Wrestling Observer Rewinder

February 12, 2001

The XFL debuted this week and holy shit does Dave write a lot about this. The first game, in Las Vegas, drew a monstrous 9.49 rating on NBC, the highest rated show on all of television for that night. All 4 games on opening weekend drew more than 30,000 fans each to their stadiums. This was all based on the hype Vince McMahon created, which is a good start. But Dave points out how the USFL football league in the 80s started off with huge numbers and by the end of the first season, business had plummeted, so the success of the XFL depends on Vince McMahon being able to sustain these strong numbers, which is easier said than done. But if he's able to do it and the XFL is successful, McMahon would have to go down in history as one of the great sports promoters of all time. That being said, there's some bad news. The audience declined constantly throughout the show, dropping 37% from the start of the game till the end. It basically means people were drawn in by the hype but not entertained enough to stick with it after it started, and that's a bad sign. Obviously, the ratings for next week will drop but how much is going to be what's important.
The overall response to the XFL debut, aside from ratings, has been very negative. There was a lot of criticism leading up to it due to the "sleazy" nature of the advertising, which in typical-WWF fashion was all about half naked cheerleaders and whatnot. But the debut itself was nothing all that extreme. It was basically just bland football with a different type of production value from the NFL and some rule changes. The halftime locker room footage was boring and Dave says if that continues, he won't be surprised to see them start scripting backstage stuff for that. They definitely focused on the cheerleaders more and Jerry Lawler was his usual pervy self, which might have bothered people who aren't familiar with his WWF routine, but otherwise, it was fine. The media crucified most of the announcing though and Dave agrees overall, across the 4 games, it was pretty bad, with only Jim Ross coming across as being qualified to call a live football game at this level.
Dave talks about the realities of the XFL. They hyped it up by saying these players are doing it for the love of the game, rather than big paychecks like the players in the NFL. The reality is that all of these players are here because it's a better job than whatever they were doing before, and many of them are hoping this will be a stepping stone to the NFL. Dave compares the XFL to ECW. Just like ECW used to trash talk the big two, the XFL has been talking shit about the boring, corporate NFL. Just like ECW, the XFL players are in most cases too small or not good enough to cut it in the big leagues. And in the long run, whatever stars the XFL does create, the NFL will poach them just like WWF and WCW have always taken ECW's best stars. Any successful production innovations the XFL comes up with will eventually end up in the NFL just like all of Paul Heyman's innovations in ECW led to the Attitude Era of WWF (Dave is pretty much dead-on with this description, because all of that is basically exactly what happened).
Speaking of looooooong articles, Stan Hansen retired at AJPW's Tokyo Dome show and Dave does an insanely long recap of Hansen's life and career. Hansen was hoping to have a retirement match at the show, but he's got a bad back injury and unfortunately won't be able to work, so it looks as though he has already had his final match (yup). Arguably the most popular foreign wrestler in Japanese history. Drafted into the NFL by Baltimore but never made the team, became a teacher, started wrestling in TX, traveled the territories, went to WWWF to work with Bruno Sammartino, accidentally broke Bruno's neck, which actually made Hansen's career. He had so much heat for breaking Bruno's neck that Vince Sr. was actually afraid for Hansen's safety and had to take precautions with him out in public in the northeast. When Bruno returned, they did huge business. Went to NJPW, drew big money with Inoki, only foreign wrestler in Japan to ever defeat Andre the Giant and only one to score a clean pin on Hulk Hogan in Japan also. Traveled back and forth and was a top star in both countries, and then jumped to AJPW, debuting in one of the most famous moments in Japanese wrestling history (Dave goes into detail of all the secrecy behind Hansen switching promotions and it's really cool, scandalous shit. Clandestine 3am meetings with Baba and whatnot). Formed a legendary tag team with Brody. Won the AWA title and then ended up vacating it under controversial circumstances (long story, google it), popped out Vader's eyeball in a match in 1990, multiple time champion in AJPW, brief run in WCW, and pretty much stayed loyal to AJPW and Baba for the remainder of his career. And that's it from me. But just in case you're curious, my little paragraph recap here is about 300 words. Dave's full recap of Hansen's career is nearly 5,700 words.
ECW, which is facing $7 million in debt, needs a miracle at this point to survive. At first, WWF had promised not to sign any of ECW's stars while Heyman was trying to sell the company or get a new TV deal. But then, as it looked like everyone was trying to flee the ship, they changed policy. WWF didn't want all the ECW talent going en masse to WCW because an ECW invasion angle in WCW could actually be a pretty decent draw if done right, so they decided to nip that in the bud. And despite promising to keep the signings secret, WWF isn't bothering with that anymore either. On WWF.com, they reported the signing of Justin Credible and also acknowledged they had verbal agreements with Jerry Lynn and Rhino. While not mentioned on the website, it's believed Tajiri is likely heading in as well. Dave says Credible and Lynn had no choice, they're both in tough financial straights right now because they haven't been paid by ECW in months and they had to sign somewhere ASAP in order to keep putting food on their tables. Super Crazy and Kid Kash seem to have some interest from WCW and may end up there (Kash does, for about a day). WWF may also bring in Spike Dudley since they can use him with the other Dudleyz. Beyond that, there doesn't seem to be much interest in anybody else from the roster from either side. As for Paul Heyman, he still has an offer to join the WWF as a writer, but hasn't accepted or declined it as of yet. Heyman is still in discussions, trying to make deals to save ECW, but time is running out and none of the deals are anywhere close to done. He's also trying to hold off creditors as long as he can before he ends up forced to declare bankruptcy. Several networks have offered to put ECW on the air, but none of them are willing to pay the estimated $115,000-per-week in television production costs that would be necessary to do it, and Heyman obviously doesn't have the money to do that either. Still no news on whether the March 11th PPV will happen. If they can get an influx of cash before then, Heyman might try to run a show and WWF has said they will allow any past or current ECW names they have under contract to work it. If the PPV happens, you can expect Rhino vs. RVD for the ECW title to headline.
For some reason, Monday night ratings were down significantly for both shows. The combined audience for Raw and Nitro was about 8 million, which is a staggeringly low number for non-football season. In fact, aside from last year's July 4th holiday, it was the lowest audience to watch wrestling on Monday nights since the boom period started several years ago. Raw still doubled Nitro's rating of course.
Since Kenta Kobashi is determined to return to wrestling (despite doctors telling him for years that he should retire), his latest doctor has suggested that at least he should try to lose some weight if he insists on wrestling. He's been told it would put less stress on his knees. He weighed 264 at the time of surgery and they want him down to 220.
An update from last week's story about Tammy Sytch being hospitalized: turns out she was in the hospital for 11 days with pancreatitis. Hey kidneys and liver were about to shut down and at one point, they were unsure if she would pull through. But she recovered and is out now (she wrote about this in her autobiography. Apparently she's had pancreas issues for years due to her drinking).
From the Where Are They Now? department: Del Wilkes, formerly the Patriot, is now a car salesman in Lexington, SC after being forced to retire a couple of years ago due to injury. He sold the Patriot gimmick to Tom Brandi who now uses it on the indies.
Lots of interesting notes about the Women of Wrestling promotion. Turns out they're a publicly traded company and during the 2 month period of September through November, they posted a loss of over $2.5 million dollars. That's 6-times more than Smoky Mountain Wrestling lost during its entire existence. That's more than ECW lost over the entire year of 2000. On the flip side, $2.5 million is about what WCW lost every 2 weeks last year. Speaking of Women of Wrestling, they held their PPV last week, in front of a big crowd that was almost entirely papered. They were actually busing in kids from local schools to come see the show for free. As for the show itself, a lot of people have been debating about whether it was worse than the Heroes of Wrestling PPV or not. Dave hasn't seen it so he can't say, but that's the word. Bobby Heenan and Lee Marshall did commentary. (Here's the PPV, split match-by-match in a playlist).
WATCH: Women of Wrestling: Unleashed PPV
Sandman is wanting to start running his own shows at the bar he owns in Philadelphia, which would hold about 500 people. Also, apparently Sandman owns a bar, which somehow isn't surprising.
Marc Mero is reportedly training for an in-ring return, which would likely mean WCW since WWF isn't going to be interested. Dave also says it was inevitable that Sable would show up in WCW when her non-compete expires so he figures she'll be there soon too (nah, but they do end up in that short-lived XWF promotion before the end of the year).
Apparently AAA head Antonio Pena inquired about buying ECW, but the two sides were far apart on money. Heyman was asking $5 million while Pena was looking to pay around $200,000 so needless to say, the conversation didn't go any further. Dave says Pena doesn't understand the costs of running a successful wrestling promotion in America, because the media landscape is totally different than in Mexico.
ECW's newest music album will be released next month regardless of whether ECW still exists or not (indeed it did. ECW: Anarchy Rocks. Most of the songs are on YouTube if you search for it).
Notes from Nitro: terrible show. Dave worries about the future prospects of WCW because whoever allowed this show to air clearly doesn't have a clue how to turn the company around. Ric Flair was beaten like a bitch and stripped to his underwear by Nash in a segment that was more pathetic than anything. Considering what's left of WCW's audience is older viewers and considering Flair is just about the only person that still gets a reaction from WCW fans, Dave thinks embarrassing him week after week probably isn't helping. Scott Steiner beat the Jung Dragons, Knoble, and Karagis in a 4-on-1 handicap match, with them booked to look like jobbers against him. "That'll teach those guys to have the best PPV match of the last year," Dave says. He says the first hour of this Nitro was actually worse than that infamous episode back in 1999 that didn't have any wrestling at all during the first hour. And it just got worse. By the second hour, Dave is openly wondering if someone is intentionally trying to kill WCW. And even worse, after this nightmare of a show was over, they still had to tape Thunder in front of that same crowd.
There might be a reason why Nitro sucked so much: Bischoff wasn't there. The difference was said to be night and day. Now that everyone knows Bischoff is the new boss, everyone busts their ass, stays on their toes, and works hard when he's there. But with him not around, no one backstage seemed to give a shit and everyone just went through the motions. There was also some question as to why he wasn't there, which people found weird since he's the guy who is allegedly in charge.
It's believed Hogan and Goldberg will be a key part of the angle leading to WCW's shutdown after the SuperBrawl PPV. That's assuming the shutdown happens. It's still being talked about, but in the meantime, business is still going as usual. Tickets for shows during that time are still being sold and the office has been buying everyone's plane tickets for the next few weeks. But as of now, a shutdown is still the plan. It's thought that Hogan will show up with the old belt (remember, Hogan technically won the title from Jarrett in the infamous Bash incident where Jarrett laid down for him) to challenge Steiner. It's possible they may go another route, with Hogan brought back by the "new owners" to be the on-screen CEO and feud with Flair.
WCW released 5 women: Tygress, Paisley, Major Gunns, Leia Meow, and Daffney. That leaves Ms. Jones, Stacy Keibler, and Midajah as the only 3 women under WCW contract. Dave says Stacy is obviously the most marketable of the 3 but they haven't had her on TV in ages and can't seem to come up with anything for her. Dave is kinda bummed that Paisley got cut because she has pretty good mic skills and seemed like she could have been something, but WCW just never really gave her much to work with (she did okay for herself later on as Queen Sharmell in WWE with her husband Booker T). Anyway, Paisley and Tygress plan to join other former Nitro Girls Chae, Spice, and Fye in a girl band called Diversity 5 (yup, they released some songs. Here you go, enjoy):
Goldberg was a guest on a radio show in Tulsa and they played a clip of a prank being pulled on him. The prankster claimed Goldberg had autographed his son's head and now the kid was suffering from hair loss. He began talking about a lawsuit, and Goldberg fell for the bait and lost his temper, calling it a bogus lawsuit and even saying he'd knock the guy's head off (Dave doesn't seem to have all the details and doesn't realize this is a prank from the one and only Roy D. Mercer).
Random WCW notes: DDP was on Mancow's radio show and denied having anything to do with Mark Madden being fired. DDP even claimed he misses Madden and thought he was a great announcer. In a TV commercial running in the Nashville market for WCW's upcoming SuperBrawl PPV, the voiceover actually says, "Expect a night of run-ins." Seems like even the WCW production people are just throwing in the towel along with everybody else. AJ Styles and Air Paris are expected to sign new 3-year contracts with WCW this week after they impressed with a great tryout match before Nitro a couple of weeks ago. Vampiro is the latest to have his pay cut in half because he's been out so long injured.
Killer Kowalski has responded to all the comments Chyna made about him in her book. In an interview, Kowalski, saying she's a habitual liar and that the way she claims she was hired by WWF was bullshit. Kowalski said he brokered the deal himself after telling Shane McMahon that WCW was interested in her. For what it's worth, Kowalski told that same story 3 years ago in an interview, so he's definitely not just making it up now that her book came out. He also said Chyna refused to speak to him at Owen Hart's funeral. He says he was deeply offended by what Chyna said about him in her book.
Notes from Jim Ross's weekly Ross Report column on WWF.com: he denied rumors that Triple H or Shawn Michaels had any influence on the hiring of Justin Credible. Said Mark Henry deserves another shot in WWF after all the weight he's lost. Feels like Leviathan has unlimited potential but needs more time in OVW before he's ready. Called Shelton Benjamin and Brock Lesnar "can't miss prospects" and talked about Lesnar doing a shooting star press. Ross talked about possibly writing his own autobiography about his 25 years in the business (took him another decade or so but he finally did). Talked about wanting Paul Heyman to join the company on the writing team. Mentioned that Chyna's Playboy has sold 1.3 million copies, which is more than Sable's did. He also acknowledged that Triple H and Chyna have broken up (they eventually get back together but then split up again when all the Stephanie stuff happens, but we'll get there).
Other various WWF notes: the $18 million Owen Hart lawsuit settlement was reported as being the largest out-of-court settlement of its kind in over 4 years in the United States. Kurt Angle's brother Eric started training at OVW this week. Former WCW wrestlers Kid Romeo and valet Paisley were backstage at the latest WWF tapings, looking for work, and Romeo put over Essa Rios in a dark match.
OVW drew its largest crowd in history (around 5,000) at a show in Louisville that was helped by Austin, Kane, Hardyz, Lita, and Benoit all appearing and/or wrestling. Austin delivered a few stunners, and a bunch of other matches with WWF vs. OVW stars (Here's one match, couldn't find any more).
WATCH: Randy Orton vs. Robbie D - OVW 2001
Mick Foley spoke at Indiana University and spent much of the time trashing the PTC and refuting some of their points. Foley also hinted that he may have one match left in him and that if he does, it would be against Vince McMahon, which has long been the rumor for Wrestlemania.