2000 August, Part 2
Aug 21, 2000
"In an announcement made by Brad Siegel to the wrestlers before the New Blood Rising PPV, starting on 10/23 in Little Rock, AR, WCW will cut down to one television taping per week to save costs. There have been two scenarios laid out. They could start one hour before Nitro goes on the air, tape an hour for Thunder, and then tape the final hour of Thunder after Nitro goes off the air live. The more likely scenario is for Thunder to be taped in its entirety after Nitro ends."
"With Tuesdays canceled, it leaves WCW just running five shows per month, a PPV one Sunday and the weekly television tapings since the decision had already been made to cancel all house shows after the ones already on the books are completed, with the exception of those sold to foreign promoters. There is talk of adding a few house show dates per month toward the end of the year, but a lot at that point is dependent upon how the company's economic fortunes are going."
"There was limited pyro at the 8/8 Thunder tapings. At the 8/13 PPV, cutbacks were noticeable with only one big screen instead of the usual three, a lack of opening show production to separate it from the typical Nitro and Thunder open, and far less elaborate ring entrances. At this point, none of the big name wrestlers have either been dropped from contract nor have any attempts to renegotiate major contracts begun."
"The WCW New Blood Rising PPV show from the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver, BC can best be summed up in two words--Overbooked crap."
"As further evidence that the television hyping this PPV wasn't very effective, after the very strong first weekend of sales, before there was any TV hype for this card and before one match was announced, those in the promotions were talking of a possibility of 10,000 paid and a full house with some papering. Once the line-up was made clear and the hype began on television, nobody bought tickets and it stalled at 5,307 sold for $190,228 Canadian, with a total of 6,614 in the building."
"56% of the people who got free tickets didn't even show up for the event which is an incredibly bad figure for a major PPV event, particularly in a market the company has never run."
"DDP's music played, but instead of DDP, it was David Arquette, with Mark Madden screaming out him being one of the great world heavyweight champions of all-time."
"At one point Palumbo missed a kick so bad that Konnan, instinctively, went "What was that?" "
"When Kidman kicked out of the Pittsburgh plunge, poor Scott Hudson had to shill for saying he didn't think anyone had ever kicked out of that move before. Yeah, except every single time Douglas has used the move since Johnny Ace started laying out matches."
"In the parking lot, they showed Booker arriving at this point (I guess that's a $500 fine)"
"This was terrible wrestling, but it delivered as much if not more than promised with camera shots up Keibler's butt and Gunns' implants being threatened by the size of her top. Way too long. Actually, for the fans who came specifically to see this match, it at least delivered what they came to see from it. Gunns had a breast exposed. What was even worse was they went in the gym and tried to work out a match, which was about as bad as two kids on their front lawn."
"Storm got by far the biggest face reaction coming out. Jacques Rougeau was announced as guest ref, which disappointed the crowd which all expected Bret Hart."
"Awesome power bombed Storm. Ref Mark Johnson counted three even though Storm kicked out. The bell rang. Rougeau, who was reffing outside, then claimed that Canadian rules state the match can only end with a five count."
"Awesome then trapped Storm in a dragon sleeper and Storm tapped. Rougeau then stated under Canadian rules that submissions don't count."
"Awesome then got a pin for a five count with a splash off the top. Rougeau then said that after the pinfall under Canadian rules, that Storm gets a ten count to continue."
"Awesome did a twisting powerslam off the top ropes and both men went through a table. Dave Penzer then stated the first man up at the count of ten would be the winner. Does anyone in the company think? Think about that statement. They hadn't even counted ten when this was said. How would you know that one person was getting up and the other wasn't before the count of ten?"
"Awesome got up first. Rougeau decked him before Johnson saw him up. Storm then got up and was ruled the winner."
"Bret Hart then came out, getting easily double the pop of anyone else on the show, with the announcers teasing what he'd do and with him looking embarrassed to even be associated with such a bad script. He hugged Storm and Rougeau to a big pop."
"Nash did an interview basically trying to get over that Goldberg was faking an injury to get out of the match. They played Goldberg's music twice and he never came out, acting as though Russo was trying to embarrass Goldberg because he's known for being vindictive."
"Just after the match started, Goldberg came out. The idea was for him to attack Nash's knee, but instead he started throwing punches and kicked Steiner. Goldberg began selling his taped up ribs. Nash went for a power bomb on Goldberg, who wouldn't go up and walked away. The announcers started freaking out in the most annoying tone possible about how Goldberg was supposed to go up for the finish and refused to do so. Goldberg walked off. Russo confronted him and Goldberg swore at him and left. They kept calling Goldberg a crybaby and unprofessional, insinuating he went against the script and wouldn't do the booked job."
"Nash came back with the worst DDT of 2000 on Steiner. That was explained on the air basically saying that because Nash and Steiner hadn't laid anything out so they didn't know what to do."
"At one point near the finish, and I don't think this made the air, Midajah was supposed to run in and break up a pin, she hesitated for some reason, and Steiner screamed "Get in here." "
"Nash came back with a high kick and a power bomb for the pin. The announcers insinuation here, after all this, screaming how Steiner "went up for the move," is that Steiner really wasn't beat, but he did the job as he was told, unlike crybaby Goldberg."
"Fans live showed the ring with garbage after the main event and those live said it was because of disgust with the show and not because of heat by Jarrett."
"The Goldberg-Russo "shoot" angle drew a 2.00 rating, making it the lowest rated unopposed quarter hour in the regular time slot in the history of the show. Now you can't blame the rating on the "shoot" angle failing because people didn't know ahead of time what was going to be there, but opening the show with such a low number has to be blamed on the fact fewer people than ever care about the product as a whole, and that if intrigue coming off a PPV mean anything to ratings, which is questionable, than this PPV was a major turn-off."
"They opened with Russo trying to do this shoot deal where Abbott was going to kick Goldberg's ass. It was hilarious. Russo's out there trying to get over that the match at the Phillips Arena was a work with a script but this match doesn't have a script. They came back from a commercial and you see them calling spots, Abbott selling a kick that missed and doing a pro wrestling brawl using Irish whips and other moves that actually don't work in a real fight."
"FA's brought out a Mrs. Jones, which is just what the company needs when cutting costs is another useless model on a show overloaded with them."
"Stacy, who used to be Miss Hancock, told David she was pregnant. Before she came out was an acting job which required Major Gunns to show emotion and cry. I take back everything I've ever written about Stephanie McMahon's acting ability after that angle."
"Carl Oulette (hey, maybe they can do a match with Nash that nobody understands) did a cannonball on Awesome to set up Storm winning with a half crab. Elix Skipper also came out with the gimmick he's Canadian since he once played Canadian Football and they formed the Team Canada. There was some talk of trying to get Robert Mallay (Kurrgan) in there as Storm's bodyguard. Storm then gave the hardcore title to Oulette and the cruiserweight belt to Skipper."
"Oulette came off the top rope with a cannonball through a table but ref Charles Robinson had pulled Smiley to safety, and when the table broke, Smiley fell on top for the pin. Actually, as stupid stuff goes, this finish was clever stupid stuff. The storyline is that Smiley was mad he won because he doesn't want to do hardcore matches."
"Regarding the latest Papaya, see comments on Mrs. Jones."
"Nash did an interview doing nothing but pushing the return of Hall. Bringing Hall back is dumb because it just shows the boys there is no discipline in the company. Not bringing Hall back at this point with all the hype they've built for his return is also dumb. It's always better to book angles with win/win propositions if things don't go right instead of lose/lose no matter which decision is made."
"David asked Stacy to marry him, but before he could get the words out, Wall attacked him and left him laying. Stacy was mad because he couldn't even propose right but took the ring from his pocket."
"In what was said to be the stupidest finish on a badly booked show, Misterio Jr. & Guerrera beat O'Haire & Jindrak via DQ. O'Haire & Jindrak had the match won when Reno & Palumbo attacked Rey & Juvi, thus allowing them to save their belts."
"Team Canada beat MIA, which set up Cat doing a promo. Cat screwed up the promo, missing all the important points, so they had a eight minute delay and Cat cut the same promo over, saying his bout with Storm was Canadian title vs. commissionership with Team Canada banned. Well, neither changed since Oulette interfered when Storm was beat. Yep, they made Storm look bad in all three cities where the fans came more to see him than anyone else. Why is anyone surprised after seeing how Flair was booked when they ran the Carolinas the past four years?"
"They had a 15 minute delay which first saw 3 Count dance (in storyline, they had already left the building), then Smiley dance with them, then Smiley attack them, and then Smiley dance with Nitro Girls."
"They plugged Scott Steiner vs. Nash for the No. 1 contendership, which again didn't take place. But they did get a match described as a total disaster with Mean Gene vs. Madden. Smiley came out to help Okerlund. Oulette came out to help Madden. Vito was out. Madden was on the top waiting literally forever for Pamela Paulshock to show up and crotch him, totally ruining the finish, when Gene got the pin. This apparently sets up Madden vs. Pamela at some point."
"Show ended with Nash doing an interview calling out Booker. They both played babyface, although the crowd was 50% booing Booker from the start. When Nash turned heel and jumped Booker, this led to 100% cheers for Nash."
"From our reports, the best match on the show was taped for World Wide with Misterio Jr. & Disco & Guerrera over Jung Dragons. World Wide is put together by Dave Penzer in the afternoon once the Thunder show is booked (largely by Ed Ferrara) and Penzer basically uses the leftover guys. It's become funny because they often have the better matches and it's basically acknowledged that Penzer has a lot better idea of who to put in the ring against each other to have a good match and the ability of the participants than the people who actually make the matches on Raw and Nitro"
"Kronik won a two-on-four over Jindrak & O'Hare and Stasiak & Palumbo. The rules were that if Kronik was pinned, whomever got the pin and their regular partner would become tag champs. Even though Mike Tenay explained the stips, Stevie Ray couldn't grasp them."
"Storm beat Awesome in a flag match that only went 1:57, just long enough for Heidi to turn on Awesome and take off her shirt revealing, no not that, but a Canadian t-shirt underneath."
"Bagwell & Gene Okerlund beat Kanyon & Mark Madden in all of 5:18 when Madden tried to low blow Gene, who then pulled out a cup, rubbed it in Madden's face, and Bagwell gave him the blockbuster. Judy Bagwell was at ringside to make this even more torture. At least Okerlund and Madden did everything "right," even if it didn't necessarily look good what they were doing. The stuff where they made Madden do a high spot must have been so the boys would laugh at him because there was no reason for that."
"How did they get a shot on a taped show of a sign that read "Russo fears McMahon." "
"Konnan had his pay cut in half because he's injured even though he's been at almost every TV"
"A legit reason, as opposed to a simple ratings ploy, why the first Russo interview didn't air, could be his strong references to Booker T being held back and never getting a chance (the only major ground he didn't cover on the second interview that did air), because of the feeling it would look real bad for the company in the lawsuit"
"WCW filed a lawsuit on 7/24 against AWA Superstars of Wrestling claiming trademark infringement and unfair competition. The suit claimed AWA advertised that WCW trademarked talent Lenny & Lodi "might appear" at a television taping on 2/29 in Laughlin, NV (they didn't appear nor were ever booked to appear). They also claimed AWA referred to the Nitro Girls in promotional material sent to a promoter in Greely, CO for a 6/21 show (Teri Byrne, who was originally Nitro Girl Fyre before being dumped from the troupe has appeared on AWA shows). They also have sent promotional material referring to Tony DeNucci as "WCW rookie sensation" even though DeNucci has never even been affiliated with WCW (or for that matter, isn't a rookie, either)"
"During Brad Siegel's speech, he also announced fines for wrestlers arriving late to shows. It's $500 for a first offense, $1,000 for a second, $2,000 for a third, a 30-day suspension without pay for a fourth and termination for a fifth. Nash was bragging afterwards that the new rules don't apply to him because in his contract there is a clause that the company doesn't have the right to fine him"
"For the 10/10 WCW show in Sydney, Australia, it is being billed as "WCW Nitro" in all the ads (even though it isn't a taping) with tiny wording saying "not to be televised."
"On the WCW pre-game show, Larry Zbyszko, showing he watches Nitro every week, or maybe also showing the lack of quality control over the people who scripted his segments and produced his segments, when talking about the Sting-Demon match, stated that we haven't seen Sting since he fell off the screen at the Great American Bash"
Aug 28, 2000
"Vince Russo, in a WCW Live interview which head numerous people internally spinning their heads, stated that he had just 60 weeks left on his contract and at that point, if he lasted that long, which he doubted he would, that he would leave pro wrestling forever. Of course, the credibility of everything has to be questioned when he also stated that he would be offering Bill Goldberg his release on Nitro and that was for real, when of course, it was another scripted angle."
"Rumors of Russo's days being numbered got stronger coming on the heels of the poor Canadian television shows and the continued lack of improvement in every facet of the business as exemplified again this past weekend when WCW went on the road with Booker T as champion to poor houses. This has led for the first time to people stirring up Booker T's positioning, noting that he sometimes doesn't get pops befitting a champion (for his run-ins, for example, although he's gotten very good heat for his matches for the most part) and that the fans are cheering Nash and booing him so far in their TV build-up for the next PPV."
"Russo claimed that if he hadn't had his throat cut in January, by this point WCW would be only one point behind WWF and claimed that Kurt Angle is the only new guy the WWF has made into a star since he left the company nearly one year ago and claimed that Midajah would be the next Sable."
"With literally no warning, the WCW Saturday show was canceled on 8/17, a day after the usual Wednesday taping for the show that aired on 8/19. The company didn't even bother to edit anything into the show to indicate that for the first time since the early 1970s, there would be no weekend programming on TBS. World Wide, which will no longer have any first-run matches taped after another six or so weeks and become a compilation show, is also thought to be in grave danger."
"The current plan for the television tapings also has people wondering about the potential for production nightmares. The plan is to start the tapings at 7 p.m. Eastern time and 6 p.m. Central, which would mean 4 p.m. starts on the West Coast. They would then tape Nitro for two hours, and it would be taped without commercial breaks and pre-tapes would be inserted into the show in post-production and the show would air on a one hour delay. This means that the production crew would still be taping the second half of the show at the time the first half would be in the process of airing and being put together. The figuring is they could get the Nitro tapings over by 8:45 p.m. and start Thunder by 9 p.m. and have the shows end by 10:30 p.m., so the live audience wouldn't be as burned out, as Thunder would just be taping the matches and live interviews and again pre-tapes would have two days to be edited into the show. Considering all the production glitches WCW's programming has had, including segments put in the wrong order, without this kind of post-production pressure, this is a scary undertaking."
"The news breaking in the Atlanta Journal Constitution during the week of the Terry Bollea lawsuit against Russo and WCW brought back more questioning of exactly what happened at the Great American Bash PPV. Many feel the lawsuit's existence proves that what went down was a shoot, but that only makes everyone involved look bad because business has declined from that point and the only valid defense for it from a business standpoint if they are creating an artificial decline, knowing when the work pays off and everyone returns under Eric Bischoff, it would result in a big rebound. If it was a shoot, it brings even more questioning of the judgement of Russo, but even more so Brad Siegel, for backing Russo when he would have done a double-cross on television and screwed fans out of, for better or worse, what was advertised as the main event, but more so, put the company in harm's way of a lawsuit by what was a childish interview had it been a shoot."
"Among the roster cuts over the past week or so, besides officially cutting every Mexican performer except Rey Misterio Jr. and Juventud Guerrera (they had already stopped using them and this was more officially stopping payment since the handwriting was on the wall), Curt Hennig, Len Carlson (Lenny Lane), who ironically was just coming off an aborted angle where he had a worked contract dispute, Christopher Daniels, Brian Yandrisovitz (Knobs), Elizabeth Heulette (Liz) and Mike Rotunda."
"Mike Haynor (Prince Iaukea) has been dropped from TV after he was trying to negotiate a better deal after his contract expires, believed to be in November. It is believed he will be let go at that point. The women playing the second Papaya, a Pittsburgh area stripper, with Haynor being dropped, was then let go after just two weeks, because she hadn't signed a contract, while Paisley was under a talent contract and with Haynor gone, was moved into the Papaya spot as the second for Alan Funk (Kwee Wee). The second Papaya was already, in her second week, complaining about the travel schedule involved in wrestling, and may not have lasted anyway."
"Most of the big money talent have contracts that don't allow them to be fired. Luger, as an example, doesn't appear happy, but does appear willing to take the money, not be used on television, and go on the road and job to everyone"
"The belief is that Russo doesn't want Page around, but Page has always been close with Bischoff and there is certainly a strong feeling that Bischoff will be back in power soon."
"Kanyon has asked, unsuccessfully, in the past for a release and the talk at television was that they still wanted him. He's still on television doing the DDP imitation gimmick, which makes little sense at this point unless DDP returns, which originally was the plan as of a few weeks ago."
"Those who have from the start speculated an elaborate work point to Page, Luger, Hogan, Bischoff and Flair all being off television, only one of whom is injured, the tanking of Thunder, which was originally talked about as the show they would take over, as evidence that the big plan is falling perfectly into place."
"Goldberg and Russo did an angle where Goldberg was offered a release where he'd get all his money and have a chance to go to WWF. He ripped it up. You know that's a work since Goldberg was reported in the Charleston Post-Courier in Mike Mooneyham's column as saying if that was offered to him that he'd take it and leave."
"Russo dared Goldberg to hit him because if he did he'd be fired. Goldberg then backed off. However, Russo said in the same angle he couldn't fire Goldberg because he had a no cut contract, which is why Goldberg would have to sign a release. Then Booker came out and laid out Russo with a kick that missed. So why can Booker attack Russo but not Goldberg?"
"Steiner then showed up at the hotel and threatened to do bodily harm to Goldberg's girlfriend (actually an actress)."
"Vampiro held the JCW belt from the ICP's house shows that actually sell tons more videos than WCW ever could. They tried to play it was a fake ECW invasion angle, complete with Madden trying to get a JCW chant."
"It was hilarious when Stasiak got down on Konnan for not wrestling and Konnan said how everyone knows he just had tricep surgery. The funny thing is, nobody knows that as fans see the guy come out week-after-week and the announcers never make any reference as to why he's never wrestling or why his arm some weeks is all taped up."
"Palumbo actually pinned Booker T to win the title in a match with Russo as heel ref. Very good heat but Palumbo looked bad. All the Thrillers were interfering, which brought out Vito and Nash. Nash turned on Booker with a chair leading to Palumbo scoring the pin. Miller then said he had the same power as Russo, said he was given power by Bischoff, and told Russo to write himself to the back and gave the belt back. Of course T refused and they re-started the match with Booker winning in 52 seconds."
"It should be noted that Goldberg arrived at his hotel room before the match started, and here, some 15 minutes later, had just finished climbing the stairs to get to her room. I think he should have used the elevator because it sure gave Steiner plenty of time to take the elevator and get back to the building and the room was empty."
"Smiley beat Kronic in a handicap match for the hardcore title when the Harris Twins interfered. The gimmick was Smiley wanted to lose the title so booked himself in a bout he couldn't possibly win. Of course, that doesn't explain why he just didn't lay down. Kronic themselves didn't like the idea (this as a shoot) of both coming out and losing, so Adams came out in street clothes and did commentary. There was a lot of backstage double-standard talk since Kronic are sort of Russo's pets being that when Luger didn't want to do Russo's angles he sent him home, but when Kronic doesn't, they can get away with it routinely."
"They did a vignette with Vito and Russo where they acknowledged that Vito was Russo's friend (true) and that Vito was in WCW because the WWF wanted nothing to do with him (that's really cool getting your product over by saying you're a bunch of guys the other guys don't want)."
"Finally the show ended with Scott Steiner kidnapping Beth the actress. Goldberg came out. Jarrett nailed him with a chair shot and they doubled on him. Booker came out, but Nash attacked Booker. Goldberg by this point was making his own comeback until Rick Steiner hit T and Goldberg with a pipe and both were handcuffed to the corner while Scott put the girlfriend in the recliner. It was a good angle in that it made sense for building the PPV, but fans have to be scratching their heads after building up Nash against Scott all last week to see Nash helping Scott with no storyline reason, let alone T helping Goldberg who he was just running down in every interview."
"3 Count has been begging to get Abbott away from their act because they mix together like oil and water."
"Smiley beat Smooth because he got laryngitis and couldn't say I Quit. I know what you're thinking, why didn't he just tap out. But no, that wouldn't be funny. So since he can't, when Smooth was saying, "Say I Quit" to Smiley, the ref ruled it as an I Quit and raised Smiley's hand."
"Some notes from the 8/15 Thunder tapings. The reason they had one of the long delays and Storm wrestled twice is because it was originally booked as Cat pinning Jacques Rougeau clean and Rougeau refused to do the job and quit the company. Rougeau even got a story in the papers in Montreal where he claimed he told Russo specifically that he wouldn't come back to be a jobber."
"Rougeau, 43, has that old school attitude about doing jobs on television meaning you can't be a money player and didn't want to be involved. A lot of the wrestlers were laughing at him brag about how he recently beat King Kong Bundy (at halftime of a CFL football game) and how he had pinned Hulk Hogan (a few years ago in a match he promoted in Montreal) as if Bundy was still a big name."
"The Mark Madden as a wrestler angle has been dropped. The original idea was to have Madden wrestle women, starting with Pamela Paulshock. Russo actually had the idea for Madden vs. women to be a shoot, as Andy Kaufman's matches with women for the most part were (with exceptions)"
"Even though Kristina Laun (Leia Meow) hasn't been used for months and isn't under contract, she was never fired because she had filed a complaint on a wrestler's alleged improper behavior to Human Resources at Turner so the company felt it couldn't fire her"
"There is a general belief that the tag title change from Kronic to Muta & Vampiro was largely because Kronic wasn't thrilled with the idea of dropping the tag titles to Misterio Jr. & Guerrera, who had been promised the belts in exchange for getting punked by all the other teams in the build-up to the last PPV"
"Booker T made these comments in the Charleston Post-Courier about Nash potentially leaving: "Let him go. You think he can go up there and run with those young guys? You think he could run all around the building with Triple H like they do up there and take suplexes on the walkway? These guys aren't capable of doing that stuff anymore. These guys have nowhere to go, and if they can keep working WCW like they can, WCW is stupid. And that's the bottom line. If they want to go, let them go." "
"WCW has banned all wrestlers from doing any media interviews without company approval. WWF just recently also adopted that same policy"
"Luger worked both house shows, now with short blond hair and got no pop since nobody knows what to make of him. He worked both nights as a face, first losing to Douglas and then losing in a tag match with Demon against Muta & Vampiro."
"Sioux City was killed by the Goldberg-Steiner match. Steiner did several minutes of mic work running down the people to turn heel and then challenged Goldberg. Goldberg came out, all bandaged up, and attacked him. They never got in the ring, brawled in the aisle and out the exit and before it had apparently started, it was over, ruled a double count out. Fans were furious at this and even though Jarrett and Booker went on next and had a solid main event, fans pelted the ring with garbage at the end of the show."