January 21, 2002
- Contracts haven't been signed as of press time, but it appears all but certain that Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash, and Scott Hall will be returning to the WWF within the next few weeks. Lots of scenarios are being discussed, with the obvious being they coming in as a group and leading a renegade faction against WWF, and would appear on both shows when the brand split eventually happens (speaking of, that plan has once again been delayed, no new date given yet). There's also a good chance Triple H and X-Pac may join their group and of course, that has people wondering about Shawn Michaels also. Dave says nothing has changed on Michaels, he's still persona non-grata in WWF right now. Hogan, Nash, and Hall are all pushing to use the NWO name, but Vince is said to be against using that gimmick because, well, we all know how Vince is with ideas he didn't create. Vince has also proven to never care about "outsiders invading" angles, given that he had both the Radicalz and Invasion angles fall into his lap in the last 2 years and he fumbled them both. Or when Ric Flair came to WWF in 1991 when he was still the WCW champion and Vince didn't even try to capitalize on it. Invasion/outsider angles are almost always huge business when done right but every time Vince has had the opportunity in the past, he seems uninterested.
- Hall and Nash are reportedly coming in with similar 3-year deals, each rumored to be in the $700,000-per-year downside guarantee range. Hogan is still negotiating his money and the two sides are still far apart but it's still believed to be inevitable that they'll strike a deal soon. Vince secretly met with Hogan at his hotel in NYC last week when they were in town for Raw. and they all but finalized most of the details. Needless to say, this has been a pretty controversial decision, with almost the entire locker room being unanimously against the idea of bringing in the group. When it comes to people in positions of power, Vince held a meeting with all the agents and other decision makers and Triple H and Stephanie are said to be the only ones for the idea and literally EVERYONE else told Vince they don't like it. But Vince gonna Vince. When word got out about the meeting, Kevin Nash called Vince and said he doesn't want to come in if the decision makers don't want him there and are just going to sabotage him. At some point during this conversation, Nash got Vince to cave on the idea of bringing in Hall, which is what led to him being included now as well.
- There's already rumors that Hogan will face Rock at Wrestlemania as part of a double main event (the other being Austin vs. Triple H, likely for the title). Dave says those are just rumors and none of that is finalized yet. Morale in the locker room to the news is about what you'd expect, especially from people who worked with any of those 3 guys in WWF or WCW before and remember how much trouble they all caused. Many have said that having these guys brought in, for more money and guaranteed to be in top positions ahead of everyone else, is a slap in the face to the rest of the roster. Dave thinks these guys will obviously help business in the short-term, but they signed 3-year deals and Dave can't even fathom any of these guys being worth that much money for that long, much less for the disruption it may cause the locker room.
- Jim Ross did an interview with Slam Wrestling where he defended the impending signings, blaming Hall, Nash, and Hogan's bad reputations on WCW's poor management and says WWF won't let them get away with the same behavior. Dave agrees that WCW was definitely at fault for allowing a lot of it, but Nash and Hall in particular had the same reputation in WWF before they left, so...you know. Also, in regards to Scott Hall, his issues have nothing to do with any wrestling company and all to do with the fact that he's an out-of-control alcoholic who can't stay out of trouble. Dave talks about when Eddie Guerrero, Brian Christopher, and Road Dogg were all fired last year for drug issues, WWF was right to do so and they don't have anywhere close to the same track record Hall has. Dave can't understand why they think this is worth taking a chance on and in fact, he wonders if WWF has a responsibility to not put Hall back in that position, since he's shown no signs whatsoever that he's straightened himself up. In the end, Dave thinks these guys are going to milk the WWF for all they can get, and when it comes time to give back, we'll see their true colors then.
- One last fun fact: Dave says that in just the last 15 months, Kurt Angle has headlined more shows that drew 10,000 or more fans, headlined more PPVs with 1.0 or higher buyrates, and headlined more MSG sellouts than both Hall and Nash have done combined in their entire careers.
- Finally, on to the next thing. Dave gives his personal opinions on some of the recent Observer Awards winners, what he agreed with, what he didn't, etc. For instance, Keiji Muto won Wrestler of the Year but Dave thinks it should have gone to Steve Austin and makes his argument for it, but he also sees why Muto won. Stuff like that. It's not news, just the same kinda opinion stuff he does these days on the radio show.
- We also get a long review of the latest UFC 35 PPV headlined by BJ Penn suffering his first loss to Jens Pulver. But that's MMA stuff so moving on...
- Martha Hart reached an out-of-court settlement with the publishing company that released Diana Hart's "Under The Mat" book. The settlement resulted in all copies of the book being removed from bookstores nationwide in Canada. Martha had threatened to sue the publisher back in November after the book came out, saying it was full of completely fabricated bullshit and apparently the publisher realized she was right because they caved pretty hard here. Not only have all books been taken out of stores, but Martha was also given an undisclosed amount of money, which she donated to the charity she established in Owen Hart's name. The publisher also paid all her legal costs. Diana Hart was not involved in the settlement and hasn't commented (yeah, even Diana later admitted the book is full of lies and exaggerations).
- Jushin Liger made his debut in AJPW, teaming with Hiroshi Tanahashi against Hiroshi Hase and Taiyo Kea at a house show in Osaka. So the NJPW/AJPW relationship is still hanging on for now (oh, not much longer...). Hase pinned Tanahashi to win. Can't find video of this but it seems like that'd be cool to see.
- Kenta Kobashi's planned comeback was scheduled to be in a singles main event next month against Jun Akiyama, but it has been changed to a tag match because Kobashi won't be ready yet to work a singles match (wasn't ready to work a tag match either as it turns out, but we'll get there).
- Akira Hokuto, one of the greatest women's wrestlers of all time, announced her retirement this week. Her last match will be in April. Dave gives a brief recap of her career, and her decision to be a stay-at-home mom with her son and her husband, Kensuke Sasaki. By the way, if you want to hear a fun wrestling legend, look up the story of Akira and Sasaki's first meeting during the North Korea shows Inoki put on. (Anyway, Akira stays retired for 2 years, has another baby, and eventually comes out of retirement to work a handful of matches before finally officially retiring for good in 2006).
- Atsushi Onita got a lot of publicity in Japan this week because apparently he was hanging around on a busy street corner in Tokyo collecting donations for Afghan children in the wake of the war now going on there. (Don't worry, he soon finds a way to spin this into trying to get a match with Inoki).
- You may recall back in October, former wrestler Chris Adams was shot and killed after an argument with his best friend Brent Parnell. Perhaps it was over a missing ring, who's to say? Anyhow, police have decided not to indict Parnell on any charges, since the evidence backed up his story that he was acting in self-defense. Parnell told police Adams was drunk and out of control and had gotten violent and that Parnell shot him to protect himself. Parnell called the police immediately after it happened and turned himself in when they arrived at the scene. At the time of his death, Adams had been awaiting trial on manslaughter charges in relation to the drug overdose death of his girlfriend in 2000.
- Remember that Matrats promotion out of Canada that Eric Bischoff was briefly involved with? Their website has disappeared, which probably tells you the state of that company (yup, they gone).
- XPW drew its usual crowd of about 1,000 fans to a show in Los Angeles and it was a mess. They hyped the show around the "shocking appearance of a former WWF or WCW champion" but....it never happened. The show ended with no surprise appearance by anyone, infuriating the fans. New Jack and Vic Grimes had a match that saw New Jack go through a bunch of tables and Grimes get his balls staplegunned (we're still a few weeks away from THAT Grimes/New Jack moment).
- CZW held a show in the old ECW Arena that was only notable because Mark and Jay Brisco worked a match under masks, going by the name Midnight Outlaws. The reason is because the state athletic commission has a rule that wrestlers have to be 18. Both the Briscoes are still underage and for whatever reason, this was their way around it, which Dave thinks is just the dumbest thing.
- Artisan Entertainment reportedly made a deal with Martha Hart to make a movie about Owen Hart's life. The movie is expected to be finished filming in late-2003 and Martha said all proceeds will go to the Owen Hart Foundation (I've gained a lot of respect for Martha Hart through doing these Rewinds. She was steadfast and I believe completely right in everything she did following Owen's death and every single thing she's ever done since then with Owen's name, the money always went to the charity).
- MTV ran an episode this week catching up on people from the old "True Life" episodes. One of them was Matt Taglia, who was the guy they showed who wanted to be a wrestler and was training at Les Thatcher's wrestling school but got dropped after he got caught with drugs. Unsurprisingly, MTV's follow-up showed Taglia has been in and out of rehab ever since and is unemployed (that was 2002. I googled him just for fun and in 2015, he got arrested for a bunch of aggravated robbery charges and best I can tell, he may still be in prison right now).
- WWA is still planning to run a live PPV next month in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand Arena but as of press time, the deal with the arena isn't finalized. Very few wrestlers have also agreed to appear and this PPV is looking to be in doubt. Also, advertising for this show has been blatantly hyping the reunion of Kevin Nash and Scott Hall, which is obviously not happening since they're headed to WWF. There's talk that Randy Savage is getting involved with this promotion also (the show does end up happening, in another arena, and a lot of shit goes sideways, but we'll get there).
- Curt Hennig is going to be working the WWF's upcoming Royal Rumble, which has put XWF in quite a pickle. Hennig isn't under contract to XWF but he has been working all their TV tapings and was expected to become the XWF champion any day now. He's a big part of their shows. But without a contract and with WWF clearly interested, they're in a tough spot. Officially, Hennig is only working the Rumble as a one-shot deal but if he comes in and looks good, it's widely expected WWF will make him an offer and XWF will be shit out of luck (and that's exactly what happens).
- UFC is doing a taped "Best of" PPV in February because they have a contract with InDemand PPV that guarantees a certain number of PPV buys per year and if they come up short of that, UFC has to make up the financial difference on their end. So they're running the "Best of" show to get some more buys in on their contract. This is pretty much the exact same kind of PPV deal ECW had and was one of the big reasons they went out of business, because they couldn't afford to make up the financial difference when they came up short. So in return, the PPV companies held back ECW's payments, which was money ECW needed to survive. Without it, they died. Luckily, UFC's owners are filthy rich so they can handle it.
- The plan, for a long time now, has been for Triple H's first match back to be at the Royal Rumble to try and pop a huge buyrate. That's why they kept him off TV until the Raw last week, even though he's been cleared to return since December. So with that being said, Dave has no idea why they abruptly changed plans and had Triple H wrestle on free TV on Smackdown this week, just days before the Rumble. But that's the state of this company lately, just short-sighted decisions and desperate ratings grabs. Dave really questions the decision making in WWF lately.
- Speaking of the Rumble, this will be the 4th WWF PPV not airing on DirecTV because they're still in a dispute over how the profits are divided. Dave says that even if WWF wins this battle and DirecTV backs down and agrees to stick to the previously agreed terms, it's still going to take WWF almost 3 years to make back the money that has been lost with those PPVs not airing. And that's best case scenario.
- Dave says crowd participation is important to wrestling (and man, we've seen that more than ever now in 2020) but he can't wait for the "What" chants to run their course (18 years later, still waiting). Dave says a lot of wrestlers feel the same way, they hate it. Lance Storm even wrote a blog post on his website talking about how disrespectful it is and how hard it is for anyone to get heat or cut a promo because the crowds just chant "What" after every line rather than be engaged in what's happening.
- WWF recently closed a new book publishing deal with Simon & Schuster, and every mainstream story about it talked about Mick Foley being part of the deal. He's not. If you recall, Foley quietly left the WWF last year, primarily to negotiate his own book deals. Foley wants to write more books, particularly a fiction book, and that just isn't gonna go over with WWF involvement and them taking a huge chunk of the money. Foley is still on good terms with the WWF, but he's no longer there and has no involvement in their new book deal.
- Charlie Haas returned to HWA wrestling this week, about a month after the death of his brother. He's also going by the name R.C. Haas now, in honor of Russ (that gets changed back when he goes to the main roster). On his second night back, Haas won the HWA title.
- As mentioned earlier, Curt Hennig's Rumble appearance is only scheduled to be a one-shot deal for now. Same with Goldust, who is also working the Rumble, although if either does well or gets a great reaction, they'll likely be signed (indeed, they both were).