April 13, 1998
- Antonio Inoki wrestled his alleged final match this week and officially retired at a huge show in the Tokyo Dome in front of a crowd announced as 70,000 fans (though Dave says you simply can't pack that many people in the Tokyo Dome so the actual number is less than that, but it was legit sold out) and a gate of around $7 million (plus another $2.6 million in merch). Add in the TV rights they were paid and the show generated more than $10 million. Muhammad Ali appeared at the show, lighting a ceremonial torch and handing it to Inoki as he made his entrance. Several other historical wrestling figures who have been associated with Inoki throughout his career were also there. The show received worldwide coverage, including USA Today and CNN here in America. From here, Dave goes into a MUCH more in-depth recap of Inoki's life and career than he did last week. His early life in Brazil, training with Rikidozan alongside Giant Baba, the formation of NJPW, the bitter war with AJPW, the shoot fight with Ali, his 1983 embezzlement scandal, jumping into politics and surviving an assassination attempt in 1989, meetings with Fidel Castro, his role in negotiating the release of Japanese hostages in Iraq, another financial scandal in the early 90s, organizing the 1995 North Korea shows that "drew" the largest crowds of all time, and the legacy of things that Inoki innovated or popularized in wrestling (interpromotional angles, mixed martial arts, worked shoot angles, etc.). Point being, Inoki's life story is worthy of multiple books. Oh, as for the show itself, Inoki defeated Don Frye in the main event and Tatsumi Fujinami also won the IWGP title for a record 5th time in the semi-main event (as huge as this was, for some reason I can't find video anywhere. Maybe my google-fu sucks today).
- Wrestlemania 14 is expected to wind up as one of the biggest money shows in the history of pro wrestling. The buyrate is estimated to be between 1.76 and 2.27 depending on who you believe, which when you consider the price of PPV is looking to be huge money for WWF and their biggest buyrate in a long time (things are starting to come up Milhouse for WWF).
- The Monday night ratings war is getting interesting now that WWF has closed the gap and ratings records are being set nearly every other week. Nitro just barely beat Raw this week but WCW's 80+ week winning streak is definitely in danger (I believe WWF finally beats them next week).
- Pro wrestling was part of another negative front page New York Times story this week, which was also published in newspapers throughout the country. The article was about TV ratings going up while good taste plummets. Along with wrestling, the article also talked about shows like Comedy Central's new hit show South Park, the WB's Dawson's Creek, and the Jerry Springer Show. WCW has been frequently annoyed by this sort of news coverage because they often get lumped into the same category as WWF, despite WCW not being nearly as violent or lewd and adult themed as WWF.
- Pretty much none of the other promotions in Japan ran any big angles or matches this week because of all the Inoki retirement media coverage. They realized that anything they did would be lost in the shuffle of all the Inoki publicity, so they all pretty much just kept quiet.
- Rob Van Dam won the ECW TV Title from Bam Bam Bigelow last week in a match that many said was by far the best ECW match of the year (he would hold on to that title for the next 700 days and become the longest reigning champion of any title in ECW history).
- Shane Douglas isn't fully healed from the recent elbow surgery and apparently the healing has gone so poorly that he will need another surgery in May, so they're working an angle with he and Taz which is expected to lead to Taz injuring Douglas for awhile. While he's out, Douglas will be joining Joey Styles on commentary.
- Sandman's frankensteiner off the top rope will be renamed the Drunkensteiner.
- "Joel Gertner is awesome." That's it. That got its own line from Dave. He's not wrong.
- Randy Savage reportedly suffered a torn ACL in the match with Sting that was mentioned last week. They did an angle with him on Nitro to explain why he wasn't there. He's expected to get surgery that will probably keep him out for 6 months or more. Savage was scheduled to face Sting at the Spring Stampede PPV next week and is expected to be there, but it'll probably be some kind of an angle. It was believed Savage was booked to win the title from Sting but given the injury, that's obviously out the window now. They're waiting on Eric Bischoff to get back from Japan (he was at the Inoki show) to make a decision on what to do (Savage still works the match and even wins the title but he does it basically on one leg. Finally has the surgery in June and is out for almost a year. But yes, Savage works on a torn ACL for the next 2 months).
- Speaking of Scott Hall, it's no secret that he and Nash are wanting out of WCW. Apparently they have gotten "informal word" (gotta be careful about contract tampering) that if they can somehow get out of their WCW contracts, there would be a $1.5 million-per-year deal waiting for each of them in WWF. But they still have almost 4 years left on their WCW deals, so that's unlikely.
- It's expected that Goldberg may feud with Steve McMichael over who gets the 4th spot in the new Four Horsemen group they're talking about creating, with Goldberg ultimately getting the gig. The idea is to create a new Horsemen made up of Ric Flair, Lex Luger, Dean Malenko, and Goldberg and have them managed by Arn Anderson. They're also talking about creating a Canadian group of Bret Hart, Jim Neidhart, Davey Boy Smith, and Chris Benoit to feud with the Horsemen. Dave thinks they should just scrap the Canadian group idea and make the new Horsemen be Flair, Goldberg, Benoit, and Hart (holy shit what a group that would have been).
- Hulk Hogan's real nephew Horace Boulder should be starting with WCW soon. Dave says he can't wait until Hogan's son Nick turns 18 so they can hire him too and make him cruiserweight champion or something.
- Dennis Rodman is expected to work the WCW Bash at the Beach PPV since he still has 1 match left on his 3-match WCW contract.
- Bischoff did an online chat this week, answering fan questions and whatnot. Of note, he strongly denied that Ultimate Warrior would ever work in WCW (Dave doesn't know if that's true or not but he did hear rumors that Bischoff's meeting with Warrior didn't go well so it might be true).
- When the subject of Sean Waltman came up, Bischoff was brutally honest and had this to say: "I hired Sean Waltman because of Hall and Nash. And I basically terminated Scan Waltman because of a combination of Hall and Nash, and Waltman's neck injury. Both Scott Hall and Kevin Nash have a track record, both in the WWF and here in WCW of being fairly disruptive in the locker room. I made it clear to Scott Hall on the very first day he came back that one of the things I was most proud and protective of in WCW was that the locker room and the production team was a pretty positive environment. Not to say there weren't problems from time to time, but by and large our locker room is a positive place to be. I pointed that out to Scott Hall because of his track record in the WWF and told him I didn't want him to bring that over to WCW. I brought Sean Waltman in more as a gesture to Kevin and Scott in an effort to create a positive environment and to make them as comfortable as possible. I thought that might be a way to help achieve that. Because of what I consider to be negative and disruptive behavior on their part, it became clear to me that there was nothing I could do to create a positive environment for them, and in light of the fact that Waltman was down with injuries more than he was able to work while with WCW, it no longer made sense to carry one of their friends under contract when it served absolutely no purpose. Had Sean been healthy and able to perform, I probably wouldn't have cut him loose. In light of his neck injury, it was a decision I felt it was time to make."
- Latest on Shawn Michaels: he never went to see a doctor after his Wrestlemania match so it doesn't look like he aggravated the injury, which was a concern. He went into the match with 2 herniated discs. Shawn is expected to take some time off to heal up "and hopefully get his other problems under control." Dave says that in the weeks up to Mania, people backstage were calling him "Louie" as a reference to Louie Spicolli since his pill problem is getting so bad. There's no timetable on how long he'll be out. If rest and rehab doesn't work, he may need back surgery which will keep him out much longer.
- Earl Hebner is still hospitalized in ICU after suffering a brain aneurysm the night before Wrestlemania. Word is he's starting to get his memory back, as he was unable to recognize friends and family initially.
- WWF has no plans to use Mike Tyson again now that the angle has wrapped up. At the post-WM press conference, Tyson referred to Michaels as "Steve Michaels" which is up there with his Royal Rumble promo calling Austin "Cold Stone Steve Austin."
- Butterbean still has one contracted appearance left in WWF, though it's unknown when they'll bring him back (in about a year...)
- John Tenta is being brought back to WWF, but will likely be given a new gimmick as a masked wrestler.