November 05, 2001
- Frustration is building in the WWF due to the collapse of business. Wrestlers are paid based on event gates and PPV buyrates and needless to say, with those numbers dropping significantly this year, everyone's paychecks are also dropping significantly. It's especially worse for the lower/midcard guys. There's also the issue that WWF brought in so many new wrestlers this year that they picked up from WCW, which divided up the pie even more and led to more competition for spots on the card. Lots of lower card guys have found themselves not even being booked on house shows. As you'd expect, this has led to a lot of resentment from other WWF stars towards all the newcomers and is part of the reason why the whole Invasion angle failed: established WWF stars had no interest in making the angle succeed because their spots were on the line in real life and everyone's income depends on not losing their spot. This is the fastest and most severe decline in the history of professional wrestling (even WCW's decline didn't happen so suddenly) and the worst part is, there's no sign that it's stopping anytime soon. The numbers continue to fall week after week with no sign of plateauing yet. There's a ton of bickering within the writing staff over all sorts of things. Everyone's frustrated that there's no long-term planning and that everything is changed on the fly from week to week. Everyone realizes the Austin heel turn was a massive failure. There's no consistency because Vince overrides or vetoes or changes things constantly on a whim (oh shit, I think I accidentally posted a 2019 Observer....)
- It's said that Bruce Prichard, Michael Hayes, and Brian Gerwertz are all on the same page and they run smoothly, but it's said Paul Heyman has a separate agenda and that Vince listens to Heyman's input too much, which causes him to change plans that everyone else already started working on. They say Heyman is always trying to protect "his ECW guys" and others say Gerwirtz is too focused on comedy and doesn't have enough wrestling knowledge. Then there's those on the other side who say Heyman is the only one who realizes how bad the problems are and that widespread change is needed. So just a bunch of typical backbiting and bickering bullshit. There's also a feeling backstage that they need to "swerve" the fans because the internet spoils so much stuff for people now. Everyone knows Chris Jericho is turning heel soon and it was expected to happen on Raw last week and fans were waiting for it. But instead, they abruptly turned Angle heel instead. It swerved the fans, sure, but it also didn't make any sense and had no logical reason to happen other than to "surprise" people. Dave reminds us that trying to work the internet audience is one of the big things that Russo was obsessed with and which helped drive WCW even further into the ground. Instead of swerving the audience, they simply made the audience stop caring because nothing made sense or mattered, and in the end, WCW swerved itself right out of business.
- With the upcoming Survivor Series PPV featuring WWF vs. the Alliance with the losing team disbanding, it's also created a lot of paranoia among the wrestlers about their jobs. The Invasion angle is a bust and everyone agrees it's time to end it, but if/when the Alliance loses, there's a lot of former WCW wrestlers who are concerned about what happens to them after that. There's still talk of splitting the rosters and running 2 separate brands sometime next year but there's been no movement on that lately and with the roster as inflated as it is now, it's entirely likely that cuts could be made. Not to mention all the talent they're hoarding down in OVW and HWA. Dave figures most of those guys are safe, particularly the OVW guys like Prototype, Leviathan, Randy Orton, and Brock Lesnar. Some of the former WCW cruiserweights might oughta be concerned though. WWF is also keeping an eye on Jimmy Hart's XWF promotion. If they end up striking a deal with any real exposure, WWF will be less likely to get rid of anyone they might be able to use. There's also been rumors that the WWF team may lose since it's looking like the company may have to change its name soon anyway due to the World Wildlife Fund lawsuit, but WWF has spent more than a million dollars so far appealing that ruling and that doesn't even go to court until the spring, so it's a little premature for them to give up the WWF name just yet.
- Oh yeah, speaking of the XWF. It's the first attempt since the death of WCW and ECW to start a new national product. The XFW is expected to hold a press conference this week to announce details of the promotion, including the TV situation. Hulk Hogan officially announced on Bubba The Love Sponge's radio show that he will be part of the promotion, but Hogan has said a lot of stuff on Bubba's show that turned out to not be true, so wait and see. For example, Hogan claimed to be a majority owner in the new company. Not true. He actually has no ownership interest in the company at all, but on their TV show, he will play the role of owner (ala Vince McMahon). Hogan is not planning to wrestle much and will mostly be an authority figure although he will do a few matches a year at least on major shows. The actual owners of the company are a couple of Texas infomercial millionaires who have earmarked $30 million for this venture. Hogan is working with Kevin Sullivan on booking while the business side is largely being run by Jimmy Hart and Brian Knobs. Dave lists a bunch of people who are going to be working there (Hennig, Vampiro, Harris Brothers, AJ Styles, Konnan, Rena Mero, Psicosis, Christopher Daniels, Road Warriors, Juventud Guerrera, etc.). Sting is still collecting his WCW contract until the end of the year but they've had discussions with him and it's believed he will be joining the promotion when he's free to do so. The promotion has a deal with Universal to run regular television tapings from their studios as well as 3 events there per week as a theme park attraction. The plan is also to eventually run house shows in other markets. There is also talk of using Memphis as a farm system, with Lawler running shows there as something of a developmental territory for XWF.
- Keiji Muto now holds 6 major belts in Japan after he and AJPW star Taiyo Kea won the IWGP tag team titles this week. Muto and Kea already hold 2 different sets of tag titles in AJPW so now they're triple tag champions to go along with Muto currently holding the AJPW Triple Crown title (which is 3 belts in and of itself). That being said, Muto's knees are in horrible shape and he almost couldn't work the show. He's scheduled to come to the U.S. this week to get his knees worked on (he's been getting special shots in his knees and things like that which he can apparently only get in the U.S.). The tag title victory essentially unified the AJPW and NJPW tag team titles and Dave says Muto has pretty much solidified that he's going to win just about every Wrestler of the Year award that exists in Japan for the year 2001.
- Dave has a lot more details of the WWA promotion that debuted in Australia and aired on PPV there last week and there are some positives. The U.S. market is burned out and tough right now, but Australia is still under-served and rabid for wrestling, which led to hot crowds. But there's also a lot of negatives. The 2 biggest stars in the eyes of the fans were Jerry Lawler (who can really only do comedy matches because of his age and because that's what most people know him from after spending the last 10 years being a comic heel in WWF) and Bret Hart (who was there but obviously can't wrestle at all). Not having real top stars will hurt this promotion's chances of succeeding long-term. Dave also says the curse of Vince Russo hangs over them, with the PPV featuring the worst of Russo-style booking that helped tank WCW, as clearly the people involved have learned nothing from what doomed that company. Reactions from the PPV were overwhelmingly negative, with complaints about wacky booking, gimmick matches that served no purpose, and crowning Jeff Jarrett as the promotion's first champion. They could have had a major superstar. Australian native Nathan Jones has all the tools needed to be a star and should have been pushed hard and protected. Instead, they booked a tournament and he lost to Jeff Jarrett in the first round. It's easy to dismiss one loss as no big deal, but one loss in the wrong way can be deadly. One loss to Kevin Nash pretty much killed Goldberg's drawing power, for example. Jones came into the show with a lot of hype and a mystique around him and they jobbed him out in his PPV debut in front of his home country. Jeremy Borash, who was in some ways mentored by Russo in WCW, was in charge of the show (after Russo pulled out a couple weeks ago) and he also did commentary alongside Lawler. Like they did on the house shows, the commentary for the PPV was also broadcast over the speakers in the arena so the live crowd could hear it, which led to awkward moments with wrestlers and referees who, for example, weren't supposed to know someone was sneaking up behind them, despite the fact that they could obviously hear the commentators talking about it.
- Other notes from the PPV: Bret Hart opened the show as the WWA commissioner and talked about being there in September to promote the tour and how he got stuck there after the events of 9/11 grounded or disrupted flights all over the world. He also talked about never cleanly losing the WWF title and insulted Vince McMahon which got a huge pop from the crowd, which was very anti-WWF. He claimed no one ever beat him for either the WWF or WCW titles and talked about how WCW fired him while he was injured, called Vince McMahon "a piece of shit" (again, a big pop but it also led to a lot of people saying Bret came off too bitter). As for never losing the titles, Hart said he'd pass the torch to whoever won the tournament tonight to create a legitimate world champion and that he would recognize the winner as the new best there is, was, ever will be, etc. Juventud Guerrera fought Psicosis in a meandering ladder match. The announcers referenced Guerrera's arrest from the last time they were in Australia and, of course, the announcers were mic'd so the crowd popped for the mention of it (it was pretty big mainstream news at the time, so everyone knew). Road Dogg vs. Konnan in a dog collar match for no reason and the collar kept slipping off Konnan's neck somehow. The announcers also repeatedly referenced their WWF and WCW pasts, and the whole thing came off as minor league. Then a hardcore match. Then a battle royal. Then a guitar on a pole match. We've all seen Russo-style booking, you get the idea. Jeff Jarrett then beat Buff Bagwell in a "Tits, Whips, and Buff" match which was basically just a lumberjack match with a bunch of dancing girls around the ring hitting the guys with cat-o-nine tails whips. Vampire Warrior (formerly Gangrel in WWF) had a match against Luna Vachon (his real-life wife). A 4-way women's match where the only way to win was to strip the other 3's tops off. Bare breasts were promised but in the end, the women were wearing tape over their nipples, which the crowd booed the fuck out of and one of the women was a guy in drag who won. The implied (but never outright said) Scott Steiner would be there next month for the next tour but Dave says it's expected to be Rick Steiner instead, since Scott is still injured and collecting that Time Warner money. Some guys in banana suits beat up Disco Inferno. And Jeff Jarrett beat Road Dogg in the tournament finals (in a cage match, because why not) to win the title and of course, they changed the rules midway through the match (after both guys climbed out of the cage at the same time) saying it can only end by pinfall or submission. They ended up doing a play off the Montreal Screwjob, with Bret refusing to ring the bell to screw Road Dogg over. Then Bret Hart apparently turned heel or something and ended up helping Jarrett win anyway. Then he turned face again and laid our Jarrett after the match and put him in a sharpshooter. This show makes no fucking sense. Dave says building heat for a Jarrett/Hart match would be great if Hart was capable of wrestling, but he's not so this accomplished nothing except making the fans want something they can't give them. Anyway, long story short, if you miss the complete clusterfuck that WCW used to be, this new WWA promotion is right up your alley. Because it's a hot fucking mess.
- WATCH: WWA Inception PPV (FULL SHOW)
- And on the complete opposite end of the spectrum, APW in California held a 2-day King of the Indies tournament with at least four legitimate 4+ star matches and then some. The crowd both nights was small but rabid and every match delivered. Many called it the best shows they ever saw live. American Dragon (real name Bryan Danielson), a former WWF developmental wrestler trained by Shawn Michaels, defeated Low-Ki in the finals to win the tournament in a 30 minute match (the 4th match in two days for both men). Dragon pretty much tore the house down all weekend, delivering awesome matches every time. Christoper Daniels vs. AJ Styles garnered a standing ovation after their match as well (the star power in this tournament is crazy: Daniel Bryan, Samoa Joe, AJ Styles, Low-Ki, Christopher Daniels, Doug Williams, Brian Kendrick, etc.) Dave says that regardless of how great all these guys are, unfortunately, most of them have little-to-no chance of ever making it in the WWF (lol. I mean, to be fair, in 2001, that was true. But still....lol) but thinks several of them would be welcomed with open arms in Japan
- WATCH: Low-Ki vs. American Dragon - APW King of the Indies 2001
- Pending regulatory approval, DirecTV will be sold to rival satellite provider EchoStar (parent company of Dish Network). The story has potential ramifications for wrestling. As covered, WWF and DirecTV are currently in a contract dispute that resulted in No Mercy not airing on PPV on DirecTV, which cost both sides an estimated $800,000. WWF has their own deal with EchoStar so this should put an end to the DirecTV issues, but WWF's deal with EchoStar is worse for them than the deal DirecTV offered last week, which WWF turned down. And with EchoStar now poised to have a monopoly on the satellite market, WWF doesn't have a lot of leverage in trying to negotiate a better deal. Long story short, WWF lost $800,000 last week and they're probably going to end up with a worse deal than they would have had if they just accepted DirecTV's offer. Of course, hindsight is 20/20 and most people expected NewsCorp to buy DirecTV, not EchoStar, so it's not like they really could have known. EchoStar's monopoly on the satellite industry will represent around 35% of the total available PPV audience (the rest is through cable) so WWF definitely can't afford to withhold anymore PPVs because doing so would cost literally millions of dollars each month. That being said, the "pending regulatory approval" part is crucial. This purchase will truly create a monopoly in the American satellite industry and it's by no means a sure thing that this sale will even be approved (indeed, it was not approved. They spend a good year fighting with the FCC and DOJ over it before EchoStar ultimately pulls out of the deal and the sale never happens).
- Hayabusa has been able to move his fingers and has a little bit of feeling and movement in his feet but that's all as of press time. He has been moved to a rehab center in Tokyo for now. He was able to eat small amounts of food for the first time last week. Dave saw a tape of the match and describes how Hayabusa slipped off the rope and landed right on his head. People in the crowd screamed immediately. The referee checked on him and even cradled his head, which is probably the worst thing you can do in a situation where someone has a severe neck injury. His opponent then stomped on him and started choking him, without moving his head, mostly just stalling for time, but it was clear something was wrong. The referee pulled him away and called for the bell and there was a panic in the ring after that, with a bunch of people and doctors rushing in to surround him. They took his mask off in the ring and began working on him and brought a stretcher to the ring. The show, which was airing on PPV in Japan, went off the air with Hayabusa still motionless in the ring (I haven't been able to find a full video of this. The spot where Hayabusa lands is easy to find, but those videos end immediately after the bump. All the stuff afterwards, I can't find video of).
- In an interview he did in Australia, Bret Hart had some interesting stuff to say:
- In regards to Bill Goldberg: "As long as Goldberg looked good, which he always did, he couldn't really care less what his fellow wrestlers looked like when they came out of the ring." Hart also admitted that he still has severe problems with his balance due to his concussion issues.
- In regards to the use of painkillers in wrestling: "I don't know if a lot of guys could have done it otherwise. When you get hurt, you are a liability. What happens is you got an entire dressing room filled with drug addicts--and they died one after another. More wrestlers have died from pills than any other sport."
- In regards to his own steroid use: "I did take steroids periodically. I never deny that. I don't know if they did any good. I didn't take enough to affect me either way."
- Bret was also asked, of course, about the Montreal Screwjob and particularly about recent comments that Jack Brisco made saying that he sided with Vince McMahon. Hart said his refusal to lose at Survivor Series had more to do with Shawn Michaels' behavior than it did with the show being in Canada. When Shawn flat out told Bret that he would never put him over, Bret in turn decided that he wouldn't put over Shawn either. Hart claimed he had never refused to put anyone over before that and had lost matches in Canada countless times in the past. In regards to Brisco's comments, Hart called Jack's brother Gerald Brisco "deceptive" because he believes Gerald played a part in the Screwjob. Hart also recounted an old story about Ernie Ladd beating up both the Brisco brothers in a parking lot and stuffing them in the trunk of his car and dropping them off at a promoter's house. Dave says he's also heard that story, although to be fair, Ladd reportedly beat both men with a tire iron. Bret called both of the Briscos drunks and said "Jack Brisco can kiss my ass." He also added that when he knocked out Vince in the locker room after Montreal, more than 10 different former world champions called him to tell him they were proud of him for doing it. Dave is just kinda exasperated that neither side can seem to ever let go of the Screwjob 4 years later.
- In wrestler parent news: Helen Hart is still hospitalized this week in bad shape. Stu Hart has been at her bedside around-the-clock. Hulk Hogan's father Peter Bollea took a turn for the worse this week and it's looking dire for him.
- Diana Hart is doing the media rounds for her autobiography that is being released this week. According to previews, it's a behind the scenes look at the Hart family and is said to be extremely negative about her brother Bret and especially her ex-husband Davey Boy Smith, who she alleges drugged and raped her. The book also goes after Bruce Hart's ex-wife Andrea (who is now dating Davey Boy) as well as Owen Hart's widow Martha Hart. People who have read the book, including people who have known the family for years, are said to be stunned by much of what Diana has written.
- Kurt Angle did an interview with the Observer website and talked about a few things. He seems very serious about training for the 2004 Olympics. He will be in his mid-30s by then and would need to take about a year off from WWF to properly train. He talked about missing the competition. He said there's competition in WWF because everyone wants to be the top star but it's not true athletic competition. He said the WWF has already given him the approval to take the time off to train when necessary and that Vince and Jim Ross have been supportive of his decision. He hasn't made a firm decision yet on whether or not to do it, because it mostly depends on how the next year of his WWF career goes. He has to stay healthy doing pro wrestling before he can consider trying for the Olympics again (spoiler: he does not stay healthy). Angle also talked about the current product and admitted that it was stale and there is nothing interesting about the Alliance feud. He blamed the declining ratings on the product sucking and admitted he's frustrated with his current character and said playing the nerdy babyface gimmick and still being over with the crowd is difficult. But he said he doesn't think things will get any worse and expects business to turn around soon (spoiler: they do and it doesn't).
- Angle, Lita, Trish Stratus, Big Show, Booker T, William Regal, Triple H, and Stephanie McMahon taped an episode of "The Weakest Link" last week which will air in 2 weeks on NBC. Triple H and Stephanie ended up being the last two remaining, with Triple H winning in the end (and if I know anything about marriage, I bet anything Triple H still jokingly rubs that in Stephanie's face to this day). During a commercial break, someone asked Regal about the match on Nitro where he embarrassed Goldberg, which led Triple H to chime in that embarrassing Goldberg isn't hard to do. Dave thinks Goldberg made a good choice by sitting home and collecting on his WCW contract rather than going to WWF. Given the shape of this company lately and the way they've botched the Invasion angle, plus all the resentment WWF stars seem to have against him, if Goldberg showed up in WWF's shark infested waters right now, he's pretty sure everyone would be fighting over who gets to beat him first rather than worrying about how they can all make money together.
- WWF issued full refunds to customers that complained about the webcast for No Mercy. If you recall, WWF tried to stream the PPV over the internet and a little under 1,000 people paid for that option, only to have a terrible experience because, well, this is internet streaming in 2001.
- In a dark match before Raw in Louisville, Brock Lesnar & Shelton Benjamin defeated Prototype and Rico Constantino to win the OVW tag titles. On the same show, in another dark match, Kanyon tore his ACL in a match with Randy Orton.
- WATCH: Brock Lesnar & Shelton Benjamin vs. Prototype & Rico Constantino - 2001
- Dave mentions the names of a few people who were chosen for the Tough Enough season 2 tryouts and one of them is a model and actress named Shelly Martinez (she doesn't make the cut and isn't on the show, but she eventually makes it to WWE anyway).
- Rhyno has 2 herniated discs in his neck and may need surgery. If he does, it will be similar to Austin and Benoit, where he will be out for an extended length of time (yeah, he ends up getting the surgery and is out for well over a year).
- Negotiations with Kevin Nash and Scott Hall are still ongoing and they seem to have hit an impasse over the schedule. Nash has made it clear he doesn't want to work a full schedule and only wants to do 12 dates per month, at most. WWF doesn't want to sign anyone for less than 15 dates per month at minimum. There's some posturing from Nash about going to NJPW instead if WWF won't agree to his terms, but there's nothing to it because NJPW doesn't have any interest in paying Nash the big money he's asking for.
- Eddie Guerrero will be returning to work house shows this week. He did an interview on WWF.com about his issues and strongly hinted that his marriage is over because of his substance issues and talked about not having a family anymore. He said his daughters still love him unconditionally but made it sound as though he and his wife would be divorcing (yeah, he and Vickie were separated for about 2 years. Eddie ends up fathering a daughter with another woman during this time but then ends up reconciling with Vickie and they remained together until his death). Eddie said he'll be starting back slowly in wrestling and admitted he made a mistake in WCW by rushing back too soon after his car accident and tried to resume working at the same pace he did before his injuries. The pain led to his substance abuse issues, which led him to where he is today.
- Former WCW and short-time WWF referee Billy Silverman is threatening legal action against the WWF over being hazed, harassed, ribbed, whatever. Silverman made the mistake of paying to have his plane ticket upgraded to first class. Apparently there's an unspoken rule in the WWF that only the top stars fly first class and Silverman had the audacity to use his own money to pay for his own upgrade, and as a result, he was bullied relentlessly (by JBL) until he quit the company. Dave says it sounds petty, but petty bullshit like this is pretty much why the whole Invasion angle failed in the first place, with all the established WWF people doing everything they could to bury the WCW names who didn't adhere to every little stupid unspoken bullshit rule in the WWF locker room.
- Kurt Angle's wife Karen wrote on her personal website trashing RVD for injuring Kurt: "My personal opinion is that RVD is not ready yet. I feel he is very careless. When these men step into the ring, they are trusting the other person with their body. Even though RVD has been in the business for many years, I don't feel he can be trusted. Out of five matches with RVD, there was only one match Kurt didn't have to have stitches or was able to walk out without bleeding."