Wrestling Observer Rewinder

October 19, 1998

The issue opens up with Dave recapping the Pride 4 event which was headlined by a rematch between pro wrestler Nobuhiko Takada vs. Rickson Gracie. Of course, that went about how everyone expected, with Gracie once again defeating Takada with relative ease, although not quite as embarrassingly as before. There had been a lot of pressure on Gracie to do a worked match and lose, which would have made Takada the biggest wrestling star in Japan and would have set them up for a big-money 3rd fight next year, but Gracie steadfastly refused to do a worked fight, money be damned. From here, Dave thinks Takada's best move would be to join Antonio Inoki's UFO promotion. The real story of the show, however, was with another pro wrestler, Alexander Ostuka who has wrestled in Japan for Battlarts. In his debut for Pride, he defeated legendary Brazilian fighter Marco Ruas by corner stoppage, when Ruas simply quit between rounds because he couldn't take anymore. It wasn't as newsworthy, but Dave says this was just as big of an upset as Buster Douglas beating Mike Tyson.
WATCH: Nobuhiko Takada vs. Rickson Gracie - 2nd fight
WATCH: Marco Ruas vs. Alexander Otsuka
WCW referee Mark Curtis (real name Brian Hildebrand) has been diagnosed with inoperable stomach cancer after he had surgery last week that was thought to just be cleaning up scar tissue. But during the surgery, they discovered the cancer and after realizing it was inoperable, he has been given anywhere from a few months to a year to live. Hildebrand had cancer earlier this year and had radiation and chemo to treat it and it was believed to have gone away. But the surgery revealed that it had returned. Dave recaps Hildebrand's career and says that one of the biggest things about Hildebrand is that he is almost universally loved by everybody in the business. Despite the diagnosis, Hildebrand is said to be determined to return to work at WCW as a referee as soon as he can.
Kyoko Hamaguchi, the 20-year-old daughter of Japanese pro wrestler Animal Hamaguchi, won some amateur wrestling championship recently. I'm only mentioning this because Dave says the plan is for her to follow in her father's footsteps and become a pro wrestler eventually, which is what he has been grooming her for. She's expected to participate in the 2000 Olympics in Sydney and then turn pro and likely become the top women's wrestling star in Japan. I looked her up on Wikipedia and...it never happened. Despite being a top amateur wrestler for years, Wikipedia says that the lack of a stable women's promotion (after AJW closed) kept her from ever being able to make the jump to professional wrestling.
Antonio Inoki was talking to the media in Japan and claimed that Muhammad Ali was the co-owner of his new UFO promotion and also said that U.S. President Bill Clinton had personally sent Inoki a letter congratulating him on starting the new company and offering his support. "Well, if you're going to lie, you might as well lie as big as possible," Dave says.
In recent polls, Jesse Ventura is expected to get 10-20% of the vote in the upcoming Minnesota Gubernatorial election, running as a third party candidate. It's expected to be the best showing of a 3rd party candidate in decades and some feel he could end up costing the Republican candidate the race because he would siphon votes away from him. Most people in Minnesota aren't taking him as a serious candidate, but Newsweek just reported that he's up in the polls and is actually a dark horse to win the entire election. "Now that's scary. But if it came down to Jesse the Body or Antonio Inoki for public office, I'd vote Jesse," Dave says. Wonder how this is going to turn out...
Raven was backstage at the latest ECW show but Dave says not to read anything into it. Umm, okay.
There's a big controversy about the latest issue of the PWI 500 because they didn't rank ECW wrestler Super Nova. Dave says most people don't take the PWI 500 seriously but there's a lot of people, even wrestlers who should know better, who get butt-hurt about their placement every year. The PWI people have said this is the biggest controversy in the history of their rankings. Dave says for what it's worth, Super Nova should obviously be on any list like that, and probably in the top 200 because he's better than most of the no-names on the back-end. Then just for shits and giggles, Dave rips apart the list, talking about how most of the people in the top 10 don't even remotely deserve it ahead of other, better wrestlers.
This week's Scott Hall drama (or as Dave calls it, "wrestling's next major tragedy waiting to happen") involves Hall's ex-wife Dana who posted a note on a wrestling website about Hall. She asked why WCW continues to use Hall as an active wrestler, despite him clearly breaking company policy repeatedly with his drug and alcohol use and arrests. She also trashed WCW for "taking every opportunity to exploit and humiliate his very real sickness as entertainment" and that the company is standing by and watching him destroy himself. She also says that she knows Hall has been under the influence and that WCW has still allowed him to wrestle when they knew he was inebriated. She also posted photos of Hall with his children and a picture of a recent mugshot from one of his many arrests. Dave agrees that the current angle WCW is doing with Hall, where he shows up "drunk" every week is pretty tasteless but that's the business. The website with all of this stuff was taken offline a few days later. (this is a really slow issue so I hunted down the letter that Dana Hall wrote. It's pretty heartbreaking and clearly from a desperate woman at the end of her rope.)
WCW is helping Scott Hall destroy himself - does anybody care?
WCW recently stated on the Oct. 5 Nitro show that they "did not condone Scott Hall's behavior, and that Scott Hall is a very sick man."
Although WCW states this, why are they allowing him to retain his status (which he so sorely abuses) to clearly break policies (stated as a breach of contract), and taking every opportunity to exploit and humiliate his very real sickness, as "entertainment"?
My question to them is "What are they going to do about it?"
Are they going to get him the serious help he needs?
If this is just a storyline and "not real", then how can they explain Scott's recent arrest, and the very public displays of intoxication other than in front of the camera? Although "recent" events on the show have been staged, the storyline they are portraying is in fact the terrible truth. Scott has had an ongoing addiction problem for 20 years, resulting in the destruction of his marriage and family. Is this entertainment?
Scott's stumbling around and vomiting on stage may be "fake", but what he is doing in "real" life is the same thing. Wrestling has just become "real" in the case of Scott Hall.
Scott may be "acting" out his addiction problem now on TV, but there have been many times in the past that he was truly under the influence and WCW allowed him to perform. This storyline is just a cover-up for their irresponsibilities and their failed attempts to try to rehabilitate Scott. Now they have decided to exploit his very real problem with his addiction to drugs and alcohol as a means of entertainment to the fans for profit and ratings, only to stand by and watch him destroy himself.
These stagings of a matter so serious are deplorable, disgusting and inexcusable. The wrestling industry is so twisted and sick, and clearly without conscience. It does not need to be this way. WCW has overstepped the line in this case, as far as I am concerned.
This is not entertainment. This is not funny anymore. The storyline needs to come to a conclusion. This man has two young children, who need him to get 100% well. They are being terribly affected by their fathers' behavior as well as the WCW's enabling and exploitation of it.
His children and family members (with whom he chooses to have no relationship with) do not deserve this pain and embarrassment for the public's "entertainment". Scott is obviously not rehabilitated. A 40-yr old man "keying a limo" is a definite "cry for help". Now he has added a felony to his list of on-going unacceptable, disturbing incidents. Scott has obviously lost all judgement, dignity and sense of what's right, and WCW has taken advantage of that.
This can no longer be denied or ignored.
What kind of message is this display of something so serious sending to children whether it be staged or not??? Doesn't Scott have a responsibility as a public personality and role model to behave in a decent manner? He is clearly abusing his status, intimidating and disrespecting people, breaking laws, hurting his family...and WCW is allowing this.
WCW clearly has had several reasons to fire him, but instead they made a meager attempt to try to rehabilitate him, and it quite clearly did not work, so they are just using him for as long as they can. It is inevitable that as long as Scott continues on this path, he will ultimately destroy himself. Is this what the fans want to see?
Scott needs to be urged in any way possible, by everyone, to turn his life around. He has already lost so much. It is very sad, especially to his children who need this man to be well, to be a father to them. He has lost so much already. I cannot, as the only responsible and fit parent they have, allow his children in his presence unsupervised under the circumstances. Can you imagine how hard it is for them to understand this mess and why their dad chooses to be sick, and not get well, for himself and for them? They need and deserve a "well" father - not a dad who's a wrestler. Scott will never be able to get well as long as he is a "wrestler," and exposed to all its sickness. It has fed his addiction and allowed it to grow for years, and now they are feeding off it. This is wrong any way you look at it.
I am begging everyone on behalf of his children, to help get Scott to a place where he can see this, and put himself in God's hands and find a way out of this living hell he has created for himself - a hell that the wrestling industry has greatly contributed to through the years and now chooses to exploit. This cannot be allowed to continue. My children and I have no peace in our lives as long as Scott remains sick and is enabled.
Addictions and wrestling have destroyed our marriage and our family, and are continuing to destroy my children's future, and their father - Scott Hall.
Something can, and needs to be done by the people who hold power in this situation and those who claim to be his friends - for the sake of his children.
Please speak out, as I feel in my heart it is the right thing to do.
Dana Hall.
Notes from Nitro: Dale Torborg made his WCW debut on Nitro and was terrible. The announcers talked about him being one of the best workers at the WCW Power Plant, which isn't a ringing endorsement. Dave wonders why they train guys for years at the Power Plant and almost never produce anyone worth a damn, meanwhile WWF holds training camps for a week coached by Dory Funk and Tom Prichard and they keep spitting out superstar after superstar. Dave says Judy Bagwell has gotten carried away with her new TV fame and came out looking all overly made up with a new look and she didn't do the show any favors by laughing on camera while her son was getting beat up. But that's what happens "when you let Nitro become amateur hour." He calls Scott Steiner "the human bicep." Rick Steiner cut a promo and ended up getting into a back-and-forth with the Chucky doll from the Child's Play movies and challenged the puppet to a match. It's all part of the cross-promotion for the new Chucky movie and the crowd haaaaated it.
WATCH: Rick Steiner and Chucky cut promos on each other
Barry Windham was backstage at Nitro and they wanted to use him but Bischoff decided against it because he wasn't sure if Windham was officially released from WWF. Windham brought the paperwork showing he was released, but Bischoff didn't have time to look it over before the show, so they just didn't use him. There's been talk of replacing Steve McMichael in the Horsemen with Windham, but Dave thinks Windham is yesterday's news.
Notes from Raw: Owen Hart came out under a mask in his old Blue Blazer gimmick from about 10 years ago. Dave thinks the WWF writers have lost their minds. As mentioned last week, Ray Traylor re-debuted as Big Boss Man, attacking Austin. And earlier in the show, Austin poured cement in Vince's Corvette in a good angle.
WATCH: Austin fills Vince McMahon's Corvette with cement
Despite rumors that Jim Carrey would appear on Raw (in character as Andy Kaufman) to promote his Man on the Moon movie, there's apparently no real chance of it happening. Jerry Lawler has done some interviews about it and he claims that the situation between him and Carrey is not a work, although he believes Carrey was faking an injury so he would have an excuse to be wearing a neck brace in public the same way Andy Kaufman used to. Basically, Lawler says if it's a work, Carrey is the only one in on it. Lawler also said that Vince McMahon and Kevin Dunn wanted him to talk about the situation on Raw, since it has become such a big media story, but the movie producers didn't want him to talk about it, so he didn't.
Steve Austin is reportedly selling more t-shirts than any entertainer or sports figure in the world right now. Dave gives some anecdotal evidence himself, saying he was at an amusement park this weekend and saw a ton of Austin shirts, more than anything else. He also saw a lot of Michael Jordan, Steve Young, and Jerry Rice jerseys and exactly 1 NWO shirt.
WWF is really pushing the Rock in the mainstream right now and are also trying to get him some acting gigs on USA Network shows "Silk Stalkings" and "The Net." Lol, the Rock as an actor? Pffft.
Chyna will soon be undergoing plastic surgery to change her face, in particular to soften her jawline and give her a more feminine look.
Lots of letters this week, mostly of people writing in wondering how WCW has managed to go off the rails so spectacularly this year. Basically, in 1997 they were the hottest promotion going and now, a year later, they're arguably the worst while WWF is busy firing on all cylinders and putting out great TV every week.