December 21, 1998
- Monday will be the last post for 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!
- Oh god. More than a year after it happened, this is yet another ABSURDLY long issue about the Montreal Screwjob. Strap the fuck in folks, here we go. Wrestling With Shadows is finally set to air in America this week on A&E and Dave is hopeful that it will finally put a rest to all the he-said-she-said bullshit surrounding what happened. All the mainstream reviews have been unanimously positive. Dave says he'll save his thoughts for next week's issue, and then proceeds to write two dozen more paragraphs about it anyway. There's been a lot of talk about what WWF's public response to the movie will be. It unquestionably paints Vince McMahon as a liar (since, well, he clearly lied) and there's portions of Bret's conversations with Vince that were recorded without Vince's knowledge. There's also footage of a dazed McMahon limping out of Hart's locker room after getting punched into the stratosphere.
- Dave goes into detail recapping all the different conversations Hart and Vince had (a lot of which didn't make it into the movie) discussing different plans and theories as to why Vince backed out of them. Bret Hart says that in hindsight, he now thinks Vince never intended to honor the 20-year contract and was planning to find a way out of it from the very beginning and only made the deal to keep Bret from leaving for WCW. Vince had decided to go with Austin and Michaels as his top 2 stars and didn't want to be beholden to paying his #3 star significantly more money than anyone else in the company. There's also the theory that McMahon promised Shawn Michaels that he would get rid of Hart after their backstage fight and Dave doesn't dismiss that theory either. Anyway, most of this is just recapping the post-Screwjob issue again, with some additional Dave thoughts on everything. It does add a lot of context to some of the meetings leading up to it and is absolutely worth reading in full. It also features a full transcript of the Bret/Vince conversation. I think this transcript is actually more than you hear in the movie. Some of the unimportant stuff was edited out for context in the movie, but Dave has the full unedited transcript in case you just really want to be privy to Bret and Vince's entire conversation, even the un-Screwjob related parts. Finally, Dave ends it on an interesting note: despite now having the biggest wrestling draw in Canadian history on their roster and coming off the most controversial incident in wrestling history that made Bret an even bigger hero there...WCW still didn't run a single show in Canada in 1998. Way to drop the ball.
- WWF's latest In Your House PPV called Rock Bottom took place last week and was a pretty bad show. Bad matches, bad finishes, dead crowd, 4 hours being too long for a PPV, Austin and Undertaker having a shitty match...you name it, it sucked. Random notes from the show: Mark Henry is now being referred to as "Sexual Chocolate." Tiger Ali Singh and his manager Babu were scheduled to be part of an 8-man tag match, but Babu got deported back to his native Ecuador last week because apparently he was due to stand trial for a crime there and he also didn't have his green card to be in the U.S. So he's gone. Owen Hart got the biggest pop of the show (it was in Canada) but then they booked Owen to be the chickenshit heel so it killed the crowd for the rest of the show and Dave feels like the whole point of the match was to use Owen to humiliate Bret (they referenced the screwjob throughout the match, even doing a spot with Owen in the sharpshooter). They had the stipulation where Debra was supposed to strip naked in the ring but of course, they covered her up before it got that far and Dave says there was no chance it was going to actually happen. Undertaker can still barely work on his injured ankle that he's never gotten fixed. Austin had a stomach virus and barely ate the week before the show. To make it worse, Austin took a bump in the match and tore an abdominal muscle and said every move afterwards felt like he was being stabbed in the side. He went to the hospital after the match and then missed the following TV tapings. So their match fell apart.
- There's been a lot of talk about the Austin/Undertaker crucifixion angle recently and how far is too far. Dave has the answer: too far is when it negatively affects business or when ratings begin to drop or when USA Network threatens to drop them. That hasn't happened, so no, it wasn't too far. Dave understands some religious people may have been offended by it but there was no real big public backlash over it. If anything, Dave thinks the angle with Austin pointing a gun at Vince's head while thousands of people cheered for him to commit murder was worse. The Hawk and Scott Hall drug angles were worse. All in all, Dave doesn't expect WWF to tone things down because for now, it's still working.
- WWF's Superastros show on Univision has been doing strong ratings, and now the competing network Telemundo is having discussions with WCW about doing their own Lucha Libre show. It had been discussed in the past, but Telemundo didn't want to do a show based around all of WCW's luchadors as the top stars and then have those same wrestlers be seen as jobbers on Nitro and Thunder every week. But the ratings for the WWF show changed their mind. If it happens, it's expected that the WCW show will be more like traditional Lucha Libre, with the masked wrestlers, trios matches, and using Konnan as the booker. WWF's show is basically just smaller Mexican guys in front of the same WWF crowds pre-taped before Raw. Aside from the Spanish commentary, there's nothing that differentiates it from any other WWF show. If WCW does the show, they want to cater it specifically to the Latino crowd and try to do their own tapings in front of Latino audiences.
- WCW trotted out a fake heart attack angle for Ric Flair on Nitro this week, because portraying the only enduring star they have as too old to wrestle is a great idea. Didn't matter. Raw still slaughtered them in the ratings and nobody bought the Flair angle. In fact, the heart attack angle wasn't planned until the day of the show, just in case you were wondering how much WCW is thinking ahead in these long-term angles.
- WATCH: Ric Flair has a "heart attack" on Nitro
- Giant Baba canceled a planned trip to Vancouver where he was going to attend the recent WWF PPV because he was hospitalized with the flu again. This comes just a few days after he missed 2 recent house shows.
- An FMW show in Japan featured a retirement ceremony for The Sheik. At the show, Sheik ran out, along with his nephew Sabu, and ran around the building throwing furniture, threw some fireballs, and chased some photographers with a big sword. You know, as one does at their retirement ceremony. Sheik was presented with several awards and was given a bunch of speeches, including by Atsushi Onita. Backstage, Sheik could barely move due to his knees and hips, but when he was in front of the crowd, he managed to get some spring in his step.
- WATCH: The Sheik retirement ceremony in FMW
- Sid Vicious no-showed a couple of events put together by Dennis Coraluzzo, along with some other indie shows the previous weekend. Due to the no-shows, the New York State Athletic Commission have said they will no longer allow any promoters in the state to advertise Sid for a show because more often than not, he won't show up. When the promoters contacted Sid, he claimed his sister had been hurt in a car accident. But everyone else who talked to Sid reported that he just spent the last 2 weekends hunting rather than showing up for his bookings, and then he stopped returning phone calls.
- Indie wrestler Corporal Robinson reportedly suffered a brain aneurysm at an IWA show after getting hit with some kind of weapon in the head by Ian Rotten. It apparently cut an artery inside his head or something and he had to be rushed to the hospital and had emergency surgery to fix it.
- ECW wrestler Mikey Whipwreck and valet Chastity are both confirmed heading to WCW. Word is Raven convinced DDP to bring them in and DDP has enough stroke in WCW to make it happen. Chastity is expected to debut as Raven's sister in his Flock.
- There's also rumors about Chris Candido and Tammy Sytch heading to WCW. Right now, they're suspended from ECW due to no-showing the FMW show that was talked about last week. On their own website, Candido and Tammy claimed to be on a tropical vacation. Dave thinks WCW would probably take Tammy, despite her bad rep, and they'd probably take Candido also just to make sure they get her. On ECW's website, Joey Styles said that anyone who believes Candido and Sytch are actually on vacation is naive, basically confirming that they're suspended. Candido was reportedly furious and swore to never work for ECW again. But Tammy still has a 5-year contract with them, although Heyman is said to be willing to let them both out of their deal if they want to go. Dave seems to have given up hope on Sunny but says he hopes Candido can get his life together because not too long ago, he was one of the brightest young stars in the business and he's still young. It's not too late for him to become a big star, as long as he doesn't let Sunny drag him down with her (spoiler: he did).
- Big Dick Dudley was released by ECW although they may bring him back occasionally to work some short angles. But they're no longer going to use him full-time. Word is WWF is interested in bringing him in for some new gimmick that Vince Russo came up with but no word if it's going to happen.
- High Times magazine is working on a story about Rob Van Dam. Because of course they are.
- Paul Heyman is looking for new talent. Among the names expected to get tryouts in ECW soon are Reckless Youth, Yoshihiro Tajiri, Antifaz del Norte, and Super Crazy. There looks to be some business changes in ECW coming up soon also. Paul Heyman will remain the owner of the company but is reportedly looking to delegate business decisions to a handful of other people so he can focus more on booking and producing.
- There's an ECW magazine in the works. If it happens, it'll be 6 issues per year.
- WCW is working on a huge deal that hasn't been finalized as of press time but if it works out, it could have potentially huge positive reprecussions for WCW (more on this next week).
- Eric Bischoff held a meeting with the locker room backstage before the 12/14 Nitro and officially informed everyone that Kevin Nash and DDP are now part of the booking team (remember all the times Nash has claimed he wasn't booking when he beat Goldberg?). Bischoff also scolded the wrestlers about going over their allotted time during promos and matches, saying it screws up the timing of the show. He also talked about big changes starting for WCW in January and once again emphasized that WCW won't be lowering themselves to the level of WWF and using vulgarity to compete. He said he believes WCW has the better show and WWF is only winning right now due to the shock value but that it isn't sustainable (Dave disagrees and says even putting aside the vulgarity, Raw is just leaps and bounds a better show than Nitro these days).
- The plan for Starrcade has been for Bret Hart to face Scott Hall in a U.S. title match, but Hart still has a torn groin that hasn't healed and it looks like that match may not happen (indeed it didn't).
- Goldberg has cooled off considerably in recent months. His merchandise isn't selling nearly as well as it was and he's actually been picking up the nickname "Coldberg" backstage. But hey, that's what happens when you have the hottest star in the world, put the title on him on the spur of the moment without a plan in place of what to do next, and then make him play second fiddle behind Hogan and Nash for 5 months.
- Dave seems befuddled as to why WCW has apparently decided not to help promote Wrestling With Shadows. They sponsored one of its opening screenings a little while back, but that's it. The show portrays one of their top stars as a hero and exposes WWF for doing horrible things to him. It kinda seems like a no-brainer that WCW would be pushing the hell out of it, but they've never mentioned it (turns out there's a good reason for this that we'll get to next week).
- Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage both had meetings with Bischoff to discuss plans for their return in 1999. There was an idea tossed around of having Hogan and Savage team up against Hall and Nash but Dave doubts that'll happen. Speaking of Savage, word is he is bigger and more muscular than anyone has ever seen him.
- Random WCW notes: Steve McMichael no-showed Nitro last week. Wrath has given his 90-day notice but doesn't plan to leave and he's angling for a raise. Sting is doing a TV movie called Shutterspeed.
- As mentioned last week, Steve Austin had some sort of gastrointestinal illness recently and was so sick he had to cancel all promotional appearances and couldn't eat for 4 days. He's still recovering but is said to be doing better now. As for the possible torn abdominal muscle he suffered at the PPV, no word on that yet.
- No word on Jim Ross's condition either following a second Bells Palsy attack last week. He's still suffering severe headaches and blurred vision and facial paralysis but it's said to not be as bad this time as it was 4 years ago.
- Notes from Raw: DX did a hilarious parody of the Corporation, with Billy Gunn as Shane, Road Dogg as Vince, X-Pac as Shamrock, and Triple H doing a tremendous Rock impression and Jason Sensation as "H-B-Gay." Vince McMahon announced that Austin will be #1 in the Rumble and that Vince himself will be #30 and put a $100,000 bounty out for whoever eliminates Austin. Rock worked a match and his gynocomastia "was looking really unsightly as he's almost becoming a man with breasts." (If you don't remember, Rock later had surgery to fix this and wrestled in a shirt for awhile after). And Andrew Martin debuted and is being given the name "Test" which is a rib because it's short for testosterone and Dave says they're basically naming wrestlers after steroids now.
- WATCH: DX imitates The Corporation
- Sable is going to be off TV for a couple of weeks because she's taking time off to train and get into as good of shape possible for her Playboy photo shoot. The magazine will be out in April. No word yet on whether or not she will be on the cover, but Dave says if they know what's good for them and they want to sell magazines, they'd better.
- The tag team of Too Much (Brian Christopher and Scott Taylor) are basically being given a gay gimmick and they plan to do a wedding angle with them at the February PPV in Memphis. Dave wonders if Jerry Lawler will be giving away Brian. Anyway, word is both Christopher and Lawler are heavily against the angle, feeling it could be a career killer (got scrapped and they later changed their name to Too Cool and the rest was history. Meanwhile, Vince finally got to do his gay angle a few years later with Billy and Chuck).
- Still no word on Shawn Michaels returning to the ring. If he's given the okay by his doctors, he's expected to probably face Triple H at Wrestlemania but that's far from confirmed.
- Bart Gunn is considering trying his hand at pro boxing. Speaking of, there's been talk of having Gunn face Tank Abbott in a Brawl For All match.
- Time Magazine had another internet poll for Man of the Year and at one point Mick Foley was ranking at #2 in the poll (Dave randomly mentions that Linda Tripp was #7, if you're curious). Anyway, then WWF mentioned it on Raw. By the next day, Foley was in first place and was tens of thousands of votes ahead of everyone else. Dave mentions how Ric Flair was in a similar poll earlier this year and WCW never mentioned it and says it's almost like WWF tries to get all their wrestlers over and promotes them in the mainstream any way they can, while WCW drops the ball on that every single time. Dave says he was talking to an unnamed WCW wrestler about how Goldberg's heat seems to have disappeared lately and the wrestler responded, "What do you expect when you have bookers in charge whose primary goal is to take his spot?"
- Lots of letters this week from people who are blown away by how great Wrestling With Shadows is. Yup.