October 01, 2000
- Raw made its debut on TNN this week and featured the TV return of Steve Austin. The rating was below Raw's average but was still a strong number considering it's the first week on a new channel and considering they didn't get to promote it nearly as much as they hoped for. Furthermore, WCW barely reaped any rewards, with their ratings staying about the same. It's a big blow to them, because the big talking point for weeks now within WCW has basically been, "Wait until Raw moves to TNN and that's when we'll be able to get back in the game!" But they didn't do that this week and Raw's rating is only going to improve as more fans get accustomed to the channel change and Viacom promotes it some more. Raw put on a monster of a show for their debut, with Austin's return, a Rock/Benoit title match and an E&C/Hardyz ladder match. Meanwhile, Nitro had Booker T vs. Vince Russo, an unadvertised Goldberg/Steiner match that bombed in the ratings, and a bikini contest which actually did do a strong rating but still not even in WWF's ballpark.
- WATCH: Steve Austin returns to Raw on the first TNN episode
- Regarding the WCW ratings, there's a lot of feeling that Vince Russo's job is on shaky ground. He's said to be more aware of it than anyone, which is why he has booked so much of the show around himself in hopes of protecting his job. Hey, it's a lot harder to fire the star of the show than just firing a writer.
- ECW has been given a surprise stay of execution from "Governor McMahon." Vince agreed to waive his exclusivity deal and allow ECW to stay on TNN through the end of the year, apparently just out of goodness of his heart. If ECW finds a new TV deal during that time, they're free to leave. But as part of the agreement, TNN still isn't going to promote them (there were no ads for ECW during Raw, which would have been huge for them). But in reality, keeping their TV deal is the least of ECW's concerns right now. The company is still in serious financial trouble. Over the weekend, wrestlers who hadn't been paid in 4 weeks were given checks, but only for the previous 2 weeks so everyone is still behind on pay. Last year, ECW was in a worse position and was bouncing checks left and right, but they got saved at the last minute by the TNN deal and the Acclaim video game deal. Things aren't quite that bad this time around yet, but it's getting there. House shows were cancelled this weekend, which of course really sucks for the wrestlers who are on per-night deals. Many ECW stars, including top names, have reached out to WWF and WCW because they're beginning to see the writing on the wall with ECW. Confidence in the company is low and if Heyman doesn't produce a new TV deal quickly, it's only going to get worse. Negotiations with USA Network are still going on, but nothing is finalized.
- The Olympics are going on and Dave talks about American amateur wrestler Rulon Gardner defeating Aleksandr Karelin to win the gold medal. Karelin had a 15-year unbeaten streak and hadn't lost a match in any form of competition since he was 18 years old and his 300ish consecutive wins is arguably one of the greatest winning streaks in modern sports. Karelin did one "pro wrestling" match last year for RINGS, defeating Akira Maeda in a worked shoot. Karelin has said this will be his final Olympics. Dave thinks he could undoubtedly make huge money in the pro wrestling or MMA worlds based on his reputation of the greatest amateur wrestler of all time (he probably could have but he never did. He eventually got into politics and to this day is a member of the Russian Duma, which is basically the same as the U.S. House of Representatives and he's a big ally of Vladimir Putin).
- WWF's Unforgiven PPV is in the books and aside from the Austin return, it mostly felt like a throwaway show. The show sold out months ago in Philadelphia, and also saw the debut of Raven interfering in the Lawler/Tazz match, as they played up the "he doesn't even work here!" angle. Dave thinks Philly was a good place to debut Raven because the fans actually knew him. After months of build, the first Kurt Angle/Triple H singles match fell sorta flat. Dave points out how much Angle has been booked like a geek for the last month or so and says no one bought him as a legit main event threat to Triple H. Needless to say, the return of Steve Austin was what everyone was there for and he blew the roof off the place. Lawler/Tazz was a strap match where you were supposed to drag your opponent to all 4 corners to win, so Tazz ended up winning by choking Lawler out and the ref calling for the bell, which is some WCW-level bullshit. Matt Hardy bladed during the cage match with E&C and word is McMahon was against the idea but all 4 guys talked him into it and he ultimately allowed it. And during the Eddie Guerrero/Rikishi match, Rikishi attacked Chyna and it was really weird. Seemed like a heel turn, but no one was really sure if it was or not (not yet but give it a week. Just testing the waters).
- WATCH: Unforgiven 2000 highlights
- In other Olympics news, NJPW star Yuji Nagata's brother Katsuhiko won the silver medal in the Olympics for Greco-Roman wrestling in his weight class. Yuji was a former national champion who tried but didn't make the cut for the 1992 Olympics.
- The latest UFC PPV is in the books and the only thing really notable from a wrestling standpoint is that Dan Severn got soundly defeated in the first round by Pedro Rizzo from a kick to the knee. The whole build-up to this was the nostalgia of having Severn back in the UFC and Dave talks about how this sport is unforgiving to aging fighters and Severn is no exception. Sometimes, shit just passes you by and from the moment the fight started, Severn looked outmatched by Rizzo. It's worth noting that Severn is also the champion for World Extreme Fighting, which is UFC's biggest American rival, and he got smoked in a UFC fight, so that kinda buries WEF too. Same thing happened with Bobby Hoffman, who is champion in another company and also lost here. Neither man was allowed to wear the belts of the other promotion to the cage and it wasn't acknowledged on commentary. Mark Coleman, the current heavyweight champion for PRIDE in Japan, was interviewed and they didn't acknowledge that title either, even though they talked about him fighting overseas.
- Vader was expected to return next month from injury and make his debut for NOAH. But now with the AJPW vs. NJPW inter-promotional angle going on, Vader recognizes he has a chance to be part of a big money program, so he's apparently leaning towards returning to AJPW instead (didn't happen. He eventually went to NOAH after all).
- Speaking of NOAH, they're doing okay so far. Last week, they sold out a 1,400-seat building and the next day they sold out a 1,800-seat building. So far, NOAH has sold out its first 8 shows, but they're all in small buildings. They have yet to run any major arenas.
- WWF announcer Kevin Kelly wrestled on an indie show, teaming with the Haas brothers. They aired a surprise video of The Rock, cutting a promo on Kelly and calling him "Hermie" and hyping the match (TIL Kevin Kelly wrestled).
- Notes from WCW Nitro: they debuted a woman named Marie who in storyline will be Big Vito's sister. They did an angle where Kronik got maced by security. Konnan, who was on commentary, openly joked that he was surprised that they sold for the mace. Mike Awesome went against Insane Clown Posse in a handicapped match and in one spot, he powerbombed Shaggy 2 Dope on top of the bus, but Shaggy slid off and fell to the floor by accident (still hilarious). They had a bikini contest which was won by Pamela Paulshock and it ended up being a source of major heat backstage. A few weeks ago, they had a similar contest in Las Vegas (un-televised) to hype ticket sales for a show there. Paulshock no-showed, claiming an ankle injury, but others claimed she no-showed because she found out she wasn't winning. So then they did it on TV this week and apparently Paulshock was promised to win, and all the other women were furious, feeling like she was being rewarded for no-showing the previous one. "Welcome to the wrestling business," Dave says. The Wack Pack from Howard Stern's show was involved in this whole segment and Brad Siegel was said to be upset about their involvement for some reason. They had an unannounced Goldberg vs. Scott Steiner cage match and Dave is baffled that they just gave that away on free TV with no buildup. At least when Bischoff did the Goldberg/Hogan free TV match in 1998, they heavily hyped it and drew a record crowd to the arena, even if they did leave a good $7 million or so in PPV revenue on the table. These days, WCW doesn't make nearly that kind of money on PPV because nobody's buying them. But then again....shit like this is why. That was arguably one of the biggest money matches WCW has right now and they threw it away. And of course, Russo vs. Booker T was the ultimate overbooked clusterfuck and ended with Booker T and Russo seemingly leaving the cage at the same time and went off the air not knowing who won (spoiler: it was Russo and he is officially recognized as a former WCW champion from this match. He vacates it next week).
- WATCH: Mike Awesome vs. ICP (Shaggy/bus spot at 4:00)
- Lance Storm lost the U.S. title to Terry Funk during a Texas house show and regained it again the next night at another house show. Neither title change was recognized by WCW or acknowledged on TV, which is a good way to kill a town for those few fans in those 2 cities that actually paid to see the show (WCW never officially recognized the title changes but WWF does. As a result, Terry Funk is a 2-time U.S. champion and I'm pretty sure he holds the record for longest time between reigns. His first reign was in 1975 while the other was 25 years later, in 2000).
- On Thunder, they set up a Mysterio vs. Guerrera best-of-5 series of matches to determine the #1 contender for the cruiserweight title. But 2 minutes into the first match, Guerrera legit blew out his knee and they had to stop the match. Guerrera was supposed to win. It's believed the injury isn't as serious as first thought, maybe just a sprain or hyperextension (Guerrera would come back and wrestle in a tag match a week later and then......that was it. The best-of-5 series never happens. He goes on the Australia tour after that, gets high on PCP, goes on a rampage through the hotel, gets arrested, and WCW fires him. But we'll get there).
- There was a lot of heat on Mark Madden this week. It started with Madden and 1wrestling.com writer Dave Scherer writing some nasty emails back and forth. Scherer had recently criticized Madden's commentary. Dave notes that Scherer has a habit of writing childish and insulting things to try and goad people in the wrestling business into a response, and Madden is known to be thin-skinned enough to fall right into that trap. Scherer reportedly told Madden he was going to get him fired from WCW and Madden claimed that Scherer did indeed call WCW offices and try to make a case that Madden had said something racist (using the term "mamacita" on air, which is said every week on Raw already). Scherer denied calling WCW's offices but didn't deny claiming that he was going to get Madden fired. The emails went back and forth with both guys essentially trying to call the other gay or fat or other such silly bullshit. Anyway, Madden later made an unplanned call into the Wrestling Observer Live internet show and began trashing Scherer. That got Madden heat with Russo, who has recently decided that the Observer is now the enemy (despite the fact that Russo himself has appeared on the show several times in the recent past). But now he doesn't want any WCW people going on there, so he was pissed at Madden for calling in to the show. Dave has no time for either of these people and feels like it's all childish. He especially seems to have no respect for Scherer as a journalist.
- Various WCW notes: WCW's Nitro Grill in Las Vegas is closing because it's deep in debt. ICP no-showed the latest Thunder tapings. Ric Flair should be cleared to wrestle again in November. Eric Bischoff and Jason Hervey's new TV show Road Rage was picked up by UPN. Juventud Guerrera just signed a new deal this week (that certainly doesn't last long).
- Vince Russo and JJ Dillon reportedly got into an altercation in the WCW offices last week. The story that's been going around is that Dillon was on the phone to someone, talking about the 9/18 Nitro and how stupid various parts of it were. Russo walked by, overheard, and blew a gasket and they had a big argument.
- Update on the maybe/maybe-not return of Scott Hall. Contrary to rumors that Hall would be returning this week, apparently Brad Siegel still hasn't given the okay so until he does, no Scott Hall. But there have been discussions and apparently Hall has been told that if he returns, he'll be on a zero-tolerance policy. One screw-up of any kind and he's gone. Just to show you how much WCW has its shit together, on the WCW Hotline, last week, they plugged Hall and DDP both, hyping that they would be on Nitro. Needless to say, neither was.
- The word is Vince Russo wanted to make himself the WCW champion this past week on Nitro but was talked out of it because of how negatively it would be seen within the company. So that's why they did the cage finish where you don't know who won (it still happened and Russo is still technically recognized as champion so he got his way after all).
- Chris Candido and Tammy Sytch were backstage at Nitro looking to get back in to the company, as was Big Dick Dudley. Tammy is said to have lost a lot of weight and looks a little more like her old self, but WCW wasn't interested in any of them.
- You may have noticed Lex Luger is back on TV. He's basically been brought back to be fed to Goldberg, just to see if he'll complain.
- Many of the wrestlers, especially the younger stars, are still loyal to Vince Russo because they feel he's the first person to really try and push them since he took over. But everyone else in the company, all the non-wrestlers in particular, can't stand him. During production meetings when Russo is going over his scripts, it's basically all eye-rolls and head shaking from everyone else in the room, but he has the final say, so no one can do anything about it. Many people who have complained about Russo have pretty much been told to just be patient and it won't be a problem much longer, which of course, further fuels the rumors that Russo is on his way to getting shit-canned. But he's got his supporters, and apparently Konnan even went so far as to try to get a petition going among the wrestlers in support of Russo but it didn't gain much traction.
- DDP asked for his release but Brad Siegel refused. Russo has made it clear to DDP that he only wants to use him to put over younger stars, while DDP still wants to be in the main event picture as a top guy.
- Bryan Clark of Kronik did an interview burying the rest of the WCW tag teams, calling the division a joke and saying it's bullshit that they gave the 2 smallest guys in the company the tag titles, referring to Mysterio and Juvi. He also was upset about Konnan's repeated comments about them on commentary and claimed that his partner Brian Adams confronted Konnan about it backstage.
- Notes from WWF Raw: the Hardyz/E&C ladder match featured a spot where Edge did a spear off a ladder into Jeff who was hanging from the belts. It was a crazy spot and Dave figures it will be replayed endlessly for years (nope, but they did the spot again at Wrestlemania 6 months later and THAT one will likely be replayed until the end of time). They heavily pushed Chyna's Playboy issue. There was a segment where William Regal (no longer Steve) was reading Shakespeare and Austin came out and stunned him and left. Regal's timing and the facial expressions made this segment and Dave thought it was absolutely hilarious (yeah this is one of my all-time favorite Austin stunners).
- WATCH: Steve Austin doesn't like Shakespeare
- Taka Michinoku suffered a separated shoulder during the Sunday Night Heat tapings in a match with Dean Malenko. The show had to be held up and he was taken out on a stretcher.
- Vince McMahon has cracked the list of the Forbes 500 richest men in America. Vince McMahon was listed at #260, with a net worth of $1.1 billion. Just for comparison's sake, Ted Turner was #25, with a net worth of $9.1 billion.
- There's a lot of talk about splitting up Edge & Christian and pushing them as singles stars. Dave thinks it's a bad idea because they're one of the most entertaining acts in the company right now. He also thinks Christian would likely get lost in the shuffle unless they reignite the light heavyweight division and push him as the focal point of it.
- Billy Gunn and Big Show were both considered for the role of being the person who ran over Steve Austin. At one point, Gunn was the top candidate. But there's concern that he's not ready for that high up a position because the last time they pushed him as a singles guy, he did nothing to prove himself, which is why they reunited the Outlaws. With Big Show, they're concerned that it would be giving a bad message to the locker room to reward him by putting him in a feud with Austin after he had so much heat for letting himself get out of shape. It's being kept secret but within the business, most are speculating that it will end up being Mick Foley. Dave doesn't buy that, although he has no idea who it will be. He thinks they should use it to elevate someone new and points out that Chris Jericho isn't really up to much these days (yeah that probably would have been better than what we got).
- Jerry Lawler and Stacy Carter (The Kat) will be getting married this week in Las Vegas, on her birthday (fun fact: Charles Barkley paid for their wedding).
- Steve Austin was said to be a little sore after delivering those stunners at the PPV, since it was the first time in awhile he's taken real bumps in the ring, but said his neck felt better than it had in a long time.
- Someone who just watched the Shawn Michaels RF Shoot interview writes in and tears Shawn a new asshole. "I would pay good money to get one of those doctors you find on news programs who can analyze when some one is lying by observing their facial movements, speech and mannerisms," he writes. Especially when Shawn is asked about the Montreal Screwjob (yeah, if you've ever watched this full shoot interview, it's painfully obvious at times that Shawn is completely full of shit and struggling to come up with blatant lies in response to some of the questions).
- Finally, someone else is upset that Chyna is posing nude for Playboy. He says that Chyna is different than all the other women in the company because she hasn't usually been portrayed as a sex object. She's someone who is often booked as equal to the men, a strong woman who commands respect and because of that, she has a lot of female fans. The writer says he works as a camp counselor and of course, all the kids there, including most of the girls, were WWF fans. While the boys ran around pretending to be Rock or Austin, the girls all wanted to be Chyna. He thinks Chyna being in Playboy is negating all the progress they've made by treating her as something more than just eye candy like all the other women.