Wrestling Observer Rewinder

June 05, 2000

This is an interesting issue, since Dave evaluates the landscape of American wrestling and already sees the likely writing on the wall for both ECW and WCW. Raw is expected to move to TNN later this year and depending on what USA decides to do, it could be the biggest break ever for ECW or it could be their death sentence (anybody wanna take bets?). USA Network is still trying to hold up the WWF deal and they aren't happy about losing Raw. USA reportedly wants to stay in the Monday night wrestling business, but they don't want to be in a position of building up a product and then losing it again the way they are with WWF so if they do, they will want to own it. So it's possible that USA might start up their own promotion or, more likely, would buy ECW or maybe even WCW if Turner gets rid of them (more on that later). But that's unlikely to happen and Dave seems to think it's more likely that USA will just giving up on wrestling entirely, and that would be bad news for ECW because they would need to find a new network. As for WWF, there's concern over how ratings may be affected when they move to TNN but Dave thinks it'll be fine. TNN is available in almost the same number of homes as USA and Smackdown proved that WWF fans will follow them to a new station, so he thinks it'll be negligible. WWF has also proven to have the ability to completely turn a struggling network around, which TNN is desperately hoping will happen.
And on the WCW end of things, Ted Turner is looking to leave the Time Warner/AOL conglomerate, which could be bad news. Turner has always fought to keep WCW when others wanted to get rid of it. If Turner leaves, WCW won't be protected. And it's the worst possible time for WCW, which has been in sale negotiations with a company called SFX, which owns a lot of the major arenas in the U.S. and does a lot of concert promotion. The two sides have been working together and have discussed various things like jacking up ticket prices and selling corporate sponsorships and things like that. And at one point earlier this year, SFX made a strong offer to buy WCW outright, but Turner execs shot it down immediately. It's still expected that SFX will handle promotional rights but they won't be buying the company. At least 2 other groups have also shown interest in buying either WCW and/or ECW. Plus, the Fox Network has been talking about doing a wrestling show for years so they're always in the running too. Last year, WCW lost more than $15 million even though buyrates and attendance were still strong for most of the year. This year, they're waaaay beyond that, with internal estimates suggesting that they are on pace to lose anywhere from $36 million to $80 million by the end of this year. Not a good time to lose Ted Turner's protection (nope, indeed it was not).
On Thunder this week, Bischoff heavily hyped a major announcement taking place at Great American Bash and even went so far as to say there was nothing Vince McMahon could do about it, for whatever that means. It could be the SFX promotional deal, which the general public isn't going to remotely give a shit about, nor would McMahon. Or it could be a Goldberg heel turn, because he was reportedly asked to go heel this week. Goldberg is said to be against it and Dave thinks would be an astronomically stupid move right now. But hey, Hogan and Nash don't want to be bumped out of their #1 and #2 babyface spots, so that's why he was asked to turn. No idea why McMahon would give an iota of a fuck about any of this though, so who knows. Most likely just Bischoff using Vince's name to stir up curiosity (yup).
In their desperation, WCW has actually broached the idea to ECW about working together. It's something Bischoff and Heyman actually discussed a little while back during the Mike Awesome legal battle, with Bischoff suggesting they turn it into an angle. But Heyman reportedly has zero interest in being involved in a WCW angle and shot it down immediately. Heyman has also insisted that he's not interested in selling a majority interest in ECW to anyone else, but he also recognizes that he can't compete on a national level without far more economic resources and a stronger TV deal. ECW's whole charm is based on being a small-time cult promotion and that just doesn't work on a national stage well enough to generate enough money to keep WWF and WCW from stealing all their top stars as soon as they get hot. Heyman has admitted that ECW is in a tough situation right now because of the TNN deal. If Vince McMahon allows TNN to keep ECW, then they may be okay. But if McMahon wants TNN to exclusively carry WWF, then they're going to drop ECW and Heyman is well aware that it would be disastrous for the company if they aren't able quickly land a new TV deal (and so it was).
Pro wrestler-turned-MMA fighter Masakatsu Funaki announced his retirement from MMA this week and Dave does a big recap of his career. He started out in NJPW and then UWFI for several years before transitioning to Pancrase. His retirement came on the heels of a highly anticipated match with Rickson Gracie that everyone expected Funaki to win, but Gracie ended up beating him fairly easily and, despondant after the fight, Funaki announced that he's retiring. It was an interesting fight because Gracie had dictated all the rules beforehand and they were crazy for an MMA fight. No time limit and the only way Gracie could lose was to tap out. The rules were such that the referee, the corner, and not even the doctors were allowed to stop the fight on Gracie's behalf, he could only lose if he quit. Luckily for him, that never ended up being a factor because Gracie dominated the fight. Gracie injured Funaki's knee, which rendered him unable to fight effectively and then got him in a rear-naked choke, but Funaki wouldn't submit so his corner threw in the towel. But it would have been nuts if Gracie had been on the losing end. Anyway, Dave thinks this may lead to Funaki returning to professional wrestling (not until 2009 but yeah he eventually does and he still works in AJPW and and other indies to this day).
The 3rd annual Brian Pillman memorial show was held this week, in conjunction with a benefit put together for Brian Hildebrand's widow. Wrestlers from all 3 major U.S. companies participated, as well as some indie guys. The show drew more than 2,000 people and raised over $36,000 for Pillman's family. The show was way too long (almost 6 hours) but most of the matches were good. During the show, Kevin Nash offered $20,000 to the Pillman family if Missy Hyatt were to strip down to her bra and panties for the crowd, which was mostly families with kids. This was unscripted and Hyatt wasn't going for it and kinda chewed Nash out for putting her on the spot like that, but she did do a little dance and flash her underwear briefly and Nash said he would donate the $20,000 anyway. As of press time, the check hasn't been written (it never does, and Dave occasionally briefly reminds readers about it months and months later). Later in the show, DDP tried to raise money from the crowd by getting a local female valet to take her dress off. The star of the show was Steven Regal, who had his best match in years with Chris Benoit and stole the show. Regal's career was pretty much dead not too long ago after being fired from WCW twice and WWF once due to drug issues but he and Benoit tore the house down in what many called one of the best matches of the year. Both men got a standing ovation afterward, with the crowd chanting loudly for Regal. These days, he's sober and acting as sort of a coach for people in the Memphis WWF developmental territory and is in the best shape of his life. Before the show, Regal called it the most important match of his life and boy did he deliver. Several people ended up bailing on the show. Ric Flair cancelled a few days ahead of time, no reason given. Terry Taylor cancelled due to a concussion suffered on Nitro a few days before. Chris Candido and Tammy Sytch missed the show, claiming their flight got delayed and they couldn't make it. Road Dogg, Al Snow, and Jim Cornette all bailed, no reason given, among others. (Here's the full show, or at least that I can find. Regal/Benoit at 1:12:00 mark. Nash/Missy stuff appears to have been cut from it.)
WATCH: Brian Pillman Memorial Show 2000
Jim Rome's "Last Word" show on Fox Sports Net this week had 2 episodes that made some waves. In the first, Rome trashed MMA, calling the sport an embarrassment and saying it wasn't a sport at all, calling it barbaric, dangerous, despicable, human cockfighting, a freak show, and more. A few days later, he had Bret Hart on as a guest and they talked mostly about wrestlers unionizing, which both of them agreed should happen. Hart pointed out that even rodeo clowns have unions. When asked about the Owen lawsuit, Bret was sorta mum for legal reasons but he did criticize McMahon for continuing the show after Owen died. As for the Raw tribute show the night after, Bret was also critical of that and especially about the ending with Steve Austin raising a beer to Owen. Bret pointed out that Austin had spoken publicly many times about how much he disliked Owen and blamed him for his neck injury, so to Bret, it felt fake and felt it was an example of WWF trying to milk the show for ratings, by putting Austin on and holding him till the last segment to make sure fans stayed tuned in. Hart was critical of WCW too, especially all the stunts they do and talked about how he participated in (after his concussion, when he was still living in a fog) a skit where he chased after Goldberg in a car and skidded on ice, nearly plowing through a production truck. It led to him having the "I'm a wrestler, not a stunt-man" argument and basically just shitting on how unsafe wrestling has become and how the pursuit for ratings leads to more and more dangerous stuff. Jim Rome, as he usually does, was completely disrespectful of wrestling in general (though he seemed to like Hart) and called WWF's decision to continue the show the most cold-hearted thing he's ever seen.
Since being released from WCW, La Parka has been working far more frequently in Mexico, including working some shows for CMLL. During his initial glory days in Mexico, he was always an AAA guy so it's big news to see him in CMLL (he signs a contract with CMLL in 2003 that ultimately pisses off AAA president Antonio Pena so much that he sues over La Parka's name and gimmick, which ultimately leads to him becoming L.A. Park. Also, apparently La Parka got released from WCW? I don't remember Dave mentioning this before).
Antonio Inoki spoke out against NJPW's planned Riki Choshu/Atsushi Onita exploding ring barbed wire match which is scheduled to take place next month. Inoki said the match will do long term damage to NJPW (well, he'd know about that better than anyone). He also accused Choshu of lying since he's not sticking to his promise to stay retired. Dave scoffs at the irony of Inoki having the gall to ever call anyone a liar.
Canadian wrestler Biff Wellington was arrested by Tokyo police for attempting to smuggle drugs into the country by mail. No details on the drugs but apparently he got caught getting something from Thailand mailed to himself. Wellington has been working for Michinoku Pro but they cut him loose after the arrest and it made all the major newspapers throughout the country. Japan is extremely strict on drugs, so it was big news and it got him arrested and fired.
Lionsgate has decided not to release Beyond The Mat in theaters in Canada. It did decently during its first week in the U.S. but fell hard after that. It'll be released on home video in August.
Jesse Ventura is doing Jesse Ventura things this week. There was a lot of coverage of a recent meeting between Ventura and former President Jimmy Carter, who told Ventura his mother was a huge wrestling fan and used to go to shows in the Georgia territory. Ventura, of course, claimed that he remembered meeting Carter's mother back when he wrestled there. But of course, during the time period Carter's mother used to attend shows, Ventura wasn't wrestling in Georgia in those days, so, ya know. Also, Ventura is meeting with Antonio Inoki for....whatever reason. And in a Washington Post interview, Ventura talked about entering the 2000 presidential race at the last minute, saying he feels he could win because Bush and Gore are too bland. Ventura's spokesman had to come out immediately after and clarify that Ventura is absolutely not planning to run.
Sonny Onoo worked an indie show in Denver last week and was doing the stereotypical sneaky Japanese villain gimmick, complete with throwing salt. Not exactly doing wonders to help his racial discrimination lawsuit against WCW, in which he claims they forced him to play that exact same type of character against his wishes.
The latest on Raven and ECW is that he's not in any hurry to leave before his contract expires in August. Paul Heyman is trying to gently nudge him out the door because they don't plan to do anything with him and he doesn't want to be paying Raven's large contract any longer than he has to. So Heyman's trying to get Raven to leave on a positive note, but if he doesn't willingly go, Dave expects them to just fire him before then.
RVD is filming an episode of the Pamela Anderson Lee show VIP. He'll be playing an army major who has invented a bunch of radical new weapons or some such thing.
Masato Tanaka has signed a full time contract with FMW in Japan. Paul Heyman had been hopeful of signing him to an ECW deal but it didn't work out. Tanaka's deal ended up being less than half of what he would have been paid in ECW, but he didn't want to spend so much time away from home and wanted to stay in Japan, so he chose to stay with FMW despite the pay cut.
Juventud Guerrera ended up being sentenced to 2 days in jail and community service stemming from his DUI and fleeing police charges from awhile back. Luckily for him, he won't be deported which was a major concern among people in WCW. Speaking of, Guerrera and Konnan both were injured on a spot in a match they had on Thunder this week. Guerrera injured his ribs and will be out for a few weeks. Konnan was thought to have broken his arm but luckily it wasn't broken. They wanted to do an MRI on it to check for other injuries, but it was so swollen that they couldn't until it goes down. The belief now is that it may be a torn tricep.
Tammy Sytch was pulled from Nitro this week after an incident backstage before the show. There's been lots of reports that she was fired but that's not true. At least not as of press time. Before the show, 2 other unnamed women (I think it came out later that one of them was Kimberly) found syringes in the women's bathroom with a vial of Nubain, which is a painkilling drug that has become popular with wrestlers. Somehow it was traced back to her. Tammy was said to be in very bad shape backstage before the show and others said she was in that bathroom for an eternity beforehand. She was supposed to do a catfight spot with Miss Hancock on the show, but after Bischoff was alerted to the situation, Tammy was pulled from the show and reportedly ordered to take a drug test (this of course ends with Tammy getting fired. To this day, I think she claims that someone drugged her drink but you know how that goes).
Notes from Nitro: the show drew around 7,700 fans (only 4,000 paid) so naturally on TV, they claimed it was 12,000. Anyway, it was actually a decent show. Kevin Nash handed Ric Flair the title so he's the new champion again, and Dave says they may as well have just mailed him the belt through 4th class mail for all that title means these days. And for, like, the 2nd or 3rd week in a row, Dave says Rey Mysterio was booked for a match despite still not being recovered from his knee injury and once again, Mysterio had to remind them, "Hey I can't wrestle right now" so they changed the match. Apparently, someone in WCW just keeps forgetting and booking him for shit he can't do. David Flair inexplicably came out to save Miss Hancock from Chris Candido. Flair and Hancock are dating in real life and if you're watching Nitro, you're evidently supposed to know that even though it's never been referenced before. But Russo books for the internet fans, so there ya go. On TV, he was supposed to be with Daffney and they turned it into a big thing where Daffney is pissed because Flair is apparently choosing his real life girlfriend over his TV girlfriend. Booker T is now G.I. Bro. Goldberg finally made his big return and challenged Tank Abbott to a match next week on Nitro. Dave says it makes no sense to give away Goldberg's first match back on free TV, but on the other hand, nobody buys WCW PPVs anymore so it'd be a waste to put it there too, so whatever. Either way, word is Goldberg still isn't fully healed so his match with Abbott will be quick. Karl Malone was shown in the crowd and got involved in the DDP segment which got a big pop since they were in Salt Lake City. And finally, Jeff Jarrett won the title back from Flair in a match that was better than it had any right to be.
Notes from the upcoming Thunder tapings: Terry Funk and Chris Candido were in a hardcore match that ended up in some horse stables and in a really dangerous spot, a horse nearly kicked Funk in the face (Funk talking shit to the horse afterward is still one of my favorite things ever). During the Russo/Flair segment, a fan threw a chair over the barricade towards the ring but it will be edited off TV. Before the taping, Lex Luger and Elizabeth had a real-life argument with Vince Russo over whatever angle they were supposed to do on the show and it's possible their matches for the upcoming PPV (Luger vs. Palumbo and Elizabeth vs. Kimberly) may not be happening now (indeed they do not and in fact, this was it for Elizabeth. Both she and Luger disappear off TV. Luger returns 5 months later but Elizabeth would never be seen in wrestling again. I'm sure we'll read more about it). And in a funny bit, Norman Smiley went to some kids' backyard wrestling group and pinned their champion and ran off with the belt (I originally had video of this Norman Smiley thing when I initially wrote this, but its since been removed from YouTube).
WATCH: Terry Funk no-sells a horse
Remember a few months ago when WCW officials were worried about an incident that happened during WCW's spring break show? There was a wet t-shirt contest that ended up getting really explicit and there were unnamed WCW wrestlers involved. WCW officials were said to be scared to death that this would make headlines because at least a few people there had video cameras. Anyway, in case you were wondering, it finally made headlines. The Globe tabloid ran a story about it and apparently it was Buff Bagwell who was involved and was pulling both the bikini tops and bottoms off some of the women. None of the women filed charges but the mayor of South Padre Island, where it took place, was quoted saying that the city will take steps to make sure events like that don't happen anymore (can't find The Globe story but apparently Disco Inferno and Lash LeRoux were involved as well. Don't think any video ever surfaced).
The famous Wax Museum at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco is adding wax figures of DDP and Bret Hart (can't find any pics of those. The museum closed in 2013).
Random WCW notes: Lance Storm was backstage at Nitro in full gear doing promo pics. Disco Inferno and Kanyon are working backstage as road agents. Gene Okerlund has been taken off interview duties for Nitro and will be replaced by Pamela Paulshock, but he'll still be doing Thunder.
Vince Russo did an interview with WCW Live on their website last week and said a whole bunch of dumb shit. He basically said a bunch of stuff about how all the hotshot world title changes are good for business and talking about how people pay to see The Rock talk, not to see him wrestle, and things like that. It was a big topic of conversation at the Brian Pillman memorial show, with WWF and WCW wrestlers talking about it. The WWF feeling is that it just proves that Russo doesn't understand the business and proves how little he really meant to the overall success of WWF. A few WCW guys defended him, saying Russo is just working the internet fans to get over as a heel. Dave says that would be fine if that was all it was, but Russo's booking in WCW proves that he's not just saying those things, he actually believes them and that's how he books the company. Dave points out that the hotshot title changes have made WCW's world title less than meaningless. And as for the claim that people tune in to see the Rock talk, not wrestle, well....ratings prove otherwise, as far more people tune in to his matches than his promos. So yeah, Dave is pretty solidly on the side of Vince Russo doesn't grasp professional wrestling (more from this in a moment).
Notes from Raw: Kid Rock's rapper/sidekick Joe C was all over this show in multiple segments and it dragged everything down. "There's nothing worse on wrestling than a third-rate celebrity being put on the show and having the wrestlers mark out for them like they are a big star," Dave says. Ain't that the goddamn truth. On the plus side, it ended with Edge & Christian putting him in a garbage can and then beating the can unmercifully so at least there was a payoff. Chris Benoit vs. Bob Holly was an incredibly stiff match and Benoit was insanely over (they were in Vancouver).
Random WWF notes from their recent Canadian tour: 8 different women flashed the crowd during the Smackdown tapings and were kicked out. Lots of "We want Bret!" chants during the shows. WWF tried to get Stu Hart to accompany British Bulldog to the ring during the show in Calgary but needless to say, he didn't go for it. Speaking of Bulldog, he's in really bad shape and looks terrible in the ring and Dave says that if it wasn't for the Owen Hart lawsuit, he probably would have been released already.
The daughter of Andre The Giant is writing a book about him along with her mother. Dave notes that Andre pretty much ignored his daughter throughout most of her life and at times even denied that she was his (yeah, this has been pretty well covered even in the HBO documentary, that Andre was basically an absentee father. Don't know if this book idea ever amounted to anything).
Talk Magazine did a major story on Chyna that was really good. She talked about her personal life, saying her mother was crazy and her father an alcoholic and a con-man who claimed to be a doctor and said that her childhood was basically fucked up because of them. Her father was also interviewed during the piece and denied her claims. Talked about how she got into bodybuilding and says she never used steroids and Dave gives that a healthy dose of raised eyebrow. Talks getting into wrestling, meeting Triple H and Shawn Michaels at a bar while she was training and how Michaels suggested her as a bodyguard for Triple H (who at the time was seen as someone with a lot of potential but who wasn't getting over). She got the WWF job and says she broke up with her boyfriend to go wrestle (admitting she felt guilty about that). Talked about her surgeries. She said she initially had C-cup implants but didn't like how they looked so when she ended up popping one during a match and had to get them re-done, she went bigger and also said she'd had jaw surgery and talked about not fitting the normal stereotypical beauty standards. And finally, she talked about her relationship with Triple H and said she would like to marry him, but admitted that she doesn't think the feeling is mutual. And finally, she said she hopes to be a mother some day.
Former announcer Todd Pettingill is claiming he's coming back to WWF soon. Pettingill worked there in the mid-90s but he got a lot of resentment from people because he was a successful radio DJ outside of wrestling and, due to that, he was able to command a high salary during a time when the company was losing money.
Letters section has some people writing in to talk about Vince Russo's latest interview that we talked about earlier and it helps because it gives us some exact quotes from Russo said and other topics he addressed:
In regards to the Sting/Vampiro feud, Russo claimed that Vampiro losing all the matches doesn't hurt him, "I don't think anyone notices the losses."
In regards to titles changing hands all the time, he said: "The reality is every Monday or every Wednesday a title could change hands. The days of a guy having a title for six months to make it mean something is absolutely ridiculous. Those are the old laws of wrestling that just don't make sense in the year 2000. A champion defends his title a dozen times of TV and house shows. For him not to lose one of those dozen times is ridiculous."
In regards to in-ring wrestling vs. entertainment, Russo said he'd rather watch Norman Smiley vs. Ralphus any day before he'd ever watch a 20-minute cruiserweight match.
Claimed that Vince McMahon is rattled because he knows that Russo and Bischoff are a threat to him. Claims that's why they've maintained a good relationship with ECW and why they brought Mick Foley back at Wrestlemania (someone helpfully points out that Foley was brought back for WM before Russo and Bischoff ever got their power back).
Claimed that Mike Awesome never had an ECW contract, which is pretty silly since he most certainly did and WCW paid ECW 6-figures to buy him out of it.
Talked about becoming a TV character now instead of just the backstage writer and said he was doing it because he loves WCW and was putting his body on the line for the sake of the company and yada yada. The guy writing this letter is amazed at Russo's ego.
Still claims that ratings increased on his watch and that he was forced out of the company the first time due to politics. Of course, Dave has repeatedly proven how misleading and false the ratings claims are. Business did not improve under Vince Russo, either the first or second time, and in fact, it got worse.
When asked about not pushing foreign talent, Russo basically buried them all. He said Silver King and Dandy have no talent and that he's never even seen the Jung Dragons (even though they're a tag team that works for his company). He said the reason he hasn't pushed the other foreign stars, he said that in order to relate to American audiences, you have to be able to entertain and you can't entertain American audiences if you can't speak English. When asked about Sonny Onoo's racial discrimination suit, he pointed out that he has pushed Normal Smiley, Booker T, and Ernest Miller.
Said he defies anyone to come up with anything creative that WWF has done since he left, aside from the Triple H/Stephanie wedding. The guy writing this letter goes on to give a laundry list of examples.
TL;DR: how does anyone still defend Vince Russo?
And finally, somebody writes in and talks about why ECW's ratings have been stagnant for so long and says maybe ECW and its fans should be realistic and see that the company kinda sucks right now. He gives a lot of examples of things ECW is doing wrong creatively and makes some decent points. To be fair though, ECW only has less than a year to live and Heyman was holding on to his sanity by a thread at this point. He wasn't on top of his creative game.