Wrestling Observer Rewinder

July 23, 2001

WWF continued their ECW storyline this week and it's become an interesting news story off-screen because there's a little problem with the fact that WWF doesn't own the ECW name or trademarks. It's all currently still owned by the bankruptcy court. Heyman hasn't shown up for any of the creditors' meetings for the ECW bankruptcy, which was filed as a Chapter 11 (re-organizational) bankruptcy. But due to Heyman no-showing the meetings, it has been changed to Chapter 7 (liquidation) bankruptcy. Since Heyman has no intention of restarting the company and is now employed by WWF, Chapter 7 is probably the right answer anyway. Heyman has to appear for a meeting later this month with a full inventory of ECW's financial records for examination. There's a lot of question over whether those records even exist. Heyman never really conducted ECW like a formal business and it was always something of a mom-&-pop operation. That was actually part of the reason Heyman was unable to strike a new deal to keep the company alive: he often couldn't produce adequate records of the company's finances to satisfy potential investors.
Anyway, WWF has been blatantly using the ECW name, trademarks, and theme song to promote the upcoming Invasion PPV. WWF is going along under the belief that they will eventually own the ECW intellectual property and tape library so it's no big deal. This week, WWF made an offer of less than $1.5 million to the bankruptcy court to purchase those rights but the offer was turned down by the trustee. Dave talks about how ECW has almost $9 million in total debt and that number is probably low because, as mentioned, ECW didn't keep the best financial records and a lot of people, wrestlers in particular, are owed unknown amounts of money. There are also at least 13 outstanding lawsuits pending against ECW for various issues. It's believed ECW's actual owed debt is significantly higher than $9 million. But if WWF buys ECW, a lot of the people who are owed money aren't going to want to get into a court battle with WWF to get that money. Wrestlers especially might be hesitant to burn a WWF bridge by trying to fight them in court. Dave also notes that video game company Acclaim is owed $1.5 million by ECW and is attempting to foreclose on the debt and put a lien on company assets to recoup their money. Acclaim owned 15% of ECW and with Heyman filing for bankruptcy, they appear to be interested in purchasing the assets and rights to the promotion. At which point WWF would then have to try to buy ECW from Acclaim instead of from the bankruptcy court. They also don't appear to be happy about WWF using the ECW trademarks on TV, with Acclaim's lawyer arguing that WWF had no right to do so since they don't own it and Acclaim has an actual claim to ownership. If Acclaim ends up getting the company, they would be in a pretty good position to file a lawsuit against WWF over all this.
Terry "Bam Bam" Gordy passed away this week at age 40 at his home in Rossville, GA from an apparent heart attack. Gordy was probably the best big man in the business before a serious drug problem ruined his promising career in its prime. Dave runs through Gordy's entire career with the usual obituary. In the U.S., he was mostly known as a member of the Freebirds, but he was an even bigger singles star in Japan where he was a main eventer for AJPW for years. He started his career at age 14 and formed the Freebirds with Michael Hayes and later, Buddy Roberts, worked their way through most of the territories (Mid South, Georgia Championship Wrestling, World Class, etc.). At age 18, Gordy was main eventing the Superdome in New Orleans in front of 30,000 fans. They had the legendary Freebirds vs. Von Erichs feud, and then he was off to Japan where Gordy became one of the top foreign stars there, alongside guys like Stan Hansen and Bruiser Brody. Gordy had so much success in Japan that he decided to focus his career there, which pretty much led to the break up of the Freebirds as a full-time team (they still reunited for quick runs here and there when Gordy was available). But like a lot of guys at that time, his partying was out of control and he developed a nasty drug problem. On a flight to Japan in 1993, Gordy overdosed on the plane and was in a coma for 5 days and for a brief period, he was clinically dead and had to be revived. Dave mentions that this happened to Gordy twice, the other time in 1990 while he was AJPW Triple Crown champion, which forced him to vacate the title. The first time almost got him fired from AJPW but he at least made a full recovery. But he wasn't so lucky with the second overdose and suffered permanent and fairly severe brain damage and was never the same after. For all intents and purposes, Gordy's career as a top star basically ended in 1993 after the overdose. He still worked small indies and even had a brief run in ECW. At one point, Raven carried Gordy to such a great match in ECW that people started claiming Gordy was making a miraculous comeback. Based on the buzz from that match, WWF signed him up and brought him in as the Executioner. But the miracle of the ECW match was nothing more than Raven being really good at carrying somebody. Gordy was still brain damaged and couldn't do much and WWF released him a few months later. At that point, he basically went off the radar until his death aside from working small indie shows here and there. Sadly enough, just 6 days before his death, he was backstage at the Smackdown tapings visiting people and he was more clear-headed and coherent than anyone had seen him in years.
WWF once again has changed long-term plans on the fly this week. Plans for Smackdown to start airing live on Thursdays have been dropped and all previously booked TV tapings and arena bookings have been canceled or moved. Smackdown will remain pre-taped for now. As discussed in the past, the plan was for the roster to split into 2 equal crews, the WWF and WCW groups, with each having their own show, touring on their own, etc. There were plans for a Vince and Linda McMahon divorce angle where they would split everything. That was originally supposed to take place after the King of the Ring PPV but they delayed it and now they've scrapped that plan altogether. They still hope to eventually split the rosters and run them as 2 separate brands, but that's an idea for the distant future now, not anytime soon.
There's a lot of criticism that WWF scrapping plans like this and making these huge decisions on the fly is very much a WCW-type of thing but Dave disagrees. In this case, Dave thinks it's the smart decision because live show attendance and TV ratings are both plummeting and now just isn't the time to try and pull off something like this. Especially not with such a weak WCW brand. So scrapping the plan before it gets off the ground is actually a good thing. The WCW way of doing things would have been to move forward with the plan anyway and lose millions of dollars on a bad idea.
Of course, there's still a lot of WCW wrestlers under contract that were expected to be used to prop up a new WCW brand. With that no longer happening, many of these guys haven't even appeared on TV and their futures look unsure. Guys like Kwee Wee, Elix Skipper, Kid Kash, Jamie Noble, Jason Kett, Kid Romeo, and more are all former WCW names who were signed by WWF but don't really seem to have many options going forward. A few guys like Shannon Moore, Evan Karagis, and Johnny The Bull have worked WWF dark matches lately, but that's it. Mike Sanders is also being considered for an announcing job. But their in-ring futures in WWF are very uncertain if WCW isn't going to be its own touring brand anymore.
Wrestler and MMA fighter Dan Severn has been suspended by the International Fighting Council (IFC) after allegations that he took part in a fixed MMA fight last month against a guy named Travis Fulton. Severn's manager and Fulton were also suspended. Severn won the fight and Fulton was later questioned by the IFC because the referee felt like Fulton was not actually trying to win the fight. Fulton admitted that Severn's manager had approached him before the fight and told him to go easy on Severn, and he agreed. All 3 men face fines and a possible one year suspension. Severn was previously scheduled to face a much easier opponent but that guy pulled out and Fulton (a much tougher opponent) was brought in at the last minute and they argued that Severn wasn't prepared for it. There's a whole bunch of back and forth over who said what here but Severn of course denies that the fight was fixed. Fulton says they agreed not to strike each other and keep it submission only, but says he didn't actually agree to throw the fight or anything, only that they both agreed not to punch, which is why the referee felt he wasn't trying to win the fight.
Keiji Muto defended the AJPW Triple Crown title against Steve Williams at the latest AJPW show, packing over 12,000 into Budokan Hall. NJPW star Muto holding the top AJPW title is a strong draw right now for that company and basically every Muto title defense against a top AJPW star is sort of a dream match (yeah, Muto was damn near single-handedly keeping AJPW alive at this point).
Katsuyori Shibata is currently out with a dislocated hip. Not to be confused with 2019, where he is out with a dislocated brain.
The latest on Hulk Hogan's deal with Universal is that it's on hold for now. There were plans in place for a TV taping in August but that will likely be pushed back now. The taping was planned to be more of a Hulk Hogan TV special rather than a traditional wrestling show, but it is intended to be a real wrestling promotion. Hogan did an interview and said he wanted Bret Hart and Roddy Piper to come in and help him groom talent and run the company. Hogan also said, "I think if Vince knew what I was going to do, he'd be better off paying me $50 million a year not to go against him." Oh man. That's rich. Even Dave laughs that one off, adding, "I can't wait for five years from now when we look back at that quote." Hogan also said he'd like to bring in Randy Savage. When asked about Goldberg, Hogan actually admitted that he wouldn't able to afford him, pointing out that Goldberg is making millions to sit at home for the next 2 years and they can't match that.
Interesting story to keep an eye on: media mogul Rupert Murdoch is interested in purchasing both DirecTV and InDemand, to create a worldwide PPV network (SkyTV, which is owned by Murdoch, already airs PPV in UK, Germany, Japan, and Mexico). If this deal happens, it likely increases the chances that Mexican and Japanese wrestling and MMA PPVs would be available to watch in the U.S. (didn't quite work out like that).
In a New York Post interview, Playboy head honcho Hugh Hefner said that the Chyna issue of Playboy was the best selling issue in many years, claiming sales of 3.9 million (Dave believes the real number is way lower than that. Wrestling isn't the only business that publicly lies about numbers to make themselves look better. But it was still a major seller). Hefner said that because Chyna is leaving WWF, they are working on a new deal with her where she'll do a video and another photo spread in the magazine. If she can cut her own deal with Playboy, without WWF taking a big chunk of the profits, that'll probably be pretty lucrative for her. That being said, Dave points out that Chyna's name value plummets every day she's not on television and without WWF promoting it, another Chyna issue is not going to do anywhere near the numbers the first one did. The second Rena Mero Playboy issue is proof of that (she does eventually do a 2nd Playboy issue on her own. And, umm, some videos....)
Dave has some reports from the latest CZW show and it's not good. Said to be a disgusting show with people being bloodied up with panes of broken glass and light tubes. In particular, it was really bad seeing 16-and-17-year-old brothers Mark and Jay Briscoe scarring up their bodies doing dangerous death match stuff like this.
ESPN.com ran a story this week about Eric Bischoff and NBA star Patrick Ewing being called to testify in the Atlanta Gold Club trial. Both men are expected to testify in the upcoming weeks. Kevin Nash has also been mentioned in court documents and he may end up testifying also. (Nash never testifies I don't think, but Bischoff sure does. We'll get there).
UFC is interested in bringing in Mike Tenay as an announcer. I wonder if Tenay's encyclopedic wrestling knowledge also covers MMA.
Notes from Raw: only 2 really notable things. There was a big run-in at the end of the show with all the WWF and WCW/ECW guys fighting each other. Dave mentions that the WCW/ECW group had a 15-on-4 advantage and Undertaker still wouldn't even leave his feet to sell the beat down. Then Steve Austin showed up and beat the shit out of everybody which got an ENORMOUS pop (yeah this is pretty legendary, and a perfect example of how the crowd really wanted Austin as a babyface and not a heel). They also had 83-year-old Freddie Blassie on the show, in a wheelchair, doing stuff backstage. At the end of the show, as he was leaving, Stephanie McMahon got in his face and said, "You and the WWF have a lot in common. You're both about to die." Dave heard a lot of complaints from people about that one, who felt it went too far (in case you're wondering, Stephanie was two years early. He died in 2003).
WATCH: Steve Austin returns to help WWF fend off The Alliance
WWF filed a $1.7 million lawsuit against 30 different bars and restaurants in Canada for illegally showing PPV events. WWF does allow those types of places to show PPVs, but only if they pay a fee and have a contract and all that stuff. WWF had apparently done an undercover investigation and found businesses that did it 3 or more times after being told to stop and has filed lawsuits against them.
Dean Malenko turns 41 in a few weeks and plans to retire soon to become a backstage agent and trainer. Malenko is still in good condition but he's decided he wants to hang up the boots and get of the business while he still has his health (and so he did. Retired in 2001 and hasn't wrestled since. Still an agent in WWE today) (6-28-19 update: I wrote this back in January when Malenko was still in WWE. He is now an agent for AEW).
Steve Austin's back is still really messed up. He's been very limited in what he could do on TV (including the run-in on Raw) and is planning to gut his way through the Invasion PPV. There's a good chance he'll take time off again after the PPV because they want him healthy enough to headline Summerslam in August because the plan right now is Austin vs. Rock (who will be returning sometime in the next 2 weeks).
Jerry Lawler returning to WWF seems to be a dead issue at this point. Lawler went on his website and posted that his wife Stacy Carter had given him her blessing to go back without her and he spoke to Jim Ross about it, but was told that WWF had nothing for him anymore. If you recall, Lawler was almost supposed to come back a couple weeks ago but it all fell through over Stacy and there's apparently some hard feelings within WWF over how Lawler handled that situation. It's said that the door is still open for Lawler in the future but for now, they're not interested anymore.
The Star tabloid has an interview with Chyna regarding her leaving WWF and apparently she opened up about a lot of stuff, including going public with the Triple H/Stephanie McMahon story. Dave seems to have already known that story but he hasn't really mentioned it until now. Anyway, I guess he hasn't read the interview so he doesn't have anything else to add yet (more on this is forthcoming, don't worry).
Random WWF notes: The Dudleyz filmed a Chef Boyardee commercial (I can't find this). Scott Steiner is showing some improvement with his back problems but still hasn't had any discussions with WWF. DDP has a knee injury and Dave talks about how DDP has been working through injuries for years in WCW, which comes with the territory when you're 46 years old. (He should try yoga. I know a guy). The Right To Censor gimmick is dead and all the members will be repackaged soon (it just occurred to me, I would probably mark out a little bit if they brought the RTC back for one night only on one of those gimmicky old school Raws or something). There was an angle pitched for Raw for Paul Heyman to beat up Jim Ross, but apparently Ross refused. He'll literally kiss Vince's ass on TV, but he ain't gonna let Heyman beat him up. Lita is reportedly happy that Chyna is gone. Jeff Hardy and Trish Stratus are expected to be paired up on TV soon. There's talk of bringing in Dawn Marie to manage Storm and Credible, to revive their Impact Players gimmick from ECW but nothing too serious yet.
The WCW wrestlers are still having a tough time being welcomed in the WWF locker room. For starters, most of the WWF guys have accused the WCW wrestlers of not knowing how to work and there's still a bunch of drama about WCW guys not following "locker room etiquette." You know, doesn't shake hands with all the right people, shit like that. It's said a lot of the WCW guys seem cocky and aloof but the WCW version of the story is that they're just new and don't really know any better about how the WWF locker room operates. A few weeks ago, Jindrak and O'Hare were sitting at a table in catering, keeping to themselves, but apparently not interacting with everyone else. Eventually, Triple H got up and went over to their table and made a big show of sarcastically introducing himself to them and shaking their hands while everyone else watched. Shit like that. There's also heat on the former WCW agents such as Dave Finlay, Arn Anderson, and Johnny Ace, all of whom are disliked by the WWF guys.
On the latest Memphis Championship Wrestling show, American Dragon cut a promo referencing the Observer. A little while back, MCW promoter Randy Hales was on the Observer Live show and talked about a match where Dragon (who is usually a face) was asked to work as a heel. Apparently he didn't do a good job of being a heel and there was some heat on him from Hales. On the MCW show, Dragon cut a bit of a shoot promo about it. The promo was one of several featuring the WWF developmental signees who have since been pulled out of MCW, so this was sort of a "going away" promo since Dragon and several others are leaving the territory and have been released by WWF. He also talked about his future plans now that he is no longer signed (this is a really interesting, 100% legit Daniel Bryan interview, talking about going back to live with his mom, trying to make his car payments, going back to school, planning to become an English teacher, etc. It's crazy how close we almost came to Bryan disappearing from the business around this time).
WATCH: American Dragon farewell promo in MCW - 2001
There's a rumor going around that the Rock has a broken ankle. Not true. Afa Anoa'i held an indie show and one of the guys he brought in was an OVW wrestler named Hamo Bull, who looks a lot like The Rock (except he's way smaller). Anyway, Bull has a broken ankle. So he came out at this indie show to cut a promo and was dressed exactly like Rock and cut a promo using a bunch of Rock catchphrases (even though he doesn't sound anything like him). Anyway, this apparently got twisted into "Rock showed up at this indie show and he has a broken ankle!" Nope. Anyway, Hamo Bull is still signed to OVW and is expected to return soon but Dave says once again that the latest word is that Bull doesn't have the best locker room etiquette. Dave thinks someone in WWF should just be Miss Manners and write up a "locker room etiquette" pamphlet to give to all the new signees, since we're apparently acting like fucking high schoolers. While we're at it, he suggests a "How WCW went down the tubes" book for the writers and WWF office staff so they stop copying so many of WCW's mistakes lately. Dave suggest Vince should give that one a read too just to be safe. (Hey, maybe Bryan Alvarez could write it!)
Chris Benoit update: he's expecting to be back in 8-9 months. On top of the shattered discs that he got fixed, he also had a nerve issue. Benoit said he could have gotten the nerve issue fixed and been back a lot sooner, but the other neck problems would have remained and still would have needed fixing eventually. So he decided to get it all done at once so he wouldn't have to get a 2nd neck surgery a few years later. Before the surgery, his arm had gotten so weak that he couldn't do a single push-up.