Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 16, 2020 8:31:48 GMT -5
"Bobby Eaton's contract expired and wasn't renewed. They hadn't used him hardly as at all over the past several years but had been kept around because he was so well liked by all the old-timers and whenever someone would want to fire him, people always went to bat for him. The bad thing was how it was handled. Eaton, who is now 41 and in his prime was one of the greatest workers the business had seen up to that point in time, didn't get a check in the mail one week and called about it and was told at that point he was no longer with the company. He called J.J. Dillon about it, and Dillon told him his contract had expired and he wasn't being renewed. Eaton was probably the only person left who had been with the company uninterrupted from the Turner buyout of Jim Crockett in 1988, and his tenure with Crockett dated back to the Midnight Express days in 1985" Wow. Read a quote several years back where someone (in a Mike Mooneyham book I think?) said that when WCW died, 3-6mil casual wrestling viewers just left as well, and WWF essentially inherited nothing except whatever tangible things, rights & contracts got them in the clearance sale. Reading analysis like this shows that the 3-6mil were whittling away during WCW's final year. lol It hurts to reads this thread now. The fun of WCW I remember was dead in 2000.
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Post by James Fabiano on Oct 16, 2020 10:31:54 GMT -5
"It's a shame that not all women are 'perfectly' shaped, but let me keep calling them out on it."
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Post by EP 54 is banned from Collision on Oct 16, 2020 12:50:08 GMT -5
Imagine a local pizza place called Luigi's offering 2 for one deals on pizza on thursday night, but the pizza is amazing, and they pick up lots of customers. Luigi's management thinks "wow, people love our 2 for 1 deals, we'll do them every night!" but the quality of the pizza suffers. Gradually, their customer base dwindles, and the management is like "why? we're giving people what they want!" and they try all these crazy promotions like getting vouchers from shoe shops, bike repair shops, get local celebrities involved. Eventually they get bought out by Dominos.
Replace "Luigi's" with WCW, "pizza" with "wrestling", "2 for 1 deal" with NWO and "bike repair vouchers" with "David Arquette" and that's the story of WCW.
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Jazzman
King Koopa
Trombone Shorty > Your Favorite Musician
Posts: 11,231
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Post by Jazzman on Oct 16, 2020 14:01:00 GMT -5
Weirdly underwhelmed by Dave on Arquette. Was expecting more bombast and doomsday bell ringing, got... a few paragraphs.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 16, 2020 15:08:52 GMT -5
Weirdly underwhelmed by Dave on Arquette. Was expecting more bombast and doomsday bell ringing, got... a few paragraphs. Arquette winning the title happened on a taped show right as his issue was going to press and he wouldn't see it for another week, then the next issue is loaded for news with Backlash and the 90 minute Sakuraba/Gracie fight. He is doing the Eyada show by this point so I guess a lot of his immediate reaction would have been on there but Dave by this point honestly had seen so much stupid shit from WCW and seemed to be resigned to nothing changing for the better until a sale, he does praise the matches more when Johnny Ace comes in as an agent but still hates the angles with the odd exception. If you want bombast you'll get it once I get to the Invasion notes.
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Post by DSR on Oct 16, 2020 15:15:19 GMT -5
*nervously tugs collar*
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Jazzman
King Koopa
Trombone Shorty > Your Favorite Musician
Posts: 11,231
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Post by Jazzman on Oct 16, 2020 16:54:37 GMT -5
Weirdly underwhelmed by Dave on Arquette. Was expecting more bombast and doomsday bell ringing, got... a few paragraphs. Arquette winning the title happened on a taped show right as his issue was going to press and he wouldn't see it for another week, then the next issue is loaded for news with Backlash and the 90 minute Sakuraba/Gracie fight. He is doing the Eyada show by this point so I guess a lot of his immediate reaction would have been on there but Dave by this point honestly had seen so much stupid shit from WCW and seemed to be resigned to nothing changing for the better until a sale, he does praise the matches more when Johnny Ace comes in as an agent but still hates the angles with the odd exception. If you want bombast you'll get it once I get to the Invasion notes. Looking forward to it then. Good work dcr
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Post by Tiger Millionaire on Oct 16, 2020 18:54:40 GMT -5
Weirdly underwhelmed by Dave on Arquette. Was expecting more bombast and doomsday bell ringing, got... a few paragraphs. It's one of those things that was much worse in hindsight then it was when it happened, because certain people write the history.
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Post by Terry McConkey on Oct 16, 2020 22:03:52 GMT -5
LOL.
Good one Davey.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 17, 2020 2:41:01 GMT -5
2000 May, Part 2
May 22, 2000
"The Slamboree buy rate was not released by WCW because the figure was such an embarrassment. It was said to be below an 0.2, making it at least one of the three lowest PPV buy rates in company history. So much for the mainstream curiosity buys of Arquette and the successful rub of Kidman by Hogan and how much all that internet hype for seven years by Douglas for a match with Flair actually means in real life."
"It's clear that however nice a guy Arquette is, he cost the company business at every turn because it was something wrestling fans rejected. The company should have realized it when the rating came in for Thunder the day after that switch, and more so when the Nitro rating came in after whatever mainstream hype it had gotten, but they decided to swerve themselves right out of another buy rate because they wanted him to go into a PPV main event. The next show will do a lot better, but putting Flair and Hogan's career on the line on the same show would even at this stage of the game do a good number and should do a huge number except nobody actually believes in their stipulations"
"Lance Evers (Lance Storm), who until a few weeks back was part of the company's only marquee tag team, and actually headlined the Hardcore Heaven PPV, said his goodbyes after the show and is also headed to World Championship Wrestling, where he reached an agreement on a three-year deal and is expected to start in a few weeks."
"WCW wanted to bring in Dawn Marie with Lance Storm but she had two years remaining on her ECW deal"
"Marcus Bagwell was arrested late 5/9 after the show in Springfield, IL for possible charges of battery and as a result a few days later was suspended for 30 days by Brad Siegel. At 10:15 p.m., Darrell Miller, a 35-year-old member of the WCW ring crew, was carrying carpet to the back and Bagwell, Larry Pfohl (Luger) and Elizabeth Huellette were blocking the door he was going through. The crew member asked them to move so he could get what he was carrying through the exit door. Bagwell told him he was conducting business. Words were exchanged. Allegedly, Bagwell hit the crew member."
"Bagwell's version to police was that when Miller asked him to move, he thought he did so rudely. After words were exchanged, Bagwell said he was upset with Miller and "punched him upside the neck" because Bagwell said Miller "pissed him off, so he hit him." "
"Police talked with Pfohl and Heulette who both claimed that neither saw or heard anything because a Goldberg monster truck was crushing a Buick at the same time."
"Based on the contract Bagwell just signed ($275,000 base salary, $1,300 per match bonus and $4,000 per PPV appearance), a 30-day suspension would cost him in the neighborhood of $45,000."
"WCW's world title may change hands once or twice per week, and Ric Flair may be 51 years old, but the combination of both led WCW to a more competitive Monday night than usual. Raw finished with a 6.16 rating (5.98 first hour; 6.32 second hour) and a 9.3 share. Nitro ended up with a 3.11 rating (3.37 first hour; 2.89 second hour) and a 4.7 share. The head-to-head was 5.84 for Raw and 2.89 for Nitro, so it was still a two-to-one margin."
"The Jarrett vs. Flair title change drew a 3.29 rating. The return of Michaels drew a very disappointing 5.53 rating against a 3.07 for the Flair family angle with Russo and the beginning of Madusa vs. Elizabeth."
"For those keeping track, this was the 76th consecutive week that Raw has beaten Nitro, so they are seven weeks shy of the WCW 83 show record."
"The MIAs, which is a remake of the Oddities/Sable deal in WWF, saw Tylene Buck now called Major Guns, Chavo Guerrero Jr. is Lt. Loco and Van Hammer as Major Stash. As stupid as this sounds, they wanted him to be Private Stash as an inside joke, but he cried about it because private was the lowest rank and he didn't want to be seen as the lowest ranking Oddity."
"They kept showing the Goldberg truck. The belief, and this may be true, is that this truck means more ratings than any of the wrestlers. With the exception of Flair, I'd bet money on that."
"Smiley and Ralphus got a job at the popcorn stand until Ralphus was picking his butt and putting his hand in the popcorn."
"Crowbar & Daffney won the cruiserweight title from Candido & Tammy in 5:18. Remember when Bischoff said how they were going to re-establish the cruiserweight belt with the good workers."
"Russo & David were at the Flair home in Charlotte and this was priceless stuff about how Reid is the favored one, saying that David had to sleep in the garage and swim in a shark-infested creek. Russo was jumping up and down in Flair's bed. Russo stole one of Ric's robes and confronted his wife and two youngest children. It was tremendous stuff."
"Madusa vs. Liz were supposed to have a cage match but Luger came dressed as a cage repair man into the cage and saved Liz. Russo came out and hit Luger with a low blow, but he was wearing a cup so he no sold it and rubbed the cup in Russo's mouth. The security maced Luger. After 19 straight shows of getting maced, you'd think he'd wear a mask or something. Palumbo attacked Luger with that 60s comic booker twister deal. Nash's music played and all 12 guys as security freaked while Nash beat up all of them while Russo ran off with Liz and Palumbo escaped. Awesome attacked Nash. Nash challenged Awesome and called him Eddie Money, who was a rock star probably when Nash was in college, and challenged him to an ambulance match."
"Sid turned on DDP. They've got to bring Page's mom on next week so she can turn on him."
"The idea that Kidman by being in the ring constantly bounced around by Hogan is getting a rub that makes him a bigger star goes against all historical precedents. In the 70s and 80s when TV was largely squash matches and the big stars destroyed job guys, giving them little offense, did the job guys become big stars because they happened to be in the ring with big stars?"
"Even if you note the 1-2-3 aspect, on Nitro, Hall used to do these fake jobs where he'd treat a promising wrestler like dirt (Hector Garza and Chris Jericho come to mind) and then act like he slipped on a banana peal and lose to them. Even though he "did the job," he smartly knew he was cutting all of their throats even though they probably thanked him at the time because he was a big star losing to them."
"Torrie Wilson came out and Horace turned on his uncle and hit him with a chair shot for the pin. It only took one week for that turn."
"They wanted Flair in trunks since he was winning the world title, but it was one of those communication breakdowns and since they never told him, he didn't bring any trunks"
"It was funny watching the pinfall and seeing the announcers all hesitate because they weren't told ahead of title about the switch so they all thought the ref had screwed up and didn't immediately put over the excitement. Some day they'll realize that their insatiable appetite to swerve their employees that are trying to get the product to work is in 90% of the cases the worst thing for business. Well, this regime won't, because they're still trying to swerve themselves into believing the Arquette thing worked."
"Thunder is Raw started out with the New Blood in a school bus. Where did they ever come up with that idea."
"Ralphus & Smiley were selling FUNB t-shirts out of the back of a truck."
"Vampiro burned a Sting mask. During the commercial, they soaked the ropes with gasoline. Sting came out, then Vampiro came out and called him Steve and said they would have an inferno match on the PPV. Sting said that's nuts and he isn't going to do it. At this point the ropes were supposed to catch on fire but they didn't. The fans started laughing and booing. They re-taped it later in the show and it did work, but by that time the arena was almost empty."
"Ralphus & Smiley were then arrested for conducting business without a license."
"The main event was supposed to be Ric & Nash & Anderson vs. Jarrett & Flair & Crowbar. They show Anderson being beaten up by all three in the back. Flair and Jarrett are in the ring until David & Daffney & Crowbar attack him. Nash cleans house. Flair puts Daffney in the figure four. Jarrett hits Nash with a chair, who no sells it. Flair acted like he was having a heart attack."
"The show ended with the MC tipping over the DX, I mean NB bus and the Goldberg truck ran over it"
"For whatever this is worth, and it's very little at this point, we'd consider this as Flair 18th reign as world champion although you could make a case for 20 as well"
"They showed segments throughout the show of Russo taking David Flair, Crowbar and Daffney around New York. They took him to a quarter adult video house and acted as if David had never seen a naked woman before. David and Crowbar were hilarious, although after David's torrid love affair last season with Torrie Wilson, let alone being Ric Flair's son, that was pretty preposterous."
"They built to a spot where Vampiro acted like he was going to bite the head off Sting's crow but Sting made the save and beat the hell out of Vampiro. After being beaten up, Vampiro started laughing. Vampiro was making references to "Steve Borden" not wanting to work, he'd rather stay home, his gimmick is just another acting gig. When Sting pounded on him, he called Vampiro "Ian." "
"David talked about being neglected as a child. He got really good heat. It was weird because he was bragging about his long-legged blond girlfriend and having a Corvette to show he hasn't done badly for himself (his real-life fiance is Stacey Keibler, aka Miss Hancock), which was strange since Daffney was right there as a medium-legged brunette who is supposed to be his girlfriend and not only that, who he just, earlier in this very same show asked to marry him (that apparently based on this show, neither of whom we are supposed to believe he's ever seen sans clothing)."
"They are making people believe they honor their stips (they've got until 6/11 to convince people the stip means something because if they don't, they'll get no buy rate next time) by showing Smiley & Ralphus on a street corner with a sign and a tin cup saying "Will wrestle for food." "
"Russo then came out to confront Nash, and basically tried to take 100% of the credit for the creation of the Diesel character that made Nash a star (let's see, Russo got major influence on TV, by his own admission, in 1997 when the ratings bottomed out because of course he had no influence during that period they were declining. Diesel left WWF in 1996 after arriving in 1993)"
"Bischoff in front of most of the wrestlers this past week was really putting over how over Nash is as a single and Kronik are after just a few weeks of television. He said Nash is more over as a single now than at any time since he's been with the company."
"I've been to too many house shows before 1,500 people where the crowd is going crazy and 15,000 people making no noise at all, as has anyone who has been around wrestling for any length of time, to recognize the pop can't be used to define anything significant if the attendance, buy rate or TV audience movement isn't there"
"Vampiro signed his new contract for $250,000 per year as a base salary, $1,300 per house show, $4,000 per PPV"
"There are a lot of wrestlers working hurt right now, such as Hogan, Flair with the shoulder problem, Konnan with the neck injury from a Nash power bomb and Guerrera has bad ribs to go along with his elbow which isn't fully healed, but unlike under past regimes, the attitude now because of the feeling guys are getting a chance, is to work with injuries rather than use them as a reason to sit out as long as possible. Well, that and the fear of having pay cut in half."
"Speaking of Goldberg, the expected jealousy regarding him is rearing its head with some of the other top guys (and if you think of the obvious suspects you'll probably be very close) complaining about them pushing him (through the monster truck gimmick) when he himself isn't coming back for several weeks"
May 29, 2000
"Nitro, starting one hour earlier, delivered a 2.33 rating (1.45 first hour; 3.21 second hour) and a 4.1 share. The Nitro first hour clearly bombed because the majority of the audience was either unaware or unable or didn't care enough to turn the show on one hour earlier than usual. WCW did push the starting time very hard on its shows during the previous week, so being that less than half of the regulars tuned in early without opposition is not a good sign."
"There is a lot of interest among the boys in Scott Steiner vs. Tank Abott for the feeling that Steiner, who has a better wrestling background of the two, will try and use it to show up Abbott at least in a spot or two, which is actually how their original angle a few weeks back looked so hot on television, similar to how Rick Steiner and Fit Finlay both embarrassed Abbott at least to the boys in an angle and a match respectively on live TV. In Rick Steiner's case on Abbott's debut, he threw a flurry of punches hard at Abbott when he wasn't ready and was deflecting them and not able to respond since he was caught off guard, and didn't look the slightest bit tough. Finlay, in a match, before selling for the knockout punch, appeared to blow him up on the mat."
"Stasiak interfered but they don't do DQ's anymore. At the production meeting, the feeling was to exploit what they took as a negative reaction to the WWF PPV due to the DQ finish so now they are on a clean finish kick, except they clearly have no idea what a clean finish is."
"Bischoff invited all the MIA's to join the NB. Weren't they all fired? they said no, and Tylene Buck pulled off her shorts and showed her butt in her bikini bottom to the audience for a big pop. Bischoff fired Booker. Like anyone believes that. He explained he couldn't fire the rest of the MIA because he's got plans for them. Didn't he just fire them two weeks ago?"
"Daffney beat Crowbar to win the cruiserweight title in 3:01."
"Kidman was mad at Torrie because she was giving Horace a rubdown. When he confronted her, she said it was just business. You see, he's jealous in real life because we all know she's his girlfriend. So on TV, he's mad because in her role, she's faking like she's having a fling with Horace, which granted, is a stretch for anyone to believe."
"The FA's asked Ralphus and Smiley to wash their car. What morons. Of course by the end of the show, the MIA's switched the soap for paint and ruined the paint job."
"Funk laughed and said that Brad Siegel had just signed him to a one year extension so he's staying until June 1, 2001. Let's see, Bischoff and Russo run the company and we've never heard Siegel's name on TV. Bischoff and Russo have made it clear on TV they want Funk out. So who is this Siegel and if he's having fun playing jokes on Bischoff and Russo because he's above them, why doesn't he overrule all their stupid appointing new world champions and the like?"
"Awesome and Douglas started beating on Wall but DDP came out of the back of the ambulance and threw Awesome in the back and the ambulance took off. Wall was pounding on Douglas backstage while this went on. Then they went to a cutaway with Russo holding a casket with a bench of NB members as pall bearers, including Douglas without a hair out of place, and Awesome, in his regular clothes. Nobody has given me any kind of an explanation for this incompetency."
"The line said that was bleeped was something along the lines of "There's nothing finer than doing the 69er with Scott Steiner." "
"The original plan was for Abbott to use the bolt cutters and interfere. At the production meeting before the show, somebody brought up how it would kill the new cage gimmick before the PPV if they showed after insisting nobody could get in or escape until a submission, that Abbott could cut open the cage. I guess Russo agreed, so he had Abbott come out and show that the bolt cutters didn't work. Of course, he missed the point by having Abbott raise the cage and still interfere and there being no submission."
"Terry Taylor and Reid Fliehr came out. Reid called out David. Daffney beat up Taylor. Reid gave David a low blow and took him down, but David was able to get the advantage and put Reid in the figure four. Reid must have missed the WWF PPV the previous night and been studying tapes of Nash matches the way he didn't sell the figure four. The original plan was for David to give Reid a terrible beating, but standards and practices nixed it feeling it would display child abuse."
"Madden at this point was told to (believe me, he doesn't say things this stupid on his own) get over about how WCW doesn't do shamazz finishes and cheap DQ's. Well, there were no DQ's except I guess in the asylum match, but except for Wall vs. Awesome up to that point there had been nothing but shmazz finishes. I knew this match was doomed the minute he said that because WCW likes nothing more than to make their announcers look like fools."
"Vampiro beat Hogan in 4:40. Hogan beat Vampiro to death, giving him nothing. Hogan legdropped Vampiro, to make sure everyone knew he could win without even selling. Kidman came out and hit Hogan with a blow torch and Vampiro pinned Hogan in 4:40. Yes, Hogan put over Vampiro but somehow Vampiro looked like even less of a main eventer in the process. That's why Hogan always will be one step ahead of everyone, because the boys are even swerved to thinking he's helping others' careers. Sting made the save and laid out Vampiro. Hogan popped right up after the finish and whipped Vampiro with the belt."
"Arquette draws record low ratings but they keep the belt on him to swerve the fans, and the result is one of the lowest buy rates ever. Flair pops the highest rating in months, so they can't wait to take the belt off him. I guess if they don't have a title change every Monday, Nitro will have been a bad show."
"Nash set up a power bomb in the aisle on Russo when the blood (I believe it's a honey like substance, a form of syrup and red dye which is the standard movie blood mixture) came from the ceiling. It wasn't the most embarrassing segment on the show, but it was up there. Nash waited forever because the stuff was late falling. Then it fell, and missed him again. He at least tried by moving into the path of the red stuff and did get some of it on him when he moved. Somehow that stunned Nash, but not Russo."
"When Flair won the title, the announcers weren't tipped off ahead of time, which is why none of them wanted to make the call and hurt the excitement of the switch because they "knew" there had been a screw-up and reacted wrong."
"Most in WCW, and there are exceptions to this, are under the belief that what happened when Flair collapsed in Lafayette, LA wasn't scripted but from that moment on everything that has been done is clearly a work. Others are thinking the whole thing from start to finish is, noting it came across as almost a duplicate of the heart attack angle (which Bischoff and Flair told nobody about ahead of time either and tried to work the boys, including Flair's closest friends in the company, that he really did suffer a heart attack on live television and there were many articles in the media saying it wasn't a heart attack but also that the moment was unscripted when it was pure wrestling angle)."
"Flair is claiming to have an inner ear problem that affects his equilibrium which is why he couldn't stand and has been at the doctors getting treatment for the problem. Flair had this problem in 1992 when he was dropped wrong by Ultimate Warrior."
"The Flair collapse was totally presented on TV as a wrestling angle. Instead of editing it off the show, they had Tony Schiavone go in studio and put in new commentary to call attention to it and showed a photo of Flair in Charles Robinson's arms on the web site the next morning trying to build up the Russo feud. The people on the web site were told specifically to mention it like it wasn't scripted ahead of time."
"The original plan was for Ric to lose the retirement match to David and have rotator cuff surgery a few days later. However, Flair likes the angle with Russo, and with it being the only hot angle in the company, both he and Russo may change plans"
"The plan on 5/15 as of the late afternoon was for Jarrett to beat Flair, but Russo changed his mind before the show (the announcers didn't know it as they were calling the match although most backstage were aware of it before the show started), feeling people wouldn't expect Flair to win. Jarrett was said to be unhappy about it but was promised he'd get the belt back on 5/22."
"While WCW has not released a buy rate for Slamboree, there are industry sources who peg the figure at 0.14, which would be the second lowest buy rate in history for a major promotion PPV."
"The Kanyon interview was so hokey, with him paralyzed and in a halo, but clearly moving his head and the halo not moving, showing it wasn't screwed in. Apparently this was done in more than one take because in the first take this problem was noticed and he did it less the second time. I hate to say this, but while watching it, it became obvious they are trying to do Droz as an angle and that's unsettling."
"Mark Madden was forced by TBS legal to do the apology to Bruno Sammartino on Nitro. Madden had talked about various deceased former world champions turning over in their grave regarding Arquette winning the title like Pat O'Connor and Buddy Rogers, and mentioned Sammartino, who he's had a long-time feud with actually based originally from an interview he did for this publication about nine years ago with comments that David Sammartino made about his own (David's) usage of steroids and one of his brothers. Bruno was mad, actually furious at the time, about David mentioning the brother who was a collegiate javelin thrower but never did pro wrestling, insisting he had never used steroids. Sammartino threatened a lawsuit against WCW for implying he was dead, so Madden was forced to apologize, but did so as insincerely as possible on the air"
"I think both companies are terribly guilty of racial stereotyping and discrimination does often go hand-in-hand with that mentality, and with Onoo out of WCW, the worst example today is Eddy Guerrero in WWF."
"Platinum (Dustin Runnels doing a Goldust like character) was at first to debut this past week but it was delayed"
"Many of the older wrestlers have openly complained about the direction and the show. Russo may be attempting to appease Hogan, Sting, Luger and Nash by writing them in situations where they all look like supermen and Nash and to an extent Hogan and Sting are getting bigger pops now than they were before. To say any of them are over at a time when they don't sell any tickets or draw buy rates is a joke. Hogan doesn't like the way the TV matches are all bullshit short matches with all run-ins and no structure. Nash and Luger have complained about various things behind the scenes, Luger as vocal as anyone regarding working with guys who are too green or small."
"Scott Steiner cut a major promo on Russo backstage because the 5/15 Nitro angle was mistimed with the truck making the save late because the driver missed his cue. He was probably upset because some of the blows were really stiff and he had his eye shut and his mouth busted open"
"At one point the plan to headline the 8/13 PPV from Vancouver was for a Hogan vs. Hart title match, but Hart won't be ready by that time the way things appear."
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Gecko
Grimlock
FAN Pyrite Member. Muahahaha
Posts: 13,329
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Post by Gecko on Oct 17, 2020 4:44:29 GMT -5
Not many shows could make a sentence like that happen. There's probably enough stuff like this to come up with a thread of wrestling related excuses and alibis.
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Nr1Humanoid
Hank Scorpio
Is the #3 humanoid at best.
Posts: 5,526
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Post by Nr1Humanoid on Oct 17, 2020 6:32:25 GMT -5
Anyone else read his name as Normen Smylay?
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cjh
Hank Scorpio
Posts: 6,627
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Post by cjh on Oct 17, 2020 7:49:56 GMT -5
I don't know what Meltzer was watching, but Schiavone and Hudson went nuts as soon as Flair pinned Jarrett to become the new champ. There was nothing that indicated that they thought the referee messed up.
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Post by jason1980s on Oct 17, 2020 10:26:49 GMT -5
I'm not sure if I should be shocked or not about the way Bobby Eaton was let go and that he was under contract for so long without being used. I can't remember exactly the last time I saw him on TV. It may have been a Saturday Night with him in black ME type trunks which may have been shortly after the Blue Bloods gimmick. He is a great guy, I hear a lot, but he sure did seem like a relic of the past even during the Blue Bloods time. It's crazy for me to think that since guys from 2001-2002 WWE are still around.
I really wonder if Billy Graham was telling the truth about Bruno getting a huge money deal to do the WWE Hall of Fame. It's Billy but I don't doubt it with Bruno. Bruno portrayed himself as a different type of guy but when you read a bit more it seems like he very much is the type of guy who would sue (and probably hold out for a big settlement) if his name was mistakenly mentioned as deceased. WCW should be held responsible for it's commentators actions but Madden should be a special case of WCW immunity. The issue I'm sure was long standing, as mentioned, with Bruno angry about David's interview. I would guess it's less of Bruno angry with the son's steroid usage and more angry that he, the God-like Bruno may be considered a less than amazing parent. If anyone has the insincere apology of Madden I would be interested in seeing it.
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Post by Feyrhausen on Oct 17, 2020 17:59:39 GMT -5
I'm not sure if I should be shocked or not about the way Bobby Eaton was let go and that he was under contract for so long without being used. I can't remember exactly the last time I saw him on TV. It may have been a Saturday Night with him in black ME type trunks which may have been shortly after the Blue Bloods gimmick. He is a great guy, I hear a lot, but he sure did seem like a relic of the past even during the Blue Bloods time. It's crazy for me to think that since guys from 2001-2002 WWE are still around. I really wonder if Billy Graham was telling the truth about Bruno getting a huge money deal to do the WWE Hall of Fame. It's Billy but I don't doubt it with Bruno. Bruno portrayed himself as a different type of guy but when you read a bit more it seems like he very much is the type of guy who would sue (and probably hold out for a big settlement) if his name was mistakenly mentioned as deceased. WCW should be held responsible for it's commentators actions but Madden should be a special case of WCW immunity. The issue I'm sure was long standing, as mentioned, with Bruno angry about David's interview. I would guess it's less of Bruno angry with the son's steroid usage and more angry that he, the God-like Bruno may be considered a less than amazing parent. If anyone has the insincere apology of Madden I would be interested in seeing it. Bruno and David has a bad relationship for a long time. IIRC from interviews Vince Jr kept using David to get Bruno back in the ring when he needed to pop some houses in the old clubs. When Bruno had enough Vince told David it was all Brunos fault and led to a lot of bad feelings. I dont know if they had reconciled by the point of whatever Madden interview they referenced but either way David was a very sore spot for Bruno.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
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Post by Deleted on Oct 18, 2020 3:36:04 GMT -5
2000 June, Part 1
June 5, 2000
"WCW is now on the blocks. With Ted Turner looking to leave the Time Warner/AOL conglomerate, the wrestling company, which Turner has always fought to keep in the family when outside offers came in, or during down times when major executives suggested shutting it down, is no longer protected and it's coming at the worst time possible as the company is suffering from record losses."
"WCW is losing money at a far greater rate than it did last year, when it still had strong buy rates and strong attendance until the summer when the free-fall took hold, and where it ended up losing in excess of $15 million. There have been internal loss estimates starting at $36 million and growing from there based on different scenarios, with $55 to $60 million being a more likely figure and $80 million being a worst case scenario."
"There have been several high level negotiations this past week involving WCW and ECW, most notably with SFX. SFX, which owns many arenas, has of late purchased concert tour rights for many leading concerts including Bob Dylan and Paul Simon. The deal they've done in those situations is book the tours themselves, because they own several major arenas, and can cut rental deals for other major arenas far better than anyone else can."
"At one point earlier this year, SFX made a strong approach to buying WCW, which was immediately nixed by Turner. Exactly what is going on with these negotiations has been kept secretive, but there is talk the current negotiations with WCW do not include buying the company, but simply buying the promotional rights to the house shows and the negotiations are in the beginning form. It is believed that TNT and TBS are wanting to maintain the television rights to the company, but none of the headaches and the losses that come with running it."
"At least two other groups have expressed interest in buying either WCW and/or ECW, and there is always Fox Network, which has talked of doing wrestling, including negotiations in the past with Hulk Hogan, Eric Bischoff and Randy Savage, but at this point doesn't appear to want to own the company but rather have a company provide product for a weekday afternoon show."
"On the 5/31 Thunder show, there is an interview with Bischoff and Tony Schiavone where Bischoff claims the big deal that will change the landscape of the wrestling industry was finalized earlier in the day. He said that the deal would be announced at the Great American Bash on 6/9 and brought up strongly that there is nothing Vince McMahon could do about it. WCW, recognizing that even putting Hogan and Flair's careers on the line, they are doing so poorly on PPV, that they are building this announcement up as the prime draw on the show."
"The "surprise" could be an SFX announcement, which would mean little to the general public, or be something as mundane as a Goldberg heel turn, as Goldberg was asked over the last week to go heel but it didn't appear to be something he was thrilled about and it's also something that on the surface seems like a terrible move at this time (it could be a great move at another time), similar to the botched heel turn they attempted last year for Sting. Politically, if you are wondering why, it leaves Hogan free and clear for the No. 1 face position and Nash at No. 2 without Goldberg potentially passing both of them by."
"There were even people speculating on the feasibility of WWF going to TNN, WCW going to USA and ECW then winding up on TNT but that's highly unlikely as neither TNT or TBS seem willing to allow its rights to the prime time WCW wrestling to go to their cable rivals at USA since all three stations are battling for cable ratings superiority and as bad as the wrestling ratings for WCW have dropped, neither TNT or TBS would be easily able to fill the prime time with shows drawing numbers in the same league."
"USA seemingly wants a Monday night wrestling franchise and doesn't want to make the mistake they feel they made of not owning the franchise outright and being put in this position of helping develop a cable dynasty and then losing the dynasty, which, if WWF leaves, seems to indicate either starting a new company, which would be next to impossible because all the major players are under contract, or going with and buying ECW, or potentially WCW (a very unlikely scenario)."
"WCW has sent feelers to ECW about working together, something Bischoff discussed with Paul Heyman during the Mike Awesome legal battle of turning it into an angle, something a stagnant ECW may be more likely to consider although Heyman said he has no interest in being a part of a WCW angle."
"Edouardo Anibal Gonzalez (Juventud Guerrera) ended up being sentenced after a plea bargain guilty plea on 5/26 to 48 hours in prison as well as community service work in exchange for a guilty plea in charges of fleeing from police and a DUI in State College, PA. Gonzalez won't be deported, which was a significant fear until at least Thursday night."
"Juvi had been injured three days earlier at the Thunder tapings, hurting his ribs on the landing when either he didn't fall right, was thrown wrong or was caught wrong when pressed over the top by Van Hammer and thrown onto Konnan. He's expected to be out of the ring for a few weeks, but the nature of the company today, they may ask him to work and simply not do anything. Konnan was actually injured more seriously catching Guerrera, who apparently was falling out of control. At first it was believed Konnan suffered a broken elbow but an X-ray revealed no break. His arm was too swollen for an MRI, which won't take place until the swelling is down. The belief at this point is that he's got a partially torn tricep that won't require surgery so his down time won't be lengthy."
"Tammy Sytch was taken off Nitro after an incident backstage before the show. There have been numerous reports of her being fired, which definitely wasn't the case as of press time. Before the show, two of the other women working in the company found syringes in a rest room adjacent to the womens locker room along with a vial of nubain, a pain killing drug that has in recent years become popular with some wrestlers and was a major problem in the ECW dressing room several months back, in the bathroom and apparently it was linked it to her."
"Nash gave the title belt to Flair saying since Flair never lost it, he should have it. He should have mailed it fourth class bookrate with all that belt means these days."
"Vampiro showed up driving a gasoline truck."
"The original plan was for Chavo to wrestle Misterio Jr. because somehow nobody in WCW has figured out that Misterio Jr.'s knee is more than a month away from being ready."
"Major Guns came out and, I'm not making this up, Rey started to undo his belt, like the two of them were going to have some form of sex right there on TV. She kicked him low."
"Miss Hancock came out dancing. Candido threatened her. This was the spot where Tammy Sytch was supposed to have a confrontation with Hancock. David Flair came out to save Hancock. You see, for the 99% of the audience that doesn't know they are dating in real life, it's because they are dating in real life. Ric attacked David. All the security guys came out to get beat up and David escaped with her. They are doing an angle where Daffney is mad because she's picked out her wedding dress and pointed all this out."
"Goldberg challenged Abbott to a match on 6/5 in Atlanta at the Phillips Arena. In a sense, it makes no sense to give away Goldberg's first match on free TV as opposed to the PPV, but in the grand scheme of things, since nobody buys the PPV's, it has now come to the point where it's almost a waste to put the big matches on PPV."
"They did a DDP at home segment where he got home, all his stuff had been packed and she changed the locks on the door. He showed up and the police were there and told him she'd taken out a restraining order against him. It was so funny that they had to have one cop out there putting DDP over as a big star in the segment."
"Awesome asked for Kimberly's help. She was acting like a total bitch. She ended up in the ring with Awesome and Palumbo and called out Liz. They grabbed her and Kimberly was about to throttle her until Page came out and hit the diamond cutter on Awesome. However, he violated the restraining order because he came near Kimberly. So they cuffed him. Then, Palumbo for no reason attacked the police officers with the twister. Now, even in the fake world, attacking a police officer with a twister should result in some sort of an arrest. Palumbo continued to attack Page until Luger, with his face all bandaged selling the deal from last week (and it took Russo a long time to convince Luger to do this angle) made the save. Awesome then attacked Page again when he was handcuffed until Karl Malone made the save and gave Awesome the diamond cutter."
"Finish saw David give Jarrett the guitar and he got the pin with Russo counting the fall. Fans pelted the ring with garbage. Make no mistake about it. The people somehow cared about the belt when Flair had it, which guaranteed they had to take it off him"
"Elix Skipper had his name changed to Mr. Skipover, and he now dances to the ring, and he beat Mike Sanders. Gimmick was said to be pretty bad."
"MIA and Filthy Animals had an elimination match that ended with Sean Stasiak running in followed by Booker T's save as G.I. Bro. This was the match where Van Hammer dropped Juventud over the top rope onto Konnan that wound up with both men injured."
"They wound up in the stalls and there was at least one spot where Funk had his face rubbed in manure and may have been a piledriver into the horse manure. During this segment in an unplanned spot, a horse kicked Funk in the face, which was said to have looked dangerous as hell, but he seemed fine afterwards, although by this point Funk is probably the single best actor in the world at both selling both real and non-existent pain, and in not selling very real pain, whatever the case may be needed for at that moment."
"This wasn't on the TV, but it should be noted that earlier in the day, Luger and Elizabeth had a real-life blow-up with Russo. They refused to do whatever the angle it was that was supposed to be booked on the show, and the scheduled PPV matches with Luger vs. Palumbo and Elizabeth vs. Kimberly are questionable, the latter one more than the former."
"Sting won the three-way over Horace and Kidman when Sting got his pin back on Kidman. Somehow I doubt Kidman got the shooting star in and had Sting pinned clean before the distraction and the finish like the previous night."
"They did a two-part segment where Smiley & Ralphus, who are back fired, broke and homeless, were walking the streets looking for work and heard about kids doing backyard wrestling. As the second part of the segment ended, Smiley told the kids not to do backyard wrestling but instead learn amateur wrestling. Smiley showed the kids some amateur moves and eventually pinned the kid who was the backyard champion and thus got his belt."
"Stasiak & Palumbo won the tag titles from Kronik. It was announced before the match that the title could change on a DQ for this match only and that DQ's would be called. So guess what. Kronik was DQ'd for using the twister that Palumbo had brought into the ring and thus lost the titles."
"David & Russo beat Ric & Reid when Ric was KO'd by the statue of liberty and Reid was double-teamed and pinned."
"Douglas told Ralphus and Smiley he could get them their jobs back and have a shot at the hardcore title. That set up a three-way with Douglas, Smiley and a guy in the gorilla suit that was supposed to be Ralphus but ended up being Funk. The gorilla hit Douglas with a chair and pinned him and then unmasked. The performance Funk, with a pillow under his gorilla suit to give him a Ralphus sized girth, put on pretending to be Ralphus was tremendous."
"Russo, David Flair, Daffney came out with a woman playing the role of Reid Fliehr's sixth grade teacher Miss Snodgrass. She said that Reid was teaching the other kids to make fart noises with their armpits and sticking mirrors on classmates shoes so he could look up the girls skirts. That had to be Ric Flair's son."
"Horace Hogan & Kidman beat Kronik. Kidman got zero offense. Horace beat Adams after a weak chair shot. Kronik came out with the belts, lost, but Kidman & Horace are not the champs. It wasn't made clear until after the fact that it was a non-title match, although I'm still not clear when Kronik ever beat Douglas & Bagwell to win the titles in the first place. Maybe they lost them in a card game. Maybe Jim Duggan can find Joe C in a garbage can and become the new world midget champion."
"DDP was doing an interview and Liz dragged out Kimberly and DDP spanked her. The cameras focused on the people at ringside so no spankings allowed on the show. This segment ended with Awesome in Kanyon's hospital room and then turning off the cameras telling everyone to leave what happened next to their imagination. It couldn't have been that serious being that for two hours on Nitro the next week, it was never acknowledged."
"The tabloid The Globe ran a story about the spring break-out wet t-shirt contest where Buff Bagwell took bikini tops and bottoms off some of the contestants. As mentioned here the week it happened in late March, WCW officials were scared to death this would eventually make national publicity because they were aware fans had video cameras at the event. No police charges were filed because none of the women filed them."
"Gene Okerlund has been taken off Nitro and they are going to use Pam Paulshock as the regular interviewer. Okerlund will remain on Thunder"
"The Kronik 4:19 t-shirts are because they aren't allowed to do 4:20 t-shirts (because it's a pot smoking reference), although the shirt says "got a minute" on it as well"
June 12, 2000
"Multi Channel News ran a story about the WCW/SFX negotiations, saying that the 5/25 meeting between the two sides may have been about acquiring a stake in the company as SFX requested detailed financial information about the company, a three-year cash-flow statement and a listing of all employees, titles, contracts and information about pending litigation. Turner Sports spokesperson Greg Hughes said in the story that WCW was not for sale, but many sources indicate the company is trying to unload the financial burden, but if possible, maintain the programming."
"The ratings on 6/5 had to be a huge disappointment for WCW, as it was the best hyped Nitro since the first Russo/Bischoff show on 4/10, complete with Bill Goldberg's first match back and almost a PPV-like line-up of matches. During the day, people within the company were talking about the show doing a 4.0 rating. As it turned out, Raw delivered a 5.95 rating (5.40 first hour; 6.44 second hour) and a 9.3 share. Nitro drew a 2.86 rating (3.09 first hour; 2.67 second hour) and a 4.4 share. The head-to-head was 5.49 to 2.67, so a down Raw still more than doubled Nitro."
"The return to the ring of the much hyped Goldberg vs. Abbott match only drew a 2.90 rating, although it held the WWF's lengthy open conference with the McMahon family (Rock didn't come out in the first quarter) to a 4.70 rating, the lowest rated Raw quarter in a long time. Nitro dropped 15% of its audience when Raw started which at least was a little more than half of what it does in a typical week like the previous one, so that's a positive. That was because they did a tremendous job in the first hour of hyping Goldberg's return (not to mention buying a giant ad in USA Today hyping Goldberg's return)."
"On the TV ads for the Great American Bash, instead of saying the surprise is something that will change the face of wrestling, instead they are billing the surprise as something that will change the career of Nash. It gives more credence that it's simply Goldberg turning heel on Nash and costing him the title and joining the New Blood, or worse, Hall returning and turning on Nash"
"G.I. Bro beat Kidman in all of 1:53 with a uranage when Torrie Wilson turned on Kidman and gave him a low blow. Kidman no sold it, because he was wearing a cup. The cameras basically missed the spot, but luckily the announcers explained why Kidman wasn't selling it. Of course, his wearing the cup made zero sense since the spot was to lead to the pin."
"Vampiro was chasing Midajah and about to set her on fire when Sting made the save with a bunch of bat shots."
"Sting pinned Jarrett in 2:24 to apparently win the title. On TV, they strongly implied it was a title match, but after Sting won, Bischoff got on the mic and said it was non-title. Sting then continued to attack Jarrett after, putting the scorpion on the ramp and finally hitting Jarrett with a guitar shot and he fell off the ramp."
"Flair put Russo in the figure four for what seemed like an eternity. Russo, being the toughest man with 11 inch arms that ever lived, withstood the move longer than just about every babyface in the history of Jim Crockett Promotions without even passing out from pain, before the "blood" dropped from the sky. For some reason that I can't figure out, the blood immobilizes everyone except the heels, which it doesn't effect. It appeared the blood was supposed to drop much sooner, thereby not making the figure four spot so ludicrous, and that David was supposed to pull Russo out of the path of the blood, so only Ric would have to sell it. Neither happened. David put the figure four on Ric and Russo covered him for the pin."
"Nash beat Disco, Candido, Johnny the Bull, Vito and Misterio Jr. all in about five seconds. These guys were pinned so quickly that they took one move and laid there and Nash didn't even cover them some of the time. Finally Awesome, Palumbo, Konnan, Douglas, Vampiro and a few others all attacked Nash. The idea was to get heat on Nash for Goldberg to make the save, but Nash didn't bother selling for six guys and Goldberg's run in seemed almost unnecessary as the two of them cleaned house as the show went off the air."
"Lex Luger and Elizabeth were sent home after refusing to do the planned angles for them at the 5/30 Thunder tapings. Luger was supposed to do the run-in, attacking Palumbo, which would cause the DQ in Kronik's tag title loss to Palumbo & Stasiak where the title could change hands via DQ. In the case of Elizabeth, there is a good deal of sympathy in her direction because they wanted her to be a wrestler and do a wrestling match with Kimberly at the PPV (evidently being switched to Kimberly vs. Miss Hancock) and she was never trained to be a wrestler. There is a lot less sympathy for Luger who didn't like the way he was being booked with the program with Palumbo, who clearly isn't ready, but then again, Luger was once in Palumbo's shoes as being pushed long before he was ready and all the veterans of that era put him over strong because everyone thought he had potential to be the next Hogan, which he never turned out to be"
"Great Muta is scheduled on either the 6/19 Nitro in Billings, MT or the 6/26 Nitro in Des Moines, IA since New Japan has been running this angle for months where WCW has stolen Muta from New Japan and since the angle, he's never actually worked a WCW show to try and make the angle legit."
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Nr1Humanoid
Hank Scorpio
Is the #3 humanoid at best.
Posts: 5,526
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Post by Nr1Humanoid on Oct 18, 2020 5:30:12 GMT -5
If Russo and Bischoff is ever in charge anywhere again someone should send whoever owns the company all these posts in one big file.
TNA had to be insane to even utter their names.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on Oct 19, 2020 2:48:37 GMT -5
2000 June, Part 2
June 19, 2000
"Over the past week, reports have it that SFX and WCW had talks about purchasing the company, talks that didn't come to fruition. Eric Bischoff and Terry Bollea have also had more talks with the FOX network, about a deal that may or may not be completely done, about doing a worked interpromotional angle ala the New Japan vs. UFO deal. SFX was to have another meeting on 6/19 where further discussion about purchasing the company would come up, with the idea they would be purchasing a company that had television deals with both FOX and TNT/TBS. There were a lot of people in major decision making powers in the wrestling world who were of the assumption that the FOX angle would be the big surprise on the Great American Bash PPV."
"Late in the week, Paul Heyman was getting feelers once again from WCW about doing a potential interpromotional angle, which he has expressed no interest in doing."
"The reality is if WCW is sold to SFX, however many tens of millions Turner has lost in 12 years of running a company that really only had two financially successful years, that will be more than made up for at the end of the game because the selling price will be far more than the combination of those losses and the estimated $9 million the Crockett family received from Turner Broadcasting in the 1988 buy-out, so in the long-run, it was still a positive business investment."
"The big surprise at the 6/11 Great American Bash turned out to be the heel turn of Bill Goldberg, which might have been effective had it not been so overly built up as something that would change the landscape of sports entertainment forever, that it was considered a huge let down."
"The turn, which was way too soon in Goldberg's career and comeback, was something Russo wanted to do from the start simply because Goldberg had never played heel yet. It also allowed Hogan and Nash to be solidified in the top two face positions, something needed since Hogan is still the most powerful man in the company and the need is felt by everyone to keep him happy, and an unhappy Nash, since he's good at rallying the disharmony of the other wrestlers, is always seem as a high priority."
"There are people in the company that have actually been convinced that Scott Steiner has more drawing power potential as a babyface than Goldberg"
"To show just how far the company has fallen, in Baltimore, which outside of the Carolinas, is probably Flair's strongest city and a city Hogan has history going back to his first WWF matches with Andre at the Arena some 20 years ago, putting both of their careers on the line along with promising the biggest surprise in history resulted in 7,031 fans attending, of which only 4,677 were paid for a gate of $154,445."
"The old man playing Captain Rection's dad came out and started hitting on Tigress. He came out five minutes early, and since the finish was based on his timing, the match was cut way short."
"Pamela Paulshock, who did a pre-match interview, couldn't even pronounce the word ambulance."
"Page went to the ramp to save Kanyon, who got up out of his wheelchair and gave Page a diamond cutter off the ramp to a gimmicked part of the floor and Page was put in the ambulance, making it three PPV shows in a row where Page's best friend or wife has turned on him."
"Douglas asked for a best of five tables match. The announcers explained it was really the best of nine, even though as it turned out, it really was the best of five. As you can imagine, the announcers weren't going into business for themselves, it's just that whomever clarified what the five tables rule meant wasn't a math whiz."
"Apparently some could see the stunt double put on the Sting mask and some fans in the building were able to see the switch. The stunt man was then set on fire, and jumped off the top, which looked to be every bit of 30 feet into a heavily padded stage. They then doused him like crazy with the fire extinguisher. It wasn't so much because he was on fire, but because in the landing, his wig came off and if the smoke cleared people would be able to see it wasn't Sting."
"Jeff Jarrett retained the WCW title beating Kevin Nash in 17:22. As if it hasn't been beaten to death enough, they teased the Survivor Series 1997 finish with Konnan as the bell ringer, Rey Misterio Jr. as the timekeeper, Disco Inferno as the belt keeper, Juventud Guerrera as the ring announcer and Ernest Miller as the second referee."
"Scott Hudson did the entire broadcast with his shirt off. Russo over the weekend, after hearing the remarks made last week on Nitro about his physique by the announcers, wanted all three announcers to do the entire broadcast without shirts, as ordered by Russo, because he thought it would get him over as a heel. Madden, smartly, didn't want to, because quite frankly all three shirtless would have totally ruined the broadcast."
"Nash came out and tried to claim it wasn't Goldberg who made Goldberg, but guys like he, Hall and Hogan. Somehow as I remember it, it was he, Hall and Hogan as the guys who took Goldberg down from when he was the hottest act in the business and made him just another main eventer."
"Vampiro talked with a mystery man. The mystery man will turn out to be Christopher Daniels. At this point he doesn't have a name. They wanted to name him "The Lord," or God, but standards and practices nixed that. They also nixed the angle where they wanted Vampiro to set the dressing room on fire and Asya would be in there and get burned. The angle would reveal Dale Torborg as Asya's fiance, looking for revenge, and expose Torborg as The Demon to set up their feud. Poor guy goes from feuding with Sting to feuding with Demon."
"Sting (another vacation, and what a great job he has), Page (trying to rest up and let his back injury recover) and Flair (rotator cuff surgery) are all on the shelf, so it appears with Luger also gone (no change in his situation from last week) there the Millionaires Club is basically kaput, so that's why they are turning lots of NB guys like Kidman and Bagwell because they are short on faces after the Goldberg turn."
"They hired a child actor to play Nash's nephew "Hunter." I wonder where they got that name? With Nash locked up, he told Scott Steiner to watch him. If I had an eight year old, somehow I don't think I'd have Scott Steiner watching him. Just as I suspected as the show went on, Scott blew off babysitting to pump up, and left the kid to be watched by one of the women. The funniest thing all week was listening to Steven Regal talk about having watched this segment of the show and leaving an eight-year-old with a half naked slut (he didn't exactly use that word, but a British slang term meaning that) as a babysitter."
"Oh God, Paisley & Artist were back with a press conference announcing his name is now only The Artist instead of TAF KAPI. The old man, who was formerly Hugh Morrus' insane father, but is now Captain Rection's horny grandfather, was under the desk and apparently looking up Paisley's dress during the press conference with a pie."
"Kimberly & Kanyon came out. Kanyon's gimmick will be to come out to Page's music with Page's wife and use the diamond cutter as the finisher. It would be a great idea if it wasn't for the fact they just did that angle with Abbott and Goldberg. Coming out with the taped ribs was a nice touch."
"Russo hit Ric with the bat. Beth ran in. It was a mess at this point with nobody seeming to know what to do. Russo was supposed to break the statue of liberty over Ric's head, but the statue broke early. Ric was selling. Ashley tried a run-in. David put the figure four on Ric and Megan threw in the towel. Russo then shaved some of Ric's head. Ric shaved the rest of it backstage. Russo also shaved some of Reid's head."
"There was a woman in the crowd who had "Nash" tattooed on her belly."
"Kronik vs. Bigelow & Candido was weird. Candido, without Tammy, was taking forever to unscrew the turnbuckle before the match was called off by Doug Dillenger....They then retaped Kronik vs. Candido & Bigelow and this time Candido got pinned clean, which was probably the planned finish but they stopped them because Candido was taking too much time getting the turnbuckle pad off"
"Brad Siegel called both Bischoff and Russo in for a meeting on 6/7 to explain the Monday rating that everyone had predicted would be a lot higher than it turned out to be"
"Cat was out there trying to teach a group of senior citizens to dance"
"Abbott was looking around for somebody to pound and they showed a 12-year-old kid in the audience, and alerted us it was John-Michael Schiavone, Tony's son. Tony hopped the rail and the kid threw a drink in Abbott's face. Nash came out to save Schaivone's life and they went all of 13 seconds before Rick interfered for the DQ and Scott made the save. So much for not doing DQ finishes for run-ins."
"Finally it was Steiner's turn run the gauntlet and establish all the mid-cards as being completely not competitive with the top guys. The beneficiaries of "the rub" this show were Candido, Stasiak and Palumbo, who lasted a combined 1:26 until a whole group of heels beat Steiner down. Nash, who would have lost his title shot had he interfered, went to run-in but as soon as he left his dressing room, Jarrett hit him with a guitar. Now make sense out of that. Jarrett was doing the broken arm trick with his whole body to get out of the match, but now Nash was going to do something to cancel the match and Jarrett stops him."
"In an AP article on 6/7, Goldberg said he's bothered by how much wrestling plays up the sexual aspects. "We are farther away form the kids and closer to pornography. It bothers me. Absolutely. We have a show that has a girl in a bikini in every single segment. I'm not in favor of that. I voice my opinion on everything I have a problem with. We can't shut our eyes on the kids who watch. There is a time and a place for segments where kids can watch with their parents, and we don't have it."
"Regarding the Funk vs. Candido match in the horse stall, they gave the horse a horse tranquilizer (I believe PCP) and had his harnessed. However, in all the commotion, the horse panicked and threw the kick at Funk. If he hadn't been harnessed, or for that matter, if the kick had hit Funk in the head instead of the upper arm, it could have been disastrous"
"Bill DeMott (Capt. Rection) didn't know they were bring the old guy back as his nutty father until the afternoon when he got to the building. His reaction was the same as just about everyone's who saw the angle. This is planned to be an angle that will be strongly pushed on television"
June 26, 2000
"Vince Russo quit his position as television writer for WCW on 6/15. It was largely believed in the company that he would return, so publicly it was stated that he was taking a few days off due to a concussion. Russo, who didn't return calls to just about everyone in the company wanting to hear his side of things, was scheduled for a meeting this week after press time with Brad Siegel regarding his future with the company."
"Russo quit largely over a disagreement with management, in particular Eric Bischoff, who wanted to bring Kimberly, Elizabeth and Lex Luger back to television. Russo felt all had quit rather than go along with his scripts, Kimberly and Elizabeth for a variety of reasons having to do with storyline and treatment but ultimately because they didn't want to take bumps as participants in wrestling matches because they weren't trained as wrestlers."
"Management apparently was of the belief that since Luger had several years left on a very lucrative deal and the company is losing so much money, it couldn't be corporately justified in not using him while he was healthy and being paid such a high salary. However, that decision making theory ultimately leaves any booker with no power to turn the company around."
"The only thing that some were saying is why pick on Luger, when Hogan and Nash were the real dressing room problems in their ability to even fool management and some wrestlers that they are putting people over, were more detrimental to the team atmosphere and in newcomers getting a push. Both had fooled less wrestling astute (and even some who are wrestling astute) people that they had put people over by taking pinfalls in the past, in matches where clearly their opponents were far worse off for beating them, with Billy Kidman being the prime example of a newcomer who got no rub from his supposed career-making program with Hogan and probably came out of it the same if not worse than before the program started."
"Russo was also unhappy with standards and practices editing so much out of the Thunder show which aired the previous night, in particular language taken from the movie "Deliverance," a movie that the station would and has aired without editing that same language out."
"It is known that Bischoff was starting to listen to many who believed that the show needed more wrestling content and less angles and run-ins involving untrained talent, particularly since, with all the talk about how long it would take to turn around ratings, it doesn't take long to turn around live show attendance, merchandise business and buy rates, and none were occurring."
"It was generally believed for most of the week that Russo would return. Terry Taylor, Bill Banks and Ed Ferrara wrote Nitro and Thunder with some outside help, and were given the parameters of not to make any drastic changes or new angles because Russo would be back in the role."
"There are those who felt Russo was playing a game, a power play of sorts, figuring that with Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Sting and Diamond Dallas Page not available on the show, plus going against the NBA playoffs, that it was the perfect week to take off knowing the ratings were going to fall. Others even felt this was all a work designed to build a Monday rating, but when WCW denied it publicly and came up with the time off for a concussion story, that pretty well confirmed this wasn't an angle."
"The general feeling in the company was that Nitro was stronger than most of the shows he wrote and conceptually was a far stronger product without his crash-TV formula. They eliminated run-ins which put more emphasis on the matches, which came off more like matches and less like garbled garbage in between badly acted skits. They made the show far less busy, which resulted in a less numbing broadcast where angles had the potential to be able to start to take hold."
"The only real storyline angle, G.I. Bro leaving the misfits and going back to Booker T, reversing an angle Russo had started just weeks earlier, was seen almost unanimously as a positive."
"With Bill Goldberg getting such a huge babyface reaction, by far the biggest of anyone on the show, it once again brought second-guessing into Russo's decision of turning him and made this look almost like the repeat of the mistake of the Sting turn. There don't appear to be any plans of turning Goldberg back, but some were already conceding Goldberg's role, instead of being a heel, will be more as a tweener, which in his case, means he'll quickly end up as a babyface unless he stands next to Bischoff or Russo."
"The loss of Russo would also destroy his strongest angle to date with the Ric Flair head shaving, which was barely acknowledged on the Nitro the week after it happened."
"The show opened with the compelling scene of Horace in the ring sitting in a chair demanding a match with Goldberg. He said he was standing up for family pride because Hulk was injured. Didn't Horace and Hulk over the past few years turn on each other something like a million times, including just a few weeks back?"
"Goldberg pinned Horace in 2:37. Goldberg got by far the biggest babyface pop of the show."
"Miller kept trying to waive the no run-in rule but whenever he'd say waive and before no run-ins, Nash would pound on him to stop talking. That was funny. They handcuffed a briefcase to Mark Madden, who, if you notice, never puts over any babyfaces except Steiner and Nash. Nash got the briefcase, but there was no Hall contract, only photos of Miller"
"Goldberg then was on the screen saying he'd fight Nash for Hall's contract at the PPV. Goldberg then ate Hall's contract."
"Misterio Jr. is said to be at about 70 percent right now. He can't risk trying anything spectacular. He returned about five weeks early because he was asked to do what he could do and because of the half-pay situation if he couldn't wrestle."
"Lt. Loco won over 70% Misterio and 100% Artist. 70% Misterio is still three times as good as 100% Artist."
"David Flair begged for Daffney to take him back. Finally she agreed. He then told her to meet him in the hotel room. He then started making out with Miss Hancock. Daffney was watching on the monitor. I think everyone in the wrestling business should realize Big Brother is watching every move. Wasn't David Flair this completely insane deranged psycho son of Vince Russo with a crowbar or a statue seven days ago? Now he's a smooth talking ladies man acting like he's the son of Ric Flair."
"Paisley, Tygress and Major Gunns all hit the ring. They had a pull-apart. As soon as it threatened to be perversely entertaining, they cut to a commercial."
"Dale Torborg, who has undergone a major charisma bypass operation, came out with Asya. The deal is that the Demon is this character he's trying to lose. Kind of like Bruce Banner and the Hulk. He's this guy who wants to lead a normal life but when he gets mad he turns into this terrible wrestler called Demon. Now think about this. We're supposed to believe this guy wants to be normal and in the next breath we're told he's engaged to this woman who looks like Asya."
"Johnny Ace was backstage at Nitro helping with finishes"
"Kimberly wasn't at the show. As the story goes, she quit the promotion because Scott Steiner the previous night called her a nasty name when Steiner found out she wouldn't do a physical angle involving him. So instead Kimberly did that legendary angle where she went to spray the perfume in Hancock's eyes but sprayed in the wrong direction and she sold it anyway. Steiner said it thinking she wasn't there, but she heard it and wanted an apology and you know how that goes and she quit."
"Scott Hall's voice was also supposed to be on the show in the Nash phone call. However, when it came time to do the skit and they called Hall's home, he wasn't there so they had to do the angle where they pretended Hall was there. Naturally Hall should return in a few weeks."
"Kim Kanner (Shakira) has some heat because she refused to go to the Power Plant to learn to take bumps because the contract she signed wasn't for a role that involved taking physical punishment. She was called on 6/15 by Terry Taylor and told her services were no longer needed. Her initial stance was apparently somewhat from advice from Nash and Steiner, looking for this as a way to get a raise since her job description had changed. Steiner in particular was said to be unhappy with her being taken off the show"
"It's amazing in the Filthy Animals, with Konnan in the group, that the one who gets the mic time is Tygress"
"La Parka, Psicosis, Silver King, Dandy, Lodi, Barbarian and Los Villanos were all let go by WCW."
"It wouldn't shock me to see some or all of the Mexican contingent get involved in the racial discrimination lawsuit against WCW, which in a sense makes the timing strange. At the same time, WCW is feeling strongly about its chances in the suit because they are only using a few dozen performers, with a handful of both African Americans and Latino performers appearing regularly. For evidence with people like Garza and Psicosis who had a chance in the U.S. but were buried, WCW can argue indiscriminant incompetence because there are plenty of people like Jerry Lynn or Chris Jericho that weren't Japanese or Mexican that also showed elsewhere that they should have been pushed to a higher level"
"In regards to the angle where Vampiro gave Asya the nail in the coffin, he was dead set against doing it all afternoon. It sounds funny given that he had just supposedly lit a man on fire and tossed him 40 feet to his apparent death. Apparently there is a history of physical abuse of females in his family and didn't want to be on television doing something that somewhat glorifies it. Bischoff convinced him to do it as a team player so he did"
"There are front office employees looking to bail and transfer out of WCW so they can remain with Time Warner employee status in case the company is sold. We're told a number of employees have asked to be reassigned within the Time Warner company"
"On the angle where Flair got his head shaved, the original scripted plan was just for Russo to shave the back of his head. I believe it was Flair who suggested going all the way with it, being that shaving the back of his head really wouldn't have meant much and the whole deal is probably about the only angle that could possibly draw money. Still, it would have been better had it been Russo ordering someone, Douglas would have been okay and Goldberg actually would have been the best, to shave the head so that there was a way to actually draw long-term money with it."
"There is a lot of internal conflict because everyone was instructed not to use the word "ass" on Thunder, but on 6/13, it was used 11 times."
"WCW merchandise continues to sell poorly. The Goldberg turn resulted in zero increase in sales of New Blood merchandise which was a hoped for byproduct, although for that to happen, Goldberg would have to be wearing the shirt at all opportunities, something that has yet to happen. Goldberg merchandise was by far the company's best seller, with nobody a close second, and there was some question regarding the turn because the end result would be expected to be disastrous for the merchandising department"
"I believe Len Carlson (Lenny Lane) has secretly re-signed with WCW"
"On 6/15 (Thursday) in the international version of USA Today there was a full page ad with a photo of Goldberg, which read, "He's back--Monday Nitro--Watch it Tonight on TNT." That's a nice waste of $50,000"
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Nr1Humanoid
Hank Scorpio
Is the #3 humanoid at best.
Posts: 5,526
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Post by Nr1Humanoid on Oct 19, 2020 3:52:33 GMT -5
Ursa and Non, what the hell does it take for WCW to see that Nash and Hogan is black mamba venom for the company!?
This thread has become required breakfast reading.
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Post by James Fabiano on Oct 19, 2020 8:09:34 GMT -5
Well Bert Raccoon MAY have had a chance of being WCW's savior.
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