March 06, 2000
- Mick Foley officially retired this week following his match with Triple H at No Way Out. Dave usually does a big career retrospective on big stars after they retire but thinks he should probably wait until years down the road before he does one for Foley because he probably still has a lot more to offer the business. But he still gives him a brief recap. Overachiever in wrestling, defied odds to become one of the top stars in the business and even a best selling author. He gave his body and probably his brain health to the business and achieved great success without ever developing a selfish top star attitude that so many others have. And he went out like a pro, spending the last several months bending over backwards to get Triple H over. Dave says that years from now when Triple H is remembered as one of the top stars in the business, he'll owe a lot of that to Foley. He was probably the single biggest influence on changing the style of wrestling in the past 10 years but it comes at a cost. He's managed to not become hooked on painkillers like so many other wrestlers, but he's likely going to spend the rest of his life in a lot of pain and dealing with the mental effects of so many years of unprotected chair shots and things like that. Dave hopes he doesn't turn into another Dynamite Kid. In the last year or so, injuries had pretty much reduced Foley to a comedy figure but since he was planning to retire, he decided to go out in a blaze of glory. His Rumble and No Way Out matches with Triple H were full of the crazy risks and hardcore madness that Foley built his career on, and in the weeks leading up to the final match, he cut some of the best and most emotional promos of his career.
- So is it Foley's last match? Dave says pretty much no big name wrestler who has had a retirement match has ever stayed retired. Right now, in modern times, Antonio Inoki is currently the only one who has actually kept his word on it (give him, like, a week). Riki Choshu hasn't come back yet but it appears he's planning to soon (yup). Terry Funk has retired and come back so many times now that it's become sad. Foley has said that he won't be one of those people who retires and then comes back and promised he will never wrestle again. Dave isn't so sure. The whole storyline about Foley's dream to main event a Wrestlemia leads him to believe Foley will be back in a year or so, probably to main event next year's WM in what will probably be his real final match after giving him a year to rest up and get back into shape. He'll only be 35 so it's not like he'd be too old to do it (Dave was kinda right, except instead of a year, it was a month). In the meantime, Foley is expected to be kept off TV for a few weeks and then likely return in some sort of on-air role, probably as the new commissioner.
- WATCH: Mick Foley vs. Triple H - No Way Out 2000 (Highlights)
- Oh yeah, the rest of the No Way Out PPV. Dave says it was one of the best WWF PPVs in a long time, full of surprises and great matches. Big Show surprisingly beat The Rock to become the #1 contender for Triple H's title at WM but Dave expects Rock to still end up in the match somehow. It might become a triple threat, which is an idea Dave doesn't seem thrilled with and says Rock vs. Triple H is still the plan for WM but he doesn't know how they'll get there now. Billy Gunn tore his rotator cuff a few days before the show. He worked the match (although he didn't do much and literally couldn't use his left arm at all) and he and Road Dogg dropped the tag titles so that Gunn can go get surgery. Match was still decent even though Gunn was barely able to do anything (Gunn ended up being out for the next 8 months after this). Bob Holly also messed up his ribs before the show, so the triple threat hardcore title match was scrapped from the card. Angle vs. Jericho was good. Edge & Christian vs. The Hardyz was good. Terri Runnels returned and of course she turned on the Hardyz.
- So that Wrestler of the Century debate that Dave has been pondering for the last couple of weeks has been decided and Dave's answer is: Rikidozan. He spends a LONG time explaining the reason behind Rikidozan (Japan's first wrestling star and in fact, he pretty much created pro wrestling in Japan and became the country's first real cultural television star because of it). He personally handpicked, trained, and mentored Giant Baba and Antonio Inoki, the 2 men who later carried the business after his death. Same with Kintaro Ohki, who was discovered and trained by Rikidozan and became the biggest wrestling star ever in Korea. Basically, the entire industry of professional wrestling wouldn't exist in Japan if not for him. Dave writes a LONG bio on Rikidozan, his life story, history, legacy and why he's arguably one of the the most important people in the history of the business. This is another one of those long pieces that is too much to really recap here but is well worth reading in full if you want to learn a LOT of Japanese wrestling history. It's impossible to overstate how important Rikidozan was to professional wrestling. Without him, there's no Baba or Inoki, no AJPW or NJPW, which in turn means probably none of the shoot-fighting promotions that later formed the basis of modern day MMA, at least not as we know it today. Lou Thesz's departure from the NWA in the 1950s and how that led to the formation of new promotions in the U.S. and even the creation of AJPW's Triple Crown title. It ALL traces back to Rikidozan in some way. Thousands of people attended his wedding, including politicians, movie stars, pop stars, famous athletes, and more and Dave compares it to the Princess Di wedding. He was also heavily tied in to the Yakuza, which ultimately led to his murder. Over disagreements about money and control of the wrestling business, Rikidozan had angered the wrong people. A Yakuza member urinated on a knife, to make sure it would cause an infection, and stabbed Rikidozan in the stomach in a night club hallway. After the stabbing, Rikidozan beat the shit out of the guy who stabbed him while the crowd cheered and then threw the guy out of the club. He then got on stage, announced he'd been stabbed and acted like it was no big thing and continued partying and drinking with a crowd of adoring fans. But he made a fatal mistake by not getting medical attention, contracted peritonitis from the dirty knife, and got an infection and died a week later. His death nearly killed the entire wrestling industry in Japan, especially after the real stories about his life became known to the public (they all worshiped Rikidozan as a sports hero and in reality, he was basically a merciless mob boss who was into a lot of shady shit). Most major arenas no longer allowed pro wrestling and with the biggest star ever dead, the business nearly died with him until Giant Baba and, later, Inoki revived it during the JWA years in the late-1960s (this single paragraph I just wrote doesn't even scratch the surface of all the details Dave wrote. This is seriously must-read for people interested in Japanese wrestling history. And speaking of, if you haven't read Chris Charlton's book Lion's Pride, what are you waiting on?)
- A Detroit News reporter named Jim Thompson, who wrote weekly pro wrestling columns for the newspaper has been arrested and charged with sexual misconduct with minors, in regards to incidents with a couple of teenage boys. Along with his columns, he also did a popular wrestling hotline. When his apartment was searched, they found hundreds of child porn pictures and videos, some featuring Thompson himself with young boys. They confiscated 2 truckloads worth of material from his home and turns out he had a lot of contact with various professional wrestlers also, although it's believed none of them were aware of his crimes. Rumors have apparently been going around about this guy in wrestling circles for years. He was an Observer reader and Dave says that several of this guy's letters had been published in the Observer before also. Police said that he has been doing it for decades and admitted to at least 1,200 encounters with young boys and he apparently used his money to pay young boys to sexually torture him. Dave seems pretty well disgusted by this guy (I looked it up: he went to prison and served 16 years and was apparently released in 2016 and is living in a nursing home in Michigan. He's in his 70s now.)
- WWF stock is expected to finally turn around this week after they announced strong quarter profits and the LA Times published a big story about CBS attempting to buy a $100 million stake in the company to get TV rights. The story said CBS would buy into the company and promote both the WWF and XFL. USA has the right to match any offer first but it's unlikely they'll be able to compete with CBS money. If the deal goes through, Smackdown will stay on UPN and the XFL will air on Sunday afternoons on UPN, while Raw would move to TNN. There had been negotiations with FOX but McMahon walked away from the table because he insisted XFL had to be part of the deal and FOX wasn't interested in that. Of course, this is all big news because if it happens, that leaves USA Network without a wrestling product. Dave thinks they might pick up ECW if this all happens (since a Raw-to-TNN deal would almost certainly lead to ECW being booted from TNN) but it's still too far away to know for sure how it'll play out.
- Dave predicts that Vince McMahon will never allow another independent film producer into the world of WWF. A couple of years ago, Wrestling With Shadows ended up in court against the WWF and now it looks like Beyond The Mat will also. Last week, McMahon ordered USA and UPN to pull all advertising for the movie. The movie studio had spent a TON of money on ads during WWF programming leading up to the national theatrical release. In response, Universal Pictures is threatening a restraint of trade lawsuit against the WWF. This week, WWF's Senior VP Jim Byrne put out a statement saying, "Upon viewing it, we decided that we had no emotional attachment to the film. In regards to their advertising in the body of the show, it has been a longstanding policy of the WWF to not allow any advertising of a competitive wrestling product on our television because it could cause confusion in the marketplace." A few weeks ago, Mick Foley appeared on Good Morning America and promoted the movie. Afterwards, producer Barry Blaustein claims that McMahon called him and said if Foley was really his friend, he wouldn't allow him to promote the movie because it will ruin his career. In recent interviews with Foley, WWF's PR people have informed the reporters that questions about Beyond The Mat aren't allowed. Both of the deals for Wrestling With Shadows and Beyond The Mat were signed when WWF was losing the wrestling war and McMahon was desperate for any kind of mainstream publicity (at the time, WCW refused to participate in both films because they were winning and didn't see the need). The filmmakers of both films had almost unlimited backstage access and McMahon had no control or say in what was filmed. Dave thinks McMahon trying to bury this movie is just going to lead to more publicity for it, and much like Wrestling With Shadows, this movie has been getting rave reviews. It's believed McMahon's unhappiness from the movie is due to the scenes of Mick Foley's children crying hysterically at the finish of the Rumble '99 match. There have been a lot of media reports about how kids shouldn't watch wrestling because they can't distinguish between real and fake violence, and the deaths of several children from imitating wrestling moves has been a big mainstream news story. Seeing 2 young children losing their fucking minds watching their dad get beaten up looks pretty bad for WWF in that case. In an ABC 20/20 story, WWF tried to claim that the scene was staged by the producers but the filmmakers, and even Foley, have denied that it was fake. (Side note: I believe Dave was right. To the best of my recollection, I don't think they've ever allowed any independent film crew to have free backstage access since).
- Raw did nearly triple the ratings of Nitro this week, the biggest gap between the 2 shows ever. Nitro hit a new record low of 2.57. And Thunder also did a record low rating when airing unopposed. Oh, and WCW Saturday Night did its all-time lowest rating in the 20+ year history of being on TBS. This week was basically the Red Wedding of WCW's ratings. Meanwhile, ECW on TNN had another good ratings week and gained viewers throughout the show.
- Perro Aguayo is planning to retire this month and will have his final match in Arena Mexico, where he hasn't appeared in over 7 years. Basically, CMLL has a monopoly on that arena and Aguayo works for rival company AAA but he's such a legend in Mexico that he asked if he could have his final match there and it was agreed that he could. It's unknown just who his opponent will be yet but it's expected to likely be Fishman who was his biggest rival in the 70s and 80s. Fishman's career is coming to an end also and it's thought he may lose his mask to Aguayo in the match (lol nah. Aguayo pretty much works a full schedule for the next year).
- Mil Mascaras is talking about running for senator of San Luis Potosi, his home state in Mexico. He wouldn't be the first wrestler to become a senator, but Dave says he'd be the first masked wrestler to do so. I'd love to see a politician who just sits around in a wrestling mask and you never see his face.
- Still a lot of rumors of AJPW splitting up due to Mitsuharu Misawa and Motoko Baba being unable to get along. Apparently there's been talk of a split as far back as last year due to tensions between the two, but Nippon TV told Misawa that, due to Baba having died so recently, they would not go against AJPW out of respect. So if Misawa had split from the company back then, the TV network wouldn't have gone with him. But now that it's been more than a year since Baba passed, Nippon TV is said to be willing to listen and are said to be leaning towards Misawa's side. So if they split and Misawa forms his own company, it looks like AJPW may end up losing their TV deal because of it.
- In the Big Japan promotion, a match between Shadow WX and Mike Samples went terribly wrong when WX literally set himself on fire and then did a splash off the top rope onto Samples. The ring got set on fire and then he rolled out into the crowd while still in flames and it was an extremely dangerous. WX suffered serious burns because he couldn't get his shirt off and other people couldn't put out the fire. He had to be taken out in an ambulance. Korakuen Hall officials were furious and have banned all promotions from using fire or fluorescent light tubes in matches. The police and fire department are investigating and BJW is expected to face some punishment. WX is the one who came up with the stunt so on top of being burned and hospitalized, he's also been fined and suspended for a month (yeah this is fucking crazy and just about one of the stupidest things I've seen in wrestling).
- WATCH: BJW fire incident in Korakuen Hall - 2000
- Sable got horrible reviews for her performance on the show Relic Hunter last week. She's also going to be on the cover of Muscle & Fitness next month.
- Shane Douglas appeared at an XPW show in Los Angeles and cut a promo on WCW, trashing Bill Busch, Hulk Hogan, and Ric Flair (calling them "fossilized manure") and saying they were why WCW couldn't draw ratings. He also allegedly gave out Busch's phone number on the mic to the crowd. Needless to say, WCW's probably not thrilled about all this since, ya know, he's still under WCW contract. Chris Candido and Tammy Sytch also appeared on the show and they reformed the Triple Threat group from ECW with Douglas.
- Sabu worked 2 house shows for ECW this weekend. He had a long talk with Heyman the night of the first show and as of now, it's still unknown where things stand. Sabu is telling people he won't work the upcoming PPV unless he gets a check for back pay owed for previous PPVs. Heyman claims Sabu isn't owed any money and that if Sabu doesn't work the PPV, he'll be in breach of contract and is threatening to file a lawsuit against him. Sabu apparently threatened to sue him back, but Heyman has called his bluff and as of now, Sabu hasn't filed any lawsuits. (And thus comes the end of the long history between Sabu and ECW. After those 2 house shows, he never wrestled for the company again).
- Various ECW notes: RVD and Jerry Lynn are both still a couple of months from returning from their injuries. Spike Dudley has a torn PCL and needs surgery.
- Backstage at a Toledo house show, Sandman was apparently acting belligerent and got into it with Chris Chetti. It started off with a bet, since Chetti was an amateur wrestler, saying he could pin Sandman in 30 seconds and if he did, Sandman would give him $600. Chetti indeed did it and then continued tying Sandman in knots for a few seconds afterward. It led to a big argument but Chetti ended up refusing the money and they squashed it. People who watched it said it was obvious that Chetti could have easily hurt Sandman if he'd wanted to.
- Dave says that those in power in WCW have pretty much resigned themselves to the fact that they're stuck catering to Hogan's whims. He still has 2 years left on his contract, with full creative control of his angles, and WCW is basically shit out of luck.
- Speaking of Hogan, he just did an interview recently and claimed that all of WWF's headliners were between 35-40 just like WCW. Aside from Undertaker and Austin (both of whom haven't been around in months due to injuries), not a single current WWF headliner is 35 or over. Mick Foley is the closest at 34. Triple H is 30. Rock is still in his 20s. And basically everybody else on the roster of any name value is all under 35 also. Hell, even Austin is only 35 and Undertaker is the oldest at 37 so literally none of them are even that close to 40 yet.
- Here's the story on last week's incident where Tank Abbott pulled a knife out during his PPV match with Big Al. Before the match, Abbott had asked booker Kevin Sullivan if he could use a weapon in the match. Sullivan, thinking like a pro wrestler, said sure, naturally assuming that meant steel chair or table or something. Abbott, thinking like a real life street fighter, had a different idea in mind and pulled a switchblade out and held it to Big Al's throat after the match. Needless to say, there was heat on Abbott. The long-term plan has been to build up Abbott for the rest of the year with the idea that he would face Goldberg at Starrcade in December. But this incident seems to have ended those plans and on Nitro this week, Abbott ended up tapping out to Sid in 3 minutes, effectively killing his push.
- Speaking of, there have been booking meetings this week to discuss how to turn the company around and the plan seems to be to go 100% all in with Goldberg whenever he returns from his injury and to have him plow through everybody on the roster, heel and face. Basically going back to what got him over the first time.
- More news on Sonny Onoo's racial discrimination lawsuit. His lawyers are trying to get Super Calo, Lizmark Jr., Damian, Ciclope, and Hector Garza in on the suit. The idea is that these guys were all pretty big stars in Mexico, but were treated like jobbers in WCW, which they feel helps strengthen their suit and proves that these were talented guys who were capable of being stars but WCW never gave them a chance because of their race.
- Terry Funk missed this week's Thunder taping because he was in Philadelphia for a court case, stemming from the ECW incident a few years ago where some fans got burned when a fire spot went out of control (very similar, in fact, to the BJW fire incident mentioned earlier). The case has since been postponed.
- There's a lot of heat on Sting because he was supposed to be at Nitro last week but for whatever reason, he simply refused to come.
- Various WCW notes: Scott Steiner's suspension has been shortened (because of course it has) and he should be back before the end of the month. Curt Hennig has missed some shows because his daughter was badly injured in a skiing accident and was even in a coma at one point. Torrie Wilson is on this month's cover of Iron Man bodybuilding magazine.
- Buff Bagwell went on his website and said he's demanding to be paid what he's worth by WCW or else he'll be asking for his release, which allows Dave to get off a tremendous zinger: "I'm not sure what the going rate these days is for a 1.97 quarter hour rating, but it sounds to me like he's asking for a pay cut."
- Scott Hall was indeed going to be fired by WCW after his match at SuperBrawl, but the alleged injury he suffered at the end of the match has saved his job, at least for now. The official diagnosis is apparently a bruised spine and as you can imagine, there's a ton of skepticism over it. Some people don't think he's hurt at all and he basically faked the whole thing, trip to the hospital, MRI, and everything because he knew he was going to be fired. Others think he may really be injured but that he was hurt before the match and that he waited for the right moment to start milking it in order to save his job. Regardless, once he's no longer injured, he's expected to face some sort of discipline for his recent actions (yeah, he never wrestled another match in WCW, although he remains under contract and continues getting paid for most of 2000).
- Chris Candido and Tammy Sytch were able to get their release from ECW and will be starting with WCW any day now.
- Notes from Raw: Dave says it was the worst Raw in a long time. Anyway, Mae Young went into labor and they had her backstage with an EMT, Pat Patterson, Jerry Brisco, Moolah, and Mark Henry as she started to give birth. And then.....they pulled a hand out of her. Dave: "I have no idea what this was." He says someone called into to the online show and explained that rubber hands were a popular sex toy back in the 70s and 80s so he figures the idea must be that she was getting herself off decades ago and apparently the hand has been in there for quite awhile. So...yeah. That happened.
- A New York newspaper wrote an article about the WWF's stock troubles. Despite record profits, high TV ratings, great live attendance, and huge merch numbers, WWF stock is still in the gutter. It opened at $34 per share when they first went public and in just a few months has dropped to $11. The article mostly blamed McMahon, pointing out his obvious genius when it comes to being an entertainment producer and wrestling promoter, but noting that, as the head of a publicly traded company, he's not very good at it. WWF has repeatedly faced negative publicity and they suck at handling it, particularly due to McMahon's often confrontational reactions (like when Coke pulled their sponsorship and WWF responded by mocking them on Raw, or their attacks on the PTC people) the article noted that even though WWF is doing better business than they ever have before, the stock is hurt by McMahon's behavior. And of course, the XFL announcement was devastating to the stock (if you ever wondered why McMahon decided to start a whole separate company this time for the new XFL instead of using WWF money, here's your reason. To keep the stock from tanking again).
- Chris Benoit wrote a post on his website, lashing out at Hulk Hogan: "In the last four years of my career, I have seen the fans get shafted innumerable times on potentially great matches due to an ugly word called ego. I can go on and on talking about different events and times, but what I really want to address here regards someone who should stand out as an inspiration, a role model and a leader in the dressing room--Hulk Hogan. Here is a guy that would show up and disappear into his locker room, which had a DO NOT ENTER sign posted outside of it, concerning himself with only how many segments he had, what hours they were on, and which segments were before and after his. He would walk around, when he did step out of his confines, with this cocky arrogance as if he were the king and we, the paupers. From what I hear, not much has changed. My question is, 'What kind of legacy do you want to leave behind?' Don't you think it's time you start to make a positive difference behind the scenes? Lead, follow or get out of the way. Leave the ego at home and start making some real contributions to the business and to the fans that made you." Hogan was on Bubba The Love Sponge's radio show and responded, claiming he was a big supporter of Benoit's and said he always pushed for Benoit to get more TV time and a bigger push, but others in power wanted to bury him. Dave pretty much scoffs at that shit. Perry Saturn also recently said some similar things about Hogan, leading Hogan to reply that he'll make more money this year than Saturn will in the next 10.
- Speaking of Benoit, he and his fiancé Nancy welcomed their first child into the world last week, a boy named Daniel Christopher Benoit. Sigh.
- The Rock is apparently up for a role in the next Mummy movie (indeed he was, and that pretty much launched his film career).
- WWF is hopeful of Steve Austin being involved in Wrestlemania somehow. There's no chance he'll be able to work a match but they're hopeful that he may be able to do a run-in and deliver a stunner. But if he can't even do that, then they don't want to put him on the show. The situation is basically the same with Undertaker, he won't be ready to work a match by then, but they hope to have him appear in a non-wrestling role (neither happens).