Dirt Sheet Lulz & Knowledge Droppings

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Bandit
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Re: Dirt Sheet Lulz & Knowledge Droppings

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12/5/99

-The Mayhem buy rate looks to be about 0.45 which would be about 165,000 buys or $2.16 million in company revenue. That's a 28.6% drop from last year's World War III November PPV show.

-They did a show long sketch of Vito & Johnny (Tony Maranera was kept off TV this week after his less than stellar performance last week) inviting Mean Gene out to a strip club and leaving Gene there dancing with a half-dozen women while picking up two blonds (who may be brought into the Nitro Girls) and taking them home for a spaghetti dinner (Russo can at least argue that his Italian characters are as stereotypical as his Mexicans, even if they aren't really as demeaned). By the end of the show, the women tied them up, left, and called Disco & Lash Leroux, who poured the marinera sauce and spaghetti all over them. People are really going to believe in them as scary mob legbreakers.

-The former Ryan Shamrock was in a show long sketch where they kept getting gifts from Maestro. Finally she showed up to meet with him and do whatever it was they were going to do, only to find a crazed David Flair in a wig wielding a tire iron with Maestro lying unconscious inside the piano. Somehow, because of Flair, that was a lot funnier than it reads.

-Tony Schiavone actually received some death threats over the past week.

-Jarrett hit Tenay with a guitar shot after a badly staged confrontation. Tenay comes across really fake when he tries to get confrontational. Tenay also received a head cut legit from the guitar shot.

-Juventud Guerrera beat Jushin Liger in 5:30 to win the IWGP jr. heavyweight title. They did no introductions for this match. They didn't give either guy ring entrances. There was no belt. The announcers totally ignored the match. Guerrera tried a springboard plancha, and ended up cracking his elbow on the floor (he was hospitalized for a possible broken elbow later that night). All of this went ignored by the announcers as this was just a bunch of guys battling for the most important jr. title in the business as a backdrop for them trying to get Brad Armstrong over with the same gimmick that made Van Hammer such a superstar. Armstrong, after calling Bobby Heenan "Bobby Eaton," (well, he's supposed to act stoned, but I wasn't sure what Heenan's excuse was on this show) distracted Liger, allowing Guerrera to hit him with a tequila bottle for the pin. When this show airs in Japan, this will guaranteed be considered the historical low point of the IWGP jr. title

-They have turned the Revolution into an anti-government militia with codenames. Malenko is now named Python, Douglas is now named Rattler and Asya is named Boa while Saturn, doing his goof gimmick, is named Trouser. As they were running down the U.S.A., here came Duggan in what would have been the worst angle on a normal wrestling show, as he beat on those guys who had to sell foam rubber 2x4 shots. Duggan laid out Douglas and Saturn with the foam rubber before they finally overpowered him. Finally made the save and worse everyone out with the foam rubber. Pretty soon wrestlers will start hitting each other with tampons as foreign objects.

-Two of the Nitro Girls had a food fight. The fans in Denver booed this out of the building. They were sticking food down each others' tops. A fat woman (is she the transvestite?) who was supposed to be in the mud wrestling match started choking to death. Juvi saved her with the heimlich maneuver.

-Jerry Only beat Steve Williams in a cage match in 2:30. Words like awful and terrible don't do this match justice. Only ended up needing some stitches because he busted his head. Absolute worst match of the year candidate. Snow vs. Bossman is no longer the worst cage match of this year. The rest of the Misfits and Vampiro attacked Ed Ferrara outside the ring and poured barbecue sauce on him. Williams threw Only out the door, so Only won.

-Spice and Tigress of the Nitro Girls actually had a worse looking fight than the food fight earlier. Fans hated this.

-Evan Karagis was on top of Madusa about to do it. I guess on Nitro they do it fully clothed. Madusa I guess agreed to do it only if Evan gave her a cruiserweight title shot. Imagine Madusa thinking putting out is only worth the five cents that title belt is worth these days.

-Somewhere in here Lex told Russo he'd get Liz to do the mud match. Liz didn't want to do it and begged Sting to help her. Sting blew her off again. Of course, then he helped her. Sting is really weird.

-Rhonda Singh (formerly Bertha Faye of WWF killing the entire womens wrestling division fame) came out for a mud match. Bet you didn't know that Rhonda went to high school with Bret Hart. Liz refused to do the mud match with her. Singh threw ref Roddy Piper in the mud. Piper spanked her. They threw mud all over each other. Creative Control ended up in the mud. Fans hated a lot of stuff this night but they did like this. Piper ended up pinning Ron Harris and counting the pin himself even though he wasn't in the match.

-Yet another Nitro Girls fight, this time with Chae and newcomer Sky. This may have been worse than the other two. Whoever came up with the idea of having brawls with the Nitro Girls isn't looking good. Whoever continues to do it week after week is looking like the chimpanzees on the show that follows Thunder that used to book Nitro.

-Hennig beat Midnight in 2:58 via DQ. Midnight doesn't know how to even come off the ropes so everyone can see she's a total amateur, which is exactly what this company doesn't need because it's loaded with them, but she does have potential and is clearly a better athlete than Chyna, but these Chyna ripoffs are a dime a dozen and none of them mean shit. Lights went out. Stevie Ray attacked Hennig. Lights out again. Curly Bill hit the ring. Jesus Christ, you turn the lights out and the big surprise is Virgil?

-Spice and Tigress were at the Power Plant for several hours training on 11/21 training for their 11/22 disaster. The common theme is that the show has never been better organized, but the two glaring weaknesses is that the production crew is clearly not up to the task at hand, and that Russo and Ferrara don't seem to recognize that there is far too much amateur hour material in the show, particularly putting people in the ring to wrestle that have no business in the ring, and the fans seeing through it and rejecting it vociferously on the air.

12/12/99

-Russo noted that station management, in particular standards & practices, forced them to drop the Bells Palsy part of the portrayal of Oklahoma due to the station getting negative response from viewers. He portrayed that as probably just a few letters, and insinuated some may have come from friends of Ross.
The basic story of the 11/29 Nitro angle where Oklahoma had the barbecue sauce poured on his face by the Misfits and Vampiro was from a storyline standpoint to portray it as "unfreezing" Oklahoma's face so from a storyline reason there is no portrayal of Bells Palsy in the character anymore.

-There were a million segments with Disco, Leroux, Vito & Johnny the Bull and Tony Maranera sauce. Basically Maranera was mad at his bumbling idiots for being bumbling idiots. They were supposed to take out Disco & Lash, but somehow got sidetracked into playing a strip poker game with the Nitro Girls. Didn't we just see a poker game angle on Raw last week? Anyway, those Nitro Girls were cheating and in the interest of upping the ratings with the all important male 12-34 demo, we got to see Vito and Johnny strip throughout the show.

-Norman Smiley beat Rhonda Singh in a hardcore match in 3:08. they hit each other with garbage cans. Smiley was going to do it doggie style, but Singh sprayed him with a fire extinguisher. Didn't we see that on Raw last week? Smiley finally got the pin.

-Russo decided in a manner to decide who would be IWGP jr. heavyweight champion that the belt would go to whomever got out the door between Psicosis and La Parka (who probably doesn't qualify as a jr. heavyweight to begin with, but these Mexicans are all the same anyway). Psicosis got out the door, and came to the ring holding the IWGP jr. title.

-David Flair kidnapped Symphony. Maestro spent the whole show looking for him, and in the process got his ass kicked in the block by Jerry Flynn, who is doing a Fight Club gimmick.

-Gene looked down Mona's top. She scolded him for doing so, saying she's an athlete or something like that. Like the purpose of her ring outfit is purely for athletics.

-Williams & Oklahoma beat Vampiro & Jerry Only in 4:35. Oklahoma, who has a physique definitely made for writing and not performing wrestling matches, did his own commentary, which was funny, especially when 30 seconds into the match he let on that he was already blown up. He hit Only with a chair so he couldn't screw up the match too badly. Oklahoma at least looked like a beginning indie wrestler, as opposed to Only who looked like someone who is one year away from his first pro match. Oklahoma hit Vampiro with his cowboy boot, Williams planted Vampiro and Oklahoma pinned him after an elbow drop off the bottom rope (he went to the middle rope, got scared, and came down). Oklahoma then got his cowboy hat back that Vampiro took on Thunder.

-At this point in the show they played the exact same segment they played earlier in the show where Hennig tried to get Curly Bill a job with Russo, and suggested a new gimmick--Shane. Russo hated the gimmick. Actually he hated it twice. So, of course, later in the show, Virgil Vincent Soul Train Michael Curly Bill Jones was performing under what name? You guessed it. That production crew is almost as much of a nightmare as the attendance at house shows these days.

-Piper beat both members of Creative Control, which he called Condom heads, in an I Quit match in 2:26 which he was also the ref of. Piper grabbed both of their balls in searching them.

-Heenan was so far gone the entire show it was ridiculous.

-There was a kid who looked to be about eight in the front row who kept waving a sign at Liz saying "Show me your puppies." She saw it and seemed to be concerned momentarily.

-DDP will return to face David Flair in a tire iron on a pole match at Starrcade.

-Buzzkill beat Chavo Guerrero Jr. in :34 after hitting him with Chavo's own briefcase. This was beyond lame and the crowd hated it. First off, Tony Schiavone acted as if this was Buzzkill's first match in WCW even though everyone knew it was Brad Armstrong doing this 60s stoned hippie gimmick, which worked wonders for Mike Boyette when such a thing was a modern gimmick. Buzzkill came out to entrance music exactly like his brother Road Dogg. He did a few of his mannerisms and tried to develop some catch phrases. Chavo tried to sell him some tie-dyed t-shirts and a psychedelic lamp in the ring. Fans hated this. After the match Buzzkill grabbed money from ref Mark Johnson and gave it to Chavo and left with the lamp. So Chavo woke up and was happy that he made the sale.

-Gene interviewed Jarrett & Mona. Jarrett didn't even want to be near them. Gene kept looking at Mona's boobs like a dirty old man and Mona made reference to it. I think that was the only reason they even gave her an interview.

-Those lame snake names that were given to the Revolution the previous Monday have already been dropped, but they are still Anti-Americans to feud with Duggan.

-One of the internal beliefs is that Russo and Ferrara are booking entirely for the internet (Russo on the show said except for the angle with Bagwell having to lay down for La Parka that he doesn't believe a casual fan wouldn't understand their angles although he was said to have loved Guerrera's commentary burying Liger and I wouldn't have even had a clue what that was all about if I hadn't been told about it). At the shows, the two are always looking for internet response to everything they do and have Bill Banks immediately report initial reactions. There were also people in the company who noted that Banks didn't even know who Jushin Liger was before he came and thought that the promotion he worked for was called the IWGP (an error that made its way all the way to the WCW web site)

12/20/99

-The fans hate Maestro so much they are booing Ryan Shamrock. And it takes a lot for a pretty girl to be booed in wrestling.

-Vince Russo told Rhonda Singh he wouldn't even talk to her unless she got an agent. Later in the show, in a really funny segment they had the Nitro Girls dance. Singh came out in a skimpy costume which she decidedly did not look good in, and beat up all three Nitro Girls and then danced.

-Tank Abbott double count out Meng in 1:29. This is this week's example that WCW has the least amount of vision in the office of any wrestling company in history. Correctly done, Abbott could have popped a big buy rate against Goldberg (bigger than anyone in the company would be able to do for the next year if done with even the slightest concept of how to promote him because he's got charisma if used correctly) as an outsider who isn't going to do a fake wrestling match and never does a fake wrestling match on TV until showing up at the PPV against Goldberg. But no, they have him do a double count out with Meng with a story that only the boys in the back know and instead of drawing conservatively speaking an extra $1.4 million in company revenue easy on the outsider angle on just one show, they instead drew a 2.3 quarter for an awful one minute match that the fans booed and didn't get. Abbott is dead because he's not a pro wrestler and the only way to get him over is to sell his punching power as a one punch knockout artist. When Abbott threw a punch and Meng stayed up, they might as well have taken his $300,000 per year deal and given the money to charity because it would at least do some good for someone.

-Finlay was training Knobs in the swamp making him do sit-ups. His form was horrible. I don't think anyone would be shocked at the idea Knobs hasn't done a sit-up since middle school.

-Tenay announced Rhonda Singh was getting a cruiserweight title shot.

-Madusa pinned Singh (Rhonda, not Tiger Jeet, because S&P would nix that one) in 1:32 when Karagis collided with Singh. Singh started to strip but the lights went out and when they came on, she was unconscious. The idea is that the person who left her dead while the lights were off was Mona, but I don't think anyone caught on to that. Guerrera basically said that Karagis sucks and it's a joke he's got the belt, but in a non-working fashion which made it even more biting and more funny.

-Jerry Flynn was in the block and Tank Abbott showed up to beat him up and called him a martial arts moron.

-During this match Guerrera was hilarious making references to Luger and juice. Tenay tried to deflect it by saying Apple or Orange, and Juvi said he wants to get some of the real juice.

-Scott Hudson was brought to the Thunder taping but they decided to go with Juventud Guerrera on color instead of him. The only thing Guerrera was told by Russo was to go out and say what he really thinks about the wrestlers and the situations and not to react like he'd think a wrestling announcer would react. As of the weekend, the idea seemed to be to make Guerrera, Hudson and Tenay as a regular three-man team. Russo was apparently thrilled at the internet response

-Madusa, Roddy Piper, Sting and Bobby Heenan were on ABC's "Politically Incorrect" with Bill Maher on 12/10. It turned out to be an enormous waste of time largely because WCW sent the wrong people, Piper and Madusa in particular since they took over the show. Sting and Heenan said almost nothing. Sting, from the little he said, aside from one slip of the tongue where he said WCW does 12 PPV shows every month, seemed the most intelligent. Madusa came off as an airhead and Piper as an out-of-touch punch drunk relic from the 70s. The show degenerated from the start because Maher opened by saying he watched a lot of wrestling to prepare for the show and said that unlike in the old days, the audience today is in on the joke. Piper and Madusa acted like he said wrestling was a joke so Piper pulled down his pants and said he had an artificial hip and said that Owen Hart had died and tell Mrs. Hart that pro wrestling was a joke, which Maher then calmly repeated that he never said wrestling was a joke. The show never recovered, as Piper basically tried to argue that wrestling was real and how A&E and that "Secrets" show were all lies and said how it was only guys who never made it who are the ones saying pro wrestling wasn't a real sport (you know, guys like McMahon, Austin, Rock, Hogan).

-Saturn on the LAW radio show in Toronto on 12/11 said that since the new creative team took over that there hasn't been one good television show.

12/27/99

-There were 13 matches at Starrcade and virtually nothing screw-job finishes.

-Varsity Club came in for a brawl and Sullivan did the three of woe gimmick to Asya before they all turned on Duggan. Sullivan gave Duggan a low blow and Douglas came from the announcing spot and hopped into the ring to score the pin. Hudson should be more alert because if he can hop off the announcing area into the ring whenever someone is knocked out in WCW and get credit for a pin, he could develop a Goldberg record in just a few weeks. After the match the Revolution buried Duggan under their flag. This finish ended up being changed as the original idea was for the Revolution to do the janitorial work for 30 days rather than Duggan having to renounce his U.S. citizenship.

-David Flair was given a present of a solid gold tire iron.

-They showed Oklahoma on the screen and the fans groaned. This was not good heel heat. The Misfits then kidnapped Oklahoma.

-Fans were chanting "steroids" at Luger big time.

-Kevin Nash beat Sid Vicious in a master of the power bomb match in 6:58. Actually this was worst than it sounded on paper going in. Another ref bump, this time by Mark Johnson. Sid's back was bleeding a little. Sid used the power bomb, very clumsily, but Johnson didn't see it. Jarrett then ran in and KO'd Sid with a guitar shot. Nash twice went for a power bomb but couldn't get it because he was selling his back from getting the power bomb. He then simply told Johnson, who saw Sid laid out, that he had power bombed him while Johnson was out and Johnson raised Nash's hand. Boy was that a lame finish. -*

-Vince Russo, sounding very desperate in the process, lashed out at criticism of his booking and blamed WCW standards & practices for the fact the ratings haven't improved since his arrival this past week on the WCW Live show. Russo blamed standards and practices for not allowing him to have Roddy Piper call Rhonda Singh fat, no longer allowing Ed Ferrara to mimic Jim Ross' Bells Palsy, and not allowing Buzzkill to burn incense on the air, none of which one way or the other meant even a blip when it comes to ratings. Russo said that WCW has to decide if it wants a squeaky clean show or ratings and that they can't have both. He said he was promised certain leeway when he came in and for the first six weeks everything was fine, but once the heat came from sponsors, the rules changed. He also said people in WCW have been trying to stab him in the back (there is far less feeling of Russo as a creative genius within the organization and those who were 100% with him as recently as four weeks ago now privately believe he has no new ideas and just spun a good line). He claimed people in the company are saying the problem isn't standards and practices and that the show's writing hasn't been good, and claimed the people (who he never mentioned but are believed to be led by Kevin Sullivan and J.J. Dillon) were doing the same thing Jim Ross, Jim Cornette and Bruce Prichard did to him in the WWF. He also lashed out at critics, myself in particular, with name calling that made some in the organization think he was working an angle.

-Russo is trying to bring Warrior and Bruno Sammartino into WCW. Regarding Bruno Sammartino appearing here, while no deal had been done and at press time nobody from WCW had even contacted him, apparently's he's more than open to listening. He apparently said if the money was right he'd do a 6 man tag match.

-Bill Goldberg was injured from glass cuts doing an angle to end the Thunder show on 12/21, and at press time was in a Salisbury, MD Hospital and there were no details regarding how seriously he was injured other than he had full feeling in his fingers and hands which was considered a good sign since the tremendous blood loss reminded a lot of people of the David Finlay leg injury. This was not an angle even though it came during an angle. The show long story line was that Goldberg was going to take out every member of the NWO one-by-one. He finally got to Russo in a white limo in the parking lot as the show ended, and was, while wearing his shootfighter gloves, punching out one window after another. The flying glass apparently cut deeply into his tricep and there was a massive amount of blood flowing and towels drenched in Goldberg's blood before he was taken away.

-Madusa challenged anyone to a cruiserweight title match, then saw Buzzkill in the stands with a womens rights sign and challenged him. After Spice distracted the ref, who missed Buzzkill hit the Russian leg sweep and the cover, Spice threw something to Madusa, who KO'd Buzzkill with it and pinned him in 1:37 with a german suplex.

-Hugh Morrus, complete with a father, who looked like Hogan off steroids, as an escapee from the looney bin, lost to Hennig in 4:29 when pops distracted Morrus and he fell prey to the fisherman suplex.

-Nash did an interview where he started swearing, talking about how the boys never screw the other boys because it violates the code of the wrestlers. That was really funny.

-Piper started destroying Russo's office (he'd already left and was hanging in the limo) with a baseball bat screaming about Owen Hart, Adrian Adonis and Andre.

-Disco showed up at the offices of Tony Marinera's father, played by Chuck Zito. He told Disco he'd basically either murder him or he could join the family. Disco never answered. It's a pretty tough question. Either be dead, or hang around with bumbling fools like Vito and Johnny who when they actually wrestle can have good matches.

-The Varsity Club, with Kimona given the ring name of Leia Meow, as their cheerleader, beat Harlem Heat in 7:13. Sullivan did commentary, then tagged in. It makes as much sense as anything else.

-Gene asked Bagwell if he was sleeping with Kimberly. He basically said if someone who looked like that was in your bed, would you kick them out? DDP came out and they brawled. It's a hell of a lot more effective to book an adultery angle if you actually let the public in on what the angle is. By the way, Kimberly on WCW Live announced her retirement from wrestling due to it putting pressure on her marriage. I think that's the 13th retirement in the last month in WCW.

-The new NWO catch phrase is going to be, "Once you've had the black, you'll never go back."

-Flair & Daphne were at a gas station where they met a guy working at the gas station who they called "Crowbar" and befriended him (Chris Ford aka Devon Storm). Storm has been looking great in recent WCW Saturday Night matches. It ended up in a brawl with Crowbar, Daphne and Flair being jumped by Vampiro and the Misfits.

-Konnan must be in the major doghouse since he worked both shows in the opening match, putting over Jerry Flynn.

-Eric Bischoff is still interested in returning as the manager of Hulk Hogan.

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Big Boss Man
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Re: Dirt Sheet Lulz & Knowledge Droppings

Post by Big Boss Man »

The Nitro Girls feuding was just bad, wrestle crap at its best. Sky(e) took Whispers spot when she married HBK if I'm correct. But getting them to wrestle each other made no sense. But one "good" thing about Vinny Ru is he gave everyone storylines. Just that the majority were nonsensical. I forget how Skye became Miss Hancock, I vaguely recall a Nitro Girls 3.0 after most left. I think one girl quit on air or after one Nitro finished. WCW during this time was just hilariously bad, but, I still watched it til the end though!

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Re: Dirt Sheet Lulz & Knowledge Droppings

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From what I remember she just showed up one Nitro wearing glasses with her hair pulled back doing the gimmick and nobody acknowledged she was a Nitro Girl. I don't remember Lenny & Lodi being acknowledged as the guys who used to do the gay gimmick either, but I might be wrong. But with Kiebler, she wasn't a Nitro Girl more than maybe a month. Russo saw she had star potential and pulled her out pretty fast.

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Re: Dirt Sheet Lulz & Knowledge Droppings

Post by Big Boss Man »

Thanks. Quite a few years back I checked WCWs old website thru the internet archive and they had some info about the Nitro Girl search contest. I think Stacy won it in November 99. I think Ms Hancock managed EL DANDY~! for a while too and a few others, but yea Russo pushed her to the moon. I think the pregnancy angle was the main angle for a while til they dropped it with no real conclusion. In hindsight now I don't know how they'd book Torrie, Kim, Stacy etc today but the eye candy factor worked in their favour back then

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Re: Dirt Sheet Lulz & Knowledge Droppings

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Los Fabulosos with Silver King. That was the one good idea Sullivan had when he took over for a few months. But Russo ended it immediately when he came back with Bischoff because he wanted her with David Flair. So they only lasted about a month even though they were over.

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Re: Dirt Sheet Lulz & Knowledge Droppings

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Yep that was it, thanks. I don't know if it was like a D-Bry/Brie situation where they got together whilst part of a storyline or if they were dating pre Russo putting them together. There's a bit about them in Naitchs autobiography.

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Re: Dirt Sheet Lulz & Knowledge Droppings

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1/10/00

-Preliminary figures indicate Starrcade as a gigantic disappointment, drawing in the 0.3 to 0.4 buy rate range and we're told a lot closer to 0.3 as things look. It was only slightly better than Fall Brawl which was the lowest buy rate for either of the two big companies in the history of PPV so it makes No. 2 on that worst buy rates for a major company in history list. That is reality and I don't know how that reality can be explained away since they had months to build Hart vs. Goldberg.

-Leia Meow was jumping up and down on a trampoline wearing a bikini top, but her implants were so hardened that the whole visual image didn't work because they didn't bounce. Isn't it amazing that pro wrestling has now come to analyzing the work of plastic surgeons?

-Luger was scheduled to wrestle Tank Abbott. Abbott came out in street clothes. This looked bad on paper, but it was even worse. Liz sprayed Abbott. Poor Abbott has no clue about selling and did it show. Luger never even touched him. Flynn came out and started throwing kicks at the blind Abbott who really didn't sell them.

-Nash threatened David Flair and Anderson & Funk freaked. Last time we saw Anderson, David Flair was killing him with a crowbar, and now he's worried sick about Nash threatening the same guy who nearly killed him.

-Kanyon came out and ripped on how bad Bagwell's movies were and boy is that a shoot.

-Bagwell, realizing he hadn't turned on anyone yet in the match, gave Vampiro the blockbuster for no reason and blew his nose on him and he was pinned in 3:06.

-The NWO came out and basically teased that they were going to gang rape Daphne.

-NWO continued their 72 hours of torture on Anderson. At this point they made him watch every Nitro since April in a row and were starting to threaten him with Thunders.

-Wall beat Flynn when Abbott, out doing color, in a match that was billed as shoot fight rules which meant no pinfalls (this does get funnier so bear with me) and only could end with a knockout or tap out, punched Flynn. Wall then pinned Flynn.

-Okerlund was interviewing the Filthy Animals. Guerrera came out with a blond who he said had the hots for Gene so Gene left with her and that left Guerrera doing the interviews.

-Alternative Press in its year-end issue named ICP its reader's choice for band of the year. In an interview with them in the issue, there were a few references to pro wrestling. Violent J said, "One thing came out of wrestling. We're addicted to pain killers now. But just on the road. The thing is, we're still like super nerds. We wouldn't know how to get any pills ourselves. If we were going to, we'd be asking people, `Did you get an operation recently.'"

-Hart suffered a concussion being dropped on his head during the Goldberg match at Starrcade. It wasn't Hart driving the monster truck nor was Sid in the car that was being run over, although both were the original plan. Hart was told what part of the car to drive over and where Sid would in the car so as not to drive over him. Hart refused saying that he wasn't an experienced stunt driver and felt if they were going to use a monster truck and drive over a car and go to that expense, they should go to the expense to have professional stunt men do the stunt. There was no problem with his decision and based on everything he was actually apologized to about even being asked.

-And if you thought Starrcade was bad in English, it was worse in German. WCW PPV's air live in Germany on the pay channel "Premiere World." Usually, they get the video feed from the U.S. and German announcing is done in a studio in Munich (similar to how WCW and ECW PPVs air in Japan; WWF PPV shows don't air in Japan). Anyway, for the first time, the German crew was in Washington, DC live. The regular commentators were joined by a comedian named Tom Gerhardt, who was very popular in Germany ten years ago because he used to go on stage dressed as a giant penis and pretend to ejaculate on the audience. His fame with that skit was very short lasting. Anyway, he was doing heel commentary to get himself over, calling Disco Inferno guy, talking about Madusa having "nice tits" and said in commentary that none of the punches touch the other wrestlers, that pro wrestling is all fake and they he could beat any of them up. He even stood up when Benoit made the open challenge to anyone and challenged him. This was all done to build to a match where Gerhardt will wrestle Berlyn on 2/12 in Oberhausen, Germany on the WCW house show. That show will be airing as a live TV special on the station in Germany and the building is nearly sold out as the Germany tour is doing well. German wrestler Ulf Hermann, upon hearing this news, issued a grandstand challenge saying he's going to be at the show which got enough pub that the promoters of the German tour said that Hermann won't be wrestling on the show because he had never trained at the Power Plant (which was actually quite humorous because Hermann actually did train at the Power Plant at one time).

1/17/00

-Reports are that WCW as an entity lost $10 million during the year 1999, which would make it the most money any single wrestling company has ever lost in a one-year period in history.

-Nash missed the weekend house shows where he was scheduled to headline against Vicious claiming a concussion suffered allegedly when he was hit by the rubber crowbar by Arn Anderson.

-It's been noted that if any mid-card wrestler did that verbal tirade Scott Steiner did on Nitro on 1/3, they'd be yelled at and threatened but nobody said anything to Steiner. Of course, nobody ever says anything to Steiner because even in his incapacitated condition, he's scary.

-Before the match they did some mic work and gave the mic to a fan who screamed "Owen Hart sux" into it.

1/24/00

-Reports that Benoit threw the title belt in a garbage can and stormed off before Nitro started were incorrect, as actually the group stayed backstage for some time before the company got them new plane tickets home, and Benoit handed the belt to Nick Patrick before leaving.

-Kidman beat Dean Malenko in 2:36 of a total screw-up. This was billed as a catch-as-catch-can match. Originally the ropes were to be taken down for this match, but I guess they decided against it, but the rules remained the first man to leave the ring and hit the floor loses. They were doing some good wrestling when Malenko had a mental lapse (this was not a protest or anything and he felt read bad about it afterwards) and went out of the ring. Tony Schiavone doing the announcing said that Malenko had left the ring so he had lost the match. They went back in the ring like nothing had happened. Schiavone was making the point over and over and you could see ref Charles Robinson get the word the match had already been declared over by the announcers and he reluctantly rang the bell and declared Kidman the winner. -*

-Oklahoma won the world's largest cruiserweight title pinning Madusa in 2:56 of a basic disaster. Madusa came out with a jersey of her husband, Ken Blackman of the Tampa Bay Bucs (although she actually wore a Bengals jersey, which is the team he used to play for; for trivia note, it was Alex Marvez who introduced the two of them). They never mentioned that was her husband, only that she must be a fan of his. Madusa screwed up a middle rope dropkick, but hit a second one. He mistimed another dropkick spot. Oklahoma really wasn't that bad, not that he was good or anything. Oklahoma got the bottle, but Spice took it from him. Asya showed up to attack Oklahoma. With three women against him, somehow he still managed to pull the very loose shorts Madusa was wearing for some unexplained reason, although the finish showed why, in a schoolboy for the pin. Why? Because the loose shorts gave the audience a shot of Madusa's red panties. Madusa after the match poured barbecue sauce down Oklahoma's tights. DUD

-Booker T beat Stevie Ray via DQ in 6:30. In the weirdest thing, Ray did a video which aired before the match "back in the hood" claiming Booker T had abandoned his friends and showing old friends asking about him. It totally portrayed Ray as the face in this feud. Before the match started, T told Midnight to leave. Match had no heat. T delivered his scissors kick and a uranage before this guy who looked like what Junkyard Dog would have looked like if he was still alive and was shot full of steroids today hit the ring. It was the former Ahmed Johnson, Tony Norris, called Big T, and if anyone wondered what he'd been doing, missing meals isn't one of those things. A few fans chanted "Ahmed." Midnight came out, but then stood at the ring not saving T, with the announcers explaining it was too dangerous a situation. Let's see, she can wrestle Stevie Ray every night, but now it's too dangerous? Ray announced he and the new T were forming the "New and Improved Harlem Heat" tag team. Well, maybe new. 1/4*

-Some fitness models with horse faces and bodies by science were all over the NWO dudes.

-Oklahoma came out. He clearly had been watching his Kaufman tapes as he was using the same lines challenging any women to come out. Asya came out but he hit her with BBQ sauce. Madusa came out wearing a blue wig looking really weird. He hit her with a broom using the bristles and she still sold it. He eventually broke the broom on her and grabbed the cruiserweight belt. Heenan had his first good line in weeks seeing the broken broom saying that now Madusa isn't going to have a way to get home.

-Stevie Ray challenged Booker T and Midnight. T wouldn't accept his challenge until Ray slapped him. T accepted the challenge for the PPV to zero pop. I mean, it was scary how much people didn't' care

-Steiner was out there apparently having sex with a dozen women, but he was starting to fatigue as the show went on.

-Steiner, by this point, was exhausted from all the sex he'd been having for two hours, so the Old Age Outlaws handcuffed him to some lockers and Funk put soap in his mouth.

-Knobs won the TV title from Smiley outside. It was freezing out and they were wrestling in their jackets. The finish was supposed to be Knobs running over Smiley with a car. Neither Knobs nor Smiley were happy with that because the risk of injury in a worthless match for a worthless title was way too high. Actually Tony Schiavone told Smiley he would be crazy. Problem was, the car barely touched Smiley. At first he didn't sell it, then I guess he realized it was the finish and the guy wasn't going to hit him again, so he laid down. This was really funny, but also sad.

-Abbott did an interview and Flynn jumped him. The cops came. That fink Mean Gene told the cops it was Flynn's fault and they arrested him. Abbott then punched a cop to get himself arrested. At least these two are actually veterans of that jail scene. They portrayed Erie as being Podunk, USA as it being a town so small they only have one jail cell, and they put both in the same cell, and they started fighting each other. I guess they didn't figure how it makes the company look when it's doing a national TV taping in Podunk, USA.

-Madusa beat Oklahoma in an evening gown match in 1:52. Oklahoma hit her with BBQ sauce after the match and pulled the top of her dress down and then poured the sauce down her top. She then did a promo with sauce running down her chest.

-Kimberly did an interview. I thought she retired from the business because this angle was a shoot. Anyway, I just hope Sullivan isn't booking this angle given his track record of doing angles that break up real marriages. Of course Kimberly put Page over big-time in bed. I'm sure everyone wanted to hear that.

-Nash was torturing Hart and in the background you could hear the director wrapping up the scene. Now that was funny.

-Vampiro brought Insane Clown Posse to Nitro on 1/17 and not only did they not allow them to accompany him for his TV match, but WCW kicked them out of even being backstage.

1/31/00

-Norman Smiley came out wearing a catchers outfit and Dodger uniform. Bobby Heenan called him John Roseboro. I kid you not. We got more than two dozen e-mails the next day on the internet show talking about John Roseboro (the Dodgers catcher in the mid-60s), Sandy Koufax and Juan Marichal. Marichal was years ahead of his time. He was batting, turned on Roseboro, hit him over the head twice with a baseball bat (this was legit, it kept him out of the Hall of Fame for years) and Roseboro juiced heavy hardway. This all happened 35 years ago.

-Tank Abbott, who was the only person on the show besides Torrie Wilson to get a pop, KO'd Al Greene in 1:11. They wanted to do an angle with Abbott and Mark Coleman, but instead, they picked this guy who has been Tank's buddy forever who was sitting in the crowd. He was referred to as Big A and Big Al. I think he was the guy who poured nachos on Frank Shamrock at 3 a.m. in a restaurant and ended up with a Big shoe upside his Big head. He called Tank a "sellout." Of course, the announcers, since they are instructed to act like morons, had no idea what he was talking about. What he meant was, that since WCW is drawing big houses every night, that Tank's presence means every night is a sellout. Yeah, right.

-To show how much the bookers feel the tag titles are worth, at the house shows, the matches with Vito & Johnny defending the belts against the nearly as over challengers Three Count are the opening match on the show, behind even the sizzling Maestro vs. Artist feud.

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Re: Dirt Sheet Lulz & Knowledge Droppings

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I forgot Chuck Zito was in WCW, did he ever have a match?

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No, he wasn't allowed to because HBO wouldn't allow it. He also wanted to fight in the UFC and they would allow it either. He just did a few things with Hogan and the nWo, and I think this was his only appearance with Russo's Full Blooded Italians rip off stable.

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Re: Dirt Sheet Lulz & Knowledge Droppings

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OK thanks. Yea he must have been under contract for Oz at the time. Not working a UFC fight I understand but he could have wrestled a match or two but I guess they didn't want to take the risk. Plus isn't HBO owned by Time Warner so it could have been good for cross promotional type of deal if he did just like a in ring confrontation type thing with the nWo.

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Insurers hate wrestling because they used to get killed on deals with wrestlers in the 80s. Bret, Hennig, Rude, LOD, and others all cashed in big policies. That's why Rock isn't allowed back and why Cena disappears when he's about to film a movie. Also WWE Films stars like Miz and Orton take time off even before production begins.

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Re: Dirt Sheet Lulz & Knowledge Droppings

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Yea I remember reading Mr Perfect cashing in on his Lloyds of London insurance policy. Makes sense then that HBO didn't want Chuck to wrestle. Although HBO actor who looks like a wrestler winning the WCW world title would have made more sense than David Arquette. Although him giving the royalties etc to Owen et al families was a nice gesture.

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2/7/00

-Knobs gave Jarrett money to book Finlay vs. Luger. Let's see, if I wanted to payoff someone to beat someone up, and the guy I wanted beaten up was Finlay, I don't think Luger would be the first choice.

-J. Biggs came out now managing the new Harlem Heat. Nothing was said about Kanyon. He played the lawyer character and said Booker T's music is owned by Heat and he couldn't use it anymore and they gave him new music. He claimed the letter "T" was the property of Harlem Heat. I guess they'll file a suit against Sesame Street next. What about if Booker T & The MG's want to tour again? Anyway, this silliness ended up with Fat T talking and it wasn't long before you remembered why Ahmed Johnson got all those votes for worst on interviews. Heat left but Biggs was still talking and Midnight threw him in the ring. Booker attacked him and Biggs was claiming whiplash. Just like one of the boys to work an injury to the booker.

-Lenny & Lodi threw down their Standards & Practices outfits at Miss Hancock and said the gimmick was stupid and ripped on WCW for being the most uncool place to be.

-Smiley earlier had stolen the Demon's costume. Demon was shown, with his make-up, filing an arrest report for stolen gear. Then Smiley came out with the gear and beat Helms in 2:51. The police came after Smiley and Demon chased him into the crowd. There was a germ of funniness to this idea but overall it was really bad.

-Mark Coleman turned down a WCW offer to come in, shoot the angle where he'd call Tank Abbott a sellout on the Los Angeles Nitro, and later put Abbott over, probably on the PPV

2/14/00

-In an unscheduled display of the inmates running the asylum, Steiner went off on Flair for several minutes with an obscenity laced tirade filled with what jealous wrestlers say behind Flair's back because of his knack to stay over and because some of his personality traits can be transparent. Steiner called Flair a joke, basically blaming him for the problems WCW is in, said WCW sucks (which is the last thing anyone needs to be saying on its own TV shows at this point), said when Flair did his interview the previous week everyone switched from WCW to WWF on television to see Steve Austin, who Flair got fired (since when did Flair manipulate Bischoff's stupid decisions?) from the company in the first place. Of course given the track record of the two as ratings draws, there is quite a bit of humor in Steiner complaining about people switching the channels when Flair is on. Steiner went so long that a segment or two on the show had to be eliminated. WCW management sent Steiner home from Thunder as a disciplinary reason, but the problem with the company as Hall's track record shows, is that they'll just bring him back and headline with the guy and the company will be worse off in the long run for it.

-Wall beat Booker in 3:10 with a choke slam when Booker was distracted by J. Biggs and two police men looking to arrest him for assault, reckless endangerment and attempted murder. Don't they read the newspapers and realize there is no murder in wrestling. That's the NFL.

-Oklahoma did an interview about the womens division with this lame actor as a doctor who said they surgically enhanced just about every one of Madusa's body parts. Madusa came out wearing the shortest shorts ever seen on a wrestling show, and assaulted and reckless endangered (she was wearing ridiculous heels and could have easily lost her balance throwing kicks, and then so much silicon could have exploded in the ring that it would become an unsafe working environment) the doctor and Oklahoma with kicks to the head.

-They are doing an angle where Crowbar is in love with the Demon.

-Luger came out and called himself the Cal Ripken of wrestling. I guess he thinks he broke some record he should be proud of when he was in 2,131 straight bad matches.

-Flair did a great interview, bringing out the WCW Magazine that listed the 100 greatest wrestlers of all-time as Hogan #1 and Flair #2. He attacked the magazine and laid it out, although he did not put a figure four leglock on the magazine.

-Thunder on 2/1 in Binghamton, NY. Opened with an NWO interview where Marcus Johnson became a heel NWO ref (as Yogi Berra would say, deja vu all over again). He then reffed half the show and didn't play heel at all.

-Lenny & Lodi revealed their new gimmick, trying to be Hardy Boys knockoffs, as Too Excess. But WCW legal has since nixed that name. They made it clear that they aren't gay because they talked about going to bars and chasing rats. I guess that makes them cats.

-Hogan came out. He actually got a bigger pop then Flair did the previous night but pops and ratings are not the same thing. He ripped on the comedy. He never explained that deal with Sting at Havoc, why he was gone, or anything. Nice to screw people on the front end and not have it mean something on the back end. Actually now he, Sting and Goldberg are all friends looking to revive WCW. He ripped on those young guys who think they are stars, especially youthful Luger.

-Luger & Liz came out with a fake Sting in the shadows pointing a bat at Luger and then taking off the wig to everyone knows they really didn't see Sting. Hogan laid Lex & Liz out including giving Elizabeth the single worst atomic drop in history, made even better by the single worst sell job of an atomic drop in history.

-DDP beat Machine (Emory Hale under a mask) in 3:59 with the diamond cutter. They gave Machine a huge build-up the entire show and then he jobbed in his debut. Hale looks to have potential, but he did do the single worst crotch shot maybe in the history of wrestling. He was on the top and DDP shook the ropes. He stood there on the top as time stood still, seemingly forever, jumped off and crotched himself.

-Goldberg was on WSCR in Chicago and when asked about turning WCW around, he said it was like trying to cure cancer.

2/21/00

-The Hall story has gotten completely ridiculous. Hall, who, despite his track record was being pushed for the main event on the 2/20 PPV show as a three-way title match with Sid Vicious and Jeff Jarrett, appeared while getting on the plane to Germany that he hadn't slept in days (he had reportedly told other wrestlers the same story), got sick on the plane going over and was in no condition to perform the first night of the tour. Still, he did wrestle, and as punishment, on 2/11 in Hamburg was asked to put over David Finlay, which he did. He got wins over Finlay the next two nights but his condition wasn't described as being much better. There were incidents every night at bars regarding Hall challenging people to fights and even throwing cake at his girlfriend and moaning to many wrestlers about the last break-up of his marriage. As he went to the airport to fly home with the rest of the crew, his conditioned has worsened to the point the authorities wouldn't allow him on the plane. Terry Taylor, who apparently had trouble with him all weekend, tried to intervene, but with no success, in getting the authorities to just allow him on the plane to fly to New York for Nitro. Because of his condition, he missed the Nitro show at the Nassau Coliseum, where he was supposed to be in a major angle to set up the three-way, which led to the booking of a Jarrett-Vicious singles match on the show for the U.S. title and Jarrett winning.

Hall did get back into the U.S. in time for the Thunder tapings the next night in Philadelphia. There are varying stories over exactly what happened due to these incidents taking place just as this issue was going to press. What is confirmed is that in front of the crowd, the show was held up for more than 30 minutes while they attempted to do the scripted Hall promo, which was supposed to end with Hall breaking a guitar over Jarrett's head. Hall apparently said something that he might break the guitar over Taylor's head, and was taken seriously enough that he was pulled from the angle. Eventually, Bill Busch made the call that they weren't going to allow Hall to do the promo due to his condition and he left the building with Evan Karagias and there were rumors going around that this would be the final straw. Terry Taylor instead took a guitar shot from Jarrett. Hall's future in the company was unclear but he was out that night telling people that he hadn't showed up late and felt he had an iron-clad contract but that he might be sat down again.

-Apparently the hydraulics didn't work and Demon was stuck in his coffin for three minutes before they could get him out.

-After the show, Vicious confronted Mark Madden and yelled at him. Madden made a remark about the three-way and said that Vicious may be the "monkey in the middle," which is of course a kid game. Vicious was told by someone that Madden called him a monkey and he was very upset about it. Madden tried to explain what he actually said but Sid, I guess with his head busted open and groggy from a possible concussion and jetlagged from Germany, wasn't interested in hearing.

-Despite the trailers looking really bad, "Ready to Rumble" got very high marks on exit polls in its screenings last week.

-The long-term plans still are to build to Goldberg vs. Abbott as the Starrcade main event.

-As irony would have it, on the same day his racial discrimination lawsuit was filed, at the 2/11 World Tough Man PPV championship show, former WCW wrestler Harrison Norris (Hard Body Harrison) got second place, losing the finals via decision and winning $5,000. He cut pro wrestling interviews all night long and repeatedly challenged Lawrence Taylor, who was doing color on the show. Taylor at one point said about Norris, "I agree with all the white folks--he should be lynched."

-A TV series starring Duggan called "Bikers' Court" was attempting to be sold for syndication at the NATPE convention last week. It's a worked cross between Judge Judy and Jerry Springer, with bikers as the jurors, a silicon implanted bailiff and Duggan carrying a 2x4 as the judge. A typical episode is a midget smoker who is suing the tobacco companies claiming smoking stunted his growth and asked for compensation for a multi-million dollar NBA career that he didn't have.

-Hogan was on the Don Imus show and mentioned how he had creative control and wasn't going to lose anymore matches.

2/28/00

-When David Finlay came out as Knobs' second, the only reaction I had was a headache trying to forget all the WCW storylines that make no sense. The announcers didn't even try to explain why the two were together after just starting a feud. Probably the same reason Jimmy Hart was with Knobs at Thunder and playing heel ref while at the same time playing Hogan's manager. The least they could have done for that one was to explain that Jimmy Hart has an evil twin.

-Wall pinned Demon in 3:37. This was actually billed as a co-main event. The nonsensical reason for this is that in Eric Bischoff's contract with KISS (which is why they even have the character with the big entrance that they use as a jolly green jobber) he guaranteed the character a certain number of PPV main event matches. Good lord. Bischoff thought he could main event Brian Adams on PPV (which was the original plan for the gimmick.)

-Tank Abbott beat Big Al in a skins match, which was a leather UFC jacket on a pole in 4:34. Tank should never go 1:34 at this stage. This was a combination of really stiff blows and bad language. Abbott sold real big for his buddy. They were, by pro wrestling standards, totally potatoing each other with blows. The crowd had no idea how to take this, but it wasn't a positive confusion. Abbott made a comeback and put Al on his shoulders like for a Samoan drop, then climbed the ropes, with Al's life being in grave jeopardy by the shakiness of Abbott while climbing. Right before Abbott got to the top, he dropped Al all the way to the floor, which was actually the planned spot. Al lived. Tank went to the floor and punched Al, then got the jacket for the win. After the match, Abbott pulled out a switchblade and put it to Al's throat and made some remarks about he could kill him right there. The director pulled away from the shot apparently in a major panic. Tony Schiavone in the thinking on his feet award tried to suggest Abbott had scissors and not a switchblade and was looking to cut Al's hair, of which he didn't have any. Okay, maybe it wasn't that great thinking on his feet. Everyone was asking questions about that one after. 1/4*

-Big T pinned Booker in 5:23 in the Sesame Street Death Match for the letter T. This was ungodly bad, actually the former Ahmed Johnson in his now pregnant state actually "carried" Booker to maybe the worst match of his career. Booker used a dropkick off the top when the lights went out, seemingly forever, teasing that Midnight was coming, with her music. Of course, she's not even in the company anymore. This gigantic human showed up on the apron, Teddy Reade, formerly of the No Limit Soldiers gimmick and Booker stared at him, allowing Big T to come from behind with a really bad Tiger driver for the pin. -*

-Hulk Hogan beat The Total Package in 8:10. Hogan got by far the biggest pop coming out. At one point Elizabeth went to give Luger the bat but Jimmy Hart ran out and grabbed the bat. It was typical Hogan and he got a solid but I wouldn't even call it a good reaction once the match started, but better than anyone else. He no sold a suplex and made the comeback with a foot to the face. Luger used a low blow but Hart hit Luger with a weak cast shot, and then Hogan hit Luger with almost as weak a cast shot and a terrible looking legdrop for the pin. Flair ran in to attack Hogan after the match with Luger but Sting made the save. The last time we saw Sting and Hogan, Hogan was laying down for Sting at Havoc for no reason that was ever explained and the time before that Sting turned on Hogan hitting him with a bat. The fact none of this is acknowledged is one of the reasons nobody cares about WCW storylines. *

-La Parka was reading the financial papers when Madusa propositioned him.

-Miller gave Maestro new music since Maestro lost the bet, and the music sounded like you'd give someone who had just lost a bet. Maestro liked it so much he put the cobra clutch on Billy Silverman, who word has it did the vocals on the song

-Somewhere over the last 24 hours, David Flair ditched the screaming girl who does the great huracanranas and became totally sane, although that was one of those mysterious storyline holes that the few people left watching magically have to fill in for themselves.

-Some notes on the "Ready to Rumble" movie. The movie pushed Nitro, TNT and WCW a lot. We read a review from a fan who liked the movie a lot, but felt it would be a hard sell to non-wrestling fans. The sound effects were said to be great. The filming of a Nitro at the Grand Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles looked bad because in every camera angle, the arena looked small. The climax was filmed at the Olympic and it looked like there were only about 1,000 in attendance (in the movie the climax was a PPV event from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas). They did a spot where DDP was wrestling in a three cage set-up and took a bump through all three cages. The movie made the WCW world title mean more than anything they've ever done on their own television show as the fired and wrongfully defeated former champion (the Bret Hart role played by Oliver Platt) risked his life to get the title back. The heel promoter, the McMahon role, although the role itself was written for Eric Bischoff to play but then he was fired and a real actor got it. DDP is an undercard heel who has hated the champion for 15 years (the Shawn Michaels role). The guy playing the Hart role is called "The King." In the movie, the only people who know about the double-cross are the promoter and Page. There is even a Stu Hart role played by Martin Landau as a very old retired wrestler who tortures everyone who wants to learn old style wrestling. They also had an evil Nitro Girl in cahoots with the promoter played by Rose McGowan. Sting and Goldberg are said to come off the best in the film. Sting has five minutes in the movie but has the best scene at the end. Goldberg had the most lines and scenes but didn't play his wrestling character as most of the footage of him was either backstage or at the gym speaking in his normal voice. It was said he was green as a performer but had great presence. Sid Vicious and Perry Saturn were said to be funny as fumbling henchmen.

-Nash has been talking about doing an angle where he has amnesia. Like the last time (Cactus Jack) they did that angle it was even remotely entertaining.

-Do you want to know how silly mind control is? WCW ran a contest involving Flair and Hogan. I'm actually not sure what the contest was for. Anyway, we got numerous reports from people who said when you vote for Flair, the vote total for Hogan automatically increases by five.

-Hogan was on Mancow again on 2/18 saying his match with Luger would turn the company around, that nobody under 40 on the WCW roster has any credibility in wrestling (which I'm sure Goldberg will be thrilled at), that Perry Saturn (who ripped on Hogan on his web site) had never drawn a dime and never would, blamed Russo's writing for the current problems in WCW. Hogan needs to go. He's done more to hurt team morale than anyone in the company. The company will never rebuild as long as he's around.

-And if things couldn't get worse, there is a SuperBrawl ad in a Toledo paper called The Blade that had a photo of Steve Austin.

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Re: Dirt Sheet Lulz & Knowledge Droppings

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3/6/00

-For 2/28, Raw nearly tripled Nitro head-to-head for the first time, ending with a 6.50 rating (6.52 first hour; 6.48 second hour) and 9.9 share while Nitro ended with a new record low over the past few years mark of a 2.57 rating (3.00 first hour; 2.19 second hour) and 3.7 share. Raw started strong probably due to PPV curiosity and actually drew a higher rating opposed than unopposed. The main event of Rock vs. HHH & Show did a 7.24 rating. Nitro's main event of Vicious vs. Abbott did a 2.75. The combined viewing audience was 9.5 million.

-Hogan came out with his belt. Then Flair came out with an identical belt. I know he could have two of them, but this is wrestling and if Hogan isn't selling that Flair stole his prized belt, then who the hell cares?

-Mr. Duck Lips came out and challenged Sting and Bagwell.

-They showed a video package asking fans about Sid vs. Tank. Everyone cheered for Sid and nobody for Tank. Tony Schiavone came out of the feature saying that fans were split down the middle.

-David Flair danced with the Nitro Girls.

-Hogan said the strap match would be a Yapapa Indian Strap match 19 times during his promo.

-When they showed the ad for DDP's book and on the screen it read "Role Model," people in the building started laughing like it was a comedy spot like the Cat Bo commercial.

-Regarding Hogan, apparently the company has resigned itself that for the next two years, due to him being under contract with creative control of his programs, they basically have to cater to his whims. You can just imagine how much more damage will be done with two more years of what has been failing for the past year of nosediving.

-Nash spent the whole show with amnesia thinking he was Commissioner Gordon. It was the worst acted stuff imaginable, particularly the Nurses even more than Nash. There were two funny things. When he called for Bruce Wayne, he got Ralphus, who came in and Nash thought he was Bruce. The other was when Batman hadn't shown up, but Nash saw Sid on TV and thought the joker had escaped, one of the Nurses suggested calling Superman (and that nurse must have had Rena Mero's dialogue coach) and Nash responded that Superman was a fake comic book character. Aside from that the skits were terrible, in particular with Nash trying to sing B-I-N-G-O.

-The situation with Abbott and the knife is that before the match, Abbott asked Sullivan if it would be okay to use a weapon in the match. Sullivan, thinking like a pro wrestler, said it was okay. Abbott, thinking like someone who fights in bars, took another meaning to the word weapon and pulled out the knife. Schiavone actually tried to get around it by saying it was scissors and he was going to cut Big Al's beard, although Big Al didn't have a beard, but he's still being praised internally for fast thinking on his feet. Abbott's stock within the company really dropped from the incident which probably led to the decision to do the Sid deal, and soured a lot of people on the original idea for Goldberg vs. Abbott as the Starrcade main event.

-Steve Borden (Sting) was ripped in the 2/25 USA Today for his performance in "Shutterspeed." The story said, "there was some camp pleasure in watching Borden and Daisy Fuentes struggle with the none-too-taxing demands of the script, but not enough to keep you around for two hours."

3/13/00

-The SuperBrawl buy rate is coming in at closer to 0.15 than 0.20, which is by far the lowest buy rate ever for one of the big two companies. In fact, it is lower than most ECW buy rates, considerably lower than AAA did and in the range of what UWFI and K-1 (the early ones promoted by Bischoff from Japan, not the Vegas show which did .10) did with no television whatsoever. The fact this was done with Hogan and Flair's first PPV match back after months speaks volumes that this company needs an entire face lift, and at this point, they're better off biting the bullet for a while with quarterly PPV shows that they spend three months building because there is no reason the next show is going to do even as well. To put things into perspective, WCW's estimated company gross on the event was $773,000, and that's barely more than WWF grossed just for their Raw house show in Atlanta

-Nitro on 3/6 in Chapel Hill, NC drew an embarrassing crowd of 2,236 paid with 2,626 comps and $71,320 for a building that one year ago was one of the hottest buildings Nitro every played at, selling out 16,000 seats the first day tickets were put on sale.

-Lane & Idol tried to weld the Demon's casket as a rib. Demon wasn't in it. He attacked them and got double-teamed. Smiley beat Lane in 2:59 with the chicken wing. Smiley wrestled in a Michael Jordan Tar Heels jersey. This was a clumsy match with an even more botched up spot. Miss Hancock came out, but they forgot to cue the music so she just stood there and everyone started acting distracted even though she never did dance. Demon ran out and saved Smiley from a double-team. They explained that since Smiley a few weeks back stole Demon's stuff, that somehow they were spiritual brothers. Only in WCW can you logically come up with a reason to save someone who burglarized you.

-In the stupidest part of the show, Abbott came out and the world's most dangerous 9-7 fighter did an interview, with no help from Gene Okerlund that he desperately needed, looking at the ground like a first grader who never spoke in front of the class before. He kind of intimated he tapped because they were going to take him off TV if he didn't. If we're to assume now he meant that pro wrestling is worked in their own storyline, then the whole gimmick for him to get over in the first place about him not being part of the work, would have worked. But since he's part of the work, who cares about a guy who doesn't have a good body, can't work and can't even do a promo? Abbott said he wasn't going to leave. Finally Parka came out and was KO'd. Meng then came out, but security held him back and J.J. Dillon told Meng he'd get two months suspended without pay if he went any farther. So Meng left. Then, for no reason, Abbott, who said they couldn't make him leave, then left. I guess they had to get on with the show. Why did they stop Meng if they didn't stop Parka? Why did they stop Meng when Abbott had hijacked the show and he was actually doing the company a favor? Why does nobody at the booking meetings ask the simplest of questions?

-Bill Busch got the word this past week that Bret Hart would be back in July at the earliest. Hart received notice that as of 2/16, his pay was cut in half and that as of 4/15, he can be fired. Busch told Hart that he had no idea his pay was cut and that it was something done by the legal department, and they'd work it out when Hart comes back. The Winnipeg Sun had a lengthy article on Hart's condition, saying that he doesn't remember what he did on Christmas or New Years. He said it's been harder on him that some people close to him don't believe he's really injured than actually missing the wrestling.

3/20/00

-Three Count beat Jung Dragons in 3:26 when Shannon Moore pinned Jamie Howard with a sleeper hold dropped like a neckbreaker. These six guys worked their asses off. I love WCW's creativity. When Jerry Lynn wore a mask (remember that?), he was called Mr. J.L. When Jamie Howard wears a mask and is supposed to be playing the part of a Japanese wrestler, they call him Jamie-san. Like there are any Japanese kids named Jamie.

-Silver King & El Dandy tried to pick up on Miss Hancock.

-They did this embarrassingly bad vignette with Jake Strauss, the guy with the gigantic arms. Orndorff was running around at the Arnold Classic like the single most annoying mark at a wrestling show fawning over this guy like he's going to be the next Buddy Rogers simply because he's got big arms.

-In one of the lamest gimmicks to date, Dog got loose from Knobs and apparently he was drinking out of the toilet. Actually I just saw him on his knees in the bathroom with Knobs telling him to stop. It took several minutes before it was explained what he was actually doing. It got worse, Dog wrestled Smiley. Smiley won in :56 with a chicken wing. Smiley spanked the dog before the match. Demon, Lane and Rave all showed up in this totally awful segment. After the match Dog went after Scott Dickinson, with Mark Madden mentioning that Dickinson's full-time job is a mailman (which is true). That idea when it was explained was really funny. Dog tried to hike his leg on Smiley backstage after the match.

-Flair called out Anderson. This started out as sad as it could be because Anderson got no pop in Winston-Salem. But Anderson did a great promo, made even stronger with Flair standing there and saying more standing there than just about anyone in wrestling says when they won't be quiet. They suddenly transformed, for one brief moment, WCW into the best wrestling company of all-time. It was almost like a dream. Then came the next commercial, and it was a dream. Luger was standing there like a bump on a log, well, a bump on a log with 4% bodyfat. Basically, Anderson said they were both lousy fathers and husbands since they were on the road 200 days a year. Flair came off like a crazed overaged playboy hanging around Luger so he could still be cool. It was great, but in a sad sort of way. The negative is that even if these guys do the greatest promos, or even the greatest matches, which isn't going to happen since Anderson can't wrestle, they are doing nothing to help the problem which is WCW does nothing to build for the future. If this was a build-up for Flair vs. Benoit with Anderson in the corner, it would be tremendous. As a build-up for nothing, it is a very entertaining moment that means nothing for the company. I guess we should just be thankful that there are any entertaining moments on the show. When Mark Madden told Anderson how well received that segment was, Anderson responded saying, "That must mean I'm going to get fired."

-Abbott came out and all three destroyed all the NWA Nashville guys acting as security. Now think about this logic. Abbott hits the ring to get at Meng. He and Meng beat up everyone in their path until they are the last two standing. Then they both leave without even going after each other.

-THE ARTIST HIT THE DDT. TWICE ON THE SAME NIGHT. You read that front page headline correctly and it was an omen of good things to come, until Hogan's match of course.

-DJ Ran has been signed for a new contract

-Morale is at an even lower level than before. The latest stems from Bret Hart having his contract cut in half while being out of action due to the injury. While in England, Hart privately told several of the wrestlers the first two nights most of what he pretty well said in the ring in Manchester about there being a good chance his career is over and he was pretty choked up about it. When the word got out about his contract, it brought up the old double standard and selective enforcement since Goldberg in the same situation for the same amount of time hasn't gotten his pay cut, as haven't virtually all the big names when they've had time off for injuries like Sting. The feeling is also if they would do it to Hart, that you'd have to be really high on the food chain now to avoid it, but still with the knowledge the people they see as the very top people still won't have the rules applying to them.

-Knobs shaved The Wall's eyebrows and part of Ric Flair's eyebrow while they were out of it on the UK tour.

-Latest idea regarding shootfighters is to bring Mark Coleman, Don Frye and maybe one or two others in, include Rick Steiner in the group, and have them be managed by Paul Orndorff. God they have no clue how to do this.

-I'll bet this will surprise everyone. Jake Strauss, the bodybuilder they showed with Arnold Schwarzeneggar with the gigantic arms and with Orndorff embarrassingly fawning over him on the second Nitro segment, has been training at the Power Plant under Orndorff since WCW signed him with the idea of giving him a big push, but he's showing no potential at all.

-Apparently the latest WCW Magazine has a photo of Tank Abbott holding the knife to Big Al's throat and even says as much in the caption.

3/27/00

-WCW Uncensored on 3/19 at the American Airlines Arena in Miami went back to being the Hulk Hogan show, as he won not only the main event--twice--but also the world title match that he wasn't even in. It has almost become a dark comedy, that the worse things become for the company and the more obvious changes have to be made, the more they continue to go stronger in the wrong direction. For many reasons, this PPV was also unique because it was the first time they threw in the towel when it came to trying to sell tickets. Early estimates are the show did approximately 47,000 buys--hovering between an 0.12 and 0.13 buy rate, probably in the neighborhood of half of what the ECW PPV the previous week figures to have done.

-Knobs dedicated the match to Bigelow and Crowbar. I guess they died in valor.

-Sting pinned Lex Luger in 7:01 in a lumberjack match. The idea was all the lumberjacks would have casts. The first group of lumberjacks were the wrestlers Luger had done the broken arm trick to, including Doug Dillenger and Jimmy Hart. Hulk Hogan wasn't there, because of the divine powers of Hulkamania (and of having creative control), his arm had already healed to he had no need for the cast, not to mention he's smart enough not to dilute his character by being a lumberjack. Luger then brought out a bunch of guys like Hugh Morrus and Harlem Heat wearing casts. Nothing happened in the match. Tank Abbott came out, and decked Dillenger. On WWF, Vince McMahon does a one punch knockout of HHH. On WCW, the master of the one punch knockout never uses it on anyone higher on the food chain than Dillenger. And they don't understand why nobody gets over. All the lumberjacks started brawling to the back in one of the most unconvincing brawls you'd ever see, particularly watching the former Ahmed Johnson with nobody to brawl with, just walk to the back. Vampiro and Jimmy Hart stuck around. Ric Flair and Liz came out. As Flair interfered and took some bumps for the cause, Liz hit Sting in the shoulder with the bat. Hart dragged Elizabeth away. Luger racked Sting, but Vampiro hit Luger with the bat and Sting scored the pin with the scorpion death drop. This match did have one redeeming value in that Sting and Vampiro came together at the end and were treated as equals, so it should make Vampiro a player. 1/2*

-On the Gene Okerlund arrest, WFLA in Tampa reported that Okerlund ran a ran red and was bobbing and weaving in traffic and almost hit a police car.

-On the 3/13 ESPN Sportscenter show they aired a commercial for WCW SuperBrawl which had taken place three weeks earlier.

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Re: Dirt Sheet Lulz & Knowledge Droppings

Post by Bandit »

4/3/00

-After seemingly swimming in an ocean of rapidly declining numbers across the board, World Championship Wrestling went to a strange pair of people as its life preservers--Eric Bischoff and Vince Russo.

In a decision that had been in the works for about one month according to company sources, Brad Siegel completed the circular back-stabbing game which wound up in, not almost, but actually a pro wrestling like tag team, of the two people, former enemies, with seemingly nothing in common, bound together by their hatred for common enemies. Already there are those within the company doubtful the two can remain a cohesive unit over the long haul, with the impression if things are successful, both will want full credit, and if they're not, it won't take long for fingers to be pointed. Of course, that fact will be exploited as the two will work the latter point to try and do a television angle with each other. In the game where political allies take precedence over economic realities, the group that pulled the coup to get rid of Bischoff in early September, headed by Bill Busch, Gary Juster, J.J. Dillon and Kevin Sullivan, and who, barely three months after a much ballyhooed hiring of Russo as head TV writer, eliminated him from power as well, saw the tables turn when they also, after barely two months in power, couldn't turn the declining economic fortunes around.

-Nitro on 3/27 from South Padre Island, TX was the annual spring breakout show. The positive is with all the cut-ins from beach parties, it seemed like everyone was having fun, which is usually not the case when one watches WCW.

-Show opened with a woman flashing Gene Okerlund.

-They showed the angle to set up the Mancow vs. Jimmy Hart match at Spring Stampede where Hart attacked Mancow, seemingly for no reason. As the angle was explained to me ahead of time, Mancow was going to bury WCW for being so bad, but they didn't make it clear what it was.

-They announced that Sid, who wasn't there because he suffered a shoulder injury (okay, I can see not wrestling with a shoulder injury, but if you're the world champion, I can't see not showing up to television to at least cut promos) so to cover for it they announced he had put up a $500,000 bounty on Hogan's head, as if anyone could possibly believe that.

-Vampiro did an interview telling Hogan someone had placed a bounty on him for a half mil. He said he didn't know who did it. That was funny since the announcers already told us that Sid did it. Hogan didn't know about the bounty until Vamp told him, but as he continued his interview, he acted as if he knew it was Sid as well.

-Wall was on the roof of the hotel. Hogan had to go impromptu for a long time because the person who was supposed to tell Wall to go to the roof forgot, and by the time this mistake was figured, Hogan had to stretch a long time. Hogan ad libbed, going so far as to put Vampiro over as being possibly the next Hogan.

-Sting & Vampiro beat Flair & Luger in 5:29 when Sting pinned Luger in the Gulf of Mexico.

-Liz went to throw something at Sting, totally missed, and turned to the camera and starting laughing. She's got 18 years in the business and still has no poise under pressure.

-A commercial ran for upcoming dates, which still plugged getting tickets for Worcester and Durham, both of which are canceled.

-Bagwell didn't make the save because he was trying to pick up on the women.

-At this point there was a sign in the crowd saying "I'd rather be at Smackdown." Even the people given free tickets have turned on these guys.

-Sid did an interview and said when Hogan left, he was the one who carried the company. That's nothing one would want to put on their resume.

-The Artist hit Candido with the WORST DDT ever in wrestling.

-Cat beat Dog in 3:07. Mike Jones, a few weeks after doing an interview saying he wasn't going to be playing any more demeaning characters, is now Mr. Jones, basically acting as Cat's valet. Totally horrible. After the match, Knobs found Dog eating his socks. He drove him away with Dog's head out the window before abandoning him.

-Backstage Sid choke slammed Jimmy Hart through a table with all kinds of mats underneath. The least they could have done is put a cloth on the table so every fan couldn't see just how gimmicked the stunt was.

-Hogan was on WJRR in Orlando on 3/21 promoting Thunder later that night. Besides hyping his angle with Sid, he ran down a lot of WCW, saying Bret Hart was up in Canada and couldn't remember what WCW was, that DDP was out with a broken fingernail and that WCW needs guys that will crawl through broken glass with one arm in a sling to sacrifice and get in the ring. Hogan praised Vampiro and said Kidman should train like Torrie.

-Bret Hart was on the Vicki Gabreau show in Canada which aired on 3/28 with Roddy Piper. Piper started talking, in detail, about this classic match the two had at the Toronto Skydome, which, of course, never took place.

4/10/00

-In an interview with WCW Live Vince Russo said he "made no mistakes creatively" during his time with the company.

-Russo blamed Jim Ross for the period the WWF was losing in the ratings and called him lazy and said all he wanted to do was announce instead of handle the talent relations department. That's a pretty stupid thing to say these days given the talent roster the WWF has amassed and that the ratings are through the roof and the current WWF is probably hotter than any wrestling company has been in the history of U.S. wrestling with Ross in the same position he was in before.

-The 4/3 taped Nitro was a two-hour show designed to start the company fresh and build up Bischoff and Russo as the saviors and if people believed the version of wrestling history spewed on them, than it served its purpose. It was some real history mixed in with fabricated history and some real and ridiculous claims. What was funny about the show is they pushed in clips and music video packages many wrestlers, including Jericho, Malenko, Benoit and Giant that are with the opposition, actually far more than most of the wrestlers still with the company.

-To give an example of how Russo turned the company around, they showed clips of the Nitro Girls food fight and Madusa's feuds with Oklahoma and Evan Karagias.

-Madden described Bischoff's leaving and Russo coming in a few weeks later as if, using this exact analogy (and this isn't Madden's fault, as clearly this was written for him by the very people he was putting over), that Babe Ruth had stepped aside and Mickey Mantle stepped in.

-There are people within the company nervous about an incident that took place during the festivities at South Padre Island getting out. There was a WCW sponsored wet t-shirt contest with about 15 contestants, as it turned out, just about every one ended up topless and 13 or 14 of them ended up bottomless. There were 500 to 700 people there, many with both cameras and video cameras, and at least one wrestler was taking the bottoms off the contestants.

4/17/00

-Overall the first show was not universally, but largely considered the best Nitro in recent memory and much stronger than a somewhat blase Raw show that opposed it. That was the first time that could be said in a long time. There was a lot happening and it was unpredictable. On the down side, there were far too many insider references that were clearly lost on the live crowd and probably the majority of the television audience. While Bischoff came off as a strong television personality, Russo is not good on television and looked out of place portrayed as one of the two new big stars, since ultimately the show was built around Bischoff, Russo and Hogan, ending when Bischoff destroyed Hogan's limo with Hogan "in it" with a humvee, answering the old who drove the humvee question that 99% of fans had long forgotten.

-Due to all the publicity, there was about a half-point shift in the ratings, with Nitro doing a 3.06 rating (3.58 first hour; 2.64 second hour) and a 4.6 share. Raw did a 6.17 rating (5.68 first hour; 6.61 second hour) and a 9.4 share. The number of viewers of pro wrestling didn't show a significant increase, with 9.7 million, but during the head-to-head hour, Nitro garnered a noticeable percentage of the audience that had stuck with Raw over the past three to six months, and for the first time since the departure of Chris Benoit and company, there was a huge percentage of the audience that was watching Nitro switching to Raw when the show ended.

-Russo came out to the Road Warriors entrance music (this is where internet rumors of the Road Warriors appearing were, because their entrance music was going to be used) and put over the wrestlers who left the company like Benoit, Malenko, Saturn and Guerrero. That was surreal. Then he talked about getting screwed by good ol' boys while a great percentage of both the live and TV audience had no clue what he was talking about. He then talked about how they tried to fire Steiner which confused people even more. Bischoff came out to tease a confrontation, but they hugged and said they were working together. They ran down Sting, Hall, Nash, DDP, Sid, Hogan and Flair, which set up the feud between the Millionaire Club and New Blood World Order.

-They announced all the titles were vacated. Jarrett and the Harris Twins gave their belts back. Bischoff told Sid to give the belt back. When Sid was teasing he was going to hit Bischoff, Bischoff made a comment about him not having scissors. It was not the first nor the last comment on the show which saw the announcers go crazy, the audience live not reacting at all, which made the announcers appear that much more like they were overhyping nothing, and nobody explaining anything. Bischoff was clearly so stunned that the crowd didn't react to the scissors line that he must have thought they didn't hear it the first time, so he said it again, also to no reaction.

-Then they announced a tournament for the title and of course, with the exception of Jarrett, nobody under 39 was invited.

-Kidman did an interview ripping on Hogan. The fans didn't pop at all, because they largely didn't know about anything he was talking about. Kidman called out Hogan, who nicely wore a white shirt the better to show the blood with. Kidman jumped Hogan, until missing a move. Hogan then treated Kidman like a jobber until Bischoff hit Hogan with a chair. They showed the replay of this numerous times so everyone could see Hogan do the blade job right before the chair hit. Kidman crawled on top and Bischoff counted to three. Hogan is still the smartest man in wrestling. He has the whole locker room thinking he put Kidman over.

-Flair called out Russo, but instead Steiner came out and reprised his greatest interview of the year. While Flair stood there with his thumb up his ass, Douglas jumped him. Whoopie, another internet angle. Nobody in the building had a clue or cared.

-Jarrett beat Hennig in 4:24 in a match that had zero heat when Sean Stasiak, who they actually said used to be Meat in the WWF, came out. After a ref bump, Stasiak did some move on Hennig. Nobody to this day has any idea what it was because it was totally screwed up, almost making it a Shock Master calibre debut.

-On Nitro during the opening team meeting, everyone was supposed to act scared and somber, but you could see everyone biting their tongue because they were fighting from cracking up because Knobs' hair was set on fire by the pyro coming out.

-To show that pro wrestling lingo has become a part of pop culture, check out this from the Edmonton newspaper as its review of "Ready to Rumble:" "I feel like laying the smack down on Brian Robbins, the jibroni who directed this b-show of a movie which has as much bounce of a pair of worn-out bozarks. He and the rest of the heels involved in Ready to Rumble should be given the atomic drop (does that move even exist in today's wrestling lingo?) after globbing the marks this badly. The performances are all no sell with Oliver Platt as the babyface being a sure no-show. In short, Ready to Rumble is a screwjob."

4/24/00

-Russo and Jarrett cut a promo on Jim Ross, which probably served to confuse 95% of the audience and made them come off as bush leagues to most of the remaining 5% especially when the ratings came out the next day.

-Page showed up and security told him he wasn't allowed in. Page beat them all up and came in anyway. As he was going to the ring, he passed by Stasiak and Hennig, who, seriously, were backstage talking over their match.

-Bischoff then picked up a phone that never rang and it was Hogan's voice threatening him.

-With security gone, they had police officers guarding the back to keep Stone Cold Hulk Hogan from coming in. They were ready to pull their guns, but Hogan gave them a dirty look and they all backed off and let him in.

-Vampiro did an interview. The best thing to say about the interview is it was a great light show. Sting then came down from the ceiling and destroyed Vampiro, killing him with a ton of bat shots and the scorpion death drop. There was a lot of talk the next day about him coming from the ceiling. The NBA banned all mascots or anyone at their games from coming from the ceiling immediately after Owen Hart died out of respect to Hart, who didn't even play their sport, a ban that has not been rescinded, but to be the slightest bit surprised would be to think WCW has the same class as the NBA. For a pro wrestling company to do this, for nothing more than a pop, whether it's dangerous or not, and Sting was clearly dropped too fast, in front of wrestling fans, at least some of whom watched the Over the Edge PPV and have bad memories of it, let alone with his brother in the same building, is terribly insensitive. I just hope they have enough class not to duplicate this when they run Kansas City.

-Sid wrestled all three members of Heat in a no DQ match. This was among the most awful matches you'll ever see. They missed more moves in this match than in a usual month of Thunder and that's not an exaggeration. There was a good deal of heat anyway because of the three-on-one for so long. Finally Booker made the save and cleaned house, leading to Sid pinning Ray after a power bomb in 2:43. See Booker hates his brother more than he hates the millionaires that were holding him down for so long. Wall hit Sid with a chair and then Bischoff got mad at Booker for helping Sid, thus there is dissension in the NB ranks. Bischoff then said Sid was DQ'd, you know, in a no DQ match.

-Meng and Knobs ended up in the concourse of the arena. Meng speared a life-sized poster of Goldberg which was funny. Meng then used the poster to block Knobs spraying him with the fire extinguisher. Meng then threw Knobs off a 30-foot balcony. I presume Knobs is either dead, or landed in Lake Michigan.

-Finally DDP wrestled Bigelow and we had another ref bump. Page hit the diamond cutter and Bischoff came out, counted to two and stopped. Jarrett hit Page with a guitar shot. Arquette finally did his run-in with them explaining that Arquette is now close friends with Page. Arquette took a hell of a bump over the top, but then, even though he looks to be about 150, Jarrett couldn't pick him up for a bodyslam because he mistimed his jump before he clumsily got dropped on the rail. Jarrett gave Arquette the stroke. Kanyon, who I guess is now a Millionaire and over 40, saved Page for a second until Bischoff hit him with a weak chair shot and Kidman came out and spray painted NB on Page. After the show went off the air, the faces all got to make a comeback so they sent the people home happy.

-"Ready to Rumble" did $2,685,718 in its second weekend so it's now at $9,093,168 after its first ten days of release. It ranked No. 10 for the weekend but it's per screen average in 2,585 theaters of $1,019 is not good, nor is a 53% drop off its open.

-Scott Hudson's father actually passed away early in the Nitro show on 4/10 while he was on the air. His mother and father were watching the show at their home in Tifton, GA. His father had several heart attacks in the early 90s but had gotten into much better condition and his health had been improved over the past five years. When they saw Abbott go to the announcers desk, they both got very scared because it was obvious the angle was leading to an announcer getting beaten up. They were relieved when Abbott started spanking Madden. His father then got up and took the garbage out and apparently while doing so suffered a heart attack and died.

-They had a team meeting before the 4/10 Nitro and basically told everyone they need to pull together and be part of the same team. The basic feeling seemed to be that finally there was a boss in charge, as it was the first two television tapings where it was clear the inmates weren't running the asylum and there were very few changes made in the scripts as they were laid out for the first time in a year. There was a big difference backstage in that while everyone seemed to personally like Bill Busch, probably far more than Eric Bischoff, nobody respected him and it was really clear he quickly got the tag that he could be run all over.

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Re: Dirt Sheet Lulz & Knowledge Droppings

Post by Bandit »

5/1/00

-Yes, the most prestigious title in our sport changed hands twice more this week, with DDP beating Jeff Jarrett at Nitro on 4/24 in Rochester, NY and then it being put up to the winner of the fall in a tag match on Thunder on 4/25 in Syracuse, NY, with David Arquette pinning Eric Bischoff. The idea is that WCW believes the publicity about Arquette winning the title will hit mainstream and lead to a ratings boost. They did a double pin finish with Jarrett pinning Page at the same time Arquette pinned Bischoff, but they announced Arquette as winner and new champion and had him parade around with the belt. Kimberly was the ref and kept counting slow whenever Page had Jarrett pinned and counting fast the other way. Somehow she was out of there and Mickey Jay ran in and counted the double pin and signalled that Arquette had won. Most likely on 5/1 it'll go back to Jarrett perhaps as an executive decision or perhaps in the ring.

-Kidman, who was smashed half to death by a hummer last week, was fine this week except for wrapping around his ribs.

-Bischoff called out Page and Kimberly gave him divorce papers. I immediately thought of all the possibilities of how they could make this angle huge, but no, Page didn't even sell it like he was concerned. That guy is just so cool, he blew off a good angle. Luckily the announcers saw how Page botched it so they stopped selling the divorce like it was anything important either.

-Page went after Bischoff but Jarrett hit Page with a guitar. This brought out Arquette to jump on Bischoff. Jarrett pulled him off but before Jarrett could pound on him, Kanyon saved Arquette. Bischoff challenged Arquette to a match. The stips were if Arquette won, Page would get a cage match for the title on this show.

-Awesome & Kidman beat Stone Cold Hulk Hogan in a handicap match in 10:44. Awesome with his new haircut looks like he might as well be Emory Hale. Hogan wears a jacket that says FUNB. NB stands for new blood. FU stands for FU. Hogan cleaned their clocks and was working harder than usual. It was a brawl that lasted too long, but the idea was it had to keep going until 9 p.m. (the original idea was to put Bischoff vs. Arquette at 9 p.m. to keep people from switching but this audible seemed like the better call). Kidman hit Hogan with a chair and Hogan juiced again. Awesome power bombed Hogan through a table and then Kidman splashed Hogan through a table and pinned him after a legdrop. Hogan gets smarter by the week.

-Arquette pinned Bischoff in 2:08. Arquette at least looks like he likes wrestling and is having fun out there, but boy did he make WCW look minor league when he used the worm as his big move, particularly since it got by far the biggest pop of anything on the show. It was bad enough that the crowd was filled with pro-WWF signs, many of which were on camera, and negative to WCW signs. Jarrett saved Bischoff. Jarrett hit Page with the title belt. Bischoff hit a low blow on Arquette but then Jarrett hit Bischoff with the guitar when Arquette moved and Arquette scored the pin. Kanyon saved DDP, the lights went out, and Sting was in the balcony.

-Tylene Buck, wearing a very skimpy bottom and even skimpier top was doing interviews to tease the beginning of a feud with Gene Okerlund.

-Tank Abbott came out and threw around Bob Ryder, Jeremy Borash and Bill Banks.

-Finally Sting vs. Vampiro in a first blood match went a few minutes before a bunch of red stuff came from the ceiling and Sting bathed in it. Sting came from the ceiling again. Fans hated this segment bad live. Eventually the New Blood guys beat up Sting and hooked him back up to his hook and he was lifted a few feet off the ground and hung there like he was an unconscious pinata (maybe they can use him the next time they have five Mexicans on the show). After TV went off the air, they lowered Sting back to the ground, he made a miraculous recovery and beat up all the NB members. Reports were that even though Sting made the save, fans left the building unhappy feeling the final segment was a major ripoff

-Thunder on 4/25 in Syracuse, NY. Show opened with Jarrett, Bischoff and Kimberly having kidnapped Arquette because Jarrett blamed him for the title switch and said they'd hold him hostage unless DDP agreed to put the title up in a tag match.

-Paisley beat Tammy in a match that can only be described as brutal. Tammy did a plancha. If she does enough of them, she'll be in the hospital soon enough.

5/8/00

-Stone Cold Hogan crashed his car into the heels car and everybody fought.

-Ralphus is at this point scheduled to be the third man with Funk and Smiley in the hardcore title match on the PPV unless someone in power gets a touch of sanity.

-DDP, Kanyon and Arquette came out to no real pop with the belt. When Arquette started talking, the audience started booing. He said he'd give up the title. Bischoff told him he couldn't and that he'd have to be in the three cage match at Slamboree. Bischoff told Arquette he'd have to defend against Abbott.

-Russo challenged Luger to a match later in the show.

-Sting and Vampiro fought in a graveyard. Vampiro broke a tombstone over Sting's head and he fell into a grave. Officially, because Sting may have died, the match was a no contest. Sting's hand crawled from the grave with the announcers screaming that Sting was alive. Those poor announcers having to sell this crap.

-Russo was in the ring waiting for Luger. Douglas and Bagwell beat up Flair. Luger came in fighting with security he was maced and handcuffed. Liz hit Russo with the bat and ran off. Then Kronik came out and beat up all the security guys. Then the "real" cops came out and maced Adams & Clark. Amazing watching Flair & Luger used as set up guys to Adams & Clark can get the heat.

-Nash, who after all this, had beaten Misterio Jr. and Konnan into near death, then started smashing their car up.

-Vampiro did an interview. A crow was on a perch below the big screen. Sting, now totally healthy, came down from the ceiling, and landed way too fast, and destroyed Vampiro with a bat.

-Arquette pinned Abbott in 2:13 when Page gave him the diamond cutter. I know, Page was just stretchered out and taken in an ambulance a half hour earlier. Guess what? He drove back the ambulance and ran to the ring to lay out Abbott. That was a great idea. At least it was the first time I saw Hogan and Austin do it. It was already lame when Sandman did it. Nobody cared by now it's become such a cliche. Part of the problem is that somebody thinks this is a Roadrunner cartoon, and it's not. If people are left for dead, they shouldn't be fine 30 minutes later. It's like Sting was knocked into complete unconsciousness and was fine a segment later. But last week, he got bathed in blood, and two days later, hadn't even taken a shower.

-Goldberg was said to be really upset, and rightfully so, with how Abbott was handled on the show.

-Yep, Flair is in the main event for that PPV being put in a position to have to sell buys after being buried for the last several weeks underground as Kronik's set-up man.

-Some notes on the 4/26 Thunder TV show taped in Syracuse, NY the previous night. The only way to describe the show was very sad.

-Regarding Tammy Sytch, that was even sadder. I'm very sensitive to the problems of women in the late 20s or mid-30s (Sytch is 27) who are still trying to look 18 because that's the look the pro wrestling audience fantasizes about, which unfortunately isn't possible in most cases naturally. This leads to those unhealthy secrets whether in Hollywood, modeling, or this business, of bulimia, chain smoking, GHB, speed or worse. But for a woman who looks 35 to dress in front of people like she's 18 just killed her status as a sex queen dead that she could have saved by dressing smarter. If you actually look closely, I doubt Sytch's body is terribly different from Stephanie McMahon's, who through great usage of make-up and smarter dressing, gets away with playing the sex symbol even though she doesn't have the bikini body that the other WWF women being pushed do have, largely through artificial means. The match was the all-time worst as well. You had women showing lots of skin to a heavily male audience, most of whom were college students that didn't even have to pay for tickets, and they still got booed.

5/15/00

-Chris Candido retained the cruiserweight title pinning Artist in 7:59. This match wasn't good, but Candido still deserves credit for his end, but there were circumstances beyond his control, namely the other three participants. The two did a totally screwed up sunset flip spot that the crowd booed. After Artist did a Samoan drop off the top rope, Tammy distracted ref Mickey Jay. Paisley pulled Tammy's hair. Tammy hit Artist with a chair. Everything involving Tammy and Paisley looked horrible and hurt the match. The biggest killer was Candido pinned Artist after the Tammy chair shot. Artist kicked out, Jay counted to three even though Artist had rolled his shoulder, and the music played. The guys ignored the bell and the music and the fact the announcers called it as the finish (well, they wouldn't know the latter) and kept going, and quickly went to the real finish where Candido used a piledriver and diving head-butt. Since the crowd already heard Candido's music since it was cued, they knew he was winning, so continuing on came off really bad. Paisley shoved down Tammy after and that looked bad, then gave Candido a low blow and pulled Tammy's dress off. Tammy was wearing more clothing than any women in pro wrestling history that had her dress torn off. **

-Terry Funk won a handicap match for the hardcore title over Norman Smiley & Ralphus in 10:03. Most of the match was backstage with Funk and Smiley throwing things at each other and Ralphus, dressed in a catchers outfit with a catchers mask, just standing there. Ralphus threw some of the weakest garbage can shots ever. The height of the silliness was them throwing cardboard boxes at each other and selling it. As bad as it was, it was perversely tremendous entertainment. Finally Funk brought Ralphus in front of the curtain and into the ring, and unmasked him and pulled his pants down. Ralphus basically stood there with his butt showing and teased doing the big wiggle several times. The cameras never got the shot the audience had, and it's probably a good thing. They brought in a ladder but didn't do any crazy ladder spots. Funk juiced from a chair to the head. Ralphus by this time looked like he was about to have a heart attack. Funk hit both Smiley an Ralphus with chairs and Ralphus died and Funk schoolboyed Smiley for the pin.

-Douglas in an interview said he was going to franchise Flair's ass. It sounded like he was going to start a chain of restaurants called "Ric Flair's Ass."

-A masked guy in a Sting mask came out and hit Flair with a bat and Douglas cradled him. Since the announcers were screaming it was Russo, it clearly wasn't, so it was no surprise when Flair was screaming for Russo to come back in the ring and then the real Russo came out for the five minutes. It turned out to be David Flair, with the announcers acting shocked at the son turning on the father, as if we didn't see that angle how many times last year. David and Russo pounded on Ric until Nash came out and he threw one knee and David was dead. Daffney hit Nash with a low blow and Russo destroyed Nash with the bat. Later in the show, Nash was backstage fine.

-Nitro on 5/8 at the TWA Dome in St. Louis drew 6,545 fans, which was 3,388 paying $132,995. Considering the size and cost of running a show at the TWA Dome, this was the biggest money losing event for WCW so far this year. This is the same building that just 17 months ago, WCW, in a blizzard with zero walk-up, drew 29,000 paid.

-The show opened with them showing Kanyon in a hospital room with Page visiting. Awesome, Bischoff, Kimberly and Jarrett showed up in the hospital and attacked Page, including pouring the contents of Kanyon's bedpan on him.

- They cut to live where the New Blood with Arquette came out. Bischoff, clearly feeling the heat of the criticism of Arquette and the ratings, attempted to portray it as if they had this angle planned long in advance by showing back footage. Unfortunately, because they didn't, none of this made sense. If the idea was to get the belt back from Page by using Arquette, why would Page win the belt due to Arquette in the first place? If Abbott laid down in a fake fight to Arquette to fool Page, why did he lay down for Page's finisher unless Page was also in cahoots with the entire plan. I guess they realized how badly they hurt the angle for Goldberg's return so it was important to rebuild Abbott. Page showed up back from the hospital and cleaned house on everyone, and laid Arquette out with a diamond cutter to a very weak pop.

-Flair came out and called out David. Flair put on a good performance but it's pretty hard to watch this knowing they did the exact same angle last year and are pretending it never happened. Daffney came out with David as well as Russo, who to rub it into Flair, is pretending to be David's surrogate father since Ric was a lousy father. Then, in the single dumbest thing on the show, Flair pulled out the cell phone and told David that he'd get him a job with Vince McMahon and he could be on Raw next Monday, and the entire crowd cheered. Why not go on your own show and by the crowd reaction and your own positioning, tell everyone your a bush league promotion. Ric & David hugged, so naturally Ric turned his back on David and got jumped and David grabbed Ric's old title belts and left. Ric then got in the limo and left, and told Luger he was quitting wrestling.

-Awesome clocked DDP with two chair shots and Page juiced. After a power bomb through the table, Bischoff grabbed Page's hand and made him sign his divorce papers that he'd ripped up earlier in the show. Scott Hudson, who works in the criminal justice branch of the Georgia government in real life, informed everyone that he didn't think that would hold up in court since there would be videotaped proof of the nature of him signing the papers. Can you imagine actual common sense right in the middle of a wrestling show.

-Hogan & Nash went to a no contest with Kidman & Konnan & Misterio Jr. & Awesome in 2:28. Awesome joined the group because those old guys would never sell for guys that size all by themselves. Actually, they didn't sell at all even 4-on-2. Finally Hogan brawled with all four, not selling for any of them until finally they wore him out with a baseball bat and put him in the trunk of a car. They tried to kidnap Hogan, but the Goldberg monster truck blocked them and Hogan, with his magical powers, since I guess he saw the Houdini biography special, escaped the trunk.

-From several accounts, Bischoff does only very minor editing of the show, usually on things that are insignificant and it's Russo show.

-Russo's excuses about the ratings have taken an even bigger turn of late. Regarding the Thunder rating dropping so badly for the Arquette title win, he claimed that since Thunder went off the air that night at 11:05 p.m., the final quarter hour's 2.25 rating was really mainly for the show that aired after Thunder claiming the show that followed wrestling drew no ratings. For a guy who writes TV and is supposed to pay attention to ratings minute by minute, if that's the case, he would have known that his own show went off the air with the main event at 11:14 p.m. that night.

-Russo said he decided to instead put it on Arquette because of how all the mainstream publicity would boost curiosity and lead to a bigger rating. Everyone was backstage when they saw Arquette in USA Today the next Monday telling each other how it worked, and then Tuesday morning when the rating came out, the mood changed. It's another example of the axiom that all publicity is good publicity isn't true in the real world, and that no matter how aware people are of something, if it's something they don't want to see, they won't turn on their sets to see it. From what we're told, privately, virtually everyone in the company recognized the Arquette title thing was a major flop, but publicly the only one who would say it was Mark Madden.

5/22/00

-The Slamboree buy rate was not released by WCW because the figure was such an embarrassment.

-The MIAs, which is a remake of the Oddities/Sable deal in WWF, saw Tylene Buck now called Major Guns, Chavo Guerrero Jr. is Lt. Loco and Van Hammer as Major Strash. As stupid as this sounds, they wanted him to be Private Stash as an inside joke, but he cried about it because private was the lowest rank and he didn't want to be seen as the lowest ranking Oddity.

-They kept showing the Goldberg truck. The belief, and this may be true, is that this truck means more ratings than any of the wrestlers.

-Smiley and Ralphus got a job at the popcorn stand until Ralphus was picking his butt and putting his hand in the popcorn.

-Russo came out and hit Luger with a low blow, but he was wearing a cup so he no sold it and rubbed the cup in Russo's mouth.

-Of course, Sid turned on DDP. They've got to bring Page's mom on next week so she can turn on him.

-Ralphus & Smiley were selling FUNB t-shirts out of the back of a trunk. Miller vs. Funk hardcore title match sees them brawl to where Ralphus & Norman are selling the shirts. Funk destroyed the car with a chair as does Miller. Smiley hits Miller with a chair and Funk pins him. The Goldberg truck came out to a big pop. Ralphus & Smiley were then arrested for conducting business without a license.

-During the commercial, they soaked the ropes with gasoline. Sting came out, then Vampiro came out and called him Steve and said they would have an inferno match on the PPV. Sting said that's nuts and he isn't going to do it. At this point the ropes were supposed to catch on fire but they didn't. The fans started laughing and booing. They re-taped it later in the show and it did work, but by that time the arena was almost empty.

-They showed segments throughout the show of Russo taking David Flair, Crowbar and Daffney around New York. They took him to a quarter adult video house and acted as if David had never seen a naked woman before. David and Crowbar were hilarious, although after David's torrid love affair last season with Torrie Wilson, let alone being Ric Flair's son, that was pretty preposterous.

-Funk came out with chickens on each hand like they were boxing gloves

-Vampiro did an interview with Tenay. They built to a spot where Vampiro acted like he was going to bite the head off Sting's crow but Sting made the save and beat the hell out of Vampiro. After being beaten up, Vampiro started laughing. Vampiro was making references to "Steve Borden" not wanting to work, he'd rather stay home, his gimmick is just another acting gig. When Sting pounded on him, he called Vampiro "Ian."

-David talked about being neglected as a child. He got really good heat. It was weird because he was bragging about his long-legged blond girlfriend and having a Corvette to show he hasn't done badly for himself (his real-life fiance is Stacey Keibler, aka Miss Hancock), which was strange since Daffney was right there as a medium-legged brunette who is supposed to be his girlfriend and not only that, who he just, earlier in this very same show asked to marry him (that apparently based on this show, neither of whom we are supposed to believe he's ever seen sans clothing).

-They started a Thunder tailgating party idea, which was a smart idea to try and get people to think of Thunder as an event to attend as opposed to avoid as it's been of late to wrestling fans.

-The blood fell from the ceiling, most of which fell several feet to the side of Nash and much of which fell on front row spectators.

5/29/00

-The New Blood did the funeral. Russo gave the title to Jarrett. They pretended Flair had a brain aneurysm. Nash came out of the casket and beat up Jarrett and David Flair like they were flies and left with the belt. Nash had a hard time getting out of the casket and his eyes looked really bad, like he hadn't slept since the Ford administration.

-Steiner said "There's nothing finer than doing the 69er with Scott Steiner."

-The original plan was for David to give Reid a terrible beating, but standards and practices nixed it feeling it would display child abuse.

-They showed the FA's mad at Smiley and Ralphus. Ralphus got decked but the MIA's made the save. With Ralphus KO'd, they tried to get Tylene Buck to give him mouth-to-mouth. She didn't seem happy, but being the only one in the company that knows CPR and also looks good stripping to a bikini top at the same time, it was her role. Ralphus slipped her the tongue and the segment ended.

-WCW is putting out PPV specials on DirecTV regularly of its various performers. I wonder what the buy rate was a few weeks back for the Disco Inferno PPV

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Big Boss Man
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Re: Dirt Sheet Lulz & Knowledge Droppings

Post by Big Boss Man »

That era of WCW was so bad, but there was a ton of unintentional hilarity attached I might have to revisit it. Seems Bischoff and Russo were throwing tons of mud at the wall hoping some of it stuck. The WWF was on fire during this time and most casual fans would easily choose that over WCW. In hindsight was there no chance to turn the ship around?.

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Bandit
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Re: Dirt Sheet Lulz & Knowledge Droppings

Post by Bandit »

If they made money AOL would not have sold them. You can make money while still being #2. Remember WWF didn't officially take back the undisputed #1 promotion spot until early 1999, and they'd been making tons of money for all of 1998. If WCW was selling PPVS, merchandise, toys and tickets but just losing the ratings narrowly no company was going to dump them. The new people in charge of TNT may have been saying they refused pro wrestling, but moving Nitro to TBS would not have been a big deal since just as many cable subscribers had it.

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Big Boss Man
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Re: Dirt Sheet Lulz & Knowledge Droppings

Post by Big Boss Man »

Yea that's true. They lost like $80m in one year (2000 if I'm correct). I think that figure was broke down before. Some on contracts etc. Where they still paying guys to sit at home by then?. Bischoff loaded up the roster to the point of overload at one point. I'd have cleaned house to cut down the salaries. Plus the talent was stale by that point so they could have brought in guys from ECW etc and do talent sharing with New Japan, AAA etc.

The old guard (Hogan et al) you have to faze out but Hulk had a big contract, creative control etc so buying him out might do more expensive but freshen up the whole roster. If you have to keep him utilise him rather than having him sit at home.
June 2000 roster

3 Count
Arn Anderson
The Artist
AWOL
Baby
Bam Bam Bigelow
Berlyn
Big Vito
Billy Kidman
Bobby Heenan
Booker T
Bret Hart
Buff Bagwell
The Cat
Chae
Chameleon
Chiquita
Chris Kanyon
Chuck Palumbo
Corporal Cajun
Crowbar
Daffney
David Flair
The Demon
Diamond Dallas Page
Disco
Eric Bischoff
Fit Finlay
The Franchise
Gene Okerlund
Goldberg
Hacksaw Jim Duggan
The Harris Brothers
General Rection
Hulk Hogan
Jeff Jarrett
Jimmy Hart
Jindrak and O'Haire
Johnny The Bull
The Juice
The Jung Dragons
Kevin Nash
Kimberly
Konnan
Kronic
Lance Storm
Lieutenant Loco
Madusa
Major Gunns
Mark Madden
Michael Buffer
Midajah
Mike Awesome
Mike Tenay
Ms. Hancock
Nitro Girls
Norman Smiley & Ralphus
The Outsiders
Paisley
PerfectShawn Stasiak
Prime Time
Rey Mysterio Jr.
Ric Flair
Rick Steiner
Scott Hall
Scott Hudson
Scott Steiner
Sid Vicious
Spice
Starr
Stevie Ray
Sting
Syren
Tank Abbott
Terry Funk
Terry Taylor
Tony Schiavone
Torrie Wilson
The Total Package
Tygress
Vampiro
Vince Russo
You could release a ton of people and bring in some talented guys and girls in instead. Plus I'd
set up a NXT style promotion for the Powerplant guys and girls. Because they were sending them up to the main roster when they were still green.

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Bandit
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Re: Dirt Sheet Lulz & Knowledge Droppings

Post by Bandit »

The wrestler contracts were not the problem. They could have cut all of the big names and it wouldn't have mattered at all with offsetting their 60 million in debt. You would have saved maybe 15-20 million, but that wasn't even half of the debt.

The issue was they structured the company to be the way it was in 1998 when they had more money than they knew what to do with, but by the summer of 1999 they dropped like a rock. But the killer was buyrates vanishing out of nowhere under Russo in 2000. ECW beat them on PPV the whole year, which was unthinkable. So when you set things up to run on an estimation of what you bring in on PPV and live gates and it vanishes within 3 months you're screwed.

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