June 02, 2003
- We open this week with a big examination of the pro wrestling business as it stands here in 2003. When things like this are the top story in the Observer, it usually means a fairly slow news week. But since we're looking at these in hindsight, it's always interesting to see how much of Dave's prognostications from two decades ago turned out to be true or not. Also, stick with me: this week ain't slow.
- Anyway, this seems to be about how wrestling has slowly dwindled from the territory days into only a handful of thriving companies. We detail the rise of places like Southern California and Texas in the 70s that were struggling just a few years later. Mid-South Wrestling doing huge business in 84-85 and being completely out of business 2 years later. Crockett flailing until Turner bought it, renamed it WCW, and it cratered until Hogan showed up in 1994 and basically saved it. Then it peaked for a couple of years and was out of business by 2001. Japan had UWF taking over the world in 1989. Gone by 1991. On and on. The point Dave is making is, while all of these promotions were at their peaks, the warning signs of impending doom were there but were ignored.
- Right now, Dave says there's probably only two companies in wrestling that are absolutely guaranteed to still be around in a few years: WWE and CMLL. Right now, WWE has something like a billion in total assets and receivables. So they're fine. In fact, Vince owns rougly 80% of the stock so he could sell a lot of it, raise a ton of cash, and still maintain full control of the company. (Wonder if that will ever be important later?) Anyway, the point is WWE has the money on hand to survive self-inflicted damage for a very long time. And even though the company is in a clear decline, they are still quite profitable. Their biggest concern in the short-term is more in regards to the television situation. The TV industry doesn't wait around. The second you're not hot anymore, they move on. And wrestling isn't hot anymore. It was already cooling off 2 years ago, which is why WCW and ECW couldn't find new TV deals to save them. Networks that would have jumped at the opportunity in 1999 weren't interested in 2001 and are even less so in 2003. TV money is the life-blood of the business now. The true history of American wrestling is written by people who don't know the first thing about it: TV executives. Ted Turner saved WCW in 1988 and it was killed by Brad Siegel in 2001. Then-USA Network head Barry Diller came very close to kicking WWF off the network in 1997 and who knows what the landscape would look like now if they had. ECW died when it couldn't find a new network after getting booted from TNN. And now TNA struggles hand-to-mouth on an unsustainable PPV model while desperately looking for a TV home. As for WWE, they're not in any danger of getting dropped by SpikeTV right now, but UPN (home of Smackdown) itself is in financial danger and who knows where Smackdown ends up if that channel goes belly up? They'll surely land somewhere, but it might not be better than what they have now. But regardless, WWE is probably idiot-proof for awhile. Which is good, because they're making a lot of idiotic decisions these days.
- Don't worry though, WWE has a ratings trick up its sleeve! Death and drugs! In case you're wondering why WWE continues to harp on this Miss Elizabeth story week in and week out on Confidential, it's because the ratings for the show have basically doubled since they started doing it. Turns out a sensationalized "steroid addict domestic abuser Lex Luger may have murdered the angelic First Lady of Professional Wrestling" story did some big numbers, no matter how awful it is, with even the replays of the segment crushing previous first-run episodes of the show. Lots of people in the company were surprised that WWE would openly talk about the drug death and steroid arrests of someone so openly on its shows, considering how much of a past WWE has with that kind of stuff that they've always tried to brush under the rug. But Vince was also really, really, really fucking pissed at Lex Luger over walking out to join WCW in 1995 and was said to have held that grudge for years. Anyway, with the success of this show, WWE is now working on stories on other stars who have died of similar issues. Brian Pillman, Rick Rude, Curt Hennig, Davey Boy, etc. HBO is also working on a similar story about wrestling deaths and WWE is hoping to get their version of these stories out there first. Jesus....
- Giant Baba's widow Motoko Baba made her first public appearance in quite awhile at some public event in Japan. She confirmed all the stories about no longer owning AJPW, saying that after 30 years, the Baba family is fully out of the wrestling business. Eh, not quite true. Keiji Muto owns a controlling interest at 55%, while NTV owns another 15% despite not even airing AJPW on their networks. But Ms. Baba still has the remaining 30%. She also owns the Giant Services corporation, which is a separate company Giant Baba set up which handles the merchandising for AJPW and it's believed she'll never sell that. So even though she's no longer involved in any day-to-day operations for AJPW, she still has a stake.
- Kenta Kobashi is a legend and one of the greatest of all time, without question, but his current run as NOAH's GHC heavyweight champion is not going great. Attendance is down a whopping 38% from the same time last year. TV ratings are down over 40% from the same time last year. And no sell-outs this month as compared to 60% sellouts for the same month last year. There's been a significant decline since Kobashi won the belt (or, a more fair way of putting it would be that no one is on the level of drawing power as Misawa was when he had the title, not even Kobashi).
- Antonio Inoki has said that there will be a massive front office turnover in NJPW soon. Inoki is the largest shareholder in the company and that certainly sounds ominous, but Inoki says shit all the time and never follows through so Dave isn't giving this story too much creedence yet.
- Various NJPW notes: The super-push of Shinsuke Nakamura continues, as he has formed a team with Yuji Nagata, as a way to give Nakamura the rub from the former IWGP champion. Masahiro Chono has been pulled from the smaller shows but he's still planning to work the upcoming Budokan Hall show even though doctors keep telling him his knee is totally fucked and he needs surgery, but he's refusing.
- Australian barely-promotion WWA ran it's latest (and final) 3-show tour, ending with a PPV in Auckland, New Zealand that came and went with little fanfare. TNA sent wrestlers to the shows and even promoted the tour on the episode of TNA that aired in Australia. The shows drew poorly and there's been no word on any future WWA dates, so you can probably read the writing on the wall here. Jeff Jarrett pinned Sting for the WWA heavyweight title after Rick Steiner interfered on Jarrett's behalf. Bret Hart was there, but did not referee any matches as they had advertised. Instead he cut an emotional promo about Owen, Davey Boy Smith, and Miss Elizabeth. The crowds were super into Hart and Sting every night on the shows. Sting was again telling people that he'd been having talks with Vince McMahon lately and that McMahon was putting pressure on him to make a decision that week. Sting told people he was leaning towards no because he didn't like being put on a deadline by Vince (I'd say make him wait another 11 years).
- WATCH: WWA Reckoning - 2003 PPV
- Mexican mini wrestlers Mascarita Sagrada & Octagoncito worked a match against Pierrothito & Piratita Morgan recently....on the Jimmy Kimmel show. You can probably guess how that went. The wrestlers worked a match in a tiny ring while Kimmel & Co. made jokes about them. The show is taped in Los Angeles and while most of the crowd at the taping was just along for the chuckles, there were some local wrestling fans chanting "rudos!" during the match and had Lucha masks. From all reports Dave has heard, Kimmel was pretty terrible.
- Jeff Hardy worked his first match since leaving WWE, appearing for Impact Championship Wrestling and working a match in front of about 100 fans. He worked under a mask as Willow the Whisp and put over his opponent clean. Afterwards, he hung out unmasked and signed autographs. He told people it was likely going to be his last indie appearance for a long-time, if ever, and said he just wanted to work as Willow one last time. He wasn't promoted for the show (hence the 100-person crowd) and showed up late because of weather and only came because it was near his home. His opponent was Krazy K, who later went on to some note as Kirby Mack in ROH for a bit.
- A 28-year-old man was arrested and charged with murder after his young son was killed while they were allegedly wrestling. The man told police he hit his 35-pound son with a kneedrop, dropkick, and "atomic elbow" and it got out of control and he claims he accidentally hurt and killed him. Ugh. Dave notes that this is the exact kind of story the PTC would have loved to have latched onto a couple of years ago before they got mollywhopped in court by WWE and now the PTC basically can't say shit ever again (I looked into it and seems he was sentenced to 25 years, but the conviction was later overturned on appeal, and then re-instated again in 2012. So far as I can tell, he's still in prison).
- A Dallas newspaper has a story on a guy named Nikola Bobic who claims he was in WCW for 5 years making more than $300k a year under the name Sik Nik but gave it up because he didn't like traveling all over the world and wanted to be home with his kid. You may have noticed that you've never heard of this guy and Dave pretty much writes this off as a weird bullshit story someone made up. But alas! I looked it up and Nikola Bobic was indeed a former WCW Power Plant trainee! Now, whether he was making $300k a year and gave it all up because he was sick of the worldwide travel, that's another story lol. But he exists and really was signed for a minute!
- Remember several years ago when Doug Gilbert went on live TV in Memphis and cut a promo accusing Jerry Lawler of raping a little girl, which got him fired from Power Pro Wrestling? Well, looks like Lawler and Gilbert settled that beef because they worked in the same match together at a show at the latest revival of whatever wrestling is happening in Memphis this month.
- For the 3rd week in a row, TNA went off the air with nothing whatsoever announced for the next week. Dave thinks this is a huge problem with the company but says the reason is because Vince Russo and Glen Gilberti don't start writing next week's show until Wednesday night after the show that airs is over. And yes, you read that correct. That's your current TNA writing team.
- This week's TNA no-show was Sean Waltman, who was scheduled to be involved in the main angle, where he'd show up and kick Raven's ass. That spot ended up going to Amazing Red. Waltman had apparently been calling for weeks looking for a spot to re-join the company, so when he finally got it and no-showed, TNA execs were pretty pissed. An hour before showtime, when they realized Waltman wasn't going to make it, Jeff Jarrett said "This is the night we make Red a star," and put him in the spot. The crowd was going nuts for it and Dave thinks it's the first time in years of WWE, WCW, or TNA that he's seen an established star really bust his ass to put over a much smaller guy in a real way.
- Famed Bart Gunn decapitator Butterbean is negotiating with K-1 and Dave thinks they are probably dying to book Butterbean vs. Bob Sapp at a big show here in the U.S. but so far, still negotiating (indeed, this was supposed to happen in 2004 but fell through for whatever reason. They did end up doing some dumb sumo match later though).
- Ken Shamrock suffered a torn ACL in training. So no more NJPW appearances and no more fights anytime soon. At his age (40), something like this could be a career-ender in the real fighting world, but Dave suspects we haven't seen the last of Shamrock (yup, he's back in UFC next year).
- Freddie Blassie is hospitalized and reportedly not doing well as of press-time (obituary next week, sadly).
- Kurt Angle is scheduled to return on the 6/3 episode of Smackdown but of course, the madman had been trying to come back sooner. He says he doesn't feel rusty at all and has been taking bumps for a week or more. As for whether he comes back as heel or babyface, apparently the office is so undecided they're just gonna let the fans decide for them. And in a funny note, Dave adds, "If he does return as a face, the feeling is he’ll be given new ring music because the current music leads fans into chanting 'You suck!' It’s been noted that at many shows, fans were chanting that at him as he came out, and then cheering him the rest of the match."
- If you're wondering why Austin looked a little banged up on Raw this week, he was in a car accident and wasn't wearing a seatbelt over the weekend. What you saw on TV was the result of careful camera shots and a lot of makeup, because his face was pretty fucked up and he has stitches near his eye. Wear your seatbelt kids.
- There had been talk of signing "Dr. Death" Steve Williams but they seem to have died off after he worked a couple of house shows over the weekend and didn't impress. Williams has spent so many years in AJPW that it's believed he would be a good fit to work with younger wrestlers on working a slower, mat-based style (like Vince has been pushing for ever since the whole roster suddenly needed new necks). But yeah, he wasn't all that great in his try-outs and all the JR love in the world doesn't help him this time. He does not end up getting signed.
- Notes from 5/22 Smackdown: Yikes. This whole show was basically built around Hogan, Piper, and Vince. In this, the year of our lord, 2003. Tag title match was great but otherwise, sheesh. Anyway, lots of Hogan/Zach Gowan stuff of course. Dave expects WWE to push Gowan's in-ring debut hard in the mainstream press to get that human interest story "one legged wrestler lives his dream!" publicity. Of course, once the initial publicity runs out, they have to figure out what they're going to do with a 150-pound one-legged wrestler in the long-term without overexposing him (nah they just cast him aside when they're done).
- Notes from 5/26 Raw: we're on a hot streak! Two good Raws in a row! Opened with an amazing and emotional segment that saw Shawn Michaels put over Ric Flair as the greatest of all time and had Flair in tears (remember, it's 2003. Dave isn't used to seeing Flair cry at everything yet). The build for the Jericho/Goldberg match at the next PPV was great, entirely due to Jericho cutting a fantastic promo and just being an all-around great heel. They clearly aren't risking putting a mic in Goldberg's face too much, so Jericho did all the work to make you want to see him get killed, which is exactly the kind of stuff they should have been doing with Goldberg from the beginning. And the show ended with Ric Flair, predictably, turning on Shawn Michaels and a returning Randy Orton helping to lay out Kevin Nash.
- Undertaker's most recent surgery was for bone spurs in his elbow. He'd been putting off the surgery since last year and only had 40% mobility in that arm for most of the last year. This is actually a pretty common issue among older wrestlers who have been taking back bumps for years, they're not able to straighten their arms due to the elbow damage. Even after surgery, Undertaker still can't fully lock his arm straight and probably won't ever be able to.
- WWE has finally bought out the rights to Ric Flair's autobiography from the original publisher. Flair had made the deal prior to joining WWE and Mark Madden was set to ghostwrite it, but then it's been tied up in court ever since because WWE (and their Simon & Schuster publisher) wants it themselves. WWE wants to use their own writers and they're basically working with Madden to re-write it. So the whole project is basically being started from scratch now. WWE is planning to heavily promote the book more than any other wrestling book in years (and what a mess that ends up being, but we'll get there next year).
- Carly Colon had a WWE tryout match last week and impressed enough that WWE has already offered him a deal. The plan is to send him to OVW for a minute, but not for long. Seems like they think he's already main roster ready and the idea is to rush him to the Smackdown roster and get him working house shows ASAP. By the way, in case you're wondering about the state of WWC in Puerto Rico: Carly is the promoter's son and current biggest star and he can't flee there fast enough to come start in WWE as a total unknown.
- Brock Lesnar is pretty banged up. You might be surprised to hear this, but he suffered a neck injury at Wrestlemania from the shooting star press and it seems to started causing back issues too. He also still has some messed up ribs that he's been taking cortisone shots to get through matches (Lesnar has come out later and revealed that he was pretty heavily hooked on vodka and Vicodin pills at this time because he was so banged up).
- Following Kurt Angle's seemingly miraculous recovery from neck surgery, several other wrestlers are opting for the same operation instead of the one that keeps you out for a year. Brooklyn Brawler and road agent Steve Lombardi got it done this past week. Tazz and Roddy Piper are both considering it as well. Let's maybe wait and see how Angle holds up...
- WWE is working with the city of Toronto on a big tourism package where you get tickets to next month's Smackdown along with tickets to a Blue Jays game and an Indy auto race. Tourism has suffered there because they were the epicenter of a SARS virus outbreak (luckily, the World Health Organization would remove Toronto from its warning list a few weeks after this and we never had to worry about a virus outbreak ever again).
- Speaking of, sounds like John Cena got his first chance to play company spokesman. He did a lot of media in Toronto, including a celebrity bartender thing to raise money for the economy due to the SARS issues. During a radio interview, he was asked about steroids and said WWE has drug testing, which is news to Dave. There was a test about a year or so ago in OVW when Cena was still there but there hasn't been main roster drug testing in 7 years, except for individual tests done if they suspect there's an issue (Jeff Hardy a couple months back, for instance). Anyway, Cena also said his favorite wrestlers growing up were Hogan, Savage, Steamboat......and Warlord and Barbarian. Hell yeah, a Powers of Pain fan. Cena's a man of culture.