Wrestling Observer Rewinder

September 06, 2004

"Dr. Death" Steve Williams' cancer has reportedly worsened. He returned to the hospital in Houston last week and learned the cancer has spread from his throat and he can no longer speak. He's lost a lot of weight from the chemo and radiation treatment and has had difficulty breathing, which forced them to do an emergency tracheotomy. He also has pneumonia. He's likely going to have his voicebox removed soon to get most of the cancer in his throat, which will require him to have an electric synthasizer to speak for the rest of his life, but he will need other surgeries to get it from other places it has spread also. He's trying to be optimistic about returning to wrestling soon, but in reality, his career is almost certainly over (not quite!). Dave runs through a very brief synopsis of his career, but we're still several years away from an obituary.
Remember several weeks back when Dave did a huge, and I mean, HUGE story about every pro wrestler who ever competed in the Olympics? And then remember when he realized he forgot a couple people so he wrote another long ass story about it? Well now the 2004 Athens Olympics are happening and Dave has thoughts on who the next breakout Olympic pro wrestler might be. Egyptian amateur wrestler Karam Gaber, believed to be the best amateur wrestler in the world right now. NBC commentators apparently agree because they talked about it during the Olympics, talking about him becoming the next Kurt Angle in pro wrestling and saying he already has an offer from WWE from before the Olympics. He used WWE's offer to get a huge money offer from Egypt's Ministry of Petroleum to sponser him and entice him to stay in Egypt and keep preparing for the Olympics instead of leaving. He reportedly has an offer in Japan as well, but Egypt desperately wants him to stay and train for 2008 as well. Jim Ross confirmed WWE's interest in a USA Today article while Gerald Brisco has been in contact with him for years. From a purely physical, look, and charisma standpoint, there are those in WWE who believe he has more potential than anyone who has ever gone into pro wrestling. He didn't grow up as a fan, although neither did Lesnar or Angle, so that's not a huge problem. Gaber is interested in WWE's offer but is focusing on the Olympics first.
There's also a lot of talk here about Cael Sanderson but Dave thinks he's a better fit for MMA than pro wrestling. Rulon Gardner who has flirted with wrestling but never really took it seriously after negotiations with WWE fell through. Katsuhiko Nagata, the brother of Yuji Nagatas, is technically a pro wrestler since he's signed with NJPW and has been training, but hasn't actually began his career (and never does). He lost his first 2 matches in the Olympics after winning a silver medal in the 2000 Olympics. There's also Daniel Cormier, who is a big pro wrestling fan and wants to get into pro wrestling when he's done with the Olympics (after the 2008 Games, not these), and he was at a recent TNA show and had talks with them. One final note about the Olympics, as Dave talks about how weird the whole thing was overall. "Between the Dusty finish in swimming, the babyface being turned heel in gymnastics, the controversial officiating, the run-in during the marathon, and the post-match full-scale brawl after a wrestling match," Dave explains. The internet will never make me hate this man.
In what may be a first, a wrestling angle that happened in 1981 ended up drawing a big crowd in 2004. It's the famous Empty Arena match between Jerry Lawler and Terry Funk, in which Lawler stabbed Funk in the eye. Well, 23 years later, after cutting a few promos on local Memphis TV about how he was coming for revenge all these years later, Funk vs. Lawler drew more than 5,000 fans to the Mid-South Coliseum this week (it was actually Lawler and Jimmy Hart vs. Funk and Cory Maclin but whatever). It was the biggest non-WWE crowd in the United States since WCW folded 3 years ago and the largest crowd Memphis wrestling has drawn since a 1994 nostalgia show. The match saw Funk try to use the same piece of wood from 1981 to jab Lawler's eye out, but no luck there, although Funk did use his branding iron and branded Lawler on the ass with it at one point. This was kind of a one-off show with no plans for a follow-up, but after drawing a crowd like that, there will absolutely be another show although no one has any ideas for what they should do next.
It's Diss The Diva time! But before Dave goes into this, he actually shares a couple of past quotes from people like Kevin Dunn about how WWE doesn't like to go low-brow and how the Diva Search contest is going to be WWE's effort to find a classy woman who can represent WWE to the public and things like that. This is followed by Dave recapping the most obscene segment in Raw history. This week's Raw featured a "Diss The Diva" segment where each woman had 30 seconds to basically cut unscripted promos on each other and whew lordy, someone probably should have scripted these. But first, Dave talks about how much of a disaster this whole contest has been, with fans widely booing every segment for the past several weeks. Here's a bonus funny story: back when this was first announced, they said the Diva Search finals would be on the 9/13 Raw. That has now been pushed back to the 9/20 show. Why, you ask? Because no one in WWE thought to count the women and do the math on how many weeks it would take to eliminate one woman per week until after they started and no one realized the problem until last week.
Soooooo....the women were told beforehand that there was a 7-second delay in case anyone cursed, which the woman took as permission to say anything they wanted. WWE is well aware that all the other women hate Carmella DeCesare and this whole segment was basically designed to let the other women give her hell. And they let loose. Here's a few nuggets: "Having a cock in your mouth has nothing to do with wrestling, bitch." followed by "Carmella, you talk a lot of shit but you’ve got a gap so wide you could drive a truck right through there, baby." and finally, my personal favorite: "Carmella, you’re a cum-sucking gutter slut." A lot of fans, and many backstage, were very unhappy with the segment but Vince apparently loved it. Some of the stuff got censored on TV, but most of it didn't, and obviously the live crowd heard it all. Weber, DeCesare, Hemme and Giovanni are now the final four and one of these women will be getting a contract soon making $250k for a year and Dave predicts they will have to "live through ribs from jealous men and women who have spent years" in the business and will never make $250k in a a year. (Yeah that's pretty much exactly what happened. Hemme obviously won, but they hired several women from that Diva Search and they were all victims of harassment. Amy Weber in particular had some pretty fucked up stories about Randy Orton and Edge that she says made her quit the company. And one of Vince's hush money payments is allegedly to one of those as well). Anyway, here's the video. My favorite part of all of this is Stacy Keibler's deer-in-headlights "oh shit this is bad" reactions through the whole thing.
Preliminary buyrate numbers show SummerSlam is likely going to end up as the 2nd or 3rd lowest SummerSlam ever. The only one lower is the 1996 edition, although it's possible that it might pass the 1997 one as well once the final numbers come in. But regardless, not great. But still the 3rd highest of the year, so not all bad news. Just indicative of how far WWE has fallen since the Attitude Era peak a couple of years ago.
We get a whole section about this week's ratings, just like we do every week. I like to mention this from time to time because there's people who still believe Dave only started caring about ratings or demos when AEW came into existence. But no. This not only has the overall ratings, but we get lists of the highest rated segments in different major markets, what matches gained and lost viewers, and where the shows rank among all the different age demographics. He's been focusing on this shit since the 90s. And it's just as tiresome. Moving on...
Shinya Hashimoto worked his last match before going to fiiiiinally get shoulder surgery. He and Yoshiaki Fujiwara lost the tag titles and now Hashimoto is getting that shoulder fixed, which has been badly injured for over a year (and of course, this would turn out to be Hashimoto's final match ever).
Hulk Hogan's latest claim is that VH-1 is looking at doing a reality show with his family, while he's also said FOX and ABC are interested in doing a reality show based on him coming out of retirement to "save the wrestling business." There is some truth to this: he has had negotiations with VH-1 for a show based on his family but primarily to push his daughter's music career. As for the wrestling show idea, who knows? He's also talking about starting a new promotion with Ted Turner that would feature guys like Goldberg, Austin, Sting, Nash....all the big stars who aren't in WWE anymore. Dave says none of those names are going to wrestle full time ever again, and most of them are focusing on Hollywood careers currently. And Ted Turner isn't getting back in the wrestling business. So none of that is happening. If this was 5-6 years ago and all those guys could still work full time and weren't signed, then yeah, that'd be a hell of a nucleus to start a company with, but not in 2004. In reality, this is Hogan just trying to stir the pot in hopes that Vince will come running back, which is what Hogan always does. In other news, Hogan and his daughter were at the MTV Awards and most people were only talking about how Brooke (at 6'3 in heels) basically towered over everyone.
New York governor George Pataki vetoed the bill to change wrestling regulations in the state for events held in buildings with less than 1,500 capacity. It was some law that would have reduced the bond needed to run the show and eliminate the rule requiring doctors at the shows, among other things. The idea is that it would save small indie promoters money because right now, between the doctor and the $20,000 bond they have to put down, it's cost-prohibitive to run small shows in NY. Pataki's statement on the veto: "While I understand and appreciate the sponsor’s goal of lessening certain burdens related to the promotion of minor wrestling events, I am concerned that this bill could inadvertently jeopardize the health and safety of participants. Specifically, I see no compelling rationale for exempting promoters from the requirement of having a licenced physician present at each event. The mere size of the audience should not dictate the measures taken to ensure the health and safety of participants. Moreover, I have not been presented with any justification from drawing a distinction between minor and major events with respect to violations for conducting such events without a license. Finally, as the State Athletic Commission (which opposed the passing of the bill) notes, a reduction in the bond amount and an elimination of criminal penalties would unacceptably diminish its regulatory powers over such events and could compromise the health and safety of participants."
Bob Sapp has pulled out of an upcoming role in "Transporter 2" no reason given. He's being replaced by boxer Shannon Briggs. Meanwhile, Sapp, Nash, Austin, Goldberg, and the rest have finished filming their football scenes for "The Longest Yard" remake.
ROH announced Jushin Liger will be working 2 shows in November. It will be Liger's first time in the U.S. since working for WCW in 1999 and his first match ever on the American indie scene. They're looking to have Liger vs. Danielson as well as a tag match with Liger and Low-Ki against TBD. Samoa Joe was the go-between to help make this deal happen since he has connections with NJPW after working shows for the NJPW dojo in Los Angeles. The addition of Liger in November comes on the heels of Mick Foley and Jim Cornette also being announced for recent shows, as ROH is continuing to try and bring in big names for every show.
Attendance was down at the latest TNA tapings at Universl Studios. There were about 750 people there and there were visible gaps in the crowd. School is back in session for most kids, so attendnace at the park is way down, and TNA's crowds are mostly just park attendees who get in free. With winter coming, crowds are expected to get even smaller soon.
UFC's new reality show is expected to debut in January on Spike TV. It's currently scheduled to air immediately after Raw, in Spike's latest attempt to get something that will retain some of Raw's audience (big success this time).
Brock Lesnar has been cut by the Minnesota Vikings and as a result, the obvious question everyone is asking is will he return to WWE? His financial situation is key. Lesnar made a lof of money in WWE but he also spent a lot (bought a big ol' house away from everyone, got his own plane so he wouldn't have to fly with other people, etc.) so he still needs to make a living, he's not set for life. Furthermore, his fiancé Sable is no longer with WWE and has no guaranteed income either. Lesnar's agent said he would continue to pursue football, which likely means an attempt to play for NFL Europe but the odds are against him. Lesnar did an interview this week admitting he's still banged up from wrestling and his body may not be able to do it. "My body's not real good right now. But what the heck? For now, I’m living the NFL experience. Who else like me did what I did this summer?" Lesnar said. He did get one last pre-season play in, during the final play of the game with the Vikings win over the 49ers and got a tackle.
However, if Lesnar doesn't make it in football, his options are extremely limited when it comes to making money athletically. The terms of his contract reportedly stipulate that he can't sign with any other pro wrestling or MMA organization for some time. Lesnar has talked about returning to WWE if football doesn't work out. He's also expressed interest in MMA, and certainly all the promotions would be interested, but all of that's off the table as long as he's bound by the release he signed with WWE (oh does this ever become a big story in the coming years).
Edge suffered a ruptured groin (kill me) in a house show match with Jericho. The match was stopped and Edge walked out under his own power, but was in extreme pain. He's expected to be out 4-6 weeks and that's why they did an injury angle with him on Raw. Edge has had a rough go of it lately. This is his 3rd injury (injured foot, broken hand, and now this) since he returned from the big neck injury last year.
The Rock is headed to Prague next month to begin filming "Doom" while his next film "Spy Hunter" is scheduled for March, so you can probably count him out of Wrestlemania 21. Meanwhile, Rock's recent trip to Samoa saw him treated basically like a god. Big emotional ceremonies, he was made an official High Chief by the Samoan head of state and all that. The newspaper there called him "the most popular person ever to set foot in Samoa" and "undoubtedly the most famous Samoan of all time."
Notes from 8/26 Smackdown: Chavo Guerrero got knocked out cold during his match with Billy Kidman but it was edited off the show, although you could see brief shots of Chavo not moving in the background after. He spent the night in the hospital under observation for a concussion and it was a scary situation live. They showed a match graphic with JBL wearing his cowboy hat several inches over his head on top of his neck halo and Dave thought that was hilarious. Yeah this is famously pretty funny. In fact, Dave thinks JBL was pretty hilarious throughout the entire show, which is all well and good, but he still doesn't buy him as a world champion.
Various WWE Notes: Matt Hardy's knee surgery was a success and he's expected back in 6-8 months. The WWE films horror movie being produced for Kane is currently titled "Eye Scream Man." WWE's upcoming January PPV will be their first show in Puerto Rico in about 20 years.
There's a new dress code where wrestlers have to basically dress in business casual attire when traveling for the company. Needless to say, a lot of people aren't thrilled about having to wear uncomfortable clothing when traveling. There's a fine system in place, $500 for first offence, $1000 for second, and suspension for third. Several people, including some top stars, have already gotten first offence fines.
Ene Watts, the ex-wife of Bill Watts, owns the Mid-South tape library. WWE has been trying to buy it but she asked for $1 million and WWE isn't going anywhere close to that. With the WWE, WCW, ECW, AWA, and SMW libraries, they feel they already have more than they'll ever really need so they aren't willing to pay exhorbitant prices for anything else (they negotiated off and on for years and finally in 2012, WWE managed to acquire it. No idea what they ended up paying).
OVW thoughts: Dave thinks if Matt Morgan had come along 20 years ago, he'd have been a superstar but alas, it's not 1984. He recalls Big John Studd, who made top money everywhere he went, headlined every territory, and was a mega star. Morgan is taller and looks 10x better than Studd ever was, and even moves more athletically. He can't work a lick (he's outclassed in-ring by even most of the other OVW wrestlers) but his look is unbeliveable and his promo skills are good. But in today's WWE, you need more than that. Even his size doesn't stand out among some other main roster guys. Ken Doane is 18 and drawing a lot of comparisons to Randy Orton and Dave agrees that Doane right now is about the same level of ability Orton was at this age. But Orton also got a LOT better REALLY fast, and it remains to be seen if Doane can do the same (nah). And finally, with his look and cockiness, Dave thinks Johnny Nitro is going to be one hell of an undercard heel if he ever gets the chance because he's naturally good at this obnoxious character.
Oh, one more thing: Jim Cornette missed the latest OVW show because a water pipe burst in his home and flooded his house and he spent the day trying to save his irreplaceable collection of old wrestling memorabilia. I only mention that so I can share this video of Cornette showing his collection. He has some incredible stuff that I hope he has a plan for when he passes. There was actually a full 2-hour video that was released a few years back where Cornette spends the entire time going through his collection on video but it seems to have been removed from YouTube since I last saw it. So here's a brief clip from Vice instead.
Diva Search contestant Carmella DeCesare got into an altercation at a night club in Cleveland this week. A woman filed charges claiming DeCesare slapped her, kicked her in the head, and threatened to kill her after an argument that was somehow related to DeCesare's boyfriend, Cleveland Brown's QB Jeff Garcia. A local TV news producer was at the club and witnessed the whole thing and later claimed that DeCesare was indeed the aggressor (it came out later in court that her quarterback boyfriend was having an affair with this woman and DeCesare found out about it and attacked the woman. She ended up acquitted of assault but guilty of violating a restraining order. She and Garcia still got married a few years after this).
The original plan was to bring up OVW wrestlers Mark Magnus and Jimmy Snuka Jr. as a heel Arab tag team, but that has been scrapped. When Vince came to Louisville to visit OVW a few weeks back, he decided he wanted to bring Snuka Jr. up as a singles wrestler. So now Shawn Daivari, who was already wrestling in OVW, has signed a WWE deal and is being paired with Magnus (and thus the Muhammad Hassan and Daivari gimmick was born. Interesting to learn it was almost Snuka Jr., who would instead go on to become Manu and briefly join Legacy). EDIT: Yes, I got this wrong. He was Deuce not Manu. My bad.