January 17, 2000
- We open this issue with the death of Gary Albright, who died after collapsing in the ring during a match at an indie show in front of about 100 fans. Early word is that he suffered a heart attack right after taking a diamond cutter from his opponent. He was a regular in AJPW and was expected to return to Japan to join the company on their next tour. Since he had some down time, he decided to work some indie shows in Pennyslvania while on vacation. After his opponent realized something was wrong, they immediately ended the match and called for help. He was still breathing and moving at that point and an EMT at the show did CPR until paramedics arrived but he was already dead in the ring when they arrived, although they didn't officially pronounce him dead until they got to the hospital. Albright was related by marriage to the Anoa'i family and his father-in-law Afa was at the show and watched it happen and had to call his daughter to tell her that her husband had died. Others said he didn't seem right even before the match, coughing a lot and that he seemed weak. Following his death, AJPW held a 10-bell salute at their next show. Albright mostly made his name in the 90s working for the now-defunct UWFI and Dave recaps his whole career with the usual long obituary, from his amateur wrestling years, debut in the 80s for Stampede Wrestling, brief tenures in WCW and ECW, the UWFI years, then finally his time in AJPW where he came in strong but eventually settled into a midcard role. There's one cool story from his college years that Dave writes that I want to just copy and paste because it's bad ass: "There was an incident his freshman year where the Nebraska strength coach yelled at him about missing weight training sessions, and he went into the weight room, asked what the school record was for the leg press. Remember this was University of Nebraska, known for its huge lineman fed on weights and whatever else they were fed on. He piled the weights on the machine, pressed it, asked the coach if he was strong enough. He then walked away and never went back in the weight room again over five years of college."
- 1999 Observer Awards results are in! Remember, as always, these are voted on by the readers.
- WATCH: Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Kenta Kobashi - June 11, 1999 (AJPW)
- WATCH: Dragon Kid hits the Dragonrana on AJ Styles
- Dave gives a quick run-down of ECW's Guilty As Charged PPV. Very quick, in fact. He just blasts through it with no real detail for some reason. Space issues maybe? Dusty Rhodes made an appearance and got beat down by Rhino. Turns out Rhino was supposed to have a match with Sandman but it was cancelled because Sandman had a family emergency and missed the show. RVD's wife was at ringside, attending her first show since destroying her leg in a jet-ski accident awhile back. And that's basically it from a newsworthy standpoint.
- Bret Hart published a new column in the Calgary Sun and Dave says it's a must-read and reprints it in full. It's basically Bret talking about his concussion and the state of the business. So, let's read it (if I recall, I think this is also re-printed in Bret's book):
- A couple of weeks ago, I ended my column by saying that I'd have some explaining to do. I haven't written since then because I have a lot on my mind and I wasn't sure how to say it. Even if it doesn't come out exactly right I think this is going to turn out to be an important column and I didn't want it to get lost in the holiday shuffle.
- The holidays? I hardly even remember Christmas and New Years because of the colossal pulverizing I've been through since the last time I wrote.
- The Starrcade match with Goldberg was extremely punishing (Really). For days, I pulled myself up feeling like I'd been beat around like a Samsonite suitcase.
- My match with Chris Benoit was very physical, and then I found myself in there with Jerry Flynn, a world class kick boxer turned wrestler who I'm amazed didn't break his own feet with how hard he was kicking me in the ribs. This past Tuesday, I ended up in a hardcore match with Terry Funk and woke up with a big goose egg on my head from when he dumped me out of a trash bin.
- Hitman hardcore? In a trash bin? Ah yes, the times they are a changin'...and don't blame me.
- I signed an autograph for a guy who asked me the ever present "is it fake" question and I was stunned to realize that I'm not even sure I know the answer anymore. Is what fake? The lump on my head is sure real enough.
- I've been doing everything I can to help WCW compete in the ratings war with the WWF and lately sometimes I find myself going against my own personal beliefs in order to be a team player. I ask myself, how far do I compromise in order to help WCW beat Vince McMahon or do I find a personal victory in not bending at all. I'm having a harder time than people think finding that answer.
- What I do know is that in an effort to come up with their own version of the WWF's winning formula, WCW hired the WWF's script writers right out from under them. The phrase "script writer" had no meaning in wrestling until very recently. People have always asked if wrestling is scripted and the honest answer to that was no. I never saw or even heard of a script for a wrestling match. But now the first thing they do when you arrive at an arena is put a script in your hand. It's not a script that tells you how to wrestle--although I fear that's not far off. It's a script for all the soap opera stuff, which has taken precedence over the wrestling matches. I find myself memorizing lines and rehearsing scenes. I want to make it very clear to anyone who might still be wondering--and I know there are a few of you--that I never really tried to kill Sid Vicious by running him over with a monster truck (that's fake).
- But I could have killed myself screeching out of an arena in a speeding car in another scripted scene (That's real). I'm flooring it, tearing out of backstage, with no time in the scene to even put on a seat belt, and it turns out an icy rain had coated the ramp. There I am, careening out of control, toward a huge trailer truck filled with television equipment. In the last moment, I was somehow able to swerve to safety.
- About a week later I was awakened in the middle of the night by the dawning realization that I had a concussion from when Goldberg kicked me in the head (for real) and I'd been walking around in a haze ever since--otherwise there is no way I would have agreed to race a car up a narrow ramp flanked not only by expensive equipment but--by the way--what about whatever people happened to be around?
- Then look at Goldberg, who was scripted to punch through a glass car window, ending up nearly cutting his forearm off and now he'll be out of action for quite a while. It's actually sickening to me because in wrestling's proper context, it would never have happened.
- I'm a wrestler, not a stunt man. And even a stunt man has time to strap himself in. I'm a professional wrestler and I get paid to wrestle in a ring. What am I doing fighting in the back taking falls on concrete and doing stunts in speeding cars?
- And the really scary part was when I realized that I'd done exactly what Owen had done. I made a mistake and before I knew it had done something really stupid--and for what? I was hurt, weary and all I wanted to do was go home for the holidays so I didn't even see it coming. I made it clear to WCW I will never make that mistake again.
- Since pro wrestling has turned into soap opera there are very few skilled wrestlers anymore--like Chris Benoit. He showed up barely in time to make it as part of a lost era. Like the ghost of what wrestling used to be and was meant to be. Benoit made an indelible statement with me in Kansas City, one that is best defined not with words but by watching. It is asking an awful lot of Chris Benoit to carry that legacy into the future when wrestling shows today don't pay homage to the past. I tried to do what I could to clean up wrestling and bring it back to what it's supposed to be and things are so far gone now that maybe Chris shouldn't try to be the morality police of wrestling any more than I could.
- Since wrestling is scripted now I don't take it as seriously as I used to. I take my matches seriously and I take wrestling seriously but all this soap opera stuff is just--a job. I hope no one actually believes for one second that I'd really beat up Arn Anderson with a baseball bat--or some poor EMT for that matter!
- Yet I still get letters from people who call me a fallen hero. They just don't get it that there's no room for heroes in wrestling anymore. I got a letter a few days ago from a woman who was upset with me because she brought her eight year old son to the matches and didn't like what she saw. I'm upset with her for bringing a kid to the matches in the first place. Where has she been? My kids won't watch wrestling. They don't want to. And if they did want to, as a parent, I wouldn't let them. I've said before and I'll say it again. Wrestling is not for kids anymore.
- The other day, in Roanoke, a mob of about 30 kids showed up in the hotel lobby clamoring for autographs, all so happy to be there. It made me realize how much I miss seeing kids at the matches. As happy as I was to see them, I was disturbed with the idea that someone might actually be taking them to the show. There used to be hundreds of kids that came out to the hotels every day in all the towns and thousands of kids came out to the Calgary Airport when I brought the world title home to Canada for the fifth time. You don't see that anymore--and that was only three years ago. Feels like a time gone by.
- I still take being a positive role model for kids very seriously and I even enjoy the responsibility that goes along with it but now I'm finding other ways to do it outside of wrestling. A couple of months ago, at the Special Olympics, a high ranking official confided in me that they're considering not inviting the WWF back anymore because of the crude content of the shows. I hope the charities I donate my time to won't think any less of my association with them on account of something that I have no control over.
- I think about what my place in wrestling is now. After all, I am the world champion. And I look at a match like the one with Goldberg at Starrcade and think, what a hard fought classic battle. A serious struggle between two professionals fighting for a coveted world championship, something long-time wrestling fans can sink their teeth into and think there's still hope and then...then came the ending. Something I have no control over. And it plummets. The ending was even more disappointing to me doing it than it was for people watching it.
- Then, I finished Mick Foley's book. I was looking forward to reading about the good old days. As much as I loved the book, and Mick is a great guy and he's a great storyteller, some of the stories in his book are absolutely hilarious. But in my opinion, even Mick missed the point. Great wrestling is not about how many bones you break or how many teeth you lose or being set on fire or walking back to the dressing room with tacks in your back. That's what he did and he's proud of it and he's happy with it and I'm happy for him. But that's not what most wrestlers do. That's not what I do. Mick Foley knows as well as I do that the artistry of wrestling is supposed to be scripted realism. In his book, the point was lost.
- No sooner did I close the book than I turned on Stampede Wrestling. What I saw made me embarrassed for my family name. I was disappointed to see that my sisters, Diana and Ellie, would participate in such a farcical performance. When did they become wrestlers? To me, it was pathetic to see 14-year-old kids in the ring. When did they become wrestlers? For kids, they were great, but they're not seasoned professionals. Wrestling is an adult profession often intended for the amusement of children. Here I've been saying that wrestling isn't for kids any more, that there are adult things happening in the ring that aren't for kids to watch any more, and meanwhile, my own family has kids in the ring mimicking the adults.
- So what's the point of all this? I'm not sure I know. I just know I've emptied my head and my heart and this is as real as it gets. Maybe the whole wrestling business is pathetic...including me.[/quote]
- Hey, that was heavy! How about some ratings news? Raw still wins. Nitro is still doing terrible. Last week in Thunder's time slot, WCW aired a "Best of Nitro" year-end special that did a 0.98 rating, which is lower than ECW is averaging these days.
- Dave clarifies at one point that, yeah, this is a packed issue due to the Gary Albright obit and the year-end awards, so that's why all the other news is being blasted through so quickly without much detail. Back to normal next week I assume.
- Good news for NJPW: the TV ratings for their Jan. 4th show were actually up significantly from last year, which is the rare spot of good news in a company clearly on a slow decline.
- WCW reportedly felt so bad about Goldberg missing the Tokyo Dome show due to his injury that they sent Randy Savage in his place and then refused to accept payment for him from NJPW. They also refused to let NJPW cover the cost of plane tickets for everyone from WCW who attended.
- The band Motorhead got a Grammy nomination for Best Heavy Metal Performance for their cover version of Metallica's "Enter Sandman." Why is this wrestling-related, you ask? Because that Motorhead song was released exclusively on the ECW: Extreme Music compilation album. I may be wrong here, but I'm pretty sure this means ECW is the only wrestling company in history that can say they released a Grammy-nominated album (they lose, but still).
- Reportedly, WCW lost around $10 million dollars during 1999, which is by far the most money a single wrestling company has ever lost during a 1-year period (just wait until he sees how much they lose this year).
- Hogan had a meeting with WCW officials and agreed to return to the company on the Feb. 14th episode of Nitro. In case you're wondering why that date: Raw will be prempted due to the dog show, and thus, Nitro will air unopposed and ratings will, naturally, be up from their normal average. Dave says you can knock Hogan all you want, but he's no dummy.
- Buff Bagwell missed house shows claiming he was injured but then showed up fine to Nitro. Dave says Bagwell has gotten a bad reputation for coming up with excuses to not do house shows or PR appearances, but he always seems fine when it comes time to be on TV. In related news, WCW head Bill Busch has basically started getting the same complaints that Bischoff had before him, with people complaining about double standards (like Bagwell missing house shows while others would be punished or fired for missing shows). Basically, it's the same issues as always: top stars get away with breaking all the rules and it's not fair.
- Kevin Nash and Scott Hall are both still trying to get released from their contracts. Nash in particular wants to work with the Rock and Triple H. As for Hall, he actually was backstage at a recent WWF show in his hometown in Orlando, just visiting friends. He has often shown up at ECW events in Orlando as well, so this is nothing new. But speaking of things that WCW midcarders would probably get in trouble for, there ya go.
- Terry Funk won't be working house shows for WCW, only TV and PPVs. He was brought in as a last minute panic move for the role, because Ric Flair refused to do it. Dave thinks Funk would be more valuable to WCW behind the scenes, helping to train and coach wrestlers, especially the younger guys on things like promos and character.
- Eric Bischoff met with Turner exec Brad Siegel to discuss several things, particularly about buying out the remainder of his contract, likely so he can go start a new company. He's apparently been devising a wrestling project for FOX.
- Vince Russo held a meeting backstage before Nitro that was basically meant to let everyone air out their issues. At one point, Kevin Nash began complaining about the food in catering sucking and also was upset about the rule stating that everyone has to be at the arena by 1pm, which doesn't leave everyone enough time in the day to hit the gym and whatnot. Someone suggested bringing weights to the arena, and then Perry Saturn got involved, saying they can't get a good workout in like that because they need real gym equipment (Dave agrees with Saturn here. So many guys have various injuries and have to do specialized workouts and you just can't get that by dropping off a few dumbbells to the arena and telling them to use those. These guys are supposed to be world class athletes in tip-top shape. They need to be able to work out at a high level). Anyway, the meeting fell apart after that and devolved into a bunch of people arguing.
- They did an angle last week where Jeff Jarrett had to fight 3 veterans in one night: Jimmy Snuka, George Steele, and Tito Santana. Those are just the ones that accepted (and were paid around $2000-3000 for it). King Kong Bundy, Honky Tonk Man, Bob Backlund, and Nick Bockwinkel all turned it down.
- WCW's August PPV is on the calendar for Salt Lake City, which will finally end the tradition of horrible Sturgis PPVs. It'll still probably be horrible. But it won't be horrible in Sturgis.
- Various WCW notes: WCW is sending a few Power Plant guys (Alan Funk and Chuck Palumbo) to work in Harley Race's promotion in Missouri for experience. Larry Zbyszko should be returning to in-ring action for WCW soon for whatever reason.
- Phil Mushnick yada yada new column blah blah. This time he criticized Turner Broadcasting and the Atlanta Braves, who are ordering player John Rocker to undergo counseling due to his racist and homophobic comments in Sports Illustrated recently. Mushnick says this is the same company that used Lenny and Lodi on TV: "Lenny and Lodi, performing on national TV in the roles of hate-inspiring homosexuals, were following the orders of WCW executives on Turner's payroll. Who profits from hateful, ethnocentric conduct, Rocker or Turner?" Dave points out that WCW actually dropped the Lenny and Lodi characters months ago after GLAAD complained.
- Just a note about Nitro being cut back to 2 hours. Dave says, for what it's worth, Bischoff was practically begging for months for Turner to cut the show back to 2 hours and they never would. Then, he gets fired, Russo comes in, and only then did Brad Siegel make the decision to cut back finally.
- At the Thunder taping, during a commercial break, they were doing some crowd work, holding the mic out to fans to say stuff. Some edgy kid got on the mic and said "Owen Hart sucks!" and that was pretty much the end of that.
- The Baltimore Sun ran an article on Nitro Girl Skye, who is now going by the name Miss Hancock. The article said being a WCW cheerleader is the trashiest job on TV so not off to a good start. Anyway, Miss Hancock's real name is Stacy Keibler, she's 20, she has a 3.7 GPA majoring in communications at Towson University, she won $10,000 in winning the Nitro Girl search contest, and she's the hottest WCW/WWE diva of all time fuck you fight me if you disagree.
- In an interview with the man who was originally scheduled to do Steve Austin's neck surgery, the doctor said Austin has a very large spur and neck protrusion compressing his spinal cord, which puts him in significant jeopardy if he continues to wrestle. The doctor said Austin has 8mm of room for his spinal cord, where he should have 18mm. I'm no doctor but that sounds bad. Speaking of, aren't there, like, rules about doctors giving interviews about people's medical info? Anyway, this guy is no longer doing Austin's surgery. He switched to a different doctor and will have the surgery in the next week or so.
- Notes from Smackdown: "Have you ever noticed, it doesn't matter which member of the family it is, that those McMahons always outsmart all the mid card wrestlers. I'd hate to read their contracts." And that very true quote is followed up by this even truer quote: "If they handle him right, Angle is going to be a superstar as a heel." Triple H faced Rikishi in the main event and the crowd was super into Rikishi and Dave is kind of amazed that he's gotten over so huge and thinks this was a star-making match for Rikishi that may elevate him to upper midcard star (yup).
- The Rock did an interview on the Opie & Anthony show that led to some controversy. The story is a little convoluted but the hosts brought on a guy who runs a website that apparently had stirred up some drama due to a racist post making fun of Rock being half black/half Samoan. Anyway, Rock was blindsided by them bringing this guy on and was furious about it, feeling like they were condoning the racist comments. I think. I can't make sense of this story and Dave's explanation is convoluted. Anyway, the site apparently made racist comments about Mark Henry and Jacqueline as well. This leads into a long Dave rant about racism in wrestling and how it still very much exists today (pointing out Russo's pinata on a pole match or WWF's various black caricatures over the years). Anyway, Rock was furious about the whole thing and apparently ripped into some people about it after the show was over (here's the whole episode. I'm not listening to this shit so maybe someone else can make sense of it).
- The situation with WWF and Ken Shamrock is up in the air right now. There were rumors that he had knee surgery but he denied it when WWF contacted him. Then his agent claimed Shamrock DID recently have his knee scoped. Nobody seems to really know, with even people in WWF getting conflicting info. Shamrock also met with Vince McMahon recently to discuss his future. Word is Shamrock wants time away from wrestling to take an offer to fight in Japan and wants WWF to sponsor him, document his training, and build it up on TV while he takes a year to go fight in MMA. And then he would return to WWF full-time after having been shown (theoretically) dominating the MMA world. WWF is willing to let him leave and to train and fight and are leaving the door open for him to return, but they're understandably not interested in keeping him on the payroll for the next year while he does it. Besides, what happens if they build up this Shamrock fight all year and then he goes in there and gets his ass beat? Vince doesn't like doing things that he can't control and isn't making money from. So they're at an impasse right now.
- Turns out Terry Funk was still under contract to WWF when he showed up in WCW. His deal expired in December, but because he never formally left the company, the contract had a clause in it that caused it to automatically roll over for another year. It doesn't seem like Funk even realized it. Anyway, purely out of respect for Funk, WWF decided not to make a big deal out of it and instead granted him his release.
- Jim Ross appeared on the Observer radio show and said that WWF is likely going to put Amy Dumas together with Papi Chulo in the next month or two. He's learning English and she's fluent in Spanish, so they think it's a good pairing. He also talked about being a big fan of WWF developmental wrestlers Steve Bradley and Barry Buchanan. He said Tazz's debut (it will be spelled with two Z's) isn't definite yet and didn't seem sold on the idea of debuting him during the Rumble match. Ross said because of how many guys are in the ring during the Rumble, he wasn't sure having little bitty Tazz out there among all the WWF giants would be the best way to present him in his debut (he ends up getting his own solo match against Angle).
- Shawn Michaels and his wife Rebecca (former Nitro Girl Whisper) had their first child last week, a son named Cameron Hickenbottom.