Wrestling Observer Rewinder

December 14, 1998

Only 2 issues left in 1998 and then I'm taking a month off. Wrestlemania week is coming up, I'll be out of town for that, and it just seems pointless to start 1999, only to pause for a week because I'm out of town right after it starts. So we'll finish up 1998 on Mar. 12th and then 1999 will begin on April 16th. Just gonna keep posting this reminder for the next few posts. Thanks for reading!
Another week, more mainstream news coverage for wrestling. ABC and NBC are both planning TV biography specials on Jesse Ventura. Dave was interviewed for the ABC one, along with Hogan, Greg Gagne, and others. WWF isn't cooperating with either so any wrestling footage will have to come from elsewhere. Ventura also got himself a $500K book deal. The book will be titled "I Ain't Got Time to Bleed: Reworking the Body Politic from the Bottom Up" and should be out early next year.
Rolling Stone did an article on Steve Austin that Dave says is must-read and was probably the best mainstream article he's read about wrestling recently and Austin really came off as a normal guy, talking about his childhood, his biological father leaving their family, his college football years, his time in USWA, WCW, ECW, and WWF. Austin noted that he still hasn't forgiven Owen Hart for injuring him at Summerslam last year which is why they never did an angle together when he got healthy. He said that he and Vince McMahon have a great relationship off camera. And on the flip side, People Magazine did a feature on Goldberg that was pretty much just a puff piece, but it did make Goldberg come off as a very humble guy who appreciates what he has been given and works really hard to be a role model to kids off-screen. Yet again, Dave points out how WWF heavily promoted the Austin/Rolling Stone piece, while WCW never once mentioned the Goldberg story and says it's just another example of WCW being asleep at the wheel when they could be capitalizing on mainstream exposure.
Just to show how well WWF is doing worldwide right now, they're finally starting to get some buzz in Japan. Vader, fresh off leaving WWF, has been a huge draw for AJPW on the most recent tour, as has Bart Gunn, who is being booked through WWF. FMW has been talking to WWF about hopefully using some of their stars and even NJPW is reportedly having some back channel negotiations with WWF. Of course, NJPW has to keep it quiet since they have a deal with WCW, but that relationship has always been somewhat fragile and WCW only sends them jobbers, never any big stars. WWF and WCW are only available through satellite dishes, so only a small segment of Japanese fans can even watch them, but WWF in particular has become somewhat of the hot new underground thing among hardcore wrestling fans there.
For the last 6 weeks in a row, WWF's Raw has totally obliterated Nitro in the ratings and the momentum doesn't seem to be slowing. While WCW seems to be on a downward spiral, don't get too worried yet. Nitro drew over 30,000 fans to the Astrodome this week, the 3rd largest crowd all-time gate record in Texas wrestling history. Dave says he doesn't understand how a promotion can draw this big of a live crowd and still put on such a terrible show. In 2 weeks, they'll be doing another stadium Nitro that will draw 30,000+ and next month they'll be in the Georgia Dome and will likely do similar numbers again. However, while WCW is still drawing huge crowds, those fans are leaving the shows often disgusted and pissed due to no-shows and advertised matches not happening. Nitro ended this week with fans pelting the ring with trash in anger after the last 4 heavily advertised matches never happened. Good way to kill off a town. Dave basically points out that while WCW business is strong now, they're still coasting on past momentum and the signs for the future aren't good.
There's been a big story going on with CMLL which is kind of caught in the middle between WWF and WCW. I haven't been really covering it too much because it's confusing and mostly boring. But in short, WCW and CMLL have made a deal for an inter-promotional storyline with WCW wrestlers going to Mexico and challenging CMLL guys. But on the flip side, several of CMLL's wrestlers have also signed WWF contracts to work for WWF's Superastros luchador show. So there's all this back and forth about who is allowed to wrestle who, since WCW and WWF don't want their guys facing each other, and what matches can air on which networks and all that shit. As a result, WWF is pretty pissed at CMLL for continuing to work with WCW and Vince McMahon has reportedly made the decision to "raid" CMLL and to try and sign away all of their top stars to WWF-exclusive contracts but it hasn't happened yet. Vince has also decided that he doesn't want any of the luchadors wearing masks which is obviously beyond stupid for a Lucha Libre show, on a Spanish-speaking TV network that is produced entirely to appeal to Latino audiences. But Vince gonna Vince.
WWF held their 2nd ever UK-only PPV last week called Capital Carnage and...not much to say about it. Dave hasn't seen it but was told it was basically just a house show-quality event. Sable teamed with Christian against Jacquelyn and Marc Mero. It was supposed to be a singles match but they didn't want Sable doing too much physical activity because she has a Playboy photo shoot coming up soon and they didn't want her getting bruised or banged up. During the match, she pulled Jacquelyn's top off, exposing her breasts. Steven Regal was supposed to face X-Pac but last week, Regal showed up to a show "in no condition to perform" and has been removed from all bookings and is reportedly in rehab.
WATCH: Sable & Christian vs. Jacquelyn & Marc Mero (video is technically NSFW at the end but it's so blurry that it may as well not be)
Giant Baba reportedly missed the 2 recent AJPW shows due to suffering from a bad cold. It's an interesting story because Baba is basically known as the Cal Ripkin Jr. of wrestling. From his debut in 1960 through 1984, he never missed a show, a record of 3,711 matches. After returning from an injury in 84, he didn't miss a show for another 6 years until suffering a broken leg in 1990 and then missed 1 show in 1992....and that's it. Dave talks about how wrestling is such a dangerous industry, with so many injuries and says Baba's 3,711 consecutive shows without missing a single one will almost certainly never be equaled. When Baba missed the 2 recent shows this week, it started rumors that he's dying or retiring, but Dave says not true, he just had a bad case of the flu and was actually back wrestling the next day. (Unbeknownst to almost everyone, Baba is in late-stages of bowel cancer and would be dead a month later. And was still wrestling!)
An indie promotion in Philadelphia did a match where the loser had to eat dog shit. Dave gives it 6 months before WWF steals the idea.
Insane Clown Posse is opening their own promotion called Hellfire Wrestling with the first show taking place in Detroit this month. They will wrestle under the names Hector Hatchet and Sewer Dweller rather than their rap names.
Dave reveals that he was asked to be a judge for the upcoming UFC 18 PPV (yup, he was one of the 3 ringside judges for that PPV).
WCW appears to be attempting another raid of ECW. Mikey Whipwreck has reportedly accepted a two-year $100,000-per-year deal and word is many other ECW stars have received similar offers. Even valet Chastity was given an offer and word is she's gone too.
ECW's relationship with FMW is up in the air right now. There was a lot of heat from FMW last month when Chris Candido, Tammy Sytch, and Bam Bam Bigelow all no-showed a major FMW show they were booked to appear on through ECW. Bigelow's no-show was because he was basically out the door and headed to WCW at that time. Candido and Sytch missed the show because, well, that's pretty much the sort of shit Candido and Sytch do now I guess. Either way, the show had to be restructured at the last minute and FMW wanted to be reimbursed for a bunch of non-refundable money they spent (plane tickets and whatnot) to bring them in. Heyman ended up sending Sabu to try to make up for it and a few other ECW guys are headed over next week for a few shows, but there's still tension between the 2 sides.
They did an angle at an ECW house show in Pittsburgh featuring members of the Steelers team in the crowd. Bubba Ray Dudley called out Steelers player Chris Fuamatu-Ma'afala, who hopped the rail and speared Bubba to a big pop.
Rob Van Dam recently moved from Florida to Los Angeles so he can try his luck in Hollywood.
The Giant was arrested in Memphis after a Thunder taping on charges of sexual battery after an incident that allegedly took place at the hotel. The charges were dropped the next day when other wrestlers came forward claiming they were with him at the time. The Giant was accused by a hotel clerk of saying "Do you know why they call me The Giant?" and then pulling out his dick and rubbing against her. They sent 24 cops to come pick him up because they were worried about what would happen if he resisted. (I remember this story at the time actually, it was in the newspapers and stuff here). A lot of WCW wrestlers came to the jail in support of Giant and reportedly DDP is pushing hard to convince him to stay with WCW.
An added note on Scott Hall's car wreck last week. It was actually his 5th in the last year. At one point, he wrecked 3 cars in a month, and 2 of them were within 24 hours. A recent newspaper article had an interview with Hall's ex-wife who talked about his multi-million dollar contract with WCW but she said she believes the only thing that will save his life is if he leaves the wrestling business behind completely.
There's still discussion of having Nash win the title from Goldberg, only to turn around and hand it to Hogan, and reforming the NWO with Hogan, Nash, Hall, and Luger. Surely they wouldn't, right....?
The reason the Stevie Ray vs. Konnan match at World War 3 ended in a DQ is because Stevie Ray refused to do the job for Konnan. No explanation given.
The reason Chris Jericho dropped the TV title on Nitro 2 weeks ago is because Eric Bischoff wanted him to sign a new contract right there on the spot. Jericho refused and so Bischoff decided to job him out and take the TV title off of him that same night.
Sting has recently signed a new deal estimated at around $6.5 million over 4 years. It makes Sting the 4th highest paid guy in the business behind Hulk Hogan, Steve Austin and Bret Hart.
On Thunder, a huge fan jumped the rail and got past security and tried to get in the ring to go after Eddie Guerrero, but he tripped over the ropes getting in the ring. Guerrero kicked him in the face as hard as he could and the rest of the LWO members in the ring swarmed him until security took him away. Since the show was taped, it was edited off.
ICP has left the WWF. They were upset because they were apparently promised a commercial for their Great Milenko album would be played during Raw but it never was. They also reportedly put up a fuss about having to take stunners from Steve Austin (I think Violent J has denied that in the years since and said they were actually super stoked about it but that it went wrong because Austin stunned the wrong one first and they weren't in position for it or something so it didn't look great). Word is nobody in the locker room was exactly sad to see them go.
Jim Ross' mother passed away last week while he was in England for the PPV. He went ahead and did the show but that same day, he began suffering severe headaches and had another Bells Palsy attack. By the next day, the right side of his face was paralyzed. He didn't do Raw and won't be on TV for at least a couple of weeks. Michael Cole filled in for him on Raw and he tried hard, but the difference was extremely noticeable, as Cole just isn't in the same league as Ross.
It's expected that Kurt Angle will be debuting in March or April, possibly as a heel, and will get a big push (not quite that soon).
On the Nov. 30th Raw, when Steve Austin was walking around backstage with a shovel looking for Undertaker, the woman he stopped and briefly talked to was actually Vince McMahon's daughter Stephanie (the first appearance of Stephanie on TV. Well, as an adult. Not counting the episode of SNME she appeared on when she was 9 back in the 80s).
WATCH: Stephanie McMahon first WWF appearance (around 1 minute mark)
Butterbean, the boxer, was on TSN's Off The Record and talked about doing a potential match against Bart Gunn. WWF has been considering doing something like that with Gunn since he won the Brawl For All tournament, either against Butterbean or perhaps a UFC fighter, but nothing has been finalized yet.
On the 11/16 Raw, Vince McMahon apparently wanted The Rock to actually bend over and kiss his ass for an angle, but Rock refused to do it (nearly 3 years before the Kiss My Ass Club was actually a thing, Vince was trying to get it to happen in 1998. Crazy).