March 09, 1998
- Sorry. I posted and then immediately deleted because I saw I fudged up the title. Then when I reposted it, auto-mod ate it or something. Speaking of the title...
- Trying a new experiment. How do we feel about the added info in the title? Keep doing it or go back to just the date?
- The combined Monday night audience for WWF and WCW set another all-time viewership record this week, each coming off major newsworthy shows. Over 6 million homes were watching wrestling that night. Raw featured Mike Tyson joining DX in a good angle, and Tyson seemed to be having the time of his life, but the angle got almost no mainstream publicity. It seems the sports media has already lost interest in the Tyson/wrestling connection, which doesn't bode well for Wrestlemania. Shawn Michaels, who supposedly has a severe back injury, was bouncing around the ring and looked perfectly fine and even gave Austin a superkick at one point, although he didn't actually wrestle. Raw also featured the return of the Undertaker to set up his match with Kane at Wrestlemania. Meanwhile, WCW featured Sting and Savage tagging together in the first ever WCW/NWO team-up, plus Bret Hart's return to the ring for the first time in 4 months, both of which were greeted with a surprisingly tame reaction, compared to the nuclear hot crowd WWF had.
- ECW's 4th ever PPV Living Dangerously is in the books. It took place in front of a sellout crowd of 3,700 people. The show was decent, some good, some bad. It showed that ECW doesn't have enough talented in-ring guys to compete with a WCW PPV, or the star-power and production value to compete with a WWF PPV. But if you're an ECW fan, it was definitely entertaining and creative, although if you're not already an ECW fan, it probably didn't do much to convert anybody and aside from a little more blood, it didn't offer anything you can't get from a WWF show.
- Other notes from Living Dangerously: RVD vs. Too Cold Scorpio was hyped up like they expected it to be a classic, but it was actually a pretty bad match that went for way too long. Dave says RVD is a great athlete with a great look but he's somewhat overrated by his hardcore fans, who act like he's the second coming of Shawn Michaels. Jenna Jameson (wearing more than Sable usually does on Raw) made another appearance, making out with Tommy Dreamer. The Taz/Bigelow match ended with them going through a hole in the ring, which was a creative spot. A pre-taped Sabu/Sandman match was aired in order to "buy time" to fix the ring. The match was pre-taped because they were afraid it would be as bad as their last match so they wanted to be able to edit it before it aired. They played it up as though the match was banned from airing because it was so violent but in reality, there was nothing particularly different about it from any other ECW match. As for the main event, they never fixed the ring and it hurt the quality of the main event. Sid Vicious was originally supposed to be Lance Storm's mystery partner, but the negotiations fell apart and it didn't end up happening.
- A lot of news came out of the TSN show Off The Record which featured Vince McMahon last week. The show aired 2 segments on back-to-back nights. The first one, Dave covered last week but the 2nd show came after last week's press time so Dave covers it here. Dave mentions some other stuff he didn't mention from the first show, where McMahon talked about not believing in giving creative control clauses to wrestlers, pointing out the problems they lead to in WCW. But he admitted that Bret did have a clause for "reasonable" creative control in his contract for his last 30 days. Whether Bret's refusal to go along with McMahon's plans leading up to Survivor Series can be considered "reasonable" or not is up for debate, but Vince felt it wasn't and claims that by refusing, Bret was in breach of his contract. When discussing the content of WWF, Vince said he didn't think anything should be off-limits other than guns, knives, rape, and robbery. Dave points out that the gun and rape things were already portrayed, both by Brian Pillman (Austin/gun angle and the Pillman/Marlena angle right before his death). Vince also said that "two guys in their underwear wrestling around is awfully boring."
- On the second episode of Off The Record that McMahon appeared on, they talked about WCW and Vince claimed Nitro has higher ratings because it's the most heavily promoted TV show in history and owned by the conglomerate that promotes it, which Dave says is a ridiculous statement. Vince also said that Ted Turner has never had an original idea in his life but is good at copying other people's ideas. When asked if he had any regrets about Hogan, Hall, and Nash leaving, Vince said no to Hogan but admitted that he might have some when it comes to Hall and Nash. He said he would take back Hogan on the right terms but he definitely wouldn't get into a bidding war with Turner for him. When asked if WCW's dominance over WWF was karma for the way Vince put the territories out of business, Vince said they put themselves out of business and argues that he was just a young kid trying to compete with a bunch of rich older promoters. Dave scoffs at that shit and talks about a show he attended many years ago where the NWA president Bob Geigel, who was running the Kansas City territory at the time, was in t-shirt and jeans with a plunger trying to fix a toilet at the arena before a show, while Vince was in his suit and tie and jetsetting around the country, buying TV time slots away from struggling promotions. Anyway, in the interview, McMahon also talked about the possibility of taking the company public some day, although he talked as if it was a long way in the future. He also claimed that, aside from TV ratings, the WWF "is kicking Ted Turner's ass." When asked if he regretted the Melanie Pillman interview 24 hours after Brian died, Vince said no. "I don't regret that whatsoever. The purpose for having Melanie on was because at the time Brian Pillman was a real free spirit. Brian Pillman was known from time to time to use recreational drugs, and it was thought at the time by his wife, that was one of the reasons why he died. So I gave her the forum to say, maybe everyone can learn from this, maybe everyone can benefit from this tragedy. And that is why we had Melanie on, to be able to say that about Brian. As it turned out, he had a heart attack and a defective heart."
- Finally, Vince was asked to play word association, where the host named some names and Vince gave his thoughts:
- Ultimate Warrior: "Lunatic."
- Eric Bischoff: "Don't know him that well. From his reputation, not a nice man."
- Hulk Hogan: "Not as big as he thinks he is."
- Bruno Sammartino: "A confused individual suffering from dementia, but one with a great reputation."
- Rick Rude: "Someone who would like to be in this era performing with the greats, but can't.
- Jesse Ventura: "Overrated at the time, and still is confused about his place in the history of the WWF."
- Kevin Nash: "A very fortunate individual that someone finally saw the talent and gave him the opportunity to be somebody."
- Vince McMahon: "The luckiest man on Earth. I've got it all. A wonderful family, the privilege of being in a company and doing what I love which is entertaining people. It's the biggest thrill of my life, apart from my family.
- Dave says Vince's comments about Sammartino are interesting because recently, there has been an attempt to try to bury the hatchet with Sammartino, with some in the company reaching out to him through third parties. In fact, in an interview recently, Sammartino seemed to be leaning towards Vince's side when discussing the Montreal incident. Vince and Bruno haven't actually spoken since 1992 on the Phil Donahue show, which Dave was also on (he mentions that the reason he was seated next to McMahon on the show is because Bruno had originally been seated there, but backstage he openly claimed he didn't know if he could control himself and not punch Vince's lights out, so producers put him on the opposite side of the stage and put Dave next to Vince instead).
- The future of Promo Azteca in Mexico and the situation with the Mexican wrestlers in WCW seems to be up in the air. Representatives from WCW and Promo Azteca met to discuss the possibility of airing Promo Azteca shows in the U.S. Negotiations went poorly and it eventually ended with WCW sending Konnan a letter saying that he and every other Mexican wrestler in WCW is under exclusive contract to WCW and can't wrestle anywhere else, including Mexico. Konnan was also told that he can no longer book for Azteca. This is obviously crippling to Promo Azteca, since nearly their entire roster is contracted to WCW. And it seems WCW has the right to do this. The contracts state that when signing with WCW, these wrestlers would be exclusive to them, but WCW was basically letting them work in Mexico simply out of the kindness of their heart, but they could pull them at any time and now they have. The Mexican wrestlers are said to be extremely pissed about it because even though they make more money in WCW, they're treated as jobbers for the most part, but they're headliners in Mexico and now they're not allowed to work in their home country.
- An upcoming Nitro in Minneapolis sold out in 5 hours, making it the most impressive first-day sales in WCW history. They sold nearly 15,000 tickets for the show. Then the next day, tickets for an upcoming Nitro in Louisville went on sale and also sold out in less than 5 hours, for another near-14,000 tickets. It pretty much destroyed every wrestling ticket and gate record in the city's history. Even by the current standards of how hot the wrestling business is, this is insane and Dave says the demand for Nitro tickets these days is more like the demand for major concert tickets.
- WWC women's champion La Tigresa in Puerto Rico was arrested last month for being part of a gang that traffics heroin and cocaine in a local prison. Four undercover police purchased around $400,000 worth of drugs from the group and then arrested La Tigresa, her boyfriend, her mother, and someone else on drug charges.
- In AAA, they're looking at bringing in former WCW jobber Barry Houston and giving him a male stripper gimmick. They want to put him in a tag team with Black Magic (Norman Smiley) with the gimmick being that Black Magic would act like his pimp (doesn't seem to have ever happened).
- Juventud Guerrera worked some shows in Mexico last week while still wearing his mask. He cut a promo explaining it by saying he went into hostile territory (the U.S.) and the promotion (WCW) "stole" his mask. Since the mask is licensed in Mexico (whatever that means) and he lost the mask outside of the licensed territory, the wrestling commission allowed that to stand and he's still allowed to wear his mask in Mexico. But of course, given the new situation with WCW preventing contracted wrestlers from working in Mexico, he might not be back any time soon.
- There's a lot of rumors that the working relationship between NJPW and WCW is coming to an end, as they apparently don't have any WCW wrestlers booked after May.
- There's a little more on the recent situation with Sunny cancelling an appearance for Dennis Coraluzzo and appearing at an ECW show the same night instead. As you'd imagine, Coraluzzo was none too pleased and complained that a local sponsor had helped fund the show mostly because Sunny was scheduled to appear. Coraluzzo wrote a letter to WWF threatening to sue. Coraluzzo actually knew a day in advance that Sunny wouldn't be there but he continued acting like she would be up until late in the show, when he finally announced to the live crowd that she wasn't going to be there. According to Sunny, WWF had given her a list of approved shows she could work, which included both the Coraluzzo show and the ECW show the same night. And for whatever reason, Coraluzzo was under the impression she was working his show, but Sunny claims she never agreed to it and wanted to work the ECW date instead. WWF sources dispute it and say that Sunny had agreed to work the Coraluzzo show but then backed out the day before because she thought it would cause heat with Paul Heyman (who, as covered before, fucking hates Dennis Coraluzzo). Sunny also had WWF approval to appear on ECW's PPV but they never approved her to appear on ECW TV the week before and they were upset about that. They don't mind Sunny working ECW house shows on her days off but if she's going to appear on their TV shows, they want to know about it beforehand.
- Speaking of the Dennis Coraluzzo show, it was actually an Eddie Gilbert memorial show. And in typical Coraluzzo fashion, he cut a promo during the show trashing ECW and saying that Paul Heyman had backstabbed Eddie Gilbert and basically stole ECW from him back when Eddie was booking for ECW. Dave does admit there's some truth to the fact that Eddie Gilbert was booking the promotion and was basically forced out by Tod Gordon, who then handed over the booking to Paul Heyman. But during the Eddie Gilbert days, ECW was deep in the red and would have gone out of business if Heyman hadn't come in and turned things around. On the same show, Sid Vicious worked and cut a promo talking about his recent no-shows. He claimed he no-showed an autograph show last month because they wanted him to pay his own way to fly in for it. And he say he no-showed Ian Rotten's IWA show because Rotten had called him and said the advance ticket sales were poor and not to bother coming, and then when he didn't show, Rotten went in the ring and cut a promo burying him.
- An Atlanta newspaper recently reviewed Abdullah The Butcher's House of Ribs and Chinese Food restaurant. They praised the ribs but said the Chinese food was just average.
- Newest gimmicks in Extremely Strange Wrestling: Natural Born Molestor, Karen Von Erich, Tyson the Cannibal, Disco Dragon, and The Rapist.
- Stevie Richards will be undergoing throat surgery in 2 weeks and is expected to need at least 3 more surgeries after that one. All of this stems from the original neck surgery he had awhile back (if you ever wondered why he has such a raspy voice now, there ya go).
- Dave says that ECW and the wrestlers deserve a ton of credit for the classy way they handled the death of Louie Spicolli. Sabu and RVD were pall bearers at the funeral, and Tommy Dreamer, Beulah, and Little Guido flew across country to attend the wake and then had to fly right back to work a show the next night, but they still made the trip. Paul Heyman allowed 2 of his biggest stars (RVD and Sabu) the night off for the funeral because they were so close to Spicolli. They also had a special trophy made honoring Spicolli in ECW and gave it to his family. They also had the 10-bell salute for Spicolli before a show and a they used the death valley driver on the PPV, which Joey Styles renamed the Spicolli Driver. Meanwhile, the company that Spicolli actually worked for when he died (WCW) and the company where he first became a known star (WWF) both did absolutely jack shit for him and no one from either company attended his funeral.
- Chris Jericho and Eddie Guerrero teamed up for a match on Nitro and Dave says it's a shame that WCW doesn't care about tag teams anymore because if they put those 2 together as a real team, they would be the best team in America by a landslide. He says Jericho is basically doing the Art Barr Love Machine gimmick these days and nobody knows how to work with that better than Eddie Guerrero.
- Disco Inferno had been using a version of the stone cold stunner as his finisher (calling it the chart buster) but now Ed Leslie has debuted as the newest member of the NWO and used the move as his finisher. Turns out WCW has told Disco Inferno not to use the move anymore because Hogan has insisted that the stunner be reserved for Leslie to use.
- A lot of people backstage were mad at Steven Regal for his match with Goldberg a couple of weeks back, where he basically sandbagged him and did some shooting on Goldberg in the match. But contrary to rumors, Regal hasn't been fired.
- On this week's WCW Thunder episode, they announced that WCW was no longer going to enforce the over-the-top-rope disqualification rule that has been a staple of WCW for years. In reality, they hadn't acknowledged or enforced that on TV for a long time now, but a couple of weeks ago on Raw, WWF made fun of the rule during the Jim Cornette NWA angle and apparently it touched a nerve because WCW is now doing away with it officially.
- More crowd trouble at a Lincoln, NE show for WCW. Chris Jericho was doing the normal cheap heat stuff of insulting the city and the Cornhuskers football team and it led to the crowd getting out of control and throwing stuff. Several fans were injured and 30 police had to come out and quell the crowd. WCW security later said it was the most misbehaved crowd ever at a WCW event.
- The original plan for the upcoming New Age Outlaws vs. Cactus Jack/Chainsaw Charlie match at Wrestlemania was for it to be a barbed wire match. But WWF scrapped the idea when PPV provider Viewer's Choice made their objections known, so it will probably end up as some other gimmick match (yeah, a stupid dumpster match. And to think, we almost had a barbed wire match at a Wrestlemania).
- Wrestlemania 15 next year is tentatively scheduled for Sky Dome in Toronto (nope, ended up being Philly).
- WWF will be holding another training camp soon. Among the names expected to be there are a guy named Paulo Silva who is said to be a 7'5 former Brazillian basketball player (he later became Giant Silva in the Oddities). Word is he went to work out at Larry Sharpe's gym and when Sharpe saw him, he contacted WWF and they immediately signed him to a developmental deal as soon as they saw him (Vince's big man fetish strikes again). It's also expected that Erin O'Grady (Crash Holly) and Vic Grimes will attend the training camp also.
- WWF is close to signing Mens Teioh, Dick Togo and Shoichi Funaki from Michinoku Pro (they would all briefly be members of Kaientai until the group was eventually wittled down to just Taka and Funaki).
- In an Ottawa Sun newspaper interview, Vince McMahon trashed Ahmed Johnson, saying was always injured and that he often injured others. He also said that Ahmed couldn't separate his character and was basically the same guy outside the ring as he was in it. Ahmed had been pushed so hard as a big star for so long that it had gone to his head, but he lost steam because he was constantly hurt and because when he was around, he was a terrible worker and fans saw that.
- More letters, more Bret Hart Screwjob discussion. Even 5 months later, it's still the hot topic. One guy points out that Davey Boy Smith got screwed over the most. WWF turned it into a storyline to make Vince heel, Bret got a lighter work schedule and a pay raise, Bischoff got to steal another WWF guy, Shawn Michaels got rid of his #1 enemy, Owen got a major pay raise to come back to work....Davey Boy Smith, meanwhile, had to pay WWF to get out of his contract and now he's in WCW feuding with Steve McMichael. A couple of other people write in, essentially calling bullshit on Shawn Michaels' alleged back injury and say he's just trying to get out of doing the job to Steve Austin at Wrestlemania.