April 14, 2003
- As suspected last week, Kurt Angle made the decision to go with the minimally invasive neck surgery that will keep him out for 2 months instead of undergoing fusion surgery that would keep him out for at least a year. This new surgery, performed by Dr. Hae-Dong Jho, comes against the strong advice of Dr. Lloyd Youngblood, the surgeon who has fixed the necks of previous WWE wrestlers. Dr. Youngblood said Angle needs to retire immediately, while Dr. Jho says he can have him back in just a couple of months. A factor in Angle's decision was Steve Austin, who got neck fusion surgery from Dr. Youngblood, missed a year of action, came back for about a year and a half, and his neck is already so messed up again that he's likely retired. As for other wrestlers who have had the neck fusion surgery, Rhyno recently returned and is doing good. Chris Benoit is reportedly experiencing some numbness in his arm again recently, which isn't good news, but he's still performing at a high level. Edge's future remains to be seen.
- Angle's neck is apparently worse than all of those though. His left arm has begun to atrophy and it was noticeable at Wrestlemania. After the match, he was said to be unable to lift his arm above his head and has almost no strength left on that side of his body. Angle will still need neck fusion surgery at some point, but plans to do it when he retires. Obviously, there's concern over how risky Dr. Jho's procedure is. It's a newer, almost-experimental surgery with a recovery time that sounds too good to be true. Scott Hall had a similar surgery by Dr. Jho about 4 years ago and recovered wonderfully, but his neck was nowhere near as thrashed as Angle's. So this definitely feels risky.
- There's a story here on Tito Ortiz trying to get more money out of UFC to fight Chuck Liddell, noteworthy because of Ortiz's recent appearance at Wrestlemania. Dave says it's possible WWE could make an offer to Zuffa to buy out Ortiz's contract but he highly doubts it. Ortiz isn't a big enough mainstream star to make it worth it and other wrestlers would also be upset. Also, there's no evidence whatsoever that Ortiz would be any good at pro wrestling anyway. Dave thinks Ortiz is just using the WWE buzz to try and get a better deal out of UFC.
- So there's some weirdness going on in this issue. The entire story from last week about the L.A. Times story and the Kudo Fuyuki obituary are both included in this issue too, with very minor differences. No idea what's up with that.
- Dave attended this year's Cauliflower Alley banquet, an old tradition dating back to the 60s where all these old wrestlers come together for a reunion dinner. This has a pretty great and timeless quote here: "Wrestling always changes. But one thing that will never change is that when wrestling does, its older wrestlers and fans will not like those changes, even if they make the business more popular." Ain't that the truth. He talks about how Strangler Lewis in the 30s used to bitch about flying tackles and punches, and how wrestling needed "to get back to wrestling." It's a phrase Dave still hears at every Cauliflower Alley event. Every old timer hates this new style of 2003 wrestling (and nowadays, the 2003 vets are online every day complaining about wrestlers in 2024. It's why you can't take any of these talking head bad faith podcasters seriously). The mood at the banquet this year was one of mourning, with many openly talking about the industry they came up in not being around much longer. Mike Tenay and Bobby Heenan hosted the banquet, bunch of people gave speeches, and overall sounds like a fun time with a bunch of old timers who still believe pro wrestling is dying because people do too many flips. Time is a flat circle.
- Raw ratings were disappointing, but that was expected because as the show was going on, Iraq was falling to U.S. forces and a lot of people were glued to the news networks waiting to see if Saddam Hussein was still alive or would be captured (not yet but we'll get there).
- In the biggest match in Mexico in over a year, Shocker beat Vampiro in a hair vs. hair match, which drew a sellout 16,000+ fans to Arena Mexico. Even though Shocker shockingly (heh heh) turned heel recently, the crowd was still split pretty evenly. Vampiro got shaved bald and reportedly got a $20,000 bonus for doing so. The idea is to do a rematch in a year, where Shocker will return the favor, but you know how that goes (yeah, Shocker didn't end up losing a hair match until 2014 against Rush).
- WATCH: Shocker vs. Vampiro - Hair vs. Hair (2003)
- Riki Choshu's new promotion is doing a Battle of the Senators match in May. It will be Atsushi Onita vs. Hiroshi Hase. In case you don't recall, both of them (yes, Onita somehow) are both active members of the Japanese Diet. It will be the first pro wrestling match in history in which two senators will face each other while still in office. Sure, why not?
- Yoshihiro Takayama appeared at a NOAH show with his NWF title belt and claimed it was the real world title and more important than Kenta Kobashi's GHC championship. Honestly, at this time, Takayama was the closest thing to a real traveling world champion that wrestling had. He was appearing with that belt for different companies all over Japan, headlining huge shows, fighting in MMA, etc. Dude was a beast.
- Extreme Associates, the porn company owned by Rob Black that funds XPW, had its offices raided by the FBI last week. The raid revolves around 5 specific films released by the company, at least one of which features a controversial staged rape scene (yeah, this ends up being a pretty big story in the porn world and it's the reason XPW folded so suddenly).
- Prior to her return to WWE, Sable had been in talks with TNA. In fact, she had already verbally agreed to debut with the company at one point, but then....plans changed. WWE approached her in February and they had one meeting in L.A. and finalized the deal then and there. No word on money but it's a multi-year deal and the first thing they told her was that the past is the past and they'd leave it there. Then they immediately stuck her in the lesbian angle she refused to do 5 years earlier.
- Surprises on this week's TNA PPV were New Jack and Mike Barton (formerly Bart Gunn). Fans popped for New Jack a little but seemed utterly clueless who Barton was. Man, this roster in 2003 TNA was something. Dusty Rhodes, Perry Saturn, Brian Lee, D-Lo Brown, Mabel, Brian Christopher, Bart Gunn, Disco Inferno....
- The behind-the-scenes situation in TNA is this: Vince Russo is writing the majority of the show, which is then edited down by Jeff and Jerry Jarrett. As per usual, Russo doesn't love being edited and it has led to some friction (mostly with Jerry). People on Russo's side have been trying to convince Dixie Carter that the Jarretts overruling his ideas is an issue. Oh man, how I've missed this childish WCW-esque bullshit since 2001.
- Sting, who is probably the last big surprise left in wrestling, is looking to be heading to WWE around June. He reportedly told WWA promoter Andrew McManus that he couldn't do anymore tours after the May one because he's looking to go to WWE (let's put a pin in this one for another dozen years or so).
- Plans for the 4/7 Raw was for Rock to lay out Goldberg but he had that nixed and rightfully so. For them to be considering an angle where Goldberg gets taken out just a week after his debut is insane and Dave isn't hopeful about his long-term prospects and feels having this idea pitched in the first place shows a lack of understanding of what made Goldberg work.
- Oh, you think that's all the Goldberg drama this week? Not at all. Apparently he got into a backstage skirmish with Chris Jericho. Dave expects to have more details next week but the gist is that Goldberg apparently made a comment about Jericho that somehow got back to him. So Jericho went and confronted him and told him to say it to his face and they got into a fight which was quickly broken up. No words on any disciplinary action, but they apparently shook hands after it was over and it'll probably blow over (ya know, say what you will about Jericho, but the dude has never been afraid of a fight. We have documented stories of him standing ten toes down on both Goldberg and Brock Lesnar over the years).
- Dave recaps a Roddy Piper interview in which he drops about 5 different lies in one paragraph. For all the shit Hogan gets for it, Piper might be an even bigger bullshitter. Anyway, it's a whole deal about how WWE had been trying to get him to come back lots of times but he refused to return until they cleaned up the product. Ummm. 2003 WWE isn't exactly saintly, what have they cleaned up? He said when he showed up at Wrestlemania under the ring, neither Hogan or Vince knew what he was planning to do. Sure. Claimed he ran Russo out of TNA (the dude is still booking TNA) and fuck that company and all that silly shit. For what it's worth, TNA sources confirmed to Dave that Piper contacted them after Wrestlemania, claiming his appearance was only a one-shot deal and he was interested in returning to TNA again, but then two days later, WWE decided to bring Piper back full time so then he backed out of returning). So ya know. Typical carnie Piper shit.
- That stuff about Kevin Nash returning as Diesel......turns out Dave wasn't really wrong! Nash confirmed it in a WWE.com interview this week, but said plans were changed a week before because even though he kept dying his hair, it kept coming back in gray too quickly and Vince didn't think Diesel should have gray hair. There were also recent house show ads that went out promoting him as Diesel as recently as this week. But nope. He's just gonna be Kevin Nash.
- Notes from 4/3 Smackdown: Dave glossed over this from spoiler reports last week but anyway. Basically all he talks about is the Sable/Torrie stuff and says it reeks of desperation on everyone's part. Sable for coming back and doing all the stuff she complained about in her lawsuit after not winning a penny from them, and on WWE's part for going to the "Look, lesbians! Please watch our show!" well yet again.
- Notes from 4/7 Raw: there was a Jeff Hardy/Rock match, which Dave reviews by saying, "Jeff took it upon himself to see if he'd be able to have a bad match with Rock, and he was successful at it." Rock is working his ass off to try and get Goldberg over as something special even when the booking isn't. There was a vignette for Sylvan Grenier and Rene Dupree who are debuting as a heel French team. Dave is baffled. Grenier is still so green that he hasn't even been on OVW TV yet. At least Dupree is decent and will only get better since he's still only 19. But neither of them is ready for TV. And the main event angle saw Nash return, doing a slow walk-in to clear the heels. He got a good pop but nowhere on the level of Goldberg or even the Austin entrance music when Bischoff trolled the crowd earlier in the show.
- I don't think Dave watched last month's WWE/Girls Gone Wild PPV but he has notes on it! Turns out the show was a total disaster. There were hopes of a strong buyrate because of all the WWE promotion and the teases of Torrie Wilson and Nidia getting nude (even though no one in their right mind should have believed they actually would) but turns out it utterly tanked. And to make matters worse, GGW CEO Joe Francis and some other employees were arrested on several sex and drug charges, some with underage girls, later that same night. Anyway, lots of finger pointing about what a terrible idea this was (it was entirely Bischoff's connections that made it happen) and needless to say, this is the end of the WWE/GGW partnership.
- Harry Smith and Teddy Hart attended Wrestlemania along with Diana Hart. They ended up working out in the ring before the show with Arn Anderson. Smith is expected to get a developmental deal as soon as he finishes high school. Teddy Hart has had a couple of opportunities with WWE-sponsored tryout camps in the past but never made the cut due to immaturity issues. During the workout before Wrestlemania, both guys were working with some of the wrestlers and some of them reportedly tested Teddy to see how he'd react, criticizing his every move. Chris Benoit, who has been trying to somewhat mentor Teddy (oh god) told him to keep his mouth shut and not act cocky.
- Goldust appeared on the Howard Stern show, doing his Tourette's gimmick, and it got rave reviews when it aired on the E! show as well. Callers were saying it was the funniest thing they'd ever seen and Stern was amazed at how popular it was. They also played a bunch of clips of Stuttering John and other Stern show folks at the Wrestlemania press conference, asking questions and annoying WWE people (Stern STILL plays the Goldust audio sometmes).
- WATCH: Goldust on the Howard Stern Show in 2003
- Speaking of interviews, both Lillian Garcia and RVD were interviewed recently and gave interesting answers to things. Lillian said she'd been asked to work matches before and turned it down. Dave ominously says that's not the only things they've asked her to do that she's turned down but doesn't elaborate. RVD also was interviewed and expressed disappointment at not being on the main Wrestlemania card and said the show was just another day at work for him. He admitted he sucks at backstage politics and said he wishes Paul Heyman was booking him. Ah, good ol' RVD. Never did give a fuck.