February 02, 1998
- Fun fact...I typed this up yesterday because I knew I was going to spend this morning refreshing 18 different browser windows trying to get Wrestlemania tickets. Purchase successful! See y'all in NOLA.
- We start with the latest on the Mike Tyson/WWF situation. It appears the plan all along has been for Tyson to be a special referee for the Austin/Michaels main event at Wrestlemania. But WWF didn't want to just announce Tyson as the referee because that's boring. So they've started a big elaborate angle with the Tyson/Austin confrontation a couple weeks ago that will hopefully get people interested and eventually end with Tyson as the referee. So far, so good because the angle is still garnering huge news coverage around the world. Tyson has resumed training for a boxing comeback which is his top priority but WWF is trying to get him to appear on as many shows as they can. Dave lists the different episodes of Raw he's scheduled to appear on. He won't be on this week's Raw from Indianapolis because he didn't want to go back to that city (it's where his rape trial was held). The idea seems to be to hype up an Austin/Tyson match and then make it look as if the Nevada State Athletic Commission won't allow Tyson to face him (even though they've openly said they have no problem with it) and then Tyson will instead become a referee and eventually leave as a babyface. The overall goal (at least for Tyson and Don King) is to rehabilitate Tyson's public image following the rape conviction and the suspension for biting Holyfield's ear in a fight. The hope is that it will help Tyson be reinstated for boxing. Dave personally thinks Tyson deserves to be suspended for a lot longer than 1 year for what he did in the Holyfield fight, but he also realizes that there's way too much money at stake for PPV providers (who will likely pressure the commission to reinstate him), so it's probably already a sure thing that Tyson will be reinstated either way.
- As for Tyson's impact on ratings and buyrates, he had an effect, but not a lasting one. WWF's Royal Rumble drew the biggest PPV buyrate for a WWF show since Wrestlemania 12 almost 2 years ago, around 300,000 buys, some of which can probably be attributed to Tyson being advertised to appear at the show. The episode of Raw with the Tyson/Austin angle also did its highest rating since the Monday night wars began, drawing a 4.0 rating. It still wasn't enough to beat Nitro (4.4) but WWF is definitely closing the gap. But it has led to some in WCW being cocky, openly saying that if WWF had to bring out Mike Tyson and still couldn't beat Nitro, they'll never be able to. Sure enough, even after all the mainstream publicity, this week's Raw dropped down to pre-Tyson levels. So as great as the angle with Austin was, it didn't translate into ratings the next week.
- Other notes from the PPV: the opening 8-man Lucha match stole the show. Rey Misterio Jr. dropped the cruiserweight title to Chris Jericho because he needs reconstructive knee surgery and will be getting it done this week. So this was his last match before he's out for around 6 months. The crowd pretty much turned on Larry Zbyszko during his match with Scott Hall. In the Kevin Nash/Giant match, Nash gave him a jackknife and dropped Giant dangerously on his head and neck. It looked scary but he was totally fine backstage afterward. But since it looked so good, they're turning it into an angle. Bret Hart vs. Ric Flair was a great match and especially incredible since Flair is almost 49 years old.
- The WAR promotion in Japan announced this week that they will be ceasing operations. The company began in 1992 and Dave recaps the history of the company, basically an obituary for a promotion. Some of the major stars, like Genichiro Tenryu, will surely end up in other promotions, but a lot of their roster probably can't cut it in the major companies and Dave suspects a few of them will probably just disappear from the business entirely. The news of WAR folding comes on the heels of both All Japan Women and Michinoku Pro having major financial trouble, and UWFI folded at the end of 1996. There's several more groups that are also hanging on by a thread, particularly Kingdom. It hasn't been a good year for the smaller indie promotions in Japan.
- Mexican star Pierroth Jr. had been working for WWC in Puerto Rico up until last week. Pierroth Jr. had worked his way up the promotion and was the top main event heel for WWC but then he was deported for not having the proper papers to work in the country. They're trying to work it out, saying it was a misunderstanding but the process is moving slow and has forced WWC to change booking.
- In response to the lawsuit filed against Konnan by Antonio Pena for defamation of character, Konnan has created a new character in Promo Azteca that is a parody of Pena. It's a fat hunchback heel who eats dog food.
- Promo Azteca/WCW wrestler Psicosis (the real one) cut a shoot promo towards Psicosis (the fake AAA one) telling fans who the fake one really was and told fans not to be fooled by imitations. Antonio Pena believes he owns the rights to the Psicosis gimmick so when the real one left, he just created a new one.
- AJPW's Giant Baba and Johnny Ace met with WWF's Bruce Prichard and Jerry Brisco this week to negotiate having WWF stars appear at AJPW's Tokyo Dome show in May. The meeting ended with nothing even close to agreed on. Baba told the media the next day that the 2 sides couldn't agree on financial terms. But negotiations are expected to continue because AJPW wants Undertaker, Vader, and Ken Shamrock on their big show and reportedly WWF is very interested in bringing in Kenta Kobashi. But that will be difficult because Kobashi is needed full-time in AJPW.
- Despite being such a legendary figure in wrestling history, there wasn't as much coverage of Bobo Brazil's death as Dave would have expected. It got some coverage in the Michigan area where he was the biggest star and it also made news in some places Japan. WWF had a graphic at the beginning of Raw for him. But that's mostly it.
- Dave says the Coca-Cola commercial with Yokozuna is now running on TV. I still can't find video of alleged Coke commercial. He also says Yokozuna has just filmed a commerc............and that's it. The line cuts off there. So evidently he filmed another commercial. Or maybe Dave dropped dead in mid-sentence and the Dave Meltzer we've had since 1998 is a different guy working under a Meltzer mask. Who's to say really?
- Oh shit! After 4 unrelated paragraphs of other news, he finishes the line! "-ial for Waffle House." Damn, I can't find that one either.
- Shane Douglas pleaded not guilty to assault charges stemming from an ECW incident back in October. Douglas was accused of assaulting a 16-year-old female fan. She testified at a hearing that Douglas attacked her after she blew cigarette smoke towards him. She says Douglas turned and spit in her face, so she spit back at him so then he punched her in the ribs and grazed her with a punch to the face. Douglas denies it and his attorney says the 16-year-old was actually the attacker and that she had punched Francine as they were walking down the aisle. The case looks as if it will go to trial.
- Tommy Dreamer and Beulah missed a couple of ECW shows this weekend due to Dreamer's grandfather being in poor health.
- Eric Kulas' family will be in court this week, attempting to get the decision overturned that prevents them from pressing criminal charges against New Jack over the Mass Transit incident. The family hasn't filed a lawsuit against ECW yet but they pressed charges against New Jack, only for the court to decide they wouldn't prosecute. Heyman has reportedly offered the family a financial settlement to cover all medical expenses, but they turned him down.
- Recent WWF-signee Darren Drozdov debuted in ECW this week, as part of the Danny Doring/Paul Diamond/Roadkill group. He's been sent there by WWF to get some more experience before they debut him.
- Sandman is still dealing with some serious back issues and may be kept off ECW's next PPV if he's not able to go by then. He's still been trying to work shows, but the matches are horrible and Heyman doesn't want Sandman to go out and have a stinker on PPV.
- In WCW, Dave says Louie Spiccoli has pretty much been given the gimmick of being Scott Hall's flunky and says that's basically Spicolli's real life role on the road anyway (sadly, he'll be dead within 2 weeks).
- The Nitro Girls were on Regis & Kathy Lee this past week. When talking to Kimberly, Regis acknowledged her husband in the audience, who he called "Diamond Dan." Dave also talks about the newest tall brunette Nitro Girl and says she's not a good dancer. Then he throws some political humor in there, saying there's no truth that she was recommended for the job by Vernon Jordan or that she got the job by sleeping with the President (these are both referencing the Monica Lewinsky scandal that was unfolding at the time, for you younger readers). Anyway, fun fact, the Nitro Girl Dave is referring to was Whisper, who later went on to marry Shawn Michaels and get punched in the face by Chris Jericho.
- The Giant has a role in the new Adam Sandler movie The Waterboy.
- In an online chat, Konnan expressed frustration with WCW, saying that the company isn't interested in pushing the Mexicans and said that when their contracts run out, he expects they'll all probably try to jump ship to WWF. I'm sure those comments will go over well....
- The new issue of Mad Magazine has wrestlers on the cover and the piece inside was written by Desmond Devlin, who is an actual wrestling fan and Observer reader so the jokes inside are spot on. Dave thinks it's hilarious. (Shout out to u/BAWguy who has already posted this before):
- Jesse Ventura has gotten some heat for comments he made on a radio show when he thought the mics were turned off. He referred to Iranians as "towel heads" and when the story made news, he has since refused to apologize for it. Ventura also has gotten major heat with Hulk Hogan. If you recall, there's still a lawsuit pending in Minneapolis where a woman claims Hogan sexually assaulted her. Well, Ventura had the woman's lawyer on his radio show to talk about the case. As you can imagine, Hogan is none too pleased and has said that he has long forgiven all of his past enemies but says he'll never forgive Ventura (keep this in mind a year from now when Hogan is verbally fellating Ventura in the media after he becomes governor).
- Shawn Michaels was out of action this week with a back injury suffered in the Undertaker match at Royal Rumble. There was a spot where he went over the top rope and his lower back hit the edge of the casket. The back stiffened up on him so he's missed a few shows, but they're hopeful he'll be back soon, although it's day-to-day right now (or, yanno, year-to-year).
- Vader was also injured this week when his head was too low for a Kane tombstone. It drove his head and neck into the mat and was said to be a scary injury. Vader's neck is reportedly injured from it. To make matters worse, Vader has a small metal plate in his face near one of his eyes, due to an injury years ago in Japan (the famous eyeball match with Stan Hansen). The plate was dislodged during the tombstone spot. He's expected to be out for about a month and will need surgery to move the plate back in place.
- There's talk of doing a Butterbean vs. Marc Mero match at Wrestlemania. Butterbean is contracted for one more WWF appearance, but they may hold off on using him until after Wrestlemania (it would be another year before Butterbean showed up and knocked Bart Gunn into obscurity).
- Dan Severn will be billed as the NWA champion and managed by Jim Cornette when he starts with WWF soon. Dave thinks it's a bad idea since the NWA angle right now is basically death, plus Severn isn't exactly dripping with charisma. He thinks they should bring Severn in and try to get him over the same way WCW is getting Bill Goldberg over, by having him come in and silently destroy people with intense power moves.
- A new TV network called PaxNet, which specializes in family programming, has signed a deal with WWF to air a new syndicated WWF show on Saturday mornings. The network airs in 56 major markets on weak UHF stations that don't do much of a rating on their own. Having WWF is a huge coup for them because it's sure to draw ratings for the fledgling network. But it's funny because WWF is the complete opposite of "family programming" these days. In fact, Dave thinks it's surprising how little backlash WWF has gotten over their new direction. But the ratings are good so that's all anyone cares about (turns out this isn't a real show, just paid infomercials for Wrestlemania).
- At a house show in Hartford, HHH did ring introductions since he's still injured. He got on the mic and started doing a Michael Buffer imitation and then said, "Are you ready? Are you ready? For the thousands in attendance and the millions not watching on television because there are no cameras, let's get ready to suck it!" (I assume this is the first time he did this bit). He also forgot the team name for Billy Gunn and Jesse James and had to ask them which was even funnier.
- One Man Gang is expected to get a tryout at the next WWF tapings. He's reportedly lost a lot of weight and was a good big man worker back in the 80s but his style of wrestling is sort of passe these days.
- Someone writes in and suggests that at Wrestlemania, WWF should send Ken Shamrock out to the ring and have him shoot on Tyson and beat him up, thus making Shamrock the biggest star in the biz. Dave says there's 0% chance of that happening.