October 11, 2004
- WWE is running a whole slate of house shows and TV tapings next week in Europe and it's expected to do huge business. Most of the shows have already sold out in advance, to the tune of several million dollars. Doing Raw and Smackdown over there is a funny story because Vince had to be convinced to do it. Over the years, the belief is that overseas tours had to last less than a week because they needed to get back to the U.S. to tape television and Raw always has to be live. Plus, the last time they did Raw overseas in 1997, the production values were poor and they lost to Nitro which was partially blamed on being tape delayed. But alas, they're doing it again. And the ticket sales are through the roof because despite plummeting popularity in America, WWE is still on fire in Europe. In fact, for the last couple of years, the big boost in business from overseas tours has gone a long way towards keeping them profitable when things were collapsing here. How long will the international market hold up? Who knows. Even during their worst period (1992-1997) they were still doing strong international business. So they've always got that to depend on.
- Elsewhere on the show, Kidman beat Paul London in the best match on the card, playing off Kidman's hesitancy to use the shooting star press, and then he snapped and hit it multiple times and sent London out on a stretcher. The crowd was dead for most of the match but got into it at the end and loved the post match angle and Dave thinks this whole thing was perfectly executed (and then completely forgotten). John Cena won the US title, which he dropped on Smackdown 2 days later to the debuting Carlito Caribbean Cool. More on that later, but Cena was only here for the PPV and the Smackdown taping before flying back to Australia to resume filming "The Marine." One final note, after the show went off the air and Undertaker was dead, JBL got on the mic to cut a promo on the booing crowd and he told them they live in a state where their governor is a child molester. (Needless to say, I looked into this. The governor of New Jersey at this time was Jim McGreevey and he was indeed in the midst of a scandal that would lead to him resigning as governor. However, from my research, McGreevey has had no allegations whatsoever of inappropriate behavior towards children. The scandal is that he had just come out as gay. So yes, this is indeed JBL calling a man a child molester for the simple crime of being gay).
- Joshi promotion Gaea unexpectedly announced that the company will be closing in April of 2005. The crowd of about 1,000 fans, mostly women, at Korakuen Hall were stunned and many began crying. Company president Ichiro Kimura made the announcement and it really shouldn't be surprising. Wrestling in Japan is in the worst shape its been in since the death of Rikidozan and all the other women's promotions are practically dead or close to it already. The promotion was founded in April of 1995 and its final show in April will be its 10th anniversary card. There's talk of re-opening the promotion later in the year under a new name and new management, but as it stands, Gaea has been struggling financially despite still being the most successful women's promotion going. Gaea has given options to several of its veteran wrestlers: if you want to continue your career elsewhere, go for it. But if you want to take this chance to retire, the promotion is willing to put on big retirement shows for names like Aja Kong, Manami Toyota, Devil Masami, and others. It remains to be seen if any of those women are ready to end their careers.
- New Year's Eve in Japan will be a two-show battle between PRIDE and K-1. As expected, Antonio Inoki's planned Bom Ba Ye event has been canceled. He'd run shows the previous 4 NYEs but his show got killed last year and lost a ton of money. Inoki had talked about running the show from North Korea again, and also talked of trying to put together a major NJPW show to go against the MMA cards, but that would have been a disaster. So he finally had to give up the fantasy. Inoki announced plans to spend the holiday with his family rather than promoting a show this year. The K-1 show is expected to be headlined by Royce Gracie vs. Akebono. The likely main event for the PRIDE show is Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs. Fedor Emelianenko to finally settle the true heavyweight champion debate (indeed, those were the headlining fights for both shows).
- We get an obituary for Lucha Libre legend Enrique Llanes who passed away at age 85. He debuted in Arena Mexico in 1942, became a cult favorite as a gutsy jobber, and eventually progressing past that to feud with the top names in Lucha. Lost his hair in a match to El Santo in 1949 and the fans were so upset that they stormed the ring and refused to let Llanes' head be shaved. They even blocked the aisle to keep him from being able to return to the ring to do it. When he went home that night, his mother saw him with a head full of hair and began crying, thinking he must have unmasked El Santo. When he told her what happened, his own mom made him shave his head right there in the house to live up to his word regarding the stipulation. He was best friends with Gori Guerrrero, who married Llanes' sister Herlinda. And of course, Herlinda Guerrero would go on to give birth to Eddie Guerrero. Yup, this dude is Eddie's uncle. He retired from wrestling in 1963 and went on to have even more fame as a sports announcer before retiring from that in 1995.
- As you recall, wrestlers Johnny Devine and Andy Douglas were stabbed after a TNA show recently. Devine posted about it on his website, saying that they were in a car leaving the night club when a car full of other guys began harassing them. A small car chase ensued and ended with the wrestlers being cornered in a parking lot. The police report says something about the other car was trying to goad them into racing. Everyone got out and the fight was on. According to Devine, the 2 wrestlers were beating up the 4 guys when one of them pulled a knife and, as knives tend to do, that changed the whole fight. Devine underwent a 4-hour surgery during which his gallbladder was removed and his intestines had to be re-attached to the abdominal lining that was cut. Backstage in TNA, there's heat on both wrestlers, with some feeling they shouldn't have gotten into the fight and others saying they made the business look bad by losing, which is some old school carnie bullshit. Plus, the guy had a knife. Come the fuck on.
- More backstage turmoil in TNA, as Kid Kash got into it with Andy Douglas about the stabbing incident, calling him a skinny punk and telling him he needs to get on the juice. Douglas' partner Chase Stevens intervened, and Kash began berating him and saying neither of them deserve the pushes they're getting and accused them of trading sexual favors for their push. Konnan and Monty Brown had to intervene to keep Stevens and Kash apart. Kash then went off on Bob Ryder who tried to get involved, saying this is a dispute between the boys and Ryder needs to stay out of it. He also talked down to the rest of the locker room, saying they're stuck in TNA because they have no options and he can go be a star in WWE anytime he wants. Dave says Kash has talent but he's delusional if he thinks WWE will ever give him a serious shot given his size. He might get a chance, but he'll never make it past undercard (indeed, he ends up in WWE in 2005 and does nothing of note and accomplishes nothing of note other than filling time on Velocity before getting released in 2006). Kash then tried to fight Abyss, who was also trying to calm things down, and Dave says that gives him the "Eddie Guerrero Award for Judgment." As expected, Abyss got Kash on the ground and held him there neutralized until he calmed down and people separated them.
- There's also frustration in TNA from the veterans who are cranky about the younger guys. It stems from some of the veteran talent being frustrated that these no-name indie wrestlers are being pushed so hard and say that's why the company is going nowhere. People are constantly pointing at AJ Styles (Dixie Carter's favorite), Abyss (Dutch's favorite), and AMW & The Naturals (Bob Ryder's favorites) for being pushed so much despite being unproven. Dave pretty much rolls his eyes at this nonsense and moves along.
- The reality of trying to promote shows without Shinya Hashimoto hit home this week for Zero-ONE, as ticket sales have collapsed. Hashimoto hasn't actually gotten shoulder surgery yet, which he was expected to have done weeks ago. He's been going from doctor to doctor, trying to find one who can do the surgery and will assure him that he can return quickly. But every doctor has told him no chance. He may have been able to make a quicker recovery if he'd gotten the surgery a year ago when he first injured it. But his decision to continue wrestling for a full year afterwards caused significant further damage and all the doctors have told him the recovery will likely take another year, if he can return at all. Hashimoto feels he can't afford to be out that long, but the reality is the longer he waits to get the surgery, the longer Zero-ONE has to try and make it without him.
- On a similar note, Zero-ONE's other top star Takao Omori suffered a broken orbital bone this week, but he's refusing to take any time off for the same reason. The company needs him. It's the same mentality that has Hashimoto's career in jeopardy right now.
- Vader is returning to AJPW for the Oct. 31 show to face Satoshi Kojima. Dave runs through the history of Vader being fired by NOAH and WJ in recent years, followed by his planned shoot fighting debut that got canceled when he got injured in training. (Turns out this Vader match doesn't happen and he doesn't actually return to AJPW until December for a one-off match and then not again until 2011).
- Mitsuharu Misawa still plans to have a singles match with Keiji Muto next year, since the NOAH/AJPW relationship seems to be going good right now. However, Misawa said he has no interest in facing AJPW Triple Crown champion Toshiaki Kawada (the Muto match never happens but of course, we get a final Misawa vs. Kawada match in 2005).
- 1984 Olympic gold medalist Mark Schultz fought an "MMA fight" against Leopoldo Montenegro in Brazil back in 2003, in one of the Jungle Fight shows put together by Antonio Inoki. Well, Schultz recently came out and noted that the whole thing was fake, "just like all the Inoki crap he does." Schultz said he was paid $5,000 to lose a pro wrestling match "but they double crossed me." He tells the whole story of working with Antonio and Simon Inoki on the whole thing and how they lied to him in an interview with Sherdog.com. "I hate all the Inokis, they're liars," he said. Here's the whole interview and it's a pretty wild story:
- Ring of Honor's latest show in Philadelphia featured the reunion of the full Midnight Express: Bobby Eaton, Dennis Condrey, and Stan Lane, managed by Jim Cornette. They did a 2-hour Q&A before the show (with Cornette doing most of the talking). During the show, Ricky Morton came out as a surprise and is, of course, the Midnight Express' biggest rival. He cut a heel promo saying ROH should have been honoring the Rock & Roll Express instead. It ended with the Midnights and Cornette beating everyone up, with Cornette hitting Prince Nana with the tennis racket. And the show was main evented by Samoa Joe retaining the world title over Bryan Danielson in what many said was the best match in ROH history. ROH in this era was so much fun man.
- Dave recently saw a Lex Luger shoot interview with RF Video and thinks its sad how far Luger has fallen. He was slurring his words and constantly complaining about the heat in the room even though the AC was blasting. When Luger did the WWA shows in Europe last year, he reportedly did the same thing, sweating profusely and complaining about the heat on the bus when everyone else was freezing (Buff Bagwell recently talked about this and said that's when he first realized Luger was going through withdrawals). Luger said he's tried to apologize to Vince about the way he left WWF in 1995 and wrote him a letter, but never heard back.
- Vince Russo gave notice that he's leaving TNA, following the release of Jerry Jarrett's book and the things that were written about him. Russo has been frustrated for awhile with feeling he was being pushed out of the creative picture anyway. Russo feels he's never been given the full control he thought he would have in TNA and believes he could help turn things around if Jerry Jarrett and Dutch Mantel would let him contribute. But Russo has turned down requests to comment on the situation publicly due to the things Jeff Jarrett is dealing with (his wife is battling cancer for the 2nd time) along with the pressures of running the company. Russo still seems to respect Jeff and doesn't want to make things harder for him, so Russo intends to quietly leave after the big 11/7 PPV (and so he does. This is the end of the road for Russo for awhile. He writes a book and gets heavily involved with church stuff and basically disappears completely from the wrestling business until 2006).
- Speaking of that PPV, TNA's first big 3-hour PPV dubbed Victory Road will take place on 11/7 and the planned main event is Jeff Jarrett defending the NWA title against Jeff Hardy, and not Monty Brown as originally planned. TNA feels like Hardy is a bigger star so they're going with him for the main event, which makes sense. But then Hardy is trying his damndest to mess it up. He no-showed the 9/28 Impact tapings without even calling or explaining things to anybody. They still pushed him for the following week's show despite everyone panicking backstage. He did show up the next week and the plan is still for him to headline the PPV, but he's not happy. He's reportedly told people that he left one miserable company (WWE) to join another miserable company that only exists as a vehicle to push Jarrett. Dave says there's a good reason why Hardy was released by WWE last year and TNA is learning that lesson the hard way now. Nothing is going to change for him unless he goes to get himself the help he clearly needs and TNA is going to pay the price if they keep turning a blind eye to things like this.
- D'Lo Brown is done with TNA. They wanted him to choose between AJPW and TNA and, well, he chose. It's a tough decision because neither promotion has a bright future right now, and D'Lo has a family and wanted to make the right choice. AJPW is paying him far more money than TNA, so that's what he decided to go with. TNA is pissed though because they'd already produced videos for his planned return (this is the kind of obscure lost wrestling media I'm fascinated by. Somewhere in the vaults of TNA's video library are unseen 2004 D'Lo Brown vignettes).
- Marianna Komlos, better known to Attitude Era WWE fans as Mrs. Beaver Cleavage, passed away from breast cancer this week at the age of 35. She was a former bodybuilder/fitness model and was a wrestling fan who was constantly trying to get into WWE through various connections she had (Rock, Trish Stratus, Bruce Prichard, etc.) She finally got the chance and they gave her the Mrs. Beaver Cleavage gimmick with former Headbanger Chaz, doing a weird mother/son incest angle. The gimmick sucked, people hated it, and it was dropped almost immediately. They tried a little more with her but around that time, her sister got breast cancer and she left the company to go back home to take care of her. Then 2 years later, she herself was diagnosed with it and after a 2 year battle, she passed. Damn, that's a tragic family situation there.
- The Rock is still keeping up with wrestling. Apparently he stayed up all night watching old tapes recently and he took some old 80s Championship Wrestling from Florida tapes with him to Prague where he's filming Doom. I wonder where he got those tapes and why Dave knows so much about it.......
- Notes from 10/4 Raw at Madison Square Garden: the big story was during the opening promo, when Ric Flair went a little off-script. Flair was talking about Randy Orton being a virgin in the business and then added, "and do you know how many virgins I have made holler, scream, and bleed all night long?" Well, Vince heard that and went absolutely fucking nuts backstage, more than most people have ever seen him, and many were afraid Vince might actually fire Flair over it. Vince loved it when Carmella DeCeasre was called a "cum-sucking gutter slut" on the same show where he's booking miscarriage angles a couple weeks ago, but this one was a bridge too far even for Vince. When Flair came back through the curtains, Vince was screaming at him at the top of his lungs. He was still pissed about it at the Smackdown tapings the next night. The reasoning is that it was MSG in New York City and Vince had invited a ton of potential advertisers and licensees to the show and didn't want to offend them. Otherwise, Orton was super over with the crowd and given that this was MSG, that's a good sign for him in Vince's eyes.
- Notes from 10/5 Smackdown tapings: Cena was the star of the show since it was in Boston. He was interrupted by the debuting Carlito, who spat an apple in his face and apparently got over strong during this segment. And then he won the US title in his debut match in the main event by hitting Cena with his own chain. Everything in between sounds mostly forgettable. More on this debuting Carlito next week (on the week Carlito is being let go by WWE, we're covering his debut here. Rewind Time Vortex remains undefeated.)
- WWE has been offering 5-year merchandising contracts to former wrestlers or their families, which includes rights for usage in video games, books, and other merchandising. The contracts offer a $10,000 advance upon signing, followed by a percentage of any merchandise with their likeness. This is all part of WWE's further attempts to monetize and promote its history with the roll out of the planned 24/7 channel. That is expected to start airing soon in Philadelphia as a test, and for $7 a month, it's basically a 24-hour channel of old wrestling stuff they own. Old PPVs, MSG shows from the 70s and 80s, all the old WCW and ECW shows, Prime Time Wrestling, etc. Some of the wrestlers who received these offers have said it's WWE's attempt to buy up and re-create the history of wrestling in the way they want it told.
- Former WWE diva Jacqueline is working on a movie called "Night Fever." (Okay, so I looked into this. She did an interview around this time saying she was going to be playing a character named Venus Jackson, a tough cop in Los Angeles and the movie was called "Knight Fever" and takes place mostly in the 1970s. I've looked into it and can't find anything about this so I'm guessing it never got made).
- The latest OVW featured the new Muhammad Hassan gimmick and Dave thinks it has potential. So far they've managed to avoid any of the obvious tasteless stuff like tying him to Saddam Hussein or making references to the ongoing Iraq war, and as a result, it's an effective gimmick and Mangus is pulling it off great. Also, the group of Johnny Nitro, Joey Matthews, and Melina, using the name MNM, is a great act that is probably ready for TV already.
- Rumor killer: Honky Tonk Man went on his website and claimed Kane was quitting WWE. Not true. Kane's contract is nowhere near expiring and he responded to the rumors by telling people he has no problems in WWE, hasn't tried to quit, doesn't want to leave, and still plans to film his WWE Films movie soon. In fact, if Kane was trying to quit, WWE would be in a panic because pre-production has already started on that movie and Kane pulling out would create significant problems. Kane has made millions in WWE over the last 8 years and is building a huge new home. So basically, Honky pulled that one out of his ass.