Wrestling Observer Rewinder

July 16, 2001

WWF has pretty much abandoned all its plans for reviving WCW and instead revived ECW and had them join the invasion angle. Adding ECW to the fold was a last minute decision made partly in response to the disastrous WCW match on Raw last week. Prior to this, the original plan had been for WCW to have some exposure on WWF TV, do some inter-promotional matches at the upcoming Invasion PPV, and then an angle would be done the next night on Raw with Vince and Linda McMahon having a "divorce hearing" and splitting everything down the middle. Vince would lose Raw to Linda, who would in turn give it to Shane, and Raw would then become the WCW show. The week after would have been a draft, so that WCW could take some of the WWF's big names to help carry the brand. From there, WCW and WWF would be kept apart. WCW would began touring regularly in October and have its first PPV in October as well. Meanwhile, WWF would continue on Smackdown with their own PPVs and eventually, once WCW had fully established itself as a strong brand, they would come back together for more inter-promotional matches.
WATCH: ECW joins the Invasion angle (filmed on a potato, sorry)
That was the original plan. So what happened? Well the whole angle has been botched from the start anyway. But the horrible crowd reaction on Raw last week, plus similar reactions to WCW stars at house shows this past week, pretty much torpedoed everything. WWF officials were stunned by the amount of negative reaction to the WCW brand from WWF fans. Dave says WWF fans have been trained to hate WCW for years and it all came to a head on Raw. It was even worse on Smackdown but you wouldn't know from watching it because they edited the crowd audio before it aired, which they couldn't do with the live Raw. Also, as of press time, the Invasion PPV is 2 weeks away and isn't sold out yet. It should be sold out or close to it by the time the show gets here, but for the first big inter-promotional show of WWF vs. WCW, the tickets didn't move nearly as fast as they'd hoped (they turn Austin babyface again a week beforehand and the PPV ends up doing huge numbers but we'll get there). Dave says it's hard to fathom how such a surefire moneymaking angle has been bungled so badly, although part of it is clearly the lack of big WCW stars and WWF's refusal to spend big money to get them.
So they started spit-balling ideas to save the angle. Dave says things got so crazy and so many wild ideas were tossed around that there was actually serious discussion about bringing in Eric Bischoff. (Can you imagine?!) One source claimed there was even plans in place for Bischoff to come in for just a short-term angle, work a match with Vince, kick off the WCW thing, and then be gone, but that Bischoff shot down the idea. Bischoff himself denies that he was ever even approached about it and that he would have turned it down even if they had offered (I believe he has since admitted that yes, he was approached). Either way, the idea was at least kicked around. Ultimately, they settled on reviving ECW (with Stephanie McMahon in charge) and combining it with WCW. The best news coming out of the whole thing is that it let Paul Heyman cut some great promos on Raw and Smackdown and Dave says his kind of realism and promos are exactly what this angle needs if it's going to succeed because out of everyone on the roster, Paul Heyman is the guy who can probably get it over. But the depth of WCW star power is killing it.
Scrapping the idea of reviving WCW as its own brand creates a whole new set of problems. Most of the 24 wrestlers that WWF acquired from WCW haven't even appeared on TV yet and if WCW isn't going to be its own brand, most of those guys may be out of luck. They were all lower card guys anyway and if WWF doesn't need to fill a second roster, that puts them in a shitty spot. The number of well-paying, full-time wrestling jobs in the United States is currently at its lowest point since World War II so there's a lot of young, talented cruiserweight-type guys that WWF picked up who may be out of a job soon if WWF doesn't have any use for them. So what next? No one seems to know. Booking decisions are basically being made day-to-day right now instead of long term because all the long-term plans have basically been scrapped. Separate brands, separate TV shows, separate PPVs and touring schedules....it's all up in the air right now and may happen or may not. The Vince/Linda angle where they split the assets on Raw after the Invasion PPV has definitely been scrapped, so at the very least, things are going to be delayed and now it's looking entirely possible that there won't be a relaunched WCW at all.
Meta news time! Dave wants to thank everyone who made the Wrestling Observer Live online radio show so much fun for the last 2 years. But as of last week, online radio host website Eyada has folded and with it goes the Observer show. Dave talks about how the stories of dot-com businesses shutting down is a daily news story these days (yup, this is right as the dot-com bubble was bursting). He compares the Eyada situation to being similar to ECW's dying days. Everyone involved knew the ship was going down and there were occasionally hopes to try and save it at the last minute, but it all fell through and it was forced to close. Dave talks about how the internet is an incredible technological advancement and how Eyada was an idea ahead of its time. The belief was that internet radio was the future and how there was belief that people would be able to listen to it in their cars eventually or buy a device that works with their Walkmans (omg) and things like that. But 2 years later, none of that has happened and internet radio just hasn't taken off like people expected. Plus all the problems that come with it, like sound quality, lagging, getting disconnected, etc. just made it inconvenient for most people. But regardless of all that, the Observer show built a pretty large audience and was often the highest rated internet talk show in the country which admittedly doesn't mean much in the grand scheme of things but hey, Dave's still proud of it. Dave thanks a lot of the people involved by name, particularly Bryan Alvarez for his amazing insight and wit. Dave's bummed that it's going away, but who knows, maybe something will pan out in the future...
The latest in regards to Jerry Lawler being rehired by WWF is that the deal is pretty much dead for now. Lawler went on his website and wrote a long post detailing why the deal to bring him back last week fell apart. Lawler was called by Kevin Dunn to work Raw and be the WCW announcer for the Booker T/Buff Bagwell match and had agreed to bring Stacy Carter back with him. Before she was fired, Stacy did not have the typical WWF contract, she was being paid-per-appearance. So WWF agreed to bring Lawler and her back, with Lawler signing a contract and Stacy getting her old per-night deal back. At this point, Lawler pushed his luck and inquired about maybe getting Stacy an actual contract with a downside guarantee like everyone else in the company has. Lawler even volunteered to take a $52,000-per-year paycut so that Stacy could have a $52,000-per-year contract and it wouldn't cost the WWF any additional money. All this negotiation was going on through Kevin Dunn, who in turn talked to Vince and cleared everything. Dunn told Vince about Lawler's request and Vince responded that they wouldn't sign Stacy to a contract because they had no future plans for her beyond her returning alongside Lawler this one time. Begrudgingly, Lawler went ahead and agreed, figuring at least Stacy would have a foot back in the door and if Lawler is there, maybe he can pull some strings and get her back later.
Then Kevin Dunn called Lawler back the next day and told him Vince had changed his mind. They didn't want to bring Stacy in even for the one-time appearance. Only Lawler. At that point, Lawler backed out of the deal. Lawler claims that Bruce Prichard is the one who changed Vince's mind, after the original deal was already agreed upon, and convinced Vince to not bring Stacy back at all. Dave says there was a lot of pressure on Vince because it would look like he had caved to Lawler's demands, which isn't a good look for the boss. And plus, as mentioned, Stacy was deeply unpopular in the locker room and apparently nobody liked her. But whatever the reason, Vince changed his mind, said absolutely no Stacy, and so we're back to square one with Lawler refusing to come back without her (Stacy's about a week away from abruptly leaving Lawler for another guy anyway, which he goes into excruciating detail about in his book if you've never read it, so this all wraps up soon).
Atsushi Onita officially announced he will be running for Japan's House of Councilors as a member of the Jiminto party, which is the biggest political party in Japan. Onita's platform is big on children's education because he's famous for dropping out of high school and then going back to earn his diploma at the age of 40. As part of a publicity stunt for the announcement, Onita went to Rikidozan's grave site and said he was going to send videos of his famous death matches to Japan's prime minister Junichiro Koizumi. Then he said after he wins the election, he wants to challenge Antonio Inoki to a retirement match "And you think politics in our country is silly," Dave quips. Anyway, spoiler: Onita actually wins.
Kevin Nash did an interview with a Japanese wrestling magazine and had some interesting comments. Nash freely admitted that he was specifically told not to mention Scoff Hall's name on TV in WCW, so in response, he went out on TV and did it every week anyway. He says at one point he was told that if he did it again, they would consider it a breach of contract and fire him, so Nash responded with a big speech about the Constitution and the first amendment and all that stuff. Dave just shakes his head at this dumb shit. But he also says WCW gave him repeated chances and never fired him, so at that point, it was WCW's fault, not Nash's. You can't repeatedly threaten to punish a child when it misbehaves and then not back up your words when they do. Anyway, in the same interview, Nash also said he had considered retiring after WCW closed but he misses the pop of going through the curtain and is now just waiting for his WCW deal to expire so he can jump back in. As for went wrong with WCW, Nash said the bookers (Russo) never understood that you have to lay a foundation for the storylines and have them make sense and that the title should mean something. He said WWF never lost sight of the fact that the world title should be valuable and winning the belt is the ultimate quest, while Russo devalued the belt completely. Also, way too many run-ins in every match.
That Matrats promotion in Canada is running a big show this month and it's a test-run for a planned PPV in October. If you recall, Eric Bischoff is working with this company and his partner Jason Hervey will be the on-air commissioner. As far as wrestlers, the best workers in the promotion are said to be Jack Evans, Teddy Hart, TJ Wilson, and Rene Dupree. Speaking of Dupree, he's only 18 years old and looks incredible and those who have seen him say he could be the next mega star in this business (yeah, everyone thought he would be for awhile. He ends up in WWE, does the La Resistance gimmick, but never really gets beyond that). Joey Styles may end up doing the announcing for this company. Speaking of announcing, Dave says they used to have the most underrated announcer in the business, a guy named Mauro Ranallo, but he isn't working with them anymore.
XPW had a fire spot go wrong at a show this week. Supreme was going against Kaos and Supreme was supposed to get put through a flaming table covered in fluorescent light tubes. Veronica Caine, one of the porn star/valets XPW uses, put way too much lighter fluid on the table and Supreme took the bump face-first somehow and....caught on fire. Then the idiot with the fire extinguisher panicked and started spraying the table in the ring because it was still on fire. Meanwhile, Supreme was over on the other side of the ring, still cooking. Eventually, they sprayed him too. He suffered serious burns on his chest and arms and was on the ground for about 10 minutes before being taken out by paramedics. The fans, respectful as always, yelled things like, "I hope you die!" and "I smell bacon!" It's said that for the rest of the show, the arena smelled of lighter fluid and burnt flesh. Anyway, Supreme is expected to be hospitalized for at least a week.
WATCH: Supreme turns into a crispy critter - XPW 2001
While all this was going on during the same XPW show, promoter Rob Black was backstage arguing with Sabu and trying to talk him into doing a job for the three-way main event. The match was supposed to be XPW champion Messiah vs. Vampiro vs. Sabu. Also, the Insane Clown Posse were supposed to be with Vampiro and involved in the match, but they walked out after Violent J was pissed because Pogo The Clown stiffed him during an angle earlier in the show, to the point where J reportedly may have broken ribs. Anyway, Sabu eventually agreed to do the job. Sandman was also on the show and he and New Jack both received huge "ECW" chants from the XPW crowd.
WATCH: ICP attacked in XPW
UFC is said to be against the idea of bringing Tank Abbott back, who is currently sitting out and collecting on the remainder of his WCW contract. UFC has worked really hard to be seen as a real sport and have fought with the state athletic commissions about how these are highly trained world class athletes. Meanwhile, Tank Abbott is basically just a big ol' beefy street fighter with little formal training who wasn't even in shape for his most recent fights. Basically, he goes against everything UFC is trying to present itself as (he eventually comes back in 2003).
It's pretty much official that Goldberg will not be coming to WWF anytime soon. In order to sign him, it would mean he would have by far the biggest contract in the entire company. As Dave has pointed out before, from an economic standpoint, they should bring him in. A couple of Goldberg/Austin and Goldberg/Rock dream matches on PPV alone would be enough to recoup the cost of his contract. But it would also upset the salary structure of the company and piss off the whole locker room and they just aren't willing to do that. So expect Goldberg to sit out the next 2 years or so (yup).
Buff Bagwell has already been fired by WWF, for "an amazing ability to accumulate heat in almost record time," Dave says. There was the issue with him and Shane Helms that was mentioned last week that left Bagwell needing stitches. Those who know Helms say he's a quiet, hardworking guy and he was only defending himself so there's no heat on him. Bagwell also arrived late for the practice sessions in Stamford almost every day and was said to be the only one not taking the practices seriously. He also arrived late for his first house show. After the Smackdown taping in Tacoma, they did an angle after the cameras were off where the WWF guys came to the ring and ran off all the WCW guys, leaving only Bagwell alone with guys like the APA. It was pretty much another one of those typical "Welcome to the WWF" beat downs from the APA where they beat the shit out of him and gave him a hard power bomb. Also, Bagwell's mother Judy Bagwell repeatedly called the office complaining about Buff's travel accommodations, leading to Bradshaw ruthlessly ribbing him for it. Many of the WWF wrestlers even started a pool, taking bets on how long Bagwell would last. Turned out it was sooner than almost everyone predicted, although Dave says one unnamed wrestler was only off by 5 days. Anyway, he's gone. Dave's been saying it for years, all that immature shit people used to get away with in WCW ain't gonna fly in WWF, and Bagwell has become the first to learn that the hard way.
Notes from Raw: Steve Austin and Kurt Angle continued their hilarious backstage interactions, complete with Angle getting all of them little sheriff badges. Booker T, holding both the WCW world and U.S. titles, beat Kurt Angle, with Booker getting booed out of the building. And of course, the big ECW angle at the end with WCW and ECW joining together and Stephanie McMahon being revealed as the new owner of ECW.
WATCH: Stephanie McMahon revealed as the new owner of ECW
Kaz Hayashi, Yun Yang, Shannon Moore, and Evan Karagis all made their WWF debuts in a dark match that got over big, which is the first time a WCW match has done so since this angle began. Rob Van Dam also worked a dark match, beating former WCW wrestler Johnny the Bull. RVD got over strong as well.
WATCH: the final moments of RVD vs. Johnny The Bull 2001 dark match
Ad Age magazine ran a story talking about how Vince McMahon wanted to blow up a Honda car during halftime of one of the final XFL games. The reason is because Honda was one of the original XFL sponsors but they pulled out early in the season and bashed the XFL for not delivering the product they were promised. McMahon was pissed about it and wanted to blow up a Honda in response but was talked out of it by NBC execs who were already pretty fed up with this crazy old man and his carny ideas.
Spike Dudley suffered a hairline fracture to his fibula in a match on Smackdown and will be out for about a month. He's using a crutch and a soft cast for now and is still making his appearances. He even offered to tape up his leg and wrestle if needed for weekend house shows.
Steve Austin is still dealing with serious back issues that make even putting on his shoes difficult. He's expected to be back by the Invasion PPV but it's touch and go. Even the little bit of physical activity he has done the last few weeks has caused him to have back spasms.
Mick Foley was on TSN's Off The Record in Canada and once again, host Michael Landsberg delivered a segment that blows away every other wrestler interview, because Landsberg understands the business, treats it and the wrestlers with respect, but he also asks tough questions. Foley was asked about the future of wrestling because of how violent it's getting and all the risks people take. Foley agreed it was too much and hoped it would scale back, and talked about the success of guys like Benoit and Angle as an example of getting over and becoming a star without throwing yourself off cages. Both Foley and Landsberg agreed that WWF is in a bit of a rut right now. Foley blamed it on McMahon focusing too much on the XFL for the last year. They discussed the infamous McMahon/Bob Costas interview and Foley said he actually asked Vince about it and asked if it was a work or a shoot and Vince told him it was for real, he wasn't playing a character during that interview. Foley said he currently has no interest in returning to the ring but admitted it would probably happen eventually. Landsberg argued that if wrestling had a union, Foley wouldn't be allowed to wrestle for his own good. They talked about NHL player Eric Lindros' concussion issues and Foley said during the last year or so of his career, he told wrestlers to take it easy with him because his wife didn't like him taking chair shots to the head.
WATCH: Mick Foley on TSN Off The Record in 2001
Dave recaps a recent WWF press release that talks about the history of WWF and WCW. Basically, the gist of it is WCW never accomplished anything on their own and were only good when they stole a bunch of WWF stars. Dave says they own WCW now. The company itself is dead. It serves no purpose to keep burying them. They should be trying to rebuild it rather than talk about how shitty it was and how it only succeeded because they stole WWF stars.
TNN put out a press release bragging about the network's overall ratings increases compared to last year and touting that they're the fastest growing network in prime time. That's true, but it's also ENTIRELY because of Raw. In fact, if you took Raw out of the equation, TNN's numbers would actually be down from last year.
Jim Cornette had hernia surgery last week and will be out for a few weeks, so Kevin Kelly will be handling announcing duties in OVW for awhile.
Speaking of OVW, it was mentioned a few weeks ago that Leviathan has grown his hair out and shaved his face and basically changed his overall look. In case you're wondering why, it's because he worked a dark match at a WWF show and got a huge "Goldberg!" chant, so they told him to change his look.
In regards to Smackdown going live later this year, WWF is publicly blaming the ratings decrease on internet spoilers for taped shows. Dave points out several reasons why this simply isn't true. For starters, Raw's ratings (which is already a live show) have been falling at a faster rate than Smackdown. The ratings decline also started abruptly, just in the last few months since WCW folded. Basically, the product sucks now and wrestling just isn't hot anymore. It has nothing to do with taped show spoilers on the internet. In fact, how can someone even read spoilers on the internet during this time? As soon as the website loads, someone in the other room picks up the goddamn phone and the internet disconnects. Dammit Dad, I've been downloading a picture for the last 45 minutes, it was almost done! Ugh! I HATE YOU! I SHOULD HAVE GONE TO LIVE WITH MOM!
Brock Lesnar was interviewed in an amateur wrestling magazine about his decision to become a pro wrestler, which a lot of amateurs look down on. Lesnar talked about the difficulty of it, saying, "It is a lot harder than I expected it to be. It is more demanding on my body than all my 19 years of amateur wrestling put together. If you don't know how to land right or do a move in the correct way, you are putting yourself and your opponent's life in danger." In regards to amateur wrestlers nay-saying him for it, Lesnar responded, "I fell victim to the amateur people saying, 'Don't watch professional wrestling because it's fake and not real.' I've been trying to get amateur wrestlers like Shelton Benjamin and myself to make a difference somehow in both and professional and amateur world."
There was a segment about wrestling on the Fox News show The O'Reilly Factor regarding the usual is-wrestling-appropriate-for-children debate. Bob Backlund was on to defend wrestling while some doctor who did a study about the effects of wrestling on kids was there to argue the other side. Basically, both Backlund and the doctor debated back and forth, both of them were full of shit, O'Reilly was clueless about wrestling, and they played clips of WCW while talking about violence in the WWF. "As with most things on that network, little was accomplished," Dave says. My man.
Apparently there was an altercation between Hugh Morrus and Mark Jindrak during one of those training sessions. Jindrak reportedly messed up some spots, Morrus tried to help him out and correct him and Jindrak responded by calling him a fat slob who's never done anything in the business and then they were separated before it could escalate. WWF officials were said to be less than impressed with Jindrak's attitude and Jim Ross had a meeting with all the WCW wrestlers to basically remind everyone to check their attitudes at the door because this ain't WCW anymore. (See: Bagwell, Buff.)
Speaking of, there's still a lot of backstage heat between WWF and WCW wrestlers, who are still divided in the locker room. A lot of WWF wrestlers already see this angle as a flop based on the crowd response. Meanwhile, the WCW wrestlers feel like the angle has been bungled from the beginning and even said the real WCW would have been more organized and had a better plan in place for this angle than WWF has so far. But otherwise, the general feeling is that the WWF is so much more professionally run in every aspect of the business and it's been a culture shock to a lot of the WCW guys.
There was some heat on Stacy Keibler for missing some house shows this weekend. Apparently, she had already been told she wasn't going to be working the shows but then they changed their mind and wanted her on the road to practice the bra and panties match that is scheduled for the PPV. Keibler had already made vacation plans since she was originally scheduled to be off and refused to break her plans. WWF allowed her to miss the shows, but it didn't endear her to some in the locker room. God, there is so much petty, clique-ish nonsense happening in WWF right now.
Speaking of, a lot of the WCW wrestlers who haven't been used on TV yet were at Raw in Atlanta this week since so many of them live in the city. And once again, it was the same issues backstage, with WCW wrestlers being accused of not knowing the protocol. They were nervous and shy, didn't talk to many people, didn't shake everybody's hand, etc. So now they've all got bad reps with the WWF guys, because this is fucking high school apparently.
Random notes: Toronto Skydome is looking to be the front-runner for WrestleMania 18 next year (yup). The Invasion PPV isn't sold out and there's still 2,000 tickets left as of press time. Scott Hudson is already done as WCW announcer, but he was only supposed to be short-term anyway.
Chyna did her first interview since being benched by WWF. The only interesting thing she said is that they wouldn't let her win the WWF title and she "has too much experience" to wrestle the women so there was nothing left to do with her character. She did say one true thing. She mentioned that wrestlers who's contracts are coming due soon are going to realize that one man having a monopoly on the business isn't a good thing for the wrestlers.
Al Snow and Dean Malenko were practicing commentary backstage during Raw. WWF is looking for new commentators for the WCW side of things and hey, why not? Dave says Malenko in particular is someone who is said to be hilarious backstage, quick-witted and fun to talk to, but it never translates to TV. Stevie Ray was like that in WCW, which is why they made him an announcer too, but it never clicked.
WWF has a deal with some company to send CD-ROMS to WWF Magazine subscribers which will feature bonus content not included in each issue of the magazine. That is a very 2001 sentence.
Letters section time! An indie wrestler, who chooses to remain unnamed, writes in and is pretty disgusted by the fact that Tough Enough exists. He talks about how just before Tough Enough debuted, WWF pulled out of their developmental deals with several indie companies and cut developmental contracts of dozens of talented wrestlers who were working in those promotions (like Memphis Championship Wrestling, UPW in California, etc.). This guy thinks it's kinda fucked up that so many hard working, legitimately talented developmental guys are suddenly out on their asses while a bunch of nobody reality show contestants are vying for a WWF contract on TV.
Other people write in about the WCW angle. One guy predicts exactly what's going to happen, that WWF is going to bury WCW, nobody will get over, the whole thing will be a flop, and Booker T will likely be the only WCW signee who may have a chance to make it as a WWF star. Dick "The Destroyer" Beyer writes in saying the recovery for the business is going to be tough in the wake of WCW's death and will take a long time.
A former WCW wrestler named Bob Cook writes in and says he was the first wrestler to work with Buff Bagwell for his WCW tryout match back in 1991, which led to Bagwell getting his job with WCW. After watching the Bagwell/Booker T match, Cook writes, "I wish I wasn't such a great worker. Never thought I was, but I must have been to make Bagwell look good enough to get a job in the first place. I would like to say I'm sorry to the fans for helping him get his job."