October 21, 1996
- Bret Hart has reportedly agreed to a huge deal with WWF that will pay him more money in 4 years than any other wrestler (except for Hulk Hogan) has made in an entire career. Hart has been wavering back and forth on the decision but according to those close to him, he has finally decided to stick with WWF after a recent meeting with Vince McMahon. He reportedly had several stipulations that Vince hasn't quite agreed to just yet though and until he does, Hart hasn't actually signed anything or informed WCW of his decision but it's expected he will sign in the coming days.
- Here's how it all went down: Hart was reportedly negative about going to WCW over concerns that he would clash with Hulk Hogan and had also been open in the past about seeing WCW as a second-rate company. But then they offered him 3x more than he'd ever made in his career. With that, and due to the fact that Time Warner could facilitate him being able to get more acting jobs, Hart suddenly became more interested. When Vince McMahon heard of WCW's offer, he immediately flew to Calgary to meet with Hart. Before Vince even made an offer, Bret told Vince that he wanted to appear on the 10/21 episode of Raw to inform the fans of his decision either way and Vince agreed, even if it meant Bret would be revealing that he was going to WCW. Vince then made an "amazing" offer. WCW was confident Bret was coming to them and had begun to work on storylines centered around Hart coming in to save WCW from the NWO. Anyway, Vince reportedly offered Bret a deal of nearly $4 million per year for 4 years. On paper, WWF can't afford that sort of contract but reportedly the $4 million per year isn't entirely in money but also includes certain perks and "goodies" that, if added together, the cash value would be $4 mil. Everyone who was aware of the negotiations were stunned that McMahon would make such a huge offer. Only a handful of wrestlers have ever made $4 million in their entire career, much less per year. Hulk Hogan is the only other wrestler in history to be in that ballpark. To complicate matters further, Eric Bischoff has reportedly made Bret Hart another offer in recent days, allegedly slightly more than McMahon's offer So as of now, it's expected Bret will sign with WWF but it's still far from a guarantee.
- Bret wrote about the negotiations in his column in the Calgary Sun newspaper. I'll just copy and paste what Bret wrote here:
- "I'd gone higher in wrestling than I'd ever allowed myself to dream of. It didn't seem that I had anything left to prove. When you're that high up it's a long fall down. I don't want to be one of those guys that hangs around long after he's past his prime and embarrasses himself and his fans every time he steps into the ring. I realize that wrestling is sports entertainment but, for my taste, lately there's been too much emphasis on the entertainment and not enough weight put on athletics and sportsmanship. There's an upstart group in the states whose extreme style is all about brawling. There's another group that, at around the time of Wrestlemania XII, seemed to be where worn out wrestlers worked, although that has since changed and they've brought in a lot of exciting, technically knowledgeable guys. The WWF, had, in my opinion, lots some of its balance and become too youth oriented--Clowns instead of Pipers and Perfects. The WWF's catering to kids came to its ultimate end when Shawn Michaels became champion. I'm not saying that Shawn isn't talented because he is. In fact, I knew Shawn would be the one coming up behind me sooner or later. The only thing is that it happened "sooner." Shawn has always had a tremendous ego and maybe, based on his ability, it's justified. The problem is that they allowed his character to get out of control. They call him "flamboyant" and I call him obnoxious. I was annoyed and concerned about a lot of things in the business at around the time of Wrestlemania XII. I didn't leave because Shawn Michaels became champion. In fact, the business could use more guys with Shawn's dedication. I'd reached a fork in the road and I needed to stop long enough to be able to read the signs.
- I've found that a lot of wrestlers develop a sort of tunnel vision--they eat, sleep and breathe wrestling. It's fair to say it's a symptom of the lifestyle. As much as I made a conscious effort not to neglect outside interests, the schedule was so brutal that all you could do in the end was submit and look forward to a time when there will be time.
- In the six-and-a-half months since Wrestlemania XII, I've given myself time to do some of the things I've had on hold for over a decade. I realized that I wasn't enjoying them nearly as much as I'd anticipated and it took me a while to understand why. I figured out that part of it is because I have something much more serious than tunnel vision. I was born with wrestling in my blood and there's no medicine that's going to cure me. As much as I didn't want to admit it to myself, to me, wrestling can never be just a job. I couldn't really relax knowing that the sport was speeding off in what I consider to be the wrong direction. I realized that I was wrong when I thought I had nothing left to prove in wrestling. In fact, it just may be that my toughest fight is ahead of me. I'm going to try to prove that one man can make a difference when it comes to restoring the credibility and dignity that professional wrestling has lost. I have no delusions about single-handedly changing things over night, but maybe if I can get the tide flowing in the right direction, wrestlers and fans will see my point and help to row the boat upstream. My memories are not yet greater than my dreams. I decided to return to the ring but where and when remains a big question.
- A wrestling organization who is a competitor to the WWF has offered me an amazing amount of money to work for them. I'd be working less days than with the WWF and making a lot more money. I realized that in a few years I could be sitting on a beach somewhere and never have to work another day in my life. Being that the WWF is a family owned business I didn't think they could ever come up with enough money to match this offer. I've said before that I'm not greedy for money but that I'm greedy for respect. I guess for most people it would be a simple decision. If they pay you more and work you less, that's where you go. But for me it wasn't that cut and dry and that's when I realized that wrestling isn't just a job. My family has generations caught up in it. I started asking myself hard questions about loyalty, integrity and weighing that against the fact I have four kids that could benefit from the money long after I'm history. I owe the lifestyle I enjoy today to the WWF. I do feel a sense of loyalty to Vince McMahon, but his company, its directions and its priorities, have changed.
- In the words of the Million Dollar Man, "Everybody has a price." I've lost sleep over it but I've made my decision.
- It was like choosing between two lovers--they both want you and they'd both treat you good and they both have their own little benefits. No matter how good the one you end up with is, you're always going to wonder what you've missed."
- The situation in AAA between Konnan and Antonio Pena has reached a head this week. A lot of it comes down to money and with guys being unhappy about the changing style of wrestling in Mexico (Konnan has been pushing a more ECW-like brawling style and a lot of the veterans don't like it). Konnan has been running his own shows using AAA talent and Pena is trying to pull the rug out from under Konnan on that. This has led to Konnan talking about taking several of AAA's top stars and leaving for another promotion. Konnan is the main talent liaison to WCW so many of the AAA guys want to stay in Konnan's good graces so they can work in WCW and make more money. So if Konnan decides to jump ship and take some AAA guys with him, he could probably deliver a serious blow to AAA (from what I've learned doing all these Observer Rewinds, contracts in Mexico are evidently worth less than the paper they're printed on).
- Dave decides to crunch some more Monday Night Wars numbers. Lots of people credit the wars for revitalizing interest in wrestling but the reality is there's less people watching wrestling now than ever before due to the lack of syndicated TV. If you added up all the people watching WWF, WCW, ECW, USWA, and AWF today, it still doesn't equal the number of people who used to watch WWF alone during its syndication mid-80s heyday. The fact is, more people are watching now during a single time slot, but in the past, millions more people watched multiple promotions at all different days and times.
- As for the numbers in this war: the adult viewing audience is the most important and WCW is nearly doubling WWF when it comes to adult viewers because they have the stars that adults grew up with (Hogan, Savage, Flair, etc.). And even though hardcore fans might not like those guys, they're still the names that the casual audience knows. WWF is winning the house show battle because teenagers are more likely to attend live events and WWF has the slight edge in teenage viewers and Shawn Michaels is a big draw among teens, while WCW builds the company around Hulk Hogan but he doesn't work house shows. From here, Dave starts really breaking it down into percentages, demographics, why house show attendance and TV ratings don't correlate, etc. It's all really interesting stuff but not worth diving into here.
- Tokyo Pro Wrestling and WAR had an issue where both promotions booked Nobuhiko Takada for shows within 3 days of each other in the same building. Takada has a huge asking price and WAR had him booked for a heavily promoted show. But then TPW needed a last minute opponent for Abdullah The Butcher when the original plans fell through and they paid Takada to work the match 3 days before WAR's show, which infuriated WAR. Anyway, Takada worked the match with Abdullah, which was described as horrible and Takada didn't look like he wanted to be there. Then, when he was scheduled to do backstage interviews with reporters, Takada claimed he wanted to take a shower first and then snuck out of the arena without speaking to the press.
- Michinoku Pro held their biggest show ever, drawing almost 8,000 people for a show featuring a 6-man match that featured 58-year-old Mil Mascaras, the original Tiger Mask and Great Sasuke (in his first match back since cracking his skull 2 months ago) on one side and Dos Caras, Kuniaki Kobayashi and Dynamite Kid (in his first match in over 2 years and also what ended up being his last match ever) on the other side. It was the first time Tiger Mask and Dynamite Kid had faced each other since their legendary match in 1983. Even though this match was the big draw of the show, they put it in the middle of the card because everyone is so past their prime that the match was sure to be a disappointment. It didn't go great. Mascaras tripped while trying to jump the top rope into the ring. Dynamite Kid was terribly skinny and couldn't even climb the ropes and had to tell Tiger Mask at one point that he couldn't take the bump as he was being set up for a suplex in an embarrassing spot. Dynamite Kid's entire left side suffers from numbness due to nerve injuries. And Sasuke returned way too soon from the skull injury and wasn't any good either. The crowd was in it for the nostalgia, but as a match it wasn't good.
- Sabu has joined AJPW where he will be teaming regularly with Rob Van Dam. Sabu recently cut ties with Tokyo Pro Wrestling because he felt they had lied to him on several occasions regarding money and about who he was supposed to put over. Sabu left TPW last week and it was believed he was heading back to the U.S. but instead he went straight to AJPW. There's some skepticism of how well this will work, since Sabu's style doesn't exactly gel with the traditional AJPW style.
- Wahoo McDaniel has announced his retirement due to a serious heart condition. McDaniel was one of the biggest stars in the business in the 1970s. Dave recaps his career and says the 59-year-old McDaniel has been working indies in recent years but finally had to retire due to the heart diagnosis.
- Remember the story a few months ago about the indie wrestler who spazzed out at a hotel and had to be subdued by police and ended up dying in the parking lot after his arrest? Coroner report showed he had a combination of alcohol, speed, steroids, and GHB in his system at the time of his death and he also had advanced heart disease. The police had to pepper spray him and hit him with their nightsticks to subdue him but the coroner said neither the beating or the pepper spray triggered the heart problem and that the drugs are what led to heart failure.
- Jushin Liger is reportedly headed in to work some shows for EMLL in Mexico which could become a political problem. WCW, NJPW, and AAA are the 3 promotions who work together so if Liger was going to work for any promotion in Mexico, you'd expect it to be AAA. So there may be some issues with him choosing to work for EMLL.
- Speaking of AAA and EMLL, the Televisa company wants the 2 promotions to do a joint show together that they can air on TV, but there's so much bad blood between the promotions that both of them are refusing.
- Kenta Kobashi suffered a broken ear drum but is still working every night.
- For the second week in a row, USWA drew less than 400 people to a show in Memphis. The shows had been running on Wednesdays, because the traditional Monday night shows were suffering due to people staying home to watch Raw and Nitro. But attendance fell even lower on other nights, so they're going to attempt to go back to Monday night shows.
- Jerry Lawler once again tried to sabotage the WCW Nitro show in Memphis by telling USWA fans not to attend. He even came out on TV with a recent copy of the Observer newsletter from "Dave Meltzer in California" and read some of Dave's negative WCW coverage. Lawler told people if they really want to see Nitro, stay home and watch it on TV for free but they should really watch Raw instead. It didn't work. Nitro drew nearly 7,000 people to the show and one of the largest gates ever at the Mid-South Coliseum. On the air, Tony Schiovane thanked "Mr. Lawler" for putting all the fans in the seats and said they'd see him at the Flea Market on Thursday. Burn.
- Fans started throwing chairs at wrestlers during a recent ECW show, which led to Tommy Dreamer, Bubba Ray Dudley, Sandman, Taz, and others jumping into the crowd to fight the fans. It was only a small group of fans doing it, but the chaos turned into a pretty big scene before the fans were taken out of the building.
- Tommy Dreamer is scheduled to face Brian Lee in a scaffold match with tables stacked under the scaffold at an ECW show next week (boy, I'll say...)
- Gene Okerlund has reportedly agreed to a new deal with WCW and will be returning soon.
- On WCW Saturday night, they filmed a funny segment with Hall and Nash in an empty arena wrestling against 2 jobbers who were billed from Stamford, CT. They piped in fake crowd noise and Hall and Nash did commentary on the match themselves, when one of them wasn't in the ring, the other talked.
- At the Nitro a couple of weeks ago when the NWO was celebrating in a hotel room, some people with a satellite were able to access the nonstop feed. You could see Kevin Sullivan in the room, handing guys their scripts and telling them where to sit. After the show ended, everyone, including Eric Biscoff and Sullivan were in the room talking about how they did a great job (can't find any video of that. Sounds similar to those WWE satellite feeds that sometimes leak out).
- Expect WCW to hold a PPV in Memphis in 1997 because they were so thrilled with how the Memphis Nitro episode went (that never happened, because I surely would have been there).
- Eric Bischoff did another online Prodigy chat answering fan questions. He ripped Jerry Lawler for attempting to sabotage Nitro. He also admitted WWF does a better job at post-producing shows because they have more resources but said WCW was better at doing live TV.
- Since the Turner/Time Warner merger, there has been some talk of moving the Clash of the Champions shows from TBS over to HBO, but the Time Warner people aren't crazy about the idea of putting pro wrestling on HBO.
- WWF is still heavily pushing the idea of Mr. Perfect returning to feud with Hunter Hearst Helmlsley but Perfect is still collecting on a Lloyd's of London insurance policy and may not even want to return. Vince McMahon is reportedly willing to buy him out of the policy to get him back in the ring.
- At a recent WWF house show, they taped 2 matches that will air as part of the TV show Boy Meets World, on which Vader is an occasional recurring character.
- Faarooq has a hamstring injury and it's questionable if he'll be able to work the PPV match against Marc Mero (nope, he missed it).
- WWF was negotiating with Ken Shamrock but his demands were way too high so negotiations went nowhere.
- Dave trashes the Livewire show and says it's an interesting concept but they've got the wrong people hosting it and that it's just turned into a show for Sunny to do her blonde bimbo act. Dave says Sunny would have a lot more longevity in the business if she drops the ditzy blonde gimmick because she's actually a great talent as a manager. As for the show, they get dumb callers that are heavily screened, asking boring questions. And finally, on the most recent episode, they pretended Hulk Hogan was sending love letters to Sunny, which just cheapens the whole company and makes them look second-rate compared to WCW.
- Steve Austin's new gimmick seems to be how many times he can say the word "ass" per minute on TV.
- Terry Gordy, under a mask, is expected to be involved in the finish of the Undertaker/Mankind match at the Buried Alive PPV.