August 25, 2003
- We have 4 new inductees into the WON Hall of Fame: Shawn Michaels, Chris Benoit, Earl Caddock, and Francisco Flores. The last two were basically like WWE's legacy wing. Caddock was a world champion in the 1900s and Flores was the promoter who founded UWA. Shawn Michaels had been on the bubble in past years. Everyone recognized he's one of the best ever in-ring, but his outside-the-ring behavior was such a detriment to his career that it kept him from getting in until now. But his return from retirement to have a pretty second strong run so far made the difference and pushed him over the top easily with voters. Benoit made it in due to strong support for wrestlers who vote (remember, voting is divided up among wrestlers, promoters, historians, journalists, etc. and also requires certain votes by regions like U.S., Mexico, Japan, and so on). Ultimo Dragon, meanwhile, came just a couple of votes shy for the second year in a row. Undertaker also came up 8 votes shy of getting in. Just a lot of explanation on who landed where. Next year, Kurt Angle and Triple H will become eligible, which should be interesting. Anyway, from here Dave writes LEEEEEEENGTHY biographies of the 4 inductees. So if you ever wanted to know anything about them, this is the issue for you, but I ain't doin' it.
- K-1 held its first show in America and it ended with a dumb angle teasing a Bob Sapp vs. Mike Tyson fight. Word is Tyson, who has blown through most of his money and needed a payday, had agreed to do the angle with Sapp after Sapp beat Kimo Leopoldo. One problem: nobody told Kimo he was expected to lose, and Sapp gassed out after about 90 seconds and Kimo started handling him. Sapp managed to get some suspicious extra time in between rounds and recovered enough to squeak out a victory in round two. Then they had a clearly fake angle where Tyson got into the ring and they had a big pull-apart. Tyson couldn't even be bothered to keep a straight face. He took the angle with Steve Austin more seriously. It's worth noting this entire angle was put together by embattled K-1 founder Kazuyoshi Ishii. If you recall, he's facing all sorts of financial charges for fraudulently claiming he had Tyson booked for a show in Japan, even forging Tyson's signature on documents. Now, here he was in a K-1 ring in the U.S. right in the middle of the pull-apart and standing next to Tyson. Weird shit.
- WATCH: Mike Tyson and Bob Sapp pull-apart angle
- Anyway, no one cared. Most news outlets didn't even report on the angle. That's how far Tyson's star has fallen. Not even SportsCenter covered it, and ESPN promoted the damn show. It was bigger news in Japan but fans have had a million teases of Tyson fights in Japan and other than getting knocked out by Buster Douglas, it's never happened and fans don't buy it anymore. K-1 is hoping to put together Sapp vs. Tyson for the traditional Inoki Bom Ba Ye New Year's Eve show but there's no deal in place, nor rules. Sapp will get killed in boxing and probably under kickboxing rules also. MMA rules are the only chance he's got and it's doubtful Tyson would go for that. Dave isn't optimistic that this is happening, despite this angle.
- NJPW's G1 Climax is in the books. This year the tournament was won by Hiroyoshi Tenzan, in an attempt to create a new top star. He's always been an upper-card guy but they're desperately in need of new world champion-level guys. He's expected to challenge for the IWGP title at the October Tokyo Dome show (nah, Inoki's gonna fuck that show all up before we get there). Speaking of, Dave doesn't like Tenzan's chances as the top guy. Because no matter who is in that top position right now, NJPW is going to continue plummeting if this obsession with shoot fighting continues. Tenzan won the tournament by submitting NOAH's Jun Akiyama in the finals with the anaconda vice.
- WATCH: Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Jun Akiyama - 2003 G1 Climax Final
- Sean Waltman (X-Pac) went on his website and responded to the story that came out last week about Chyna's restraining order and accusations that Waltman abused her. It's a lengthy reply so not gonna paste the whole thing, but he adamantly denies hitting her and says he only ever attempted to restrain her when she was hitting him. He also says he would like to take a public polygraph to prove it, because Chyna's accusations have damaged his reputation. He says friends of Chyna have told him that she was trying to goad him into hitting her but he says he never did. And says that, no matter what, he still loves her unconditionally and wishes this hadn't happened. That's the gist of what he posted. In another interview, Waltman admitted he's not doing well emotionally but denied ever threatening suicide, which is something else she claimed. One last thing, after he first started dating Chyna, he claims Triple H called him and warned him that she was "psycho" but he didn't listen.
- AJPW's latest show saw the debut of a foreign heel group called Fake WWE Army. Yup. Hotstuff Hernandez is made up to look like Kurt Angle. Alan Funk (formerly Kwee-Wee in WCW) is doing a Hulk Hogan gimmick, and Amazing Red is now Mysterio Red, doing a Rey gimmick. So that's something that happened.
- Mitsuharu Misawa and Kenta Kobashi were backstage at a recent NJPW show. They're trying to put something together for more NOAH vs. NJPW matches. Dave thinks the place would have gone insane if those 2 had come out in front of the crowd, but alas, they were just backstage.
- Sources have told Dave that the Sonny Onoo/WCW lawsuit that was settled out of court last week was a settlement number so high that it would blow your mind. As in nearly 8 figures. Onoo made out like a bandit, it seems.
- ROH's latest show didn't go well. Low-Ki accidentally knocked Dan Maff loopy with an errant kick and an ambulance had to be called for him as the show was ending, leading to a scary scene. Thankfully he was okay later that night. Low-Ki, apparently frustrated at the situation, went on a bit of a tantrum and struck ROH cameraman (and future president) Doug Gentry. He put a statement out the next day apologizing for his actions. Elsewhere on the show, Steve Corino suffered a totally ruptured left eardrum and lost all hearing in that ear. Surgery has been recommended. Samoa Joe beat CM Punk in a non-title match (this is not the trilogy of matches, we're not there yet).
- Mark and Jay Briscoe should be returning soon. They were giving up wrestling to pursue college football this season. "That didn't end up working out," is all Dave says.
- Killer Kowalski is closing his wrestling school after 30+ years. The building he's been using for decades apparently got shut down so he's calling it a wrap. It's the location where Triple H, Chyna, Saturn, A-Train, and others trained under Kowalski.
- Rappers and sometimes wrestlers Insane Clown Posse were named the "worst band ever" by Blender magazine. The top 5 was rounded out by Emmerson Lake & Palmer, Kenny G, Michael Bolton, and Jefferson Starship, which isn't bad company Dave thinks. Those groups were all successful at times. Anyway, ICP wasn't pleased and responded by pointing out Blender just gave their latest album a positive review a few months earlier, so what the fuck?
- CM Punk vs. Raven in a hair vs. hair match was supposed to happen in ROH but got pulled last week with no explanation given. Well, this week on TNA, they teased Shane Douglas cutting Raven's hair. Yup. The story here is TNA got wind that Raven was gonna lose his hair in ROH and said, "Fuck that, you're contracted to us. You're losing it here." So be expecting a Raven vs. Shane Douglas hair match soon.
- WWE's Summerslam is this week. Triple H is nowhere near close to being ready to wrestle but he's doing it anyway. A partially torn groin can take awhile to heal and movement can aggravate it, so even working a minimal amount in this Elimination Chamber match is risky.
- Notes from 8/18 Raw, or as Dave calls it, the worst Raw in months: Opening brawl with Goldberg and Evolution that Dave thinks made Goldberg look dumb. Test won "the services" of Stacy Keibler in a match with Scott Steiner and promised to "treat her like the slut she really is." Rob Conway made his debut, turning heel and joining La Resistance by basically desecrating the American flag, spitting on it and laying it across the Dudleys, and this is the only thing on the show that got any heat. Kevin Nash lost his hair vs. hair match to Jericho and despite hyping up that the loser would be shaved bald, Nash ended up with just short hair. Linda McMahon was interviewed via satellite only for Eric Bischoff to show up, break into her house, start talking about how he knew she'd be alone, and then started sexually harassing her before forcing himself on her with a long forced kiss and then trying to take her to the bedroom. So much for "we don't do rape" in WWE. Don't forget, we're only a few weeks removed from the storyline where Vince admitted to pimping out a teenage Stephanie. Then we had Test forcing Stacy to do a stripper routine in front of other wrestlers when she didn't want to. And that was Raw. Doesn't it sound pleasant?
- Following multiple surgeries for a torn triceps, Batista is expected back in September. He originally tore it in March at a house show right before Evolution was formed. After surgery, he fell while training and re-injured it, requiring another surgery. And then in July, he had a third minor surgery on it due to an infection. Worse still, Batista tore this same triceps muscle years ago, before wrestling during his bodybuilding days, so this is an injury that will likely continue to plague him (yup, he tears it again in 2006 and has to vacate the world title).
- WWE is looking for the right time to bring Superstar Billy Graham back into the fold and introduce him to current fans. Graham's autobiography is being released through the company next year. He's expected to be at Summerslam and to film stuff over that week. It will be the first time Graham and Vince McMahon have seen each other since the famous 1992 Phil Donahue episode.
- RVD did an interview and the poor guy hasn't learned the art of giving a WWE-approved interview. Among the things he said was how he misses ECW and it was his favorite time of his career, complained about the WWE locker room being overly political, said it can be frustrating not being pushed as much as he feels he should be, and finally, he said he's not one of those guys who is going to stay late at shows and watch all the other matches every night. He's got other interests outside of wrestling and he's ready to get the fuck out when his work day is over. Said he's pretty much accepted the fact that guys like Shane McMahon and Eric Bischoff will be working main event programs while he continues working PPV opening matches. Considering RVD is basically the set-up guy for this Kane/Shane McMahon feud, Dave can see why he might be a little annoyed.
- Jim Cornette and OVW have been trashing WWE like crazy on their show recently, under the guise of "storyline." They portray John Laurinaitis as a heel who is sleeping with Nikita and that's why she does his bidding for the other heels. They claimed Laurinaitis hates OVW and that's why wrestlers get such stupid gimmicks in WWE. Cornette did another interview blaming him for turning WWE into a clown show. Feels like maybe this isn't all kayfabe for Cornette lol.