October 25, 1999
- The Vince Russo/Ed Ferrara era of WCW began this week with the 10/18 Nitro. There was no mistaking that Russo's fingerprints were all over it, with more detailed scripting done than probably any episode of Nitro ever. It was better than most recent Nitros. It was entertaining but it was so rapid fire that it seemed to burn the audience out and Dave worries that Russo's style isn't cut out for 3 hour shows. The curiosity factor seemed to have a positive effect on the ratings, which were up a good bit from last week. Backstage, there were mixed feelings. Everything was still disorganized to the point that a lot of wrestlers didn't even know if they were supposed to be heels or babyfaces during their segments. Detailed scripts were given to everyone and nobody in WCW has much experience working the Russo-way so it was sort of a mess. They already started pushing the Turner limits with Madusa losing an evening gown match. In typical Russo fashion, things were booked as if internet fans were the only ones watching, so there were lots of insider references, such as Bagwell throwing a fit on camera about "doing a job" to La Parka and whatnot. They pretty much openly acknowledged that there's a booker deciding who wins and loses and pretty much erased the 4th wall entirely. Russo was acknowledged on TV and the plan seems to be for Russo to make himself the evil Vince McMahon-like promoter and they're working towards some angle where he overrules Hogan's creative control clause or something and then Hogan comes back as the new anti-authority figure, ala Steve Austin. But of course, Russo books for internet fans and Dave says this might all change now that the internet fans know about it. Russo also wants to phase out Ric Flair which Flair is of course not thrilled about. There's also expected to be more emphasis on the women, especially the ones willing to take their clothes off. Dave expects Torrie Wilson and Kimberly to get big pushes.
- Jeff Jarrett made a surprise return to Nitro in controversial fashion. Jarrett's contract expired on the 16th, one day before the No Mercy PPV. Jim Ross has pretty much been made the scapegoat in this situation for allowing Jarrett to leave. Jarrett has been unhappy with his pay in WWF and was also upset when Russo planned a storyline for him to work with Austin but both Austin and McMahon shot it down. Jarrett was negotiating a new deal at one point but then Russo left and it evidently got lost in the shuffle. Suddenly, Jarrett, still the IC champion, was booked to defend the title against Chyna a day after his contract expired. By this point, Jarrett had already made the decision to leave and go with Russo to WCW. He contacted Vince McMahon and they worked out a deal. Jarrett worked the PPV and dropped the title and in exchange, he wasn't buried on commentary and they blamed his departure on a contract dispute with Jim Ross (at this point, Dave doesn't seem to be aware of the money exchange that took place in order to get Jarrett to work the show but I'm sure it'll come up soon).
- WATCH: Jeff Jarrett returns to WCW in 1999
- In the wake of Russo and Ferrara's departures, Vince McMahon began ordering all employees, not just wrestlers, to sign a deal stating that upon leaving WWF for any reason (including being fired), they couldn't work for WCW for a period of 1 year. Most employees signed the contracts, but not all. Dave questions whether that would hold up in court. There's a lot of issues with employees living in states with right-to-work laws that could render the deals void, but that would be up to the courts if it ever came to that. Anyway, current head writer Terry Taylor refused to sign it, causing some to believe he may be heading to WCW (indeed he was but we'll get to it).
- Latest news on Droz's injury is encouraging. After suffering a fractured neck in a match against D-Lo Brown, Droz was moved to a hospital closer to home and has begun physical therapy. His upper body movement is improving and word is he has sensory feeling in his lower extremities which is a good sign. Droz is said to be optimistic about eventually returning to wrestling (not quite) and doctors are optimistic that he will regain the use of his legs (not quite either). Either way, it's going to be a long process and Dave doesn't sound too optimistic about Droz ever making a return to the ring (sadly no and to this day, he's still mostly paralyzed from the neck down).
- AJPW's current tour is the worst drawing tour in a long time and privately, a lot of people are criticizing Misawa's booking.
- Inoki's plan to run another show in North Korea was supposed to happen next month but has been pushed back to April, allegedly due to weather. Considering it's an indoor show, a month away, that obviously doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Most people feel like Inoki probably never had a deal in place to begin with but he had publicly announced November as the show date months ago and now has to save face by "delaying" it.
- FMW has a show coming up where the loser has to have a stick of dynamite shoved up their ass. "I'm not making this up," Dave insists. Indeed he was not. Enjoy.
- WATCH: FMW - Dynamite in the Ass match
- Sports Illustrated magazine had an article on the WWF's IPO filing and the article was mostly just full of insulting references to how wrestling is fake and scripted. Dave doesn't see the point. Literally everyone knows wrestling is fake now, and yet for years, every time Sports Illustrated acknowledges professional wrestling, the tone of the article is always "Haha look, they admitted it's fake, don't you wrestling fans feel stupid now!?" Which in 1999, is pretty silly and just comes across as petty.
- WATCH: Wrestling is fake
- Former Doink-portrayer Matt Osborne tried to get a wrestling license in Rhode Island, but he failed the commission drug test for cocaine and now may have his probation revoked. He was arrested and put in jail without bond pending a hearing. Whoops.
- Notes from Nitro: the opening segment where Bret Hart interrupted a Juventud Guerrera/Evan Karagis match was news to those guys. They had no clue Bret was coming to interrupt their match and their confusion was genuine because evidently Russo never clued them in. As mentioned before, there was some more sexual stuff (evening gown match, Kimberly and Torrie in revealing outfits, etc.) but the show was still significantly less obscene than the usual WWF stuff (give it a couple of months).
- A lot of people in WCW are upset with the Turner execs over the fact that Russo seems to be getting whatever he wants. Word is Russo is being given pretty much anything he requests, from decision making power to even production improvements. Others who have been in charge in the past (Nash, Sullivan, etc.) are upset because they have requested similar stuff and were turned down. In fact, everyone involved in creative has complained about the 3-hour Nitros, wanting it cut back to 2 hours, but nobody would even consider it. But now it's likely going to happen, because Russo asked for it.
- Notes from Thunder: Russo made the decision to put Kevin Nash on commentary for the entire show and let the whole commentary team shoot and say whatever they wanted and, well, holy shit. This is pretty legendarily hilarious, with Nash basically shitting all over WCW, but Dave wasn't enjoying it. To be fair, in retrospect, this is funny as hell. But looking at it through 1999 glasses, for a company that was already struggling, this was just another example of WCW being completely out of control. Dave thought it sucked and talks about how Zbyszko was getting annoyed. Hall was supposed to join Nash on commentary, but Nash explained that no one has seen Hall in 24 hours or so and he no-showed Thunder. Word is that's legit. WCW got some complaints from the hotel about Hall's behavior the night before. Dave flat out says it's time for WCW to fire Hall because he's been given countless chances to get his shit together and it just isn't happening. Hall has missed more shows than he's worked in the last year and even when he does show up, he's barely in a condition to perform. Hall clearly isn't worth the $1.6 million a year they're paying him and at this point, if nothing else, they need to set an example with him because he basically just shows up whenever he feels like it and does whatever he wants with no punishment. Anyway, Hall wasn't the only one to no-show. So did Sid Vicious and at least one other main eventer, though Dave doesn't know who it was.
- WATCH: Kevin Nash commentary compilation from this episode of Thunder
- WCW officials told Vampiro that they were exercising a clause in his contract that allows them to terminate his 4-year, $350,000-per-year deal as long as they give him 90 days notice. Vampiro signed the deal with Bischoff just before Bischoff was given the boot. WCW then offered him a new, $175,000-per-year deal with first class travel, but Vampiro reportedly turned it down. He contacted WWF officials after he was given the news, but until he's free from his WCW contract, they wouldn't even talk to him. That night on Nitro, Vampiro was told to have a 15-minute match with Disco Inferno, but literally seconds into the match, the referee told them to wrap it up, with Vamp doing the job. At that point, Vampiro (along with ICP) were ready to walk out (Dave says it wouldn't be an issue of the Observer if ICP isn't threatening to quit a promotion). ICP is also unhappy after being yelled at backstage by Goldberg for some reason. ECW was said to be interested in Vampiro if he gets released but Heyman has no interest in ICP after the way they burned him a few months ago by backing out of an appearance right before a PPV. A few days later, WCW upped its offer to Vampiro to $200K and Russo says he wants to keep him, but Russo has no say in contracts. WCW did say that if he chooses not to stay, they would be willing to give him a conditional release to work for ECW (but not WWF). As of press time, Vampiro is still weighing his options.
- WCW also got rid of Hardcore Hak (formerly Sandman) because he was making $250,000 a year for basically nothing. Word is they're still willing to use him on one of their $500-per-night deals. In the past, Paul Heyman has vehemently argued that he would never bring Sandman back after the way he left the company last year, but most people don't buy it and expect him to return to ECW soon anyway. Tod Gordon is trying to help Sandman land somewhere and he approached WWF, trying to sell them on the idea that ECW wanted him back but that he would rather be in WWF. But McMahon passed on the offer, likely because he doesn't want to do anything to hurt the relationship with ECW. Heyman doesn't want to set a precedent of bringing back guys who walk out on the company. But others are pushing for him to bring Sandman back anyway, particularly Raven. Heyman has hinted that he might be willing to bring him back but he won't pay him nearly as much as he was making when he worked in ECW the first time. So right now, it's just a bunch of posturing back and forth but Dave is confident he'll be back in ECW soon. Dave also lists a bunch of other lower card guys who have recently been released by WCW: Scott Norton, Hardbody Harrison, Erik Watts, Sick Boy, Mike Enos, etc. Word is this is only the beginning of some expected major cost cutting.
- Vince Russo wants to do a full blown Hardcore division in WCW, which is an idea Bischoff always shot down. He also wants to turn the Cruiserweight division into its own separate entity, completely apart from the rest of WCW. Dave thinks they probably should have kept Sandman if they're serious about doing a hardcore division, since that's basically the only thing he's good at.
- Jim Cornette recently appeared on the Observer Hotline and had...uh, some thoughts to share about Vince Russo: "He has no respect for the wrestling business or anybody in it. And that's going to be more obvious there where they won't have anyone to control him. I think Ultimate Warrior deserved the money he made more than Russo. I have always in the past thought The Ultimate Warrior was the epitome of a guy making money with no talent. Sable deserved her money more than Russo. At least she didn't try to make the entire business a joke, just her part of it, because of her lack of talent. He is a great self-promoter who has made all the Internet people believe he is a genius responsible for the WWF turnaround. He went crazy with all the pressure and decided to stab in the back the guy who brought him into the business (McMahon) and take a big-money deal, which I'm sure they offered because they're grasping at straws. He'll be out of the business in two years because without the WWF organization behind him, he'll fall flat on his face. They'll pay him until the end of his contract, and then he'll be done. He burned the bridge behind him and he won't be back. He knows he doesn't know what he's doing. He knew WCW was desperate and finally realized it was time to cash in. He doesn't care about being in the wrestling business. He hates wrestling. He likes entertainment. He thinks he's a TV writer now, and it's gone to his head. He's got a head the size of Texas."
- Randy Savage recently filmed an episode of Walker: Texas Ranger. Frank Shamrock is in the episode too, it's about MMA apparently. So here you go: Randy Savage, MMA fighter.
- WATCH: Macho Walker: Texas Savage
- The new trio of Evan Karagis, Shane Helms, and Shannon Moore will be called Three Count and have already done a song and music video produced by Jimmy Hart. Dave says girls will love it and guys will hate it.
- WATCH: 3 Count - "Can't Get You Outta My Heart"
- Dave talks about the valuation of the WWF stock and how much it's worth on paper and yada yada. Basically, as of press time, the McMahon family's portion of the stock is worth $1.23 billion. Dave says now, WCW can do like Vince has been doing for years and complain about how an evil billionaire is trying to put them out of business.
- Notes from Raw: Miss Kitty is now coming out dressed as a mini version of Chyna. Dave thinks Rock and Mankind have hilarious chemistry together and hopes they don't split them up anytime soon. They really promoted Mankind's book hard on this show. Chris Jericho has pretty much been plugged into the spot Jeff Jarrett was in, so now Jericho is feuding with Chyna. Dave says aside from hair color, there's not too much similar there and says Jericho has infinitely more star potential than Jarrett. They did an angle with Big Show's dad allegedly dying and Dave seems pretty bothered that Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler played it up in the same solemn way that they acted when Owen Hart died, though to be fair to them, it seemed like Ross and Lawler weren't super comfortable about doing it either. They heavily praised the Edge/Christian/Hardyz ladder match, calling it the best ladder match of all time. Dave disagrees, still siding with the 2 Shawn/Razor matches. But he points out how this is an example of what WWF does right. These lower card guys have an amazing match and then WWF follows up on it and puts it over and talks about it. Dave then mentions the Eddie Guerrero vs. Rey Mysterio classic match at Halloween Havoc 97 and as soon as the match was over, WCW pretty much forgot it and never mentioned it again and those guys weren't elevated at all from it. WWF knows how to make new stars.
- Latest on Undertaker: currently out with a groin tear an abdominal injuries, among other nagging things. He can't walk without pain. They're hoping for him back soon, but he likely will be out the rest of the year (good bit longer than that).
- The latest on Miss Congeniality (real name Amy Dumas) from ECW is that she's likely going to be signed by WWF, but Paul Heyman still wants to use her for a bit, so they're going to let her stay in ECW for now.
- WWF has no plans to do anything with Shawn Michaels anytime soon on TV. He has heat with basically everyone for various reasons. Most recently, he went on a WWF web chat and complained about Austin not putting over Triple H at Summerslam, which ruffled some feathers. So he's just riding out his contract.
- Word is Jericho is slated for a midcard role right now because they've been disappointed with his work. Dave disagrees and says people are only as good as what they're booked in, and Jericho has been booked like shit since his debut (he's spent the last month or so with Curtis Hughes as his partner, if that tells you anything, and spent the first few months jobbing to X-Pac). Basically, if he's not booked like a top guy, he can't become a top guy.
- The Toronto Sun reported that WWF has interest in purchasing the Toronto Argonauts, a team in the Canadian Football League. WWF has denied the reports (truth is, Vince actually wanted to buy the entire CFL at one point. Anyway, this is all a lead-up to the XFL...)
- With Russo and Ferrara gone, there's already more long-term booking in place for WWF. Russo had a habit of only planning a week ahead for most stuff and it caused a lot of organizational issues.
- Mick Foley's book is getting great early reviews. Dave hopes it does well because publishers basically have this stigma view of wrestling fans as imbeciles who can't read. Dave says several years ago, when he was first interested in publishing a book, that was basically the response he got from all the publishers who didn't want to touch a wrestling book because they didn't think wrestling fans were the reading-type.
- The Rock was interviewed in a newspaper recently. If you recall, a few weeks back, Road Dogg had some less-than-nice things to say about Rock, saying he has let his success go to his head. Rock responded, saying this: "He's very insecure and he's one that can be very jealous. Ironically enough, the guys at the very top of this industry in our company, and I'm going to speak of right now two guys--The Undertaker and Stone Cold Steve Austin--have without a shadow of a doubt been my two biggest supporters and confidants in this industry. And why I say ironically is, because with those guys at the top of the business, we are competing for the same spot. But those guys are secure enough with their positions within the company to realize, 'we got a guy in The Rock, who is 27, who has already done what he's done, he's going to help us make millions more dollars. We welcome him.' A guy like the Road Dogg is very petty." In the same interview, he predicted he and Austin would set records if they faced each other again and also said he would never go to WCW.
- Random news: a Philadelphia survey showed that registered Republican voters are 4x more likely to order a wrestling PPV than registered Democrats. Dave has no idea why.