Wrestling Observer Rewinder

June 23, 2003

The latest WWE financials are out and it turns out that the fiscal year from of 2002-2003 was the worst year, financially, in the history of the company. Of course, they're still doing ok and aren't going anywhere because they have plenty of money to lose, but it illustrates how much things have fallen from the peak. It was WWE's first money-losing fiscal year since 96-97 and, aside from WCW in 2000, it's the most money any wrestling company has ever lost in a single year. Dave goes into a ton of numbers and stock nonsense here, so let's just keep it simple: they closed their Times Square restaurant in New York, which lost over $19 million last year. The WWE record label never got off the ground and has been scrapped. WWE Films is still alive but moving slowly, with only 2 projects in the works: an animated series and a straight-to-DVD movie for Steve Austin. Rock is not part of the company's film division (he's waaaay above that shit already) but WWE does continue to get approx. $2 million from every film he does due to their existing contract with him. They still have about $351 million in cash and cash equivalents.
Linda McMahon acknowledged that Wrestlemania 19 didn't meet expectations for PPV buys and blamed it on the Iraq war. Sure, why not. Linda also blamed the decline in TV ratings to increased competition from reality shows. Dave points out that Raw doesn't go head-to-head with any major reality shows. Smackdown goes against Survivor for the first hour, which is significant, but even when Survivor ends, Smackdown ratings don't skyrocket or anything. These are all bullshit excuses. She was also defensive over the recent creative aspects of the company. When someone on the conference call began pointing out parallels between WWE and WCW (relying on people like Hogan and Piper in key storylines, top stars not working house shows, etc.), Linda blew him off and the guy was told he could no longer ask questions and it was an uncomfortable scene. Dave argues that those questions are legitimate issues that are clearly affecting business numbers. Linda also outright buried Goldberg, saying "he is disappointing compared to what we expected him to be." Ouch. Don't worry, Goldberg will get wind of that comment soon.
Other notes from the stockholders call: Linda acknowledged that they're trying to buy multiple other video libraries, but currently the only deal they've completed is the WCW library they own. When asked about why the company was public in the first place and if they had considered taking it back private, Linda admitted they have considered it. She also gave the usual "it's a cyclical business" bullshit answer that everyone uses to try and justify why business is down.
Goldberg beat Jericho in a match that was better than anyone expected it to be but the damage to Goldberg is done. The reaction to him was mixed at the start of the match and progressively got worse as it went on. The crowd popped for his big moves but were mostly booing him by the end. Goldberg needed to come in from day one murdering people. Instead he's got Goldust wigs on and he's working 10 minute matches where he's selling and blading against Jericho before he even sniffs a shot at Triple H's title. They've booked him totally wrong. Speaking of, just prior to the PPV, Goldberg found out about Linda McMahon calling him a disappointment on the investor's call and he was very upset and it led to a meeting with Vince, but Dave has no details currently.
Ric Flair vs. Shawn Michaels was hurt by the expectations. The two best wrestlers of their generations was never going to live up to the hype and Flair is 54 years old now and Michaels came into the show with the flu and had been sick for days prior. They had an excellent match, but the overall consensus seems to be disappointment that they didn't put on an all-time classic. That was unrealistic to expect of them, Dave thinks. For what it's worth, they only got 18 minutes (including entrances) and Michaels went on WWE.com later and complained that they weren't given enough time, saying "you had two of the best wrestlers in the world. We were given 18 minutes. That's B.S." The story was removed from the website the next day.
Final notes from the PPV: Molly Holly faced Ivory on Heat and they've dolled up Molly and given her a new look to get her over as hot, after they spent the last several years trying to push her as unattractive. To sell it, Jerry Lawler, who has made her the butt of jokes for years, was thirsting all over her. Test vs. Scott Steiner began with Steiner falling off the apron onto his face in what has since become a legendary gif but Dave was genuinely worried he hurt himself. IC title match ended in DQ, which is certainly a choice when you're already taking a risk on running PPVs with only half your stars. Eric Bischoff received a stinkface from Mae Young, followed by Mae Young eating a stunner from Austin. I guess Bischoff technically got to eat too. La Resistance won the tag titles in a terrible match. Hell in a Cell main event of Kevin Nash vs. Triple H saw referee Mick Foley get a bigger pop than both guys. This was as good as these two are capable of, a solid blood bath with all the gimmicks you can think of. Triple H retained and it's time to put this Nash title chase to bed.
By the time you read this, TNA will have done its 1-year anniversary show and apparently it will feature the debut of Sting. But more on that next week I guess. Dave looks back at the year of TNA and how the whole thing was really built on lies. They claimed they weren't interested in TV initially, although they've been desperately trying to get a TV deal from the start. They lied to everyone about Russo's involvement, when he was ghostwriting shows from Day 1 of the company and have repeatedly tried to "work the boys" on his involvement ever since, which has led to things like Sean Waltman quitting and Bobby Heenan refusing to come in. They claimed the entire thing was self-funded, but then it came out that HealthSouth put up an initial investment of more than a million dollars. And of course, everything collapsed within a couple of months because their break-even numbers were wildly unrealistic and TNA was literally days from folding before Panda Energy stepped in and bought a majority share. Now they survive as a unique mix of indie standouts like AJ Styles and Christopher Daniels that are too small for WWE, former stars that WWE no longer wanted, and former WCW and ECW names that never got picked up by WWE in the first place. Throw in a dash of legends like Dusty Rhodes and Bob Armstrong, or local Nashville wrestlers like Chris Harris and James Storm and that's TNA after year one.
The official cause of death for Davey Boy Smith has been ruled a result of a cardiac arrhythmia due to an enlarged heart. This ruling was made by a coroner in the UK. If you recall, the original coroner in Canada ruled the death a drug overdose. Smith's dad refused to believe it, insisting that his son had been murdered, and ordered his body sent back to the UK for the second coroner. Smith's father reportedly doesn't believe this result either and still believes there was foul play involved. The UK coroner found that Smith had morphine and steroids in his system at the time of death but didn't believe they were in high enough doses to be lethal. She also said there was evidence he had codeine at thereputic levels but no sign that he ever abused drugs. Dave is darkly amused by that because Smith's drug addiction was pretty much legendary among people in the know.
World Wrestling All-Stars put on its latest (and final) PPV in Auckland, NZ. Dave recently saw it and it's a shame this company is now dead because he says this was easily the best show WWA has ever put on. Better production, better announcing, better booking, and a four-way X-division title match that is one of the best matches of the year so far. Bret Hart showed up for an emotional in-ring promo and Jeff Jarrett beat Sting to unify the NWA and WWA titles. And with that, we say goodbye to WWA.
AAA's Triplemania XI is in the books and drew 15,000 fans, despite how awful AAA is lately, to see one of the screwiest screw-job shows in a long time. Dave runs down the results, most of which had screwy finishes. One of the best was a 3-vs-1 hair vs hair match. Don't ask why. Anyway, the match ended when Heavy Metal pinned Pirata Morgan, who now had to get his head shaved. Well, you see, Morgan had just gotten his head shaved after losing a hair match about 2 months ago and it hasn't really grown all that much since. He wrestled the match with a bandana on and when they took it off and saw he already was basically bald....they just left him that way. No head shaved! And the main event ended in a DQ. One of those kinda shows. The more things change, the more they stay the same.
WWC is apparently not as upset as you'd expect about Carly Colon leaving to go to WWE. People are saying Carly is physically bigger, which is clearly why WWE wanted him, but they say Eddie Colon is the more talented brother of the two. Also, Carly started out heavily pushed as a top star because of his father, while Eddie started out in the midcard because even his dad thought he was too small to get the Carly super push. As a result, the fans in WWC sorta resent Carly a little bit, but not so with Eddie. (He does eventually end up in WWE also, this would be the future Primo).
Hitomi Hara, the former TV host who stabbed Hiroshi Tanahashi last year, has been sentenced to 3 years in prison. Dave recaps the story of how she basically went nuts after Tanahashi tried to break off the relationship. Stupid sexy Tanahashi.
NJPW's latest Budokan Hall show was headlined by Shinsuke Nakamura challenging Yoshihiro Takayama for the NWF and IWGP titles (he holds both). Takayama retained in a brutal match that saw Nakamura get fucked up pretty badly. Female fans in particular are really into Nakamura and he continues to get a big push (he'll be winning those belts from Takayama in the main event of the Tokyo Dome in another 6 months). Elsewhere on the show, Chono and Tenzan lost the tag titles in a match where Chono did next to nothing because his knee still badly needs surgery. Is he getting it, you ask? Nah, they announced Chono vs. Takayama for the IWGP title next month so evidently not. And finally, Minoru Suzuki debuted, working his first pro wrestling match in over 10 years, after spending the last decade-plus doing Pancrase. Murder Grandpa has arrived.
Antonio Inoki is talking about promoting an event in September in Brazil on the Amazon River called Jungle Fight (that's all Dave has here, but this does indeed end up happening. It's an MMA event in Brazil and Nakamura ends up fighting and winning on the card).
Hiroshi Tanahashi and Toru Yano are being sent to Los Angeles to do MMA training. Toru Yano was a standout amateur wrestler prior to joining the company and there's talk of booking Tanahashi in a fight against Jimmy Ambriz, which Tanahashi has already said would have to be a worked match for him to do it (this match does indeed happen at the dojo but I can't find any info via google on whether it was work or shoot. More next week I suppose. In the meantime, as many of you are no doubt aware, Tanahashi hated this MMA shit and was not on good terms with Inoki at this time because of it).
The NFL has a game between the NY Jets and Tampa Bay Bucs called the American Bowl game that will be played at the Tokyo Dome. The promotion for the game is built entirely around Bob Sapp. The NFL has a $1 million ad budget for this game to try and boost the NFL's popularity in Japan. Promo posters for the game feature Sapp with a helmet for each team on his shoulders. They're also sending NFL cheerleaders on a media tour with Sapp called "Beauties and the Beast." The Super Bowl drew 11 million TV viewers in Japan last year, which is about half of what Sapp draws every time he fights. While we're talking Sapp hype, he's also the new spokesman for Northwest Airlines in Japan and his song "Sapp Time" has passed 100,000 copies sold in three months.
Now that he is involved in politics, Great Sasuke has stepped down as owner of Michinoku Pro Wrestling. Jinsei Shinzaki (formerly known in WWF as Hakushi) has taken over as owner (and he still owns and operates it to this day).
Dave recently got copies of every obituary the New York Times has ever written about wrestler deaths, dating back to Frank Gotch's obit from 1917. Dave lists all of the ones that the Times has covered and most of them are barely more than a quick blurb or for the biggest stars like Andre The Giant got more mentions for being "a wrestler who starred in Princess Bride" than for being a wrestler. It wasn't until around 1999, with the death of Gorilla Monsoon that it seemed like the NY Times started treating wrestler deaths on the level of other celebrities and athletes. Monsoon got a decent sized story in the Times, as did following deaths of guys like Wahoo McDaniel, Lou Thesz, and The Sheik. So if you're wondering, 1999 is around the moment the New York Times started showing any real recognition to pro wrestling.
Speaking of deaths, Dave has a long paragraph correcting some of the information from his two long ass Freddie Blassie documentaries. So just in case you were worried about the finish of that one meaningless match from 1963, it was actually a count-out, not a pinfall as previously reported by Dave "Can't Get Shit Right" Meltzer. Jeez Dave, get it together!
HBO is reportedly working on some sort of story on Sputnik Monroe, a white wrestler who was so popular in Memphis among black fans that he broke the color barrier of professional wrestling. The problem is, there's almost no known footage from this era, so that may kill the piece (so it seems like this film bounced around HBO developmental hell for years and I think there was stuff filmed for it, but seems like nothing was ever released. Anyone got more info? This dude's story really should be a movie, it's fantastic.)
ROH's latest show featured several last-minute booking changes. The top match was AJ Styles vs. Paul London, with the winner earning a shot at Samoa Joe's ROH title. The plan was for London to win. But TNA went and made Styles the NWA champion a few days earlier (more on that in a bit), which ROH wasn't aware of. And the NWA champ ain't jobbing to somebody on an indie show. But Styles also couldn't win because then he'd have to face Samoa Joe and he'd have to lose there also. So with the match already booked and promoted, ROH booked the match to go to a double pinfall draw. Elsewhere on the show, CM Punk (who ROH is very high on) teamed with Colt Cabana to beat Raven & BJ Whitmer. And Justin Credible debuted to a shockingly huge pop, possibly the loudest in company history.
Brett Favre played a celebrity golf game with Ernie Ladd this week. Afterwards, reporters were asking him about it. Turns out Favre grew up with his dad watching Ladd as a wrestler. So Favre was marking out wanting to talk to the Big Cat about wrestling, but Ladd just wanted to talk about football lol.
TNA women's wrestler Desire suffered a fractured tailbone and broken L-1 vertebrae from taking a bump during a dark match. She's currently in a body brace (let's go ahead and put a bow on this lady's story since it'll be forever until we get there otherwise. She ends up being out of action for 10 months. Comes back and spends another few months in TNA, then ends up retiring soon after because she still wasn't comfortable taking bumps after the injury. After a pregnancy, she gained a bunch of weight. At the suggestion of her boyfriend, TNA wrestler Sonny Siaki, she went on The Biggest Loser reality show and lost 118 pounds and was the runner-up for the season).
Dave says the booking of TNA is killing the company. The most recent episode was based entirely around getting Vince Russo over as the top heel, with insider promos referencing things like Judy Bagwell and the David Arquette stuff. It was Russo's interference that allowed AJ Styles to win the NWA title, and instead of putting Styles over at all, it was Russo jumping up and down with the belt to end the show. Shane Douglas debuted and attacked Raven. It was originally supposed to be Sabu because that's who Russo and Raven wanted, but Jeff Jarrett shut it down, saying Sabu had burned them by no-showing or pulling out of shows three times in the past. IWA Puerto Rico wrestler Chris Justice debuted under a new gimmick, looking like a low-budget version of Mankind and going by the name Abyss. Lots of the usual tacky Russo stuff (nicknaming the two women holding hands "Muff" and "Diver" for example). Justin Credible was in a segment that was uncomfortable to watch because Credible seemed to be in no condition to be on television. Aside from a few good in-ring things, this was pretty much a terrible show.
Hey more Russo news! He started writing what was supposed to be a weekly review of WWE's Raw over on 1wrestling.com. Well, Russo's first post went up and was promptly removed a few hours later at the request of TNA management. In his post, Russo kept harping on WWE creative being a bunch of writers from the TV show "Friends." There's only one former "Friends" writer on the staff, David Lagana, and he writes Smackdown, not Raw. But there's some backstory here. Before he worked for WWE, Lagana wrote a letter in to the Observer criticizing Russo's booking in WCW. Russo flipped his shit about it at the time and years later, he's still pissy about it and holding a grudge now that Lagana works for WWE.
Yes, of course I went and looked in the archives for this. From the Dec. 25, 2000 Observer, back when he was still a "Friends" writer, here's Dave Lagana's letter criticizing Vince Russo in WCW:
It's amazing what poor shape Vince Russo left WCW in. It seems all the writers "learned" from his style. The style of "too much, too fast." Case in point. The finish of the Cat vs. Lance Storm match. The Jim Duggan turn was teased the week before. It seemed like the people at the show had actually watched the TV and were chanting "USA" at him. So, why not just do the obvious angle and have Duggan do the babyface save. The pop would have been big, and the audience was ready go give it. Nope, they went with the old Russo attitude of, well, that's why they're expecting, so "let's give them more." Well, you saw the final reaction by the fans to that overbooked ending.
There was a joke on "Friends" last season that we used that fits this problem. Jennifer Anniston was telling Reese Witherspoon, "You know what happened to the girl who tried to do too much, too fast? She died." A funny joke but a sad reality in WCW booking.
David J. Lagana
Mick Foley was only supposed to return to WWE for the HIAC PPV gig, but he had so much fun he's already agreed to be a special ref on some house shows and has been added to the upcoming Raw at MSG. Dave expects Foley to appear from time-to-time going forward. The idea is for Foley to eventually come out of retirement to work with Randy Orton in some hardcore matches (this is a good 6 months or so before Foley actually comes out of retirement and does exactly that). WWE hopes to make Orton another Rock-level superstar. Dave says you can't recreate the Rock's magic, very few guys in the history of wrestling have been what he is. But if you're going to try with somebody, Dave thinks Orton is a good pick. He picked up things quickly in OVW and he's still only 23 years old so barring injury, he'll probably be a huge star. He has all the right tools, but this is the same company that is currently destroying Goldberg, so you can never say for sure.
Vince McMahon filmed an interview segment with HBO Real Sports this past week which is supposed to air next week. From what Dave is heard, WWE wasn't thrilled with how it came off (lol that's putting it mildly, but we'll get there). The story is about deaths in the wrestling industry. Dave was interviewed for the piece as well and feels like they asked him a lot of good questions and seemed to be interested in tackling the subject fairly and in detail. The hype for the story heavily plugs Roddy Piper's involvement and I'm pretty sure WWE won't be happy about that either. This whole thing feels like a ticking timebomb coming down the pike knowing what we know in retrospect...
Notes from 6/12 Smackdown: the only notable thing from the show was the finish of the Brock Lesnar vs. Big Show match where the ring collapsed. Dave says it looked cool and people went nuts for it but he doubts it'll mean anything next week. John Cena got a big babyface reaction and cut a face promo, which Dave thinks is weird unless they plan to turn him face (not yet, but in a few months, yes, and then never going back ever again).
WATCH: Brock Lesnar and Big Show collapse the ring - Smackdown, 2003
Notes from 6/16 Raw: they finally got serious about building new stars. In particular, Randy Orton got over big in his segment with Foley and they put Maven in the mix as well. The dumbest part of the show saw Steve Austin cut a promo about how "boring" Lance Storm is and encouraged the crowd to chant it at him during his match with newly renamed and debuting Garrison Cade (formerly Lance, but you can't have 2 Lances). Anyway, Dave goes off on the expected tangent about how counterproductive and stupid it is to try and book Lance Storm like this. Test beat up Mae Young, which was edited off the Canadian broadcast. Rico is now doing an Adrian Street gimmick with Jackie Gayda re-debuting as his valet. And Raw ended with a great segment in which Kane agreed next week to a tag match where if he and RVD lost, Kane will have to unmask.
Notes from next week's Smackdown tapings: Paul London worked as a jobber, putting over Matt Hardy on Velocity, a show that airs right after the TNA show in which London is in a title match. We also apparently get a bunch of stuff with Vince, Sable, and Zach Gowan, including Sable and Vince hooking up. Dave: "I'm so not looking forward to seeing this." And finally, there's said to be some segment where Stephanie catches them together and freaks out about it and then admits when she was younger, Vince used to have her sleep with business associates to close deals or something. Yeeeeah we're going to get to this soon.
Mysterio winning the cruiserweight title last week almost didn't happen. He's been out with a groin injury for a couple weeks and WWE basically gave him an ultimatum. If he wasn't ready to go in time for the match, they were going to debut Ultimo Dragon and have him win the title immediately instead. Dave senses this was said in order to, ahem, motivate Mysterio to work the match whether he was ready or not, or else lose his planned title win.
Summerslam 2004 is expected to be at the Skydome in Toronto. WWE wants to have at least one stadium show next year and with WM20 being back at MSG, Summerslam is the answer (nope! This ends up being moved to the much smaller Air Canada Centre).
Various WWE News & Notes: Mark Jindrak was told all week that he was debuting as the 4th member of Evolution, but it's been postponed (indefinitely). Eddie Fatu (Jamal of 3 Minute Warning and later Umaga) was released. Dave doesn't have details yet. And Stephanie McMahon recently did an interview talking about how Triple H proposed to her on Valentine's Day in a NY hotel suite with rose petals on the bed. Awwwwwwwww.