April 26, 1999
- Just a heads up, there won't be a post on Monday since it's Memorial Day here in the U.S. I'll be doing my part to honor the troops by sleeping in late and not going to work. Things will get back on track on Wednesday. Err'body have a good weekend.
- Davey Boy Smith's condition has improved somewhat this week as his spinal infection was officially diagnosed as staph and antibiotics finally started working. But there's some concern over how much long-term damage was already done. He was also put into a body cast due to spinal and vertebrae injuries believed to be from taking a bump on Warrior's trap door at last year's WCW Fall Brawl PPV. After the initial injury, he wrestled a couple more matches but the back pain was so bad he couldn't do anything. Dave says that this has been basically the worst year of Smith's life. He was also losing a battle with a painkiller addiction before all this started. His wife, said to be desperate to show him how bad his habit was, took a bunch of his pills and nearly overdosed and died to get his attention (Diana writes about this in her book, it's nuts). Smith checked himself into rehab in December. Then his son broke his arm and then his sister and mother both died from cancer just weeks apart from each other. And now, he's dealing with all these back issues that may end up putting him in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. Oh, and he got fired by WCW. Dave has a ton of info here, including direct quotes from Smith, so it's clear Dave was talking to Davey Boy during this time and getting a lot of the details directly from him. He recaps what led to this point. Smith was happy during his time in WWF but then the screwjob happened, he injured his knee trying to pull Shane McMahon off of Bret during the backstage fight, then he had to pay $150,000 out of his own pocket to get out of his WWF contract. Went to WCW, got addicted to Xanex, Percocet, Demoral, and morphine, but he kept getting sick in rehab and doctors couldn't figure out why. Eventually he was hospitalized when they realized it was the spinal infection. And of course, while literally fighting a life or death ordeal, WCW sent him a letter to fire him.
- On WCW's website on an audio show, Bischoff was asked about firing Smith and said that Smith wasn't working and hadn't kept in contact with the company, so they fired him. Davey Boy disputes that, saying before he went into the hospital, WCW called him and wanted him to fly in to Nitro in Toronto to cut a promo. He agreed, but the tickets never arrived, so he called the office and was told that they would fly him out the next week to Nitro in Las Vegas instead. But before that could happen, he was hospitalized and then fired. Bischoff said it was a tough decision but he could look himself in the mirror and know he made the right call. But the company got so much negative publicity for it that Bischoff has since called Smith twice to try to apologize.
- UFC has a hearing scheduled with the Nevada State Athletic Commission this week that will determine whether they can get sanctioned. Dave doesn't want to overstate things, but it's very possible that the future of UFC rests on whatever decision is made. If the commission decides to sanction UFC shows, the hope is that it will lead to cable companies agreeing to carry UFC events on PPV again but it's not guaranteed. And if the commission rules against them, it may very well be the death blow for UFC.
- An estimated 28,000 fans came out to Budokan Hall in Japan for a public funeral ceremony for Giant Baba. It was by far the largest crowd to ever attend the funeral for an athlete in Japan and the 9th largest funeral ceremony in the history of the country (and yes, Dave lists the other 8. Mostly movie stars, politicians, and musicians). Fans were camping out the night before the ceremony.
- That being said, the future for AJPW doesn't look particularly bright right now. Vader just won the Carnival Champion tournament, making him only the 3rd foreigner to ever win it and while the shows drew well, they were behind last year's numbers. AJPW has a Tokyo Dome show scheduled soon and that's expected to sell out the Dome because it's also going to be the final big memorial show for Baba, but after that...things get murky. The Tokyo Dome show will officially mark the end of the Giant Baba era of AJPW and it's unknown where the company goes from there. There's still a power struggle in the front office, with Baba's widow Motoko Baba on one side and Misawa on the other and the two disagree strongly on how the promotion should now be run. For what it's worth, most of the wrestlers are said to be siding with Misawa.
- Lots of talk about various WWF wrestlers being released this week. Most of the names on the list aren't a big surprise. Public Enemy were considered a flop from day one and they didn't make themselves any friends by complaining a lot as soon as they showed up, which led to the match on Sunday Night Heat were the Acolytes basically murdered them on live TV. Gillberg was cut because the character had pretty much run its course. Blue Meanie was originally released but some sort of internet campaign to keep him ended up working. WWF called him and told him they had decided to keep him. Golga, George Steele, and Luna were all let go since the Oddities gimmick is done. Luna was actually sent home weeks ago for discipline issues and just now officially fired. Bart Gunn was released because he's not exactly the most charismatic guy and all he had going for him was the legit shoot-fighter gimmick after winning Brawl For All. But then he got his brain punched into soup by Butterbean at Wrestlemania, so that killed that. Legion of Doom was also released to no one's surprise since both men, especially Hawk, are all but useless in the ring these days and the nostalgia from the 80s has worn off. The biggest surprise was the release of Steve Williams. He was the top foreign star in AJPW and was brought in to feud with Steve Austin. But they decided to put him into the Brawl For All tournament to get him over as a tough guy, and they expected him to win. But of course, he didn't and, much like Bart Gunn, without the tough guy shooter aura around him, WWF didn't see anything else in him. He was also injured in the Brawl For All fight and hasn't fully recovered months later. Plus he's notoriously bad on the mic, so WWF cut their losses on him. Williams and LOD will both be working AJPW's Tokyo Dome show but no word on if they'll stay with the company past that.
- There were rumors that Jim Cornette had been fired also but it's not true. He missed the latest TV tapings (he was sick) and it's no secret that he has heat with Kevin Dunn and Vince Russo. It's also no secret that they didn't like Cornette's commentary, since he often referred to past wrestling history with guys who were in the old NWA and they also didn't like him using words like "wrestling" and "wrestlers." Anyway, Cornette is still employed and they actually plan to have him set up a minor league farm system for WWF to develop new talent. Later this year, Cornette is expected to move to Louisville, KY and run the Ohio Valley Wrestling promotion there. WWF will send people down there who need work and occasionally send bigger stars to help draw crowds, and new WWF hires will also go there to train before being put on TV.
- Ratings were the same ol' story this week, with Raw killing Nitro. But for what it's worth, for the 2nd week in a row, Nitro was actually a much better show. But right now, WCW is so far behind WWF and the perception of WCW is so terrible that it will take months of better shows before the ratings start showing a difference.
- Bill Apter is leaving London Publishing after 28 years of doing wrestling magazines there. Dave talks about how the old wrestling magazines in the 70s and 80s were huge for giving exposure to many promotions and helping to create stars during the territory days. Fans were able to read about stars in other places and it helped bridge the gap when they would go work in other territories. Dave says it's hart to overstate how powerful and important Apter was to wrestling back in those days. Anyway, he's leaving to go be the editor of the new World of Wrestling magazine, which is going to be less kayfabe and more of a legit, insider view of the business (ala, the Observer).
- TNN has been getting questions from various media outlets about their plans to get involved in wrestling and have denied that there is anything to the story and claim they don't know how the stories got started. But Dave knows better and says they're still negotiating with ECW. The plan, if it all pans out, is for ECW to be the lead-in for the RollerJam show. RollerJam has been a huge money-loser for TNN because they dumped a lot of bank into it and the ratings are dogshit. So they're hoping to salvage it and figure they can put a wrestling show on first and then wrestling fans will stick around to watch RollerJam after.
- Back in 1997, USWA/Power Pro commentator Dave Brown's daughter and granddaughter were killed by a drunk driver. The man who was driving, Donald Branch, was convicted on 7 counts this week and will be sentenced next month. Branch had 2 previous DUIs and had a .22 blood-alcohol level when he hit them. Brown's daughter also several months pregnant at the time (Branch ended up being sentenced to 48 years in prison and he's still there. He's been denied parole several times. To this day, Dave Brown continues to be a huge advocate here in Memphis for trying to stop drunk driving).
- Speaking of Power Pro Wrestling, Dave has been watching and he thinks this Kurt Angle fella is pretty good. Because he's an Olympic gold medalist, he's going to get a push when he debuts in WWF. He worked a dark match before Raw this week and some in the company are wanting to bring him in sooner rather than later. Despite only having very limited experience, he's already able to work pretty well in the ring and he reminds Dave of a good 1970s midcard clean-cut babyface, which unfortunately, is not exactly the type of character that is very popular these days. I suspect Angle will find a way to make it work.
- Shane Douglas suffered a broken ankle and will be out until at least the upcoming PPV (nope, he ends up not working the PPV).
- Another week, more bounced checks in ECW. Paul Heyman held a meeting and told everybody that everything will be okay financially in another month or so and to just try to be patient with him, but Heyman has said that before, so everyone's pretty skeptical. But a lot of the wrestlers are said to be scared to leave because if ECW does go under, Heyman will almost certainly end up with either WWF or WCW, likely in a position of some creative power. And nobody wants to bail on ECW, only to wind up working for Heyman again 6 months later in another company and being buried because he's pissed at them. WCW in particular is said to be especially interested in talking to Heyman about having him come in as booker (I wonder if Heyman could have saved WCW in 1999...). Anyway, Heyman has said he's been very close to accepting a loan from WWF, although he really doesn't want to if he can avoid it because he doesn't want to be indebted to them. If he can't make a deal with Acclaim soon for an ECW video game, he may be forced to accept it. But right now, the hope is to strike a deal with Acclaim, who would produce an ECW video game that would be out near Christmas, and the deal would also include a major advance on money up front before the game comes out, which would get the company fully out of debt.
- Dave has more thoughts on this past week's Nitro, saying it was among the best episodes in the show's history. Unfortunately, WCW is in such a deep hole right now that it's going to take more than 1 or 2 weeks of good shows to get them out of it. This week's main storyline was Flair acting nuts and Roddy Piper having him committed to a mental hospital and Dave thinks it was the most entertaining angle they've done in ages and that both Flair and Piper were great. He still doesn't think these 2 should be the main focus of the show since, ya know, they're old. But that notwithstanding, Dave thought this was incredible and hilarious, especially Flair's gone-off-the-deep-end act.
- Hulk Hogan had arthroscopic knee surgery last week. Turns out the knee injury was legit, although it was fairly minor and Hogan has been working with it for a long time. But he saw the writing on the wall with WCW and decided now would be a good time to get off TV and get away from the sinking ratings, so he went ahead and scheduled the surgery and they did the injury angle at the PPV to write him off TV for a bit.
- Random brief WCW news-bites: word is Torrie Wilson is done with WCW (not quite). Wrath tore his ACL in a match on Thunder and will be out for 6 months. Perry Saturn's back is injured and turns out he's been dealing with it from months and the injury stems from, you guessed it, the same trap door they had under the ring that Bulldog was injured on. Luckily, Saturn's injury isn't as bad as Bulldog's but he's still been getting epidural shots to work through it. Rey Mysterio has a concussion. Curt Hennig is injured. Barry Windham is injured. Mike Tenay got whiplash in a car wreck and had to go to the hospital. Arn Anderson apparently slapped Disco Inferno backstage over something he said, but Dave has no details. Eddie Guerrero was backstage at Nitro and looked to be in great shape and should be back in about 2 months.
- Likely due to the bad coverage from the Outside The Lines episode on ESPN awhile back, WCW hit everybody with a surprise drug test at the Thunder tapings, and then followed it up 4 days later with a second surprise test at Nitro. Word is a bunch of guys backstage were scrambling looking for the drugs they use to mask steroid usage. Word got out about the test beforehand and several guys no-showed the taping (Scott Hall, Bam Bam Bigelow, Scott Steiner, and Brian Knobbs are named as people who missed the show for whatever reason).
- Goldberg did an interview and had some interesting stuff to say. He said his gimmick was inspired by watching UFC tapes and said it was such an obvious idea for a wrestler that he wasn't sure why no one really did it before the way he has. Dave agrees and said he was pitching MMA-type gimmicks to guys he talked to during the early UFC days but nobody wanted to do it. Goldberg said his original name was going to be The Hybrid but there was a copyright issue so they just went with his real name instead. When asked if he had health insurance, Goldberg revealed that he has it through the Screen Actor's Guild because he did the Universal Soldier II movie, but not through wrestling. He said he felt like his character has been overexposed and that he should only be on TV periodically. Said he'd like to wrestle only 2 more years but said chances are it'll probably be more like 5 years. But he said there's no way he'll still be wrestling when he's 38. Dave thinks it's funny because every 30 year old wrestler says that, but none of them ever quit. He says he remembers when Flair was 40 and Sting and Luger would make fun of him for still hanging on and wrestling. Now Sting and Luger are in their 40s and Flair's 50 and he's better than both of them and they're all still wrestling.
- Not only is Davey Boy Smith still in the hospital, but Bret Hart had his groin surgery in the same hospital while Davey was there. Furthermore, Bret's sister Ellie Neidhart was also there at the same time having a hysterectomy. Lots of Hart & Hart Associates in that hospital this week.
- There's someone who is breeding and selling thoroughbred horses and evidently they're a WCW fan. Some of the horses for sale are named Big Papa Pump, Rowdy Roddy, Monday Nitro, and Diamond Dallas. That last one is a filly, by the way (I googled that because, as it turns out, I'm not up on my horse lingo. A "filly" is apparently a young female horse).
- Randy Savage is pushing for his girlfriend Gorgeous George to be pushed as WCW's answer to Sable. She's also being trained to wrestle by indie women's wrestler Starla Saxton (better known these days as Molly Holly).
- Paul Wight is now going by the name The Big Show in WWF.
- The upcoming special on UPN called WWF Smackdown will basically be patterned just like an episode of Raw. Right now, it's only a one-time special, but if its successful (and it almost certainly will be), it's believed that it will likely turn into a weekly show. The idea of doing an all-women's show has seemingly already been dropped. UPN doesn't want the show to be live, so they can edit out anything they don't like. So most likely, it'll be a taped 1-hour show and Dave expects it will air on Wednesday nights, although it could end up on Tues. or Thurs.
- There have been talks of putting the Hardy Boyz with DX and also another plan of possibly pairing them with Michael Hayes to create a new generation Freebird-type team (the Hardyz in DX is an interesting "what-if?" if there ever was one).
- Bret Hart was backstage at WWF's Calgary house show. Dave says it's not as big a deal as it sounds. It was just a house show so Vince wasn't there. Bret has friends there that he came to visit, nothing more. Hart also spoke briefly with Earl Hebner. He asked Hebner about his health (remember he had the aneurysm last year) and Hebner noted that he's going through a divorce, and Bret responded, "Yeah join the club." Dave says Bret actually called Hebner last year when he was in the hospital, but the 2 haven't spoken since until now. As for WCW, they had no problem with Bret going and Bischoff was actually happy about it because it will get people talking that he's heading back to WWF and will play into the Bret-quit-WCW storyline.
- WWF has cut ties with the William Morris Agency, which is the most well-known talent agency in the world. WWF had a 3-year deal with them and the William Morris people were negotiating some sort of movie deal with WWF and Columbia Pictures. Vince McMahon told the agency to pass on the project because he wasn't interested and it was apparently such a big disagreement that the two sides ended up severing their contract.