December 09, 2002
- We open with an obituary for "Mr. Wrestling" Tim Woods, who passed away at age 68. Dave recounts his life and career, starting with the most famous story. Woods was one of the passengers in that famous 1975 plane crash that broke Ric Flair's back. Woods was the only babyface on the plane with a bunch of heels, and kayfabe in 1975 was fiercely protected. Woods was one of the biggest babyface stars in the company and was feuding with Johnny Valentine (who was also on the plane and ended up paralyzed). In order to protect kayfabe and to shut down rumors that he had been on the plane, Woods checked himself out of the hospital the next day, even though he was very banged up and could barely move, and within days, he was back in the ring wrestling even though he was in horrific pain, in order to "prove" that there's no way he could have been in the plane crash despite rumors. It was thought that if fans knew that all these people were traveling together, it would have killed wrestling in the Carolinas, which was booming at the time. To this day, Ric Flair calls him the man who saved pro wrestling in the Carolinas because he protected kayfabe by doing that. It was years later before he (or anyone else) admitted that he was in the plane crash. Anyway, Dave promises to have more details and a longer piece on him next week.
- The Tito Ortiz vs. Ken Shamrock UFC PPV early numbers are in and it appears to have done nearly triple the usual UFC buyrate. It's not in the range of WWE or major boxing matches, but aside from those, this will likely go down as the most PPV buys for any other sporting or entertainment event since WCW in 1999. It's the highest for a UFC show in nearly 6 years, dating back to the early no-rules days before they got banned from everywhere. Prior to the show, Dana White was publicly hoping/predicting for around 80,000 buys. Early numbers put it closer to 150,000. So needless to say....HUGE success.
- Lifelong career rivals Hulk Hogan and Roddy Piper are at it again. This time, they both have autobiographies released at around the same time and Dave's here to review them both. Dave briefly recaps their wrestling rivalry and talks about how Piper refused to ever put Hogan over for fear that doing so would lead him to becoming just another typical WWF heel. Jobbed out to Hogan and then cast aside for the next guy (probably a valid concern). Piper had such strong drawing power that he was able to get away with it, when most guys would have been fired. This all led to the first Wrestlemania and how Vince and Hogan (and Mr. T to an extent) got all the credit for the success of the show, while Piper and Orndorff never really got any credit for how important their roles were. In fact, this whole "book review" starts with a loooong recap of McMahon's quest to go national. Dave also disputes the claim that WWF would not have survived if Wrestlemania hadn't been successful. Vince sure likes to claim that these days, but the reality is, WWE still had the NBC deal, they had tons of exposure on MTV, they still had all the biggest stars in the world, and were still easily selling out major arenas. If Wrestlemania had failed, it would have been a huge blow for sure. And it would have knocked them down a few steps and slowed their expansion. But they still would have been the biggest and strongest "territory" in the business and it's likely they still would have gone national later on some way or another. Because of the way the TV industry was changing, it was inevitable that the territory system was dying and one of these promotions was going to go national sooner or later. And even if Wrestlemania had failed, WWF was still in the best position to do it.
- Anyway, the books. Before we get into the reviews, it's worth noting that both books aren't doing great. Hogan's book is expected to debut at #13 on the New York Times bestseller list. For comparison, both Mick Foley and Kurt Angle's books debuted higher. Even WWE's "History of Wrestlemania" book debuted higher. Dave also says from the start that it might not be fair to fully blame Hogan for what is or isn't in this book, since it was ghostwritten and there were a lot of well-publicized issues between Hogan and WWE over how they wanted to edit it. Hogan admitted he should have told the truth about steroids on the Arsenio Hall Show. He protected Eric Bischoff and himself and blamed Vince Russo and Bill Busch for the fall of WCW, not taking any of the blame himself even though a lot of people think he shares in some of it. He was overly nice to everyone, even praising Jay Leno as a good athlete (leading Dave to talk about Leno being so bad that WCW brought in his band leader, Kevin Eubanks, to do all the athletic stuff they didn't trust Leno to do). He apparently had less than nice things to say about Randy Savage in the original draft but it was heavily edited to almost nothing here. Overall, the biggest problem with Hogan's book isn't the accuracy so much as the depth. He just doesn't go into detail on much of anything and as a result, it's a pretty boring book. But this is likely due to WWE heavily editing anything juicy out of it before release. Dave will have a MUCH more in-depth tear-apart of this book next week and oh lord, it's a doozy.
- Roddy Piper, on the other hand, freely admitted to his own mistakes and the problems with the business and talked of wrestlers needing to unionize (18 years later, still waiting). There are some inaccuracies and Piper's memory about some things seems hazy, but he doesn't shy away from the darker aspects of the business. Piper's book mostly ends after 1992, with barely a mention of his WCW tenure or much of anything after that. Both Piper and Hogan wrote about Wrestlemania 1 and have different views on how things went. Both Hogan and Piper admitted that no one liked Mr. T. Hogan spent the weeks leading up to Mania trying to keep Mr. T from quitting, while Piper and Orndorff spent those weeks arguing with Vince McMahon because they both refused to put over Mr. T (Orndorff eventually did). Both of them talked about how Mr. T tried to walk out of Wrestlemania on the day of the show, which would have been the biggest disaster in American wrestling history, but Hogan talked him into staying and they ended up doing the match as planned. Piper was fair to Vince, both praising and criticizing him when it was deserved. As is typical of old 80s wrestlers, both Hogan and Piper talked about how basically every show they ever wrestled was a packed house and near-riots and yes, all that shit happened occasionally, but not near as often as old-timers would have you believe.
- Look y'all, these book reviews are longer than the books themselves. We gotta wrap this up. He basically recaps them both in full and spends paragraph after paragraph correcting historical facts that each got wrong. Dave liked Piper's book better but neither of them are in the top 5 wrestling books of all time or anything. Both are probably more enjoyable to older fans, with the 1997-onward boom period barely touched on by either book. So if you're a new fan who came along in the Attitude Era and don't care about 1970s Roy Shire stories and shit, these probably ain't for you. Actually, most of this recap is about the Piper book. I pretty much covered the Hogan stuff in that one paragraph, but Dave promises to have a full review of the Hogan book soon.
- Hiroshi Tanahashi, one of NJPW's most promising young stars, was stabbed this week by his girlfriend as he attempted to break up with her. As of press time, Tanahashi was still hospitalized but expected to make a full recovery. His girlfriend, 23-year-old Hitomi Hara, was a cable TV interviewer on the Samurai TV network and did lots of interviews for NJPW. She was picked up by police later that day and charged with attempted murder. She allegedly stabbed him twice on the right side of his back with a 9-inch kitchen knife. Tanahashi, who is probably lucky to have survived, escaped the apartment. Hara, who was completely nude, followed him outside and began screaming at him in front of witnesses. Tanahashi jumped on his motor scooter and was able to drive himself to a nearby hospital. One of the stab wounds was close to piercing his lung and doctors said if his back wasn't so muscular, he might have died (stupid sexy Tanahashi strikes again). The doctor called police, but Tanahashi told them to go to the apartment first before coming to see him because he was worried Hara would kill herself. Tanahashi had spent the previous night with Hara at her apartment but that morning, he attempted to break off the relationship. She went nuts and that was that. When police questioned her, Hara admitted she was trying to kill him and said she was thinking of killing herself as well. At NJPW's show the next night, Tatsumi Fujinami cut a promo telling fans he visited Tanahashi in the hospital and he was confined to his bed with very limited movement. This became a major story in Japanese media, and a lot of it actually criticized Tanahashi for being involved in an incident that made wrestling look sleazy to the public. A lot of outlets also compared it to the stabbing death of Rikidozan, the father of Japanese wrestling. Tanahashi is considered the best of the young wrestlers in NJPW and has been slowly being groomed to be a future IWGP champion. He's expected to be hospitalized for a week and out of action for several months.
- An hour long Bob Sapp special, which featuring the recent Sapp/Muta match and a bunch of other "entertainment" pieces did a decent, but overall, disappointing TV rating in Japan. Between this and several other recent shows NJPW did, it seems like both major companies in Japan are trying to copy the previously-successful WWE formula of focusing more on storylines and outside-the-ring skits and promos rather than matches. That shit might have worked in the U.S. (and it's working less and less these days), but it really doesn't work in Japan. It also hurts that Sapp, as big of a superstar as he is, has become horribly overexposed. He's wrestling for both AJPW and NJPW and fighting for K-1 and PRIDE, among other things. Plus appearing on TV shows everywhere. Furthermore, he's been getting very little sleep and little training time due to his hectic media schedule, and he's starting to look it. He's still a huge guy, but he didn't look as physically impressive in the Muta match as he did even a month earlier. Plus he's dealing with injuries, particularly leg injuries from a recent K-1 fight. Sapp has gotten this reputation of fighting experienced, but much smaller, fighters. Dave thinks it's only a matter of time before Sapp goes into a ring and gets the shit beat out of him by someone half his size, and that's gonna kill his monster aura. Seems like his handlers agree, because they're clearly trying to milk this Bob Sapp phenomenon for all they can, as fast as they can (yeah we're about 3 months away from Cro Cop breaking his orbital bone and dropping him with one punch).
- Kensuke Sasaki is officially gone from NJPW. If you recall, Sasaki had publicly announced two months ago that he was quitting the company but there was some debate over that because he was still under NJPW contract and they didn't seem to want to release him. Plus, Sasaki seemed to have second thoughts, realizing he can't make the kind of money he was making in NJPW by wrestling elsewhere. But he still wasn't happy and despite that, decided he still wanted out. So after months of back and forth negotiations, it's officially over. NJPW agreed to release him from his contract early (it was due to expire in 2 months anyway) and it's expected that Sasaki will join Riki Choshu in whatever new promotion he plans to start after his own departure from NJPW a few months back (he'll be back in a year or so).
- Antonio Inoki's annual New Year's Eve MMA/wrestling show is happening in a few weeks and word is he's trying to put together Bob Sapp vs. Yoshihiro Takayama. But Takayama wants $650k for the fight, which Dave says is a polite way of saying he doesn't want the fight (he must've gotten the payday he wanted because sure enough, we get that fight. And sure enough, Sapp mauls him).
- Speaking of shoots, Jushin Liger faced Minoru Suzuki at the latest Pancrase event. Suzuki destroyed Liger in less than 2 minutes, on what was also Liger's 38th birthday. Shitty way to celebrate your birthday. Also, 38 is way too late to be starting MMA. Liger fought in a modified mask and was choked out quickly. Dave is flabbergasted by NJPW's decision-making. This would be one thing if it was a no-name guy with little to lose and everything to gain. But Liger is one of the company's most legendary stars and got embarrassed by a washed-up MMA fighter 40 pounds lighter than him because he has no experience in shoot fighting. This did nothing but hurt NJPW and Liger. But his star-power definitely helped Pancrase, which drew its largest crowd in ages because of Liger. NJPW (and let's face it, this is all Inoki) has been doing this kind of thing repeatedly for the last few years and it has devastated NJPW, which was the biggest and most successful wrestling promotion in the world just 5 years ago. It's almost like Inoki is trying to kill the company or something.
- WWA started its latest desperate survival tour in Dublin, Ireland. Disco Inferno and promoter Andrew McManus did commentary, live over the speakers so the crowd could hear it, which is still weird no matter how often they do it. There was no announced lineup before the show. They have another PPV this week in Glasgow and there's no lineup announced for that either, other than the Luger vs. Sting main event. But that's in question now too because Luger has bronchitis and missed several of the shows on this tour earlier in the week. Fun fact, remember how Scott Steiner was supposed to be on this tour, but WWE signed him? If you recall, McManus was willing to let Steiner out of the shows he was contracted to do, feeling that WWE would owe him one and they would make good on it. And if you recall, Dave laughed heartily at the idea that McManus believed that. Well, WWE offered to send Godfather in exchange for Steiner. What a trade! So that was the plan. But....Godfather pulled out of the tour, claiming a knee injury, and as a result, WWA got absolutely nothing from WWE in exchange for Steiner. Because duh. Anyone who's been paying attention to how Vince McMahon conducts business for the last 20 years should have seen that coming. Anyway, the matches on this tour were both Sting and Luger's first matches since WCW folded almost 2 years ago. Luger was said to have looked old and appeared sick, and, well, he was. Sting looked better than expected and did well. Both men were allegedly paid around $100k for 2 weeks of work, so it's easy to see why they came out of retirement for it.
- Latest from TNA saw Vince Russo cut a shoot promo where he talked about how he thinks TNA sucks. He also admitted he was the one who came up with the name, just in case you were the one person on earth who still believed TNA when they claimed Russo wasn't involved with them at the very beginning. He also talked about WWE sucking and he's back to save wrestling, said WWE tried to bury Jarrett, he took credit for making Jarrett a top star in WCW, etc. Then they had Mike Tenay talk about Russo killing WCW and basically, this whole angle is supposed to be "a shoot, bro" so everyone is talking about all this real-life stuff. TNA still claims Russo isn't booking or writing for them but literally no one believes that. Russo himself went on a radio show later in the week and admitted that he's basically writing his own current storyline but said he's not writing anything else (and it's not a coincidence that Russo's storyline is essentially the focal point of the company and main event angle). But wait, it gets better! After the show, which ended with Ron Killings attacking Russo and them getting into a brawl, Killings went backstage and was screaming that Russo was shooting on him by throwing real punches in the ring. This isn't actually true by the way. The backstage thing was a work. Even though this didn't air on TV, it was done because they knew the dirtsheets would report it and then "everyone" would know about it. Just more Russo being Russo.
- TNA has also been trying to get some "old-timers" to come in and cut promos about how they hate Russo for what he did to the business. He has so much heat, bro! Why not turn it into an angle, bro? Roddy Piper, Dusty Rhodes, and Bobby Heenan have all been talked to. Heenan was going to do it at first, mostly to promote his book, but when he found out the storyline, he changed his mind, saying he's not gonna be fooled into participating in an angle that will help Vince Russo and said as long as Russo is involved, he won't work with TNA.
- Speaking of people who hate Russo, Jeff Jarrett has been trying to smooth things over with Sean Waltman. As of now, Waltman ain't budging and Jarrett even tried to talk him into coming back one last time and cutting a promo to say he was quitting because of Russo, but Waltman refused that also, for the same reason as Heenan. He's not going to participate in helping to get Russo over. Waltman has no more interest in TNA and is reportedly trying to get into NJPW. No word on Scott Hall, who was pretty much only showing up so he could hang out with Waltman. Hall is in the midst of a custody battle with his ex-wife and has some court dates for that coming up and he turned down TNA's offer to make him a tag team champion with Waltman (who also turned it down) because he's not ready to come back yet. So his status is basically, he'll show up if he wants to and TNA will gladly take him. Or he won't (man, was this company ever not mismanaged?)
- Various WWE notes: Kurt Angle is having his knee scoped after this month's PPV and will likely be out until Rumble. Kevin Nash's torn quad recovery is going far slower than expected and it's too soon to even have a vague idea of when he'll be back, but it's gonna be a long time. Several top wrestlers on Raw have been told Steve Austin is returning soon (yeah, within the next few weeks, they start working the angle that leads to his return in February). Raven's new storyline is based on a gimmick from the movie "Se7en" and its something Raven has been pitching forever (WWE gives up on it in a matter of weeks).
- Notes from Raw: Dave says it featured the dumbest-booked main event since WCW folded, but we'll get there in a minute. Paul London, Bryan Danielson, and Michael Shane worked tryout matches. Victoria went through Jacqueline's bags and accused her of having a vibrator. Oh, the scandal! Eric Bischoff offered Scott Steiner ten women but he instead left with Stephanie McMahon. Sure, why not? And the main event: Triple H faced RVD, with Shawn Michaels as the special referee. It was clear after the Elimination Chamber botch that RVD was desperately trying not to hurt him and the match sucked because of it. And even with Shawn Michaels as guest referee, trying repeatedly to help RVD win, Triple H still pulled out the victory. It was an overbooked mess that made RVD look like a joke who couldn't beat Triple H despite the referee blatantly cheating to help him. What a babyface. Dave hated this.
- Notes from tapings for next week's Smackdown: they did a big lesbian angle with Torrie Wilson and Dawn Marie. The story was apparently that Al Wilson wasn't there, so Dawn started hitting on Torrie and agreed to cancel the wedding with Torrie's dad if she would come to her hotel room and have sex with her. They also filmed an angle in a hotel room with those two making out that didn't air in the arena, so Dave doesn't know if this will end up airing on TV (it eventually airs, but we'll get there). Chris Benoit cut a promo that was said to be the best of his career. He talked about everything he's sacrificed for wrestling, noting he has an ex-wife and two kids in Edmonton that he never sees. And he has a wife and a baby in Atlanta that he's away from most of the week (oof) and talked about his neck injury and goal of winning the world title some day. Said to be incredible. A long 4-way match with Angle, Eddie, Benoit, and Edge was said to be phenomenal. Angle won and will face Big Show for the title at the PPV next week.
- Notes from this week's Smackdown: it was the weakest episode of the show in months. Way too much Stephanie McMahon and too much Fabulous Moolah also. Ernest "The Cat" Miller was on commentary and was as terrible as everyone warned him it was. Torrie/Dawn Marie/Al Wilson segment was worse than most of Raw's worst stuff. And that's about it.
- WWE recently attempted to purchase the Mid-South/UWF video library from Bill Watts' ex-wife. In Bill Watts divorce with his first wife, she actually ended up with ownership of the video library, in case you're wondering. No word on how that negotiation is going but they're trying. They are also negotiating with the Gagne family to buy the AWA library and it's clear WWE has plans for marketing old videos and possibly doing a 24-hour wrestling channel at some point (ended up taking another decade before WWE finally managed to get the Mid-South/UWF footage in 2012).
- Nathan Jones has been working WWE house shows and Vince McMahon, unsurprisingly, loves him and wants to book him as a huge unbeatable monster immediately. Also of note, during one of his ring entrances, Jones jumped from the floor to the ring apron, which is what Brock Lesnar does. Well, Lesnar was none too pleased and confronted him backstage after and told him that's his deal and not to do it anymore.