Wrestling Observer Rewinder

January 31, 2000

WCW remains in chaos this week. The company offered unconditional releases to Chris Benoit, Dean Malenko, Eddie Guerrero, Perry Saturn, Shane Douglas, and Konnan which would free them up to start with WWF as soon as Feb. 1st. A condition of the releases was that they not publicly disparage WCW and agreed not to sue WCW for any reason. But when it came time to actually sign the paperwork, both Konnan and Douglas backed down, due to fear of leaving their lucrative WCW deals and uncertainty over whether or not they'd be welcomed in WWF. Douglas contacted Steve Austin to try to see if there was interest from WWF and was basically given the idea that they would take him, but then Douglas' lawyer advised against it, so he chose to stay. As for Konnan, he claimed he was just sticking by his friends and never actually asked for his release. But Bill Busch felt differently and there's a lot of heat there and Konnan may not be welcomed back in WCW even if he doesn't sign his release. The other 4 men had a meeting scheduled with McMahon and Jim Ross last week but it got postponed due to weather. McMahon told them to keep everything quiet, so all 4 men cut off contact with pretty much everyone else in the business, including Shane Douglas, who was upset at feeling like his friends left him out in the cold and didn't even tell him they were meeting with Vince. When Douglas found out, he called Malenko, who told Douglas they were in Florida. But then Douglas called the hotel they were staying at in Stamford and got confirmation that they were there, so he was upset at being lied to by his friends and claims he's more hurt than angry. He says he stuck his neck out to support them when they all went to Busch together as a group, but then they all cut him off when shit got real. To be fair, they all said that they were under the impression Douglas wanted to stay with WCW. McMahon's idea was to keep everything hush-hush and try to get people to think that all 4 men were planning to return to WCW, thus making it a bigger surprise when they eventually show up on WWF TV. No word on what the plan is yet, but it's believed all 4 men will come in together as a group, in some sort of interpromotinal-style WCW invasion angle. It's believed a deal was reached with all 4 and they should be starting soon, although Eddie Guerrero has been telling people that he may be going to NJPW instead, but it's still unknown for sure.
Vince Russo also had a meeting with Bill Busch this week, making a series of demands. He either wants to be released from his contract (which still has nearly 2 years on it) or to be given his job back as head booker with full control, and not be forced to work alongside Kevin Sullivan or JJ Dillon. He also demanded he be given another 9 months to continue booking the show without interference from anyone else (when Russo was hired, he was basically told he'd be given a year to turn things around but he just got the boot after 3 months, so he wants the other 9 months). At press time, no decision has been made but Russo wasn't at the TV tapings last week. There's still rumors throughout the company of this person or that person getting so-and-so's job or position and basically no one backstage really knows who's running things anymore.
WWF's Royal Rumble is in the books and was an uneventful show news-wise, but a great in-ring show. They sold out MSG with a gate of over $1.14 million, making it the 6th largest ever in the U.S. and the buyrate is expected to be monstrous. Cactus Jack vs. Triple H in a street fight was fantastic, but left Dave wondering about how much violence is too much when it comes to satisfying an audience that is totally desensitized to people killing themselves to get a pop. Dave rants again about the dangers of unprotected chair shots to the head and also talks about the use of barbed wire in this match, which the New York state commission had banned ECW from using just a few weeks ago. Gotta love the double standard. Triple H got a gash in his calf muscle somehow. But it was a legit match of the year candidate and probably should have closed the show. Nudity was promised and delivered in the form of 77-year old Mae Young in a bikini contest (Miss Kitty had a bubble wrap bikini). Andy Richter was one of the judges for this. Tazz made his debut against Kurt Angle and the match was on the verge of being really good before ending and Dave thinks they should have gotten more time. Angle in particular came off like a superstar and Tazz got a lot of ECW chants. The Dudleyz vs. Hardyz tables match was really good. Taka Michinoku was legit injured during the Rumble match when he took a hard face-first bump outside the ring. He and Funaki were scheduled to make multiple run-ins during the match but after he was injured, he couldn't do it. So every time he was supposed to do his normal run-in spot, they just kept replaying the footage of Taka getting injured instead while Lawler cackled about it like it was a joke. In case you're wondering, Taka had to go to the hospital and will be out for awhile so...ha ha? Anyway, Rock won the Rumble and will main event Wrestlemania, presumably against Triple H.
Obituary for Al Costello, one of the most famous Australian wrestlers ever and half of the Fabulous Kangaroos tag team. He was 80 and died from...being 80, I guess. Heart problems, Alzheimer's, pneumonia, you name it. He had it all at the end. Anyway, Dave recaps his career and the Kangaroos are widely recognized for popularizing tag team wrestling back in the 50s, if not outright inventing it. The usual long, interesting in-depth bio.
And another obituary for WCW wrestler Bobby Duncam Jr. who died this week at 34 years old from a drug overdose. Duncam Jr. had been out of action for several months recovering from surgery and had been off TV long enough that WCW barely felt the need to acknowledge his death. He leaves behind 2 kids and a wife with whom he was in the process of divorcing. He most recently appeared for WCW as part of the West Texas Rednecks group with Curt Hennig prior to his injury. Duncam Jr. was well-known to have pill problems, especially somas, and WCW was aware. At one point, they had forced him to sign a document agreeing to go to rehab and would only receive partial pay until he completed his rehab. He signed it and his wife had also been urging him to go, but he never went and denied that he had a problem. He had been to AA meetings in the past and in recent weeks, with nothing but free time due to his injury and guaranteed WCW money still rolling in, he went into a downward spiral of drugs and alcohol. As usual, Dave recaps his life and career.
WWF has pulled their developmental territory deal away from Power Pro Wrestling in Memphis (which is run by promoter Randy Hales) and instead given it to Jerry Lawler's new Memphis Championship Wrestling promotion which will be starting this week and will go head-to-head against PPW. The whole story is weird but basically, Lawler convinced McMahon to make the change. Lawler was originally involved in starting up Power Pro with Hales. The promotion was supposed to be run by both of them, but at the time it started, Lawler was still tied up in a bunch of legal mess over the death of USWA. So in all the paperwork, Power Pro was 100% Hales promotion, and Lawler was unofficially helping to run it. But as tends to happen, there was friction between Hales and Lawler and since Lawler wasn't on the paperwork, he had no power over Hales when it came to anything. Plus Lawler was furious over the comments Doug Gilbert made about him on Power Pro TV a couple months ago (about Lawler raping a little girl) and had threatened to sue. So the relationship fell apart and Lawler decided to start his own promotion and got a TV deal on another local Memphis channel to run in direct competition against Hales. WWF not only provided talent to Power Pro, but they also covered some insurance costs and provided the ring they used for TV tapings. WWF is taking their ring back and giving it to Lawler instead. Hales was pretty much running a promotion on no budget, since most of the wrestlers were WWF developmental guys that worked in Memphis and Louisville (in OVW) and the TV station paid Hales a weekly fee for the show. But now he has no more WWF wrestlers and doesn't even have a ring at the moment. The regulars (Steve Bradley, Rico Constantino, Nick Dinsmore, Flash, Robbie D, and Scotty Sabre) have all been pulled and will work Lawler's shows now instead. WWF is sending several other wrestlers, most notably Kurt Angle, to work Lawler's first MCW taping. As for Power Pro, they're in a tough spot. Randy Hales doesn't have money to throw around and they were totally dependent on WWF so if he wants to continue running, he's going to have to find wrestlers who are willing to practically work for free (they continue limping along for a little while longer, but this was pretty much the death blow. MCW doesn't last terribly long either. Both companies eventually come together and do an inter-promotional angle in 2001 but they both still die soon after).
Ratings are more of the same. Nitro did near record-low numbers while Raw beat them by a bunch. Nitro was coming off a PPV and by all rights it should have done in the 3.7 range. But instead it did a 2.98 which is shockingly low and was the 2nd worst Nitro rating ever. The news wasn't any better for Thunder, as ratings dropped significantly for it this week also. Meanwhile, Smackdown did its 3rd highest rating ever. ECW also set its all-time ratings record on TNN, doing a 1.24. Still not in WCW range or anything, but ECW ratings are steadily inching up week-by-week (I still wonder what their ratings might have been like if they weren't stuck in the death slot on Friday nights).
Giant Baba's widow Motoko Baba recently had to pay more than $700,000 in inheritance taxes due to Baba's mansion in Japan and multiple vacation homes in Hawaii which are all valued at more than $8 million.
Wrestling movie news: Beyond The Mat will open in theaters nationwide in March and Jim Carrey won a Golden Globe for portraying Andy Kaufman in Man on the Moon.
Ian Rotten is starting back up his IWA promotion (they've been shut down since August) and will be running weekly hardcore shows in Charleston, IN. Rotten owns the new building they'll be doing shows at, so he won't run into problems anymore with finding venues that will allow his gorefest matches.
A promotion called WXO started running TV shows in about 80 markets by buying syndication deals in them. Ted Dibiase is the figurehead CEO of the company. Stan Lane and Chris Cruise do announcing and Barry Horowitz and Barry Darsow are booking it. The shows actually have decent production value and there's clearly some money behind it, but it's already floundering. They already cancelled their 2nd TV taping. They push it as family-friendly wrestling and it's sorta like the old AWF promotion a couple of years ago. The wrestlers are all pretty much just washed up 80s guys or more recent WWF/WCW curtain-jerker rejects (yeah this dies out quick, they never do another taping).
XPW is running a show in L.A. this week featuring celebrity appearances by KoRn lead singer Jonathan Davis, porn star Ron Jeremy and Danzig band member Josh Lazie.
Insane Clown Posse's Juggalo Championshit Wrestling (not a typo) will be releasing a video of the event they held last month in Detroit. Raven, Balls Mahoney, Abdullah The Butcher, King Kong Bundy, Iron Sheik, and more all make appearances (if you haven't seen this before, what are you doing with your life? ICP on commentary alone makes this a must-watch). Also on their website, ICP announced that Vampiro is planning to leave WCW to wrestle full time for JCW and they plan to self-finance the company and tour nationally with it. Dave doesn't seem like he expects Vampiro to walk away from his guaranteed WCW paycheck to go wrestle for ICP.
WATCH: Juggalo Championshit Wrestling, Vol. 1
Following the success of Sable in Playboy, apparently Penthouse is looking for any female wrestler who is willing to pose for their magazine.
Speaking of Sable, she's currently working on a new show called The Consultants, which will star her, NBA star Dennis Rodman, karate star Jeff Speakman and former WBC boxing champ Jeremy Williams (I don't think this ever came to fruition but even two years later in 2002, I found an interview with her talking about it. So apparently they tried for a long time to get that show off the ground).
Axl Rotten appeared at a CZW show and cut a promo trashing ECW and using some "ethnic slurs" about Paul Heyman (Rotten doesn't like the Jews apparently. Or at least, that particular Jew).
At the latest ECW TV taping, they filmed an angle that won't air on ECW TV but will instead air in Japan for FMW. It saw FMW president Shoichi Arai get into an argument with Paul Heyman, with the gimmick being that Heyman stole Masato Tanaka from FMW. Arai eventually attacked Heyman, but was taken out by Balls Mahoney, Sal E. Graziano and Roadkill, who beat up Arai until police showed up. Those 3 guys are expected to travel to Japan soon to work some FMW shows and the angle is expected to make them top heels there (can't find footage of this).
Hulk Hogan is now telling people that he will never return to WCW because he was upset with their latest contract offer. He wants to go back under the terms of his previous deal. WCW is planning to do Hogan vs. Luger at SuperBrawl next month but who knows now. Hogan is still under contract for 6 more PPV dates. In fact, WCW is pretty much desperate to get as many big names as they can for the next PPV because the buyrate for Souled Out came in worse than expected and it's now the lowest buyrate in the history of WCW or WWF (and in fact, is lower than any of UFC's buyrates ever also). In fact, the Souled Out buyrate is in the ballpark of most ECW PPVs. So who knows if Hogan is coming back or not, but it's Hogan so Dave says to take anything he claims with a grain of salt (yup. Hogan is back for SuperBrawl, against Luger).
Ric Flair has been talking about running for governor of North Carolina and has to make a final decision this week. Word is he's leaning against it, despite a lot of mainstream news coverage talking about the possibility lately. A newspaper poll in Greensboro found that 25% of the voters said they would vote for him, while another poll in Charlotte was at 39%. Speaking of Flair, he once again asked for his release from WCW, pointing out that they freely released Benoit, Guerrero, etc. when they asked. But WCW shot it down, so Flair's still stuck.
Notes from Nitro: Tank Abbott and Torrie Wilson were pretty much the only 2 people on this show who even got a pop from the crowd. Scott Hall was doing his drunk "act" again and seemed to be hamming it up to the point that Dave suspects he was trying to get sent home yet again so he can stay on his couch and collect his check. Terry Funk did an Asai moonsault and Dave assures us that he's not making that up. Christopher Daniels had a dark match try-out before the show. And during a commercial break, Miss Hancock came out and went over to the DJ that spins during commercial breaks and began dancing, which is totally out of character for her gimmick.
Goldberg appeared on Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher and came off like a normal, intelligent person, which is unfortunately rare for pro wrestlers in this sort of setting.
Doctors have told Bret to stay out of the ring for at least 2 months following his severe concussion at Starrcade last month. He is still not even allowed to fly so he hasn't been able to travel to TV tapings lately either. The plan for SuperBrawl was Hart vs. Sid Vicious for the WCW title but they're clearly going to have to come up with something else now (unbeknownst to anyone at the time of course, Hart's career was already over).
One of the big issues where Vince Russo and Kevin Sullivan clashed was over how to use Goldberg. Russo wanted to keep the title off of Goldberg for as long as possible, feeling that there's more money in him chasing the belt. Sullivan wanted to put the title on Goldberg immediately, as soon as his arm heals and he can get back in the ring. Dave thinks that, if booked correctly, Russo's idea is clearly the better option. Of course, the caveat there is "if booked correctly" and WCW can't seem to get through a 2-hour Nitro without tripping over their own dicks, much less plan a lengthy and cohesive long-term storyline, so....
This sort of leads Dave on a small rant about the whole booking mess. The internet department at WCW loved Russo because he kept them in the loop on all the angles and used the WCW website to try to push things, because Russo loves booking for internet fans. Meanwhile, Sullivan never kept them in the loop. It led to a lot of people within the production side of the company praising Russo as a creative genius who wasn't given a fair shake to turn WCW around, but of course, after 3 months, things in WCW were clearly not even close to turning around and in a lot of ways, they were getting worse. But Dave thinks replacing him with Sullivan was also a bad idea because everyone knows how the wrestlers feel about Sullivan and the resulting near-mutiny was predictable. They should have known that guys like Benoit were going to be upset about it and now they lost at least 4 talented young stars because of it who are headed to WWF. Dave compares WCW now to AWA in the late-80s. Everyone wants out and title belts are having to change hands constantly due to unforeseen things (such as your new world champion quitting the day after he wins the belt) and no continuity to anything. WCW is just a toxic mess right now and they're spinning the drain. Now they're in cost-cutting mode and Dave wonders how much longer the suits at Turner are going to want to keep propping up this fledgling shit-show (spoiler: about a year).
WCW had a legends night show a few weeks ago in Buffalo and came very close to making a deal to bring in Bruno Sammartino, but it got nixed at the last minute. It was the episode where Jeff Jarrett faced 3 legends in the same night and Sammartino was agreeable to being one of the legends and would have wrestled Jarrett. WCW's legal department shot down the idea due to the belief that Sammartino is planning to testify against WCW in a lawsuit filed against them by Nasty Boy Jerry Sags, who claimed he suffered a career-ending injury in a match with Scott Hall. Sammartino's name appeared on a witness list in the lawsuit but Bruno denied that he ever planned to testify on Sags behalf and in fact has asked to be removed from the list. But WCW's legal people still didn't want to take the chance so they shot down the idea of bringing him in for the show. Instead, Tito Santana, George Steele, and Jimmy Snuka all did the show instead.
The fitness model women who have been hanging around the NWO are: Kim Kanner, Melinda O'Hearn, Pamela Paulshock and Tylene Buck (Kanner becomes known as Shikira and was one of Scott Steiner's freaks during this time. Melinda O'Hearn is Midajah, another of Steiner's women. Pamela Paulshock became a backstage interviewer for WCW. And Tylene Buck eventually becomes Major Gunns and later did porn).
WCW brought back the KISS Demon character at the Saturday Night tapings, but this time Dale Torborg was playing the role instead of Brian Adams.
Steve Austin is already working out post-surgery and is running on a treadmill already. He's been told he should make a full recovery but told him he'll need about 6 months to recover. Austin is hoping to be back in 3 months (not even close).
Notes from Raw: Tazz made his Raw debut choking out Angle again. The show was in Philadelphia and Tazz got a huge response and massive ECW chants. They showed Darren Drozdov visiting backstage, which is really the first real acknowledgement on TV that he was ever injured in the first place. And Rikishi has gotten over huge in record time and the fans are buying into him as a legit main eventer.
Random WWF notes: Chyna will be appearing on the TV show Third Rock From The Sun soon. WWF New York, their restaurant in Times Square, had their big grand opening last week and basically every star in the company was there. The band Sugar Ray performed, the Rock cut promos, and a bunch of other wacky shit. WWF is considering bringing in Val Venis' sister (and Edge's fiance) Alannah Morley to play a role on TV (didn't happen). Amy Dumas and Papi Chulo worked together in some dark matches last week, and will be debuting on TV together soon.
Opie and Anthony are still throwing a tantrum about the Rock walking off their show a few weeks ago during an interview so they showed up to the grand opening of WWF New York and tried to get in but were denied entry. Then they started making a bunch of jokes saying that WWF New York serves Owen Hart burgers, which are dropped from the ceiling, Droz Dogs which are served in a cart, and giant steroid filled chicken. On WWF's Byte This show, Kevin Kelly spent half the show trashing Opie & Anthony in response. Dave suspects it's all a work because Rock is scheduled to go back on O&A's show soon and thinks they're just trying to drum up controversy ahead of their big Rock interview after the drama from last time he was on the show. That being said, Dave thinks it would be pretty tasteless for WWF to be involved in any kind of publicity stunt with guys who are making those sorts of comments about Owen and Droz, so maybe it's not a work.
WWF reportedly paid for 3 commercials during this year's Super Bowl (at a cost of more than $4.5 million) but one of them was rejected by ABC and will air on USA during Raw instead because it was deemed too risque. The other 2 are expected to air during the game (I can only find one of the commercials, and this weird advertisement website is the only place I can find it):
WATCH: WWF Miss Congeniality commercial - SuperBowl 2000
Longtime WWF front office employee and former wrestler Arnold Skaaland is said to be in bad shape from prostate cancer. (He hangs on for another 7 years. Durable prostate, I guess.)
Random Dave musing, as he casually wonders how long it will take some of the top WWF stars to start complaining that Chris Benoit "doesn't know how to work 'main event' style" when he shows up and starts wrestling circles around everyone (Dave and Chris Jericho recently talked about this on a podcast together. Basically, it was Triple H and that was exactly what he said. Because that's kind of the insecure and paranoid jerk he used to be back then).