Wrestling Observer Rewinder

October 25, 2004

WWE's Taboo Tuesday is in the books. Dave was into the idea of the fan voting as a concept, because WWE needs to try new concepts if they insist on running 14 PPVs a year. But when this show was over, he wasn't so hot on the gimmick and it doesn't seem like fans were either. The show didn't come close to selling out, with tons of tickets available at every level, for a show in which the fans were allegedly in charge. The voting was only open for 24 hours and most of the voting went exactly as WWE anticipated and had been booking for. But it's true that none of the results were known until show-time, so it was a legitimate vote. And as an overall card, it wasn't great, but the individual performances of Shawn Michaels and Ric Flair basically saved the show. They almost got too cute with it though: the plan was always for Triple H to face Shawn Michaels, but Edge fucked around and nearly won the vote despite WWE trying to make him a heel for the last few weeks to discourage it. In the end, it still went to Shawn, but it probably shouldn't have. Shawn tore his meniscus in his left knee a few days ago and needs surgery. Shawn still worked the match and since he was very limited athletically, he instead put on a master class in dramatic selling and psychology and it still ended up being a great match because Shawn is just that amazing. They solidified the Edge heel turn by having him cost Shawn the match and that's expected to lead to a Shawn vs. Edge feud when he returns from the knee surgery, although Dave wouldn't be surprised if they forget about it before then the way they book things lately (he comes back in January and has, like, a 3-week feud with Edge before pivoting to the Kurt Angle feud, so they didn't forget about it but they didn't really do much with it either).
Other notes from the PPV: after they went off the air, Vince came out and they had a big goodbye celebration for Pat Patterson who, as noted last week, is retiring (not for long). Muhammad Hassan worked a dark match against Sgt. Slaughter which got a lot of heat when he did the Muslim spots. Shelton Benjamin won the IC title from Chris Jericho in a match that WWE spent weeks trying to get the fans to vote for Batista but nope, Shelton won the vote and the title. Women's title battle royal was voted to have all the women in schoolgirl outfits (beating out French Maid and Sexy Nurse as the other options, in case you weren't familiar with how WWE viewed the women's division back then). Snitsky dominated Kane in a chain match and is was a bad match but the angle was great and Snitsky injured Kane to write him off TV because Kane is headed to Australia soon to film a WWE movie, just like Cena. It was the most anyone has ever manhandled Kane, even more than Undertaker. Bischoff got his head shaved by Eugene, who was doing all the Hogan mannerisms, which Dave assumes means Hogan is coming back at Wrestlemania to get involved with Eugene (sure enough, that's exactly what happens). Christy Hemme vs. Carmella DeCesare was a lingerie pillow fight that was more excuse for T&A. And Randy Orton pinned Ric Flair in a cage match, which is Flair's first ever WWE PPV main event since his return and also his first ever WWE cage match. Flair was determined to steal the show, and did. This was a great, bloody match that ended with a mutual show of respect at the end.
Zero-ONE wrestler Naohiro Hoshikawa is currently in a coma after getting injured in a cage match against Tatsuhito Takaiwa. Hoshikawa underwent a 3-hour brain surgery (no word on whether his brain had to be removed) and is expected to survive, but doctors have said he will never wrestle again. Doctors told Zero-ONE staff that Hoshikawa suffered a hematoma on the brain. Hoshikawa had previous head injuries that may have been an underlying cause, including one that kept him out for months earlier this year. In fact, he had just recently returned from that, and a couple of weeks ago, he passed out backstage after a match. He went to the hospital that night but passed all the CT scans and was cleared to return. In this match, Hoshikawa took a powerbomb from the top of the cage and the impact seemed to rattle him. But he managed to get up, only to eat a stiff lariat and after that, he didn't get up. It's believed that Hoshikawa was supposed to duck the lariat, which is why his opponent threw his full force into it, but Hoshikawa didn't duck and got wiped out. Hoshikawa collapsed and started snoring and they immediately stopped the match.
It's an issue in Japan, as there have been several notable deaths in wrestling from head trauma in recent years, and Dave runs through them. Working through serious injuries is an issue with Zero-ONE especially. Shinya Hashimoto worked for a year with his shoulder basically destroyed because he felt like he couldn't take time off because the company might collapse without him (it's definitely struggling right now in his absence). With Hashimoto finally taking time to get surgery, top star Shinjiro Otani has the same mindset and is currently working matches with a broken orbital bone that he hasn't taken a single day off for. There's some heat on the company that Hoshikawa was allowed to return so soon after passing out backstage. For his part, Hashimoto has flown to Sapporo to be at the hospital with Hoshikawa and his family. (Hoshikawa survives but this does indeed end his wrestling career and left him with debilitating brain damage that he still suffers from today).
Quick MMA hit: UFC 50 was thrown into chaos at the last minute when Guy Mezger pulled out of the main event at the last minute due to stroke-like symptoms. UFC scrambled trying to find a last-second replacement and got turned down by nearly everyone and there were some questions about the New Jersey athletic commission allowing it. This leads Dave to a side-story where he says a few years ago, he was actually supposed to be a judge for a UFC card in Atlantic City (if you aren't aware, Dave was indeed a cageside judge for at least one of the early UFC PPVs). In order to do it, Dave had to get all sorts of medical tests taken. Just to be a judge. And on the day of the show, even though Dave had taken and passed all the tests and brought the paperwork from the hospital, the commission still wouldn't allow him to judge because they couldn't contact his actual doctor by phone (because the doctor wasn't working that day). Anyway, for this fight, they eventually got a guy named Patrick Côté to take the fight. As for Mezger, this is the end of the road for him. He ends up being forced to retire because of this stroke.
The final tryouts for WWE's upcoming Tough Enough took place in Venice Beach this week where they had a lot of obstacle courses and bench press competitions and whatnot to narrow down the 50 contestants to 8 finalists. It was made clear that WWE is looking for tall guys with good looks. In other words, most of the current WWE roster wouldn't have even made the cut if they were trying to get into WWE today. Dave runs down the contestants and here's some notable ones: the favorite is said to be Daniel Rodimer from Florida, with WWE sources saying that the company has already has already decided to hire him, win or lose. And as Taboo Tuesday showed, while the voting may be legitimate, WWE is going to do everything in their power to push fans toward the result they want. So expect Rodimer to be heavily favored by WWE in the forthcoming competition. Mike Mizanin, who wrestles as Mike The Miz in UPW, is mostly famous for being on MTV's "Real World" and other reality shows, and is by far the most experienced pro wrestler in the group and had way more TV poise than any of the others. Sources say he has basically everything except the physique and athletic ability of some of these former football players, but his mic skills almost guarantee he's got a good chance because he blew everyone else away on the mic. Daniel Puder is an MMA guy who they like. Justice Smith is a big guy, billed at 6'9, with some acting credits and a little pro wrestling experience. Nick Mitchell, a former college football standout (later becomes Mitch of the Spirit Squad). And finally, Ryan Reeves from Las Vegas (who eventually, years later, becomes Ryback after spending, like, 6 years in developmental).
There was another guy who Dave didn't get the name of who was thought to be a sure-thing to make the cut. But then WWE found out he lied about his age (he claimed he's 30 when he's actually 40) and so they cut him. But he looked incredible for any age, let alone 40 (this would end up being the future Boogeyman, but we'll get there). Former NFL player Louis Williams quit on the 2nd day because he was tired of being harassed by Bill DeMott and Dave notes several people there were annoyed at being "browbeaten by the coaches." Big John Studd's son tried out and didn't make the cut, which I only mention here because Dave hilariously calls him "El Hijo de John Studd." Former UFC fighter Wes Sims also didn't make the cut.
Universo 2000 won the CMLL heavyweight title this week, as consolation for recently losing his mask. Dave says the crowd at Arena Mexico, which has been sold out lately, creates an incredible atmosphere and this week's CMLL TV show was probably the best 1 hour wrestling show that has aired in a long time. Perro Aguayo Jr. may be the hottest heel in all of wrestling right now and gets insane heat. No other notes, just running down recent shows, but Dave is really loving CMLL right now.
So remember how Apolo recently married his valet Havana in a real wedding-turned-angle at a recent WWC show? Well, the post-wedding angle was done to write Havana out of the show and out of pro wrestling because Apolo doesn't want her in the business anymore. Here's the problem: Apolo apparently left his previous family to be with Havana. Since then, his ex-wife has taken him to court and Apolo's wages have been garnished due to unpaid child support from the family he abandoned. So the new Apolo/Havana household apparently needs money, so she might not be quitting wrestling yet after all because they can't afford for her to not work.
We get a brief obituary for Tomotsugu “Samson” Kutsuwada, one of the top stars of AJPW during its early years of the 1970s. There's a fun story here because Kutsuwada was fired by his mentor Giant Baba in 1977 and the story of why was secret for decades. Turns out Kutsuwada had found a financial backer who wanted to start a new promotion. Kutsuwada secretly planned to leave and attempted to take Jumbo Tsuruta with him. Tsuruta decided not to go and word got back to Baba that Kutsuwada was trying to poach his stars. Feeling betrayed, Baba fired him and Kutsuwada's new deal fell apart and he never worked in pro wrestling again.
Riki Choshu has a 3-match deal with NJPW (this week's Sumo Hall show, next month's Osaka Dome, and the Jan. 4 Tokyo Dome) but of course, that deal was all arranged through Uwai and he's gone now. But Antonio Inoki has voiced his support for Choshu's return, so as long as he's got Inoki behind him, he's fine. Fans were recently polled on who they'd like to see Choshu face (Dave notes that Inoki recently learned of WWE's Taboo Tuesday plans and has become enamored with the fan voting concept). Fans voted Nagata, Tenzan, Shibata, and Tanahashi in that order. Inoki also publicly called for Akira Maeda to come out of retirement for the Osaka Dome show, but that's not happening. Just another example of Inoki teasing something he can't deliver.
Speaking of Inoki hyping things that will never happen, he spoke of running a major show in Italy that would be headlined by Team Inoki vs. Team Ali, with the idea being to get Muhammad Ali to come in as the team's coach against a team coached by Inoki. He's also talked about having the most popular names of the 80s (Tiger Mask, Fujinami, himself, etc.) on the show along with names like Ali, Bob Sapp, Akebono, Chuck Norris, Hulk Hogan, and Jean Claude Van Dam. This is absolutely never going to happen, Dave says. But it's all part of NJPW's plan to expand globally, which is the brainchild of NJPW president Masakazu Kusama. According to what Dave has been told, Kusama is an outsider to the wrestling business who has experience in other ventures and has no real understanding of pro wrestling, but thinks he does. If NJPW's decline continues (and there's no sign that it's going to stop anytime soon), Kusama is the guy who gets the blame and is guaranteed to be a casualty of Inoki's sooner or later. And if NJPW does turn around, well, Inoki will surely be taking the credit.
Ultimo Dragon wrestled his final match under that gimmick in a match where he teamed with Jushin Liger and Great Sasuke against Tiger Mask, Tiger Mask III, and Tiger Mask IV. In particular, Satoru Sayama (the original Tiger Mask) is Dragon's hero and he was super excited to finally get to wrestle (and lose to) him. After the match, Dragon removed his mask and announced plans to return to WWE and resume wrestling under his real name Yoshihiro Asai (nah. He never returns to WWE and, far as I can tell, never wrestles under his real name. A month after this, he's in CMLL working as Ultimo Dragon and continues to do so to this day). The undercard featured some of Dragon's proteges, namely a young wrestler named Taiji Ishimori who shows a lot of potential. (I had video of this match when I first wrote this but it seems to have since been removed from Youtube).
The latest on last week's "New Jack stabbed a guy" story: the gist is New Jack was irritated with his opponent William Lane because he didn't seem smart to certain aspects of the business (in particular, he wasn't keeping kayfabe when a fan got backstage or something) so when they got to the ring, New Jack worked stiff to teach this indie guy what the business is like. And for New Jack, "stiff" means stabbing him in the head 14 times. So that's what he did. A police officer was at the show and realized that what was happening in the ring had gone beyond wrestling and that Lane was in legit distress, and that's how New Jack got arrested. Lane has since been released from the hospital, while New Jack remains in jail 2 weeks later because no one has posted his $40,000 bond. The story was carried nationally by AP and was on the Drudge Report and as a result, this has gotten more mainstream press than wrestling has had in awhile.
Canadian TV network CBC did a series on the 50 Greatest Canadians of all time and Bret Hart was voted #39. Aside from El Santo in Mexico, Dave isn't sure any pro wrestler in any other country would crack the top 50. Even in Japan, someone like Inoki, Baba, or Rikidozan wouldn't even make the top 50 these days. Just Bret and Santo. Hart was called "A real hero of a fake sport" and they named him punching out Vince McMahon after the Montreal Screwjob as his most heroic accomplishment. They showed the Wrestling With Shadows footage of a dazed McMahon stumbling out of the locker room ("the footage McMahon begged to get taken out of the movie," Dave notes).
Things seem to be tense between Steve Austin and Goldberg. They're still filming "The Longest Yard" movie and Goldberg is mostly keeping to himself while Austin hangs out with Kevin Nash on set every day. This all stems from Austin being in talks to return to WWE. Goldberg was really hung up on the idea of he and Austin doing an independent PPV together, but Austin has basically decided he'd rather go back to WWE. Probably doesn't help that Nash is now in the middle because he's always stirring shit. Nash has said that Goldberg still thinks it's 1998 and he's not as big a star as he thinks he is anymore and doing a PPV like that on their own is probably a bad idea.
Speaking of Nash, he and Scott Hall are still planning to go to TNA for their upcoming PPV and Austin is trying to talk him out of it. Austin hates the Jarretts and doesn't like what he's seen of TNA and asked Nash why he was gonna bother going there and urged him to call Vince and try to get back in WWE instead, even if it's a backstage role. TNA has already started advertising Hall and Nash (even though neither man has actually signed anything) and Austin told Nash that Vince would probably sign him to a big money deal just because he'd be happy to see TNA get screwed over (which Dave admits would be Jarrett's own fault for promoting people he hasn't got signed. "You'd think they would have learned something from Hulk Hogan."). Vince still hates Jarrett for the way he left the company in 1999 so Austin said Vince would happily re-sign Nash for the simple revenge of getting one over on Jarrett. No word on what Nash is gonna do.
Former CZW wrestler Johnny Kashmere was badly beaten up at his home by current CZW wrestler Wifebeater. Apparently Kashmere has been saying negative things about CZW online since he quit the company earlier this year. So Wifebeater and another unnamed wrestler went to Kashmere's house to confront him. It started as a conversation and then Wifebeater pulled Kashmere out of the house and began beating his ass in the yard. Kashmere suffered a concussion and a foot injury and other scrapes and bruises. CZW has had no comment on the matter. (I can't find much more info about this online but this is right at the end of Wifebeater's career, as he's pretty much done with wrestling at this point).
The latest ROH show featured a rematch of CM Punk vs. Samoa Joe and for the second time, the match went to a 60-minute draw. Dave hasn't seen it yet but has heard it was better than their first match. Mick Foley later said it was one of the best matches he's ever seen. Fans were so into the match that, near the end, Foley went into the stands to watch with the rest of the crowd and they didn't even pay attention to Foley sitting there with them, they was too enamored with the match. Foley was there because he's been working an angle with Ricky Steamboat over the merits of hardcore wrestling in ROH and their back and forth promos were great. During the promos, Foley has taken several jabs at Ric Flair, much to the delight of the crowd. Foley is still pissed about what Flair said about him in his book and while Foley is fine using their real life heat as an angle in ROH, he's repeatedly said he has no interest in actually doing an angle with Flair in WWE because he doesn't want to do anything to help Flair benefit financially from what he wrote.
Sean Waltman is not coming back to TNA and it's an issue. Hall and Nash wanted him to come in with them because they want someone in their group that can do all the big bumps when working matches. But Jeff Jarrett shot it down because of all the bad experiences they had with Waltman and Chyna the last few times they worked with him.
WWE is interested in Chris Harris and James Storm when their TNA deals expire. Both men have asked advice of other wrestlers and most everyone has recommended that they should make the jump if they get the offer, although some have said they should give TNA the chance to match any offer out of loyalty to the company since TNA basically made them.
Jeff Jarrett pitched an idea to IWA's Victor Quinnones about running a joint TNA/IWA PPV in Puerto Rico around the same time that WWE is bringing their PPV to town, as a way to try and hurt the WWE PPV. Quinnones turned down the offer. IWA is currently dominating the wrestling war against WWC and the last thing he wants to do is anger Vince McMahon and have him get revenge by running Puerto Rico more often or sending WWE talent to WWC. They got no interest in making an enemy of WWE.
Remember the interview last week from former TNA wrestler Joe E. Legend trashing Jeff Jarrett and calling his wife's cancer "karma?" Well Dave has more context. Legend is from Canada but was living in Europe and working when TNA started. According to Legend, he said Jarrett promised him that he wanted to make him a big star and focal point in TNA, but he couldn't afford to fly him in from Europe for shows. Jarrett allegedly told him that if he moved back to Canada, he could fly in more regularly and be a top guy. Legend said they had a handshake agreement on that (first mistake) and so Legend moved back to Canada. And then as soon as he did, Jarrett cut his appearance pay by $200. Dave notes that this is before Panda Energy swooped in and saved them and that TNA was days away from going out of business when this happened. Legend also talked about wrestling Jarrett and said he was surprised how much he had to carry him, given that Jarrett has been around for decades. He also said their match was supposed to be 15 minutes but just before they went out, Jarrett said the show was running long and cut the match to 3 minutes. But it turns out the show wasn't running long and Jarrett just didn't want to sell for him. Then he basically sat at home for 7 months while no one in TNA would respond to his calls or messages. He called Jarrett a no-talent scumbag who only ever got anywhere because of his father. He also claims Jeff Jarrett ran ICP out of TNA because they were more over than he was (true, for awhile there, ICP was basically TNA's top draw). He said he wouldn't put it past Jarrett to lie about his wife's cancer for internet sympathy. He also called Dutch Mantell "a small-time nobody and total coward who masqurades as intelligent."
WWE did a major marketing survey this week, as they hired a company to call 50,000 fans from their merchandise list to poll them on various things about the product. How many PPVs you've purchased, how much you would spend on tickets/hotels for Wrestlemania, etc. Stuff like that. They also asked fans opinions on various wrestlers (Triple H, Hogan, Cena, Orton, Rock, Foley, Angle, Undertaker, and Sting) and also asked for thoughts on current storylines and suggestions for improvement.
WWE filed a lawsuit this week against Jakks Pacific, THQ, Stanley Shenker & Associates (a licensing firm) and other various subsidieres and execs of said companies, alleging bribery, RICO violations, falsfified accounting records, purjury, destruction of evidence, and more. This all stems from a suit Shenker's firm filed against WWE, claiming they were owed commission. WWE discovered "irregularities" in the firm's work awhile back, which led to WWE firing its own VP of licensing, James Bell. Apparently, Bell was colluding with Shenker to receive kickbacks from licensing deals that he made on behalf of WWE and funneled the money into a foreign bank account. This all stems back to the 90s. Shenker was working as an agent for WWE and for Jakks Pacific and Jakks basically bribed Shenker in order to help them secure the toy deal with WWF, and Shenker split that bribe money with Bell. Sounds like he did something similar with the video game deal WWE signed in 1999. At the time, WWE's video game deal was with Acclaim and they contacted WWE officials and complained that Bell wouldn't even listen to any proposal that would allow Acclaim to keep the video game license (because Bell was already collecting tens of thousands of dollars to make sure the deal went to Jakks, who didn't even have a video game division at the time). The deal ultimately went to a partnership of Jakks and THQ video games, which is co-owned by Jakks founder Jack Friedman. Sometime around 2000, WWE got wind of everything that was going on. They fired Bell and stopped doing business with Shenker, who then filed suit against WWE claiming breach of contract. During discovery for all this legal stuff, WWE learned of all these under the table payments and off-shore accounts (Bell received more than $1 million in kickbacks during all this). In 2003, Shenker's lawsuit was dismissed with the judge ruling that he and Bell committed fraud on WWE. And thus, a little while later, this is WWE filing their own lawsuit against everyone involved. WWE is still contracted to Jakks and THQ for their various toy and video game deals and are now trying to have those contracts voided due to the fraud. Jakks stock took a huge tumble when the lawsuit was announced. (This spends a long time tied up in court so just to give everyone some closure: both Shenker and Bell end up going to prison over this. Shenker got 2.5 years while Bell got 8 months, and both were ordered to repay the money. Shenker $2.8 million and Bell around $1 million).
Notes from 10/14 Smackdown: they're doing a storyline where someone stabbed John Cena in a bar fight to explain him being off TV while he films his movie. Coming just a week after two TNA wrestlers were stabbed in a similar situation, it seems likely that was the inspiration for this. And Dave thinks JBL would make the best comedy midcard act in WWE but alas, he's WWE champion instead. That's about it.
Notes from 10/18 Raw: Eugene got annihilated by Snitsky and Dave is amazed that someone who was as over as Eugene, who was pushed so hard that he was literally wrestling Triple H at SummerSlam 2 months ago, is now getting squashed like a jobber. Lita confronted Snitsky backstage screaming that he killed her son. Dave says the only thing killed by this is ratings. Flair and Batista faced Orton and Jericho and I only mention this because right before the match, they aired clips of Jimmy Kimmel making fun of Flair and calling him 95-years-old and things like that. Dave can't understand why they would play a clip of a mainstream celebrity trashing one of the few wrestlers they haven't destroyed (not for a lack of trying, but Flair's mostly bulletproof) and making him look washed up. It's the kind of shit WCW used to do to Flair that destroyed his confidence. This was followed by Flair coming out, evidently with something to prove, because he wrestled his ass off and was the most popular guy in the building with the Chicago crowd. Christian got to go face-to-face with Vince on the mic and he was great, calling his fans the "Christian Coalition" and Dave thinks that one might actually get over. Otherwise, a lot of political references and inside jokes on this show, since we're only a week or so away from the presidential election. Two separate "debates" plus Christian trying to get Vince to "endorse" him for the IC title and things like that. Also, they had Christy Hemme kissing Lillian Garcia, which I only mention because we found out years later that this was actually a punishment for Lillian. Evidently she "partied a little too hard" on the European tour and missed her bus to the airport, causing WWE to have to change her travel arrangements. The lesbian kiss, which she was apparently extremely uncomfortable with, was said to be her punishment. Fuckin' Vince man....
Notes from next week's Smackdown tapings: Carlito tried to hit on Torrie Wilson and got shot down. Dave notes that Fonzie never got turned down by the hot girl 2 weeks after debuting the cool guy gimmick, but that's WWE for you. Then he pinned Rico in the "who gets to gay bash Rico this week?" gimmick because, again, that's WWE for you. They continued the storyline where John Cena was apparently stabbed off-screen. Carlito denied any responsibility and Dave jokes that they should check the Jacksonville jail if you want to find the guy who stabs wrestlers because that's where New Jack still is. Carlito refused to answer questions about it until his lawyer was there. "Speaking of, whatever happened to Congressman Condit?" Dave asks in an unbelievable throwback reference.
John Laurinaitis met with NWA Wildside promoter Bill Behrens about making Wildside a WWE developmental territory. And if you want to know what WWE is looking for these days, Laurinaitis spelled it out clear as day for him: they want guys who are at least 6'2 and 250 pounds and in particular, "they're looking for big guys to bring in and whether they can work or not isn't considered of prime importance." Basically no one in NWA Wildside fits this standard, and quite a few already in WWE don't either. And that's why they aren't pushed. Dave lists a bunch of established stars (Benoit, Guerrero, Foley, Mysterio, Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, Ric Flair, Roddy Piper, Randy Savage) and says that if any of those people showed up to developmental today, brand new, they wouldn't even be allowed to make it past the front door. It's always been like this though: Dave tells a story about how WWE officials watched the 1994 When World Collide PPV (which featured names like Mysterio, Guerrero, Benoit, Art Barr, and others) and the only person who got a call from WWE afterwards was Louie Spiccoli, who was juiced out of his mind on that show. The rest had to go prove themselves in ECW and WCW before Vince ever bothered to consider them.
More on Jamie Noble's WWE release: Noble went to the doctor for a cyst of some type. He then brought the medical bills back to WWE so they could reimburse him because that's how WWE handles it when people get injured on the job (worth noting that this is exactly what CM Punk claimed that he had to do when he was injured in AEW). Anyway....in the report, Noble's doctor indicated that the cyst came from Noble injecting a steroid shot. Uh-oh! WWE, upon seeing this, felt like their hands were tied and they had to take action. Everyone in WWE is on steroids, but most people are smart enough not to hand WWE a documented paper trail proving it. WWE felt they had no choice but to take action because ignoring it could have insurance ramifications for the company if they paid the bill. So he was released instead, but it was implied that they will bring him back eventually (yup, he comes back in about a year).
Some random financial info that might be interesting, coming from WWE's latest stock reports: the average production cost of a TV show (Raw or Smackdown) is $496k. The break even number for the average PPV is 110,000 buys which WWE more than doubles every time. That number can fluctuate because talent pay is based on a percentage so they could probably break even at 100k buys. And if things ever got that bad, they would be cutting talent pay anyway.
Pat Patterson's departure has left something of a feeling of hopelessness in WWE. Everyone knows the reasons he left (basically fed up with the current product and disapproval of Triple H's involvement in creative) and the belief is that if Pat Patterson, of all people, is throwing in the towel, then there's no hope that anything is ever going to get better. Basically, if Pat Patterson can't get Vince to open his eyes and see all the problems, then nobody can. Once Pattterson's feelings about Triple H became known publicly, Triple H immediately complained about having Patterson acting as an agent for his matches, which is a big deal because Triple H's matches are usually the main events and that's usually been Patterson's agent role. Vince put a new agent in charge of Triple H's matches and took Patterson off the headset in the truck, which is where he'd been working. Many saw that as a slap in the face to Patterson and feel that was the last straw that finally made him quit.