Wrestling Observer Rewinder

August 18, 2003

Next week is the 2003 Hall of Fame issue. All votes have already been cast, but Dave hasn't counted them up yet, so this week, he's just looking at the different candidates who are eligible and their respective strengths and weaknesses in Dave's opinion. I'll keep this brief (lol):
Soooooo as I'm writing this, I decided to scroll down and look and I had no idea how many people were on this list. There's still SO much more. And I'm not summarizing every single one of these. So we're going to speed this up with Dave's opinions/predictions. If you want the details on why for each of these, umm, sorry: Fuerza Guerrera (no), Eddie Guerrero (not yet), Gran Hamada (probably not), Volk Han (nah), Owen Hart (no), Hiroshi Hase (borderline maybe), Curt Hennig (no), Aja Kong (Dave voted yes but isn't confident she'll get in), Shawn Michaels (obviously should be a shoe-in. but his past issues have kept him out before), Midnight Express (Dave thinks they belong in, but doesn't think they'll get the votes), Fabulous Moolah (no), Gorilla Monsoon (no), Dick Murdoch (no), Yuji Nagata (not yet), Blue Panther (maybe), Rock & Roll Express (probably not), Seiji Sakaguchi (no), Jimmy Snuka (nah), Wilbur Snyder (no), Sting (probably not), Yoshihiro Takayama (not yet), Undertaker (clearly belongs in but given he's still an active star who a lot of people have strong feelings about, Dave thinks not yet), Villano III (strongest Mexican star on the ballot and deserves it, but Dave's not sure he'll make it), "Mr. Wrestling" Tim Woods (nah), Paul Heyman (not quite there yet), Don Owen (no), and finally Jesse Ventura (yes). Damn I'm glad I only wrote out 8 paragraphs on this before realizing there were another two dozen candidates.
We get a loooooong review of PRIDE's Total Elimination tournament, which is a pretty historic event for MMA fans. I read it and there's nothing really here for us rasslin' fans, so I guess I'm glad I wrote a bunch of bullshit for the HOF section. Anyway, I won't cover this but I will say these Observers have given me a new appreciation for MMA and at least some baseline knowledge of the 90s/00s history that I was mostly unfamiliar with. This event in particular was one of the biggest events in that golden era of MMA. It's a who's who of the time period: Fedor, Chuck Liddell, Alistair Overeem, Cro Cop, Wanderlei Silva, Rampage Jackson, Kazushi Sakuraba, etc. all in one place fighting each other. Or, as Dave describes it before diving into his coverage, "the most loaded lineup for an MMA show in history."
XPW promoter Rob Black and his wife, porn star Lizzy Borden were indicted on ten counts of obscenity charges for distributing porn movies that depict rape and murder. Both Black and Borden face 50 years each in prison and millions in fines. Their porn company, Extreme Associates, is where Rob Black made his money and used it to start a wrestling company. He actually tried to buy into ECW back in the day but was turned down (I'd love to hear more about that offer and why Heyman, who was famously desperate for cash, rejected it), so he started XPW to copy the formula and compete against them. Anyway, the charges are because the videos were sent by mail. There's no laws preventing one from selling depraved porn, but there are laws about sending it across state lines through the postal system or selling it over the internet I guess.
This all started with an FBI raid of the Extreme Associates offices back in April and XPW hasn't run any shows since then. They haven't been able to because Black has been spending all his money fighting this case and is quickly running out. There are 3 videos that led to the indictment. "Forcible Entry" which depicts a rape scene and was produced in the presence of PBS Frontline cameramen, who were so appalled that they stopped filming and left. The other two films are "Cocktails #2" and "Extreme Teen #24" which featured an adult woman portraying a pre-teen girl (note: I feel gross writing about this). Attorney General John Ashcroft has said this is just the first step in the Justice Department's attempt to crack down on what they deem "obscene." Rob Black, for his part, is defiant, arguing that the videos are not illegal and talking shit to Ashcroft in interviews. Let's move along from this, shall we?
Preliminary numbers for WWE's Vengeance PPV are trickling in and yikes. It appears as of now that the show did around 225,000 buys which would make it one of the lowest WWE buyrates of all time. You have to go all the way back to In Your House of Dec. 1996 (headlined by Sid vs. Bret Hart) to find a lower number. And keep in mind, these are preliminary numbers and this total might fluctuate some in either direction when it's all said and done, but make no mistake, this is baaaaad news.
Mick Foley has written a letter to Dave and he's upset that Dave has been.....I dunno, covering the bad reviews that his novel "Tietam Brown" has been receiving, I guess? How's that Dave's fault? Let's find out! Just gonna post this in full. Talk to us, Mick!
I have been reading with great interest as well as disappointment your updates on my book. I won’t even try to pretend that I’m not disappointed in its sales, but I’m even more concerned about its negative portrayal in the Observer.
Yes, reviews have been very mixed. Opinions seem to generally range from people who really liked it, like Paul Allan of Bookpage, who called it “highly energetic, breakneck paced, witty laugh-out-loud funny and surprisingly addictively entertaining to people who liked certain aspects of it, but overall found it too disturbing to truly enjoy.
Even Kirkus Reviews and Publishers Weekly, two elite literary magazines, which until the past few weeks had been the worst reviews I’d received, praised the humor, the narrative and the characters, before burying it because of the sex and graphic violence.
I’ve taken some severe hits from the New York Daily News and the New York Times recently, as you have pointed out. What I haven’t seen in the Observer are the reviews from the Baltimore Sun, which picked Tietam Brown as one of the top novels of the summer, or from the Charlotte Observer, Fort Worth Star-Telegram or Book magazine, to name a few. I know this isn’t intentional, but I do wish your readers would have done a better job of sending out the positive reviews.
I have only recently learned the difference between a feature article and a book review. A feature article is much longer, far more prestigious, and much more important to the success of a book. For example, Entertainment Weekly reviews hundreds of books a year, but only does maybe 20 or so feature articles on authors. Unfortunately, feature articles are, by their nature, far less opinionated, and thereby, far less quotable. So, while I have been fortunate enough to be the subject of many positive feature articles, I have, at the same time, lost the opportunity to get positive book reviews in many of those same papers and magazines.
The feature articles are generally written by the book editors, for whom writing is a full-time job, and not by the part-time book reviewers, who in many cases are frustrated would-be writers, who may look at a broken down wrestler wandering into their world with a little bit of disdain, and with, perhaps a touch of vengeance on their minds.
So, while Entertainment Weekly did a wonderful feature story that captured the essence of, not only the book, but my whole family, in one neat page, I will forever be known for getting a C+ a week later in that same magazine in a one paragraph review.
Simon Hattenstone of The Guardian, a well respected national English newspaper did a wonderful feature that offered far more personal opinion than its U.S. counterparts. He called it a “brilliant and disturbing first novel” and even wrote that it “is a novel of immense power and subtlety. Take J. D. Salinger, throw in a bit of Dostoevsky, sprinkle with Bret Easton Ellis, and you’re getting there.”
Pretty positive stuff, but The Torch (not your fault, but I’m lumping the sheets together because there is a similar pattern in both) chose to go with a vaguely positive review that called me a “a handy storyteller” in a later issue of that same paper.
I have spoken to a few of the crowds at book signings about a great match involving the Hardys Boys vs. Edge & Christian, either their first ladder match at the Gund Arena, or the follow-up involving the Dudleys, the TLC match. I remember the atmosphere backstage when the participants returned. Clapping, hugging, admiration. It was really a great scene. But when a newspaper article came out the next day covering the show, it focused on the stinkface match with Terri Runnels vs. The Kat. I realized, as did all the boys who read that article, that the writer came in either choosing only to see what he wanted to see, or looking for evidence to support his predetermined theory on wrestling.
I think the New York Daily News and New York Times reviews are no better than the stinkface match writer. Daily News reviewer Celia McGee, by choosing to cram four pro wrestling references into a sparse 130-word review, showed obvious disdain for the world from which I came. By claiming that “by switching genres and publishers, Foley ostensibly opted for a higher class of sass,” she shows disdain for the respectable art of memoir writing. And by claiming the book lacks imagination and originality, she is just outright wrong.
Likewise, I think New York Times reviewer Dan Kaufman had his summation written before he ever opened the book. “What the book lacks isn’t action, though, but a character, a scene, or even a scrap of dialogue that feels fresh or unexpected.” So I guess Dan Kaufman saw the naked pushups, the midnight visit of the Virgin Mary and the dislocated shoulder coming a mile away.
I’m not sure what the purpose of this letter really is. Probably just to vent. But after coming off ten days on the road where I did countless radio interviews, conversed with respected book reviewers who had high praise as well as constructive criticism for my book, but most importantly, talked to, posed with and signed books for thousands of wrestling fans, I found coming home to such ugly words to be truly painful.
I’m going to look into the publishing background of both Dan Kaufman and Celia McGee, and I will be very surprised if I don’t find two frustrated, minimally successful writers who might relish the opportunity to knock the “hardcore legend” out. Back in my day, as a wrestler, I was capable of doing some pretty impressive things. As a writer, it turns out, I am not capable of changing a closed mind.
Mick Foley
Giant Ochiai, the wrestler who fell into a coma during training at the WJ dojo last week, has died, age 30. It's the 12th in-ring related death Dave can think of (yes, he lists the other 11). Ochiai was training with Kenzo Suzuki, while Riki Choshu supervised, and apparently suffered a brain injury. There's a lot of controversy over this, with Ochiai's friends saying they aren't satisfied with the explanation WJ has put out there. Sources close to the situation say it really was simply a tragic accident from a bad bump and not a case of Suzuki or Choshu roughing him up or anything nefarious like that. But regardless, the situation has been a major black eye on Choshu's promotion, especially for how they have handled it publicly. Choshu was dismissive in an interview, saying Ochiai wasn't actually a WJ wrestler and was there training on his own. With WJ already floundering as it is, this has turned most people against them entirely.
The TV show Celebrity Justice ran a story on Chyna filing a restraining order against X-Pac. In it, Chyna claims she was hiding in fear for her life and alleged that Waltman had beaten her. She described being put in a rear naked chokehold, claimed he gave her a black eye, red marks on her face, and pulled out a chunk of her hair. She also claimed that he frequently threatened suicide and she's in fear of what he might do. This is a dark fucking Observer, y'all. Dave notes these 2 have kinda dropped off the face of the earth recently. Last time they were seen was when X-Pac appeared at the 6/18 TNA show, arriving late and wrestling in the street clothes he showed up in. Chyna was with him and was described as looking unhealthily skinny. After the show, X-Pac and Chyna got into a major argument backstage that everyone witnessed. Dave recalls last December where they did an angle in NJPW which was supposed to result in X-Pac coming in to team with Chyna, but during the angle, X-Pac gave Masahiro Chono a stiff shot that pissed Chono off and they scrapped the angle and neither has been back to NJPW since. (I tried to find this Celebrity Justice video but no dice. Finding old stuff on the internet, especially via a quick Google search, is getting more and more difficult as time goes on).
NJPW's G-1 Climax is.....halfway in the books. Still have a few shows to go. But so far, it's been a huge success. Every single show has been a sellout, due largely because of NOAH's Jun Akiyama, who is basically wrestling interpromotional dream matches against NJPW's top stars every night. It's also the first G-1 tournament for young stars like Katsuyori Shibata, Shinsuke Nakamura, and Hiroshi Tanahashi. As of now, there's a bunch of people tied, but Dave still expects Hiroyoshi Tenzan to win it all (yup). Speaking of Tenzan, he lost to Tanahashi on the second night, which was a huge upset and the biggest win of Tanahashi's career thus far.
El Universal newspaper in Mexico ran a story about El Hijo del Solitario and his drug issues. His father, El Solitario, was one of the biggest stars of the golden era of Lucha Libre (only behind El Santo, Blue Demon, and Mil Mascaras) and as a result, made a lot of money. But his son, El Hijo del Solitario, inherited that money when his father died in 1986. Because he was a wrestler, his dad was famous, he was a big star instantly and talks about the traps of money and fame. Apparently, he got caught up in the party life, developed all sorts of drug issues, blew all his money, and his career fizzled out. He now says he wouldn't want his children to be in the business and wishes he'd had an older mentor who could have shown him the way, because his dad never did.
Super Parka, who has been wrestling since the 70s, is set to face El Hijo del Santo in a mask vs. mask match. Super Parka has some debts and has said he would be willing to lose his mask to Santo for a $40,000 payoff and there's apparently a couple of promoters in Tijuana trying to get the match for their company (indeed, this ends up happening in October).
On this week's WWC television show, they aired a match from the 80s of Bruiser Brody vs. Invader I. If you recall, this is basically WWC trying to remind people (now that he's with IWA) that Invader I murdered Brody. They conveniently never cared during the past 15 years he was there, but now that he jumped ship, WWC is all over this Brody/Invader story. Dave is uncomfortable with all of this.
WWC's current television champion Vengador Boricua is the latest wrestler to quit the company over money, claiming he's owed several thousand dollars. He's had talks with IWA, but no word if he's jumping ship (he ends up working things out with WWC and returning in a few months, but this company is in roooough shape).
Vader suffered a leg injury during his match with Don Frye at a recent WJ show and is out, but Dave has heard rumors that he's being let go from the promotion entirely (yup, he never returns). Vader apparently broke an expensive table backstage, which got him in trouble with management (this company is barely holding on financially, you can't be going around breaking the nice tables!). Anyway, at this point in his career, Vader has burned his bridges with all the top promotions in Japan, WWE isn't interested, and the rest of the U.S. scene has mostly dried up. Dave isn't sure where he goes from here. There's a ton of smaller companies in Japan that would love to have him, and he's a legend there, but there's no money in that. Vader's days as a player with a major company seem to be over.
Shinya Hashimoto finally, officially vacated the AJPW Triple Crown title due to injury. He's still working tag matches in Zero-ONE but there's no way he's ready to defend AJPW's title in singles matches (he actually only wrestles a handful of singles matches for the remainder of his life, primarily working tags for the next year. Hashimoto was broken down bad by this point).
A judge in Georgia issued some rulings in the Hulk Hogan/Vince Russo lawsuit stemming from Bash at the Beach 2000. The planned story was Russo, Hogan, and Bischoff trying to "work the boys" with an angle that Hogan was flexing his creative control. It played out on PPV exactly as it was supposed to. At first. Jarrett laid down, Hogan did the pin, cut his promo on Russo, and walked out. The idea was Hogan would return at Halloween Havoc with his belt and they'd have 2 champions (Hogan and Booker T by then) and would have a unification match. Well, Russo really did want Hogan gone and he double-crossed Hogan and Bischoff by going out on the show later and cutting his personal and insulting promo on Hogan, which wasn't agreed to and infuriated Hogan. When Brad Siegal backed Russo on the issue, Eric Bischoff also walked out. Since Hogan really did have creative control and really was double-crossed by Russo, and really was pissed....Hogan filed the lawsuit, claiming Russo violated his contract and defamed him. Anyway, Russo argued in court that his promo was in-character and directed at Hogan's character. The judge ruled that Hogan didn't prove otherwise and therefore, absolved Russo of any liability in the matter. The lawsuit is still moving forward because of the argument that WCW violated his creative control clause and by not booking him for his 6 contracted PPV events that year. But Russo is off the hook for the defamation part. Dave says the judge is dead wrong, Russo's promo on Hogan was absolutely real and not at all in-character, but he adds, "if I was a judge, my reaction would be to get all these liars out of my courtroom as quickly as possible."
Hey, speaking of Hogan, he was on Love Bubbasponge's show again or whatever. He claimed he's negotiating with ClearChannel to promote a farewell tour for him where he will make 8-figures for it. "Dear god, when will he stop?" Dave asks. The story is this: Jimmy Hart is running around again asking anyone not already signed if they'd be interested in a new promotion with Hogan as the star and how much it would cost to sign them for a year, doing about 1 show a week. Then he plans to put all that together into a budget and pitch it. In other words, this is literally nothing but an idea, ("concepts of a plan," if you will), and if it happens at all, it will be XWF Pt. 2 and will go nowhere.
Remember how Gabe Sapolsky tried to defend the hell out of Jeff Hardy's ROH shenanigans last week? In particular, the part where Jeff showed up way late but Gabe defended it by saying no one ever told Jeff what time to be there? Others have come to Dave to dispute that, saying Rob Feinstein absolutely told Jeff Hardy to his face in front of multiple people exactly when to be there. Jeff just didn't do it. Jeff was hanging out with AJ Styles and a few others and they were all leaving their hotel together to be at the building by 4pm. But then Justin Credible showed up, Jeff Hardy said he'd hitch a ride with him instead, but those two disappeared and didn't arrive at the building until after the show had already started 4 hours later. Draw your own conclusions.
ROH sold out another show, their first time outside of the northeast, in Dayton, OH. It was based around the debut of Jim Cornette. The show started with an intentionally flippy crazy spotfest, so that Cornette could then come out and cut a promo bashing it and the company in general. It ended up with Cornette managing Christopher Daniels & Danny Maff in the main event against AJ Styles & Homicide. Afterwards, Cornette cut a genuine promo putting over the company, then Daniels & Maff turned on him and Samoa Joe made the save. Cornette got over huge but there's no plans for him to return because most of their shows are up north and he doesn't fly. This show was in driving distance, hence the appearance.
Former WWE referee Billy Silverman is now a real estate agent in Maine. If you recall, Silverman left WWE on extremely bad terms, quitting because he was harassed nonstop by Bradshaw. His crime? He paid out of his own pocket to upgrade his coach seat to first class on a flight. As a referee, he hadn't "earned that right" and so JBL bullied him all the way out of the fucking company.
Former WCW dancer and valet Kimberly Page has a small cameo in the movie Seabiscuit. I remember her in 40 Year Old Virgin, but not this....
Bob Sapp may not be doing much fighting later this year because he's in talks to film a movie with Jackie Chan. Best I can tell, this does not happen, but he did appear in several other movies. Speaking of Sapp, his people are trying to put together a fight with Mike Tyson because everyone likes money and that sure would make a lot of it. When asked if it would be boxing or kickboxing, Sapp said he was open to either and also suggested it could be MMA. Dave said he better hope it's MMA because if it was boxing or K-1 rules, Tyson will launch Sapp's head into orbit.
Kevin Nash's upcoming haircut is because he landed a role in the movie The Punisher starring Nicholas Cage (Dave corrects this next week, settle down) and producers want him to have short hair. Meanwhile, Triple H is in talks for a role in Blade: Trinity. Publicly, Triple H has always tried to give the impression that he doesn't want to be the next Rock and be an actor, but privately, he and Stephanie McMahon have spent a lot of time in Hollywood the past several months auditioning him for acting roles. The success (and money) Rock is enjoying right now isn't lost on anyone, least of all Triple H.
Christian won the IC title from Booker T at a house show last week, the first time that has happened with a major title in years. It wasn't just for fun though, it was necessary because Booker T was diagnosed with a herniated disc in his back. It won't require surgery but will take 4-6 weeks to recover and they wanted the title off him ASAP, so he shuffled his way through a quick match to drop the belt. The last time this happened was 1999 when Edge beat Jeff Jarrett for the IC title at a house show and that was done out of necessity also, as Ken Shamrock pulling out of a PPV match at the last minute caused a mess. The last actual scheduled house show title change Dave can recall was Kevin Nash winning the world title from Bob Backlund at an MSG house show in 1994. Writer Brian Gewirtz has been pushing for occasional house show title changes for months to try and boost ticket sales.
Playboy Magazine's revenue was up 6.7% from the same quarter last year, despite declining sales otherwise. The reason? The Torrie Wilson issue was such a huge seller that it singlehandedly bolstered Playboy's profits.
Al Snow and Mick Foley appeared together on a radio show and discussed the Tough Enough incident with Bob Holly roughing up Matt Cappotelli. Neither of them held back. Snow said it was uncalled for and said Holly was irresponsible and thought he was using the show to try and get himself over. Foley said basically the same thing, saying that taking liberties with someone has no place in the business and felt like Holly was trying to live up to his "cranky" gimmick for the TV cameras.
Nathan Jones has been in Mexico filming a movie. Not just any movie. It's one of the biggest budgets for a film in Hollywood history, for the movie "Troy" which stars Brad Pitt. Apparently, Jones has a fight scene early in the movie. In between, he's been off-and-on in OVW because they're trying to teach this big loaf how to wrestle. Ain't going great.
WATCH: Nathan Jones vs. Brad Pitt - Helen of Troy on a Pole match
New Line Cinema producer Jeff Katz has responded to Dave's comments last week about the "Freddy vs. Jason interpromotional match." And yes, he is referring to the upcoming movie. Katz had this to say in regards to Dave's comments: "Just got my new Observer and flipped out on the Fvs.J mention. You can rest assured we booked it much better than most WWE programming. In fact, wrestling booking was part of our thought process. The director is a huge wrestling fan and between his fandom and my past in the business, we have a very well booked fight. Just keep your eyes open for Freddy’s bionic elbow drop." Dave hopes Dusty doesn't want royalties. This is delightful.
Remember the drama from the Australian tour last week about trying to get Goldberg to go to fill in for Triple H, but he wasn't able to because WWE didn't get his visa issues handled? Well, that didn't stop a rumor from spreading around backstage that Goldberg had simply refused to go. Apparently, Shawn Michaels and Kevin Nash were both loudly making a big stink about it, talking about how he's overpaid and not a team player and all that fun stuff. Then everyone got back to the U.S. and found out the truth, that Goldberg actually was willing to go on the tour, but WWE dropped the ball on his visa, which led to a lot of talk about Nash and Michaels for being such assholes about it in Australia.