Wrestling Observer Rewinder

November 03, 1997

Other notes from the show: Chris Jericho vs. Gedo was added at the last minute. They had planned to do a Bill Goldberg vs. Meng match but for some reason, that got scrapped so this was put out there to fill the time. Goldberg later did a run-in on the Alex Wright/Steve McMichael match to set up an angle with him and McMichael. Dave gives that match negative stars. Jacquelyn pinned TV champ Disco Inferno in a non-title match that was only there to punish Disco for refusing to do the angle earlier in the year, which led to him being fired for 6 months. Him doing the job here was a condition of him returning. Dave thinks the whole thing is stupid and also devalues the TV title. The cage for the main event was huge and probably the biggest cage used in a wrestling match that Dave has seen, and it was even crazier that Randy Savage jumped off the top of it, at 45 years old and with a bad ankle. He totally botched the spot, but Dave gives him credit for even having the guts to do it. Match was awful though.
The finish of the Rey Misterio Jr. vs. Eddie Guerrero match was changed literally minutes before the PPV started. The plan had been for Misterio to lose his mask, which Rey was strongly protesting. At one point, Eric Bischoff called up Misterio and told him that if he didn't lose the match, it would be considered a breach of contract and he would fire Misterio and file a lawsuit against him. Misterio is popular and well-liked backstage, so that didn't go over well with much of the locker room. At some point, less than an hour before the show, Misterio and his new agent met with Bischoff and the finish was eventually changed just before the show went on the air, on the condition that Misterio agreed to lose the mask sometime in the future. Anyway, as for the match, it was incredible and Dave says the only reason it's not his match of the year is because it was too short (only about 14 minutes). He gives it 4.75 and if Twitter existed today, people would be harassing him daily about "Why wasn't it 5 stars? If it happened in the Tokyo Dome, you would have given it 5 stars!" and shit, because people are fucking stupid.
Funny story about Michinoku Pro star Shiryu, who is one of the top stars in that company. He showed up in Mexico this week and managed to get himself booked on a Promo Azteca show. He gave them a different name and they put him in the opening match because they figured he was a green, no-name Japanese wrestler. But because he's awesome, he went out there and basically stole the show in the first match and then went backstage and told everybody who he really was. So now he's going to be working here full time and probably not in opening matches anymore.
Atsushi Onita is really pissed off at WWF. For the recent FMW show, they had to pay WWF $100,000 to get Ken Shamrock and Vader to work the show. WWF then turned around and let the Blackjacks work AJPW's tag tournament for free. So as you'd expect, Onita is pretty furious about it.
A Kansas City newspaper had a story about retired wrestler Harley Race who is now working part-time as a process server. The story had anecdotes of people who have tried to avoid being served by him.
Eric Kulas' family is appealing the ruling that they can't file criminal charges against New Jack for the Mass Transit incident. The hearing is scheduled for January. They still haven't filed a suit against ECW.
Dave corrects a report from last week, saying that Justin Credible actually still hasn't been released from his WWF contract. Paul Heyman has been trying to get him out of the deal, but Credible is known to be a good friend of Nash, Hall, and Syxx and they're afraid if they release him, he'll just jump straight to WCW. Heyman has assured them that the moment he's released, he'll be signing with ECW. WWF is still weighing their options but hasn't made a decision yet. So he's still under WWF contract for now.
Nitro this week seemed almost entirely dedicated to plugging Hogan's new made-for-TV movie, which lists Eric Bischoff as an executive producer. WWF announced a Survivor Series highlights show to air against the movie. WCW has responded by trying to schedule the Hogan/Sting contract signing for Starrcade to air during commercials during the movie in order to get people to tune in.
Eric Bischoff seems to be making an effort to neutralize any power Konnan has over the company in regards to the Mexican wrestlers. In the recaps they've been showing about the history of Mexican wrestling, they were ordered to remove any mention of Konnan even though he's probably the biggest draw in Mexico of the last 10 years. They also aren't pushing any of the luchadors aside from Misterio. WCW is trying to get all the Mexicans to sign exclusive WCW contracts, which would take them away from Promo Azteca (which Konnan is a co-owner of). WCW still wants to put together a Lucha Libre PPV sometime in the future, but they don't want Konnan to have any leverage over them.
Syxx is out of action with a fractured vertebrae.
Ric Flair's contract negotiations with WCW haven't been quite as heated as reported and it's considered likely that he will re-sign.
Paul Roma was at Nitro this week looking for work. He didn't get it. He had another guy with him who he claimed was his cousin Alex Roma and wanted to get them both brought in as a tag team (they end up working a dark match for WWF next month but that's it).
As of press time, Gorilla Monsoon was in a hospital in Philadelphia and listed in grave condition. His family members were called to get together because there's concern that it may be life-threatening. Monsoon has been in poor health for awhile and suffered a heart attack last week. Word is he needs a heart transplant but they can't do it because he's in such bad shape from diabetes complications. They need to stabilize him before they can consider major heart surgery.
Steve Austin returned to the ring this week at house shows. The bruised spinal cord injury from the Owen Hart bump has healed as much as it can but he still has other neck issues that are mostly just career-long wear and tear. WWF wants him to modify his in-ring style and not take any dangerous neck bumps and it's likely he'll never be quite the same in-ring worker he used to be.
The Patriot suffered a tricep tear in a match with Jim Neidhart and needs surgery which should keep him out around 3 months. He's had a history of tricep tears dating back to his years in Japan (unbeknownst to everyone at the time, this was it for him. The match with Neidhart was the last time he ever wrestled and he officially retired after WWF released him).
Owen Hart suffered a severe concussion in a match with Ahmed Johnson and will be out for a couple of weeks. There was a lot of heat on Johnson for it, since it was basically just a careless kick that did it (fun fact: Hart heads are magnets for careless kicks). Johnson also got into a brief legit fight with D-Lo Brown backstage the night before and in the tussle, he once again re-aggravated his bad knee.
There's a lot of belief that all of Shawn Michaels' recent antics on TV are a shoot and that he's trying to get fired so he can go to WCW. Not true. Dave says everything he's doing has been approved by McMahon and they're trying to get over the idea that Michaels is basically just out of control and trying to embarrass the company but it's part of a gimmick.
Still no cause of death report on Brian Pillman from the medical examiner. Also, there have been rumors that Pillman didn't have life insurance, but Dave says he did. It was a small amount, only $135,000 which isn't much in the grand scheme of things for a guy with a wife and 5 kids and one on the way. He reportedly knew he needed more but either hadn't gotten around to it yet or was unable to get it due to health reasons.
Let's just quote this one: "There is at least some concern internally regarding the long-term status of Bret Hart. Apparently Hart's 20-year contract gives him an out should he decide to give proper notice." That's the only mention of that this week. That story gets a whole lot bigger in the next issue...
Yokozuna won't be returning. He was scheduled to this week, but he failed the physical tests by the New York athletic commission due to obesity and irregular heartbeat. He reportedly weighs more than 600 pounds, which contradicts what Dave had been told about him being down to 500. Because many commissions honor suspensions from other states, this means Yoko would be unable to wrestle in most of the country. Given that and the recent death of Brian Pillman, WWF isn't going to risk putting someone with potential heart problems back in the ring. So he's done in WWF.
On Raw, they announced Marlena will be doing a live interview to talk about the 30 days she spent with Pillman. Dave doesn't know how they're going to pull that off without being exploitive. The simple fact that they're doing it as a ratings tease is bad enough, even if she does acknowledge it was a fake wrestling angle. But if they use it to further the Goldust/Marlena split angle, it will be just about the worst taste thing WWF could do (They dance around actually mentioning Pillman's name, but they did indeed talk about all the time she was "away" from her family and whatnot).
Another one of Jim Cornette's shoot promos aired on Raw, this time tearing into Hogan, Piper, and even Shawn Michaels for calling themselves icons. Cornette said Piper was his hero 20 years ago but didn't know when to retire. He said Hogan, even in his prime, was 50% media hype and ripped on their Halloween Havoc cage match. Cornette then turned his attention to WWF and said Bret Hart cries too much, Shawn Michaels is basically a child outside the ring, and said the real icons of wrestler are Undertaker, Steve Austin, and Ric Flair. On the same Raw, Jeff Jarrett also cut another "shoot" promo talking about how he was never given a fair chance in WCW. Dave thinks the complaint would be valid if it was Chris Benoit, but Jarrett was pushed exactly to the level he belongs at in WCW, which is midcard.
Lots of letters about various things. The most interesting is from a few people who have attended ECW shows and just weren't happy about it. Same as always: everything is a disorganized mess, too crowded, bad security, fans trying to get themselves over, no-shows, etc. Basically people vowing to never spend another dollar on ECW.