Wrestling Observer Rewinder

April 12, 2004

WWE and Steve Austin had some heavy contract negotiations this past week that seem to have ended with Austin agreeing to stay but nothing is signed. Austin, Vince McMahon, and Jim Ross had a 90-minute meeting before last week's Smackdown tapings to discuss Austin's new contract. The most pressing issue isn't money but is in regards to Austin wanting to be able to negotiate deals for himself outside of WWE. He wants to capitalize on his name value for TV projects, specifically a hunting show he wants to do, plus other acting jobs that he'd like to do without WWE involvement. He's also looking to get the rights to the "Stone Cold Steve Austin" name, which is something that both Vince and Austin are stubbornly refusing to budge on. The meeting ended with a tentative agreement that Austin will stay with the company but several details still have to be hammered out before a deal is signed. There were many in the company that thought Austin was gone because these negotiations have been contentious and Austin is willing to walk if he doesn't get what he wants. Austin also has a lawyer involved working for him on this issue and Vince hates that and has been trying to portray Austin's lawyer as the "heel" in this situation, and once again, my favorite Daveism is him applying wrestling termonology to real-life situations. As of now, Austin isn't booked for any upcoming TV appearances and won't be until a deal is signed. They had hoped to keep these negotiations secret because WWE is already in a tough spot after losing Rock, Foley, Lesnar, Goldberg, and Angle all in the immediate aftermath of Wrestlemania, and they didn't want Austin added to that list. It's expected at the very least, Austin will stick around for the WWE Films projects he has lined up, plus there's talks of WWE and Austin producing a Stone Cold beer (this all goes bad pretty soon).
As for Austin's personal life situation, the latest accusations from girlfriend Tess Broussard have continued to make news headlines. Austin has said the version of the story that's in the news is not true. He does say that he broke up with Broussard weeks ago and that she refused to accept it and has been trying to get back with him. She has refused to move out of the house they were living in and Austin has been living somewhere else for the last month or so while he tries to force her to leave. These are the facts that pretty much both sides agree on. Where they differ is on the day in question: Broussard asked Austin to come to the house and again tried to convince him to take her back, at which point he again refused and got up to leave. Sources on Austin's side say that she jumped on his back and grabbed onto his neck, pulling his necklace (the chain he always wears around his neck that was a gift from Brian Pillman and which Austin has said has more sentimental value to him than anything he owns). Austin says he grabbed her hands to pry her off of him, which is what bruised her hand but denies doing anything else to her. The community's gated security guard came to the scene, at which point Austin left and she called the police. As of now (2 weeks since the incident) Broussard has not yet pressed charges and Austin is currently not facing any legal trouble from the incident. None of this has anything to do with him being off WWE TV currently, as that's 100% contract-related. (Once again, we are nowhere NEAR done with this story yet....)
UFC and TNA don't have much in common as companies, except for one key thing: both are promoting regular PPVs with no TV and they would both sure would like to have some. Both companies thought they could sustain themselves on PPV alone and when that failed, both companies learned quickly just how difficult getting a TV deal is. As it stands, UFC is almost certain to have some sort of reality show starting on SpikeTV in the fall, while TNA is in deep negotiations with Fox Sports Net and hope to have a show starting in June.
A lot of this TV talk leads up to Dave recapping the latest UFC show, which was headlined by the long-awaited Tito Ortiz vs. Chuck Liddell fight, which ended with Liddell sending Ortiz into the shadowrealm in the 2nd round. And also, Tim Sylvia got pulled from the card at the last minute because of a whole mess of a story involving failed steroid tests. And that's our MMA for the week.
More details from the lawsuit against WWE, Ric Flair, Scott Hall, and Dustin Rhodes stemming from the 2002 Plane Ride from Hell. The suit was filed by 2 flight attendants who traveled with the crew to and from Europe during the 7 day trip. The 2 women claim they reported the incidents to their boss at the time with the Phoenix-based SportsJet company, but nothing was done and they felt like they'd lose their jobs if they went beyond that. Hence why they waited 2 years to file the lawsuit. They also filed an EEOC claim against SportsJet but that seems to have gone nowhere either. The lawsuit names not just the wrestlers listed but also potential "John Does" who could be named later after discovery is done. The suit was also filed without warning, as WWE nor any of the wrestlers named, had any advance warning that it was coming and they read the complaints on TheSmokingGun.com just like everyone else did. Usually there would be some legal wrangling amongst lawyers before something like this was filed. The story got a lot of mainstream publicity and notably, sports radio host Jim Rome stated that pro wrestlers are "nothing but sun lamp worshiping, blue mask wearing, baby oil rubbing, steroid shooting freaks wearing nothing but a cape." Well geez Jim. Anyway, the suit is poorly written, as it has several mistakes. For one, it claims that Flair has an ownership stake in WWE and the Monday Night Raw brand. At the time of the incident in 2002, Flair was (in kayfabe) the storyline 50% owner of WWE, which is apparently where that comes from. It also listed Dustin Rhodes as having worked for "WCR" back in 1991, when it should be WCW and listed Scott Hall's wrestling name as Diamond Studd which was true about 10 years before the incident in question.
Anyway, the suit describes multiple incidents involving the 3 wrestlers as well as claims of other unnamed wrestlers they allege who grabbed their breasts and butts repeatedly. Wonder if any of these other names will ever be exposed?. They also said that both on the trip to Europe and on the trip back, they were given needles to dispose of (something at least one unnamed WWE source has claimed to Dave is bullshit but ya know). The suit also claimed the SportsJet company should be held liable for overserving alcohol, in spite of knowing about prior incidents with WWE wrestlers, notably Scott Hall. The suit also acknowledged that several WWE management or upper-level personnel were on the flight (Jim Ross, Michael Hayes, Arn Anderson, Stephanie McMahon, and Triple H) and none of them took action to get the wrestlers under control. Dave reminds us that both Anderson and Hayes almost lost their jobs due to their own behavior on the flight, while Jim Ross did intervene at least once to tell Flair to sit down and stop waving his dick at flight attendants. Seems like that warrants a bit more than "Hey Ric, have a seat." But what do I know?
WWE's first ever event in Monterrey Mexico happened this week and was a big success. Ticket prices were high by Mexico standards ($155 for ringside) and there was question about whether they could move tickets. But they did. And as a result, the show set a new gate record for wrestling in Mexico, breaking the previous record set by Konnan vs. Cien Caras in a loser must retire match from 1993 in AAA. The show featured 6 stars (Benoit, Jericho, Mysterio, Tajiri, Chavo Guerrero Sr., and Val Venis) who were all big names in Mexico during the 90s (or in Chavo Sr.'s case, the 70s and 80s). The crowd didn't care about heel/babyface alliances and just wanted to see the big stars. As a result, Triple H, Kane, and Ric Flair were huge babyfaces. Jericho had a lot of fans with "Corazon de Leon" signs while Val Venis did his "Hello ladies" routine in Spanish. Mysterio got to be "Rey Misterio Jr." again for a night, and Hurricane was announced as "El Huracan." There was a non-WWE match on the undercard with local babyface Antifaz del Norte vs. Damian 666, which was done as a favor to Mysterio. Fans apparently weren't into it, as they wanted to see WWE, not the usual Lucha Libre. Triple H did a major blade job in his match, which never happens on house shows, and later had to work really hard to turn the crowd against him. Didn't work, as they chanted "Pedigree!" throughout the entire match.
Antonio Inoki and K-1 have joined forces to form a new MMA promotion (nah this is just a regular K-1 event that Inoki helped put together, not a new company). The first show will be held 5/22 at Saitama Super Arena and be largely based around Inoki's pro wrestlers facing fighters from other sports. Because of course. K-1 is claiming yet again that they've just about got Mike Tyson signed up to face Bob Sapp (nope). Anyway, Shinsuke Nakamura is gonna be fighting on this card, along with several other NJPW stars and wrestlers from Zero-One as well as possibly former WWE star Nathan Jones. K-1 is also apparently attempting to raid UFC talent for the show, which has gotten Dana White already threatening lawsuits if K-1 does any contract tampering.
"Dr. Death" Steve Williams underwent throat surgery to remove cancerous polyps this week. He's still undergoing further tests in the meantime. He's hoping to wrestle or fight again by July. Fighting in MMA is a terrible idea for him but it probably pays the most money at this stage of his career.
Pro Wrestling NOAH's upcoming first ever Tokyo Dome event will be headlined by Kenta Kobashi defending the GHC title against Jun Akiyama. They pretty much have to do a title change here (you sure, Dave?) because Kobashi will have been champion for 16 months by the time this show comes around and Akiyama is the only person anyone believes has a chance against him. The original plan, of course, was for Kobashi to defend against Bob Sapp. But then Sapp went and won the IWGP title in NJPW and fucked up all of NOAH's plans. But it works out because nobody wanted Kobashi to lose the belt to Sapp and also, not even Kobashi is going to be able to pull a NOAH-quality main event match out of him. Mitsuharu Misawa has talked about wishing he could have Kurt Angle for this show as well, but that's not happening. Could you imagine Angle vs. Misawa in the Tokyo Dome though?
Bob Sapp has talked about defending the IWGP title against Hulk Hogan or Akebono. Oh my. For starters, K-1 is wanting to do a Sapp/Akebono MMA rematch on New Year's Eve again this year so doing a pro wrestling match before then would dilute the draw of a K-1 fight. It also might not be the kind of thing that could sell out the Dome when everyone knows it'll be worked. Sapp vs. Hogan might be a spectacle, but it'd be a difficult match for Hogan and he would have to lose. Dave isn't sure either match would move huge numbers of tickets but it'd probably do good TV ratings.
Fun trivia note: former wrestler and current promoter of HUSTLE Nobuhiko Takada did the voice overdubbing for The Rock in the Japanese release of "The Scorpion King."
Goldberg is still interested in running and promoting his own PPV and has talked about finding a dozen or more good wrestlers to work undercard matches. Goldberg's dream idea for this is to do a match with Steve Austin, but assuming Austin re-signs with WWE as he's expected to, that ain't gonna happen. Backup idea is Goldberg vs. Sting as the main event but without a TV show to promote it on, Dave's not confident this would work out well.
UK-based wrestling magazine "Total Wrestling" folded this week, and with it, the best known magazine personality of the past 40 years, Bill Apter, is out of work. Dave runs down the history of "Apter-mags" and talks about how big magazines were in the 70s and 80s and how they have declined in recent years.
DDP apparently had a disability claim he was fighting for and I guess he got it settled and he got his money. So now.....he's coming out of retirement! DDP wrote online that he's thinking about seeing the same doctor who did Kurt Angle's neck surgery and plans to pick up some indie dates afterward.
Christopher Daniels won the 8th annual ECWA Super 8 Tournament, the biggest junior heavyweight tournament in the indies (which has been copied by everyone else and which in itself was originally patterned after the Super J Cup in Japan). With the win, Daniels is the first person to win the tournament twice (2000 and 2004). He beat a hot newcomer named Austin Aries in the finals, and Dave says this Aries guy got tons of rave reviews and Gabe Sapolsky is looking to bring him into ROH soon. (Fun fact, this tournament still takes place every year and for 20 years, Daniels was the only person to have won it twice. But Darius Carter won it in 2022 and 2024 so Daniels no longer holds that record alone).
A longtime reader attended an Atlanta Hawks game recently and ran into Tony Schiavone and had a chat with him. When asked what he thought about Benoit and Guerrero winning world titles in WWE, Schiavone reportedly told him, "I have no idea what you're talking about. I don't follow wrestling AT ALL anymore." The guy then asked him about Eric Bischoff allegedly being a jerk, but Schiavone defended him, saying Bischoff had always been good to him.
Kevin Nash is getting a lot of buzz for his performance in the upcoming Punisher movie, with Hollywood types praising his work ethic on set and basically, he's doing all the right things to have a future Hollywood career. Meanwhile, to show how quickly things change, all the buzz on Triple H after his Blade performance has died off and no one seems to be talking about him anymore.
TNA and Fox Sports Net are close to finalizing a deal that would see TNA start on FSN in June. If you're wondering why TNA seems to have cleaned up its act lately, that would be why. FSN insisted on no tits and ass, no beer drinking, no foul language or middle fingers, and no heavy blood. Dave doesn't know the details of the deal yet but suspects TNA is probably buying the airtime with the right to sell advertising, which is never sustainable.
ROH booker Gabe Sapolsky flew into the recent TNA show to meet with the Jarretts and discuss the TNA/ROH relationship. The biggest thing is that TNA wanted assurances that Rob Feinstein has absolutely no more involvement with ROH or RF Video. Well, they slapped a piece of paper down in front of Sapolsky asking him to sign an agreement promising Feinstein is gone. Sapolsky told them he's only the booker and doesn't run the company or own it, and that Cary Silkin and Doug Gentry are the only people who could/should legally sign such a thing and he didn't want to put his name to something when he doesn't have control over what may happen after (basically, if Silkin or Gentry decided to bring Feinstein back, Sapolsky doesn't want to have his name on a signed sheet of paper about it). Sapolsky asked to take the document back to them so they and their lawyers could look over it but the Jarretts refused to let him take it with him. It's said that Gentry is willing to sign whatever agreement TNA wants in regards to Feinstein and its expected this will all be straightened out soon. So as of now, nothing has changed and TNA wrestlers are still allowed to pick up ROH bookings.
Jimmy Hart was backstage at TNA but he can't appear on their show for another month or so. When he inducted Greg Valentine into the WWE Hall of Fame, he signed an agreement with WWE that prevents him from appearing for a rival promotion for a month after.
Kid Kash and Dallas (later known as Lance Archer) won the tag titles in TNA this week. Jerry Jarrett apparently loves this big ol' Dallas guy and has been telling anyone who'll listen that he's the next big star in wrestling. Dave says that big guys who can work decent matches aren't as rare as they used to be. Dallas has potential but has a LONG way to go and is still very green, but Dave does think he could become something.
Also at the latest TNA taping, they had a Sting vs. Jeff Jarrett match. Sorta. It was actually filmed for that movie Sting is doing and didn't air on the show. They had a lot of planted signs in the crowd for Sting and they did a 5 minute match with Sting hitting all his trademark spots. The footage will eventually end up in the movie. They also filmed him doing stuff with Abyss and Chris Harris.
Rock's new movie "Walking Tall" opened at #2 (behind "Hellboy") and got generally bad reviews. It made $15 million in opening weekend, which was slightly above projections, so that's good at least. So not a runaway hit or anything, but seems like it'll do solid business. Meanwhile, "The Rundown" continues to do strong DVD business. Rock's Hollywood career looks like it might be okay for a little while longer.
Terri Runnels and Sean O'Haire were both released this week. Runnels actually had some kind of long-term contract and had to reach some sort of agreement with them to get out of her deal. This wasn't unexpected and she hasn't been on TV in ages so it wasn't unexpected. O'Haire's release wasn't a surprise either and they did an angle at the OVW show to write him off and it seems everyone except O'Haire realized that was a bad omen. He was given a small push last year as sort of a devil's advocate role with Roddy Piper as his mentor but never really adapted to the WWE style and his character was dropped when Piper was fired (this dude had a whole laundry list of issues after WWE).
Poor Edge can't catch a break. Actually, he's catching too many. After being out for more than a year with a neck injury, he started training in OVW a couple months back and messed up his ankle running the ropes. Well, he finally got over that and finally made his return to the ring at an OVW dark match in Louisville. And in his first match back in over a year.....he broke his hand. Apparently happened when he delivered his spear finisher to Rob Conway. He was supposed to do another spear after but he was in too much pain and couldn't do the spot so his partner (Maven) had to call an audible and finish the match himself. Edge's hand is now in a cast but he's still set to work the Backlash PPV next as his "official" return to the ring.
Notes from 4/1 Smackdown: Smackdown was entirely built around the new JBL character and the gimmick ain't doing it for Dave. Maybe it'll get over eventually, but right now, it ain't clicking. He's not sold on Kurt Angle as GM either but at least that's temporary until Angle (hopefully) heals up and can return. Chavo Sr. teamed with his son and even though he's not the high-flying star he was 30 years ago, he didn't look out of place in the match and his fundamentals and timing were great for someone who hasn't really done much in at least a decade. John Cena got a superstar reaction from the crowd. And that's about it.
Notes from 4/5 Raw: William Regal returned, notably saying that his life in the past year has "had more ups and downs than a whore's drawers." Yeah baby, that's Regal alright. I miss him flirting with Excalibur. Anyway, Bischoff told Regal he would be the new manager for Bischoff's new debuting nephew, Eugene! He debuted later in the show, licking people's faces like the Bushwackers and acting goofy. Mick Foley cut a promo challenging Randy Orton for the Backlash PPV and Dave is already crowning this the promo of 2004. Shelton Benjamin beat Triple H again, this time by count out after a bunch of failed Evolution interference. Then they beat him down after and left him bloodied. They had a women's battle royal with 7 women and as soon as it started, they went to commercial and when they came back, Lita and Trish Stratus were the only 2 left. Kane beat Rhyno in less than 2 minutes after no-selling Rhyno's gore finisher and Dave doesn't know why, but this was an obvious burial for Rhyno.
Notes from next week's Smackdown tapings: Matt Cappotelli worked a dark match and looked good. Billy Gunn is back to being called Mr. Ass again. JBL continued cosplaying as Ted Dibiase and doing some very questionable race-related stuff. He mocked a guy named Enrique who was polishing his car and then later in the episode, they showed footage of JBL at the U.S./Mexico border, allegedly chasing people back to Mexico and yelling about how Mexicans are ruining the economy and health care system for "hard working Americans." Man, this does NOT age well in 2025. Dave hasn't seen it yet, so I guess we're reserving judgement for when it airs next week. Booker T turned on RVD because Smackdown desperately needs new heels. Mark Jindrak is seemingly getting a renewed push, which leads Dave to say, "Yes, everyone I've spoken with raves about how [Lance] Cade is progressing faster than Jindrak, but the guy with the abs always gets the push."
Rock was on Howard Stern this week and mentioned that he had purchased the rights to the name "The Rock" from WWE, which Dave thinks is kind of a huge deal because Vince usually doesn't give that kinda stuff up easily. And it's huge for the Rock because when his WWE contract expires, he would have to start using the name Dwayne Johnson professionally and that has a WHOLE lot less Hollywood box office appeal than "The Rock" does (so I'm guessing this was a licensing deal at the time and WWE still owned the name. Because it was widely reported that Rock didn't actually get ownership of the name until he made the deal to join the TKO board in 2024). Rock's contract expires later this year and assuming if he doesn't renew, WWE will no longer be promoting his movies (and they also won't get anymore executive producer credits on future ones he does). Rock is still very tied to WWE in the public's eyes and without their promotional machine pushing his films, that's something to be concerned about.
Rock was also on David Letterman's show and talked about wanting to keep one foot in wrestling and talked about returning once or twice a year. But he said there are no future plans for him to go back to WWE or do any matches currently. Letterman asked Rock why he lost his match at Wrestlemania this year and Rock responded, "Because that's the way it was written." Letterman also brought up the USA Today story about deaths in wrestling and quoted some stats and Rock seemed very unprepared for that question, especially on this show. Rock said most of those were drug deaths and that he doesn't do drugs. Letterman brought up steroids as a possible culprit and Rock agreed that could be part of it. Rock was in a tough spot, as he couldn't just get into an argument with Letterman about it, so he just conceded to whatever Letterman said, but Dave knows wrestlers who felt like Rock could/should have defended the business better. He joked that he doesn't do steroids because it shrinks your dick. (Rock is little more than a giant, sentient steroid these days so if that's true.....)
According to sources who are editing the movie "Be Cool", Rock is apparently great in the role and they think it will help him a lot in becoming a more sought after actor. It also gives him more to do aside from "bad ass action star," since he's actually doing some comedy and dramatic acting in this one.
Mick Foley's match at Wrestlemania was his first "real" match in 4 years (if you don't count his brief Royal Rumble appearance). Well, he wrestled his second match last week....for a Northeast Wrestling indie show in NJ. The real main event was supposed to be Al Snow vs. Jerry Lawler, with Foley in one corner and Jonathan Coachman in another. Somehow it turned into a tag match with those 4 men (Dave doesn't say who teamed with who). Foley had considered wrestling on the show fom the start but asked the promoters not to publicize it because he didn't really decide until the last minute if he was actually going to or not. He mostly did comedy spots. Crowd of over 1,100 so pretty good for an indie show. Prior to this, Foley had turned down countless indie offers. WWE has already started advertising him for TV matches, which will presumeably build to the Backlash match with Orton, and Foley is already wary of doing too much. But WWE has a lot of stars out and they'd love to have him working weekly but he and they both know his body won't hold up to that long-term.
There's a lot of second guessing about Booker T's recent promo where he basically buried Smackdown as the secondary show. It might be fine for getting heel heat, but the problem is, it's the truth and everyone knows it. There's a strong feel in WWE right now that Smackdown is becoming the secondary show and the thought is that they probably shouldn't have Booker on TV bringing attention to that fact, because once fans see it as a secondary show, that's when people start tuning out.
WWE still believes that there are "Raw" fans and "Smackdown" fans and seem convinced that the shows have totally different fanbases. Dave calls utter bullshit on that. He estimates there's probably only 15-20% of fans who only watch one show or the other, and that's only because 19% of the country doesn't have access to Raw and 12% can't get Smackdown. Having been to many a live show, Dave doesn't believe for a second that there are separate dedicated fanbases loyal to one show or the other.
All of the Canadian babyface wrestlers have been told to change their billed hometowns to U.S. cities. That's why Chris Jericho was announced as being from New York this week (which is where he was born, but not where he lives) and Edge is expected to be billed from Florida (where he lives). Christian is a heel, so he still gets to be "from Toronto." Chris Benoit gets to remain Canadian for now, since the next PPV is in his hometown and they have already made a big deal about it prior to this new doctrine coming down. But he'll be billed from Atlanta after that. Apparently Vince realized that several of their top babyfaces are Canadian and has become worried of a backlash from U.S. fans if they realize it. Dave thinks this is the dumbest shit ever, as do several of the Canadian wrestlers (coughJerichocough) he's spoken to, but nobody wants to rock the boat so they're just going along with it. (This weirdly becomes a bigger on-going story that drags on for months).
Chris Benoit talked with the Calgary Sun about what winning the title at Wrestlemania was like. He talked about how he had visions of training with Stu Hart and all the years traveling the globe, how long it took to get to the top and how he was happy it happened when it did. He talked a lot about how he started in the Hart Dungeon and just wanted to make Stu proud. He also said he wants to be a role model as champion. Chris Benoit: the role model we should all aspire to be!
OVW had its latest major show. One match saw Alexis Laree and Jillian Hall team up against Gail Kim & Passion. Dave thinks Hall has the best in-ring skill of the four, but Laree has the most charisma. Chris Masters is improving but he's still VERY green. But he has a look that guarantees he's going to get fast-tracked to the main roster before he's ready (yup). That's about it.
Dave has heard Nick Dinsmore's new character Eugene is named that because it's a reference to a mentally challenged guy who used to work for the Pittsburgh Civic Arena for years as a ringside attendant for WWF shows who had that name. Apparently Vince thought he was hilarious and thus, we now have Eugene in WWE.