Wrestling Observer Rewinder

August 05, 2002

Several major media outlets are working on stories about the high number of deaths in professional wrestling, including HBO Real Sports, The Los Angeles Times, and Sports Illustrated. There's been a lot of talk about steroids in baseball lately (keep in mind, this is just after Barry Bonds broke the home run record) and Dave expects the stories to focus on steroid use in wrestling, the high number of deaths of people from that era, and likely it will all tie into baseball. Sort of a "if baseball doesn't clean up its act, it could end up like wrestling" type of story. Dave says it goes beyond that though. Steroids are a convenient excuse, but no wrestling deaths that Dave can think of can be tied directly to steroids alone. The problem really comes down to the fact that wrestling is an industry that rides people until their bodies break down, with a relentless travel schedule, and many wrestlers turn to painkillers, sleeping pills, alcohol, and other drugs to deal with it all. So there's a lot more to the story of all these deaths than just steroids. Dave briefly recaps the steroid scandal that crippled WWF in the early 90s. In particular, the Sports Illustrated story should be concerning to WWE. Steroids in baseball was kind of an open secret until a recent Sports Illustrated story broke the whole thing open and it became one of the biggest sports stories in years (here's the article in question, if you're feeling nostalgic about 2002 baseball scandals). A similar story on pro wrestling probably wouldn't be nearly as big a deal, but it would still bring bad publicity. And it would put Vince McMahon into a position of having to answer tough questions that he doesn't have any honest answers for. Wrestlers are dying at a horrifying rate and WWE has done nothing to combat it. The schedule is still a nightmare, injuries still pile up, guys still work through them, and the company doesn't do drug testing. If WWE is lucky, these stories will fly under the radar. If not, they're going to be in for some bad PR in the coming weeks and months (yeah this becomes a pretty constant story throughout the early-00s).
NWA-TNA has filed a lawsuit against an accounting firm led by a guy named Jay Hassman that was brought in to handle financial and marketing decisions for the new company. Jerry Jarrett recently did an interview explaining the situation. The gist of the lawsuit is that Jerry Jarrett claims the firm misled him about several financial issues that the company was facing. Notably, about how much clearance they have in the PPV market. Jarrett was apparently under the impression that their PPVs were available throughout the country on all the major PPV providers (Cablevision, Dish Network, etc.). But then they started getting feedback from fans who were unable to purchase the weekly PPVs and realized they don't have nearly the exposure they were led to believe. And in fact, Jarrett has allegedly found out that Hassman never even spoke with some of these providers to make the deals he was supposed to make. As a result, TNA is bleeding money because they aren't bringing in nearly as much PPV revenue as they were expecting. There's also issues with the total lack of marketing and promotion for TNA's PPVs, which is another thing Hassman's firm was being paid to handle and apparently did none of it. When the PPV numbers started coming in far lower than expected, Jarrett realized what was happening and it's said he's been consumed with this ever since (hence the mention last week of why Jerry Jarrett wasn't involved in writing the recent shows because he's so busy with all this mess and how, once again, nobody seems to be supervising Vince Russo). It's worth noting that Hassman is affiliated with another marketing group that does consulting work for WWE, which Jarrett wasn't aware of until recently, and reportedly InDemand PPV had some kind of issue with this and told Hassman they would only do business with him for one company, at which point Hassman allegedly pawned TNA off onto someone else (something else Jerry Jarrett claims they were never aware of). I dunno, this is all confusing.
Hassman allegedly told TNA that they had gotten 17,000 buys from DirecTV but they later found out the real number was less than 5,000. TNA is claiming Hassman forged an email attachment on DirecTV letterhead and even forged a signature with these fake DirecTV numbers. They're claiming he did a similar forgery with the InDemand PPV numbers as well. Hassman claimed the total PPV buys for TNA's first show were around 74,000 which was great news. But when Meltzer and other media outlets began digging around and reported the number as lower, TNA responded basically claiming that everyone else was lying and that the numbers really were that good. But now they're finding out the hard way that they were wrong. For what it's worth, TNA's deal with InDemand requires the company to air 13 weeks of programming before they will receive any of their PPV money. So if the company was to fold right now, they won't ever see a penny from the last 5-6 weeks of PPVs. And also, if they fold before the first year, they will have to pay InDemand a steep penalty. Jarrett admitted that TNA is currently in survival mode and just trying to make it from week-to-week right now while they sort out this mess. The lawsuit against the firm is asking for compensation for damages based on lost revenue as well as punitive damages for fraud and sabotage. Plus they want Hassman to re-pay the $50,000 fee he received when he and his firm were hired.
The Observer Hall of Fame issue is coming up soon but for now, Dave decides to take a look at several active wrestlers who aren't yet on the ballot and see what he thinks their qualifications are and whether he thinks they are HOF-caliber stars. So let's see what Dave thinks about some of these names as of 2002:
The Rock: Dave says he's a sure-fire HOF inductee. People might argue about longevity since he only debuted 6 years ago and it looks like he's gonna be gone from the business any day now. But still, he was too big of a star not to be a lock. Even if he retired today, he's a guaranteed first-ballot inductee.
Triple H: A year ago, Dave would have said he was a lock. This year, he's not so sure. His last 3 years have been strong and in 2000, he was voted Wrestler of the Year, but the quad injury took him out of the game and he hasn't been anywhere near the same wrestler since he came back. His reputation in the industry, due to his growing backstage power, might also hurt him with some voters (similar to the way Shawn Michaels should be a lock, but so many people have hated him for so long that he's yet to get enough votes). The next few years will probably determine Triple H's fate, but if he stays the same subpar, boring wrestler that he has been since returning from injury, it could hurt him.
Kurt Angle: unless he gets hurt or decides to quit the business, Angle will also almost certainly end up inducted. He started late and he doesn't have a lot of longevity yet, and he wasn't as big of a draw as Rock, Austin, or even Triple H. But he's unquestionably one of the best wrestlers in the world and you'd be hard pressed to find anyone who has ever entered the business and become as good as he is, and as big a star, in such a short time.
Chris Jericho: right now, Dave thinks Jericho is still missing something that would take him from "very good wrestler" to "Hall of Famer." He's done it all, he's good at everything, but he's never really had a sustained run as a top guy anywhere he's been. Dave compares him to Barry Windham or Curt Hennig, guys who had similar careers and were both very good, but never were full-time top guys and as a result, neither of them got many votes and aren't in the HOF. Jericho's not there yet either.
Rob Van Dam: he's going to need a successful run as a top star before he can even be in the discussion. Top star of a small cult-favorite promotion doesn't mean shit in the grand scheme of things (Sabu got almost no votes when he was eligible for the same reason). And given RVD's lack of promo skills, Dave doesn't see him getting that big break any time soon (indeed, RVD never made it to the WON HOF).
I'ma be real you guys. This is taking a long time and I just scrolled through and there's a bunch of names on this list. I don't feel like writing out Dave's opinion for all of them. So here we go: Eddie Guerrero (not quite yet), Shocker (big star in trios matches in CMLL but not enough proof that he's a draw on his own), Rey Mysterio Jr. (unquestionably the most influential guy in the business today, but this upcoming WWE run will determine if he goes down as a legend or guy who did cool flips for a few years and disappeared), Los Infiernos (trios team in Mexico, too soon to say), La Parka (not yet), Don Frye (probably not because American voters consider him more of a shoot fighter than a wrestler), Kazushi Sakuraba (same story), Masahiro Chono (got no support in the past and his work went downhill after a neck injury in 1992, so Dave is doubtful he'll ever get the votes), Yuji Nagata (too soon to say), Naoya Ogawa (Dave calls him the Japanese Goldberg. Huge huge HUGE TV ratings draw, big mainstream name, and has headlined some big Tokyo Dome shows. But never worked full time, isn't a great wrestler, and is seen by some as unprofessional with a bad attitude. Says Ogawa was basically handed the opportunity to be a big star in the business and hasn't ever seemed to appreciate it), Satoshi Kojima (depends on how well AJPW does in the next few years. Right now, no, but he's being groomed to be a big part of AJPW's future), and finally Jun Akiyama (a few years ago, Dave would have thought he was on his way to being a guarantee, but he's had some injuries and his momentum has stopped. Dave thinks he's still missing something). And that's it. He actually has big paragraphs on each of these names to explain his reasoning but we got other stuff to do.
This isn't wrestling but it's a big story, so real quick: the Nevada Athletic commission suspended UFC heavyweight champion Josh Barnett for 6 months for testing positive for steroids earlier this year. It came as a surprise because most expected the commission to issue a warning and that they wouldn't begin suspending MMA fighters for steroid failures until Jan. 1, 2003, to give everyone time to start with a clean slate under the new guidelines they have. But nope. Barnett was suspended which bans him from fighting not only in Nevada, but for any promotion worldwide that is also sanctioned in Nevada, which includes PRIDE and K-1. They made it clear that if any of those promotions use Barnett during his suspension, they will lose their promotional license in Nevada. The following day, UFC officially stripped Barnett of the UFC title and it will probably be decided at UFC 39 in the fight with Randy Couture vs. Rico Rodriguez. It's thought that Barnett might have escaped punishment originally, but his manager Matt Hume represented him at the hearing and Hume was contentious and argumentative with the commission and had put out a press release beforehand criticizing the commission and its rules. Basically, instead of defending his guy for what he obviously did, he went on the attack against the commission itself and they weren't happy. Barnett himself also spoke at the hearing and denied using steroids, but he failed multiple tests for it so no one's buying it. Barnett actually came off well and everyone who witnessed it thought he should have spoken for himself rather than let Hume piss off all the people who were going to decide his fate. Dave talks about how this whole thing opens up a big can of worms for the sport of MMA going forward, but that's another paragraph for another day.
XWF has found a way to survive a few minutes longer. The promotion is now doing an invasion angle of sorts with WWC, to build something for the upcoming anniversary show. The tapes XWF filmed last year, featuring guys like Hogan and Curt Hennig, will air on TV in Puerto Rico over the next 5 weeks, immediately following WWC's TV show (it will also go head-to-head with IWA's first hour on TV, which might hurt their ratings, which is a bonus for WWC). This is to give the XWF names credibility so that when they "invade" WWC, fans will know who they are. And it gives WWC a boost for their anniversary show, which is needed after the recent shocking departure of Ray Gonzalez who is still expected to debut for IWA any day now but is still trying to get the legal issues cleared up to make sure he's freed from his WWC contract.
In a quick note from the Zero-1 promotion in Japan, Dave says that Samoa Joe has changed his name to King Joe (this doesn't last too long, he leaves the company for good before the end of the year and joins Ring of Honor).
Speaking of, Dave wonders whatever happened to the old WWF World Martial Arts title belt that Inoki presented to Mark Coleman at a PRIDE show awhile back. That was expected to lead to something, but apparently went nowhere.
Latest on Goldberg is that he's in negotiations to work matches in Japan. The idea right now is Goldberg would work AJPW's Budokan Hall show at the end of August but that isn't yet finalized. Goldberg's agent Barry Bloom is also one of the American producers for PRIDE so there's a lot of talks there also. Kazuyoshi Ishii of K-1 is rumored to be negotiating for a fight with Goldberg as well, but Dave says there's nothing to the rumors, it's just to drum up publicity. He may make an appearance at the upcoming PRIDE/K-1 stadium show, but Dave seems 100% confident that he's not going to do a shoot fight with anyone.
Ring of Honor held its 5th ever show and crowned its first champion in Philadelphia this week. Low-Ki become the first ROH champion, defeating Christopher Daniels, Spanky and Doug Williams in a four-way 60-minute ironman match that got rave reviews from those who saw it. AJ Styles successfully defended the TNA X-Division title, the first time it's been defended outside of the company. AJ was more over than ever and the crowd chanted "TNA" which means that promotion at least means something to some fans.
Dave also adds that ROH has gotten a local TV deal in Philadelphia and will be airing on Ch. 48 at midnights on Tuesdays starting next month. Booker Gabe Sapolsky wants to move the show to a new building, preferably the old ECW Arena nearby, but admits they would have to paper the shows a lot to fill up the crowd, plus there's at least 3 other indie companies routinely running shows there already. Dave drops a gem of a tidbit here and says that, aside from their biggest shows, ECW used to paper the Arena shows more than anyone was allowed to know. Apparently Heyman kept it pretty secret, but they evidently had more trouble than people realize when it came to filling up the ECW Arena all those years.
David Arquette was on Carson Daley's talk show and they were joking about Arquette being a former WCW champion. Both of them recognized how foolish it was, which Dave says is funny because to this day, Vince Russo refuses to admit it was a mistake. When Daley asked Arquette how the fans responded, Arquette was honest, saying, "They didn't like it at all. They were booing loudly." (It's 2020 and, to the best of my knowledge, I believe Russo still defends this as a good idea. Anyway, here's the footage of Arquette on the show, in a video that looks like it was beamed down from the moon in the 1960s. But Arquette is pretty funny in this and even back in 2002, he clearly understood his place in the business and seemed embarrassed to have ever been put in that position).
Afa Anoa'i Jr. was listed by ESPN as one of the top defensive linemen to watch out for in the 2003 season. Afa Jr. is starting for Pitt this year and recently wrestled on one of his father's indie shows. Given that he's a member of the Anoa'i family and given that Jim Ross is still in charge of talent relations, you can be damn sure guaranteed that if Afa Jr.'s football career doesn't work out, he'll have a shot in WWE (indeed, he signs in 2006 and later becomes Manu, briefly a member of Legacy before getting kicked out and released soon after).
XPW is planning to run a show in Philadelphia, but they haven't applied for a license yet. Regardless, tickets are already on sale and Dave says they can just pay a local promoter to use theirs (or lie and try to leech off ROH's, but we'll get there). There's rumors that CZW fans are uniting to get as many tickets as they can, with plans of showing up to start trouble. At least the AEW/NXT war hasn't gotten that petty yet. Then again, we haven't had fans for 5 months, so who knows if it would have happened by now.
Colin Scotts, an Australian football player, wrote an autobiography with some Hogan-esque level lies in it. Scotts claims he was a major star in WWF in 1996 and that he wrestled Jerry Lawler at Madison Square Garden in a match that turned into a shoot. He also claims he became best friends with Hogan during that time when they were working together. So here's the real story: Scotts had a real sports background, so WWF brought him in for a look. They filmed a promo with him that never aired on TV. And they sent him to Memphis to train, but he only lasted a week before he quit. Also, Hulk Hogan was in WCW in 1996.
TNA is attempting to get a TV deal. Which is no surprise, they need one if they want to have any hope of surviving long-term. But for what it's worth, XWF had Hulk Hogan, Curt Hennig, and higher production values than TNA has, and they weren't able to get a deal. So....good luck.
The big question for TNA right now is whether they have enough money to survive the near future, and if so, for how long. PPV numbers are all over the place, of course, but Dave thinks it's possible they can maybe pull in 15,000 buys a week on average at this point. Whether that will generate enough money to keep them afloat, who knows. 15,000 buys definitely isn't enough to break even, but it might be enough to keep the losses manageable and if so, maybe they can stay alive long enough to catch a lifeline (this is exactly what ends up happening). That being said, the recent shows have been atrocious and Dave can't fathom any casual fans checking out this product and being impressed enough to pay for it again the next week.
We have more and more news about the shaky situation of TNA. Right now, even TNA itself has no real idea how it's doing on PPV. The only numbers they are informed about are ticket sales, and those are awful too (most of the crowds at these weekly PPV shows have been freebies, although this week there were no freebies. So they only managed to sell 700 tickets in a small building that holds double that. Imagine if the ECW Arena was half empty). Given that, the decreasing amount of star power on every show (reminder, they're splitting up Scott Hall and Ken Shamrock to work alternate weeks so they don't have to pay them both weekly), and the awful creative changes that have taken root since Russo arrived, there's a lot of concern in the locker room that this promotion is already doomed. Even with a small arena, the crowds have often been dead. There's also no video screens (budget cuts) so all the backstage stuff that happens on TV, the live fans are seeing none of it. Which basically means lots of dead air and nothing happening in the arena.
X-Pac's days are rumored to be numbered in WWE and Dave thinks he would be a good fit in TNA alongside Scott Hall. But, of course, X-Pac ain't gonna come cheap and TNA doesn't have two dimes to rub together right now. And even if he is let go today, WWE will enforce the 90-day non-compete so who knows what TNA's financial situation will be by then, or if they'll even still be in business (turns out X-Pac didn't have the non-compete in his deal, he shows up in TNA soon).
Notes from this week's TNA PPV: Dave says Russo wasn't quite as badly out of control this week as he was last week. Still a lot of the same problems though. Nearly every tag team on the show was bickering and doing that partners-that-don't-get-along gimmick, which is fine when it's one team, but it was done multiple times on the same show. They announced Jeff Jarrett was suspended for 60 days in kayfabe, only to have Ricky Steamboat overturn it before the next PPV, so Jarrett won't miss a single show. Brian Christopher attacked announcer Don West and choked him out, which you'd think would mean he's off the show for the rest of the episode, but nope, he recovered and went right on announcing the show without even mentioning it. K-Krush changed his name to his real name and added a nickname, so now he's Ron "The Truth" Killings and he cut a promo about being held back by white people only to have Monty Brown come out and defend white people and accused Truth of complaining, with Truth calling Brown an "uncle Tom." Dave thinks if this TNA thing doesn't work out, Monty Brown is gonna end up in WWE developmental quickly. He's got the look of course, but he also showed here that he's a shockingly good promo too. Dave thinks he has obvious major star potential. Disco Inferno debuted doing a Piper's Pit-style interview segment. And Shamrock vs. Sabu for the NWA title in a ladder match was a mess that was supposed to end with Sabu passing out in a submission and then Shamrock would go get the belt. That ended up not happening and Sabu never did the pass out sell and Shamrock had to somewhat improvise the finish of the match and it looked awkward as hell on TV. As a result, there's a pretty good chance Sabu won't be brought back because they blamed him for screwing it up. Pretty much all the matches sucked, actually. Even the ones with guys like Low-Ki and AJ Styles felt more like decent indie matches rather than top level performers.
Francine getting taken out on a stretcher last week was the last of her, evidently she's gone. As a result, Shane Douglas is likely going to be joining the company soon. Douglas refused to have anything to do with TNA as long as Francine was there, due to some falling out the two had. But now that she's gone, Douglas is said to be back in the picture but they haven't signed a deal yet.
Ken Shamrock may not be around too much longer either. He didn't turn out to be the big draw everyone hoped he would be for TNA and hasn't really gotten over all that well. Considering he's the 2nd highest paid guy there (behind Scott Hall), Dave expects them to get the title off him sooner than later and probably won't bring him in as often afterwards. Truth is getting the monster push right now and challenges for the belt next week and may win it (yup).
Various other TNA news & notes: they were working on a deal to bring in Howard Stern personality Beetlejuice for a match and would have cross-promoted it on Stern's show, but the deal fell apart. Malice recently filmed an episode of the Jenny Jones show. USA Today had a story about Toby Keith being involved in a wrestling show with Jeff Jarrett, but never mentioned the name of the promotion. Matt Striker vs. BJ Whitmer was supposed to be a dark match at the recent taping, but it got cut for time reasons.
Details on Monty Brown: former Division II All-American football star, wasn't drafted to the NFL, but tried out and made it onto the Buffalo Bills where he played for 3 years, including in the 1994 Super Bowl. He got cut, went to the Patriots as a free agent and made the team, but then got injured and was cut again. He tried out for the Jets, but didn't make the team. He always wanted to be a wrestler and went to an ECW show after his NFL career ended and filmed a promo for Paul Heyman, but it never aired as far as Dave knows and that was the end of that. He has been working indies in Michigan ever since until TNA came calling (he eventually makes it to ECW....sorta).
Jim Cornette's mother Thelma passed away this week after battling cancer. Dave tells the story of how Cornette's mom used to take him to the wrestling shows when he was still a kid where he'd write the programs and shoot photos for the magazines, which is how he got into the business. And from there, Cornette turned his mom into part of his gimmick of being a spoiled brat raised by his rich mama.
Kurt Angle did an interview with his local Pittsburgh newspaper about going for the 2004 Olympics. The belief of most in WWE right now is that he's not going to do it. Angle himself seems unsure, saying some days he's ready to go for it and other days, he thinks maybe he won't. Angle's wife Karen was also interviewed and said she doesn't want him to do it. She said her husband has suffered more injuries in his 3 year WWE career than he did in 20 years of amateur wrestling and noted how difficult it would be for him to be healthy enough for it. Plus, she also smartly noted that he hasn't done amateur wrestling in 6 years and if he fails in the Olympics, it could hurt his WWE career since he's a top star there and being the best wrestler in the world is his entire identity. Angle said he has to decide by the end of this year and Vince McMahon has given him the green light to do it if he wants. Dave points out the obvious: Kurt Angle in the Olympics and going for the gold would draw huge ratings for the Olympics as millions of pro wrestling fans would be watching. Plus it would bring huge publicity to WWE, to have one of their own high profile stars vying for a gold medal. And if he won, he could go back to pro wrestling as the biggest mainstream star in the business. But, as Karen Angle pointed out, all of that is a huge long shot.
Notes from Raw: show was built around Rock vs. Flair in Greensboro which sounds like it should have been a huge hit. Not so much. The crowd was polite for Flair and they booed the Rock, but they didn't really seem all that into it otherwise. And the reason was Flair, who seemed distracted and wasn't even close to his usual self. It was one of those matches where Flair's age showed, because they hyped this up as a guaranteed classic dream match and Ric just couldn't hang. Someone attacked Shawn Michaels and left him bloody but it was left as a cliffhanger to decide who. Most likely Triple H, but they tried to play it like it wasn't going to be. Benoit beat RVD for the IC title in the best thing on the show. The Island Boyz (still not yet called 3 Minute Warning) beat up Moolah and Mae Young. Dave says he knows they think they can take it, but it's still scary to see these elderly women taking these moves. That's pretty much it.
Notes from Smackdown: excellent show. Jericho vs. Edge cage match was a 4-star barnburner. They pushed new people, and the show ended with Mysterio, Edge, and John Cena in the ring and the commentators pushed those 3 hard as the future of Smackdown. You know the move where a guy is sitting on your shoulders and you drop him down backwards? That move has been around for 20 years and Dave says he's never heard a name for it, but on this show, Michael Cole called it the electric chair. Dave hereby credits Cole for finally naming that move (this just made me wonder, are there any other moves in wrestling that we've seen people do but doesn't have a known name?). Mysterio got a new entrance where he comes out from under the stage and got a huge pop and Dave likes that the presentation for him is so strong because that goes a long way towards getting people over. He and Chavo had a great match. Overall, pretty great show.
Various WWE notes: Kanyon was in ICU all weekend for a shoulder injury that got infected that then caused fluid in his lungs. Triple H is working backstage as an agent, helping guys put together matches (not sure if that was ever an official role, I'm sure Bruce Prichard would say it wasn't and Dave Meltzer is wrong 99% of the time and makes up lies). Pretty much everyone backstage felt Eddie Guerrero really had a star-making performance during his promo segment with Rock on Raw last week and he opened some eyes. Brock Lesnar and Jerry Lawler worked house shows for the brands they aren't on this past week, and at this point, what is even the point of the brand split? Speaking of, Raw star Triple H is scheduled to have his first match back since elbow surgery at the big Melbourne, Australia show next week and yes, why, that is a Smackdown-branded show, thank you for noticing. The "Jr." has been dropped from Rey Mysterio's name and was also told to slow down the pace of his matches and not work as much of a Lucha/WCW cruiserweight style. Then why even hire.....ah fuck it, nevermind.
It hasn't been made official, but everyone in WWE acknowledges that Tazz's in-ring career is most likely over. Tazz himself is pretty much resigned to it also, due to years of injuries piling up. Good news is that WWE seems happy with his performance as an announcer. (indeed, Tazz wrestled his last real match about 2 months prior to this. He has a "match" at ECW One Night Stand but really he just choked out Lawler in 30 seconds so I don't count that).
Shelton Benjamin's TV debut took place on Sunday Night Heat in a throwaway nothing match against Justin Credible, which is a pretty shitty way to introduce someone who's got as much potential as Benjamin. When he first started, people were talking about him like he was the next Kurt Angle with how fast he picked things up. And he and Lesnar were a tremendous tag team in OVW.
WWE had a thing on its website where you could give feedback on Raw. By filling out the form, you also agreed to give WWE the right to use any creative idea suggested by fans. The notice said, "By submitting any submissions, whether solicited by us or not, you are automatically granting WWE a perpetual, royalty-free, non-exclusive, unrestricted worldwide and irrevocable right and license" to any ideas submitted.
According to those in the creative meetings, Steve Austin's name is never brought up and WWE is moving forward right now under the assumption that he's gone for good. So things still very icy on that front.