May 10, 2004
- WWE is changing directions with some upcoming characters, most notably Hirohito. The gimmick and name has been dropped due to the expected controversy it would cause in Japan. The gimmick was set for Kenzo Suzuki and is named after Japan's former Emperor during WWII. Emperor Hirohito is still a beloved figure in Japanese society, and making Suzuki a typical Japanese heel using that gimmick was already rubbing people the wrong way as soon as the first vignette aired. After the first one aired, nothing else aired for 2 weeks. Suzuki is still expected to debut with WWE this week, possibly just using the name Kenzo and will have a woman who comes to ringside with him (his real-life wife, Hiroko Suzuki). There was also talk of signing Kensuke Sasaki to pair with him as his bodyguard but Sasaki turned it down because he didn't want to move to the U.S. full-time just to be a bodyguard in WWE. (To be honest, the role of big, hulking bodyguard for a chickenshit heel has a pretty good success rate in WWE of turning that person into a big star when they inevitably split from the heel. Nash, Chyna, Batista, Big E, etc. Or even Wardlow in AEW. It's an easy gimmick to transition into something more later. Kensuke Sasaki in WWE in that role is kind of an interesting what-if. He spent the next several years working for AJPW and then NOAH, both during their lowest eras, but he remained a big star.)
- WWE also plans to make Eugene a Rainman-type character who's portrayed as simple and kinda dumb, but he ends up being a wizard at professional wrestling. There's also plans for some new, more outlandish characters, including a new version of the old Papa Shango character in which Booker T will apparently play the role? Dave doesn't have the details (I know this sounds like bullshit in retrospect but during his 2004 feud with Undertaker, there was indeed some stuff involving Booker T dabbling in voodoo, but it quickly got dropped mid-story. But it seems like it really was a plan and we'll get into it more soon).
- Naoya Ogawa won his long-talked about "shoot" match against Stefan Leko in PRIDE and it lead to a lot of speculation that it was a work. Somehow, this leads into a million paragraphs about the history of worked and shoot professional wrestling matches dating back to George Hackenschmidt and fuck me man, Dave is off on a tangent. This goes off into Dave rambling about all different types of works and shoots (fixing fights with payoffs, double crosses, etc.) in the history of MMA and wrestling. None of this is news, very little of it is wrestling related, and I'm moving on. Long story short: Dave doesn't know that Ogawa's victory was a work, but he tends to believe it was (to this day, I don't think anyone knows for sure and it's still debated).
- NJPW's latest Tokyo Dome show is in the books. On paper, it looked like a bad show and the paper didn't lie! This show sucked. It was described as possibly the company's worst ever Tokyo Dome event. They announced the attendance as 50,000 but it was closer to 35,000. It was built around the NJPW vs. K-1 feud. The opening 6-man match saw Brian Danielson pin Heat, as they continue to push Danielson up the card into the top of the Jr. Heavyweight division, as NJPW sees him as a future Dynamite Kid/Chris Benoit type of guy. Let's hope not. This was the best match on the show and Danielson was the standout. Jushin Liger beat 16-year-old Katsuhiko Nakajima. Josh Barnett beat Ken Shamrock in a worked-shoot match by DQ when Shamrock attacked the ref after refusing to let go of an ankle lock. Looked more like 2 friends gently sparring and didn't get over at all. Some famous sumo guy worked a match. Intermission saw Inoki come to the ring with boxing legend Thomas Hearns to help shout Inoki's catchphrase. Hiroshi Tanahashi beat Sean O'Haire, who was billed as K-1's secret weapon against NJPW. Bad match and O'Haire didn't look good (never returned to NJPW again). And in the main event, Bob Sapp retrained the IWGP title by pinning Shinsuke Nakamura after 2 powerbombs. Crowd was really into this and reports from NJPW are that Sapp may finally be starting to understand what to do in the ring, even if it mostly still looks bad. He's at least starting to get the hang of it a little. Anyway, that's about it. Most everything on this show sucked or isn't even worth covering.
- Early buyrate estimates for Backlash are a disappointment for what was a really strong show headlined by Benoit defending his newly won title in Canada and Mick Foley's first singles match in years. Estimates are 270,000 which is down about half a million from Wrestlemania 20, which featured the same main event. It's also down 23% from last year's Backlash (Goldberg vs. Rock) and down 32% from the 2002 Backlash (Hogan vs. Triple H). If this is the best number WWE can draw for a regular PPV with that strong of a lineup, Dave's worried about the upcoming Smackdown PPV headlined by JBL vs. Eddie Guerrero.
- K-1's recent PPV in Las Vegas had Mike Tyson in attendance. The day before the show, Tyson's management announced that Tyson would be fighting in July against journeyman boxer Kevin McBride. This is apparently expected to be a K-1 show, although the Tyson/McBride fight would be boxing rules, while everything on the undercard would be a K-1/MMA type of show. However, K-1 didn't agree to this, claiming they never approved McBride as Tyson's opponent on a K-1 show and aren't interested in that fight. Tyson's contract with K-1 apparently gives him the right to choose his opponent, but K-1 was under the impression that it would be someone from the K-1 roster (preferably Sapp or Akebono). So the Tyson/K-1 relationship is fraught right now.
- At the Las Vegas K-1 event, Tyson sat at ringside next to Muhammad Ali and K-1 head Kazuyoshi Ishii. Lots of people were surprised to see Ishii there because everyone thought he was in jail. He was sentenced to 16 months in prison last year on tax evasion charges. Turns out he's out on bail while his appeal is pending, which seemingly nobody knew and many people in Japan were shocked that he was there. In Japan, every time they showed Ali and Tyson at ringside, they literally digitized Ishii's face and blurred him out, but he was visible in wide shots and uncensored on the American broadcast. Leonardo DiCaprio and Jim Ross (and isn't that 2 very different names) were reportedly at the event also, but Dave hasn't been able to confirm it. Anyway, IWGP champ Sapp became the first major pro wrestling world champion to work a shoot fight in the U.S. (Dave doesn't count Dan Severn because the NWA title hasn't been relevant in years) and he did so 2 days before his scheduled Tokyo Dome match against Shinsuke Nakamura. Sapp beat Tommy Glanville by knockout 33 seconds into the 1st round. Both men were fined $500 by the Nevada athletic commission for doing a pro wrestling angle during the weigh-in (flipping tables, pushing and shoving, etc.). This show had practically no advertising in the U.S. and only drew around 3,800 people and a lot of that was thought to be papered.
- Kurt Angle made some media appearances and talked like a man who finally realizes that his career may be coming to an end after only 6 years. Angle will reportedly be undergoing his third neck surgery soon, with hopes that he can return by Summerslam. This surgery will be on a different vertebrae this time. Angle's first neck surgery, just a year ago, was an experimental operation by a new doctor. Prior to that, all WWE wrestlers with those neck issues had been seeing Dr. Lloyd Youngblood in San Antonio, who operated on Austin, Edge, Benoit, Lita, and Bob Holly in recent years and those surgeries kept each wrestler out for around a year. Aside from Austin, all of them are still active with seemingly no further issues. Meanwhile, Angle's experimental surgery had him back in a matter of weeks, but then he took a botched chairshot that re-injured his neck and necessitated a second surgery. And now, he's having numbness in his hands again and is due for surgery #3. Angle signed a 5-year contract in 2002 and said he hopes to finish out his contract (which would end in 2007) and he'd be happy with his career at that point. But he admitted that he knows he might not make it that long. Angle also talked again about hoping to have a match with Bret Hart at Wrestlemania next year and Dave isn't sure what part of "major stroke" isn't registering with Angle, but that match is NEVER happening.
- Neilsen ratings are looking to be measured differently in the future and it may have a major effect on Smackdown. Neilsen's changing how it determines "local metered market ratings" (sure, whatever that is) and the new way of doing it was tested back in March. The result showed Smackdown, under the new system, had a 42% lower rating and was the biggest loser of the new system. Other shows like The Simpsons and 20/20 also showed declines, but only in the 20% range. There's protests from Black and Hispanic minority groups in other cities because the sampling seems skewed to be unfair towards those viewers. The new system goes into effect in June in New York and in Los Angeles in July before rolling out nationwide. In the past, Smackdown has sometimes been ranked as the #1 rated show among Hispanics in the U.S. but this change will apparently affect that somehow. I won't even pretend to understand how this works.
- Dave reviews a recent Kenta Kobashi vs. Yoshihiro Takayama match from NOAH and gives it 4.5 stars. Dave marvels at how popular Kobashi is and says his current reign has turned him into one of the greatest world champions in wrestling history, with the reactions from the crowd comparable to the reactions Bruno Sammartino used to get at MSG in his prime. Yeah, Kobashi was untouchable during this era.
- TNA is going to be using a 6-sided ring for the upcoming FSN television show, in order to differentiate TNA from WWE. It's the same kind of ring that is often used in Mexico in AAA. Dave hopes they bring it in soon and let everyone practice in it for a few weeks, because the worst idea would be to have a bunch of guys who've never worked in one learning on television.
- There's also been talk of dropping the TNA initials and just going with NWA. The TNA initials were initially a Vince Russo double entendre ("Total Nonstop Action" as well as "tits n ass") and that latter one is not the direction the promotion is going anymore (20 years later and still TNA, minus a brief detour into "Impact").
- Once TV starts, any contracted TNA talent working indie bookings will be required to pay a 15% booking fee to TNA. The company also has to be informed of all indie bookings in advance and any promoters that use TNA wrestlers will have to pay a deposit to TNA up front to secure the date. Feelings are mixed on this. A lot of the wrestlers aren't too worried about it because they don't make much on indies anyway. If you're working a show for $300 bucks, paying 15% of that to TNA isn't going to break anybody. But bigger stars like Raven, who charge more, will feel a bigger sting from it. But still, not exactly a popular move.
- Jonny Fairplay is doing media appearances for TNA but hasn't been on the show in weeks and doesn't look to be factored into future plans. Fairplay was a flop when he debuted and apparently made matters worse for himself by complaining about booker Dutch Mantell to Abyss, not realizing that Abyss and Mantell are close friends.
- For the first time in years, WWE filmed a major angle at a house show. It took place at the El Paso house show on 5/2 in an angle where Eddie Guerrero's mom was roughed up by JBL. Following Eddie pinning JBL in the main event, he brought his family into the ring since they all live in the area. Gave his wife flowers (Dave notes that Eddie and Vickie recently reconciled after being separated the last couple of years due to Eddie's drug issues) and then brought his mom into the ring because it was almost Mother's Day. JBL then returned to the ring and laid out Eddie with the Clothesline from Hell. Then he grabbed Eddie's mother by the shoulder, with some sort of nerve hold, and she collapsed while Eddie was unable to help her. Dave expects footage of this to air on Smackdown (Dave seemingly was told that this was JBL hurting Eddie's mom, and he hasn't seen the footage yet. Turns out it wasn't that. It was a fake heart attack angle, but I'm sure we'll hear more on that next week).
- Wrestlemania 21 has been pushed back a week from its previously scheduled date, and will now be Apr. 3, 2005 in the Staples Center in Los Angeles (one of these days, if/when I do the 2005 Rewinds, I've got a pretty great story to share about how I was able to attend WM21. I'm pretty sure the statute of limitations are up by now).
- Rock's WWE contract runs out this summer. No word if he plans to re-sign with WWE or take a break from wrestling entirely. Rock did do an interview this past week saying he has no interest in any "start-up" promotions, nor does he want to get involved in anything Goldberg and Austin might do, even though he's friends with both. Seems like he's a WWE guy or nothing.
- Notes from 5/3 Raw: 4.25 star tremendous main event of Benoit vs. Michaels that was hyped for the entire show. Even Vince made an appearance to get the match over. Batista looked JACKED and his in-ring is improving. Kane kidnapped Lita and Matt had to go rescue her. Eugene was shown training with Regal and he kept reversing all the moves Regal was using on him and basically was a wrestling savant. The Benoit/Michaels match went almost 30 minutes and it was 2 of the best wrestlers ever going all out in an incredible match that would have been rated higher if it hadn't ended with a ref bump and Triple H interference that really sucked the wind out of it. But it made sense for the story and direction they're headed and as far as free TV matches go, hot damn what a banger.
- Notes from next week's Smackdown tapings: they air the JBL/Eddie's mom angle to open. Jacqueline re-appeared for the first time in months, answering Chavo Guerrero's open challenge and beating him to win the cruiserweight title. This was followed by Booker T getting put under a spell by a voodoo lady or something, which is the first step towards that new Papa Shango gimmick that was mentioned earlier. "Bryan [Alvarez] needs to rush that Death of WCW book to Vince and the Smackdown writing team, and fast." Undertaker beat up the FBI and gave Nunzio a last ride powerbomb (not mentioned here: Nunzio's AWESOME reaction during that spot). Eddie ended the show by basically murdering everyone in the ring (heels and babyfaces alike) with a chair in a rage over the whole JBL/mom thing, with several guys doing blade jobs.
- Mark Jindrak was given the Lex Luger-style Narcissist gimmick on Smackdown a few weeks ago, with Teddy Long as his manager, and it's been Velocity-hell and jobbing to Billy Gunn on house shows ever since. "Not saying he deserves better, but Teddy Long certainly deserves better," Dave quips.
- Various news and notes: Brock Lesnar was backstage at Raw in Phoenix, since that's where he's been doing his NFL training and WWE was in town, and hung out for a few hours. The whole "no babyfaces from Canada" thing seems to have been quietly dropped (nope). The spot where Kane forcibly kissed Lita on Raw last week was edited off the broadcast in both UK and Canada.
- Earl Hebner had surgery for a torn rotator cuff that was injured in a series of 3 different bumps over the last couple months, all involving Triple H ironically enough. It was first injured when Triple H elbow dropped Hebner at Survivor Series 2003. Then on a 12/29 house show, he took a bump out of the ring during a Triple H/Shawn Michaels match and couldn't break his fall and that really messed it up. Then he came out and did the spot at Backlash a couple weeks ago teasing the Montreal finish and aggravated it there as well.
- WWE held a house show in Amarillo TX in which Terry Funk made a one-night return and acted as GM for the night. He opened the show by kicking Johnny Nitro out. Later, when Kane was beating up Matt Hardy and about to chokeslam Lita, Funk ran in for the save and attacked Kane. But then Kane got the upper hand and was about to chokeslam Funk when Edge saved him. And at the end of the show, when Evolution was beating down Benoit, Funk ran in again to make the save and he and Benoit sent the crowd home happy.