December 15, 1997
- Vince McMahon has turned himself heel in the wake of the heat he got for the Montreal screwjob and on Raw, he confronted Steve Austin playing the role of a dictatorial boss. They also referred to Rocky Maivia as "the people's champion" and showed McMahon plotting to cost Austin the IC title.
- There's been a lot more fallout from the Montreal situation behind the scenes. To try to soothe hard feelings, Vince McMahon gave Owen Hart a huge raise to return to the company and work a top feud with Shawn Michaels. Jim Neidhart, who wasn't under contract, has jumped ship to WCW with Bret. And Davey Boy Smith, who just had knee surgery, was offered his release but it hasn't been agreed to yet but he's likely headed to WCW soon (more on that in the coming weeks). Bret Hart and Vince McMahon also had a phone conversation this week, the first time they've spoken since Survivor Series, and it was not at all cordial. Bret wanted Vince to release Owen from his contract, Vince refused, and it led to Vince threatening Bret with a lawsuit for contract interference if he tries to negotiate a WCW deal for Owen, and also threatening to sue him for assault (man, what I wouldn't give to have the NSA recording of that phone conversation).
- Bret Hart gave several interviews this week, on TSN's Off The Record show and a Prodigy Online internet interview, and he tore into WWF. Among the highlights from the Prodigy interview: he thinks Jim Neidhart shouldn't have gone along with the angle with DX on Raw a couple of weeks ago, and thinks they buried Neidhart out of spite for Bret. He thanked Mick Foley for standing up for him and boycotting Raw the night after. Claimed Shawn Michaels was crying and weeping like a baby in the dressing room after the screwjob. He also said he knew he would sound like a hypocrite now, but he called Ric Flair one of the best wrestlers ever. He said he's regretted some of his past comments about Flair and only said that Flair wasn't the best he's ever worked with but he didn't mean to be insulting. He said he's wanted to apologize to Flair for a long time. He also blamed his issues with Hogan on Vince McMahon filling his head with lies (about Hogan quitting WWF in 1993 rather than putting over Bret) and said he looks forward to talking to Hogan and getting the real story. Said he would never attend a WWF Hall of Fame ceremony if he were inducted. Said he wasn't proud of punching McMahon but given the circumstances, it could have gone worse. Said he hadn't let his children watch Raw since the Melanie Pillman interview. Said that forcing Owen into doing an angle based on the screwjob would be like "a pimp forcing someone into prostitution." And finally, he talked about Earl Hebner, and that's worth reading the full quote:
- "I know that people think that Earl Hebner was just doing his job. Maybe he was. But all he had to do was tell me that the day before as a friend and a man of his word. I told him if he was uncomfortable with me to just say so and that I wouldn't hold it against him, because I suspected something like this was being drawn up. He got tears in his eyes and told me he could never do something like that, and he swore on his children that he would never let it happen and he'd quit his job first. We talked for over a half-hour and I left that room, the bathroom in Detroit, feeling in my heart that he was a close friend and no matter what pressure Vince McMahon put to bear on him, he would never be a part of or be involved in a conspiracy to tear down a guy with the reputation as good as mine. When I finally saw the match back, when I came home, nothing broke my heart more than seeing Earl Hebner sell me out without even any hesitation. It's one thing to get screwed over by my enemies. I already sensed who they were and what they had in mind. But it's a much more hurtful thing when you get screwed over by a very good friend. I hear Earl Hebner is drinking himself into oblivion racked with guilt for the role he played, and all I can say is, "Have another drink on me, Earl, keep biting your nails like your buddy Shawn and keep looking over your shoulder because sooner or later what goes around comes around."
- For whatever reason, Dave doesn't cover the TSN Off The Record interview at all and never does that I can see unless I somehow totally missed it. But it's basically more of the same. Here's part of the interview, I can't find the rest:
- In the ratings battle, WCW won again, but when Nitro ended, the Raw ratings went up almost a full point, which shows that while WCW fans are still loyal to their product, they're at least curious enough to start watching Raw now. It's good news for WWF (this is the start of the turnaround. It's all uphill from here).
- UFC and WWF have been negotiating to possibly have a Ken Shamrock vs. Nobuhiko Takada match at UFC's show in Japan. With WWF's approval, Shamrock has signed on for the match and UFC announced it on their website the next day. But it was never mentioned on Raw that night, despite WWF agreeing to promote the fight. As for Takada, he's been telling people in the media that he's still dealing with injuries and denied that he'll be fighting on the UFC show at all. So now it's unknown if Shamrock will face a different opponent or maybe won't fight at all. UFC initially offered WWF $100,000 to use Shamrock but they turned it down because they didn't want to risk him getting hurt because they have big plans for him. So then UFC tried to get Vader, but WWF eventually turned that down too and that was the end of the discussion for awhile. But then Takada reportedly said he would only fight on the show if it was against Shamrock, so UFC more than doubled their initial offer and suddenly, WWF was interested. After some negotiations, it's believed Shamrock signed on to the fight for around $250,000. But now with Takada possibly out of the picture, the whole thing is in jeopardy.
- WWF's latest PPV In Your House: D-Generation X is in the books and much like the WCW's NWO PPV earlier this year, it was awful. On the pre-show, they had Jim Cornette out there hawking last-minute PPV buys because Sunny is out with a broken foot (stepped on by a horse). Dave also notes that the steroid issue in WWF is clearly worse now than it has been since before the trial. The Marc Mero vs. Butterbean match was ridiculous. Because of all the legal red tape, they couldn't call it a boxing match due to regulations and commissions, so they had to call it a Toughman Contest. If it had been a real fight, Mero (who has real boxing experience) actually looked like he would have won because Butterbean looked terrible and exhausted by the end of it. HHH vs. Sgt. Slaughter gets negative-2 stars. Jeff Jarrett was basically buried by both Kane and Undertaker. Steve Austin got by far the biggest pop of the show. Owen Hart made a "surprise" return at the end, attacking Shawn Michaels. Everything else sucked.
- WWF is trying to open up a working relationship with AJPW, because they want to run a major show in Japan next year. That's part of the reason why the Blackjacks were sent to work the AJPW tag tournament. So far, nothing has been established, but the 2 sides are talking. AJPW is still considering running their first ever major show in the Tokyo Dome, so it's possible that a relationship with WWF could lead to some cross-promotional matches on that show, if/when it happens.
- Vampiro is talking about quitting AAA and jumping to Promo Azteca. Apparently, Vampiro is supposed to be making $85,000 per year in AAA but he's been shorted on his paychecks just a few weeks after starting. If he does leave, it will be his 3rd jump from a promotion in the last 4 months.
- Michinoku Pro star Great Sasuke has been booked for a match at the NJPW Jan. 4th Tokyo Dome show, but it probably won't happen. WCW has been pressuring NJPW not to use Sasuke since he has been working with ECW. It's expected that NJPW will cave and that Ultimo Dragon will likely wrestle in Sasuke's place (yup).
- Keiji Muto is talking about wanting to do a champion vs. champion match in WCW, with his IWGP title against either Hogan or Sting, after the Starrcade match (didn't happen).
- Antonio Inoki is talking about doing an NWO-like gimmick with him as a heel manager of a stable of shoot fighters in NJPW. Dave also talks about the Zen faction in FMW and basically says it's amazing how pretty much every wrestling promotion in the world has tried to copy the NWO gimmick in some way or another.
- There's a huge story in Taipei, Taiwan that's loosely wrestling related. The 17-year-old daughter of Ikki Kajiwara was kidnapped and murdered recently in what has become the most publicized crime in the history of the island. Kajiwara is the creator of the Tiger Mask cartoon and comic book character, which later became an NJPW wrestler. Anyway, his daughter was kidnapped and they sent a ransom note to the family which also contained the daughter's severed pinky finger. The family wanted to pay the ransom, but they also contacted police, and when the kidnappers found out the police were involved, they killed the daughter. The case has led to several Taiwan government officials resigning after national protests. (Here's the Wikipedia page for it and yeah, this story is fucked up.)
- XL Sports, the company owned by Mark Selker that purchased 55% ownership of USWA, has filed for bankruptcy after dropping their lawsuit against Jerry Lawler and Larry Burton.
- At the next UFC PPV, there will be a new play-by-play guy named Mike Goldberg. Dave doesn't know anything about him.
- ECW's November To Remember PPV looks to have done about a 0.20 buyrate, which is basically in line with the previous 2 PPVs. If ECW can average this same number every time out, it should be good enough to stay profitable and keep the shows coming.
- After cutting off ties with WWF, Atsushi Onita is now trying to get a relationship going with ECW. Onita still wants to do an exploding ring barbed wire match in the U.S. and is hopeful he can get it on an ECW PPV in 1998 (Onita spends years chasing this dream).
- Al Snow is really getting over in ECW with his new mannequin head gimmick, with the crowd chanting "Give me head!" when he comes out.
- WCW still hasn't figured out their plans for the Monday and Thursday shows when it comes to figuring out which will be a WCW show and which will be NWO. The Larry Zbyszko vs. Eric Bischoff match at Starrcade will determine which group gets control of Nitro and the loser is expected to get the other show. But that seems to be as far as they have figured out so far and time is running out.
- There's been talk of turning Ric Flair heel and pairing him up with Debra McMichael, sorta like his old heel 80s gimmick where he's surrounded by beautiful women. The problem is WCW fans don't want to boo Flair these days.
- On a WCW internet show, Gene Okerlund finally apologized for saying Brian Pillman died of a cocaine overdose. He then undermined that apology by saying he got the information from an AP news report, which of course, is false because there was no such report. Okerlund had initially claimed he got the info from sources in the Minnesota police dept. but that's pretty obviously bullshit also. TL;DR - Okerlund just made the shit up.
- The newest member of Raven's group is named Lodi. They were originally going to call him Skank but Bischoff vetoed the name.
- DDP and Marcus Bagwell's mother (JUDY!) put together an indie show at a local high school in Georgia with the proceeds going to Brian Pillman's family. Several WCW wrestlers worked the show, along with some other indie names.
- Bret Hart may be debuting on WCW TV this week, but it's not for sure. There's also some question over whether he can use the "Hitman" nickname.
- WCW referee Scott Dickinson was taken off TV and ordered to lose 25 pounds because on Nitro a couple weeks ago, Scott Hall picked him up and his shirt came up, which revealed a belly bigger than WCW wanted I guess. So he's been off TV and has reportedly already dropped 18 pounds. He should be back on TV next month.
- Kevin Sullivan will be getting married at the end of the month (I guess the Nancy divorce has already gone through).
- Syxx will be out of action for several more months after recently having neck surgery.
- Dave says that Dusty Rhodes has been noticeably bitter on TV in recent weeks because he's basically been demoted to doing commentary on the throwaway syndicated B-shows and he's not happy about it.
- Matt and Barry Hardy (lol) worked a dark match before this week's Raw (which Dave dubs "Raw Is Jerry Springer"). They took their usual great bumps and it looks like one of them might have gotten hurt on a spot, but he recovered and they finished out okay. And then in the tapings for next week's Raw, they worked a handicap match against Kurrgan and were impressive there also.
- Letters section: Vince was in the wrong, Bret was in the wrong, etc. To one of these letters, Dave writes a LONG response detailing all the ways that this fiasco was 100% Vince's fault. Basically, he never should have let it get to this point in the first place, and also noting that Bret had creative control written into his contract, so he was perfectly within his rights to have a say in how he finished out with WWF. Also, letters from people complaining about all the soap opera-ness of WWF, people saying they're already tired of DX, and so on and so forth.