August 06, 2001
- WWF released its annual SEC filing and it revealed that the company purchased WCW for $2.5 million (for the trademarks, contracts, videotape library and other misc. stuff) as well as another $1.8 million in costs spent during the negotiations (I assume lawyers and due diligence costs, but it doesn't specify). To say that's a staggeringly low price is an understatement. The deal also included a 3-year agreement for WWF to purchase an undisclosed amount of advertising on AOL/Time Warner-owned networks. The filing also has a ton of other detail about other numbers, profits made during the year, percentages, attendance numbers, merch and licensing numbers, ad revenue, fiscal year projections, and on and on and on. But that's the boring shit (although, if you're into that stuff, Dave covers it in exhaustive detail). Along with the WCW stuff, there's some other interesting info. A lawsuit filed almost 10 years ago by Bill Eadie (Ax) and Randy Colley (Moondog Rex) over who came up with the idea behind the Demolition tag team was finally settled earlier this year. WWF still has 3 outstanding lawsuits against them: Nicole Bass' sexual harassment suit, the William Morris Agency lawsuit over money they claim WWF owes them, and the World Wildlife Fund, which is suing over the WWF initials.
- Dave also notes that, as of press time, the WWF stock has fallen to $10.50 (as I write this, on Jan. 31, 2019, the stock just closed at $82.34). The stock was downgraded by the Legg Mason investment firm and an analyst was quoted saying, "the reintroduction of the WCW brand has fallen far below expectations and a quick effort to salvage its situation by the introduction of ECW has landed the company in court." (Remember, WWF is currently in some hot water with the bankruptcy court for using the ECW name without actually owning it). Anyway, even investment firms realize the Invasion angle is a flop.
- Dave recaps the latest PRIDE show in Japan and about how tied in with pro wrestling MMA has become there. Guys like Kazuyuki Fujita and Naoya Ogawa have made their careers in shoot fighting and for Fujita, it led to him becoming the IWGP champion as well. But Dave also talks about the flip side, people like Kendo Ka Shin or Shinobu Kandori, who's entire gimmicks were based on their alleged toughness and who got totally exposed and embarrassed in MMA matches, killing their drawing power in wrestling. Anyway, Dave goes into detail on all that stuff and then recaps this show, which featured Kazushi Sakuraba facing an unknown fighter named Quinton "Rampage" Jackson. Dave notes that Jackson was actually detained by police on his way to Japan for the show for a parole violation and he spent 8 hours in a Los Angeles jail before being bailed out and rushing to catch a flight. He came in almost 20 pounds heavier than Sakuraba but he still lost. Regardless, it was said to be a spectacular match and a star-making performance for Jackson in defeat and he appeared to be winning until he gassed out and Sakuraba was then able to tap him out. There was even a pro wrestling spot where Jackson basically powerbombed Sakuraba twice. During the show, Antonio Inoki also came out and announced that IWGP champion Fujita will be facing K-1 star Mirko Cro Cop in a few weeks, with some weird vague rules (the first round being under MMA rules, the second round under K-1 rules, and the third round, if necessary, would be under pro wrestling rules, "whatever that means," Dave says. Don't worry, it doesn't go past the first round).
- Lots of indie companies starting up soon to fill the gap left in the wake of ECW and WCW's deaths. Or, as Dave puts it, "Looks like a lot of people are planning on losing a lot of money promoting pro wrestling over the next few months." There's a company called Main Event Championship Wrestling (mentioned last week) that is running a show at the ECW Arena with plans to tour afterward and using a lot of ECW talent and a few former WCW stars like Buff Bagwell and Curt Hennig. Terry Taylor may also be involved in a backstage role. They're also looking into buying local syndication deals, which is how ECW started but the TV market has changed a lot since then and trying to buy syndication to run a promotion is financial suicide. Dave talks about the promoter trying to sign guys to contracts and how no one really thinks this thing is gonna get off the ground. The promotion is already calling itself the #2 wrestling promotion in the U.S. and Dave says any indie company that draws 20 people to a show is claiming that nowadays. Dave says when a company can draw more than 3,000 to a live event, which OVW, AAA, and others have done in the U.S. in recent months, then maybe they can claim that but until then, shut up with that bullshit. The MECW promoter is already claiming they will be #1 and take down the WWF within 3 years.
- Dave also talks about Vince Russo looking to start up a new promotion called World Wrestling All-Stars (or WWA) that would mostly run overseas, which might not be the worst idea. Even in late-2000, WCW was drawing massive crowds in Australia and Europe, so they're starved for wrestling there. Russo and promoter Andrew McManus (who booked the Dennis Rodman/Australia match last year) are the guys behind this idea (Russo ends up bailing on it, but WWA lasted a couple of years and folded in 2003). Russo is hoping to bring in Scott Steiner as the WWA's top star, but Scott is still collecting on an $18,000-per-week Time Warner contract and when that's up, he's made it clear he wants to go to WWF, so Dave doesn't see this happening. McManus is also claiming to have a bunch of other stars scheduled to work WWA shows, like Ken Shamrock, Marc Mero and Rena Mero, Jerry Lawler, Bret Hart, Mick Foley, and more. Dave calls bullshit on a lot of this (they actually do manage to get several of those names, including Bret Hart to be the commissioner).
- Atsushi Onita became the 3rd Japanese wrestler in history to be elected to the Japanese House of Councilors (Inoki and Hiroshi Hase being the other two). Dave notes that around 30 different celebrities ran for seats in the Council and it led to a major stories in the media about Japan's obsession with unqualified celebrities running for, and winning, political office (can you imagine?!) and even the New York Times ran a story about it, mentioning Onita. Anyway, Onita garnered over 461,000 votes, more than double what he needed to be elected. The original Tiger Mask, Satoru Sayama, only got around 33,000 votes and was not elected. Japan is dealing with a bad economy right now and a lot of people in the public are concerned about electing unqualified celebrities to try to fix the country's myriad problems.
- Annodeus Inc., the parent company of video game maker Acclaim, officially filed paperwork to attempt to take over all ECW assets. Back in 1999, Acclaim kept ECW alive with a series of loans totaling more than $1.5 million. In exchange, Acclaim took a 15% ownership stake in ECW. The deal gave Acclaim a security interest in ECW and, with the loans not being repaid, Acclaim feels they have the legal right to foreclose on ECW. If this goes through, it will give Acclaim control over the remaining ECW assets, trademarks, and video library. If Acclaim wins this battle, WWF would then have to pay them in order to use the ECW name (as they're currently still doing on TV). Acclaim is owed more money than ECW is worth and this would also entitle them to any remaining money ECW was owed (InDemand PPV still owes ECW a lot of money, for example). On WWF TV this week, they began pulling away from using the ECW name, and the WCW/ECW group is now simply being called "The Alliance" to avoid using those initials. Paul Heyman has to appear before the court this week and turn over all books and records that he has for ECW.
- The Acclaim filing also lists many of the salaries for ECW wrestlers back in 1999. Guys like RVD and Sabu were making more than $150,000 a year, while others were around the 75K-100K range. The most interesting is Taz, who in 1999, was contracted at $380,000 a year. Dave says that's not a typo. This was right around the time WWF and WCW were both trying to poach him and Heyman signed Taz to a huge deal to keep him, but wasn't able to honor it, and Taz ended up leaving anyway. There's a bunch of other interesting numbers in here too. Acclaim loaned ECW $1 million against future video game royalties that they were expected to get in 2002 (obviously never happen) and another $175,000 loan in January of 2000, which ECW promised to re-pay in 10 days but failed to do. In fact, there's a lot of loans here throughout 1999 and 2000. $100,000 here, $675,000 there, another $100,000 here, another $125,000 there, so on and so forth. Many of the loans were to pay for TV production expenses, taxes, legal costs, and paying back wrestlers who were owed large sums of money (Shane Douglas, Chris Candido, Rob Van Dam, and Tommy Dreamer specifically). Dave goes into all this in detail, but long story short, Heyman was trying man. He was borrowing large sums of money and desperately trying to use it to get his head above water and every time he came close, another wave would knock them back under deeper. Anyone who's ever been in debt is probably familiar with how this shit can spiral out of control and that's what happened to Heyman. He kept borrowing money for short-term fixes with hopes that money made in the long-run would help him pay it off, and well....
- The return of The Rock to Raw drew the highest rated segment in nearly a year and boosted Raw to the 2nd highest rating they've done since moving to TNN. Due to added number of homes with TNN skewing the ratings, there were actually more viewers watching this show, making it the most watched show in the history of TNN. This week also more than doubled the number of male teenagers watching from two weeks ago. Turns out teenagers kinda like this Rock fella. There were roughly 1.5 million more viewers watching Raw for Rock's return than usually watches every week (this increase only lasts about a week or two before business resumes plummeting).
- Konnan has pretty much been iced out of Mexico. Due to his past problems with both CMLL and AAA, he's not welcomed back to either company and has been trying to promote his own shows or working other indies. But neither CMLL or AAA will allow their wrestlers to work shows with Konnan, so he's having trouble finding anywhere to work or that will have him.
- Dennis Coralluzzo passed away this week at age 48 from a brain hemorrhage. Coralluzzo was a controversial promoter in the New Jersey independent scene and frequently butted heads with ECW. Coralluzzo was once president of the NWA and made the call to have Dan Severn as the champion, a title he held for 4 years. Coralluzzo was at the center of the famous ECW double cross when Shane Douglas threw down the NWA title and for years after, he and Heyman hated each other. Coralluzzo was always in the middle of controversy and battled legal, business, and marriage problems constantly. A few years ago, he was basically forced out of the NWA and pretty much floundered around the indie scene, promoting shows and scheming for his next big idea. He was at a wrestling convention the day before his death, claimed he didn't feel good, and went to the hospital where he fell into a coma and never woke up.
- Matrats ran something of a test show for their planned October PPV in Calgary. Joey Styles and Don Callis were there, because they are expected to be the announcers when they do the PPV, alongside full-time Matrats announcer Mauro Ranallo. The show was said to be a major disappointment and was pretty much what everyone expected it to be: a bunch of really green teenage wrestlers doing crazy flippy-shit spots and, otherwise, no grasp on how to actually work matches. There were said to be a couple of decent matches, with Harry Smith and Rene Dupree in particular looking good. Ranallo did commentary but it wasn't for TV. It was live for the audience to hear, so they were watching the show while Ranallo did commentary over the speaker system, which was said to be weird. The craziest moment was Jack Evans doing a corkscrew 630.
- Random notes: Dustin Rhodes worked a show for his father's Turnbuckle Championship Wrestling promotion. He ran in and sorta worked a tag match with Dusty, except it wasn't officially a match because Dustin is still collecting on his Time Warner contract and, wink wink, he can't wrestle until it expires. Alex Wright is moving back to Germany since there's no wrestling jobs in America for him. Bill Goldberg is filming a Keystone Light beer commercial. The wives of both Paul Bearer and referee Charles Robinson have been diagnosed with cancer.
- Speaking of Goldberg, he's also wanting to play in a charity flag football game at Mile High Stadium in Denver, but he has to get clearance from Time Warner so he doesn't breach his WCW contract by doing so because they're looking for any excuse to get out of that deal. It's going to be the final event at the stadium before it's torn down and features a bunch of former NFL players like John Elway, Joe Montana, Marcus Allen, Hershel Walker, etc. (not sure if Goldberg ends up playing or not, but this game packs nearly 40,000 people into the stadium to watch it).
- Some TV changes are happening for WWF. Both the Superstars and Livewire morning shows are being dropped and in exchange, WWF will be getting a 2-hour Saturday night time slot. This lets TNN add WWF programming within the "prime time" window which will make TNN appear to be doing stronger numbers on paper, even though they're not really adding any new product. The new show will be similar to Livewire and Superstars, mostly just a recap show with some other matches (these shows become WWF Attitude and WWF Excess. Neither of them last long and are eventually replaced by Velocity and WWE Confidential).
- Stacy Carter and Jerry Lawler split up about 3 weeks ago, and she has asked for a divorce That's all Dave has on this right now. Obviously this leads to Lawler returning to WWF in a couple of months. We'll get more details on this soon.
- Ch. 4 in the UK announced it is cancelling all WWF programming. The channel carries Heat as well as some PPV shows and said they are cancelling it over concerns that it has gotten increasingly violent. Raw and Smackdown and most of the other PPVs air on Sky TV which is a far smaller network than Ch. 4.
- Notes from Raw: it was built around the return of the Rock and Dave says Rock's physique has noticeably changed. He's lost a lot of upper body mass and has shorter hair also. They were in Philadelphia, so lots of scattered ECW chants throughout the show. Kurt Angle cut a way-too-corny babyface promo. Debra was making people cookies and the joke is that they were terrible but everyone pretended to like them. Booker T regained the WCW title from Angle. DDP tripped when running to the ring to do a run-in and ended up cutting his head hardway somehow. And of course, it ended with Rock returning, rock bottoming both Vince and Shane, and making it clear he was siding with the WWF in this feud.
- Chyna made a post on her website responding to all the stories about her alleged contract demands and reasons for leaving WWF. Dave says the problem with this story is that no one will definitively say anything, it's all a bunch of vague hints. Chyna said she didn't want to go backwards and WWF wasn't offering her what she felt she deserved. Dave talks about her Playboy success as well as her autobiography selling well and that she was making a ton of money this year because of that. Chyna said WWF turned down her offer because Vince now has a monopoly on the business and doesn't have to give into people's contract demands anymore. Chyna made it clear that she didn't quit, she was released. She also said she didn't want to wrestle full-time anymore and wants to pursue acting, which was also a factor. WWF doesn't want to pay full-time big guaranteed money to a part-time actor (Dave says they did with Rock, but points out that Chyna's star power isn't even in Rock's league, despite what she apparently thinks). Regarding the Vince/monopoly thing, Dave agrees that it may have been something of a factor, but WWF had apparently made the decision before then that Chyna's character had pretty much run its course. Her unwillingness to work with or sell for women was also a factor, because she always wanted to work with guys and WWF is moving away from that. And finally, even though nobody will outright admit it, Chyna being the odd one out in the Triple H/Stephanie McMahon situation obviously had a lot to do with it.
- OVW wrestler Prototype (real name John Cena) is starring in a new UPN show called Manhunt which is starting soon. Dave also talks about a recent promo Cena did where he pretended to rewind himself while doing the promo. Like he did the promo, then sorta said it backwards while moving as if he was a tape being rewinded and then repeated the promo again. It's weird, but creative and Dave says it was also pretty great and got a lot of people talking. He also has a great look, but his in-ring work still has a long way to go (I can't find video of this rewind promo, but even Chris Jericho talks about it in his book and talked about how entertaining it was).
- Speaking of OVW, at the recent tapings there, Jerry Lynn lost to Randy Orton, while David Flair debuted and cut a promo trashing WCW and Eric Bischoff. And in the main event, Brock Lesnar went against Leviathan. Lesnar got maced by the guy at ringside, which allowed Leviathan to pin him.
- WATCH: Brock Lesnar vs. Leviathan - OVW
- Various WWF notes: the Rock's wife is due to give birth this month. Big Boss Man may become a trainer in OVW or HWA. Nathan Jones hasn't cleared up his visa issues in Australia and Jim Ross hinted online that if he doesn't get it figured out soon, his future in WWF might be in jeopardy. Apparently Jones had some legal issues back in Australia that WWF wasn't aware of and because of that, he hasn't been able to get a visa to return to the U.S. WWF is looking to sign Sharmell Sullivan (former Nitro Girl Paisley in WCW) to be a wrestler. There's talk about making William Regal an announcer. Dave thinks it could work, but you never know. Dave also thought Arn Anderson would be great at it but turns out he wasn't at all. Trish Stratus and Tazz are filming a Stacker 2 commercial. And WWF is considering bringing back Ken Shamrock, which Dave figured was inevitable after PRIDE released him (never happens).
- Former WCW wrestler The Wall was actually released from his WWF contract a couple of months ago. His was one of the contracts that WWF purchased when they got WCW but you may have noticed, Wall wasn't around much during the last weeks of WCW. Turns out he was dealing with a nasty drug problem at the time and it didn't go away after WWF signed him. So they released him. He has since gone through rehab and is now working indies (he dies in 2003 while working for AJPW, but apparently toxicology tests weren't done so they never confirmed whether it was an overdose or not).