Wrestling Observer Rewinder

February 04, 2002

Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash, and Scott Hall have all officially signed 2-year deals with WWF. All 3 were flown to Stamford for meetings this week to discuss pretty much everything planned going forward. They were told they will have to prove themselves to the locker room and were made aware of the fact that a lot of people aren't going to welcome them. They all have shitty reputations as backstage cancers and Vince pretty much told them this is their chance to change that legacy. When the brand split eventually happens, it's expected they will appear on both shows, as a group of unsigned, outside invaders, but that could change because who knows when the brand split is happening anymore. Once again, Dave talks about all the times Vince had "outsider" angles fall in his lap and all the times he could have done huge business with it, but instead, fumbled it. Dusty Rhodes coming in after leaving WCW. Ric Flair coming in while still WCW champion. Benoit (still WCW champion) and the rest of the Radicalz jumping ship to WWF. The Invasion. So on and so forth. All of these should have been huge storylines with dream match potential, but Vince's refusal to ever acknowledge another company or treat them as kayfabe equals pretty much killed all of them and turned them all into "just another WWF guy" soon after they arrived. Given that history, Dave is shocked Vince is willing to use the NWO gimmick for this, but I guess without competition, there's no harm in admitting other companies used to exist.
From here, Dave goes into the history of these guys and their backstage antics and political games that helped kill WCW, and he doesn't seem very optimistic about them behaving any better here. He says at first, they'll play nice, but when it comes time to give back, then what? Putting over Austin or Rock is meaningless because those guys are already made. So Dave tries to imagine a scenario in which Hogan or Nash actually busts their asses to, say, put over Edge or Jericho or RVD and treat them as equals, and he can't see it happening (and don't come at Dave with any of that "but Hogan put over Billy Kidman!" bullshit because c'mon...). Anyway, the plan is to debut all 3 men at the No Way Out PPV in a couple of weeks and build them for big Wrestlemania matches. The storyline is that these 3 were cancers that helped killed WCW (which ain't exactly a lie) and they've come to the WWF to do the same.
There's currently no plans for X-Pac or Shawn Michaels to be included in the group. According to sources, Shawn's feelings about returning seem to change every day. One day they talk to him and he talks about feeling great physically and wanting to make a comeback, and other days, he doesn't seem interested at all. Dave figures Shawn will return to TV soon in some way, but has no clue if it'll be in or out of the ring.
On this week's Raw, they played a music video set to a Kid Rock song airing tons of clips from the past. The video did more in 4 minutes to acknowledge WWF's history than they have done total in the past 20 years total and Dave loved it. And of course he did. To this day, this is the best video package in WWE history and I won't hear otherwise.
Dave says the plan is still to do the brand split after Wrestlemania, but that has changed a million times in the last year so who knows for sure. Dave talks about all the previous times it was planned and how the live event department has had to cancel arenas, re-book arenas, and rearrange the schedule a dozen times because Vince keeps changing his mind on when they're doing this. Each crew (Raw and Smackdown) will have 40-45 wrestlers, with the idea of the unified champion appearing on both shows (but they might also split the belts again). Dave expects that to be Triple H, since nobody in their right mind thinks Jericho has a chance in hell of winning at Wrestlemania. Austin would be the top star on one show, while Rock would anchor the other. PPVs would probably be joint shows at first, with 4 matches from each brand, but at some point, they may expand to 2 PPVs per month, so each brand would have its own monthly PPV. This will obviously open up new spots on the roster, with Brock Lesnar, Randy Orton, Rico Constantino, and Ron Waterman expected to be called up in the coming months.
Dave is interested to see how Lesnar is handled. He got a bigger contract than everyone else when he signed his developmental deal because WCW and NJPW were both pursuing him at the same time, so WWF is going to feel pressure to do more with him to make him earn that money. He's impressive looking for sure, but he's still very green and Dave hopes they aren't rushing him. Orton is seen as more of a long-term investment since he's only 21 and they don't feel the need to rush him.
There's more serious talk of a cruiserweight division, and Dave once again points out how WWF has never had success at this because Vince has never taken the division seriously and spent years establishing smaller wrestlers as not being on the same level as the people he sees as stars. But the indies are full of really talented, smaller guys now with nowhere else to work, so this may be the time. The idea is also to sign a lot of these guys so that any other potential competitors don't sign them. WCW caught WWF sleeping a few years ago and the cruiserweight division was one of the primary things WCW had going for them. ECW also, in much the same way, got over by having some of those same people (Mysterio, Eddie Guerrero, etc.) delivering killer matches. WWF doesn't want someone else to sign all those guys up and start putting out an exciting show that might gain traction. AJ Styles was recently told that he's pretty much a sure thing to be brought in if they end up doing a cruiserweight division. Same with Rey Mysterio.
Dave also says Jimmy Hart has been given an offer to come back to WWF. Jimmy Hart is one of the primary people behind XWF and Dave says it's not a coincidence that WWF is slowly plucking away key XWF talent. Again, Vince got caught slipping once and it nearly killed the company. He's determined to not let anyone else gain a foothold ever again.
Kenta Kobashi's return match in NOAH will see him team with long-time rival Mitsuharu Misawa to go against Jun Akiyama and NJPW's Yuji Nagata. Dave thinks this is probably gonna be a pretty damn good match. Budokan Hall has already been sold out for weeks because everyone is excited to see Kobashi's first match back in over a year following his eight billionth knee surgery (eight billion and one coming soon).
FMW business is struggling mightily in the wake of Hayabusa's career-ending injury and paralysis. Right now, they're working an interpromotional angle with DDT Pro Wrestling, an indie with a small cult following (this is FMW's last gasp. They'll be dead within the month).
The Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame will have its first induction ceremony and it's a bunch of dead folks (Dave lists them all) and 3 living folks: Lou Thesz, Bruno Sammartino, and Ricky Steamboat. Dave wonders if there will be any problems at the ceremony because Sammartino has been pissed at Thesz ever since he published his book, in which Thesz said he didn't think Sammartino was a particularly good wrestler. He also was very critical of Argentina Rocca, who Sammartino was extremely close to.
Eddie Guerrero has been getting rave reviews for his work on the indie scene, with people saying he's out there on these shows working harder than everybody (yeah, this is around the time Eddie finally got clean and was busting his ass to get back into WWF and get his family back).
More from Jake Roberts' radio interview last week: he said he never saw the entire Beyond The Mat movie but claimed it's full of lies. Complained that he wasn't paid for his role in the movie (Dave points out that it's a documentary and that to his knowledge, no one else was paid either. That's kinda how that works). Said he doesn't think WWF has as much talent now as they did 15 years ago. Claimed at the peak of his addiction, he spent $4,000 a week on alcohol and crack. Blamed Vince Russo for killing WCW.
Chyna was on a morning talk show called The Other Half, hosted by AC Slater from Saved by the Bell and Danny Partridge. They have real names, probably, but who cares. Anyway, they did a bunch of fitness stuff (arm wrestling, push ups, curls) with the 3 of them competing against each other. Dave says the nice thing to do in that situation is let the guest win and look good but Slater especially wasn't going for it and Chyna ended up losing all 3 competitions and by the end of the show, she looked embarrassed and uncomfortable (here's the only video I can find of it, with Chyna and Mario Lopez arm wrestling. She ends up kicking him under the table to get out of losing. Excellent heel move).
A promotion called Women's Extreme Wrestling is planning to shoot a PPV at the old ECW Arena in a few weeks. From the press release, it sounds like a mix of hardcore wrestling with flaming tables and barbed wire mixed with softcore porn (there's an Oil Rumble battle royal, which sounds....dangerous. Anyway, I can't find the full show, but I found a Wrestling With Wregret episode that covers it and has lots of video clips. The show was called Extreme Hofare).
Randy Savage has officially become the head booker of WWA, replacing Jeremy Borash. Brian Adams (Crush) will be Savage's assistant booker. Savage will also wrestle occasionally, but only on major shows and may replace Bret Hart as on-screen commissioner. No real word where that leaves Bret. They're still claiming to be running a PPV in Las Vegas this month, with Savage vs. Jarrett headlining. Reportedly it will be at the Aladdin Hotel. The commission still hasn't issued them a license to run the show there. In light of the recent Mike Tyson/Lennox Lewis press conference brawl, the Nevada athletic commission has their hands full right now and Dave doesn't know if WWA will be able to get the clearances they need in time, this late in the game. And then they still have to try to sell tickets and promote it with almost no notice.
The previous WWA PPV in Australia that aired here in the U.S. a few weeks later was mostly booked by Vince Russo, prior to his cutting ties with the company before the show. Dave says that was pretty obvious if you watched the show, Russo's fingerprints were all over it.
Sources in XWF are claiming the company has a TV deal with FX almost finalized and are hopeful the deal will be announced soon. But Dave says those rumors were going around several months ago too and nothing ever came of it. Nothing is final in the TV industry until it's signed. Plus, as noted previously, with Hogan and Hennig signing with WWF, it was a huge blow to morale and mainstream name value. And as mentioned earlier, AJ Styles may be WWF-bound soon as well, which would be another blow to XWF from an in-ring perspective if not star-power.
Notes from Raw: Dave says it was a tremendous show. Kane squashed Big Show in less than 3 minutes and Dave suspects Big Show is being punished again for not losing the weight they want him to lose. The Flair/Vince segment, with Flair playing the history video, was "the single greatest segment in the history of WWF wrestling" according to Dave, with Flair cutting an incredible promo and even over-the-top Vince couldn't kill the segment. He also jokes that he's mentally blocking out all the Stephanie/Triple H segments. For those who don't remember, around this period in 2002, Stephanie McMahon was arguably the most insufferable character on television and Dave is pretty damn over her. Angle vs. Austin in the main event was a great match and Dave isn't sure those 2 can have a bad match together.
"The single greatest segment in the history of WWF wrestling" Part 1
"The single greatest segment in the history of WWF wrestling" Part 2
On Howard Stern last week, Booker T mentioned having spent time in prison. For those curious about the details, he served 19 months between 1988-89 and was on parole through 1992, stemming from a pair of armed robberies at Wendy's restaurants in Houston when he was 21 years old. He and several friends wore Wendy's uniforms (Booker worked at a Wendy's and had the uniforms) and posed as employees and robbed the two locations but got caught.
Kaz Hayashi, who was one of the undercard WCW stars signed last year when the company folded, asked for his release so he can return to Japan to wrestle, and it was granted. He's been slumming it in WWF developmental for the past year (formerly part of the Jung Dragons in WCW, he eventually shows up in AJPW).
OVW women's wrestler Victoria will be debuting on WWF house shows this week. Dave thinks she has the potential to be the biggest female star in the company. Not only does she have the look (in WWF 2002, if you're not hot, you ain't getting much of a chance), but she also has the presence, charisma, and athletic ability that most of the other women don't have. She's still lacking in-ring experience, but that will improve in time.
Rock won't be working any house shows this month and very limited TVs as well, due to Scorpion King re-shoots. Apparently, they're cutting it extremely close to their deadline to get the film finished, so the movie is Rock's #1 priority for the time being. Expect Scorpion King to get a Super Bowl ad this week as well.
E! Network was reportedly working on a True Hollywood Stories episode based on Vince McMahon but canceled it due to a lack of cooperation from WWF, which refused to participate, refused to allow them to use any footage, and pressured them not to do it at all.
Hulk Hogan's father, Peter Bollea, passed away back in December after a lengthy illness, but Hogan kept it pretty quiet and Dave is just now finding out.
AJ Styles worked a second WWF dark match last week at the Raw taping, losing to Hurricane. As with the first match, he was impressive enough that they're still talking to him (AJ does eventually get offered a developmental deal, but he would have had to move to Cincinnati and that wasn't going to work because I guess his wife couldn't leave her job or something, so he turned it down).
Brian Christopher has been telling people he's returning to WWF soon to reform the Too Cool group with Scotty 2 Hotty and Rikishi (turns out that wasn't true. He gets re-signed briefly in 2004, but that barely lasts a few weeks).