Wrestling Observer Rewinder

August 28, 2000

It's the Observer Hall of Fame issue and this year, 7 new wrestlers made the cut and were inducted. As always, remember this is voted on by a large panel of people within the business, not just Dave. Other wrestlers, promoters, historians, journalists, and more all cast their votes. This year, more than 130 people within the business cast their votes and Dave explains how they break it down, how the votes are calculated, what the criteria is, etc. Due to the political nature of the business, all the ballots and voters are kept confidential. So your Observer Hall of Fame class of 2000 is:
Mick Foley - finally made the cut this year after just barely missing it the last 2 years. But this year, he had 2 classic matches with Triple H, his whole retirement, a massively successful autobiography, starred in Beyond The Mat (arguably the best wrestling documentary ever), and more, which was clearly enough to get him over the hump in the eyes of voters.
Shinya Hashimoto - should have been in last year (only missed the cut by 1 vote) but he made it this year and is basically a no-brainer.
Steve Austin - inducted on his first year of eligibility which is again a no-brainer. But Dave is actually kinda surprised that Austin didn't get more votes. Jushin Liger holds the record (when he was inducted, he got voted in by 95% of the voters) and Dave expected Austin to get close to that number, but he didn't. He figures longevity may be the issue. Austin is a massive star, but he's only really been a top star for 2 years. But he's the key to WWF's turnaround and no wrestler in history has sold merch or drawn money like he has, not even Hogan. Even if Austin was terrible in the ring (and he's not), he'd still be a shoe-in.
Akira Hokuto - it was her first year eligible and Dave is actually kinda surprised that she made the cut. But she definitely has the credentials, with Dave saying she may be the #2 best women's wrestler ever (Manami Toyota of course being #1).
So that's the first 4 inductees. The other 3 were actually inducted in a different way. Bill Longson, Sandor Szabo, and Frank Sexton were all major wrestling stars in the 1940s who shouldn't be overlooked. But obviously, nobody is voting for these guys to be inducted because most people alive today don't know about them. But Dave runs down their credentials and says that those 3 are basically being inducted retroactively after heavy lobbying by some of the historians and longtime journalists who have covered the business. So remember when the Observer started back in 1996 and they inducted, like, 100 really old stars from the golden years? This is like that, 3 guys who should have been inducted back in 1996 finally getting their due.
Other interesting HOF notes: Shawn Michaels is going to be the most controversial candidate. Last year he was 1 vote shy of induction. This year, he was 7 votes shy. Being away from the ring for the last 2 years has clearly started to erase him from people's minds as far as his legacy. The Fabulous Freebirds, Hiroshi Hase, and Lizmark all had strong showings but not quite enough to make the cut. Anyway, from here, Dave writes looooong biography pieces on each of the new inductees that are great reads. Dave's biography pieces are pretty much always a highlight.
Lots of new drama in WCW as the company continues to circle the drain, starting with a Vince Russo interview on WCW Live on their website where he said all sorts of wacky shit. First he mentioned that he has 60 weeks left on his contract and said if he somehow lasted that long (which he doubted he would), then he would leave pro wrestling forever when his contract was up. There have been rumors of him leaving for awhile and they got stronger this week after some in WCW were upset about the poor Canada tour with a bad PPV and bad TV shows. Basically, WCW execs are looking at Russo and realizing that every facet of the business (ratings, buyrates, attendance, revenue, etc.) is down and not getting better under his watch and they're starting to ask questions. There's also some critical eyes on Booker T, who has not been getting over well as champion and getting a lukewarm response in most cities. But most of the heat is on Russo, with many in the company losing confidence in his constant claims of how he's going to turn everything around without producing results and are growing tired of his weekly excuses for why it's not getting better. During the interview, Russo also pushed for moving Nitro back an hour so that it can go head-to-head with Raw for the full 2 hours. Considering football season just started back and WWF is still on fire, Dave says a move like that would be suicidal and apparently WCW knows it because they're not even considering it. Russo blamed the failure of WCW to recover on a lack of advertising to publicize to fans that this is a new product compared to the old WCW of a year ago. Dave calls bullshit again, noting that Russo came into the company with enormous hype and several of their publicity stunts have resulted in curiosity ratings jumps, but they never stick and ratings end up plummeting even further after fans tune in and actually see what WCW has become. Russo also said WCW needs a celebrity angle similar to the WWF/Tyson angle a couple years ago. Dave says that'd be a nice idea if the company had some momentum but they don't. WWF was already surging upward before the Tyson angle and that boosted their momentum, but even without the Tyson angle, WWF would still be exactly where they are right now because they've been consistently putting out a hot product for the last several years. WCW has done celebrity angles in the past, with diminishing returns every time because the company was faltering. Russo also vowed that, by January, WCW would only be 1 ratings point behind WWF (lol). He also claimed that Kurt Angle is the only new star WWF has made since he left last year. And finally, he said that Midajah will be the next Sable.
WCW also abruptly cancelled the Saturday show this week and, for the first time since the early 1970s, there was no weekend wrestling programming on TBS. WCW World Wide, which is set to become a compilation show soon, is also in grave danger of being cancelled.
The new taping schedule for WCW is expected to be a nightmare. The plan is to start tapings at 7pm ET. First, they tape a 2-hour Nitro that will air on a one-hour tape delay. They won't schedule any commercial breaks in the taping, just going to rush through it and then they will insert pre-taped backstage skits and whatnot to pad it out before it goes on the air. Which means the production crew will still be editing the 2nd hour of Nitro while the first hour is airing on TV. Anyway, immediately after Nitro ends, they will tape Thunder and then have the next 2 days to insert pre-taped segments in to pad out that show. Considering WCW's notorious production issues over the last year, putting the production crew under even more of a stress and time crunch is a scary thought.
Hulk Hogan has filed a lawsuit against Vince Russo and WCW, which has many questioning just what exactly happened at Bash at the Beach. Many feel that the fact that Hogan filed a real lawsuit proves that everything that happened was a shoot. If that's the case, it really makes one question just WTF is happening in this company with Vince Russo and, even more importantly, Brad Siegel. If it was a shoot, that means Russo screwed paying fans at the arena and on PPV out of a heavily promoted match by double-crossing a star on live TV and putting WCW in the cross-hairs of a lawsuit by cutting his childish promo after. And that Brad Siegel, head of the company, allowed it to happen without punishing Russo. Hogan's lawyer says that Russo's promo on Hogan wasn't part of the script and that his comments were defamatory and a breach of contract, since Hogan's deal stipulates that WCW can't do anything to damage the character of Hulk Hogan. The lawyer insisted that this lawsuit is not a publicity stunt, which Dave sure hopes not because a lawyer can be disbarred for filing a fake lawsuit and this lawsuit really was filed in a Fulton County court. Naturally, some in WCW still believe this is all a work, because a lot of people in the business are conditioned to believe EVERYTHING is a work. And to be fair, WCW has given their wrestlers plenty of reason not to trust management, given Bischoff and especially Russo's obsession with trying to work everybody backstage. Dave is leaning towards this being legitimate, but he also wouldn't put it past WCW to be stupid enough to file a real lawsuit to get an angle over because that's how out of control and ignorant this company is these days. That being said, Dave thinks this lawsuit is pretty dumb because talking shit about a wrestler on a wrestling show is basically every promo ever. And if Russo's promo really was a shoot, well, he didn't really lie about anything. He really was playing politics with Hogan over his contract and his criticisms of Hogan and the problems with him in WCW weren't wrong. Dave really doesn't seem to pick a side. It definitely smells like a publicity stunt but he's having trouble believing they'd go far enough to make it a real legal issue just to trick people with an angle that isn't going to draw money anyway (final verdict: it was originally a work that turned into a shoot and the lawsuit was legit).
More roster cuts in WCW this week. Aside from Rey Mysterio and Juventud Guerrera, every single Mexican wrestler on the roster was let go. Most of them hadn't been used lately anyway. Alex Wright, Curt Hennig, Lenny Lane, Christopher Daniels, Jim Duggan, Brian Knobs, Elizabeth, and Mike Rotunda were all released as well. And Marcus Bagwell's future is said to be in doubt. He has 6 months left on his contract but he's been in the doghouse for awhile because he throws a fit every time he's asked to do a job and is just generally not well-liked. Prince Iaukea also is on the chopping block. His contract is due up in November and he was trying to negotiate a better deal and WCW instead decided to just bench him for the rest of his deal and not re-sign him. Dave actually doesn't know why they decided to cut Christopher Daniels. WCW is all about pushing their big new youth movement and Daniels is a great worker who was only making $75,000 a year which is peanuts compared to most everyone else in the company. Daniels is the exact kind of wrestler that should be on TV getting pushed, not getting released. More than anyone, Dave thinks this shows a lack of an eye for talent by the people making the decisions.
Lots of wrestlers in WCW have been trying to put feelers out to WWF to see if they can jump ship. But no discussions have taken place because everyone is still under contract and WWF won't talk to anyone for fear of catching a contract tampering accusation. Word is WCW is looking to slash the talent budget anywhere from $12-20 million and in order to do that, they're going to have to start releasing some of the bigger name stars. Cutting all those undercard contracts doesn't even make a dent in the losses WCW is trying to recoup. A lot of speculation that guys like DDP, Kimberly, Lex Luger, Kanyon, Bagwell, and Juventud are the bigger names that may still be in danger of being released soon in order to cut costs. WWF is said to have zero interest in Luger, for obvious reasons. As for the others, there's interest but WWF realizes that they're in a position where they don't need any of those people so if they want to jump ship, they're probably going to be offered less money than what they're making in WCW now. Several of the top stars have contracts that stipulate that they can't be fired, so in order to release them, WCW would have to buy out the remainder of their contracts, which defeats the purpose of releasing them to save money. And once again, Dave points out that even if every single wrestler in WCW worked for free, they'd still be on pace to lose $40 million this year.
Dave writes a big obituary piece for Tony "Cannonball" Parisi who was a well known star in the 60s and 70s, including several runs in the WWWF where he was often billed as the babyface cousin of Bruno Sammartino. He was 58-years-old and suffered a heart attack at a coffee shop. Dave recaps his entire career, including this nugget here: "Perhaps his most bizarre moment in wrestling was being on the phone with the late Dave McKigney, an area independent promoter known as the Bearman for training wrestling bears, which at one point was something of an attraction in pro wrestling. Parisi was on the phone with McKigney when one of his bears got loose and killed McKigney's wife and he heard the entire incident."
Mil Mascaras said in an interview that he plans to run for office in the Mexican Senate in the 2003 election. He said he would unmask when he begins campaigning but wouldn't commit to retiring from the ring if he won. Dave notes that this isn't the first time Mascaras has talked about running for office but he's still never done it (he never did and, to this day, at age 76, I don't think he's ever been seen unmasked).
Masahito Kakihara abruptly quit NOAH this week and is expected to jump to either RINGS, Pancrase, or PRIDE so he can work shoot matches. Dave doesn't think it's a great idea and thinks he'll be better off sticking to wrestling. (Kakihara ended up only ever having 1 MMA fight, in 2004. His opponent, you ask? Rocky Romero. Kakihara won.)
Dos Caras Jr. made his debut at a small indie show in Japan, teaming with his father. Caras Jr. is 23 and had been training to compete in the Sydney Olympics as an amateur wrestler but Mexico isn't going to be sending a wrestling team this year, so that's not happening. He had been holding off on going pro to try his luck at the Olympics but he'll be 27 the next time they roll around and he feels he can't wait another 4 years just for the chance to do it again, so he decided to finally follow in his father's footsteps. Word is he looked very good for his first match (that would be Alberto Del Rio. I can't find footage of this and in fact, I can't even find reference to it on cagematch.net or wrestlingdata.com so who knows).
Rena Mero (aka Sable) was on Inside Edition this week, mostly plugging her book. In other news, Sable apparently has a book. She also mentioned that the TV series she was scheduled to star in with Dennis Rodman, called The Consultants, never got past developmental and is no longer happening.
Tammy Sytch said on her website that she was in a car accident recently, rolling her Jeep over twice and cutting her face and neck up.
The latest on the ECW/USA Network negotiations is that they're possibly looking at putting the show in an 11pm-to-1am time slot on Saturday nights, which would mean there wouldn't be nearly as many concerns over content. But it's far from a done deal.
Notes from Nitro: they continued the Russo/Goldberg angle, and Dave points out a bunch of plot holes as to why this whole thing wouldn't make sense even if it wasn't stupid. They also had a bit where Russo offered to pay Goldberg his contract and give him his release so he could go to the WWF, but Goldberg ripped it up. It's funny, because in real life just a little while back, Goldberg was asked about that exact scenario (if he could get out of his contract, still collect the money, and go to WWF) and Goldberg said he would absolutely accept that chance. Real-life Goldberg wants out of WCW just as much as everyone else. Vampiro and ICP came out and Vampiro was holding the title belt from ICP's JCW promotion, which Dave notes out sells a ton more videos than WCW ever could (for weeks now, JCW videos and DVDs have been charting high up on the Billboard sports videos list alongside WWF videos, while WCW is never even in the top 20). They even tried to play it off as a JCW invasion angle but of course, nobody outside ICP's fanbase even knows what the fuck a JCW is. Mike Sanders cut a hell of a promo and impressed Dave. Although once again, the gist of the promo was yet another wrestler acknowledging how much WCW sucks nowadays and how much turmoil the company is in. Which, yeah, we all know it but maybe it's best not to acknowledge it every week on your own show. And ICP came back out later in the show to do commentary on Vampiro's match, which Dave says was amusing (man, fuck amusing. ICP on commentary is HILARIOUS).
WATCH: Vampiro vs. Tank Abbott (with ICP on commentary)
The Stacy Keibler/David Flair wedding angle is expected to happen in October, which coincides with the expected return of Ric Flair. Lots of rumors that the story will end up being that Flair is the father of Stacy's baby.
At the Thunder tapings last week, Lance Storm wrestled twice and there was a long delay during the taping. The reason is because The Cat was supposed to pin Jacques Rougeau clean, but Rougeau refused to do the job and ended up quitting the company over it. So that threw plans in chaos backstage and they had to change things on the fly. Rougeau said in a newspaper interview in Montreal this week that he didn't come back to WCW to be a jobber and that you can't be a big money player in this business if you're doing clean jobs on TV. A lot of people backstage kinda scoffed at that considering, well, he's 43 years old and he's Jacques Rougeau. He's never going to be a big money player and everyone but him knows it.
Kevin Nash has been pushing to be given the WCW title at Fall Brawl, arguing that Booker T isn't getting over as champion and that every time the two of them have been in confrontations on TV recently, the crowds have been cheering for Nash more. Dave says.......he's right actually. Not necessarily that Nash should get the title. A lot of people think his motives for that are, of course, just looking out for himself, as Nash tends to do. But it's true that the fans really haven't taken to Booker T as champion yet and Nash is definitely more over.
Super Crazy is interested in coming to WCW. He's been out of ECW for awhile with visa issues but that's all cleared up and he's just not being used right now because ECW isn't flying people in for most shows unless necessary to cut down on expenses. Dave says WCW is in need of good talent, Super Crazy has already proven in ECW that he can get over with American fans, he's an incredible worker, he has some name value, and by WCW standards, they could probably get him for fairly cheap. But WCW is said to have zero interest in him. Given Russo's well-known opinions about Mexican wrestlers, Dave offhandedly ponders if the situation would be different if Super Crazy was white.
They started doing an angle with Mark Madden where he would feud with and wrestle women, starting with backstage interviewer Pamela Paulshock, but the angle has been dropped. Russo actually wanted the Madden vs. women matches to be a shoot, similar to Andy Kaufman's famous women's matches, many of which really were shoots.
WCW has offered Juventud Guerrera a new contract and while Dave doesn't have the exact numbers, it's said to be a very low guarantee compared to what the rest of the roster is making. His contract came up for renewal at a bad time, since WCW is in massive cost-cutting mode. The new deal is around $2,000 per show which would be good money if WCW was working a full schedule. But they're only doing 5 shows a month now and there's no guarantee that Juvi will be booked on all, or even any, of them. ECW is also interested in him, but they're offering even less money. No word if WWF is interested, but because of his size, Dave doubts it. And even if they did sign him, Dave can't see WWF doing anything with him.
WCW valet Leia Meow (formerly Kimona in ECW) hasn't been used on TV in months but she hasn't been fired. Apparently awhile back, she filed a complaint to Turner's HR dept. over an unnamed wrestler's alleged inappropriate behavior and so the Turner execs feel like they can't fire her right now (we never find out who this is, but I'm curious).
There were rumors recently about Kevin Nash wanting to leave and apparently Booker T was asked about it in a recent newspaper interview and he had this to say: "Let him go. You think he can go up there and run with those young guys? You think he could run all around the building with Triple H like they do up there and take suplexes on the walkway? These guys aren't capable of doing that stuff anymore. These guys have nowhere to go, and if they can keep working WCW like they can, WCW is stupid. And that's the bottom line. If they want to go, let them go." This leads Dave to talk about how WCW can't stop kicking itself in the dick. Booker T and Nash are scheduled to face each other at the next PPV and what does it say for WCW as a whole if Booker T is burying Nash as someone who can't hang with their competition? He says a big part of the negative stigma around WCW right now is because WCW keeps putting it out there. On their own shows, people come out weekly and cut promos buying the company and portraying it as a fledgling, failing company. Which, yeah it is, but shhh! WCW still has some fans, and Dave doesn't see the point of making them feel stupid for supporting the company by always telling them how much it sucks. Or, in cases like this Booker T interview, punish the people who do. If a WWF top star went and did an interview trashing the company and burying other wrestlers, they'd be punished severely. In WCW, no one gives a shit anymore.
In 2001, WCW plans to change the names of many of their PPVs. Starrcade, Halloween Havoc, and Bash at the Beach are expected to remain the same but the others will be given new names (we only get 3 PPVs in 2001 before they fold).
Kohl's (the department store) did a back-to-school poll asking teenagers what celebrity they'd want to be their substitute teacher. For boys, The Rock won 1st place, followed by Britney Spears and Tiger Woods. As for the girls, no wrestlers made their list. The top 3 for girls was N'Sync (Kane would agree), Julia Roberts, and Joshua Jackson.
Big Show recently underwent an MRI that shows he has a herniated disc in his lower back so he's going to be out for a while recovering from that. But when he's ready to go again, he's still going to be sent to OVW to get back into shape and won't be brought back to WWF until they feel he's where they want him to be.
The USA Network is still appealing the court decision they lost awhile back to try and keep Raw from going to TNN. This is actually a win-win case for WWF. If the judge upholds the ruling, then WWF gets to jump to TNN, like they want to. And if the judge does overturn the original ruling, then that would re-open negotiations with both sides and WWF will be back in the middle of a bidding war. Even if they stay on USA Network, USA will have to match Viacom's offer. So no matter what happens here, WWF is going to make a whole bunch of money regardless.
With all the talk of UPN going under or getting bought out (there's some Rupert Murdoch/FOX/Viacom discussions happening), WWF is in a good position there too. Smackdown gets great ratings and if UPN goes away, Smackdown would become a "free agent" show and would likely have a lot of networks, stronger ones than UPN, bidding for it as well. Everything's coming up Milhouse for WWF right now.
Raw will be pushed back 2 hours later than normal for the next 2 weeks because USA will be airing the U.S. Open tennis tournament. These yearly pre-emptions and time slot changes are one of the things McMahon complained about on the stand during the USA trial.
Steve Austin and Debra are expected to be getting married in the next few weeks.
The Rock made headlines by saying he was thinking of running for President some day (he still occasionally floats that idea out there these days). Access Hollywood also named Rock as one of the 10 biggest celebrities of 2000.
TV Guide ran a big cover story on WWF and quoted Vince McMahon talking about the decision to admit wrestling is fake and how that helped them position themselves as entertainment and opened a lot of doors. This leads Dave to recount a conversation he had with McMahon in 1992, in which McMahon accused Dave of "telling the public that there's no Santa Claus."
Lots of letters regarding the WON Hall of Fame, with people debating about the latest inductees. One guy's letter takes the cake though. He says Steve Austin shouldn't in, saying he hasn't shown any athletic ability. "Dirty talk doesn't make a wrestler. In the ring, all I've seen him do is stomp, kick, punch, and drink beer." He says that if Austin and "Dwayne Johnson" didn't cuss constantly, they would be as big a stars as Paul Jones and Manny Fernandez were. Well, Mr. Bobby Yates from Randleman, NC.....I've seen some pretty bad takes in my day but that's up there.