Tag: WCW - Page 8

February 26, 2001 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: WCW Superbrawl review, WCW not shutting down, more

Posted on March 12, 2018 by Dave Meltzer

WCW may change its plans once again this week, this time with Eric Bischoff perhaps deciding against a shutdown in April.

Bischoff’s thoughts were based on the idea that he didn’t want to present a stale product and allow the fans to get more apathetic by basically struggling along with no storylines and no stars until the planned re-launch in May. Most likely the ratings from the past week may have played a part in the decision, because if the ratings would have held steady at the 2.5 level to build for a re-launch, it would have been acceptable, but when 2/12 came in tying the record low for a Nitro live show in the regular time slot (2.08), that was no longer an acceptable level to stay at, or even probably drop from since the storyline they were building toward, for better or worse, required keeping some of the biggest stars on the sidelines for nearly two more months.

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WCW Thunder reportedly coming to the WWE Network next week

Posted on March 11, 2018 by Bryan Rose

WCW’s Thursday night show is reportedly heading to the WWE Network next week.

WWE Network News is reporting that WCW Thunder will be coming to the WWE Network on March 19. It currently isn’t known which episodes are going up first, or how many would be added. One would assume it would start at the beginning.

Earlier reports indicated that the show would be uploaded to the WWE Network back in September, but they were never uploaded. There had been speculation that the recent Raven and Buff Bagwell lawsuit may have impeded the release. That suit was dismissed back in December.

WCW Thunder was a two hour show on TBS that started in early 1998. It was originally meant to be the home base for the WCW brand, with the nWo taking over the Nitro slot on TNT. When ratings for a test run of nWo Nitro flopped, the plan was abandoned and Thunder became a secondary show, with most of the top talent not appearing on the program.

When the final episode of the show aired on March 21, 2001, it marked the end of almost 30 years of professional wrestling on TBS.

February 19, 2001 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Yearly business breakdown, WCW shutdown nixed, more

Posted on March 6, 2018 by Dave Meltzer

The XFL went from television’s penthouse to its outhouse in record time as ratings plummeted on NBC to the point the entire league is already being labeled, just two weeks in, a major failure in most circles.

It got so bad, that on 2/12, just eight days after the initial ratings for opening night came in at well above the levels even the most optimistic in NBC expected, that emergency meetings were held after an embarrassing show with a tremendous finish went 45 minutes long due to an alleged generator problem, an injury, and a double overtime.

The prime time rating fell from a 9.49 to a 4.4 on NBC (I believe with the 45 minutes past prime time that actually did better with the close game in double overtime, the final NBC number was a 4.6), going from first place to last place in the prime time race over the course of one week.

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February 12, 2001 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Debut of the XFL, Stan Hansen retires, more

Posted on February 27, 2018 by Dave Meltzer

With fan and media reaction after its debut all across the board and a huge buzz leading to a monstrous television rating, the only way to review the debut of the XFL over the weekend is this. Despite what sports people may think and even hardcore fans of sports may think, the majority of people attend sporting events as well as wrestling events based on quality of hype. They enjoy themselves based on quality of atmosphere of the show, and going home happy (either the babyface prevailing at the end or the home team prevailing). If you have a good time, you want to go back, but to get the masses to attend, the masses have to also believe what they are attending is “hot” or in some ways “important” either in a mainstream way or in a niche way.

The show drew a 9.49 rating and 17 share, leading it to being easily the highest rated show on television for the night. NBC had drawn a 4.7 the previous Saturday night.

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February 5, 2001 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: WWF signs Justin Credible, WCW to shutdown temporarily, more

Posted on February 20, 2018 by Dave Meltzer

The signing of Pete Polaco (Justin Credible) by the World Wrestling Federation has seemingly opened the doors and changed the equation as it pertains to the future of Extreme Championship Wrestling.

Polaco, 27, one of many ECW wrestlers who had gotten in extreme financial straights because of being behind in pay, as well as high medical bills when his wife gave birth that he was under the impression an ECW deal which included health insurance would cover, was under some major pressure to make some sort of a move for his future that he was seriously contemplating getting out of pro wrestling.

The news of Polaco’s signing, as well as word getting out of WWF’s negotiations with Yoshihiro Tajiri and Terry Gerin (Rhino), neither of whom have signed as of press time, changed the equation from recent weeks when WWF had said they wouldn’t take ECW talent until Paul Heyman’s situation cleared up, not wanting to ruin a potential sale or television deal for him.

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January 22, 2001 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Fusient Media to buy WCW, sale of UFC, more

Posted on February 6, 2018 by Dave Meltzer

After nearly a full year of various rumors, negotiations, and several near finalized deals, the sale of World Championship Wrestling by Time Warner to Fusient Media Ventures was officially announced on 1/11, literally hours before the announcement that the final step of the Time Warner/AOL merger had been cleared.

Fusient Media Ventures, a one-year-old company headed by Brian Bedol and Stephen Greenberg, who are best known for starting up the Classic Sports Network, and then selling it to ESPN where it became ESPN Classics, for $175 million, is the parent company. The company, with offices in New York and Los Angeles, is an incubator type company that raises capital for media investments. The actual sale is expected to go through in 30 to 60 days, at which point the names of the various investors will likely be revealed. Change is expected to be gradual until the time the sale is finalized. Nevertheless, even days later, it was clear there was a greater emphasis placed on the cruiserweight division and on having a strong in-ring product with less run-ins, tables, garbage matches, and elimination of swearing as wrestlers were told specifically words like damn, hell and ass are no longer to be uttered on broadcasts.

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January 15, 2001 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: 2000 Year End Awards, final ECW PPV reviewed, plus tons of news

Posted on January 29, 2018 by Dave Meltzer

In what may have been the swan song of the promotion, ECW promised a “holy shit” surprise, which prompted debates over methods of promotion today as well as if there is any future left with the company in the wake of losing its New York television, cancelling next month’s PPV and not even producing a new TV show in the go-home week before a PPV show.

Guilty as Charged on 1/7 before a sellout crowd of 2,500 fans at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York was the usual ECW show. It came across, with the exception of the return of Rob Van Dam, as more of a regular house show than anything special on PPV. Everyone worked hard. There were some booking holes that were gigantic (if Francine won’t sleep with Corino or Credible unless they are wearing the belt, why is, at the end of the show, she sleeping with both of them when they both failed to win the belt?) but good or bad, and it was more good than bad, that news paled in comparison to the big news.

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January 8, 2001 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Paul Heyman considering selling ECW, more on Wrestler of the Year, more

Posted on January 23, 2018 by Dave Meltzer

Citing a number of factors, including the enormous pressure he’s been under over the past year, the large company debt and what he sees as the future landscape of the business, Paul Heyman said he was in serious negotiations to sell either a majority share or all of Extreme Championship Wrestling.

Heyman, who said his views have changed greatly over the past three months, said that he’s recognized the company, at the size it currently is or even in the shape it was, couldn’t survive the rapidly changing pro wrestling landscape, saying it’s a world of big boys and the independent operator simply can’t compete.

Heyman, who had talked as recently as a few weeks ago about scaling down the company, cutting back on payroll and running a regional promotion, said the economics of doing what would amount to old-school territorial wrestling don’t work today because of the rising costs of television.

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January 1, 2001 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Candidates for Wrestler of the Year, Sakuraba defeats another Gracie, more

Posted on January 16, 2018 by Dave Meltzer

For a year that, with the exception of the success of the WWF, was hardly a banner year for the business, there is actually no shortage of candidates for Wrestler of the Year.

The Observer awards balloting results will be announced here in two weeks, but before hand, I wanted to run down a list of the top qualifiers with my own comments on them.

Kurt Angle – Angle finished an incredible year as the WWF champion and arguably the most improved performer both in and out of the ring in the industry. It was only November of 1999 when Angle debuted on WWF television, playing the geeky 70s babyface role that is more of a heel today, with his only wrestling experience in Memphis where he was a strong rookie in the ring, but they actually often gave him a manager (Brandon Baxter) to do his interviews, which were considered a weakness.

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December 4, 2000 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: ECW turmoil, WCW Mayhem review, more

Posted on December 19, 2017 by Dave Meltzer

With just days before its next PPV, Extreme Championship Wrestling is in a state of turmoil to the extent that Paul Heyman at first didn’t want to even announce a card because he doesn’t know what wrestlers would appear.

After many, if not most of the wrestlers and employees missed another check, putting them six weeks behind on pay, and with the Texas house shows officially canceled, the company only has three shows left on the books and a crew of panicked talent and an almost complete lack of trust among the talent toward Heyman.

The house shows scheduled for 12/8 and 12/9 in Dallas and Houston were canceled. At first word was spread that the cancellation was because some of the talent booked themselves on an indie show in Fort Worth on 12/7 (bookings that the local promotion, XSE, claimed Heyman pulled Steve Corino, Sandman, Yoshihiro Tajiri and Mikey Whipwreck from this past week), which somehow caused a Dallas cancellation.

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November 20, 2000 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Shinya Hashimoto fired from NJPW, Wrestlemania X7 sets records, more

Posted on December 5, 2017 by Dave Meltzer

Shinya Hashimoto, who headlined more big gates at the Tokyo Dome than any wrestler in history, was shockingly fired by New Japan Pro Wrestling on 11/13 after a weekend filled with turmoil after news got out he was negotiating with Pro Wrestling NOAH.

The story was among many things that is threatening the future of the All Japan/New Japan relationship, which started off with the big success on 10/9 at the Tokyo Dome and has since seemed to start falling apart. There were already some cracks noticeable in the foundation of the angle before the word getting out of Hashimoto’s negotiations to appear on the 12/23 Pro Wrestling NOAH show at the Tokyo Ariake Coliseum, which at this point, isn’t scheduled to happen. The firing seems to open the door for Hashimoto joining NOAH as a regular, to go along with doing his own shows, which at this point appears to be scheduled, if everything works out, early next year.

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November 13, 2000 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: WWF not buying WCW, ECW November to Remember review, more

Posted on November 28, 2017 by Dave Meltzer

With the WCW crew enroute to Europe for a one-week tour, the questions about the future of the company remain.

With little substantial information available, much of the talk going around consists of rumors, but it is clear the two possibilities remain–the company will either be purchased by a group headed by Eric Bischoff, or have its expenses cut to as much bare bones as possible and remain part of Turner Broadcasting. While the rumors within the company were strong of the latter most of the week, that still seemed to be the least likely possibility based on those closer to the situation.

Based on an article in the online Broadcasting and Cable magazine, using Linda McMahon as the source, talks have broken down between the two companies. The WWF purchase, considered the most likely scenario just a few weeks ago, had strongly cooled in recent weeks. Vince McMahon, publicly, as late as 11/1, had talked about it as being something the company was looking into and it was still under consideration as late as the weekend.

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November 6, 2000 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Bret Hart retires, Halloween Havoc review, more

Posted on November 21, 2017 by Dave Meltzer

In one of the strangest endings to one of the strangest pro wrestling careers in history, Bret Hart officially announced his plans not only to retire, but to walk away completely, from a business often dubbed inside as the Hotel California, based on the line from an old 70s song.

“You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.”

Hart’s career in the ring was almost surely over, due to a series of concussions suffered starting most likely on 12/19 from the famous kick by Bill Goldberg in the Starrcade WCW title match. There have been doctors that have surmised he actually had suffered a concussion in the ring before that match, which magnified the damaging effect of the kick on his brain. But in any event, his continuing to wrestle, and suffering more head trauma, particularly in one of his final career match, a hardcore match against Terry Funk, led to his suffering about ten percent brain damage, some of which may be permanent.

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October 30, 2000 Wrestling Observer Newsletter: Death of Yokozuna, Bret Hart leaves WCW, more

Posted on November 14, 2017 by Dave Meltzer

Rodney Anoia, who was the heaviest superstar in the history of pro wrestling and a two-time WWF champion under the name Yokozuna, passed away suddenly on 10/23 in a Liverpool, England hotel room a few weeks after his 34th birthday.

Anoia was the most successful of the huge Samoan clan of wrestlers started by Afa & Sika Anoia, his uncles, when they began wrestling in the early 1970s. He was one of the biggest stars in the business around the world during his WWF run, which lasted from late 1992 through 1996.

Whether Anoia was the heaviest man ever to perform in the world of pro wrestling is a matter of conjecture. It is believed that Anoia weighed close to, if not, 800 pounds in late 1996, at about the time the WWF stopped using him because of his weight problem.

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