Wrestling Observer Rewinder

October 09, 2000

There's a lot of rumors swirling around about a potential WCW sale happening within the next couple of weeks, but there's a lot of information floating around so who knows what's true and what's not. A source close to the situation says that Eric Bischoff, with financial backing from Mandalay Bay Sports & Entertainment and is expected to take charge of the company. Reportedly, if the deal goes through, Vince Russo is gone and many involved say he's well aware of that fact and is behaving like someone who knows he already has one foot out the door. Russo is not going to Australia with the rest of the crew this week, despite the fact that they will be doing several TV tapings there, which many found strange. Hulk Hogan called into the Bubba The Love Sponge show and talked about Bischoff and the Mandalay Bay Sports thing as if it was a done deal and that Hogan himself would have power in the company. Hogan implied that it would be the end of Russo in WCW and openly laughed about all the young WCW wrestlers he claimed were now sucking up to him after complaining that he held them down for years, because Hogan's kind of a twat if you hadn't heard. Anyway, if the deal goes through, it's expected Randy Savage will be brought back as well.
For whatever it's worth, the Mandalay company purchased the domain names WCWextreme.com and WCWXtreme.com and a media trade magazine reported last week that Mandalay was in serious negotiations to buy WCW and that insiders expect a deal to be finalized by mid-October. The story quoted Jason Hervey, who, if the deal goes through, is expected to be a key business partner in the company. Several WCW office employees went to the Turner HR department asking questions and were basically told that if the company is sold or shuts down, they will receive severance pay. As of press time, most WCW wrestlers are getting ready to go on the Australia tour with no idea if they will still have jobs when they come back to America (obviously, this deal doesn't happen but we're officially in the beginning of the end stages for WCW now...).
Things are weird for ECW right now too. They have meetings scheduled with TNN this week to discuss the terms of their ongoing relationship or to possibly end it. WWF agreed to waive its exclusivity clause through the end of the year and TNN is willing to keep ECW on the air until then, as long as they can agree on some terms. ECW is willing to stay under the condition that they are allowed to leave before the end of the year if they can strike a new TV deal. All the ECW wrestlers are about a month behind on pay, but no one has yet filed a breach of contract in writing, which would be required in order to get out of their contracts. As of press time, ECW is still negotiating with USA Network and it's said to be close but USA head Barry Diller still hasn't approved it.
WWF released a profits report noting that profits would be about 8-10% lower than anticipated for the year, causing the stock to plummet from $19.75 to $12.75. The price steadied later in the week when the McMahon family announced it was making a stock buyback of up to $10 million to prop the price back up and stop the decline. I'm sure this all makes sense to somebody. That somebody is not me. The release talked about the XFL startup costs and predicted Steve Austin's return would boost business. The main reason for the lower profits was blamed on disappointing licensing numbers from the Jakks Pacific toys selling less than expected, among other things.
Linda McMahon held a press conference to try and smooth over things with the stockbrokers and said that the WWF is considering legal action against the Parents Television Council, claiming the PTC has made false statements about how they allegedly forced advertisers to stop sponsoring WWF. Linda McMahon said that many of them pulled out of the WWF before the PTC started its campaign. She also said that the PTC listed sponsors who never had deals with WWF in the first place, saying it's misleading and harmful to WWF to claim that they pulled their sponsorships when they never existed in the first place. Speaking of the PTC, their latest target is ConAgra, the company which manufactures Chef Boyardee among other things. Chef Boyardee has a huge ad campaign built around the WWF, with Mick Foley, Chris Jericho, and The Rock all doing commercials for them (the PTC is going to get fucked SO hard in court over this in about 2 years and it's delicious).
The Rock has reportedly signed a $5.5 million deal with Universal to play the lead role in The Scorpion King, a prequel to The Mummy 2 which he has a small role in. Vince McMahon will get an executive producer credit and it's expected to start filming next spring. Rock will be expected to spend about 6 months filming the movie. They may be able to work his schedule to allow him to do PPVs and some TVs during that period but for the most part, Rock is going to miss significant time away from WWF to film this. McMahon said the current plan is for the Rock to begin filming the movie after Wrestlemania, but with a looming possibility of a Hollywood strike being discussed, that could be moved up slightly.
ECW's Anarchy Rulz PPV is in the books and was a typically good show. Drew about 4,600 fans to a 7,000-seat arena and saw Jerry Lynn win the ECW title from Justin Credible. In typical ECW fashion, the television production was terrible at times. The show ended with a Limp Bizkit video which appeared to be part of a promotional deal with Farmclub.com, which, despite the name, is not actually a website. Well, it is that too. But it's actually a TV show. The name of the show was "Farmclub.com" and it aired on the USA Network for one season back in the day. Even though it's a USA show, the deal was made separately from the network so don't read into it as a sign of anything between ECW and USA. Otherwise, really nothing much else to say about the PPV. Decent matches, but nothing that's going to attract casual fans or do anything other than placate their current fanbase. ECW is pretty much just coasting along and trying to stay above water long enough for someone to throw them a life preserver.
Lots of questions regarding the futures of Vader and Too Cold Scorpio and their futures in Japan. This week, NOAH announced that both Vader and Scorpio would be appearing on its upcoming tour in October. But just recently, AJPW announced Scorpio would be on their October tour. Let's start with Vader first...he first made the decision to leave AJPW several months ago after he had elbow surgery, feeling like AJPW breached his contract and after seeing the split and realizing everyone was going to NOAH. But after seeing the potential for his role in the AJPW vs. NJPW feud, he started second guessing it, realizing that he could make huge money as the central focus of that feud if he stuck with AJPW. But then Vader met with Misawa in Hawaii 2 weeks ago and they made a deal, so Vader is now expected to sign a contract with NOAH that will keep him there through 2004. He's expected to return to action this week. His elbow surgery was considered nearly career ending, as he had torn ligaments and nerve damage as well as a broken wrist, which he had been working through. It led to his hand beginning to atrophy and his fingers curling up so he finally got surgery after the pain became unbearable. It was a 7 hour surgery and he was told there was less than a 50% chance he would regain full use of his hand. Vader's contract with AJPW stipulated that they would pay his medical bills if he were injured, but they didn't cover his surgery, so he claims they breached the contract. There's some question over that though and concern that AJPW could try to enforce their contract with Vader in order to prevent him signing with NOAH.
As for Too Cold Scorpio, AJPW claims he's under contract while Scorpio denies it and said he never had a contract with them. Motoko Baba has threatened to take legal action against both men and against Misawa and NOAH for contract tampering (AJPW loses that battle also. Scorpio ends up spending the next 6 years as a full-time star in NOAH).
On the flip side of that, AJPW shockingly announced that they plan to promote their own Tokyo Dome show in January, without the help of NJPW. Needless to say, that seems like madness right now for this company and Dave thinks they're out of their mind. They hinted that the main event would be Tenryu vs. Kawada and also talked about promoting it as a Giant Baba memorial show. And in that spirit, they also invited NOAH to participate in the show, since it's for Baba (and, let's be honest, since AJPW doesn't have a prayer of filling up the Tokyo Dome on their own. Anyway, yeah this show happens. NOAH turns down the invite but they end up heavily depending on NJPW after all).
More on amateur wrestler Alexander Karelin losing in the Olympics. It was actually his first loss in over 13 years. In fact, when his opponent (Rulon Gardner) scored a point on him in these Olympics, it was the first time in 7 years anyone had even scored a point on Karelin. Gardner's win is being called the biggest upset in Olympic wrestling history and some are even putting the "wrestling" part of that aside, with one historian saying it was an even bigger upset than the famous 1980 Miracle on Ice. That being said....the truth is Karelin kinda lost on a technicality, due to a relatively new rule. Karelin only lost the deciding point because he broke his grip a moment before Gardner did in a position where doing so cost him a point. Or some such shit. I dunno, I don't understand amateur wrestling. Anyway, Dave thinks it's an unfortunate way for Karelin's unparalleled streak to end. Anyway, Dave expects Gardner to get several pro wrestling and MMA offers, especially in Japan. WWF talked about it on Raw and even Rock put it over in a promo, leading Dave to think there's interest there. They struck gold with Kurt Angle and have high hopes for Shelton Benjamin and Brock Lesnar, but Gardner doesn't really have a good pro wrestling look (he never got into pro wrestling but he did have 1 fight in PRIDE a few years later, which he won).
More on Yuji Nagata's brother winning a silver medal in the Olympics, it was the lead story all over Japan and Yuji was interviewed by virtually every newscast. More than 70 reporters camped outside the NJPW dojo along with Nagata, Manabu Nakanishi, Wataru Inoue, and Hiroshi Tanahashi, to watch the match on television. It's expected that NJPW will have big interest in bringing in the younger Nagata as a possible junior heavyweight star (never happens. Dude makes one NJPW appearance, standing in Yuji's corner, and that's it. He never becomes a pro wrestler. He does dabble in MMA for awhile though).
One last bit of Olympics news just because I thought it was funny. If Karelin had won that match, he would have only been the 4th athlete in history to win 4 consecutive gold medals in that event. But British rower Steve Redgrave just won his 5th consecutive gold medal as part of the men's coxless team. "Can you imagine him being asked by someone in the general public what event he won his five gold medals in?" Dave quips. In case you're wondering (I was too, so I googled it), "coxless" is apparently some boat rowing shit.
Antonio Inoki recently had a meeting with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori. Dave notes that before he was prime minister, Mori was a big political figure during Inoki's peak years and would often attend shows and meet with Inoki backstage.
A sitcom called "Nikki" about a Las Vegas showgirl who marries a wrestler debuts this week. It stars Nikki Cox in the title role. Kevin Nash, Hulk Hogan, and Fabulous Moolah have all filmed guest spots for the show (this didn't last long).
Olivia Walker, a woman who was the most famous robe maker in the business, passed away this week. Throughout the 70s and 80s, she designed and made those big beautiful robes for all of the top stars, including Ric Flair, Greg Valentine, Buddy Lanel, Mr. Wrestling II, and Tommy Rich.
City officials in Gorham, ME cancelled an indie show there last month. Why, you ask? Because one of the heel wrestlers cut a promo, trashing the city and calling it the "bunghole of Maine." City officials were so upset that they shut the show down. The local paper later published an article, ripping on the city officials for not understanding that talking shit about the town you're in is a classic wrestling trick to get heat. The promotion is now running shows around the city, promoting themselves as the company that's banned in Gorham.
Paul Heyman finally got all the paperwork and visa issues fixed up for Super Crazy and Tajiri to return, so expect them back soon.
Notes from Nitro: they started an angle with Goldberg saying that he has to start a new undefeated streak. If he loses before he beats his previous record (173-0, although that's not actually a legit number), then he will be fired. If he beats that number, only then will he get a world title match. Dave points out that WCW only runs 5-8 shows per month now so it'll probably be 2003 before Goldberg hits 173. But WCW can't keep an angle consistent for more than 2 weeks, let alone 2 years, so don't hold your breath. Actor Chuck Zito was there to plug his TV series Oz (still one of the most underrated and greatest shows of all time. At least for the first 4 seasons...). Russo vacated the world title and they had a match with Booker T and Jarrett with 4 poles around the ring and a box on each poll. The title was in one of them. A blowup doll, a coal miner's glove, and a framed picture of Scott Hall were in the other 3 (the match that gave us this classic gif: https://i.imgur.com/hq3vHMy.gif). Dave points out other gaping plotholes in this match (like the referee doing the classic arm-drop-3-times bit in a match that could only be won or lost by getting the title out of the right box) and says it's sad because Booker T and Jarrett had a damn good match otherwise, but all the nonsensical on-a-pole gimmickry just killed it. Oh yeah, did I mention Beetlejuice from the Howard Stern show got involved in the finish? Because he did. Blowup dolls and Beetlejuice in a world title match? Just Russo things. Anyway, Booker T defeated Jarrett in this catch-as-catch-can mat classic so he's the champion again. Also, Mike Tenay was originally booked to wrestle Midajah on this show but it got scrapped for some reason.
WCW's March PPV has been moved to Jacksonville, FL. It was originally scheduled for the Skydome in Toronto which would have been a disaster of epic proportions (and that, as it turns out, would be WCW's final PPV ever. Tick-tock...)
Bill DeMott (Captain Rection) did an interview with the Observer's website and noted that he had suffered 6 concussions in 3 weeks from doing hardcore matches against Fit Finlay and Brian Knobs and said he was told by doctors last October that he should retire due to brain damage. He said he can't read street signs anymore, gets nauseous, and sometimes loses his balance, but he decided to come back anyway and is still wrestling. He said he wants to finish out the year he has left on his contract and then retire (nope. Went to WWE, continued wrestling until 2003ish and still did a handful of indie shows after that before finally retiring into a career of bullying trainees).
Insane Clown Posse quit WCW again. Apparently they were asked to do a job to somebody at Thunder, so they no-showed. Dave thinks it's almost comical that he's having to write these words yet again.
At a WCW house show, a 5-year-old child in the front row punched Great Muta in the face. So for the rest of the match, he was selling the punch, including going back to where the child was sitting and then backing off like he was scared of him. Awwww! Wholesome Muta. Shoulda misted the kid.
Juventud Guerrera's knee injury last week wasn't as serious as believed, only hyperextended. He should be back in action by the time you read this. He just signed a new 2-year deal last week (he'll be fired by next week).
Meng has been telling people that he is retiring after this week (nah)
There was a rumor going around that WWF was going to buy WCW and the rumor was fueled by none other than....Antonio Inoki. After leaving Los Angeles this week, Inoki arrived home to Japan and was met by reporters and he told them that WWF would be buying WCW. Dave says Inoki likely doesn't have any inside knowledge of anything and is probably just talking out of his ass, as he's apt to do. But since it's Inoki, it got a bunch of coverage over there anyway. (Turns out Inoki knew a little bit more than Dave did at this point. WWF was indeed secretly negotiating to buy WCW at this time but we'll get to that very soon.)
Billy Gunn returned on Raw (looking huge) and they eliminated him as a suspect in the Austin hit-and-run but Gunn said he did see the driver and said they had blonde hair. So Dave figures Debra is now the likely suspect.
WWF filed a lawsuit against the William Morris Agency over some financial issues. WWF and WMA had a partnership and the agency is now demanding money for deals that WWF claims they had no part in making, in particular the Viacom deal and the XFL/NBC deal, among other things. The WWF argues that the WMA had no part in putting those deals together and thus isn't entitled to any commissions from it. WWF also claims that they terminated the partnership back in 1999 due to being unsatisfied with the relationship so WMA can fuck right on off (not sure what ever becomes of this. Decided to do a little research. It looks like WME counter-sued and it dragged on for a few years. Best I can tell from vague SEC filings, there was a settlement in 2003 and I don't think it went in WWE's favor).
Chyna was on Howard Stern's show to promote her new Playboy issue and he told her that in the photos, she looked kinda like she had a guy's body, but said she looks more attractive in person. But otherwise, he mostly went easy on her, at least by Stern-standards. He asked a lot of questions about her sex life, which seemed to embarrass her. She said she lives with Triple H and said he's her boyfriend. She denied ever taking steroids (....) and said she eats lots of red meat. She ripped on Nicole Bass, saying she couldn't wrestle and scoffed at her sexual harassment lawsuit. She also talked a lot of shit about both of her parents, saying her mom kicked her out of her home at 15. She admitted to breast implants but danced around the questions about ever having facial cosmetic surgery. She said she had jawline surgery to correct an underbite but wouldn't cop to anything else. Even though Chyna was there to promote herself in Playboy, Stern spent a lot of the time fawning over Marissa McMahon, who is Shane's wife and works as WWF's publicist and who accompanied Chyna to the studio. Marissa tried to downplay it and put the attention back on Chyna, but Stern wasn't having it (I can't find clips of this particular appearance, but Chyna appeared on there several more times over the years, often in tragically sad condition).
Various WWF notes: Undertaker has another groin injury and may be kept out of the ring until the PPV later this month (he ended up missing it). Jim Ross is negotiating contract extensions for Al Snow, K-Krush, and Lita. Charles Barkley was a guest at Jerry Lawler and The Kat's wedding (came out later that he actually paid for it, according to JR).
Mick Foley did a speaking engagement somewhere and was asked if he was going to be the driver who ran over Austin. Foley said McMahon approached him about it, but he turned it down because he has a Christmas book coming out marketed for kids and he doesn't want to be a heel when it does.
Big Show, British Bulldog, Ken Shamrock, and Lillian Garcia have been removed from WWF's upcoming video game. The games has an 80-person roster that includes Earl Hebner, Linda McMahon, and "a ho" so needless to say...a little weird. But there seems to be a lack of confidence that Big Show or Bulldog will ever really return to the company, Lillian isn't a wrestler, and of course, Shamrock is already gone (man, they really didn't have a lot of faith in Big Show around this time).
1998 Playboy Playmate of the Year Karen McDougal has reportedly signed a deal to be a cheerleader for the XFL and appear in commercials for the league. (She's a bit more famous these days for other reasons...)
A Philadelphia newspaper ran a story on Darren Drozdov, noting that he's still paralyzed from the chest down and that he needs others to feed him. He said he was told by doctors that he may get some feeling back a little at a time or it may never happen at all, and now it's just a waiting game. Droz got married to a WWF seamstress about a month after the injury and they bought a new home where Droz spends most of his time. The WWF paid to have a $180,000 elevator installed in the home to allow him to go between the first-and-second floors of the house. Droz said even though it's been a year since the injury, he's still in shock from it and wants to eventually help people with similar injuries and do charity work, but admitted that he's not ready mentally to be doing that (becoming paralyzed is one of my biggest fears in life. I can't imagine. Ugh, poor guy).
Both the Calgary Flames of the NHL and DC Comics have threatened lawsuits over the XFL team name for the New York Hitmen. The Flames own a minor league hockey team called the Hitmen, while DC Comics claims to own a trademark for the "Hit Men" name (XFL ends up using it anyway).