September 18, 2000
- This week had the closest head-to-head Monday night ratings all year. Don't get me wrong, it still wasn't even close. Raw won by nearly 3 full ratings points. But it ended up being a lower-than-normal rated night for Raw, likely due to being preempted to a later time-slot for the last 2 weeks so they had no momentum going in (Dave points out that this was a major complaint WWF had in the trial against USA a few months ago, about how the preemptions hurt their ratings). There was also a Monday Night Football game between the Jets and the Patriots, two teams that are from two of WWF's most heavily populated and strongest rated markets, so a lot of those fans were probably watching the game while WCW's fanbase might not have been so inclined. Plus, Nitro's first hour doesn't have competition from the MNF game. Basically, there were a lot of things working against Raw this night. Meanwhile, Nitro did its highest opposed rating since January, likely due to return of Ric Flair and the wedding angle. But don't go celebrating just yet if you're WCW. The show, featuring Ric Flair's return in Charlotte, NC.....had 1,657 paid tickets. And most of them were sold in the week before the show when it was confirmed Flair would return. If Flair hadn't been coming back, it's scary to think what the attendance might have been and Dave thinks the real test for WCW will be next week, when they don't have Flair's big return to boost ratings. If WCW is able to keep that momentum, it could be good timing because WWF is scheduled to move to TNN in 2 weeks and that's a lower rated network than USA, so it might be a chance for WCW to make up some ground. But Dave doubts it because higher rating notwithstanding it was a horrible episode of Nitro that isn't likely to keep viewers tuning in next week.
- Couple of new promotions starting up soon. Fox Sports Net is running shows from the World Sumo Wrestling League, with the idea of creating characters like pro wrestling and mixing in popular music. The other is a revival of the old GLOW called Women of Wrestling (WOW), headed by the David McLane, the guy who created GLOW and POWW (the sumo thing never went anywhere. WOW began, disappeared for years, came back for a minute, disappeared again, and now is scheduled to debut with a new weekly show on AXS in 2019. Still the same company, ran by David McLane and everything. Crazy shit).
- Rookie young lion Hiroshi Tanahashi is out for the next few months after suffering some sort of broken bone. Dave doesn't have details.
- Atsushi Onita's latest "retirement" scheme is this: he wrestled what was allegedly his retirement match in Japan, saying he would never wrestle in the country again. But now he's trying to book shows featuring himself at U.S. Army bases throughout Japan, arguing that since the matches would take place on U.S. government property, he wouldn't technically be wrestling in Japan. Classic Onita.
- Dusty Rhodes is running his own indie promotion called Turnbuckle Championship Wrestling. The first TV tapings will be next month and will air on local TV in Georgia. Ray Lloyd (formerly Glacier) is champion and they sometimes have appearances by Rhodes himself and Barry Windham among others.
- Harley Race was arrested for boating while intoxicated at a lake in Missouri. In 1990, Race was involved in a boating accident and several people were injured and he was charged with negligence in that case (he was also drunk then too if I recall. Turns out Race likes to get shitfaced and go out on the water).
- ECW's long-discussed plan of running monthly PPVs is starting next month. Right now they run them bi-monthly, but they have events scheduled for Oct, Nov, and Dec. Looking ahead to next year, there's 52 weeks in a year and at this rate, 36 of those Sundays will have wrestling PPVs in 2001 (nah, ECW and WCW folding puts a big dent in that number).
- Wrestlers in ECW weren't paid again this week. Paul Heyman held a meeting at the latest TV tapings and told everyone that the company is essentially surviving week-to-week on a shoestring budget until they get a new TV deal. Heyman said everyone will be paid in a few days but since they ran a lot of shows in Canada recently, there's a bit of a delay in getting the money and having it converted to U.S. currency and deposited in the bank so he can send out checks. The wrestlers have been one pay-period behind for months now and recent checks have been post-dated until the following week. Heyman told the roster (and Dreamer backed up Heyman's account for those who thought he was lying) that he will be going to Los Angeles next week to close a deal and said he won't come back to New York until a deal is finalized. Most people feel an ECW/USA deal is almost final but it's being held up by the ongoing appeal of the WWF/TNN decision. If/when USA loses their appeal, then an ECW deal is expected to be finalized (not quite I'm afraid). Heyman also said there's a good chance next weekend's house shows in Des Moines, Omaha, and Sioux City will likely be cancelled. Ticket sales are weak for all 3 shows and ECW isn't in a position where they can afford to go on the road and do money-losing shows. Several ECW stars are said to have made inquiries to WCW about getting a job because the future of ECW is so uncertain.
- Speaking of the recent Canada shows, E.Z. Money and Prodigette were the only 2 stars who weren't able to cross the border into Canada, because one of them has a prior criminal conviction and they were travelling together. Dave says that was actually something of a shock because half the ECW roster has criminal records and a lot of them were surprised themselves when they managed to get into the country.
- Tommy Dreamer seems to have seriously injured his shoulder in Cleveland and there's concern of a torn rotator cuff, which would require surgery and take months to heal (not sure if that's what it was, but yeah, he ended up not wrestling for the next 2 months). He's definitely out of the PPV and most of the matches are now having to be re-arranged because the TV plans were to shoot angles leading to Dreamer & Corino vs. Anderson/Swinger/Diamond. Speaking of, CW Anderson's shoulder is injured also so that messes things up too. Justin Credible has a broken finger but won't miss any time. Kid Kash broke his nose but has continued working. Anton has bruised ribs. Mamaluke has hip and rib problems. Lots of people banged up in ECW right now, and it couldn't be at a worse time.
- Notes from the ECW Toronto taping: they drew a near sellout of 5,000 and the crowd was nuclear hot, because Canada. They sold every single piece of merch they brought with them, but the money isn't going to be as good as usual because there's a higher taxation rate and lower exchange rate. Overall, Heyman estimated that the company will only leave Canada with about $80,000 from the live gate, which is actually low for an ECW show.
- Paul Heyman has expressed interest in bringing in Michael Shane, who is a cousin of Shawn Michaels' and trained at his school. Heyman also wants to bring in Teddy Hart, who is, of course, Bret Hart's nephew and it doesn't take a genius to see how you could book a feud between those two. But Heyman is aware that he would need to establish them as stars first before leading up to that. Speaking of Teddy Hart, Bad News Allen, who works with Stampede, has said that he thinks Teddy will end up being the best wrestler ever to come from the Hart family. Dave says pretty much everyone who has seen him work has had unanimous praise for Teddy Hart's in-ring ability but on the flip side, almost nobody has nice things to say about his overall attitude and maturity, which is what cost him his WWF developmental deal awhile back (yeah, that never changed. Teddy Hart was a guy who probably could have been a huge star in wrestling, but he burned every bridge he came in contact with and is pretty unanimously disliked to this day).
- A fan in Raleigh, NC filed a lawsuit against Paul Heyman, RVD, and the owner of the Ritz Theater for alleged injuries he suffered at a house show there in Feb. of 1999. The lawsuit alleges that RVD did a flip into the crowd, which sent the fan to the hospital with permanent back and leg injuries. The lawsuit also alleges that RVD was under the influence of drugs and argued that ECW promotes the use of marijuana and LSD (RVD and Spike Dudley, specifically).
- Justin Credible was interviewed on the Observer Live show and talked about the XPW incident at ECW's PPV in July. Credible talked about it happening right as his match with Dreamer was about to start and said he tried to ignore it because he didn't want to "sell" what they were doing, but admitted it screwed up the planned main event because they ended the show early (due to the ongoing brawl happening in the parking lot at the same time with ECW and XPW wrestlers) and said he and Dreamer only got to do about 40% of what they had planned because of it.
- The upcoming WCW PPV has a scaffold match scheduled with Kidman/Madusa vs. Shane Douglas/Torrie Wilson. The word is that the plan is for both women to take some gimmicked bump from the scaffold, although that may change because neither woman is thrilled about it.
- Notes from Nitro: they were in Charlotte and the crowd didn't care about anything other than seeing Ric Flair, and they were none too thrilled by the fact that his appearance ended up being little more than a cameo. Konnan was on commentary for Kronik's match and joked about them not selling anything. Then of course, during the match, they didn't sell anything. Konnan got chewed out for the comments backstage afterward. Shane Douglas put Madusa in the STF, leading Mark Madden to say that the STF was invented by Lou Thesz, who was also known for beating up women. Thesz got wind of the comment and was none too pleased, as you can imagine. Mike Awesome, doing his 70s gimmick, came out with a Partridge Family bus and Dave points out that WCW long ago drove away any fans old enough to get that reference. For what it's worth, apparently Mike Awesome hates the gimmick even more than everyone else but he's going along with it, even though it's a career-killer. Flair came out for David's wedding, got a huge pop, but was dragged away for violating the restraining order and that was it for Ric. Crowd was PISSED. They had the wedding, but Stacy told David Flair he wasn't the father of her baby and stormed off. It was never revealed who the father is. The original plan was Ric but word is that has been changed. Dave predicts it'll probably end up being Russo (yeah it was gonna be but then they end up just abruptly dropping the whole angle anyway, because WCW).
- Russo has been telling people that, despite what both sides are saying publicly, Eric Bischoff did indeed meet with Brad Siegel last week to discuss purchasing WCW. Russo said Bischoff has been trying to buy it since April. Apparently a Japanese promotion is also said to be interested, those Dave isn't sure which one (although c'mon, in 2000, I figure NJPW is probably the only Japanese promotion that would even be remotely capable of even considering a purchase like that).
- Notes from Thunder tapings for next week: Hayabusa was there and was going to work a match on the Worldwide taping, but he didn't have documentation of a physical or blood test, since no one told him ahead of time that he would need it, so he wasn't allowed to work due to the Virginia athletic commission. There was a funny bit where a kid wanted a photo with Nash and Nash bullied the kid's dad into paying $50 for it, then Scott Steiner got in the picture and ended up flexing his bicep, completely blocking the kid's face. Dave thinks that was the best part of the show.
- Notes from this week's actual Thunder TV taping: 3 Count was supposed to get a pinfall victory over Kronik, which was basically WCW's way of throwing a bone to Evan Karagias for not going to the Turner HR department to complain about Goldberg attacking him backstage last week. But Kronik, as they do, threw a fit about doing the pinfall job and ended up getting it changed to a count-out loss, in a match where they no-sold everything 3 Count did. Dave is amazed that these assholes still have jobs but....WCW. After the match, Tank Abbott came out and beat up all of 3 Count so Dave would hate to see what would happen if Karagias was actually being punished. Mike Awesome did a Piper's Pit rip-off segment called the Lava Lamp and got hit by Jarrett's guitar. He fell back and cut his hand pretty badly on the set, bleeding everywhere. Bret Hart came out and cut a promo, complaining about stuff. He talked about having 10% brain damage due to his injury (which is apparently what he was really told by doctors) and complained about not being able to buy a new house because his pay was cut in half (also real). Word is the wrestlers backstage were practically cheering Bret on backstage during the promo. It was basically a total shoot, with him even burying how they had just booked Mike Awesome a couple of segments earlier. ICP did commentary again for a Sting/Vampiro match and were really funny, although Dave thinks it got old by the end of the match. Shane Douglas got some heat because his promo was supposed to be about his angle with Kidman and Crowbar, but he spent half the promo talking about Goldberg, and many in the back felt he was trying to link himself with Goldberg so he can work an angle with him. And one final note: there was serious discussion earlier in the day about outright cancelling the Thunder taping due to the small crowd and airing a best-of show instead. It would have saved some money (WCW basically loses money on every taping now), they already had the crew there and everything was already set up. And cancelling would have been crushing to morale given all the current uncertainty surrounding the company and that all the wrestlers had already traveled to be there (more on the Bret promo in a bit).
- WATCH: Sting vs. Vampiro (featuring ICP commentary)
- Various WCW notes: Bret Hart is the latest to be fined for arriving late to a show. There's believed to be a hiring freeze right now in WCW so don't expect anybody new anytime soon. Vampiro is out for awhile because his wife is going through a complicated pregnancy and could give birth at any moment. Several of Shawn Michaels' students worked dark matches at Thunder, including Michael Shane. Vince Russo suffered a concussion a few months back and got rocked again in the head when Cat potatoed him with a kick on Nitro. People keep asking about Dustin Runnels and Dave says he's still under contract, just not being used because they evidently don't have anything for him.
- There's some backstage debate on whether Johnny Ace should be put in charge instead of Russo. A lot of the better in-ring guys want Ace, since they figure he would book the show to better take advantage of their skills, while many of the young guys who are getting pushed for the first time in their careers obviously want to keep Russo in charge.
- The number 1 priority in WCW right now is budget cutting. Not ratings or attendance or drawing money. Just cutting costs. A lot of the top stars like Luger, DDP, Scott Hall, etc. are all sitting at home collecting big guaranteed contracts but WCW has decided not to use them because their deals also stipulate that they fly first class and their hotels and road costs are paid for. So by not using them, WCW gets to save on those costs at least.
- In his latest Calgary Sun column, Bret said he regretted cutting that shoot promo on Thunder because he doesn't want his real life health situation to be minimized for the sake of a TV angle. Hart talked about people praising him for using realistic concussion symptoms like stammering and losing his train of thought during the promo and Bret said it wasn't an act. He really is like that right now and said after the promo, he had a horrible headache and blurred vision and balance problems and said he's a long way from being able to return to the ring. Hart also criticized Bob Ryder, who wrote on his website that Hart should stop complaining about his pay getting cut in half since he's still making half his salary without having to do anything. This leads Dave to rant about how much he hates that policy because it's proven time and time again that it leads to wrestlers returning to the ring before they're fully healed. He talks about how it would never happen in any other sport, but if wrestlers won't ever get their shit together and unionize, this is the kind of things they can expect. (Here's the Bret promo, which turns out to be his final appearance in WCW.)
- WATCH: Bret Hart "shoots" in his final WCW appearance
- Both Steve Austin/Debra and Jerry Lawler/Kat are expected to be getting married this month.
- The Rock has pulled out of a starring role in an untitled sci-fi action movie that would have earned him $5 million (so I looked up the movie studio and the only sci-fi action movie they produced that came out in 2001/2002 was "The One" which ended up starring Jet Li. So maybe that was it?)
- Shawn Michaels is telling people he's back to 215 pounds and has been training hard for the last few months because he's itching to get back into things. Whether he'll wrestle one last match or not is still uncertain (or, you know, 500 more).
- WWF revenue streams are almost perfectly balanced. Over the last fiscal year: $88 million from live events, $90 million from PPV, $94 million from licensing, and $89 million from TV deals and ad revenue.
- Rock had the weekend off from house shows and Dave notes that Rock has been working less and less of them lately. Kurt Angle also missed the shows due to still suffering effects from getting double-concussed over the last week.