Wrestling Observer Rewinder

October 13, 2003

Remember Dave talking briefly in the previous issue about a book called "Chokehold" by Jim Wilson and Weldon Johnson that details all of the scandals and dirt around the wrestling industry during the NWA days? Well, our top story this week is a 14,000+ word review of this damn book. Dave LOVED this shit, saying it's one of the most important pro wrestling books ever written. I'm NOT rehashing all of this but it seems a lot of the book is based on details uncovered from a Justice Dept. investigation into the NWA during the 1950s over its attempts to monopolize the wrestling industry. In particular, this Jim Wilson guy is a former wrestler with a HUGE ax to grind against the business as a whole, and it seems he wrote this book with the express intent of revealing every possible secret in the history of wrestling. It's full of dirt. (One accusation here, just as an example, is a claim that Wilson retired from wrestling because he refused homosexual advances from promoter Jim Barnett. He then claims that Tommy Rich was awarded the NWA title only because he did agree to sleep with Barnett. Sounds like a salacious rumor, but this info comes from Roy Shire's testimony in a lawsuit against the NWA from the 80s, and Dave confirms that rumor has been around for decades but never published until now. For what it's worth, Dave says a lot of people dispute the story and he argues Rich would have gotten the title anyway because he had become such a hot star. Claims of promoters pushing wrestlers into gay relationships in exchange for a push is a story as old as wrestling but Dave says this is the only story of it he's ever heard about involving Barnett).
The point I'm trying to make is that Dave seems to doubt the Jim Barnett story, but he also acknowledges that so much of what is written in this book lines up with other things he has heard over the years. Everything else in the book seems to be accurate to the best of Dave's knowledge, so who knows? He says that the research in this book is insane, with so much of it based on legal documents and testimony from decades ago that no one had bothered to uncover before. He thinks if someone with Wilson's background had written something like this about any other sport, it would be the most talked about story in the sports world. But because it's pro rasslin', Dave doesn't think anyone outside of hardcore historians will care about any of this. Wilson's bias certainly paints the industry and the NWA in a negative light, but it also seems to be a pretty accurate one. (I gotta read this book).
TNA is planning to book its biggest show to date on 11/30, which is expected to be headlined by Jeff Jarrett vs. Hulk Hogan for the NWA title. The hope is to book it like a regular weekend PPV, as a loaded 3-hour show with a $29.95 price tag. The plan is for Jarrett to turn heel and win the NWA title soon, which has been planned for some time anyway. It's expected that Russo will help Jarrett in the heel turn and the hope from TNA's side is to book Hogan's arrival in TNA around the lawsuit issues with him and Russo. Because lord knows, if Russo's there, you gotta find a way to incorporate some shoot stuff, brother! Dave thinks this is a terrible idea and probably a moot point anyway because Hogan has flat out told them that if Russo is involved, he's not doing it. So unless they can get Hogan to change his mind (and they are trying), Dave expects Russo to be shown the door before Hogan arrives.
As you might expect, Hulk fucking Hogan is not about to show up at the Nashville Fairgrounds and wrestle in front of 900 people. The plan is to move the show to a bigger location (Las Vegas and New Orleans have been looked at). TNA doesn't have a license to run in Nevada, which has the strictest athletic commission in the country, nor do they have enough time to get one, so they would have to use a local promoter. For what it's worth, WWA ran a live PPV in Las Vegas last year with most of the same TNA wrestlers and using Randy Savage as the big draw. They only drew 653 paid. Hogan is a bigger star than Savage, but that's still a steep hill to climb. There was talk of keeping the show in Nashville and moving to the 9,000-seat Municipal Auditorium, but that's an even bigger risk. The TNA shows at the Fairgrounds are already 75% freebies. Nashville is home base for TNA, but it doesn't exactly have a huge market of paying fans.
As with everything Hogan, it's worth reminding that this isn't official until it happens. Hogan hasn't signed a deal with TNA yet, although both sides were said to be in verbal agreement and it's just a formality. So far, he's only agreed to work the 1 match with Jarrett and also make some appearances on the Wednesday PPVs beforehand to shoot angles and promos. On their show this week, TNA announced the 11/30 PPV date, but haven't yet confirmed Hogan's name. There's talks of running a big advertising campaign for the show and to bring in some of Hogan's famous friends (George Foreman's name has been tossed around, for whatever reason) in an attempt to get mainstream publicity. TNA has gotten pretty much zero mainstream press since it started and they feel Hogan is the only wrestler out there who can get eyes on the company from people who don't know it exists. Sting, Dusty Rhodes, Roddy Piper, etc. all failed to move the needle on TNA's popularity, and even though Hogan is a huge star, Dave doesn't seem too optimistic that Hogan is gonna make much difference long-term either. Hogan doesn't come cheap and anything less than a home-run that gives the company a huge boost would have to be considered a flop. One extra thing worth mentioning: aside from the Jarretts themselves, almost everyone else in the company is against bringing in Hogan (prepare yourself for months of will-he-won't-he with Hogan and TNA).
All the legal issues from Owen Hart's 1999 death are finally resolved. Lewmar Inc, the company that manufactured the snap shackle device that was holding Owen, settled out of court with WWE this week. WWE was suing the company to try and recoup some of the money they paid out to Martha Hart and the case wasn't going Lewmar's way, so they settled. Terms were supposed to be secret, but word got out. Lewmar settled for $9 million, which is about half of what WWE paid Owen's family 3 years earlier. Because some of this will go to WWE's insurance company (who paid some of the initial Martha settlement), it's believed WWE will receive about $3.5 million of this. None of this takes into account the millions WWE has likely spent on legal fees over the past 4 years. The smoking gun in the case is that Lewmar apparently knew its shackles were being used for stunt work and they sent a memo to all their European distributors saying that it should only be used for boats. But they never sent that memo to their U.S. distributors, and that's what fucked them.
Regarding that $18 million settlement WWE paid out a couple years ago. After all the legal fees were paid, Martha Hart received a little over $7 million dollars. She used a significant portion of that money to start a charity called the Owen Hart Foundation. Owens 2 children were awarded a little over $2 million each while Owen's parents Stu and Helen got about 1.5 million.
In MMA news, we got Tim Sylvia testing positive for steroids immediately after beating Gan McGee, meaning 2 of the last 3 UFC heavyweight champs have popped positive, NJPW star Josh Barnett being the other. In fact, it was that failed test that led Barnett to NJPW, since he was barred from competing worldwide in any promotion that recognized Nevada sanctioning, which was basically everyone. To his credit, Sylvia is completely admitting it, saying he was trying to lose weight to look better, and vowing to accept whatever the consequences are. As a result, Dave figures he'll get off lighter than Barnett did, because Barnett challenged his failure and made an ugly political mess out of it. But going off precedent, they almost certainly have to strip him of his UFC title.
More MMA news, but this one is fun: Mirko Cro Cop kicked Dos Caras Jr.'s soul into the next dimension during the main event of PRIDE's most recent show, knocking him out in just 46 seconds. The entire fight consisted of Cro Cop calmly walking him down and finally unloading with a single kick that clearly knocked Caras unconscious and later needed stitches. Then, before the referee stepped in, he absolutely leveled him with a vicious punch to the face while he was already knocked out that some felt was unnecessary (nah, it was necessary). Anyway, that was it. One kick, one punch, and the fight was over. And the punch wasn't even needed. This sets up Cro Cop for his highly anticipated fight against Fedor Emelianenko next month at the Tokyo Dome for the heavyweight title (sadly, contract disputes would keep that from happening and we wouldn't get Fedor vs. Cro Cop until 2005. But when we did, whew boy, it did NOT disappoint).
WATCH: Mirko Cro Cop vs. Dos Caras Jr.
Kenzo Suzuki is trying to join Zero-One. If you recall, he quit WJ after the death of a student that he was helping to train at their dojo. He apparently tried to return to NJPW, but they turned him down. Seems they're still bitter at him for walking out on the company last year to help Choshu form WJ (he will eventually end up in WWE next year). Kensuke Sasaki is also trying to find somewhere else to work because he sees the writing on the wall for WJ.
The main event of next week's NJPW Tokyo Dome show has changed once again. Shinsuke Nakamura defected from Team NJPW and has joined Team Inoki. He will be replaced on the NJPW side by Hiroshi Tanahashi. That also changes the match Tanahashi was supposed to be in, and he's been replaced by Katsuyori Shibata. Meanwhile, "unless things go badly," Hulk Hogan has agreed to return to NJPW for the Jan. 4 Tokyo Dome show (Hogan ain't gonna make that show, but we'll get there).
Remember how ROH's recent show at the Murphy Rec Center almost didn't happen because they were over capacity and someone called the fire marshal? And remember how it was alleged that Blue Meanie and his girlfriend Jasmine St. Clair were involved? Well, a week later, the promotion they run, 3PW, had its show canceled after a city council representative was informed (by someone, who knows?!) that they didn't have city approval for the show. Shit's gettin' dirty in Philly.
Latest on the injury to Alan Funk where his face got crushed last week. Doctors have said he's lucky to be alive. It was said to be the sickest injury anyone had ever seen and he's gonna be hospitalized in Finland for a bit. His wife flew over to be with him. AJ Styles was on the show and was apparently so horrified by the injury that he was telling people wrestling wasn't worth it and he was quitting. Obviously, the shock wore off and he has decided to stick with it (but imagine if we never got AJ Styles after 2003 because of this??)
Stu Hart is hospitalized at press time after falling down. It wasn't thought to be serious but at 88 years old, any fall is possibly serious (this, indeed, was serious and he passes away soon after).
Jesse Ventura's new show "Jesse Ventura's America" debuted on MSNBC and reviews were not kind. Dave runs through all the trouble this show had even getting on the air, as MSNBC quickly realized they had signed a guy to a contract who has no business moderating a news talk show. Yeah, this ends up getting canceled very quickly.
Afa Anoai Jr. (18 year old son of Afa, better known these days as Manu from Legacy) is wanted by police as a suspect in the armed robbery of an 81-year-old woman. Oh, well isn't that pleasant? He's accused of being the getaway driver while a 17-year-old girl is accused of the actual robbery (as well as aggravated assault). The girl and another guy climbed into this woman's window at 4am and started looking through her house for things to steal and the woman woke up. The teen girl pulled a steak knife from the kitchen and cut the old woman's arm and hand during a scuffle. Then they ran out of the house and jumped into the waiting car where Afa Jr. took off. Police tracked some of the stolen jewelry at a pawn shop to catch the girl, who confessed to everything.
The AP ran a story of a guy who was charged and pled guilty to selling copyrighted pro wrestling videos online. He apparently just started dubbing ROH, WWF, and WCW videos and selling them on a website. It's believed Rob Feinstein, a true bastion of morality, is the one who turned him in to the FBI.
Mike The Miz, who starred on MTV's "Real World" has been wrestling for UPW in California recently. He's all over MTV again as part of the Real World vs. Road Rules Challenge series (where he plugs UPW regularly). On this week's episode, he had an amateur wrestling match with another cast member and lost. Dave says if Bill Watts ran UPW, Mike The Miz's career would be over right then and there (sadly, we never heard from Mike The Miz ever again).
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper ran a story this week acknowledging football player Joe Anoa'i, who is a freshman defensive end at Georgia Tech. The story mentioned he is the cousin of Rikishi and brother of Rosey (sadly, we never heard from Joe Anoa'i ever again).
Vince Russo is being slowly phased out of TNA's creative. Russo wrote the first draft of the 10/1 show, but Dutch Mantel has been far more hands on ever since and within a few weeks, it's expected that Mantel will be the main booker and Russo will be out. Of course, with Hogan likely coming in, that's playing a role in the decision as well.
AAA head Antonio Pena was at TNA's recent show to discuss the two companies working together but the bigger news came later. And then, after Pena was introduced to the crowd, he sat down at the commentary table....next to Konnan....and did Spanish commentary. Dave says this is basically like Vince McMahon and Bret Hart doing commentary together. It was the first time Pena and Konnan had seen each other in 7 years, since Konnan quit AAA (which he and Pena basically started together) and took many of AAA's top stars with him to form his own promotion, Promo Azteca, back in 1996. The two have publicly hated each other since. So this was kind of a big deal. No word on if they talked and squashed things. CMLL is also interested in working with TNA, now that they found out AAA is interested. Dave thinks, if all things are equal, it makes more sense for TNA to partner with CMLL because it's a more stable company with better wrestlers.
WWE has banned all wrestlers from doing overhead belly-to-belly suplexes. It came as a surprise because the move is a staple for both Angle and Lesnar, but management is worried about injuries. On Smackdown a week or so back, Charlie Haas did one to Chris Benoit and Benoit landed almost right on top of his head. Dave remembers cringing when it happened. Apparently, that was the final straw for management too. Since the move isn't used as a finisher by anyone or even really a major high spot, the risk/reward was deemed not worth it. Dave notes that WWE is trying to cut back on neck injuries and banned piledrivers a few years ago for the same reason. Angle and Lesnar were apparently not thrilled about this decision. When he asked what would happen if they did it anyway, Lesnar was told they would be fined. When he asked how much the fine was (lol), he was simply told not to do it. So of course, in the Angle/Lesnar match on that night's house show, Lesnar went for the move. But Angle blocked it for real, apparently deciding he wasn't interested in finding out how much the fine was. (Lesnar, of course, is about 5 months away from quitting wrestling completely and seems like he's all out of fucks to give).
WWE is also pushing wrestlers to a more old school way of working. At house shows, they're being encouraged to call matches in the ring rather than work everything out beforehand backstage. To the point that heels and babyfaces are being kept apart by agents and told nothing other than the winner before the match. This probably won't happen on TV any time soon. A lot of the old school guys hate how guys plan their matches out but Dave has no problem with it. He uses DDP as an example. He says so many old school guys complained constantly about how DDP was "cheating" because he would literally write down and memorize his matches beforehand, move-for-move. So people bitched about it, but DDP was out there having better matches on TV every week than anyone else in the main events, so what's the problem? If it works, it works. The goal is to entertain the fans and make money, not prove yourself to your coworkers.
Rock was interviewed about going back to WWE and wasn't positive on the idea. He said he has a great relationship with Vince but if he goes back, he wants it to be something special. Last time it was Goldberg. Before that, it was Hogan. "But now, it’s hard for me to envision, who I would go back for?" Rock said.
Kurt Angle and Bret Hart had a phone conversation this past week, with Angle flat out asking Bret if they could have a match at Wrestlemania. Hart explained what's been written here before, that he's honored and if he could, he would absolutely have a final match with Angle. But doctors have told him it's impossible for him to ever wrestle again. Angle claimed it was his idea, but others have told Dave that Vince was pushing Angle to make the call, because Vince is still trying to lure Bret back into the fold. Afterward, Bret was apparently a little confused. Basically asking, does WWE not understand what a serious stroke actually means? He's honored that people want him to wrestle, but given what he went through, he's perplexed that anyone even thinks it's possible. That being said, Bret apparently can't say enough nice things about how big a fan he is of Kurt Angle.
Regarding Triple H's role in the upcoming Blade movie, apparently Bob Sapp was talked about for the role first but they decided Triple H's look fit the character better. His fight scene in the movie is supposedly good and his death scene is a key part of the film ("yes, he does the job in his film debut." Dave adds).
Notes from 10/6 Raw: Dave calls Shane McMahon "John Wayne'o'Mac" because he seems to be the only one, out of a roster full of wrestlers, capable of standing up to Kane. This all led to Shane luring Kane into a limo and then crashing it into a semi-truck this week. There were paramedics and a bloody lifeless body that was supposed to be Kane and Dave hates all of this. They later announced Kane is alive but in critical condition. He'll still be working this week's house shows though because, ya know, consistency. They kept trying to get the fans to chant CLB ("creepy little bastard") at Christian and Dave says the joke there is apparently that's a backstage nickname for him. Big ending with Goldberg accidentally spearing Shawn Michaels, which leads Dave to wonder if there's ever been a babyface who screws up as much as Goldberg. Imagine if Bruno Sammartino was booked to accidentally knock out his tag team partner every week or something. It just makes Goldberg seem like a bone-headed klutz, but he's the champion and they need him to literally carry the Raw brand right now. And by the way, since they spent the whole show telling you that Kane was in the hospital teetering on the brink of death, why wasn't Shane McMahon arrested for attempted murder, Dave wonders?
WATCH: Shane McMahon attempts to murder Kane
Notes from 10/2 Smackdown: mostly boring show with decent matches. Jose the Burrito Dealer was played by indie wrestler Joni "El Vato" Chingas from Wisconsin, leading Dave to make the joke that at least this time when someone brought a dealer backstage, he was only dealing burritos. But Smackdown has a huge Hispanic audience and they're trying to make Eddie Guerrero the face of the company for that crowd. Dave's not sure that dabbling in stereotypical tropes like that is really helpful. He says Kurt Angle and Brock Lesnar are so good that they're taken for granted, since both were bumping around like cruiserweights in a meaningless tag team match. Dave thinks they're putting way too many miles on their bodies too fast lately. In particular, he says Lesnar is on his way to becoming the best 300-pounder the wrestling business has ever seen but he's afraid his body will break down on him before he gets there (fear not, Brock is gonna bounce before that happens).
Kevin Nash, when he returns, is scheduled to turn heel and basically act as a bounty hunter trying to take out Goldberg (Nash ain't coming back for another 8 years bro). With Triple H out, "they'd rather go with another washed up guy who was once a star than try to make a new one" Dave says. Brutal, but not really wrong.
Stephanie McMahon did an interview with Sports Illustrated and randomly said she hates Arianna Huffington because she didn't like how Arianna came off during her California governor debate with Arnold Schwarzeneggar, saying she acted like a bitch. Well okay then. She actually didn't seem to know who Arianna Huffington is, simply referring to her as "that Greek woman running for Governor in California who had the attitude in the debate with Arnold." For whatever reason, this reminds Dave of the time Stephanie was on The Weakest Link game show and had no idea that "you deserve a break today" was a famous McDonald's catchphrase, and that's when he realized that Stephanie McMahon grew up in a very different world than the rest of us poors.
Remember that UPN show The Mullets that essentially makes fun of wrestling fans? Well if you like the show, you better hurry up and watch it because the ratings are fucking awful and Dave expects it to be canned any minute.
Bradshaw is not very popular in the locker room, as you may have heard. Everyone thinks he's a bully. As a result, there were a lot of people making fun of him this week. Bradshaw has made a lot of money in other business ventures and walks around backstage acting like a big time business and money wiz. Well, he also just got divorced and apparently his ex-wife took him for a lot of that extra money, much to the delight of people in the locker room who don't like him.
Speaking of divorces, Jerry Lawler's divorce from Stacey Carter was finalized this week. Lawler had to pay her $55k in cash and she gets to keep one of the two homes they shared. Lawler was also ordered to remove all photos of her from his website (he had a TON of nude photos of her on there which are still floating around the internet today). Lawler is also facing a contempt of court charge because both sides had been ordered not to discuss their split publicly, but last year, Lawler put out his autobiography and lord almighty, did he ever talk about it....
OVW this week had the build-up for a match next week between Bob Holly and Matt Cappotelli, stemming from the famous incident between them on Tough Enough. Seeing the footage again reminded Dave of how unnecessary it was and how much of a bully Holly was in that situation. Holly was a fantastic heel in this whole OVW thing though.
Steve Austin and Goldberg have become good friends backstage. Of course, it's kinda interesting because that was the dream match everyone pitted them against each other just a few years ago. But now after Raw, they hang out and grab dinner together every night and were also hanging out in L.A. this past week while Austin was filming Hollywood Squares. Awww, buddies!