June 04, 2001
- WATCH: Kazuyuki Fujita vs. Yoshihiro Takayama - PRIDE 2001
- Oh god, here we go. The complicated and messy relationship between the WWF and the Hart family got even uglier this week. For the first time ever, Raw was airing live from Calgary and they really leaned into the Bret Hart connection. Throughout the show, they teased that something would be happening with Bret and Vince McMahon and made numerous references to Bret. Furthermore, several members of the Hart family were at ringside, including Stu, which surprised many. But he's 86-years-old, in poor health, and is pretty much just being used as a pawn by family members at this point. Word is that Stu barely seemed to even know where he was. From what Dave has been told, Stu attended the show because his wife Helen thought it might help their son Bruce get a job or make a business deal with WWF. In the past, Bruce has repeatedly tried to get WWF to help him run an Owen tribute show, but other members of the family (particularly Martha) have publicly fought against it. Bruce met with Vince before Raw and apparently tried to pitch him on using Stampede as a developmental promotion, while Diana is hoping to get WWF to help promote her new book she recently wrote. Bret Hart, of course, was not there and was never supposed to be, despite how hard WWF hinted at it. Dave talks about how Davey Boy Smith and Jim Neidhart and their wives Diana and Ellie were always on the WWF's side. Owen's widow Martha is pretty much estranged from the entire Hart family after Ellie tried to sabotage her lawsuit against WWF (by taking a legal document she found at Stu's house and secretly sending it to WWF lawyers, which ultimately forced Martha's hand and led her to accept an out-of-court settlement rather than take the issue to trial like she wanted. The out-of-court settlement still ended up being the largest of its kind in the entire United States that year, but if not for the settlement, Martha stood to gain significantly more in a trial if it had gone her way). And of course, Bret hates the WWF.
- So with all the Hart drama happening, we had Raw in Calgary and it was....something. In the Austin vs. Benoit main event, Vince was at ringside and they did a complete remake of the Montreal Screwjob, with Vince ordering them to ring the bell while Benoit was in his own submission hold. Right in front of Bret's family, in his hometown. Although, as Dave mentioned, aside from Stu, Bret Hart doesn't get along with any of the other family members who were at Raw, so they probably weren't offended by it. In fact, just 2 days before this Raw, Ellie left a message on Bret's answering machine, screaming at him to get over the whole Montreal thing and saying, "I hope you die." Martha Hart later told a reporter that she thought it was disgusting and disrespectful that the family would be there. Bret has made no public comment about it, but word is he was pretty unhappy about Stu being there. He had no problem with any of them meeting with Vince and trying to bury the hatchet with him, but thought it was a slap in the face for them to appear on WWF TV. Other siblings (the ones who also hate WWF) haven't commented publicly either, but the word is they're all pretty upset about the situation.
- Speaking of, WWF Canada exec Carl DeMarco has tried repeatedly to get Bret to attend a WWF show and meet with Vince to try to work everything out and come back to the company, but Bret has repeatedly shot down the offers. Bret has said that he would be open to the possibility of meeting with Vince privately and trying to bury their differences and discuss some outstanding issues (if I recall, I think Bret was really trying to get ownership of some likeness stuff that WWF owned or something like that). But after this most recent Raw, with Vince once again mocking the Screwjob, Bret has reportedly cooled on the idea. For what it's worth, after Raw, Benoit and Bret Hart did go out to dinner together, and Benoit apologized to him about the match, saying he was pretty much forced to do the Screwjob angle that night, and Bret was understanding about it and didn't blame him.
- Another bad news marketing study on professional wrestling. A Gallup poll was done ranking the popularity of 11 different sports and wrestling was among them. And of course, wrestling ranked dead last among adults. Worse still, wrestling fans skewed the lowest when it comes to both income and education level than fans of any other sport. These kinds of reports are what keeps advertisers from spending money on wrestling, despite its huge popularity. Dave also recaps 2 or 3 other independent studies that said basically the same thing. In response, the WWF commissioned their own study and you probably won't be surprised to hear that WWF's results were the total opposite, and as it turns out, wrestling fans are all rich geniuses who would love to buy anything advertised to them. But sponsors aren't taking WWF's word for it, they're paying attention to the other independent analysis, and that analysis pretty much tells advertisers that wrestling fans are dumb, poor, trailer trash, which is a stereotype the business has been fighting against for decades. But that's how advertisers see wrestling fans and WWF is going to have to keep fighting that battle.
- There was a magazine article in Canada talking about wrestling that came out and Dave says it's so bad and incorrect that it just has to be seen to be believed. So let's see this article, shall we?
- "There will be a new champion crowned at this year's King of the Ring. The eight-man elimination tournament is one of the World Wrestling Federation's most popular pay-per-view shows. Last year, The Rock slammed his way to the title with three convincing wins but you can expect such WWF stalwarts as Stone Cold Steve Austin, Triple H, and The Undertaker to play the prominent roles in this year's show, June 24, at East Rutherford, NJ. The Rock? He's a victim of his own popularity. The official word from WWF headquarters in Stamford, CT, is that The Rock, whose real name is Chris Jericho, has been suspended. The WWF, which surpasses the best soap operas for creating outrageous situations and larger-than-life heroes and cads, has pitted The Rock against WWF boss man Vince McMahon. As we all know, the boss isn't always right but he's always the boss.
- But the real reason for The Rock's vacation is that he's taking care of business. Jericho considers himself an entertainer and he has branched out in recent years. His credits include an autobiography that appeared on the New York Times best-seller list and a CD that was less successful. He has also made his mark in Hollywood with a feature role in The Mummy 2, which is expected to be a box-office hit this summer.
- Jericho declined an invitation to defend his King of the Ring title because he's being paid $45 million (U.S.) for another regal role as The Scorpion King in the film of the same name. The Rock did stick around long enough to take Break Down The Walls for the WWF fanatic series, available on pay-per-view to Bell Express Vu subscribers."
- Remember the news stories last week about Vampiro working some shows in Mexico and being all unprofessional and shit? Vampiro denies it and says the story is embellished because the reporter who wrote it has had heat with Vampiro in the past (considering Vampiro pretty much got blackballed from Toryumon for the next few years by Ultimo Dragon, I tend to believe the reporter).
- Dave talks about how MMA promotion RINGS appears to be in bad shape, with top star Kiyoshi Tamura reportedly leaving (yeah, Tamura goes to PRIDE and that was pretty much the end of them. RINGS limped along for a few more months before folding in early 2002. They've tried to revive it a couple of times since but it never clicked).
- Brian James, formerly known as Road Dogg in WWF, was arrested last week at an indie show. It started with Road Dogg signing autographs in the ring during intermission for a show and his line was long. The promoter asked him to finish up signing in 10 minutes because the intermission was running long. Road Dogg got on the mic and responded to the promoter in, well, vulgar fashion and refused to stop signing. Eventually he was talked into leaving the ring and he agreed to continue signing autographs in another part of the building. But for some reason, that still caused them to delay the show and he was asked again to wrap it up. Road Dogg was belligerent and angry and was asked to leave by police and I guess he got too rowdy and they ended up arresting him for misdemeanor disorderly conduct. He paid a fine and was only held for an hour or so, but it prevented the main event (Road Dogg vs. Barbarian) from taking place, which the fans weren't thrilled about.
- Roddy Piper worked an indie show last week, and it's the first time he's wrestled since his last WCW match. Anyway, Piper injured his wrist in the match.
- Tully Blanchard got totally screwed over in a celebrity golf tournament. The sponsor had promised a $23,000 Volkswagen Passat to anyone who could hit a hole-in-one on the 15th hole. Blanchard, on his first swing of the day, walked out there to the 15th hole........and hit a hole-in-one. However, they later discovered that they had somehow "mistakenly" marked the distance wrong from the starting point or something. I dunno, I don't know golf. Blanchard's hole-in-one was 141 yards and apparently it was supposed to be from the 175 yard marker or some such bullshit. Anyway, point being, the sponsor ruled that it didn't count and Blanchard was not given his Volkswagen Passat, which as you can imagine, led to some controversy (sounds to me like they never expected anyone to hit a hole-in-one and when it happened, they had to make up some bullshit to get out of giving away a $23,000 car. Anyway, here's an article about it from 2001, featuring quotes from Blanchard).
- The PTC attempted to get the WWF's lawsuit against them thrown out, but a judge denied the motion. PTC tried to argue a bunch of First Amendment stuff as to why they should be allowed to say all the negative things about WWF as a public company. The judge basically said, "Hey dicks, just because they're a public company doesn't mean you can just make up lies about them." The court seemed particularly unhappy with the PTC's repeated attempts to tie the deaths of 4 children to the WWF. So anyway, big defeat for the PTC and the lawsuit will continue to move forward (unfortunately, this story doesn't come to an end until 2002 so we won't get to cover it, but WWF will get sweet delicious revenge. The PTC ultimately loses the case and are forced to pay the WWF $3.5 million in damages and issue a public apology and retract all their previous statements. WWF absolutely wiped the fucking floor with these guys).
- Grandmaster Sexay has been fired by WWF. When the crew was traveling to Calgary for last week's TV tapings, Sexay was stopped at the border and caught with illegal drugs. WWF lawyers got involved and he was ultimately allowed into the country, but as soon as he got to the arena for Raw, they fired him (Dave doesn't give details, but it was meth and cocaine, if you're curious. We get more on this in the coming weeks).
- When running down the plans for the upcoming King of the Ring PPV, Dave notes that Kurt Angle will be facing Shane McMahon and apparently, Al Snow is helping to train Shane for the match (I wonder if Al Snow taught him how to do that whole land-on-your-head-on-concrete spot).
- Notes from Raw: it was Calgary so Vince was hated while Benoit and Jericho were cheered like megastars. The WCW angle finally kicked off, with Lance Storm becoming the first WCW wrestler to debut in WWF, running in and causing Saturn to lose a match, which also got a huge pop (later in the issue, Dave notes that this wasn't part of a long-term plan and, in fact, the idea to have Lance Storm do a run-in was something they came up with earlier that same day just before the show). They also started an angle with Undertaker's wife where someone was spying on her with a camera through a window (Dave calls it "the Black Scorpion angle"). Dave says the original idea behind this angle was for Steve Austin (and Debra) to be behind it, which would lead to an Austin vs. Undertaker match at King of the Ring. But Undertaker missed TV this week because his mother is having a serious surgery done, so the plan has changed. Now it's expected that Undertaker will stay off TV for a few weeks while this peeping tom angle plays out and then face whoever the mystery man is at King of the Ring. They showed footage of Triple H having surgery. In the video package, the doctor said he expected Triple H to be back in about 4 months, but others are saying that the injury was way worse than the video leads fans to believe. It's thought that it could be as late as November before he's back (ends up being even longer than that). Benoit vs. Austin was a hell of a match up until the rehashed Screwjob ending. After the show was over and the cameras were off, Benoit and Jericho went to Stu Hart and raised his hand. Jericho cut a promo saying that the crowd that night was the best he's ever performed in front of, and also talked about Owen Hart (who was never mentioned during the actual broadcast).
- WATCH: Lance Storm kicks off the Invasion
- WATCH: Sara Undertaker stalking vignette #1
- Notes from Smackdown: Dave says it was one of the best episodes of the show ever and the TLC main event was the most spectacular match in Smackdown history. Benoit/Jericho vs. Hardys vs. Edge/Christian vs. Dudleyz in a TLC match was the main event and Dave gives it 4.75 stars. He gives WWF a ton of credit for giving these guys the ball and gives the wrestlers props for running with it the way they have. Basically the kind of stuff WCW should have been doing 2 or 3 years earlier, creating stars by giving them a main event platform to shine.
- WATCH: Benoit/Jericho vs. Hardyz vs. Dudleyz vs. Edge/Christian - TLC Match, Smackdown 2001
- Various WWF notes: David Flair is expected to sign a developmental contract and go to OVW. Nathan Jones and Jon Heidenreich from UPW are also signed and headed to OVW soon. Tommy Dreamer is also expected to be signed to a WWF deal soon. Rikishi is getting shoulder surgery. Christian got married (he's still married to her to this day) and so both he and Edge missed Raw (because Edge was at the wedding).
- It's believed that both DDP and Booker T are willing to take buy-outs on their WCW contracts and are ready to go to WWF whenever WWF is ready for them. DDP is actually still owed a large sum on his WCW deal and is mostly willing to take a buy-out only if he is featured in a key role in WWF rather than starting off on the relaunched WCW show. WWF has also been negotiating with Torrie Wilson to come in.
- As part of the buyout, WWF now owns the rights to 127 original songs that were owned by WCW (theme music, PPV themes, other random tunes Jimmy Hart produced for them, etc.). In fact, Jimmy Hart is helping with all of that now, cataloging old WCW music and whatnot.
- Paul Heyman has been cast in a role in the upcoming movie Rollerball, where he plays an announcer (there's been a lot of rumors about this over the years, with people accusing Heyman of flying to L.A. and filming his scenes for this movie when he was supposed to be there negotiating a deal to keep ECW alive. Heyman has had to set the record straight on it before. He didn't film his scenes for the movie until after ECW had already filed for bankruptcy).
- There's a ton of letters this week, and they're all pretty much the same. Half of them are praising Mick Foley's new book, writing their own reviews, things like that. The other half is people who think WWF is already bungling the WCW angle and predict that the wrestling boom is over and it's all downhill from here. They weren't wrong.