November 20, 2000
- Shinya Hashimoto, who has headlined more record-setting Tokyo Dome shows than anyone in history, was shockingly fired by NJPW after a weekend full of drama when news got out that he was negotiating with Pro Wrestling NOAH. Now that he's fired, it clears the way for him to become a full-timer for NOAH if he wishes, as well as running his own shows, which appears to be his plan. Regardless of rumors that this is all an angle, it's not. Hashimoto has not been seeing eye-to-eye with NJPW booker Riko Choshu for awhile. There was also resentment against Hashimoto within the company because he was one of the highest paid stars but he has barely worked this year. If he joins NOAH, he's going to have to take a massive pay-cut and probably work a more full-time schedule. But Hashimoto doing a bunch of dream matches against guys like Misawa, Kobashi, Akiyama, and Vader could be just the spark NOAH needs to really take off. NJPW had a big booking committee meeting where Kensuke Sasaki in particular ripped on Hashimoto for not being a team player and he was the one who pushed the hardest for him to be fired. Tatsumi Fujinami, who is president of the company and part of the NJPW board that made the decision, is close friends with Hashimoto and was said to be furious at being outvoted over the issue and is considering quitting his role as NJPW President in protest. He's also planning to meet with Antonio Inoki, who isn't really involved in NJPW anymore but is still a major stockholder in the company.
- Hashimoto has been secretly talking to Misawa for at least 5 months and had talked about quitting NJPW when his contract was up anyway. Hashimoto has also opened a dojo called Zero-1 and is talking of running his own shows. This whole thing has caused some tension with AJPW as well, because they hate NOAH and they currently have a relationship with NJPW and were concerned that this was all an angle. And AJPW wants no part of any angles involving NOAH. That's just part of the problems with NJPW and AJPW though. Motoko Baba is notoriously difficult to deal with and NJPW officials said they had heard the stories about her, but didn't realize just how bad she was until the AJPW/NJPW deal started. Apparently, she's a real pain in the ass and everybody in NJPW hates her, just like all the people who left to form NOAH did. Word is the NJPW/AJPW angle is already starting to fall apart because every little creative detail has to be negotiated and renegotiated constantly with her. To be fair, if NJPW had their way, they would gobble up AJPW just like they did UWFI so Mrs. Baba is probably looking out for her company's best interests in the long-term, but she's definitely rubbing everyone in NJPW the wrong way in doing so. NJPW has also talked of having NOAH wrestlers involved in their Jan. 4th show, which led to Mrs. Baba threatening to pull AJPW from the show if they did.
- Hashimoto's firing was front page news in the Japanese sports media and more than 50 reporters were at the press conference where NJPW announced it. Hashimoto has talked about also joining Inoki's UFO promotion to continue his feud with Ogawa. Speaking of, Ogawa has said he would be willing to put Hashimoto over even though Inoki would be against it. Basically, Ogawa recognizes how much of his career he owes to Hashimoto doing job after job after job for him, even to the detriment of his own career, and Ogawa wants to return the favor, but Inoki doesn't want Ogawa to put anyone over. Inoki himself got famous during his career for almost never doing jobs and he's wanting to build his protege up the same way. Anyway, Dave talks about how the firing of Hashimoto is probably the 3rd biggest firing of a wrestler in the history of Japanese wrestling. The first would be JWA firing Antonio Inoki in 1971, which ultimately led to the formation of NJPW. And the 2nd would be when NJPW fired Akira Maeda in 1988, who went on to reform the UWF. Hashimoto has main evented 6 Tokyo Dome sellouts, more than anyone ever. And he's headlined 10 other shows that have drawn 50,000+ fans (and 7 of those shows actually drew more than 60,000). Needless to say, Hashimoto has to be considered among the biggest drawing stars ever.
- Six months before it even happens, Wrestlemania 17 has already become the biggest grossing pro wrestling event ever held in the United States. Tickets went on sale last week and by the end of the first day, over 48,000 tickets were sold for more than $2.7 million. It's believed to be the most tickets sold on the first day in wrestling history. There was a K-1 kickboxing show in Japan in 1997 that sold out the Tokyo Dome (54,500) in one day but that's the closest comparison.
- Dave and his crack team of investigators (I dunno) have done a big in-depth study to compare the mortality rates, crippling injury rates, and drug issues in American pro wrestling at 3 different time periods: 1986, 1991, and 1998, to see how things have improved or gotten worse. This shit is looooong but I'm gonna try to simplify it as much as possible, but it's still gonna be a bunch of numbers and shit. For injuries, it has to be something that left the person with permanent disabilities and medical issues. For drug problems, it lists people who had known arrests, overdoses, rehab stays, etc. For the sake of the study, steroids are not included in the drug issues since, well, that would be almost everybody.
- For the year 1986, they looked at all 214 wrestlers who were active in the U.S. during that time in all the major promotions, at an average age of 33. Of that group, 27 have since passed away (12.6%) while another 29 (13.6%) are permanently disabled due to injuries suffered in their careers. Another 41 (19.2%) have had documented drug and/or alcohol problems. The remaining 54.6% are basically okay, aside from the usual wear & tear from a career in wrestling.
- The next year is 1991, with a total of 165 wrestlers at an average age of 31. From that group, 14 have since passed away (8.5%), 30 of them have disabilities (18.2%) and another 30 (18.2%) have documented drug/booze issues.
- The final comparison is 1998, with a group of 233 wrestlers. In the two and a half years since then, 8 wrestlers have died, which is about 1-out-of-every-29. Another 22 guys are now permanently injured or disabled, while 44 of them (18.9%) have documented drug/alcohol issues.
- So, what have we learned? That basically, everything is getting worse. Wrestlers are dying at a faster rate, suffering injuries at a faster rate, and more and more of them are abusing drugs and alcohol. Dave goes into a LOT more detail on this but bottom line: this shit is an epidemic and if you compared these numbers to any other sport like the NFL or NBA, it wouldn't even be close. Whether it's serious injuries, drug addictions, or deaths, the numbers are all gradually getting scarier over the last decade and a half. The wrestling industry has a problem and it BADLY needs to clean it up and take better care of the performers. If this is a topic you're interested in, this issue of the Observer is well worth reading in full because I'm not even scratching the surface here.
- The latest on the Owen Hart lawsuit settlement is that the judge signed off on it to make it official. Of the $18 million WWF agreed to pay, Martha Hart will get $10 million, while her two children will each receive $3 million. The remaining $2 million goes to Owen's parents Stu and Helen. Following the case being settled, Martha Hart did multiple interviews, publicly separating herself from the Hart family entirely, although she did praise Stu, Helen, Bret, and Keith Hart for being the only ones who sided with her during the legal battle. There's a lot of bad blood there, with various members of the family feeling like others sold them out. In a Calgary Sun column, Marta Hart wrote, "This is not a close-knit family and I'm not part of it anymore. We carry the same last name, but that's as far as it goes. They betrayed Owen by working against me and his children and I will never consider myself, or my children, a part of that family anymore. I will respect Owen's parents and I will stay in touch with a select few of them, but people need to know that Owen was a white sheep in a black family." Dave says she kinda has a valid point, as several members of the Hart family sided with the WWF in this case and in particular, Ellie Neidhart passed legal documents that she found at Stu's house over to WWF lawyers. Martha said all of this stuff greatly weakened their case, caused the trial to be delayed indefinitely, and pretty much forced her to settle out of court when she didn't want to. Bruce and Ross Hart, in promoting Stampede Wrestling, tried to work with WWF on running shows while Davey Boy and Jim Neidhart took jobs with the company following Owen's death. But it was really Ellie Neidhart's actions that Martha felt was the biggest betrayal because it almost killed the whole case. Martha has said she will be setting aside $2 million of the settlement money to form the Owen Hart Foundation to help people less fortunate (she still runs this today). As for the WWF, while they have settled the case with the Hart family, they intend to recoup some of their losses by going after 2 other defendants in the case. Lewmar Inc., which manufactured the harness that was accidentally released, and Amspec Inc. which sold the device to the stunt riggers the WWF had hired.
- The WWF filed a lawsuit against the Parents Television Council, their parent company, founder L. Brent Bozell, and several other members of the group as well as a Florida lawyer. WWF hopes to prove that Bozell and the PTC knowingly lied in their campaign to get sponsors to pull advertising from WWF programming and argues that they have harmed the WWF name in doing so. The lawsuit claims interference in contracts, disparagement, defamation, and more and says the PTC created a false list of advertisers who had pulled ads in order to mislead the public. WWF is also extremely upset about the PTC's claim that WWF programming was responsible for the deaths of 4 children within the last two years. That's where the Florida lawyer comes in. It's the same lawyer who represented 12-year-old Lionel Tate who killed a little girl and later claimed he was imitating wrestling moves. The lawyer made it about wrestling and tried to get WWF and WCW wrestlers to testify and it was a whole big messy thing. The PTC used that case, and the others, and have been going around for months screaming about how WWF is responsible for their deaths.
- The lawsuit is interesting because the wording of it isn't something you usually see in a legal document. It's extremely mean-spirited, attacking Bozell's right-wing political opinions and calling him out for other, unrelated things like his hatred of homosexuals, his father working for Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s, and even questioning the legality of the PTC as an organization due to a bunch of legal and paperwork technicalities. Bozell responded, only saying that the lawsuit is without merit and that they are considering counter-suing for libel. Dave breaks down all the ins and outs of this and says it seems like an attempt to get the PTC to shut up and go away more than anything. Who knows whether it will work, but WWF has the money to tie up the PTC in a long legal battle if they want and that alone might be enough to get them off their back. But proving their case in court might be tricky.
- Since we're never actually going to get to see the conclusion in these Rewinds, here's the spoiler on the WWF/PTC lawsuit and how it all ends up: WWF wins handily. The lawsuit is settled in 2002 and the PTC is forced to issue a public apology, admit they lied about the advertisers, and publicly state that WWF was not responsible for those children's deaths. Oh, and they have to pay the WWF $3.5 million in damages. L. Brent Bozell hasn't uttered a single word about WWF in the 17 years since.
- Various notes: following Scott Hall's latest arrest last week, he and his estranged wife have settled their child custody arrangement. CMLL has scrapped plans to air their year-end event on PPV in the U.S. Chris Candido collapsed backstage at an indie show in Maryland, no reason given, but was back home and okay the next day. Sabu recently won the NWA title, for whatever that's worth these days.
- Speaking of Scott Hall...he debuted in ECW over the weekend. The word going around is that Hall agreed to work the shows for free, but nobody really believes that. Most people think it's just a way for Paul Heyman to save face for bringing in a big name star while still being a month behind on paying everyone else. He's not expected to stick around long and it's thought he might only have done a couple of matches just to show WCW he's on his best behavior now and is trying to get re-hired. There's been discussions of him working the December PPV but it's unknown if he will. Hall was by far the biggest superstar on the show, getting huge reactions and physically, he towered over everyone also since he's so much bigger than everyone else in ECW. He also appeared totally sober and coherent during his appearances on both nights. He teamed with Jerry Lynn in the main event against Rhino and Justin Credible the first night. And the second night, he did a job to Big Sal of the FBI, which shocked everybody (although it should be noted there was outside interference and Hall refused to sell at all for Little Guido because he's so small). Later in the night, he came out and worked another match against Credible.
- WATCH: Scott Hall vs. Big Sal - ECW 2000
- WATCH: Scott Hall vs. Justin Credible - ECW 2000
- Juventud Guerrera had his first U.S. match since getting fired from WCW, working a show for XPW. Paul Heyman was said to be interested in Guerrera but not so much now, partly because he worked an XPW show (Heyman hates them) and also because, well, Heyman just can't afford to bring anyone new right now. Except Scott Hall, apparently.
- WATCH: Sinister Minister being treated backstage on ECW television
- On the same show, Tommy Dreamer cut a promo bragging about how ECW had drawn more fans than WCW did in the same city the night before. All well and good except...not true. Nitro drew 4,600 paid while ECW drew 2,600 paid. And even if it was true, WCW is just as much a dying company as ECW, so out-drawing them isn't really anything worth bragging about anymore. And especially when it's not true.
- Nothing new on the WCW sale rumors. Right now, the whole company is basically in a holding pattern. The interim-bookers (Ferrara, Terry Taylor, Johnny Ace, etc.) have been told not to make any major changes because Russo is expected to be back soon to take control again. There's been rumors of Jerry Jarrett being brought in to help run things but Dave doesn't know how true that is (not true. He did make a low-ball offer to buy WCW at this point, but he was never close to outbidding Bischoff's people).
- At the Thunder taping in Manchester, England, Konnan got legit knocked unconscious for several minutes after taking Kronik's finisher. The show was stopped while he was tended to and eventually he was able to walk out of the ring on his own, but he was knocked loopy.
- The whole Stacy Keibler/pregnancy angle has seemingly been forgotten about, but just in case you wanted to know how it was going to end: the idea was for it to last until March (presumably around the time she would have had the baby) and it would be revealed that Vince Russo was the father. But then it would be revealed that Ric Flair was actually Stacy's father, stemming from a fling he had 21 years ago in Baltimore and that Ric and Russo were working together to break up her marriage to David Flair, because it was an incestuous relationship. And it would, of course, be revealed that at some point, David Flair had sex with his half-sister. Dave says Vince Russo has been itching to get an incest angle going ever since Ken Shamrock refused to do it back in 1997 with his fake on-screen sister.
- Bobby Heenan's WCW contract expires at the end of December and as mentioned last week, WCW has decided not to renew it. There's no word that WWF is interested in bringing him in, but he is said to be interested in going. Larry Zbyszko is pushing to get involved in a storyline so that he won't end up like Heenan (doesn't work. Zbyszko is out the door in the next few weeks also).
- Various WCW notes: An executive at Saks Fifth Avenue filed a $10 million libel lawsuit against a guy who held up a sign on WCW Nitro calling him a thief. Well okay then. Goldberg refused to work the show last week in Germany because he's Jewish and lost family members in the Holocaust. Regarding the Battledome/WCW crossover angle, the blond muscle guy from the Battledome crew is actually Midajah's husband.
- TNN cracked the top 10 cable network ratings for the first time in the channel's history, due to Raw. Meanwhile, USA fell from 1st place down to 5th, also due to the whole not-having-Raw-anymore thing.
- At the Smackdown taping the night of the election, WWF security confiscated all the political signs they could find. They also confiscated a pro-RTC sign, which Dave thinks is kinda the ultimate irony.
- A recent story just came out that mentioned the average Major League baseball player earns just under $1.8 million per year. Needless to say, that's more than most wrestlers except for the tippy-top guys make. Most wrestlers in WWF and WCW don't make as much as the lowest paid professional baseball player. Not to mention, wrestlers are required to pay their own travel, hotels, food expenses, etc. while MLB players have all that covered. And yet, there isn't a single team in baseball that generates as much money as the WWF does. But that's what happens when all these guys can't get their shit together and unionize. Promoters like Vince reap all the rewards while the wrestlers continue to be drastically underpaid compared to athletes in other sports.
- Latest on Triple H's injury is that he has a torn membrane surrounding a disc in his back and a problem with his S.I. joint which is....apparently a thing? I dunno man, I'm not Dr. House. In layman's terms, he has an inflamed sciatic nerve that is causing back and hip problems. Normally, he wouldn't be ready in time for the PPV, but he's in the main event and is reportedly going to be working through it one way or another. Dave breaks down everyone's injuries and right now, seems like everybody's dealing with some shit. Road Dogg, X-Pac, Rikishi, Billy Gunn, Christian, Faarooq, William Regal....basically the whole locker room is the walking wounded.
- Chris Chetti showed up at a WWF show last month looking for a job and was told they would give him a try-out when he finishes his ECW commitments. He doesn't have a contract with ECW right now but had promised to work the PPV. So he did but...WWF hasn't gotten back to him about a try-out. Chetti just had his first child and is looking for opportunities outside of the sinking ship that is ECW.