November 19, 2001
- In the first public acknowledgement that business is in a serious decline, the WWF laid off 9% of its front office staff, with 39 employees being let go. Company president and COO Stuart Snyder was also laid off in what amounts to the biggest mass layoff in WWF history. The cuts were across the board, but the internet department was the hardest hit, due mostly to the dot com bubble bursting and the internet economy tanking in the last year or so. Snyder's departure was officially a resignation and not "technically" part of the layoffs, but you know how that goes. Nobody believes he willingly left the company. Linda McMahon will take over many of Snyder's duties. Snyder had been in the role since June of last year and was heavily involved in the purchase of WCW (he was the one who negotiated the whole thing with WCW head Brad Siegel) and was also involved in the DirecTV negotiations which have reached a stalemate and is currently still costing both sides around $1 million per month. Linda claims the layoffs will save the company $9 million annually. At one point last year, WWF was looking at moving to a new location in Stamford because Titan Towers was pretty much full with 457 employees working in the offices. Now that the number is down to 417, plans to move out of Titan Towers have been scrapped (as I write this, in April of 2019, WWE just recently announced that they'll finally be moving to a newer, larger space next year with all their new FOX money). There were also layoffs at the Toronto office of WWF Canada and plans to open an office in London have been postponed, although not yet cancelled.
- Speaking of the DirecTV deal, due to their potential sale to EchoStar, Linda McMahon said she didn't expect any new negotiations to take place. The upcoming Survivor Series show will be the 2nd WWF PPV in a row to not air on DirecTV, which will again cost both sides at least a million dollars in lost revenue. With that kind of money on the line, Dave cannot fathom how they can't come to some sort of agreement, even it's just temporary while they figure things out.
- WWF has had two other layoff periods in the past, during the 90s when business was bad. But they continued adding new front office employees during their massive growth in recent years. Dave examines the reasons for this round of cuts and it really comes down to a pretty simple answer: WWF is a creatively-driven business and profitability begins and ends with entertaining their fans first and foremost. And WWF simply hasn't been good for most of this year and creatively have been falling into many of the same traps WCW fell into near the end. Fortunately, WWF is a much better managed company than WCW was so they can survive this kind of downturn. But the death of WCW came from every revenue stream (TV, PPV, live attendance, merch, etc.) plummeting because they lost their audience. All of those same numbers are falling for WWF right now as well, for the same reason. We won't know the company's full financial situation until the next quarterly statements are released but the layoffs seem to indicate that WWF isn't expecting a profitable quarter, which if so would be the first time they've lost money since 1997. Linda told investors this week that they plan to grow revenue by running more shows internationally as well as expanding into movies and TV projects. Dave thinks more international shows is a great idea because there's a lot of wrestling fans overseas starved for live pro wrestling (as seen by the fact that WCW was drawing huge crowds there even in their dying days). But WWF pretty much always fails when they try to move beyond wrestling, so Dave isn't exactly trembling with excitement at WWF-produced movies.
- There have been no wrestler layoffs as of yet, but Dave expects there will be soon. Although there are still plans to split the rosters and run two separate brands, so they still need a lot of bodies. WWF has a total of 160 wrestlers under contract right now and Dave thinks a lot of those guys in developmental should probably start getting nervous. Randy Orton, Brock Lesnar, Ron Waterman, and Rico Constantino seem to be the safest developmental wrestlers (not quite. Waterman gets released in 2002 without ever debuting) because those guys are the ones the company is highest on right now. Then there's a lot of other names in developmental who have a ton of talent but they don't really fit the WWF mold. Nick Dinsmore, Shannon More, Rob Conway, Elix Skipper, Kid Romeo, Mike Sanders, Jamie Noble, etc. Some of them may make it, some won't, but odds are against them all. Then there's John Cena, who has a great look and cuts better promos than anyone else in developmental, but isn't that great of a wrestler and nobody within the company seems to really be talking much about him. But Dave thinks he has that special "it factor" that WWF always looks for, so he should be safe. There's other guys who have been in developmental for a long time, some for several years, and decisions have to be made sooner or later whether to do something with them or cut them loose. There's also the question of how seriously to take Jimmy Hart's new XWF promotion. The wounds from the Monday Night War are still fresh. It was only a few years ago that WWF thought guys like Hogan, Savage, and Piper were finished as marketable headliners. Then those guys went to WCW and proved otherwise. Vince doesn't want to leave that door open for anyone else ever again. On the flip side, WCW dropped young undercard guys like Steve Austin and Mick Foley and they went to WWF and became megastars. WWF doesn't want to make that mistake either and end up handing XWF the next megastar that they didn't see coming.
- Oh hey, speaking of XWF, just days before their first television taping which was written entirely around him, Hulk Hogan appears to have pulled out of the promotion. Hogan spent most of the last few weeks writing TV along with Kevin Sullivan but in the last week, he has been spending most of his time with his father, who is in poor health. But Hogan is also telling people there were insurance concerns because this company was really being built around him. The marketing and merch is labeled as "Hulk Hogan's XWF" and even the ring ropes were planned to be red and yellow. Hogan's lawyers advised him that if the company doesn't have proper insurance, anything that goes wrong could come back on him personally. With Hogan's name so prominent with the promotion, he was also concerned of being dragged into it if things went south and the promotion failed. Others involved think that's all bullshit and that really, Hogan can see the writing on the wall and simply doesn't think this thing is going to succeed so he's gotten cold feet. Hogan is said to be extremely careful with how he's perceived these days and doesn't want to be associated with a startup promotion failing. Despite plans to film 10 episodes this week, XWF still doesn't have a TV deal to air them on. For what it's worth, since this promotion started being planned months ago, Hogan has been wishy-washy on it and has agreed to plans and then backed out on them repeatedly, so he may still be angling for more money or something. You never know with Hogan. And of course, there's always the possibility that WWF may be interested in him.
- So on that note, XFW had their first tapings pretty much right as the Observer went to press. Dave lists all the wrestlers who were there and he has some results from the first day of tapings, but not the second day. Kid Kash won a battle royal to become XWF cruiserweight champion. Rena Mero debuted as on-screen CEO and cut a promo announcing Roddy Piper as the commissioner. Hogan was still at the show, helping out backstage, but apparently had no involvement beyond that and wouldn't take part in the on-screen tapings. Hogan also told people that he had spoken with Vince McMahon but they want him to work a full schedule in WWF, so he turned them down. Dave says take it with a grain of salt because, well, you know. Hogan did appear on a red carpet pre-show thing they taped, wishing the company well. It's said Hogan only agreed to do that in order to save the company some embarrassment over his pulling out, since it's being ran by his friends Jimmy Hart and Brian Knobs. Most of the roster was made up of former big names from WCW or 80s WWF stars. They largely ignored the fact that there's lots of really talented and hungry young guys working the indies right now, with only AJ Styles being brought in (losing to Josh Matthews). The taping was free to fans at Universal Studios and they were outside before the shows basically begging people to come inside and watch, which led to a mostly disinterested crowd that only popped for the more recognizable names.
- Dave has read Diana Hart's book and whew boy. Strap in lads, this is gonna be a ride. The only people who escape this book unscathed are Owen Hart, Dean Hart, Ellie Hart, and Vince McMahon. Everyone else gets ripped into and all their dirt exposed. Diana bemoans the fact that her parents only got $2 million from the Owen settlement while Martha got $16 million and that Martha then cut all ties with the rest of the family. Dave thinks Diana was outright cruel to Martha in this book and hopes Martha won't dignify it with a response because doing so will just bring more attention to it. There's just so much shit in this book. Diana claims Davey Boy got a groupie pregnant while they were engaged. Even her mother, Helen Hart, gets accused of being an alcoholic who battled depression her whole life. Dave also thinks Diana is delusional about "missing her chance" to be a star in the WWF during her involvement in the Bulldog/Shawn Michaels feud. She basically blames Bret and Davey Boy for blowing her big chance to be the next Sunny or Sable. From the very beginning of the book, she accuses Davey Boy of drugging and raping her and it only gets darker from there. She goes into a ton of detail of Davey Boy's drug problems, her own drug issues, and his alleged abuse of her. Bret Hart is portrayed as someone who can't let go of his vendetta against Vince McMahon and that he's the reason the family is torn apart. She sides 100% with Vince and the WWF when it comes to Owen's death. Overall, there were a lot of opportunities for Diana to paint an interesting picture of what was happening behind the scenes at some of wrestling's most pivotal moments, but instead, the book is little more than a collection of stories exposing everyone she feels has wronged her in her family. There's a million incorrect facts in the book. By the halfway point, the reader is numb to all the drama and drug stories. Many of the stories ring true, but Dave feels like some are clearly pure fiction. All in all, Dave seems unimpressed and sad that this was even written. He also thinks it's a legal minefield for anyone who wants to try to sue her over it because she makes some WILD accusations in here that are going to be difficult to prove when she inevitably gets sued for it (indeed, she did).
- Eddie Guerrero's career is in jeopardy once again after he was arrested this week for DUI and property damage after wrecking his car in Florida. Two days later, the WWF released him. Guerrero had just started wrestling again in HWA to get the ring rust off after being out for the last few months in rehab. According to police reports, Guerrero crashed into the gate at a slow speed at the apartment complex he's currently living at in Florida. Cops approached him and smelled alcohol on his breath and noticed him slurring his speech. He failed 2 breathalyzer tests and was arrested and released later that night after posting bail. Friends have said Guerrero has been depressed lately because his wife left him while he was in rehab and moved herself and their kids to Arizona. Guerrero has admitted to being manic depressive and has dealt with an addiction to Vicodin after being injured in a car accident several years ago while he was in WCW. With WWF already laying off employees, Guerrero's arrest came at the worst possible time. He had a 3-year contract with a $250,000 yearly downside guarantee. He's a big enough star that he can still make a decent living working the indies. And of course, he could go to Mexico and instantly be the biggest star there, but there's not really much money in that even if you are the top guy. NJPW could be an option, but they just recently gave another wrestler (Silver King) his old Black Tiger gimmick. Plus, NJPW has cut back on bringing in foreign talent so it's no guarantee he could end up there either. According to people with him before his arrest, Guerrero was at a bar close to his apartment. Two guys he's friendly with attempted to drive him home but when they got to his car, Guerrero jumped in the driver's seat and locked the doors so they couldn't get him out and started driving. They tried to stop him but he said he lived just down the street and it would be fine. Two cop cars happened to be parked at the apartments and Eddie didn't punch in the code to open the gate and instead drove into it. The cops saw it happen and the rest is history.
- Dave's new book Tributes is coming out next week. It's a collection of biography/obituaries he's written for wrestlers who have passed away. The pieces have appeared in the Observers over the years but this collection of all the best ones is updated and revised and all that fun stuff. Dave will be in Toronto next week doing promotional work for the book (including an appearance on TSN's Off The Record) so the Observer will be mailed out late for the first time in several years and will probably have a different format than usual. Dave has almost never missed a Wednesday deadline for mailing the newsletter and seems to really pride himself on that. You can tell it's eating him alive to have to do it next week, to the point where he says in the future, any and all book tours will be scheduled for later in the week so that this doesn't happen again. Anyway, the book is already available at all major bookstores in Canada and will be available at all major retailers in the U.S. soon, as well as amazon.com, if you're one of those weirdos that orders books on the world wide web.
- WATCH: Brief clip of Dave on Off The Record
- When recapping the latest ratings, Dave mentions that there has been one bright spot in all the doom and gloom. Smackdown is still doing pretty strong ratings. Everything is declining but out of everything in the company, Smackdown's numbers are holding up the best. In fact, Smackdown's biggest head-to-head competition this week was a little show on FOX called Temptation Island (my, how things change).
- Weird story regarding Blue Demon Jr. coming out of Mexico. Demon met a woman at a gym that he brought on to an online show he hosts. Oh yeah, apparently Blue Demon Jr. hosts an online web show. Anyway, the chick started stripping on the show. She was a stripper, you see. So I guess this got the rumor mill going that Demon was dating this woman. A few days later, the same woman appeared on a popular TV show there called Intimate Shanik. The show features strippers telling sex stories. The woman talked about having a boyfriend who sometimes beats her. The host of the show automatically assumed she was talking about Blue Demon Jr. and said it on the show. This led to a lot of promoters cancelling Demon's bookings because he's a babyface and now he's being accused of abusing a woman he's dating. Anyway, turns out they're not actually dating and she wasn't talking about him. The host of the show later apologized on the air to Demon. By the way, Demon is currently married but separated from his wife and needless to say, this whole thing didn't help them get any closer to reconciling.
- Helen Hart's funeral was held this week and it was a private ceremony with just family and close friends because they didn't want another media circus the way they had with Owen's death. Given all their past issues with each other, many were surprised when Bret Hart and Bruce Hart went up and delivered a eulogy together. Bret said "Let's not spend the second half of our lives trying to get over the first." And Bruce Hart called Helen the best there is, best there was, and best there ever will be. Several Alberta politicians, including premier Ralph Klein and others were in attendance as well as former Stampede Wrestling announcer Ed Whalen. No word if Diana was there. Speeeeeeaking of....
- Two days before Helen's funeral, the Hart family imploded publicly on a Calgary radio show. Diana Hart was on, promoting her book, and lashed out at Bret for all the usual stuff (he's a jerk who never liked her or Ellie Hart, shit like that). She said she hopes her son gets a job with the WWF some day (he eventually does but is in NJPW as of this writing) (Aug. 16, 2019 update: no longer with NJPW). She talks about Davey Boy Smith raping her and abusing drugs. She said she was in Toronto last week promoting the book and came home to find out her mother was about to die. She said she rushed to the hospital and when she got there, Bret and Keith Hart started berating her about her book and claimed they were going to have her committed to a mental hospital. She then talked about getting a movie made of her book and wanting Pamela Anderson to play her. At this point, Bret Hart called into the radio show and was seething mad. He said the book was full of lies and that their mother would have never approved of her publishing it. The foreward of the book is allegedly written by Stu Hart, but Bret says Stu never wrote that and in his current state of health, he wouldn't even be capable of writing it. Bret said the book is a cry for help and that Diana had lost her mind and talked of filing a lawsuit over it. Diana sarcastically thanked Bret for helping her sell more copies. Bret also berated Diana for her description of what happened before and after the Montreal Screwjob, claiming she had no idea what she was talking about and everything she wrote was wrong. Dave says this was the angriest anyone has probably ever heard Bret Hart be in public. Also, earlier this week, Stu Hart was interviewed mostly about Helen's death, but was also asked about Diana's book. Stu simply responded that he hadn't read it (I can't find audio of the Bret/Diana interview).
- Bret Hart wrote about the situation in his Calgary Sun column, criticizing Diana for writing the book and saying his accusations of Helen being an alcoholic hurt her reputation while she was on her deathbed. In regards to some of Diana's comments about Owen's death, Bret talked a lot about some of the issues of the case that are known publicly but noted that there's a confidentiality clause in the settlement and that some facts of the what happened and exactly what went wrong to cause Owen's death will unfortunately never be known.
- Missy Hyatt has also written an autobiography and Dave expects to have a copy of it to review in the next week or two. Roddy Piper also has one coming out soon.
- Bobby Heenan appeared on a Sacramento talk show this week and it didn't go well, because Heenan was, let's say, not exactly coherent. After Heenan left, the host made fun of him for being drunk but also said he was disappointed because Heenan was one of his heroes growing up and when he finally got the chance to interview him, Heenan showed up smashed.
- You may recall that Bret Hart lashed out at Jack Brisco a few weeks ago in an interview. Jack responded this week and said he stands behind his comments that Bret was in the wrong in the Screwjob situation, but otherwise he has the utmost respect for the Hart family, cherishes his time working with them and was saddened by Helen's death. Beyond that, he said he wouldn't say anything more on Bret's comments. Dave thinks this was pretty much the classiest way he could have handled the situation.
- The most talked about episode of Smackdown in a long time was taped this week. It hasn't aired yet but Dave has the details and it all revolved around a lengthy promo that Paul Heyman cut on Vince McMahon. Dave was told Heyman's performance here was incredible, with him talking about the history of the WWF, Vince pissing on the memories of on stars like Bruno Sammartino, the WWF sucks, even dissing the XFL, and more. He mentioned Hogan, Bret Hart, talked about Vince putting all the territories out of business after Vince's father promised the other promoters he wouldn't, said he stole all his ideas from other people, especially ECW, and said Vince turned "wrestling" into a dirty word. This was of course all a build up to Survivor Series, with WWF vs. The Alliance and the losing side has to disband. Heyman said the WWF would die on Sunday (yeah, this is arguably the best and most legendary promo of Heyman's career. And just think of what that covers).
- WATCH: Paul Heyman cuts amazing promo on Vince McMahon
- Steve Austin is pushing to turn babyface again, but it's not happening. Jim Ross is backing Austin, but Vince and everyone else wants him to remain heel. Austin is pushing to do a 97 Sting-type angle, where he's basically a lone wolf who doesn't side with either WWF or the Alliance and is basically him against the world. Austin has seen his merchandise numbers drop tremendously in the last year and that, along with the heel turn being a clear disaster, he's wanting to turn back. But Vince is committed to the heel thing for now. Dave also mentions that a few Austin promos have been edited down lately on Smackdown because the crowd doing the "what!?" thing is making things go long and derailing the show (for all the good he did, the "What" thing is by far Austin's worst contribution to the wrestling business).
- There's no firm decision yet about bringing Brock Lesnar to the main roster. Due to his big contract, there are some pushing to bring him up ASAP. Others are warning against it, saying that if he's brought up too soon and isn't well protected, he'll be exposed because they feel he's not main roster-ready yet.
- Chris Benoit is still training for a comeback and is said to be close to 100% of his usual training routine. Because he's had time off to rest his body, he's said to be in the best shape he's ever been in his career (he's still quite a ways from coming back).
- Dean Malenko has officially retired from wrestling to be a road agent, but they actually didn't have any agent openings at the moment. So for now, he's working as a trainer in HWA and has been told that when Jack Lanza or Pat Patterson retires, he'll take their place. Malenko is hoping to do one final match at next year's Brian Pillman tribute show, hoping for a 3-way with Benoit and Guerrero but who knows if that will be able to happen (it doesn't).
- Dave has seen Chyna's appearance on TSN's Off The Record and praises host Michael Landsberg's interview skills, who pushes guests for real answers. Chyna came off dismissive of the other women in the company, acting like they weren't in her league and that's why she wanted to wrestle men. In regards to the whole Triple H/Stephanie thing, she tried to be diplomatic about it and said she blamed Triple H for what happened, not Stephanie. But she did criticize Stephanie as well, calling her immature and saying that Stephanie being the boss's daughter obviously put her career in a tough position and admitted that she believes that was part of why she was let go. Chyna said Triple H lives and breathes wrestling 24/7 so maybe Stephanie is the perfect match for him (with 18 years of hindsight, yeah, seems like it. Here's the interview and it really is pretty good. Landsberg really is great at holding people's feet to the fire and getting something out of them and has a real good knowledge of the business. Wish he was still doing these kinds of wrestling interviews today).
- WATCH: Chyna on TSN's Off The Record
- There's been talk of Triple H returning on the Raw after Survivor Series but as of right now, Vince is said to be against the idea since Triple H still isn't quite ready to wrestle yet. If he doesn't return next week, then the plan is still for a return sometime in December or January.
- Mick Foley appeared on a radio show and criticized the company. "We've been losing viewers because they don't have faith in us to tell a good story anymore," he said. He also criticized WWF for not giving fair chances to WCW and ECW wrestlers who were brought in this year. "For some reason, guys who can wrestle, who I know can wrestle, are being told that they can't. One or two bad matches doesn't mean that somebody no longer has it," Foley said. In regards to a potential Hulk Hogan return, Foley thought it would only be a good short-term solution. However, he did say that earlier this year when Vince and Linda were doing their separation angle, Foley thought it would have been great if Hogan had been revealed as Linda's new boyfriend (that actually would have been fantastic, he's right). When asked about Hall and Nash, he had the same thought: good short-term fix, but questioned whether they'd be worth it in the long-term and said if he was in charge of the company, he'd offer them heavily incentive-based contracts to make sure they don't turn into the kind of locker room cancers they have such a bad rep for from their days in WCW. Dave thinks WWF should really listen to Foley's input on these sorts of things because somebody needs to be a voice of reason in that company right now.
- The Weakest Link episode with WWF wrestlers aired this week and was really funny. William Regal was clearly the best player, but most of the wrestlers wouldn't dare vote Stephanie or Triple H off and they pretty much even admitted it as much on the show. Some of the questions were ridiculously easy, especially some of the ones that Trish Stratus missed. Everyone was pretty much in character. Triple H and Stephanie said they were married (which they are on TV, but not in real life, can you imagine??). Triple H joked about his and Regal's lower backs hurting because they are wrestlers and were standing up for so long. Triple H ended up winning by beating Stephanie.
- WATCH: WWF stars appear on The Weakest Link
- Some stories came out this week about WWF's attempts to sign Bill Goldberg and Eric Bischoff earlier this year. WWF's offer to Goldberg was nowhere close to what he was making sitting at home, so needless to say, the talks pretty much began and ended there. As for Bischoff, the idea was to bring him in for a short-term angle leading up to the Invasion PPV, with the idea of him losing a match to Vince McMahon. Dave says the idea of bringing Bischoff in and having him lose the very first match to Vince at the first PPV and blowing it off instead of holding it off to Wrestlemania and letting Bischoff have the upper hand for awhile is the perfect example of why this whole angle has been a failure. Anyway, negotiations with Bischoff never got serious either so it never really got past the discussion phase.
- Lots of letters this week about Diana Hart's book and how vindictive she comes across. There's a point in the book where she casually mentions that Ken Shamrock portrays himself as a family man but then would go to strip clubs and had girlfriends on the road, then he's never mentioned again. The letter writer wonders what was even the point of including that story in the book, other than to try and mess up Shamrock's life? Diana sides with Vince McMahon on pretty much every thing and shreds her own family apart on every other topic. Acknowledges that wrestling destroyed her family and then pushes the idea that she hopes her kids end up in the WWF. Lots of complaints about all the spelling, grammatical, and factual errors in the book. All in all, everyone thinks this book is trash, dirty laundry, shouldn't have been written, and was incredibly mean-spirited.....but everyone also seems to agree that they couldn't put it down. Everybody loves a messy car crash.
- Lots of other letters just complaining about the current WWF product, with one guy saying that it's clear Vince McMahon has a pretty great mind for the business and is responsible for some of the greatest moments and stories in wrestling history. But he doesn't want to hear Vince McMahon ever referred to as a "genius" ever again, because he had potentially the biggest and most profitable angle in wrestling history dropped in his lap and he blew it.