Wrestling Observer Rewinder

March 03, 2003

WWE has made several creative changes behind the scenes, notably: Paul Heyman has been removed from his position as Smackdown writer. Also, they're going to be splitting the PPVs along brand-lines. Let's start with that first. Starting at King of the Ring, the plan is to do 8 brand-only PPVs per year and then 4 dual-brand shows (Summerslam, Survivor Series, Royal Rumble, and Wrestlemania). They are going to even hire 2 separate production crews for the shows. All things being equal (and they won't be, but let's pretend), this means the top stars are going to be losing out on 4 PPV checks per year. On the flipside, redistributing the opportunities means someone on the lower end of the card has a better chance of getting on a PPV now than they did before. Of course, you have to take into account what splitting the rosters is going to do for the PPV buyrates. It hasn't been kind to TV ratings and ticket sales thus far and if half of the stars fans want to see are only on half the shows, it could lead to buyrates taking a similar hit unless WWE manages to create a lot of new, big draws really quickly. Dave also has questions about how this will be promoted. Does Smackdown plug Raw PPVs? If not, do they just not mention them at all, thus leaving money on the table by not promoting PPVs on half of their shows? Do they promote it anyway? Or do they continue plugging their own brand's PPV, potentially creating confusion in the marketplace and getting fans to hold out for one PPV over the other if it sounds better and thus, competing with themselves? The big 4 shows will still be fine, but WWE has tried to play gimmicky before with B-show PPVs, doing In Your House at discount prices with hopes it would attract more fans and instead, they flopped. So time will tell.
So Paul Heyman.... Officially, the word is that he's now a consultant for the creative team for both shows, but is no longer the lead writer of Smackdown, but it's "not a demotion." Obviously that's bullshit and it very clearly is a demotion. About a month ago, Heyman and Brian Gewirtz were both suspended for a week after an argument during a creative meeting that nearly turned physical. Heyman was told this change was because he's full-time on the road and therefore can't devote enough time to Smackdown but, ya know. No one is really even trying to pretend that's true. Dave rambles on about this but a lot of it seems to come down to philosophy. Heyman has an idea of what wrestling should be and it's not the same as Vince's. Heyman has always understood that but he frequently pushes the limits of what Vince will tolerate and he reportedly doesn't take it well when his ideas are overruled. While Smackdown has clearly been the better show for a long time now, the ratings weren't really reflective of that, nor live attendance. Dave doesn't really seem to have much news here, just kind of examines whether Heyman was effective during his time writing Smackdown. And from WWE's standpoint, the answer appears to be no.
Profits! Wait, no. Losses! Well, no. Sorta. Ah hell. Let's talk money. Basically, WWE closed their Times Square restaurant The World and house show business has reached its lowest levels since the end of 1995, which has lead to the biggest money losing quarter WWE has ever had. That being said, they're still very profitable and going strong. Pulling the plug on that restaurant is costing them something like $16 million, which is damn near as much as the company lost in Q1 of 2001 due to the failure of the XFL. Factor in other things and they actually lost more this quarter than they did in that quarter of peak-XFL losses. Over their 3 years of ownership, WWE has lost a total of almost $33 million on the restaurant venture, which always operated in the red. They're stuck having to pay off the remainder of the contracts and lease for the location, which is among the most expensive in the country. With no warning, the restaurant ceased operations on Feb. 25. When employees arrived for work that day, they were simply told the place was ceasing business and to go home. It's the latest in a long line of non-wrestling ventures McMahon has tried and failed in: Smackdown Records, the WBF, boxing promotion, ICOPRO, WWF Hotel in Vegas, the XFL, films, and more. All flopped. The Niagra Falls WWF-themed amusement park looks to be following suit soon. It opened for one day, shut down for permit violations, and hasn't re-opened since and that was 6 months ago. Overall, it's the second straight money-losing quarter for the company.
This probably explains why WWE has been attempting to renegotiate several existing contracts. For example, Big Show's contract was for approx. $1 million a year downside for 10 years and was set to expire in late-2008, but word is they recently renegotiated the deal. Dave doesn't have any details other than his new deal is for a shorter term now and, presumeably, less money.
Dave breaks down some other interesting financials. Merch sales were down this quarter, which is real bad news because this quarter included Christmas, so it should have been the highest of the year. Instead it went down. TV rights money TOTAL between the two shows was 13.8 million for the quarter. (for comparison, that's approximately what they get for just 3 episodes of either Smackdown or Raw these days in 2024). The Smackdown game on Playstation 2 did huge business also.
No Way Out is in the books! There appears to have been a lot more interest in this show than most of the B-level PPVs, which is due to Austin returning and Hogan vs. Rock II. Dave expects a pretty strong buyrate for this one. Austin's return, unsurprisingly, blew the roof off the arena. And since the show was in Montreal, you know they had to have a screwjob in the main event. This time, it was the debut of Sylvian Grenier, debuting as a crooked referee, who cost Hogan the match. With Rock being a heel this time and the crowd already exhausted by Austin's return, Hogan/Rock II didn't even come close to matching the magic of their Wrestlemania match last year. And without that crowd magic, you're left with Hogan and Rock just....trying to have a good match instead. And, well. The crowd was at least forgiving, but Hogan looked horrible and, as a result, it was probably the worst PPV match of Rock's career. Elsewhere on the show, Scott Steiner vs. Triple H also happened. And Steiner, while not looking quite as bad as Hogan, also doesn't get the same forgiveness from the crowd. Montreal turned on Steiner within seconds of the bell ringing and they booed him ferociously while cheering everything Triple H did. And then there was Big Show vs. Undertaker, which was better than it should have been due to Undertaker carrying the whole thing. Big Show, with his back issues, hasn't been able to train and is in the worst shape of his life.
WATCH: Steve Austin returns at No Way Out 2003 against Eric Bischoff
More notes from the PPV: Chris Benoit and Kurt Angle again stole the show as part of a 3 vs. 2 tag. It was supposed to be 3 on 3, but Edge was pulled from the match at the last minute. It was known going in that he was hurt and the plan was to basically have him on the apron and have Benoit and Lesnar do the bulk of the work for their team, then they would film an injury angle to get him off TV at next week's Smackdown. But when WWE got word of how serious Edge's injury is, they not only pulled him from the match entirely but scratched the injury angle as well because they didn't want anyone to touch him. They showed him lying backstage already unconscious but you never saw anything happen (and that's it for Edge, probably a career-ending neck inj.....what's that? Really, still??)
Even more notes from the PPV: every time they showed Shawn Michaels on the screen in video clips, the Montreal crowd booed the shit out of him, but when he finally came out to attack Jericho, it was more mixed. There was a sign that said "Great White fears pyro" which was confiscated (too soon man). Overall a good show, but the Hogan and Steiner matches killed it dead and many said they couldn't remember leaving a WWE show so unhappy. Austin's return was huge, but Jim Ross damn near overkilled it with how much he was screaming about what a huge moment it was. Jeff Hardy was a sloppy mess. Undertaker is trying to get his triangle submission choke over, but the crowd doesn't get it and doesn't react. Dave thinks Lesnar and Angle worked against each other too much in the tag match, which hurts some of the specialness of seeing them at Wrestlemania. Austin beat the brakes off Eric Bischoff but his big post-match beer routine is scrapped for now. Due to the terms of his domestic violence case settlement, Austin isn't allowed to drink any alcohol until 11/25, although the judge did say that they probably wouldn't enforce it for his on-screen appearances since it would be basically acting. However, Austin came out after Raw went off the air a couple weeks ago and did the beer bash then and someone from the probation office slapped his wrist on it and told him no more. Austin claimed that he was using non-alcoholic beer, but they asked him not to do it at all. So for now, no Austin beer bashes.
In the wake of K-1 head Kazuyoshi Ishii being charged with tax evasion, Fuji TV announced they would no longer sponsor K-1 events. While they still plan to broadcast the upcoming Bob Sapp vs. Mirko Cro Cop fight, future shows on the network are up in the air. Among the charges Ishii is facing is allegedly forging Mike Tyson's signature on a contract to defraud investors who thought he had Tyson lined up for a fight. Fuji TV has not only shown their events, but has been one of the main promoters for K-1 events. All those big fancy expensive shows and elaborate entrances that have turned K-1 into such a hot ticket....yeah, a big part of that was Fuji TV production. It's a huge blow, and there's concern that it could lead to a domino effect of other sponsors dropping. This was part of the reason K-1 is rushing the Sapp/Cro Cop fight, because they need a monster TV rating on deck to make sponsors wary of bailing. As for PRIDE, things are mostly still the same, although rumors are circulating. The death (a suspicious "suicide") of founder Naoto Morishita has tarnished its image significantly (Dave doesn't mention it but the whispers of Yakuza involvement at this point aren't doing PRIDE's image any favors).
This also throws the future of Keiji Muto's WRESTLE-1 in question. W-1, essentially an off-shoot of K-1 promoted in tandem with AJPW, was based on the idea that Fuji TV would put pro wrestling back on TV in prime time so long as mainstream names like Bob Sapp would be in headline matches. The same day Fuji pulled its sponsorship from K-1, Muto announced the next W-1 show scheduled for April had been canceled. The belief is that Fuji is no longer planning to broadcast the show due to K-1's involvement, forcing the cancelation. With this and the cancelling of last month's show (in the wake of the lowest drawing Tokyo Dome card ever), there's a lot of question on the future of W-1. Considering almost everyone in AJPW (except Muto) was against the idea from day one, this isn't going to break too many hearts. But the damage has been significant. Last year, AJPW had momentum and steadily climbing out of its hole. But the W-1 experiment has given the company a WCW-like perception among fans that they are out of touch with what the audience wants. Once that snowball starts rolling downhill, it's hard to stop and it's been a financial disaster for AJPW.
Shinya Hashimoto became the 3rd wrestler in history to win NJPW's and AJPW's top titles, after he captured the AJPW Triple Crown from Great Muta last week. Muta himself and Vader are the only other wrestlers to accomplish this feat. Dave talks about how Riki Choshu and Stan Hansen also sorta did it but they held versions of each company's titles prior to the IWGP belt or the Triple Crown. Anyway....Hashimoto's win was an effort to kickstart an AJPW vs. ZERO-1 rivalry. The event packed Budokan Hall and was one of the few bright spots AJPW has had lately. Having Hashimoto capture the rival company's world title seems to have worked and generated a ton of buzz for both promotions. Expect Hashimoto to run through many of AJPW's stars before a big money match against Toshiaki Kawada (doesn't happen this year. Hashimoto ends up injured and has to vacate. But the Kawada match eventually happens in 2004, with the roles reversed and Kawada retaining the title on an AJPW show).
The neck injury to Edge will require spinal fusion surgery and keep him out of action for at least a year. It raises several questions about the limits wrestlers are pushing themselves to lately. Edge, in a WWE.com interview, said he was suffering from more injuries than ever, culminating in his neck. Edge will have his C6-C7 discs fused, making him the 7th WWE wrestler to have major neck surgery in recent years, dating back to Steve Austin in 1999. The preliminary diagnosis for Edge was even worse. It was first believed he would need 3 discs fused, which would have been career-ending. While the injury is a culmination of 11 years of bumps, Edge said a german suplex from Kurt Angle on the 1/27 house show in Milwaukee seems to have been the straw that broke the camel's back and he began having numbness in his left hand and arm, getting progressively worse, after that bump. After talking to Chris Benoit, who had a similar surgery, Edge got an MRI and the rest is history.
Lots of rumors lately that AAA head Antonio Pena suffered a heart attack recently, but AAA is trying to keep it quiet. Those who have seen Pena lately say he has looked terribly ill lately and it's common knowledge in the company, but no one is talking about it.
Hiroyoshi Tenzan got married this week in an elaborate wedding in Tokyo. There were several hundred guests, including just about everyone from NJPW. Some of Tenzan's friends, like Satoshi Kojima, Keiji Muto, and Shinya Hashimoto were unable to attend because they were working shows for their own companies. Antonio Inoki, who wasn't there, sent a video of congratulations while Masahiro Chono was Tenzan's best man.
Source Magazine ran a story on Bob Sapp, the highlight being them mistakenly claiming he's the brother of Warren Sapp, leading Dave to quip, "We've got a real Hulkamaniac on our hands here." They also got his height, weight, NFL football team, and origin story into MMA incorrect so, ya know, if you want the correct details on Bob Sapp, maybe don't get it from The Source (Benzino had his hands full with Eminem at this time, The Source had bigger problems).
Del Wilkes, better known as The Patriot, was released from prison recently after serving some time for forging drug prescriptions. Dave talks about his long history of injuries with muscle tears due to years of steroid abuse.
Dave recounts the most recent pro wrestling/Christian ministry event that Sting, Ted DiBiase, and Nikkita Koloff held. I'll just let Dave describe it: "Sting gets confronted by DiBiase and Koloff, playing heels, trying to lure him using the demons of his past like drugs and greed. Sting refuses to give in to temptation in the play and gets attacked (in this case by local wrestlers Frankie Capone, Rod Steel, Ron Niemi and touring regular George South). He commits his life to Christianity, which leads to Koloff attacking him and putting him in a chain. Sting ends up breaking free and using his baseball bat to clean house on everyone. You’ll have to figure out the message, because they lost me with the babyface using a baseball bat as a weapon."
Dusty Rhodes' son Cody Runnels won the Georgia state high school amateur wrestling championship, finishing his story with a 48-0 record at 189-pounds. After the win, Cody hugged both his father and DDP, who was in attendance. He then invited Triple H and Bruce Prichard out to celebrate with him. Probably.
A news story made some waves this week when it used The Sheik as an example in a story about racism against Arabs in America, saying that his portrayal of his character and the success he achieved was due to exploiting the racism Americans have for Muslims in general. Reminder, these Observers are only 6 months after 9/11 (daprice82 update: I am stupid. This is actually 18 months after). If you're not old enough to remember what the mood in this country was like in the immediate aftermath of that, it was pretty awful and the racism was rampant and wide open. Not that much has changed...
Journalist (and WWE Warrior Award winner!) Joan Lunden appeared on Larry King Live this week and briefly talked about the segment she filmed for WCW in 2000. If you recall (I didn't), she did some stuff at the Power Plant and with Madusa on TV for a news special. Anyway, on Larry King this week, she talked about how she had to undergo spinal surgery from injuries she suffered during it. It ain't ballet, greenhorn!
WATCH: Joan Lunden at the WCW Power Plant in 2000
More bad news for XPW, as the promotion lost its TV slot in Philadelphia due to failure to pay its bills and being unable to submit new tapes to the network. They lost their TV deal in New Orleans recently for the same reason (yeah, they dead).
Random News & Notes: Mae Young has a match scheduled next month and if/when it happens, she will become the first person Dave is aware of to have a match at that age. Fabulous Moolah turns 80 later this year and has promised to have a match as well. Sandman was suspended by the Pennsylvania State Athletic commission for "stripping down during a show" and Dave doesn't elaborate.
The WB animated cartoon "¡Mucha Lucha!" appears to be in trouble since it hasn't aired any new episodes in recent weeks (it's the end of the season Dave. Season 2 will be back in September).
Notes from TNA 2/19 show: it was the best weekly PPV that TNA has put on in awhile. The big surprise from the show was the debut of Vader, who did a run in and looked huge (400+ Dave estimates). Vader was earning $18,000 per week in NOAH and estimates he's only getting $2000 or so a week for his TNA appearances. Obviously, there's a reason Vader must have not been on the recent NOAH tour but he expects Vader back there sooner than later (nope, Vader never wrestled in NOAH again and I'm not sure we ever find out why. I've seen whispers online of some Vader drama with the Yakuza but I can't find anything definitive on it. Anyone?). Elsewhere on the show, Jonah from Tough Enough 3 debuted, got a good reaction, and was immediately made to look like a putz. Jeff Jarrett vs. AJ Styles was the best match on the show. Speaking of Jeff, he and Vince Russo are said to be primarily booking the shows right now. Jerry Jarrett is around, but doesn't seem to be too involved in the creative.
Various TNA notes: Erik Watts was backstage this week and filmed an interview segment, so it seems he's coming in. Bob Armstrong quit because he asked for a raise (from $300 a show to $350) and was turned down.
TNA had discussions about trying to match the offer that WWE made for one-legged wrestler Tenacious Z (Zach Gowan). WWE's offer to him was $52,000. Ultimately, TNA decided not to do it, figuring it would cause unrest in the locker room. Almost everyone, except the nationally-known big-name stars, are only making between $300-500 per show. Giving this total unknown twice that amount would likely piss off the vast majority of the locker room.
TNA dancer Lollipop hasn't appeared on TV because she got breast implants done recently (this will actually become relevant news in the future, stay tuned).
Sunday Night Heat looks to be moving to TNN permenantly. TNN is wanting more programming that they can cater to young men and MTV doesn't give a shit about the show anymore, so looks like it's moving channels within the Viacom family.
Notes from 2/24 Raw in Toronto: this was The Rock's night. Holy shit. Rock cut a promo on this show that has to be seen to be believed, mocking the crowd for cheering when he mentioned the city, making fun of them for chanting his name, and on and on. This was, of course, to kick off the feud with Steve Austin and start the build for their match at Wrestlemania. Elsewhere on the show, Goldust debuted his Tourette's Syndrome gimmick. The crowd cheered and seemed to love it. Dave thinks it was in bad taste (he ain't the only one, but we'll get to that soon enough). They did a great angle where Jericho handcuffed Test to the ropes and put Stacy in the Walls of Jericho until Shawn Michaels made the save. It was done well enough that Shawn got cheered in Canada over Jericho. Dave recaps the backstage Rock/Hurricane interaction, not giving it nearly enough credit for how funny it was. He also randomly quips that Shawn Morley (aka Val Venis) has, "taken a lot of vitamins in recent weeks." Lol. Rock later did commentary during the main event battle royal that he was also in, and pretty much stole the show by being hilarious. Booker T finally eliminated Rock to win the battle royal and earn a title shot against Triple H at Wrestlemania and I'm sure that'll go swimmingly. During commercial breaks, Earl Hebner taunted the crowd constantly with Bret Hart references, getting more heat than anyone on the show. After the show, Rock continued being amazing, making fun of Toronto Raptors players Vince Carter and Jerome Williams at ringside and then getting laid out by Booker T. And after that was over, he effortlessly turned himself babyface again by breaking character and bringing a handicapped kid into the ring to do his "can you smell..." catchphrase. Dave thinks it's amazing that this crowd wanted to cheer for Rock so bad and every time they tried, he put on a masterclass of being a heel, and then when it was all over, he had them eating out of his hand again and giving him a standing ovation to end the night. Needless to say, you bet you're ass we're watching this:
WATCH: The Rock lights Toronto the fuck up
Regarding the heat on Test and Stacy Keibler for missing Raw last week: they were in Columbus, OH doing promotional work and because a blizzard was coming in, they were told to stay in Columbus so they could have an easier time making it to TV. Instead, they chose to try and go home to Baltimore anyway, ended up in a bunch of travel delays that they could have avoided if they'd just stayed where they were told, and ended up missing Raw and forcing the show to be re-written. As a result, Test's planned match at No Way Out was scrapped and he and Stacy are in the dog house.
Speaking of Stacy, WWE is indeed partnering with Joe Francis and the Girls Gone Wild brand for a PPV on 3/13. Most of the show has already been taped, except they will be airing a live beauty contest segment on the beach, with Test, Stacy, Torrie Wilson, and others participating. No word on how that will play out exactly (everyone gets drunk and it turns into a hilarious mess but we'll get there).
Evan Marriott, the star of hit reality show Joe Millionaire, has a million offers coming his way these days. Marriott has done some serious training with UPW in the past about being a wrestler and really wanted to pursue it. While he was on Howard Stern this week, Mariott talked about having negotiations with WWE for Wrestlemania but they fell through. WWE offered to have Marriott work some sort of gimmick match against Trish Stratus, but Marriott turned it down because he wanted a "real" match and apparently pushed to do something with Flair. Needless to say, that seems to have been the end of those talks.
Melina Perez, a model who has done Nike ads and has done some training, is apparently headed to OVW. As of press time, she hasn't been offered a deal, but since rumors are going around that she has, Dave's chiming in.
Steve Austin did an interview with WWE.com this week and said he'd mostly made amends with everyone on the creative side of the company for some of his past comments on the booking, but stood by his statement that wrestlers need to be able to feel their character and not have scripted promos. Austin also said that his reasons for leaving were based on deeper issues between he and Vince McMahon and said he would never publicly discuss what those issues were. Dave says there was word at the time that Austin found out Hogan was getting a better merchandise deal in his contract than he was and was upset because Austin has sold faaaaar more merch than Hogan ever did. Whether that's the secret issue between them or not, who knows.
Eric Bischoff and Shawn Michaels both taped episodes for TSN's "Off The Record" that will air this month. Word is Bischoff came off as arrogant, evasive, and didn't really answer much. Michaels was said to have come off much better and seemed to be far more forthcoming and honest about himself and other things. Dave recaps it a little bit (clearly he's got an inside source at TSN) but he'll recap it in full when it airs so we'll get there.
Dave recaps this week's episode of Confidential and the only real notable part is that he really liked the segment on Lita volunteering at the animal shelter. In a business where so many people do fake charity work for publicity, Dave was touched by how much Lita seemed to legit look forward to checking her celebrity at the door and going to clean up dog poop. He says it's been known that Lita (who is still out injured following her neck surgery) wasn't doing so great mentally because she was stuck at home with limited mobility and unable to do what she loves. Dave says that sucks for any athlete and he was glad she seemed to have found an outlet with helping animals that makes her happy. Awwww.