July 02, 2001
- Starting in a few weeks ("unless plans change, and they do on a daily basis"), WWF Raw will be renamed WCW Raw. McMahon officially gave TNN the word last week that they would be changing the name of the show. Negotiations for WCW to get its own separate show on TNN on Saturday nights have pretty much fallen through and Vince was never a fan of the idea anyway, since a late-night Saturday time slot immediately establishes WCW as the lesser brand. McMahon believes that for the angle to work, WCW has to be promoted as equal to WWF and has to be able to generate its own revenue streams equally to WWF. Re-purposing Raw into the WCW show immediately puts it at that level and as a bonus, it means WWF doesn't have to come up with another $350,000 a week to produce another weekly TV show. The gimmick will be that with Shane taking over Raw, Vince McMahon will have "lost" the Monday Night War. WWF will then use Smackdown as its primary show (Dave notes that Smackdown actually draws more viewers than Raw. On paper it doesn't look that way because the Raw ratings are higher, but network ratings and cable ratings are different things and in terms of the number of actual viewers watching the show, Smackdown draws slightly more than Raw). A long-term goal of this change is for Smackdown to become live every week, although that won't happen immediately.
- Needless to say, this has been something of a controversial decision. There have already been a lot of complaints from fans who have bought Raw tickets for August and September shows, who were under the belief that they would be seeing Austin and Rock and now they may end up seeing Booker T and DDP instead. There will be talent jumps from both sides, especially a lot of WWF guys going to WCW since they need the star power. One side will probably have Austin and the other will likely have Rock. One will have the Hardyz, one will have the Dudleyz. Things like that. Dave says this isn't so much a WCW-revival as it is an attempt to create 2 WWFs, so don't expect the new show to necessarily have the same "spirit" as WCW even if it has the same name (in other words, this is basically the original ideas for the brand split that we still have today). Dave thinks it's a risky move. If the WWF vs. WCW angle lights the world on fire, then awesome. But if it doesn't, splitting the rosters is likely just going to cause ratings and ticket sales and PPV buyrates for both shows to drop even faster than they already are. But Dave has to admit, Vince is nothing if not ballsy and this is a risky move.
- Of course, the ultimate goal is for WCW Raw to becomes its own sustainable, touring brand with its own PPVs and all that. But a lot of this is going to depend on how the first WCW Raw shows work out, whether ticket sales are strong, how the ratings are, etc. And from there, keep the 2 brands separate until they eventually come together for the big money "inter-promotional" matches. There's also concern over how this will basically double the workload of the office, production, and creative staff and considering how hit-or-miss WWF has been the last 2 months already, Dave seems pretty concerned about adding so much more to their plate.
- Spoiler: literally every bit of this gets scrapped next week because Buff Bagwell and Booker T have one bad match.
- One final note on this WWF/WCW stuff regarding The Rock and Jerry Lawler. As far as The Rock, he's almost done filming Scorpion King and could return soon, but the idea right now is to keep him off TV until after the Invasion PPV and bring him back in time to build up for a Summerslam match, likely against Steve Austin (not quite). As for Lawler, he's continuing to deny stories that he is returning to WWF, but within the company, there's a lot of talk that he will be one of the new WCW announcers. Last Dave has heard, they're still at an impasse regarding Stacy Carter (Lawler won't come back without her and Vince won't hire her back) so that's where that stands.
- King of the Ring is in the books and Dave thinks the whole thing was disappointing. This show was supposed to be the official kick-off of the WWF vs. WCW feud. The actual KotR tournament was treated as an afterthought. The main event was pointless because WWF clearly gave up on the Jericho and Benoit push weeks ago. The first real confrontation of the WWF/WCW angle, between Undertaker and DDP, ended with DDP getting beaten like a jobber in a one-sided squash that wasn't "technically" a match. It totally buried the biggest WCW star they have on the first night of the angle, which doesn't do a whole lot for making WCW appear even remotely equal. The show-stealer was Kurt Angle vs. Shane McMahon, in a match that was even more dangerous than it was entertaining. When it was over, Angle had an injured tailbone, a concussion, stitches over his eye, and some other stuff and he's expected to be pretty limited for a little while (more on this match in a moment).
- The major injury news is regarding Chris Benoit. He was diagnosed this week with a blocked nerve in his C-7 vertebrae, causing his right arm to atrophy. The size difference in his arm was noticeable at King of the Ring. It's similar to the injury Paul Orndorff suffered that caused his arm to shrink so much and, fearful of the same happening to him, Benoit has decided to take time off and get the necessary surgery. But first, he decided to work this PPV. On TV the next night, they said Benoit will be out for 3-6 months (turns out to be waaaaay longer).
- Other notes from King of the Ring: Austin also suffered an injury during the show, nearly breaking his hand when Booker T ran in and threw him over the announce table. It's not broken but was badly swollen and he wasn't able to work during the TV tapings the next 2 nights. Chris Jericho also suffered a concussion from a Benoit chairshot but wrestled the next night anyway. Benoit was said to be seriously worried about further injuring his neck during the main event and it was clear that Austin's knees are in pretty rough shape as well. Edge won the KOTR tournament. Dave talks about the spots with Kurt Angle trying to suplex Shane McMahon through the glass and says it was total insanity, and not in a good way. Shane's brains were rattled and there was broken glass everywhere. Angle (one of the top star that they can ill afford to lose right now) was bleeding from little cuts everywhere and Dave thinks this was some CZW-type shit and completely unnecessary (to be fair, I think it came out later that this was supposed to be sugar glass and someone fucked up, so to be fair, it wasn't intentionally dangerous). Great match and he gives it 4 stars while hoping he never sees something like that again (yeah, if you've never seen this match, good lord. Shane's head thumping on the concrete on the first botched suplex through the glass is up there with the Okada/Shibata headbutt in terms of how scary it is).
- WATCH: Kurt Angle vs. Shane McMahon - King of the Ring 2001
- WWF has made major changes to its developmental program and the end result is that all of its developmental talent is now based out of OVW in Louisville (under Jim Cornette) and Heartland Wrestling Alliance in Cincinnati (under Les Thatcher). WWF has dropped all affiliation with Memphis Championship Wrestling, UPW in California, and IWA in Puerto Rico. Apparently Memphis had been nothing but problems for months so they finally just cut ties. They also cut 8 people from their contracts: American Dragon, Rodney Lionheart, Spanky, Shooter Schultz, Christian York, Adam Birch, Jason Ahrndt, Pete Gas, Sylvester Terkey, Mike Howell, and Brian Keck. The remaining developmental wrestlers who weren't released will be sent to either OVW or HWA. Names like Matthew Anoa'i (Rosey), Eddie Fatu (Umaga), Lance Cade, the Haas Brothers, Victoria, and more. Dave also says WWF is looking to open up relationships with a company in Japan. Possibly AJPW since WWF now has Johnny Ace employed and he has all the connections there. Anyway, Dave has some thoughts on this. He was really impressed by American Dragon and Spanky and thinks it's a bummer they were cut, but says they're just too small and WWF only has so many openings for little guys to get tossed around by giants and that role is currently occupied by Spike Dudley.
- As for WWF's relationship with UPW, the previous deal was that UPW promoter Rick Bassman was on WWF's payroll and any wrestlers that he discovered or came through his training school, WWF would have the right of first refusal on them. Bassman is no longer on the payroll, but he will get a finder's fee for any of his talent that WWF ends up signing, but that's it. Former UPW wrestler John Cena is now in OVW and is considered one of the top prospects, but time will tell. Nathan Jones, Victoria, and Jon Heidenreich all came through UPW as well. Several other UPW wrestlers have had shots in the past but never worked out.
- The relationship between WWF and Chyna has come to an end. Although she will remain under contract until her deal expires in November, WWF abruptly sent her a letter this week saying they were dropping negotiations to renew her deal and would no longer be using her. Nothing has been decided about what to do with the WWF Women's title, which she still holds. The two sides were in negotiations but they hadn't gone well. Chyna wants to pursue acting and didn't want to work house shows. She also wanted to continue working with (and beating) male wrestlers instead of women and WWF no longer wants to do that sort of stuff. She didn't want to wrestle or sell for women at all. She had a new agent who was trying to negotiate her a deal similar to that of Austin or Rock, noting that her Playboy was a huge success and her autobiography was a New York Times bestseller. WWF's offer wasn't even in the ballpark of what she was asking for because they obviously don't see her as the same level of star as Austin or Rock.
- Chyna was also in another tough position that Dave is acknowledging publicly for the first time. Her real-life relationship with Triple H ended awhile back and Triple H is now dating Stephanie McMahon in real life. Needless to say, with Triple H being the most influential wrestler in the company when it comes to creative decisions and with Stephanie being the bosses' daughter and the head scriptwriter of the show, Chyna found herself in a pretty bad position. But many in the company have come to Triple H's defense, saying he has not involved himself at all in having Chyna buried or taken off TV and has tried to stay as far away from those discussions as possible. Also, for what it's worth, Chyna wasn't very popular backstage, with many feeling like she had gotten a big head about her success, so many weren't very upset to see her go (needless to say, we'll hear more about this in the coming weeks and months).
- Chris Adams (aw hell, here we go...) was indicted last week on manslaughter charges stemming from the death of his girlfriend who died last year of an overdose. Back in April of last year, Adams and a woman named Linda Kaphengst were drinking alcohol and doing GHB together and both of them overdosed. They were found by a friend who called 911 and did CPR on both. They were rushed to the hospital and Adams survived while the woman was pronounced dead on arrival. Adams checked out of the hospital that day and later attempted to show up to an indie show he was booked for, but cops came and arrested him. No word on why Adams is being charged in her death, but yeah. Anyway, Dave also does a full recap of Adams' life and wrestling career that seems like an obituary piece, 3 months before he'll actually need to write it. Adams will be dead before this case ever goes to trial, killed in an argument by the same friend who found him and did CPR on him after this overdose.
- Kenta Kobashi has dropped about 30 pounds to alleviate pressure on his knees. If you recall, he had double knee surgery awhile back and is still having trouble walking. He told the press this week that he won't be able to return to the ring until 2002.
- Dave talks about a wrestler named Dalip Singh who wrestles for All Pro Wrestling in California. Singh is a legit 7'1 and weighs 374 pounds with a bodybuilder physique. NJPW is already pursuing him. Dave says from the photos he's seen, the guy looks incredible but just being impressive looking isn't the only thing you need these days in wrestling. He's also from India and doesn't have much of a grasp on English which will hurt his chances in the U.S. So Dave figures he'll probably end up in Japan (he does indeed spend the next few years in Japan and Mexico and other indies before WWE finally signs him and he becomes the Great Khali).
- Atsushi Onita was the subject of a lot of political tabloid news in Japan this week. Onita was recruited by the Jiyuto party (liberals) to run for office in the House of Councilors. They even gave him $300,000 in cash under the table for a campaign budget. Onita told them he would run, but later pulled out, saying he was having health problems. Then a few days later, he announced he would be running as a member of the Jiminto party (conservatives). The story that came out is that basically, the Jiminto party offered more money, so now he's conservative. Onita has a very shady reputation, in both wrestling and the mainstream Japanese world in general, and when the story got out that both sides were basically in a secret bidding war for Onita to run, the tabloids ate it up and it was kind of an embarrassment for both parties. No word if Onita is actually going to run but he's at least announced that he is. But it's Onita, so you know what his word means (spoiler: he does run. And actually freakin' wins. But we'll get there).
- Former WWF star Ahmed Johnson is playing the role of Suge Knight in an upcoming VH-1 movie called "Hammer" which is about the rise and fall of rapper MC Hammer. He also apparently has another role in a movie coming up called "Cons" (don't think that one ever happens, but the Suge Knight role does).
- WATCH: Ahmed Johnson as Suge Knight (scene starts around the 6:15 mark)
- During the latest Matrats.com show in Canada, wrestler Jack Evans was hospitalized after the valet of the opposing team, Natalie Neidhart (daughter of Jim Neidhart), gave him a reverse hurricanrana and he landed on top of his head and was motionless and knocked out. He eventually went out on a stretcher. Dave talks about how this whole Matrats promotion is basically a bunch of teenagers and barely-18 year old kids doing big time stunts and spotfest matches and it seems to make him kinda uncomfortable (Evans ended up being fine. Natalie became Natalya and she's doing pretty good these days also. Unfortunately, I can't find video of this incident).
- Notes from Raw: the show was at MSG and the theme of the show was how no one from WCW had ever stepped foot in the hallowed grounds of WWF's most famous arena and how this is Vince McMahon's home base. They showed a video hyping up the history, including a clip from the 50s of Freddie Blassie allegedly wrestling in MSG. Dave says he's pretty sure that clip is actually Blassie vs. Rikidozan from Tokyo. They also claimed Vince Sr. once promoted 21 straight sellouts at MSG. "Not true, by the way," Dave adds. WCW wrestler Mike Awesome eventually did a run in at some point during the show and pinned Rhyno to win the WWF Hardcore title. Later in the show, Vince claimed that Awesome raped him (a WCW wrestler violating the hallowed halls of MSG is apparently rape). They even showed clips of Bruno Sammartino, leading Dave to think hell must have frozen over. Kurt Angle and Steve Austin started arguing backstage doing an "Odd Couple routine" and Dave thought it was super entertaining (this is the beginning of the Angle/Austin backstage skits that were so hilarious). Then they showed clips of Superstar Billy Graham and now Dave is POSITIVE hell has frozen over. There was a dark match before the show, with the FBI from ECW going against Danny Doring & Roadkill, also from ECW. Basically a tryout match for all 4.
- Goldberg contract update: his Time Warner contract is not assignable, which means WWF can't just buy him out and then own his contract. So basically, even if WWF wanted to buy out the remainder of his deal, they could do so and Goldberg would still be under no obligation to work for them unless they negotiated a new, separate contract. Dave mentions that Barry Bloom is Goldberg's agent and says everybody in wrestling should probably hire that guy.
- Access Hollywood ran a story about WWF that they surely aren't thrilled about. The segment focused on WWF's declining ratings. They blamed it primarily on Rock being gone filming a movie, which Dave says is definitely part of the reason, but only a small part. It also talked about how Raw moving to TNN is a factor, which is also true, but again, only part of it. Stephanie McMahon was quoted in the article saying that it's harder for fans to find Raw now that it's on TNN. Dave scoffs at that. Everyone knows where to find it by now and in fact, people knew from the very first week. Raw's first week ratings on TNN were way higher than they are now. So it's not that fans can't find it. It's that fans are choosing not to watch. The real story is that WCW went out of business and WWF almost immediately became complacent and lazy and it shows with every new episode. Turning Austin heel has also been a ratings killer.
- Due to WWF stock dropping, Vince McMahon is no longer on the Forbes list of richest men in America. Last year, Vince made the list, and was worth $1.1 billion. As of press time, he's "only" worth $700 million. Practically a peasant.
- Shelton Benjamin will be out 6-8 weeks with an elbow injury. It comes at a bad time, as he and Brock Lesnar were scheduled to defend the OVW tag team titles against Perry Saturn and Dean Malenko at an upcoming OVW show, which would have been the biggest match of Benjamin's career to date, but he won't be cleared in time to work it now.
- AJ Styles is working a tryout match this week at the Atlanta tapings (here's the match. It's shitty quality on YouTube but if you have the WWE Network, it's on there in the Hidden Gems section. AJ even hits the Styles Clash during this one).
- WATCH: AJ Styles 2001 WWF tryout dark match
- Remember the game show "Win Ben Stein's Money?" Well one of the trivia questions on there this week was "Name one of the founders of WWF." The acceptable answers were Vince McMahon Jr. or Linda McMahon. Dave wonders how Vince Sr. feels about this turn of events. Or if you want to go all the way back to the 60s (and hey, if WWF counts it in their history, then why not?), Toots Mondt would also be a correct answer, although back then, it was WWWF.
- All former XFL assistant coaches received a letter a few weeks ago saying they would no longer be under contract after May 31st. Several of the coaches got together and threatened a class action lawsuit. Most coaching positions in football are filled between December and February, and the coaches argued that the XFL folding and them being cut from their contracts in May prevented them from being able to land coaching jobs elsewhere for 2001. The WWF caved to the pressure and agreed to continue paying the coaches their full salaries and benefits for an additional year, until May of 2002.