Wrestling Observer Rewinder

April 16, 2001

Some numbers are starting to trickle in for Wrestlemania 17 and hoooooly shit. No exact numbers for PPV buys yet but it's estimated to be around a million, which would make it the biggest buyrate for a wrestling PPV ever. If that number holds up, it would mean around $40 million (split between WWF and the PPV providers). Huge merch numbers, $3.5 million gate, etc. Basically, WM17 was the biggest money making event in the history of pro wrestling by a long shot.
Most surprisingly, ECW owes the WWF some money. For years, WWF and ECW have had a friendly relationship but both sides always denied rumors of WWF helping to fund them. Obviously there was some assistance there, because the bankruptcy filings show that ECW owes WWF almost $600,000 on two loans taken out in recent months, as it seems Heyman apparently accepted Vince's money as a last ditch effort to survive. ECW listed its tape library as being valued at $500,000. Since ECW obviously can't repay WWF what they owe, Dave expects ECW to give WWF its tape library and future rights to them to settle the debt. The tape library isn't valuable to any of the other creditors (for instance, FarmClub isn't interested in the ECW footage) but WWF would surely be interested. But the courts will have to sort all that out. At one point, WWF apparently had interest in buying ECW, but their massive debt seems to have kept them from ever doing so.
As far as former ECW wrestlers who are owed money: RVD is owed $150K. Tommy Dreamer is owed $100K. Joey Styles is owed $50K. Rhino is owed $50K. Shane Douglas is owed $48K. Francine is owed $9K. Tajiri is owed $5K. Super Crazy is owed $5K. Victor Quinones, who works as Tajiri and Super Crazy's business manager, is owed $12K. And unknown amounts are also owed to Sinister Minister and New Jack. The filing claims that ECW does not owe any money to Sabu or Steve Corino, both of whom left ECW on really bad terms with Heyman. Anyway, any money ECW receives from here on out, from selling assets or moneys owed by InDemand and other royalties, will go towards paying off all the people who are owed.
Yet another wrestling company appears to be biting the dust. Power Pro Wrestling in Memphis was informed by their TV network that they were no longer going to be funding live studio tapings, which is primarily where all of PPW's money comes from. Wrestling on WMC channel 5 in Memphis has been a huge ratings draw since the 70s and they were the only local TV station in the country still paying for local weekly wrestling programming. And even though PPW was still doing good ratings locally, WMC has decided they no longer want to keep paying for it. While different companies have held the time slot over the years, it's always been a handful of the same people running those companies. The death of Power Pro is arguably the death of the last real surviving "territory." Dave recaps the history of wrestling on this channel, from the peak of the 80s and the rise of Jerry Lawler, the formation of USWA, the messy death of USWA, and formation of PPW in 1998 to now. The last 3 years for PPW have been eventful, with a bunch of issues with Lawler leading to the formation of a competing local company on a different channel (Memphis Championship Wrestling) and then those 2 later coming together to work an inter-promotional angle. Then WWF pulling their developmental deal from them when Lawler quit WWF hurt them. But anyway, without the local TV deal, it's unknown how or if PPW will continue to operate. (They don't. This is the end of the road for Power Pro. That's 3 American promotions dead within the first four months of 2001.)
More controversy over WWF's adult content has caused them to lose another major advertiser this week and they also got smacked down by the Canadian Broadcast Standards group. The Canadian group ruled that TSN was responsible for airing warning advisories and things like that and it led to TSN editing a lot of stuff off this week's Raw. The angle at the end of Raw with Austin and Triple H beating Lita down with chairshots was heavily edited, with them showing several minutes of crowd shots while the beating went on. Sky Sports in the UK is expected to edit that out when the show airs later this week also (yeah if you've never seen that angle, it's brutal). Meanwhile, Pep Boys pulled their advertising from Smackdown due to pressure from the PTC. MSNBC aired a Brian Williams special doing the same "is this appropriate for kids?" angle that everyone else uses, showing a lot of the most controversial clips and talking about how women are degraded. A lot of this controversy stems from McMahon's recent Bob Costas interview, which caught the WWF a lot of flak and the whole Trish-barking-like-a-dog angle, which doesn't play well with people in the real world. Costas was interviewed and talked about Vince's behavior during the interview and dismissed it, saying Vince is a showman and you can't take his antics like that seriously.
WATCH: Triple H and Steve Austin beat the absolute shit out of Lita and the Hardyz with chairs
Good news for the XFL! This week's NBC game (the final game of the regular season) drew a 1.7 rating which was NOT the all time lowest rated program in the history of the big 4 television networks. It was the SECOND lowest. So....progress? Then again, the UPN game did a 0.6 rating. UPN isn't one of the big 4 networks, but Dave says a 0.6 is still the lowest network rating he's ever seen.
Interesting note from the poll results. The question is what was the best match from WM17. And the winner, with almost 32% of the vote....Benoit vs. Angle. Which, yeah, that was a great match but the one that everyone remembers is the TLC match and that only got 15% of the vote. Rock/Austin is also remembered way more these days. Weird how time changes perspectives like that. Also, when asked the greatest WM match of all time, Savage/Steamboat is still the winner in this poll. Although it only beat Austin/Bret by less than 1% of the vote.
AAA wrestler Charly Manson was seriously injured during a ladder match. He was pushed off the ladder and was supposed to go through tables outside the ring, but it just sorta went wrong and he missed. He landed on his head on the concrete and also managed to break his femur bone. After hitting his head, he suffered a severe concussion and word is he nearly died. He was hospitalized and ended up needing blood transfusions and word is it was a horrifying spot (I did have a video of this when I first wrote this up months ago, but the Youtube channel has since been deleted).
Juventud Guerrera has quit CMLL. He had a lot of heat there from guys who felt like he came in with a big superstar attitude coming off his years in WCW. Guerrera also was said to have an issue with not wanting to do jobs and basically just wasn't welcomed in the CMLL locker room. When he was booked to be in a low undercard match on a recent CMLL show, he simply quit the company instead.
There's talk that Riki Choshu may be replaced as the booker of NJPW. He's been the guy booking things since the early 90s and was the brain behind the last decade of NJPW's huge successes. But the company has clearly been on a decline for the last year, due to a failure to create new stars that connected with fans and a lot of questionable decisions in the overall direction of the company (not yet, he holds on to the job for another year, most of which he spends fighting with Inoki over the direction of NJPW).
Antonio Inoki finally admitted this week that there won't be a Mike Tyson match against Naoya Ogawa, making it sound as if the deal had fallen apart (of course, in reality, there was never a deal to begin with). If you recall, several weeks back, Inoki announced that Tyson had agreed to the match, which forced Tyson's manager to put out a statement basically saying, "We've never spoken to these people and have no idea what this old carny is talking about."
Vampiro is attempting to get booked in Mexico. He was one of the guys let go by WCW and WWF didn't have any interest, so now he's looking to go back to where he first became a star.
Hulk Hogan is still in talks with Universal to try to get them onboard as a backer for a new wrestling promotion, but those talks have been off-and-on forever now, with no end in sight. Hogan's also interested in working with them on a Hulkster-themed restaurant.
Various other wrestling notes: Fusient is still interested in getting involved in wrestling, but without a TV deal, they don't seem to have any real plans. Meanwhile, Urban Pro Wrestling, which started up a few months ago, looks to already be folded.
All of WCW's old syndicated time slots for the old World Wide show are now available because WWF decided not to keep them. Nashville promoter Bert Prentice snatched up the time slot in Nashville and is now airing a new promotion called USA Championship Wrestling in the old WCW slot.
Superstar Billy Graham is working on an autobiography and Dave was able to read a sample chapter which was about his career in the 70s and Dave says it's really good and honest and he looks forward to the full book some day.
Dusty Rhodes wants to run a PPV in Charlotte in November, but his Turnbuckle Wrestling promotion doesn't have any TV coverage and draws almost no fans, so Dave's not sure how he's gonna pull that off.
There's been a proposal to set up a Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame and this week, a fundraiser for it was held in New York. Several city leaders were in attendance and talked of patterning it after the Boxing HOF. Killer Kowalski, George Steele, and others were in attendance as well. This idea has been discussed for awhile and in the past, both WCW and ECW had expressed support for it but, well....you know. Meanwhile, WWF hasn't expressed any support for it. Dave points out that WWF has their own Hall of Fame (as did WCW), but the inductions are so political rather than merit-based that no one takes it seriously.
On TV, they announced that Rock had been suspended. This was done to write him off TV for awhile so he can take acting lessons and work on filming the Scorpion King movie that he's starring in. If PPV buyrates go down, they may work out a way to bring him back for those shows, but otherwise, the plan is to keep him off TV until July or August. Dave doesn't know why they didn't just do an injury angle since that would at least make sense. In kayfabe, Linda McMahon should simply be able to overturn his suspension and bring him back and the fact that she hasn't is kind of a huge plot hole, but whatever.
The first WCW-brand taping was scheduled for next month in Trenton, NJ but it has been postponed. Now it looks like the first taping for the new WCW will take place in June. It's important for WWF to make sure they have everything in order and don't rush things because they only have one chance to relaunch WCW properly. The whole thing is still a work in progress, as they still don't have a roster established or office employees, referees, agents, announcers, etc. Tentative plans for WCW's first show are in September, but again, until they get the infrastructure set up and start doing TV tapings, that could and probably will change. The plan is to fill out the roster with some of the undercard WWF names as well, although not any of the major stars like Rock or Triple H, at least not yet. Kevin Dunn and Jim Ross are in charge of putting all this stuff together and deciding who to put in all those office and backstage roles.
As you recall, WWF only picked up 24 of WCW's stars, mostly all the lower-card guys, but there has been communication with some of the bigger name stars. WWF has spoken with Goldberg, Flair, DDP, Scott Steiner, Sting, and others in recent weeks, but so far, nothing is close to happening. Goldberg and Flair are unlikely because they're still collecting big WCW contracts that they don't want to give up. DDP is said to be on the fence. Steiner doesn't have the best reputation, but he won over some supporters at the final Nitro by working injured and putting over Booker T clean, so they're at least open to talking to him. Sting is in the same boat as the other guys, and isn't going to give up his big WCW contract. Booker T going to WWF is said to be almost a sure-thing so expect him soon. But that's about it right now.
There's been talk of Ric Flair getting involved in starting up an indie promotion in the Carolinas with David Crockett, but Dave ain't buying it. Flair's contract right now prevents him from appearing on any other wrestling event, even indies. And if he takes a buy out and gets out of that contract, he's 100% going to WWF, not slumming it with a local start-up indie. But Crockett is said to be putting together a plan to run shows in the area and he wants Flair involved somehow.
David Flair was given word that he will be getting a WWF developmental deal and will be sent to either OVW or MCW.
Now that WWF owns the name "World Championship Wrestling," the Turner company has opened up a new company called Universal Wrestling Corporation, which is basically just a front company in order to collect any money still owed, handle outstanding debts, settle any remaining business needs, etc. that WCW still had pending. Speaking of...
Former WCW wrestlers still under contract to Turner/UWC have been told point blank that if they work any shows whatsoever, they will be immediately fired for breach of contract. Many of the wrestlers are upset by it, feeling they were misled in earlier contract negotiations. Many of the guys over the last year or so had their deals restructured with a lower guarantee, but with the promise of additional money from house shows. But of course, WCW soon after stopped doing house show entirely and now those guys who are still under those contracts can't work shows for anyone else either. On the other hand, some of the non-wrestlers are actually in a good position. Jimmy Hart, for example, is under contract until March of 2002 but his deal specifically allows him to work for other promotions and do indie dates because many of the non-wrestler contracts were written differently than the wrestlers. Gene Okerlund and Arn Anderson are believed to have similar deals.
In the Sonny Onoo racial discrimination lawsuit against WCW, the judge threw out Turner's motion to dismiss the case, so that is still ongoing. Dave says the case may have gotten a lot stronger now, because there's a lot of people who used to work in WCW's front offices who know a lot of dirt and who no longer have to worry about losing their jobs if they speak out since, well, they already lost them. Plus, a lot of those former office employees are very bitter and pissed about the way WCW ended and how they got laid off, because they were kept in the dark about everything up until the last minute. Most of them found out WCW was closing the same way all of us did: when the news broke on the internet. So those people all lost their jobs and a lot of them have axes to grind about it. Needless to say, Onoo's team likely won't have a problem finding disgruntled ex-WCW employees willing to help their case.
Ric Flair has finalized a deal to do an autobiography, which is expected to be at least partially ghostwritten by Mark Madden (Flair's book eventually comes out in 2004, under WWE. Mark Madden is listed as an editor on it).
Wrestlemania 18 is tentatively penciled in for Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, FL but that could easily change. There are a few other cities under consideration and they have to do site surveys and whatnot to make sure the location works for them.
Notes from Raw: Dave calls it "a middle age soap opera, billed as Raw Is War." He says that after only a month, it's already clear how the lack of competition is making WWF complacent. With Rock gone to film "Scorpion King," it's the perfect time to try to push new babyfaces to the top. And they did. In this case: the whole show was built around Jim Ross and Linda McMahon. Dave jokes that he actually misses all the horrible Lex Luger matches on Nitro he could have been watching instead of the Jim Ross show. They did a long video package "for that company they own that just lost $80 million dollars." He clarifies that he's talking about the XFL, not WCW. Man, Dave is just full of cheeky jokes this week. And it ended with Austin and Triple H destroying Lita with brutal chairshots. Dave is torn on this. On one hand, it was an incredible angle and the heat was off the charts, and as a fan, he loved it. But from a business perspective, after all the controversy they've gotten, especially from the Lionel Tate case, having the WWF's top star absolutely brutalizing a woman half his size with a chair is sure to be controversial, and in fact, in several international markets, it was cut from the broadcast (as mentioned previously, TSN in Canada showed a bunch of crowd shots instead).American Dragon (Daniel Bryan) and Jerry Lynn worked a dark match before the show that was said to be the best match of the entire night. Low Ki also worked a match for the Jakked taping and impressed people as well. At one point during the show, Funaki accidentally left the Japanese flag laying on the top of the stage after their match. It was still there later when Kane came out and his pyro caught the flag on fire. It just sat there on the stage burning for about 2 minutes before a crew member wandered over to extinguish it.
Notes from Smackdown tapings: Prototype (John Cena) worked a dark match against former WCW wrestler Crowbar. Jeff Hardy hit Stephanie McMahon with a twist of fate and then later in the show in the main event, he won the IC title from Triple H. Dave doesn't think the title change had been planned in advance, but the angle from Raw was so hot and the Hardyz are super over right now (Jeff especially) so they just went with it and decided to switch the title to Hardy.
WATCH: Jeff Hardy hits Stephanie McMahon with the twist of fate
WATCH: Jeff Hardy wins the IC title from Triple H
There's nothing new on the Shawn Michaels situation. His original role at Wrestlemania was supposed to have him interfere in the Triple H/Undertaker match, presumably costing Triple H the match and leading to a match with them. But whatever happened the week before put an end to that and right now, Shawn's name is simply a topic that no one is openly discussing.
When recapping this week's Smackdown, Dave offhandedly predicts that within another 18 months or so, Kurt Angle will probably be the best performer in the entire business. Spoiler: yup.
The XFL has announced new extra point rules just in time for the playoffs to start. After a touchdown, the team can put the ball on the 1-yard line for a 1 point play, the 5-yard line for a 2-point play, or the 10-yard line for a 3 point play. Dave thinks dumb ass rule changes like this right before the playoffs pretty much cements the XFL's reputation as a Mickey Mouse bullshit league and in the very unlikely event the XFL returns for a 2nd season, it'll probably be taken even less seriously than it already is. But Dave is clearly already writing an obituary for the XFL.
Speaking of, NBC is ready to bail on it. NBC is expected to wait until after the championship game before they make an announcement about whether they will broadcast a 2nd season. But those close to the situation say it's already decided, with one NBC executive calling the XFL "one of the biggest black eyes in NBC history." NBC has a 2-year contract with the WWF as partners in the league, but the sources said NBC is willing to go to court and fight it if they have to rather than air another season.
The XFL can't even do good things right. The San Francisco Demons team offered to help build a new locker room facility at Diablo Valley Junior College. That's where the XFL Demons team practices. The new building will cost $750,000 to build and the XFL planned to contribute $500,000 to it ("there goes the Summerslam gate," Dave quips). But the school's higher ups are hesitant to accept the money because they don't want to be associating with or accepting money from Vince McMahon, who, well, doesn't have the most upstanding reputation. So now there's a big debate over whether accepting the money from WWF, knowing the types of things they broadcast and the reputation they have, and whether it sends a good message to students. "Yes, it has come to this," Dave adds.
There are some wrestlers who are still under WCW contracts that are close to expiring (they work on 90-day cycles) and WWF isn't interested in them. Vampiro, Christopher Daniels, and Michael Modest were all informed this week that WWF is passing on them and when their WCW contracts expire soon, best of luck in their endeavors.
The Rock has been offered the lead role in a movie based on the Duke Nukem video game (that movie never happened, but as of 2019, they're still planning to make it and John Cena was recently rumored to be starring. Time is a flat circle).
WWF spoke with Pete Rose about making another appearance at Wrestlemania this year, but it didn't work out for some reason. But the plan was for him to hide in the crowd wearing a mask and then hit Kane with a garbage can during the hardcore match. Of course, it would have resulted in Rose being unmasked and tombstoned, as is tradition, but alas, it didn't happen this year.
OVW had a big show at the Louisville Gardens this week. Well....it was supposed to be a big show but it wasn't. Last time OVW held a show at that arena, they drew about 5,000 fans. Now to be fair, that show featured Steve Austin, Kane, The Hardyz, Lita, Benoit, and more. So....obviously, they packed the building. But the idea was OVW would bring in all these WWF stars, and the OVW guys would put on a strong show, and the next time, they would hopefully be able to draw a decent crowd on their own. Didn't work. As mentioned, the last show drew 5,000 fans. This show, without any WWF stars.....drew 150 paid. Dave thinks it's another sign of the business in decline. No matter how good the OVW guys are, without WWF star power, no one cares. Anyway, Dave runs down the results. Imagine a show with Batista, Shelton Benjamin, Brock Lesnar, Randy Orton, and more only drawing 150 people. Anyway, Dave thinks this Orton kid is gonna make it big because he's already pretty good and he's only 20. He also thinks Lesnar will probably do pretty well because he's shown a lot of improvement in a short amount of time already. Rico Constantino is ready right now and should already be in WWF, he's got great heel charisma. He also thinks they should hurry up and put Prototype in OVW and start doing something with him because he's got a ton of potential too. While they're at it, a lot of those young WCW stars they signed up probably would benefit from some developmental seasoning now so that when the new WCW show finally happens, they'll all have a little more experience within the WWF system.
Dave got his hands on a list for all the Wrestlemania numbers from the past 17 years, adjusted for inflation. When taking inflation into account, Wrestlemania 6 would be the biggest gate ever in North America, with this year's WM17 in second place, WM3 in third place, WM5, then WM4.
Whole bunch of letters this week. A ton of them about the Vince McMahon/Bob Costas interview and none of it good. Vince going on that show and acting a fool has pretty much made even the staunchest WWF fans have a hard time defending him.
Honky Tonk Man writes in to trash Jerry Lawler. Let's just read it, shall we?
Your Jerry Lawler interview was the most b.s. from one person I've ever heard. The nerve of this asshole to send Vince a letter begging for a job. Just where Vince wants him. After all the comments he made on television in the 80s about Vince and the WWF, he has gotten a free ride until now. I wish you would have called him out on all this b.s.
Wayne "Honky Tonk Man" Farris