Dave then gives his own opinions of ECW, saying it's very creative and he likes it, and feels Heyman is a genius at getting guys over and hiding their shortcomings, which is why so many ECW guys fail when they move on to other promotions. But he also points out that TV is the lifeblood of the business and until ECW tones things down a little bit, they're never going to get a real TV presence and be able to grow beyond where they're at. Japanese promotions like RINGS, Pancrase, FMW, and Mexico's AAA are all fairly new promotions in the last few years that have all grown much bigger than ECW, with major TV deals and routinely draw crowds in the tens of thousands, while ECW is still struggling to get TV in local markets and has never drawn a crowd of 2,000 or more. He also criticizes some of the ECW fans who try to get themselves over at the expense of the show. Overall, Dave is a fan of ECW but he also acknowledges that it's far from perfect.
- Someone else writes in and admits that he had been illegally selling ECW videotapes and a lawyer called him and told him to stop. Then the lawyer told him to contact Tod Gordon about it. So he did and Gordon basically told him, it's all good, we don't care, ignore the lawyer and have fun selling tapes.