February 10, 2003
- The much-talked about Steve Austin interview in the new Raw Magazine was basically what you'd expect: a mostly-shoot interview with a few things spun to build for future programs. Austin talked about his legitimate reasons for being frustrated, going back almost 2 years. He mentions things such as promos being scripted by writers, something Dave has heard countless wrestlers complain about (I'm sure they'll change that any day now). He said he realizes that his heel turn at WM17 was a bad idea in hindsight. Austin also admitted not wanting to work with Scott Hall at WM18 but claims it was only because 3 months wasn't long enough to build up the match. That's not quite the truth, Dave says, noting that Austin was telling people at the time that Hall wouldn't make it to Wrestlemania before getting fired and instead asked to work with Kurt Angle. That's why Angle was held in limbo in the weeks leading up to WM18, so they could plug him into the match with Austin in case Scott Hall flaked out in the weeks before the show. When that didn't happen, Angle ended up doing the match with Kane. Anyway, Austin said he knew going into his WM18 match with Hall that he intended to quit the next day, blaming burnout and frustration with his place on the card. And if you recall, he indeed went home and missed Raw the following day before being talked into returning.
- Then we get to the story of the second time he walked out. Austin recounts being booked to wrestle Lesnar on Raw in a match with no build-up and says anyone with half a brain about booking knows how stupid that would have been. "I’m not the first in line for Brock Lesnar. I’m the last in line. I’m happy to do business with anybody--when it’s time to do business. That was the dumbest business decision I’ve ever heard in my life." Austin doesn't mention that he was also booked to lose that match (via interference) but he was. (In the years since, he has since walked back a lot of this and says he regrets leaving the way he did but if you ask me, he was absolutely right about how foolish that booking decision was.)
- Austin also addressed his divorce from Debra, saying that she was frustrated because their marriage hurt her career. When everyone knows she's Austin's wife, she wasn't able to continue being a manager for other wrestlers. It just didn't work in kayfabe anymore and she was stuck in his shadow as a result. He said the divorce is ongoing and they're separated but are still cordial and communicating. From here on out, the interview veered into planting storyline seeds, with Austin talking about how comments made by Rock (his Wrestlemania opponent) and Triple H (expected to be his next program after that) after he left had upset him. But it begs the question of how much Austin's future holds. Privately, he has told friends that he knows he can't do as much as he once could with all his injuries. He's wanting to work a more limited schedule (2 more "matches" with Eric Bischoff and one final go round with The Rock and that would be the end of Austin's career until Kevin Owens decided to shit-talk Texas 20 years later).
- More than 2 years after it ceased to exist, the ECW estate is finally close to being settled. WWE has reached an agreement with Acclaim to purchase the ECW video library and IP rights for approx. $1.87 million. The deal hasn't been finalized and there are a few creditors who are owed money who are still raising a stink (in particular, Joey Styles and another company that has possession of the videotapes). There's also a former lawyer for ECW who is pushing to have the court overturn the decision so they can file suit against TNN, arguing that the network is in part to blame from ECW going out of business. WWE is also abandoning its claims to money ECW owed them in bankruptcy court as well, bringing the total money WWE is paying for ECW to roughly identical to what it paid for WCW (and the two of them combined are still less than what McMahon paid for just one of his sexual misconduct settlements a couple years later).
- Dave talks about the possibility of WWE starting a separate "ECW" brand under their own umbrella, the same way they originally hoped to relaunch WCW. That wouldn't make a lot of financial sense right now for multiple reasons. With the WCW and ECW libraries in their pocket and their recent aggressive attempts to purchase the AWA and Mid-South libraries, rumors abound of a 24-hour wrestling channel. There's been talk in the past of an on-demand wrestling service for old footage, and as mentioned last week, there's a lot of hassle involved in editing all the "WWF" out of their own libraries. So far though, aside from a few clips on TV and a forgettable NWO video release, they've barely capitalized on the WCW library at all.
- Former K-1 President Kazuyoshi Ishii was arrested once again this week on additional tax evasion charges. He's accused of hiding an additional $4.42 million that investigators weren't aware of when the first charges were filed and were part of a different investigation. In his books, Ishii claims that the company spent hundreds of thousands on failed negotiations with Mike Tyson to work a K-1 show, but investigations show no such negotiation took place. The Tyson/K-1 negotiations were a huge story in the press at the time so to find out that they never even had talks is a huge blow to K-1's credibility. This all comes on the heels of the company's most successful show ever in December. K-1's next show, its first without Ishii as president, is scheduled for March and as of now, there's concern if sponsors will drop out. Because of that, they're keeping a Bob Sapp vs. Mirko Cro Cop fight in their back pocket, because that would do a monster rating. So if K-1 starts feeling panicky, expect to see that fight (indeed we do, very soon).
- Speaking of....Dave finally saw last month's WRESTLE-1 show in full and it's review time! He calls it a mix of WWE and PRIDE, without the promoters seeming to have any idea what makes either one work. The production level was above anything even WWE has ever done, with multiple large video screens and huge elaborate ring entrances. The show opened with an awful Raw-style promo segment between Bob Sapp and Ernesto Hoost that made Dave beg for a 20 minute Triple H promo instead. This set up the unadvertised main event. Opening match of Abdullah the Butcher vs. Masaki Satake gets NEGATIVE 4 stars. "A new level of awful." Next few matches, featuring guys like Taichi Ishimori, Milano Collection AT, Sabu (with "Sheik" painted on his chest), Dragon Kid, Ultimo Guerrero, and others, were all pretty decent. Others featured MMA fighters like Kevin Randleman and Mark Coleman doing worked pro wrestling matches against people like Giant Singh. Shinya Hashimoto beat up actor/pro wrestler Joe Son in a comedy match, which I only mention because Joe Son was the guy who played Random Task in the first Austin Powers movie (which Dave seems totally oblivious of here) and also because Joe Son later went to prison for several very awful crimes. Goldberg/Muto vs. Kronik started with an angle where they acted like Goldberg wasn't going to make it in time, only to show him walking to the Dome all the way from a nearby train station. Match was garbage and probably killed Goldberg's aura in Japan. And the main event of Hoost over Sapp in a worked match was booked stupid and sucked about as much as you'd think, ending with Hoost hitting Sapp with a chair to get the win. Throw this whole company in the trash.
- A few weeks back, Dave looked at which wrestlers from Raw are moving the ratings needle. This time it's Smackdown. Dave explains the numbers and criteria by which he's come to these conclusions. Anyway, Smackdown's biggest ratings movers for the last few months or so have been Undertaker, Brock Lensar, Big Show, and Paul Heyman. And although Dave is aware a lot of readers won't like to hear it, the Smackdown Six guys haven't been. Guys like Edge, Benoit, Eddie, and Chavo Guerrero haven't been moving the needle, despite putting on incredible matches weekly.
- Lawsuit notwithstanding, IWA unmasked Ray Gonzalez on TV this week, revealing his identity publicly. IWA and Telemundo, both of whom are being sued by Carlos Colon's WWC, don't seem to be taking the lawsuit very seriously, even working it into the storyline of Gonzalez's unmasking. Meanwhile, WWC is behind on paying its wrestlers again, which is what led Gonzalez to leave in the first place (fuck the Monday Night Wars, somebody give me an in-depth, well-produced documentary on IWA vs. WWC. Hey Dark Side guys, any of y'all reading this? Also, if you are, I've done a TON of independent research on the WWF vs. PTC story, I could probably help you make a hell of an episode about it).
- WATCH: Ray Gonzalez unmasked in IWA - 2003
- An inter-promotional angle between AJPW and Zero-1 is happening. At the latest Zero-1 show, after winning his match, Keiji Muto came out to challenge Shinya Hashimoto. When Hashimoto made a comment about AJPW falling apart, Muto denied it and said they were all there. And indeed, the entire AJPW roster, every single active wrestler (except for Tenryu and the injured Kawada) made their way to the ring and it was agreed to do an AJPW vs. Zero-1 show.
- Yuji Nagata successfully defended the IWGP title for the 8th time this week, putting him just 1 defense behind Shinya Hashimoto for most all time. Nagata said he wants to have a tie-breaker match with Hashimoto when the time comes (Nagata would go on to break the record and hold it for a decade, until Tanahashi broke it in 2012. Tanahashi's record was later passed by Okada in 2018 and still stands today). In other news, Perry Saturn worked the current NJPW tour and has more tattoos, including some on his head.
- Riki Choshu's new WJ promotion has its first show next month, headlined by 51-year-old Choshu vs. 53-year-old Genichiro Tenryu. This promotion doesn't last a year. But it's gonna be a fun ride while it lasts.
- Antonio Inoki claims he's going to book his own show at the Tokyo Dome on May 1st, which is one day before NJPW's own Tokyo Dome show. So yes, for those of you keeping count, Inoki--who is the founder, president, and majority shareholder of NJPW--is trying to undermine their upcoming Tokyo Dome show so that he can promote his own show, which he said he wants to feature wrestling and music as a celebration of his 60th birthday (this doesn't end up happening, but Inoki gets his MMA stink all over the NJPW show instead).
- WWA is planning to run a tour of Australia in May, mostly using TNA stars and other indie names, as well as tape a PPV for later broadcast in the U.S. They plan to follow that up with a UK run in June (doesn't happen. The May shows in Australia end up being the end of the road for WWA).
- Chyna is scheduled to do a celebrity boxing match against Joey Buttafuoco. For those curious (or, as Dave puts it, "in the 'nobody should care about this' department"), the original choice for Chyna's opponent was Adam Corolla, but he turned it down.
- You know the "Terry Tate: office linebacker" commercial that got a bunch of buzz during the recent SuperBowl? Sure you do! Anyway, "Terry Tate" is played by Lester Speight, who tens of people might recognize as former Global Wrestling Federation wrestler Rasta the Voodoo Man. And now you know.
- Random news and notes: Sid Vicious is reportedly filming a horror movie called "Stranded" (I can't find anything about this anywhere). A one-legged wrestler named Tenacious Z worked a dark match for TNA and got over and Dave expects to see him on the weekly PPV show soon. Because of its new focus on male viewers, TNN is eager to get Sunday Night Heat from MTV and move it to their channel. Triple H suffered a severely bruised quad (same one he tore in 2001) and is expected to be out of action until the No Way Out PPV and Dave lists all his recent injuries and talks about how banged up Triple H is. It ain't gonna get much better in 2003 buddy.
- TNA's Surprises Of The Week for this week's show were the debuts of Tony Schiavone and the Rock N Roll Express, both debuting as heels who bashed the company for being out of touch. Always a good selling point for your show. Anyway, Schiavane left the show before the tapings were even over and was already telling people he wouldn't be back (and he wasn't) so sounds like he didn't enjoy it very much. The segment with he, Mike Tenay, and Vince Russo went totally off the rails because of a bunch of unscripted shit Russo did, irritating everyone. Schiavone also said he hated playing heel and thought he was terrible at it, so there ya go. Elsewhere on the show, B.G. James (Road Dogg) cut a promo burying Vince McMahon for the old Roadie gimmick and praising Russo for making him a star in DX.
- WATCH: Tony Schiavone debuts in TNA - 2003
- Jeff Jarrett is getting heaped with praise for his work backstage in TNA. He's pretty much singlehandedly running the in-ring side of thing, acting as agent for everyone's matches, helping the younger guys lay out things, producing matches, etc. and is basically the first person in the building and last one out and never stops working like a machine the entire time.
- Sting did an interview recently and seemed more open than ever to coming to WWE. He said they were very close to making a deal for him to appear at Wrestlemania this year but it didn't work out. Sting says he's interested in one last run and has gotten his passion back since WCW killed it. Despite claims in the past that Sting's religious beliefs were always the issue, the real hold up is the schedule. Sting has made it clear he will never be a full-timer again and that's all WWE really wants from people (Sting later said that the WM19 discussion was for him to show up and confront Austin after his match, thus setting us a Sting vs. Stone Cold program for after Wrestlemania. But alas).
- Notes from 2/3 Raw: Dave just got a new TV and the first thing he watched after hooking everything up was Raw. Imagine his confusion when the audio was in Spanish for the first minute or so. Dave was going crazy wondering wtf he had done wrong with his new TV before he realized WWE's production were the ones who screwed up. Anyway, the show-line storyline was Eric Bischoff searching San Antonio for Steve Austin. The new Four Horsemen came out and it appears the name for the new group is going to be Evolution. Triple H cut his best promo in a long time to get it over. Dave doesn't really see all that much in this Batista fella. Less than 5 minutes of wrestling in the first hour of the show. They split up the Booker T/Goldust tag team (shockingly, on peaceful terms), and the only reason Dave can guess for that is they might be trying to speed-run a Booker T singles push to set him up for a match at Wrestlemania with Triple H (yup). Austin/Rock is pretty much written in stone at this point and the Steiner feud HAS to end at No Way Out for everybody's sake, so Booker T makes the most sense as Triple H's next challenger. Sure enough, later in the show, Evolution threw Goldust into an electrical board and fried him, to give Booker a reason to get revenge (and to give Goldust an all-timer of a gimmick, but we'll get there). And in other news, Jeff Hardy's ill-advised heel turn continued to make him look horrible.
- Fans were pretty upset about WWE's most recent MSG house show. The main event was advertised as the first ever Brock Lesnar vs. Triple H match. As mentioned earlier, Triple H is injured. Instead the main event ended up being Lesnar running through Team Angle before pinning Kurt Angle. Normally Lesnar vs. Angle would be a pretty great replacement, but it was just a 2-minute match that ended with a Haas/Benjamin run-in DQ. Sorry folks, even for MSG, Vince ain't giving away the Wrestlemania main event. So a lot of fans reportedly felt ripped off and were pissed that WWE never even told fans that Triple H wouldn't be there despite him being advertised for the main event. This was a Vince decision, as he and the other agents went back and forth all day and decided having Lesnar basically work a gauntlet match against all 3 would be the best option. After the match, Lesnar gave F-5s to everyone to send the crowd home happy but it didn't quite work out that way and fans were chanting "Refund!" on the way out.
- Dave outright says Rhyno will be joining the Evolution group soon. No idea where he got this info but obviously it didn't happen and I can't even find a whisper of any rumor of that anywhere else. Swing and a miss.
- OVW star Nova was told to get a haircut in preparation for a call-up to the Smackdown roster (lol, poor guy is still a year and a half away from debuting as Simon Dean. He's gonna need another haircut).
- John Cena will be recording a rap album with Boston rap producer 7L, who is also working on a new entrance theme for him. (Far as I can tell, 7L only produced the "Untouchables" song, but Jake One did a buncha stuff with him.)
- Eric Bischoff wasn't at Raw this week in person because he was helping to produce a taping of a Girls Gone Wild PPV. Bischoff has been pushing WWE to get involved with Girls Gone Wild in some form, but so far, WWE isn't onboard (that changes very soon).
- Dave talks about Victoria's new theme song by the group tAtU and mentions that the whole lesbian thing is "all a work" created by their manager and it got over. I will never tire of Dave using wrestling terms in real life. In a recent interview, the girls in the group said they had no idea the song was being used by WWE.