Wrestling Observer Rewinder

August 26, 2002

Dave talks about why there was no new issue last week. It was supposed to be a vacation week so he could finish putting together the Hall of Fame issue, but a series of family illnesses, Dave's uncle having heart surgery, and his mother having a heart scare kept it from being a relaxing week off, but he thanks everyone for the well-wishes he's received.
So with that said, next week is the HOF issue and our big top story this week is....a preview. Sure, ok. The voting is completed and Dave recaps the rules again. All balloting is confidential because there are a lot of voters who would catch heat for it within the industry. Not just for who they did or didn't pick, but simply for participating at all (in other words, Vince ain't gonna be happy if he finds out some of his employees are communicating with Dave Meltzer, even if it's just for HOF voting). Anyway, he lists all the eligible candidates this year and writes a big paragraph about each one, what he thinks their odds are of making it, whether he thinks they're deserving, etc. Similar to what he did last week, but this is for people who actually are on the ballot.
The HOF stuff takes up a huge chunk of the issue, so a lot of the other big stories are all consolidated into a "Catching up on the Headlines" section that are all pretty concise. First up: WWE destroyed the Australian attendance record! Their recent show this week in Melbourne drew a sellout crowd of nearly 57,000 people and a $5.7 million gate (in AUS dollars), equaling the 4th largest gate in WWE history, trailing behind WM18, WM17, and WM6. There was controversy the week of the show when Hulk Hogan pulled out, since he had been the top star advertised for months and was a big reason why a lot of those tickets were sold, and it got a lot of negative mainstream publicity in the days before. Hogan didn't want to take the two long plane rides due to his worsening back problems and also asked for the weekend off for his birthday, but there's also rumors of a financial dispute between Hogan and WWE. Paul Heyman came out and he and Lesnar tried to get the heat from Hogan not being there, since Lesnar was the one who took him out on Raw last week but fans were pretty pissed about no Hulkster. It was a Smackdown-branded show, but lots of Raw names appeared, and they showed a bunch of those clips on Raw, and at this point, why are we even pretending with the brand split anymore? WWE hasn't been there in about 10 years so there was a ton of mainstream coverage of this show throughout Australia. Lance Storm, Christian, and Test were all seen as huge babyfaces to the fans because they're in the midst of doing their Un-Americans gimmick and turns out pretty much anywhere you go on this planet, if you shit on America, the rest of the world loves you for it. So they all had to cut anti-Australia promos before their matches in order to get booed. Even though last week it looked like he wouldn't be ready in time, Triple H did end up working the show after all, his first match back since elbow surgery. The main event was Rock vs. Brock vs. Triple H in a 3-way, that ended with Rock beating Triple H to retain the title, because they have to protect Lesnar for his inevitable title victory at Summerslam. And that was that (here's the full show in 2 parts).
After more than a year of rumors, Bill Goldberg is finally making moves in the wrestling world. Goldberg will work as an announcer for the PRIDE/K-1 joint stadium show this coming week and then later that week, he'll make his in-ring return for AJPW, working both nights of their 30th anniversary show at Budokan Hall. The first night, he will face Satoshi Kojima, and will face Taiyo Kea the following night. These will be Goldberg's first matches since Jan. 2001 when he worked his final WCW match. Dave isn't sure about this. In theory, you'd expect Goldberg to steamroll these guys, but that doesn't make sense because they're both young stars that AJPW really needs to protect right now. Kojima especially, as he's one of the the best wrestlers in the world and a key building block for AJPW's future. It only makes sense for Goldberg to win if he's sticking around for awhile, in which case he could then move on to bigger matches with Keiji Muto or Genichiro Tenryu. Dave isn't sure how helpful it is to have Goldberg go over these guys and that be the end of it. Especially since he may be headed to WWE soon after this. Oh yeah, guess I should have led with that part: Goldberg finally decided to return Vince McMahon's calls. Goldberg has scheduled a meeting with Vince to negotiate a WWE deal so we may finally see Goldberg in WWE soon, assuming the talks go well.
Steve Austin was arrested this week in relation to the alleged assault on his wife Debra. Austin turned himself into police on Aug. 13th and was booked on a charge of assault causing bodily harm, a class A misdemeanor. Debra declined to file charges but the police evidently had enough evidence to pursue it themselves, so they did and issued a warrant for his arrest. Austin was released after posting a $5,000 bond. If convicted, he faces a maximum of a year in prison and $4,000 maximum fine. WWE reported the news on their website, seemingly another attempt at twisting the knife in their ongoing effort to bury Austin over how he walked out of the company. The arrest re-opened the case to the public eye and made mainstream news throughout the country.
A pretty hilarious moment happened at the Smackdown tapings in Seattle this week. If you recall, WWE did a site survey at Safeco Field to see about hosting Wrestlemania there. Right now, it's the front-runner for the show and WWE held back-to-back Raw/SD tapings there on consecutive nights as a way to test the market. If the shows did good, then Wrestlemania in Seattle is probably a go. If not, back to the drawing board. Anyway, if you're curious, Raw was sold out and Smackdown was 90% full, so it's looking pretty certain that Seattle will indeed get Wrestlemania. But here's the funny part: local radio DJ Andy Savage was there to do some pre-show crowd hype stuff. Well, he went out before the tapings and announced to the crowd that Wrestlemania will be in Seattle. Needless to say, the crowd went nuts. But WWE didn't want the word out yet because they have big plans to do a rally in a few months coinciding with tickets going on-sale. So they sent ring announcer Tony Chimmel out there to tell the crowd that Seattle was being considered, but it's not official. That resulted in the crowd booing him heavily. Whoops.
Masahiro Chono won his fourth NJPW G-1 Climax tournament, beating Yoshihiro Takayama in the finals. It aired as a live special on TV and did a disappointing rating, the latest in a long line of bad shows and disappointments for NJPW. Dave recaps the whole show and why everything was pretty much just boring or bad. "This idea of using shooters against New Japan has long since run its course" Dave says and he thinks the company is already in bad shape and is going to get far worse if they don't stop booking like it's 1979 (gonna take awhile).
Hey, speaking of Inoki fucking things up, his latest UFO MMA show is in the books and what a disaster. Needless to say, despite all of Inoki's claims, Mike Tyson and Thomas Hearns did not appear. There were only about 12,000 people in attendance and only 5,000 or so of them were paid. Oh yeah, did I mention this was in the Tokyo Dome? It was the smallest MMA/wrestling audience in the history of the Dome. Just a mismash of MMA and pro wrestling that was soundly rejected by fans of both. In the lowlight of the show, Chyna showed up and challenged anyone in the audience to face her. They brought out a woman named Chika Nakamura, a Golden Gloves boxing champion. They did a worked shoot/wrestling match that, of course, was terrible and Chyna won. Afterwards, she said she wanted to fight the men. Dave is flabbergasted at all this but more on that in just a second. The main event of Naoya Ogawa vs. amateur wrestler Matt Ghaffari "was the MMA equivalent of the Patterson/Brisco evening gown match." Ghaffari was terribly out of shape and it was completely awful (I can't find video of this Chyna/Chika Nakamura match anywhere).
Big long ratings analysis deal. Dave talks about how the injury to Triple H and Austin walking out might have been the best things to happen for WWE in the long run because it's finally forced them to get serious about creating new stars. Smackdown in particular has shown good strides in trying to distinguish itself and build for the future. Lesnar is finally starting to really show star aura, mostly due to how he murdered Hogan a couple weeks back. Mysterio, Jamie Noble, Nidia, and John Cena are all getting pushes, Angle is being pushed as a serious top guy, and Edge is being elevated. Rock's most recent return has been kind of a ratings disappointment, but he's definitely helped anchor the ship in this last month or two. Raw is far more stale, with Triple H as the focus, 37-year-old Booker T, and established names like The UnAmericans and Goldust getting most of the TV time. The only "new" stars Raw has really pushed at all lately are Chris Nowinsky and Eric Bischoff. Dave also talks about the effect that the upcoming NFL season will have on Raw ratings and mentions that WCW used to always be more hurt by Monday Night Football than Raw was, because Nitro's audience was older while Raw had the benefit of attracting a younger viewership. That sentence sure feels relevant 18 years later. Rock is also leaving after Summerslam, which probably won't help either.
With the recent launch of TNA, Dave is somewhat surprised that WWE hasn't tried to raid their roster in any way so far, something that has been standard practice for decades now. In the 80s, Vince raided every promotion and ruthlessly drove them all under. In the 90s, it was a 2-way street, with WWF and WCW routinely poaching from each other. When XWF started, soon after their first set of tapings, WWE signed up Lawler, Hennig, and Hogan. So why not TNA yet? Well, for starters, TNA started at around the exact same moment WWE (a publicly traded company) began making major budget cuts and released a bunch of wrestlers as well as office staff. It's kinda hard to do that and then justify signing a bunch of TNA stars the next day, ya know? Furthermore, much like ECW, it may be in WWE's best interest to let TNA exist. So long as they aren't a threat (and they aren't even close), it doesn't hurt to have a place where future stars can gain experience and maybe build a name. In the last 2 months, several names have definitely raised their profile. But then there's the guys who WWE may not want. Ken Shamrock was heavily negotiating with WWE earlier this year before essentially walking away from the table because they wouldn't allow him to fight in UFC while under contract and it sounds like WWE may have felt a bit burned by Shamrock turning them down to sign with TNA instead. WWE also isn't going to want Scott Hall and probably not Jeff Jarrett. As for Ron Killings, he said he doesn't want to go back because he felt disrespected by how he was released the last time. But Dave says he's only 30 years old and when big money is on the table, people change their minds about that stuff quick so it wouldn't surprise Dave to see WWE go after him again some day. That being said, Killings hasn't been shy about publicly bashing Vince McMahon and Jim Ross over his firing, so who knows. Jerry Lynn, Vince Russo, Ricky Steamboat...all have previously left WWE on somewhat unhappy terms and Dave doesn't think they would be high on the list of people they'd want back anytime soon.
Which leads us to TNA's young stars. Christopher Daniels has been on WWE's radar for years but they've never pulled the trigger. AJ Styles was offered a WWE developmental deal not too long ago and turned it down because he didn't want to uproot his family and quit his day job for a $500-per-week developmental deal. WWE has looked at Low-Ki a few times before also but he doesn't fit what they want. Dave thinks Paul Heyman could probably turn him into a star if they put him on Smackdown. So on and so forth. Lots of guys who already had developmental deals at one point and got cut. And then there's Monty Brown. Dave thinks he's essentially the prototype of what WWE looks for in new talent. The only issue is that he's already 32, which is a bit old to be just starting out. But the dude clearly has something and out of anybody on TNA's roster, Dave wouldn't be surprised to see WWE go after him as soon as they possibly can, depending on his TNA contract situation.
Dave has these numbers every month and I usually skip past it, but just for shits and giggles, here are some comparisons between looking at July 2001 vs. July 2002. It shows just how badly business has collapsed in one year. Average attendance down 44.6%. Average gate down 39.9%. Raw ratings down 24.4%. Smackdown ratings only down 16.6%. In July of last year, they sold out about 30% of house shows. This July, only 3%. Kinda easy to see why Vince was throwing anything at the wall at this point. Watching your live crowds almost cut in half in one year would probably make anybody panic.
WWC in Puerto Rico, which was looking to be on death's door a couple weeks ago, is suddenly getting a lot of mainstream publicity for an angle with Carlos Colon and popular TV host Antulio "Kobbo" Santarrosa. It appears the issue between the two men started as a shoot when Colon got into an argument with Santarrosa at the TV studio (this wasn't on television, it was behind the scenes at the offices and who knows what it was about) and it led to Colon getting taken out by security and legitimately arrested. That story made the media rounds. But then Colon and Santarrosa worked out their differences and decided to turn it into an angle for TV. The charges got dropped and they did a match where Santarrosa actually bladed for Colon and took a beating and then they did the Steve Austin/WM13 finish where Colon had him bloodied and in a figure four, but Santarrosa (again, a TV host, not a wrestler) wouldn't submit and passed out. The angle got over huge, with Santarrosa getting a ton of praise for going in there and actually bleeding and working like a real wrestler. It got a ton of publicity and lit a fire under WWC this week. As for whether the first part was shoot or legit, who knows. A real police report was filed, and Colon legitimately was arrested, but the charges were later dropped and some have accused Colon and Santarrosa of filing a fake police report to help drum up publicity for the whole thing.
The week before, WWC had another hot angle with Konnan turning heel on the Colon family in a unique way. The angle was Konnan had been romancing Stacey Colon, Carlos' daughter and it was all building up to where Konnan was expected to propose to her. She was in the ring and he had a guitar and was serenading her with songs and all that fun stuff, and then he turned and bashed her over the head with the guitar. The whole arena fell silent at first and then went nuts and police had to call for backup to stop what turned into a legit riot. The plan is for Carly Colon (Carlito) to go for revenge on behalf of his sister against Konnan at the anniversary show. Konnan has since been getting death threats and needed extra security at later shows. So 2 hot angles in 2 weeks have suddenly got WWC back in the game. (Good news! Not only does this video below have the angle, but it also has footage of the rioting crowd at the end!)
Ray Gonzalez is still trying to get out of his WWC contract so he can join IWA. But that's still being untangled by the lawyers. In the meantime, IWA still isn't using him because they don't want to risk getting in legal trouble, although there's some who are arguing that WWC is in such bad financial shape right now that they wouldn't have the money to take the issue to court anyway. Most people there think WWC will be folding soon (think again buddy). But IWA head Victor Quinones isn't risking it, so no Gonzalez there for now. But they are not-so-subtly hinting about him, with the belief that sooner or later, he's going to get out of his contract and be free to join.
Feels wrong to skip through the entire Japan section but there's no real news here from any promotion. Dave does recap the latest NJPW shows and calls them pathetic and says that the Tadao Yasuda push "must be stopped." Awful matches with him. Steiners are working the tour and Scott Steiner in particular looks awful. Yuji Nagata vs. Bas Rutten in the main event in yet another worked-shoot style match that isn't getting over with anyone other than Inoki. Just more of the same.
Bret Hart gave his first interview since his stroke to the Calgary Sun. He said he's getting a lot of movement back, but is still worried about his face paralysis, with much of the left side of his face still droopy and paralyzed. But Bret says he's determined to rebuild himself and will overcome these issues. He talked about how hard it's been, just mentally, and how he broke down when he needed a nurse to help him to the bathroom. He can left his arm but can't hold a book in his left hand for long. He's walking again but he can't drive yet because of weakened vision in his left eye and his voice is still weak so he has trouble talking for long periods of time. Another story in the Toronto Sun about Hart mentioned that he has spoken with Vince McMahon since his stroke. Dave hopes that's the first step in those two guys making peace because the beef between them has gone on far too long.
Shaun Assael, the author of the Sex Lies & Headlocks" book is working on a story about Davey Boy Smith for ESPN. Assael was in Calgary this week interviewing people. The initial toxicology reports on Davey Boy are back and showed no sign of street drugs in his system. Results regarding steroids or other prescription drugs may take longer, as they are being done by a lab in France. Speaking of, while we're on the subject, toxicology results also came back for Russ Haas awhile back and he had no drugs in his system either. His death appears to have simply been a tragic natural causes heart attack at a young age.
Bobby Heenan's book is coming out soon and he's making the media rounds to promote it. Dave expects to have a review in a few weeks, but he's pretty much heard the gist already. Heenan doesn't have anything bad to say about Hogan or Vince McMahon and in fact praises most of the wrestlers he ever worked with. However, he doesn't have many nice things to say about Tony Schiavone, Vince Russo, Eric Bischoff, Craig Leathers, and Scott Hudson. But that's about all he really knows so far.
The TV show America's Most Wanted is working on a story about what happened to former XPW wrestler Messiah. They were filming at a recent benefit show for Messiah to raise money for his medical treatment and they're attempting to get comment from XPW on the incident.
Speaking of XPW, they were attempting to run a show at the old ECW arena in Philadelphia and what a mess that turned into. They booked the building and started selling tickets but then someone pointed out that they don't have a license to promote wrestling in the state and they also need to put up a bond. So first they went to ROH promoter Rob Feinstein and asked to use their license. ROH turned them down. So then XPW went and tried to get the bond, but found out they needed a business address within the state. So they used ROH's business address without Feinstein's permission. When word got out, people were furious with ROH because they felt they were helping XPW. You see, people really don't like XPW because promoter Rob Black is a sick psychopath who does insane shit to get attention (Dave notes a recent incident where Black went online and claimed he was going to kill a dog and live-stream it, causing people to contact the police and the humane society. Black eventually claimed it was just a publicity stunt and he wasn't going to actually do it). So basically, shit like this is why ROH fans were outraged when they thought the company was helping XPW. Ring of Honor booker Gabe Sapolsky was furious that XPW used their business address to secure the bond for their show. In the meantime, XPW has managed to secure a license via some other means and the show at the ECW Arena is still a go.
Ed Ferrara has left TNA and will no longer be part of the broadcast team. Dave doesn't really give any details why, but everyone agrees the 2-man booth works better anyway, even though Don West isn't particularly great at it. But he's damn enthusiastic and is good at promoting the next week's show.
Notes from TNA weekly PPV: Low-Ki won the X Division title in a three-way over AJ Styles and Jerry Lynn in the main event in what was possibly the best match in the short history of this company. Dave gives it 4.5 stars and calls it "ROH quality." Opening match was hot too, but everything in between was hot garbage. Ron Killings won the NWA title from Ken Shamrock in a sloppy match with a totally blown finish that Shamrock fucked up. This was basically a way to write Shamrock out of the company because they pretty much can't afford his contract anymore (he's the 2nd highest paid guy behind Scott Hall). The crowd was cheering Killings over Shamrock anyway. They played up the race angle big, with Killings being proclaimed the first black NWA champion, which is true. But Dave hates that everything with Killings right now is playing the race card, since that's been the whole storyline with him since the company started. They also played it the opposite way, with Jeff Jarrett complaining that Ricky Steamboat, a Hawaiian, was favoring minorities and not giving Jarrett a title shot because he's white. Dave wishes they'd just stop. They also created a hardcore title "in one of the worst atrocities known to mankind" so it sounds like it was pretty bad. The "title" is a spittoon that somehow, both the Dupps won so they're co-hardcore champions. There's a complicated point system and everything. Dave can't fathom how this made air. Monty Brown beat Elix Skipper, and originally, Russo had booked Skipper to win because Brown is the one getting the big push and he figured it'd be a surprise (swerve bro!) to have Skipper get the win instead. Logic prevailed and Russo was overruled, thankfully. And that's pretty much the only noteworthy stuff from this episode.
Speaking of Monty Brown, Dave recounts a story from back in 1997 where Brown went to a radio station to meet Ric Flair and did some dead-on impressions of Hogan and Savage and talked about how he wanted to be a wrestler. Flair was super encouraging, but it never led anywhere. Dave is kinda baffled how Brown didn't end up in the business until now. He's built like a brick shit house, he's oozing charisma, he can talk his ass off, he's an ex-NFL star, and he wanted to get into the business at 27 years old and was reaching out to all the right people. But somehow, WWF, WCW, and ECW all somehow completely missed this can't-miss prospect back when he was trying to get their attention.
Scott Hall's TNA deal is said to be $3,000-3,500 per show and first class transportation. TNA is, naturally, trying to cut that back. Hall has agreed to fly coach, but they're also wanting to cut way back on that per-show contract and it remains to be seen if Hall is wanting to give that up. They're also looking at bringing in X-Pac and they could team him with Hall (although Vince McMahon owns the X-Pac and NWO names, so they couldn't use that). Speaking of, yeah, word is X-Pac is on his way out the door in WWE, and has either already been released or will be soon, though he may have a 90-day non-compete. Buff Bagwell also hasn't been brought back to TNA due to budget and attitude reasons.
In fact, while we're on the subject, a lot of TNA wrestlers were told their pay was being cut back, many of them being guys who weren't making all that much to begin with. They're also using less and less fly-ins. Basically, if you work cheap and you're willing to drive, they'll use you. But that's where they're at right now.
Various TNA news and notes: American Dragon is expected to be brought in soon (never happened). Ricky Steamboat asked to turn heel, it wasn't a Vince Russo idea, but it was Russo's idea to rush it (ends up not happening, Steamboat leaves TNA pretty much right after this and as a result, has never turned heel in his career. It was close though). Still no news on Shane Douglas coming in. Screech from Saved By The Bell is expected to work a show for them soon. They're also talking to other companies about DVD releases and video games.
One other note from TNA's most recent show, it featured Malice vs. Don Harris in a first blood match that ended when Harris accidentally got hardway busted open early on in the match. Dave also notes that Harris wore an SS shirt to the ring and Dave hopes he was just trying to get heat (nope, they got the tattoos too. Harris brothers are fuckin' Nazis). Anyway, no one noticed until after it aired and they started getting complaints, prompting TNA to issue a vague apology on their website without naming who wore the shirt or acknowledging what was on it.
About 15 front office employees were laid off from WWE this week due to budget cuts. The company is attempting to slash $20 million in expenses and this was part of that. As much as it sucks to see people lose their job, Dave gives WWE credit for making smart business decisions. So many other companies let problems linger and get out of control, but not Vince. At the first sign of trouble, he makes the necessary changes to keep WWE profitable, even if it means heads gotta roll from time to time.
Notes from Raw: the show did a great job building to Summerslam. Eric Bischoff killed the 24/7 rule for the Hardcore title, which Dave thinks was long overdue (and we wouldn't see the 24/7 rule again until they created the 24/7 title). Trish Stratus beat Stacy Keibler in a bra and panties mud wrestling match, which of course led to Howard Finkel ending up in the mud. Chris Jericho and his band Fozzy performed and were booed mercilessly, which was expected since Jericho cut a heel promo earlier in the night trashing the fans. So it was the desired reaction. Dave thinks Jericho's a much better wrestler than singer. Rock vs. Triple H in the main event in a no DQ match ended without a finish. "Nitro lives!" Dave jokes. Rock has been training at the Miami Dolphins camp and has lost a lot of weight doing conditioning training (yeah, this is around the time Rock almost looked like a normal person, rather than the steroid monster he is now). The show ended with a big Rock/Michaels/Triple H/Lesnar fiasco. Shawn seemed to be favoring his back and tried a dive over the top ropes, but didn't quite clear the top. But luckily, he wasn't hurt and they had a wild brawl to end the show. Dave has no doubt that Shawn is probably going to have a great match at Summerslam, but he hopes he doesn't re-injure his back in the process.
At the tapings for next week's Smackdown, Lita worked as a commentator for the Velocity taping portion alongside Marc Lloyd. From those who heard it on the live feed, they were horrible together and they'll have to re-do a lot of it in the studio. Stephanie was basically back to being a heel this week as GM, and since people don't want to cheer her anyway, maybe it's for the best. Mysterio hit the west coast pop on Angle and it'll look fine on TV, but live, it got messed up 2 times before he finally got it right. One of the time, Mysterio's knee brace cut Angle's head, causing him to bleed everywhere. But due to the magic of editing, it should be okay for TV. Funaki debuted as a backstage announcer, doing a stereotypical gimmick. Eddie and Chavo Guerrero teamed up and word is Heyman is wanting to push the Guerreros together as a team, freeing up Benoit to continue solo. Rock vs. Benoit was a great main event match and Benoit did a diving headbutt for the first time since his neck surgery (sigh).
Latest notes from Jim Ross' weekly Ross Report on WWE.com: talked about the cookbook he's working on. Talked about Hogan not appearing in Australia and blamed it on a back injury, which Dave says is part of the story but not all of it (the previously hinted-at money disagreements). Maven's broken leg and ankle injuries aren't healing like they hoped and he's still months away from returning. JR also said he doesn't like the names "Jamal" and "Rosie" for the Island Boyz, but that's what they're stuck with, so.....so be it. Ross also issued a veiled threat, writing, "I would think some talents with weight issues would be more inclined to personally address those issues, but, unfortunately, that does not seem to the case. More than one talent should use some self-discipline and get into game shape." Dave figures that pretty much has to be about Big Show. He also mentioned Hogan's book is coming out in November. Dave expects to spend the entire Observer issue that week reviewing it and, presumably, pointing out all the lies.
Nothing new on the Goldberg front. Relations between he and WWE are positive right now and they're talking but not really close to a deal. If Goldberg could have his way, he'd like to remain a free agent and cherry pick big shows to work in the U.S. and Japan. But WWE isn't gonna go for that kind of deal, either they want Goldberg exclusively under contract full time, or they don't want him at all.
This week's WWE Confidential was a "before they were stars" piece on Shawn Michaels. Only thing noteworthy is that Michaels talked about his trainer Jose Lothario and was dismissive of him, saying he only cares about making money. Dave says Shawn and Jose used to be close, but they went into business together on the TWA wrestling school during Shawn's retirement (the place where Spanky and American Dragon trained) and Shawn and Jose had a falling out during that time. So Shawn doesn't have a whole lot of nice things to say about Jose these days.
Latest on ECW bankruptcy proceedings was a motion that would see all remaining ECW assets going to video game company Acclaim. However, WWE filed an objection this week, claiming they are still owed $616,287 from ECW. The only thing left of the company with any value is the video library. Pioneer Video, the company that worked with ECW on video releases, also wants to put out more old ECW videos and is trying to stake a claim to the footage. But Dave suspects WWE will end up with the library when all is said and done.
Howard Stern claimed on his radio show that he spoke with Vince McMahon a few weeks ago about appearing at Summerslam. Stern said he decided against doing it, but he and Vince have continued talking and pitching ideas back and forth, so Stern in WWE may still happen someday. Stern also talked about starting his own wrestling company. Oh lord.
Various WWE notes: Lesnar went down to Florida where Rock lives this week so the two of them could work out their match for Summerslam. Shawn Stasiak's new finishing move has been named "the ratings drop" and Dave thinks that's a little too on the nose. Hogan and Vince are still having disagreements over money and his future direction, but Hogan is still under contract, so he's not going anywhere anytime soon, even if there was somewhere to go.