November 09, 1998
- In a major political stunner, Jesse Ventura has won the election for governor of Minnesota. He was a distant 3rd in the polls literally up until the day of the election. In most political circles in Minnesota, his candidacy was considered something of a joke but he proved to be extremely popular among young voters who felt he was a protest vote (running as a 3rd party candidate). His campaign was often controversial and colorful, and at points, Ventura advocated legalizing marijuana and prostitution. Mostly, he came off as a straight shooter as opposed to typical politicians and his charisma carried him to victory. In America, Ventura is the only major pro wrestling star to be elected to a political office of this level. In Japan, Antonio Inoki severed for 6 years in the Japanese Senate and currently Hiroshi Hase is a senator and is well respected enough that he'll likely have a long political career. But in the U.S., this is pretty unprecedented.
- For the first time in several years, it's undeniable that WCW is now trailing behind WWF. Relying on Hulk Hogan's fading star power and the failure to create new stars is finally catching up to them. WWF is winning the ratings battle most weeks. They've won the PPV buyrate for the last few months, including a random In Your House PPV doing bigger numbers than Halloween Havoc, which is one of WCW's top PPVs and featured the heavily-hyped Hogan/Warrior match. And it's almost objectively impossible to deny that Raw is simply a better show these days. Dave says once again that WCW is still riding the wave of success from 1997 but that wave is fading, while WWF is creating new waves of success. But don't count WCW out yet. Tickets went on sale for upcoming Nitros in December in 2 different stadiums and ticket sales are through the roof, even outpacing the Georgia Dome show earlier this year. But aside from those 2 shows, house show business is starting to stagnate. In WCW, most of the top stars don't work house shows and often end up no-showing even if they are booked and advertised, whereas in WWF, everyone from the world champion to the prelim guys are booked for every show.
- Speaking of the Halloween Havoc buyrate, early estimates are a 0.78 which is an absolute disaster and proves what everyone knew all along about Warrior and doesn't look good for Hogan either. In fact, every WCW PPV since July has performed below expectations, although none to this level, and Hogan main-evented all of them, which should put an end to anyone claiming Hogan is still as big of a draw as Steve Austin. In fact, WCW spending a bunch of money on big names to draw buyrates (Dennis Rodman, Karl Malone, Jay Leno, and now Warrior) have all been flops in one way or another. The Rodman/Malone PPV did a strong buyrate but was still not enough to make it worth what those two men were paid. Oh yeah, speaking of Rodman...
- Dennis Rodman filed a lawsuit against WCW this week, claiming he was defrauded in contract negotiations for the Bash at the Beach PPV. The details are scarce but basically, Rodman claims he was guaranteed a certain amount (Dave has heard $750K and $1.5M but isn't sure which is accurate) plus 50% of all revenue beyond the average $3.9 million that WCW usually draws. However, the contract Rodman signed actually said it had to be any revenue over $5 million, not $3.9. It all gets a little confusing, but TL;DR: Rodman claims WCW still owes him $550,000. Dave thinks Rodman has a lot of nerve to sue them, considering he no-showed the Georgia Dome Nitro right before the PPV and then showed up to the actual PPV so drunk that he could barely stand, much less wrestle.
- ECW's November to Remember PPV is in the books and Dave starts this review by first looking at the situation of the company. They're far too big to be considered a small-time company but they're too small to compete with WWF and WCW (Paul Heyman later said the same thing: "We were too big to be small and too small to be big."). This presents problems. They'll never have the budget to produce a product like WWF or WCW does and because of that, they'll always lose talent to those companies. But they can't survive at this level by presenting a minor league product either. They're just not in a position that they can truly compete on PPV and that was especially proven with this PPV, which Dave says has to be one of the low points in ECW history. Bad matches, bad booking, bad luck...it all just went wrong and everybody backstage knew it. Dave also talks about how they are having to pay a significant amount of money for TV exposure in New York and how ECW depends on merch sales to keep the company solvent and talks about how there are a lot of costs that are adding up. They're also planning to expand into other markets, especially Chicago in 1999, and once they have that exposure, the plan is to push RVD as the top babyface of the company. There's a lot more to this, but in short....all the stuff Dave is writing about here ends up being what ultimately puts ECW out of business. They basically outgrew themselves.
- Backstage news from the ECW PPV: just days before the show, Bam Bam Bigelow agreed to a 3-year deal with WCW and word is WCW heavily pressured Bigelow to no-show the ECW show (where he was in the main event). To his credit, Bigelow resisted and still showed up to honor his commitment but it's believed that was his last ECW match (yup). Former WWF wrestler Mabel was brought in to be the latest victim of giant killer Spike Dudley. And after plans to try to bring in Vader as Tommy Dreamer's mystery partner fell through, ECW went to the desperation well and brought in Jake Roberts. And what a mess that turned out to be. For starters, Roberts missed his flight, so ECW had to charter a flight, at a cost of several thousands of dollars, to fly Roberts in. And then he showed up, "looking like he hadn't slept since John Glenn went into orbit--the first time in 1962." He arrived at the arena literally minutes before the match and didn't even have time to change into his gear which is why he worked in street clothes. And even worse, he showed up in the dreaded "no condition to work." To make things worse, Jack Victory legit broke his leg during the match and it's being called a possible career-ender (not quite but it kept him out for nearly a year) that will require major surgery. The match fell apart due to it. Dave doesn't really talk much about it but I watched and Terry Funk cuts one of the most unhinged promos of all time at the beginning of the show. No video on YouTube, but if you have the Network, it's worth going to watch. Lance Storm vs. Jerry Lynn was the only good match, but the crowd didn't care and was only into Tammy Sytch as the referee, repeatedly getting down on her hands and knees to count in a short skirt. The main event was a mess too and it led to Taz, RVD, and Shane Douglas nearly getting into a fight backstage and Douglas eventually stormed out. Dave basically hated this show.
- Mitsuharu Misawa won a record 4th AJPW Triple Crown title by beating Kenta Kobashi in front of the largest crowd ever at Budokan Hall. As you would expect from those 2, the match is being reported as the best match of the year, but Dave hasn't seen it yet (he eventually does and gives it 5 stars and it wins the match of the year award).
- There hasn't been any wrestling news coming out of Puerto Rico after Hurricane Georges left the island a wreck. All shows were cancelled and all the foreign wrestlers left. Pretty sure wrestling there was wiped out yet again by Hurricane Maria just a few months ago and they're still suffering. Donate.
- WCW is sending Jerry Lynn Flynn to work with NJPW soon. Dave sarcastically asks, "Isn't NJPW lucky to have a relationship with WCW?" and then talks about how WCW keeps sending no-name lower card stars to Japan but says NJPW is the one who keeps accepting them (and in some cases, like NWO Sting, they actually make legit stars out of them).
- Guess who's doing another retirement angle again this week? Atsushi Onita announced plans to retire. But he's done so many fake "retirements" over the years that it has earned him the nickname Mr. Liar and has severely hurt his drawing power. So yeah, Dave ain't buying this bullshit (and as I write this, Nov. 8th, Onita just had his super-duper-for-real-I'm-serious-this-time-you-guys retirement match last week).
- Dave says there's basically been no real reaction to the NBC "Wrestling Exposed" show that aired last week within the business. Both Chris Jericho and Mankind vaguely referenced it on their respective shows but nothing beyond that. Everyone pretty much just seems to be ignoring it, as they should.
- More news on the Roller Jam show that will be on TNN. Word is the network is toying with the idea of having a wrestling lead-in for the show on Friday nights, although no deal is set (that would, of course, end up with ECW on TNN next year). Dave talks about the rumors of Dusty Rhodes being the announcer but says there's a couple of other real sportscasters who are the leading candidates.
- Bruno Sammartino was recently quoted in a Pittsburgh newspaper saying that today's pro wrestling is "an X-rated obscene sleaze show."
- Paul Heyman had talked to Vader about bringing him in as Tommy Dreamer's mystery partner for the PPV, but Vader turned it down because Stan Hansen told him it would be a bad idea politically since he's about to start with AJPW. They did agree to the possibility of Vader making some ECW appearances in the future so it's still possible he may end up there some day (never happened). Heyman also met with MMA star Frank Shamrock to talk about bringing him in, but they haven't reached any sort of deal.
- Notes from Nitro: 6 weeks ago after Flair returned, the Horsemen were the hottest act in the company, but WCW has done pretty much nothing with them since and they've lost all their steam. Scott Hall had one of the best matches of his WCW career against Booker T. The Giant is getting noticeably fatter by the week.
- Various WCW comings and goings: Jim Neidhart has definitely been released. Not sure of the status of Davey Boy Smith but he walked out at the Nitro tapings 2 weeks ago and hasn't been back since. Vince McMahon has said he has no interest in negotiating with him while he's still under WCW contract. Even if he gets free of that, the odds aren't great that WWF will bring him back. And Steve McMichael, as mentioned last week, no-showed last week's Nitro and also missed a few house shows afterward, but was back this week. Everyone in WCW likes McMichael personally, but everybody recognizes that he shouldn't be in the spot he's in considering how bad he is at, ya know, wrestling. Speaking of, McMichael is refusing to sign a new contract unless he is given a guarantee that he won't be removed from the Horsemen group.
- It's still looking likely that The Giant is heading to WWF when his WCW deal is up and there's a lot of rumors that a couple of others may join him (no names given).
- Eric Bischoff is still trying to pressure some of the midcard guys to sign new contracts, most notably Jericho, Guerrero, and Benoit. They have all been given roles on the show and they're not being de-pushed but Bischoff has made it clear that he won't push them beyond where they are unless they re-sign. Sort of the same situation for Rey Mysterio also. Juventud Guerrera re-signed a 3-year deal for somewhere in the $200,000 per year range.
- Sting has been removed from all bookings and is being given time off until January to sell the injuries from Halloween Havoc. Apparently the big reason is he's having some sort of personal family issues at home and wanted time off to work on them. Dave says it's basically the same family issues that happen to nearly all wrestlers who spend so much time away from home (Sting has talked about this before and became a born-again Christian during this time after confessing to his wife about adultery and substance abuse issues so that's what this was).
- Some of the Nitro Girls are going to be on an upcoming episode of The Dating Game.
- Bischoff is talking about creating another version of the Four Horsemen to feud with the current version. He's talked to Barry Windham, Tully Blanchard, and Ole Anderson for it, with possibly Bam Bam Bigelow as the fourth member.
- WCW tried to get Yokozuna to do a run-in during the Kevin Nash vs. Scott Hall match at Halloween Havoc and offered him $10,000 to do it, but he turned them down. Even Scott Hall called him up and tried to convince him to do it but for whatever reason, he just wasn't interested in making an easy ten grand.
- TNT is apparently considering doing a show called WCW Nitro Extra to air on Tuesday nights, at least temporarily. It's a time slot that was originally scheduled for NBA games but due to the NBA lockout, they're looking for stuff to fill those time slots.
- When Randy Savage returns next year, expect him to have a new look and gimmick (yup).
- Right now the big plan seems to be for Kevin Nash to win the World War 3 battle royal and then go on to face Goldberg at Starrcade and end the streak. "Aside from pacifying Nash, can anyone come up with one logical reason why that makes sense?" Dave asks. True dat.
- It appears Vince McMahon's wife Linda will probably make her TV debut soon to get involved with the angle involving Vince and Shane.
- A few weeks ago, Undertaker had a meeting with the entire locker room and basically scolded them to keep their drug use from being so public because he remembers what it did to the company back in the early 90s. Dave talks about how steroids are clearly making a comeback in WWF, but the real problem is prescription drugs.
- Notes from Raw: Steve Regal was awful in his match. Dave doesn't know what the deal was, but it was an embarrassment to watch (yeah Regal was deep into his own drug issues at this point). Vince gave Mankind a gift of the old WWF title belt all beaten up with "Hardcore" written on it (and thus that title was born). Dave recaps the rest of it and he enjoyed the show and it was exciting but you have to turn your brain off for a lot of it to make sense, and Dave points out gaping plot holes in most of the storylines. But at least it was exciting which is more than Nitro has going for it these days.
- Undertaker will be on an upcoming episode of Poltergeist The Legacy on the Sci-Fi channel in March.
- At a WWF house show in Tampa, radio DJ Bubba The Love Sponge did a run-in and gave Gerald Brisco a big splash. Bubba has also done some stuff with WCW in the past.
- Desmond Devlin (who I googled and is actually a comedy writer for Mad Magazine) writes in a long letter full of jokes. Let's just read it, shall we?
- Technically, did Eric Bischoff's talk show last longer than Chevy Chase's?
- Why does Alex Wright treat Gene Okerlund so poorly? Shouldn't he have warm feelings for a German skinhead?
- Did Jeff Jarrett get the idea for his guitar smashing gimmick from the lead guitarist of the Who? It must be, because every time Jarrett walks into an arena, thousands of fans say to each other, "Who?"
- Why was there such excitement over which top movie star would appear on Nitro when all-time cinematic legends like Terry "Santa with Muscles" Hogan, Roddy "Hell Comes to Frogtown" Piper, Kevin "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: The Secret of the Ooze" Nash and Marcus "Return to Savage Beach" Bagwell are there taking a rare break from Tinseltown each and every week?
- Does "3:16" refer to the ratio between Sable's original breasts and her current ones?
- How much chrome and fiberglass damage would be caused if Scott Hall scraped his house keys along the finish on the Nitro Girls?
- Speaking of Hall, when you say that his rating is +1.52, is that the Neilsen ratings, or his blood alcohol content?
- How many rooms are there in the mansion that's owned by the guy who sells Spanish announcers' tables to the WWF?
- Did an enraged Jerry Lawler attack Jim Carrey for cheap publicity, or because he was still irate about coughing up $8 of his own money to see "The Cable Guy?"
- Does Sgt. Slaughter spot Tony Schiavone sneaking up on the outside, and worry about losing his prestigious "hugest chin in wrestling" crown?
- Does Meng want to form the TWO...except that as the sole Tongan in WCW, he'd be the only guy in the clique?
- Where can I buy a "Best of Larry Zbyszko turning around the waving at the fans" compilation tape?
- Did you notice that the windows of Mr. McMahon's Corvette held up longer against the pressure of a cement mixer than Jacqueline's top does against Sable?
- When will the Leprechaun wrestler sue WCW for its biased refusal to push Irish wrestlers?
- Is it true that Rick Rude had a malignant lump attached to him until recently? I mean, besides Curt Hennig.
- For the millions of us suffering out here, when will the WWF finally provide badly-needed closure to the Marc Mero-Butterbean feud?
- If we all break down and simply concede that, yes Konnan and the Wolfpac are in fact bouty bouty, will he shut the hell up already?
- Does it bother Faarooq that he's less popular than Mr. Socko?
- When will Ding Dong #2 become eligible for the Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame?
- Contractually, how many decades notice must WCW give Scott Steiner before administering a steroid test?
- Now that they have Reid Fliehr with his Moe haircut, and Goldberg slapping his face like Curly, when will WCW get a Larry lookalike to complete the Stooge trifecta?
- Does the single most thankless job in wrestling belong to the poor guy who has to run the WCW tape machine, "in case the match ends during the commercial?"
- Desmond Devlin
- Jackson Heights, New York
- And finally, someone else writes in about Jesse Ventura's run for governor and Dave responds. It's pretty interesting to get Dave's personal thoughts on Ventura as a person and politician so, fuck it, let's copy and paste again. I especially find the parts about him "always looking for the con" interesting because it kind of explains why Ventura is basically an outlandish conspiracy theorist nowadays:
- In a recent newsletter, you treated as laughable Jesse Ventura's candidacy for Minnesota Governor and made it sound as if Minnesotans had gone crazy if they gave him 10 to 20 percent of the vote or more, as is predicted.
- I can assure you that most Minnesotans are quite sane and that Jesse Ventura is not laughable. He may not be the most sophisticated political thinker, but he is a straight shooter, can more than hold his own in a debate and can give thoughtful and original answers to political questions. He is a fiscal conservative but is very tolerant on social issues.
- Our other two choices are a doctrinaire Republican, and a deeply entrenched DFLer from a well-known political family dynasty. That Ventura was a pro wrestler both helps and hinders his campaign, but I'm voting for him. Get used to it.
- Mark Maire
- Duluth, Minnesota