Wrestling Observer Rewinder

August 14, 2000

The future of WCW is in question this week, as the company lost an estimated $7 million dollars during the month of July, which is by far the most money lost in a single month by any wrestling company in history. Right now, WCW is on pace to lose a staggering $80 million over the course of this year. Meanwhile, there's a lot of talk about a possible merger between AOL and Time Warner and the need to get the company's losses under control. Rumors are flying everywhere that WCW is looking to get rid of its most high-priced talent. Hulk Hogan, DDP, Scott Hall, Lex Luger, Bret Hart, Kevin Nash, Sting, and even Goldberg...none are said to be safe. If the cuts are made, it will likely come from above Brad Siegel's head and would be the decision of Turner management. Meanwhile, at least 17 undercard wrestlers, making $150,000-and-below yearly, were all released this week. Dave only lists Horace Hogan and the tag team Disorderly Conduct and says pretty much any lower card wrestler who even remotely causes a problem will be let go. High salaries are a problem in WCW for sure, but Dave points out that even if every single wrestler worked for free, they'd still lose $40 million this year. Ad revenue, merchandising, licensing, etc. is all way down, PPV buyrates have bottomed out, and house show business is all but dead. When all that stuff was strong, WCW had no problem paying those big salaries, and had millions left over to spare. But now, because fans have mostly given up on the company, suddenly they don't have the money to pay all these enormous guaranteed contracts and still be profitable. And the worst part is, this was all predictable years ago. Hell, Dave was pointing out the writing on the wall as far back as 1998, with WCW failing to make new stars and never planning for a future because they were too focused on the present. Meanwhile, even when they were losing the war at the time, WWF was quietly creating new stars and laying the groundwork for where they are today.
Eric Bischoff's position in WCW was officially changed to "consultant" and he's still under contract, but nothing much is happening with him. He's still trying to get back into power, but is also looking into attempting to put together a group to outright buy WCW. Brad Siegel has apparently decided to give Vince Russo his 100% support to take full control over the direction of the company. Younger wrestlers love it, because Russo is finally giving them a chance to shine and he has mostly pushed out guys like Hogan who were hogging the top spots. But under Russo, things haven't gone well. Average attendance is down significantly since he was hired 10 months ago. In a big locker room speech this week, Russo told everybody he doesn't care about TV ratings anymore, which Dave thinks is a good idea because WCW needs to just accept that they're not going to be winning this war anytime soon and just focus on rebuilding. But Turner isn't happy about the millions of dollars in losses and they're not going to let WCW's debts get in the way of one of the biggest corporate mergers in history with AOL. So who knows how much time WCW will even be given in order to rebuild.
Russo also did an interview recently talking a big game about how WCW had to rebuild around young stars and that the wrestlers are the stars, not him, etc. Then, in the same interview, he challenged Atlanta Braves baseball player John Rocker to a match on PPV in New York. If you don't remember, Rocker is the Braves player who caught a lot of shit a little while back for saying some pretty hateful things about New York and basically every ethnicity that lives there. For a guy that talked about not making himself the focal point of the company, Dave thinks it's kind of silly for Russo to try to book himself in a match on a WCW PPV against one of the most controversial celebrities in sports right now, with himself in the hometown babyface position (Rocker is HATED in New York). Dave also notes how it would have been better for an actual wrestler to shave Ric Flair's head awhile back rather than Russo himself so that they could put the heat on a heel that can actually help carry the company (don't worry, within a month, Russo books himself to win the WCW world title). All this aside, it's also doubtful that the Braves would allow Rocker to participate. But anyway, that's where WCW is right now: the ball is in Russo's hands. The AOL/Time Warner merger is looming. And Turner execs are really concerned about the tens of millions of dollars the company losing. I'm sure this all turns out fine.
The Observer Hall of Fame is coming up so Dave decides to list the candidates and give his personal thoughts on them and tell who he voted for and why. Since the voting deadline has already passed, this won't influence anyone else's votes. There's a lot of people who are eligible this year, but you're only allowed to cast votes for up to 10 people, so here's the 10 Dave voted yes on, and why.
Steve Austin - Dave says this is an obvious and easy pick. Austin is the biggest merch seller in the history of the business, has headlined some of the biggest money shows ever, great worker, great talker, one of the biggest stars ever, etc. But he admits that there's a longevity issue here because Austin only became a top star in early 98, with the Tyson angle, and less than 2 years later, he was out with a neck injury that he still hasn't returned from. Dave says they did an internet poll just for shits and giggles and Austin actually fared pretty poorly among fans. Dave figured Austin would be an automatic sure thing, but I guess since he's only been a top star for less than 2 years, fans don't think he deserves it yet. But to Dave, it's a no-brainer.
Bob Backlund - Dave actually wasn't going to vote for Backlund at first because he never really did much before or after his long title reign back in the late-70s/early-80s. Never a great worker, not good on the mic, etc. But then, when he started looking into the history of Bruno Sammartino's sellouts at MSG, he learned that Backlund had sold out MSG almost as many times as Bruno. In fact, even though Bruno sold out the Garden more times, he also worked almost twice as many shows there as Backlund. So on average, Backlund's MSG numbers are actually a little more impressive. Dave says anyone who can lay claim to that many MSG sellouts pretty much has to be a surefire Hall of Famer.
Chris Benoit - Obviously, he's not a top star and never really has been anywhere he's gone. But he's arguably one of the best in-ring wrestlers of all time and in fact, if you add up all the votes for Most Outstanding Wrestler that were cast throughout the decade of the 1990s, Benoit is 4th all time, behind Kobashi, Misawa, and Manami Toyota. Dave admits that Benoit probably won't get many votes based on the fact that people still see him as a rising star rather than a top guy, but he's got Dave's vote.
Mick Foley - another easy yes. Dave is pretty flabbergasted that he didn't get in last year, and his credentials have only gotten better this year so this is a no-brainer.
Fabulous Freebirds - both Michael Hayes and Terry Gordy have been eligible individually for awhile now but neither would make the cut. But as a team, they've got Dave's vote.
Hiroshi Hase - barely made the cut as Dave's final pick. Great booker, top star in Japan, successful politician, great worker, etc.
Shinya Hashimoto - has headlined 12 shows that drew more than 30,000 fans, including some of the biggest live gates in wrestling history. Only Hogan has done more. For that alone, he's an instant yes even if he was a terrible worker. But he's actually really good and was the best IWGP champion NJPW has had during the years that they were hottest....no brainer.
Akira Hokuto - top star in her prime, one of the best women's wrestlers ever, etc. Didn't quite have the longevity since she retired fairly young but Dave gives her the nod.
Shawn Michaels - Dave says this is a controversial one. People who grew up in the mid-to-late 90s see Shawn Michaels as the greatest in-ring performer in the U.S. but people who dislike him point out to his unprofessional behavior, lack of drawing power, lack of longevity, etc. But his talent can't be denied and for that, Dave voted for him.
Bull Nakano - for her size, she was easily the best woman wrestler's ever. Had great matches, top star in multiple promotions, world champion in Mexico, Japan, and the U.S. She makes the cut.
Dave also notes that they had a category for non-wrestlers. This is mostly for announcers, promoters, office people, etc. Same criteria, must get 60% of the vote. Only 2 people are eligible this year. Eric Bischoff and Jesse Ventura. And yes, Ventura was a wrestler but he was never much of one and not a great draw, but as an announcer, he's remembered as one of the all-time best. Anyway, Dave....doesn't really give an answer on Ventura. He gives his credentials and talks about why people might vote yes or no for him, but he doesn't give a firm answer but it sounds like yes, Dave probably voted for him. As for Bischoff....no. Promoters need longevity. "Bischoff did turn around a company that was a big money loser, but also turned it back around a few years later." So no, for now, as revolutionary as his influence on the business was, a promoter has to be successful for the long haul and Bischoff only had a few good years before tanking the company. But again, these are just Dave's personal votes. The winning inductees will be announced later.
Misawa's new NOAH promotion held their first 2 shows and they were a huge success. Tickets to both shows sold out in minutes and they even erected a huge screen outside the building for the 1,300 fans who gathered outside to watch the show. In order to try to make a historic first impression and get over a new star, Jun Akiyama cleanly beat Misawa, Taue, and Kobashi in matches during the shows. The first show had a 2-out-of-3 falls tag match where Akiyama made Misawa submit in the first fall in only 2 minutes. And then in the 2nd fall, he pinned Taue, so he won 2 falls straight. The next night, he turned heel and cleanly beat Kobashi, who was the last AJPW Triple Crown champion before the split. Dave runs down the rest of the results, but make no mistake, the debut of NOAH was used to make Jun Akiyama a megastar.
Dave finally saw NJPW's latest big show, which was the first NJPW show to air on PPV in Japan, and does his usual review. The opening match was Shinya (Togi) Makabe vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi. Dave thinks this Tanahashi kid has a great look and a ton of potential, but he's still a little green. Makabe is pretty good too.
An Austin, TX newspaper ran a story about the death of Bobby Duncam Jr. and Dave thinks it might be the most important mainstream article on wrestling in a long time. It was built around Rob Van Dam, who has had 3 close friends (Duncam, Gary Albright, and Louie Spicolli) all die in the last 2 years. It talked about how many of the more than two dozen wrestling deaths in the last few years can be attributed to the physical demands of the business. Duncam's wife was interviewed, Brian Pillman's wife (talking about Pillman's use of HGH), and on and on. Steroids, painkillers, etc. The usual story on this subject, basically. RVD talked about how he used to have to physically carry Spicolli through airports sometimes and how he couldn't do it and still make his own flights, so sometimes Spicolli would miss shows because RVD couldn't carry his dead weight through an airport and how they tried to get him to get clean but of course it didn't work. There's a lot more to this story that's really interesting, lots of quotes, but it's the same story about how wrestling is a drug infested mess, with half the industry addicted to painkillers and muscle relaxers and how steroids have led to long-term problems and wrestlers are dropping dead in their 40s with no one doing anything to stop it.
Remember the story a couple issues ago about the Hart family lawyers who got some of Owen's siblings to sign documents entitling them to a Helen and Stu's share of any potential settlement money if Helen and Stu died before the trial is finished? Well if you recall, someone in the Hart family (Natalya's mom actually) turned over these documents to WWF lawyers who complained that it was witness tampering. The Hart lawyers claim the documents were stolen and WWF had no right to them. Anyway, a judge ruled in favor of the Hart lawyers for now and has ordered the documents sealed. The judge ruled that ethically, WWF lawyers should not have had access to the paperwork (which they said was an allocation agreement that is common in estate law) and that they should have immediately notified the court of these documents that they had obtained wrongfully. The Hart lawyers said that the siblings who signed it aren't expected to be called as witnesses and thus, it's not witness tampering and was just an attempt to encourage the family to stick together and fend off WWF officials, who they claim are trying to turn members of the family against each other (for instance, that's literally the only reason Davey Boy Smith and Jim Neidhart are still under WWF contract).
The funeral service for Gordon Solie was held in Tampa. Spoken eulogies were given by Brian Blair and baseball superstar Wade Boggs, may he rest in peace. Boggs was a lifelong fan of Solie's who grew up watching him and in his speech he said the first time he met Gordon Solie, he was just as nervous as the first time he stepped up to the plate in a major league baseball game. WWF also sent videotaped tribute speeches from Dean Malenko, Pat Patterson, and Jim Ross. Also at the funeral were tons of others from the wrestling world. Jack and Gerald Brisco, Bobby Heenan, Lou Thesz, Scott Hall, Dory Funk Jr., Jimmy Hart, and others. One person conspicuous by his absence was Dusty Rhodes. On TV over the years, Rhodes was basically synonymous with Gordon Solie as they spent decades in the same territories together. But while they came off as the best of friends on TV, in real life behind the scenes, it was the opposite. Shortly before his death, friends had been planning a final party for Solie and he had specifically requested that Dusty not be invited. But (as we'll see in just a moment) he had since made peace with everyone in his mind and wanted to let bygones be bygones before he died.
In the final days before his death, Solie worked on a letter that he wanted put out to the wrestling world and Brian Blair read it for him at his funeral. Here it is:
There are times when words cannot properly define one's thoughts or emotions. With all that has happened in my life over the past several months, this is certainly one of those times.
First and foremost, I want to thank those of you who have passed along your well wishes. They are deeply appreciated. And considering the reason I have decided to deliver this statement, it is quite comforting to know during my final days here that I have had such a positive effect on so many of you.
With that said, I also want to thank each of you for allowing me to be a small part of your lives, even if it might have been for just a few hours each week. And I want to thank you for allowing me to tell you a story; a story that I never got tired of... a story that could be told 10,000 times...a story that could have a different ending each and every time it was told.
To be quite honest, when my wife "Smokey" passed away more than two years ago, it could have been very easy for me to throw in the towel. But that wasn't me. Then the throat cancer came, and again it could have been very easy to give up. But again, that wasn't me. The bottom line is that I've never been a quitter. As a matter of fact, at one point I thought I had this damn disease beat. Obviously I didn't.
While only the good Lord knows how much time I actually have left here, in my final days, I ask that you not grieve for me, but rather remember me fondly as you would an old friend. In my eyes, I lived a full and satisfying life that some only dream of fulfilling.
Over the years I've had my share of heat with some people. How insignificant all that seems today. So being reflective, I hold no grudges and I have no ill will toward anyone. Let bygones be bygones.
Well, I suppose there's not much more to say here, except for a line that I once made famous and is now more appropriate than ever.
So long...for the Sunshine State. Peace to all.
Gordon
Roddy Piper is planning to write a book about his life and career (that would be "In The Pit With Piper" released in 2002).
A Canadian magazine called The Report ran a big cover story on the Hart family, mostly talking about all their recent problems. It noted that Stu Hart was recently hospitalized for pneumonia while Helen Hart had a blood clot. Plus the recent guest house fire and Bret Hart's injuries. Helen Hart was quoted in the story about Bret saying, "The doctors all seem to think he should step out of wrestling permanently." Regarding the Owen Hart lawsuit, the story did have a new bit of news. It noted that the clasp that was used to suspend Owen above the ring was built for sailboats and would open with only 7 pounds of pressure. The guy who invented the clasp was interviewed by lawyers in regards to the case and was apparently shocked to learn that it had been used to suspend a human being in mid-air. It was made to quickly release the sail on a sailboat when the winds change and definitely not suitable for holding a 200-ish pound man. Anyway, the story also noted that Stu and Helen are on the brink of bankruptcy.
FMW is releasing videotapes in the U.S. of some of their famous crazy death matches. But the English commentary was written and done by 3 TV scriptwriters in California who don't know anything about wrestling. But FMW wanted these videos to reach mainstream audiences so they hired the TV writers to come up with storylines for all the matches and characters. So for instance, Horace Boulder is depicted as a wrestler named CPA, a former accountant for the Puerto Rican mafia. The women's wrestlers were given lesbian storylines. Things like that.
Notes from the latest ECW TV taping: they're planning to do a one-night tag title tournament later this month at Hammerstein in NYC. Several of Shawn Michaels' students were at the show. The only one who wrestled was Michael Shane, who was said to be impressive (he ends up sticking around until the end of ECW). Lou E. Dangerously cut a promo running down the city (Huntington, WV) so much and got so much heat that the ring was pelted with garbage.
Payroll in ECW is currently being made, but everyone is still 1 check behind. But they're trying to catch up. In order to save money, Jerry Lynn, Da Baldies, Cyrus, Joel Gerner, Joey Styles, and others were not flown in for TV this week.
Lots of drama in WCW with Goldberg right now. Apparently, Russo laid out his future plans regarding the world title and guys like Goldberg, Booker T, Kevin Nash, and Scott Steiner. Long story short, it ends with Goldberg losing at this month's PPV in a 3-way match and then losing again to Scott Steiner next month and, well, Goldberg said no thanks. It led to a meeting with him, Russo, and Brad Siegel and right now, Goldberg's position in WCW is considered up in the air and there's rumors that they may be trying to get rid of him. He still has 3 years left on his contract. Some in the locker room have begun to see Goldberg as one of those top stars who doesn't want to do jobs or go along with plans. But those close to Goldberg say he has no problems putting people over but he wants to know what the long-term plans are and he wants to do angles that make sense and if he is going to do jobs to people, he wants it to mean something.
This week's Thunder was an amateur hour production mess. They had filmed a big interview with Vince Russo but then decided not to air it because the interview was Russo talking about Hulk Hogan and trying to get the whole thing over as a shoot and I guess there's some issues there (yeah, just a little bit). So that meant they had to edit all of Thunder to edit out the announcers talking about the interview after it happened. But they didn't edit out the stuff before the interview was scheduled, so much of the show was spent hyping up this Russo interview that never actually happened. In case you're wondering, in the interview that didn't air, Russo talked about quitting if Hogan was brought back and said he left WWF because there was nothing else to accomplish. He also complained about being forced to work with Bischoff and said that Hogan's lawyers had served him legal papers over the Bash at the Beach situation.
A different version of basically the same Russo interview aired on Nitro and in it, Russo talked about WCW ratings increasing when he debuted which leads Dave down a deep rabbit hole about comparing Russo's ratings to the months that Kevin Sullivan was booking earlier this year. Basically, ratings were already trending downward and have stayed mostly identical since Russo took over. But once you start accounting for the fact that Russo faced a lot less network TV competition (it's summer, aka re-run season), that actually looks worse for Russo. During the 11 weeks that Sullivan was booking, he averaged a 2.80 rating. In the 18 weeks since Russo took over from Sullivan, he's averaging a 2.66. Before Russo took over, the all-time low-rating record was 2.52. Since Russo took over, they have fallen below that number 7 times. More importantly, house show business and PPV numbers have absolutely flat-lined under Russo's watch, and that's where the real money is and those numbers are way more important than TV ratings. It's a big part of why WCW is on track to lose $80 million this year. (Long story short, Russo really needs to stop repeating the "I increased WCW's ratings!" lie. Because he didn't. At all.)
DDP is ready and wanting to come back but for now, they're not planning to bring him back because Russo doesn't want to use him, since he's trying to basically get rid of anyone they deem as "old." Anyway, DDP has since asked Kanyon not to use the diamond cutter and to stop copying his mannerisms, since it's looking unlikely that DDP will even be coming back. Kanyon agreed, but then Russo told him to keep doing it and, well, gotta do what the boss says. Speaking of Kanyon, he again asked for his release a few weeks ago but was denied. He has tried repeatedly to get out of the company in the last year.
Vader was backstage at Nitro, but don't read anything into it. He was just visiting friends since it was in his hometown of Denver and he still plans to return to NOAH when he heals up from his surgery.
Random WCW notes: The new woman who is playing Papaya (the wife of Kwee Wee) is actually a stripper from Pittsburgh who got the job through Mark Madden. They're planning to do an angle with Gene Okerlund and Pamela Paulshock. Johnny Ace is currently handling all the finishes to WCW matches. Van Hammer has been released. Bam Bam Bigelow is still suffering from burns he got from saving some people from a fire and will be out for awhile.
Eric Bischoff and Jason Hervey are developing a show called Road Rage for FOX that combines pro wrestling with demolition derby....somehow. I dunno. Discussions are serious and FOX is close to picking up the show for a 13-episode season (doesn't look like this ever happened).
Lance Storm has been re-naming the 3 titles he holds with Canadian names. Currently, the WCW Hardcore title has been dubbed the Saskatchewan Hardcore International title. The original idea was to name it the Stu Hart International title and they even asked Bret Hart if it was okay with him to call it that and Bret gave them the okay but it never happened for whatever reason.
Scott Hall is still officially on the injured list and is not medically cleared to wrestle due to his neck surgery. He could still be brought back for angles if they wanted but he hasn't been asked, no matter how hard Nash keeps trying.
The political situation regarding the WWF and the upcoming presidential election got a lot more interesting this week. Sen. Joe Lieberman was announced as Al Gore's running mate and its notable because Lieberman has come out strongly about television content that is marketed to children and he's also a member of the executive committee of the PTC. Speaking of, after The Rock appeared at the Republican National Convention, he and PTC head L. Brent Bozell had a brief face-off on a CNN show. Bozell went after Rock, talking about him attacking a woman on TV earlier in the week (a spinebuster he did to Trish Stratus). Rock basically responded with the ol' "fuck-off-and-change-the-channel-if-you-don't-like-it" argument. They also bickered about how many people watch WWF programming, which Dave thinks was pointless on both sides because the numbers they were arguing over were WWF's worked numbers which, as always, are inflated bullshit. Rock then resorted to name calling (Dave doesn't clarify and I can't find this video) which kinda made him come off looking bad. But Bozell also seemed unprepared and really, neither man came off well. Also, Dave notes that Rock just registered to vote for the first time this week, which several media outlets picked up on and made fun of him for, since he's been out there for the last few weeks on behalf of WWF talking politics and trying to get other people to register to vote when he wasn't even registered until now.
Hey speaking of inflated bullshit numbers, Vince McMahon did an interview with the Pro Wrestling Torch newsletter and admitted that the figures quoted about WWF viewership ("22 million people watching every week!") were done by counting up the same viewers multiple times. So adding up all the millions of people who watch Raw, plus all the millions who watch Smackdown, when in reality, most of those are the same people watching both shows. McMahon even admitted that estimating the number at 10 million would be generous.
The Republican party in general caught a lot of flack for having Rock speak at the RNC. Jesse Ventura was on Meet The Press complaining about Republicans being so critical of him for doing Summerslam and then turning right around and sucking up to The Rock.
NBC is promising advertisers that the XFL games on NBC will average a 5.5 rating for the season, while UPN games will do 3.0 and games on TNN will average 2.5. (Just in case you're curious, I crunched the numbers. Week 1 om NBC did a huge 9.5 rating. After that? 4.6 for game 2 and they continued plummeting downward from there. XFL on NBC ended up averaging a 2.9 rating for the season, and if you subtract that first game (since it's kind of an anomaly), the average drops to 2.3. So not even half of what NBC was promising. Same for UPN and TNN games. Aside from the debut week, they never even came close to getting what was promised).
On Raw, the Godfather (now going by Goodfather) powerbombed one of his ex-ho's through a table. Dave informs us that the ho's real name is Lisa (that would be the future Victoria).
The whole Triple H/Stephanie/Kurt Angle storyline has been going on for a couple of weeks now and Dave is all about it. He says this is the perfect example of slowly pacing out a storyline and he thinks that when they finally pull the trigger on Angle vs. Triple H, it's going to be big money (yeah this storyline was great. And we haven't even gotten to the part with Angle kissing Stephanie yet).
Former WCW women's wrestler Mona (real name Nora Greenwald) has reached a deal with WWF. She's 22 and has a gymnastics background and is a pretty good wrestler, but in-ring ability is irrelevant here because WWF doesn't treat women's wrestling as anything more than T&A anyway.
As of now, there's no plans for Steve Austin to be involved in Summerslam. They should be getting a medical update on him soon and it's possible he may never return as a full-time worker, but maybe he can wrestle safely and smart enough and cut good enough promos to maybe work a toned down style for bigger shows. But they won't know more until his next medical report.
Various WWF notes: Bob Holly and Tori have recently started rehabbing their injuries. Big Show was sent to OVW for additional training before they bring him back on a full-time basis. Steve Regal should be returning soon and he's been helping Bruce Prichard scout wrestlers at UPW shows in California. Triple H has a badly bruised bicep which is why his arm has been heavily bandaged lately. Dave Hebner suffered a minor heart attack and is hospitalized but should recover.