Wrestling Observer Rewinder

June 21, 2004

The Rob Feinstein/ROH controversy has flared back up again in the wake of ROH and RF Video splitting up and raises a lot of new questions about Feinstein's continued involvement with ROH. For the last few weeks, there's been negotiations with ROH's majority owner Cary Silkin and booker Gabe Sapolsky attempting to purchase Feinstein's 45% share of the company, which was thought to be owned by ROH president Doug Gentry but turns out it wasn't. Feinstein never transferred it to him, as previously thought. Feinstein has been telling people he never actually left ROH and that everyone involved knew it. Sapolsky, who isn't involved in the day-to-day business aspects of ROH, apparently only found out in April that Feinstein was still involved, but kept it quiet as negotiations continued, hoping they could buy out Feinstein and be rid of him forever. It's a tough look for Sapolsky, who has been publicly very vocal about declaring Feinstein had no involvement in the company, only for him to find out later that he kinda still does.
One of the hold-ups in getting the deal closed is that ROH wants a non-compete clause for at least one year. But Feinstein and Gentry are interested in starting their own new promotion if they have to leave ROH. Could they? It'd be hard to book venues if Feinstein is known to be the owner, and a lot of wrestlers wouldn't willingly work for him, so it'd be tough. There's also disagreements on money, as well as exclusivity over filming rights with RF Video, and even arguments over the ownership of the name "Ring of Honor." Silkin is willing to change the name of the company if he has to, but after 2 years of building the ROH brand, that would hurt. Silkin tried to trademark the name himself last month, which Feinstein was upset about also.
Things have gotten so tense that on 6/7, either Feinstein or Gentry went to the ROH business offices and changed the locks. Feinstein has been telling people he wants to see ROH destroyed for forcing him out of the company he started. He's especially keen to bring down Sapolsky, which is why he's telling everyone who will listen that he was never truly gone and that everyone (Sapolsky included) always knew it. Dave doubts Sapolsky knew, and notes that almost everyone in the company (except for Doug Gentry) is against Feinstein ever returning. Not just Sapolsky. But Feinstein's grudge with Sapolsky is because of how strongly Sapolsky came out against him, burying him publicly after years of being close friends, which Feinstein felt betrayed by. As it stands, there's no evidence that Feinstein has been directly involved in ROH decision making in the last few months, but he does still have his share of ownership and has direct ties to the company through Gentry as well as significant control over RF Video which, up until now, has still been exclusively distributing ROH videos. In the midst of all this, RF Video has been having its own financial issues and Gentry recently fired the remaining four RF Video employees, and they were immediately hired by Silkin to work for ROH directly instead, as they obviously plan to use a new distribution company for their future DVD releases.
This also brings up the situation with ROH and TNA again. Months ago, TNA asked Sapolsky to sign a document promising Feinstein was no longer involved with ROH. Sapolsky didn't sign because he isn't the owner of the company. Cary Silkin also refused to sign, claiming he was just a silent investor, which we now know wasn't true. He's the majority owner. Doug Gentry ultimately signed the document, but TNA still decided not to work with TNA and, in retrospect considering the side Gentry has aligned himself with, that was probably a wise move. A situation like this coming out in the midst of their FSN negotiations is exactly what TNA was worried about. Feinstein's side claims that he initially agreed to lay low and stay out of the spotlight for 2 years, figuring he could quietly return later and it would all blow over. Feinstein also claimed that he had reached out to ROH wrestlers to see if they would have a problem with him returning, and that only Samoa Joe and CM Punk (who Feinstein claims are "brainwashed" by Sapolsky) said they would have a problem with it, and that most wrestlers will work with anyone if there's a paycheck to be had (sadly true, Dave says). At that point, Feinstein started telling people he wanted to come back as soon as possible rather than wait 2 years. Samoa Joe has publicly said online that if Feinstein ever comes back to the company, he would personally melt down the ROH title belt and quit the company (common W for Joe). Other wrestlers have said that Feinstein is severely mistaken if he thinks he can waltz back into the company, and that his return would likely lead to nearly everyone in ROH quitting immediately. Feinstein has also argued that there were no criminal charges against him over what happened and has claimed he's planning to sue the news network that aired the pedophile expose that caught him.
So who knew what and when? Many people close to Sapolsky are insistent that he truly believed Feinstein had no remaining ties to ROH until late-April when he found out otherwise. At that point, Sapolsky again insisted that they have to break ties with him completely, which is when these new negotiations to try and buy out Feinstein's shares began. All sides tried to keep it quiet, but that's impossible so here we are. Others claim Sapolsky knew all along that Feinstein was still receiving money from the company via the RF Video sales and that Feinstein wants to publicly prove it so he can embarrass Sapolsky. But the current negotiations have a confidentiality clause involved, which is why we're hearing all these details from "sources who know people on both sides." Needless to say, each side has now accused the other of violating that confidentiality agreement, as the last thing ROH wanted was for all this shit to blow open publicly again. It's also said that some people who were close to Feinstein before the scandal have privately kept in contact with him afterward, so he does still have supporters (conveniently unnamed ones). Gentry and Feinstein have long been friends and lived together (allegedly plutonic friendship only) and after the scandal broke, Silkin and Sapolsky urged Gentry to move out because the president of the ROH still living with Feinstein was a bad look. Gentry did move out, temporarily, but he came back, and now he and Feinstein are living together again, which Sapolsky also claims to have just recently found out. That seems to be where the two sides split. It's basically Silkin/Sapolsky vs. Feinstein/Gentry and negotiations to get rid of Feinstein (and presumably Gentry) have been happening ever since. Several wrestlers, however, have confronted Silkin and Sapolsky about all this, as there are naturally suspicions about how much they knew all along. Sapolsky has repeatedly sworn that he only found out in late-April, at which point, he stopped publicly talking about it. He apologized for not telling the wrestlers, saying he was trying to keep things quiet and spare the company any more controversy while they negotiated Feinstein's exit and ownership issues. But he said he understood if anyone didn't believe him and wanted to quit, but as of press time, no one has.
JBL's firing by CNBC after his Nazi/Germany controversy continues to make national news. JBL has done interviews about it and doesn't seem the least bit apologetic, which would explain why WWE.com has since removed the apologies they posted. He told the Washington Post that he'd done the Nazi gestures in the past while wrestling in Germany for WWE in 1996 as well as when working there pre-WWE, and accused CNBC for hanging him out to dry for playing a fictional character. "I was playing a character. It's the same as Vin Diesel playing a Nazi. I'm a bad guy. I'm supposed to incite the crowd. I've done it for decades. I really didn't think anything of it--I know how bad it is. I've lived there. I've been to Dachau, seen those places where they exterminated millions of Jews." He said CNBC was aware that he's a heel character and that it was even written into his CNBC contract that he portryed a heel in wrestling. He said the only limitation CNBC had put on his wrestling character was they didn't want him to portray someone who cheats at the stock market. He noted that most of his current JBL character's promos are based on speeches that Pat Buchanan made when running for President. The Washington Post also posted excerpts of a letter that JBL had posted online, where he criticized internet reporters and dirtsheet writers like Dave. The immature letter was published 6 days after JBL was fired from CNBC and basically implied that dirtsheet writers were all gay, basement dwelling virgins. The Post criticized it, with the jist being "Why did CNBC hire a guy like this in the first place?" (can anyone find this letter?)
The reaction to the JBL situation within WWE is mixed. Management seems to be supporting him, as they removed all the website apologies and have had no issue with JBL giving media interviews defending himself. He reportedly hasn't gotten in any trouble from WWE, as they feel he was already punished enough by losing his CNBC job. Within the locker room, he obviously has supporters who feel he was just a guy playing a character and was trying to get heat and that the whole thing is overblown. But of course, there's others who don't like JBL (who has a reputation as a bully backstage, Dave notes in the understatement of the year) and were happy to see him get a taste of karma.
WWE's latest Raw PPV Bad Blood is in the books and was....eh. The live crowd sucked and was mostly dead, and that REALLY hurt during the nearly 50-minute long Hell in a Cell main event with Shawn vs. Triple H. In a different venue, this may have been a great match, but with this crowd, it was deadly. It was also a small crowd, only 7,500 paid which is one of the worst crowds for a WWE PPV in quite a while. The Hell in a Cell match was pushed like it was a classic. They did all the big selling spots at the end and JR was on commentary trying to sell it like it was the greatest match of all time, but the live crowd was not gonna be roped into believing it and sat on their hands for most of it. Dave thinks they went too long and tried to work the wrong kind of match (this is Hell in a Cell and there was no brawling on top of the cage, no huge bump, none of the stuff the fans expected) and as a result, we got a 47-minute slog that killed the crowd.
Other notes from the PPV: Tyson Tomko did decent in his first PPV match. The only title change was Trish winning the women's title. Orton retained the IC title over Shelton Benjamin and Dave feels like they really dropped the ball on Shelton's start-and-stop push over the last several weeks. He had serious buzz and momentum just a month ago and it's mostly gone now. Eugene's comedy gimmick is getting more and more over every week and he got probably the biggest reaction on the show. Benoit retained the title over Kane in a good, but forgettable match on an otherwise forgettable show.
NJPW's Best of the Super Juniors tournament is in the books and was won by Tiger Mask IV. He defeated Koji Kanemoto in the finals, and for those of you trivia buffs keeping score, yes, Koji Kanemoto was Tiger Mask III back in the day. Anyway, great tournament, great matches throughout, and Bryan Danielson continues to shine in the junior division.
Oh hey, this leads Dave to drop an out of the blue 6,000-word essay on the history of junior heavyweight wrestling. From Mexico where guys like El Santo wrestled for welterweight and middleweight titles, to the U.S. with names like Leroy McGuirk and Danny Hodge, to the rise of juniors in Japan like Dynamite Kid and Tiger Mask, Jushin Liger, etc. the rise of the cruiserweight division in WCW, and how all this eventually gave rise to WWE stars like Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit, who worked as juniors in Japan and cruiserweights at times in WCW. This is all really interesting and all but ya know...
The debut of TNA on FS1 did a 0.16 rating which translates to around 110,000 homes. For the network and the time slot, it was considered a good number but it's only half of what FS1's flagship show "Best Damn Sports Show Period" does. Internally, everyone is happy with the numbers, but Dave isn't as confident. He doesn't think it's going to do anything to boost their weekly PPV business and the debut show isn't indicative of how it will hold up in future weeks. But time will tell. The big hope is that they do strong enough ratings that they might get promoted to a slot on Fox's more popular FX Network. But that's gonna be dependent on the show doing strong ratings consistently.
Mitsuharu Misawa & Yoshinari Ogawa traveled to the U.S. and worked a show for California indie promotion Pro Wrestling Iron, where they defended the GHC tag titles, the first time a NOAH title was defended in the U.S., against Bart Blaxon and Nigel McGuinness. Turns out this McGuinness kid is really good and impressed everyone, and Dave wouldn't be surprised if he got himself a job with NOAH after this (not quite yet but from 2005-2008, he does indeed work quite a few tours for NOAH). It was interesting because it was a tiny indie in a gym that only drew around 300 people and to see Mitsuharu fucking Misawa working a match in front of a crowd like that is a pretty weird sight. A month after this, he'd be wrestling in front of 58,000 people at the Tokyo Dome.
Tokyo Sports ran a poll asking fans who they think should be the next IWGP champion. The top 5 in order were: Shinsuke Nakamura, Katsuyori Shibata, Yoshihiro Takayama, Tadao Yasuda, and Manabu Nakanishi. There was a lot of surprise within the company that top stars like Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Osamu Nishimura, and Yuji Nagata didn't make the list. (I'm kinda shocked that Tanahashi's not on there either).
CM Punk worked two back-to-back 60-minute matches this weekend. On 6/11, he defeated Chris Hero in 61-minutes in a no time limit match. Punk and Hero have history with this, as they've wrestled lengthy matches before, including a famous 93-minute match in IWA-Mid South last year that was the longest match in the U.S. since the 1970s. The following night, Punk faced Samoa Joe and went to a 60-minute time limit draw in a match for the ROH title, and many called it the greatest match in ROH history (and thus the Punk/Joe trilogy begins).
Sid Vicious made his return to wrestling for the first time since horrifically breaking his leg on the WCW Sin PPV in 2001. He was the surprise tag team partner for Pierre Carl Ouellett in a tag team battle royal at his little indie show in Montreal in front of 300 fans. Dave has no idea why they didn't promote it in advance, could have probably drawn more. He is said to have aged noticeably in the face and was a little softer around the middle but 3+ years away from the business will do that. Same ol' Sid, he cut a rambling promo and then did a bunch of choke slams and powerbombs. He said he hopes to be able to return to wrestling full-time to WWE by the end of the year. Dave thinks he's gonna end up like Lex Luger, being disappointed and waiting on a phone call that's not going to come. (Here's a clip of the return: that first person Sid chokeslams is Big Larry, better known these days as Sami Zayn).
Dick Slater was sentenced to 1 year of house arrest and 2 years probation after pleading no contest to aggravated battery charges in the stabbing of his ex-girlfriend back in December. He was arrested at the time after stabbing her with an 8-inch butcher knife. He's accused of coming up behind her, knocking her down with a punch to the back of the head, and then stabbed her in the arm, leg, and back. She began trying to kiss him and tell him she loved him to get him to stop, at which point he did. He then left and she called the police. Slater, meanwhile, went home and tried to kill himself by overdosing on pain meds but didn't finish the job. He was unable to raise bail, so he's been in jail this entire time awaiting his trial date. So hey, fuck this guy too.
A South Carolina newspaper did a story on Del Wilkes (The Patriot) talking about his drug issues. He's now a car salesman and notes that he's been clean for 2 years, after spending 9 months in jail on charges of forging prescriptions. He claimed he was doing 100 Percodan a day at one point and noted that it was just part of his life budget: mortgage, light bill, drugs, car payment, etc. He went to rehab 4 times, lost his wife, and even stole a car from a dealership he was working at. He was released from jail in Feb. of 2003.
TNA's 2nd anniversary show will be 6/23 in Nashville and it may or may not have the first ever singles match between Raven vs. Sabu. It's up in the air right now. Raven has pushed for the match because even though they were two of the top stars in ECW, they somehow never actually faced each other one-on-one. But Sabu was 4 hours late for TV last week after missing flights because he overslept, and when he arrived, he was apparently "a mess" which is usually a Dave-ism for drugged out of his mind. Jerry Jarrett, who almost never raises his voice, apparently screamed and yelled and cursed him up and down. Sabu really respects Jarrett, and was upset about it and felt bad. But they still let him wrestle a post-show dark match against Abyss, which sucked and Sabu got the blame. So there's a lot of people within TNA arguing to not use Sabu anymore.
During a recent interview with The Score in Canada, Vince McMahon was asked about TNA and shrugged them off, simply saying, "They're wrestling. We're entertainment." There's people within TNA who want to take that quote and make it a company slogan because they're proud to be wrestling while it often seems like WWE is ashamed of it.
Konnan will be staying in TNA. Evidently, WWE was willing to hire him but mostly just as a favor to Eddie and Rey. They also weren't interested in him as a wrestler and only wanted him as a Spanish announcer, and also talked of having to change his gimmick because they felt it might be too close to Cena's if he was gonna be on TV. Long story short, WWE didn't really want him and he could tell. So he's staying, which is a moot point because TNA already made it clear they weren't going to let him out of his contract anyway.
The Benoit vs. Edge planned main event for the next PPV has seemingly been dropped in favor of Benoit vs. Triple H. Dave thought they would save the Triple H rematch for Summerslam, but then his movie got delayed again so he's gonna be around this summer when they didn't expect him to be so they're going with that instead. However, they're doing a Triple H vs. Eugene match to determine who faces Benoit. Obviously it's going to be Triple H and Dave thinks it's absurd for him to beat Eugene right now, considering how hot that character has become. Calls it a move straight out of WCW: Did somebody get over? Can't have that shit.
Speaking of straight out of WCW, they're doing a pregnancy angle with Kane and Lita. Dave hates this storyline.
Chavo Classic (Chavo Guerrero Sr.) was fired this week for no-showing 2 house shows. Chavo Jr. couldn't even reach him. But then days later, he showed up at the Chicago TV taping like nothing happened, ready to work, only to be told he was being fired. Buuuut they did ask if he would be so kind as to drop the cruiserweight title first, and Chavo Sr. is a professional (and they'd probably withhold his money if he didn't), so he went out and worked a brief match and lost it clean to Mysterio. The no-shows was basically strike 3, as he had had some behavior issues when WWE was in Mexico awhile back, and then his antics at the Cauliflower Alley banquet a few weeks back being so public didn't do him any favors either. Dave recounts a story from back in 1995 when he was at an afterparty with a bunch of WCW wrestlers following the Bash at the Beach PPV and he saw Chavo Sr. try to start a fight with Vader and basically just says Chavo has always kinda been his own worst enemy. Literally minutes after he was fired, Chavo Sr. was on the phone with TNA trying to get in. TNA is interested, depending on any non-compete clauses.
Vince McMahon and Steve Austin are still talking from time to time, but Austin is in no hurry to return and is focusing on acting instead, trying to open some Hollywood doors. Doesn't seem to be any movement on a Goldberg vs. Austin match/PPV that they've talked about promoting together. Austin isn't looking to wrestle and doesn't need the money so that idea is looking less likely by the day.
Brock Lesnar's workout for the Minnesota Vikings got a ton of publicity. He ran a 4.75 second 40-yard dash, while weighing 286 pounds and nursing a torn groin from the motorcycle accident a few weeks back. He struggled with some of the agility drills and didn't have the hand speed or foot work they're really looking for, but they feel he's a prospect who has the athletic gifts, and just needs to learn football, but overall, it was a good, but not great workout. He also had an MRI done that showed significant injuries from his 3 years as a pro wrestler. Still, some teams are said to be interested and he has scheduled workouts planned with several other teams that may be willing to take a chance on a raw prospect. They all respect his athleticism and work ethic and a Vikings source said they may be open to signing him if he can tighten up his game and a roster spot opens. Lesnar has made it clear he wants to play for the Vikings because it's his hometown and Brock Lesnar doesn't like leaving home. Relatable.
Notes from 6/14 Raw: one good angle. One great main event. And everything in between was trash. They sold the Triple H/Shawn Michaels match from the PPV the night before as if it was the most amazing blow-off match to the greatest feud of all time. "That's what happens when you have the power," Dave says. He compares it to WCW where guys like Rey Mysterio and Juventud Guerrera would absolutely steal the show on PPV, and it wouldn't even get mentioned on TV the next day, but DDP would have a 3-star match and they'd sell it like it was an all-time classic, simply because he was tight with Bischoff. Anyway, they did an angle after with Kane attacking Shawn to write him off TV for awhile because his wife's about to give birth. That should set up Kane vs. Shawn at Summerslam (doesn't happen until the month after, but yeah). The allegedly pregnant Lita (Dave hates this angle and will not pass up a chance to say so) pinned women's champion Trish Stratus in a tag match. They did an angle with Triple H kinda bullying Eugene to set up the match next week and you can tell the crowd is desperately wanting William Regal to snap and attack Triple H to protect Eugene. Main event was a 6-man elimination match that went 34+ minutes and was one of the longest matches in Raw history. It was a good match but Dave doesn't see the point, since it resulted in Edge, Jericho, Flair, Batista, and Orton all having to do clean jobs and it didn't seem to set anything up for the future. Just a match to eat up time.
Notes from the 6/15 Smackdown tapings: Dudleys won the tag titles from Charlie Haas and Rico. Kind of an abrupt finish and looked like Rico may have gotten hurt so Dave's not sure what happened here or if it was an angle (looks to be legit, Rico didn't wrestle for 2 months after this). Paul Heyman announced Undertaker vs. Dudleys at the PPV with the threat that they would murder Paul Bearer in a cement crypt. Dave really hates kidnapping and murder angles. Heyman then used the urn to have Undertaker attack Cena and RVD because he's controlling Undertaker with the urn and making him do heel stuff. Dave thinks Undertaker should be a heel because Smackdown is so weak on the heel side, but this ain't a real heel turn and just makes Undertaker more of a babyface. JBL cut a promo trashing CNBC for firing him, so they're clearly steering into the controversy (plenty more on that next week).
There's a ton of heat on Rikishi right now. First of all, he was asked months ago to lose weight and he hasn't lost any. Then he hurt his ankle, which is why he's been out of action. They've been wanting him to come back but he's been claiming he's still injured. So you can imagine how happy WWE was when they found out he worked an indie show for his uncle Afa a few weeks ago. He didn't do much in the match, but he still did it, and did so without WWE's permission. He also underwent nasal surgery without telling WWE, which will keep him out of action for even longer. The heat is bad enough that Dave wouldn't be surprised if Rikishi ends up fired over it, which is tough for him because he actually has a pretty huge contract that he signed during the boom years, for way more money than you'd think someone in his position would be getting (yup, this does indeed result in Rikishi getting fired and aside from a couple of one-off matches a decade later, he never returns. What a way to torpedo your career).
A Louisville newspaper did a story on the Eugene character. No controversy yet. This is actually about Nick Dinsmore. It noted that even though he's only 28 (sidebar: HE WAS ONLY 28 WHEN HE DID THAT GIMMICK??!?!?!), he's already had 3 knee surgeries since high school and has suffered some compressed vertebrae from a recent chair shot and said that his back and neck are in constant pain (yeah, he's gonna have some struggles in the coming years related to dealing with that pain).
Eric Bischoff buried Konnan during a radio interview this week, saying something along the lines of how he sucked the air out of every building he wrestled in back in WCW. Word is Bischoff was also extremely rude to Konnan when he was backstage a few weeks back (I'd be curious to know more about this. In interviews since, from what I can tell, they both kind of admit that they didn't really care for each other but it doesn't sound like there was a major beef or anything).
Ultimate Warrior did an interview last week. In regards to his Wrestlemania 6 match with Hogan, he said they spent one day in an old building in Florida rehearsing the match. He said most people in WWF when he was there used steroids, including people you wouldn't suspect, just to keep up with the lifestyle. He said Hogan lying about his steroid use on the Arsenio Hall show caused a lot of friction between Hogan and Vince (Dave says he got the same sense from Vince at the time also). He says WWF wrestlers were pissed when the WBF bodybuilders were all getting guaranteed contracts when they weren't. Dave confirms this also, saying wrestlers felt they were breaking their backs in the ring while the bodybuilders got guaranteed money to stay home and go to the gym. He also said he hated the Papa Shango angle but Vince was insistent and talked him into it. That seems to be the only notable stuff. Pretty toned down for a Warrior interview actually.