October 28, 1996
- Bret Hart signed a 20-year contract with the WWF this week, just before appearing on Raw the same night to announce it to the live crowd. It's believed the deal amounts to just under $3 million per year for the first 3 years and then a lesser amount as a "non-performer" for the remaining 17 years, during which Hart will presumably retire and take a front office position. Over the 20 years, the contract is somewhere between $11-$14 million. Hart has made it clear that he doesn't intend to wrestle for many more years and doesn't want to still be in the ring past his prime, so this deal will certainly leave him set for life financially and he intends to be with WWF for life.
- During Hart's interview on Raw (which Dave says was probably the best of Hart's career), he acknowledged WCW's offer (only referred to as a "rival company") and said they treated him with honesty and integrity during the negotiations. Bischoff reportedly felt the same and said Bret was very respectful throughout the negotiations and handled it with class during the interview. WWF had asked him to rip up WCW's contract offer on live TV, but Bret refused. During the promo, which was basically a shoot, Hart talked about all the factors he weighed in his decision. He also took some shots at Shawn Michaels and accepted Steve Austin's challenge at Survivor Series. Oh, and for what it's worth, WCW Nitro still won the ratings battle this week regardless.
- Bret wasn't entirely sure of his decision until Sunday night before Raw. He had pretty much decided to stay with WWF, but still had a list of stipulations that he wanted Vince to agree to in writing and as of a few days before, Vince still hadn't agreed and Bret was beginning to reconsider. As of 10/16, Vince finally agreed to Bret's stipulations. So then Bret gave Eric Bischoff one last chance to try and counter-offer. As of Sunday night, Bret was still negotiating with Bischoff and even Scott Hall and Kevin Nash called Bret to attempt to convince him, saying the travel schedule was so much easier. WCW's contract offer was for good money, a much lighter schedule, and 2 movies per year through Turner/Time Warner. Dave notes that Kevin Nash and Scott Hall have contracts that stipulate that no one other than Hogan will be paid more than them, so any time WCW hires someone, they have to give Hall and Nash a raise to make sure their deal is better. But both Hall and Nash agreed to waive that clause so that WCW could increase the offer to Bret without having to give them raises. Bischoff faxed Bret one final offer that night and was confident that Bret would accept it. Last week on Raw, WWF didn't advertise Bret Hart's appearance for the next week because they weren't sure of his decision. And even on the PPV on Sunday night, they had Jim Ross claim that he was the one bringing Hart back tomorrow on Raw, so that if it fell through at the last minute, they could put the heat on Ross as an angle (ala the fake Razor/Diesel thing). In reality, WWF wasn't sure up until the day of that Bret would for sure appear on Raw.
- One final interesting note on the Bret Hart story: one of the main concerns Hart had about going to WCW was the possibility of bumping heads with Hulk Hogan. When negotiating with WWF, Vince McMahon told Bret that both Hogan and Randy Savage's WCW contracts were ending within the next few months and it was possible that one or both may end up back in the WWF in 1997. Dave says that Vince may have promised Hart that if Hogan returned, Hart would be booked to defeat Hogan. It's no secret that Hart has been bitter at Hogan after Hogan quit the WWF after refusing to put over Bret Hart at Summerslam 93. It's also no secret that WCW is very concerned that both Hogan and Savage may be leaving (and may take people like The Giant with them). Now that McMahon is finally willing to offer big guaranteed contracts, it increases the possibility of them leaving WCW in the middle of the hottest angle in the company's history.
- It's expected that all of the AAA wrestlers that work for WCW will be leaving AAA this week to go wrestle for Promo Azteca in Mexico after a split between AAA president Antonio Pena and Konnan. Aside from Konnan, the wrestlers expected to jump ship are Super Calo, Rey Misterio Jr., Lady Victoria, Pierroth Jr., Los Destructores, La Sirenita, Super Crazy, Psicosis, Juventud Guerrera, Halloween, Damian, Natasha, Mosco de la Merced with several others. There's been a lot of disagreements, mostly over money, that finally boiled over. Konnan finally went to Promo Azteca and negotiated a better deal for himself and all the above mentioned wrestlers, which will allow them to work for WCW and basically anywhere else in the world (including EMLL house shows, but not TV). Most of the veterans will still stay with AAA, but Konnan is taking most of the young new talent. One notable exception is La Parka, who will probably stay with AAA because they own the gimmick and he wouldn't be as successful without it. La Parka is similar to Undertaker in WWF, because he's so tied to the gimmick and the company owns it, he's probably there for life (that turns into a legal mess later).
- In Your House: Buried Alive is in the books and was mostly uneventful. It was the first show of 1996 that Shawn Michaels didn't "technically" main event (the PPV went off the air after the Undertaker/Mankind match but Shawn did end up wrestling a dark match afterwards, which was the final match of the show, so he still sorta main evented). Dave thinks the Undertaker glove coming out of the dirt after he was buried was pretty much just as stupid as Hulk Hogan pushing The Giant off the roof of an arena at last year's Halloween Havoc. Jim Ross's headset kept cutting out (Dave says it was a gimmick but I think it's come out since that it was legit? Maybe I'm wrong). They also tried to play up the "old fuddy duddy Oklahoma hick role" for Jim Ross since they're trying to make that his gimmick. Savio Vega and Faarooq both missed the show due to injuries and Marc Mero blew out his knee during his match. And in the understatement of the century, Dave says, "Austin seems to be getting over as a face as the swearing, flipping-off character."
- Randy Hales returned to USWA this week, doing the Jim Ross gimmick of being the evil announcer/promoter. Hales was booker and ran the day-to-day operations of the promotion up until he quit 5 weeks ago. Funny enough, aside from Jerry Lawler and commentator Dave Brown, nobody else in the company knew Hales was returning, so when he came out on the live TV show and started cutting a promo, everyone backstage freaked the fuck out, thinking it was a shoot.
- Also on the USWA show, Jerry Lawler continued trashing WCW. He interviewed some fans who had been at the WCW Nitro show the week before who all said it sucked and that WCW confiscated pro-Lawler signs. He also shot down WCW's claim that it was the biggest crowd ever at the Coliseum, which Dave says is indeed a lie. WCW claimed it was the biggest crowd ever in that arena, but Lawler has drawn bigger crowds there several times.
- Devon Storm in ECW was trash talking a fan, and the fan hit him with a cane, splitting Storm's brow open and forcing him to be hospitalized. He missed the show the next night because of it. Also, Taz got into it with a fan and ended up shoving the fan to the ground. But then he got on the mic and said he at least respected that fan because he wasn't a pussy like Sabu. The fan wasn't a plant.
- NWA promoter Dennis Coraluzzo has been banned from participating in fundraisers after the Division of Consumer Affairs in New Jersey got a restraining order again him and his company, Excalibur Promotions. There are claims the Coraluzzo's company solicited donations on behalf of Make-A-Wish and the Sunshine Foundation as part of a telemarketing campaign. Neither Make-A-Wish nor the Sunshine Foundation were involved or gave permission for their organizations to be used to raise money and it's unclear if the money ever went to them, which would potentially lead to fraud charges if not. Coraluzzo says he expects all of this to go away in a few days because it's basically a big misunderstanding.
- Remember several weeks ago when someone else's ring was stolen? It was an old ring that many legendary wrestlers had wrestled in? Well it was recovered. The owner found it being sold at a flea market and went there with the police to recover it and had the seller arrested. Something something Chris Adams yada yada.
- D-Lo Brown attempted a shooting star press while working in Puerto Rico and landed on his face, knocking out his front teeth.
- The current angle with Sting is that he's basically playing a free agent and both NWO and WCW are trying to convince him to come to their side. The idea behind the angle stems from the Bret Hart contract negotiations, since there was so much publicity around where Hart would end up. WCW decided to do a similar angle with Sting, which will of course lead to Sting eventually choosing WCW. They've also started airing WCW commercials with Sting as the focal point and star of the show, which Dave says is probably going to lead to Sting becoming the top babyface in the company. "After all these years of trying to push him in that position with it never working, you'd think it might be time to give someone else a shot." Ouch, Dave.
- Speaking of Hart, Eric Bischoff was supposedly very nervous on Monday about how Bret Hart would handle his interview on Raw. He knew WWF would want to rub it in WCW's face that they had won the Bret Hart battle, but luckily for Bischoff, Bret refused to play along and took the high road.
- Memphis legend Jackie Fargo's daughter Charlotte was the ring girl at the WCW Nitro in Memphis a couple of weeks ago. When they announced her to the live crowd as Fargo's daughter, she got a huge pop.
- Buddy Lee Parker has been doing a gimmick called Braun The Leprechaun but it has been dropped because, and I quote, "believe it or not, some group complained about WCW's gimmick being a negative portrayal of Leprechauns so they dropped the gimmick. Really."
- Booker T has a back injury and won't be 100% by the time Halloween Havoc rolls around. Dave says Booker T is basically the entire tag team (because Stevie Ray sucks, you see) so that doesn't bode well for the match against Hall and Nash at the PPV being any good.
- On one of the Saturday shows, a jobber named Dusty Wolfe worked a match. Dusty Rhodes was on commentary. Having 2 Dustys there apparently scrambled Dusty Rhodes' brain so much that he kept tripping over words and even referred to himself as Dusty Wolfe at some point, before finally giving up entirely and deciding to just call the jobber "Scott Wolfe" instead for the rest of the match and forced Tony Schiovane to go along with it (Dustys are like Highlanders; there can be only one).
- Update on the Hulk Hogan extortion lawsuit from back in January. Hogan filed suit against a woman named Kathleen Kennedy who worked at his Pastamania restaurant and her lawyer, because they threatened to go to the police and claim Hogan had sexually assaulted her unless he paid them off. Kennedy claims Hogan forcefully put his penis in her mouth despite her resistance and also claim that they have evidence that Hogan raped another woman. Hogan is claiming extortion and attempted to get police to file charges against the lawyer for it, but the police declined. The lawsuit is still ongoing.
- Dave takes a random shot at Sid, saying "Sid has gotten so bad it's almost amazing. He's always been bad, but compared to what he is now, he used to be Flair in his prime." Tell us how you really feel.
- Based on recent new hires, Dave offhandedly wonders how serious WWF's drug policy is these days (yeah, pretty much no drug policy at all during this time. With the big scandal of the early-90s behind them, Vince quietly began to allow the steroid era to return).
- Jake Roberts missed a charity appearance, claiming one of his children had been stung by a bee and it got infected, so he flew home.
- Bodybuilder Achim Albrecht, who WWF recently signed, has been training for the last several weeks. Reportedly he hates taking bumps so they brought a mattress in the ring for him to learn moves on (I don't think this guy's gonna cut it, y'all...).
- Bret Hart will appear on an episode of Sinbad next month and did voice-work for a Simpsons episode airing in April.