December 06, 2004
- Shinya Hashimoto's Zero-ONE promotion is seemingly no more. The company announced it was closing its doors in the wake of more than $1.2 million in debt. Business for the promotion fell off a cliff when Hashimoto was forced out of action due to injury, just as he feared it would. But within the company, Hashimoto is being blamed for using company money for personal use and nearly everyone has turned against him as a result. At the press conference, Hashimoto apologized to all the company's wrestlers and staff, accepting the blame (because of his injury, not "sorry I stole all the money"). He noted that he STILL hasn't had shoulder surgery but is planning to get the operation in December. If he'd gotten the surgery when he first got injured over a year ago, he'd already be back by now. Instead he wrestled on it for a year, made it way worse, and now he's shopping around for a doctor that can promise him a quick recovery, but no doctor can make that promise, so he still hasn't gotten the surgery. Anyway, at the company's final show that night at Korakuen Hall, it was expected that Hashimoto would come out to address the fans, but he never came to the show at all.
- In the wake of his departure, a new promotion is starting in its wake, with Shinjiro Otani as president. A new parent company called First On Stage has been formed and they will take over Zero-ONE's scheduled tour dates. They also kept Zero-ONE's TV deal (and, as it turns out, they end up keeping the name, and thus, Zero-ONE continues to this day in a new form). We get a quick recap of Zero-ONE's history, with Hashimoto forming it in 2001 with a hugely successful debut show and over the next couple of years, being booked around Hashimoto and Naoya Ogawa, it was one of the best-booked promotions in the world. When they were doing well, they loaned money to Keiji Muto to keep AJPW afloat, and worked closely with Dream Stage Entertainment to put on the HUSTLE shows. But after awhile, Ogawa left over money problems and Hashimoto's injuries forced him out of the ring and the company has been in peril ever since.
- Dick Ebersol, one of the most influential people on modern professional wrestling, was involved in a plane crash this week that left him in serious condition and took the life of his 14-year-old son Teddy. The plane, carrying Ebersol, two of his sons, two pilots, and a flight attendant, seemed to burst into flames during takeoff and crashed moments later. That's all the info Dave has gotten at press time. He runs briefly through Ebersol's career, particularly in relation to wrestling, having been social friends with Vince and Linda, which led to Ebersol producing the first Saturday Night's Main Event, and later, partnering with Vince on the XFL. His involvement in the early Wrestlemanias, and the MTV stuff, the Main Event spin-off specials, the success of those early SNME years, helping the company step up its production qualities, etc. Dave also notes that Ebersol is responsible for his own big break in media. In 1989, legendary sportswriter Frank Deford was starting up a daily sports newspaper called The National and made the decision to include a weekly pro wrestling column, something American sports media never covered seriously before. Deford, who was friends with Ebersol, asked for his recommendation. Ebersol, who had secretly subscribed to the Observer for years under his secretary's name, suggested Dave Meltzer and the rest is history. Dave wrote weekly wrestling columns for The National for 2 years until it folded in 1991.
- Dave gives us a preview of the big New Year's Eve night of MMA shows in Japan and most of this isn't wrestling related, but we got a little bit. Former WCW and WWE wrestler Sean O'Haire is fighting on the K-1 show, which is headlined by Royce Gracie vs. Akebono. Bob Sapp is on the card of course but who cares anymore. And uh....yeah that's it. PRIDE's main event is Fedor Emelianenko vs. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and that should rule. Next.
- Speaking of, last year's New Year's Eve MMA shows has resulted in NJPW being tied up in some legal mess. Apparently Yuji Nagata was never paid for his 1-minute murdering at the hands of Fedor on the PRIDE show. He was supposed to be paid $250,000, which is why he was willing to risk certain death 4 days before the NJPW Tokyo Dome show. However, seems Antonio Inoki (who served Nagata up to PRIDE) did, of course, get his agent's fee. Word is Inoki gets a huge slice of the pie anytime a NJPW guy fights on PRIDE or K-1 shows, which is why he's always throwing their top stars out there to get slaughtered. Tadao Yasuda, another NJPW wrestler who was also brutally beaten on the same show, apparently didn't get paid the $80,000 he was promised either. There's disagreements over who was supposed to be on the hook for it and Dave doesn't say who's suing who here.
- While recapping NJPW's recent TV shows, Dave talks about how Kensuke Sasaki has been the unheralded hero of Japanese wrestling this year. He's been a cornerstone for both NJPW and AJPW in 2004, carrying both at different points and doing the best work of his career as he does so. The only wrestler that's had a better year is probably Kenta Kobashi in NOAH. While we're praising people, he also says Hiroshi Tanahashi should be a made-man after his work this year, but alas. Tanahashi has all the tools to be the guy, but it may not be enough to overcome NJPW's awful booking and business decisions.
- Bret Hart, age 47, secretly got married a few months ago to a 22-year-old woman name Cinzi that he met in Italy. Apparently many in Hart's family weren't aware of the wedding until reading about it in the press either (yeah this marriage doesn't last. He finds his next wife when he's 52 and she's 27 and they're still going strong to this day).
- Jerry Jarrett has told people he is in a crunch to find a new owner for TNA and has given signs that the Carters and Panda Energy have decided to pull out. TNA has a PPV booked in February, which is currently the last date on TNA's schedule. TV tapings until then are scheduled as double tapings every other week, which has led to a lot of questions about people's pay that TNA is quietly ignoring and avoiding addressing. There's very little confidence about the company's long-term prospects right now (they'll be dead any day now, I'm sure of it!)
- When Dusty Rhodes was introduced as TNA's new booker, he gave a speech to the locker room that wasn't well-received. He said he's heard the complaints about Hall, Nash, and Savage coming in and said he didn't want to hear it because they're proven stars who have earned their top spots and helped TNA draw a good buyrate. No one even knew Savage was going to be on the show so he had no effect on the buyrate, Dave argues, but whatever.
- Petey Williams said he came up with the Canadian Destroyer move while practicing in the ring a few years ago with Chris Sabin. Notably, Amazing Red came up with the move back in 1998 while training also but never used it in a match. As far as anyone knows, Williams is the first to use it in a match and turn it into a known move.
- Kid Kash did another interview bashing TNA. He talked about being unhappy due to the politics, saying the favoritism is out of control and that the company has already selected the people that will be pushed and there's no room for advancement. He says they only advertise the same 4-5 people and that TNA management doesn't communicate with talent and never tells them anything straight. He says fans want something different from WWE, which should be the X-Division, but says guys like himself, Jerry Lynn, Christopher Daniels, Elix Skipper....those are guys providing something different but instead, former WWE-washouts who are friends with people in management get all the top spots. Claim they can't afford to pay talent more but then bring in people like Lex Luger. Or how they pay Hall and Nash $50,000 each but can't give him a few hundred dollar-per-week raise. He said he's asked TNA for his release multiple times but they won't let him go. Seems he's trying to get fired now.
- Update on the Bob Holly/Rene Dupree situation: Holly was fined $10,000 but not fired for punching Dupree during a match. Many wrestlers went to bat for Holly, saying Dupree had it coming for being immature backstage. The locker room basically regards Holly as a hero for it while Dupree was mocked even more for literally running backstage to flee the attack and get away from Holly instead of fighting back. The word is Dupree, who is only 20, has let the money and fame get to his head and noted that he's probably too young to handle the pressures of being a star on TV. All this being said....Dave thinks they should have fired Holly. Whether Dupree is hated or not, you can't just turn a blind eye to people literally assaulting him. That doesn't fly in any other profession and in fact, wrestlers have been fired for similar incidents many times in the past (Dave notes the famous story of Akira Maeda shooting on Riki Choshu in NJPW). And Holly has a well-earned reputation for being that guy, so much so that it's basically a running joke that Holly will beat the shit out of the new guys for you. So this isn't his first offense.
- Notes from Raw: big battle royal to determine the #1 contender for Triple H's title ended in a Benoit/Edge tie. Maven turned heel after Eugene tossed him out and that decision was made because despite wrestling Edge at house shows for weeks, they can't get crowds to cheer him so they're trying him heel. Ric Flair faced Jerry Lawler in a throwaway nothing match and JR noted it was only the 4th time the legends had ever faced each other. Dave can recall 2 off the top of his head, which leads him to recount the story of how Lawler was supposed to beat Flair for the NWA title in 1986 in Memphis and get a brief run, but politics intervened and they ended up doing a DQ and Lawler never did win that title. Randy Orton introduced OVW's Melina as a new diva and Dave is apoplectic that they're splitting up the group with her, Nitro, and Mercury (fret not Dave). Orton, the GM for the night, then decided to use his power to bring in Melina, Candice, Maria, Christy Hemme, and Stacy and told them to take their clothes off for a lingerie show for him. This is definitely Vince's WWE. Dave feels bad for the women in this segment, because they were apparently given practically no notice that this was what they'd be booked to do that night. Someone basically walked in and said "Hey ladies, you're gonna be practically naked on national TV in an hour, just a heads up." They continued to tease issues between Batista and Triple H, and Dave thinks they're doing everything right here that they did wrong with Orton (yeah this Batista turn works out pretty well). Main event triple threat had Edge tap out at the same time he pinned Benoit and since there was conflicting winners, the title is basically held up until next week. Although technically Edge tapped after the 3 count if you slow it down. Overall, really good show aside from the lingerie thing, Dave says.
- Notes from next week's Smackdown tapings: Rene Dupree's face was visibly fucked up from the Bob Holly attack. They claimed on TV that his dog Fifi attacked him, and this just seems like an attempt to further humiliate Dupree. While talking Tough Enough eliminations, Dave has some thoughts. He's surprised Daniel Rodimer got voted off. Smith sucks but can talk. Reeves can't talk and is just a big juiced up jock. Puder has all the physical tools but no personality. And Mike the Miz "at best could be an obnoxious heel manager." Elsewhere on the show, Suzuki was ignoring his wife Hiroko because he was obsessed with Torrie Wilson, so Hiroko challenged her to a bra and panties match next week to regain her husband's love or some such shit. Tough Enough segment had the contestants all argue over which of them should be eliminated and they all ganged up on Puder. Ryan Reeves (Ryback) was the next one to get cut and was pissed about it. The 3 remaining contestants then had to dress like women and flirt with Bob Holly. Dave can't even. Anyway, Miz "won" that somehow. They announced the final 2 contestants will face off on PPV in a shoot boxing match. Dave doesn't like this and has strong opinions about untrained people in shoot fights. If it ends up being Puder vs. Miz, that's borderline criminal. Divas Search washout Joy Giovanni claimed to be dating Big Show now and turned down Luther Reigns' advances. We're evidently supposed to forget the husband and kids that she openly talked about having during the Divas Search.
- With $1 million at stake, the pressure is getting to the remaining Tough Enough contestants. Everyone is ganging up on Puder because they see him as the favorite. WWE isn't helping matters, as they certainly seem to be favoring him as well. Mike The Miz and Ryan Reeves in particular have been scathing in their public comments about Puder. In fact, Reeves got some heat with management because he caused a scene at a health food store in Stamford. Apparently Puder had put up a "vote for me" poster there. Reeves went, tore it down, and created enough of a ruckus that the store's owner called WWE (local to Stamford, probably some place Vince frequents) and complained that one of their guys was causing trouble. WWE made Reeves apologize to the owner. Anyway, it seems to be Puder's contest to lose. Although people who have seen them in training say Mike the Miz is by far the best in the ring than any of the others and should be the rightful winner.
- Rey Mysterio was interviewed and talked about being forced to unmask in WCW and made it clear he still wasn't happy about it. "Bischoff didn't care. It was an ego trip, it was all about Hogan, Hogan, Hogan." He also admitted slowing down his style due to injuries. There's times he wants to go out there and do what he used to do but he can't always do it anymore. He says he doesn't want to retire for at least 5 years. But if he has it his way, within the next 3-5 years, he would like to have a more part-time schedule to spend more time with his kids. Presumably beating them.