August 07, 2000
- We open this week with the death of legendary commentator Gordon Solie from cancer at age 71. Considered by many to be the greatest announcer of all time, Solie had been in bad health for several years after retiring in 1996. He had lung and liver problems from a lifetime of smoking and heavy drinking (if you hadn't heard, Gordon Solie was actually kind of a legendary high-functioning alcoholic). After the cancer and throat surgery robbed him of his voice, he gave up smoking after 55 years. But the surgery didn't work and the cancer spread to his brain. Solie didn't want people to know and asked his closest friends to keep his impending death quiet and until the last couple of weeks, no one outside of his inner circle knew how bad his health had become. Following the death of his wife in 1997 from cancer, Solie had been depressed and was scared of going through the same kind of suffering and had looked into assisted suicide but decided against it. Solie wasn't much of a fan of modern day wrestling but he considered Jim Ross his successor as the best announcer in wrestling and was high on Mike Tenay also. Ric Flair called Solie shortly before his death and is thought to be one of the last people to talk to him. Dave covers his career, from the days of Georgia Championship Wrestling and the Florida territories and eventually becoming the voice of the NWA. The term "crimson mask" is believed to be a Solie creation. He went back to WCW in the early 90s as the Dean of Announcers where he would film little segments here and there (I just recently read Jim Ross' book and he talks about this and basically, they didn't bring Solie back as an announcer full time because he was such an alcoholic that they couldn't depend on him. They'd bring him in early in the morning to do voice-overs because if they waited until afternoon, he'd be too drunk. Ross also tells stories of Solie drinking vodka at the announce table while calling Clash of the Champions shows with him). He was inducted into the WCW Hall of Fame in 1995 but he was unhappy about some of the other inductees and it led to a fight with Eric Bischoff that led to him leaving WCW. There's a LOT of really good historical info about the early GCW and Florida territory days and this is a must-read if you're a fan of that era.
- There's a whole mess of news coming out of the Owen Hart family lawsuit and related to the typical Hart family drama. This gets a little complicated so follow along. In a wrongful death case, only Owen's parents, wife, and children stand to gain any financial rewards. However, the Kansas City lawyers representing Martha Hart have been accused of entering into an agreement with some of Owen's brothers and sisters for them to receive Stu and Helen's portion of any award, assuming they both die before the case is settled. 5 of the 10 surviving Hart family children signed the agreement. Ellie Hart (married to Jim Neidhart, Natalya's mom) has been the most loyal to WWF in this situation and she's the one who exposed the agreement by sending it to WWF lawyer Jerry McDevitt. The lawyers argued that they did nothing wrong and argued that the document was priveliged information and that WWF lawyers obtained it improperly. The agreement required the siblings who signed on to agree not to communicate or cooperate with the WWF in the case and noted that doing so would make them ineligible to share in any awards if Stu and Helen pass away before the case is over. Some legal experts have said it's arguably witness tampering because it gives potential witnesses a financial incentive to testify the way the prosecution wants.
- A big part of this case is getting family members to testify to determine how much longer it's believed that Owen would have continued wrestling, which will determine what the lost earnings compensation might be. Hart's lawyers have argued that Owen, who was 34, would have continued wrestling for another 8-15 years, meaning a lost income of anywhere between $6-11 million over that time. Of course, that contradicts what many Hart members stated in the past, that Owen had grown to dislike the business and planned to retire when his contract was up. Of course, everyone in this business always says they're retiring but then they stick around because the money is too good, so who really knows what Owen may have done. Anyway, this could all lead to the lawyers being kicked off the case and possibly even disbarred if it's ruled to be witness tampering. As of now, the agreement that the siblings signed has been rescinded (Martha Hart later said these shenanigans really fucked up their case and was a big part of why she eventually took a settlement and cut the rest of the Hart family out of her life).
- The WWF has entered into the world of national politics, starting a voter registration campaign and announcing that The Rock will appear at the Republican National Convention. WWF was already planning to do a voter campaign when they got an invitation for The Rock to appear on behalf of Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert as a way for the Republicans to portray themselves as hip and cool to younger voters as the 2000 presidential election looms. WWF claimed to have 14 million eligible voters as fans, which is not true. They're basing that number on the number of 18-and-older fans who watch their shows and arrived at that number by counting all the shows separately, and even that number is inflated. In reality, most fans who watch Raw also watch Smackdown. They're not separate fanbases that you can total up, so once you start factoring in all that stuff, the real number is probably closer to 5.5 million and even that might be a stretch. But hey, if they can encourage that many people to get out and vote, that's nothing to sneeze at and as WWF has proven, if you go out in the media and repeat a lie long enough, people will believe it so the 14 million number is what's being widely reported. WWF is claiming that this will be a bipartisan effort and they plan to have a presence at the Democratic National Convention as well. Dave says there's a history of wrestling fans affecting elections. Obviously, Jesse Ventura and Antonio Inoki rode their wrestling fame to election victories and there's records saying that Richard Nixon's 1968 presidential campaign, in which he barely beat Hubert Humphrey in one of the closes elections on record (just wait 2 months), targeted wrestling fans in the south with heavy campaigning because they were thought to be an easily manipulated audience (whaaa? Wrestling fans easily manipulated? Perish the thought!)
- This isn't the first appearance by a wrestler at one of these conventions. Gorgeous George was a guest at the 1952 or 56 Republican convention and Fritz Von Erich attended several of them in the 70s and 80s. Ric Flair was invited to this year's as well but he won't be attending. The announcement of Rock at the RNC immediately drew the ire of the PTC. The PTC chairman L. Brent Bozell III put out a statement talking about how Rock uses obscene language on TV and uses weapons and makes demeaning comments about women. "It is unconscionable that one of America's major political parties would give a prime time platform to someone who encourages young children to behave in such a violent and vulgar manner," he said. The PTC urged presidential candidate George W. Bush to withdraw Rock's invitation and is pressuring Speaker Hastert to dis-invite him as well.
- The Rock/Lita vs. Triple H/Trish main event of Raw did a near record number of viewers. 9,965,000 people watched the match, which makes it the 5th most watched match ever on cable TV. Several segments and matches on Nitro (particularly the women's hardcore match and the infamous Viagra-on-a-pole match) did near record-low numbers.
- WATCH: Dr. Wagner Jr. unmasked in 2017
- In a bit of a surprise, Motoko Baba named herself as the new AJPW president rather than Toshiaki Kawada.
- A promoter in Australia put together a Superstars of Wrestling tour that featured the in-ring return of Dennis Rodman, along with all the typical chaos that comes along with booking Rodman. He flew to Australia a week in advance to do publicity but partied so much that he missed all his scheduled media appearances the first day, no-showed an autograph signing on another day, etc. He was supposed to appear at one show to set up an angle with Curt Hennig which would lead to a match at the next show but he showed up late, at the very end of the show, and ended up doing a run-in after the match was over right after his arrival. But the next night, Hennig and Rodman had a match that was said to be surprisingly good in Brisbane and another the next night in Sydney that was the best match of the show.
- WATCH: Curt Hennig vs. Dennis Rodman
- Update on the Brian Pillman benefit show from a few months back. Kevin Nash still hasn't sent the family the $20,000 he claimed he was donating. David Arquette also hasn't yet donated what he said he would, but that's because he's still waiting on some big PPV money from WCW to come in, but he has said he is donating all his WCW profits to the Pillman, Hildebrand, and Droz families (Arquette does indeed pay up as soon as those checks come in. Dave will periodically remind us for the next year that Nash still hasn't).
- Indie wrestler Shark Boy will be appearing on a show during the Discovery Channel's Shark Week but Dave doesn't know what he'll be doing.
- Not much new on the ECW TV situation. Viewers Choice in Canada may no longer air ECW PPVs there since, as of next month, they will no longer have TV in Canada after TNN cancels them. They've basically got 8 weeks left on TNN. Heyman is still deep in negotiations with other networks but the problem is, ECW needs more than just a TV deal right now. They need a TV partner that is also willing to pump significant money into the company to help them stay afloat and a lot of these TV companies see that ECW is struggling to survive and they're hesitant to invest in it (and thus, the crux of why ECW went out of business. They were a dying company who desperately needed someone to throw them a life preserver and nobody wanted to do it because no one wants to invest millions of dollars into a desperate, dying company. Catch-22'd right out of business).
- Notes from Nitro: Lance Storm won the cruiserweight title, and now he has 3 of WCW's championships. Then just to show how much it means when a guy in WCW holds 3 titles at once, Kevin Nash came in and disposed of him like garbage before cutting another lame "shoot" promo about the time Pierre Oulette refused to do a job for him when they worked in WWF together, which Dave says only about 10 people in the world probably had a clue what Nash was talking about. He also brought up the idea of bringing Scott Hall back again, because Nash apparently isn't going to let that one go even though Brad Siegel has already said it's never happening. The Shane Douglas vs. Kidman Viagra-on-a-pole match happened and the less said about it the better, other than Mark Madden on commentary being hilarious, jokingly referencing past "famous" Viagra-on-a-pole matches such as Gagne vs. Bockwinkel.
- WATCH: Kidman vs. Shane Douglas (Viagra on a Pole match)
- Notes from Thunder: the taping was delayed about 30 minutes due to a bomb threat in the building. Vince Russo cut a "shoot" primo talking about taking himself off TV, which Dave predicts will last 3 weeks tops. Goldberg also cut a "shoot" promo basically turning himself babyface again. and talking about guys who draw money and yada yada. Dave thinks its probably the best promo Goldberg has ever done but it's still more of the same that the casual fans (which is most of them) have no idea what he's talking about. The problem with this and everything else Russo is booking is that the whole gimmick seems to be "Everything else you see is part of the show but this part is real." But if you do that multiple times per show in nearly every storyline, it kinda loses its impact.
- Ric Flair is due back around October and is said to be really excited because for the first time in over a year, he's able to train his chest and shoulders again and he hopes to get back into the best shape a 52 year old man can be in. He'll also be able to throw punches and chops again without pain. Word is Brad Siegel actually doesn't want Flair back in the ring, because in keeping with tradition, everybody who's ever ran WCW has tried to push Flair out and they always fail. Russo does want Flair back in the ring, so there ya go. Speaking of Flair, he's currently working on an autobiography.
- Bret Hart has been working on an autobiography as well. Speaking of, he wrote another Calgary Sun article this week talking about wrestler deaths and acknowledging Davey Boy Smith's current addictions and said, "quite frankly, Davey's situation scares me."
- WCW contract news and releases: Roddy Piper has been let go, but Dave doesn't have any details. Kathy Dingman, formerly BB in WWF and who appeared on Nitro last week as Kiwi's valet, is already gone from WCW. People in the company are claiming that Bob Holly (her fiance) didn't want her working there. And finally, Nora Greenwald (Mona) has been released (she turns up in WWF soon as Molly Holly). Bobby Heenan has been taken off TV and will only do studio voice overs from now on and his contract expires soon.
- Goldberg and Booker T pretty much injured each other last week on Nitro. During the match, Goldberg suffered a separated shoulder while Booker T has some sort of knee injury from the match. For what it's worth though, a lot of people in the locker room are said to be skeptical of how hurt Goldberg really is (he was also accused of milking his arm injury awhile back too so he could stay home longer).
- I'm just going to copy and paste this one because I don't really know what this means or what half of this is in reference to and Dave doesn't really explain. So here goes: "There was an interoffice memo that went around WCW on 7/31, which I guess shows just how respected Russo is these days internally. The memo was entitled "Top Ten Questions Not Asked of Vince Russo." 10) Would you like to take this opportunity to claim credit for the return of Cake Day?; 9) If the Possum is going to wrestle for us, what reoccurring Saturday Night Live character will he be ripping off?; 8) How much did SFX front you for decreasing the value of the organization?; 7) Are you going to let Bill hyphenate his name to Banks-Russo?; 6) Can you funnel the unwanted talent to the Marketing Department? The New VP of Marketing has numerous openings with lots of opportunity for advancement; 5) When is Hulk coming back?; 4) What does the second "W" in WCW stand for?; 3) How many "young and hungry" employees does it take to screw....up an entire company?; 2) "WCW Creative" -- is it a misnomer or simply a contradiction in terms?; 1) Would you know an original idea if it jumped up and bit you on the ass, or would you just think it was the Possum."
- Fully Loaded looks to have done around a 1.04 buyrate which is better than expected with the unproven guys like Benoit and Jericho in top matches. It's also the Rock's 8th PPV main event to do a 1.0 or higher buyrate which puts him 5th place all time between Hogan, Flair, Austin, and Bret Hart.
- Notes from Raw: the show was clearly built around pushing Lita and Trish Stratus. The company really has something with Lita and they recognize it. She has sort of a tomboy appeal that is likely to get over big with teenage girls whereas others like Trish or Sable in the past are mostly there to appeal to guys. Steven Richards and Bull Buchanan are now going by the name Right To Cencor (RTC, an obvious spoof on the PTC).
- Speaking of, the PTC plans to start monitoring Raw, Nitro, and ECW as well along with Smackdown. Dave thinks WCW will back down immediately because the higher-ups at Turner aren't going to fight back against them the way Vince has. And ECW is in an even tougher situation because they can't tone down their product without alienating their fanbase but they also can't afford to start losing advertisers.
- Both the Undertaker and Chris Jericho injury angles this week were done to write them off TV for a week or so because they're both taking off for their honeymoons. Jericho's wedding was front page news in the Winnipeg Sun the next day noting that Manitoba's sexiest man (which he was recently voted in a newspaper poll) was now off the market. In attendance at Jericho's wedding were Don Callis, Billy Kidman, Lance Storm, Edge, Christian, and Disco Inferno. In unrelated news, Jericho is also filming a Chef Boyardee commercial next month in the Bahamas.
- Jim Cornette basically isn't planning to return to Knoxville until if/when the charges against him are dropped.
- Steve Austin is still training like a madman for his comeback and they're optimistic that he'll be okay to at least come back in a limited role later this year. His legs are reportedly huge because for most of the time he was out, that's the only training he could really do.
- A recent news story came out noting that the XFL is having trouble attracting advertisers because all the major companies are being cautious because no one knows what this whole XFL thing is gonna be yet. No one knows if this is going to be closer to NFL football or WWF wrestling and basically, sponsors are hedging their bets until we get a better idea of what exactly the XFL is going to be. Some people are already predicting failure, with one sports marketing expert quoted saying that he thinks the XFL will make a splash in the beginning, but won't last in the long run.
- Raw on TNN begins on Sept. 25th. The final WWF show on USA will be Sunday Night Heat the night before that.
- The Haas Brothers (Charlie and Russ) appeared as extras during the Edge & Christian and Acolytes skit on Smackdown along with wrestlers Patty O'Brien and Billy Reil, all of whom wrestle for Jersey All Pro Wrestling (the Haas brothers end up getting signed eventually but sadly Russ dies while they're still in OVW. Charlie went on to have a pretty decent career).
- Regarding rumors that Eddie Guerrero, Saturn, and Dean Malenko are regretting their decision to jump to WWF, Dave says there's no truth to it. Eddie and Saturn are both working through nagging injuries right now which has taken a told mentally and physically, and Malenko is said to not be thrilled with his current storyline of wrestling against women, but all that said, all 3 men are said to be very happy where they are and glad to not be in WCW anymore.
- There's been some talk of doing a Benoit vs. Triple H match at Wrestlemania next year, with Triple H expected to be a babyface by then. Rock vs. Austin would still likely headline the show. Of course, things change hourly in this business now and Wrestlemania is still many months away so don't hold your breath.
- In its annual SEC report, the WWF revealed that the World Wildlife Fund has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against them relating to a contract both sides signed back in 1994 regarding the WWF initials. The suit claims that the WWF violated the contract by using the WWF logo in places it had agreed not to use it, such as internet domain names like wwf.com and wwfshopzone.com as well as using the term "WWF" in foreign broadcasts. WWF argues that the current WWF scratch logo was created after the 1994 agreement and thus not covered under the deal they signed. In the SEC report, WWF noted that if the court rules against them, it could "have a material adverse effect" on company operations. Yeah, just a tad. I'm sure this doesn't turn into a big deal or anything......
- At a recent house show in Pensacola, Mick Foley came out beforehand and talked about the last time he was in that city, he worked for a different company (meaning WCW) which got the crowd to boo. Foley then said they weren't booing loud enough so of course, they booed even louder. Then he pulled a great rib on Al Snow, saying that when Snow comes out to wrestle his match later that night, the fans should chant for Foley. Needless to say, that's exactly what happened and Al Snow wrestled a match while the entire crowd chanted "Foley! Foley!"
- A few letters this week trashing Vince Russo and talking about how he's so obsessed and into the hardcore internet fanbase reaction that he assumes everyone else is too, but they're not. Someone writes in about the recent "shoot" promos and how most people at home were probably scratching their heads going, "Who is Brad Siegel?" since he's never been a character or mentioned on TV before until that promo. Someone else points out that by pretending this match you're seeing here is a shoot, it kills the credibility of the rest of the show and all the worked matches, which is the business that WCW is in.