May 19, 2003
- We have more details this week on the death of Miss Elizabeth and forewarning: this gets dark. The official police report and, worse, the 911 call were released this week. WWE aired audio of the call on this week's episode of Confidential, which needless to say, was controversial. More on that in a bit. As for the police report, it noted that Elizabeth had been mixing vodka with pain pills and began choking and gurgling while eating dinner. When she stopped breathing, Luger called 911 in a panic but she was already purple by the time emergency crews arrived and was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital. Autopsy reports showed no signs of foul play and Luger is not suspected of anything in relation to her death. Toxicology results are pending, but it's believed she either died due to a combination of the alcohol and pills causing an overdose or it's believed that the pills may have caused her to lose her eating and swallowing muscle coordination, causing her to choke to death on her food.
- Luger was arrested later the same day when police, while investigating the scene, uncovered a practical pharmacy of illegal or unprescribed steroids and painkillers in their house, enough for Luger to be charged with distribution. Dave runs through the list of everything and good lord. According to friends, Luger is handling the situation as well as can be expected under the circumstances, but he's currently living in a hotel because he doesn't want to return to the home he and Elizabeth shared.
- Sooooo, this episode of WWE Confidential. They spent the entire show hyping up the 911 call for the end of the show, an obviously sleazy attempt to pull ratings from it. Surprisingly, Dave doesn't seem to be too offended by all this. Sure, it was tacky but he doesn't really expect much better from WWE anyway. He also points out how news outlets do this all the time and talks about hearing Nicole Simpson's horrific domestic abuse 911 call more times than he could count when the OJ story was in the news. Many felt the episode was a hit piece on Luger and Randy Savage, but Dave disagrees. They pretty much told her story fairly and accurately. Her relationships with both of those men were pretty toxic, they didn't lie about anything. All in all, Dave thinks the entire thing was presented as fairly and straight-forwardly as any news story about a celebrity's death would be covered by any news outlet. Now, of course, WWE isn't a news outlet and one could argue that they never had any business doing a story like this in the first place but that's a different argument. (So I'll admit, when I first read this, I was a little surprised. I've always found this whole thing to be pretty revolting on WWE's part and I was surprised Dave wasn't harder on them for this. But he sleeps on it a bit and has plenty more to say next week so everyone try to hold off on your outrage at Dave for a minute...)
- WATCH: WWE Confidential airs Lex Luger/Miss Elizabeth 911 call
- The latest WWE book release is "Listen, You Pencil Neck Geeks" by Freddie Blassie. He has a unique perspective having been around so long ("He worked the carnivals in the 30s and Wrestlemanias in the 80s," Dave notes). Unlike people such as Lou Thesz from that era, Blassie isn't caught up in all the "my generation had all the toughest guys!" nonsense. Blassie thinks Chris Benoit could have easily hung with guys like Thesz and says there's not a single guy from his era that could have compared to Angle or Lesnar. You don't get the depth of Mick Foley's book but you get a guy with 60+ years of fun stories to tell. His pre-fame friendship with Regis Philbin, managing Muhammad Ali for the 1976 Inoki match, his friendship and weird cult movie he did with Andy Kaufman, meeting Elvis, his famous angle and record-breaking matches with guys like John Tolos and Rikidozan, all his years bouncing around the world but mostly as the top guy in California, becoming a manager after retirement, and how the McMahon family basically kept him on the payroll as a favor since he never saved his money. He also touches on the ridiculous claim of causing untold numbers of people to die from heart attacks in Japan because he was so fearsome as a heel. Dave says there's apparently some truth to the rumor, as its said 6 elderly men had heart attacks and died when seeing closeups of Blassie biting people's bloody heads and that HTV got criticized for graphic violence and Blassie was forced to tone down the act. But even that story sounds utterly stupid and I don't believe it. Sorry Dave. Anyway, Blassie claims credit for 92 deaths, not 6. Sure dude. Blassie met his current wife Miyako in Japan, when he was 47 and she was 19 back in 1965 and they've been together ever since, so there's hope for Dane Cook.
- Hey, Dave has seen the latest Tokyo Dome show and has a real review this time. He thinks all of the matches were hurt because there wasn't much heat from the crowd for anything. No real blow-away match on the show that stood out. The mix of worked and shoot matches was weird but everything was promoted well and the show did a strong TV rating and nearly packed the Dome. NJPW is apparently taking that as a sign that the the combination of worked/shoot matches is appealing to fans. Dave calls bullshit and feels the Kobashi/Chono dream match is what drew the house (correct, but good luck telling Inoki that in 2003). Speaking of, that match was real bad at first because Chono's knee was totally fucked, but it had the feel of a classic by the end, even if it wasn't. Otherwise, just a lot of fairly good matches with mild crowd interest.
- One other note from the show: Jushin Liger challenged Minoru Suzuki (wearing a Pancrase shirt) to a match while Suzuki was doing commentary. This reminds Dave of a fun story from when he was in Japan in 1996. The airline lost his luggage, so he had to buy clothes in Japan. He bought a Pancrase t-shirt and, without thinking, wore it to the NJPW show he was attending. An undercard NJPW wrestler confronted Dave at the door and told him never to do that again. Note: I messaged Dave on Twitter to try and find out who this was, will report back if I get an answer lmao
- All Japan Women, the 3rd oldest wrestling promotion in existence, ran its 35th anniversary show this week. In a shocker, 2 of the promotion's top stars, Yumiko Hotta and Nanae Takahashi both announced they were leaving the company. And in the main event, Momoe Nakanishi lost the famed red belt to Ayako Hamada. Dave runs through a quick history of AJW (only behind CMLL and WWE as oldest companies) and its ups and downs over the years. Many considered this show a possible last hurrah for the promotion, which may not even have enough stars left to fulfill the remainder of its advertised dates (nope, they manage to limp along until 2005).
- Keiji Muto is starring in a movie called "Jitsuroku Hitman Hokkai No Tora Bokyo". I bet that rolls off the tongue better in Japanese. Anyway, it's a Yakuza movie and Muto plays one of the star heroes with mob connections or something. Satoshi Kojima also has a small role. Muto has been trying to position Kojima as the top star of AJPW so he can take time off for other commitments, office work, "plus he's trying to put together another W-1 disaster," Dave adds. Anyway, here's the trailer.
- WATCH: Trailer for Jitsurok--uh....that Muto movie
- Former IWGP champ Yuji Nagata is working the current NOAH tour, and eventually will likely lead up to a GHC title match against Kenta Kobashi. Meanwhile, Shinsuke Nakamura is also appearing at several NOAH shows, with the storyline being that he's "scouting" Yoshihiro Takayama for a future match (indeed, Nakamura vs. Takayama ends up the main event of the next Budokan Hall show and again when they headline the Jan. 4, 2004 Tokyo Dome show). Dave notes that Nakamura is the first rookie in the history of NJPW to get a world title match. The closest were Tenzan and Hashimoto, both of whom never got their first world title shots until 4 years into their careers. Needless to say, NJPW is strapping the rocket to this Nakamura kid.
- The Great Sasuke mask controversy rages on. Just 3 days after he began serving his political office, his fellow senators voted on and passed a law banning any politician from wearing a mask while debating issues or casting votes in assembly. So we'll see how that plays out in the coming weeks.
- Dave reviews the most recent Toryumon show and talks about how Ultimo Dragon is a brilliant booker because he's taken a lot of unknowns and created this package with his promotion where almost everyone feels like a star. In particular, Dave says CIMA has superstar written all over him and reminds him of mid-90s Shawn Michaels, where he's clearly so much more charismatic and better than everyone else around him.
- Jesse Ventura has a new show in the works with MSNBC. It's reportedly already in pre-production and MSNBC is rushing to get it ready to get on the air because their ratings are struggling and they're desperate for a hit (this show does eventually get on the air but doesn't last long. Ventura claims it got canned because he didn't support the Iraq war but really, it was just awful from the beginning and he was reportedly a pain in the ass to work with but we'll get to all that).
- Bret Hart is scheduled to appear at the upcoming Australia and New Zealand WWA shows (last gasps for that promotion) and he's being advertised as the special referee for the Sting vs. Jarrett main events. Dave says that's unlikely to happen. Bret has made a remarkable recovery from his stroke, but he's still not "get in a ring and perform as a referee" level recovered.
- Jacques Rougeau held a show in Quebec which was headlined by the Road Warriors. The big thing of note was that the show featured a match with a wrestling bear. But the bear apparently decided he didn't want to work and was taken backstage. "No truth to the rumors that the Road Warriors told the bear he should hold up Jacques for a bigger payoff," Dave adds. Glad he cleared that up.
- Bruno Sammartino is recovering from major back surgery. He had 60 staples put in but Dave doesn't clarify anything about the surgery. Sammartino is expected to be inducted into the Madison Square Garden Hall of Fame soon, joining Hulk Hogan and Vince Sr. as the only other wrestling names. Obviously, Sammartino should have already been in before Hogan, along with Billy Graham, Argentina Rocca, Jim Londos, and Bob Backlund. But whatever. Vince McMahon reportedly wants to be involved, as an attempt to make amends with Sammartino. Over the past few years, he has been able to squash beefs with several old foes (Graham, Bret Hart, Piper, Hogan, Ventura, Sable, Hawk, and others) but Bruno continues to be one of the big names that holds out and still wants nothing to do with Vince.
- A court case regarding Davey Boy Smith's death is scheduled for June in the UK. Smith's father has requested a criminal investigation into the death, refusing to believe any of the drug stories and insisting his son was murdered. Because Smith was divorced from Diana and hadn't yet married his girlfriend at the time, he had no next of kin in Canada, so his body was flown to England after his death where his father has since been pushing for an investigation.
- Kevin Von Erich's daughter Jill Green (married name I guess) participated in a celebrity boxing match in Texas this week and I just wanna leave this description here: "She was introduced as Jill Von Erich. At the opening bell she attempted a high spinning jump kick, which would have been illegal if it had landed. She then attempted a bodyslam, which was a cross between a bodyslam and a sidewalk slam. Ref Laurence Cole, a real boxing ref, yelled at Green for a long time and wasn’t amused by her behavior. He penalized her two points and she was totally confused. Hutchins then got the better of Green in the first round, but in the second round, Green got the better of Hutchins and it was ruled a draw. In her pre-fight interview, Green said she had never seen a boxing match in her life and had no idea what the rules were. She had no idea why they put gloves on her, and then when they told her to wear a mouthpiece, she said, seriously, 'then how can I bite her?'"
- I mean folks....
- CZW held a show at the old ECW Arena celebrating 10 years of wrestling at the venue. They aired a big video featuring footage of different promotions there over the years (mostly ECW and CZW of course) and tributes to passed on wrestlers. They reportedly invited Paul Heyman, Tod Gordon, and Tommy Dreamer to the show, but alas, none came. Heyman never returned their calls, Gordon is booking for rival 3PW promotion so he refused, and Dreamer was on the road with WWE but said he was honored to be asked.
- ROH is planning to hold some sort of round-robin tournament (similar to the G1 in NJPW or Carnival tournament in AJPW) with many of their regulars like Matt Stryker, CM Punk, Colt Cabana, BJ Whitmer, and others, with the idea to elevate a couple of new guys into the main event mix. Frankie Kazarian is the latest guy expected to be a regular here as well. (This would end up being the Field of Honor tournament, but neither Punk or Kazarian was in it. Stryker ends up winning it.)
- Latest TNA notes: Raven re-signed and is back onboard for the foreseeable future. There's a big push to turn Jeff Jarrett heel because the fans are booing him, especially since the local newspaper outed him as the minority owner (who didn't already know that, really?)
- And now, the absolute childishness going on involving the backstage politics between Jarrett, Russo, Raven, and Glen Gilbertti in TNA. Apparently Russo and Raven have complained to Dixie Carter so much about Jarrett that it's working against them and Jarrett is currently in good shape politically this week, while others described Russo as looking like "a beaten man" at the tapings. Just a forewarning: this nonsense goes on for weeks. "This group is currently in favor with the Carters, while this group is in the doghouse. No wait, this week so and so tattled on someone else, so now the Carters are supporting this other group. Wait, no now Russo's group has retaken control. Nope, now it's Jarrett again!" and on and on and on. Literal fucking middle school in that company at the time.
- The latest TNA show was built around a battle royal where they promised former champions from other countries and promotions. Mexico's champion was Konnan, who last held a major title there about 8 years ago. Japan brought us....former IWGP tag team champion Rick Steiner! You get the drift. Buff Bagwell was in it for a minute, but got bounced quick. The Harris Brothers, who weren't in the match, kept eliminating people in order to help Gilbertti eventually win. Rick Steiner pissed off a lot of people by refusing to sell for anyone except the Harris twins and Saturn. And Sabu, who was booked to be in there at the end, accidentally went over the top at the same time as Saturn. But since he wasn't supposed to, he just got back in the ring and kept going. They covered it on commentary saying that he wasn't eliminated because he initiated the move that sent them both over. Well, gotta say something I guess. That's as good as anything. Elsewhere in the show, New Jack cut a rambling promo about how Paul Heyman bounced his checks and he never made money on ECW action figures and bragged how he, Sabu, and Sandman used to drink, take pills, and do criminal shit that they should be in jail for. Not the best stuff.
- K-1 founder Kazuyoshi Ishii has already pled guilty to tax evasion charges. He also admitted to forging Mike Tyson's signature on a contract that he used to promote a fight that was never going to happen. He's now awaiting sentencing (and yet, before the end of this year, Ishii really does have Tyson linked up with K-1. But we'll get there).
- No Roddy Piper on Smackdown last week because he was on a per-appearance deal and they couldn't reach a new agreement. They'd been negotiating since Wrestlemania, but Piper wanted too much money and he also wants WWE to pay for his assistant Lewis Rach to travel with him and be on the payroll. WWE ain't going for that. Even Hogan pays for Jimmy Hart out of his own pocket right now, he's not on WWE payroll despite being with Hogan all the time. Anyway, as of this week, it was all worked out and Piper is back, but no word on the terms. But if I had to guess, WWE pulling Piper off TV and saying "Okay then, we'll move along to something else" probably got him to back down on his demands a little bit.
- The main event of the upcoming Judgment Day PPV is Triple H (with Ric Flair in his corner) vs. Kevin Nash (with Shawn Michaels in his corner). Dave says it's the first match he can remember where the managers of the main eventers would probably have a far better match with each other than the actual guys in the main event. This is shaping up to be a disaster. Nash, as the babyface, is already getting booed in most cities and now he's going to have Flair in the corner of his opponent. In Charlotte, NC. Nash doesn't stand a chance, Dave thinks.
- Arn Anderson has been sent to rehab for alcohol abuse by WWE. There were apparently several issues during the European tour that forced the decision. As an agent, he's supposed to be the one setting an example and acting as something of a supervisor over the wrestlers and, well.....he was having a bit too much fun and it evidently wasn't the first time there's been problems.
- Notes from 5/11 Raw: The Legion of Doom made their return in the opening match, losing to Kane & RVD in about 3 minutes. Animal was blown up immediately and Hawk, of course, totally no-sold the finish. Bischoff claimed they were signed for Raw, but as of press time, they hadn't actually signed with the company and aren't booked for anything going forward except for a dark match on the SD tapings tomorrow. Rodney Mack complained that he should be in the IC title battle royal because there were no black wrestlers in there. Austin said, "Good point" and added Booker T instead. The Dudleyz returned and saved Freddie Blassie from getting attacked by 3 Minute Warning (this would turn out to be Blassie's final appearance, as he died a month later). Goldberg vs. Christian in a cage match was 7 minutes, which was about 6 minutes too long and shows WWE has no idea what to do with Goldberg. There was also a spot where Christian gave him a brutally sick chairshot to the head. Goldberg wasn't nearly as over as they hoped and Dave says WWE has no one to blame but themselves for that. And Ric Flair, as a heel wrestling in his normal clothes, got the biggest cheers of the night and the roof came off the building when he actually defeated Hurricane with the figure four, the first time that move has been a successful finisher for Flair in god knows how long.
- Notes from tapings for next week's Smackdown: Chavo Guerrero suffered an arm injury during a Velocity match taping and they stopped it immediately. No word on the injury. Legion of Doom worked a dark match against CM Punk and Doug Delicious (which was just recently uploaded to the new WWE Vault YouTube channel). They apparently showed Hogan (as Mr. America) visiting US troops and Dave is disgusted by this. He was told about it beforehand and was specifically told that there weren't going to be TV cameras because Hogan didn't want people to think he was exploiting the Iraq war when he went to visit the troops. And here he is in full Mr. America gimmick doing it for the cameras. And Zach Gowan debuts as a fan who gets his artificial leg pulled off by Piper.
- Booker T missed Raw due to a bad illness. He ended up going to the hospital in an ambulance when he was vomiting up blood. He was there for 3 days, needed an oxygen mask to breathe, and was in rough shape for a bit (no more details on this and he returns immediately, so I guess he was fine but that sounds pretty serious???)
- Speaking of Booker T, he did an interview claiming that the night he won the WCW title from Jeff Jarrett the first time, he didn't know until 10 minutes before he went out there. Dave calls bullshit, saying he knew Booker was winning well before the show and it wasn't a secret. Maybe Booker didn't know for sure, but it was already being reported in the dirtsheets days beforehand. Also, Booker says he has 6 months left on his current contract, then he wants to sign for 1 more year. Then he's definitely retiring. (Spoiler alert: he did not.)