November 30, 1998
- The future of Hulk Hogan and WCW looks to be in jeopardy. The story going around is that Eric Bischoff and Hogan reportedly had a falling out over Bischoff's decision to go with Kevin Nash as the new head booker of WCW. Bischoff reportedly realizes that WCW has dropped the ball by not creating new stars and told Hogan that they will no longer be building the company and every major angle around him anymore. The plans with Goldberg are a sore sport. Hogan put over Goldberg in July but only agreed to do so if he would later be the one to end Goldberg's streak. But now it's been decided to have Kevin Nash end the streak at Starrcade. At one point, there was talk of having Nash win the title from Goldberg and then rejoin the black and white NWO "and possibly even hand the belt to Hogan" (the Fingerpoke of Doom, in discussions 2 months before it happens). That led to word that Hogan had quit WCW and was going to announce his retirement on the Jay Leno show this week. So that's the official story and the company is trying to play it as a shoot, even to the rest of the locker room...........but most everyone in the company thinks this whole thing is a work. Obviously, the quitting WCW and retirement announcement is a work since they plugged the Leno appearance on Nitro. But low morale in the company is real and Bischoff does realize changes have to be made and it's believed he has really decided to focus less on Hogan going forward and that Hogan's not thrilled about it. There's no one single head person in charge of booking right now, but Kevin Nash does seem to have the most power over what happens, with DDP, Dusty Rhodes, Terry Talor and Kevin Sullivan pitching in ideas also. (Just keep this in mind whenever you watch those shoot interviews and Nash says he wasn't the one booking when he beat Goldberg and then staunchly defends the decision anyway. He was.)
- There's also belief that much of this is possibly Hogan playing the political game. With WCW clearly on a decline, it makes perfect sense for him to get out of the spotlight now and then hope the company falls further without him. On the surface, to the casual observer, it will look like WCW needs Hogan and they'll be begging him to come back, at which point he has all the leverage. Hogan will probably try to keep his name in the spotlight with this silly gimmick about claiming to run for President. In the wake of Ventura's win, if he acts like he's seriously pursuing it, he would probably stay in the public eye while WCW flails about without him. Fact is, 1998 was a great year for Hogan's mainstream fame. He had big angles with Rodman, Malone, and Leno and for most of the year, he was still the biggest TV ratings draw until WWF overtook WCW with Austin. He managed to latch on to Jesse Ventura's moment in the spotlight also and is still milking that. So stepping away while you're seemingly on top is a pretty smart idea.
- Morale in WCW is at an all-time low, with no one trusting Bischoff and everyone grumbling about wanting to go to WWF. The Giant is said to be as good as gone. WCW offered him a huge deal to re-sign and he turned it down and WCW has all but given up on keeping him and are just jobbing him out until he goes. Chris Jericho and Chris Benoit have steadfastly refused to sign new deals even with huge raises. Benoit went on a WCW online show and made it clear he wants out. WWF would clearly love to have them both. Scott Steiner's contract expires next week but WWF reportedly isn't offering him as good a deal as WCW, plus they're worried about his physical condition (both with injuries and because he looks like a walking steroid).
- Shawn Michaels was told last week that his career is over by a back specialist. Michaels reportedly wants to return to wrestling in a limited role and is looking for 2nd and 3rd opinions. In the meantime, WWF brought him back to TV this week as the new heel commissioner. WWF wanted to bring him back and have him feud with Triple H and DX but now it looks like that won't be possible, so they're trying to get some return on investment since they're paying him $750,000 a year. He'd been kept off TV until recently for a number of reasons, mostly his behavior and how it affects the locker room morale. Things are going good and they're hesitant to bring in someone who's known to rock the boat. But they're paying him too much money to not do something with him, so commissioner it is.
- Masahiro Chono went to Germany to rehab his neck and it seems to have been unsuccessful and it's looking like his career may be over. He injured it in 1992 when he was the victim of a botched tombstone by Steve Austin (same exact move Owen Hart did to Austin in 1997). Chono never let his neck heal properly and kept wrestling and it's slowly gotten worse to the point that he had no choice but to take time off. Word is he may need major neck surgery that would make it impossible to ever wrestle again.
- The PPV industry released numbers for 1998 and it looks like the revenue from pro wrestling is estimated to be $178 million (driven by WWF, WCW, and ECW). The numbers for PPV as a whole are down from last year, mostly due to the lack of big boxing fights since Tyson is suspended, but they estimate it'll rebound next year when he is allowed to fight again. Tyson still proved to be a draw in wrestling, leading Wrestlemania to become the biggest revenue PPV in wrestling history. Dave talks about other events like a Spice Girls PPV and a KISS concert which did some small money and says wrestling and boxing are the things that drive the PPV business.
- Raw won the ratings this week but WCW closed the gap a little, mostly due to the terrible Undertaker/Austin angle with him trying to stab and embalm Austin at a funeral home. Viewers dropped out of Raw in droves during the show because of it.
- Christine Jarrett, the mother of Jerry Jarrett and grandmother of Jeff Jarrett passed away after complications from a heart attack a few weeks ago. Jarrett worked in the business since the 1940s as a ticket seller and later promoting shows in the Nashville area. For her whole career, she worked the box office at the shows in the Nashville/Louisville-area territory and later even up to the USWA era. Aside from the actual booking, she handled pretty much every business aspect of the shows. She's also responsible for getting Jim Cornette into the business, so we have her to thank for that.
- WWF's Superastros show on Univision debuted and the ratings ended up being below what the channel used to get in that time slot. So not great news. Dave reviews it and seemed generally uninspired by it.
- Dave has a 2-word review for the latest Minoru Suzuki fight in Pancrase, which he lost in 45 seconds: "Just sad."
- This week's mainstream wrestling news: ESPN Magazine doing a story on Jesse Ventura, New York Daily News doing a story on Superstar Billy Graham. San Antonio newspaper doing a story on wrestling focusing on Shawn Michaels and Jose Lothario, and rumors of a Gorgeous George movie in the works.
- Missy Hyatt is trying out to be an interviewer on TNN's new RollerJam show. She also recently quit her bar tending job and resumed taking indie bookings on the weekends.
- Chris Candido and Tammy Sytch are officially on a "leave of absence" from ECW for personal issues. They were supposed to fly to Japan this week to work a major FMW show and the deal had been worked out in advance through ECW. But they cancelled multiple flights, with Candido claiming his grandmother was dying, and realizing that they were going to no-show the event, Heyman made a deal and sent Sabu instead. Whatever the real story, ECW has pulled all their merch and is not advertising them for any future shows.
- No word on the future of Public Enemy. They were released a few weeks ago by WCW and there's been rumors of them coming back to ECW to feud with the Dudleys. Paul Heyman has said he'd be open to bringing them in for a short program but isn't interested in using them long term. Meanwhile, they're hoping to get hired by WWF but Dave doesn't see it happening.
- Notes from Nitro: "Ralphus is getting over huge."
- Randy Savage is expected to return to WCW soon with a new look and a new valet, which is his current real-life 22-year old girlfriend who is said to be a Pamela Anderson lookalike. "Three guesses on her previous occupation and the first two don't count," Dave says. (Stripper is the answer, in case you're bad at guessing games).
- Goldberg has opened a 27,000 square foot gym in Atlanta and is also training in MMA with Tim Catalfo.
- Warrior hasn't been brought in to the last Nitros or Thunders or the most recent PPV and it looks like WCW is just going to eat his contract and let him sit it out at home. Probably for the best.
- The WWF has purchased a 30-second ad spot for the Super Bowl in January for $1.6 million dollars. No word on what it will be about yet but Dave thinks it will have something to do with Wrestlemania.
- The Rock filmed his first acting role with a guest appearance on the USA Network show "The Net." (Rock later filmed a guest spot on That 70s Show and that ended up airing first, so technically The Net was the 2nd acting gig that aired but the first he ever filmed).
- Steven Regal was sent home from the latest WWF tour because he showed up "in no condition to perform." Dave says Regal has been a huge disappointment since signing with WWF (when they initially planned to bring him in to feud with Austin). He's got the goofy Man's Man gimmick, he's been injured, sick with pneumonia, had trouble losing weight they wanted him to lose, and now this.
- WWF is planning to release a Best of Jesse Ventura video next month, for obvious reasons.
- Dave talks about upcoming WWF merch. There will be WWF Beanie Babies and WWF cologne, in case you want to smell like a wrestler. They also made a deal to have their merch sold at amusement parks worldwide.
- Someone writes in saying that Dave is being a little bit of a hypocrite because he praises guys like Sabu and the WCW luchadors for risking their bodies for our entertainment, but then turns around and criticizes wrestlers for using steroids (thus also risking their health) for the same reasons. Why is one different than the other, he asks? They're both taking unnecessary and dangerous risks to get ahead in the business and the guy feels the risks of serious injury from the high flying style is arguably worse than the risks of steroids. Dave responds by saying...great letter, actually. He then goes on to give a long response with his opinion. Dave actually kind of agrees with the guy and admits that he's got a point and talks about how he was actually far more sad than entertained by the risks Mick Foley took jumping off Hell in a Cell. But he argues that a lot of those luchadors still have incredibly long careers (many of the top draws in Mexico are in their 40s and 50s and have been doing it for decades) but he admits that there has to be a line somewhere between entertainment and unnecessarily risky but he doesn't know where that line is. But Dave still thinks steroids are worse. Aside from maybe Plum Mariko, there hasn't been any wrestler in the last 20 years or so to die due to an in-ring injury. But plenty have died in part due to their steroid use. On the flip side, there's also wrestlers who do a risky style and because of it, they abuse pills and alcohol and that has led to deaths also. Dave really seems kinda torn on the whole issue. In the end, it's like all contact sports: there are risks if you perform it at a high level and you have to be willing to accept that possibility. "Mick Foley's hip probably isn't going to last as long as the majority of the roid freaks of the 80s and he is going to pay for his fame in his old age but he also most likely will have an old age." Also, one final interesting note: he also says he's more concerned than anything about the long-term effects of unprotected chairshots on the brain. 20 years ago and Dave was already banging the drum on this issue.