December 10, 2001
- WWF has once again set a date for the planned roster split and now it's set to take place on the Jan. 7th edition of Raw at Madison Square Garden. Ever since buying WCW, the company has talked about splitting the roster and they have repeatedly made plans for a "draft" only to postpone those plans over and over again. At this point, the idea has been booked and then scrapped so many times that people within the company are doubting whether this Jan. 7th draft will actually happen (nope, it gets scrapped yet again and doesn't happen until March). Of course, at this point, any value that "WCW" or "ECW" had as brands has been totally squandered, which was the whole point of trying to run separate shows anyway. Dave goes through the history of how WWF botched the whole angle, and how the original plans for a separate company to "compete" with WWF kept changing as the angle kept failing, how WCW was going to be its own touring brand, etc. The current plan is still for Raw and Smackdown to run as separate entities, with Rock on one show and Austin heading up the other. One owned by Vince, the other owned by Ric Flair, and eventually each would run its own monthly PPV (thus doubling the number of WWF PPVs in a year). Dave breaks down how all this will completely fuck up the company's touring schedule for house shows. Especially if it happens in January, with lots of arenas already booked that would have to be changed. Dave seems to think they're rushing into this whole thing without really thinking through the logistics of it (yeah they thought so too, which is why they end up scrapping it).
- Dave also goes in depth on how various revenue streams might change with a brand split. He doesn't expect too much of a change in house show business. PPV is the big one. By doubling the number of PPVs each month, some people feel like that's too much and people won't spend that much money, Dave disagrees. Not too long ago, both WWF and WCW were running monthly PPVs, often within a week of each other, and both were doing big numbers. And that's not counting the occasional ECW PPVs at the time also. If the product is hot, people will pay for it. So if done right, this could greatly increase WWF's PPV profits. And of course, if done wrong, it could sink all their PPVs. TV ratings will be interesting. By splitting the roster, they're diluting the top stars and spreading the roster thin. Dave could see ratings for both shows going down since they'll only have half the star-power on each. But with more people getting TV time, it gives them a chance to create new stars and if they can do that, then hey, good news! Of course, that depends on WWF creating new stars. And they haven't been so great at that lately.
- Former Stampede Wrestling announcer Ed Whalen passed away this week at age 74 after suffering a heart attack while on vacation in Florida. Dave briefly summarizes his life and career, dating back to 1952 when Stu Hart first hired him to be a ring announcer. He talks about how Whalen loved the athletic aspect of wrestling and the goofy funny stuff, but he hated hardcore, violent wrestling and very publicly quit Stampede on 3 different occasions when he felt it had gotten too violent, only to be talked into coming back. He also had a lot of power with the local TV stations and whenever a match got too bloody or violent, he would order the cameras turned off, which frustrated Bruce Hart (who was booking the shows) because these were his most heated angles and matches and they often didn't air on television because Whalen would have them pulled. Whalen was well liked by most people in the company but they also realized he was often bad for business because he was well known for not allowing heels to get heat in interviews if he didn't like what they were saying by just taking the microphone away mid-sentence and leaving them there looking stupid on live TV or saying things on TV that completely went against whatever angle they were doing (how did this guy keep his job?!). By his later years, he was regarded as a pretty terrible announcer (he even won Worst Announcer in the 1989 Observer Awards). But Stu Hart loved him and never even considered firing him, no matter how much it frustrated Bruce. Anyway, Dave promises to have a much longer and more detailed story on Whalen in the next issue.
- Not much news this week so far. I've already gone through the top stories section, Mexico, NOAH, AJPW, etc. and it's mostly just show results. No real news to any of it.
- Former NJPW referee Pete Takahashi wrote a book this week that is stirring up some controversy because he openly talks about wrestling being fake (in Japan, kayfabe is still pretty strongly protected). Takahashi also wrote about how Andre The Giant was the hardest wrestler to work with because he would never agree to lose to Inoki (he eventually did in 1986, as he was on his way out of the company). He also talks about Inoki doing his own angle where he allegedly almost swallowed his tongue and almost died during a match with Hulk Hogan in 1983, which resulted in Inoki being legitimately rushed to the hospital. The story was carried by all the major news outlets at the time and it was believed Inoki had legitimately suffered a severe injury, but the referee revealed that it was all a work by Inoki.
- Mick Foley has been appearing on the Celebrity edition of Who Wants to Be A Millionaire for the last couple of weeks. On the latest episode, he was up to $125,000 (to be donated to the New York Police & Fire Departments). Time ran out so he'll be back on the show next week to continue. Foley answered some fairly difficult questions correctly and came across much smarter than all the WWF stars that appeared on the Weakest Link a couple months ago (he ends up topping out at $125,000, doesn't get any higher than that).
- WATCH: Mick Foley on "Who Wants To Be A Billionaire" Pt. 1
- WATCH: Mick Foley on "Who Wants To Be A Billionaire" Pt. 2
- Scott Steiner worked his first match since WCW folded, appearing in Birmingham, England for WWA. Steiner attacked Konnan and Brian Christopher, which led to commissioner Bret Hart coming out and putting Steiner in the main event in a triple threat against Jeff Jarrett and Road Dogg. Word is Steiner didn't do much because he's still really messed up from all his injuries. He mostly stayed out of the way or helped Jarrett double team Road Dogg.
- WWA is currently touring all over Europe right now. They're also still having the announcers do commentary live over the house microphones so the crowd can hear it. During a Psicosis match, Konnan was doing commentary and joked that Psicosis "looks like Michael Jackson without the little boys" which got a laugh from the crowd. Other notes from the tour: Brian Christopher, doing his Too Cool gimmick with the glasses and dancing, has been super over because it was such a popular act in WWF and people still love it. Disco Inferno has gotten lots of praise for his commentary. When they were in Ireland, Stevie Ray was supposed to cut a promo bashing U2 (since they're from Ireland) but when he got the mic, he actually forgot the name of the band. In London, Scott Steiner started making fun of former Beatles member George Harrison, who literally died only 4 days earlier. Dave thinks that's pretty scummy even for pro wrestling. Anyway, all of the shows drew fairly well and because of their success in Europe and Australia, they're reportedly looking at running in the U.S. sooner than originally planned. Dave thinks that would be a big mistake and they will get humbled and brought back down to earth pretty quickly if they try. Europe and Australia are starved for major league pro wrestling with top American stars so those shows can still draw there. But Dave can't see this promotion, with this roster, drawing flies in the U.S. right now.
- Big Japan Wrestling held a PPV that was apparently shown in America and I only mention it because Missy Hyatt and Joel Gertner did the commentary for it. Dave has gotten a handful of reviews from people who saw the show and apparently their commentary (especially Missy's) was horrifically bad. I'm bummed because I can't find this show. But Missy Hyatt and Gertner doing commentary on death match wrestling is something I kinda need to see.
- Ted Turner was part of a big press meeting this week where he said that if he knew then what he knew now, he never would have sold Time Warner in the first place. The Time Warner deal with AOL essentially stripped Turner of all his power in the company. Anyway, this is only notable because Turner said nothing at all about starting a new TV network. A lot of people in the wrestling industry had been quietly hoping that Turner would start a new network with hopes that he would bring back wrestling on it. But it doesn't appear that Turner is interested in getting back into that game anymore at this stage of his life.
- Kevin Nash is reportedly looking to work tours with WWA starting in February. The idea is that he would get paid $40,000 per tour, with WWA doing 5 tours per year. Each tour is 2 weeks. That comes out to $200,000 per year for only 10 weeks of work, plus they pay all his travel expenses. It's believed WWF offered Nash a $400,000 per year deal, but they don't pay travel expenses and they obviously want him to work more dates. But that was all just preliminary talks, there haven't been any real serious negotiations between Nash and WWF yet because he can't do anything until his WCW deal expires in January anyway. Ultimately, it's Vince McMahon's call but everyone in the company is said to be pretty negative on the idea of bringing in Nash.
- Chyna appeared on the latest Celebrity Fear Factor and it ended up being the highest rated episode in the history of the show.
- WATCH: Celebrity Fear Factor with Chyna (full episode)
- A 16 year old in Florida is in stable condition after a backyard wrestling stunt gone awry. They poured rubbing alcohol on him and set him on fire. The match was being taped and on the video, you can see that the kid doesn't want to do it and he even tries to call a time out and stop it midway through but they ended up doing the stunt to him anyway. Another teenager, who lit the fire, is facing possible criminal charges (backyard wrestling was such a big thing around this time and man, people were doing some dumb shit).
- RF Video, the company that sold all of ECW's old videos, is getting into the wrestling promotion game. They're holding a show in February at the Murphy Rec Center in Philadelphia. The promotion will be called Ring of Honor. Dave says these guys have an advantage over other indie companies because they have the infrastructure in place already to sell and distribute videos of their shows. They're planning to bring in hot indie stars like American Dragon, Spanky, and Low-Ki as well as Eddie Guerrero (and with that little paragraph, ROH is officially born).
- XWF booked their first house shows and whew boy. They booked the 12,000 seat US Cellular Arena in Milwaukee and then the cruel reality hit. Tickets went on sale and they sold less than 250 the first day. It's important to note that these days, the first on-sale date is when the most tickets are sold. Suffice it to say, they're probably not gonna fill up this arena. At this rate, they'll be lucky to fill up 2 rows of it. It was the same story in the other cities as well (Green Bay, Hammond, IN, etc.). The advertising for the shows lists Roddy Piper, Greg Valentine, Nasty Boys, Buff Bagwell, and the Road Warriors as the top stars. It's 2001. Dave has no idea what this company is thinking.
- Roddy Piper was on the Mancow radio show and trashed the WWF. He said the WWF isn't wrestling and criticized the Vince McMahon "kiss my ass club" angle they've been doing. He said the wrestlers in WWF are afraid to stand up for themselves and refuse to participate in humiliating angles. He also claimed Rena Mero was fired because she refused to take her shirt off at a show. Dave points out that's not exactly true. She actually quit the company, she wasn't fired. But in her later sexual harassment lawsuit, she did mention that she had been asked to take her top off at a show and had refused. But she wasn't fired for it, nor did she quit until long after that incident.
- XWF has had interest in both Jeff Jarrett and especially Road Dogg. The talks with Jarrett fell through but they may still come together down the line. As for Road Dogg, they really wanted him but there's issues with him. On top of his well-known drug issues, which got him fired from WWF, he has also developed a reputation in recent months for no-showing indie events that he was booked for. XWF is trying to steer clear of anyone who might give them bad publicity or won't show up. But if he can get his shit together, they'd love to have him.
- Eric Bischoff is meeting with UFC owner Lorenzo Fertitta later this week, but Dave doesn't have any details on why (nothing came of this).
- Notes from Raw: the show opened with Jericho cutting a promo and for a moment there, Dave almost got his hopes up that they might be trying to elevate him to be a top star. But he's been down this road too many times to fall for that trick again. Big Show is really packing on the pounds and has to be a legit 500 at this point. Dave remembers last year when the company was adamant that Big Show wouldn't be brought back from OVW until he got down to 375. Oh well. Austin beat Jericho clean in 7 minutes, which does nothing to make him look strong going into the PPV, considering Jericho desperately needs it. There was nothing wrong with the match itself under normal circumstances, but Jericho is a big part of the main event angle at the PPV and he looked like a total geek here. During the main event (Rock/Trish vs. Vince/Angle), Vince ended up getting a bloody nose from some stiff shots by Trish. I bet he loved that. Jericho interfered, hit Rock with the lionsault, and Rock still kicked out. Once again, Jericho is heading into this PPV looking like a schmuck (this all works out okay for Jericho next week).
- Dave also has spoiler notes from the upcoming Smackdown tapings. For starters, Undertaker cut all his hair off. But the other main thing is Jericho was once again beaten clean (tapping out to a sharpshooter from Rock) and then was beaten up after the match by his own partner, Kurt Angle. Dave has no idea why they're going out of their way this week to make Jericho look like a total bitch right before a PPV where he's in the matches to determine the first undisputed champion (again, this all works out okay soon, but it is questionable booking). Also, the "What!?" chants from the crowd during people's promos is fun for the audience, but it absolutely kills the promos that the guys in the ring are trying to do.
- In regards to Jerry Lawler's recent return to WWF, he was offered a 3-year contract by both the WWF and the XWF. And in fact, the XWF's offer was for more money. But Lawler decided to play it safe on the assumption that WWF will still be around in 3 years, whereas XWF might not be (didn't even last 1 year, so Lawler definitely made the right call on that one).
- A Yokozuna Memorial Show was held last week that drew a sellout crowd of 1,000 fans and a lot of WWF wrestlers worked the show. Afa Anoi'a (Yokozuna's uncle) promoted the show and a lot of that family was there. Rock wasn't able to make it, but Rikishi worked. It was Rikishi's first match in months following some recent surgeries. Undertaker & Kane beat the APA. Kanyon appeared on crutches (he had agreed to work the show months ago but he's injured now, but he still wanted to appear) as well as Kidman, Shannon Moore, Jamie Noble, and some other indie guys.
- Dave lists all the injuries everyone has and there's a lot. Randy Orton suffered a shoulder injury in a pre-Smackdown dark match with Brock Lesnar and it was feared that he might have had a torn rotator cuff, but fortunately it's not that serious (this would be the start of years of shoulder injuries for Randy). Booker T suffered a concussion after an errant kick from, you guessed it, RVD. Rhyno recently had the same major neck surgery that Austin and Benoit had and it's looking to be at least a year before he can return. And the list keeps going. Edge, Christian, Tommy Dreamer, Stacy Keibler, Scotty 2 Hotty, William Regal, Shawn Stasiak, Hugh Morrus, Test, X-Pac, Crash Holly....everybody's got various injuries. Some need surgery, some are working through them. In better news, Triple H is expected to finally return in January. Benoit should be back around March (not quite).
- In OVW, Leviathan is now working as a babyface and recently won the OVW heavyweight title (he later loses it to Prototype).
- Following his recent heart attack, Russ Haas has been cleared to start training again in about a week. He's been doing therapy and every cardiologist he has seen has given him positive reviews and he's expected to be back in the ring by January (not so much, I'm afraid. He dies about a week after this from another heart attack).
- John Laurinaitis is heading down to OVW and HWA later this week to get rid of some people. It's been known for awhile that roster cuts were coming and he's heading down there to fire everyone in person. Needless to say, lots of nervous folks in developmental right now.
- Jim Ross is meeting with Rey Mysterio when they're in town for the PPV next week, so it looks like there is some interest there, despite previous comments Ross has made.