February 17, 2003
- We open with the death of Curt Hennig, who passed away this week at age 44 at a hotel in Brandon, FL. Hennig was in the area because he was booked to work an indie show called Jimmy Hart's All-Star Wrestling, featuring a lot of the usual old WWF stars from the 80s and early 90s. He had gone out the night before with several of the other wrestlers and was scheduled to have breakfast the next morning with referee Mickey Jay. But Hennig told him that he had been up all night not feeling well and wanted to sleep in and would meet him later in the day. Eventually, after people were unable to reach him, they asked the hotel to open the door. It had the little hook thing on it to keep it from opening all the way and they could see Hennig inside, unresponsive. So they went around and went through a window to get into the room and found him already dead. Autopsy results are pending but police don't suspect foul play or suicide and speculation is he had a heart attack. While Hennig didn't have a reputation as a big drug guy, he wasn't a stranger to it either. It was noted that Hennig had been suffering a chest cold and hiccups that wouldn't go away for almost 2 weeks but hadn't seen a doctor. Friends who hung out with him the night before said Hennig described it as "uncontrollable belching." (Sadly, this death turns out to be another drug-related tragedy in a string of them during this era).
- And from here, we get the usual obituary piece that Dave shines so well at. We recount Hennig's career, following in his father's footsteps and Dave recounts all the people who went to the same high school that became wrestlers: Hennig, Rick Rude, Tom Zenk, Barry Darsow, Berzerker, Nikita Koloff, and more. He recounts stories of Hennig's infamous "ribs," some of which were harmless and some which were fucked up. He was "legendary" for taking shits in people's bags or cutting up people's clothes with scissors. Ha. Ha. Funny? When Ultimate Warrior returned to WCW and used to come out from under the ring through a trap door, Warrior, Norton, and Hennig all had to hide under the ring for a planned angle, and Hennig took a dump under the ring, causing both Norton and Warrior to get sick since they couldn't go anywhere to escape it. Ok, that's funnier. He had a Flair-like reputation of being able to stay up all night drinking and put on a 4-star match the next day.
- More from the Hennig obituary: he was the son of Larry "The Axe" Hennig, trained under Verne Gagne, bounced around the territories for a minute, started up in AWA, teaming with his dad or with Scott Hall, challenging Nick Bockwinkel and a bunch of AWA title controversies, eventually jumped ship to WWF where he settled into the Mr. Perfect gimmick with all the famous vignettes. Lots of quotes from Bret Hart in here about working with Hennig. The run with Hulk Hogan that did disappointing business but gave Hogan some of his best matches ever. Hennig making Ultimate Warrior look so good is a big reason why McMahon was so high on Warrior to be the next top guy. IC title run, the back injury that pretty much ended his prime years, commentary and manager years, jumping to WCW where he had a few meaningless midcard title runs and the West Texas Rednecks gimmick, the "Rap Is Crap" song, etc. Hennig's last major run was in WWE last year, where he was brought back and shockingly pushed hard in the 2002 Royal Rumble looked awesome, but was fired 5 months later for getting drunk and tussling with Brock Lesnar on the infamous Plane Ride From Hell. He made a couple of appearances for TNA, ending his in-ring career with a final "Axehandle on a Pole" match against David Flair.
- Dave looks at some overall business trends for WWE over the past several years. On paper, 2002 looks like a pretty strong year compared to the rest of the company's overall history. But after several years of peak business, the trend is going decidedly downward. Live attendance was down almost 40% in 2002 from the year prior, the largest annual decline in WWE history. In fact, it's an even bigger decline than WCW had from 1998-1999. We get more and more stats here but you get the gist. The brand extension and loss of Austin and Rock for much of the year didn't help either. Long story short, while WWE is still doing big business, it's only because they started from such a great height. Right now, they're in free-fall from a business standpoint. Ratings, attendance, average sellouts, buyrates....they're all plummeting at an alarming rate (stuff like this is interesting to look back on because it's a reminder that WWE's current 2024 hot streak probably isn't gonna last forever either).
- We get a look a look at similar numbers for the big 3 Japanese promotions. AJPW actually had its best year in a long time, with a 42% increase in attendance in 2002. Interestingly enough, these numbers are almost entirely because of Keiji Muto and Satoshi Kojima, who's defection to AJPW last year gave them a huge boost and probably saved the company. But Muto's business decisions behind the scenes have threatened the company's stability in other ways. While AJPW is bringing in increased revenue, the money is going out the door just as fast because Muto is making a big effort to upgrade AJPW production values, and spending huge money on those WRESTLE-1 super-shows (the most recent of which was, of course, a disaster and financial flop) and as a result, even though they saw such an increase, they're somehow doing worse than ever financially. Meanwhile, NJPW continued its steady decline, as the loss of Muto and Kojima early last year was a big blow and, of course, all of Inoki's bullshit continues to erode fan interest. NOAH, meanwhile, is doing good. Attendance and ratings are up and for all intents and purposes, NOAH is probably the only major wrestling promotion in the world that is starting 2003 in a better place than they were a year ago.
- We get PRIDE and UFC numbers also, showing that MMA is continuing its slow rise to dominance. I ain't gonna dive into all this now, but the next couple of years will see MMA come through and take over everything.
- WWA's Retribution PPV is in the books. Anyone still remember WWA? Eh well. The show was taped back in December in Scotland but just aired on PPV in the U.S. and was advertised around Sting and Lex Luger making their first big PPV appearances since WCW died. But it seems no one really cared because there was no buzz about this at all. The show wasn't bad though, Dave says, and the crowd was hot. Most of the matches were good, except the Luger vs. Sting main event, which is a good contender for worst match of the year. Luger, bigger than he's ever been, blew up immediately and moved slow. Jeff Jarrett successfully defended the NWA title against Nathan Jones who, of course, is now signed to WWE but hasn't actually debuted in-ring yet on TV. In another era, having TNA's top champion pin a guy who is now signed with WWE would have infuriated Vince, but ya know. If a tree falls and no one's around to buy the PPV....
- WATCH: WWA Retribution (full show) - 2003
- Carlos Colon's WWC is making changes to its television show in the face of declining....everything. Dave doesn't really specify what that means. Meanwhile, IWA has been circling WWC like a shark smelling blood. IWA has been running shows literally within minutes of WWC almost every night and it's absolutely destroying Colon's promotion. IWA has begun making overtures to the few marketable stars WWC has left in an effort to poach them. Dave thinks killing WWC would be the worst thing IWA could do in the long-run.
- The Dallas Sportatorium, one of the most legendary venues in American wrestling history, is being torn down. The 4,500 seat arena was a rundown dump even in its glory days and now sits abandoned. Dating back to the 1950s, shows were held there weekly and virtually every name wrestler of the past 50 years has passed through its doors at some point. Of course, it was most famous as being the home base of the Von Erich's and WCCW.
- Ring of Honor's New York debut on 2/8, their one year anniversary show, drew the company's biggest crowd ever (675) and was said to be one of the best shows in its history. Among the matches on the card were American Dragon vs. Samoa Joe and a Paul London/AJ Styles/Low-Ki three-way, both of which were said to be awesome. Dave also notes that Raven is debuting at next month's ROH show against CM Punk (and thus the true rise of Punk begins. Raven feud basically put him on the map).
- Roddy Piper was on Best Damn Sports Show Period this week to promote his book and they got to talking about the Rikishi stinkface. Piper asked, "Have you ever had a 300-pound person in a thong sit on your face?" to which host Tom Arnold (ex-husband of Rosanne Barr) responded, "Yeah, every night for a couple of years." That is phenomenal.
- In IWA Mid-South, Chris Hero defeated CM Punk in a 2-out-of-3 falls match that went 92+ minutes. Dave says it's the longest match he's heard about in several years. The crowd was said to be into everything and were going crazy down the stretch and were never bored (this is, of course, one of the first matches that really puts Chris Hero on the map and, in fact, is the first time I can recall seeing his name in the Observer).
- WATCH: CM Punk vs. Chris Hero - 90+ minute match from IWA Mid-South (2003)
- Former Kansas City Chiefs NFL star Kimble Ambers made his pro wrestling debut at an indie show in KS. He won a match that only lasted seconds. And then he went backstage and was promptly arrested. Yup. He had a warrant out and cops were basically waiting for him after the show. At least they didn't make an angle out of it the way they did with Billy Travis in USWA.
- Tenacious Z made his PPV debut in TNA, defeating BG James. The story on the one-legged wrestler is he lost his leg due to cancer as a child. Hulk Hogan visited him in the hospital and he was thus inspired to become a pro wrestler. Dave thinks the kid is phenomenal considering his obvious limitations and will probably get some mainstream buzz once people see what he can do (or, ya know, once WWE steals him lol).
- TNA wrestler Trinity was the woman who did the stunts for Jennifer Garner in the movie Daredevil. Dave compares Trinity to Lita, saying she gets over by doing cool moves (often when interfering in men's matches), but she doesn't really have a lot when it comes to stringing together a full match with other women. She also doesn't have Lita's charisma.
- WWE has told their television partners (TNN and UPN) to expect more surprises between now and Wrestlemania. They have also told them that the long-term plan is for Rock to be a regular part of Raw, with Austin a regular part of Smackdown. (Hear me out, what about this: neither of those things).
- There's something of an unofficial deadline with the WWE/Goldberg negotiations. Basically, if they have any hope of doing anything with him by Wrestlemania, a deal needs to be done in the next week or two. Right now, there's no real progress, but then again, Goldberg's recent deals with WRESTLE-1 in Japan also came together at the last minute. Even if they work out a deal, Dave thinks it would be better to save him and debut him afterwards so they can get a summer run out of him. WWE's last offer was for 10 dates per month with no more than 100 per year. Goldberg is open to working more dates, but still doesn't want to work that many. He's also asking for vacation time and some level of creative control over his character.
- More details on the sale of ECW to WWE, which is expected to become official next month: as part of the sale, WWE gets the trademarked names ECW owned, as well as likenesses and future marketing rights, photos and videos, etc. WWE is also due royalties from Pioneer Home Video and InDemand that were owed to ECW prior to its closing (money that Heyman would have surely liked to have received when they were still in business. He's stated many times that the PPV providers withholding their royalties is what ultimately led to them not being able to afford to keep going).
- Steve Austin made his return to WWE after Raw went off the air in Los Angeles on 2/10. The crowd went insane for a solid 15 minutes. Austin was said to look heavier than people had seen him in a long time and he was drinking beers left and right (violating his probation, Dave suspects) and gave Stunners to everybody. He's still not expected to appear on TV until the No Way Out PPV, this was just for the live crowd since Austin is living in L.A. these days.
- Notes from 2/10 Raw: show was built around the drama of Bischoff and JR trying to make sure Steve Austin would appear at No Way Out. Vince McMahon "fired" Bischoff, but not before Bischoff begged and even offered to hook Vince up with some "bisexual lesbians." Has it ever been explained why Bischoff has access to a seemingly endless supply of lesbians during this era? Of course, at the end of the show, JR announced Austin was returning, Bischoff was re-hired (narrowly avoiding the Kiss My Ass Club) and was booked against Austin at the PPV, and all was right in the universe. I guess. Dave doesn't really say it but gives off the vibe that he's not really feeling this angle. Steve Austin's big return was basically a Bischoff vs. Jim Ross feud. That's the best they could do? Elsewhere on the show, the announcing duo of Lawler and Coachman was horrible. Test and Stacy Keibler talked about working with Girls Gone Wild, and yes, Bischoff has managed to put the deal together with them and WWE that we'll surely be hearing more about soon. The Jericho vs. Jeff Hardy match was the best Hardy has looked in awhile, but nobody in the crowd noticed because 2 females (at the urging of the crowd) were engaging in some real HLA and they were distracted until security broke it up. And that's about it.
- Notes from 2/16 Smackdown: Another Angle vs. Benoit match, another great performance from both. It was a non-title match but Angle still won clean. There was also a great UFC-style interview segment with Benoit that was probably the best talking he's done since he came to WWE. They're putting over the idea that Benoit could end up champion some day, but Dave thinks most fans don't buy that yet. They gotta do a lot more to rehab Benoit before people buy him at that level. Elsewhere on the show, Haas & Benjamin beat the Guerreros in another great match to win the tag titles. They hyped up Hogan vs. Rock II with a couple of pre-taped Rock promos. And that's the big stuff.
- The plan is for Goldust to return with Tourette's syndrome after being electrocuted. Basically, it's a backstage joke that Dustin Rhodes does that pops the locker room and, well, here we are. Now it's his gimmick (Bruce Prichard on his podcast has said many times, be careful what you do backstage in front of Vince because if it entertains him, it might end up as your gimmick. Dustin is one of several examples. Some go well, such as Cena the rapper, and some go poorly).
- Torrie Wilson was out a couple weeks back because she was taking photos for Playboy. She will be the cover model for the May issue, which comes out the same week as Wrestlemania for maximum cross-promotion.
- Random WWE news & notes: there's talk of Bradshaw reforming the APA with the recently-maybe-not-really-retired Ron Simmons when he's able to return (yup, in June). There's a legal battle over who wrote the lyrics to the t.A.T.u song "All The Things She Said" which is Victoria's current entrance theme music. ABC World News did a story on Chris Nowinski and Dave thinks his Harvard gimmick has potential to get some mainstream publicity like this. He also thinks that as soon as somebody alerts Vince about this one-legged Tenacious Z kid, he'll be getting mainstream publicity in WWE soon too (yup). TV Guide had an interview with soap opera star Rebecca Budig who talked about her brief stint as a host for Sunday Night Heat and she said she hated it (I don't remember this lady at all).
- Freddie Blassie, who's 85, was at the Raw 10 year anniversary show but was in bad shape. They planned for him to cut a promo, but scrapped it due to health concerns. Dave then veers off into a 1000-word rant about a famous Blassie/John Tolos angle from California in the 1970s because of course he does.
- Ric Flair's autobiography is still in limbo. If you recall, Flair had a deal with a different publisher, and WWE is working with their publisher to buy the rights to it, at which point, they'll kick it into high gear with whatever ghostwriters and editors they choose to put it together. But there's been several snags in trying to purchase the rights.