March 17, 2003
- Kurt Angle will be undergoing neck surgery following Wrestlemania. The plan as of last week was for Angle to drop the belt in a quick match with Lesnar at Smackdown, with Lesnar then going on to defend the title against Chris Benoit at WM instead. But that was put on hold when Angle convinced Vince to let him work Wrestlemania. Angle talked it over with Lesnar, Benoit, and his wife and made the decision to go forward with the match as planned. Afterward, he's expected to get the same ol' fusion neck surgery as everyone else and will be out for at least a year (let's just wait and see on that).
- Due to the long-term damage Angle's neck has suffered over the years, there's no guarantee he will ever be able to wrestle again. Dr. Youngblood, the same surgeon who did the neck fusion surgery for Austin, Rhino, Benoit, and most recently, Edge, sent a memo to WWE after examining Angle stating that it was his opinion Angle should never wrestle another match. Youngblood recommended Angle have 4 vertebrae fused, and there'd be no chance whatsoever of coming back from that. WWE and Angle are keeping the severity of the injury quiet and Angle is planning to only get 2 of them fused, like everyone else has done, which will buy him time. He plans to get the remaining 2 fused whenever he retires. This all sounds like a perfectly healthy decision. Either way, only 4 years into his career and in his mid-30s, this doesn't bode well long-term for Kurt Angle.
- With Edge and now Angle out for the foreseeable future, plus injuries to Randy Orton and Batista, both of whom were beginning to get major pushes, injuries are becoming a big source of frustration in WWE and there's a mandate now to tone down the style. Steve Austin, another neck surgery victim, seemed to be good when he came back, but his neck is giving him major issues again already and it's expected he will be working a limited schedule after Wrestlemania (yeah, he starts that 1-match-every-20-years schedule). There's questions about whether injuries now really are more prevalent or if they're just being addressed better. In the past, guys worked through all manner of injuries because you don't work, you don't get paid. But now, in WWE at least, you have the luxury of being able to go get MRI's and take months off if you need surgery. So maybe it's just a side-effect of wrestling's modernization? Dave uses Dory Funk as an example. Most wrestlers tear an ACL and take 6 months off. Dory worked right on through one and never really got it fixed. Paul Orndorff suffered a neck injury during the Hogan feud but refused to take time off and his arm turned into DJ Paul's as a result. Dave lists many other examples of wrestlers in the old days pounding booze and pills and foregoing surgery to make the next show. But nowadays, WWE has access to the best sports doctors money can buy, doctors at every show, and even trainers and massage therapists on the road.
- There's a LOT to this. Dave wrote a damn novel about injuries in wrestling this week. To the ways WCW wrestlers would use their guaranteed contracts to fake injuries until new bookers came along to WWE firing Saturn when he refused to renegotiate his existing 3-year deal following his injuries. Complaints over the travel and how it compares to grind of the past. Mentions that Hurricane's vertebreaker finisher was recently banned and how WWE wants the wrestlers to tone down the crazy spots, but most of the injuries in recent years have occured from simple moves gone wrong. Then there's Japan, where guys take lots of high angle suplexes, but nobody is getting neck fusion surgery and missing a year. But Japan also has a different mindset and surgery is your last resort. Also, while they work hard, the breaks in between tours are a godsend for the workers. Don't get it twisted though, they're all falling to pieces over there too (and in 6 years, Misawa die in the ring because of it). Dave has a quote from Mick Foley in here where he says, "In WWE, the joke is your only vacation is surgery." Actually, there's lots of quotes in here from Foley, talking about how WWE should eliminate house shows, talks about the new rings that WWE switched to in the 90s, and a LOT more. Really, the whole latter half of this story seems to be Dave debating the merits of a conversation he had with Mick about this topic.
- All of this brings us back to last week's Smackdown, where Angle was expected to drop the title to Lesnar in a quickie match but at the last second, "plans changed" as they say. They did the switcheroo with Angle's brother Eric hidden under the ring and then Angle rolled up Lesnar for a quick pin from behind after the distraction. The original plan, as mentioned, was for Lesnar to win the title and then be challenged by Benoit for Wrestlemania. There was debate all weekend whether or not to turn Benoit heel and align him with Paul Heyman or not. If heel, the idea would be Team Angle would have turned on Kurt and become Team Benoit and they would have beat up Angle to write him out of Wrestlemania and explain his injuries. The other idea was a straight up babyface match with Lesnar vs. Benoit. But the day of the show, Angle and Vince had their talk. Vince made the decision to let Angle work Wrestlemania, since Angle desperately wanted to do it and it has been built up for so long. It's also expected to be the biggest one-night payday in his career, so that probably played a factor. As a result, Benoit remains in his originally scheduled position of teaming with Rhyno in the tag team triple threat.
- WATCH: Brock Lesnar vs. Kurt Angle - Smackdown 2003
- Oooooh, this should be interesting. Dave has decided to do a multi-part story on the history of the WWE championship. From about the 1940s until the 80s, the NWA championship was unquestionably the most significant title in the business. But from the moment Hulk Hogan won the WWF title from Iron Sheik, that belt has been the most significant in all of wrestling. This is gonna be one of those long, really awesome historical pieces that prove Dave is far more than just the "lol plans changed" guy that the Cornette Cult would have you believe. But it ain't news, so I don't wanna go through this in detail...
- A brief synopsis, however: Dave recaps all the turmoil of the NWA in the 50s and 60s that led to Buddy Rogers eventually winning it in 1961, much to the chagrin of other members of the NWA. Vince McMahon Sr. already had a leg up on everyone because he was in the NY market and having his TV show airing in multiple major cities like NYC, Chicago, Washington DC, etc., and they didn't want his top star (Buddy Rogers) also holding the NWA title because it would give McMahon too much power. But alas, that's what happened and soon McMahon Sr. was booking Rogers regularly in his territory and other promoters couldn't get him for their shows. Nut didn't fall too far from the tree after all, despite what revisionist history says. But eventually they got Lou Thesz out of retirement and after threatening to revoke his $25k bond and after being physically threatened by Thesz to "do this the easy way or the hard way," Rogers lost the NWA title back to Thesz. McMahon Sr. was furious and withdrew from the NWA and tried to bury evidence that the match had ever happened. He continued to promote Rogers as the champion. But when word got out, he simply made up a fictitious tournament that had taken place in Rio de Janerio to crown the new WWWF champion and that Rogers had won it. Thus.....the WWWF title (as the lineage is recognized) begins here. This goes on for literally thousands of more words covering the years of Bruno Sammartino's reign, Ivan Koloff, Pedro Morales, and up to the time Sammartino regained the belt for the second time. 7,000+ words y'all. And this is just part one.
- It's being reported that Dream Stage Entertainment, the parent company of PRIDE, may be closing soon. As expected, this week's PRIDE show is expected to be the last held under the DSE name. After the mysterious death of DSE head Naoto Morishita, there's basically a bunch of ownership changes and stuff happening. PRIDE will continue to exist, though it's not known what changes will be made. Morishita's death seems to have scared off sponsors (nah, DSE ain't going anywhere yet).
- Hey remember the story last week in Puerto Rico where they tried to force Rico Suave to drink urine or they'd attack his wife or whatever? Anyway, the angle got so much bad press that WWC co-promoter Victor Jovica had to go on TV the following week and apologize, promising nothing like that would ever air again on WWC television. The desperation of getting the shit kicked out of them by IWA has them doing wild things.
- More updates on AJPW's planned Carnival Champion tournament. Keiji Muto originally didn't want to run it at all, due to cost-cutting measures, but pretty much everyone else in the company convinced him that AJPW is a promotion based on tradition and he had to hold the tournament. Muto, who grew up a NJPW fan and never was into AJPW, doesn't really care about their traditions, but he folded. So that's why we're getting a half-assed one-week single elimination version of the tournament.
- Various NJPW notes: Yuji Nagata tied the record for most IWGP title defenses by going to a 1-hour draw against Manabu Nakanishi, and it's only the 2nd IWGP time limit draw since the 80s (the next one won't be until Omega/Okada, if I'm not mistaken). Hiroshi Tanahashi made his return to the ring after his stabbing last year and Dave thinks he looks like less of a star with his shorter hair. And Perry Saturn is now working at Inoki's LA dojo, helping to train young lions.
- Sid Vicious has been telling people he will have to retire from wrestling because his leg, injured during that WCW PPV near the end, is never going to fully recover (he didn't quite retire, worked some shows here and there. But for the most part, yeah, that leg break ended it for him).
- Chris Sobol has been released from Panda Energy. Sobol was the main person at Panda who oversaw TNA. Sobol wasn't very well liked among the locker room anyway and was very opinionated about things, and Jerry Jarrett in particular is thrilled he's gone. There's no "official" person from Panda who now heads up TNA, but unofficially, Dixie Carter seems to be the one with the most involvement. Dixie is the daughter of Panda owners Bob and Janice Carter and it was Dixie who brought TNA to her parents attention in the first place, which led to Panda's involvement.
- This week's TNA PPV was marred by a power failure in the building. The Clockwork Orange match with Raven vs. Sandman was a violent spectacle that the crowd got into. Vince Russo cut a hell of a taped promo, claiming he was quitting the wrestling business because of the effect it has on your family life and how he didn't want to be like Curt Hennig who died and missed all that time with his family and all that stuff. Dave says it was tremendous.....if Russo was actually quitting. But since he's not and it's an angle, Dave thinks it was pretty shitty to use Hennig's death for it (I'm going to give Russo the benefit of the doubt here. At this time in 2003, he was really going through it from a personal and mental health standpoint and has talked about it a lot in the years since. He really does get fed up and try to quit the wrestling business repeatedly during this time and also becomes a born-again Christian soon after this. I'm not so sure this was an angle, I think this really was Russo's true feelings at the time, as 2003 seems to have been a turning point in his personal life).
- Moondog Spot was shown at ringside, in full gimmick, during one of the matches on TNA's recent show, with no real explanation given. It was apparently just a comedy deal that probably won't lead to much of anything (8 months after this, Moondog Spot would die in the ring during a match in Memphis, while a confused and horrified daprice82 watched live from ringside, but we'll get there).
- Christopher Daniels is expected to be offered a TNA contract and raise. Daniels had told the company that if he was given a deal, he would cut back on his Japan commitments and make TNA more of a priority. Jeff Jarrett has been impressed with Daniels so they did it. But Daniels also had an OVW tryout this week and was the star of the show and it's entirely possible that WWE is going to come calling soon. But they've also known about Daniels for years and never signed him, so who knows. But he's got more buzz now than he ever has (still a nope from WWE).
- Over in PRIDE news, for those of you looking forward to seeing "Gracie Hunter" Kazushi Sakuraba kick some ass, don't hold your breath. Due to injuries, he hasn't been training at all, but he's the biggest drawing star on the card, so PRIDE is sticking him out there to get sacrificed for the good of the show (indeed he does).
- Bob Sapp is training with Bas Rutten in order to learn how to defend against leg kicks for his upcoming K-1 fight with Mirko Cro Cop (he should probably brush up on orbital bone defense).
- The future of Smackdown on UPN is questionable because, uh, there might not be a UPN. There's already contract negotiations between UPN and major markets in places like New York, L.A., Chicago, etc. and those aren't going well. And now several networks owned by Rupert Murdoch are threatening a huge breach of contract lawsuit against UPN as well. The network is basically in danger of crumbling soon (not yet but eventually).
- Word is negotiations between WWE and Goldberg are closer than ever, with some close to Goldberg saying it's already a done deal. Money was never the issue, but the hold-up all along has been agreed-upon dates and creative plans. It'll be a controversial hire because he's obviously going to come in making more money than most everyone else while working fewer dates. You can see how that might breed resentment. As for whether it will work, eh. It's been over 2 years since Goldberg was last on American TV in WCW. But hey, so was Scott Steiner and when he showed up, he came in as a huge star. But then he had to wrestle and it all fell apart. And Goldberg's a far bigger star than Steiner ever was. But he's not exactly Misawa and WWE isn't going to feed him 100 jobbers to keep him hot. He's going to have to work real, WWE-style matches and that might be a problem. There was a time that Goldberg in WWE would have seemed like a can't miss jackpot, but ever since WCW folded, Dave has watched Vince McMahon fumble one can't-fail storyline after another, so who knows?
- Kevin Nash could make an appearance at Wrestlemania, but as of now, he's not expected to be ready yet and they don't want to rush a storyline for him. Considering how big of a star Nash has been over the last decade, Dave is kinda surprised that there seems to be no buzz whatsoever about Nash returning.
- Notes from 3/6 Smackdown: Dave loved the Vince/Hogan segment where they talked about their history together. So, of course, Dave goes on a lengthy tangent about their entire history, covering all the stuff that got left out or that Vince and Hogan lied about in the promo. He also thinks Cena has mainstream star potential and could be WWE's next big breakout star with his promo skills. Ya think?
- Notes from 3/10 Raw: Booker T cut a promo about his background, youngest of 8 kids to a single mom, his armed robbery conviction when he was younger, etc. The armed robbery story leaked out on the web a few months ago but didn't really get much buzz, so this was new information for most people. Dave suspects Booker T is winning the title at Wrestlemania (.....) and they wanted to get out ahead of this story and spin it as a redemption arc before anyone makes a big deal out of it. Flair came out and they continued with the veiled, not-so-subtle racist garbage and then some more of it during a backstage brawl with Triple H. Dave is pretty appalled that it's 2003 and we're still having racist storylines like this in WWE. Austin spent half the night doing bad comedy skits backstage, including a bit with Goldust and his Tourette's gimmick which Dave is already beyond tired of after only 3 weeks. They also had a wet t-shirt contest to promote the Girls Gone Wild PPV and it ended with Stacy Keibler in white shorts bending over while Jerry Lawler sprayed her ass with a Super Soaker. Ah, wrestling. Anyway, main event saw Hurricane upset Rock in the only good match of the show after Austin interfered.
- WATCH: The Rock vs. The Hurricane - WWE Raw 2003
- Dave notes William Regal hasn't been around lately because he's been sick and is getting more tests for a potential intestinal disorder (turned out he had a damn heart parasite he picked up on the Nov. 2002 tour WWE did in India and he ended up missing most of 2003 from it. Crazy shit).
- During a dark match at the Smackdown tapings, Kanyon was given a new "comedy" gimmick to try out where he talks with an exaggerated gay lisp. Because of course they did. Anyway, he beat Shark Boy, who got over big with the crowd.
- Kurt Angle's neck pain and arm weakness has gotten so bad that he can reportedly only left 40 pounds with his left and only 10 pound dumbbells with his right. But it's fine, he's still gonna main event Wrestlemania against 290-pound Brock goddamn Lesnar, no biggie.
- In case you're wondering how the D-Lo/Teddy Long angle was supposed to play out before D-Lo was released awhile back: the idea was to show that they were actually wealthy and weren't actually being held down by the white man and were only complaining about racism as a heel move. Man, this company was on some weird race shit during 2003.
- The recent Great White nightclub fire struck close to home for WWE. Spike Dudley had 3 high school classmates die, while Chuck Palumbo had a friend badly injured and still hospitalized. Palumbo's sister used to work there in fact, and when he heard the news, he was freaked out because he thought she was still working there. Due to the tragedy, Chris Jericho's band Fozzy has said they will no longer be using pyro for their shows and many states are discussing new regulations regarding indoor pyro. Depending on how that goes, it could affect WWE (nah).
- OVW's recent training camp had 50 wrestlers from around the world. Christopher Daniels was considered the standout of the sessions but that's nothing new. Everyone likes Daniels and Jim Cornette has been pushing WWE to sign the guy for something like 7 years. But he just doesn't have the look WWE wants so he's never gotten past occasional dark match status.
- An idea being tossed around is for Nick Dinsmore and Rob Conway to be brought up from OVW to form a rap group trio with John Cena. Dave thinks they are the 2 worst candidates for that role (my god, could you imagine if this had happened?)
- Seven of the lower-level OVW wrestlers, who are barely making ends meet as it is, were fined $250 each this week by Jim Cornette. Why, you ask? For having a big group dinner together at TGI Fridays. Becuase, you see, there were faces and heels together, some of whom are feuding with each other. And if someone were to see that, they might find out that wrestling is....gasp!....fake. Welcome to Jim Cornette's OVW, ladies and gents.
- Tommy Dreamer is no longer on the writing team. At this point, the overall direction of both shows is 100% Vince and the writing staff is made up of people who won't argue with him, which Paul Heyman sometimes did.