Wrestling Observer Rewinder

January 18, 1999

So....4am on a Monday morning is a weird time for me to post this huh?
Sorry about no post on Friday. Ended up going to the doctor Saturday because I was so dehydrated I could barely stand. I've since been told that I've got a nasty case of norovirus. So here I am 4 days later....still sick. I've spent the entire weekend either in bed or on the bathroom floor, sleeping 18 hours a day and looking wistfully at my shotgun for the other 6. Everything not nailed down inside me has since departed. I ate my first full meal in more than 2 days on Sunday and immediately threw it back up. I've never been this sick for this long and I hate everything. Thanks for all the well-wishes though, it's absurd that y'all care so much about lil' ol' me.
I'm still not headed back to work today. I spent all day Sunday sleeping and now it's the middle of the night and I'm wide awake and miserable. Since I can't sleep, figured I'd type all this up and post it now because I'm sure I'll be asleep again during normal hours. And I think there's a NJPW show starting in an hour, so fuck it. Anyway, here's some old shit from 1999 and then I'm off to search for the warm embrace of death.
It seems the career of Giant Baba has come to an end. AJPW has been extremely secretive about Baba's physical condition ever since he missed a few shows last month and then announced he would miss the January tour. Dave has learned that Baba underwent some sort of bowel surgery last week for something called "ileus" and word is that it's serious and will require months of recuperation and likely means the end of his career (he's 61 and has only been doing mid-card comedy matches anyway). Baba is the 3rd most famous name in Japanese wrestling history (behind Rikidozan and Inoki) and the story of his likely retirement was front page news throughout Japan. Currently, Mitsuharu Misawa is basically running the show in Baba's absence, while Baba's wife Motoko (who isn't nearly as well-liked as Baba) runs the business side (Motoko Baba and Misawa end up having issues in a year or so and it leads to the formation of NOAH but we'll get there). Dave gives a brief recap of Baba's career. Sadly, we'll get a much longer and more in-depth one within a few more issues...
WCW's NBC specials have been postponed for the moment because the NBA lockout finally came to an end. NBC's deal with WCW was to fill air-time that had previously been scheduled for prime time NBA games, but now that the NBA is back, they don't need WCW. Tickets had been scheduled to go on sale soon but that has now been scrapped. WCW went to TNT to try to salvage the special and get airtime on there, in order to keep the dates (they were scheduled to go head-to-head against the next 2 WWF PPVs) but TNT chose not to do it. There's no word on if NBC still plans to air WCW specials on a different date or if the deal is simply dead (it was dead but more on why in a few weeks).
WWF won the ratings battle again, extending their winning streak to 11 weeks in a row. Raw did its highest rating ever (5.76, which is even higher ratings than they got the last time they aired unopposed and this Raw was also going against NCAA football national championship game so this rating is triple-impressive). WCW didn't even come close (4.96) and the gap seems to be slowly widening every week. Interestingly enough, during the segment where Tony Schiavone told people that Mankind would be winning the title, Raw ratings surged as approximately 375,000 homes (an estimated 600,000 viewers) immediately changed channels to switch to Raw, "which is exactly the opposite of what it was designed to do and exactly what anyone with half a brain could have predicted it would do," Dave says. This leads Dave to discussing the issue of giving away results and how both sides have used dirty tactics against each other. He argues that WWF clearly started it way back in the 80s and in fact, WCW wouldn't even exist if not for WWF bullying Jim Crockett out of business with multiple dirty tactics back in the 80s. But this Mick Foley spoiler wasn't playing dirty. It was playing stupid and WCW (and Bischoff in particular) should be ridiculed for such a dumb decision.
ECW's Guilty As Charged PPV is in the books and was a pretty good show. Nothing extraordinary, just a solid top-to-bottom show with mostly good matches, good finishes, and smart booking. The show opened with Paul Heyman announcing that Jerry Lynn was out due to injury (legit) and Masato Tanaka wouldn't be there either, although he didn't say why. If you're curious, the answer is because the ECW/FMW relationship has totally fallen apart. Sid Vicious was brought in as the mystery opponent for John Kronus and got a huge pop. Dudleyz vs. Spike/New Jack was actually terrible and gets a negative star. In the Lance Storm/RVD match, Storm hit RVD with a really weak chairshot and the crowd booed the shit out of him for it. And in the main event, Taz won the ECW title from Shane Douglas, which was supposed to be played up as a huge passing-the-torch type moment, but it was ruined by the crowd chanting "show your tits!" at Francine the whole time. Sabu did a run-in (complete with pyro entrance) and beat up both men. Chris Candido and Tammy Sytch showed up also, so their suspension is over.
Dave does a big recap of the latest UFC 18 PPV, giving the usual results and analysis, but this is interesting because Dave himself was one of the judges. He talks about all the behind the scenes drama in UFC's ongoing battle to survive and also the show being built around the UFC debut of Bas Rutten. He also talks about how the more charismatic UFC fighters who think they may have a shot at pro wrestling are apparently looking to get into it, since wrestling is booming right now and UFC is on the verge of death. Everyone realizes that the real money is in wrestling. The Mark Coleman vs. Pedro Rizzo fight ended up being controversial because Rizzo beat Coleman via split decision and Dave ended up being the judge who cast the deciding vote, and he explains his reasoning. However, Dave admits that having watched the show on TV the next night, ignoring everything he saw up close and trying to watch it with fresh eyes on TV, he would have voted for Coleman instead. He explains how it was different watching it on TV and watching it live from cageside and why he awarded the fight the way he did.
In Winnipeg (you idiot!), a group of teachers have been fighting to get TSN to move wrestling to a later time slot. The teachers say their schools are overrun with kids doing crotch chops and telling people to "suck it" and kids getting hurt by having wrestling matches on the playgrounds and whatnot. TSN carries both WWF and WCW shows and the teachers want it to air later so kids won't watch. Don Callis (The Jackyl, who is still technically under WWF contract, but has been told it won't be renewed when it expires in a few weeks, and was told it was because he "has heat with the boys") wrote about it in his Winnipeg newspaper column, joking that the kids should be punished by being forced to watch the Hogan/Warrior match from Halloween Havoc and basically said parents need to monitor what their kids watch and admitted that WWF isn't suitable for kids.
The latest on the Hashimoto vs. Ogawa match at the Jan. 4th Tokyo Dome show is that nobody knows for sure exactly what happened. Most people Dave has talked to have assured him that it wasn't an angle. The match was supposed to be Ogawa, representing Antonio Inoki's UFO shoot-fighting promotion, against NJPW's Hashimoto. There were 3 NJPW vs. UFO matches on the card, and this was the last one, the rubber match since each side was tied 1-1. Obviously it was supposed to be a worked match, but at some point in the match, Ogawa apparently decided to start shooting on Hashimoto and fucked him up righteously. Word is Hashimoto refused to do a job to Ogawa and the planned finish was for the match to end in a draw. But midway through the match, Ogawa just started legit beating the shit out of Hashimoto. Being that Ogawa is a multiple time judo champion with lots of shootfighting experience, it wasn't much of a contest. Backstage, people were freaking out. Hashimoto's tough guy gimmick was destroyed and that reputation that has carried him as one of NJPW's top stars for the last few years is in tatters now. There's a lot of speculation as to why it happened. One of the main theories is that Antonio Inoki may have instructed Ogawa ahead of time to shoot on Hashimoto to help build up the legitimacy of his UFO promotion and because he feels he was forced out of power in NJPW and still holds a grudge against the promotion (not quite the full story yet but we'll get to it).
Speaking of Antonio Inoki, he just purchased a 4,400 sqft home in Santa Monica, CA for $1.85 million.
Scott Norton was reportedly promised a 1-year reign as IWGP champion but it got cut short at the Tokyo Dome show. Word is NJPW likes Norton but felt they had to get the title off of him due to all the problems they have in working with WCW. While Norton was IWGP champ, he was also working in WCW and they booked Norton to defend the IWGP title against Van Hammer at a PPV, which already offended NJPW because....Van Hammer. And then they ended up scrapping the match without explanation, and Norton didn't even get on the show. Basically, they felt WCW was booking their champion as an afterthought and since Norton is under contract to WCW, they decided to just take the title off of him.
An indie promotion in Japan is doing a feud featuring The Masked Pepsi Boy vs. The Coca-Cola Kid. I wish I could find any info on that.
Billy Jack Haynes was arrested in St. Helens, OR on multiple charges of theft relating to a wrestling event he promoted there recently. He got a lot of sponsorship money for the show up front and then skipped town without doing the show. Haynes admitted to having a gambling problem and said he needed the money to pay back gambling debts that he apparently owed to some bad people. He also said he has been working in collections since 1995 and has been a guy who goes around intimidating people to get money but claims he's never hurt anyone.
Jake Roberts somehow suffered some sort of injury that led to him getting more than 100 stitches in his hand. Dave has no other details.
In a USA Today interview, Jesse Ventura was asked about Hulk Hogan's gimmick where he's pretending to run for President, which is an obvious spoof on Ventura's election win. Ventura had this to say: "I'm disappointed in him. His ego is so large that he feels he needs to try to cheapen what I've accomplished. It's a wrestling gimmick. He's on the final legs of his career, hanging on by his fingertips. He's like the career politician who won't give up his position. I feel sorry for him. He's a jealous man."
The angle where Taz suplexed Sabu through a table a few weeks ago injuring his neck was supposed to be a work, but Sabu was legitimately injured on the spot. He's pretty banged up in general and reportedly isn't happy in ECW. He received an offer from WCW and at 35 years old, and with as many injuries as he's had, it would make sense for him to take the big money offer and go work for a company that will pay him if he's injured. But Sabu's uncle The Sheik advised him to turn down the offer, saying he would only be a mid-carder in WCW while in ECW, he's a top star. Sabu reportedly values his uncle's advice more than basically anyone, which is why he is staying with ECW even though he's talked about quitting several times in recent months.
Shane Douglas is in a similar boat, as he's unhappy in ECW and has had several big arguments with Paul Heyman lately about his direction. Shane is also banged up and pushing 35 as well and it's looking like his time as a top guy in ECW is probably over, since now that he lost the title to Taz, Heyman reportedly doesn't have any plans to ever put the belt back on Douglas and is moving forward with newer, younger stars (yeah, Douglas would be gone from ECW forever within 3 more months).
Public Enemy will be returning to ECW at the upcoming House Party show at the ECW Arena to face the Dudleyz. It's not expected to be a long-term deal with them though. Sid Vicious will also be at the show and ECW plans to bring him in for big events but he's not full time either.
At the upcoming WCW Souled Out PPV, Chris Jericho is facing Perry Saturn in a "loser must wear a dress" match. WCW has reportedly threatened to take Jericho off TV if he doesn't sign a new contract and so Jericho was pushing to make it a loser-is-banned-from-Nitro match since he has no intention of re-signing. Apparently Bischoff is second-guessing the idea to take Jericho off TV but it was threatened at one point.
Starrcade did a 1.15 buyrate, while WWF's December PPV Rock Bottom did an 0.8 buyrate. It's the first time in about 6 months that a WCW PPV finally beat a WWF PPV.
Hugh Morrus reportedly tried to quit WCW but they talked him into staying and will be putting he, Meng, and Barbarian together as a group.
At a house show last week, Giant and Lex Luger basically did their own version of the fingerpoke of doom, with Luger tapping Giant and him falling down and eating the pin. Fans were furious. It was made even worse by Giant not even wearing his wrestling gear to the ring, showing up in jeans and a t-shirt. None of this was approved by WCW and both Luger and Giant had a ton of heat on them for it. But of course, Giant is just counting the days until he shows up in WWF next month, so he doesn't really give a shit and Luger is Luger.
Sting is going to be working a few house shows but won't be on TV for at least several more weeks. He's been out of action for awhile dealing with personal life issues. Dave says that usually means drugs, but not in this case (he doesn't clarify, but Sting has talked about it since. He was basically trying to save his marriage at this point and this is when he became a born-again Christian).
There were reports that DDP had re-signed with WCW for $900,000 a year. Turns out that's not true and WCW themselves put that rumor out there in order to keep the locker room from being pissed, because the real figure is actually $1.5 million per year.
Kevin Nash is primarily in charge of booking WCW right now, although Hogan and Randy Savage are always in charge of their own storylines. Savage made an appearance on Nitro 2 weeks ago but aside from that, he is still going to be out until March or April.
DDP is pushing to get Erik Watts a job and also wants to get Van Hammer a push. I'm not even sure that saving Hall and Jake is enough to forgive this.
There was a recent news story talking about the Halloween Havoc screw up where the PPV feed ended during the DDP vs. Goldberg main event. Viewer's Choice in particular was extremely upset about it because WCW portrayed it as the PPV providers messing up, when in reality, it was WCW's fault because they only scheduled a 3 hour window for the PPV and then they decided on the day of the show to go longer than 3 hours and nobody informed the PPV providers. They were also upset that WCW chose to air the Goldberg/DDP match on Nitro for free the next night, saying it violated the contract WCW has with Viewer's Choice.
Shawn Michaels underwent back surgery on Jan. 12 in San Antonio. The surgery was to fuse the discs in his back and as of now, it's too early to even begin to estimate what his chances are of returning to the ring.
On Raw, they booked Mankind vs. The Rock for the WWF title at Royal Rumble and Mankind has been telling people backstage that he's going all out to basically make this the match of a lifetime. Dave says that's actually pretty scary because the last time he tried to make a match memorable, he ended up coming off the top of Hell in a Cell twice (yeah, the Rumble match ends up being memorable all right, but not in a good way).
Other notes from Raw: Duane Gill started doing a spoof on Goldberg using the name Gillberg, complete with obviously piped-in chants and sparklers for his entrance. Dave thinks it was pretty funny, but with WWF kicking their ass right now, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to still be taking shots at WCW, much less at the one guy that they've actually successfully made a star out of. Also on Raw, they debuted a girl who is said to be Ken Shamrock's sister but she's not really.
WATCH: Gillberg debuts
Steven Regal has returned to rehab. Apparently it didn't stick the first time so he went back.
The Giant is possibly going to debut in WWF as soon as the St. Valentine's Day Massacre PPV on Feb. 14th. With him now locked in to joining the company, the #1 person WWF is hoping to take from WCW next is Chris Jericho.
WWF injury report: Austin still out with abdominal tear, Ken Shamrock had elbow surgery, X-Pac hurt his neck, Thrasher has a torn meniscus, etc.
Sunday Night Heat has pretty much become the Shane McMahon show, with him doing commentary, cutting promos, getting involved in angles and matches, and even Sable's promo was done to get Shane over. Dave thinks he's fine in small doses on Raw, but good lord is he horrible when given free reign to be all over the show like he is on Heat.
WWF stars will be all over TV soon. Steve Austin is filming a Nash Bridges epiosode. Val Venis is filming an episode of La Femme Nikita. Undertaker, Ken Shamrock, The Rock, and Ernie Ladd are all expected to film an episode of That 70s Show (here's Rock and Ladd on that show, don't think Shamrock and Undertaker were on it but Matt and Jeff Hardy are also in it, though Dave doesn't mention it).
WATCH: The Rock & The Hardyz on That 70's Show
WWF held another one of their training camps. In attendance were Lester Speight, Shane Sewell, and Steve Bradley. For those curious, Lester Speight is a former football player better known for being "Terry Tate: Office Linebacker" in those commercials. He never made it in wrestling. Shane Sewell bounced around the indies, worked in Puerto Rico a lot, and was a referee in TNA for a little while in 2008 but never made it to WWE. And Steve Bradley spent 3 years in developmental (feuding with Kurt Angle) but never moved up to the main roster. His most notable appearance was being the golf cart driver during the hardcore match at Wrestlemania 17. He died in 2008.
Terry Funk was supposed to come in to challenge Mankind for the WWF title on the Jan. 12th Raw, but he got really sick the day before and had to cancel. It's believed he has some form of hepatitis (yeah, looks like Funk apparently has Hep C. According to one link I found, Superstar Billy Graham talked about it in an interview a couple of years ago and Funk got pissed at him because he was still trying to keep it secret. And yet Dave knew in 1999).
Lots of letters yet again from people seeing Wrestling With Shadows for the first time and being blown away by how great a documentary it is. Yup. Someone asks about the possibility of Bret showing up on Nitro with the WWF title and says even though Bret was still under WWF contract, would Bischoff have risked it anyway and still put Bret on TV? Dave responds and says absolutely not. WWF still has an ongoing lawsuit against WCW and Turner for contract tampering and things of that nature. If they had put Bret Hart on WCW TV while he was still under contract to WWF, it would have absolutely sealed the case for WWF and cost the promotion millions. Turner execs would have almost certainly fired Bischoff for it. Bottom line, no matter what some in WWF claim, there was a 0% chance that Bret Hart was going to show up in WCW before Dec. 1st.