Wrestling Observer Rewinder

November 22, 2004

WWE's Survivor Series is in the books and this was a dud of a show. Last year, Survivor Series was the start of the build towards Wrestlemania, developing several storylines that paid off 6 months later. This year? Nothing. The show ended with Orton pinning Triple H in the elimination main event to win the match for his team, which seems to set up the long-planned Triple H vs. Orton match at Wrestlemania. But they've had a couple matches now and no one is really clamoring to see them run it back again anytime soon. Problem is, there's nothing better on the horizon that anyone wants to see either. You could have missed this PPV and you would have missed nothing of importance. They drew less than 8,000 people to the arena with a lot of freebies floating around town in the days before.
Other notes from the PPV: The Smackdown team match saw both Carlito and Angle barely able to participate due to injuries, leaving Luther Reigns and Mark Jindrak to carry the load for their team and you can imagine how good that was. Cena chased Carlito to the back and ran him out of the building to explain him not working the match. Cena, who was supposed to have been stabbed by Jesus, showed no sign of it. They even had Cena explain it in a segment with Guerrero, by simply saying he has a good doctor. Sure. Undertaker vs. Heidenreich would have been an awful 5-minute match, so why WWE booked them to go 15 minutes is beyond Dave, but it was a stinker. Cruiserweight match was good, Shelton vs. Christian was the best thing on the show. Snitsky and Heidenreich had a weird backstage grunting segment where they bonded over their love of killing babies and poetry, respectively. Vince apparently thought this was "brilliant" but there's no plans to do anything with the two guys. Just a chance to have an inter-promotional moment (Vince was right: this was amazing). JBL vs. Booker T was everything wrong with WWE right now. Ref bumps that the crowd groaned about, the heel winning via cheap means, the crowd booing it which WWE continues to mistake for heat rather than what it really is, an audience that is tired of the same ol' shit. And the Raw elimination match main event is notable for being the answer to a future trivia question: what PPV did both Snitsky and Maven main event? Also, Snitsky got his orbital bone fractured during this. Anyway, this match was fine but the whole overall show was as forgettable as an episode of Velocity.
Speaking of big shows, NJPW just ran the Osaka Dome. Why? No idea. With no big angles, no hot storylines, and no good reason to run an Osaka Dome show, they did it anyway and went with something of a Taboo Tuesday-style idea. Fans were polled and surprisingly, Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi is what the fans wanted to see in the main event. Two of the young, future stars of the company. This is a great match on paper that could kickstart a feud that could carry the company in the future. So they announced the match....
Aaaaaand....tickets did not sell. A few days before the show, NJPW began to panic. So Antonio Inoki came in and rearranged the whole card and succeeded in making it significantly worse. The Nakamura/Tanahashi match was canceled, as was the Kawada/Tenzan match (AJPW vs. NJPW, Triple Crown vs. G-1 winner). Those were the 2 matches fans were looking forward to most (especially since it was heavily rumored that NJPW's Tenzan would be winning the Triple Crown title). Instead, Inoki reached out to HUSTLE and brought in Naoya Ogawa to kick off a NJPW vs. HUSTLE feud, doing a Ogawa/Kawada vs. Tanahashi/Tenzan match. He also made a new tag team main event featuring Kazuyuki Fujita & Kendo Kashin vs. Nakamura & Manabu Nakanishi. When Vince panics, he goes with big guys. When Inoki panics, he goes to shooters. The IWGP title match (Kensuke Sasaki defending against Minoru Suzuki) was basically middle of the card, an extreme rarity for that title in NJPW, and even worse, it's said that upwards of 2,000 people left after that match because the hardcore NJPW fans hate HUSTLE (it's a "sports entertainment" promotion) and they had no interest in seeing Inoki's 4-shooters main event. Attendance was announced as being 28,000 but the real number was closer to 15,000 and that was with significant free tickets. It was the worst attended stadium show in NJPW history. Furthermore, after nuking the original card, Inoki went one step further by having Nakamura, Tanahashi, and Shibata all do jobs in top matches, all to wrestlers who aren't even under NJPW contracts (Fujita, Kawada, and Tenryu respectively). Following the main event match, Inoki entered the ring and began kicking and hitting Nakamura and berating him for not showing enough fighting spirit and losing. Later, Inoki spoke to the press and basically trashed all the wrestlers, saying they don't work hard enough. "The man is nuts," Dave says.
In case you're curious to hear Tanahashi's thoughts about this whole debacle years later, he has spoken about it and as you might expect, he wasn't thrilled:
-Fast forward to November 19 and the Osaka Dome. There was a fan vote to determine the main event on that card, and you versus Shinsuke Nakamura won that vote. Then three days before the show Inoki vetoed the whole thing and scrapped the match. So in the end you and Hiroyoshi Tenzan teamed against Naoya Ogawa and Toshiaki Kawada, who were on the HUSTLE roster at the time, while Nakamura and Manabu Nakanishi faced Fujita and Kendo Kashin. How did you take all that?
Tanahashi: It was a complete pain in the ass. I think at this point people had just about had enough with Inoki's meddling.
-Inoki was scathing toward your match with Nakamura and said that it wouldn't draw. But what was in place really didn't grow traffic to the match, so one wonders how well the original card would have done as was.
Tanahashi: Well, I don't think me or Nakamura were anywhere near showing what we were capable of at that point, but even so, it really felt like we were fumbling around in the dark and fed bullshit the whole time.
-This was the only time you faced Ogawa.
Tanahashi: I was caught between being in such a foul mood and knowing I had to do my best with the match. I do remember Ogawa using an overhead judo takedown and me popping right back up.
-You lost to Ogawa that night, but after the match had harsh words for him. You said that Ogawa was nothing but a name with no ability.
Tanahashi: I was bitter, straight up.
-Toward Ogawa?
Tanahashi: I still couldn't let that match with Shinya Hashimoto slide.
-The infamous 'January 4 incident' of 1999. The match broke down into a fight. It's an incident fans have talked about for decades since.
Tanahashi: I couldn't forgive that. It was a mess, and the press were siding with Ogawa over the whole thing. Pro-wrestling is supposed to be about the two of you, it's supposed to be about thinking of your opponent, but Ogawa was only in it for himself. He wasn't thinking about the business at all. And I think in the long run, it ruined Hashimoto's career.
-That's why you were so conflicted.
Tanahashi: I was hurt, I was mad, I was disappointed in everything. I was really holding onto a lot.
One of the most talked-about matches of the year was the October 60-minute draw between Samoa Joe and CM Punk for the ROH title. It was their second 60-minute draw and was considered by many to be one of the best matches in years. Mick Foley called it one of the best matches he's ever seen and noted that he went out to the crowd to watch it and the fans were so rapt by the match that no one even noticed Foley was in the crowd with them. Having finally seen it (the DVD was just released), Dave agrees. This was incredible. He gives it the full 5 stars and goes on to heap praise upon Joe, Punk, and the ROH fanbase for making this match special. And to ROH and NOAH for being the only wrestling companies in the world that have protected their world titles so that they actually mean something.
In Puerto Rico, Carlos Colon (of WWC) and Invader I (of IWA) appeared on a popular talk show SuperXclusivo together for a face-to-face to talk about why Invader I quit WWC last year and jumped ship to IWA. Colon was upset that Invader has been disparaging WWC after working with them for decades and noted that after the death of Bruiser Brody, Colon stood behind him and helped pull him out of a deep depression. Invader admitted that was true and thanked him for it, but noted that he left WWC because he had been removed from his booking position for suggesting that Carly and Eddie Colon were being overpushed. Colon noted that Carly is now a star in WWE and that they're interested in Eddie also, so they must not have been that overpushed. He seemed to want to try to bury the hatchet but Invader refused.
There's a lot of drama with Zero-ONE and the promotion's top star and company founder and president Shinya Hashimoto. It seems Hashimoto is being accused ot spending company money for personal use, despite the fact that the company is struggling desperately without Hashimoto (who is still out injured). Virtually everyone wants to kick Hashimoto out of the company over this, despite the fact that he is far and away their biggest drawing star and losing him might cripple the company's long-term prospects. But this situation is apparently so serious that they still wanted him gone regardless so he's reportedly out. Speaking of, Hashimoto recently left his wife and kids and is now living with the widow of Kodo Fuyuki, who passed away last year. There is speculation that the 2 of them may be working to start their own new company. Dave thinks it's pretty wild that Hashimoto risked his career by delaying badly needed shoulder surgery because he was afraid Zero-ONE couldn't survive without him. And then when he finally did take time off, he evidently stole so much money that he just got kicked out of the company anyway. Zero-ONE is currently operating without a president, and Yuji Nakamura and Shinjiro Otani are said to be working to restructure the company, either using the same name, or under a new name (last year of Hashimoto's life was, uh, interesting to say the least).
Jushin Liger is hoping to get a run in WWE before he wraps up his career. Dave assumes Liger must not have paid attention to how the Ultimo Dragon/WWE experiment worked out. (Well, he got the one match in NXT so I guess that sorta counts).
Harley Race is among the names being inducted into the International Wrestling Hall of Fame this year. It's interesting to Dave because in the past, Lou Thesz was heavily involved in handpicking the inductees for this. And if Thesz were alive today, he would NEVER have approved Race being inducted. Thesz had zero respect for Race. Whenever his name would come up, Thesz would always say, "The guy in the ring should at least be in better shape than the guy in the front row buying tickets." He never liked Race being the NWA champ and felt he didn't deserve it because he didn't look the part and had no amateur wrestling background. Dave says Thesz often spoke more highly of Hulk Hogan than he did Race, since he at least felt like Hogan looked like a world champion. Anyway, Dave disagrees with all this and says if you're going to have a pro wrestling Hall of Fame, then Harley Race has to be a no-brainer.
Jake Roberts was convicted in his animal cruelty case this week in England. Roberts didn't attend the trial and a warrant was issued for his arrest following the ruling. His punishment has yet to be determined, although it's likely he will receive community service, a fine, and be banned from owning reptiles. Roberts' girlfriend who lives with him was also charged in the case but was acquitted. Worth noting that Roberts is technically living in England as an illegal immigrant, but the government there does a poor job of enforcing those laws and there's no talk of him being deported. If you recall, the RSPCA got a tip that a snake was being mistreated and investigated and found Jake's pet python (the latest version of Damien) had been starved and neglected and it later died (look, I'm very happy that Jake has turned his life around and I don't like to bash someone for the things they did when they were at their lowest points. But I'm also an animal-lover and this story fucking enrages me every time I read about it).
There was a wrestling convention in New Jersey this week with a lot of old wrestlers. Notably, both ROH execs and RF Video's Rob Feinstein were there trying to score shoot interviews and basically competing with each other to get different wrestlers. There's plenty of bad blood here, which the ROH side made clear when they all showed up wearing PervertedJustice.com t-shirts (that would be the website that busted Feinstein).
Actor Burt Reynolds recently filed a lawsuit against his ex-girlfriend Pamela Seals, claiming that she is attempting to extort him by threatening to falsely accuse him of domestic violence and drug abuse unless he paid her millions. Fun fact: Seals used to be the long-time girlfriend of Barry Windham. I bet none of you ever imagined that Barry Windham and Burt Reynolds are Eskimo brothers.
There's speculation that the Hogan/Savage incident at the TNA PPV last week may have been a work that Hogan and Savage are in on together and didn't tell TNA about. Dave is doubtful, and in fact, is willing to go so far as to say he's pretty confident that it's not a work. Mainly because Savage came out of the situation looking so bad (refusing to step outside to fight Hogan, quitting TNA 2 days later, claiming "unsafe work environment" because of Hogan, etc). Anyway, after he quit and no-showed the TV tapings following the PPV, TNA officials and Savage sat down and worked things out and Savage now plans to return. They officially announced Savage as part of the babyface team for the main event of next month's Turning Point PPV. Savage insisted that Jimmy Hart has to stay away from him at all times or he won't come to the show. "Being that Hart is such an intimidating guy, I guess," Dave jokes. Savage and Jimmy Hart had a bit of an argument about Hogan on the radio last year during Savage's appearance on the Mancow show, so Savage hates Hart too. Meanwhile, Savage's close friend Brian Adams (Crush) appeared on a radio show this week and trashed the Jarretts for how they treated Savage, claiming that they brought Hogan in and flaunted him around backstage in front of Savage on purpose, and called them unprofessional (Savage was in a very weird, paranoid phase of life during this time).
Speaking of Hogan, he was friendly to everyone there and was very popular among the TNA talent. Hogan was telling people that he has had talks with WWE, but Vince just wants him to put guys over and he doesn't want to do that. He told them that, because of the FSN deal, he's leaning more towards TNA than WWE right now. Sure Jan. On the same note, Savage was said to be very nice to everyone backstage also, although some were worried about his mental state because he seemed to have trouble recognizing or remembering people that he has worked with in the past.
TNA has seemingly attempted their own version of DX invading WCW. Last week, WWE was taping a big budget commercial for the Royal Rumble and brought in all the big stars to film it....at Universal Studios. TNA came up with an idea to have Scott Hall and Kevin Nash go invade the film shoot while they TNA cameras film it. Hall and Nash were like, "Nah we're good on that." Probably because they (wisely) don't want to burn any bridges. So instead, TNA rounded up Abyss, Traci Brooks, Shane Douglas, Konnan, Ron Killings, and B.G. James and sent them over. They brought cookies and balloons and claimed to be coming in peace. At one point, the idea was to run up on Vince McMahon and try to interview him (Douglas had a little microphone) and at one point, they saw Vince outside alone and argued about whether to ambush him or not, but they weren't prepared yet and Vince went back inside before they could. They waited hours for him to come back out but he never did. Eventually, when a lot of the wrestlers began showing up, they made their move and entered the studio. As it turns out, the only wrestlers who came out to confront them were guys like Mysterio, Jericho, Benoit, Guerrero etc. Basically all the guys that everyone likes. As a result, the TNA and WWE guys mostly just ended up chatting with each other. Everyone expected a big WWE vs. TNA confrontation and instead all they got was friendly banter with guys who all know each other. All of this footage was filmed by TNA cameras.
However, at this point, WWE producer John Gaburick came out and was PISSED and threatened to sue TNA if they used any of the footage and ordered them to turn off the cameras. So producer David Sahadi called Jerry Jarrett to ask what to do. Jarrett responded, "We have lawyers too. Keep filming." So they did. When word got back to Vince, he was said to be pissed also. Dave thinks WWE naturally has a right to be upset, but on the other hand....what goes around comes around. WWE did this and a lot worse to WCW a few years ago. And Dave especially thinks WWE comes across as crybabies for threatening a lawsuit over it. While TNA's "invasion" was pretty lame, Dave is baffled by how much more lame WWE's response has been given their own past actions. When WWE was filming with DX at the CNN Center during the WCW invasion and had security called on them, WWE aired the footage and mocked them on the air. Now they're doing the exact same things they mocked WCW for. Anyway, WWE filed a complaint with Universal Studios, and the next day WWE's VP of intellectual property sent TNA an official letter ordering TNA to not only refrain from airing the footage, but also ordering them to surrender the footage to WWE within 7 days. As of press time, TNA has not done so, and Dave isn't sure if they plan to air it or not. Panda Energy head Bob Carter has given TNA the approval to air the footage, WWE's threats notwithstanding, and TNA is trying to get people to call their hotline and vote on whether to air it. TNA is trying to turn this into a major issue and has discussed reading WWE's threatening legal letters on air (which is also something WWE did to WCW in the past).
Jeff Hardy's out-of-the-ring issues seem to be worsening. Dave doesn't elaborate other than to say Hardy "had big problems" the weekend of the TNA PPV. He was supposed to be in town the night before the show. Instead, he arrived at the arena 30 minutes before the show went on the air and apparently it was a mess.
Remember the story last week of B.G. James apparently having a meltdown at the TNA tapings? Lots more details this week. First, he was upset at only getting paid peanuts for spending all day long at the fan fest signing autographs and taking pics. He wasn't alone in being pissed, with most wrestlers saying that if TNA ever does another fan fest event like that, they will refuse to do it because of how little they were paid. Then he was mad about being told to do a run-in at the PPV only to have Nash not sell for him or the rest of 3 Live Kru. Then at the TV tapings, Nash cut a long promo burying the TNA locker room that caused other segments to be cut for time. 3 Live Kru's match got cut to 30 seconds and they got laid out by Team Canada. At that point, James snapped. He flipped off Jeremy Borash from the ring, since he's involved in creative. Then he went backstage and "cut what I was told was among the best promos of 2004" on all of the top management backstage (Jarretts, Bob Ryder, the Carters, etc). He was mostly angry about how 3 Live Kru are supposed to be portrayed as tough but are treated like jobbers. In particular saying, "We're supposed to be thugs but we're portrayed like f*gs." Anyway, he said other wrestlers are afraid to speak up for fear of losing their job but he's not. He then began trashing some of those other wrestlers, saying that after Elix Skipper got concussed during his PPV match, instead of taking care of him, all the other guys were too busy getting their shit in, particularly lashing out at Chris Harris for being reckless with Skipper after he was hurt. A lot of wrestlers approached James privately afterward and told him they appreciated him for saying what many of them are afraid to say out loud and that a lot of it needed to be said. Maybe not the gay slurs....
Speaking of backstage drama in TNA, Kid Kash has been pretty quiet lately after ruffling a lot of feathers a few months ago. Those in the locker room with him these days say he spends most of his time studying, as he's in school to be a chiropractor. Dave gives Kash props on the foresight to have a post-wrestling plan in place because a lot of wrestlers don't think that far ahead. Life is long, and wrestling money can vanish in an instant.
Carlito will indeed need surgery due to his shoulder injury. He dropped the U.S. title to Cena at the Smackdown tapings in a very quick match. Cena then did a stretcher job after getting beaten up by Jesus and returned to Australia to finish filming "The Marine." Cena and Jesus are actually familiar with each other, having started in UPW about the same time and Dave even saw them work a dark match against each other at a WWE TV taping before Cena went to OVW. Sounds like this is Cena's next feud when he returns.
Steve Austin did an interview this week with Alex Marvez and when discussing wrestling, he gave the ol' "never say never" line but right now his focus is on acting. He said he still watches Raw about 75% of the time but rarely gets to watch Smackdown because of his schedule. He was cautious not to criticize the company, saying he doesn't want to fire too many shots even though he clearly has opinions. Instead he just said there's a lot of opportunities for people to step up and take the ball and run with it because no one else is doing it right now.
WWE held a big meeting to assure talent that no more wrestlers were being let go at the present time. Three days later, Linda Miles was released. Well, technically she was developmental and the meeting was only with main roster talent, so Dave supposes it wasn't entirely a lie.
Notes from 11/11 Smackdown: this week's Tough Enough segment acknowledged that Chris Nawrocki suffered a broken rib during the Kurt Angle match last week. Nawrocki was the first guy who challenged Angle before Puder. And considering Angle broke his rib, that makes it even more ironic that Angle jumped up 2 minutes later and started screaming at Puder about how you're not supposed to hurt each other. Anyway this week they had Torrie Wilson administer a "sex test" to all the remaining contestants, which was really just her half-ass pretending to seduce them. Nawrocki responded by singing a song to her saying that Dawn Marie is hotter and blew her off. Which makes sense in kayfabe, but it noticably made Wilson upset and backstage afterwards, she apparently went off on him. Just a bunch of other dumb stuff from this, ending with Mae Young coming out to make out with everyone. This was supposed to be a surprise for the contestants but someone in the office leaked it to them beforehand, so they knew she was coming out. They all acted disgusted, particularly Mike the Miz, but it was all an act for TV. Puder "won" and got a lap dance from Young and was a good sport about it. Puder's incident with Angle last week wasn't acknowledged at all. That's about the only notable part of the show.
Notes from 11/15 Raw: Maven, as part of the winning team of Survivor Series, got to be in charge for the night and booked himself a world title match against Triple H. "Just like the booker to do that," Dave says. They also spent all night teasing that Maven might join Evolution instead. Regal and Eugene won the tag titles, which reminds Dave that Regal's heel turn that was started on Heat a couple weeks ago seems to have been dropped. Same with the Hurricane heel turn. Diva search finalist Candace Michelle debuted as a woman who wanted to sleep with Maven because he had all the power. Sure. Triple H twice mocked Batista as being kinda dumb and tried to play it off as a joke when Batista didn't laugh. Dave says they should have slow-burned the feud with Triple H and Orton like this and maybe they would have a storyline people care about right now (yeah, this succeeds pretty well in turning Batista into a top guy). And we got the Maven vs. Triple H match, in which Triple H basically worked a babyface match and came back to win against all the odds and overcome all the babyfaces who were interfering on behalf of Maven. It was weird, but it worked though, the crowd was really into it and bought that Maven might pull off the upset. But overall, this was insane booking that made Maven look like an incompetent geek and made Triple H look like a babyface Superman (he kicked out of both Benoit and Jericho's finishers as well as an Orton chairshot). The other downside is Maven looked pretty awful in the ring. Also, during the million run-ins, Snitsky clotheslined Orton right in the face and it's feared he may have a broken nose.
Notes from next week's Smackdown tapings: they did a Tough Enough segment where each contestant had to push their way past the Bashams and capture a flag. The Bashams were picked as a direct response to the Kurt Angle situation, with the idea that WWE isn't pushing them at all, so it doesn't matter if they get embarrassed like Angle did. Daniel Puder got by far the biggest reaction of any of the contestants and there's talk about reconsidering making a storyline out of the Kurt Angle thing, since they obviously haven't been able to bury it like they hoped. Multiple Divas Search losers debuted. Michelle McCool (the one who singlehandedly beat the shit out of all the other WWE Divas in the volleyball contest) was brought in as RVD's personal trainer. Amy Weber was signed and has been added to JBL's cabinet. And Joy debuted as a masseuse for Carlito, which was followed by the aforementioned quick match where Carlito dropped the US title back to Cena.
There are now at least 6 different class action lawsuits filed against Jakks Pacific by shareholders due to their failure to disclose that WWE is attempting to get out of its deal with them and for not being forthright about their own legal liability in the situation. Jakks was aware for months that this was going on and never disclosed it to shareholders, which is important information. As a result, when the news did come out, the stock plummeted and people that lost a lot of money are understandably pissed. This week, Jakks released a statement announcing a new licensing agreement with WWE, but this is misleading. The "new" deal was actually made over the summer, before any of this legal mess took place, and is unrelated to the current licensing deal or lawsuit. Releasing the statement as they did was an attempt to mislead investors and push the stock price back up, and it worked. The stock did go back up significantly. But WWE was pissed and issued a statement of their own, noting that the deal signed over the summer was before they had gathered all the facts about the current situation. "We do not know why JAKKS chose to issue a press release on the subject today, and can state that JAKKS did not seek current authority from Ms. Goldsmith (Michelle Goldsmith of WWE management) to include a quote from her in the release. In July, when the (deal) was originally signed, Ms. Goldsmith did approve the quote, but it no longer remains the view of Ms. Goldsmith or the management of WWE." A few hours later, Jakks put out another statement disputing this and saying WWE did give them permission as recently as last week, to issue the previous statement and furthermore, claimed that they are working with WWE on an action figure with proceeds going to Make-A-Wish. This was a strategic move, because if WWE pushes back on this one, it makes them look like they are backing out on an agreement to Make-A-Wish. So needless to say, this is getting nasty.
Kelly Carlson, the actress from "Nip/Tuck", will be playing Cena's wife in "The Marine." On a personal note, I'm not sure anyone has ever been hotter than she was on "Nip/Tuck." Great show, for the first few seasons anyway.
In his column in the Winnipeg Sun, Don Callis wrote that the Kurt Angle/Daniel Puder incident was the most interesting thing to happen on WWE television in months and questioned why WWE isn't capitalizing on it. On that note, last week, WWE.com briefly acknowledged the incident, noting that Angle's squabble with Puder was "tougher than expected" but that's all they wrote. This week, even that little bit has been edited off the site, as WWE continues to flee from a hot money angle as fast as they can.
Marty Wright, a potential Tough Enough contestant who got cut early on because he lied about his age, has been signed to a developmental deal in OVW. Wright claimed to be 30 when in reality, he's 40. When they found out, he was cut. Dave is astonished that you apparently aren't allowed to lie in wrestling anymore and frets about what Hulk Hogan is going to do now. Anyway, Wright showed a lot of charisma so Dave is glad he's getting a chance (this would be the future Boogeyman). Dave notes WWE hasn't had good luck with 40-year-old trainees who outshine everyone else in training camp. The last one they had, they gave him the worst possible gimmick, he got over anyway, and they still fired him because he was "too old" (that would be Rico Constantino for those curious).
As covered previously, WWE is making $10,000 offers to past wrestlers regarding merchandising and licensing rights for the upcoming 24/7 channel. The contracts are for 5 years each and would give WWE worldwide rights to any and everything involving the wrestler: both their ring name and real name, nicknames, likeness, personality (???), costumes, signature (no unapproved autograph signings), gimmicks, trademark gestures, etc. It would also give WWE right to create new names or gimmicks or whatever for those wrestlers and market them as they see fit. They would also own any rights if the wrestler were to write or attempt to publish a book. WWE has the right to cancel the contracts at any time with 90 day notice. And to make it worse, the $10,000 isn't yearly. It's just a one time payment for the whole 5 years. It also counts against their merchandise sales. So if WWE signs you to one of these deals, they'll give you the $10k and then start selling your merch. And you don't get a penny until after WWE recoups their $10,000 first. Dave spoke to a lawyer who looked over the contract and said anyone who would sign this would have to be a fool. Dave would be shocked if any big names sign, but for some of those lesser names who are long retired or deceased, their families don't really have any other way to make money off their names, so Dave expects them to take the deal because the $10k up front is better than nothing. Needless to say, these contracts are HEAVILY favored to WWE to the point of being disrespectful.
The previous week's OVW show was a total disaster, so much so that even Cornette was on commentary joking about how some nights everything goes wrong. Tank Toland seemingly suffered a torn biceps. Linda Miles vs. Jillian Hall (in Miles' last match) was scheduled to go 4 minutes but it was so bad that Cornette communicated to the ref for them to go to the finish at 2 minutes because it was so bad. Miles and Hall apparently ignored it and they went 4 minutes anyway. Cornette went backstage afterward and told producer Danny Davis to erase the match and replay the women's Halloween costume match from the previous week in its place. Considering some of the bad matches Dave has seen in OVW, he can't imagine how bad this must have been for Cornette to not even air it. Fun fact: I looked on both Cagematch and WrestlingData and there's no record of this match. It really does appear to have been completely deleted from history and presumably never aired.
Final OVW notes: I do want to add that, after months of talking about how awful he was in the ring earlier in the year, Dave now gives Johnny Nitro a ton of credit and outright calls him the most improved worker in the entire business right now. He thinks the group of Nitro, Matthews, and Melina should already be on the main roster. Dave then adds another sentence, saying almost as soon as he wrote that last line, he received word that they worked a dark match at the Smackdown tapings this week as a tryout for the main roster. So looks like it may be happening soon. On the same note, Chris Masters also got a main roster tryout at those tapings and Dave is hearing word that they want to put him on Raw ASAP. Just as Dave predicted: as soon as Vince laid eyes on him, he was going to bring him out of developmental a year too soon.