Wrestling Observer Rewinder

November 10, 2003

We open with reviews of 2 new WWE autobiographies, from Steve Austin and Lita respectively. Austin's book was decent, but is partially ghostwritten by Jim Ross and as a result, it plays things totally safe politically and almost everything in it is stuff most fans already knew (speaking of ghostwriters, he also notes that Lita's book was partially ghostwritten for her by her boyfriend Matt Hardy which is an interesting nugget I'd never heard before). Back to Austin, we get a little more detail on why he walked out in 2002, his panic attack caffeine hospitalization before WM19, his early career in Dallas, Hollywood Blondes with Pillman, firing from WCW, brief ECW run, the Stone Cold gimmick, Tyson, neck injury, and eventual retirement. He talks about his 3 ex-wives but doesn't badmouth any of them. He blamed himself for his first marriage failing because he was away on the road all the time. The second marriage, to Jeannie Clark, was clearly the one that still caused him the most heartache after she took their kids and moved to England and it's clear there is bitterness there, as she reportedly hasn't let Austin see his kids in years. As for his marriage to Debra McMichael and his arrest for beating her up last year, that wasn't touched on much aside from Austin saying he regrets how things happened and he's forbidden by a court agreement from discussing any of the details. And that's basically it.
Lita's book was more interesting to Dave, because he didn't know most of her story already the way he did Austin's. Hers was also a lot more open and honest. Talked about being into punk rock at a young age and working as a stripper before wrestling. Understands her role in the company but hates the word "diva" and criticized the company for angles in which she felt like she was being sexually exploited (if she was willing to say this in 2003, I'd love to get her unvarnished thoughts on it now). Talked about her brief run in ECW and how Heyman had everyone brainwashed that it was "Us vs. Them!" but she never hid the fact that WWE was her goal and didn't drink the Heyman Kool-Aid. Said she got breast implants when she joined WWF because she saw the other women in the company and knew she'd need to do it and admitted she never would have done it if it wasn't basically a requirement to get on TV. She admitted to not liking Torrie Wilson and Stacy Keibler when they first joined after WCW folded, but they're all good now. She talked about how she was basically buried in her feud with Chyna before she left, but blamed that on the booking. It seems like Lita was one of the few friends Chyna had left at the end, and kept in contact with her for awhile after she left, but kinda implied that the friendship has fizzled out (Chyna is, of course, pretty bad off into drugs at this point). Overall, Dave liked this one a lot more because, since her career has been brief, she covered basically all of it in detail, whereas Austin skipped over years of history in his book.
Steve Austin did a radio interview this week and actually spoke more in-depth there than he did in his book about several recent issues. In regards to his retirement, he said WWE keeps pitching scenarios to him, but his neck is shot and he doesn't want to risk anymore neurological damage and said he's looking at what his life will be like 10-15 years from now. He's not shooting down the possibility of one more match if the stars all align, but he's happy with his career as it stands. In regards to how Rock and Triple H both buried him after he walked out in 2002, he said he and Rock have always been friends and they squashed it quick. As for Triple H, he said "there were a lot of politics involved" but they've put all that aside and are cordial now.
Austin also, for the first time, talked about his refusal to work a program with Jeff Jarrett back in 1999. Apparently Austin had already said he didn't want to work a storyline or match with him, and then the writers booked them to do a little one-off thing where Austin gave him a stunner during a segment. He agreed to that, but afterwards, Russo, Jim Ross, and Vince all cornered Austin and tried to bully him into doing the storyline because now they had set it up. Austin, feeling blindsided, got pissed and made a big stink of it and said fuck you, I'm not doing it. As for why.....mostly because Jarrett wasn't at his level as a star and he felt like working with Jarrett would bring him down rather than elevate Jarrett. And then the real reason is apparently Austin holds a grudge. Back early in his career, when Austin was working for Jerry Jarrett in Memphis, he got a $340 check for his first week's worth of shows (instead of the $600 he'd been promised). As he was staring at the check in anger, Jeff allegedly walked by, smirked, and said, "Well it ain't gonna grow by looking at it." Seems Austin hasn't much cared for either of the Jarretts ever since (to be fair, this is a textbook example of why it's important to be kind to people. Jeff, son of the booker without a financial care in the world, makes a sarcastic comment towards a struggling wrestler who just got ripped off. Less than 10 years later, Jarrett needs that same guy--now the biggest star in the business--to work with him and karma came back around and says, nope).
"Teddy Hart is the greatest talent in the business who will never make it anywhere." Those are the words of ROH booker Gabe Sapolsky and boy did that turn out to be prophetic. Teddy Hart has been banned from Collisi.....sorry, banned from Ring of Honor, due to his behavior following a recent match. There was a scramble tag team cage match, which was basically just chaos inside of a big cage. The match itself went great, with many calling it one of the most incredible matches of the year. After the match was over, everything went wrong. Hart was supposed to be selling the finish. Instead, he got up, climbed to the top of the cage, and dove onto Joel Maximo, who had no idea it was coming but still managed to save Hart and catch him to prevent injury. Then Hart got back up onto the cage several more times and started doing backflips to get pops from the fans, when he was supposed to already be backstage and the next match was to start. This is basically exactly the same thing that got him blacklisted from TNA a little while back (to which Hart later claimed they were just jealous because he was more talented than AJ Styles). Fellow ROH tag team the Carnage Crew had to be talked out of legitimately going back to the ring and beating up Hart by Rob Feinstein, who assured them it'd be handled backstage.
When Hart came backstage, Gabe Sapolsky went the fuck off and had to be calmed down by, of all people, Jim Cornette. It was Cornette who then pulled Teddy aside and calmly explained to him why what he had done was unacceptable. Teddy responded indignantly by saying, "This is just like WWE where everyone is jealous of what I can do." This leads Dave to recount the famous story of Teddy Hart showing up at the WWE training camp with Dory Funk 5 years ago and impressing everyone in the ring, but then his attitude led to him getting sent home and he wasn't hired. He's tried several times to get back in, but repeated instances of shit like this has prevented WWE from ever considering him, feeling like he isn't mature enough for the job. He wasn't even allowed to visit backstage the last time WWE was in Calgary. Anyway, following his "everyone is jealosu of me" response to Cornette, several ROH wrestlers had to be talked out of beating sense into him. Hart was then kicked out of the locker room and his bags were literally thrown out the back door with him.
Here's where the story gets fun: now realizing "Oh shit, they're mad for real," Hart started trying to back track by saying he got a concussion during the match, "and that when he suffers a concussion, he starts doing backflips." Don't we all? Anyway, Sapolsky has said Teddy Hart is done with ROH and said that even if he wanted to bring him back, the rest of the locker room wouldn't go for it. Hart went online the next day and sent an email to multiple wrestling news sites, again blaming a concussion and saying he doesn't remember anything that happened. No one in ROH buys it, saying Hart showed no sign of injury during or after the match until he realized he'd just gotten fired. (Sapolsky caves and ends up bringing Hart back for a one-off match next year during the Rob Feinstein scandal, at which point Teddy runs around telling everyone that he and Bret Hart are starting a new promotion, which Bret then has to go online and kill that rumor. Teddy Hart is just the worst, man). Anyway, for such a famous incident, there doesn't seem to be freely available video of this I can find but shouts to u/wiesga01 for reminding me that this exists:
A guy named John Todd Miller in Tampa was arrested on steroid distribution charges for selling and giving injections in "an unmarked storefront office" and yes, we got WWE wrestlers involved. Miller got the steroids from a pharmacy by convincing them he was a doctor somehow and operated his business via word-of-mouth. Given that the location clearly wasn't a doctor's office and not easily accessible, police say his clients were aware that this was an illegal operation and that everyone who went in there knew they were basically dropping in to see their drug dealer. Police were scoping out the place for weeks to gather evidence before raiding it and making the arrest. Police said Miller's customer list had more than 100 people, including some "very recognizable" pro wrestlers as well as Tampa police officers. The local NBC news there ran a story saying the list included "top name former and current WWE professional wrestlers." So far, none of the names have been released and police haven't said if anyone else will be charged (I think it ends up being a few years before the names come out, so just to cut the suspense: Ric Flair, Big Show, Eddie Guerrero, Billy Kidman, Dan Spivey, Crush, Hector Guerrero, and others all end up being named).
AAA's Antonio Pena has been trying to get Vampiro to jump ship and there's been some back and forth discussion there. Pena was supposed to fax over a contract for Vampiro to sign last week, but it never showed up. The reason, you ask? Let's let Dave tell us: "A rival promoter in Monterrey was kidnapped over the weekend, and the police ordered Pena to stay in Monterrey for questioning, and he couldn’t leave for another day. As it turned out, the promoter resurfaced that day, having been all beaten up, but Pena had nothing to do with it." Well that's good to know! Still doesn't explain why he couldn't send a fax.....
NJPW's October Tokyo Dome show only drew 37,000 which is a disappointment for a Dome show that featured Hulk Hogan and Bob Sapp as the key draws. As a result, members of NJPW's front office staff are taking pay cuts as something of a punishment for the bad state of the business. Of course, almost everyone inside NJPW recognizes that the problem is due to Antonio Inoki's insistence on using outsiders and MMA fighters rather than building and promoting its own home-grown talent, but that isn't going to change as long as Inoki has his way. Inoki vs. outsiders is the gimmick he built his legacy on and he's going to keep doing it even if he brings the whole company down with him.
Hiroyoshi Tenzan captured the IWGP title from Yoshihiro Takayama this week, in a match that was the culmination of Tenzan's months-long quest to the top after he won the G1 back in August. Unfortunately, it was not what it needed to be. Match wasn't great. Crowd wasn't into it. And the attendance was the lowest NJPW has ever drawn at Yokohama Arena, and that's with Bob Sapp in a tag match with Nakamura on the undercard. The crowd was 9,000 and that was heavily papered with freebies. The show also featured several K-1 fights, which the crowd hated because they want wrestling, not kickboxing. One of those fights saw promising young star Katsuyori Shibata get embarrassed and beaten by one of K-1's lower-card fighters. "Sooner or later, this company has to wake up," Dave says. It's gonna be later. We got at least another year of this shit (I found a video of this show but it's on that VK Russian social media site and the last time I used one of those links, my post got caught in the Reddit spam filter).
Tatsumi Fujinami claimed he will be having his retirement match at the upcoming Jan. 4 Tokyo Dome show (he ends up not even wrestling on that show and, as of the time I'm posting this, his most recent match was 2 weeks ago, still going strong at age 70).
Michinoku Pro had its 10th anniversary show and, once again, Bob Sapp was on the card. Need to draw a crowd? Book Sapp. Well, it worked but the company reportedly spent so much to get him that the show ended up losing money because of it. For what it's worth, this is expected to be Sapp's last pro wrestling appearance for awhile, as his management want him to focus back on MMA. Michinoku Pro started as a revolutionary combination of Japanese style and Lucha Libre, and has struggled for the past 10 years as an indie. Surviving that long in this wrestling landscape is an accomplishment but they haven't been very strong for a few years now and most of their biggest names have all gone elsewhere. But they're still kickin'!
In regards to Vince McMahon being at Road Warrior Hawk's funeral last week, many were surprised. For years, Hawk made no secret of his hatred for McMahon. But earlier this year, when the Road Warriors had a brief tryout with WWE, Hawk (who found god and got religious in his last year) apparently went to Vince and apologized for everything bad he'd said about him over the years and they squashed their issues. That being said, after their last WWE tryout went badly and they didn't get hired, Hawk was reportedly still bad-mouthing Vince to anyone who would listen. But alas.
On that same ROH show where Teddy Hart went stupid, there was also a match between AJ Styles vs. Brian Danielson that had people raving. One of the other matches had to be delayed because CM Punk's knee dislocated backstage somehow and he had to pop it back in before going out to work the match. Afterwards, for some reason, a fan tried to attack Punk. The Briscoe Brothers (managed by Jim Cornette) won the tag titles on this show as well.
ROH is also planning on holding a show in Elizabeth NJ (which is right near NYC) on the same weekend as Wrestlemania 20. The goal is to try to do a big show that weekend to capitalize on fans who are in town for Wrestlemania (this particular show ends up being called "At Our Best" but the Wrestlemania weekend shows soon become a tradition known as Supercard of Honor).
As of last week, Randy Savage's rap album has sold less than 4,000 copies, which is "lower than embarrassing." Yeah, that one didn't set the world on fire for some reason.
Tentative plans for Jarrett vs. Hogan in TNA is now for sometime in February, either in Las Vegas or Tampa most likely. But TNA has learned their lesson and don't plan to announce shit until Hogan signs something. Hogan underwent arthroscopic knee surgery on 10/31 and depending on how he heals up, he's planning to try and work the NJPW Jan. 4 show but hasn't committed to that either.
Sting is scheduled to work the next 2 weeks of TNA shows. "He wasn't all that interested" Dave says, but his original contract with TNA called for him to work 4 shows and TNA is exercising its option to use 2 of them this month, so he'll be there. That will leave them with one date left and Dave thinks they should hold that for the maybe-February show with Hogan. Which means using 2 of them right now is kinda dumb.
Russo is apparently not totally gone from TNA, despite what they're telling people backstage. According to sources who would know, Russo wrote the script for the 10/29 show, though it was drastically changed by Jarrett and Dutch Mantell, to the chagrin of Russo. He and Jarrett have drastically different opinions of what wrestling should be, but Dixie Carter likes Russo and wants him in the creative mix. So this is the dance we play for booking shows every week now.
Konnan's hip is in really bad shape and he will likely need a hip replacement when he retires (he's actually had the surgery done 3 times, first in 2007).
TNA wants to do a Raven vs. Terry Funk feud but sounds like they're having trouble affording Funk, who doesn't work for less than $2500 a shot, and only Sting, Jarrett, and Hogan if he ever shows up, are getting that kinda money in TNA right now.
The TNA storyline of Jimmy Hart bringing back wrestlers that he managed in the past to attack Jeff Jarrett resulted in the debuts of Jim Duggan and Rick Steiner this week. And for those keeping track, no, Jimmy Hart never managed either of those guys in the past. So this angle is off to a great logical start. That led to the announcement of Hart bringing in Sting next week and no, he never managed Sting either.
Kurt Angle did an interview acknowledging how banged up he is and questioning his wrestling future. Among his injuries: twice broken neck, 3 surgeries on each knee, at least 4 concussions, dislocated shoulder, torn ankle ligament, deafness in his left ear, and a hamstring injury he's been working through recently. He said 2003 has been his best year in-ring but his worst for injuries. He'd like to finish out his contract, which has 4 years remaining, and then retire, but admitted that he doesn't know if he'll hold up 4 more years.
Notes from 10/30 Smackdown: Two hour show. Grand total 12 minutes of wrestling. There were other matches taped at this show, but they ended up doing so many backstage things and promo segments that 2 matches got cut from the broadcast (FBI vs. Haas/Benjamin and Bashams vs. Rikishi/Scotty 2 Hotty). There was apparently something about McMahon threatening "to kill Heyman unless he had bikers rape Undertaker’s wife with him watching, or something like that." Aren't we just a couple months removed from the storyline where Stephanie McMahon allegedly had sex with Vince's business associates when she was underage? What the fuck was Vince on about in 2003 in particular? Eddie Guerrero did an interview and they're using his past drug issues as an angle (interesting to know that, as this angle was going on, Eddie's name would very soon be tied to the previously mentioned steroid scandal).
Notes from 11/3 Raw: show was in Cleveland. NBA rookie Lebron James was at ringside. Wonder if he'll turn out to be any good? Batista cut a promo on Austin and it was solid. That guy may have an acting career ahead of him! That's, uh....about it for this show.
Notes from 11/4 Smackdown taping: this was the John Cena show. He worked as a heel but it didn't matter, he was a total babyface to the crowd. But they did start the babyface turn, with him rejecting an offer to be on Lesnar's team at Survivor Series, leading to a beat down from the heels. Of course, this led to Cena running in at the end of the show to join the babyfaces and he'll be on that team at Survivor Series, and thus the turn is complete. So for those of you looking for the last day John Cena was ever a heel, this is the episode (sorta. We get a bit of an interesting story on that in the coming weeks).
The Rock is being tapped to star in a live action Johnny Bravo movie, according to Variety (like many others, this one languishes in developmental hell for years and never got made).
Goldberg still has 3 matches left on his contracts in Japan with PRIDE/Wrestle-1/Dream Stage, etc. Goldberg says he would like to do matches against Keiji Muto, Masahiro Chono and Yoshihiro Takayama (none of these happens. He only works 1 more show in Japan and it ends up being with Naoya Ogawa).
Regarding Jeff Hardy, while he was there visiting last week at Raw, there was no real talk of him coming back. He has no interest in it right now, and is focusing on music. Furthermore, WWE has made it clear that he can only come back if he completes a rehab program, and Hardy has still shown no interest in doing so.