January 11, 1999
- This ends up being a weird Observer because there's a HUGE obituary for Sam Muchnick and then the year-end awards, and those 2 things end up taking up the bulk of the issue. So the rest of the news is all consolidated into brief bits at the end. So here goes:
- Sam Muchnick passed away at age 93 this week and this obituary is absurdly long, but then again, Muchnick has a really interesting life story. For many years, he was the most powerful man in the wrestling business. He was the main force behind the creation of the NWA and was the NWA president during the glory years of the organization. He was widely regarded as the most honest promoter ever and was respected by basically everybody. He was well-known for never ripping off his wrestlers and Dave relates a story in the 1950s where a show was cancelled due to issues beyond his control and Muchnick still tried to pay all the wrestlers who had made the trip for the show out of his own pocket and they all refused the money. Dave just recounts story after story about Muchnick, showing why he was so respected by everyone and why wrestlers were so loyal to him in return. I really can't do this obit justice, it's worth reading the whole thing in full if you're interested in that sort of thing. It basically doubles as a history of the NWA, from the formation, the glory days with Lou Thesz on top, the worldwide expansion of the NWA and how Muchnick ran things as NWA president, trying to get Buddy Rogers to do a job to Lou Thesz which directly led to the formation of the WWWF (later shortened to WWF and later changed to WWE due to panda interference), how the formation of AJPW and NJPW affected the NWA, how Muchnick was essentially forced out of the NWA presidency by Fritz Von Erich and Eddie Graham, who wanted the power for themselves and used it to benefit their own territories rather than the NWA as a whole, etc.
- Then it goes into the history of St. Louis wrestling, with Muchnick at the head, and how it was different from everything else because it was treated as a real sport. "It was the last city where wrestling didn't prostitute itself," said Ric Flair. Eventually, like everyone else, they were run down and out of business by Vince McMahon, but by then, Muchnick had all but retired anyway. Lots of quotes from people talking about how the business might have been different if Muchnick was younger, saying that by the time the 80s came about and cable TV and PPV made national expansion possible, Muchnick was already in his 70s and was pretty much done. But they say that if he had been younger, he probably would have beaten Vince to the punch. Anyway, neither WWF or WCW acknowledged his death because of course they didn't, but nobody shaped the wrestling industry more than Sam Muchnick and he did it while still being respected as an honest and good man all the way to the end. Once again, I can't recommend reading this one enough, it's worth the subscription price.
- So yeah....1998 was pretty clearly a banner year for WWF and Steve Austin in particular. And now, all the rest of the news is kept pretty brief, so don't expect too much else here. But we do have 3 world title changes from the 3 biggest wrestling promotions.
- Mankind won the WWF title on Raw, in a show that was taped the week before. WWF heavily promoted the title change on their website before the show, correctly assuming that no one would care it was taped and would boost ratings. The title change happened when Austin did a run-in and bashed the Rock with a chair (arguably the biggest pop EVER). Interesting note, that wasn't the original planned finish. Austin wasn't supposed to be on the show at all, since he's being kept out right now to recover from his abdominal tear, but they flew him in to do some filming for the WWF's upcoming Super Bowl commercial and decided to involve him in the finish since he was there.
- On Nitro, WCW decided to put the title back on Hulk Hogan after an angle where Kevin Nash challenged him to a match and then laid down for Hogan after a fingerpoke to the chest. They all got up laughing and the idea is to form a new, more exclusive version of the NWO. Fans shit all over the ending, and not in the good boo-the-heel type of way. Dave says the whole Nitro show was a disaster and it would take a full issue to explain all the reasons why. Twice during Nitro, "the chimpanzees running WCW" instructed Tony Schiavone to reveal that Mick Foley would be winning the WWF title on Raw. "Nitro was beyond awful and he was telling people there's a world title change going to happen on the other channel? Who runs this circus?" Dave wonders. Schiavone also trashed Foley, with the famous butts-in-seats comment and Dave says considering how universally respected Foley is, that was pretty low. Even though Raw was taped, the commentary was done live, and on Raw, they responded with Michael Cole saying that they weren't going to have a main event that starts 2 minutes before the show ends and doesn't feature any wrestling.
- In NJPW, Keiji Muto won the IWGP title from Scott Norton in the main event of the Jan. 4th Tokyo Dome show. They show had a HUGE last minute walk-up audience and ended up being a legit sellout with an estimated $5.3 million at the gate which was a pleasant surprise given how slow ticket sales started off. Dave hasn't seen the show yet but runs down the results. Things apparently went sideways during the Shinya Hashimoto vs. Naoya Ogawa match, evidently seeming like a legit shoot, with Ogawa breaking Hashimoto's nose and just beating the hell out of him. A huge brawl erupted after the match with NJPW officials and Inoki's UFO people. Dave hasn't seen it so he doesn't want to speculate about it too much and he's running out of space in this issue, but more on that next week I'm sure (yeah this is a pretty big story).
- Indie promoter Dan Curtis from Detroit was found dead of a sudden heart attack. He was working with the Insane Clown Posse on a new promotion called Hellfire Wrestling and 2 days before his death, the first ever Hellfire show with ICP headlining drew a sellout 1,000 people.
- Eddie Guerrero was in a major car accident on New Year's Eve, suffering several serious injuries: a lacerated liver, a fractured pelvis, "and a large portion of his calf was ripped off." Guerrero reportedly fell asleep at the wheel and ended up being ejected from the car. The car was totally destroyed and in this case, the fact that he wasn't wearing his seatbelt is probably what saved his life. The injuries are bad but not career-threatening and he should be back in 3-4 months.
- Lou Thesz was also in a car accident while driving to Sam Muchnick's funeral. He totaled his car, but luckily was okay, but he missed the funeral.
- WCW has struck a deal with Telemundo to film a 1-hour pilot for a potential Lucha Libre show. Konnan will be booking the show, using most of WCW's Mexican talent as well as a few American guys who can work the style.
- The angle on Raw where they showed Shawn Michaels beat down and covered in blood after being thrown through a car windshield was done to write him off TV since he's going to get back surgery in a couple of weeks.
- Randy Savage's new valet (and real-life girlfriend) will reportedly be using the ring-name Gorgeous George. And finally, fun trivia note, the entrance music Savage has been using for most of his career was also the same music the real Gorgeous George used back in the 1950s.