2000 October, Part 2
Oct 16, 2000"While virtually all reports listed Mandalay Sports as the prime suitor, with a group headed by Eric Bischoff, most of the talk over the weekend involved a longshot in the deal which has been rumored for some time, the potential of the World Wrestling Federation buying out its long-time competitor, particularly after a story on 10/9 in Multi Channel News."
"Due to all the uncertainty among the talent, Terry Taylor called Brad Siegel from Australia and held a meeting on 10/8 with talent. At the meeting, Taylor said Siegel had told him there were four companies looking at buying the promotion, mentioning Mandalay Sports and Bischoff along with groups from Japan, Germany and France. The WWF was never mentioned. Taylor also said Siegel said it was not a given that the company would even be sold, but that they are entertaining the offers."
"Kevin Nash, who tried to joke through the meeting, noted immediately that the last time Siegel addressed rumors of an impending sale, that he said the company was not for sale, basically ruining the credibility of everything that was said."
"While some talent had certainly heard the McMahon rumors for at least a week, when the talent left on 10/4 from Los Angeles to Australia, all of the talk regarded Bischoff buying the company, which caused a mixed reaction, and most had not heard anything serious, if anything at all, about a possible sale to WWFE."
"Some felt the current team in charge and the direction of the product was a loser and were excited to get on with business fresh with at least a new direction. Others, particularly those who had worked with Bischoff in the past, remember the periods both when business was strong, and when it wasn't, as far as dealing with Bischoff himself, who is generally knocked for having poor skills in dealing with talent. And others, because many of the wrestlers are loyal to Vince Russo for their first break and with belief that Russo would be gone if Bischoff is hired, were unhappy because of the belief Bischoff would build around the wrestlers Russo had taken off television and their personal TV time would be cut back."
"Vince McMahon, nor other WWF sources, either confirmed or denied interest in acquiring WCW or negotiations having taken place. Those close to the negotiations themselves indicate there has been interest by the WWF, but the general feeling for numerous reasons is that a group headed by Bischoff at this point appears to be the favorite."
"It is believed that Turner Broadcasting is insistent, no matter who the company is sold to, that it would retain the prime time television shows on its two stations, TNT (for the next 18 or so months before that station changes its focus and Nitro would be expected to move to TBS) and TBS, but wants out of the financial obligations of the company as a whole because it could impede the Time Warner/AOL merger."
"On the positive side for WWF, if McMahon were to purchase the company, he would get the satisfaction of buying out Turner, who he's had a long-time hatred of, and finally, after 18 years, having the real monopoly of the North American pro wrestling industry that has been his apparent goal from the start, as he already has a working relationship with ECW."
"McMahon would be able to move Nitro from Monday, which would increase the ratings on Raw, at least theoretically. He would be able to have more hours of television time to sell. He would be able to do an interpromotional angle, although the idea that doing one right now with WCW in the state it's in would be one year early as the company needs to be rebuilt as just straight WWF PPV shows with current WWF angles at this point would do more business than any interpromotional matches, as the only WCW wrestler who could draw bigger business against the top WWF names than they already could with each other, Bill Goldberg, needs to be rebuilt first."
"The belief is, should the unlikely scenario of McMahon getting the company occur, Bischoff, in 2001, would with FOX, start a competing company using mainly wrestlers McMahon decides against using."
"The top wrestlers in the company are under contract to Turner Broadcasting, and not WCW. The deals, at least as it pertains to guaranteed money and fewer number of dates per year, are far superior on paper to the WWF contracts even though with the WWF business booming as it is, the top WWF performers are earning as much as the highest paid WCW performers and it is believed Dwayne Johnson this year will earn more than Terry Bollea, although the gap is certainly closer than it should be given the amount of money each man respectively drew."
"Unless the entire Russo/Bischoff split was a work (the angle where Hogan beat Jarrett, who laid down with Russo telling him to, was almost surely a work, but what happened after that point is more open to speculation) to create a Hogan vs. Russo angle, at which point Russo's credibility with the wrestlers would be shot, he would seem doomed in a company Hogan would have a major role in and with what appears to be a total lack of faith in his ability from Bischoff, who if it wasn't an angle, walked away to give Russo full control with the belief it would be a miserable failure."
"Many of the wrestlers still support Russo despite the numbers, although his support among those in the office is nil, because of those same numbers. He gave the younger guys television time, and he's actually popular because the dead house show business has resulted in fewer days on the road for the wrestlers, and he removed unpopular wrestlers like Hogan, DDP and Lex Luger from the key spots and gave many of wrestlers their first break."
"The status of Edouardo Anibal Gonzalez Hernandez (Juventud Guerrera) in World Championship Wrestling is in serious jeopardy following his arrest after going berserk in an apparent drug induced rage on 10/7 at the Marriott Hotel in Brisbane, Australia the morning before the Nitro taping and first show of the tour"
"Gonzalez, 24, was arrested after police officers using capsicum spray as he had stripped himself naked and was throwing chairs and screaming obscenities and threatening to kill himself near the hotel restaurant. WCW officials called police when they were unable to control him at about 10:40 a.m. as he was stripping his clothes off at the hotel in front of wrestlers, patrons and autograph seekers while people were eating breakfast at the restaurant hotel, and swearing and yelling at wrestlers and office people including Oscar Gutierrez (Rey Misterio Jr.), Charles Ashenoff (Konnan), Terry Taylor and Glen Gilbertti (Disqo). Several of the wrestlers and WCW officials tried to get him under control, and failing to do so, Taylor called for the police."
"The situation was said by one official to be scary to the point they were afraid his reaction to the drugs was potentially life threatening based on comments he was making, and they were unable to get him in his hotel room where it wouldn't become a public and media spectacle. There was also some fear even if they got him in his room, he'd try and jump out the window and kill himself."
"Some put heat on WCW officials who called police, Taylor in particular, as opposed to settling it in quietly, and on everyone involved for not subduing Gonzalez, being that he's not a big guy, but not among those close to the situation. All attempts to control him failed as he was wildly throwing blows at anyone who came near him."
"In what onlookers said was a scene reminiscent of a pro wrestling high spot, when the first three officers were unable to control him physically, one sprayed mace at him, which he ducked, and it went in the eyes of another officer. Several bystanders at the hotel were also affected by the spray. Gonzalez was violently throwing punches and kicks at three of the six officers who were needed to finally take him to the ground and detain him, including one punch breaking the rib of a female officer."
"At the hearing, Gonzalez plead guilty in Brisbane Magistrates Court to two counts of assaulting police and one count each of disorderly conduct, indecent exposure and possession of a dangerous drug. He was ordered to pay $2,050 in fines and pay $1,400 in compensation to the three officers he attacked, which works out to a total of about $1,850 in U.S. currency."
"Gonzalez showed up on his own late the prior evening at a night club that at least a half dozen of the WCW wrestlers were at, where he allegedly got whatever it was that he smoked. He went back to the hotel with the group but was out of control that next morning in the hotel lobby. He was screaming, saying things like, "I'm gonna die. It's my turn to go." He wanted some of the wrestlers with him, including telling Gutierrez and Ashenoff to take their clothes off, which they wouldn't do in a public place. He began stripping, saying, "This is how I came into this world and this is how I want to go out." When the two wrestlers tried to control him, he threw hard punches at both of his best friends in the company, and grabbed both of their glasses and broke them and threw Ashenoff's glasses in Taylor's face when he tried to intervene. David Finlay, a known tough guy, who was on tour as an agent, showed up, but he couldn't control him either."
"Earlier this year it was feared he would be deported from the United States stemming from trying to escape from police in a movie car chase scene after a television taping in State College, PA in a DUI case, but his lawyer was able to argue to allow him to plea bargain to allow him to remain in the country and keep his job."
"In another incident last year, Gonzalez and Dionicio Castellanos (Psicosis) were driving wildly in a parking lot and accidentally ran into and injured the knee of Robert James Jr. (Brad Armstrong), who required surgery."
"David wanted Stacey to take a blood test until Madden told him that they already know she's the mother. He then wanted Madden to take a blood test and Madden said for him to give Keibler a blood test."
"Tygress beat Wilson in a clothes ripping match. This was really bad, although they have gotten better. They've gone from looking like kids in their front yard to looking like inexperienced backyard wrestlers. Wilson was left in her bra and panties, but unlike in WWF, where the cameras show it, these cameras were everywhere but until Douglas covered her up and took her off."
"Jarrett came out as Sting and wanted to have kids pay $15 for autographs. Schiavone was saying how the real Sting signs autographs for free. Yeah right. The only guy left who does autographs at signings for free is Bruno Sammartino."
"The real Sting came from the ceiling and they had a brawl, complete with Jarrett doing a Sting no-sell spot from a suplex and a Stinger splash ala the old Sting-Flair matches."
"It was funny as they were trying to get Sam Greco, the K-1 star who they were grooming as the local athlete for a match later in the tour, over as a big local celeb. Anyway, they kept putting him on camera and the second or third time, with Schiavone calling him a multi-time world champion kickboxer and former K-1 star, and Stevie Ray said he'd never heard of the guy"
"Christopher Daniels' contract with WCW ended on 10/1 at the end of his 90-day cycle, of which he was virtually never used. He was then called up to work the World Wide show on 10/3 in Long Beach. He then worked the WWF Raw tapings six days later in Anaheim after flying back and forth from England in between"
"Melinda O'Hearn (Midajah) filed a $2 million lawsuit against the Los Angeles Weekly for using her photo in an ad for a phone sex line. The newspaper is blaming it on the advertiser, but is claiming not to know who the advertiser was."
"At a meet and greet in Sydney, Australia on 10/8 to build up the TV tapings, Chae was asked if she was still dating Kevin Nash, and she said that she was, so I guess when Nash a few weeks back on TV said he was going out after the show to "eat a little Korean," I guess that publicly puts one and one together"
"DDP did an internet post. He admitted he went to Russo and Siegel for a contract buy-out and said they gave him permission to talk with McMahon and Ross. He said he had a great conversation with Ross but never met with either he or McMahon in person due to their tight schedule and said he never spoke with McMahon directly."
"DDP proposed that both he and Kimberly be bought out for 55 cents on the dollar for the remainder of their contract, which between the two of them and the remaining years, would have left close to $1 million on the table. WCW turned that down."
"Booker's title win on 10/2 was the 20th WCW title change in the last 35 weeks. That's the same number of world title changes between the 31-year period between 1949 and 1980"
"Nitro tapings on 10/7 in Brisbane, Australia drew about 9,000 fans, which was a good house but not a sellout. Thunder tapings on 10/9 in Sydney drew WCW's first sellout in recent memory with about 10,000 paid. House show on 10/10 in Sydney drew a nearly full house of about 9,000."
"A fan on the way out spat on Goldberg, who freaked and slapped him. The previous night someone hit Goldberg with a cardboard Star of David."
"Steiner came out and dragged a fan over the barrier and delivered a few punches to the back of the head. No word if it was a plant, but those who reported on the show thought it was. When the guys go to foreign countries, they feel immune to the lawsuit factor that permeates their minds in the U.S. so are more willing to physically attack fans. Several more fans tried to jump the rail after him. What made people think it was a work is that Booker then did a promo and alluded to what happened."
Oct 23, 2000
"Most believe the two most likely companies that will wind up owning WCW before the next few weeks are up are either the World Wrestling Federation, or a company put together by Eric Bischoff. Many sources close to the situation seem to peg the WWF deal as being far more likely since at press time it appeared the Bischoff group had taken itself out of the running. The belief is that the WWF would run WCW as a separate company building up to a promotion vs. promotion feud, which wouldn't occur right away, but with both groups under the same ownership, could be saved for a point in time when business is at a lull."
"There are numerous roadblocks in making a deal with the WWF, among them being the differences in the various contracts. With the exception of a few top wrestlers, that may not be as big a point as it is made out to be, because they have 90-day windows, which means that even with long-term deals, wrestlers can be terminated after 90 days and with no viable alternative for their talents, McMahon will have virtually all the negotiating power to renegotiate to deals that fit within the parameters of how the WWF does its business with its own talent and get rid of the talent they have no interest in. That talent will be largely out of luck, at least unless another viable company is opened up, and that under the best of circumstances is a year away."
"There are a few of the major contracts negotiated with top talent by Barry Bloom, most notably Kevin Nash and it is believed Steve Borden (Sting) as well, that don't have those 90-day clauses and they are $1.625 million per year and up deals, which would put their guarantees ahead of virtually everyone sans a Steve Austin in the WWF, creating a potential imbalance."
"Scott Hall, whose contract was the same as Nash's, was released on 10/16, with the company claiming it was due to a breach for unprofessional conduct from February on the Australia tour."
"Like Hogan or not, because of his name value, viable money could get behind an alternative project and company start up more than with any other wrestler in the industry with the possible exception of The Rock, and he's under a long term contract."
"The key is that TBS and TNT want to retain the prime time programming no matter who they sell the company itself to. What would also seem to work in McMahon's favor, is that McMahon would seem at this stage of the game to be by far the better bet in selling the company to someone that would produce ratings for the station as opposed to any other potential suitor."
"The future of Zane Bresloff, who promotes the WCW shows, would also be in question since Bresloff had signed a long-term tremendous deal with Turner under Bischoff, the likes of which it is doubtful McMahon would want to pay for that position and McMahon already has a staff handling arena promotions."
"Raw drew its lowest rating in its regular time slot since 1998 with a 4.83 rating (4.56 first hour; 5.06 second hour) and a 7.2 share. Nitro didn't pick up the slack, drawing its lowest rating for a show in its regular time slot (with the exception of the 4/3 taped highlights show which did a 1.78) since the early weeks of the show in 1995 with a 2.33 rating (2.71 first hour; 1.96 second hour) and a 3.4 share."
"While Raw beat Nitro in every age group, the older the viewer, the closer the gap. For teenagers, Raw had a 93 percent market share, which is amazing. For under-11, it was an 81 percent share. For over 55, it was only a 51 percent share. The average viewer of Raw is a 26 year old male while the average viewer of Nitro is a 35 year old male."
"Anibal Gonzalez (Juventud Guerrera) was officially fired on 10/12 due to the incident in Australia last week. Paul Heyman has been high on him as the best young wrestler in the business dating back to when he worked ECW before but at this point doesn't appear to have the ability to hire him. I don't see the WWF taking him because of the incident, but I'm sure guys like Benoit, Jericho and Guerrero would push to get him in."
"Show was fine, but with everything going on, it just felt like watching a lame duck promotion, and a lot of the guys in the ring showed that attitude. There was a feeling by this point in the tour that since the company was likely being sold, everyone wanted to make sure they weren't injured and it was hard to get into angles because people knew they'd likely all be changed anyway."
"FA's are sure booked to look ridiculous. Konnan does these great promos bragging how they are going to kick someone's ass, and every time he gets his handed to him."
"Kwee Wee vs. Johnny the Bull lasted until the first move, a monkey flip, which on Monday night was the single most deadly move in the history of wrestling (
My Note: Eddie Guerrero was hurt the same night off it as well). Keep those piledrivers off the top rope but ban those monkey flips. Johnny actually broke a bone in his foot taking the move. The match was stopped. He was stretchered out and the injury was replayed several times."
"Steiner did the commentary and I have no idea what he said because 60% of it was bleeped out. He wasn't even swearing. He was ripping on Torrie Wilson's complexion, calling her ugly, talking about acne, etc. It was so ridiculously unprofessional. Could you imagine in the WWF any wrestler going on the air and ranking on the looks of any of the women, saying they need six hours of make-up to look decent. The whole idea with these women is to sell them as hot, and on their own TV to blow that illusion is so stupid, but I guess they realized that enough since none of it made the air. The irony of him ranking on Wilson's face with Midajah out there was pretty humorous."
"Steiner & Midajah did a promo. Midajah spoke Spanish, probably because she figured whatever she wanted to say, the censors would let it through. It worked, except that 90% of the audience or more had no idea what she said or why she was talking spanish."
"Disqo & Wright beat Harris Twins with Ron still selling the injury. Disqo pulled out one duck, but one of the twins threw it in the crowd. Disqo pulled out a second duck as a weapon to get the pin."
"Skipper was talking trash and challenging Goldberg. Goldberg came out behind Skipper. Skipper keeps turning and Goldberg keeps adjusting his position so Skipper can't see him. It's funny, except this is all on the big screen, which Skipper is looking right at, and can see Goldberg behind him, but because they didn't consider this when making the angle, he had to pretend."
"Schiavone interviewed Sam Greco who said his childhood dream was to some day wrestle for WCW. Think about that one. Actually, when Greco was a child, there was a WCW promoted by Jim Barnett in Australia."
"After the show, Goldberg thanked all the Australian fans for coming and giving the company such a great reception on tour so they actually ended a show for once with fans happy"
"WCW wrestlers did what is supposed to be an interpromotional angle with the TV show "Battledome." It starts off with several shows in a row on Battledome where the Battledome Warriors challenge and badmouth WCW, like pretty much everyone who ever watches the show does."
"The second angle saw Bubba King, whose gimmick is a redneck trucker, and the WCW guys stole the Battledome belt and acted like they were going to piss on it."
"They were supposed to do an angle where Steiner was going to be tackled from behind, but when he blew past the guy, he was so far ahead he had to freeze up to give the guy a chance to catch up and tackle him, which was said to have looked horrible. The two ended up slugging it out wearing thin boxing gloves when T's posse attacked Steiner doing a run-in and another pull-apart. Finally another warrior punched Steiner in the back of the head and DDP grabbed him and gave him a diamond cutter. Got an okay pop from the crowd. The warrior sold it good and a medic started massaging his head which made everyone laugh and killed the angle."
"The 11/16 show in Oberhausen, Germany will be headlined by Sting defending the European title that was created on a March 1994 European tour by WCW that he beat Vader in the finals of and has never been referred to since."
"Much of Konnan's repertoire was taken away, as he wasn't allowed to say anything about tossing salad, peeling potatoes, bowing down, Richard Gere or gerbils under the guise that there can be no gay or references or inferences on the show"
"The Australian shows on 10/13 and 10/14 in Melbourne for Nitro and Thunder drew a sellout of about 10,000 the first night and about 8,500 the second night, probably at an average ticket price of $130 Australian so the sellouts in Sydney and Melbourne should be in the $650,000 to $700,000 range per night. WCW got a flat fee of $1.5 million, although there were last minute negotiations before the tour got under way last week with controversy because of how many seats were being blocked off at the arenas for television purposes and that not being able to sell those seats cut greatly into the profitability of the show for Paul Dainty, the Australian promoter of the tour."
Oct 30, 2000
"At first, the decision was made not to mention Yokozuna on Nitro since he never worked for WCW, but pressure from the wrestlers themselves who knew him led to the decision being changed."
"Yokozuna's contract was running out in early 1996 as he was being phased down the cards. Hogan, never having gotten his win back from the Dayton match, at a time when people actually cared about such things, made a big play to bring him into WCW for that purpose, just as he later did with Ultimate Warrior, the other wrestler he had never gotten his win back in the WWF from. A play was made to bring the entire Samoan clan in, with Afa (who had been friends with Hogan dating back to the late 70s) as the leader, with Yokozuna and Fatu (whose contract was also expiring). McMahon got wind of it, and before Scott Hall and Kevin Nash made themselves into bigger stars and turned WCW around with their jump, McMahon quelled this one and offered Yokozuna and Fatu major pushes as singles babyfaces."
"According to various sources very close to the negotiations themselves, reports of a Vince McMahon/Brad Siegel blow-up and a re-opening of discussions with Eric Bischoff are exaggerated greatly. One source close to the situation said that there have been frustrations on the WCW side at some of the deal points that WWF doesn't want to budge on and there are numerous points on the WWF side that appear to be potential deal breakers. What those are don't appear to be clear, but stories of those points being the retention of front office workers or arguments over which side gets PPV money due in from the past three or four shows as has been reported doesn't appear to be the sticking points."
"While no doubt some wrestlers would be upset about a potential sale removing virtually whatever is left of talent negotiating leverage by having only one major company in North America, there have been no class action lawsuits filed to prevent a sale or even seriously threatened as has been printed in numerous places, and actually the majority of WCW talent isn't nearly as against a sale as one would be led to believe."
"There could also be a hold-up with the recently cut deal with Viacom, which is paying $28 million per year for exclusivity of the WWF on cable with the idea that being the WWF wrestling station would make TNN a major player on cable. Viacom also owns 2.3 percent of WWFE stock but if the deal goes through, the company would likely have to supply programming to rival stations TNT and TBS."
"Bret Hart was officially terminated on 10/20 by World Championship Wrestling, a little over one week shy of what would have been the third anniversary of the decision he'd made in 1997, just before the Survivor Series match in Montreal, to join WCW. Ironically, the fed-ex letter to terminate him, which was sent on 10/19, came just after an approval letter stating that they had approved his contract extension through November 30, 2002, which was the two year option period on the original contract. Because Hart had been unable to wrestle inside the ring, by the provisions of his contract, after 90 days, he could have at any time been fired."
"To say the nearly three-year period was a disappointment would be the understatement of the century. When Hart came to WCW, due to the controversy that surrounded in final match in the WWF, he was arguably the hottest commodity in the industry. With only a few weeks of build-up, his first main event with Ric Flair drew a strong buy rate, and then the program was abruptly dropped. Instead, a program where he and Flair would form a tag team was started. But it was also dropped before the two ever teamed up. The false start booking plagued his entire tenure, although his tenure was plagued even worse with several serious injuries, so many face/heel turns that nobody could keep count or even take them seriously, as well as the highly publicized death of his brother."
"Nash came out and did a promo talking about Hall. Either this is all a work about Hall being fired, and everyone swears it isn't, or WCW is run by total chowderheads. If someone was shooting with a live mic and trying to get over a guy that Vince McMahon just fired and it wasn't a worked firing, that guy who did so on live TV would be seriously disciplined the first time and probably fired the second time."
"The best job of build-up for someone's return WCW has done this year is for a guy who isn't coming back."
"Nash did another interview, against talking about Hall, using terms like shoot and work."
"Neither interview was scripted for any mention of Hall. Nash went on the impression that the people in charge, Terry Taylor, Bill Banks or Ed Ferrara, would never have the guts to discipline him and being the smartest guy in the promotion, he guessed right, which is another example of why this company is in the shape it's in."
"MIA did a spoof on Team Canada. It wasn't the NWO spoofing Horseman or DX spoofing NOD, but Sgt. Awall spoofing Duggan as a 2x4 carrying cross-eyed moron was the best work he's ever done in his career. Because there are only three Team Canada members, two of whom it was noted weren't Canadian, Cpl. Cajun had to dress up like a Canadian moose."
"Goldberg was 7-0 on Wednesday and he was 12-0 after this match, despite WCW having no events in the interim. I think that's why this winning streak is so over."
"Crowbar did an interview with Pamela, wiping off his staff with tissue paper. What was that all about?"
"Douglas, doing the broken arm gimmick, still beat Konnan with a franchiser quick. Konnan did a hell of a promo, then turned his back. Somehow he always does a strong promo and comes off looking in the booking like a total fool."
"Thunder was taped after Nitro. It was said to be much better than most of the recent Thunder shows. They told the crowd there would be a main event six-man with Goldberg & Sting & Booker as the main event and everyone stayed and the crowd heat was decent at least."
"Nash had a croquet mallet and went to punish Stasiak saying he was going to spank him. He told Stasiak to bend over, but Palumbo put a chair there and Nash hit him and he sold it big."
"Bagwell vowed to reveal whether or not he knocked Stacy Keibler up at Havoc."
"David Flair and Konnan are the two guys who always do run-ins and always get left laying."
"Goldberg & Sting & Booker beat Jarrett & Kronik when Sting ducked a guitar shot and pinned Jarrett after the scorpion death drop. Steiner came out to attack Booker after the match but the faces cleaned house after the show went off the air. The original plan was for the heels to go over in the six-man, but that would have killed Goldberg's goofy win streak gimmick that nobody takes seriously so they had to change the finish"
"CNN ran a special on Goldberg on 10/22. They showed Vince Russo and the booking team talking about a Nitro script where Goldberg would get revenge on Steiner. Russo's had an idea that Steiner would be in the dressing room bleaching his moustache and Goldberg would pour bleach down Steiner's throat. They actually showed a booking meeting where Russo wanted Goldberg to pour Clorox down Steiner's throat as revenge in an angle, but Ed Ferrara noted that you don't bleach a moustache with Clorox. He then said they could use bleach instead. That one never made television. From the footage of the booking meeting, we're told it appeared during that time frame they probably could have put on a more entertaining TV show having just aired the silliness that went on in their booking meetings."
"Russo claimed it took Hogan 15 years to make a name in the business (he started in late 1977, was a superstar in Japan in 1980 and the biggest drawing card in the American business for the AWA by late 1981) while it only took Goldberg three months."
"They were using plants in the crowd for Steiner to attack at almost every show on the Australia tour"
"It was also funny hearing them talk about Ernest Miller's shootfighting background. I think his only background is that he once bumped into and nearly got into a street fight with Don Frye."
"In one of the funnier articles, Promo Magazine listed WCW as "one of the top 50 best promoted brands."
"In a Pittsburgh poll, Mark Madden finished third for the radio personality you'd most want to punch"