Wrestling Observer Rewinder

April 19, 2004

The New York Post ran a story about TNA's potential television deal with Fox Sports Net. An unnamed FSN spokesperson was quoted saying the deal isn't done yet but should be soon and they're expected to start in June with an afternoon time slot. FSN is different from a traditional cable network, as it's more of a collection of regional stations. Most FSN stations only do good ratings when airing major sporting events in their local region. Back in 2000, Paul Heyman had talks with FSN and could have gotten a TV deal with them for ECW, but he felt it wasn't a strong enough deal and would only have cost them more money, so he didn't take it. As it stands now, TNA is losing an estimated $30,000-per-week. They've made some adjustments (taping 2 shows per taping so every other weekly PPV is taped rather than live) and other budget cuts, but without television, TNA is never going to break even. But if they get to TV, they'll need to have a hit. Otherwise, the costs of weekly shows, TV production, etc. will probably cost them more than they're losing now (which is basically what Heyman realized would happen with ECW and why he passed on the deal in 2000).
The current plan is for TNA to tape their shows at Universal Studios in Orlando, which is part of a deal Jimmy Hart put together for them. The positives are that a Universal Studios show would mean free tickets to guests and would guarantee a packed house that they can instruct to cheer/boo as they see fit, just like WCW did in the early-90s. The bad news is, much like the old WCW Universal shows, those crowds aren't typically real fans who follow the product so it's basically just filming wrestling for an audience of Universal park guests who only took free tickets so they could get out of the sun and sit down for an hour or two. They'll also have to pay for transportation to Orlando, as many of TNA's wrestlers live in the Nashville/Atlanta areas.
Dave isn't optimistic about this TNA/FSN deal. It feels like the wrestling bubble has burst and while wrestling as a whole still has people who will support it in smaller, indie setting (the success of ROH for example), the average wrestling fan these days is a "WWE fan" and the market for other wrestling products doesn't seem to be there like it was 5 years ago. He talks about how all the Hogan hype and the various appearances of Sting, Luger, Piper, etc. have failed to boost TNA's overall popularity. There's no market for those nostalgic acts right now, and TNA doesn't have any star-power otherwise. Dave is also concerned that Panda Energy may lose interest in continuing to fund a money-losing product in TNA, and if they decide to pull out, it's game over. FSN is a far cry from USA or SpikeTV and if the show ends up on a Saturday afternoon timeslot, as rumored, that's a tough timeslot to try and build an audience. The wrestling audience that's out there is going to support the major league brand, unless the smaller company brings something to the table that WWE isn't offering. And frankly, there's not one single thing that TNA does better than WWE right now. The announcing is the only thing close to being on the same level. WWE has better booking, bigger stars, better production, etc. TNA doesn't have the money to bid for top stars, which is what made WCW competitive. Even the matches in WWE are better, which is crazy because Ring of Honor has some of the best in-ring wrestlers in the world and TNA uses many of the same people, but somehow the ROH in-ring magic hasn't translated to TNA. Dave just doesn't see what TNA is bringing to the table that WWE isn't already doing better. And finally, there's the part nobody in TNA wants to talk about: pushing Jeff Jarrett as the top star of your promotion in this, the year of our lord 2004, is not something you can build a company around.
"Dr. Death" Steve Williams did not undergo throat cancer surgery last week as previously planned. He went to go in for the surgery and was told they would have to remove his entire larynx (voice box). Naturally, he sought a second opinion and that doctor suggested chemo and radiation treatment first. So he's going to start with that instead of the surgery. If it doesn't work, then the larynx removal would be next, which is similar to what Gordon Solie had done shortly before his death. Williams is said to be in great spirits given the situation and is being treated at one of the best cancer hospitals in the country (M.D. Anderson Hospital in Houston, same place Bruce Prichard's wife has been receiving treatment).
The relationship between TNA and ROH has fully collapsed and TNA is pulling all its contracted talent from ROH shows, including stars who were already advertised for upcoming ROH shows this week. This stems from the meeting Gabe Sapolsky had with TNA, in which TNA asked him to sign a document stating that Rob Feinstein is no longer with the company. The document stated that Sapolsky would be held "personally liable" for any damages TNA might incur from their relationship with ROH if it turned out Feinstein is still involved. Sapolsky, who doesn't have any ownership interest in ROH, refused to sign it and offered to hand it off to the money guys (Doug Gentry and Cary Silkin). Well, Gentry signed the letter and then sent it back to TNA. But TNA insisted that Silkin has to sign it as well. Upon advice from his lawyer, Silkin refused to sign based on the "personal liability" wording. So at that point, TNA and ROH agreed to end the partnership and both sides put out a joint statement regarding it, hoping to end the story there without any further controversy....
Well that didn't work. Within hours, the story exploded. Bob Ryder got a copy of the document and posted it on his 1wrestling.com site and implied that Silkin's refusal to sign it was because Feinstein is still secretly involved with the company. Whether that's true or not, TNA is wary. Given their own history with dishonesty, Dave isn't surprised. He talks about how Jerry and Jeff Jarrett have repeatedly and frequently lied to other wrestlers and TNA employees about Vince Russo's involvement in TNA. In fact, even Bob Ryder's own involvement in early TNA was a secret to a lot of people as well, because he has a lot of enemies in the company. Plus the Jarretts lied to everyone from the beginning about how TNA was being funded and didn't reveal the $1.6 million investment they got from HealthSouth in 2002 that helped launch the company, initially claiming that it was entirely funded with family money. Point being, the Jarretts have been in the business for decades, are experienced liars themselves, and aren't prepared to take ROH at its word on this.
The concern among TNA is that this could be a situation like WWF in 1992 with Pat Patterson. When all that ring boy abuse stuff was going down, Patterson was "let go" by WWF for a few months, mostly as a PR move, and then quietly brought back when the heat died down. And in reality, he was never truly "gone." Same with Invader I after he stabbed Bruiser Brody in Puerto Rico, he was sent away for awhile and then brought back. And now, 16 years later, he's still one of the top babyfaces in IWA, which is another company TNA has a partnership with. Even in Memphis, Jerry Lawler was 50% co-owner of USWA (along with Jerry Jarrett) when he was facing rape charges in 1993 but Jarrett made no move to push Lawler out of the company and continued to use him as their top babyface the entire time (WWF got rid of him at the time but then brought him back after the charges were dropped). This just keeps going with Dave listing examples in wrestling of people who got in trouble and were then brought back when they maybe shouldn't have been, and noting that the Jarretts in particular are just as guilty as any other promoter.
Among the names pulled from ROH will be AJ Styles, Christopher Daniels, Jerry Lynn, Sonjay Dutt, Amazing Red, Raven, Chris Sabin, and Traci Brooks among others. CM Punk hasn't been used by TNA as of late and he will continue working ROH shows. Raven hadn't been booked much by ROH lately because he wants too much money, but he was booked for the shows this week and has now been removed. The big ones will be Styles (current ROH Pure champion) and Daniels, who leads the Prophesy group and was a consistent main eventer for the company. Currently ROH doesn't plan to strip Styles of the Pure title yet, since they're hoping they can salvage something out of this. It's double bad for Styles because his TNA pay was recently cut 25% and ROH was one of his biggest monthly indie bookings. And it should be noted that TNA isn't doing anything to compensate these guys for the shows they can't work anymore and the money they're missing out on as a result. Styles is in high demand and can probably pick up dates somewhere else to make up the money, but still. Of course, when TNA first started, the promise made to all the wrestlers was they would need to be available for TNA on Wednesdays but otherwise, could pick up any indie or overseas dates they wanted. But then TNA started signing guys to contracts that give them the power to control the bookings. So while a lot of TNA wrestlers are upset about this ROH situation, TNA is fully within its rights to do it based on the contracts everyone signed. TNA has also begun pressuring guys to stop taking Japan bookings, which also isn't popular because Japan pays more than TNA for most of them.
Silkin's refusal to sign TNA's document has been seen by some as proof that Feinstein isn't really gone from ROH, but Dave notes that Gentry did sign it and Gentry apparently has more of the ownership stake in both ROH and RF Video. That said, Dave feels like ROH needs to do something to prove Feinstein is truly gone. Specifically, Gentry needs to file the paperwork with the state of Pennsylvania showing that he's the new owner, because currently, Feinstein is still listed as the owner. So that's a problem. Also, ROH is now in a tough spot without some of its biggest stars. Bryan Danielson is probably the biggest original ROH name left and he has a ton of Japanese commitments and also wants to tour Mexico, so he might not be available for ROH all the time. And they still have Samoa Joe, Punk, Homicide, Nigel McGuinness, Briscoe Brothers, and others.
Nothing new on Steve Austin contract talks. He's still in contact with Jim Ross because they're good friends but most of the negotiations have been between lawyers. Austin is still wanting to secure the rights to use the "Stone Cold" Steve Austin name for outside projects and be in control of his own non-WWE projects (mostly acting or other TV gigs). WWE doesn't want to open that can of worms for anyone, not even Austin, because it sets a precedent they don't want. If they can't come to an agreement and Austin leaves, he could probably make a strong legal case for prior usage of the "Steve Austin" name since he used it for years before going to WWE. But the "Stone Cold" name was entirely WWE, they have it trademarked, and he won't have a prayer of getting that one in court. Austin hasn't had a match since WM19 last year, but he's open to wrestling again, whether in WWE or elsewhere. A one-off PPV match with Goldberg that they would co-promote together has been pitched, which would be a terrible idea if it was anyone else. But Austin vs. Goldberg might have the marquee value to overcome that and do strong business even without the WWE machine behind it, although it would still be difficult. Every bit of Goldberg's career, minus a couple of matches in Japan, is owned by WWE and pretty much the same with Austin. They wouldn't even be able to get old footage to use for advertising. Austin's other option, of course, is Japan. It's believed HUSTLE has already made an offer to him, which would be similar to the deal they have with Goldberg to work a few matches and make some appearances. Austin is said to be open to the idea. NJPW is also a possibility, as they desperately need a shot in the arm and have paid out big money for stars in the past, and they have 2 Tokyo Dome shows still scheduled for this year. NOAH is also a possibility and has shown interest, but that one's a long shot.
Speaking of Austin, his domestic case involving ex-girlfriend Tess Broussard is still pretty much dead. She hasn't pressed charges and doesn't seem like she's going to and the police seem to think there's not enough here to move forward with it on their own. She's still living in his house in Texas and hasn't moved out and they're apparently trying to reach some sort of money settlement (calm before the storm.....)
Jim Ross is being promoted to Executive Vice President of Business Strategies, which leads to the "long-expected" move of John Laurinaitis taking over as head of talent relations. That's all Dave knows at press time but promises to have more next week and says this is going to be a pretty interesting change in WWE (to say this had long-term ramifications is putting it mildly).
February was a bad month for business in WWE. March, on the other hand, was nothing short of spectacular. Needless to say, Wrestlemania 20 doing record numbers in just about every way is the reason why but even aside from that: house show business was up, TV sellouts were up due to Rock and Foley being around, Raw's TV ratings are up (Smackdown's went down), so on and so forth. Obviously, this is all due to the build up towards Wrestlemania. But now that Austin, Goldberg, and Brock are gone, Angle's injured, and we're in the post-WM summer months, business is likely about to hit a skid. But no matter how you slice it, March was a huge month for WWE.
More reports from the recent WWE show in Mexico. As mentioned last week, WWE decided to let a couple of Lucha guys have a match, which is how we ended up with Antifaz del Norte vs. Damian 666 in a WWE ring. If you recall, the crowd was not kind to them, because they paid big money to see WWE stars and weren't interested in the local wrestling that comes to town every week. Antifaz del Norte was so pissed about it later that he went on a radio show and bashed both WWE ("all show, no wrestling") and their fans, and said if he and Damian 666 were allowed to have a longer match, they would have stolen the whole show. For what it's worth, he wasn't the only one who felt that way. While the show sold out and there were diehard WWE fans there, a lot of the talk in Mexico in the media has been along the same lines, saying WWE is a big soap opera and not real wrestling and that WWE wrestlers can't hold a candle to the true Lucha stars in Mexico, which Dave says is utterly ridiculous.
Masked wrestler Dark Angel lost a mask match against Princesa Sugehit at an indie show in Mexico. She unmasked and revealed herself as Sarah Stock, from Canada (she still wrestles in Mexico as Dark Angel but is best known in America as Sarita in TNA).
We almost had a WWE vs. TNA match in Puerto Rico. Carly Colon (Carlito) who is signed to WWE and currently working in OVW, went back to the island to work a WWC show and he was scheduled to face Abyss. However, at the last minute, WWE faxed a letter to WWC refusing to allow Colon to do the match. Dave kinda understands because this is how things have always been in past wrestling wars. But he also thinks its kind of petty and proves that, no matter how small they are, WWE actually considers TNA to be competition. Colon hasn't even been on WWE TV and is completely unknown to 99.9% of the WWE audience, plus it's not like anyone here would ever even see the match. But alas. Anyway, WWC switched the match and that's the end of the story.
Zero-ONE is desperately looking for new big muscular foreign stars to fill the slots of recently departed wrestlers Predator, Tom Howard, and Nathan Jones (who was scheduled to start here but then flaked). Dave points out that Sean O'Haire just got released by WWE and would fit the role perfectly (nah, he only does one NJPW show and never works in Japan again). The company is also interested in Abyss and AJ Styles, but with their TNA commitments, that may not happen.
Nobuhiko Takada is continuing to do his weird Hitler gimmick. It's actually based on the fictional character Yasunori Katō from a famous historical Japanese story, but even most fans in Japan refer to it as his "Hitler costume." Anyway, he showed up at an AJPW show to shoot an angle with Toshiaki Kawada to try to set up a match between Kawada vs. Goldberg for the next HUSTLE show. He came in saying Goldberg wants a shot at the Triple Crown and challenged Kawada on his behalf. The crowd booed the hell out of this, leading Dave to say, "It's not my money, so I don't know why I get so sad about watching another show that is going to cost hundreds of thousands to put together and still flop."
Speaking of Kawada, he broke his right pinky finger in 4 places during a match recently. The doctors told him he would need surgery because the breaks were so bad but it's wrestling, so Kawada was just gonna work through it. But doctors continued to tell him that if he didn't get the surgery, he'd probably lose the whole damn finger. That finally got through to him and he had the surgery 2 days later. He's out of the upcoming Champion Carnival tournament (which really wrecks the booking for that) and the Goldberg match is now in question also (the Goldberg match does indeed get canceled, but there's plenty of story there we'll get to).
Sumo legend Akebono turned down an offer from NJPW to debut with the company at their upcoming Tokyo Dome show next month. It's bad news for NJPW, which really needs a marquee star or draw for that show and they don't have anything right now. But it's good news for wrestling fans because any Akebono match is gonna be awful. Hulk Hogan also reportedly turned down an offer to work the show, which is the same good news/bad news situation). NJPW waited to announce a lineup for the show because they were waiting to see if they would get Hogan or Akebono first. But now they've announced the card and yikes. It's built up as another NJPW vs. K-1 show, which is the same interpromotional wrestling vs. MMA nonsense that has been draining this company dry for years. Bob Sapp (repping K-1) will defend the IWGP title against Shinsuke Nakamura in the main event and that's gonna be tough. NJPW fans already see Nakamura as someone who was overpushed too fast so they resent him and weren't happy that he defeated Hiroyoshi Tenzan to earn this match. And Sapp is a draw, but not nearly as much in pro wrestling as MMA, and he's awful in the ring. And that's basically all they have for this card that is even remotely going to draw.
Goldberg did an interview last week and dished some dirt. He confirmed a rumor that WWE asked him to stop using the jackhammer as his finisher, wanting him to use the spear instead. He said he thought that was an asinine request that made no sense and even said it's one of the things that made him decide to leave. He said he'd still be willing to listen if WWE came to him with a new offer, and mentioned he'd love to work with Austin at next year's Wrestlemania, but that's about it (also said he'd love to work with Sting). He said he didn't enjoy his Wrestlemania 20 match, because he really wanted to try to have a good match with Lesnar and felt like the fans refused to let them even try. He talked about his various injuries (he refuses to take piledrivers or back suplexes because of his neck). He said the hardest person to work with in WWE was Mark Henry because of his size and the easiest was Shawn Michaels. He admitted he was upset about WWE taking the title off him at Armageddon, and implied that a lot of promises made to him when he signed to WWE weren't kept. He was asked about TNA and simply said he'd never seen the product so he couldn't comment on them but there's people working there that he'd like to kill (he didn't name names, but Dave says it's Russo and Bob Ryder). And to end the interview, he got in one last jab at Chris Jericho. When asked why they don't get along, Goldberg responded, "Because we don't see eye-to-forehead."
There's a documentary coming out called "Lipstick & Dynamite" about the golden age of women's wrestling in the 40s-50s. Mildred Burke, Moolah, Mae Young, etc. I found trailers for this online but couldn't find the full thing.
Terry Taylor, currently working as an agent for TNA, is getting neck fusion surgery this week. It was injured a few months ago during an indie match with Steve Williams during a match in China and this surgery will likely be it for his in-ring career (not quite but close. He does a handful of matches in 2005 but yeah, that's about it for him).
K-1's planned press conference for the signing of Mike Tyson was canceled because, take a wild guess, Mike Tyson didn't sign. Then they rescheduled it and canceled again. Dave says he will believe this the day he sees Tyson in a K-1 ring. "Actually, I'm not believing it until he takes his first leg kick and doesn't walk out," he corrects himself.
Don Frye, who was basically the biggest foreign MMA star in Japan until Bob Sapp came along, has signed with K-1. It's a huge coup because PRIDE was trying to get him for their upcoming big show also. Frye is debuting in the Saitama Super Arena, which is basically PRIDE's home turf. Dave says this is like if WCW had signed Bret Hart and debuted him at Madison Square Garden.
UFC welterweight champ BJ Penn showed up at K-1's latest show and talked about wanting to face someone. He's still under UFC contract and this is likely to get ugly. Dana White was upset about this and said if Penn fights for K-1, he'll be stripped of his UFC title. Dave talks a bit about how UFC is in danger of becoming the ECW option if K-1 (WWF) and PRIDE (WCW) get into a bidding war. But because of the PPV business model in the U.S., he thinks UFC should have the best chance of being the top promotion, but right now, it's just not at the level of popularity here that PRIDE and K-1 are in Japan and isn't offering the same kind of money. (I probably won't delve into this stuff too often, but the MMA promotional wars of this decade are pretty fun so they might pop up from time to time).
There are no plans to revive ECW. It's been discussed in the past and when Confidential got canceled last week, it got people talking again, but that's not in the cards. Velocity will be moving to an earlier timeslot on Saturday night and Confidential will be replaced by a new show on Sunday mornings called WWE Experience and will be a kid-friendly recap show basically.
Remember the story last week about WWE wanting Canadian babyfaces to change their hometowns to American cities? Well in Jericho's case, it made front page news in the Winnipeg Free Press newspaper. It talked of a petition being circulated among Canadian fans and interviewed several who felt WWE wants to erase Canadians. Slow news week in Winnipeg, Dave wonders?
Brian Christopher has been re-signed by WWE and will be returning as Grandmaster Sexay again. Dave's not sure about this move. Christopher was fired from WWE in 2001 when he tried to cross the Canadian border during a WWE tour with drugs in his possession. Dave is fine with people like Eddie Guerrero, who got fired for drug use and then went out there, got clean, and busted his ass on the indies to get back to WWE. But Christopher has been in TNA for the last year or so and has been absolutely awful and not in good shape, so he's not sure what the deal is here (favor to Lawler, I'm assuming). Christopher returned on Raw this week and looked unimpressive getting squashed by Kane in 2 minutes (anyway, this doesn't last long at all, but we'll get there).
Notes from 4/8 Smackdown: Dave doesn't really have much interest in seeing JBL headline a PPV, but he has to admit, the new character is growing on him a little bit. He's been doing a great job on the mic doing his Million Dollar Man cosplay and it's working for Dave. The crowds still don't seem to give a shit though. The PPV headlined by Eddie vs. JBL is almost certainly going to bomb because they have a long way to go before they can convince fans to see this lifelong curtain-jerker as a legit main event threat, but they're doing a good job so far.
Notes from 4/12 Raw: basically all hype for the Backlash PPV. Mick Foley announced he will be Cactus Jack when he faces Orton at the PPV. Eugene did his goofy routine and Dave thinks this is gonna be a hard gimmick for Dinsmore to ever evolve out of beyond lower-card comedy act. Shelton Benjamin teamed with Shawn Michaels and Mick Foley to face Evolution and Benjamin had a great showing and definitely looked like he belonged. Whether it clicks or not remains to be seen, but they're definitely making an attempt to push Benjamin to the top of the card.
Chris Benoit did several interviews this week, and all of them asked about the whole not-being-billed-from-Canada thing. Benoit tried to downplay it by saying he resides in Atlanta now, which is true, so it's not a big deal to him. He said he does plan to move back to Edmonton when he retires. Said he didn't believe he was actually winning the title at Wrestlemania until Triple H tapped out. Dave says there were a lot of people in the locker room who felt the same way. They knew Benoit was winning, but they all expected Michaels to take the loss because no one actually thought Triple H would put Benoit over as strongly as he did. He said the 3 men called most of the match in the ring and only had a vague outline of what they planned to do, and said the last few minutes felt like slow motion to him. Talked about his time in WCW and said some of the top guys (naming Hogan in particular) wouldn't even acknowledge him when he said hello to them, and that's how Hogan treated people who weren't main eventers. He also said he came close to retiring in 2001 after his neck surgery.
Ultimo Dragon is stepping away from WWE for now but is scheduled to return later this year. He's expected to work some angles in Japan in the meantime (nah, he's done with WWE. Apparently they wanted to unmask him, so he asked for his release instead).
WWE's 6/27 PPV is likely going to be called Great American Bash. It's not 100% confirmed yet but that's the word. If so, it's the first time WWE has used one of the traditional WCW names for a PPV show now that they own all the trademarks.
William Regal's autobiography (which is said to be really good) is being released in the UK only. Due to WWE's marketing department being told that Regal won't be brought back as a wrestler, the decision was made to cancel the US-release. But now, it's looking like Regal may indeed be returning. He said in a WWE.com interview that he was cleared to wrestle as of this week, but he plans to only be an on-screen manager for now. This is all due to some heart issues he started suffering over a year ago.
OVW this week saw Jim Cornette trying to turn WWE's chicken shit into chicken salad. First, Matt Morgan returned, fresh off being demoted from the main roster. He claimed that he went to Jim Ross and asked to go back to OVW full time to finish his feuds with Dinsmore and Inspector Impact (Luther Reigns). As for Nick Dinsmore, who's now portraying Eugene on WWE TV, they explained that by saying John Laurinaitis doesn't like Dinsmore so he ordered him to act like that and Dinsmore's mother has medical bills he's paying for her, so he swallowed his pride and has to do the Eugene gimmick or he'd be fired. Which is probably not too far from the truth. "They should send Cornette to book New Japan and rehab guys like Nakanishi after they get knocked out in 90 seconds in K-1 matches," Dave thinks. Elsewhere on the show, we got a Nova promo and Dave says he's by far the best talker in OVW and would probably be one of the best in WWE on the main roster (so of course, they bring him up in a few months and saddle him with a gimmick guaranteed to make sure he never gets over, but we'll get to that later. While I'm on the subject, one of the things I've noticed in these last 2 years of Rewinds is just how many people from OVW were wasted or never received a fair shot during this time. They blew through countless potential stars by giving them dead-end gimmicks or bringing them up before they were ready and then giving up on them too fast. I don't fuck with Cornette as a general rule, but I'd love to pull up a list of OVW names that WWE fumbled in 03-04 and hear how he feels about each case).
Orlando Jordan and Mark Jindrak got a lot of praise backstage recently. Apparently they've been working house show matches together and instead of rushing out of the building to get to the next town like everyone else, they evidently went to management to ask for tapes of their matches so they could study them and try to see where they could improve, which earned them big brownie points.
At a show in Indiana, JBL decided to get heat by trashing Larry Bird. Which, hey, fine. But he did it by saying Bird couldn't hold Magic Johnson's jock and then added, if Bird was still in the NBA today, he'd get raped by Kobe Bryant. Yikes bro.