Dirt Sheet Lulz & Knowledge Droppings

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Big Boss Man
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Re: Dirt Sheet Lulz & Knowledge Droppings

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Surely they should have adjusted projections due to their business being down. 1998 was a big year for them so they should have put some in reserve for when things hit the fan. When buy rates were down they should have axed Russo immediately and tried to repair the damage. It's common sense really if business is down you look at why and change it around. When WWF overtook them it makes no logical sense to think PPV buys, ticket sales etc are going to hit the 1998 highs again. A portion of that audience went to the WWF instead. ECWs product was better which explains why their PPV buys were up. From The 2000 WCW PPVs only thing I recall is that work shoot than turned into a shoot with Russo and Hogan.

I mean they were doing internet angles were most mainstream fans could careless about backstage politics. Your goal is to appeal to as many as fans as possible. Doing the wacky things they did just alienated them. They lost a portion of the family audience trying to be the Attitude Era where ECW and WWF did it so much better. They should have made WCW the wrestling show, focusing on the crusierweights making it action packed etc. Were they getting ad revenue etc from Thunder, what was the ticket sales merchandise revenues from the shows if they were bad I'd have dropped it to save money.

WCW lost Benoit, Eddie, Dean Malenko, Jericho, Saturn etc so that was guys you could have pushed to the top. They still had Booker, Rey et al but I think losing the Radicalz was a big loss. I'd have tried to get RVD from ECW but even then he'd have a glass ceiling above him because of Hogan et al. Really you needed to put out to pasture Hulk, Lex, Nash et al. Goldberg was up in age but their #1 guy, Sting and Ric I'd have kept around for the special events. Why they'd stay around is that they are synomous with WCW. Maybe slowly transition them into ambassador type roles. There seems to be a ton of midcard and lower card guys but no real stars. WCW sorta had a Austin with Goldberg, but no Rock for him to feud with or a McMahon type authority to be up against. Goldie vs nWo was sort of done already with him beating Hogan for the belt. Maybe a new Horsemen lead by Flair he could have feuded with. But there was no real new Arn, Tully etc who could have filled in their roles. Had Arn being younger etc and Naitch etc that could have been really good. Since all the og Horsemen could cut promos and as a faction they were believable.

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Re: Dirt Sheet Lulz & Knowledge Droppings

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I'm not saying they were run correctly at all. But people always says "then why didn't they just fire Kevin Nash, Hogan and Sting and rebuilt around cheaper wrestlers" and that wasn't the solution. Plus you'd probably be giving them to WWF to bring in and make dream matches that would make your ratings even worse. Because if they did the Hogan-Rock angle in 2000, who is going to stick around to watch Kidman and Shane Douglas in a world title feud.

They didn't save the 1998 money because they were still in what they considered their growing period where a company stays in debt to keep growing the company. And it's not as simple as "just stop spending immediately" when they already paid for things in advance and were losing money on shows because they pre-booked those large arenas that by 2000 they couldn't fill so they'd have to give tickets away for free.

They did try to get Van Dam but he wasn't able to get out of his ECW deal until a month before they closed. If Bischoff bought WCW he planned to have a lot of ECW guys with RVD as a main eventer and Joey Styles and Cyrus on commentary. Of top talent he only planned to keep Goldberg, Sting, Steiner, Booker, DDP and Nash. Everyone else would be either the cheaper WCW guys like Lance Storm and Ernest Miller or ECW, Matrats, Omega, or Toryumon wrestlers. He was planning to be very Cruiserweight heavy on the new Nitro. And Teddy Hart was going to be the top new Cruiserweight and Ultimo Dragon the booker of the division.

As for why they didn't get rid of Russo sooner, they really did. He wasn't there for 2 years. He worked for 3 months of 1999 (October-January 2000) and 5 months of 2000 (April-September.) So they ushered him out pretty fast. He couldn't couldn't be cut from his deal because it was guaranteed. But they pulled him from working reasonably fast to where he was paid to sit at home most of his deal. That's nowhere near as bad as TNA keeping him for 8 years.

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Re: Dirt Sheet Lulz & Knowledge Droppings

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Yea I was thinking if you cut Hogan et all they'd end up in the WWF. So realistically they were set up to fail and had no real way out. If money was committed already ie arenas booked etc then there's not much they could have changed. I still can't fathom how they fell flat on their face after 1998. What could have they done differently then to change things and prevented the decline. I guess the WWF being white hot meant they couldn't really do much to counter them.

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Re: Dirt Sheet Lulz & Knowledge Droppings

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They fell flat on their face because Bischoff let the inmates run the asylum. Whereas even with the power of the Kliq in 1995-96, Vince was still in control of his company. And hewas certainly in control during the Attitude Era.

I forget for sure who said it (I think Kevin Sullivan) but "the difference between Bischoff and McMahon was McMahon was playing the game with his own money and Bischoff was using House Money he never thought was going to end."

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Re: Dirt Sheet Lulz & Knowledge Droppings

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Yea I heard that before too. He was throwing money around with no rhyme or reason. Signing people and paying them to sit at home??. WCW in its heyday could have made tons with crossover merch deals, getting ad sales from the companies who dropped ads from the WWF, they were family friendly so could appeal to that audience. Did bringing in Dennis Rodman, Karl Malone and Leno actually make a profit on what they paid to hire them?. The Kiss, Megadeth, Master P & No.Limit was just ?? too. If your a concert promoter yes but for wrestling should have got some upcoming bands who'd probably do promo for free. So a lot of what Bischoff did was 100% preventable. But like you say he was playing with someone else's money.

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Re: Dirt Sheet Lulz & Knowledge Droppings

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Rodman and Malone were very successful, Leno was a disappointment to them. But Leno was fortunately cheaper since he just asked they donate some money to St. Jude's children's hospital since he just did it as a goof for his show. IIRC Rodman and Malone both got 1.5 million each plus PPV royalties (I think Dennis said he made $5 million total for his match with Hogan against Luger and Giant, and I think the Malone one was bigger.)

And it was worth it. The first Rodman match was the second biggest story in the US behind only Mike Tyson's ear bite since that was only 2 weeks later.

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Re: Dirt Sheet Lulz & Knowledge Droppings

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Thanks. Cool that Jay gave the money to charity. At least the Rodman & Malone gamble paid off. The Jazz/Bulls being in the NBA finals two years in a row helped matters a lot too I'm assuming.

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Re: Dirt Sheet Lulz & Knowledge Droppings

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June 2000 was the month my friends and I all gave up on WCW.

6/4/00

-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. It also leaves both of them with singles matches with Goldberg where, as faces, they would be able to look strong against him rather than eating him up. 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.

-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. She was described as being in very bad shape backstage before the show and it was said that before the show she was in the same said bathroom for an eternity.

-They are doing a gimmick where Disco Inferno tries to talk cool but keeps screwing up. MIA then came out. It wound up with Lt. Loco (Chavo Jr.) against Disco in a lumberjack match. 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. Everyone interfered. Misterio Jr. set up a bronco buster but 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. Loco won with a tornado DDT in 2:48. Nitro Girl Tigress came out and attacked Gunns. Apparently Tigress is now Rey's girlfriend

-Donnie Osmond and Karl Malone were in the crowd.

-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.

-Jarrett beat Flair to regain the title in 7:55. It was actually amazing just how good this match was. David was ref. It wasn't like there were any great moves, but Ric knew exactly how and when to make comebacks and the crowd was going nuts. Ric hit David to knock him out. Charles Robinson came out as a second ref but he got bumped. 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.

-Funk put Candido in the back of a truck and drove him to a veterinary clinic near the arena. They started fighting in the stable. Funk ended up bleeding. 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.

-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. So you got it. Smiley will be returning with a new title of World backyard champion or something of that sort.

-Russo, David Flair, Daffney and 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. David challenged Reid to a match at the Bash.

-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.

6/12/00

-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.

-Russo challenged Atlanta Braves pitcher John Rocker, who is embroiled in a racism scandal, to a fight at the Atlanta Nitro.

-Russo beat Ric Flair in the cage match in 9:30. Ric Flair is the greatest wrestler who ever lived and this match was living proof as this 51-year-old man actually carried Russo and David to what, after some terrible stuff early, to a good match. They pulled Russo's shirt off which wasn't a pretty sight and Flair chopped him raw. David came in from under the ring and Ric chopped him up as well. Russo got a ladder and climbed out of a trick ceiling and Flair climbed up with him. They fought on top of the cage. People actually expected Russo to take a Foley bump off. They ended up back in. Flair put him 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.

-If that wasn't silly enough, 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.

-During the Jarrett vs. Douglas match, there was a sign that said, "They get Kid Rock and we get Chad Brock. Hee Haw."

6/19/00

-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 show itself was a series of matches with a numbing level of run-ins, an undercard with little crowd reactions, three stunt man spots--which guaranteed none would stand out although one using a real life stunt double would have under most circumstances, repeated finishes and predictable swerves.

-They infrequently called Disco Inferno Hip Hop Inferno.

-Mike Awesome beat Diamond Dallas Page in 9:41 of an ambulance match. Talk about an overdone gimmick. Pamela Paulshock, who did a pre-match interview, couldn't even pronounce the word ambulance. They brought Kanyon to the ringside area wearing his halo, which gave away the finish. Both guys KO'd the first ref right away. They worked hard but there were more mistimed spots than usual. Awesome power bombed Page through a table. Page rolled off the gurney to continue the match. Awesome delivered two chair shots, the second of which was very weak to the point the crowd groaned. He did two frog splashes, but missed a third. Kimberly came out and hit Page with a pipe. Miss Hancock came out and dragged Kimberly away. Page delivered a diamond cutter off the ropes to lay out Awesome. At this point Bischoff appeared on the stage and appeared to be ready to hit Kanyon with a chair. 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. *

-Scott Steiner won the asylum match over Rick Steiner and Tank Abbott in 3:46. This was awful. It was switched to a handicap match on the spot. Scott was throwing Abbott around when Rick came in. The cage then lowered. They doubled on Scott until Abbott pulled out a chain. Rick got in the way and took the chain to protect his brother. Scott then got the chain, used it for the second straight foreign object finish, and used the recliner for the submission. Don't worry, later in the show during the last match run-in, Rick and Abbott were together and Rick was still a heel. DUD

-Hulk Hogan pinned Billy Kidman to earn a title shot at the next PPV in 11:39. Hogan came out doing his Hollywood persona and did probably his most lame interview since those horrible strap match promos. It was typical Hogan-Kidman, with Hogan taking the entire match, and then beating him in the end. Hogan whipped him with a belt hard. Kidman came back dropkicking a chair into Hogan's face and using a few chair shots. Kidman did a terrible looking DDT. Hogan was looking really slow. Kidman did a splash off the top rope for a near fall, and then got mad at Horace for his count. Hogan looked terrible in doing his big comeback. He hip tossed Kidman through a table. Torrie Wilson came out. Hogan and Wilson collided and Wilson took a bump doing the injured ankle spot. The Brass Knux that Wilson was apparently going to give Hogan, ended in Kidman's hands and he KO'd Hogan. But wait, Hogan kicked out. Wilson gave Kidman a low blow. He wasn't wearing a cup this time. Hogan then hit Kidman with Knux for the pin. Even though the match was lousy, Hogan was the first guy on the card to get a really big crowd reaction. *1/4

-Vampiro beat Sting in an Inferno match in 7:23. Sting opened the match saying that the torch would be at the top of the giant screen and they played up that Vampiro was afraid of heights. The match started in the ring with Vampiro pouring liquid all over Sting, which they pretended was gasoline. They ended up climbing the ladder to the top. Sting took one stunt man bump about ten feet into padding. He then got right up, negating the very idea of doing the bump, and climbed back up the ladder. Match had no heat at all. They finally got to the top of the screen, and did some thunder and lightning sound effects and finally the lights went out, allowing them to switch to a stunt double. 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. The announcers then tried to sell it like it was the Owen Hart death, and anyone who thinks that wasn't the catalyst for this idea is fooling themselves. For that reason, among many, this was horrible on so many levels I don't even want to get started on it. -**

-Scott Hudson did the entire Nitro 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. Hudson looked average enough that while it was silly, it wasn't like it was anything that is going to haunt his credibility or make him seem like a fool later.

-Goldberg came out to a tepid reaction but the fans got on him as he told his story about signing a deal with the devil because of all the guys backstabbing him while he was gone looking for his spot. 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. Security attacked Nash and handcuffed him. Russo said that Goldberg vs. Nash would draw ratings so told the cops to hold Nash until the match later in the show.

-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.

-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 tart."

-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 and eating 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.

-There was a woman in the crowd who had "Nash" tattooed on her belly.

-Nash did some lies from the movie "Deliverance."

-Kidman beat Private Stash, who I guess got his ranking dropped from a Major because of so many bad matches in a row.

6/26/00

-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.

-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?

-G.I. Bro told the Misfits they would have to go on without him with Captain Rection as their leader. Actually he didn't even want to say Captain Rection. He then at this point attacked Kanyon and they had a hot brawl with him taking off his military clothes and I guess becoming Booker T again. Well, it was best to cut losses because that gimmick had career killer written all over it.

-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.

-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 just pretended Hall was there.

-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

-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.

-One of the reasons things will always have a nearly impossible time building for the future is that when Brad Siegel replaced Bill Busch with Bischoff and Russo, he said the company wasn't willing to wait for results while they rebuilt, but wanted results immediately, which is also why nerves are frayed because it was going to be very difficult to pull that off

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Re: Dirt Sheet Lulz & Knowledge Droppings

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I stuck around til the end but I have no real recollection of anything apart from Double J smacking people over the head with his guitar calling them "Slapnuts". I much preferred the late 80s, early 90s WCW and the 96-97 period. I can't remember if early 2001 was any better, that was Millionaires Club vs New Blood IIRC.

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Re: Dirt Sheet Lulz & Knowledge Droppings

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7/3/00

-After some 27 years in the same time slot, the WCW Saturday Night dynasty ended this past weekend with the show moving to a one hour format at 11 a.m. Eastern starting on 7/1. This change to the morning has been in the works for about six months due to the declining ratings of the show, and the cancelling of the tapings was a prelude to the move. Right now Taylor and Larry Zbyszko are doing the announcing, but it is believed the announcing duties will go to Chad Damiani and Spice. Considering that except for Hancock, nobody gives a rats ass about any of the women in the company, it's bad enough they put them in the ring where they look like amateurs, but to make them announcers without any ability like anyone can do it makes the entire product look like Wayne's World does pro wrestling.

-Keiji Muto is in Atlanta and temporarily living there. He didn't come to TV because they haven't come up with an idea of how to use him.

-Jung Dragons beat Vito in 1:40 by triple-teaming and pinning him after all three came off the top at the same time. The hardcore title didn't change hands, as Schiavone pointed out, because how could three guys hold a title at one time. Except that they just did a few months back on the same very show. If it wasn't so sad, WCW would really be funny.

-Goldberg kicked Nash as he went to do the power bomb and Jarrett got the pin in 6:00. Goldberg had a chewed up Hall contract. This was very strange. He ate the contract last Monday. But the contract was fine, with no teeth marks or rips on Tuesday, but now on Monday, it's all chewed up. WCW should at least show us the time machine if they're going to run angles that don't make sense

-They did more garbage with Vampiro, Torborg and Asya.

-The chauffeur, who looked a little like Memphis TV announcer Cory Maclin, told the Cat what the main event should be. Somehow I think if these guys actually talked with the local cab drivers in the cities they go to, they'd have a better idea what to book.

-Torborg attacked Vampiro. Vampiro showed Torborg an earring and Torborg stopped. This took forever. Vampiro is out there trying to be Raven now.

-Hogan has been calling Bubba the Love Sponge regularly in Tampa. His latest was that FOX was giving him a $150 million talent budget and that after the July PPV, he was quitting WCW and working for FOX. He also said the Vampiro-Dale Torborg angle (largely taken from a movie called "The Vanishing") was terrible, which it is.

-Goldberg came out to do one of those interviews that epitomizes 70% of WCW's problems. He talked about Salisbury, MD on December 23 and how only because he's so professional that Scott Hall, who he hates more than anyone in wrestling, is still alive. Okay, for those 99.99% of the viewing audience that don't spend their lives listening to silly wrestling gossip, what the hell was he talking about? The announcers need to translate that inside crap into English, although it would be amusing to hear an explanation that Hall was told not to play babyface or do the survey, then against orders, on his interview, he played babyface and did the survey and Goldberg wanted to kill him for being unprofessional. Then he blamed Hall for his getting 196 stitches in his forearm. Even I have no clue how to translate that one into English. Maybe Hall is really a cartoon character with the power to transform himself into inanimate objects and he turned himself into a limo, and Goldberg thought he was punching Hall when it was really Hall turned into a glass window. Hey, it's the closest thing I can come to making this one make sense.

-Booker T came out with his old music. The announcers talked about how we haven't heard that music in a long time. I guess they forgot that Stevie Ray & Tony Norris were using that same music just a few weeks ago. Then again, I'd like to forget that period as well.

-Miller told Douglas he could save his job because Miller needed ratings so he ordered Douglas to wrestle Kronik because he knew it would send the ratings sky high. Now that was funny.

-3 Count sang. This song was so much worse than the first one. Their dancing and lip synching was beyond bad. They showed all the wrestlers in the dressing room hating it except Abbott, who liked it. Abbott is being primed for a new role as 3 Count's bodyguard.

-Stasiak & Palumbo were laughing at Kearse's new haircut, so he ran away and locked them in the production truck.

-Kronik beat Douglas in a handicap match in 2:07 with the high times. WWF must have thanked God they didn't book this match on Nitro with the ratings it delivered. Stasiak & Palumbo then played "Leave it to Beaver" type music instead of Kronik, and made fun of Kronik's music. Kronik went back to the truck and went in the locked door (who ever heard of a door that when locked, the people on the inside can't get out but people on the outside can get in) and beat them up.

-At this point Vampiro and Torborg were in the middle of nowhere with a coffin in a hole. Torborg went to open the coffin to see his beloved bride to be, but Vampiro hit him with a shovel and did some line out of a 1991 Jake Roberts angle. He then brought Asya to Torborg and indicated he wanted the Hulk, I mean the Demon, to come back. Why would anyone want that?

-The Nitro Grill in Las Vegas is now only open for dinner during the week and for lunch on weekends, which tells you how it's doing.

7/10/00

-In this company, who knows what is and isn't an angle (only that whatever the angle, it probably will never draw money at the end)

-Johnny the Bull beat Funk in a hardcore match in 6:32. Fans got really into this match as the two worked very hard. Funk was bleeding from the left eye hardway from something that apparently happened when they were throwing things at each other in the stands. Johnny did a springboard legdrop from the ring onto a chair on the floor, which looked phenomenal. Virtually everyone who heard about the move in the dressing room warned him against doing it, for good reason. He fell off the ropes the first time, but went back and did it again. He was totally messed up doing the move and hospitalized with what was believed to be a broken pelvis. He immediately told Funk to pin him (Funk wasn't supposed to win) and end the match. Funk, apparently feeling this was the match that was going to make him, refused to change the finish in the ring and kept it going another minute before he felt it was time to go home. Johnny looked in incredible pain being carried from the ring. Although this isn't confirmed, nobody was expecting him back for the PPV on Sunday, nor back any time in the near future as he was throwing up backstage and had blood in his urine.

-Jarrett did an interview and brought up some fat women to sing for the end of Hogan's career. The idea of putting this segment at 9 p.m. was mind boggling to say the least, as it was just about the worst segment on Nitro in months and you know what kind of ground that covers. They brought out a fat snooty guy who they called Gaylen Chandler as the head of Standards & Practices to get mad about the skit because they were calling the women fat and Jarrett hit him with a guitar shot and laid him out dead. The funny thing is, and this is almost too funny to be true, that the head of S&P at the show is named Gaylen Chandler, as that almost had to be this poofy made up name. However, the guy who took the guitar shot was an actor playing the role of Chandler because the real Chandler refused to do the angle. You know things are bad when guys who have never even been on TV are refusing to do your angles.

-Misterio Jr. pinned Kidman after a bulldog off the top rope onto a chair when Konnan and Disco both interfered in 3:53. FA's attacked them after. The interference was explained, because there is supposed to be no interference in matches on Nitro, on the fact that Cat was having sex with Tygress for all of two minutes, which is the average length of time of a match on Nitro.

-Backstage at the 6/27 tapings in Lincoln, NE, Scott Steiner threw what was reported by several different sources as a totally unprofessional fit regarding being asked to do the job for Mike Awesome. Geez, and it wasn't even a clean job. Steiner claimed he was lied to and reportedly threatened to beat up Terry Taylor, who came back saying he'd sue if that were to happen. Steiner reportedly called him a gay slur for threatening to sue. This is hardly the first time Steiner has blown up at management, or even once or twice, on live broadcasts and was suspended earlier this year when he went against the script to do a nonsensical interview somehow blaming Ric Flair for the decline of the company's ratings. This will clearly continue to happen as long as WCW refuses to put its foot down and eliminate wrestlers who are unprofessional and, whether it be Taylor, or Vince Russo, gives the scriptwriters a lot more authority to not use talent that won't cooperate.

-The Great American Bash PPV drew an 0.19 buy rate which would be about a $935,000 company gross on the show. That's with the combination of teasing Hogan's retirement, Flair's retirement and the announcement that was supposed to change the entire face of the pro wrestling industry and they did a buy rate along the lines of what ECW does with one hour of relatively low rated TV with no lighting. WCW has attempted to spin that as a success by stating it's a 25 percent increase over the previous months show.

-There is talk of making Stevie Ray a color commentator, which sounds hilarious on the surface. Ray does have a good smartass critical demeanor backstage that doesn't come through while doing his interviews.

-Hogan delivered a political endorsement that backfired. I guess it's bad enough a group wanted to use Hogan with all his credibility on TV ads in the first place, but they got what they deserved. The ad has Hogan telling voters in Clearwater, FL to vote for a $300 million downtown revitalization project which is up for a vote on 7/11. Hogan said it would create 2,000 new jobs and result in $3 million going to improve the schools. In the commercial, Hogan, who said he and his family have made their home in Clearwater for more than 12 years, said he was going to vote for the bill. As it turns out, Hogan actually doesn't live in Clearwater (although he does live near the city limits) and isn't even a registered voter.

7/17/00

-Hogan gets to be Bret Hart, and swerve himself into the position of trying to be relevant again, just as he's tried by making himself, count 'em, red and yellow Hulk, Stone Cold Terry Bollea and finally the return of Hollywood Hogan to smaller and smaller ratings and attendance figures all year. Russo gets the respect of the dressing room for ridding it of the Hogan cancer and even got to mention names of the frustrated guys to make them feel important, and most importantly, if it worked, he'd have undying loyalty, something a booker needs to get things accomplished, and something no booker in WCW has had in years. He gets to book TV to get the younger guys over and has a whole crew of major names to feud with them when they come back. Why were two belts there? Why wasn't Hogan's mic cut off? If it was a shoot in that situation, and with someone as politically savvy as Hogan, he would have talked longer, and there is no guarantee of what he would say being able to work perfectly into Russo's later speech which was so perfect to get him over as a hero to the boys and the internet types that he lives for getting over to. The fact it made for good television was a rarity, because these type of angles usually aren't great angles. It's too soon to say if Bash at the Beach will change the course of WCW's history, like its Survivor Series counterpart did with the WWF nearly three years ago, but it was a lot better than what they've been putting out.

-They're apparently trying to babyface Mike Awesome by giving him a character that likes large women.

-Goldberg was backstage with Hall's contract. It was a most remarkable piece of paper, having returned to its original form after being crumpled up as well as eaten on previous TV shows.

-Daffney defeated Miss Hancock in a wedding gown match. They put a wedding cake at ringside. David Flair came out with hair clippers. Hancock did a horrible handspring elbow. First the girls pulled Mark Johnson's pants off. He looked ridiculous. David Flair had his pants pulled off. He looked semi ridiculous. Daffney put Hancock's face in David's crotch. Crowbar ran in and took his own pants off. So then he and David started doing spots. Imagine how ridiculous David Flair usually looks trying to wrestle, and multiply that by having both guys working in their underwear. The shears got involved and there was threats to cut Hancock's hair. Then, as things couldn't possibly get worse, Hancock grabbed the mic, said she knew what everyone came to see, and took off her dress and starting dancing in her panties. They explained she voluntarily lost. It ended up with everyone throwing cake at each other. -*

-Vampiro beat Demon (Dale Torborg) in 6:40 in a pre-taped graveyard match. Asya was also involved. This was like something from a bad Saturday morning kids show. With the bad lighting in the graveyard, it was hard to watch and a total waste of time. They ended up in a river. Vampiro kidnapped Asya. Asya was laying dead and Vampiro came out of a casket and spit stuff in Demon's eyes. Finally Vampiro hit Demon with one of those breakable tombstones (an actual headstone, not a piledriver), put him in a casket, threw him in a grave, and lit it on fire. -**

-ad lighting in the graveyard, it was hard to watch and a total waste of time. They ended up in a river. Vampiro kidnapped Asya. Asya was laying dead and Vampiro came out of a casket and spit stuff in Demon's eyes. Finally Vampiro hit Demon with one of those breakable tombstones (an actual headstone, not a piledriver), put him in a casket, threw him in a grave, and lit it on fire. -**

-Hulk Hogan pinned Jeff Jarrett to theoretically win the WCW title. Vince Russo came out, looking forlorn. Jarrett came down. Russo told him to lay down. Russo threw the belt in the ring like he was mad. Hogan put his foot on Jarrett for the pin. Jarrett got right up and walked out and didn't look very happy in the process. Hogan said it was bullshit like this that Russo was doing that was ruining wrestling. The announcers went on and on about what they just saw saying it was real life, not a part of the format, etc. Mark Madden, who hates Hogan, took great delight, clearly thinking it was a shoot, that Hogan was exposed for what he is.

-Vampiro came back. A whole bunch of Stings came out with masks. One of them, actually Nashville wrestler Chris Harris, hit Vampiro with a bat with the announcers asking the question as if it was the real Sting. God, after four years, they still make their announcers look like idiots and they wonder why nobody believes any of their angles. When Vampiro came back, in the background you could see Hogan and son Nicholas leaving the building ("Wrestling with Shadows" with young son Blade in tears as daddy was screwed by the evil promoter).

-Russo then came out and tried to do a face interview. Nobody reacted to what he said. It was kind of embarrassing having him do his pep talk ("Beyond the Mat," Paul Heyman before the first ECW PPV show) and the paid and papered crowd, apparently not computer savvy enough to be in on all the things that happened during the week, had no clue what he was talking about. Russo talked about his wife and three kids and how he didn't know if he would come back. But he did, out of loyalty to all the great wrestlers in WCW. As everyone in the WWF will attest, if nothing else, Russo is loyal. He came to save the career of Booker T (hey, didn't he make him G.I. Bro before the discrimination lawsuit got more heated?) MIA, FA's and Jarrett and started ripping on the egomaniac Hulk Hogan. Hogan played his "creative control" card ("Wrestling with Shadows," because Russo is to this day obsessed with getting over that the other Vince was right). He said that Hogan insisted that he win the title from Jarrett. So he gave Hogan a belt and said that you will never see Hogan again. The basic theory seems to be eventually breaking up WCW into a Bischoff led group on one show, which would actually be the old Millionaires Club, against a Russo-led group on another show, the New Blood, which was probably the original idea for April but they felt swerving everyone with them being put together and giving 12 weeks of programming that made no sense was more important I guess. He then said Jarrett would wrestle Booker T for the new title because the old one was dead and buried ("The birth of the ECW title") because Hulk Hogan (like Ric Flair, the fat man Dusty Rhodes, Kerry Von Erich and Ricky Steamboat and whoever else Douglas said in that speech) can all kiss my ass! And he did all that right off the top of his head. It made for great TV for me, but the crowd reacted about like they did when Andy Kaufman faked a shoot and faked breaking character on Saturday Night Live all those years ago.

-The next day on TV, WCW acted like something had happened but never touched on it, aside from Madden making reference after reference to guys who show up once a month and steal their check. They made reference to the idea they couldn't talk about things for legal reasons.

Hogan did his obligatory interview on Bubba the Love Sponge. His version was he went into a meeting with Jarrett, Russo and Bischoff. Jarrett had to leave the meeting to interfere in a match. Hogan said he thought it was weird because Jarrett never came back and they weren't done going over the match. Hogan said he'd job to Jarrett but when he found out Russo didn't want to use him anymore after asking what the plans were for him on TV this coming week, saying there was nothing left to do with him, only then did he insist on winning, which made Russo go nuts. He said he was trying to calm down Russo, who was cussing him out. He claimed Bischoff was on his side and started fighting with Russo. They called Siegel who agreed that Hogan could win the title and Russo agreed to it and Hogan thought it was resolved and Johnny Ace came up with a finish. He said he had blades with him (the old-time wrestlers trick in the old days if they're afraid of a shoot is to bring blades with them and put them in the tape around the fists, so when you swing for real, you'll slice the guy up). He talked about getting the biggest pop on the show and recognized things were amiss when he saw Russo come out, but he said the original finish involved Russo but that Steiner was going to run Russo off and help Hogan win the title. He said he went looking for Russo back stage ("That dirty rat fink has locked himself in his office," -- Wrestling with Shadows) but couldn't find him. He saw Russo and started yelling at him when Doug Dillenger told him that he didn't need a lawsuit and escorted him out of the building and Russo has someone covering his back (according to two wrestlers, this would have been Steiner). He said he'd be on Raw tonight except he couldn't get out of his contract. He claimed he would be calling McMahon to see if he could get his son Nicholas to show up on Raw tonight and give him the belt (we've already been through the legal aspects of going on TV with the other guys' belt in the Flair case in 1991 which McMahon lost) put over McMahon incessantly. Where that aspect of the story falls apart is that if it was a shoot and Hogan was that mad, the very first person he would talk with would have been McMahon, even if to try and come up with some clever way to stick it to WCW. Even if they couldn't come up with one that they could pull of legally, the call would have been made. While McMahon was very busy that day, with an XFL press conference in San Jose and the TV tapings, Hogan certainly knows enough people to get through to McMahon and it doesn't appear any such call was ever made. When Bubba asked if it was a work or a shoot, Hogan said, "I don't do works on your show." Still, Hogan's closest friends in the company the next day were openly talking about it being a swerve. Russo was still insistent the next day it was a shoot claiming that people will know it's a work if Hogan ever returns to the company and he doesn't quit. The explanation given by those close to Russo is that Siegel actually backed him and not Hogan, and Bischoff was neutral, but that wouldn't explain, based on how it went down, Russo not taking any punishment for double-crossing Bischoff, his superior, on a finish, and for Bischoff not being at television the next day to at least clear the air with everyone about what happened. After all this came the word, and people in the company at this point expect that everything like this could be a work, that Siegel made the decision that Russo would be in charge creatively of Nitro and PPV while Ed Ferrara would be in charge of Thunder. Russo then announced he would no longer be appearing on television, and to further what now clearly is going to be the Bischoff vs. Russo feud and split promotion angle, Bischoff was announced as taking a sabbatical. This of course would give the explanation that Hogan could return on Thunder with Bischoff down the line since he's still under contract, while Russo "wouldn't have to work with him."

-Awesome was trying to hit on Nitro Girl Beef.

-Vampiro did an interview and brought Demon, his new partner, out of the casket. Vampiro is saddled with the lamest gimmick in the company. He ordered Demon to attack Asya, which he did until another fake Sting came out with the lights off so you couldn't see closely, doing Sting signature moves to lay Vampiro out. The fans booed the hell out of this because they could see it wasn't the real Sting, which was only made worse for TV viewers with the announcers trying to sell it was the real Sting. I don't know that it wasn't, but not one fan at home or at the building thought it was and were booing and made the announcers look bad selling it. All those years of previous bookers killing the credibility of the announcers, and now, the "new WCW" immediately embarks on one of the biggest mistakes of the old WCW.

-There was almost a movie-like situation involving Roddy Piper, whose daughter, Anastasia, either ran away or was kidnapped on 6/23 at 3 a.m. from their home on Bald Peak Mountain near Hillsboro, OR. Piper's wife reportedly saw her daughter either getting into or getting pulled into a small red truck and took off in chase, got the license plate, but lost the truck. Piper basically did his own investigation work when the police weren't as successful looking for clues as to her whereabouts and finally found her one week later in a parking lot of a shopping mall in Eugene, OR.

7/24/00

-Some planted fat women threw in large underwear at Awesome for his Fat Chick Thriller gimmick.

-Steve Borden was the guy under the mask as Sting that the people didn't believe was Sting at the Jacksonville tapings

-The latest Hogan on Bubba the Love Sponge working the angle is saying it wouldn't surprise him if McMahon sent Russo to WCW to ruin the company.

-Lots of people in the company have gotten really upset over how far everyone went trying to get last week's work, noting that Vince Russo even went to the bar after the PPV, which he never does, to say goodbyes to everyone acting like he expected he would be fired, and Eric Bischoff working everyone with the idea he was either taking a sabbatical or even quitting the company in disgust, and the lack of trust of anything and anyone within the company has gotten worse.

7/31/00

-Early estimates have the Bash at the Beach doing an 0.19 buy rate, which is a $1.22 million company gross. More than half of the total would go to Hogan ($675,000 base)

-Somehow, the elusive and speedy Judy Bagwell was able to outrun the menacing Kanyon until he caught her and threw her in the trunk of a car and drove off.

-All the talk about Hall and Brad Siegel seems to make it clear that nearly every bit of info from WCW is an angle. Actually, people in the company still swear that Hall isn't coming back, but why would they spend so much TV time building up Hall for no reason? Since everything is a work, it may actually be Nash & Russo constantly having his name brought up to create a demand, figuring that by that time, Siegel would have to change his tune. If that works, it speaks volumes for anything Siegel sets down for the future. Either that or Siegel is part of the angle.

-They did an angle where Wall lost a tables match to Lenny Lane, but it came out after the match that Wall lost on purpose for his buddy since Lane needed to win to get his job back, and Cat fired Wall because he threw the match, and obviously, you can't have anything like that in wrestling.

-Tank Abbott destroyed Great Muta in 1:29 with the KO punch after Muta sprayed the mist at Cat. Wonder if WCW booked Nash or Goldberg or Steiner to Japan and New Japan asked any of them to job for Fujita in 1:29 how WCW management would react and how badly any of those wrestlers would cry about it? It was too obvious how Muta felt since he got right back up immediately after the pin.

-Kronik destroyed Misterio Jr. & Guerrera & Disco, with Disco getting his neck messed up from Kronik's finisher. That makes two guys they've almost killed with it. This was a total squash but Konnan's commentary was so good that he not only made Heenan seem interesting but almost was able to cover up for just how much his guys came off like j-brones. There was legit heat with Brian Adams regarding the comments by Konnan saying that Kronik was stuck in the 80s on TV. Adams was so hot after talking with family and friends that he wanted to fight Konnan, and the two had a confrontation at the 7/24 Nitro before Konnan talked Adams out of being so hot

-As things stand, the company is still projecting losses to be around $60 million this year, and if the losses are only $30 million, which is believed to be difficult to impossible to get to, it would be considered a huge success

-Lots of talk is that Heenan's position is in jeopardy when his contract expires.

-From the WCW's daily desk calendar for Christmas for the date of 7/25, it covers in 1996: "In a bizarre final, no one was ever declared the winner in a match which pitted Kevin Nash, Razor Ramon and Hollywood Hogan against Sting, Lex Luger and Randy Savage." Things like that (Razor Ramon) just do wonders for WCW if the WWF lawsuit ever goes to court.

-Toledo on 7/20 drew 759 for $18,509. Dayton on 7/21 drew 1,796 for $40,557. Louisville on 7/22 drew just 1,138 at Freedom Hall for $26,815. Evansville on 7/23 drew 683 for $16,805. It was the worst house show run for the company in probably seven years, and no matter who wants to make up excuses for this one, there is only one administration that can take credit for it. In Toledo, they had literally a 20 second Sting vs. Vampiro match after about a 40 second Sting vs. Demon match that the crowd crapped on, largely because they didn't believe the masked guy was Sting (he was) and the bout was so short. In Dayton, they went 5:00 but the crowd, seeing Sting in the mask, didn't believe it was him and booed that and the shortness of the match. In Louisville, Vampiro was replaced by Great Muta in the same handicap match. Fans were chanting gay slurs at Kiwi on the road. Booker defending against Douglas was the main event on the road, although Booker vs. Jarrett was advertised in Dayton and Toledo. Booker vs. Jarrett headlined Louisville and Evansville. Luger appeared for some reason in Evansville to do a run-in during a Sting match against Demon & Vampiro and racked one of them to help Sting win. A lot of the big stars were mad to be on the road in front of such small crowds, complaining that the shows should have been canceled.

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Re: Dirt Sheet Lulz & Knowledge Droppings

Post by Bandit »

8/7/00

-The next thing we learned is that Shane Douglas can't get it up. He blamed it on the political pressure. At least Torrie didn't suggest maybe he should get off the gas for a while. It makes Douglas look really bad not only doing this angle, but doing it with Torrie Wilson.

-Sting made the save for Booker. He was unmasked (with no visible burns and no mention at all of the previous angle) and challenged Vampiro, which I guess acknowledged the angle but nobody talked about it much.

-Judy Bagwell was out doing commentary, with new make-up and a new hairdo. She was ultra annoying in the bad kind of way.

-Storm won the WCW version of the Triple Crown, taking the cruiserweight belt from Lt. Loco with a half crab. One of the announcers, I think it was Tony Schiavone, asked if anyone had ever held three belts at once? How about Ultimo Dragon, who held ten (although said to be nine), something talked about how many times on Nitro not all that many years ago. Storm re-named the hardcore belt the Saskatchewan Hardcore International Title (SHIT), saying the initials are what he thought of hardcore wrestling. To show how tough someone holds three belts truly is, Nash came on, and without anything resembling a struggle, beat Storm up like he was every other cruiserweight champion in history. Nash then did a very disappointing supposed shoot interview, talking about when he was a bouncer, he kicked NFL players out of clubs before. Great, you and your buddies ganged up on drunk football players.

-Shane Douglas beat Kidman in a viagara on a pole match. This was stupid except for Madden's commentary, talking about famous viagara on a pole matches in the past like Gagne-Bockwinkel in Minneapolis and even one with Andre the Giant. Wilson's hair extensions were really noticeable. Then came a really terrible womens food fight with Major Gunns and Hancock. To make things worse, for the crowd live, David Flair and The Wall were having another terrible match in the ring. Finally the women came out all covered with food and Hancock got the pin after a bodyslam. Since Kidman lost, but swallowed some viagara in the process, a bunch of Nitro Girls wanted to leave with him.

-Russo did his shoot interview which we're told was a speech attempting to turn himself babyface, blaming all his problems on politics, saying WWF was doing 6.9 and 7.0 ratings on Raw when he left (actual average was 6.2) saying the minute Hogan returns, he's leaving. He said that Hogan had just served him with papers and kept insisting it was a shoot.

-Thunder was delayed 30 minutes due to a bomb threat at the arena.

-Wall joined MIA as Sgt. Awol. When he made the save, he was already wearing fatigues. Then he got asked to join. He must have been walking around all day thinking this is my chance to impress those guys so I'll dress like them and they'll ask me to join.

-The latest Judy Bagwell travesty saw her have a match with Kanyon. Kanyon threatened to break her neck unless Buff agreed to a match on PPV where Judy would become Kanyon's slave for 30 days. At least Kanyon didn't ask for her to become his mom or his sex slave, although the idea of Judy Bagwell dressed like Kimberly isn't a pleasant thought. Kanyon gave her a diamond cutter but luckily we didn't see it on camera again. I don't know if it's because she sells diamond cutters so bad or simply a matter of taste.

-Matt Williams, who is the Director of Research at WCW, is the latest to leave for another job in the Turner organization. Williams just finished a study of wrestling fans, which apparently showed that went against much of the conventional wisdom within the organization of what people tune in to wrestling for. The research showed that the reason fans aren't watching the show and the main complaint among those who still are, is the lack of emphasis on the wrestling and too much time devoted to soap opera and non-wrestling related antics on television. As you can imagine, the results of the study buried him, because it in its own way concludes that the emphasis of those running things may be all wrong and it makes the jobs of the wrestlers' ability to perform more important than the creative end, which is something those in power don't want to hear

-Bret Hart got some heat from the anti-handgun lobby in Canada for taking a booking at a handgun shooting range in the West Edmonton Mall. There was some local press because Hart appeared with Ted Nugent, who espoused a pro-gun political viewpoint and a media article linked the two of them together.

-There was an interoffice memo that went around WCW on 7/31, which I guess shows just how respected Russo is these days internally. The memo was entitled "Top Ten Questions Not Asked of Vince Russo."
10) Would you like to take this opportunity to claim credit for the return of Cake Day?
9) If the Possum is going to wrestle for us, what reoccurring Saturday Night Live character will he be ripping off?
8) How much did SFX front you for decreasing the value of the organization?
7) Are you going to let Bill hyphenate his name to Banks-Russo?
6) Can you funnel the unwanted talent to the Marketing Department? The New VP of Marketing has numerous openings with lots of opportunity for advancement
5) When is Hulk coming back?
4) What does the second "W" in WCW stand for?
3) How many "young and hungry" employees does it take to screw....up an entire company?
2) "WCW Creative" -- is it a misnomer or simply a contradiction in terms?
1) Would you know an original idea if it jumped up and bit you on the ass, or would you just think it was the Possum.

8/14/00

-The question is no longer how much time Russo can buy from Brad Siegel, but how much time Time Warner is willing to let them have because there is no way losses from a wrestling company are going to get in the way of one of the biggest corporate mergers in history come the end of the year.

-Not much to the Thunder show taped on 8/1. They built the show around the Russo interview, which never aired. They also had to edit out a lot of comments made about the interview after it had supposedly played. However, they didn't edit the bumpers and all the hype associated with the interview out, which made the whole show come off as totally amateurish.

-The idea is to make Judy Bagwell the WCW version of Mae Young, but instead it's a gimmick that buries Buff as a mama's boy with a trailer park mom.

-Page asked Kanyon to not use the diamond cutter and his mannerisms since Page had no idea if he was even going to be brought back. Kanyon agreed, but was then told by Russo to keep doing it.

-Kidman did a Torrie appreciation deal, showing a supposed video of her as a terribly overweight girl at the age of 16 (taken from an episode of "Friends" which was much funnier as you can imagine). Kidman punched out Torrie.

-They are building toward an angle with Gene Okerlund and Pamela Paulshock

-The original idea for the hardcore title instead of Saskatchewan Hardcore International title was for it to be called the Stu Hart International title. Bret Hart was called and asked if they could use his father's name on television, without being told what the purpose was. He said, sure, if it wasn't done in a derogatory manner. They didn't even bother asking at that point and decided against doing the original plan.

-Merchandise from 7/31 to 8/6, which actually just consisted of a Nitro and a Thunder, was $32,427 or $6.52 per head. The per head is based on paid attendance, and in both buildings the actual number in was more than double of the paid, so the real per caps is under $4.

8/21/00

-The first sign of major cutbacks in WCW were evident this past week, first with a toned down Thunder and later with the announcement that starting in late October, all Thunder tapings are canceled. It will now be taped either before or after Nitro.

-The WCW New Blood Rising PPV show from the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver, BC can best be summed up in two words--Overbooked crap.

-Buff Bagwell pinned Chris Kanyon in 6:45. It was billed as Judy Bagwell on a pole, but actually Bagwell was tied up to a forklift and raised. They turned Kanyon's mic off again, but by this point it's obvious that, like the Vito tables, are a rib. They brawled in the stands. Kanyon did a leg sweep off the middle ropes. He undid the turnbuckle pads teasing if Bagwell went into them, because of his neck problems, it could wind up with him in a wheelchair for life. Kanyon hit the diamond cutter but Bagwell kicked out. 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. If that angle had worked and people wanted the world title to be comedy, that's one thing, but since it flopped so miserably, all it does is bury the title and the company bringing up such stupidity. Arquette, who was in Vancouver filming a movie, came out with a construction helmet, which may or may not have something to do with Kanyon's first WCW mini-push being part of a construction workers tag team called Men at Work (quick, name his partner--Mark Starr). Arquette hit Bagwell with the helmet for a near fall. Bagwell came back with a blockbuster on both men and pinned Kanyon. After the match, Kanyon gave Arquette a diamond cutter. Probably the third best match on the show but disappointing given the participants. *3/4

-Major Gunns pinned Miss Hancock in 6:43 in a clothes tearing mud match. 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. It was too long with no heat until they started tearing clothes. Gunns wound up in a typical bikini. Hancock had very short shorts and a more conservative bikini top she was down to. They ended up in the mud. Hancock faked a cramp before getting in the mid. She collapsed in the mud, apparently doing a miscarriage angle, and was pinned, although the next night they explained it as if she was pregnant, with her tone of the announcement a direct ripoff of Beulah in ECW years ago. Gunns and David Flair freaked out as they stretchered her out to an ambulance. I guess the big swerve here is they'll try and tease that David isn't the father. -**

7. Sting pinned Demon in :52 with a scorpion death drop. Sting came from the ceiling. Vampiro and Muta came out and attacked Sting and tried to hang in from his cable. Kronic made the save and challenged them to an impromptu tag title match later in the show. DUD

-Kevin Nash won the three-way to get the title shot over Bill Goldberg and Scott Steiner in 10:48. Really this PPV was built around this match. Anyway, they announced Goldberg was in a motorcycle accident in Sturgis (which was true and he had road rash which is why he was all bandaged up when he came out) the day before and wasn't there (which wasn't true as he'd been there all day). 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 and Steiner continued with this lumbering match that, thanks to Steiner, wasn't that bad at first. Then they did a ref bump and Midajah delivered a low blow to Nash. Can you imagine after the build-up of a supposed shoot, aside from doing wrestling spots poorly, you have a women run in and the guys sell for her? Nash gave Steiner a low blow. Midajah gave Nash a low blow. 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. Midajah continued to pound on Nash with lame offense. At one point near the finish, and I don't think this made the air, she 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. DUD

-Nitro 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. Since Abbott has actually done real fights and Goldberg has trained for them, you'd think they'd be able to work one without having to throw in pro wrestling spots. Russo demanded they go to a commercial as Goldberg was winning out. At least Russo was a good heel and the crowd hated him, but this segment put the show in the toilet from the start.

-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.

-Nash did an interview doing nothing but pushing the return of Hall. Bringing Hall back is dump 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.

-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.

-They did get a match described as a total disaster with Mean Gene vs. Mark Madden. Smiley came out to help Okerlund. Carl 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.

-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 the main shows.

-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.

-There has been talk of doing an angle where Vampiro would kidnap and torture one of the TV announcers

-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.

-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.

8/28/00

-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.

-Vampiro & ICP & Muta came out and attacked 3 Count and Abbott. 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

-ICP & Muta & Vampiro beat 3 Count & Abbott when 3 Count turned on Abbott and attacked him with whiffle ball bats.

-Norman Smiley beat I.M. 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.

-Nash was backstage politicking to get the title at the PPV saying that Booker isn't as over as a champ needs to be since Nash gets cheered no matter how they script the confrontations between the two of them

-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.

-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."

-The Sioux City house show 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

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Re: Dirt Sheet Lulz & Knowledge Droppings

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9/4/00

-After the match, Nash said he was going out to eat a little Korean. He didn't mean Korean barbecue. I think he meant Chae as an inside rib.

-Show ended in the desert with Bret Hart showing up. He asked Goldberg if he could take care of Russo because of what Russo did to him in Montreal (now Russo wants people to think he's the one who double-crossed Hart I guess, by the way, the fact Montreal is being brought up in Russo's scripts shows who is still obsessed with that because Hart is probably the one person who wouldn't want to bring it up in a wrestling angle) and Hart attacked Goldberg for ending his career.

-9/11 Nitro in Charlotte with the David Flair wedding has sold 700 tickets.

-Originally the angle was going to be at the wedding it would come out that Ric, the best man, was actually the father of the child, although as angles go, you know how quickly they change.

9/11/00

-Scott Hudson was gone as apparently his wife went into labor, so Jeremy Borash, with a bald head from losing a bet with Russo on the first quarter hour rating for last week, got to do the show, which probably also shows just how much in the dog house Tenay really is.

-Tony Schiavone actually said, "Every fan in the world wants to see the Harris Twins against Kronic." Either Schiavone is ill informed or it's a masochistic world.

-With all the recent cuts, there are now less than 50 wrestlers under contract.

-Kronic vs. Storm & Skipper when it was written and at the production meeting, it was for Storm & Skipper to look strong. Instead, Kronic sold nothing for Skipper and almost nothing for Storm. Several noted that's become a regular deal that Kronic gets to change the story in their matches. Kronic is telling people they were willing to job to Misterio Jr. & Guerrera and work with them, but they still sell almost nothing for them on the road.

-Leah Meow is doing a dominatrix gimmick with Jung Dragons where they have to lick her boots when they screw up, but when they win, she'll lick theirs.

-At one time Klondike Bill was in the Guiness Book of World Records for a 1965 incident at the world famous Big Texan Steakhouse, where if you can eat a 72-ounce steak in under one hour, you get it free. Many wrestlers over the years have collected on that, but Bill actually ate two of them in one sitting.

-Russo wanted to be dragged behind the truck in the desert by Goldberg but the higher ups nixed the angle because it was believed to be too close to a heated case in the news where an African American was murdered by being dragged behind a truck by a white supremacist. Russo was very upset about this.

-Speaking of Goldberg, there was an altercation before Nitro between Goldberg and Evan Karagias. According to the report we received, Goldberg was talking with Nash when Karagias came up to shake his hand. Goldberg's hand was otherwise occupied and Karagias said it was okay, Goldberg didn't need to shake his hand. Goldberg, who had just flown in from England and was short-tempered, got mad thinking Karagias was dissing him and apparently told Karagias to leave. Karagias, thinking Goldberg was only kidding him, since he was only kidding Goldberg, and joking around, didn't leave. Goldberg then snatched Karagias, including supposedly ripping the necklace off him and probably scaring him half to death. Later Goldberg apologized, but Karagias wouldn't accept the apology. Some wrestlers told Karagias to keep it quiet to protect Goldberg. Although I'm sure everyone will deny any tie-in, another planned situation where Kronic was going to mop the floor with 3 Count on Thunder was changed to 3 Count laying out Kronic. Of course, when Kronic got the script, as you can imagine, they complained about it being changed from what they were originally told

9/18/00

-They made the scaffold match a mixed tag with Kidman & Madusa vs. Wilson & Douglas, which makes a bad sounding match even worse. I guess they could have a woman do a stunt person air mattress dive (actually I was told both women are scheduled to take a bump off the scaffold into a gimmicked spot but that may change as neither woman is exactly thrilled about it) as something different.

-Madusa beat Torrie Wilson via DQ in 37 seconds when Douglas interfered. Douglas gave Madusa a belly-to-belly and put her in the STF. Kidman saved. Madden said that the STF was invented by Lou Thesz, who was also known for beating up women. As it turns out, when Thesz found out about the remark, he was not amused.

-Stacey got a registered letter, apparently that revealed David wasn't the father. They had the wedding. Crowbar was the best man, portrayed as a total goof. Daffney was there. Let me get this straight. He dumped her after being engaged to her a few months back, and now she's in the wedding party? I know, it happened on 90210 probably. Madden was hilarious with his comments on Stacey and her parents throughout all of this, and she did look ridiculously good as a bride and somehow still isn't showing at all. Fans didn't care at all about this except popping for Anderson and Ric's entrance. Anderson gave a speech to David about not how it's easier to ask for forgiveness than for permission. For those of you who are wrestlers getting married, when other wrestlers enter the room, don't play their entrance music. Anyway, the cops arrested Ric was violation of a restraining order and the wedding stopped. Fans were really upset, not about the wedding ending, but they recognized that was all they were seeing of Ric. Finally, when asked if anyone objected, she grabbed the mic, said David wasn't the father, and ran off into the limo with David chasing. So who is the father. Of course the original plan was for Ric, but we're told it has changed. Which means, it'll probably end up being Russo.

-They did a segment claiming Russo had suffered a blood clot in the brain and needed emergency brain surgery. Clearly, this was a knock on Hart's column in the Calgary paper, which had a lot of heat from many within the company.

-Some notes from 9/12 in Roanoke for the Thunder and World Wide tapings. Hayabusa was there, but was only going to be put on World Wide against The Frog. However, he didn't have documentation of a physical or a blood test since nobody told him ahead of time he'd need it to get licensed in Virginia, so the commission wouldn't let him work. This was his last day in WCW so he ended up never wrestling.

-One of the best parts of the show was a vignette where a kid wanted a photo of Nash, and Nash bullied the father into paying $50 for the photo and Steiner flexed his arm in the kid's face so the kid wasn't even visible in the photo.

-Count challenged Kronic. Although I'm sure everyone will deny this, this was supposed to be Karagias' bone for not going to human resources to complain about Goldberg. As it turned out, Kronic hardly sold a thing, but did get counted out brawling with the Harris Twins. Bout was still terrible. The original plan for the match was for 3 Count to pound on Kronic early and get the advantage using baseball bats. Kronic would make a comeback but then get pinned when the Harris Twins interfered. Kronic got the baseball bat beating nixed, so they never sold anything at the beginning, and got the pin changed to a weak looking count out. As you can imagine, people are shaking their heads given there are guys sitting at home for not doing what was scripted.

-There was actually serious discussion the afternoon of the taping to cancel the show due to lack of ticket sales and the small crowd and run a Best Of.

-Thunder tapings on 9/5 in College Station, TX (campus of Texas A&M) drew 3,168 fans, which was 1,745 paying $37,630. Nitro on 9/11 in Charlotte drew 3,436 fans, which was 1,657 paying $35,460. That's with the return of Ric. Before the word got out that Ric was going to be appearing on the show, they had sold about 700 tickets.

9/25/00

-Shane Douglas & Torrie Wilson beat Madusa & Billy Kidman in a scaffold match in 5:01. Douglas did a promo before the match, and in an example of somewhat being in his own world, talked about how he was going to leave Kidman in the same state Orndorff was just left in. Whether we're reading too much into it or not, Wilson just glared at him with this "what an asshole" look before breaking into her "on camera smile." They put the four on a scaffold near the entrance, with a totally padded stage to cushion the bumps. The scaffold was much wider than any scaffold match and seemed to be safer because there was more surface area, and little danger from the fall because of how gimmicked it was. Still, the match was terrible and served zero purpose. Wilson was still scared to death up there. They were raised a legit 15 feet above the stage. In wrestling calling 15 feet a 20 foot drop is actually very conservative. Wilson never even wanted to stand up. Douglas and Kidman didn't seem scared at all and with the bigger surface could even do spots including a powerslam by Douglas and even a franchiser. Still, no heat. Madusa tried to climb down, but Douglas kicked her and she took a backward bump ala Shane McMahon into an obvious huge air mattress of sorts. The crowd didn't care in the least, recognizing how gimmicked it was. Actually fans booed the fall. With the fans lightly booing, the announcers tried to compare the injuries Madusa must have had with those legit ones Orndorff just had, which was bad on many levels. Kidman then, with no build up, no drama, no nothing, took a bump off the scaffold to lose. Wilson never took the bump as was originally scheduled when the match was designed. Good for her. It wouldn't have meant anything in this context anyway, even though it wouldn't have been that dangerous. -*

-David Flair said he thought Reid was the father.

-Mike Awesome beat Jeff Jarrett in a bunkhouse brawl in 9:04. Awesome came out of the Partridge Family bus with former child actor Gary Coleman, who at last word was working as a security guard for $6 an hour, so at least WCW probably didn't have to overspend to get him. Jarrett spent a long interview running down the Buffalo Bills. There were about ten players sitting at ringside including All-Stars Ruben Brown and Eric Moulds. WCW was under the impression that two far bigger mainstream names, Jim Kelly and Doug Flutie, would be part of this angle. Awesome set up a power bomb off the ropes through a table spot, but Jarrett flipped him over and basically Awesome took a back body drop through a table shoulder first. After Awesome missed a splash off the ropes, the Bills hit the ring. With Jarrett distracted, Awesome hit his Awesome bomb, but Jarrett kicked out. The Bills were supposed to disappear at this point and leave the spotlight for Coleman, but it didn't happen so Coleman, being so small, had to sneak between all the 300+ pounders who dwarfed Awesome, let alone Jarrett and Coleman. Coleman got no pop coming off the bus, but got a big pop for the low blow. He was far less annoying than the WWF more modern mini celebrity, Joe C, who cost E&C the tag belts a few months back. Jarrett hit Coleman with a guitar, but Sting then interfered giving Jarrett the scorpion death drop So basically, it took about 14 guys to pin Jarrett. Coleman was hilarious because he was wearing a hat with a big towel underneath to cushion the guitar blow, and during the melee in the ring, that hat came off and the towel came out. Before taking the shot, he calmly got the hot and put the towel back in and braced for the shot. ***

-David Flair saw a video given to him by I.M. Smooth so he supposedly knows who the father is, but we don't.

-The only real thoughts I came out of Thunder on 9/13, besides kind of numbed by the bad acting, good lord, somebody sent Tylene Buck to acting school and fast and PLEASE somebody release Mike Awesome from that contract he made with the Devil all those years ago that allowed him to be 290 pounds and do topes for ten years without suffering a career ending injury, but at the end of the ten years, he has to take on a gimmick worse than the Red Rooster.

-The situation on Dustin Runnels is that they were going to bring him back as Platinum, a take-off on the Goldust character, but WWF threatened a lawsuit and they backed off and now have no ideas for him so he's sitting home getting paid and does some indie stuff and works for his father's promotion.

-They are going to have Gene Okerlund do a lot more swearing on PPVs after the big reaction he got last week on Thunder doing something of a grumpy old man character

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Re: Dirt Sheet Lulz & Knowledge Droppings

Post by Big Boss Man »

So WCW signed Hayabusa and never used him or he came over as part of a working agreement with NJPW?. But wasn't he signed to FMW or I think they were World Entertainment Wrestling (WEW) then.

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Re: Dirt Sheet Lulz & Knowledge Droppings

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WCW was trying to work with FMW to get new Cruiserweight wrestlers. But the deal fell apart some how. I guess New Japan complained.

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Re: Dirt Sheet Lulz & Knowledge Droppings

Post by Big Boss Man »

OK thanks. They should have given Mike Awesome his FMW Gladiator gimmick and put him against Hayabusa, that would have been cool.

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Re: Dirt Sheet Lulz & Knowledge Droppings

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10/1/00

-The gimmick was that Russo was punishing Kronik by not letting them in the battle royal. Basically Kronik came out a few minutes in and dumped the Harris Twins, Jamie-san, Moore and Cajun. Security then came out and mace'd Kronik. Konnan, doing commentary, acted stunned that they sold the mace, actually using those terms.

-Howard Stern's Whack Pack was doing a promo that was interrupted by Nash, as Coach of the Thrillers. Nash called Beetlejuice Elix Skipper.

-They held a beauty contest as part of kicking off ticket sales in Las Vegas that went really well. Pamela Paulshock no-showed it, at first with the story going around she had an ankle injury. Apparently the real story was that since she wasn't going over, she wasn't going. The rest of the women, or at least some of them, seeing that attitude, were really upset that on the TV version, which was far more important, to get her to do it, she was promised the win, basically being rewarded for her no-show. Welcome to the wrestling business.

-Main event was the cage match with Russo vs. Booker T. Russo wore a football helmet to protect his head. The entire locker room came out, you know, because they were expecting to see a Flair vs. Steamboat classic. Russo destroyed T with a bat for a few minutes. At one point Russo tried to climb out the top, but Awesome climbed up and Sting came from the ceiling (and Bret Hart wasn't even booked on the show) and he fell back into the ring. Luger showed up and gave Russo a pipe through the cage. Russo KO'd Mickey Jay with a pipe. Flair, disguised as a security guy, got into the cage when they were carrying out Jay and attacked Russo and put him in the figure four. Because Flair can't train yet after surgery, he's gotten really heavy and never should have appeared on TV until he was ready. There's a reason guys wait a few weeks after being cleared to lift before they want on TV because the fans judge you harshly if you're not in shape, and with Flair, because of his age, he's got even more going against him. Half the world got involved. Goldberg ended up in the cage. Somewhere in this mess, Flair got punked out to set up Goldberg. Booker was ready to win but hesitated when Goldberg came out. Match ended with Booker going through the door at the same time Goldberg speared Russo through the cage and Russo appeared to hit the guard rail pretty hard. The idea was that Russo went through the cage at the same time T went through the door so they went off the air not knowing who won.

-The Nitro Grill officially will be closing its doors on 10/1 due to red ink.

-There are people within WCW who were claiming that Russo's idea was to put the title on himself at the Nassau show but he was talked out of it because of how negatively it would go over within the company

-DDP did ask for his release but Brad Seigel didn't want to give it to him. Russo has made it clear to DDP that he only wants him to put the younger guys over whereas DDP thinks he can still be in the world title hunt

-Brad Siegel, who was at the Nassau show, was said to be really upset about the Whack Pack.

-On the day of the show, all Howard Stern did what put over the WWF since Austin was his guest. Stern did mention WCW the day after the show since his guys were on the show.

-Terry Funk told Lance Storm after the match in Lubbock that it was the final match of his career. Somehow, people are skeptical. WCW does want to bring Funk back for another TV run. I do know of indie promoters that have contacted Funk of late and he's told them he's retired.

-There certainly is an internal feeling that Russo is on shaky ground, with the belief he himself is more aware of it than anyone, and thus has booked everything around himself as the focal performer on the show to increase his value while he still has full creative control.

10/9/00

-WCW may be on the verge of being sold. According to sources close to the situation, the scenario some say it most likely would involve Eric Bischoff back in charge with funding from Mandalay Bay Sports and Entertainment, and perhaps outside funding from other major companies as part of the package. Reports were that if the deal went through that Vince Russo would be gone. Russo was said to be behaving as if he was aware of that at the production meeting before Nitro this week.

-Hulk Hogan, who has been quiet for some time, called up Bubba the Love Sponge on 10/3 and said he woke up to 17 phone messages telling him the Mandalay deal was done and intimated that was the end of Russo, but those close to Hogan say both he and Ric Flair, who have been in contact of late, are close with either side that would wind up with power. Hogan was laughing about how many of the younger wrestlers are now saying how they never had a problem with Hogan and how the situation looks to be turning out.

-Main event saw Booker regain the title in what was billed as a San Francisco 49ers match, in that there are four poles, four boxes and in one of the boxes was the title belt and the other boxes had weapons. Whoever got the box with the belt would be the champion. And they wonder why their titles draw 0.15 buy rates? First box opened turned out to be a blow-up doll. If I actually hated wrestling, I’d be laughing at this. But the saddest part is Jarrett and Booker had a damn good match even with the blow up doll. Booker opened a second box which had a photo of Scott Hall. Booker got the third box which was a coal miners glove. Jarrett then got the glove. It actually looked like a regular glove as opposed to a coal miners glove. Jarrett hit Booker with the glove, and he sold it, but not like the old days. He then used a sleeper. The ref checked Booker’s arm, which made no sense because it had gone down three times, that doesn’t guarantee a finish anyway. But after doing down twice, Booker on the third one signalled he was awake. The announcers tried to explain why the ref was checking on him given the rules, which only made things more confusing. Jarrett came off the top rope with the glove, but Booker instead gave him the uranage, followed by an ax kick and a missed side kick which Jarrett sold. Jarrett went outside the ring and tried to get a guitar from under the ring but couldn’t pull it out. As he tried a second time, it was Beetlejuice from the Stern show under the ring holding the guitar. Beetlejuice gave Jarrett a low blow allowing Booker to win the belt in 13:02. After the match, Steiner attacked Booker with a pile and the show ended with him putting Beetlejuice in the recliner.

-Jarrett did an angle where he was threatening Beetlejuice. Sting came out for the save and they brawled and a fan, who turned out to be Douglas, attacked Sting, allowing Jarrett to put Beetlejuice in the figure four.

-They did an angle where Shane Douglas tried to sick the INS on Konnan, who protested saying he was an American citizen.

-ICP quit again. They were asked to do a job at Thunder and didn’t show up. There’s something almost comical about even typing those words.

And here's F4W's WCW stuff these weeks

10/2/00

-Gary Coleman was on WCW Live last Wednesday. He said his pay-per-view appearance and subsequent beating at the hands of Jeff Jarrett was the
single most embarrassing moment of his 25-year career. I was unaware that Coleman had been in show business for 25 consecutive years. Apparently,
he was still acting while working various odd jobs, such as being a violent security guard. Coleman alerted listeners to the fact that he was an advice columnist for UGO.com. Coleman, who measures in at less than five feet tall, then noted that he couldn’t believe how small all the wrestlers were in real life. He really said this. Coleman finished by telling all his fans around the world that he was “busy” with acting gigs and might not be back on WCW TV anytime soon. For what it’s worth, WCW approached him about doing Nitro three days before the show aired, and they learned within minutes that there would not be a schedule conflict.

-Vince Russo came down to the ring with some inept security. Stevie Ray said he was sick of this sad sack sap. He started going crazy and Tony had to calm him down. Russo said he was going to win the WCW Title at Nitro, then said something about a smart handsome man winning the belt. OK, I give up, who is he talking about?

-Russo, in the rib of a lifetime, signed Stevie vs. Kronic.

-Mean Gene’s new catchphrase appears to be “Blow it out your ass!”

-Mike Tenay interviewed Stacy. She told David she was sorry and still loved him. Tenay went crazy on her, and even said if he wasn’t married he’d probably have boinked her by now as well.

-Russo arrived in a limo with Jeremy Borash, who is his chauffeur in real life. Even though they were in Russo’s hometown, nobody popped.

-Vito’s sister hit the ring. Literally, she hit it with her body while trying unsuccessful to slide in. When she finally got in, the referee rang the bell. The announcers didn’t know what in the hell was going on. I think she submitted for Vito, because I can’t believe they’d book a DQ in a no-DQ match. Or maybe they would. HIDEOUS.

-David went into a Chuck E. Cheese and asked an employee where a certain address was. He then raised hell in the ball pit.

-Hank the Angry Drunken Dwarf copped a feel on Torrie Wilson.

-Leia attacked Pam. Midajah made the save. They had the most horrendous catfight in modern history. Crowd HATED this. You know, it takes a hell of a lot of talent to screw up a bikini contest when you’ve got seven women that look like these seven women. But Russo, congratulations, you did it.

-Russo came out for the cage match to an embarrassing silence. He was wearing a helmet. His driver, Dr. Bunsen Honeydew, came out to do commentary.
Booker came out and the match started. Shortly thereafter, a bunch of babyfaces came out and surrounded the cage. Russo got a ladder and tried to climb out the top of the cage, but Sting came down from the rafters and stopped him. Despite the constant efforts throughout the show to babyface himself, the crowd still chanted “RUSSO SUCKS!” Lex Luger returned and slipped a bat to Russo. Russo pounded Booker with it, then the referee. A bunch of security guards hit the ring. One of them ended up being Ric Flair, who got a decent pop. Flair put the figure four on Russo, then suddenly disappeared, never to be seen on this show again. Booker hit Russo with an axe kick and a sidekick. He went to escape the cage, but suddenly Goldberg’s music played. Instead of leaving the cage, Booker just stood there like an idiot. Goldberg got in the cage and went after Russo. Booker finally decided to step outside, but just as he was doing so, Goldberg speared Russo to death through the cage. So Russo may have hit first. Everyone looked confused as the show ended, with no winner being announced.

10/9/00

-Thunder this week aired before a live crowd of 1600 people. That’s not a typo. You know, I was thinking about those 1600 fans who paid to see this show. Those are some hardcore fucking fans. When you really think about it, you could probably sell those 1600 fans damn near anything. WCW should bring all sorts of crazy expensive gimmicks to sell the last remaining hardcores who buy tickets to their shows, like autographed pictures of the wrestler’s parents, or property on the moon. They’d make some money if they really thought about it.

-Tenay interviewed Vince Russo. Russo said he left the cage first and was the new WCW Champion. He said he wasn’t an athlete and had no business in the ring. OK, that was a shoot. He said he was retiring and would make a decision about the belt on Nitro. How about tossing it in the trash? He said since Goldberg had speared him, he was going to see if he could get him fired on Nitro. Russo is so stupid. In his OWN STORYLINE he said he could never fire Goldberg because Brad Siegel wouldn’t allow it. He also said he knew a secret about Ric Flair and would reveal it Monday if Flair didn’t
stay out of his business. Tenay started to get lippy, so Russo told him to get some wrestling gear and bring it to Nitro. Russo can’t really be trying to turn the company around with ideas like this.

-David Flair arrived with presumably the father, who was wearing a hood and handcuffed.

-Nash and Sanders beat Elix when Nash powerbombed Skipper and Sanders got the pin. The funny thing is I wrote that down before the match was even over. Nash actually cut a promo during the match instead of wrestling. Hey, if he gets away with this stuff, more power to him.

-David dragged his masked hostage down to the ring. Somehow, the masked guy never said any words, but David knew exactly what he was thinking. The masked guy wanted David to remove the handcuffs. David said he would if the guy swore he’d reveal to the fans that he was the father. The guy agreed, so David released him. The guy took his hood off revealing Buff Bagwell. He destroyed David and gave him the Blockbuster. Then he left, without revealing to the fans that he was the father. What a liar.

-Beetlejuice came out from under the ring and punched Jarrett in the ding-a-ling. Jarrett fell to the floor. I guess the 70-pound Beetlejuice was the guy who prevented the 220-pound Jarrett from getting his guitar.

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Big Boss Man
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Re: Dirt Sheet Lulz & Knowledge Droppings

Post by Big Boss Man »

WCW during that time was horrendously bad. I somehow managed to watch WCW til the end though. But reading that back no wonder in hindsight they lost so much money. It seems Russo was just going OTT and putting all his wacky ideas out there but had no filter to say whether they sucked or not. So they all made TV. I can't really pinpoint when WCW started to fall off really. When Goldberg lost to Big Kev? Putting Hogan/Goldberg on Nitro instead of PPV. Pushing the older guys on top I guess but they'd done that previously and were beating WWF in the ratings. Or maybe most fans started to switch over to WWF for Austin/McMahon, The Rock, DX etc because it seemed fresher.

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Bandit
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Re: Dirt Sheet Lulz & Knowledge Droppings

Post by Bandit »



That's what made Turner mad.

Pamela Paulshock still looks pretty good

Image

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Bandit
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Re: Dirt Sheet Lulz & Knowledge Droppings

Post by Bandit »

10/16/00
-Douglas tried to franchise Tygress' ass but Konnan saved her.

-With Nitro switching from TNT to Bravo in the U.K., the shows have gone from being on a four-day delay to an 11 day delay. They are more heavily editing the show. For instance, when fans chant asshole, Bravo simply kills the sound and puts a message saying "We apologize for the loss of sound." Thunder no longer airs in the U.K.

-Someone hit Goldberg with a cardboard Star of David.

-During the week, Mandalay Sports and Entertainment, issued a business release stating that they were not interested nor were ever interested in buying WCW.

-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., 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 Rey Misterio Jr., Konnan, Terry Taylor and 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. Media beat police to the hotel, and the Ch. 7 news showed police dragging the unclothed 165 pound wrestler out of the building. 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.

10/23/00

-Nash said that he didn't want to wrestle because he had a hangover, and during the match said that since Scott (Hall) wasn't around, he had to party for two people.

-Booker T beat Douglas to keep the title in 9:03. 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.

-There was a meeting in Australia where the wrestlers were told things they couldn't say on television. I guess, considering it seemed every promo on Nitro had something bleeped, much of which wasn't even swearing. 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 sex references or inferences on the show.

-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. On a show taped on 10/17, WCW wrestlers Ernest Miller, Rick Steiner, DDP and Buff Bagwell showed up doing the old NWO gimmick of chasing the announcers away and doing their own commentary of some action.

10/30/00

-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.

-Nobody has any idea why they brought in a live tiger from the zoo to accompany Steiner to ringside on Nitro. Backstage, as he was trying to get a photo with the tiger, the tiger nearly took a chunk out of Misterio Jr.

-In the Time Warner stockholders report, they estimated $10-$15 million in losses by WCW over the three month period between July and September.

-CNN ran a special on Goldberg on 10/22. Goldberg talked about his parents divorce 13 years ago, saying he's still angry about it to this day. 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.

F4W

10/23/00

-In one of those stories that you only hear coming out of WCW, Guererra was unaware that he’d been released until friends starting calling him and telling him they saw the news on the Internet.

-The Australian show A Current Affair interviewed Kevin Nash. Nash said he wasn’t really seven feet tall, but rather six-foot-ten. “The only two things that are real in this business are the miles and the money,” he proclaimed. He said a wrestler shows up for work hammered, slams some guys, says some whacky lines, and makes “truckloads of money!” Some in WCW were enraged that he should say such things, but guess what? That’s exactly what he does, and you idiots keep paying him.

-Cat came down and said he had a huge announcement. He introduced Sam Greco, who was met with a tepid reaction. Tony screamed like everyone on the planet should have known who Greco was. Greco talked for so long that Stevie Ray asked: “Tony, how long is this segment?” That’s putting him over. Stasiak hit the ring but Greco KO’d him with a missed kick. This was pretty bad.

-They aired two clips of Johnny The Bull hurting himself. That’s great. WCW never shows replays of fantastic bumps, but is happy to show clips of their green rookies hurting themselves on simple moves.

10/30/00

-The newest issue of FLEX Magazine has an article on the top five physiques in wrestling. Scott Steiner came in at number one and Hunter Hearst Helmsely came in at number two. Any guesses on the final three? I’ll give you a hint, one of them is Goldberg. None of them are Chris Benoit. Give up? Well, the other two were Ken Shamrock, who is not even a wrestler anymore, and — brace yourselves — Kevin Nash. Yes, the fat Kevin Nash we see on Nitro every week. And people scoff when we say he’s the smartest guy in WCW.

-Mike Sanders came down to the ring. WCW set new standards for tame by bleeping the word “heck”.

-Tony interviewed Sam Greco. In his first question, Tony buried the company by asking: “You are one of Australia’s greatest athletes — so why would you want to make the move to WCW?”

-Boogie Knights came out. Disco said he had promised a huge announcement on WCW Live. He said that he was going to address a situation that everyone in the locker room had been fretting about for weeks. Madden hinted he would announce the sale of WCW. Disco said they wanted to know who let the dogs out. This announcement got over like Naked Midian’s testicles.

-Steiner came down to the ring accompanied by Midajah and a tiger. I’m not making that up, there was a real tiger wandering around ringside on a leash. It better eat someone, or that’s a horrible waste of money. Actually, the WCW Hotline claimed Tuesday that it tried to eat Rey Jr. Well, he was wearing horns and leopard-skin pants.

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Big Boss Man
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Re: Dirt Sheet Lulz & Knowledge Droppings

Post by Big Boss Man »

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.
:rofl2:

Yea Pamela does look good still. She's 48 according to her IMDB page.

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