March 02, 1998
- Louie Spicolli's funeral took place this week. Sabu and RVD were pall bearers and were also the only names from any of the 3 major promotions to attend. Tommy Dreamer, Beulah and Little Guido attended a wake the previous day. ECW held a 10-bell salute on their show the previous night and several wrestlers did tributes to Spicolli during the show (this is all shown the Network, ECW Hardcore TV episode 253. Heyman's speech at the beginning of the show is fantastic). There was a lot of criticism of WCW due to the fact that no one attended the funeral and that Spicolli's death has not really been acknowledged on TV aside from the tasteless comments of Larry Zbyszko who stayed in character and blew off the topic since he was in a feud with Spicolli at the time of his death. WWF didn't acknowledge it on TV but did mention it on their hotline.
- Spicolli's death has naturally led to a lot of discussions within all the companies this week about how to handle the drug problems that are so common in the business. Bischoff claims he was unaware that Spicolli had any history of drug issues. Bischoff also says that WCW randomly drug tests its stars and all wrestlers take mandatory drug tests when they sign. He also denied that anyone has a contract stipulating that they won't be tested. He says that when WCW wrestlers fail drug tests, it's not publicized due to a confidentiality agreement but that wrestlers who fail are required to attend educational classes. Spicolli was allegedly tested twice during his time with WCW and passed both times, although he had a prescription for the Somas so having that in his system wouldn't be considered failing. WWF has acknowledged that they were aware of Spicolli's drug problems and even discussed it with him before releasing him last year and in fact, his out-of-control drug problem is the reason why they eventually fired him.
- Vince McMahon appeared on TSN's Off The Record show in an interview about the Montreal Screwjob. For the first time, McMahon admitted that he lied to Bret about the finish of the match. When asked why he wanted Hart to leave the company, Vince responded, "A lot of reasons, actually. Bret was breaking down physically. Bret was getting to be a little bit of a pain in the ass in terms of his attitude. He was disruptive in the locker room to a certain extent. He wanted things his way. To a certain extent I can understand that. But we have to move on and we have to progress in what we do. We can't hold back. We can't keep things the way that they used to be for anybody. Bret's body started to break down. He started to miss dates and things of that nature and what's to be expected, I suppose, although you look at him as the "iron man" and certainly he has been that in this industry. But Bret's value began to wane and I looked at it in terms of I think I was really sorry after I'd done the deal, I was sorry that I had. Had everything gone smoothly then we would have lived with it. That's not what happened. It didn't go smoothly. I wanted to change Bret's character. I wanted to be able to mix things up. That was difficult. He was difficult to do business with. It was sort of like the tail wagging the dog. It was then than I decided that, ya know, maybe Bret might be better off financially somewhere else. We thought we would be better off financially without Bret." (loooool @ the idea that Bret was hard to work with, while 1997-Shawn Michaels was still running around.)
- Vince admitted that he regretted signing Bret to the 20-year contract, saying he made the mistake of listening to people around him at the time who told him they couldn't let Bret go to WCW. He claimed Bret breached his contract by refusing to drop the title and Vince said he lied to Bret about the planned finish of the match because he worried Bret wouldn't go to the ring otherwise. Vince denied that Bret Hart is a Canadian hero, which the host disagreed with and Vince said that since wrestling is scripted, if Bret is a Canadian hero, it's only because Vince made him one. Vince also claimed he allowed Bret to punch him because he basically felt he owed him an explanation and was willing to take it if Bret wanted to hit him.
- As you would expect, Bret was upset about Vince's comments on the show, particularly the parts about him missing shows and being a bad influence in the locker room, which Bret vehemently denies. Hart's contract called for him to work a maximum of 180 dates in 1997 and by November, he had already worked more than 200 so naturally, he's calling bullshit on the idea that he was missing shows or working a lighter schedule. Interestingly enough, Dave says there was a documentary crew following Bret Hart during much of this whole drama that can back up much of Bret's story (which we'll be hearing plenty more about eventually).
- WCW's SuperBrawl PPV is in the books and it was a solid show but not spectacular. Rick Martel blew out his knee in the opening match against Booker T, believed to be a torn MCL but Martel continued the match (Dave doesn't know it at the time, but this pretty much ended Martel's career and the plan of the match was changed on the fly. Martel was supposed to retain the TV title but they called an audible after the injury and had Booker win it). They also have been doing an angle with referee Nick Patrick trying to get reinstated and the plan was to bring in one of O.J. Simpson's lawyers on his behalf, either Johnnie Cochran or Robert Shapiro. At first, Cochran said he couldn't do it, so they went to Shapiro, who agreed. But just a few days before the PPV, he backed out of the deal. WCW frantically tried to get Cochran back on board and he was said to be interested but had previous commitments. So it didn't happen. Juventud Guerrera lost his mask in a match to Chris Jericho and as previously mentioned, he was none too happy about it. WCW of course didn't even try to play it up to its full potential and Juvi kept his hair in front of his face at first because he was legitimately crying when removing the mask because it's a family tradition for him (his father also wore the mask) and a huge deal in Mexican culture. But WCW couldn't care less.
- ECW's upcoming Living Dangerously PPV will feature a pre-taped match between Sabu vs. Sandman. The reasoning is because the Sabu/Sandman match at November To Remember was widely considered one of the worst matches of the year, so in order to avoid a repeat of that, they will tape the match in advance and edit it to make it watchable in the event it ends up being terrible again. ECW will acknowledge that it's pre-taped and the gimmick is going to be that the PPV censors have forbid them to air the match, but they're going to defy the censors and do it anyway, which Dave says is creative if nothing else.
- WCW's next PPV, Uncensored, comes 2 weeks before Wrestlemania and WCW has loaded the show up with as many big matches as possible to try to steal some of the thunder from WWF. With PPVs costing $30-$40, a lot of people may only buy one per month, so WCW hopes to throw as much as they can at the wall to try to steal some of those buys from Wrestlemania. Hogan/Savage cage match, Sting/Hall for WCW title, Giant/Nash, Luger/Steiner, Hart/Henning, Benoit/Raven/DDP, and more all on the same show.
- Raw was preempted by the Westminster Dog Show (goddammit I hated that dog show as a kid) and as a result, Nitro was unopposed and ended up setting its all time ratings record, with a 5.10 rating. But WCW was actually somewhat disappointed by the rating because just a few weeks ago, they did a 4.93 rating while going head-to-head. So with Raw not being on the air, WCW was hoping to do much higher than a 5.10, with some predicting they would break the 6.0 mark but the show was also facing competition from the Olympics that likely impacted it some.
- Something I haven't mentioned before, but remember the fake NWO Sting? Well he's still using that gimmick and has been wrestling full-time for the NWO faction in NJPW. Anyway, for the last several issues Dave has often mentioned that the NWO Sting has become light years better in the ring than the actual Sting.
- Aja Kong's new women's promotion Arsion debuted in Japan and had a successful show. There's been some controversy because the promotion has been hanging posters all over Japan promoting the company, but since they're new and trying to get attention, the posters feature the wrestlers semi-nude, usually topless but covering their breasts with their hands and things like that. Several cities have banned the posters.
- FMW has a match coming up and Dave says check out the name of this match: "a four corners handcuffs fuckin dog briefs match." Dave has no idea what that is so use your imagination I guess.
- After cancelling an autograph signing last week, Sid Vicious no-showed several more events this week. First he no-showed another autograph show and then he also no-showed Ian Rotten's Eddie Gilbert memorial show a few days later. He did show up and work a Jerry Lawler-promoted show in Mississippi. Just Sid things.
- Speaking of no-shows, Sunny no-showed an NWA show promoted by Dennis Coraluzzo and instead appeared at an ECW show only 25 minutes away the same night. It's interesting because Coraluzzo presumeably had to get the booking through WWF since Sunny works for them, but Sunny has also been working periodically for ECW with her fiance Chris Candido and it's well known that Coraluzzo and Paul Heyman don't get along for a million different reasons. Word is Sunny never called Coraluzzo to inform him she wasn't coming and only mentioned it to Jim Cornette the day before, who passed the word on to Coraluzzo.
- Billy Jack Haynes has reappeared in Oregon again after disappearing a few months ago. He's been in and out of hiding and having money issues due to gambling debts and people he owes money to. Haynes went on a radio show last week and talked a bunch of shit about other wrestlers and then was involved in an incident where he attacked some people at the radio station and police were called.
- Les Thatcher is trying to put together a Brian Pillman memorial show in Ohio next month and he hopes to get guys from WWF, WCW, and ECW on the show, which would be quite a trick if he can pull it off. Steve Austin is expected to make an appearance but not wrestle.
- ECW lost their TV deal in Pittsburgh over concerns about their content. It's especially bad news because Pittsburg has been their best drawing market. The TV station has a new general manager who was upset about the language, violence, and blood. Paul Heyman has said he's willing to make special edits of the show specifically for the Pittsburgh market, where he will edit out the offending content in order to get back on the channel, but every time Heyman offered a concession to fix a problem, the GM would come up with another complaint. It became obvious that the guy just didn't want ECW on their station anymore so Heyman gave up and is working on getting a deal with a rival TV station in the area.
- Nitro featured another Raven match that ended in DQ, which again doesn't make sense because all of his matches are supposed to be under "Raven's Rules" which is specifically no DQ and they even said at the beginning of the match that it was a Raven's Rules match. "Remember, when you watch WCW, you have to leave your brain somewhere else," Dave says.
- On WCW Thunder, Chris Jericho did a hilarious interview, calling his fans "Jerichoholics" and the phrase was already over at house shows by the end of the week, with fans holding signs for it.
- Turns out Erik Watts was still under WWF contract up until last week, even though they haven't used him in about 2 years. But he was just finally given his release last week and is now training at the WCW Power Plant and may be starting back with them soon.
- Madusa was married to Cincinnati Bengals player Ken Blackman last month in Jamaica. She's still under WCW contract but hasn't been used in forever.
- The Atlanta Journal Constitution ran a story on Bill Goldberg, talking about his football and wrestling careers. The story quoted Goldberg saying that the original idea for his gimmick was for him to be called The Hybrid or Hybrid Fighter, but they ran into some trademark issues with a clothing company called Hybrid Clothes so they just used his real name instead.
- WCW is running low on referees right now, with Billy Silverman out with a groin injury and Randy Anderson somehow suffering a serious neck injury that may end his career. That leaves Charles Robinson, Mickey Jay, and Nick Patrick as the only referees in WCW, although Mark Curtis should be returning soon.
- Vince McMahon wasn't the only one on TSN's "Off The Record" show this week, as HHH, Chyna, and Dok Henrix all appeared on it as well, and were asked about the Survivor Series match. HHH claimed that neither he nor Shawn Michaels knew about the finish being changed ahead of time. Dave doesn't know if HHH knew or not, but several sources have all pretty much confirmed that Shawn knew. Dok Hendrix repeated the story that they were worried about Hart appearing on Nitro the next night with the belt, which would have been contractually impossible. WWF already has lawsuits pending against WCW over contract issues and if Bret showed up on WCW TV while still under contract to Vince, it would pretty much make the case a slam dunk and cost WCW millions. So despite that theory going around, it simply wasn't going to happen (can't find video of this one).
- Ahmed Johnson was released by WWF stemming from an incident at a recent TV taping. Ahmed still had 4 years left on his 5 year contract but it was no secret that WWF wasn't happy with him due to his track record of injuries and injuring other people. At a recent TV taping in Dallas, he was asked to put over Kurrgan but he refused and walked out and never came back, and so WWF fired him. Ahmed claims that story is a complete lie and that he was never asked to do a job and never refused and says he was fired because he spoke up about the Bret Hart/Montreal thing and was on "the wrong side of the fence" in that issue (basically, he openly took Bret Hart's side and claims Vince fired him for it).
- Legion of Doom is going to be repackaged and Sunny will be brought in as their manager. Dave thinks that sounds like a bad mix.
- Speaking of Sunny, she and Luna apparently got into a backstage fight at the same show Ahmed walked out on. Dave doesn't know too many details but apparently Sunny had said something about Luna to someone else, but it got back to Luna and got in Sunny's face and threw her to the ground, giving her a bruise on her back. But both sides reportedly worked it out and squashed the beef later.
- During the Luna/Sable brawl on TV, Sable had a bit of a wardrobe accident when her tits popped out of her top. It got edited off TV but people were able to find the video on the satellite feed and it spread around the internet (good luck googlers, maybe you'll have better luck than me). A lot of people seem to believe it was intentional.
- They also edited a Steve Austin promo on the show. There were a lot of jump cuts because they edited out parts of the promo where Austin talked about giving the stunner to Chyna. Apparently they got a little squeamish about the angle at the recent PPV where Austin gave her the stunner. So they edited out where he talked about it and although they hinted at it on TV, they never showed it. We're not quite comfortable with man-on-woman violence in WWF just yet...
- HHH re-injured his knee training and had a meeting with Dr. James Andrews to get it looked at. He appeared at weekend houses hows but didn't wrestle and they're doing a lawsuit angle saying that DX is suing Austin for attacking Chyna to explain why he's not wrestling and why Shawn isn't around.
- On Raw, they did a gimmick where Goldust totally dressed as his father Dusty Rhodes, complete with fake scars on his arm and forehead. He wrestled Bradshaw and did all the Dusty spots and then actually told Bradshaw to start bumping for him and said "You better let me beat you up." It's believed Goldust will be portraying Ric Flair next week.
- John Tenta had a WWF tryout last week and did a good enough job that he is going to be hired and given a new gimmick.
- Shawn Michaels is said to be a definite to wrestle at Wrestlemania. Within the locker room, nobody believes that his back injury is as bad as he claims, although even if it was, nobody would believe it given his track record. Apparently, when he missed the PPV last week because he was ordered to stay in bed, he was actually out riding motorcycles with a friend of his, so...yanno. Michaels is expected to take some time off after Wrestlemania.
- Wrestler Matt Bloom, who was recently hired, may end up with a gimmick where they say he's George "The Animal" Steele's son.
- Del Wilkes (The Patriot) has been released due to his injuries (he quietly retired soon after).
- WWF has given developmental contracts to both Erin O'Grady (later Crash Holly) and Vic Grimes.