Tag: classic - Page 2

August 23, 2004 Observer Newsletter: WON Hall of Fame class of 2004

Posted on August 11, 2021 by Dave Meltzer

For probably the past three years, the 2004 elections for the Wrestling Observer looked to be the most interesting in the history of the elections because more unique candidates than in any other election would become eligible. At the time, in 2001, the list was Jun Akiyama, HHH, Kazushi Sakuraba, Great Sasuke and Kiyoshi Tamura. Over the past two years, the name Kurt Angle would have been added.

Akiyama had a career filled with incredible matches, but he also worked with some of the best people in history, and was never a success when the spotlight of being the top singles star in his promotion was put on him. Angle is the first man in the history of pro wrestling to be the consensus best legitimate wrestler in the world in his weight division, and later become the consensus best illegitimate wrestler in the world. However, Angle started his career in late 1998, and didn’t even come up to the main WWF roster until late 1999.

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August 16, 2004 Observer Newsletter: TNA ends weekly PPV, Bruno Sammartino on WWE, more

Posted on August 4, 2021 by Dave Meltzer

While not announced officially, several sources have confirmed that TNA has made the decision to cease weekly PPV shows on 9/8.

As noted from the start of doing weekly television, this was the only feasible decision. The company had fallen to about 6,000 buys per week on PPV before getting on Fox Sports Net. The decision was to wait about eight weeks to see if the new TV show increased buys. After ten weeks, there is no indication that aside from one or two shows, the normal levels of buys had changed at all, and the money losses were probably hovering on $100,000 per week.

The decision at this point is do to monthly three-hour shows on Sunday evenings, similar to WWE and Pride, starting in November. The final show at the Asylum in Nashville, at this point, is 9/8. Starting on 9/14, the Orlando tapings will be moved from Thursdays to Tuesdays, to give them more time to edit the post-produce the show for Friday.

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August 9, 2004 Observer Newsletter: Bruno Sammartino backstage at Raw, more

Posted on July 28, 2021 by Dave Meltzer

Bruno Sammartino was at the WWE Raw show in Pittsburgh on 7/26 for more than just to work on a documentary about his life, but also because he’s been offered a role as an announcer for the new 24/7 channel.

It would have been an incredible shock a few months ago for things to have gotten this far due to hard feelings. It is not clear where things stand right now, other than Sammartino had a cordial meeting with Vince McMahon at the show, which would have been the first time the two would have spoken since a public confrontation on the stage of the Phil Donahue show in 1992.

Sammartino, 69, and the company had been at odds since 1987, when Sammartino’s contract as a TV announcer expired and he left the company, unhappy with how wrestling had changed. In particular, Sammartino noted the drug culture, both steroids and recreational drugs, that had changed the business since his heyday as the company’s biggest star for most of the period from 1963 until his initial retirement in 1981.

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August 2, 2004 Observer Newsletter: SummerSlam 2004 card finalized, Raw Iron Man match, more

Posted on July 21, 2021 by Dave Meltzer

After the first 60:00 singles match on live U.S. TV in 23 years, and the first ever to a national audience, the SummerSlam show for 8/15 in Toronto has finalized its top seven matches.

The Raw brand top matches will be Chris Benoit vs. Randy Orton for the World title, HHH vs. Eugene, Chris Jericho vs. Batista and Kane vs. Matt Hardy. The Smackdown brand matches will be JBL vs. Undertaker for the WWE title, Kurt Angle vs. Eddie Guerrero and John Cena vs. Booker T for the U.S. title.

The long-term plan is to build toward HHH vs. Orton as the big match at Wrestlemania. With Orton garnering so much momentum, this seems like an easy build by putting Orton over as champion and causing dissension in the Evolution group. HHH originally wanted that match for last year’s Mania, but recognized it was too early for Orton, who has really come into his own as a major star in the past two months.

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July 26, 2004 Observer Newsletter: Raw 60-minute Iron Man match, more

Posted on July 14, 2021 by Dave Meltzer

The WWE will attempt to create history on Raw on 7/26 in Pittsburgh with the longest match in the 11 ½ year history of the show, a planned 60:00 Iron Man match for the WWE title between Chris Benoit and HHH.

A few years ago, the idea of doing a match that long on television would have been considered stupid. Not one was attempted in the 90s. In the 80s, there were a few famous very long matches, and two legit time limit draws, a Nick Bockwinkel vs. Curt Hennig match for the AWA title on ESPN (taped on November 21, 1986, in Las Vegas, but airing on a New Year’s Eve TV special, which, because of when it aired, is part of what made it memorable) and a Ric Flair vs. Kerry Von Erich NWA title match from Honolulu, taped February 5, 1985, airing about two months later nationally on FNN (the old Financial News Network, which at the time aired Polynesian Pro Wrestling).

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Jul 19, 2004 Observer Newsletter: More on Ric Flair book, WWE Vengeance review, more

Posted on July 8, 2021 by Dave Meltzer

The final show of the WWE experiment of three PPV events in six weeks, the 7/11 Vengeance show from the Hartford Civic Center, was a two match show built around Chris Benoit vs. HHH for the World title, with Eugene in the middle, and Randy Orton vs. Edge for the IC title.

Both matches were more than 25:00, and were strong bouts. Early indications are a lower than usual buy rate, most fans either happy or so-so with the event, and another disappointing live gate.

The show drew about 7,000 fans, which was 6,000 paying $370,000, with much of the arena tarped off, and this was for a PPV event in the company’s Northeastern home base, featuring its strong crew.

The storyline made it evident that the world title would be decided upon by Eugene, who was being manipulated by HHH, as well as talked with by Benoit.

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July 12, 2004 Observer Newsletter: Ric Flair book controversies, TNA PPV dropped by DirecTV

Posted on July 1, 2021 by F4W Staff

The book “To Be The Man,” by Ric Flair, has become the most talked about thing in wrestling over the past week, both for Flair’s own self-portrayal, which even became an issue with his family, and his portrayal of several wrestlers, most notably Mick Foley and Bret Hart.

To understand all of this requires an understanding of the background of the book and a lot of history and personal dynamics. As noted last week, the book was written by Keith Elliot Greenberg, a long-time writer for WWE publications, best known for his work in the Freddie Blassie autobiography that came out last year. It was edited by Mark Madden. Those right there are two entirely contrasting personalities. Greenberg is a member of the WWE family, as he’s written for the promotion for two decades, and the book he wrote was very different than what was released. Different, as in less controversial.

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July 5, 2004 Observer Newsletter: Ric Flair autobiography, Great American Bash review

Posted on June 23, 2021 by Dave Meltzer

Goose stepping your way to the WWE title, and a storyline homicide were the themes of what was the worst WWE PPV show in a long time.

One of the key reasons WWE business overall, even with popularity falling, looks nothing like WCW, is because WWE has maintained a large percentage of its PPV audience. The reason? Unlike with WCW at the end, WWE PPV shows consistently deliver. But a collection of matches, most of which had no storyline build-up, featuring talent that wasn’t ready for the PPV stage, led to a sad undercard. John Bradshaw Layfield became the most unlikely WWE champion, with the possible exception of Vince McMahon, in company history, by winning a bullrope match over Eddie Guerrero, ending a planned long-term reign that wound up lasting four months.

But the company can’t afford too many shows like the 6/27 Great American Bash at the Norfolk Scope Arena.

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June 28, 2004 Observer Newsletter: JBL CNBC firing turned into an angle, tons of news

Posted on June 17, 2021 by Dave Meltzer

The John Layfield situation remained controversial all week, with the pro wrestling mentality surfacing its head as the week went on.

On Smackdown, his firing from CNBC was turned into a storyline, which must have made some people unhappy, since the interview in the ring contained many negative things about the network that didn’t end up airing.

The main things edited out, apparently from UPN not wanting it on the show, was Bradshaw saying CNBC’s ratings might as well be in the witness protection program, and that without him, CNBC was little more than the stock market ticket. Some criticism of CNBC did appear, but UPN was said to have been negative about it. What did air was probably his best promo, as far as delivery went, ripping on the fans, although all the cracks on the liberal news media made no sense because wrestling espouses conservative viewpoints (I’ve never been comfortable with it, thinking when you play ideological politics in the babyface/heel role you’re alienating parts of your audience).

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June 21, 2004 Observer Newsletter: JBL controversy, ROH/RF Video split

Posted on June 9, 2021 by F4W Staff

Just as the controversy involving whether or not Rob Feinstein was still involved with Ring of Honor had started to die down, a split-up of ROH and RF Video reopened the can of worms and established that while Feinstein had left personal involvement in the company, he was always planning on returning, and is now back in business. The big questions left unanswered are how much, if any, influence he had over the past few months, and who knew what.

The split took place with Feinstein and ROH and RF Video paper president Doug Gentry on one side, and ROH majority owner, Philadelphia ticket broker Cary Silkin, and booker Gabe Sapolsky on the other. It had been building since shortly after the Feinstein scandal broke. This past week Silkin reached a verbal agreement to purchase Feinstein’s 45% of ROH that Gentry had been holding for him. As of press time, the actual sale contract had not been signed.

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June 14, 2004 Observer Newsletter: JBL/Germany controversy, potential bad summer for wrestling

Posted on June 3, 2021 by Dave Meltzer

John Layfield caused a lot of controversy, and lost his CNBC jobs, stemming from his actions on the 6/5 show in Munich, Germany, when he kept goose stepping and making Nazi signs on six occasions. The actions took place during a series of matches that started with a singles match with Eddy Guerrero, turned into a handicap match when Booker T joined in, and finished as a tag team match when Undertaker helped out Guerrero.

According to several live reports, most of the fans did not find this the slightest bit entertaining. Of course, he didn’t do it to entertain as much as attempt to get heel heat. Goose stepping and saluting Hitler are illegal in Germany, although it’s very possible he didn’t know that. No charges were filed, and Layfield, 36, worked the next night in Oberhausen, where he did nothing of the sort, and left the country without incident.

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May 24, 2004 Observer Newsletter: WWE Judgment Day, career of Pepper Gomez

Posted on May 12, 2021 by Dave Meltzer

The WWE Judgment Day PPV needed a home run going into the main event, and Eddy Guerrero and John Bradshaw Layfield responded with one of the bloodiest matches in company history.

When the night was over, the ring was filled with puddles of Guerrero blood, and Guerrero himself, after the adrenaline wore off, went into shock and had to be rushed to the hospital in an ambulance due to excessive blood loss. After the TV cameras went off, he collapsed in the ring from blood loss, and had to be helped backstage, where an ambulance was called. Guerrero took 16 stitches in the forehead from the ridiculously deep cut. At the hospital, they suggested him getting a blood transfusion, but he turned it down, and they pumped two bags of fluids into him for a while before letting him go at 1 a.m. that night.

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May 17, 2004 Observer Newsletter: Hustle III review, death of Pepper Gomez

Posted on May 5, 2021 by Dave Meltzer

After Dream Stage Entertainment signed Mick Foley, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall for huge money, at the last minute, for their 5/8 Hustle III Japanese PPV show from the Yokohama Arena, a lot of questions are being asked about the group.

Besides the aforementioned three, they have Bill Goldberg under contract, and have been negotiating for Steve Austin. There were no hints on the show that they were close to a deal with Austin, and right now it appears Austin isn’t in a hurry to make any kind of a move in wrestling, let alone rush into a match, although he is interested in Japanese marketing opportunities.

Among the questions is, how does it make sense to spend a rumored $75,000 each for Hall & Nash, as well as another huge figure for Foley, who was offered more than he could possibly afford to turn down, even with a bad knee? More, how is this type of money justified when it is done at the last minute with virtually no time to advertise? Paid attendance for these shows has been very small and PPV numbers are insignificant.

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