May 25, 1998
- The back-and-forth between Vince McMahon and Eric Bischoff reached a fever pitch this week, with Bischoff especially acting completely out of control. After Bischoff challenged McMahon to a fight last week on Nitro, he spent the next week constantly taunting McMahon, who never responded on TV personally. But later in the week, McMahon responded on the WWF website and WWF lawyer Jerry McDevitt sent a threatening letter to Bischoff. WWF also complained to the cable companies promoting Slamboree, saying that Bischoff was attempting to promote the idea that Vince McMahon would be appearing on their PPV. As for Bischoff, he responded to all this with more crazy antics. On Thunder, he read the letter from Jerry McDevitt on air, and then showed a training video of him preparing for his fight with McMahon. At the Slamboree PPV, they even had Michael Buffer announce Bischoff vs. McMahon but of course, when McMahon didn't show up, Bischoff "won" by count out and the next night on Nitro, he continued taunting McMahon. Part of WWF's complaint is that they promoters say "So and so won't be there," the fans are conditioned to believe that the person will show up as a surprise. So even though Bischoff keeps saying Vince won't show up, WWF says that in itself leads fans to believe that he will.
- WWF's response has been varied. On the WWF Hotline, Jim Ross took things even further in the gutter by questioning how the Nitro Girls got their jobs, in particular singling out Whisper and hinting that he knows she got the job by sleeping with some Turner network executive (I'm sure Shawn would love to hear that one). On the WWF website, Vince McMahon responded by saying, "I consider Eric Bischoff's challenge a cheap and desperate tactic to increase WCW PPV buys. I will not do anything to help WCW increase their PPV buys. Therefore, I will not appear at Turner's next PPV as invited. However, if Mr. Bischoff is hell bent on fighting me, then such a fight can be arranged at any time, in any parking lot in the country, void of television cameras, photographers and public announcement." Man, how middle schoolish is this shit?
- In other interesting news, Eric Bischoff's personal secretary Janie Engle recently quit and will be taking a job with WWF. It's especially noteworthy because she's basically been Bischoff's right hand and has worked in the WCW offices for years and she knows all the good and bad dirt in WCW. She also has extensive knowledge of the contracts of WCW wrestlers. Dave says that unless something major changes in the next year, "the heart and soul" of WCW, as a group, are all planning to jump to WWF when their contracts expire in 1999 (aka, all the midcarders who are frustrated at not being able to break the glass ceiling).
- Dave gives a forever long recap of UFC 17, first noting that Jeff Blatnick was recently named new UFC commissioner and talking about that. Again, I'm not a big MMA guy but Google tells me Blatnick basically saved the sport during these dark ages by getting it regulated by athletic commissions and also is credited with popularizing the name "MMA" instead of "no holds barred" fighting which it was still called back then by most people. Dave also covers the signing of Bas Rutten, a rules controversy that allowed Tank Abbott to win with illegal punches to the back of the head, a day-of-show drug testing controversy, Ken Shamrock appearing in a wheelchair to sell his "injury" from being attacked by Owen Hart, and of course, reviews of each fight (including Chuck Liddell's first ever fight and Pete Williams upsetting Mark Coleman).
- Slamboree is in the books and was an average show. Scott Hall turned on Kevin Nash in the main event, which both Hall and Nash lobbied against, trying to convince Bischoff that it was a bad idea, but he wouldn't change his mind and threatened them with breach of contract if they didn't go along with it. Dave says turns out Hall and Nash were right, since there have been so many hotshot heel turns lately that it totally fell flat. Plus, Hall is scheduled to check into rehab again right after Nitro the next night and will be gone for another 4-6 weeks, so that doesn't really leave them anywhere to go with the feud. Benoit lost again, making it 6 losses out of the last 7 PPVs and the 4th time straight he's challenged for a title on PPV and lost. Dave basically implies that Benoit is being buried and then says, "If you're confused as to why, re-read the notes about the Pillman Memorial show closely and it'll all make perfect sense." No idea what he's talking about there. Benoit beat Jericho at that Pillman show, but not sure of anything that would lead to him getting buried. They showed a limo, implying it was Vince McMahon showing up to fight Bischoff and Tony Schiavone made a comment saying that you'd know it's McMahon if you see Jim Ross getting out of the limo carrying his bags. Dave says the extreme professional jealousy Schiavone has for Ross dates back to 1989 when Ross took over commentary from Schiavone and that it's no work. Schiavone really dislikes Jim Ross.
- Dave has re-watched the Misawa vs. Kawada match from the recent AJPW Tokyo Dome show and updates his rating. He originally rated it 4.25 stars but says he thinks upon second viewing, he underrated it and bumps it up to 4.75 and says it's clearly the match of the year so far in 1998, although not quite as good as previous Misawa vs. Kawada matches.
- NJPW's president is planning to meet with Eric Bischoff to discuss reforming the working relationship between the 2 promotions. The main issue appears to be the usage of the NWO name, which NJPW has phased out. They also are interested in bringing in WCW stars to work an upcoming Osaka Dome show. In particular, Masahiro Chono wants to bring in Dennis Rodman as his tag partner for a match. Rodman still has 1 contracted match left with WCW for $750,000 and it's unlikely NJPW is going to want to buy that contract out, since they're probably going to sell out the Osaka Dome with or without Rodman. So spending nearly a million to bring him in wouldn't be worth the investment unless the TV network decides to foot the bill and broadcast the show in prime time.
- Latest Sid Vicious story: after receiving $750 in advance to appear at a show in NY, Sid contacted the promoter the day of the show wanting more money in order to come, before finally saying he wasn't coming. Instead, he apparently stayed home in West Memphis, AR and went to a BBQ event (I mean, the BBQ here IS pretty great...).
- In ECW, Taz has been bringing out his own title belt, saying he doesn't recognize the world title Shane Douglas holds (this would end up becoming the FTW title).
- Ric Flair has filed a counter-suit against WCW, attempting to get a judge to nullify his contract which would allow him to jump to WWF. Apparently, Eric Bischoff has offered to drop his lawsuit against Flair if he will return to work, but Flair is hesitant to do it since he hasn't been happy in WCW for a long time. Speaking of Flair, he's still leading the vote for Time Magazine's internet poll for Man of the Century. To show how ridiculous it's become, Raven is somehow in 4th place.
- Ultimate Warrior has agreed to a deal with WCW and should be starting soon, though no word exactly when. It will probably be in July sometime, although if the ratings don't look good, they may rush it and bring him in sooner. Dave thinks he'll draw big ratings for a couple of weeks just for the curiosity factor, but after a month, he doubts Warrior will mean much in the ratings. Plus, Dave is pretty much expecting him to self-destruct in WCW and end up leaving on bad terms, since that's what Warrior always does everywhere he goes.
- Eric Bischoff has reportedly talked about dropping the tag titles entirely because he thinks tag team wrestling is old and boring.
- There have been discussions of doing a best-of-7 series with Chris Benoit and Booker T, similar to the famous Nikita Koloff/Magnum TA matches from many years ago.
- Darren Drozdov debuted on Raw using the name Puke and was introduced as the third member of LOD 2000.
- The Jackyl interviewed Howard Stern alumni Crackhead Bob and Hank the Angry Drunken Dwarf on Raw which was a bad idea because Hank ended up swearing up a storm and needed to be bleeped throughout. This led to Jackly introducing his new group, which will be a group of human oddities. Princess Luna (Vachon), Golga (which Dave mis-hears as "Gold Gut" and is John Tenta under a mask), and Giant Silva, the 7'3 guy they recently signed.
- Jim Cornette and his longtime girlfriend got married this past week in Las Vegas.
- Dave says the only chance Dan Severn had of getting over in WWF was for them to bring him in as a UFC outsider and have him destroy people in a way that is different from normal pro wrestling. They didn't do that. And Severn is floundering. Ken Shamrock has also been booked poorly but has managed to do okay for himself, but Severn just doesn't have the charisma to overcome the terrible booking. They're talking about turning him babyface, but Dave thinks they should just tie an anvil to his foot and throw him in the Hudson River to see how long he can tread water because the result will be the same.
- Shawn Michaels' back is said to be slowly recovering and it looks like he won't need surgery. They're hoping to have him back at the beginning of 1999.
- Steve Williams signed a WWF contract this week and will be starting soon.
- A 14-year-old girl named Nichole Pate made news this week after being sent home from school 2 days in a row for wearing a Steve Austin t-shirt. Since the shirt doesn't have any profanity or anything obscene on it, she felt she should have the right to wear it and the school disagreed. The story made the local newspaper and the school put out a statement saying that the student handbook forbids students from wearing clothing that has anything to do with drugs, alcohol, gang-related symbols or violence, and the principal told the paper that he thinks the shirt is a symbol of violence. The girl's parents are supporting her and her father pointed out that kids wear Dennis Rodman jerseys, saying he doesn't portray a good message to kids.