August 16, 2004
- TNA has decided to stop running weekly PPVs. The decision hasn't been officially announced but confirmed to Dave by several sources. After they got the Fox Sports Net deal, they waited a couple of months to see if the TV show led to increased PPV buys. Turns out no. As a result, the weekly PPVs are only doing about 6,000 buys and TNA has been losing about $100,000 per week running the shows. So they're dropping the weekly PPVs in favor of running monthly 3-hour Sunday PPVs, same as WWE. The plan is to charge $29.95, which Dave thinks might be too high, and to also run mid-size arenas. Dave expects that plan to change because TNA doesn't have a prayer of filling a mid-size arena anytime soon and it's cost prohibitive to try.
- As of press time, none of the TNA wrestlers had been told about this change. They're probably finding out from this Observer. Most of them will make less money since no weekly PPVs means less dates per month. Dave does a bunch of math and talks about how a lot of the guys supplement their TNA pay by working indie dates. TNA has talked about running a weekly house show to give the guys extra dates, but TNA can barely get enough people for a TV taping. A house show would be death. There's also concern about running the entire operation out of Orlando. TNA depends on the Universal Studios tourist crowd to fill these tapings, and that crowd drops off entirely during the fall and winter months. But there's good news: FSN is talking of moving the TNA show to a better time slot so it's not all doom and gloom. But anyway, that's the news right now. More on this next week, I'm sure.
- Bruno Sammartino did an interview this week to clear up what's going on between himself and WWE. He emphasized that they approached him and that he has no need for them, never tried to contact them, and this is all their doing. He said they've proposed some things and he's giving them some time to put it down on paper to see if they mean what they say. But he said he's honestly not that interested and doesn't want to be seen as a sellout, but he chose to be polite and hear out what they had to say because he doesn't want to be seen as bitter either. He said Jerry McDevitt reached out to his lawyer repeatedly and his lawyer finally convinced him to take a meeting with McDevitt and Jim Ross. That led to a further meeting with Sammartino attending Raw and meeting a bunch of the wrestlers. In regards to his run-in with Ric Flair mentioned a couple weeks ago, he noted that "Flair "snuck away from me like a theif in the night" before he could confront him about things Flair wrote in his book. "All I wanted to do was talk but I guess he's afraid of me," Sammartino said.
- Oh yeah, we get Bruno's version of the meeting with Vince and sounds like it went....not great. Bruno said Vince acted like they were long lost buddies, but Sammartino shut it down immediately, saying he has other projects he's busy with and if Vince isn't serious about doing business, they shouldn't waste each other's time. He told Vince "You don't need me and I don't need you either" to which Vince was apparently stunned because people don't usually talk to him that way. At that point, McDevitt said something about Vince having great respect for the older wrestlers, to which Sammartino claims he cut McDevitt off and said, "If he has respect for the people who grew this company for his dad and himself, he’s never shown it." Sammartino listed off all the names of older people from his era who were cheated or ripped off by Vince and then commented on Vince giving "a convicted rapist like Mike Tyson" millions of dollars for Wrestlemania. When it comes to future projects, he told Vince to put something in writing and don't show him the same "respect" he shows the other legends, show him the same respect he gives to people like Tyson who don't deserve it.
- At this point, Vince allegedly interrupted and protested that he does have the utmost respect for Sammartino, who responded asking why he was left out of some recent 2-hour A&E documentary about WWE if that was the case. Vince claimed he had nothing to do with that, to which Sammartino said A&E producers straight up told him that Vince had ordered "No Bruno" in the piece, and that WWE wouldn't provide them with any footage to use if Bruno was even mentioned. As a result, Bruno and peers of his like Ivan Koloff and Pedro Morales were left completely out of the telling of WWE's history. To this, McMahon reportedly looked down and didn't respond and everyone in the room went quiet. At that point, Sammartino said that's all he has to say and if they are going to work together, let the lawyers sort it out and put it down in writing, and he left the room and that was the end of it. He said he didn't stay for the rest of the show because he didn't want to risk being filmed and shown on WWE TV without his consent. After he left, he said Vince called him on his cell phone and asked if he would at least make an appearance at the next MSG house show, but Bruno retorted that Vince had tried to keep him out of the MSG Hall of Fame so.....no. Go kick rocks.
- The 2004 Summer Olympics are underway so naturally, Dave decides to write a TWENTY-ONE THOUSAND WORD story about the history of Olympians who have dabbled in pro wrestling. And. He. Lists. All. Of. Them. We all know Kurt Angle, Verne Gagne, Danny Hodge, Iron Sheik, etc. but we get another, like, 50 more names and a full paragraph biography of every single one. I'm not exaggerating here: 21,500+ words which is about 1/4 the length of a standard novel. If you've ever needed to research the history of Olympians in pro wrestling, this is your issue.
- WWE released its upcoming PPV schedule and of note, the 10/19 PPV takes place on a Tuesday. It will be called Taboo Tuesday (although Dave notes that the original idea was to call it Halloween Havoc since they own the name now, but Vince nixed that suggestion). Dave expects some major angle on Raw the night before the Tuesday PPV, but that's about all he knows. The first PPV of 2005 will take place in Puerto Rico and will be their first ever PPV there.
- NJPW's G-1 Climax is underway and has already had changes forced upon it. Yoshihiro Takayama suffered a concussion in his second match and had to be rushed to the hospital afterward and was told that he can't work the rest of the tournament. So he's been pulled from the tournament and all the booking had to be adjusted as a result. Shinya Makabe entered the tournament and is now using the name "Togi Makabe" (indeed, this was a permanent name change, he's still Togi to this day). The tournament is largely being built around defending winner Hiroyoshi Tenzan and the new 3 new Muskateers: Tanahashi, Shibata, and Nakamura.
- One of the biggest matches in Mexico in years is scheduled for CMLL's 71st anniversary show next month. Rayo de Jalisco Jr. vs. Universo 2000 in a mask vs. mask match. Part of the storyline is that back in 1990, Jalisco Jr. beat Universo's brother (Cien Caras) in a mask match, in what still stands as one of the biggest matches in the history of Lucha Libre. So that's part of the backstory going into this match (Dr. Wagner and Canek end up getting added to this match and making it a 4-way, but we'll get there).
- WWC did an interesting angle to set up their Carly Colon vs. Eddie Colon match at the upcoming Anniversary show in Puerto Rico. It involves Carly being in OVW and this is actually pretty great. I'm just gonna copy and paste the whole description, since I can't seem to find the video anywhere (but would love to see it): "They showed [Eddie] Colon leaving San Juan International and arriving in Louisville. Eddie went to Carly’s hotel and asked for Carly’s room at the desk, saying his brother wants to see him. The desk clerk called the room and said Carly said he doesn’t have a brother. Eddie found out the room number from a janitor, knocked and there was no answer. The desk clerk then got a call from Carly who asked that Eddie be thrown out of the hotel. The desk clerk told Eddie if he didn’t leave, he would call the police. He then tried to go to an OVW house show. He said he was Carly’s brother, but they wouldn’t let him in the building because the people at the front gate said Carly said he doesn’t have a brother. Eddie then bought a ticket, got in the building, where he saw Jim Cornette yelling at Carly for showing up late. They showed Eddie watching a six-man tag with Carly, where he was being booed and working as a heel, and Eddie was acting as if he was in shock, finding out the rumors Carly was disgracing the family name by going heel were true. Eddie somehow got in the dressing room and confronted him, and they argued until several heels attacked Eddie and left him bloody. They also showed Carlos Colon then going to Louisville and trying to enter the gym, and saw Carly practicing. Carlos asked Carly why he’s a heel when he spent his whole life trying to wrestle for the fans and teaching Carly to do the same. Carly mouthed off, and Carlos slapped him in the face. The heels grabbed Carlos and threw him out of the gym. The final scene was Carly and the other heels all laughing at Carlos."
- CZW is taping a series of shows to run on PPV on DirecTV. It will be interesting to see if TNA stops its wrestlers (Alex Shelley and Sonjay Dutt among others) from working CZW as a result of this, since they specifically have forbid wrestlers from working for other promotions that have TV or PPV outlets.
- The latest ROH show featured Bryan Danielson vs. Austin Aries in a 75-minute 2/3 falls match in front of 450 people. Aries won and the crowd gave them a standing ovation and chanted "Three more falls!" when it was over. It was a good match and Aries held his own, but he's not at Danielson's level and it showed. Fun note: Danielson actually pushed to do a 170-minute match, with the idea that the first 2 falls would each end in 60-minute draws and then Aries would finally pin him around 50 minutes into the third fall. They wisely decided not to because holy shit. So I see Danielson has always been insane.
- The relationship between TNA and AAA has fallen apart. The general reason given is that Antonio Pena is impossible to do business with, canceling meetings at the last minute, flaking on promises, and generally being unorganized and unavailable. They were trying to trade talent and there were talks of doing a joint PPV on the west coast, but Pena just couldn't get his shit together for them to organize anything. Some believe Pena blew off TNA on purpose because he has been burned by this before in the 90s when a bunch of his top guys were on loan to WCW and eventually left to go be big stars in America, and he doesn't want it to happen again. So now TNA is looking at working with CMLL, but Mike Tenay has advised against that, saying they'll face the same issues. Tenay pointed out that most of the biggest, most well-known stars in Mexico are independents, so just book them directly instead and don't waste time trying to work with either company. With that in mind, LA Park, Psicosis, and Super Crazy are all expected to be coming into TNA soon, and Perro Aguayo Jr.'s been talked with as well.
- TNA is trying to push Jeff Jarrett, Jeff Hardy, and Monty Brown as the top stars in the company. Brown used to play in the NFL so that gets him into media outlets that wouldn't take pro wrestling seriously otherwise (he was recently on Best Damn Sports Show Period, for example) and he's doing good. He has a little bit of star aura about him, there's definitely potential there.
- Kid Kash returned and lost to AJ Styles in a good match, but backstage, he was salty. He was talking about planning to work stiff against Styles to "teach him a lesson" about something and Jeff Jarrett had to warn him not to do anything stupid. Styles got wind of it and well, he's an excellent amateur wrestler and was prepared to take care of himself if need be. Kash was also throwing a fit about having not gotten a raise while others who he thinks aren't as good are making more. Kash believes he can go to WWE at any time but nobody believes him or takes it seriously. Dave thinks some of this might be a work and, in typical Russo/TNA fashion, no one in the locker room is in on it and doesn't trust anything (he does eventually make his way to WWE and does a whole bunch of nothing while there).
- The Rock Movie News: he has signed on for the lead role in a football movie called Gridiron Gang, where he apparently plays a football coach for a bunch of hoodlum kids.
- Notes from 8/5 Smackdown: the show opened with "one of the most unsettling segments in a long time" which featured new GM Teddy Long standing in front of portraits of Vince McMahon and Martin Luther King Jr. and comparing them as equals. "One had a vision, the other had a dream!" and all that shit. Dave is aghast at how tone deaf Vince is. This episode was in Houston and Dave remembers that Stephanie McMahon's infamous 9/11 promo also happened in Houston and he wonders what it is about that city that makes the McMahon family do utterly tasteless and stupid things. Eddie Guerrero came out with a bunch of the Divas to auction off Kurt Angle's belongings, only notable because this was Sable's final appearance ever in WWE. Kinda crazy considering she was such a huge part of the Attitude Era and has been married to Brock for the last 20 years, but to the best of my knowledge, she's never again appeared on camera in WWE in the last 20 years. Spike Dudley turned heel and joined his fellow Dudley brothers in a good angle that got a lot of heat. Orlando Jordan is the new Virgil to JBL's Ted Dibiase. And that's about it.
- Hey, speaking of Sable, I think we're about to find out why it was her last appearance: she did an interview for a Fort Wayne newspaper and it didn't go great. She said that wrestling is a sexist business and that women are only hired on their looks and not their ability and admitted she had benefitted from it. When asked about her 1999 lawsuit against WWE, a WWE P.R. person stepped in and interrupted and asked the reporter to steer the conversation away and she didn't answer. She did say that she returned to WWE last year because she missed performing and couldn't get that excitement elsewhere (she also couldn't get any of the acting jobs that she expected after she left WWE, but that's another story). She also complained that the women in WWE are held to different moral standards than the men. This leads Dave to talk about how it's common for the male wrestlers to sleep around with anyone they can on the road, while women like Missy Hyatt, who have done the same and are open about it, are unfairly judged (Dave adds that Hyatt was actually reprimanded by WCW management back in the day for sleeping around, something no male wrestler would have ever been scolded for even if they were married, which many of them are). Dave says he knows of one female wrestler who will remain unnamed who has a rep in WWE for sleeping with a fellow (married) male wrestler and apparently, both of them have heat in the locker room over it. Sable also said the women have to make more sacrifices for their appearance than the men, with extreme dieting and cosmetic surgeries basically being a requirement to get on TV. A woman with JBL's body can't just put on a suit and cut good promos and still expect to get TV time the way the men can. She also talked about how the women who have children (like herself) are judged more harshly for leaving them to be on the road, which Dave agrees isn't fair. He talks about how when women athletes have children, they're immediately expected to retire and go be mothers, but no one puts the same expectations on men. She also talked about how there's no women in WWE management, production, or creative aside from Stephanie and Linda McMahon. All in all, Dave agrees with pretty much everything Sable had to say here (and days after this, WWE will be wishing Sable well in her future endeavors).
- Brock Lesnar's football exploits continue to make mainstream news. Word is he's improving rapidly and impressing a lot of Vikings officials. In a scrimmage game against the Chiefs, Lesnar had 4 tackles and a sack and also got involved in a fight when he sacked Chiefs' backup QB so hard that it injured his elbow. The scrimmage kinda has unwritten rules that you don't try to hurt or hit people too hard and Lesnar evidently didn't get the memo. It led to a bunch of pushing and shoving and guys being pulled apart.
- Former ECW wrestler Nova is still working WWE house shows doing his Richard Simmons/Tony Little workout gimmick. He's using the name Simon Dean, which is a rib on Dean Malenko, who's real name is Dean Simon.