Tag: WCW - Page 6

November 26, 2001 Observer Newsletter: Survivor Series reviewed, more

Posted on December 11, 2018 by Dave Meltzer

The WWF reset its entire promotion this past week, plus brought back Ric Flair and Jerry Lawler and the result was the first undisputed positive sign for Raw ratings with an increase to 4.81 on 11/19. Because the show started so strongly, the rating increase should be more attributed to curiosity over how the supposed demise of WCW and ECW and talent firings would be handled and what would happen next, than to Flair and Lawler, aside from the overrun. That probably could be attributed to the fact Flair’s return after long absences has traditionally drawn major ratings spikes.

The Alliance vs. WWF feud was ditched at Survivor Series after being perhaps the biggest disappointment in recent wrestling history, where WWF won in a confusing series of events. Chris Jericho first turned on Rock, when Rock and Steve Austin were the final two wrestlers left, but Rock survived.

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October 29, 2001 Observer Newsletter: No Mercy review, Alliance vs. WWF set, more

Posted on November 13, 2018 by Dave Meltzer

In one of the strangest moments ever on wrestling television, almost like the moment you’re watching something crumble right before your eyes, just as Vince and Linda McMahon teased making out inside the ring in front of nearly 10,000 fans in Kansas City and were interrupted, a challenge was made and accepted.

For 11/18 at Survivor Series, what should be the biggest money match with the highest stipulations in the history of wrestling, but will come nowhere close to that level. A match with WWF vs. The Alliance, with the losing promotion having to disband. On Smackdown the next night, those draconian stipulations seemed to be amended more along the lines that the losing McMahons and their company would be under the control of the winning McMahons. If the feud was done correctly, the idea that a company would fold as a stipulation, if people still believed in stipulations, would do numbers that would make Rock vs. Austin green with envy.

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October 22, 2001 Observer Newsletter: WWF losing fans over 30, tons of news

Posted on November 6, 2018 by Dave Meltzer

The World Wrestling Federation needs to, now, commission a study of why they and wrestling in general are losing the over-30 audience so rapidly. This goes against the company thought process, because despite what may be said publicly, the company’s target age group and strongest demo per capita is Males 12-24. However, the age group that is losing interest in wrestling the fastest is those over the age of 30, who make up the vast majority television viewership for most programs (average viewership age of most network hit shows is early 40s), and are traditionally the most loyal fans.

When wrestling peaked in late 1998 and early 1999, there were just under six million viewers over the age of 30 watching every Monday night. At that point, WWF was winning the ratings, but within that age group, WCW had a slight lead and it was still a dogfight for that group as late as 2000.

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October 1, 2001 Observer Newsletter: WWF Unforgiven review, more

Posted on October 15, 2018 by Dave Meltzer

The World Wrestling Federation’s Unforgiven show on 9/23 in Pittsburgh was highlighted by Kurt Angle, in his home town, with a family celebration and wrestler party in the ring, capturing the WWF title from Steve Austin.

The show, largely well received because most of the matches were good, was different from the usual WWF PPV product. The crowd was flat for most of the show, making a lot of good matches come across as worse than they really were. Even for the main event, which was awesome most of the way, the crowd enthusiasm waned as the match went on. Partially because of it, even with the perfect home town clean submission win, it didn’t come across as good as their SummerSlam match. It was a straight wrestling show, with clean finishes up-and-down including by heels.

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Ted Turner reveals Lewy body dementia diagnosis

Posted on September 28, 2018 by Bryan Rose

Ted Turner recently revealed that he is suffering from Lewy body dementia.

Turner, 79, talked to Ted Koppel during an episode of CBS Sunday Morning that will air on 9/30. Deadline reported on Turner’s comments regarding his diagnosis.

“It’s a mild case of what people have as Alzheimer’s,” Turner reportedly said. “It’s similar to that. But not nearly as bad. Alzheimer’s is fatal. Thank goodness I don’t have that.” It was reported at one point during the interview, Turner paused and was unable to remember what his disease was.

Turner was responsible for bringing pro wrestling to TBS the early 1970s. Turner Broadcasting eventually purchased Jim Crockett Promotions in 1988, which would later become World Championship Wrestling. It was Turner who approved a two hour block of wrestling, which would go on to be WCW Nitro, to square off against WWE Raw head to head on Monday nights in the fall of 1995. The two television shows battled for ratings supremacy for several years.

After Time Warner, the parent company of Turner Broadcasting merged with AOL in 2001, Turner found himself with diminished power within the conglomerate. After being battered in the ratings for several years, along with massive financial losses, WCW Nitro and sister show Thunder were cancelled in March of 2001, with WCW being sold to WWE shortly after. Turner did not attempt to get back into wrestling after WCW’s demise.

September 3, 2001 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: WWF quarterly earnings exceed expectations, more

Posted on September 17, 2018 by Dave Meltzer

Largely due to the success of the Invasion PPV, WWFE exceeded its previous projections for the first fiscal quarter of 2001-2002 (May through July) .

Invasion, which is now estimated at doing 681,000 buys (1.43 buy rate), slightly down from the projections of two weeks ago but still putting it in the top ten PPVs in pro wrestling history (trailing the last four Wrestlemanias, a couple of Royal Rumbles, an Undertaker vs. Austin SummerSlam with a summer-long build-up and nothing else) when it comes to total buys and total revenue ($20,396,000 of which the WWF share would be about $8.77 million, about 10 percent lower than original estimates that were used in last week’s Observer’s business figures). The event nearly doubled what WWF had averaged on its previous three PPVs since business fell after Wrestlemania, none of which came close to previously estimated 1.0 percent buy rates.

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August 27, 2001 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Summerslam review, more

Posted on September 10, 2018 by F4W Staff

SummerSlam, traditionally the WWF’s second biggest PPV event of the year, was more of a by-the-book show, with a strong line-up presented and a straight forward approach with few swerves and curves. The show was largely well received and had little controversy afterwards aside from analysis of whether the WWF title match or Rock should have gone on in the main event position. The decision regarding this non-issue was since they weren’t going to have a clean finish in the WWF title match and the WCW title match would have the happy ending with Rock winning, it was put on last. Virtually all the advertising for the show was based around Rock’s return to PPV, another argument for putting him on last. In hindsight, because as a match, Rock vs. Booker T couldn’t follow a near match of the year performance by Steve Austin and Kurt Angle, you could make the argument in the other direction.

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August 20, 2001 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: 5 members inducted into the Hall of Fame, more

Posted on September 3, 2018 by Dave Meltzer

Five new members were named this week to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame in a combination of voting and those named as overlooked historical figures of the past.

No wrestlers from the U.S./Canada region were named, or even came close in the election that saw two legendary and still active wrestlers from Mexico barely squeak in along with a former Japanese womens wrestling superstar, whose inclusion literally came down to the final ballot.

In all cases the results would likely be considered mild surprises as the three newcomers voted in, Lizmark (Juan Banos Sr.), El Satanico (Daniel Lopez) and Bull Nakano (Keiko Nakano) have been on the ballot in the past, and in previous elections, none came close to being voted in.

Also added, largely due to being overlooked in the past, are Mexican wrestling legends Black Shadow (Alejandro Cruz) and the most famous trainer of wrestlers in Mexico, Diablo Velasco (Cuauhtemoc Velasco).

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August 13, 2001 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: WWF Invasion PPV does big business, more

Posted on August 27, 2018 by F4W Staff

It’s amazing how quickly things change, and realizing that, it has to be recognized just how quickly they can change again.

The Invasion PPV on 7/22 in Cleveland, based on preliminary reports, looks to have done a 1.6 buy rate. With the ever-expanding PPV universe, it would be 750,000 buys, making it, if these numbers hold up, the fourth most purchased pro wrestling PPV in history, trailing only the past three Wrestlemanias. SummerSlam, which is being far more heavily promoted within the cable industry because of the belief the return of the Rock (who did both his first TV appearance and match on Raw the past two weeks) will lead to another large number. It’s pretty clear the Invasion number was drawn both based on the interpromotional aspect, this being the first big event, as well as the tease of the return of the old Stone Cold, which no matter what TV and movie executives think of Rock, it is Austin, well at least the old Austin, who has always been the bigger PPV draw.

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August 6, 2001 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: WCW purchase price revealed

Posted on August 21, 2018 by Dave Meltzer

The actual purchase price of World Championship Wrestling from Time Warner was $2.5 million according to figures released this week by WWFE in its annual Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

Much of the material in the report just broke down in more detail the previous annual earnings report released by the company (7/9 Observer, which reported the total expense of the purchase at less than $4.5 million). But in breaking things down into more detail, WWFE listed $2.5 million at the purchase price for the trademarks, some contracts and videotape library of WCW and another $1.8 million in costs to the company in the negotiations.

The WWF actually spent less money on buying their rivals than the $2.9 million it spent on an NHRA race car or the money it spent annually just for the travel of the inner circle to and from television tapings in the private jet.

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July 30, 2001 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: WWF Invasion reviewed, more

Posted on August 13, 2018 by Dave Meltzer

Just a few weeks ago, the World Wrestling Federation appeared to be on its way down. Bad booking, lack of making fresh stars, all the usual reasons. Then, as pro wrestling shows, the right angle can turn it all around.

The Invasion PPV on 7/22 from the Gund Arena in Cleveland appears to have been a major success based on three things happening, 1) ECW was injected into the interpromotional angle; 2) The booking of the interpromotional angle, once head writer Stephanie McMahon and Paul Heyman was involved as characters, suddenly got inspired; and 3) They gave the fans what they wanted. The Steve Austin that sold tickets. Preliminary indicators, such as attendance at the Famous Players theaters in Canada as compared with usual shows, volume of feedback, and television ratings from 7/23 (5.35 rating, best number since 4/9), are all positive signs of a turnaround.

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July 23, 2001 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Death of Terry Gordy, more

Posted on August 6, 2018 by Dave Meltzer

Few details are available in the death of Terry “Bam Bam” Gordy, a man who was considered the best big man in the sport before a series of drug overdoses ruined a promising career in his prime.

Gordy was found dead by his girlfriend at his home in Rossville, GA, near Chattanooga, on the morning on 7/16 from a heart attack. One of the 1980s biggest stars, had it not been for his career at the top ending at the age of 32 so abruptly, Gordy would have been a sure Hall of Famer and considered right at the top of any list of the best working big men in the history of the business. He was only 40 at the time of his death. The cause of the heart attack was not released pending an autopsy.

Gordy, best known in the United States for his days with the Freebirds, but also had a second more lucrative career as one of the main event regulars spanning two glory eras over a ten year period for All Japan Pro Wrestling, from the era of the Funks and Bruiser Brody, to the Jumbo Tsuruta and Tenryu era, and finally, being one of the two top foreign wrestlers in Japan when Mitsuharu Misawa, Kenta Kobashi and Toshiaki Kawada elevated in-ring wrestling to new levels.

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July 16, 2001 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: ECW joins the invasion, more

Posted on July 30, 2018 by Dave Meltzer

One of the most amazing weeks in pro wrestling history saw the World Wrestling Federation abandon nearly all its plans and re-create Extreme Championship Wrestling from the ashes in a story that, truth be told, in hindsight looks like the single greatest case of manipulation in the modern history of pro wrestling.

The formation of ECW was decided upon, although there were moves and hints to do so for some time, late last week after the realization that the current plans as they were laid out were going to be a disaster due to the reaction to the so-called WCW matches at last week’s television tapings in Tacoma.

The basic plan, much of which has been outlined here for weeks, was for WCW to get a few weeks of television exposure building a feud with WWF for a series of interpromotional matches at the 7/22 Invasion PPV in Cleveland. It would be a one-time deal and the feud would end with the PPV.

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