February 18, 2002
- Also, sorry I'm late today. Poop happens. ¯\(ツ)/¯
- That didn't take long. As noted last week, after claiming to have finally cleaned up his act, Scott Hall showed up to his first WWF event and made a complete fool of himself, to the point he had to be dragged off to his hotel room to keep from causing further problems, totally embarrassing the few who had gone to bat for him to get him hired. There's always been an unwritten code in the locker room that whatever you do on your own time is fine and as long as you're not wrestling, no one cares. As long as you're good and can be trusted when you get in the ring, it's whatever. Hall is by no means the first person to be fucked up backstage at a show, that in and of itself wasn't a huge problem. But after telling everyone he had cleaned up, to have him show up like this on day 1 ruffled a lot of feathers. Eddie Guerrero and Brian Christopher were both fired for things they did when they weren't at work so, ya know. At one point, Hall reportedly said to the Dudleyz, regarding their 3D finisher, "Great move you got there. I can't wait to kick out of it." Just drunken assholery like that. Vince and Jim Ross later sat down with him and gave him his first and last warning that this isn't WCW and this behavior won't be tolerated again. So allegedly, Hall is one more incident away from being shown the door, despite how much that would wreck upcoming plans. But for now, he's still on board. Then again, Hall got multiple "final warnings" in WCW too so, grain of salt and all that. Speaking of, the next day, Vince and JR told Steve Austin that the plan is for him to work with Hall at Wrestlemania, to which Austin called it a waste of time and replied, "He's not gonna last until Wrestlemania and we all know it." Several other wrestlers have already come forward and told management they don't want to work with Hall.
- Hogan and Nash, meanwhile, went out of their way to try to be humble and cordial with everyone, but it was greeted with widespread skepticism and belief that they're just sucking up to everyone. Triple H is still vouching for all 3 of them, even saying that they would go down to Cincinnati developmental to train and get back into ring shape to show they're dedicated to earning their spot. Hall and Nash did indeed go down to HWA later that week, along with X-Pac, to do that. Hogan didn't go. Nash hasn't wrestled in about a year and Hall hasn't wrestled since NJPW in October. Hogan worked one match in December at the XWF tapings but otherwise, he hasn't had a real match since July of 2000 when the Russo thing happened. The Wrestlemania plans are tentatively Rock vs. Hogan and Nash vs. Undertaker (well, we got one of those) to go along with the Hall/Austin match.
- Latest on the brand split is that it's tentatively scheduled for the week after Wrestlemania but of course, that's changed a million times in the last year, so don't get too attached (it actually happens this time!). The NWO guys are now expected to be Raw exclusive. Dave talks about how it looks like Raw will be the more star-driven "entertainment" show, while Smackdown will focus more on in-ring stuff, and likely will feature the cruiserweight division. Dave is surprised because Smackdown usually pulls in far more actual viewers than Raw and ratings are usually driven by star-power, not match quality, so he figured it would be the other way around.
- WWF and DirecTV temporarily ended their PPV dispute, so the No Way Out PPV will be broadcast on the service, for the first time since they stopped airing WWF PPVs last year. The details of a full long-term agreement are still being worked out. Both sides needed to figure this out because both were leaving millions of dollars on the table every month they couldn't come to an agreement. The original agreement was an even 50/50 split of the revenue from each PPV order. When their contract ended in 2000, DirecTV attempting to change it to a 60/40 split, because they act as both the PPV provider and the network, and felt they were entitled to that little bit extra. Needless to say, WWF felt otherwise. For most of 2001, WWF and DirecTV continued to work together without a contract as they negotiated and eventually, WWF pulled their PPVs in October and the issue went to court. DirecTV was responsible for about 18% of WWF's total PPV buys, so total buyrates instantly dropped by about 1/5. Dave estimates that, since October, WWF has lost around $4.4 million of pure profit by not having their PPVs on the service, and DirecTV has lost roughly the same (and more like $5.4 million if you go by the 60/40 deal they wanted). WWF recently increased it's PPV price from $29.95 to $34.95 starting in April. With Wrestlemania coming up, it was vital for WWF to hurry up and settle this since that PPV is always more expensive and does the most buys, so they stood to lose more than $3 million on Wrestlemania alone not airing on DirecTV.
- There's talk in Mexico of doing a UWA revival show. UWA was a hugely successful Lucha Libre company that formed in 1977 and folded in 1991 (yup, we covered the dying days of it in the early Rewinds). Canek was the promotion's top star and at their peak, UWA's success ranks up there with any wrestling promotion in history. In one year, they drew over 1 million fans to shows in Naucalpan at the same arena. Just doing the math, if they ran this same arena once a week, that means they drew almost 20,000 fans every single week, to the same building. Many of the top Mexican stars of the 80s were huge stars there so they're trying to get all of them back for a one day reunion show.
- More problems in Mexico with fans getting involved. During an indie show, some drunk fan tried to shove La Parka. Bad idea. La Parka swung and connected with a haymaker that knocked the dude cold unconscious. This was actually La Parka's first match back in the city since being suspended for another fight with a fan. After the punch, while the match was still going on, La Parka ran over to where the commission official was sitting and tried to explain that the fan started the fight.
- Speaking of, Tatsumi Fujinami has still said that NJPW is considering filing a lawsuit against AJPW for contract tampering and also said that this is all out war and vowed NJPW would destroy AJPW. So yeah, that fragile peace is dead for the time being.
- The recent issue of Playboy featuring Chyna was among the highest selling Playboys of all time. It didn't come close to the numbers her first pictorial did, but given that this one didn't have the WWF marketing machine behind it, nobody figured it would. But even without the WWF, this one still did huge numbers.
- Dave mentions that Goldberg recently lost out on a big movie role he auditioned for to Michael Clark Duncan. Dave thinks it might be the next Matrix movie, but Duncan wasn't in that. So I checked out MCD's IMDb page and it looks like the only big movie he would have been filming about this time was Daredevil, where he played Kingpin. So maybe that?
- Dave talks about a new shoot interview he recently listened to with Jack Brisco and says it was incredible and a must-listen for fans of 1970s wrestling. So I found it:
- Useless trivia: Former ECW valet Beulah McGillicutty, prior to her time in ECW, worked as a camerawoman for News 12 in Westchester, NY. So yeah. Prior to that, she worked as a stripper in Alberta, Canada where she met Brian Pillman and made an appearance as Pillman's sister in Stampede Wrestling. So ECW wasn't even her first wrestling gig.
- As mentioned last week, WWA had to scramble to get a license to run their upcoming PPV in Vegas because they waited too long to get their own from the commission. First they tried to get former WCW promoter Zane Bresloff to allow them to use his promoter's license, and he said no. Then they went to boxing promoter Cedric Kushner, who also turned them down. Finally, the Aladdin Hotel allowed them to use theirs, saving the WWA show in the process. Dave runs down the rumored/planned lineup for the show and the undercard looks strong, with Eddie Guerrero/Psicosis/Juventud Guerrera in a triple threat match and a 6-way opener featuring guys like AJ Styles, Christopher Daniels, Low-Ki, and more. The main event is expected to be Jeff Jarrett vs. Randy Savage. Jeremy Borash is the primary booker for the company, with Savage playing a role as well. They've only got about 6 days to push out major advertising for it. WWA was hoping DirecTV would give them a big push since they didn't have WWF, but even before WWF and DirecTV squashed their beef, DirecTV didn't seem interested and never mentioned it.
- The injury angle on Smackdown with Rock getting stretchered out was to give him some time off. Rock has been burning the candle at both ends and hasn't been home for weeks because he's not only been wrestling, but doing long days of re-shoots for Scorpion King as well. Rock is completely burned out and asked for time off leading into Wrestlemania now that the re-shoots are finally done. So he'll be there doing most TVs leading up to the big show, but don't expect him at any house shows before then and maybe after depending on future movie projects.
- The only really notable thing from Raw was the Triple H/Stephanie McMahon vow renewals, which saw Stephanie wearing quite the revealing wedding dress. At one point, Triple H knocked Stephanie down, which sent the internet into a tizzy because apparently there was a split second where you could see a nipple and everyone lost their shit and grainy pics of it are being shared around the internet.
- Kevin Nash filed a lawsuit against Time Warner over royalties from WCW. The suit claims WCW "engaged in a systematic pattern and practice designed to avoid paying the professional wrestlers millions of dollars in royalties." Dave talks about a well-known story where WCW action figures for mid-card guys would ring up as sales for Hogan and Sting and Savage action figures, thus adding to their sales and royalties. He talks about how Chris Jericho's girlfriend (now wife) exposed it by purchasing a Jericho/Malenko 2-pack of toys and the receipt showed it rang up as a Hogan figure. Dave also knows of instances where Chris Kanyon figures rang up as Dennis Rodman's WCW figure. Anyway, Nash's lawsuit claims a bunch of unpaid royalties on NWO, Outsiders, and Wolfpac merch and accused WCW of delaying payment, underpaying royalties, and hiding records of sales. Nash's contract stated he was supposed to get quarterly reports on merch sales, but he says he never got those. Dave is skeptical here, because he says that quarterly report thing was a standard part of everybody's contracts and from all the ex-WCW guys Dave has spoken to, they always received it, so he has trouble believing Nash is the only one who didn't. Nash also wants 12-18% interest tacked on to whatever money he's owed. Dave notes Hogan filed a similar lawsuit recently also.
- In other lawsuit news, Sid Vicious is reportedly planning to file a suit, claiming he was ordered to do the move that resulted in him breaking his leg and stating that he repeatedly said he wasn't comfortable jumping off the ropes because that's never been his style, but he was ordered to anyway. (Sid does indeed file this lawsuit, claiming Johnny Ace forced him to do it. It drags on for awhile, but he ultimately loses).
- Various news and notes: Kaz Hayashi did an interview explaining why he left WWF to return to Japan. He said when he asked for his release, Johnny Ace tried to convince him to stay, saying they were going to be doing a cruiserweight division after Wrestlemania and he could be a big part of it, but Hayashi missed Japan and just wanted to go home so they gave him his release. He's rumored to be headed to AJPW. Triple H is actively looking for acting jobs. DDP flew from a house show in Seattle all the way across the country to WWF's Times Square restaurant in New York for about 3 seconds of air-time on Raw, and then flew back across the country the next day for Smackdown in Los Angeles. Among the tryouts for Tough Enough 2 was porn star Kendra Jade.
- Dave talks about WWF's upcoming tryout camp and all the wrestlers who will be there. A lot of these guys never amounted to anything, but a few notable names here. Rene Dupree (Dave says he looks great but is very green and his stamina sucks, but he's still super young and has potential), Matt Stryker, Kevin Fertig, Tyson Tomko, Matt Morgan, and AJ Styles (Dave says XWF blew it by not signing Styles already because everyone knows he's a real talent).
- Ric Flair and Jerry Lawler have been doing promos against each other for Bert Prentice's USA Wrestling promotion in Nashville, and the plan is indeed to build up to a match between them. Dave notes that despite both having 30 year careers, they've only faced each other twice. The second time was especially funny because the NWA made an agreement for Lawler to briefly win the NWA belt from Flair, only to drop it back to him soon after during one of the Great American Bash tours. So to build it up on TV in Memphis, Lawler vowed to retire if he didn't win the NWA title before the end of the year. But the relationship between Jim Crockett (who controlled the belt) and promoter Jerry Jarrett went sideways and Crockett went back on his plan. So they ended up booking a DQ finish in front of a huge crowd in Memphis and then Lawler had to go back on TV and sheepishly walk back his promise to retire. So yeah, anyway, if this match happens, it'll be only the third ever Flair/Lawler match that Dave is aware of. (this match in Nashville for Prentice never happened, but they did eventually have another match on Raw in 2004).
- Leviathan worked his first WWF dark match in quite awhile, at the latest Raw tapings. The crowd immediately chanted "Goldberg!" at him again. Poor guy's never gonna make it.