April 30, 2001
- Top story this week is the death of Johnny Valentine, who died at age 72 after months of health problems. Dave gives him the full obituary treatment, starting with the 1975 plane crash that ended his career. It's the same plane crash Ric Flair was in and interestingly enough, Valentine and Flair had switched seats in the plane just before it crashed. The seat Valentine ended up in led to him being far more seriously injured and of course, one can only speculate how the entire course of wrestling history over the last 25 years might have been different if he and Flair hadn't swapped seats. Anyway, Valentine broke his back in 3 places and never walked again after the crash, forced to retire while he was one of the top stars in the business. Prior to that, he had been a big star in the territories since the 1950s, with famous rivalries against Buddy Rogers, Lou Thesz, Gene Kiniski and all the other big names of the era. In particular, Valentine is widely credited with putting the Carolinas on the map, and of course, Ric Flair later built upon what Valentine had created. Anyway, Dave expects to have a more lengthy obituary next week, he just ran out of time this week.
- A projected earnings report for the WWF has come out and it's been greatly revised since last time, due to the staggering losses from the XFL. Previously, WWF had estimated they would lose $38 million on the league in the first year, but they have revised that number to $38 million just for the most recent quarter. For the fiscal year, they're on pace to lose around $60 million. Once you start looking at the numbers from last fiscal year, overall, the XFL looks to have cost the WWF anywhere from $60 million to $121 million, though the final total depends on how much of that NBC is going to eat. The current quarter is the first time WWF has lost money in a quarter since 1997. Even with Wrestlemania 17, the biggest money making event in wrestling history, they couldn't turn a profit this quarter because the XFL losses were just that massive. Needless to say, the XFL has been a monumental flop and if they decide to do a 2nd season, it's sure to be even worse. NBC has made it clear they don't intend to do a 2nd season so if the league continues, it will be 100% WWF-owned and funded, which would surely mean even bigger losses entirely paid out of WWF's pockets. A number of advertisers have already said they don't intend to sponsor a 2nd season either. Dave says the only way this can realistically work for another season would be for the XFL to sell off the teams to local owners rather than owning them all themselves and eating all the losses from low ticket sales and things like that. But even then, it's going to be near impossible for the league to stay afloat financially and good luck finding anyone who wants to buy an XFL team with the shape this league is in.
- Speaking of the XFL, Vince McMahon did a Los Angeles Times interview and completely changed his tune on Jesse Ventura after spending the last few weeks openly shit-talking him. "I think Jesse was unfairly criticized by a lot of people, myself included. He made a lot of contributions and was very supportive of the league, in spite of the media jumping down his throat." Ventura responded in a CNBC interview, praising the XFL and McMahon and blaming the media for the league's failures. McMahon also said that next season (lol) the games will only be played on Sunday afternoons since that's when football fans are used to watching. He said he expects TNN and UPN to air the games. UPN's contract with the XFL expires at the end of this season and the games were massive flops on UPN also, but Dave thinks they might be willing to air a 2nd season anyway, as a concession to WWF, since Smackdown is still by far UPN's highest rated show and arguably the only thing keeping the network afloat. The Wall Street Journal ran a cover story on the XFL, calling it "one of the biggest flops in television history." The story said that before the 1st season even started, most of the people at NBC Sports were against it, largely due to McMahon's reputation, and they were especially embarrassed when McMahon started attacking the NFL in the initial pre-season hype. Eventually, an executive for Anheuser-Busch stepped in and told NBC to stop letting Vince criticize the NFL because it's not good to make enemies with them. At that point, NBC stepped in and put a muzzle on Vince regarding that. All in all, the general consensus is that Vince McMahon and Dick Ebersal made a huge miscalculation in assuming that they could market unscripted professional football to a young demographic of wrestling fans, and unless McMahon just really enjoys setting big piles of money on fire, a 2nd season is highly unlikely.
- The pollster folks at Gallup did a big poll that showed, out of 11 sports, pro wrestling ranked dead last in popularity. Dave thinks it's a pretty bad time for the industry and this is the sort of thing advertisers look at when deciding where to spend their money. Now, to be fair, the survey only polled adults. It's well known that wrestling is far more popular among kids and teens, which weren't polled. The survey also found pro wrestling fans were less likely to have graduated college than fans of any of the other sports, which also doesn't help wrestling fan's image as uneducated poor people but of course, Dave points out again that most wrestling fans are more likely to still be in college rather than have graduated it. The order of the list, if you're curious: NFL football, MLB baseball, college football, figure skating, college basketball, NBA basketball, NASCAR, golf, hockey, tennis, and wrestling. Of course, the flip side is that, aside from NFL football, WWF does higher ratings than all of the above. But because of surveys like this, they make far less advertising revenue than those other sports.
- There were lots of other interesting notes from the survey. Wrestling fans are more likely to be black than any other sport except for NBA basketball. The overwhelming number of people who actually liked wrestling in this survey were under 30, which is younger than all the other sports. Wrestling did horrible among people over 50. All of this explains why relying on the past rather than building for the future is a bad idea: most wrestling fans are too young to give a shit about stars from 20 years ago. Wrestling fans are more likely to live in urban areas (meanwhile, NASCAR fans are concentrated in more rural areas, which completely destroys the theory that wrestling fans and NASCAR fans are all the same uneducated rednecks). The strongest concentration of wrestling fans is on the east and weakest in the midwest, while south and west were average. TL;DR - we're all dumb yokels and nobody else likes this thing we all love.
- WWF has once again postponed their planned WCW relaunch. All the previously scheduled events and TV tapings that Dave talked about last week have been cancelled. On the WWF website, in his latest Ross Report column, Jim Ross said the plan now is to launch in June or July. The hope is that if the new WCW does good, TNN will give them a better time slot (right now it's scheduled to air at 11pm-to-1am on Saturday nights) but TNN doesn't want to become pigeonholed as "the wrestling network" so they're hesitant to put another wrestling show on in a prime time slot. But right now, the lack of a strong roster (they have several great undercard WCW guys signed, but not a single marketable headliner) and the shitty time slot have caused WWF to postpone all this. They only get one chance to relaunch WCW and build it up as a new brand and they want to do it right and not rush things. WWF has had talks with some of the top WCW stars about buying out their existing Time Warner contracts for .50 cents on the dollar but as of now, no one has accepted it.
- Shinya Hashimoto's Zero-1 promotion held its 2nd show and it did okay, only because they managed to get Misawa to come in and work the show at the last minute, which helped move thousands of last-second tickets and they ended up putting more than 10,000 people into Budokan Hall. It was Misawa's first match back in that arena since he left AJPW last year. But without Misawa saving it, the show was shaping up to be a disaster and the future of the promotion is definitely questionable. Misawa his own promotion (NOAH) to worry about and isn't going to be around to help Zero-1 draw crowds every time.
- A weird thing happened in Memphis this week. Over the decades of Memphis wrestling, while it was popular on TV, it never got big local coverage in the media. But now that Power Pro Wrestling is dead and the TV station has decided to only air old clip shows for the next few months....they suddenly got a ton of coverage. This week's show, called "Opening the Vault of Classic Memphis Wrestling" was a highlight show hosted by Jerry Lawler, Jimmy Hart, Dave Brown, and Cory Maclin. And it got a ton of coverage, including a front page story in the leading Memphis newspaper. They played old footage of Memphis wrestling, brought in old stars from the 80s reprising their gimmicks and doing interviews, and things like that. And it did a pretty huge TV rating too. But it's unlikely they'll do big numbers like this every week. The TV station is committed to airing these shows until the end of June, since that's how much time was left on the PPW deal.
- Anyway, Dave breaks down the exact financials of why Power Pro Wrestling is dead, explaining how much the TV network used to pay for the show and why they cancelled (TL;DR - they were ordered by OSHA to make expensive studio upgrades and pay a $100,000 insurance premium for the wrestlers and the TV station didn't want to do that. So they decided they didn't want to own a wrestling company anymore). He also mentions that there was a really stupid lawsuit pending. A year or so ago, Brian Christopher cut a promo on Doug Gilbert and claimed that Gilbert's dad was actually the local milkman. Well, Gilbert's mother, in real-life, didn't find that very amusing and filed a lawsuit against PPW over it and that was another thing the TV network didn't like and they wanted it to just go away. There's a whole lot more here about the financial situation of PPW and why the TV station decided to pull the plug but long story short, they're done.
- The NJPW section this week reads like the MMA section. Yuji Nagata is booked against a shoot fighter in a worked match at the upcoming Osaka Dome show. IWGP champion Kazuyuji Fujita will be missing the dome show because he's working the PRIDE show later that month. Mark Coleman was in talks to work with Nagata eventually. So on and so forth. Early-00's era Inoki influence on NJPW is in full effect now.
- Atsushi Onita announced that he will be starting his own new promotion later this year, but it doesn't have a name yet. The idea is that it will be an ECW-style hardcore company with Masato Tanaka as the top star (doesn't look like this ever happened).
- Stu Hart is still in bad health. He's got an oxygen tank and had some heart issues, fluid on the lungs, diabetes, and more recently. It's thought he may need a pacemaker and worst-case scenario, possibly even a heart transplant. Dave says it's a bad time because May is a hard month for the family due to the Owen anniversary.
- Remember that matrats.com thing that is being aired on the internet and featuring a few of the Stampede wrestling kids performing for audiences of girls? It's intended to be be like Backstreet Boys or N'Sync meets wrestling basically. Anyway.....Eric Bischoff has been named Executive Vice President of Development for the organization. His business partner Jason Hervey is involved also. Bischoff's role will be to help raise capital and put together business deals for the group. He'll also be the company spokesperson and will have creative input into all facets of the company. Basically, Bischoff is taking the whole thing over and there's plans to try to film some episodes and shop it around to TV networks. Dave talks about how the biggest long-term story in wrestling isn't the deaths of WCW and ECW. It's about how the economics of television have changed (the way revenue from ad sales has changed, syndication changes, etc). ECW and WCW both could have survived if other TV networks had wanted them. But wrestling isn't at the peak it was 2 years ago and television networks don't want wrestling anymore. The changing television business is the reason nobody threw a lifeline to WCW or ECW and it's the reason that it's going to be near impossible for any other company to get enough of a TV presence to challenge WWF in the near future (yup. TNA was the only company to even come close until AEW finally got a major TV deal, 18 years later).
- Hey, since we're on the topic, Jerry Jarrett and J.J. Dillon have also had discussions about starting up a new promotion. Dave talks more about the economics. To put together a competitive wrestling show that can compare to Raw or Smackdown, you're talking $500,000 per week in production costs, plus paying the talent, travel, etc. Recouping that money will depend on advertisers and gate money, unless they pull in Raw-like ratings, and that isn't happening either. Money wise, trying to start another nationally competing promotion is a tall mountain to climb (or hey, maybe they could just skip TV altogether and start trying to run weekly PPVs....)
- Speaking of Bischoff, here's some more what-could-have-been news: if the WCW deal had gone through, Rob Van Dam and Don Callis were expected to come in and now Dave has learned that Joey Styles was also being talked to about coming in as the new announcer. But of course, it all fell through.
- Former WCW wrestler Crowbar was on the Observer show and said that if he doesn't get hired by WWF, he will concentrate full-time on his other career as a physical therapist but would still work indies on the weekends (that's pretty much what happens. WWF doesn't hire him but he spent years working occasional indie shows and showed up in TNA a few times. But outside of that, he and his wife own a health care facility and he indeed works as a physical therapist to this day. Obviously, I would love for everyone who gets involved in wrestling to be hugely successful famous millionaires. But I'm also happy to see when someone is able to escape the business with their health intact and still go on to live normal, productive lives. Because so many wrestlers don't. Respect to Crowbar).
- CZW is attempting to put together a tournament with the best junior heavyweights in the world (this ends up being the annual Best of the Best tournament). Speaking of CZW, Dave saw video of that death match he talked about last week that was supposed to be the sickest thing ever and....yeah, he agrees. And he doesn't like it. Much like the Mass Transit tape, this video has already become an underground legend, which just inspires more people to do it. Dave thinks cutting yourself to shreds and destroying your body so you can get a pop from a few hundred fans in a warehouse somewhere isn't the best idea. He talks about how doing dives off balconies was the biggest thing ever a couple of years ago. Now it happens at every single indie show and no one cares, so they have to keep raising the bar to get a reaction. Dave thinks this sort of stuff gives wrestling a bad reputation and isn't helpful at a time when the industry in a whole is already in a decline.
- Speaking of the decline of wrestling, Bryan Alvarez used to write a weekly wrestling column in Penthouse magazine but they cancelled it due to declining popularity.
- Lex Luger did a radio interview in Atlanta and talked about his current situation. Said he has 1 year left on his WCW deal and since WWF doesn't want to buy him out, he's going to sit out for a year and think about his future plans after that. He said he thinks another network will start a wrestling company soon and seemed confident that he'll end up somewhere. For all the reasons explained already, Dave isn't so confident about that. Luger also talked about steroids and wouldn't confirm or deny his own use of it (lol) but said kids definitely shouldn't be doing it.
- XPW had a big show and brought in New Jack from ECW and Major Gunns from WCW, both of whom got big pops. Word is they're interested in bringing in Vampiro and ICP next month (yeah they eventually show up).
- For the first time ever, a wrestler signed to a WWF contract competed in and placed in the U.S. amateur wrestling championships. That wrestler? Brian Keck, and nope, you've probably never heard of him. He's signed to a developmental deal and wrestles in OVW, but he's not exactly a star there or anything. Anyway, he placed 3rd in the Greco-roman championships and 8th in the freestyle competition.
- TNN bought the cable rights to air re-runs of FOX's "Mad TV" show. TNN execs said they had research showing WWF fans like sketch comedy shows and the plan is to aggressively cross-promote the Mad TV reruns with the WWF. Dave says the XFL proved that wrestling fans are a fickle bunch who are really passionate about wrestling but that passion doesn't necessarily transfer to other things that are pushed onto them.
- The unnamed "local talent" who appeared on Smackdown were OVW wrestlers Nick Dinsmore and Doug Basham. The jobbers who appeared on Smackdown were CZW wrestlers Trent Acid and Johnny Kashmere.
- The Memphis Championship Wrestling show this week had a Benoit vs. Angle match along with appearances from Crash and Molly Holly and William Regal. The Holly's went against Steve Bradley and Victoria while Regal lost to American Dragon. Former ECW stars (and real life couple) Simon Diamond and Dawn Marie also debuted in MCW and Low-Ki is expected to debut next week.
- WATCH: Chris Benoit vs. Kurt Angle - MCW, 2001
- WATCH: all that other stuff from the MCW taping, including the Regal/AmDragon match
- WWF is spending $7.5 million to rebuild the famous arch and marquee of the Paramount Theater in Times Square, which conveniently leads directly into the WWF New York restaurant. The arch was removed back in the 70s when the building was turned into office space, but since it's been revitalized, WWF is bringing it back (yup, it's even on the Wikipedia page for the Paramount Theater. WWE paid to recreate it, including the old Paramount logo and everything. Here's a bunch of pics, back when it was still a WWF restaurant).
- The FCC has voted to allow companies to own more than 1 over-the-air TV network. This is important because Viacom owns both CBS and UPN and there was thought that the ruling might force Viacom to get rid of UPN, which would almost certainly be the end of that network (and would take Smackdown with it). But that won't be a problem now thanks to the FCC ruling.
- C. Delores Tucker of the PTC board wrote a letter to Nickelodeon, criticizing them for inviting Chyna to present an award at the Kid's Choice Awards. The basic gist of the letter is "Chyna is a dirty WWF slut who posed for Playboy, so how dare she be allowed anywhere near kids?" Because that's the kinda shit you get from these PTC idiots.
- Update on the Nicole Bass lawsuit against WWF and Steve Lombardi (aka Brooklyn Brawler): in the lawsuit, Bass alleges that she was repeatedly harassed and accosted by WWF employees while undressed in her locker room and specifically named Big Show, Billy Gunn, Earl Hebner, and agent Tony Guerra as the culprits of that. She claimed Shawn Michaels called her "mister" and held a microphone by his crotch and stood behind her with it pretending like he was fucking her. The lawsuit claims Vince Russo saw it and apologized and promised her nothing like that would ever happen again, but she says Michaels was never punished and nothing was ever done to make sure it wouldn't happen again. Less than a week later, on a flight to England for the No Mercy PPV, Bass claims Steve Lombardi made repeated sexual advances towards her and kept asking to touch her breasts. She refused and then he did it anyway. When she threatened to report him to WWF officials, she says Lombardi threatened her with a "receipt" (aka, payback) if she did. She also said Lombardi threatened to physically harm her if she reported it and says the WWF was well aware of Lombardi's "longstanding reputation for sexual harassment and abusive conduct." In other parts of the lawsuit, she claims she was hit over the head with a non-gimmicked guitar at the 1999 Over The Edge PPV and wasn't provided with medical attention afterward (Dave points out that this was literally only 20 minutes after Owen Hart had fallen to his death and everyone in the locker room was a little preoccupied at that moment). Bass said she later learned that the guitar was intentionally not gimmicked because they wanted to test how tough she was. Bass also claimed discrimination about not being paid as much as the male wrestlers.
- WWF responded to the lawsuit, attempting to get it dismissed. They didn't dispute what happened between her and Lombardi but claimed that her rejecting his advances had nothing to do with her later being fired. They claimed that "the harassment would have to have been more than one isolated incident but a series of incidents done by a supervisor of someone with authority over the individual, claiming Lombardi didn't hold such a role." Wow, that...doesn't sound very good. WWF also argued that many of the alleged incidents took place outside of New York (where the lawsuit was filed) and tried to get it dismissed on those grounds also, but that didn't work. Lombardi argued that the statute of limitations on assault and battery are 1 year and had expired (yikes). Anyway, the court ultimately threw out the negligence (guitar incident), equal pay, and battery (Lombardi incident) claims. Turns out Lombardi was right, the statute of limitations on that one had indeed expired. The rest of her lawsuit against the company is still moving forward.
- The metal band Slayer is producing a new entrance song for Test. They were given a choice by WWF to do a song for either Test or Kurt Angle and felt like they simply couldn't do one to fit Angle, so they chose Test (holy shit, can you imagine Kurt Angle coming out to Slayer? Anyway, don't think this ever panned out for Test either. Far as I can tell, Slayer never did any WWE themes).
- Random WWF notes: Canadian wrestler Johnny Devine will work dark matches for WWF's upcoming Calgary and Edmonton shows (he later became a regular in TNA for several years). Developmental wrestler Victoria is doing a gimmick in Memphis where she's the commissioner of that promotion, appointed by William Regal. In the XFL championship game, the first touchdown was scored by Josh Wilcox, who has a lot of wrestling history himself. He's wrestled some indie shows before, briefly had a WWF developmental deal, and also worked some matches with ECW. In between all that, he played a couple of seasons in the NFL for the New Orleans Saints before joining the XFL.
- Terry Taylor was turned down for a front office job in the new WCW. Looks like Vince hasn't forgotten that Taylor left on somewhat bad terms last year (he ends up back in WWF again in 2002). Meanwhile, Johnny Ace had signed a multi-year employee contract with WCW just before the company folded. The terms of the contract are different than the wrestlers because it allows Ace to get paid by Time Warner, but he's also still allowed to work elsewhere if he wants. Basically, this is the best case scenario for him. He can go work for WWF, and Time Warner still has to honor his original WCW contract. So if WWF ends up hiring him, he's going to be collecting 2 paychecks for the next few years. Meanwhile, all the other "independent contractors" still can't work anywhere else without breaching their Time Warner deals.