Futureraven: Beelzebruv
Bill S. Preston, Esq.
The Ultimate Arbiter of Right And Wrong
Spent half my life here, God help me
Posts: 15,049
|
Post by Futureraven: Beelzebruv on Oct 3, 2020 10:53:08 GMT -5
One thing I never got about the last bit of WCW (I know, plenty to choose)
Lex Luger is repacked as... The Total Package.
Which was already his name for years.
Plus he looked the same.
Acted the same.
Wrestled the same.
Made 0 changes beyond a logo and a tracksuit.
|
|
|
Post by Terry McConkey on Oct 3, 2020 10:53:40 GMT -5
Dave REALLY hated Curt Hennig in the West Texas Rednecks. I thought that gimmick was stupid too.
|
|
jason1980s
Hank Scorpio
train
Posts: 6,313
Member is Online
|
Post by jason1980s on Oct 3, 2020 15:18:53 GMT -5
Dave REALLY hated Curt Hennig in the West Texas Rednecks. I thought that gimmick was stupid too. He seemed like he had a lot of fun doing the gimmick but I think with a guy as good as Curt, he really didn't need a goofy gimmick beyond just being a "Mr. Perfect" character. Watching some of his 1990s commentary in WWF, reminded me a lot of Savage on commentary. I think both guys would have rather wrestled but Vince seemed to want them in non-ring related roles. I think Perfect was maybe one step below Savage and Bret with how Vince viewed him, like one of the guys he would have always liked to keep on and find something for them even non ring related.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Oct 4, 2020 4:12:19 GMT -5
1999 November, Part 2
Nov 15, 99
"Nitro, despite fictitious media reports about its huge increase in ratings, remained at the level its been the past several months doing a 3.30 rating (4.00 first hour; 3.07 second hour; 2.82 third hour) and a 4.8 share."
"Terry Taylor was hired to work in booking. Ultimately, WCW was able to get the complaint at Human Resources against him from when he previously worked there taken care of, and opened the door to them making him a serious offer, which hadn't come until literally the day before he was forced into making the decision. Taylor felt that had he stayed with WWF he really wouldn't have any power. The only reason he left WCW in the first place was because he was Eric Bischoff's whipping boy, which is a moot point now, and because Bischoff blew up at him when rumors surfaced he was about to make a move to WWF."
"By the afternoon of 11/8, the general feeling in the company once the script got out as it regarded Dustin Rhodes' interview on Nitro and how he was going to bring up the heartless powers that be firing his father after 25 years is that Dusty quitting was another Hoganesque work."
"A New York Post article on wrestling writers claimed that Nitro's audience has jumped nearly 25% since Russo and Ferrara came. That's a misleading stat if I've ever heard one. In September, Nitro averaged a 3.38 rating. In August it averaged a 3.27 rating. In July it averaged a 3.37 rating. For the first three weeks of Russo and Ferrara's Nitro's, the show averaged a 3.33 rating. The only way there is any significant increase is to compare their numbers to the unusually low number of the final lame duck show Nash put together which did a 2.61."
"On the misleading stat department, Entertainment Weekly did them one better, claiming in its story on Russo in the 11/12 issue, that Nitro's ratings have improved 32% since Russo started writing the show."
"The only thing that came close to sticking was the image of David Flair stalking Kimberly, and when they added them in a singles match on the PPV, all I could think of was all those fans in Canada deciding whether to buy WWF or WCW tickets that weekend and what choice they are going to make."
"Kimberly asked for help from security. She said David Flair was crazy going after her. Let's see, last week Flair got run over by a car and was left for dead. And she's the one saying he's a psychopath. Sounds like some ex-girlfriends. By the way, those bookers who pay such great attention to detail, not only forgot Flair was run over, as it was never mentioned during the show, but he came out without a scratch."
"Sting did an interview. Ever since Sting started being an actor, his interviews have actually gotten worse because he thinks he's a thespian giving a line rather than a wrestler doing a promo."
"Filthy Animals did an interview calling Asya a mutt. She's not a mutt because dogs don't need to shave."
"Sting, now a complete babyface (did I miss the turn, I only watch 100 hours of wrestling a week) didn't fall for his best friend's plea and gave him the Tongan death grip and went back to his thespianism. I think Russo likes this angle because Sting told him he's a thespian and Russo thought he could finally do a lesbian angle."
"Benoit beat Madusa via DQ in 1:49 when Jarrett interfered causing her to lose. It was real bad. Jarrett explained that the Powers that Be came up with this plan to get Madusa out and she got screwed. Let's see, she'd already lost in the tournament and they put her back in after she was eliminated, and now they wanted to screw her (figuratively, of course)."
"Nash was dressed as the Grand Wizard of wrestling. He sounded nothing like him and acted gay. Considering that Ernie Roth died before most of the 40-year-olds in this business even started in the business and that outside of the Northeast, the Wizard never appeared anywhere (okay, he did appear for years in Detroit as manager of The Sheik but we're talking early 70s and his name then was Abdullah Farouk) and that except for a few people who have worked within wrestling for 15 years, nobody knew he was gay, I tend to think this was a bit inside."
"In the worst angle of the night, and boy did that cover some ground, A.C. Jazz and Spice had the world's worst pull-apart. A.C. Jazz wasn't bad on the mic."
"You haven't lived until you saw the Misfits attack Buff. Well, imagine the Nitro Girls in a street rumble. Total amateur hour. Misfits then started taking bumps from these punches that were missing by a foot. Buff did them one better, selling a missile dropkick by Vampiro that missed by two feet."
"Nash, in his Wizard garb, decided he was Karnak the Magnificent from Johnny Carson (70s Carson comedy isn't exactly cutting edge these days, is it?) although he did have a funny line, saying 316 was the number of times Undertaker and Austin fought on PPV last year."
"Booker T said that the dreaded Powers that be got rid of Stevie Ray and now he has to wrestle solo. With the way they had Booker T dressed and him talking in third person, they actually want to turn him into The Rock. It was so funny."
"Booker T vs. Creative Control in a handicap match ended with Control DQ'd in 1:29 when Jarrett, who was doing commentary at ringside, interfered. Let's see, if they are booking finishes and in control, why were they DQ'd?"
"A black female bodybuilder from South Florida name Anne Marie Crooks (who, surprise surprise, is the next woman in line for a boob job) who was originally hired to play Bischoff's bodyguard and has been training at the Power Plant did a run-in to save T, but Jarrett laid her out with the guitar. Heenan called her Sailor Art Thomas, which is a real funny line for everyone viewing that was over the age of 40. And grew up in Indianapolis."
"The chyron under Malenko, as he was walking to the ring, listed his name as Asya. I didn't think you could confuse them unless Malenko went crazy on the gas."
"Heenan started pushing the idea that since the Powers that Be were from another federation, the referee for the main event "Worst Ladder Match in History" TM might be someone from another federation. It's always good to add another stupid line to a stupid lawsuit."
"The Creative Twins attacked Hennig and dropped him on the table which was supposed to break. It did break the second time. They pounded him into the ground right in front of the ref on the floor, who then counted Hennig out. Explain why the ref would DQ Control earlier if they were sent by the P that B because he saw something illegal, but in this case, when he saw something illegal, he didn't call it because the P that B fix the outcomes of matches? Busch should have watched this episode of Nitro straight through before he made those comments to Entertainment Weekly about them adding logic to the shows."
"Wrath was given word on 10/29 that he was being dropped from his $350,000 per year contract but he was later told that it was one of those deals where they wanted to re-sign him for a lower amount. Stevie Ray is in the process of having his contract renegotiated downward from his former $750,000 per year price. The company's ability to use leverage to get guys who have signed deals with years left to sign new deals at half or less as much money is because the wrestlers are still so naive that they haven't formed a union"
"There was internal talk about releasing Shawn Michaels, figuring if he went to WCW, the problems he'd cause there internally (with he and Hart in the same company not to mention the inherent problems since Michaels and Russo had their problems toward the end in WWF) would be to WWF's benefit. McMahon nixed the idea because he didn't want him on WCW TV because of the perception of how it would play. Right now there is a lot of heat on him from both Austin and Rock for things he's said about both"
"Terry Taylor, who was responsible for getting Kristina Laum (Kimona) her job interview with the WWF, now being in WCW, is working at getting in her"
Nov 22, 99
"The skit on Nitro on 11/15 where Ed Ferrara, mocking Jim Ross, and bringing in the real Steve "Dr. Death" Williams as his sidekick on a spoof of a WWF angle from several months ago, was, depending upon who you talk with, either the most tasteless thing in wrestling, or the funniest, in a long time. It was both."
"The poor Mexicans were placed in an utterly racist pinata on a pole match, made even sillier because the pinata fell from the pole with all the money and nobody could touch it and the wrestlers had to ignore it and keep going for their five minutes until Dr. Death would destroy them all--for real it should be noted, as three of them ended up in the hospital after the match, but today, that's just fun and games as well--Dandy with a possible broken collarbone, which is a pretty serious injury for a wrestler, Juventud Guerrera with a possible AC joint separation, which is one of those nagging injuries that is no fun whatsoever, and Psicosis re-injuring his bad ankle"
"The mocking of Ross' football references, such as talking about one of the Mexican wrestlers as coming from Tijuana State University, talking about "his boy Dr. Death being a four-time All-American," screaming the quick sound bites, making fun of Ross saying he's the best play-by-play man in wrestling (something he himself said in an angle) and even a lot of inside ribs making fun of things he says backstage, not to mention Ferrara screaming, "Whose your daddy, Silver King!" was nothing short of brilliant."
"Williams, whose WCW appearance was a huge surprise, was anxious to do it to get back at what he perceived was a long-time friend who turned his back on him, since it was Ross' dubious job description to be the one to give Williams the marching orders that he was being let go, and when Williams' lawyer came back saying his contract was guaranteed in the event of an injury and his injury hadn't fully healed, was also one of the ones, along with Bruce Prichard, who gave Williams the marching orders to do the FMW tour, which, no matter what the idea behind it was, the end result was that when he refused, it gave WWF the legal justification to terminate his contract."
"If anyone was happier to be there than Williams, it was Tony Schiavone. According to those who know him, they claim he hates Ross more than any human being on Earth, dating back to the TBS decision ten years ago to go from co-lead announcers on WCW Saturday Night (which at the time was the company's flagship wrestling show), to a singular announcer, leading to Schiavone being taken off the show. Schiavone has always blamed the demotion on Ross' backstage manipulations, making the blow more unfair in his mind, even though Ross was generally considered by far the better wrestling announcer of the two. Since that point, the two have had histories of jumping back and forth between promotions due to demotions under the other. In fact, Schiavone worked heavily with Ferrara on scripting the parody and setting up spots."
"He's absolutely in a position for being mimicked. Except for one thing about the portrayal. The mocking of Ross' facial features, which are still suffering from the effect of two bouts with Bells Palsy, only served to make WCW look pathetic for doing it and leave people hating an otherwise hilarious piece of sports entertainment. And they still haven't figured it out."
"It doesn't cross the line by the standards of wrestling because the WWF did it themselves, at a time when Ross' future was far more uncertain. But it's also interesting the dichotomy of the response we got. With one or two exceptions, everyone in wrestling we discussed it with at press time with, and there were many, thought it was hilarious and there was nothing wrong with it, not all of whom were people who disliked Ross. Not one caller or e-mailer who didn't in some form work in the business, agreed with that viewpoint, garnering the most negative fan reaction to anything on television since that legendary night when Kevin Nash killed the first hour of Nitro."
"All those people who watched David Flair's stunt man take the same hit two weeks ago on WCW and him come back without even a scratch a few days later while Austin will be out for months must think David Flair is the toughest SOB in all of pro wrestling."
"Raw doubled Nitro in every quarter except two, when the Raw talking intro went against Goldberg vs. Hennig and Vampiro & Misfits vs. Wall & Berlyn (5.94 to 3.21) and when Asya vs. Kimberly with Torrie Wilson in a bikini went against the Acolytes street fight (6.11 to 3.19)."
"The Nitro Girls talked about A.C. Jazz (Amy Crawford) quitting. They had scheduled an A.C. Jazz vs. Spice mud wrestling match for the show, but A.C. Jazz refused to do it and quit the company. Tigress then jumped Spice so they can start a new Nitro Girls angle. It was as bad as all the Nitro Girls angles."
"Russo yelled at DOA, or the Blu Brothers, talking about Dutch Mantel (wasn't his name Uncle Zeb?), just to make sure the other 95% of the fans who only watch casually realize the two bald twins are rejects from the WWF who failed with several different gimmicks."
"Goldberg beat Hennig in 4:19 with a kneebar submission. Hey, at least I know what the move is called. They said that since Hennig wasn't pinned, he doesn't have to retire. The lack of logic in this show is reaching Nash level proportions. Don't they realize the lack of logic is what got them into this mess?"
"Russo told Torrie Wilson it's all about ratings and she had to referee in a striped bikini. Well, that was the only idea of the night which drew any kind of a ratings shift."
"Hall & Nash came out and tried to sexually molest Wilson. The Filthy Animals came out and boy was it obvious they're jibronis. When do four babyfaces come out to save the girl and get beaten up by two heels without even getting an offensive move in"
"They did an interview where Parka spoke perfect English, but of course it wasn't really Parka. Chavo Guerrero Jr. tried to sell Amway products to V-5."
"Luger pretended to have a knee injury and couldn't wrestle "Hashi" (Kaz Hayashi). Hayashi called him chickenshit so Luger destroyed him and racked him. Liz then had to remind Luger to sell the knee after the match."
"On WCW Live, Madusa was claiming she was having an affair with Karagis. When asked about her husband (former Cincinnati Bengals lineman Ken Blackman), she claimed it was okay because they have an open marriage."
"Parka, with his fake English voice, was trying to teach Hayashi to speak better English."
"WCW was looking at getting Bob Holly when his contract was about to become due but WWF signed him back up"
"Garza's career was messed up when he had a botched up knee operation from the same doctor that screwed up Ultimo Dragon's elbow and ended his career, and Rick Steiner's shoulder. In both Garza and Steiner's cases, they were able to return after second operations but Garza only worked two or three dates after the second operation before being let go"
"The current plan now is to keep Juventud Guerrera and do an illegal immigrant angle with him although depending upon the severity of his shoulder injury, this also could be out the window. This idea was actually suggested by a fan on the WCW internet show and Russo decided to do it, where they decide to use Guerrera after all but he can't produce a green card, and he's running from the authorities. Actually that's the first step in a storyline that may get controversial, since the end result was scheduled to be Guerrera falling in love with a transvestite bodyguard ala the controversial Mark Henry angle"
Nov 29, 99
"WCW Mayhem could best be described as a weird show. The crowd at the Toronto Air Canada Center on 11/21 took on a life of its own, and a life at times WCW didn't like it having as in many cases the crowd noise was turned low when the "wrong" person was getting booed."
"Some of the responses were predictable, such as Sting being booed out of the building against Bret Hart, and Sting playing a heel role until the finish when the two hugged. Others, such as Bill Goldberg, Booker T and Buff Bagwell being booed out of the building were less predictable. Goldberg and T sort of made sense in hindsight, since Toronto is a strong WWF city (the crowd was described as pro-WWF and largely there only to see Hart), and the last time Goldberg was in the city he did the angle with Hart. T was working with Scott Hall, who was extremely popular. Bagwell's reaction didn't make sense except the strongly male crowd reacted badly to his pretty-boy image."
"As a live event, the show drew 13,839 fans (roughly 2,200 shy of capacity) with 12,119 paying $461,540 which equals $313,847 in U.S. dollars. The first time WCW went into Toronto, the building sold out in 15 minutes and the second show, a PPV show where the general buzz was that Hart would end up with the title, failed to sell out at all. Some of this also had to do with counter booking by the WWF, which is far more deeply entrenched throughout Canada, let alone Toronto where WWF Canada is headquartered, booking the Skydome the night before for a house show, which drew 18,624 paying $580,941."
"Evan Karagis, probably due to nerves from appearing on PPV for the first time and getting a title he's nowhere near ready for, blew so many spots in his match with Disco Inferno that he and the match in general was booed out of the building. And the live crowd wasn't treated to Tony Maranera, who was nowhere near ready to be put on commentary for an entire match with his overdone Brooklyn Italian accent like an actor in a junior high play."
"Between Madusa looking like an aging movie star who lives at the plastic surgeons, Karagis' nervousness and Maranera, it was like Disco was trying to carry an anchor tied to Yokozuna and he was, in fact, swimming with the fishes here. Fans were chanting "boring" heavily."
"Evan started making out with his mom after the match"
"It was the basic backstage hardcore match until they wound up brawling in an elevator and the door closed. For some reason I thought that was hilarious."
"Someone sent me a copy of Christy Wolfe's high school yearbook and in her senior year she won "Most Masculine." "
"The sound guy "accidentally" played the FA music to make people think it was a mistake but at the end they were going over."
"Heenan made his lone funny comment of the show, saying that pro wrestling was Hennig's life, but if Bagwell lost, he could always go back to being a male dancer. Fans started "boring" chants, I guess, not realizing the incredible suspense that was involved in the end of a man's career."
"Sting wore a t-shirt to hide his physique, and for the first time probably in his career his arms looked more flabby than muscular (that's not a steroid reference as you don't need steroids to maintain some muscle tone even at 40)"
"Luger came out wearing a cervical collar which Tony Schiavone proclaimed was a work."
"David Flair was seen stroking his crowbar. Boy was that weird."
"Hart beat Benoit in 17:44 to win the WCW title. The first big spot was a clown out of the audience attacking Benoit."
"Raw did a 5.51 rating (5.51 first hour; 5.51 second hour) and an 8.3 share. Nitro did a 3.41 rating (3.70 first hour; 3.19 second hour; 3.36 third hour) and a 5.0 share. Over the head-to-head two hours and six minutes, Raw's 5.51 beat out Nitro's 3.24."
"Raw's main event of HHH vs. The Acolytes in a handicap match, featuring the big return of Vince McMahon as Stone Cold Steve Austin in the final segment fell from a 5.23 final quarter which also included Rock & Mankind vs. Albert & Bossman (a half point drop from the previous quarter with Venis & Bossman vs. Too Cool and Road Dogg vs. Test) to the lowest rated segment on Raw in many months, a 4.73 rating. It was clearly an audience switching to Nitro's Goldberg & Vicious vs. Hall & Nash match, since it grew from a 3.44 final quarter (which also included Sting vs. Meng), up just about the same half point from the Benoit vs. Malenko match, to a 3.99 over-run, or basically the gap being less than one full point. The gap was less than a full point for the first time in a segment since WWF made the race a blow out."
"Vito Lograsso's departure from ECW had more to do with him being signed by WCW. He's a long-time friend of Vince Russo's and Russo wanted him in a mobster role for the Disco Inferno gimmick. In one of Russo's earliest forays in wrestling, he managed Lograsso as a heel on some New York indie shows."
"Hall & Nash took credit for turning the company around. Actually, Nash does deserve a ton of credit for turning the company around, or actually blame"
"The camera work here was horrible. The idea was that Guerrero would be caught kissing Torrie Wilson on the screen, Kidman would freak and leave. Unfortunately, they missed the kiss, but Kidman left for no apparent reason."
"An ad for ECW's November to Remember aired. That was kind of funny."
"Hart beat Jarrett to keep the title in 8:37. Heenan called one of the two participants in the match "Jeff Hart." "
"Tigress beat Spice in 1:57. A total calamity that the fans hated. This was going to stink no matter what, but leave it to WCW to do a match that has no value but to show skin, and then not show skin. This was worse than amateur hour. Sky ran in when Spice couldn't continue after a fingernail to the eye. Sky gave one of the girls the weakest hit with a make-up kit to where the fans booed that as well."
"Piper was the mystery guy in a limo. He tried to do a promo running down Russo for ruining wrestling, but Russo got three mics off. He stormed to the back to Russo's office. They had a confrontation (this was absolutely brilliant use of Piper because by cutting his mic off they left the people wanting to see more, rather than having him babble for five minutes and people realizing why he isn't used more)."
"Liz offered herself to Sting but Sting blew her off. After being turned on by everyone under the sun for 15 years, Sting finally smartened up."
"Malenko beat Benoit in a capture the flag match in 3:37. It takes some booking genius to put these two in a bad match. Fans were chanting "USA" but Malenko was playing heel. That was weird. First Schiavone said the object was to capture your opponents flag. Then he corrected himself saying the object was to get your own flag and wave it. Both guys could have easily done so, but I guess we just have to suspend our disbelief and pretend, like in that pinata match. Anyway, Malenko then grabbed Benoit's Canadian flag and the bell rang to end the match. Schiavone's credibility is bad enough without them making him look like a complete buffoon. Malenko threatened to burn the Canadian flag. Nobody cared. Then he grabbed the American flag and threatened to burn that. Bret Hart ran in and beat up the entire Revolution in a run-in wearing this look of not wanting to be anywhere near this angle. Hart ended up waving the U.S. flag while Benoit waved the Canadian flag. People didn't know what to do."
"Meng beat Sting in 2:36 with the Tongan death grip. No heat. Nobody cares about Meng. You always know when the booker has become a mark when they start pushing Meng as a killer. It's one of those deals where everyone in the business thinks it's a great role because he really is, forgetting that perception is everything and NOBODY at home has a clue and they've seen him for 15 years as a mid-card guy and now he's 40 and flabby and even though he still is a killer, you can't sell him as one. It's like pushing Dan Severn."
"David Flair destroyed Maestro's piano with the tire iron. That was funny."
"Add Juan Banos Jr. (Lizmark Jr.), Ron Reis, Scott Antol (Scotty Riggs), Chris Adams and Scott James (Scott Armstrong) and Ray Lloyd (Buzz Stern/Glacier) to the list of wrestlers that have been dropped"
"Whatever contractual issues with Stevie Ray have apparently been worked out since he was back at Nitro on 11/22, even though he wasn't used yet."
"The big plot line will probably start at Starrcade with Goldberg vs. Hart. Judging from the PPV, the idea is to present Hart as a Canadian hero, and have him praise the Canadian fans, etc. He won't knock the U.S., but the idea is for the U.S. fans to turn on him for praising Canada which will enable him to be a heel without another turn and they can re-do the Canada vs. USA feud which was a hot program--in 1997. Great, and if they can just get Steve Austin, maybe they can turn the company around with it like they started the ball rolling with in the other company"
"Ric Flair worked Cleveland losing to Bret Hart underneath the Goldberg over Luger main event. Flair is going to work fairly regularly on the house shows, generally in a top of the card position, mostly in title matches against Hart, but is being kept off television. I recognize this makes little sense to have house show main events and world title matches where the challengers name is not even spoken on television. Apparently Terry Taylor, who books the house shows, figures that Flair challenging Hart would do more business in a lot of cities than anything they program with the guys on television, and Flair is still under contract, just not being used on TV."
"Fitness model Trish Stratus, who has been looking at getting into wrestling, was backstage at the show"
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Oct 5, 2020 2:53:01 GMT -5
1999 December, Part 1
Dec 5, 99
"Coca Cola pulled all its WWF advertising out across the board, which amounts to several million dollars per year, and has increased its buys at rival WCW from $2 million to $3 million next year." "They did a show long sketch of Vito & Johnny (Tony Maranera was kept off TV this week after his less than stellar performance last week) inviting Mean Gene out to a strip club and leaving Gene there dancing with a half-dozen women while picking up two blonds (who may be brought into the Nitro Girls) and taking them home for a spaghetti dinner (Russo can at least argue that his Italian characters are as stereotypical as his Mexicans, even if they aren't really as demeaned). By the end of the show, the women tied them up, left, and called Disco & Lash Leroux, who poured the marinera sauce and spaghetti all over them. People are really going to believe in them as scary mob legbreakers." "The former Ryan Shamrock was in a show long sketch where they kept getting gifts from Maestro. Finally she showed up to meet with him and do whatever it was they were going to do, only to find a crazed David Flair in a wig wielding a tire iron with Maestro lying unconscious inside the piano. Somehow, because of Flair, that was a lot funnier than it reads." "Jarrett hit Tenay with a guitar shot after a badly staged confrontation. Tenay comes across really fake when he tries to get confrontational. Tenay also received a head cut legit from the guitar shot." "Juventud Guerrera beat Jushin Liger in 5:30 to win the IWGP jr. heavyweight title. They did no introductions for this match. They didn't give either guy ring entrances. There was no belt. The announcers totally ignored the match. Guerrera tried a springboard plancha, and ended up cracking his elbow on the floor (he was hospitalized for a possible broken elbow later that night). All of this went ignored by the announcers as this was just a bunch of guys battling for the most important jr. title in the business as a backdrop for them trying to get Brad Armstrong over with the same gimmick that made Van Hammer such a superstar. Armstrong, after calling Bobby Heenan "Bobby Eaton," (well, he's supposed to act stoned, but I wasn't sure what Heenan's excuse was on this show) distracted Liger, allowing Guerrera to hit him with a tequila bottle for the pin. When this show airs in Japan, this will guaranteed be considered the historical low point of the IWGP jr. title." "With Tenay injured and Gene trying to pick up some strippers, Chavo Guerrero Jr. did a job as a comedic interview always trying to sell something. He was great in the role." "Kevin Nash threw Hall's WCW TV title in the garbage can. They might as well dump all the belts there for all they are going to mean in the year 2000." "Revolution did an interview. They're now Anti-American heels. Douglas said, "Iran, No. 1, USA, phfft." Malenko started singing the Russian national anthem. Actually Malenko is now named Python, Douglas is now named Rattler and Asya is named Boa while Saturn, doing his goof gimmick, is named Trouser." "Here came Duggan in what would have been the worst angle on a normal wrestling show, as he beat on those guys who had to sell foam rubber 2x4 shots. Duggan laid out Douglas and Saturn with the foam rubber before they finally overpowered him. Finally Benoit made the save and wore everyone out with the foam rubber. Pretty soon wrestlers will start hitting each other with tampons as foreign objects." "Two of the Nitro Girls had a food fight. The fans in Denver booed this out of the building. They were sticking food down each others' tops. A fat woman (is she the transvestite?) who was supposed to be in the mud wrestling match started choking to death. Juvi saved her with the heimlich maneuver. Didn't I just see that Thursday on WWF? Juvi didn't have the belt, nor was it mentioned." "Evan Karagis was on top of Madusa about to do it. I guess on Nitro they do it fully clothed. Madusa I guess agreed to do it only if Evan gave her a cruiserweight title shot. Imagine Madusa thinking putting out is only worth the five cents that title belt is worth these days. Hey Evan, she's using you dumbass!" "Somewhere in here Lex told Russo he'd get Liz to do the mud match. Liz didn't want to do it and begged Sting to help her. Sting blew her off again. Of course, then he helped her. Sting is really weird." "Spice and Tigress of the Nitro Girls actually had a worse looking fight than the food fight earlier. Fans hated this." "Hall hit ref Johnny Boone with a chair and Boone reportedly got a legit concussion from that one. Hall realized he screwed up and then hit Goldberg with this terribly weak chair shot that Goldberg had to sell." "Rhonda Singh (formerly Bertha Faye of WWF killing the entire womens wrestling division fame) came out for a mud match. Bet you didn't know that Rhonda went to the same high school as Bret Hart. Liz refused to do the mud match with her. Singh threw ref Roddy Piper in the mud. Piper spanked her. They threw mud all over each other. Creative Control ended up in the mud. Fans hated a lot of stuff this night but they did like this. Piper ended up pinning Ron Harris and counting the pin himself even though he wasn't in the match." "Yet another Nitro Girls fight, this time with Chae and newcomer Sky. This may have been worse than the other two. Whoever came up with the idea of having brawls with the Nitro Girls isn't looking good. Whoever continues to do it week after week is looking like the chimpanzees that follow Thunder that used to book Nitro." "Midnight doesn't know how to even come off the ropes so everyone can see she's a total amateur, which is exactly what this company doesn't need because it's loaded with them, but she does have potential and is clearly a better athlete than Chyna, but these Chyna ripoffs are a dime a dozen and none of them mean shit." "Lights out again. Curly Bill hit the ring. Jesus Christ, you turn the lights out and the big surprise is Virgil?" "Lex shoved Liz in the mud. Sting then shoved Lex in the mud. Lex actually was funny doing his mud spot, unlike Liz. Sting threw Luger's jacket into the mud. Liz got out of the mud and unintentionally slipped." "Hall got thrown into the cage, then right in front of the camera did the old too obvious blade job on the head, except it was a spoof since there was no blade or blood." "Hall and Sid did a double clothesline spot I think the Nitro Girls could have improved on." "Jarrett came out with a bunch of weapons. I was wondering, you know, this being a cage match, how he was going to get the weapons in. Silly me, he just opened the door and walked in. He hit Piper with a guitar. He hit Goldberg with a guitar. Fans really hated Goldberg selling it. It wasn't heat on Jarrett, but the place groaning because they figured Goldberg would no-sell it." "Goldberg threw Jarrett into the cage. The cage was either so poorly put together that one side nearly collapsed, or more likely, a spot was planned where the cage was supposed to collapse but it didn't." "Then they seemed to just stand around and stall with the dreaded dead air. I think everyone backstage was watching the wedding and forgot to end the show" "At this point, Torrie Wilson's character has been dropped after a contract dispute. She was looking for a $250,000 per year three-year deal. All I can say is that if they had any clue how to market, she'd be a steal at that price. If you look at how ratings have risen and fallen based on her appearance, her worth from a ratings standpoint, and we know this company lives and dies by that, is sandwiched between Sting ($1.6 million per year), Ric Flair ($800,000, and based on his ratings drawing power over the past three years he's way underpaid by company and even industry standards) and Scott Hall ($1.6 million)" "A correction from last week regarding the camera work in the Control vs. Konnan & Kidman match. It was still awful, but it didn't miss the kiss. The reason the segment was so clumsy on TV is because it was booked that the cameras would catch Guerrero kissing Torrie Wilson and Kidman would go ballistic. They even played the storyline up as if it happened even though we didn't see it. However, Guerrero actually refused to do the scene because of family considerations, in particular he didn't want his kids seeing it" "Misterio Jr.'s actual injury was the same torn ACL that he had before. He injured it doing the movie, blaming it on not having proper time to warm up before being sent out to do a scene. He was doing a spot that called for a Frankensteiner off the top rope, landed in a squat position and immediately heard the knee snap. He said he didn't want to reconstructive surgery because he felt Russo and Ferrara were giving him a chance, something previous bookers hadn't, but they told him they wanted him to take the time off because they wanted him back at 100" "When both squads were in Canada, DDP spoke with Big Show, who he helped out a lot when both were in WCW, and others about making a move. He's got about two-and-a-half years left on a $1.3 million per year guaranteed deal but with WCW making budget cuts and that being one of the higher salaries for a guy not being positioned in that level anymore, there may be a chance they'd let him go. He has already asked for his release and apparently feels even with the big contract, that staying in WCW would result in him turning into Marc Mero (a guy whose career goes down the toilet while his wife gets a big push)." "There was a backstage scuffle at about 2 p.m. before the 11/29 Nitro in Denver, which Page wasn't even scheduled to be at, with Bagwell, which saw Page get in one good punch before it was quickly broken up by Terry Taylor. Reports are that Taylor may have injured his shoulder and that Doug Dillenger twisted his hamstring in breaking up the altercation. Dillenger for sure was selling to everyone that it was real and people do think he himself believed it. Bagwell and Page have been friends in the past so it's probable this is an angle and Page is the type who would be into angles like this." "At one point, the Evan Karagis vs. Saturn match on 11/22 Nitro was supposed to be a cruiserweight title match. Saturn was supposed to kill him, but not win, probably with a bunch of run-ins. Somewhere along the way they decided Saturn wasn't a cruiserweight and had him squash Karagis" "Kristina Laun (Kimona) is now expected to sign here this week. Basically it's been Terry Taylor trying to get in her, and when Taylor switched companies, her odds of coming in increased at the company he switched to. Besides, WCW is trying to stock up on women" "Spice and Tigress were at the Power Plant for several hours training on 11/21 training for their 11/22 disaster. The common theme is that the show has never been better organized, but the two glaring weaknesses is that the production crew is clearly not up to the task at hand, and that Russo and Ferrara don't seem to recognize that there is far too much amateur hour material in the show, particularly putting people in the ring to wrestle that have no business in the ring, and the fans seeing through it and rejecting it vociferously on the air" "In San Angelo, the ring broke in the Juventud Guerrera vs. Silver King match and nobody could take bumps in it the rest of the night."
Dec 12, 99 "In the most newsworthy segment in the short history of Wrestling Observer Live, Vince Russo said that Nitro would go from 8 to 10 p.m. starting the first of the year. Russo said he was vehemently against that move (it was a decision by Brad Siegel, who oversees WCW for Time Warner, with the belief TNT has stronger programming to fit the 10-11 p.m. slot than the 8-9 p.m. slot), wanting it from 9 to 11 p.m., both so the show would be able to get more risque and be TV-14 (it was going to be kept TV-PG however due to the pressures due to the media stories on wrestling, was changed out of caution to TV-14 even with no change in content) and also so they wouldn't hand WWF a gigantic audience during the 10 to 11 p.m. hour." "For Nitro, the rating by eliminating the third hour will artificially increase from the current 3.2 to probably a 3.6 or 3.7 with no actual increase in company popularity due to NFL season ending and the third hour that dragged down the overall number eliminated. For WCW to come out ahead advertising revenue-wise by eliminating the third hour, the number has to jump from a 3.2 to a 4.8 and we know that isn't happening unless things legitimately as opposed to artificially are turned around." "Thunder will be from 9 to 11 p.m. on Wednesdays, but won't be more risque as due to sponsor pressure." "The situation with Jushin Liger and the IWGP jr. title seems to be this. Liger and New Japan booked him into WCW. It was a decision forced on Russo and not one that he particularly wanted. The deal was that Liger would lose the title on Nitro, then win it back on Nitro the following week. I'm only guessing this part, but apparently the idea was for Liger to work that program with Misterio Jr. When he got there, of course, Misterio Jr. wasn't there, so Guerrera was made his opponent. While Misterio Jr. in his few matches in Japan got tremendous media exposure and is something of a name attraction in Japan, Guerrera's name is known really only to the hardcore fans, and to the fans who watch Nitro (a very small hardcore minority), he's a jobber who gets no push. Liger claimed to have lost the title belt which is why he didn't bring it to the ring." "There is controversy, and this is why Guerrera was so mad doing the commentary on Liger's match on Thunder, over the injury. Guerrera feels it was Liger's mistake, and feels it was on purpose because he wasn't professional and didn't respect him by bringing the belt out, and that Liger intentionally sidestepped catching him on the springboard plancha, which caused him to land on his elbow and break his arm, where it needs surgery. I had already sent my tape of the show out before hearing this story, but from people who watched it, it wasn't as if Liger sidestepped away, but Guerrera's direction coming off the ropes was too far to the left." "Due to the pressure that sponsors have put on WWF to clean up, many of the sponsors that have pulled out of WWF and stayed with WCW have started putting pressure on it to clean up as well. Russo noted that station management, in particular standards & practices, forced them to drop the Bells Palsy part of the portrayal of Oklahoma due to the station getting negative response from viewers." "The basic story of the 11/29 Nitro angle where Oklahoma had the barbecue sauce poured on his face by the Misfits and Vampiro was from a storyline standpoint to portray it as "unfreezing" Oklahoma's face so from a storyline reason there is no portrayal of Bells Palsy in the character anymore. Ferrara was telling people that they forced him to change because of two complaining letters while Russo on Observer Live said it was maybe five letters and said they were probably from Ross' friends." "Russo also said that on the show standards and practices wouldn't allow Piper to make any remarks about Rhonda Singh being fat because they were afraid of complaints from overweight women and claimed because of Coca Cola being sponsors and putting pressure on and media coverage of WWF that week that standards and practices on 11/29 was "in a panic mood." " "Russo said at the Havoc show, they went to Siegel and basically begged him to allow them use of blood for Sid Vicious because it was important for the long-term portrayal of Sid (basically copying the Austin/Bret Hart Wrestlemania double-turn angle where blood was so important in getting Vicious' not quitting over as a babyface turn). He said then Flair in the very next match went into business for himself and got tons of blood in the match with Page which brought down tremendous heat on the company." "The ultimate destruction came during the fifth competitive segment, where the HHH interview, with Stephanie and Vince McMahon coming out drew a 7.23 rating destroying the 1.95 rating of the Nash vs. Benoit match." "Over the eight week period since Russo took over the helm of Nitro, the show is averaging a 3.24 rating, slightly down from the 3.38 in September which was Nash's final month of booking." "Ric Flair's attorneys requested him getting a release from his contract but at this point WCW hasn't agreed to it" "The censors tried, with little success, to edit out the fans chants of "asshole." Finally they gave up in futility." "Maranera was mad at his bumbling idiots for being bumbling idiots. They were supposed to take out Disco & Lash, but somehow got sidetracked into playing a strip poker game with the Nitro Girls. Didn't we just see a poker game angle on Raw last week? Anyway, those Nitro Girls were cheating and in the interest of upping the ratings with the all important male 12-34 demo, we got to see Vito and Johnny strip throughout the show." "Russo decided in a manner to decide who would be IWGP jr. heavyweight champion that the belt would go to whomever got out the door between Psicosis and La Parka (who probably doesn't qualify as a jr. heavyweight to begin with, but these Mexicans are all the same anyway). Psicosis got out the door, and came to the ring holding the IWGP jr. title." "Gene looked down Mona's top. She scolded him for doing so, saying she's an athlete or something like that. Like the purpose of her ring outfit is purely for athletics. Actually the RollerJam angle on Friday which was the same thing was a lot funnier." "Oklahoma, who has a physique definitely made for writing and not performing wrestling matches, did his own commentary, which was funny, especially when 30 seconds into the match he let on that he was already blown up. He hit Only with a chair so he couldn't screw up the match too badly. Oklahoma at least looked like a beginning indie wrestler, as opposed to Only who looked like someone who is one year away from his first pro match." "At this point in the show they played the exact same segment they played earlier in the show where Hennig tried to get Curly Bill a job with Russo, and suggested a new gimmick--Shane. Russo hated the gimmick. Actually he hated it twice. So, of course, later in the show, Virgil Vincent S.T. Michael Curly Bill Jones was performing under what name? That production crew is almost as much of a nightmare as the attendance at house shows these days." "The crowd chanted "asshole." The censor guy tried again but gave up again." "Piper beat both members of Creative Control, which he called Condom heads, in an I Quit match in 2:26 which he was also the ref of. Piper grabbed both of their balls in searching them. The crowd thought that was funny." "Zbyszko and Russo did an interview which was hilarious on many levels. Russo said that Thunder stinks. Zbyszko said it stinks because none of the big-name talent ever appears on the show. Russo said all the top stars would be on Thunder starting this week, naming Goldberg, Hall, Nash, Sting and Hart but said the announcing on Thunder stinks. Zbyszko overacts so much that he's amazingly like William Shatner. I swear I was expecting a Priceline.com commercial to start. Anyway, they set up a match where if Zbyszko wins, Russo has to go back to WWF, and if Hennig wins, Zbyszko has to leave WCW. Actually that match if built up for about two months could mean something on PPV, but they instead did it in the very next segment." "The former Vincent was at ringside, now called Shane. I thought Russo hated that idea." "Heenan claimed that Hall had never lost a ladder match. Luckily Heenan forgot about the match he called in January with Goldberg. He shouldn't have, it was one of the few decent WCW main events on PPV all year." "There was one hilarious line. Schiavone asked Hall what he was doing with the ladder and Hall told him that he should look because he's got the format sheet in front of him." "There was a kid who looked to be about eight in the front row who kept waving a sign at Liz saying "Show me your puppies." She saw it and seemed to momentarily be concerned." "DDP came out and gave Flair a diamond cutter and then talked about rumors of him going to the WWF. He didn't say anything, but tried to intimate they weren't true. He also was careful not to bury WWF. Basically the situation was that he went to Paul Wight and Ray Traylor and asked both to pass the message he was interested in coming in. The message was given back that they couldn't come anywhere close to guaranteeing him the money he was making in WCW." "Nick Patrick and security then all left. The refs were going on strike. What a novel idea." "Hayashi beat Maestro in 3:42 when David Flair showed up after a ref bump (the fans did groan, I mean, a ref bump when Hayashi wrestles Maestro?). Flair hit Hayashi with the tire iron and Maestro saw Flair and ran away, probably thinking if he stayed they might book him in a wrestling match with David on a PPV." "Buzzkill beat Chavo Guerrero Jr. in :34 after hitting him with Chavo's own briefcase. This was beyond lame and the crowd hated it. First off, Tony Schiavone acted as if this was Buzzkill's first match in WCW even though everyone knew it was Brad Armstrong doing this 60s stoned hippie gimmick, which worked wonders for Mike Boyette when such a thing was a modern gimmick. Buzzkill came out to entrance music exactly like his brother Road Dogg. He did a few of his mannerisms and tried to develop some catch phrases. Chavo tried to sell him some tie-dyed t-shirts and a psychedelic lamp in the ring. Fans hated this. After the match Buzzkill grabbed money from ref Mark Johnson and gave it to Chavo and left with the lamp. So Chavo woke up and was happy that he made the sale." "One of the reasons they are repeating the same hippy gimmick that had just been used unsuccessfully for Van Hammer, is that the new creative team had never watched WCW before and didn't even know Hammer had ever done that gimmick." "Guerrera did color commentary using a few of Rock and Jericho's catch phrases and boy was he pissed legit at Liger. Guerrera made remarks calling him unprofessional and when Benoit caught Liger on a plancha, he talked about how that showed Benoit was a true professional unlike Liger (I wonder what the people at home were thinking about all that). He called Liger a con man, apparently because of Liger's rep as one of the greatest workers of all-time and was ripping on the match, even though the match was better than anything WCW has had on television since that tag match Juvi had on Thunder which was a match of the year that nobody saw or remembers. Mike Tenay brought up that this was a great match, and Juvi basically remarked he has matches non-stop like it every night he's out there." "Disco & Leroux outsmarted Vito & Johnny by removing the sign from Meng's dressing room that read "Meng" and putting "Disco & Lash" on it. Vito & Johnny went in and Meng beat them up. Seeing as how totally incompetent Vito & Johnny are at just about everything, why are Disco & Lash so damn worried?" "Gene kept looking at Mona's boobs like a dirty old man and Mona made reference to it. I think that was the only reason they even gave her an interview." "Mona got beat up until Evan gave her the screw, which is actually an Ultimo Dragon move but if Russo & Ferrara knew the actual name of the move, Evan would probably get a push and be using it on women every week." "Jarrett hit Mona with a guitar, luckily this isn't the WWF where they do things like that." "Liz came out to spray mace at Lex, but he closed his eyes, grabbed the bottle and sprayed Sid. Sid the big dummy didn't learn from Lex's brilliant move and kept his eyes open." "As a rib, since Rock on a Jericho interview a few months back talked about having wrestled some guy named Juvi, Juventud Guerrera over the weekend in Texas in his Mexican accent said, "Finally, the Juice has come back to...." and the place went nuts and started chanting his name. There are people who think he should now make that part of his repertoire. Most guys would come off unbelievably lame trying to rip off Rock, and some have already. Guerrera because he's so unintentionally funny and also so talented, is about the only guy who could pull it off." "Lastly on this week's Juventud Guerrera Observer, the woman whose life he saved (you know, doing the Heimlich maneuver he picked up by watching Smackdown on Thanksgiving night) was Leilani Kai" "Torrie Wilson on her web site said that she's still negotiating and wants to work out a deal to return to WCW but by the end of the week it appeared the odds were lessening that it would happen. Apparently the deal made with her was for $3,000 per Nitro appearance plus first class tickets (except for the top wrestlers, most of the guys fly coach). When they wanted to make her a regular character and work Tuesdays as well for Thunder, by the old deal, that would be $6,000 per week, so WCW offered her a new contract on a per-year basis which worked out to considerably less than $6,000 per week, which of course, her side took as a pay cut while WCW considered that they were giving her a raise which led to the impasse." "Add David Taylor and High Voltage to the list of guys dropped by WCW. Robbie Rage had a lot of potential. He never returned after tearing his bicep. Paul Heyman was always high on him as well" "One of the internal beliefs is that Russo and Ferrara are booking entirely for the internet (Russo on the show said except for the angle with Bagwell having to lay down for La Parka that he doesn't believe a casual fan wouldn't understand their angles although he was said to have loved Guerrera's commentary on Liger and I wouldn't have even had a clue what that was all about if I hadn't been told about it). At the shows, the two are always looking for internet response to everything they do and have Bill Banks immediately report initial reactions." "Sting beat Luger. Luger said he had stomach cramps and couldn't wrestle. Sting then pulled a bottle of Pepto Bismol out of his bag and dumped it all over Luger. Luger wrestled the entire match with Pepto Bismol all over his hair and chest. Liz came out and slapped Luger at the finish, setting up Sting putting him away."
|
|
|
Post by chronocross on Oct 5, 2020 8:14:48 GMT -5
WCW around this time period was a huge mess, I remember the Nitro where Liz slipped and busted her ass after that mudfight, it was atrocious.
They were trying so hard to be WWE-lite and it showed, I thought the La Parka voiceover bit was funny.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Oct 5, 2020 8:30:48 GMT -5
Damn my eyes, reading up on the initial days of WCW's downfall is not as hideous as I thought it'd be..... it's not pretty, but an enjoyable enough mess Did the La Parka voiceover bit come before Kai En Tai's in WWF? A rare instance of WCW setting a.......trend that didn't age well.
|
|
Nr1Humanoid
Hank Scorpio
Is the #3 humanoid at best.
Posts: 5,482
|
Post by Nr1Humanoid on Oct 5, 2020 11:05:55 GMT -5
Thank the Big Guy in the Sky (Lando Calrissian that is) that Trish did not sign up with these tossers.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Oct 6, 2020 2:53:57 GMT -5
1999 December, Part 2
Dec 20, 99 "Overall Raw doubled Nitro in every head-to-head quarter except the main event battle, doing a 6.10 rating (6.14 first hour; 6.06 second hour) and a 9.1 share. Nitro fell to a 2.82 rating (3.58 first hour; 2.35 second hour; 2.57 third hour) and a 4.2 share. Over the head-to-head two hours and four minutes, Raw's 6.10 beat out Nitro's 2.46." "The bottom line for Nitro, is that people can explain away this fact all they want, but it was the lowest rated show since Russo and Ferrara came in, and the second lowest rated Nitro in the past three years (only Nash's final week as lame duck booker with a horrible show did a worse rating)." "The only sign of life for the night for WCW is that they did get viewers to switch from Raw to their main event, as Goldberg & Hart vs. Hall & Nash grew to a 3.28 while the finish of HHH & Test vs. Outlaws fell to a 5.84, which doesn't look like really a fall, except Raw went one minute longer than Nitro it probably means the real fall was in the 5.6 range." "In the 12/9 prime time battle, Thunder going in with all the pub of sending all the top stars to the show saw it close the gap on Smackdown as each show had a respective .3 movement from normal levels. Smackdown did a 4.33 rating and 6.8 share, while Thunder did a 2.27 rating and 3.6 share. All things considered, considering the hype Smackdown has been getting and how awful Thunder has been, the fact Smackdown didn't double the rating of Thunder should almost be seen as a good sign for WCW, although just saying that shows just how desperate WCW really is if that's considered a good sign." "TNN sent out a press release for its 12/10 show regarding the debut of Dusty Rhodes, listing Rhodes as a defection from WCW to ECW and claiming Raven, Sandman, Mikey Whipwreck, James Vandenburg, 2 Cold Scorpio, Super Calo and Ray Lloyd all as those who quit WCW to join ECW." "No matter what you hear elsewhere, at this point the company is internally going with the idea that it's Russo's game and they are giving him plenty of time (he's convinced them it's going to take six months before they see results in the ratings, and there is truth to the idea it will take time for the ratings to turn around, but the fact the house shows and PPVs haven't, and they don't take time to move, is not a good sign right now)" "The backstage brawling is getting old because every scene is choreographed the same." "The Artist formerly known as Prince Iaukea (later referred to as simply The Artist) beat Maestro in 1:55. Fans hated the ring entrances so bad they actually booed Symphony (Alicia Webb, formerly Ryan Shamrock) and it takes a lot for wrestling fans to boo a pretty young woman. Symphony, who they say is the only woman in the industry getting a push without implants, went at it with Paisley and Artist pinned Maestro with a rolling reverse cradle. Jarrett killed both guys after with a guitar. Fans popped for this, because they hated both guys." "Madusa attacked Spice after seeing Evan Karagis flirt with her. Even though Madusa is doing an angle where she's not doing Karagis (but teasing she will after Starrcade) she wore a jersey of her husband, who until recently played for the Bengals." "The dirty old man (Gene) stared at Madusa's boobs. Her boobs challenged Spice." "Spice beat Madusa in 1:05. Madusa held Spice and told Karagis to hit her. He realized that if he did, Standards and Practices would probably shut down the show. So he did the right thing. But the angle still sucked. Spice shoved Madusa into Karagis. Actually they never touched. Karagis thought about it for a second, then took the bump anyway. Spice jumped on Madusa and got the pin, even though Madusa clearly kicked out. Guess she was less than thrilled about doing the job. Madusa german suplexed Karagis after the match. I guess women are allowed to attack men but not visa versa." "When Abbott threw a punch and Meng stayed up, they might as well have taken his $300,000 per year deal and given the money to charity because it would at least do some good for someone. Now they have to pay him and all he'll bring to the table is no heat, no ability, no money, no ratings and bad matches." "Finlay was training Knobs in the swamp making him do sit-ups. His form was horrible." "Zbyszko can come back because he was never really any good to begin with and basically looks the same and probably is in better shape now than when he was younger. Orndorff, on the other hand, was this really good looking guy with one of the best physiques in the game. Now he's 50, and looks older than his age, and has completely lost his body. Dusty Rhodes can come out old and fat, but if Orndorff isn't handsome and in great shape, he's nobody." "Nash stood there forever with his thumb up his ass until he hit Hart in the knee with the belt. Hart was knocked out by a punch to the knee and Goldberg jackhammered Hall. Since Hall and Goldberg were the legal men, the ref counted as Nash pinned Hart in 6:19 to win the title. Fans pelted the ring with garbage. They didn't even tease the two splitting up. Six days before the main event on the supposed biggest PPV show of the year and they haven't established any heat between the two main event title match guys" "Torrie Wilson signed a two-year contract. The WCW offer had a higher guarantee but the WWF's contract does offer huge marketing potential if a character hits. Ultimately, part of the decision according apparently came down to the fact she felt "safer" working in WCW, and didn't want to risk signing with WWF and being put into a lesbian angle or something." "Konnan apparently got in the doghouse for being on Wrestling Observer Live a few weeks ago with Raven. Raven ran down the company huge. Konnan really didn't, although he did rip heavily on the previous booking and power regime, but since nobody actually heard the show that cried about it, Konnan wound up getting credit for a lot of what Raven said" "Standards & Practices really came down hard on WCW before the 12/7 Thunder tapings in Madison, WI. There were many things done away with, but the ones that did get around were that Rhonda Singh was going to do a match against Evan Karagis for the cruiserweight title and if she lost, she was going to say she'd strip on TV, and Jim Duggan had a match with Asya." "Sid came out and talked about how Nash was always holding him back with his political stroke. Nash made fun of Vader. The fans didn't react at all to one inside comment. Sid came to the ring and decked Nash and shoved Hall off the ladder. Hall took the single most fake bump on purpose. Seriously, if this was a company was any discipline, he should have been fired. Then again, he should have been fired 50 times in the last three years, but it's WCW and that's why the talent will always be unhappy because there will always be a double standard." "Juvi came out before this as the color commentator for two hours. Actually he was hilarious for about 40 minutes before he ran out of things to say, and then was even funnier when Luger came out." "Prince Iaukea came out with what Guerrera called "the worst gimmick in the entire company" " "Guerrera basically said that Karagis sucks and it's a joke he's got the belt, but in a non-working fashion which made it even more biting and more funny." "Madusa pinned Singh (Rhonda, not Tiger Jeet, because S&P would nix that one) in 1:32 when Karagis collided with Singh. Singh started to strip but the lights went out and when they came on, she was unconscious. The idea is that the person who left her dead while the lights were off was Mona, but I don't think anyone caught on to that." "Luger no contest Bagwell when DDP, at ringside attacked Bagwell. No explanation was given. Okay morons who think by having the announcers not acknowledge an angle that it makes it a shoot and therefore will draw money. 1) Brian Pillman's shit never drew one dime although it may have ended up doing so if he wasn't working the people who were the few that were supposed to be in on it with him; 2) Pillman's stuff did get over as a cult deal but it wasn't because Pillman was out there working the internet while the announcers kept quiet talking about it. It was because Bischoff was out there doing commentary and selling everything he did from an announcers standpoint as not being supposed to happen. It was Bischoff, not Pillman, who directed the fans and made them recognize something was "not supposed to happen." When the announcers ignore it and don't tell the fans the story, there is no story. Maybe someone will read this and not waste time trying to fool the boys in the future and figure out how to do the same exact thing and make people watching care about it." "During this match Guerrera was hilarious making references to Luger and juice. Tenay tried to deflect it by saying Apple or Orange, and Juvi said he wants to get some of the real juice." "They had a meeting on 12/6 with the wrestlers telling everyone that if they arrived late, they'd be fined. On 12/7, Luger, who doesn't like the current direction in that it takes them lots of time to convince him to do the things he's been doing such as the mud deal, arrived five hours late." "Scott Hudson was brought to the Thunder taping but they decided to go with Juventud Guerrera on color instead of him. The only thing Guerrera was told by Russo was to go out and say what he really thinks about the wrestlers and the situations and not to react like he'd think a wrestling announcer would react. As of the weekend, the idea seemed to be to make Guerrera, Hudson and Tenay as a regular three-man team. Russo was apparently thrilled at the internet response (although our internet poll largely felt it was an idea that ran its course by the end of the show) and wants to keep him a regular." "Goldberg and The Rock met for probably the first time ever during the weekend both companies were in Toronto. The two had a 15-minute conversation talking about their contracts and their futures in Wayne Gretzky's private box in the game where Gretzky was being honored. Also there were Brian Knobs, Hart and Tenay, which was reported on in several newspapers. Apparently just before the meeting, or at the game, Chyna told Rock that Scott Hudson had been copying his catch phrases on WCW Saturday Night earlier in the day and Rock complained to Tenay about it" "Hart, while agreeing to basically use the Montreal deal in an angle at Starrcade which has been Russo's top plan from day one for shooting "the big" angle (there were all sorts of rumors of this happening at Mayhem but the plan all along was for Starrcade with Hart playing Michaels of all ironies, Piper apparently playing Hebner, Russo playing Vince and Goldberg playing Hart although nothing in wrestling is for sure until it actually takes place). Russo is apparently trying to recreate it since it was the thing that set the stage for WWF's comeback. That was when it wasn't an angle and circumstances were unique and not after two years of WWF trying to mimic it to death in angles." "Hart apparently doesn't want to do the Anti-American part of his old character which is the Hart that Russo wanted because actually if you look at WWF's big turnaround, it started first at the arenas and with that incredible weekly TV heat when Hart was in that role, but again, one of the reasons that worked so well is they were taping so much TV in Canada and the contrast between TV's each week really fueled the feud" "Yoshihiro Asai (Ultimo Dragon) is expected to sue WCW (he's already sued the doctor who performed the messed up surgery that ended his career). Dragon had a verbal deal with Eric Bischoff that WCW would take care of him and keep him under contract which is why Dragon ever sued WCW before. Shortly after Bischoff was let go, WCW fired Dragon. The surgery for bone chips in his elbow was supposed to be a routine 30 minute arthroscopic surgery and he'd be back in less than two months. Instead, he wound up with a severed nerve in his elbow and an eight inch star and was never able to wrestle again" "The Nitro Girls, in particular Spice and the woman who now plays Paisley for Prince Iaukea, have been making noises about wanting raises. They signed contracts specifically to be dancers and not performing talent, and now that they're performing talent (granted using the term performing and the term talent is a stretch) they want to be paid accordingly. All jokes aside, they're right" "Midnight has super potential and a great look. Actually she's got a great look for a male wrestler. For a female wrestler, she looks like someone who should have a dick." "Russo is smart about one thing. Even though he's booking for a small percentage of the total audience, if he gets over as being cool with that percentage, he'll create a legend for himself as a great booking mind even if the numbers and the profit/loss of the company don't back up the portrayal in the long run and he'll always have work in this profession. See the general portrayal of Paul Heyman as a booking genius, which from a creative standpoint is not a stretch at all, as many times the company itself wasn't drawing any fans, ratings points or making any money but that really never hurt the perception of Heyman and because of that he could have gotten a job with any company he wanted even if his own company failed"
Dec 27, 99 "The idea to turn WCW around is---the same idea Eric Bischoff came up with that helped turn WCW around three-and-a-half years ago." "The subject of Vince Russo as WCW booker/writer has been a polarizing issue, both inside and outside of the company. It's basically come down to two arguments. His detractors point to the ratings not improving, falling last week to the second lowest mark in years, and use that as the argument that his new concepts of what wrestling is aren't working. His defenders claim it took six months to turn the WWF ratings around, and it'll take six months to turn WCW ratings around, and blame TNT standards and practices for nixing basically irrelevant wording and angles as to the excuse on why they've started a decline in recent weeks." "First off, the ratings are going to turn around. It's as simple as cutting Nitro to two hours, thereby eliminating the third hour that's a drain on the average, and football season ending. Thunder on Wednesday won't be getting its ass handed to it by Smackdown and should be at the very least back to the 2.7 level it was doing before Smackdown destroyed it, and that 2.7 was a "B" team show as opposed to an "A" team show so the numbers should be well above a 3.0 as in its glory days it topped a 4.0 regularly before it was destroyed from within." "What should constitute a real improvement for WCW? If WCW is averaging 3.2 under Russo, taking out the third hour would immediately jump that same figure to a 3.4. Adding its share of the NFL viewers coming back should increase that figure to all the way up to a 3.7 to 3.8. That's what Nitro should average once it goes two hours with no real improvement literally in a few weeks. And when it averages that, people will proclaim the business as having been turned around."
"It also should be noted there is the inherent advantage of why the switch is being made in the first place. Three hours is just too long. It's a change that simply needed to be made. A calculator may tell you that one more hour of wrestling on Monday adds more money to the company because of an hour more of ad sales, but there is a long-term burnout rate from overexposure that a calculator can't understand."
"The Flair-Savage angle which pre-dated the NWO by seven months, sparked a 37% increase in house show business over the period of exactly one month, a level the company stayed at for most of the next year before the second huge jump in early 1997 when the company was catching fire for a number of different reasons."
"Unlike ratings, which take time to grow, house show business turns around at the first sign of a good angle. It's as simple as Flair takes Savage's ex-wife and Savage goes for revenge. Michaels comes back after a "career ending" injury. Hart returns after a hiatus. Austin gets hot. The NWO gets hot."
"Whatever major curiosity that was supposed to come of a reprise of the Survivor Series finish and abrupt end of Starrcade for the ratings the next day didn't result, as it was the lowest rated day after a PPV rating since Russo took over."
"The fact is that Nitro on 12/20 in Baltimore sold 4,589 tickets. Thunder on 12/14 in Mobile sold 1,797 tickets. Those figures are total embarrassments. Per cap merchandise sales hit an all-time modern era low last week, barely over $4 per head. When the company was hot, those figures averaged more than $10 per head. Fewer people buy tickets than before. And to those who buy tickets, fewer buy merchandise than at any time in years." "After being promoted as a major show for months in a legendary building that's closing down for the final show of the millennium, the 12/27 Nitro at the Astrodome in Houston had sold less than 6,000 tickets at press time in a building that holds almost ten times than many people." "As expected, Bret Hart was in the role of Shawn Michaels, the "unexpected" winner who "pretended" to be surprised by the match outcome. Bill Goldberg was in the role of Hart, apparently Vince Russo had decided that WCW blew it when they had Hart in that position (an opinion shared by virtually everyone in the world) and is going to show what he would have done had he been the booker at that time, ie. making Goldberg the biggest star in wrestling coming out of this. Roddy Piper was in the role of Earl Hebner. Russo, who never came to ringside for the quick bell ring out of a sharpshooter, I guess becomes Vince McMahon." "The cruiserweight title can't be destroyed anymore than it already has with the champ jobbing on every television show in two minutes leading to this match, so the idea that it's on a woman hurting the title is irrelevant." "Sting vs. Lex Luger has been done a million times and this angle was an excuse for Sting to take time off so he can be repackaged. This down time for Sting was a decision forced on him rather than time off that he asked for like in the past." "The show abruptly went off the air at the finish, just like Montreal. The only problem is, everyone knows about Montreal and it became a huge topic of conversation because it was a shoot. The same finish as a work has been repeated on so many indie shows and WWF shows so many times that people were groaning." "There are little things being done to really push Benoit and Jarrett." "Sullivan gave Duggan a low blow and Douglas came from the announcing spot and hopped into the ring to score the pin. Hudson should be more alert because if he can hop off the announcing area into the ring whenever someone is knocked out in WCW and get credit for a pin, he could develop a Goldberg record in just a few weeks." "There were so many reference during the show to Dusty Rhodes that he has to be coming back" "Fans were chanting "steroids" big time. I'm pretty sure Elizabeth isn't using steroids." "Liz grabbed Sting's bat and Sting stopped her. Then, for some unknown reason, probably because Sting didn't want to come across as being duped since they've done that to him for ten years straight but couldn't figure out a way out of this, he simply turned his back on Liz and she gave him a hard shot with the whiffle ball bat for the DQ." "Hart used the figure four around the post and in doing the move appeared to crack his head on the floor. The trick to the move is that the guy who is taking the move has to grab the guy giving the move and hold him from crashing on the floor. Goldberg didn't hold onto Hart, who injured his back when he hit the floor hard doing the move." "Vince Russo, sounding very desperate in the process, lashed out at criticism of his booking and blamed WCW standards & practices for the fact the ratings haven't improved since his arrival this past week on the WCW Live show. Russo claimed that the ratings haven't fallen (actually they've yet to bottom out below the lowest rated Nitro in years in Kevin Nash's final week, but the 12/13 Nitro drew the second lowest rating in years which certainly can't be construed as showing improvement) and that everything to this point was to put things in place for the big angle at Starrcade and the next night with the recreation of the NWO." "Russo blamed standards and practices for not allowing him to have Roddy Piper call Rhonda Singh fat, no longer allowing Ed Ferrara to mimic Jim Ross' Bells Palsy, and not allowing Buzzkill to burn incense on the air, none of which one way or the other meant even a blip when it comes to ratings. Russo said that WCW has to decide if it wants a squeaky clean show or ratings and that they can't have both. He said he was promised certain leeway when he came in and for the first six weeks everything was fine, but once the heat came from sponsors, the rules changed." "Russo also said people in WCW have been trying to stab him in the back (there is far less feeling of Russo as a creative genius within the organization and those who were 100% with him as recently as four weeks ago now privately believe he has no new ideas and just spun a good line). He claimed people in the company are saying the problem isn't standards and practices and that the show's writing hasn't been good, and claimed the people (who he never mentioned but are believed to be led by Kevin Sullivan and J.J. Dillon) were doing the same thing Jim Ross, Jim Cornette and Bruce Prichard did to him in the WWF." "Russo says he gauges his success by internet feedback and crowd response (you'd think he'd gauge success by quarter hour ratings and most importantly, tickets being sold and PPV buy rates but that would mean he'd have to write his shows for the general public and not the internet). He's apparently trying to build for a big angle on 2/14 since Nitro will be unopposed with Raw airing at 11 p.m. due to the Westminster Dog show." "Nitro on 12/20 was notable for the word "shit" being used in various forms and not bleeped out on three or four occasions during the show. WCW responded in a fashion remarkably like the WWF last week, with a press release stating: "Monday evening some strong language aired live on WCW Monday Nitro. The reason for this occurrence was a network delay booth operator did not report to work on Monday evening. This absence was not immediately realized due to the fact that the Broadcast Operation Center and the delay booth are located in different areas of the building. Once the personnel shortage was realized, the Broadcast Operation Center took action to staff the delay booth. The network has taken corrective measures to prevent this type of incident from happening again in the future." "During the first hour of Nitro, during a Kevin Nash supposed shoot interview, complaining about the lack of pensions, medical, dental, and arduous schedule and physical punishment, Nash used the terms "shit" and "bullshit" at about 8:35 p.m. Since the timing of this was on a show meant to be shocking and meant to be the talk of wrestling the next day, there has to be suspicions. When this same interview aired at 1:35 a.m. that evening on the replay show, those words were all edited out. The reaction to this supposed mistake, which probably really was one if only because it made company co-owner Ted Turner look like such a hypocrite, although Bret Hart managed to say the same word as Nash on the air after the booth was definitely staffed about 30 minutes later in the show, was similar to a WWF's reaction of a different but similar situation a week earlier which surely was an insincere claim of a planned incident as an accident. (My Note: The Miss Kitty topless deal)"
"Raw drew a 5.83 rating (5.55 first hour; 6.09 second hour) and an 8.8 share to Nitro's 3.20 rating (3.89 first hour; 2.86 second hour; 2.89 third hour) and a 4.9 share. Over the head-to-head two hours and six minutes it was Raw at 5.83 to Nitro's 2.74 making the total wrestling audience for the night at about 9.9 million. The reason Nitro's head-to-head average is below the rating of both its second and third hours is because the third hour average included a five minute period which went unopposed. If you take the unopposed five minutes, that third hour average drops all the way from 2.89 to 2.70."
"On paper it looks like Kane vs. Big Show grew from a 5.64 final quarter to a 6.08 over-run (which isn't misleading), while WCW grew from a 2.91 for Bagwell and Piper's interview to a 3.59 for the Goldberg vs. Hart title match with the NWO angle (which is very misleading). However, because most of those ratings points were garnered unopposed by going longer, which was a smart move because the climax of the angle did air after Raw went off the air and before the largest possible audience, actually even with all the hype, the Goldberg vs. Hart segment that went opposed to Kane vs. Show dropped into the mid-2's, which is inexplicable considering such a strong job had been done of building anticipation for that match. I actually thought they'd close the gap for the main event down to less than 1.5 ratings points and it was really more than three points difference." "Hugh Morrus, complete with a father, who looked like Hogan off steroids, as an escapee from the looney bin, lost to Hennig in 4:29 when pops distracted Morrus and he fell prey to the fisherman suplex." "Nash did the interview where he started swearing, talking about how the boys never screw the other boys because it violates the code of the wrestlers. That was really funny." "Piper was screaming that he wasn't a phony and tried to get the fans to cheer for Goldberg. He then quit wrestling claiming wrestling was better before there were script writers. Actually, it was, but that's another story. Piper begged Goldberg not to be a phony. He started talking about real fighters and I guess tried to still convince people that in his day wrestling was real." "Chavo Guerrero Jr. then tried to sell Karagis a book about "How to Pick up Women." Now that was funny." "The finish was hilarious. Benoit went to climb the ladder but the steps on both sides broke because the ladder was gimmicked. The funny part is Benoit climbed and waited for the steps to collapse--and they didn't. So he had to stomp as hard as he could on the steps for them to collapse. It was so stupid. Then Jarrett hit Benoit with a guitar. It was so un-Benoit like, and I guess he proved he was in fact human and not machine, as he braced way too early and right in front of the camera to take the shot." "Disco showed up at the offices of Tony Marinera's father, played by Chuck Zito. He told Disco he'd basically either murder him or he could join the family. Disco never answered. It's a pretty tough question. Either be dead, or hang around with bumbling fools like Vito and Johnny who when they actually wrestle can have good matches." "Bagwell did an interview. At least they had the brains to try and explain the Page angle. Gene asked him if he was sleeping with Kimberly. He basically said if someone who looked like that was in your bed, would you kick them out? DDP came out and they brawled. It's a hell of a lot more effective to book an adultery angle if you actually let the public in on what the angle is." "Kimberly on WCW Live announced her retirement from wrestling due to it putting pressure on her marriage. I think that's the 13th retirement in the last month in WCW." "Piper then did his run-in way before he was supposed to. The idea is that Hart was supposed to pin Goldberg and then Piper would jump on Goldberg to protect him. The problem was, Piper jumped on Goldberg before Hart could pin him. Hart tried to pull him off, but in the angle, Piper wasn't supposed to budge so he didn't. So in this great heat spot you had Hart and Nash laughing because of how silly it was. Ref Billy Silverman didn't know what to do either so he counted the pin with Piper on top. Piper I guess should have been world champion considering of late guys just run from the back and cover guys and are awarded wins. But not this time, as they simply announced it was a figment of all of our imaginations and it was Hart, not Piper, who had covered Goldberg and won the title." "The idea is not to make the mistake of the Bischoff era and keep the NWO group small and not bury it down trying to use it to get charismatically challenged people over by wearing the t-shirt." "They showed a David Flair vignette with Daphne Unger (who is an actress they've scouted who is apparently really good) at a fast food place going crazy because he's ordering a Salisbury steak in Salisbury and they don't have it. They did a bunch of Flair videos. Reports are that in these vignettes, the Flair character is great but the problem is, once you put him in the ring he's still so green." "Karagis came out with Shane Helms and Shannon Moore as members of the rock group Three Count. This was a Rock & Roll Express spoof meant to turn them heel in the Kurt Angle mode. They played a music video of them and the crowd hated it." "Guerrera, when Paisley, Spice, Madusa and Karagis were in there said there were four women in the ring." "Revolution beat up Duggan after the match before singer Aaron Neville, a long-time wrestling fan, made the save for him with a 2x4." "Hart was originally asked to on Nitro to do the same interview Michaels did in Ottawa the day after the Survivor Series. He didn't want to play the angle up like that so they tweaked it a little. The general speculation is that Russo wanted this angle to portray that he should get credit with the general public for Montreal as being an angle he created with the idea that's what turned around the WWF" "Bill Goldberg was injured from glass cuts doing an angle to end the Thunder show on 12/21, and at press time was in a Salisbury, MD Hospital and there were no details regarding how seriously he was injured other than he had full feeling in his fingers and hands which was considered a good sign since the tremendous blood loss reminded a lot of people of the David Finlay leg injury. This was not an angle even though it came during an angle."
|
|
Ben Wyatt
Crow T. Robot
Are You Gonna Go My Way?
I don't get it. At all. It's kind of a small horse, I mean what am I missing? Am I crazy?
Posts: 41,491
|
Post by Ben Wyatt on Oct 6, 2020 8:22:50 GMT -5
"They showed a David Flair vignette with Daphne Unger (who is an actress they've scouted who is apparently really good) at a fast food place going crazy because he's ordering a Salisbury steak in Salisbury and they don't have it. They did a bunch of Flair videos. Reports are that in these vignettes, the Flair character is great but the problem is, once you put him in the ring he's still so green." I loved this gimmick. I know Flair was total ass in the ring, but man alive the Flair/Daffney/Crowbar stuff was probably the most entertaining thing on WCW TV. Mmm.....Daffney..... Where was I?
|
|
jason1980s
Hank Scorpio
train
Posts: 6,313
Member is Online
|
Post by jason1980s on Oct 6, 2020 9:48:21 GMT -5
Roddy Piper was so out of place in wrestling by 1999 it's ridiculous. He was on the cutting edge, ahead of his time in the mid 1980s. He was best during the late 90s, early 2000s when working in TV or movies where a script was written for him and he couldn't act over the top.
Dave's comment about Midnight and a "dick" is disgusting. If he were working for an actual newspaper or internet site where the subject was not wrestling and he was employee he would be gone in a heartbeat. I am so glad I stopped subscribing before it got to this point. I know he doesn't miss my two+ years of subscription money but for I'm still glad I stopped.
|
|
|
Post by Perpetual Nirvana on Oct 6, 2020 20:40:20 GMT -5
"Torrie Wilson signed a two-year contract. The WCW offer had a higher guarantee but the WWF's contract does offer huge marketing potential if a character hits. Ultimately, part of the decision according apparently came down to the fact she felt "safer" working in WCW, and didn't want to risk signing with WWF and being put into a lesbian angle or something." Come on, Torrie. Aren't you being a bit... Oh yeah.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Oct 7, 2020 4:04:53 GMT -5
2000 January, Part 1
Jan 3, 2000
"It appears that Bill Goldberg will be out of the ring somewhere in the neighborhood of ten to 15 weeks as the word going around within the company but others are optimistically saying it'll be closer to six weeks." "The original angle involved Goldberg using a sledge hammer to break the windows and not his fist. It was changed to make it look more impressive to where Goldberg would hold a small pipe in his hands that wouldn't be visible to television viewers when smashing the windows. However, on the first or second blow that broke the first two windows, the pipe flew out of his hand and into the limo and with the tape rolling he couldn't very well open the door and get it. He still had more windows to break and more time before they yelled cut so he decided to try and break the big window with his elbow which took a few tries and hurt himself in the process. He had plastic surgery done in the hospital in Salisbury, MD that night and needed 40 stitches." "All the PPV shows were planned to be built around Goldberg and now it's touch and go if he'll make it for the 3/19 Uncensored show in Miami but it's believed he's out of both Souled Out and SuperBrawl. They were going with a Hart vs. Goldberg main event for Souled Out on 1/16 in Cincinnati. With Goldberg out of the picture, there was no babyface strong enough to headline." "Benoit is the most pushed of those left but they had already decided on the Jarrett stuff as a way to elevate both men. Since Sting is doing the injury angle, Piper doing the retirement angle (not that he should have been considered but you know how people think about people who at least once were stars and at one point drew big money), neither Hogan nor Flair wanted to come back this left Sid as the other alternative." "The company had planned to bring Flair back on 1/3 for a top spot since Nitro was in Greenville, SC and they were trying to replay something else that worked great once in the past. Nothing is certain because of Flair's position where he's still more comfortable in a heel role and is still trying to get out of his contract. I guess they could also do it with Hogan and it would make sense within his story line although he'd have to come back to TV by next week which was a little earlier than the original plan and Hogan is said to be of the mental position that this isn't the right time to return strategically, I guess with the idea it's still going down and to wait out until it hits rock bottom when he can be the savior." "WCW is sending Randy Savage to replace Goldberg against Rick Steiner for the Tokyo Dome." "As of Monday afternoon, the first Jarrett vs. Benoit match was to be a 30:00 marathon match with the most falls winning, but before TV went on the air it was changed to a dungeon match. It appears the feeling was that either the 30:00 match would have to be so slow paced it wouldn't be good, or if they had a great one, the two matches that follow would be anti-climactic." "The opened stating that the tag titles were being held up due to problems between Bill Busch and Vince Russo and that Hall & Nash were stripped of the belts because Hall wasn't in the building by 7 p.m. and that they'd do a Lethal Lottery (one of the all-time list of bad ideas that flopped almost every time it was presented on PPV and now it's flopped on free TV as well) to determine the tag titles." "The NWO spray painted Sid's rental car. Pretty soon the rental companies won't rent to pro wrestlers." "Abbott destroyed Shane (as in Mike Jones not Douglas) in 48 seconds via knockout." "How many worked retirements have we seen over the last eight weeks? We had Hogan quit. We had Hennig retire and be back the next night. We had Piper quit just last week and tell everyone to form a union and get benefits (and the WWF basically copied that part of the angle on Smackdown the next night and the rest of it on Raw the next week with Mick Foley) and we even had Kimberly retire doing an internet angle for all the trouble she's caused." "Hart beat Flynn to keep the WCW title in 3:57 with a sharpshooter after Jarrett hit Flynn with a baseball bat. They never bothered explaining how the NWO got their bats back from Benoit & Sid. Probably divine intervention." "Duggan's wife and two daughters, who are really cute kids, got in the ring. I was sure somebody was going to kidnap them and hold them for ransom but instead, there was no angle." "Lenny & Lodi showed up as Standards and Practices with Sky of the Nitro Girls dressed up as a businesswoman. David & Crowbar KO'd them with the crowbar. No pop at all. One of these days they'll realize that 95% of their audience has no clue about their internet storylines." "Leroux & Midnight beat Harlem Heat in 4:55 when Ray and T broke up over Midnight. Ray KO'd all three in the match with a slapjack and walked out." "PG-13 beat Steiner & Berlyn in 2:54. Berlyn walked out on Steiner. Sound familiar? It will be. Steiner actually pinned J.C. Ice after a belly-to-belly superplex in 2:54, but kept beating on him after so he was DQ'd." " "After three matches in the tournament, the only way it made sense was to announce that the ultimate winning team members have to do a threesome with Asya." "Smiley & Asya beat Duggan & Saturn in 3:29 when Duggan turned on Saturn leading to Smiley pinning him. During the match poor Asya delivered the single worst low blow in history and followed by tripping trying to do a clothesline. They did a funny spot where Saturn delivered an elbow off the top that was so high I almost thought he was coming from Saturn, and Smiley no-sold it because he was wearing a catchers' chest protector. Asya gave Smiley a belly-to-belly suplex after, so I guess Asya was determined to break up the team as well because she'd have to sleep with herself" "In another tournament match, Ron & Don Harris beat Meng & Finlay in 2:18, when you guessed it, Meng & Finlay turned on each other and were counted out." "It was then Vampiro & Karagis vs. David Flair & Maestro, which had to be a practical joke. Crowbar KO'd Maestro and took his place in the match. Flair may be completely crazy, but he never misses a hair appointment or allows his roots to show. Hey, his dad lived in a mental hospital for months (I know it was weeks but it seemed like years when I was watching it) and his hair stayed perfect and somehow out of that mess we wound up having to watch Asya wrestle every Monday and Thursday. Three Count interfered attacking Vampiro, trying their best, obviously, to keep Karagis from having to sleep with Asya." "Bagwell & Kanyon beat Disco & Vito in 4:29. Kanyon of course walked out on Bagwell, making exactly the eighth turn on a partner so far in seven matches of the tournament. Bagwell I guess will sleep with anyone so he won when Disco hit Vito with a chain by accident and Bagwell used the Blockbuster." "Finally, Nash, showing how important the tag titles are, with Hall not there, decided to fight two 300 pound monsters by himself despite both Hart and Jarrett, two of the best wrestlers in the company, being right there at his side. I guess they were like Pillman in that famous 2-on-8 triple decker cage match and saw where avoiding the worst match in wrestling history was a good career move." "Wall & Sid opposed Nash. Wall took off his shirt, and he suddenly went from a fairly imposing guy to a guy who looked like a sober Giant Sandman after a charisma bypass operation. Hart and Jarrett kept interfering. Sid never tagged in, but fortunately, Wall was every bit as bad as Sid would have been in a match with Nash. Wall was hit by a bat and pinned in 3:31. I wonder if they figured Nash beating two 300 pound guys would make him a babyface? I wonder if they figured Nash being Mr. Cool laying down on the hood of a car may make him a babyface? That finish sure made Sid look like he's primed and ready to win the world title." "They put Sid in a car and drove off. Hart got in a monster truck and drove over the car Sid was in, presumably killing him. Of course, in wrestling, nothing gets killed except wrestlers and territories, when shows continue to be this bad" "This was the final three-hour Nitro as it goes to two-hours from 8-10 p.m. starting 1/3. I believe the tag tournament will continue with four teams on 1/3 and then the semifinals and finals on Nitro on 1/10. So the teams still remaining are Kevin Nash all by himself, Bagwell presumably all by himself, David Flair & Crowbar which essentially means Crowbar all by himself, Ron & Don Harris, Smiley & Asya who can't get along, PG-13, Leroux & Midnight and Buzzkill & Rotunda" "Ric Flair vs. Nash headlines 1/28 in Nashville and 1/29 in Johnson City, TN as well as 2/3 in Charleston, SC. Flair vs. Hennig headlines 2/4 in Columbia, SC, 2/5 in Savannah and 2/6 in Wichita. There have been some great TV angles building up those matches" "The situation with Jeff Jarrett doing the ladder match on the PPV was because Ric Flair was asked by Russo, Bill Busch and J.J. Dillon and turned it down. In fact, they offered Flair the win over Benoit and he still wouldn't do it, feeling it wasn't the right thing to beat Benoit at this point and nobody had ideas for him long-term. Right after Goldberg went down, Flair was called and I'm not sure if he was directly told he'd be immediately programmed with Bret Hart for the title for the open spot on the PPV. The Flair situation right now is very interesting because he has asked for a release but has been turned down." "In one of the best kept secrets in the company, there was no Thunder show on 12/30. Most WCW schedules listed the 12/28 show in Beaumont, TX as a television taping and it was set up as such and switched to a house show, even though since Thunder is being pre-empted for a football game, TBS must have known about it literally months ago" "The Powers that Be office set was set up for the 12/27 Nitro although when the script came there was nothing referencing it on the show. Within the company, disenchantment with them is pretty high even after strong Nitro and Thunder shows last week, particularly after 12/27's Nitro was such a complete disaster." "If you watch the tape, you'll notice a lengthy part of the opening interview on Thunder was cut out and in its place they aired crowd shots. One would think it was an overreaction to marginal language based on the controversy from Monday, but actually it was Hall doing the old NWO survey, which infuriated Goldberg in particular because he thought he was trying to be a babyface against orders. Jarrett on Monday referenced it in his interview but used it as a heat getting heel spot as opposed to Hall who was using it to get a "cool" babyface reaction. Hall did it on his own as they had laid out a script and it wasn't on the script and there is even one report that he was specifically told ahead of time not to do it (they definitely were told not to do anything in the interview to garner a face reaction) but he did it anyway. Goldberg apparently got in Hall's face after he finished. Russo wanted the interview to establish them as full-fledged heels as not as cool heels that become faces because of it as in the last NWO incarnation, at least at this point" "Rick Steiner was stiff to the point that people thought he was unprofessional in not selling and killing little J.C. Ice before they even got any steam on them" "Mona (Noreen Greenwald) is doing a character based on the movie "Scream," as the mystery person who lays everyone out"
Jan 10, 2000 "At one point Benoit had tried to propose a match on the Tokyo Dome show where he would challenge Bret Hart for the WCW title, but WCW turned down the suggestion."
"In the 12/27 ratings, which will be the final ratings under these conditions, the actual final tally saw Raw do a 5.85 rating (5.55 first hour; 6.12 second hour) and a 9.1 share to Nitro's 2.86 rating (3.68 first hour; 2.54 second hour; 2.44 third hour) and a 4.5 share. Over the head-to-head two hours and six minutes, Raw's 5.85 destroyed Nitro's 2.32 including doubling it in every quarter and tripling it in two quarters and the competitive over-run period."
"The inexplicable WCW high point was a 2.57 rating for the Vampiro & Evan Karagis vs. David Flair & Crowbar match. For whatever reason, David Flair of late has been besides Bill Goldberg, WCW's biggest ratings draw." "Preliminary figures indicate Starrcade as a gigantic disappointment, drawing in the 0.3 to 0.4 buy rate range and we're told a lot closer to 0.3 as things look. It was only slightly better than Fall Brawl which was the lowest buy rate for either of the two big companies in the history of PPV so it makes No. 2 on that worst buy rates for a major company in history list. That is reality and I don't know how that reality can be explained away since they had months to build Hart vs. Goldberg." "The entire scenario as it involved Terry Funk this week was actually booked last week for Ric Flair. In other words, they wanted Flair to come back in Greenville as commissioner, get punked again in his neck of the woods by Kevin Nash to set up a match at the Souled Out PPV where Flair would put up the commissioners job against the NWO having to break-up for good, in a match that Nash would win." "Leia Meow was jumping up and down on a trampoline wearing a bikini top, but her implants were so hardened that the whole visual image didn't work because they didn't bounce. Isn't it amazing that pro wrestling has now come to analyzing the work of plastic surgeons." "After a commercial, the NWO came out and for some reason beat up the EMT's. I'm sure in the numbing excess of pro wrestling TV, probably half the viewers watching were looking for the blond EMT with the big boobs." "PG-13 were scheduled for a tag tourney match with Scott Steiner & Nash. DDP came out and they both jumped him, but of course he laid both members out with diamond cutters. Nash & Scott came out and beat the dead men in :10 when Nash dropped an elbow on J.C. Ice. The NWO then tagged PG-13." "The announcers, who were mentioning names like Verne Gagne, Bob Geigel and Lou Thesz as possible commissioners, then brought up Ric Flair. Was that stupid or what? They were guaranteeing that even with Funk came out, it would be a disappointment to the masses." "Midnight tried to press Lash overhead and drop him on Crowbar. She almost got him up. Another double entendre." "They really tried to push Funk as Mr. Hardcore and even mentioned that he was last seen as Cactus Jack's partner in WWF. He called out Arn Anderson as his enforcer. The crowd vocally started chanting "We Want Flair" which pretty well ruined this. Anderson did a better interview then anyone who appears on Monday night television (Rock's interviews may be more charismatic in delivery and get the awesome response, but for words, they aren't even in Anderson's league). It is fascinating to have wrestlers stand up for being real against the storylines written by the PTB. The fans kept chanting for Flair and I was told live this segment, which was the best thing on the TV show, killed the live crowd because they wanted Flair and felt let down he wasn't there" "Nash threatened David Flair and Anderson & Funk freaked. Last time we saw Anderson, David Flair was killing him with a crowbar, and now he's worried sick about Nash threatening the same guy who nearly killed him." "The rest of the show was spent with the NWO and Funk & Anderson searching backstage to get David, who of course would still wrestle two more times on the show." "Bagwell & Kanyon vs. Smiley & Asya in a match of two teams that each turned on each other last week. Kanyon came out and ripped on how bad Bagwell's movies were and boy is that a shoot. Kanyon then gave Bagwell a bottle of champagne and of course Bagwell broke it over Kanyon's head. Smiley came out dressed like the mascot of the Greenville hockey team. As stupid as this was, it was at least funny. With Kanyon out, Bagwell wrestled both until, you guessed it, Asya turned on Smiley allowing Buff to hit the Blockbuster on Smiley for the pin in 3:03." "Steiner & Nash beat Harris Twins. Scott, who actually is weeks away from being able to wrestle, did commentary. Sullivan and Rotunda immediately attacked the Harris twins with chairs and Scott came from the announcing table into the ring to pin Don in 1:16" "Daphne laughed at Anderson and Funk, but was then kidnapped by Jarrett." "Bagwell & Kanyon, who at this point had turned on each other twice, were scheduled to face Flair & Crowbar. Of course Flair got in the ring and all those guys looking for him backstage still couldn't find him." "Bigelow attacked Kanyon, suplexing him on the entrance ramp and threw him off the stage through a table. This bump was far more dangerous than similar WWF bumps where they have all these pads set up covered in a blanket around the table when they go off the ramp, but its effect was nil since the cameras missed the shot. Also, the two girls with Kanyon acted as if they could care less that their man who had survived a bottle being broken over his head was now maimed a second time. Vampiro then came out to be Bagwell's partner." "Funk & Anderson then came out since they had found Flair and tried to talk him into leaving the ring, because if you remember from last week, the winner of this tournament is really the loser and nobody wants to win. David freaked out, I guess because they explained to him about the stipulation about sleeping with Asya." "Bagwell, realizing he hadn't turned on anyone yet in the match, gave Vampiro the blockbuster for no reason and blew his nose on him and he was pinned in 3:06." "The NWO came out and basically teased that they were going to gang rape Daphne." "Finally, Flair & Crowbar became the single worst tag team champions in the history of the organization (unless you consider Rick Steiner & Judy Bagwell as legitimate tag team champions) beating Nash & Steiner in 3:37 of the TV main event. To make things even funnier, Schiavone revealed that Steiner still doesn't have medical clearance to be able to wrestle. At least when WWF did all the crap with Undertaker this year and Austin a few years back where week after week they would have matches but never wrestle, Jim Ross never said, "Undertaker keeps making excuses for this because he actually is on the injured list." " "Anderson hit Nash with a crowbar and put David on top for the pin. Hart and Jarrett came out. Flair was so happy at winning the tag title that he attacked Anderson with a crowbar. Steiner and Nash beat up on Funk, who showed he was called at the last minute because when they ripped his shirt off he desperately needed a tan." "They explained that Anderson had been kidnapped by the NWO and they'd beaten on him for 72 hours and they wanted a hostage situation." "NWO continued their 72 hours of torture on Anderson. At this point they made him watch every Nitro since April in a row and were starting to threaten him with Thunders." "David, Daphne (no longer kidnapped) and Crowbar were watching Anderson get tortured. I think the next step was to start showing him Sid Vicious matches over and over." "Wall beat Flynn when Abbott, out doing color, in a match that was billed as shoot fight rules which meant no pinfalls (this does get funnier so bear with me) and only could end with a knockout or tap out, punched Flynn. Wall then pinned Flynn." "Okerlund was interviewing the Filthy Animals. Guerrera came out with a blond who he said had the hots for Gene so Gene left with her and that left Guerrera doing the interviews. As Gene was leaving, he still did one more interview with DDP filled with double entendres about Bagwell really being gay, talking about why Bagwell got divorced, and saying things like everyone knows the girls like Bagwell but so do the boys." "Bob Mould quit the company early last week. Mould, a legend in the alternative rock world, was originally hired to be part of the booking committee under Nash. When Russo and Ferrara were hired, his input pretty well diminished to almost nothing and people close to the situation noted his love affair with the wrestling business also burned out quickly when they wouldn't pay much attention to his ideas. He was described as being not very outgoing at the meetings, but his ideas made a lot of sense and he wasn't given a chance. The most notable idea we're told from him was on the Starrcade PPV show, he came up with the idea that Sting would have silly string in the mace bottle so prove he wasn't fooled by Elizabeth's turn (of course that idea made perfect sense because after proving he wasn't fooled, he stood there and let her hit him in the face with a baseball bat)" "Hart suffered a concussion being dropped on his head during the Goldberg match at Starrcade. It wasn't Hart driving the monster truck nor was Sid in the car that was being run over, although both were the original plan. Hart was told what part of the car to drive over and where Sid would in the car so as not to drive over him. Hart refused saying that he wasn't an experienced stunt driver and felt if they were going to use a monster struck and drive over a car and go to that expense, they should go to the expense to have professional stunt men do the stunt. There was no problem with his decision and based on everything he was actually apologized to about even being asked" "Perry Saturn on the LAW wrestling radio show called Sting the most overrated wrestler in the business saying he's been doing the same match for ten years, which apparently was the latest thing that drew him some heat." "The Best of Nitro special was pretty good, with the announcers sitting around discussing the four plus years of Nitro history, sort of leaving out the historical fact of its collapse although it isn't like anyone thought they'd get that detailed....It was also really funny to see the announcers building to a spot that in the original format was going to be a Misterio Jr. & Guerrera vs. Psicosis & Parka match to talk about the influence of the luchadores on the show. But as was apropos for their usage in the company, in the editing process, the spot was taken off the show due to time constraints" "The WCW movie "Ready to Rumble" tentatively is set for a 4/17 theatrical release. Chris Kanyon, who handled both the wrestling choreography and was also the stunt double for Oliver Platt in the wrestling scenes, was the liaison between the movie producers and WCW. He got picked because of his previous experience in handling the wrestling choreography in the Jesse Ventura movie (he got that role because he helped train Jay Leno to wrestle and Leno was asked by the NBC producers if he knew anyone who could handle the wrestling end)....Both Kanyon and DDP tried to get the director to change the finish of the movie from whatever it was supposed to be to the idea that at the end it all comes out that everything in the movie was actually a work" "Ric Flair's youngest daughter Ashley made the Cheerleading All-American team in her age group at a competition this past week in Nashville"
Jan 17, 2000
"The final figures for 1/3 as the first show under the new circumstances saw Raw do a 6.43 rating (6.05 first hour; 6.78 second hour) and a 9.8 share to Nitro's 3.29 rating (3.78 first hour; 2.84 second hour) and a 4.7 share."
"Terry Funk was technically still under contract to WWF. He had a deal that expired in December, but because he never formally quit, the contract automatically rolled over for another year. Because of Funk's status in the business, WWF isn't holding him to the deal and sent him forms for a release" "WCW as a company felt so bad after Bill Goldberg was injured and missed the Dome show that they told New Japan they don't want any money for sending Savage and also refused to accept any money for the plane tickets for Paul Orndorff and J.J. Dillon." "Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair had meetings with the higher-ups on 1/6 and 1/7 respectively. Hogan agreed to return on the 2/14 Nitro at the Nassau Coliseum (which sold 3,000 tickets when they were put on sale on 1/7). You know Hogan is no dummy. That's the night where Raw starts at 11 p.m. because of the Westminster Dog show so it's guaranteed Nitro ratings will be up a half-point or more so his return is guaranteed to "make a ratings impact." You can knock Hogan all you want but he's one of the smartest guys in this industry" "Nash missed the weekend house shows where he was scheduled to headline against Vicious claiming a concussion suffered allegedly when he was hit by the rubber crowbar by Arn Anderson." "Bagwell has developed a bad rep trying to come up with excuses not to work house shows or do on sales or public appearances (maintaining a physique like that for real requires a lot of time and planning besides what else it obviously requires) but he always seems to be fine when it comes time for TV exposure." "Hall and Nash are attempting to get a release from their contract. Like everyone else, Nash wants to work a program with Rock, and sees HHH as the top heel, and since HHH and X-Pac were always his understudies, that it guarantees him a good spot." "Funk is not scheduled to work house shows, only TV's and PPV's. While as a short-term desperation move being that Flair didn't do it and it was literally New Years Eve and they needed someone to fill the role since Flair nixed it (Flair would have done it short-term if they released him after the short run to work in WWF), Funk was probably the best possible choice." "Vince Russo called a meeting of everyone to try and air out any problems on 1/3 and tell people that if they had a problem doing anything asked of them to come to them about it, probably stemming from Hart's reaction after being asked to run Sid's car over with the monster truck. The meeting seemed to go along fine for a while although when Russo told the group he was giving the tag titles to David Flair & Crowbar because they had been working so hard and he wanted to reward good work, it didn't go over with anyone because of the feeling that having them as champs destroys whatever value the belts have." "At one point in the meeting Nash started complaining about the food and the fact they have to be in the building at 1 p.m. and can't tan and be in the gym and the catering was so bad. He yelled at David Crockett, who was in charge of that. It wound up with Gary Juster arguing with Nash." "It was brought up about bringing weights to the building so guys could work out but Saturn complained they couldn't get the kind of workout they need because it wouldn't be well equipped enough. Because so many wrestlers have injuries to body parts, there are many movements they can't do so. Well equipped gyms have machines that are easier on the joints where they can get at least some workout of the body part in that they couldn't using free weights alone. For whatever reason, the meeting started falling apart at that point. Juster talked to both wrestlers individually about it. Later they went to Russo and complained they shouldn't have been yelled at for the suggestion because it was supposed to be an open forum and Russo pretty well agreed" "Asya isn't taken out of the revolution because of heat with any of the members, but simply because of the plan to bring Torrie Wilson or whomever in and the feeling that there was no point having two women in the group. The story to bring Wilson in goes back actually months and supposedly they are going to show things from the past (such as in that elimination tag team match where she sold a low blow by Saturn when a woman shouldn't sell that move theoretically) to show in the interview it had been planned all along. Asya, being so new in the business, was really upset when she got the word she was being taken out of the group." "Kimberly is being kept off television in order to make the DDP-Bagwell angle seem more legit" "It should be noted that Eric Bischoff for months before he left was begging for Nitro to be cut back to two hours. The reason he was given was because the cost of production for a two hour or a three hour show was basically identical and they had advertising sold for the rest of the year so the move couldn't be made until January at the earliest. While Russo pushed for the cut back, the decision, ultimately, both to go to three hours and to later cut back to two came from Brad Siegel, as was the decision to go 8-10 p.m. rather than 9-11 p.m. as Russo (and for that matter Bischoff) would have wanted" "Before the match they did some mic work and gave the mic to a fan who screamed "Owen Hart sux" into it." "For comedy's sake, in the program they had listed a match with Chavo & Asya vs. Malenko & Saturn. Dave Penzer in running down the line-up talked about Chavo having a mystery partner. Chavo came out by himself and said that he had a mystery partner that would shock the Revolution. Then Asya came down." "The 1/7 Baltimore Sun had an article on Skye of the Nitro Girls, who is now Miss Hancock on the Lenny & Lodi Standards & Practices skits. The article stated that being a cheerleader with WCW was the trashiest job for any woman on television except being part of the Jerry Springer show. Miss Hancock's real name is Stacy Keibler, she's 20, has a 3.7 GPA majoring in communications at Towson University and won $10,000 in winning the Nitro Girls search contest."
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Oct 7, 2020 7:06:04 GMT -5
.........as expected, this thread is in freefall. But one can only imagine if Russo & Ferrera had just...... been abducted by aliens on their way out of WWF and were never seen/heard from again. WCW was on a pretty heavy downfall as '99 progressed (under Bischoff, under Nash) but I'm curious if things woulda picked up and how / under who any recovery would have happened. Ah, to dream.. "The 1/7 Baltimore Sun had an article on Skye of the Nitro Girls, who is now Miss Hancock on the Lenny & Lodi Standards & Practices skits. The article stated that being a cheerleader with WCW was the trashiest job for any woman on television except being part of the Jerry Springer show. Miss Hancock's real name is Stacy Keibler, she's 20, has a 3.7 GPA majoring in communications at Towson University and won $10,000 in winning the Nitro Girls search contest." Good luck to her. Hope she does well.
|
|
Futureraven: Beelzebruv
Bill S. Preston, Esq.
The Ultimate Arbiter of Right And Wrong
Spent half my life here, God help me
Posts: 15,049
|
Post by Futureraven: Beelzebruv on Oct 7, 2020 10:31:39 GMT -5
Who in wrestling is ever going to care about Ashley Flair? Pfft
|
|
|
Post by saneiac on Oct 7, 2020 11:40:33 GMT -5
"Terry Funk was technically still under contract to WWF. He had a deal that expired in December, but because he never formally quit, the contract automatically rolled over for another year. Because of Funk's status in the business, WWF isn't holding him to the deal and sent him forms for a release" This is probably the most shocking thing in the entire thread. Also, I missed the tag team tournament the first time around. Every match ends with tag team partners turning on each other? Including Bigelow and Kanyon turning on each other 3 separate times? That is just the Russo-est thing I've ever read.
|
|
|
Post by DSR on Oct 7, 2020 15:58:58 GMT -5
Daffney is the reason. <3
|
|
|
Post by Cry Me a Wiggle on Oct 7, 2020 17:56:17 GMT -5
It's amazing how much the first Russo era of WCW is a blur to me. It's probably the shock to my senses of nothing happening on WCW TV for six months followed by years of storylines happening in a single night.
While I think it was utter hubris of Russo and Ferrera to think they could just come to WCW and replicate their WWF style, I did enjoy how all of a sudden nearly everyone had storylines, from Jerry Flynn being their Ken Shamrock expy to Chavo Guerrero as an Amway salesman. And some had career-defining moments from all of this chaos, like David Flair's "crazy" gimmick and getting paired with Daffney and Crowbar. I was blind to the bad because it felt refreshing after the misery of what was before, but, yeah... a lot of this WAS bad. The production screw-ups alone show that Russo needed a firm hand in charge of coordinating everything from laying out the matches to directing the segments. Without the WWF structure their faults were exposed and any benefits they brought to the company were nullified.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Oct 8, 2020 4:41:17 GMT -5
2000 January, Part 2
Jan 24, 2000 (Radicalz and Russo)
"The most tumultuous four-day period in the recent history of World Championship Wrestling started with WCW getting the word that an injury would cause champion and main eventer Bret Hart to miss the Souled Out PPV. As dominos starting falling one by one, it ended with a new booker, the crowning of a new champion who asked to be released from his contract anyway, and his vacating the title voluntarily some 18 hours later and possibly with several wrestlers leaving the company."
"For Bill Busch, who is running WCW, this week will probably become his sink-or-swim week as far as what the end result regarding his respect both in and out of wrestling based on his handling of a chaotic situation, which was still ongoing at press time."
"It all started when WCW was told officially late Thursday or early Friday that Hart's doctor had diagnosed his severe migraines and inability to focus as the result of a severe concussion and not only ruled out wrestling on the PPV, but even flying in for television this week or doing any lifting this week. Hart was hopeful of being able to fly in for the Los Angeles/Las Vegas tapings on 1/24 and 1/25, but he wouldn't be able to wrestle at those shows. He was scheduled for another exam this week to determine an estimated time he'd be medically cleared to wrestle but it was believed to be three weeks minimum. As shown on the PPV, it is believed the concussion stemmed from the Starrcade match on 12/19 when Goldberg kicked him extremely hard with a side kick, although Hart also took a bad hit when Goldberg didn't hold his leg while he executed the figure four around the post, causing the back of his head to crash on the floor while executing the move. Hart had continued to wrestle since that point, but was not himself, and recognized days later he had a concussion but kept working not realizing how severe it was until seeing a doctor about it on Thursday morning."
"Things were compounded when Jeff Jarrett contacted the company on Friday saying he also had a concussion, stemming from taking the splash off the cage from Jimmy Snuka the previous Monday (Jarrett also wrestled the day after the concussion, working a tag team match on Thunder), and had water on the brain and wouldn't be able to wrestle in his scheduled three matches against Chris Benoit. Just like that, the entire meat of the card, which was going to most likely do (and for that matter appears to have ended up doing) one of the two worst buy rates in the history of the company, was gone."
"The decision was made to strip Hart of the title and crown a new champion on PPV. Vince Russo's idea was to do a Battle Royal or Royal Rumble on the show, and end with a surprise champion--Tank Abbott. There was a lot of internal unhappiness with Russo's booking and television for many weeks, but the belief was still that he'd have to be given six months to prove whether his ideas would play even though many in upper management were of the opinion his concept of wrestling was not working and wouldn't work and his quick blow-offs of angles on television was doing PPV and house shows no favors."
"Second-guessing of the decision by Busch to hire him had gone back many weeks, and not all due to what most wrestlers in the company felt for weeks was Kevin Sullivan trying to get the booking position by constantly pointing out why things weren't working, which, in fact, for the most part, they weren't. Busch's ideas were to continue employing Russo on a booking committee that would put more focus on the wrestling product but where his Russo's ideas could be funneled by those with more background in wrestling, similar to how Vince McMahon edited Russo's ideas in WWF."
"The Abbott decision, as well as the decision to make Oklahoma (co-writer Ed Ferrara) the cruiserweight champion (which ended up still happening on the PPV but was dropped two days later) and not change the tag team titles from David Flair & Crowbar (which ended up going to an equally well regarded by fans main event calibre team of Big Vito & Johnny the Bull at Thunder), basically rendering all of those belts meaningless, led to a showdown internally on Friday, with Russo being removed from his final decision making position. Russo, who had 21 months left on a two-year incentive-based contract, was invited to stay with the company as part of a booking committee, which would have included Sullivan, J.J. Dillon and Terry Taylor."
"Kevin Nash, who Busch described as his best friend among the wrestlers, was also given increased power as a liaison of sorts between the wrestlers and management, a decision that was not popular among what appears to be the majority of the wrestlers, although the heat on Nash was almost non-existent compared to that with Sullivan, even though the company's track record when Sullivan had power was far better than when Nash had power."
"Russo had not, as of the weekend, declined the offer, but comments he'd made to many during this period led them to believe he was leaning toward leaving the company. However, both Ferrara and Bill Banks, who Russo brought with him from the WWF to help write and put together the TV shows, agreed to stay with the company with diminished powers as television writers."
"WCW, on its web site, on Friday, was far more honest than WWF was in a similar situation with Steve Austin at Survivor Series, announcing very shortly after getting word, that neither Hart nor Jarrett would be on the show, that the world title would be decided on the show and the U.S. title would be decided on at a later date. They first announced they would have a new main event, with Vicious against someone for the vacant title, and Vicious' opponent would be announced at 7 p.m. Friday. But with the problems with Russo going on, that deadline came and went."
"By Friday night, Randy Savage, whose contract expired on 1/14, was asked to replace Hart in the main event at the house show in Charleston, WV against Sid Vicious. The plan on Friday afternoon seemed to be to put the title on Ric Flair at the PPV with a finish where Arn Anderson would hit Vicious with an object and give Flair the win in heel fashion, and to bring both Hulk Hogan and Savage back, Hogan on Nitro on 1/17 and Savage as a surprise on the PPV. However, at a meeting with Hogan, who the original plan seemed to be leaning toward before all this, where he'd return for a big singles match with a heel Flair on 2/14 in the unopposed Nitro from the Nassau Coliseum (Hogan himself had talked of later turning heel to work with Bill Goldberg soon after Goldberg's return to the ring in March), both sides were far apart of money. Hogan apparently expecting a similar deal to the one Eric Bischoff had cut him, which at one point his marketability did prove to justify, but it no way does today. Savage and management were also far apart on money."
"At this point the new plan was for no announcement to be made before the show, only that commissioner Terry Funk would announce the surprise challenger before the match. The booking idea at this point went along the lines of, Funk would then lose to Kevin Nash, who would take over as commissioner immediately. Nash would announce the top contender as Scott Hall, but that it would turn out that Hall was drinking in Orlando, FL and Nash would then say the No. 2 contender gets the shot, and declare himself the No. 2 contender, and beat Vicious and become the commissioner and the champion. Nash turned that down, feeling with his increased formal power, the last thing he needed to do without the rest of the wrestlers totally resenting him and morale going into the toilet was to become TV commissioner and world champion the very day it was announced of his new power."
"So the decision was made to go with Benoit, which WCW announced on its web site on Saturday night, but failed to give any other update as to changes in the rest of the card. What management hadn't counted on was not only that Russo was far more popular than Sullivan, but that Sullivan had made so many strong enemies, with the feeling being he was directly responsible for several of the wrestlers being stuck in the middle of the cards and the lazier and generally older wrestlers keeping their top spots. Sullivan can be blamed for that when it happened on his watch, but that situation continued with every booker the company has had in recent years. Russo was generally liked by the wrestlers personally, although the general feeling was his work up to that point was a big disappointment, an opinion that also changed in some circles for the better when faced with the idea of Sullivan being in power."
"Russo was viewed as being inflexible when it came to ideas, in some cases when being inflexible did nobody any good, such as not agreeing to do a dark match main event after TV tapings when Nitro went to two hours and putting babyfaces over at the end of the show (WWF always puts the babyfaces over at the end of the house show, even if it means adding a post-show angle at TV tapings) to send the fans home happy instead of unhappy as they have been usually leaving WCW tapings for various reasons, thus hurting return business in those markets. Few, even his supporters among the wrestlers, agreed with his basic concept of wrestling."
"Long before Russo was replaced, several wrestlers had not so privately talked about banding together against Sullivan, who for whatever reasons (different reasons in the case of each specific individual), was seen as the person who would eventually get Russo's job, although the belief was not this soon. The heat with Benoit, who lives with Sullivan's former wife Nancy and the couple is expecting their first child shortly so the personal heat between the two, ironically mirroring a prior pro wrestling angle booked by Sullivan, is intense. Benoit felt when Sullivan was in power before, he sabotaged his career (remember Benoit's famous losing streak for almost one straight year on PPV when Sullivan was last in control) and Benoit felt there was no way he could work under Sullivan under any circumstances."
"Benoit's long-time friends dating back to their New Japan days, Dean Simon (Malenko) and Eddie Guerrero had pretty well decided from day one that they'd always stick together in business. Perry Satullo (Perry Saturn) and Troy Martin (Shane Douglas) had also become close with Benoit based on working together over the past year."
"The talk that Sullivan would get Russo's spot had been going on internally for weeks, and those who were friendly with Russo, and some who just simply liked Russo because they hated Sullivan more, had urged him to use his power while he had it to cut Sullivan out of power. Russo's response seemed to be along the lines that he could handle the situation."
"On Saturday, a group of what was believed to be 15 to 20 wrestlers were expected to confront Busch the next afternoon before the show and all, as a group, ask for contract releases as a protest against Sullivan being named booker. Satullo was the most adamant, since Busch stated at a meeting when he took over as the man in charge, that if anyone was unhappy working in the company, he'd give them their full release. Being wrestling, about half that group that had promised to stick together the previous day had already changed its mind by the next day. There didn't appear to be any hard feelings over that among the group that did risk their jobs, being that the realization is if that many wrestlers quit at once, many wouldn't be able to find new jobs and most had families to support."
"It wound up with Benoit, Satullo, Simon, Martin, Guerrero, Carlos Ashenoff (Konnan) and Pete Gruner (Billy Kidman) going to Busch as a group asking for either their release or for Sullivan to be taken off the booking committee. Ashenoff said he was also speaking for Juventud Guerrera and Rey Misterio Jr., both of whom weren't at the PPV due to not being booked on the card due to injuries."
"The next day, Anibal Gonzalez (Guerrera), Dionicio Castellanos (Psicosis) and Oscar Gutierrez (Misterio Jr.) talked with Busch. None asked for their release, but they all said that if the rest of the group left, they wanted to leave with them."
"Busch at this point was in a tough position, since he had literally just given the job to Sullivan, and a change due to pressure from wrestlers would in the long run leave the company in chaos because the wrestlers, whenever they got unhappy, which is routine in this business, would try the same strategy if it worked once and might actually stick together if it worked once."
"Busch said to the first group before the PPV to give him one week to smooth things over, but did not go so far as to say he would give them full releases in one week if they were still unhappy."
"At one point Benoit was going to, since he believed he was leaving, not accept the title. The feeling was it was best for all concerned because as champion that had just been put over for the title, it gave him at least some leverage since nobody else in the group has a current top position. It does make one question the decision to still give him the title after he had asked for his release, but that appears to be a management feeling that he'd be a mark for the belt and that Sullivan in the beginning would be, politically for Sullivan's own survival under scrutiny, be forced to push Benoit to the moon despite whatever personal feelings there might be."
"There also appeared to be several attempts to weaken the solidarity of the group throughout the day, being that this is pro wrestling and groups sticking together has never been a strong trait in a business with few true friends and a general "me-first" attitude. Benoit was told he was aligning himself with the wrong people and told they had big plans for him. Nash told Satullo a similar not to align himself with prelim guys type of rap and told him he deserved a big push and said he'd work to get him a spot in the NWO. Gruner was promised a major singles push out of the cruiserweight level and into the U.S. title picture which eventually broke him from the group. In a similar divide-and-conquer action, Ashenoff was the one recipient of the scare tactics, being told by Dillon after the PPV show that he was being sent home by management for the time being."
"Benoit, even without the uncrowned champion angle, was, with the exception of Goldberg, the single most coveted piece of talent in WCW by the WWF. Interest in the others varied, but all have potential to be valuable additions, even in the case of Martin and Ashenoff for their promos."
"While not going in as part of the group, because they didn't ask to be released, individually Jeff Jarrett and Scott Steiner also went to Busch, not so much in protest of Sullivan but to express their feelings that Russo hadn't been given a fair shake."
"Benoit was given the title with a finish where Vicious actually tapped out to his crossface, although Vicious did have his foot on the ropes. Despite Benoit being so respected by insider fans, it was clear Vicious was the more popular of the two in the building, although Benoit was not booed at all. The finish was not geared to create a storyline "out" if Benoit chose to leave, even though it ended up being that way, but was done more to create an issue down the line with Vicious."
"Before Nitro, Busch met once again with the Revolution members and Benoit. By this point, while nothing was final, it did appear that Gruner's support of the group was wavering and neither Guerrero or Ashenoff were at the show. Busch proposed a compromise, saying that he wasn't going to fire Sullivan from the company because he's got a family to support, but suggested that Sullivan be made booker of the WCW Saturday Night show. The wrestlers were told that they would never have to work the Saturday Night tapings if they stayed, and thus, Sullivan would have no power over their booking. He also asked the group who they thought would make the strongest booking team and they suggested Taylor, Anderson and Russo and the meeting ended amicably with what they thought was a compromise deal."
"Later in the afternoon, Busch called them in for a second meeting and told all of them except Benoit, who the TV show was scheduled to be built around as new world champion, that they were being sent home, perhaps partially because the group had filed a complaint with the Human Resources Department of Time Warner against road agent Mike Gossett (Mike Graham)."
"The plan was that heel commissioner Nash was going to force Benoit into three title defenses on the show, with Brian Knobs, Lex Luger and a third person whose name we're not sure of, and Benoit was to win all three matches, so clearly they were playing to his ego and giving him the monster push to break away from the group, which would break the opposition to Sullivan. Clearly management felt this was going to work because there didn't appear to be any major hesitation in putting the title on Benoit the previous day. Benoit said, instead, that if they were being sent home, he was leaving and that they were together as a group. When Busch threatened that if he left with the group, he'd be stripped of the title, he didn't hesitate in saying he was staying with the group and at this point the group said that at this point they all wanted a full release or for the company to get rid of Sullivan."
"Reports that Benoit threw the title belt in a garbage can and stormed off before Nitro started were incorrect, as actually the group stayed backstage for some time before the company got them new plane tickets home, and Benoit handed the belt to Nick Patrick before leaving."
"It is not clear at press time which of the group was given releases but the only name that came out that was at press time was Guerrero, but others were expecting they would be on the list. In the dressing room at Thunder on 1/18, the group was talked about as if they had failed in their power play and talked about being in the past tense, as if all were no longer with the company and all story line references to the group were dropped."
Jan 24, 2000 (Other Stuff)
"The original plan for the six-man was for Konnan & Kidman to pick Torrie Wilson as their third partner (please don't ask me why) and Saturn & Malenko come out without a partner. Early in the match, Wilson was going to turn on Kidman and join the Revolution. At the end, somehow Asya was going to wind up with the Filthy Animals. This was scrapped before any of the problems went down because of the feeling it was too soon to be doing this turn and instead they decided to give The Wall the break as the mystery partner which would be announced at the start of the cage match."
"They were doing some good wrestling when Malenko had a mental lapse (this was not a protest or anything and he felt real bad about it afterwards) and went out of the ring. Tony Schiavone doing the announcing said that Malenko had left the ring so he had lost the match. They went back in the ring like nothing had happened. Schiavone was making the point over and over and you could see ref Charles Robinson get the word the match had already been declared over by the announcers and he reluctantly rang the bell and declared Kidman the winner."
"Madusa came out with a jersey of her husband, Ken Blackman of the Tampa Bay Bucs (although she actually wore a Bengals jersey, which is the team he used to play for; for trivia note, it was Alex Marvez who introduced the two of them). They never mentioned that was her husband, only that she must be a fan of his."
"Saturn didn't know he was doing a bunkhouse match until he got to the building and didn't have any jeans, so wrestled in his wrestling gear."
"In the weirdest thing, Ray did a video which aired before the match "back in the hood" claiming Booker T had abandoned his friends and showing old friends asking about him. It totally portrayed Ray as the face in this feud."
"This guy who looked like what Junkyard Dog would have looked like if he was still alive and was shot full of steroids today hit the ring. It was the former Ahmed Johnson, Tony Norris, called Big T, and if anyone wondered what he'd been doing, missing meals isn't one of those things."
"Michael Buffer, in the ring intros, said Benoit was 6-feet-tall, which was sort of funny. Then he said Sid was 6-11, which was just as funny."
"The good news for WCW is that the Hart vs. Nash main event drew a 4.08 rating, which is the company's best main event rated in an opposed segment in a long time. This was no doubt partially due to WWF not counter-programming against WCW's strength, airing Chyna & Jericho vs. Hollys. Because that was part of a segment where nine minutes went unopposed, it's difficult to ascertain exactly how WWF did against the Hart-Nash title match."
"At one point, as a goodwill gesture, WCW was going to fly both Goldberg and his girlfriend in for the Tokyo Dome just to make an appearance. The idea was scrapped because buying two first-class tickets at the last minute would have run into the $10,000 range and they had already taped an interview with Goldberg to play over the big screens"
"The revised end of year estimates are that WCW as a company lost between $15 and $16 million in 1999, which is roughly the amount of money they lost in the entire three-year reign of Jim Herd. Now that Time-Warner is in the process of being purchased by AOL and the figures being tossed around are like $160 billion, figures like $15 million may as well be 15 cents so while it is always good for a division to be profitable, making a profit is hardly anywhere near as important today as it was throughout most of the history of the industry when it was largely a hand-to-mouth business."
"Bill Busch is clearly scaling back costs everywhere to make things more profitable. In the past, they'd fly in just about everyone on the roster for TV. Now they get a script ahead of time and almost nobody that isn't going to be used is brought in. There is also expected to be another round of firings coming shortly"
"Some fitness models with horse faces and bodies by science were all over the NWO dudes, in particular Scott Steiner."
"Nash did a few jokes ripping on Tenay needing a personality, Knobs needing a brain, Abbott needing a heart and Smiley needing courage acting like he was Oz. He got to do a Vinnie Vegas joke later. Doesn't matter that nobody laughed at his joke."
"Chono made it clear that due to all his injuries, he wasn't going to take any bumps. When the Japanese "no-sell" tough spots he tried to use didn't work because he didn't have the pre-conditioned superstar aura going in he has in Japan, he pulled himself off appearing on Thunder the next night. Steiner, frustrated since Chono wasn't selling any of his offense, apparently got a little miffed at Super J and his version of selling and started firing some real punches in which only made the match fall apart even more."
"Luger beat Bigelow in 3:09 when Kanyon interfered and Luger got the bottle and cracked it on Bigelow's head. Earlier in the day, when Luger was booked to do a clean job for Benoit, he had a bad neck and couldn't wrestle. When he was booked to win, the neck must have started feeling better."
"Nitro is Heroes of Wrestling on 1/10 in Buffalo, NY drew 5,338 paid (plus 3,652 comps) and a $121,604 gate (actual listed gate of $110,549 was the adjusted figure minus $11,000 off the top paid to the Ilio DiPaolo Foundation)."
"The whole match built to Saturn brawling with Misterio Jr. to the back and jumping off what appeared to be about an 11 foot platform with a splash onto Misterio Jr. (which was supposed to re-injure his knee, and they've done so many angles injuring Misterio Jr's knee that nobody even cares about them anymore). It was clear from how the table broke that there was tons of padding underneath (not complaining because anything to make these stunts safer is good, but it was painfully obvious). Heenan then claimed Saturn had jumped from "50, 60, or 70 feet" although Schiavone called it "15 to 20." Misterio Jr. went out in an ambulance and everyone appeared so concerned that it was never brought up the rest of the show. They also never made another reference to Saturn's dive the rest of the show."
"They had a confrontation between Funk, Orndorff, Zbyszko and Anderson, now called The Old Age Outlaws (the very first time you hear that it is funny, the second time it totally buries the product) confronting the NWO. The old guys, hey, that's their gimmick now, cut promos. Zbyszko got a standing "O." Well, he always was a great promo guy. Orndorff was pretty said. Once the NWO made a comeback, Nash carved them up like a Thanksgiving turkey. You have all these old guys who really don't look like they even belong in wrestling in 2000. Then you have these guys coming out with a dozen women with enough silicon in them to make a minis tag team match, and who do you think the crowd cheered."
"When Funk strongly said how if he and Hart don't wrestle each other, he'd suspend them without pay, and then Nash came back not selling it a bit and saying he could use the vacation time and he's saved his money, Funk was dead. If this was scripted, the scriptwriters are killing their babyfaces, which, because of their age, are only a short-term fix anyway. If Nash did this impromptu, well, nothing more needs to be said about that. And for the fans, the only reaction is that if Nash cares so much about wrestling that he'll turn down a world title match and take a suspension and not even care because he has so much money, fans must be thinking, then why doesn't he just go home."
"Steiner was out there apparently having sex with a dozen women, but he was starting to fatigue as the show went on."
"They set up a spot where Snuka did his splash off the top of the cage onto Jarrett. Even though Snuka did nothing else, it was amazing at his age doing that spot although the end result wasn't worth it since Jarrett got a serious concussion out of it. Benoit then came off the top with a diving head-butt. On the PPV, they tried to credit the concussion to Benoit but then when they showed the replay, it was pretty silly as the head-butt clearly landed on Jarrett's stomach. It was a great spot, but they're having Benoit do that head-butt off the cage far too often. This time was cool because he did it with Snuka. But it's not worth the injury risk to Benoit doing that as often as they have him do it now."
"Steiner, by this point, was exhausted from all the sex he'd been having, so the Outlaws handcuffed him to some lockers and Funk put soap in his mouth."
"Hart did a promo saying he'd quit the NWO. I think WWF did this storyline three times in the last five weeks. Fans still booed Hart even cutting a face promo."
"Knobs won the Hardcore title from Smiley outside. It was freezing out and they were wrestling in their jacket. The finish was supposed to be Knobs running over Smiley with a car. Neither Knobs nor Smiley were happy with that because the risk of injury in a worthless match for a worthless title was way too high. Problem was, the car barely touched Smiley. At first he didn't sell it, then I guess he realized it was the finish and the guy wasn't going to hit him again, so he laid down. This was really funny, but also sad."
"Revolution came out. Asya came out with them. I guess they forgot they've already broken them up at the house shows."
"Abbott did an interview and Flynn jumped him. The cops came. That fink Mean Gene told the cops it was Flynn's fault and they arrested him. Abbott then punched a cop to get himself arrested. At least these two are actually veterans of that jail scene. They portrayed Erie as being Podunk, USA as it being a town so small they only have one jail cell, and they put both in the same cell, and they started fighting each other. I guess they didn't figure how it makes the company look when it's doing a national TV taping in Podunk, USA."
"Kimberly did an interview. I thought she retired from the business because this angle was a shoot. Anyway, I just hope Sullivan isn't booking this angle given his track record of doing angles that break up real marriages. Of course Kimberly put Page over big-time in bed. I'm sure everyone wanted to hear that. Then she complained about Gene asking personal questions."
"Hart was in a stand-off with Nash & Jarrett forever because Funk & Anderson arrived so late. Apparently live it was obvious Hart & Nash were having a hard time not laughing because the timing was so screwed up. Funk came out with a flaming branding iron and Anderson with a bucket of water. Anderson threw the bucket on Hart, with the idea that the make-up would run. Then, the make-up didn't run, but the announcers had to sell that it did. So the idea was Funk & Anderson were so smart they knew it was a swerve. But they still got beat up anyway"
"Orndorff, Zbyszko, Benoit and Vicious all came so it was basically 3 NWO guys against six babyfaces. It seemed like Nash all by himself had laid out ten guys, but I guess it wasn't quite that bad. But all the faces ended up being laid out and Nash got Funk's branding iron and burned his face. Do they actually believe fans will get behind such an impotent group of faces or is the idea really just to turn the NWO face and run with them against a new group of heels"
"Vampiro brought Insane Clown Posse to Nitro on 1/17 and not only did they not allow them to accompany him for his TV match, but WCW kicked them out of even being backstage"
"The attitude of Lizmark Jr., Hector Garza and some of the other Mexicans was always from early on when they saw how they were and weren't being used, particularly after already getting over as superstars in many places, was to just take the money and go along for as long as the ride would take them. When they weren't used, they never made the effort to get Americanized, like Juventud Guerrera, who was at least given a chance, and Silver King who was around when the economy in Mexico was strong and recognizes how wrestling in his native country has changed."
"The WWF hierarchy had a meeting regarding making an offer to Nash if he were cut loose by WCW. The mood was very strong not to bring him in and that he's doing the company far more benefit as a cancer in the other locker room. Of course, if he was to be cut loose, this being pro wrestling, eventually there would come a day. Regarding Savage, the feeling continues to do that they are not interested in him at the price range he feels he's worth"
"Fyre of the Nitro Girls was Fyred"
|
|
cjh
Hank Scorpio
Posts: 6,582
|
Post by cjh on Oct 8, 2020 7:18:08 GMT -5
We are about to get to the point where Mark Madden replaced Bobby Heenan on commentary. Madden did an interview with Conrad Thompson and Eric Bischoff last year where he mentioned that Meltzer covered for Heenan, allowing Heenan to go with the narrative in public that Vince Russo replaced him with Madden due to wanting a younger announcer. Madden said it was a call made by Bill Busch and Kevin Sullivan due to Heenan going on the air intoxicated multiple times.
|
|