April 05, 1999
- Wrestlemania 15 is in the books and it was a decent show. More importantly, it will likely become the biggest revenue grossing event in wrestling history when all the numbers come in. The show was sold out months ago and did nearly $1.5 million at the gate (the largest in North America since WM6 in Toronto). The PPV numbers aren't in yet but it was estimated that the show may break 1 million buys, which no PPV event aside from major boxing matches has ever done. Dave talks about how fans have been conditioned nowadays to be more into angles and storylines and they tend to get bored by actual wrestling matches, and so aside from Rock vs. Austin, the crowd wasn't as into the show as you'd expect and were clearly bored by the length of some of the early matches. But that's basically the nature of the business now.
- Other notes from the PPV: on the pre-show, there was a battle royal (basically a get-everyone-on-the-card match) and Owen Hart did commentary and was hilarious. Michael Cole accidentally spoiled the main event early in the show when he announced that after the PPV, "new champ" Steve Austin would appear on the Home Shopping Network. Of course, pretty much everyone going in already assumed Austin was winning so no biggie. Undertaker vs. Big Boss Man was terrible, including a really dumb bit after the match where Undertaker literally hung Bossman from the Hell in a Cell cage with a noose. Boxer Butterbean likely killed any future Brawl For All plans when he obliterated Bart Gunn in a shoot in mere seconds. It was clear from the beginning that Gunn was in dangerously over his head as soon as the fight started and the knock out looked really dangerous. Before the match, they introduced Gorilla Monsoon as one of the judges, in his first appearance since all his health problems awhile back. He's lost a lot of weight but he got one of the biggest pops of the show and looked moved by the reaction. Shane McMahon faced X-Pac in a European title match and Shane was surprisingly very good for someone with so little experience, though he benefited from being in the ring with one of the best workers in the company and they had practiced the match together extensively. But bottom line is, Shane McMahon brought his A-game to this show and knocked it out of the park, so kudos to him. Kane tombstoned Pete Rose again. Sable vs. Tori was the worst match of the year according to Dave. He says they blew everything and people at ringside said they could hear Sable loudly complaining that Tori was being too stiff and hurting her. Jim Ross returned as announcer for the main event, dropping the heel act and just being himself and Austin beat Rock to win the WWF title. The next night on Raw, J.R. said he called the main event because Austin insisted on it (Dave thinks that's probably a true story) and he was back to being his heel character the next night on Raw.
- ESPN's "Outside the Lines" episode about wrestling finally aired and delved deep into the issues with drugs in wrestling, children imitating what they see, wrestler deaths, and more. In one of the more shocking moments, the documentary revealed that during the last 18 months of his life, Brian Pillman was taking a shot of HGH every day, along with a steroid called decadurabolin and heavily abused painkillers because of the pain in his ankle. He was also using cocaine at the time of his death. The documentary produced receipts showing Pillman's purchases and his former wife Melanie said that Pillman got the drugs from a doctor that Hulk Hogan recommended to him back in WCW. A second, unnamed source also revealed that Hogan had steered several wrestlers to this same doctor. Hogan's people denied that he even knows this doctor. The doctor is currently being investigated by the FDA, which is pretty much how the Dr. Zahorian scandal started back nearly a decade ago. Louie Spicolli's sister talked about how her brother used to buy drugs in bulk over the counter in Mexico and smuggle them back over the border. Rob Van Dam was interviewed and admitted to flushing his own supply of somas after Spicolli died. It talked about how neither WCW or WWF runs shows in Oregon (even though Portland is one of their largest TV markets) because the state athletic commission requires drug testing. It talked about how WCW cancelled a show in Portland at the Rose Garden after being informed of the drug testing procedures, and when asked, Bischoff looked bad, stumbling over not being able to give an explanation of why they pulled out of that show. As usual, Vince McMahon came off arrogant and sleazy in his segments, and at times callous and uncaring, which is going to bite him in the ass the next time a WWF wrestler drops dead from drugs. And Bischoff didn't look much better. Most of the wrestlers interviewed, many of whom either denied or downplayed the drug problems in the business, also came across bad. Basically, Dave says it looks like the wrestling industry has pretty much learned nothing from all the scandals earlier this decade and now they're a much bigger target these days and Dave thinks it's only a matter of time before it happens again (yup).
- The post-WM episode of Raw set an all-time record this week, doing a 6.51 rating. Not only was there competition from Nitro, but they were also going against the UCONN/Duke NCAA title game which did huge numbers on its own. Without the NCAA competition, Raw likely would have broken the 7.0 mark and it's probably only a matter of time before they do anyway. As for Nitro, it did a 3.51 so....once again got spanked by Raw, although it was actually a decent show this week. But they're paying dearly for months of bad shows so now, even when it's good, nobody's watching. In a few weeks it's going to get even worse because Nitro is going to be bounced around because of the NBA playoffs so it's not going to get any better any time soon. Also worth noting that this week's Thunder episode did its lowest rating ever.
- Everyone involved in the McMahon/Fox News/Phil Mushnick drama from last week seems to have finally gotten their stories straight, so here's more detail on that: McMahon went on the show believing he would debate Phil Mushnick who would be there live. Fox claims Mushnick was never going to be there live and apparently it was a big misunderstanding that Vince believed he would be. Fox wanted to bring Dave Meltzer, Lou Albano, and a child psychologist onto the show as well, but the WWF people nixed all of them, saying that Vince had only prepared to debate Mushnick. As for Albano, they said he would turn the segment into a joke (probably true) and they accused the child psychologist of being a friend of Mushnick's and felt it would be a trap. No reason given on specifically why they nixed Dave appearing on the show but, ya know. Anyway, when Vince got there and found out Mushnick wouldn't be there live and only on the phone, he threatened to leave. WWF claims that McMahon then said they could put Mushnick on the air over the phone, saying "Bring him on, but it'll get ugly." At that point, the producers allegedly backed down and decided not to put Mushnick on at all. The Fox producers deny that, saying flat out that Vince said if they put Mushnick on the air at all, he would walk. Dave wonders why McMahon was perfectly willing to face Mushnick live, but didn't want to debate him over the phone, and only assumes McMahon probably felt he could intimidate him in a face-to-face debate because that's kinda his thing.
- Mil Mascaras did an interview saying he will be retiring soon and plans to enter politics. Dave tells Mexico to prepare for their first masked governor, since Mascaras will never take his mask off (he never did go into politics but he still wrestles occasionally to this day, at 75 years old).
- Kenta Kobashi tore a muscle in his foot, but continued trying to wrestle with the injury. Two days later, he somehow made it worse (possibly broken) and had to go to the hospital. But he is continuing to work the latest AJPW Champion Carnival tournament, since he's a major part of the booking plans, although he's practically immobile and his entire move-set is basically chopping and punching, since he can't walk.
- In Power Pro Wrestling, they're doing a gimmick with Kurt Angle where he wins all his matches in 30 seconds or less, which is similar to how Dusty Rhodes first got Magnum T.A. over when he debuted and, for that matter, is also how Goldberg got over.
- Sabu missed a few ECW shows this weekend, due to the same usual disputes he often has with Paul Heyman. In fact, Heyman was telling people that Sabu quits all the time and always comes back. Sure enough, by the beginning of the week, Sabu was back.
- Scott Hall and his ex-wife Dana got re-married this weekend. Apparently they came to an agreement that Hall will take some time off from wrestling, but will eventually return but will work a much lighter schedule. Those close to Hall say he's been miserable for the last year because he wasn't able to see his kids and say that's what led to all his issues, so hopefully being reunited with his wife and having his kids back will help him get back on the right track.
- On Nitro, they did an angle with Bret Hart quitting WCW. Behind the scenes, there's a lot more to it. For starters, it's just an angle. Bret's locked into a contract for several more years and isn't going anywhere. But word is Kevin Nash wasn't happy about it, since it was an angle that Hart and Bischoff cooked up together. Nash said he was promised that when he became booker, Bischoff wouldn't interfere. Nash, as mentioned, basically doesn't want to push Hart at all so he wasn't thrilled that Bischoff was booking angles without his input. Anyway, after Hart "quit", he and Bischoff got into a big fake argument backstage because Bischoff wanted to work the locker room to make everyone think it was real, but Bischoff has done that so many times now that no one buys it. Regardless, the angle got over huge with the live crowd and on TV and Bret came out of it looking like one of the top stars in the company, but now WCW has to capitalize on that momentum and, well.........it's WCW. So don't hold your breath.
- Kevin Sullivan passed out before Nitro and was unconscious on the floor backstage "and lost control of his bodily functions." EMTs were called in and word is Sullivan stopped breathing multiple times before being revived. It was thought he maybe had a seizure or heart attack but those were later ruled out, so who knows.
- WCW's next PPV is less than 2 weeks away and nobody has a clue where it's headed. Nothing has been announced and backstage, they don't even have plans for what the main event will be yet, much less any undercard matches.
- Dave says Scott Norton has a real ego problem. He never wants to sell for anybody and goes out of his way to make his opponent look bad if he's booked to lose. Dave talks about how he was getting beat up by the Horsemen a few weeks back and refused to stay on the ground even when all 4 of them were beating him. On Nitro this week, he kicked out of the pin on 3 even though it was the finish. Shit like that. Dave thinks WCW should put him on a plane back to Japan where he's a bigger deal and throw away the ticket home.
- Eddie Guerrero should be back in about 3 months after the injuries he suffered a few months back in a car accident.
- Chastity, the former ECW valet who is now playing Raven's sister in WCW, apparently once appeared in a porn movie called Live Bait prior to getting into wrestling (yeah, this one's out there in google-land if you care to look for it).
- Eric Bischoff has denied rumors that he is quitting and says he still has 3 years on his WCW contract.
- There was a dark match on Raw between 2 of the women that WWF found through their casting search for their new women's wrestling show. Malia Hosaka defeated Brandi Alexander in the match (neither woman went on to much after this but they both dabbled in WCW and the indies. Hosaka was originally planned to debut later on as Essa Rios' valet but instead they signed Lita for the role).
- Speaking of, WWF has reportedly lost interest in the Superastros Lucha Libre show they were doing and instead are all excited about the new women's show. In fact, the contracts that the women were offered are said to be significantly higher than what the Mexican wrestlers were being paid.
- WWF suggested an incest angle for Ken Shamrock, where he'd be caught in bed with his "sister" Ryan Shamrock. The idea didn't get very far, as apparently Ken nixed the whole thing. He has a son and didn't want his kid going to school and having other kids make fun of him, saying his dad sleeps with his sister and stuff like that.
- Steve Austin was on Conan O'Brien's show and was asked about his old Ringmaster gimmick. He said he had been fired by another company (WCW) and had been unemployed for a year (which ECW was surely thrilled to hear) and said he needed the WWF job at the time, so he took the Ringmaster gimmick even though he knew it sucked.
- The Headbangers are being split up. One of them is going to be given a gimmick called Beaver Cleavage and have a sexy "mom" come to the ring with him. The other Headbanger may be doing a clown gimmick, with Bruce Prichard as his manager. They're also bringing in Shawn Stasiak with the gimmick that he will be a sex slave for the PMS group of Jacqueline and Terri (and later Ryan Shamrock).
- In a really weird aside, Dave just casually mentions that Debra McMichael and Steve Austin's soon-to-be ex-wife Jeannie Clark look almost exactly alike. And that's all he says. I wonder if Dave is implying something here. Austin's divorce from Clark would be finalized a month after this and then a year later, he marries Debra. Were they already dating at this point and Dave was just subtly hinting at it? Or was it just a really coincidental thing that he decided to mention for seemingly no reason at all?
- The New York Times reported that WWF is expected to sign a lease for a WWF Restaurant in Times Square soon. WWF has tried this several times in the past and always got turned away because the landlords viewed wrestling as lowbrow. But the success of WWF at this point is just too big to dismiss so it's finally happening. WWF will have to pay Planet Hollywood $8 million up front, plus $2 million per year for the location. It will also cost another $4 million to renovate the location to turn it into a WWF-themed restaurant.