August 30, 2004
- Steve Austin's on-again-off-again relationship with his ex-girlfriend Tess Broussard took a new turn this week after Broussard was arrested for stabbing Austin's business manager and her filing a $10 million lawsuit against Austin. This story was broken by the Los Angeles Times and Austin was interviewed for the story, so we have lots of quotes here. Broussard has been living in the San Antonio house Austin owns and has refused to leave for the past 7 months. Austin moved out and has been living in Los Angeles with DDP (who is going through his own divorce) while he filmed "The Longest Yard." Back in March, Broussard called the police on Austin after a fight, but the charges never went anywhere. They were back together at some point although they had another altercation when they were out drinking together somewhere and she claims Austin threw her out of a moving car, while he claims she jumped out. Ever since, Austin has been trying to get her out of his life but she's been demanding money. Broussard claims their relationship fell apart due to Austin's heavy drinking, but he claims she's the alcoholic and that she also has a pill problem. She responded to that blaming Austin for getting her hooked on pills, saying he physically shoved them down her throat. Austin of course denies this, but does admit that he uses a variety of prescription drugs for insomnia issues. When asked about steroids in the news article, he refused to answer, but says he doesn't use anything that hasn't been medically prescribed.
- As for the stabbing incident in question, Austin and Broussard met for dinner to discuss the matter and had settled on a payment of $1.5 million and in exchange, she'd leave the house and would drop any legal claims against him. "My plan was to go out, have a nice steak, hand her a check and get on with my life," Austin said. But then Broussard started arguing that they couldn't break up, how can you do this to me, all that fun stuff. So they left the dinner on bad terms and were then scheduled to meet with Austin's business manager George Vrabeck who had the check for $1.5 mil (and a bodyguard). They all sat at a table at an outside restaurant, at which point Broussard allegedly picked up a knife and tried to stab Austin. "The next thing I know, she went over the top of the table with a steak knife and she was trying to stab me," Austin said. Vrabeck stuck his arm up to block her and suffered a serious stab wound to his arm. They all fell to the ground in the struggle where Austin banged his head on the pavement. The bodyguard came around the table and grabbed Broussard and restrained her until police were called. She has been charged with assault with a deadly weapon. Her story is that the bodyguard and Vrabeck were trying to prevent her from leaving and that Vrabeck stabbed himself. She believes she was lured to the restaurant so they could stage an assault and frame her and that they were all 3 in on it.
- Austin, on the advise of his agent Barry Bloom, lawyered up and went public with the story to get ahead of any tale Broussard may try to tell (or sell). That's why Austin is quoted throughout this LA Times story. Broussard responded by filing a $10 million lawsuit against Austin alleging various things. She claims she suffered serious injury and permanent disability from an auto accident in which Austin was driving while intoxicated. This stems from an incident in which Austin drove his truck into a tree last year, but Austin has said he was sober when it happened. She claims the incident in March, when she called the police, stemmed from her belief that he was having an affair and he broke up with her and it turned into a fight. She told police Austin grabbed her and threw her to the ground, but after filing her statement, she began changing her story and eventually never followed through on filing the charges. In the lawsuit, she now claims he threw her across a table, stomped on her broken foot, and left her bleeding from several wounds. Austin's version of the fight is that she jumped on his back and that she landed on the ground when he was struggling to get her off him.
- One final note, the story has a quote from Henry Garza, the lead singer of a band called Los Lonely Boys and I guess he knows both Austin and Broussard. He claims they were all hanging out and he witnessed Broussard pull a gun out and put it right up to Austin's head and then she pointed it at Garza as well. Another night, Garza claims he witnessed Broussard pull a bunch of steaks off the grill that Austin was cooking and throw them on the ground and then started physically trying to slap him and hit him, but that Austin never hit her back. Broussard admits to playing with Austin's gun, but denied pointing it at anyone. She also says the steak incident was at 3am after a party and they were all drunk and it wasn't a big deal. Man, this is the definition of toxic relationship.
- SummerSlam is in the books and the story of the show was the crowd in Toronto. They booed the hell out of both men in the Undertaker/JBL match and chanted everything that popped into their heads, did the wave, and clearly got under the Undertaker's skin at times. They didn't even really have a bad match, the crowd simply didn't want to see either of them and never gave them a chance. Randy Orton got cheered over Chris Benoit, while babyface Edge was booed out of the building even after being billed from Toronto. But nobody got it worse than poor Eugene, who was eviscerated by the fans. It's not his fault, really. He was a popular mid-card gimmick and they decided to build the entire show around him for several weeks and totally over-exposed him and fans naturally turned on him. This isn't the first arena in recent weeks he's gotten booed at but it was by far the worst. Heels won almost every match, and won them cleanly up and down the board. Angle vs. Guerrero was very good (although Dave thinks Eddie needed the win) and the main event delivered. John Cena vs. Booker T was the only bad match on the show although several matches felt rushed.
- The other big story is Randy Orton becoming the youngest world champion in WWE history at 24 years old after pinning Benoit clean. Others outside of WWE have won world titles when they were younger and no, Dave will not let that slide without pointing it out. Orton shook Benoit's hand and broke down afterwards, in an angle clearly designed to turn him babyface, and sure enough Evolution turned on him the next night. The original plan was a slow burn of tension in the group leading to a breakup and ending with Orton vs. Triple H at Wrestlemania but it's looking as though they may do that match as soon as Unforgiven in September (yup). This is partly due to the reaction to Eugene at SummerSlam. The plan was for Regal/Eugene vs. Triple H/Flair at Unforgiven but it seems they're pulling the plug early on the Eugene/Triple H feud. That's why they did the Benoit/Orton rematch on Raw the next night and then the Evolution turn immediately after. They basically rushed months of planned storyline into one night so they can get to Triple H vs. Orton in September instead of waiting until next year. But more on that later.
- Other notes from SummerSlam: they had a Cena/Orton confrontation backstage, which was meant to be sort of a preview of the next generation, but Cena looked like a midcard geek standing next to a main event superstar in Orton. Diva Dodge Ball with the WWE Divas against the Diva Search contestants was a shoot contest that ended with the WWE Divas losing, which wasn't what WWE officials had expected to happen. It was set up to be a thing where the athletic WWE women humiliated the scantily-clad models who dared to think they were WWE-level athletes. Whoops. Turns out those unathletic bikini models know how to throw a ball. Matt Hardy vs. Kane was short because Hardy was just trying to get through the match before going to get knee surgery. There was original plans to have Shawn Michaels return here and start his feud with Kane, but Michaels is off because his wife is about to give birth and she is actually overdue. As of press time, still no baby, so no Shawn at SummerSlam.
- We get a recap of the PRIDE Final Conflict show that ended with Fedor Emelianenko vs. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira going to a no contest after Fedor suffered a nasty head cut from an accidental head-butt on the ground and the doctor stopped it. Dave recaps the whole show, including Fedor's undercard tournament match against wrestler Naoya Ogawa but nothing too interesting here for us wrestling sickos.
- NJPW's 2004 G-1 Climax is in the books and for the 2nd year in a row, Hiroyoshi Tenzan stands tall, defeating Hiroshi Tanahashi in the finals. Not as good as last year's tournament but still pretty strong. The big news though was Yoshihiro Takayama, who had to be hospitalized after his match with Kensuke Sasaki and pulling out of the tournament early on, which resulted in a lot of booking changes. After the match, he collapsed backstage and couldn't move his limbs on his right side. They feared a stroke but he was later diagnosed with a cerebral thrombosis, which can be fatal. He has since regained full use of his limbs and is expected to make a full recovery but he's still hospitalized and had to cancel all his scheduled dates for the foreseeable future (he ends up being out of wrestling for 2 years). Takayama has made a career out of suffering extreme head trauma in both MMA and wrestling but apparently got rocked really hard after the brutal match with Sasaki. Sounds like this was similar to the Shibata situation. No word if they had to remove Takayama's brain.
- A 7-year legal battle between AAA founder Antonio Pena and the original Mascara Sagrada over the rights to the "Mascara Sagrada" name and gimmick came to an end this week. It was basically the same situation as the La Parka thing. Mascara Sagrada quit AAA, Pena filed a lawsuit to prevent him from using the name and gimmick, Sagrada fought back and after 7 years, it's finally over and Sagrada won the rights to the name. He hasn't been able to use it on television for years because of this.
- Every now and then, I like to just copy and paste stories in full so let's go: "Pro wrestler Chocoball Mukai (real name Hiroshi Mukaiyama), who of late has been working for IWA, was found guilty of indecency on charges that he had sex with an adult video actress while a bar crowd stood by and watched. He was given a suspended sentence of five months in jail. He won’t have to serve the time provided he stays clean for the next three years. The bar Mukai, who is a legend in the Japanese porn world who later started as a pro wrestler off that fame for FMW, had sex in is what is known in Tokyo as a “happening bar.” It’s a bar where people with no inhibitions can go and have sex with strangers, often with the other patrons as spectators. Mukai was asked by the owners of the bar to put on a sex show for the 21 patrons of the place when it was raided. Prosecutors have dropped charges against Mukaiyama for indecency and violating child pornography laws for performing in a porn movie with an underage girl. Prosecutors accepted his excuse that he was working, and had no idea the girl was in her mid-teens. Mukai told Japan’s Weekly Playboy , “I’m training really hard with IWA and aim to become a really successful wrestler. As far as my adult video and celebrity work goes, I have to admit I’ve been a bit slack in some areas up until now. I’m going to think a bit more about the type of work I accept and do everything in my power to make sure the adult video industry doesn’t employ anybody who is underage.” Mukai is still facing charges of coercing an underage girl to have sex in a film." (Reminder: don't look up why his name is Chocoball).
- In depressing news, John "Earthquake" Tenta's cancer has spread to his lungs and has also caused heart issues. He's continuing to undergo chemotherapy but has been told he has 12-18 months to live (he makes it a little longer than that, but not much sadly).
- Another "Buffalo Brawl" indie show took place after a Buffalo Bisons minor league baseball game. The game itself drew over 8,000 fans and more than 1,000 stayed for the wrestling after. The Hart Foundation reunited (Bret Hart, Jim Neidhart, and Jimmy Hart) for an appearance while Teddy Hart, Harry Smith, and Nattie Neidhart all wrestled on the show. With so many family members there, Teddy Hart actually behaved, as opposed to the last Buffalo Brawl show the month prior, when he annoyed everyone by trying to get himself over. Main event was AJ Styles vs. Teddy Hart vs. Sabu in a three-way, which is a random ass collection of people and was probably a wild match.
- Jim Duggan was interviewed recently and was asked about Vince McMahon: "I am grateful for Vince because he helped make me a lot of money. He’s a great promoter and evaluator of talent. But I wouldn’t trust him as far as I could spit." It noted that Duggan and his wife now run a real estate business and talked about saving your money, noting that there are some wrestlers who made millions in their career but now live on park benches because they weren't smart with their finances. This is a reference to Tony Atlas, and if you've seen the recent Dark Side of the Ring episode, he talks about this exact thing.
- Regarding Bam Bam Bigelow's claim that he's retiring, he said it comes down to his health. He can stop now and hopefully have a chance to live a healthy remainder of his life, or keep going and end up crippled. "It’s time to enjoy life, to face reality. The ride is over. Time to move on," he said. He recently opened a deli in Hamlin, PA called Bam Bam Bigelow Deli.
- The Sting movie that was being filmed awhile back comes out in October. It's more of a religious movie than a wrestling movie, culminating in August 1998 when Sting is confronted by his wife over an extramarital affair and he turns to Christianity to save his family. Most of the movie was filmed in Nashville with the wrestling scenes taped at TNA shows.
- WWE recently trademarked the name "Honor Society" and word is it's for a heel faction. Kurt Angle has talked about starting a new group on Smackdown so Dave thinks it might be that. (Indeed, that's what this almost was. The "Honor Society" name never got used on TV but Angle revealed years later that the short-lived group of himself, Luther Reigns, and Mark Jindrak was originally supposed to be called Honor Society. But I'm pretty sure the whole thing fell apart and Vince lost interest before they ever even got a name. But that's what this was supposed to be).
- Notes from 8/16 Raw: Orton came out to celebrate as new champ in a suit and tie and Dave thinks he definitely looks the part of a main event star, aside from the fact that they really want him to be the new Rock and are kinda trying to get him to copy those mannerisms. They held a bachelorette party for the alleged-mother-to-be Lita, who will be marrying Kane next week. All the heels gave her gifts like condoms, birth control pills, and a vibrator that she should have used instead of sleeping with Kane. They showed Triple H and Orton talking before the main event and Dave realized at that moment that Triple H was going to betray Orton by the end of the night and he remains flabbergasted that they're rushing the Evolution breakup so quickly. And sure enough, after Orton retained his title, we get the famous thumbs down and Evolution turns on Orton. It was a great angle, but it reminds Dave of the 2001 show when they revived ECW, had it join WWE, then turn on WWE, and join WCW all in the span of a single 2-hour show. It was a great show but they blew through 18 months of storyline in one night and it hurt them in the long-run.
- Notes from 8/17 Smackdown tapings: JBL cut a promo saying Undertaker would never get a rematch, which is carny for "that's the main event of the next PPV" (and indeed, it was). They announced "Tough Enough" will be returning but instead of its own show, it will be a competition segment that airs during Smackdown, same as Raw with the Diva Search. "Have they learned nothing?" Dave wonders.
- Speaking of the Diva Search, here's some info about everyone's favorite heel, Carmella DeCesare. She's 22 and was the 2003 Playmate of the Year for Playboy. She had actually attended a casting call to be part of a new Playboy-themed reality show called "The Girl Next Door" and made the cast, but then she quit after 1 day. But Playboy still invited her back and she ended up becoming a huge hit for them. That's actually why she wasn't at SummerSlam with the rest of the Diva Search contestants, she had a prior commitment for a promotional event for Playboy that day. She's also dating Cleveland Browns quarterback Jeff Garcia. She's clearly WWE's favorite to win the contest, even though all the other women seem to hate her (oh we're gonna find out just how much they hate her very soon...)
- Notes from recent OVW tapings: Jillian Hall returned, post-surgery because you're not getting out of developmental without fake tits, and she cut a promo saying as much, which was pretty much a shoot. Then she took her robe off and paraded around in a bikini to get her new look over. Ken Doane debuted and got an upset jobber-win over Johnny Nitro. Doane is 18-years-old and is reportedly the last guy Jim Ross handpicked for developmental before handing his duties over to John Laurinaitis. Doane is green but has a great look and trained under Killer Kowalski. Later in the show they debuted "Mean" Gene Mondo, who is the latest big guy to get the monster push (this would be Gene Snitsky and for those paying attention, yes he did JUST debut in OVW and he will be on the main roster within the next 2 weeks, because Vince wanted a big guy so, so bad at this time. Pretty crazy that all you had to do was show up to the door at OVW, ask for a job, and if you were 6'4 or bigger, Vince would have you on national TV within a month).