Wrestling Observer Flashback – 09.09.96
This week: Plans change. Creatively and contractually. But nothing that is Vince McMahon’s fault, I cannot stress that enough!
– The Giant was turned to become the newest member of the New World Order on Nitro this week, replacing the previous idea of Davey Boy Smith debuting in that spot. Dave notes that again the turn came after the nWo was beating up 8 different members of the WCW roster on their own, which explains yet again why people are cheering for the supposed bad guys. And then Giant came out to make the save for the outmanned WCW side, which was already at an 8-on-3 advantage, and turned to the nWo to a huge babyface pop.
– After the nWo beatdown, they chased the announcers off the set and then destroyed it, which was apparently improvised and not approved by Turner, since it’s a very expensive set. Dave notes that the whole thing was really effective as far as getting the Giant over as a threat again, but on the other hand it made Flair and AA look like “impotent old men” as opposed to people that fans want to see get their revenge. (An angle that makes Arn Anderson look silly and impotent, you say…?)
– So the deal with the Giant was that it was the first anniversary of Nitro and they wanted to do another Lex Luger angle to duplicate the original one. In this case, it was supposed to be Davey Boy Smith, who was being offered a huge downside and fewer dates per year, but then he signed a five year contract with the WWF on the day that his original WWF deal was set to expire. (Holy cow I bet he wished he could have done THAT one over!) Smith had given 90 days notice to the WWF after the Shawn Michaels match that got all messed up, and the belief from WCW was that Davey was coming in once the contract actually expired. However, weeks later, Smith’s attorney sent WCW a letter saying that they couldn’t come to terms, and Smith moved back to Calgary after living in Florida for the past few years. He then accepted the lower money offer from the WWF ($250K per year, with WCW’s lowest offer being at least $300K per year). Apparently Davey’s issues with the WWF were never about the money, but rather what he felt was being misused and never being given the push he was promised initially, despite having great matches in the PPV main events. (Vince McMahon lie about giving someone a push? THAT’S UNPOSSIBLE! Also in fairness, Bulldog was a huge flop in the main event against Bret, which is a point that Dave also makes.)
– In the week before Smith’s contract was set to expire, WCW actually believed that they had him back on the hook again, promising to fly him into events from Calgary, which apparently prompted Smith to make a verbal agreement to come in, to the point where Davey was pencilled in as nWo #4. (In hindsight, he 100% should have taken that deal.)
– Once Vince heard about this deal, he was said to be furious, because Davey had already made a verbal deal with HIM. (Remember, kids: Verbal agreements and signed contracts are only binding when it favors VINCE.) In fact Davey had made no such deal, and it was more that his attorney had signed an agreement potentially agreeing to stay but not making any specific promise to sign the real contract. It’s not known if legal threats were made, but by the end of the week Smith had signed the deal anyway and it was academic.
– Davey’s issue was that when he agreed to stay, he was promised to be a top heel, and Vince immediately had him doing jobs to Sid on the house show circuit. Davey was then told that, yeah, you’re putting Sid over in quick squashes, but the PPV match at Summerslam will be different, and then it was the same because the match was cut for time literally at the last minute.
– Now that Smith is signed, it’s apparent that he and Owen are getting the tag team titles right away, probably at the PPV in September. And once he turns babyface again, he can make big money headlining in Europe, which WCW couldn’t offer.
– On the topic of newly debuting nWo members, poor Sean Waltman is still stuck in legal limbo, since was also supposed to be debuting on that Nitro and it didn’t happen. WCW is playing it extremely conservative with Waltman and now might wait for nine months, at which point his WWF contract will have expired. (Definitely be hard to find a catchy name for him at that point. Syxx-teen?)
– More names being considered for the team: Jeff Jarrett (available as of 10/4), Bam Bam Bigelow (available around the same time).
– WCW’s Halloween Havoc ticket sales set an all-time one-day record with $94,000, although that was only 2000 tickets, which were priced at $100 each. (This is supposed to be an outrageous cost, although there’s a house show scheduled for here in Saskatoon in October and that’s what WWE is asking for LOWER BOWL seats. For a house show!)
– Final note about the Giant turn: It wasn’t originally booked to be such a squash for the heels, but Hulk got involved and now people are thinking maybe he’s booking more for his own ego rather than what’s good for business. (That’s our Hogan!)
– To Japan, where the UWFI deal with New Japan fell apart completely after NJPW started getting all their foreign talent exclusively from WCW, so now UWFI and All Japan have agreed to work together. The main cause of the split came after New Japan pulled out their top talent and UWFI did a horrifying 5000 people in a 46,000 seat stadium for their latest show. (As it turned out, this was death knell for the promotion.)
– Despite stories to the contrary emerging, the belief in the WWF is that Bret Hart will make his return to face Steve Austin at the Survivor Series on 11/17. Originally he was supposed to return on the September PPV and do an interview setting up the match, but he’s currently in South Africa filming “Sinbad” and wouldn’t be available on that date. According to what Dave has heard, Vince and Bret reached a verbal agreement for his return after Vince flew to Calgary in July to meet with Bret. The plan was to build up to a Bret-Shawn rematch at Wrestlemania, which would make sense because Bret has been clear that he wants the belt again if he’s coming back. Also Michaels has promised that he’ll put Bret over as long as he gets the belt back again at a later date.
(Well I’m sold. Hopefully Bret has someone documenting all this stuff in case it goes sideways later for whatever reason!)
– Jim Hellwig is suing the WWF for unfair termination and trademark infringement, stemming from his firing in June. The suit claims that the WWF reneged on their contract with him, leaving more than $1 million owing. (Vince, renege on a contract? THAT’S UNPOSSIBLE!) Also they continued speaking the name of “Warrior” after he was gone, without honoring their “contractual agreements” to him. Jerry McDevitt immediately responded that the lawsuit was vague and didn’t actually name any specific instances of what was claimed, and also “Always Believe” isn’t something you can even trademark. (IRONY ALERT: WWE now constantly markets the Warrior with the trademarked phrase “Always Believe” in order to continue milking his legacy and image in death. You can’t even make this shit up.)
– Also in WWF news, their legal team is throwing a hissy fit about AOL hosting a non-WWF wrestling section called “Grandstand” where people (GASP!) criticize the WWF! Apparently the WWF signed an exclusive agreement to only have online services on AOL, and they feel like this should mean that AOL should also be held to exclusively providing WWF content only. (Remember what I said about Vince and contracts?) AOL responded by removing some posts that were critical of WWF plans and essentially shutting down the non-WWF wrestling section, which AOL members interpreted as censorship from the WWF legal team. Vince, trying to avoid being seen as “the bad guy” finally told his legal team to make it go away, so a joint apology was released and everything was put back as before. (Yeah, wouldn’t want Vince to be portrayed as a heel or anything.)
– To Memphis, where Jake Roberts no-showed his 8/30 match against Jerry Lawler, so Sid Vicious subbed and destroyed Lawler in 30 seconds with a powerbomb to win the title. Lawler put his hair on the line in a rematch three days later and regained the belt. No word on why Jake missed the show, although Lawler claimed at the show that it was because he was passed out in the airport lobby and missed his flight. (Huge if true.)
– The 850 fans drawn to the Flea Market for the 8/30 is actually enough to turn a profit, which would not have been the case at the Mid-South Coliseum.
– Dave notes that Fabulous Moolah and Mae Young worked a match on 8/30 in Columbia SC, with Mae at age 72 and Moolah “not far behind”. (Primed for a comeback! Oh wait, they actually were.)
– On Nitro, they were doing a super awkward angle with Benoit and Sullivan and Mongo, where Sullivan and McMichael had to figure out how to work together because of the conflict of interest with Woman and Sullivan being married. The problem, of course, is that no one knows Woman and Sullivan are married because they’re never explained it on TV. (Maybe it was mentioned on Being the Elite?)
– Public Enemy are now doing a Bushwhackers gimmick at the Disney tapings where they dance and hug fans on the way to the ring. (Well at least their career couldn’t get any lower…)
– To the WWF, where the weekly PPV idea has now been dropped completely.
– And now, it’s time for…
– Kurt Angle, who won a gold medal in the Olympics, received an offer from Linda McMahon, along with offers from a couple of Japanese promotions.
– Also receiving offers is Achim Albrecht, a German bodybuilder, and he actually did sign with the WWF. He would have the greatest physique of anyone to step into the ring in the WWF, according to Dave. Dave thinks it might be a risk taking a steroid freak out of competition and putting him in the ring with no athletic training. (But then the world would have been robbed of BRAKKUS.)
– Shawn Michaels is on the cover of Playgirl in October. He’s mainly talking about the kind of women he likes in the article. (Hopefully no one uses that against him.)
– Dave clarifies that the deal with HHH and Mr. Perfect isn’t to set up a match between them, but rather to make Perfect into his mentor and get his mind onto wrestling and away from the women. (Plans change, I guess.)
– Vader will be doing a feud with Sid over who has the best powerbomb.
– The Bodydonnas have been split up for good, with Zip moving into the office as a trainer, and Skip will be a single again when he returns from injury. (I hear that Flex Kavana kid could use a trainer.)
– And finally, Owen Hart and Davey Boy Smith got a completely babyface reaction against the Smoking Gunns at the Toronto stadium show last week, even after the Harts tried to get heel heat earlier in the show. (Hmmm, maybe they should explore this idea of Hart family members being babyfaces in Canada…might draw some money.)
And that’s the news and I’m OUTTA HERE.