January 08, 2001
- Paul Heyman revealed this week that he's in serious negotiations to sell either a majority share or possibly all of ECW. He said that he's recognized the company can't survive the way things are right now. A few weeks ago, Heyman had talked about scaling ECW back down to a regional promotion but due to the rising costs of syndicated TV, even that isn't feasible. Heyman said he would be willing to walk away from the business side of ECW if the right offer came along to save the company. It would have to guarantee a major cable clearance, wipe out their debt (estimated at somewhere between $4-$6.5 million), and they would have to build an infrastructure to handle promotions, PR, contracts, etc. Basically, Heyman and a couple of handpicked assistants like Tommy Dreamer and Gabe Sapolsky handle all that stuff now personally. It's still a real mom & pop operation. Anyway, with all the potential buyers Heyman has discussed this with, they all want him to stay with the company and handle the creative end, which is his greatest strength anyway. But Heyman has spent so much of his time for the last 18 months in meetings trying to secure TV deals, licensing deals, loans, etc. in order to keep ECW alive that the creative process has been hampered severely. ECW has been fortunate so far to not lose much of its talent, because neither WWF or WCW is hiring anyone at the moment. But Heyman said that if/when Bischoff takes control of WCW, he expects the first thing he'll do is target ECW's talent, which in turn would lead to WWF making offers also, just to keep Bischoff from cherry picking their best guys. "It's the era of the big boys," Heyman told Dave. "We're too big to be small-time, but we're too small to be big-time. The reality is ECW as its presently structured isn't viable." On ECW's website, they are hyping something major will happen at the upcoming Guilty As Charged PPV, but Heyman assures Dave it's just a surprise wrestler, not anything regarding the future of the company.
- Just 1 year ago, Antonio Inoki seemed like an old-timer who's time had long since passed by. His UFO promotion, based around some weird hybrid of worked shoot MMA/wrestling couldn't give away tickets and his attempt to groom his protege Naoya Ogawa in his image was floundering. Now, as 2001 begins, Inoki's booking and match-making ideas have turned PRIDE into the hottest thing in the business of wrestling or MMA. It was capped off by Inoki's Bom Ba Ye New Year's Eve spectacular, which drew a reported 42,000+ fans to see Inoki's vision of pro wrestling, with a mix of traditional pro wrestlers and PRIDE fighters. Shinya Hashimoto worked the show, beating PRIDE's Gary Goodridge. Ken Shamrock (accompanied by former on-screen WWF sister Ryan Shamrock) and Don Frye teamed up against Nobuhiko Takada and Keiji Muto (who had a shaved head). Shamrock and Frye got into it after the match, to set up a future match with them (whether wrestling or PRIDE, who knows). And the show was capped off by Antonio Inoki going to a 3 minute draw with Renzo Gracie in an "exhibition" match. It was historical for several reasons, the first being that Renzo will now likely go down in the record books as Inoki's final opponent ever (yup). And because it was also the first time a Gracie family member did an obviously worked match, which the whole family had always vowed to never do. The show ended with Inoki doing his catchphrase as the clock struck midnight to usher in 2001. And then he slapped 108 people. You see, Inoki does this thing where it's seen as an honor to be slapped by him because he transfers his fighting spirit to you that way. Anyway, among the 108 people he slapped were Hashimoto, Bas Rutten, Yuji Nagata, and Tatsumi Fujinami. (Nowadays, we all look back at the 2000s Inoki era and how his obsession with MMA nearly killed NJPW, but it's easy to forget that, at least initially, this whole way of thinking was a massive success. Until it wasn't).
- WATCH: Antonio Inoki slaps a whole buncha people
- Observer Award winners will be announced next week but since all the votes are safely in, Dave decides to give his own personal opinion on who the wrestler of the year is. He bases his pick on a lot of different criteria. In-ring ability, drawing power, value to their company, championships, noteworthy accomplishments, etc. He ranks people in each category by points and then adds it all up. Anyway, remember this is just Dave's opinion, not the actual award. But his pick is...Kazushi Sakuraba, who isn't technically a wrestler. He's MMA. But he had an incredible 2000, basically the guy who put PRIDE on the map this year and has single-handedly decimated every member of the legendary Gracie family that he's stepped in the ring with, becoming a huge star in doing so. But if you don't count him, Dave goes with Rock, Triple H, and Toshiaki Kawada in that order.
- Vince McMahon has an interesting interview in an upcoming issue of Playboy. Excerpts were released by the New York Daily News and there's a lot of revealing info about McMahon's life. Unfortunately, Dave has to remind us that this is Vince McMahon, and he's well known for exaggerating basically everything he ever says publicly, so who knows how much of this stuff about his early life is actually true. In the interview, he talks about being abused by his stepfather, and says, "It's unfortunate that he died before I could kill him. I would have enjoyed that." And though he didn't outright say it, he strongly hinted that he had been sexually abused by his mother. McMahon is also candid about his previous affairs, noting he'd been faithful to his wife for the past 6 years (this is actually pretty interesting. If you recall, in the coverage of the 1994 steroid trial, there was a moment during the trial where it came out that Vince had an affair with his former secretary, a former Playboy playmate named Emily Feinberg. She later became a key witness in the trial. But there's a moment in the trial when it comes out and it seems as if that's how Linda McMahon learns of the affair, through that testimony, and is crying in the courtroom. And, ironically enough, that would be right about 6 years before this interview). McMahon also defended his decision to continue the PPV after Owen Hart's death, saying he believes Owen would have wanted the show to go on (Dave points out that most of the Hart family has vehemently disagreed with that). Anyway, the magazine with the full interview will be out next week and I'm sure Dave will have more to say then.
- A note on the Observer. Dave usually mails issues out on Wednesdays so most people in the U.S. have them by Saturday or Monday. But there have been problems, specifically in the Philadelphia, New Jersey, and Michigan areas that are getting there's late. So if you live in those states and haven't gotten your latest 2001 Observer, call or fax Dave.
- Mark Madden was fired by WCW last week in a controversial decision. Madden was told he was being fired for comments he made on the air regarding the sale of the company (an inside joke he made on TV awhile back that most people wouldn't have even picked up on) and for talking about Scott Hall on air, which he hasn't done in weeks after he was told not to the first time (Dave points out that on every show since then, while Madden never referenced Hall again, Kevin Nash, DDP, and even Tony Schiavone have done so repeatedly with no punishment). It's also believed Madden was in trouble for a recent hotline report where he did talk about both Hall and the sale of WCW. However, back in 1996, when Madden got in trouble on the hotline for calling Hall and Nash by their WWF names (which led to a years-long lawsuit), Madden's hotline reports were pre-recorded and vetted by WCW before they were posted and he would be alerted if he needed to change anything. But apparently no one listened to this one or cared and it got posted. There's also heat on Madden for an interview he did where he defended Scott Steiner for his backstage fight with DDP, with Madden pointing out how DDP had repeatedly went against orders by talking about Scott Hall on live TV and how the previous week on Thunder, he was supposed to give a diamond cutter to one member of the Natural Born Thrillers but Madden said he "went into business for himself" and hit all 5 members of the group with the move. Basically, he's saying DDP's a dick and deserved to get his face pummeled by Steiner. (As of 2019, I think the verdict is in. DDP: not a dick). Madden was also recently suspended for a week because he called DDP "leatherface" on TV, which DDP didn't care for. There was also an incident last week where DDP tried to talk things out with him but Madden refused to shake his hand, which many thought was disrespectful and a bad move politically. Madden has had issues with DDP for awhile and with Bischoff likely taking over the reins soon, he feels like that's the real reason he was fired. Basically, there could be a lot of different reasons, but different people told him different things, leading Madden to believe it pretty much just amounted to they wanted him gone and came up with whatever they could think of to justify it. This is all just such childish, petty nonsense. It's really no wonder this dumb ass company went out of business.
- Madden had a $150,000-per-year deal on a 90-day cycle and is expected to be paid through the end of January, but WCW is threatening to withhold his final paychecks because of an interview he did after he was fired, where he was critical of the company. Madden says he was first told he was being fired because of disciplinary reasons but then was later told it wasn't because of that. Dave suspects the reason they back-pedaled is because firing Madden for disciplinary reasons, but not punishing others who have repeatedly done what he did and worse would probably not look good for the company if Madden wanted to file a lawsuit over it. A lot of this DDP/Madden stuff happened backstage at the 12/18 Nitro, which is the same show the Steiner/DDP fight happened on and the same show DDP, Nash, and Sid Vicious all walked out on. And yet Madden is the only person fired, while the 4 wrestlers involved are world champion, tag team champions, and main eventing the next PPV with not even a reprimand. Needless to say, a lot of people in the company got the favoritism message loud and clear.
- Nikkan Sports in Japan had a poll asking readers to list the biggest wrestling news story of the century. The answers were broken down by age groups. People 50 years or older voted Rikidozan's death by a huge margin. Ages 40-49 also voted Rikidozan's death. Ages 30-39 voted the Antonio Inoki vs. Muhammad Ali match by a wide margin. Everyone younger than that voted Giant Baba's death. Obviously, people who weren't old enough to remember Rikidozan or the Inoki/Ali match didn't vote for those so it's kinda interesting to see what stories each age group thinks is the biggest. Dave has the full list broken down and all the famous stories are there. The AJPW/NOAH split, formation of NJPW, the Inoki/Saito jungle match, Maeda getting fired by NJPW and forming UWF, and so on and so forth. Dave says, from a historical perspective, Rikidozan's death is undoubtedly the biggest news story because of the trickle down effect it had on the industry as a whole still to this day.
- Everything did bad ratings this week. It was Christmas, it was New Years, WCW aired "best of 2000" shows (which is laughable in itself) while Raw did a rating that's actually pretty scary. Of course it was low because of Christmas but there's also something in ratings called the share, which basically factors in how many people are actually watching television overall that night and what the percentage of that is watching your show and yada yada. It gets a little number-y but point being, even if you took Christmas out of the equation and adjusted for that, this rating would still be the lowest Raw rating in years even on a normal night. Raw ratings have been trending downwards ever since the move to TNN. Luckily for them, Monday Night Football will be ending soon (and WCW, though we don't know that yet).
- Mexican star Ciclon Ramirez was arrested for vehicular homicide following an accident in which he crashed his car while driving drunk. Ramirez survived but 2 passengers in his car were both killed instantly (not sure what happened here. His Wikipedia page doesn't say anything about it. Looking at his cagematch.net page, he wrestled full time right until the time of the accident. Then a couple of matches in 2001 and then nothing until 2005, so maybe he was in jail for that time? No idea and I never read anything about it later.)
- In reviewing the big NOAH show from last week, Dave writes about the Kobashi vs. Akiyama main event and gives it 4 and 1/........???? HE DOESN'T SAY! The last number is cut off. Is it 1/2? 1/4? The world may never know the correct fraction of stars for this match. Anyway, once NOAH gets their feet under them and has a secure TV deal, they plan to hold their first show at Budokan Hall.
- Chris Candido and Tammy Sytch are claiming to have signed a 1 year deal with NJPW (yup, looks to be true. I had no idea but he apparently spent most of 2001 and some of 2002 working there).
- Atsushi Onita showed up uninvited to Inoki's New Year's Eve show and told reporters he wanted a match with Inoki. But Inoki never met with him. Onita gave a letter to PRIDE president Naoto Morishita asking for Inoki to come out of retirement to face him. Classic Onita.
- Another big news story in Canada covered the Owen Hart lawsuit settlement and the story featured a ton of choice quotes from various Hart family members. Bret Hart accused his sisters Ellie and Diana of using Owen's death for their own purposes and of trying to get some of the settlement money from their parents. Martha Hart talked about the foundation she's setting up in Owen's name using some of her settlement money. The story also talked about Bret getting upset with his parents because he loaned them money and they turned around and gave the money to Ellie (after she had already sided with the WWF in the lawsuit). Ellie said she had recently reunited with Jim Neidhart, after they had split because he was addicted to crack cocaine. And Helen Hart, the mother of all these damn rascals, just seems sad about it, talks about how she loves and will help all her children and says she wishes the whole family had been farmers instead of wrestlers because they would all be better off if not for the wrestling business.
- Scott Hall was released from jail this week.
- ECW's PPV is coming up this weekend and Dave runs down the lineup and mentions that the idea is to position Rhino as the new top star of the company by the time the show is over, but who knows what that means. But expect Rhino to be booked strong (yeah, just a tad).
- ECW is in a bit of a pickle with MSG Network, which airs their TV show in syndication in New York. ECW is not listed on the upcoming TV listings this week, which would be the go-home show for the PPV which is hugely important because the PPV is in New York and also, New York is their biggest TV market. It costs ECW more than $4,000 per week to air on that network and apparently the payment was sent late. Heyman claims the show is still going to air on Jan. 6th and the situation has been worked out. But as of Jan. 2nd, two different spokespeople from MSG Network told Dave the show wasn't going to air, saying ECW hasn't renewed their deal, but they're still in talks. Basically, as long as Heyman can pay for it in time, they're expected to air but as of press time, MSG Network is still waiting.
- Lots of rumors going around that the sale of WCW will be announced before the end of this month. Still no word on what the deal entails or what Bischoff has planned for the company.
- There was a lot of controversy over Jeff Jarrett not being allowed to work a match for WWC in Puerto Rico. So here's the deal, WCW has been preventing its guys from working indie shows. Konnan and Rey Mysterio were recently forbidden to work a show in Mexico for example. But Jarrett had been asked to come headline a WWC show against Carly Colon for the Universal title. WCW agreed and Jarrett was booked for the show and WWC promoted the hell out of it. But then WCW changed their mind. So now Jarrett was forced to pull out of the show, which makes him look bad (through no fault of his own) and severely screws over WWC, which had spent weeks promoting this huge show at a 23,000-seat arena built around Jarrett vs. Colon for the main event. Dave understands that WCW doesn't want to risk its top stars getting hurt on indie shows. But WCW is barely running shows anymore and these guys are allegedly independent contractors. But the contract allows WCW that right, so there ya go. Dave thinks they should have just bitten the bullet and allowed Jarrett to work the show since they had already approved it, but then there's also the double standard of why it was approved in the first place while other guys like Konnan and Mysterio were turned down outright.
- Apparently a few months ago, a stink bomb got set off on a WCW flight. As a result, referee Mickey Jay was suspended for a month while referee Mark Johnson and announcer Dave Penzer were each suspended for a week.
- In case you're curious about the statistics needed to render a championship meaningless: in 2000, WWF had 5 world title changes. ECW also had 5 world title changes. WCW had 26.
- Jim Ross is planning to meet with Shawn Michaels soon about returning, most likely for a singles match against Triple H at Wrestlemania. Shawn has been open about wanting to return but a lot of wrestlers in the locker room don't want him back and WWF has been very careful to try not to upset the morale in its locker room since things are going so good.
- Early reviews for Mummy 2 are in and people who have seen it tell Dave they're convinced that by this time next year, the Rock is going to be a bigger star outside of wrestling than he could ever be in WWF, because it appears he's pretty good at this whole acting thing. Who knows what that means for his long-term career in wrestling. Dave says he can't imagine Rock leaving the business, but his days of working 200 house shows per year may not last much longer.
- Someone writes in and says if Kevin Nash is truly Scott Hall's friend, he'll stop pushing to bring him back to WCW and instead do whatever he can to get Hall the help he obviously needs. Going back on the road and hanging out in the locker room is clearly the last thing Hall needs and if Nash cares about his friend, he'll stop encouraging it.