Manitoba casinos re-open under province’s Phase 4 protcols

Data is taken from the Covid-19 portal and today's availability by Dr Deena Hinshaw, Premier Jason Kenney, Minister of Health Tyler Shandro, and Minister of Jobs Doug Schweitzer. Dr Hinshaw's next availability is tomorrow.
There are currently enhanced measures in effect for multiple regions of Alberta and have been enhanced as of today. This link provides a quick summary of which ones are in effect for different regions of Alberta.
Top line numbers:

For values where "Current" and "Total" are the same, I have left results under Total

Value	Current	Change	Total
Total cases	—	+1,727	71,379
Active cases	20,388	+321	—
Cases with "Unknown source"	10,575 (83.9%) in last 7 days	+427 (+0.4%)	—
Tests	—	+19,071 (~9.06% positive)	2,410,675
People tested	—	+7,433	1,534,783 (~355,521/million)
Hospitalizations	654	+45/+35 based on yesterday's post/portal data	2,325 (+64)
ICU	112	+4	413 (+10)
Deaths	—	+9 (4x 70-79, 5x 80+)	640
Recoveries	—	+1,397	51,000

Spatial distribution of people tested, cases, and deaths (since yesterday):

All other values are compared with respect to yesterday

Zone	Active Cases	New People Tested	Total	New Cases	Total	New Deaths	Total
Calgary	7,529 (+57)	+2,654	621,003	+583	28,946	+2	215
Central	1,526 (+53)	+1,005	134,204	+176	3,881	+1	20
Edmonton	9,383 (+193)	+2,664	513,626	+791	29,901	+5	304
North	1,212 (+65)	+739	143,747	+165	4,757	+0	51
South	646 (-8)	+307	97,153	+57	4,307	+1	50
Unknown	92 (-39)	+64	25,050	-45	236	+0	0

Spatial distribution of cases for select cities and regions (change since yesterday) (cities proper for Calgary and Edmonton):

City/Municipality	Total	Active	Recovered	Deaths
Edmonton	24,542 (+625)	7,586 (+151)	16,692 (+469)	264 (+5)
Calgary	24,245 (+507)	6,490 (+117)	17,562 (+388)	193 (+2)
Brooks	1,296 (+2)	24 (-4)	1,258 (+6)	14 (+0)
Lethbridge	1,175 (+22)	259 (+9)	909 (+13)	7 (+0)
Fort McMurray	906 (+20)	222 (-3)	682 (+23)	2 (+0)
Red Deer	832 (+45)	373 (+18)	449 (+27)	0
High River county	658 (+2)	49 (-6)	602 (+8)	7 (+0)
Grande Prairie	562 (+15)	106 (+10)	451 (+5)	5 (+0)
Mackenzie county	447 (+4)	19 (+4)	415 (+0)	13 (+0)
Medicine Hat	334 (+11)	89 (-3)	240 (+14)	5 (+0)
I.D. No 9 (Banff)	324 (+8)	109 (-14)	215 (+22)	0
Cardston county	200 (+2)	37 (-2)	157 (+4)	6 (+0)
Wheatland county	146 (+1)	6 (-1)	140 (+2)	0
Warner county	137 (+1)	30 (-2)	105 (+3)	2 (+0)
Wood Buffalo municipality	111 (+1)	8 (+0)	103 (+1)	0
Rest of Alberta	16,113 (+461)	4,981 (+47)	11,010 (+412)	122 (+2)

Other municipalities with 10+ active cases is given at this link
Schools with outbreaks are listed online.
Quick numbers (as of today):

108 schools are on Watch (+2)
141 schools have 2-4 cases (+10)

Spatial distribution of hospital usage (change based on yesterday's post):

Hospitalization zone are where the patient is receiving care, not zone of residence

Zone	Hospitalized	ICU
Calgary	198 (+14)	34 (+2)
Edmonton	357 (+22)	66 (+3)
Central	50 (+3)	6 (+1)
South	18 (+4)	2 (-1)
North	31 (+2)	4 (-1)

Statements by Premier Kenney
Opening Statements

Here to lay out additional health measures which are necessary to protect healthcare system and save lives
Alberta has faced most of the year with lower levels of spread, hospitalizations, and fatalities
Having said that, last few weeks are different
Incredible work is being done by healthcare workers in face of this
Delays in surgeries have occurred, which for some may result in a shorter lifespan
Not doing anything now will result in continued growth of hospitalizations and further strain on healthcare
On advice of chief medical officer, restrictions have occurred. Government realizes that this can impact businesses and cause adversities
Knows many feed policies are unjust and why provincial government has stressed education first instead of using policy
On the other hand, while space can be made, it will have further health impacts (e.g. running out of capacity in hospitals)
If stronger action isn't taken now, hundreds or thousands more Albertans will die
Data appears to suggest a stabilization (around a reproductive factor of around 1.2), but that isn't enough

New Restrictions

As of today, all outdoor and indoor social gatherings are banned
The mask mandate will expand to all indoor places, with exception of rental homes and farm operations
As of December 13th, 12:01 AM:
(1) Retail, grocery stores, and shopping malls are restricted to 15% of capacity, down from 25%. Kiosks are open for takeaway service only. Malls cannot be used for socialization and shopping only
(2) Places are worship to 15% occupancy with previous restrictions applying. Online and drive-in services are still recommended
(3) Restaurants, pubs, bars, lounges and cafes are restricted to takeout and delivery services only. This will open up their access to provincial and federal supports
(4) The following will be closed:
(4a) Gaming centres (e.g. - casinos, bingo halls, gaming entertainment centres)
(4b) Recreational facilities
(4c) Indoor entertainment (e.g. libraries, science centres, water parks)
(4d) Trade centres
The restrictions do not apply to service visits, healthcare, or childcare .
(5) All Alberta employees must work from home unless employer requires physical presence for operational reasons (up from a recommendation)
No changes to schools beyond what was previously announced
These are all province wide and will be in effect for 4 weeks
Goal has been to be targeted. However, the whole province is seeing significant spread

Christmas

Knows the holidays are important for many people
The hard truth is that the single source of spread is at-home gatherings
If we let people gather for Christmas, we'll see a spike in cases
We can't let that happen, so please follow the gathering restrictions previously noted (only in-household or with 2 close contacts if you live alone)

Increased Enterprise Support

This isn't the fault of anybody who followed the guidelines
Until the contact tracing system was overwhelmed, we didn't see it being the fault of business owners
But we are seeing spread so widespread, it doesn't matter how careful you were
These are decisions are a last resort
Knows this impact will be real. So financial support for small and medium size enterprise
4x growth in small and medium enterprise relaunch grant, while lowering eligibility from 40% of revenue lost to 30%. This will also be retroactive to March

Closing Statements

Thanks Albertans for their work for most of the past 9 months
We are seeing the end with vaccination possibly beginning in weeks...the end is in sight

Q&A

Why now, instead of two weeks ago?: Goal is to reduce contacts, assuming Albertans respond. This should be a very strong message and reduce transmissions. Measures have been increasingly harsh because each restriction creates harms, will hurt people who have sunk all their money in a business, and potentially increase self-harm. So this is a last resort
Why keep retail open instead of just curbside?: Encourages curbside, but some people may not be able to live without basic goods. Even most stringent policies around the world have kept retail open in some capacity. Feels the designation of essential and non-essential businesses in spring was a mistake
Why is cabinet being transparent about the reproductive value (R or Rt)?: Are preparing ways to publicly present this data, as well as healthcare capacity. Targeting next week
Do you think the softer measures before will cost lives/make economic recovery more difficult?: Shutting down early would have had significant impacts. Thinks it'd be a huge mistake to draw correlations between strictness of restrictions and outcomes and that there is a reasonable balance being stuck
Since you defined Covid representing "a tiny percent" of deaths, 300 deaths have occurred. There have been significant growths in hospitalization and cases. Do you take personal responsibility?: Rejects the premise of the question and calls it more of an "NDP speech". Feels the province has done more than other jurisdictions, especially early on. Also notes that BC, who has a government of opposite end of the political spectrum, has had a similar approach

Statements by Minister Shandro
Additional Details on Health Measures

Goal is to limit in-person interaction
Retail restriction has a floor of 5 people
Ski hills can remain open, provided restrictions are followed
Realizes that this is a lot to take in, but person-to-person exposure is fuelling the spread
We need limit contacts and be aware of the situation around you (even outdoors or at the grocery store)

Q&A

How does outdoor gathering ban even work?: Goal is to restrict social gatherings. So do not socially gather indoors or outdoors. If they gather in a park or on the sidewalk, that isn't allowed. Difficulty will certainly lie in enforcement and hopes it won't need to be used. It will be up to law enforcement to determine if they feel they need to use it
(Additional comment by Dr Hinshaw: Intention is to prevent group social activities. Not prohibited is fitness activities provided distancing occurs)

Statements by Minister Schweitzer
Opening Statements

Wants to make people aware that there will be significant impacts. This is not lost on anyone in government
Knows many people are impacted because people have ignored public health orders.

Additional Details on Small Business Supports

40% may not be able to re-open after these closures without supports
Small businesses may now qualify for $20,000 support (up from $5,000) with a decrease in revenue lost to 30%
An additional 15,000 businesses should be able to qualify for this (totalling 500 million dollars)

Q&A

How many people will be affected with these restrictions?: ~30,000 businesses will be affected. Will be seeing how many people

Statements by Dr Hinshaw
Cases

426 schools have active cases (~18%) with total of 1,701 cases
108 schools on watch list (5+ active cases)

Edmonton Zone

The Royal Alexandra Hospital has decided to place facility on "Watch" status as a precautionary measure
Hospitals are safe places to receive care, but be aware that staff are under extreme stress
Edmonton Zone will enact additional measures:
(1) Postponing up to 60% of non-urgent surgeries (up from 30%)
(2) Diagnostic imaging may be reduced by up to 40%
(3) Ambulatory visits and procedures may be reduced as needed
AHS will contact those who are impacted
This is why these measures are needed and a sign of how Covid may impact more than the ill

Scope of the Situation

If you gathered all the people who have tested positive, it would be the 5th largest city in Alberta
1/3 people have been tested
On October 8, positive rate was 1.34% with 184 cases in province
Today, positive rate is 9% and 7 day average is 1,785
Outbreaks in almost all group settings
People from 1 to 108 have been infected
Knows restrictions will impact many people
The fastest way to get there is to embrace these restrictions
Knows many people have embraced already, but everybody will need to do more

Q&A

Why do we think these measures will work, after the last two rounds?: This is the most significant round of restrictions. Points to Israel as an example (who shrunk their cases faster than even their first wave). Target will be to bring the health system out of risk
If someone is coming in from out of province, is that allowed?: If it's someone from out of province, it isn't allowed
A follow up question noted an example of family members in Alberta were quarantining were 2 weeks before Christmas. Challenge is that enforcement of a "quarantine" will be difficult to control. Province is saying "gathering for Christmas" won't be allowed with people who don't live in the home. Knows it's a big imposition but any suggestions like in the question may cause a Thanksgiving-like increase in spread

Additional information will be logged below:

One additional question was asked in French. I am unfortunately not fluent enough to translate it

Covid-19 Update for November 24: 1,115 new cases, 916 recoveries, 16 deaths + Announced Restrictions to Limit Covid-19 Spread

Data is taken from the Covid-19 portal and today's media availability by Premier Jason Kenney, Minister of Health Tyler Shandro, and Dr Deena Hinshaw. Minister of Eduation Adriana LaGrange, Deputy Minister of Eduation Andrew Courbold, and AHS CEO Verna Yiu were also present, but did not speak. Dr Hinshaw will be available every day this week.
There are currently enhanced measures in effect for multiple regions of Alberta. This link provides a quick summary of which ones are in effect for different regions of Alberta.
Top line numbers:

For values where "Current" and "Total" are the same, I have left results under Total

Value	Current	Change	Total
Total cases	—	+1,115	49,536
Active cases	13,349	+183	—
Cases with "Unknown source"	7,538 (88.0%) in last 7 days	+168 (-1.6%)	—
Tests	—	+13,617 (~8.19% positive)	2,141,346
People tested	—	+5,871	1,426,119 (~330,350/million)
Hospitalizations	349	+20/+15 based on yesterday's post/portal data	1,652 (+31)
ICU	66	+4/+1 based on yesterday's post/portal data	298 (+5)
Deaths	—	+16 (3x 60-69, 70-79, 10x 80+)	492
Recoveries	—	+916	35,695

Spatial distribution of people tested, cases, and deaths (since yesterday):

All other values are compared with respect to yesterday

Zone	Active Cases	New People Tested	Total	New Cases	Total	New Deaths	Total
Calgary	4,903 (+58)	+2,501	576,317	+426	20,609	+0	186
Central	830 (+18)	+558	122,306	+65	2,175	+2	14
Edmonton	5,991 (+512)	+1,921	476,491	+541	19,692	+14	208
North	764 (+16)	+615	136,174	+79	3,343	+0	44
South	640 (-15)	+235	91,712	+31	3,559	+0	40
Unknown	75 (-31)	+41	23,119	-27	158	+0	0

Spatial distribution of cases for select cities and regions (change since yesterday) (cities proper for Calgary and Edmonton):

City/Municipality	Total	Active	Recovered	Deaths
Calgary	17,106 (+367)	3,884 (+105)	13,053 (+262)	169 (+0)
Edmonton	16,311 (+427)	4,815 (+114)	11,306 (+299)	190 (+14)
Brooks	1,271 (+4)	46 (+2)	1,212 (+2)	13 (+0)
Lethbridge	886 (+4)	171 (-5)	708 (+9)	7 (+0)
Fort McMurray	626 (+17)	158 (+11)	466 (+6)	2 (+0)
High River county	600 (-1)	29 (-2)	564 (+1)	7 (+0)
Grande Prairie	444 (+2)	78 (-4)	362 (+6)	4 (+0)
Mackenzie county	428 (-1)	8 (-2)	409 (+3)	13 (+0)
Red Deer	425 (+12)	141 (+0)	284 (+12)	0
Medicine Hat	228 (+9)	103 (+2)	123 (+7)	2 (+0)
I.D. No 9 (Banff)	186 (+5)	152 (+0)	34 (+5)	0
Cardston county	156 (+1)	34 (+1)	117 (+0)	5 (+0)
Wheatland county	138 (+2)	23 (-4)	115 (+6)	0
Wood Buffalo municipality	100 (+3)	27 (+1)	73 (+2)	0
Warner county	98 (+1)	17 (+1)	80 (+0)	1 (+0)
Rest of Alberta	10,533 (+263)	3,663 (-37)	6,791 (+298)	79 (+2)

Municipalities with 10+ active cases is given at this link
Schools with outbreaks are listed online.
Quick numbers (since yesterday):

65 schools are on Watch (+1)
117 schools have 2-4 cases (+3)

Spatial distribution of hospital usage (change based on yesterday's post):

Hospitalization zone are where the patient is receiving care, not zone of residence

Zone	Hospitalized	ICU
Calgary	115 (+10)	16 (+2)
Edmonton	169 (+6)	39 (+0)
Central	18 (+0)	3 (+1)
South	25 (+0)	5 (+0)
North	21 (+4)	3 (+1)

Statements by Premier Kenney
Opening Statements

Pandemic is "once in a century" event that has affected everyone
Has received lots of heartbreaking/heartfelt letters and read some out of them in the meeting last night
Letters include concerns about family impacts and economic impacts, as well as the loss of life
Has phoned front line healthcare workers over weekend and sought out their advice
Has noted the hesitation of further restrictions before and focus on targeted measures. The vast majority of Albertans have worked to the guidelines
Spread is speeding up and is significant at long term care. We need to do "everything we can" to protect them. That requires dedicated work from the community
Must also protect healthcare system. Healthcare system is at risk, and Edmonton Zone is an example of the trade offs that now must be made. Other services will have to be put on hold if the trend continues, even with the spending in it
Measures below were not taken lightly. These are the "minimum restrictions needed" right now to protect healthcare system and avoiding widespread damage to livelihoods

New Measures

Declaring a State of Public Health Emergency in the province of Alberta
Series of mandatory measures also approved:
For social gatherings: No indoor social gatherings will be permitted in any setting and outdoor social gatherings will have a limit of 10 people
For funerals and weddings: 10 in-person limit and no receptions will be permitted
Social events have been one of the biggest driver of cases. Weddings and funerals are one of the biggest widespread drivers of transmission ("This is just a reality")
These social gathering restrictions are province-wide and can be subjected to fines
An emergency alert will be sent to all Alberta phones this week to make Albertans aware
Gatherings of worship services will be capped of 1/3 of Fire Code with mandatory masking if region is under enhanced status. This is now mandatory. This will be evaluated mid-December
Effective Friday, for regions under enhanced status, three temporary restrictions will be added at businesses and services:
(1) The following will be closed: banquet halls, conference centres, trade shows, concert venues, community centres. All levels of sport too, but must apply and have an approved exemption
(2) Retail businesses and services will be limited to 25% of occupancy limit
(3) Hair salons, personal wellness services, hotels, and professional services will be limited by-appointment
In-person dining and bars can continue, but must abide by guideline. Each dining tables will be limited to 1 household
Asking all workers that can work from home to do so. Government of Alberta will do so
These will be reviewed in mid-December
On November 30th, Grades 7-12 will end in-person schooling for 2020 and Winter break will begin December 18. In-person learning will be delayed until January 11, 2021

Closing Statements

Effective immediately, masks are mandatory in Edmonton and Calgary Zone
The measures are tough, but necessary to protect Albertans from a "crushing lockdown"
Knows this will be hard and encourages people to shop local
Will give a chance to review before Christmas
If the measures do not have meaningful impact, further restrictions will be made in December

Q&A - Announced Restrictions

Alberta has had some of the least stringent measures and highest cases rates. Is today's announcement that it failed? Why are we doing the "minimum"?: Thinks the response has been effective for a long stretch of time. Obviously an issue has cropped up in the past few weeks. Also notes a "chase after 0 [cases]" shutdown won't be the goal and that restrictions and interventions, in accordance with Charter of Rights, should be limited to minimizing infringement of rights to achieve a goal
How will you enforce gathering restrictions?: No "snitch line", but will be expanding enforcement officers (Level 1 and 2 peace officers) to enforce orders and writing the tickets (up to $1,000/person). Anticipates officers will see if obvious "large gathering signs" will be noticed
How is in-person dining not "indoor gatherings"? How do you feel about doctors recommending closing in-person dining?: Notes dining is one household and limited spread in dining centres and asks those with a secure paycheck ("particularly a government paycheck") to think about those who sink life savings in dining services
Why are stores being restricted if they are not a significant cause of spread?: Compares well to other provinces who have fully closed retail. Thinks it was a grave mistake to allow big box stores to remain open because they had grocery/pharmaceutical sections while small businesses must close. That said, restrictions must be made to limit social spread
Due to challenges with Albertan spread information, what data is being used to make the decisions?: Points to data from previous 8 months
Are you confident that these measures will control cases by December 15?: Yes. Notes the challenging balance between infringement of rights and controlling cases. Also hopes this will be a "wake up call" to those not following the guidelines
(Interjection - I felt this was important and it needs to be separated from the above question). Kenney recognizes he will get quite a few people "on [his] Facebook page" angry at the restrictions. Wants to emphasize this is not a lockdown. Nor is this an abstraction. If you know someone waiting for surgery, this is to protect them. It's not about politics, but for them. It's not something he wants to do and is upset about the situation. But it's not enough to complain. Challenges people to explain how to grapple with timely healthcare access if Covid continues to spread and more need care

Q&A - Future Restrictions

How bad will it have to be to announce a lockdown?: Would like to avoid it if possible. Key metric will be hospitalization (in particular, ICU), measured against capacity. (Interjection - The wording of the rest of the response was focused on more targeted measures if these restrictions do not limit spread within 3 weeks)
Are there specific thresholds for lift measures/add more measures?: On 15th of December, reproductive value (R) must be <1 to lift measures. Ideal target is 0.80. We are currently at 1.3 in Edmonton, 1.1 in Calgary

Q&A - Other

Where is Alberta when it comes to vaccine and rapid testing?: Alberta depends on the federal government. Notes disappointment in the slow roll out of rapid testing (though 577,000 tests have been delivered). Hopes to announce more roll out details in the week. For vaccine, Oxford trial has also headed to mass production (giving Canada 3 incoming vaccines). When it arrives, will likely begin with healthcare workers and vulnerable populations

Statements by Minister Shandro
Further details on the above guideline

Indoor social contact should be limited to you household. If you live alone, you may have two non-household social contacts
Indoor social gathering gatherings doesn't apply to home based services
Funeral/wedding gathering limits can result in $1,000 fine, up to $100,000 through courts
Additional details for restaurants/bars/pubs/lounges: Must follow 4 points: (1) 6 person/table limit, all from one household, (2) same note as above for single person household (and limited to the same two people), (3) only seated eating/drinking allowed, (4) no other services are allowed (e.g. billiards/darts)
Encourages takeout/delivery/curbside pick up when possible
Enhanced screening of measures will begin
Retail services extends to bingo halls, fitness, pools, etc. No group fitness is allowed, nor team practice or games
Casinos can be open for slots only and follow the liquor laws of bars and casinos
25% limit includes grocery, pharmacies, clothing, computer, hardware, automotive stores, etc
Doctors can continue in-person care
Diploma exams will be optional - parents may choose to seek an exemption

AHS Capacity

Working with AHS to expand capacity
Commits that AHS will have all the resources needed to respond
But AHS also needs people to change their behaviour

Statements by Dr Hinshaw
Numbers

Dip in case number was due to fewer tests
Active Alerts/Outbreaks (1+ active cases) in 318 schools (~13%), with 1,135 cases. 181 schools with outbreaks (2+ active) with 65 on watch list (5+)
103 deaths in last 2 weeks. Of them, 62 were in continuing care and 12 in acute care. Of the 29 community deaths, 14 were <70 years old

Additional information will be logged below:

Update 1 - As during his last appearance, the final question for Kenney is in French and my French is poor enough to actually translate the question.
Update 2 - I believe this is a fairly comprehensive list of the deaths reported today

Wrestling Observer Rewind ★ Feb. 8, 1988

Going through old issues of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter and posting highlights in my own words, continuing in the footsteps of daprice82. For anyone interested, I highly recommend signing up for the actual site at f4wonline and checking out the full archives.
• PREVIOUS •
1987
FUTURE YEARS ARCHIVE:
The Complete Observer Rewind Archive by daprice82


1-4-1988	1-11-1988	1-18-1988	1-25-1988
2-1-1988	•	•	•

The wrestling war is, for all intents and purposes, over. The war between the territories, the ongoing collapse of the territory system, and Vince McMahon’s rise is certainly the biggest story in decades, and at this point the war is over and Vince McMahon has won. Sure, the fighting is still ongoing, but even if JCP can recover from their troubles, the gap between them and WWF is there and it’s just going to keep widening.
The biggest story of the week is that WWF has announced its ppv schedule for the next year. March 27 (Wrestlemania IV), August 29, November 24 (Survivor Series), and January 15 (Royal Rumble). Four ppvs doesn’t look like a big deal, just capitalization on the market trend. But it’s going to have a major effect on Crockett. Crockett had been planning ppv shows in early April (Crockett Cup), July (Great American Bash), and November 24 (Starrcade). With WWF’s new calendar and the exclusivity clause in their ppv deals requiring no competing wrestling ppv events 60 days before and 21 days after their shows and the success of Survivor Series and Wrestlemania IV (presumed for that one - Dave expects Wrestlemania IV to be the biggest grossing ppv ever to this point), WWF is putting the squeeze to Crockett. And in doing so, they’re killing any chance Crockett can compete and break into the ppv market. Long-term, ppv is going to mean live gates will be completely insignificant (like it already is in boxing - and hey, in 2020 we have seen the prophecy fulfilled). Because of ppv, Dave expects Wrestlemania IV to gross as much as every other American promotion will gross for the entirety of 1988, combined. Hence why the gap is wide and will only get wider, and JCP will never catch up. JCP’s going to try to counter, and the apparent move will be to shift those events to prime-time WTBS live (or very recently filmed, like a Saturday Night’s Main Event) specials all built as major cards. Starrcade probably will not be among those, Dave figures this will help.
WWF’s Royal Rumble came out the clear winner against the Bunkhouse Stampede Finals. The Rumble drew an 8.2 rating and was seen in 3.2 million homes, which is twice as many people as when Georgia Championship Wrestling’s show on WTBS was big several years ago when this wrestling war was getting started. It’s the highest rated show in the history of the USA network, and the encore broadcast on Monday drew a 4.8 rating (a regular episode of Prime Time Wrestling in that time slot usually draws a 2.9). All this means that the repeat showing of the Rumble was probably the second highest rated show on cable during the last week.
PPV numbers take longer to get, but it’s possible to make some sense of preliminary reports for the Bunkhouse Finals. The show was likely profitable, purely in terms of money, but the reaction was strongly negative. Early reports estimate the buyrate at 4%, which tells us that if given a fair shot at ppv, Crocket could be profitable with a ppv line up. That’s also encouraging for Crockett, since the card wasn’t strong and the show didn’t have the best heat, but those things may be moot now that WWF has a full year’s schedule set up. Big props to the JCP broadcast team for how well they sold the ppv in advance, because ppv and closed-circuit purchases are majority (90%) last minute, as opposed to house show tickets which are typically bought well in advance.
Wrestlemania IV is expected to sell out by the time this issue hits you. Yeah, Dave. By 32 years now. Anyway, about 14,000 seats went on sale to the general public on Saturday and all but a few thousand were sold by the end of the day. The highest price was $150. It’s funny to Dave that despite the crowd discrepancy, WWF may make as much off 14,000 tickets for Mania IV as they did selling 90,000 for Mania III (The April 3, 2000 issue is the earliest I can find for when Dave revised his view of the numbers for Wrestlemania 3). Anyway, the Convention Center is home to Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino, and Donald Trump is using Wrestlemania as the centerpiece of a weekend-long event designed to attract vacation families to his casinos, including a Gloria Estefan and Miami Sound Machine concert in the adjacent Convention Center ballroom. So I guess we can put Donald Trump down as the innovator of Wrestlemania weekend. WWF claims Wrestlemania will be available in up to 9 million homes on ppv, and if the show gets a similar buyrate to last year’s then we’re talking around $15 million on ppv, $1 million live, and probably $4-5 million at closed-circuit.

Watch: Dave Meltzer talks about Bresloff telling him 78,000

The employment status of the Rock & Roll Express, Michael Hayes, and Steve Williams with JCP has significantly cleared up. The Rock & Roll Express were fired at the Bunkhouse Finals. On January 23, they were asked to do a clean job to Warlord and Ivan Koloff in 12 minutes. Koloff’s been a low card guy recently, and they have been main guys for years, so instead they did the job in 12 seconds (Ricky Morton laid down and let Warlord pin him). Then they flew to New York for the finals, and Dusty learned what happened (he was not at the show on the 23rd) and fired them on the spot. They could be heading anywhere, though WWF is doubtful due to their size. Michael Hayes was fired last week following an incident. He was teaming with Jimmy Garvin and feuding with Ric Flair on the most recent tour; those spots have been taken by Ron Garvin and Sting, the latter of whom is having an accelerated push as a result. Hayes is expected back at World Class, though he did send a resume to WWF. As for Steve Williams, he stayed an extra week in Japan and missed the Stampede. He’s in a contract dispute with Crockett over whether the money he makes in Japan counts against his guaranteed minimum pay from Crockett (Crockett says yes, Williams says no, you’re not paying it so it doesn’t count toward the minimum you are paying him - corporations are not your friends). Williams has disconnected his phone and is out of communication.
Cable ratings for wrestling in the fourth quarter of 1987 dropped from the the third quarter. The World Championship Wrestling show dropped from second to eighth overall, and WWF’s All-American Wrestling surpassed it at seventh. Prime Time Wrestling, formerly ranked third, fell to tenth, while the Sunday WTBS show dropped from tenth to twentieth. AWA on ESPN dropped out of the top 20 (it was number 19 in the third quarter). Some of the drop probably comes from the change in how ratings are gathered (enter the Nielsen box, or “people-meter” as it’s known at this point). There’s controversy about this whole way of gathering ratings, as detractors believe that the boxes ensure shows that appeal to women will receive higher ratings than they would get otherwise. Regardless, wrestling shows across the board dropped about 10% in the ratings in the fourth quarter.
New Japan’s “Martial Arts Olympic” event in the Tokyo Dome has some hoping it will surpass Wrestlemania 3 for biggest live gate ever. They’ve sold tickets at as much as $220 for ringside and sold out those events, so there’s a chance they could if they price right and sell out. Dave’s been told that Inoki vs. Koji Kitao has the potential to double the gate of Inoki’s matches with Leon Spinks and Masa Saito (each over $700,000). If they can get Taue, that’s probably the best opponent they can get for Inoki to ensure a big draw. I think last week he may have written All Japan, but he's very clear this is an Inoki idea this week.
Speaking of Inoki, New Japan recently did a tour in Italy. The big show was January 24 in Rome and drew 8,000 fans. New Japan actually airs on tv in Italy, and Inoki was the big draw, and he pinned Badnews Allen in the main event. Shane Douglas won a battle royal on the show too. These are the first “western-style” pro wrestling matches in Italy since WWF did a show in Milan back in October.
Jake Roberts was on Ellery Queen mystery magazine’s cover this month, and Muscular Development did a cover story on Jesse Ventura. The Ventura article is excellent, but mostly about his life and training regimen, and not to do with wrestling.

Jake Roberts on the cover of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine

Genichiro Tenryu won all the major awards in Japan. Tokyo Sports named in MVP of wrestling, and Gong Magazine and Weekly Pro Wrestling gave him the equivalent. He beat Riki Choshu in Gong’s annual popularity poll as the most popular Japanese wrestler (Maeda came in second, so pressure there for New Japan to bring him back). Chigusa Nagayo placed 9th, the first time a woman has cracked the top ten of Gong’s poll.
Dave went to the WWF show at the Cow Palace on January 30. It’s his first live show since Japan, and the show drew pretty well, but not as well as you’d expect from a show with a battle royal in the area. The big news of the show were four no-shows: the British Bulldogs (Dave’s heard one of them collapsed at the airport and the other went to the hospital with him), Billy Jack Haynes (his health’s really bad and he’s missed a lot of bookings lately and folks are speculating his career is done), and Bam Bam Bigelow (scheduled to face Ted DiBiase, but he had knee surgery so no clue when he’ll be back). Due to the no-shows, the athletic commission ordered WWF to offer refunds to anyone who wanted them before the end of the second match. He runs down the card: Ron Bass pinned JYD, Ultimate Warrior pinned Harley Race. Warrior’s over big, but still sucks. Ted DiBiase beat George Steele by DQ and Dave alludes to last week’s decision to no longer call matches “abortions” and says “The only word to describe this match is one that has been banned from my vocabulary.” Don Muraco pinned Butch Reed in an okay match. The Jumping Bomb Angels beat the Glamour Girls to retain their tag titles in the only good match on the card (Dave gives it three stars). Noriyo Tateno pinned one of the Girls, Dave doesn’t identify her, saying “you know how it is with those people, they all look alike to me,” which is a pretty solid skewering of people who say that about the Angels and other Asian wrestlers, imo. Ted DiBiase won the bunkhouse battle royal to moderate heat. Hercules pinned Hillbilly Jim. Jim Duggan and Ken Patera beat Demolition and Mr. Fuji by pinning Fuji. Jake Roberts and One Man Gang went to a double countout.
By the way, the California state assembly voted 60-7 to reclassify pro wrestling as entertainment and not a sport. So that means once the bill passes the state senate, athletic commissions will have no power over pro wrestling in California, and wrestlers will not need wrestling licenses to work in the state (which was already a joke of a requirement - Dave got a print-out once of all 60 wrestlers licensed in California and major guys like Hogan and Steamboat weren’t on the list).
The lineup for AWA’s February 4 show, the last at the Minneapolis Auditorium before it’s demolished, has been announced. Curt Hennig defends the AWA Title against Greg Gagne in a cage match. The Midnight Rockers defend the tag titles against a mystery team (the latest announcement was Nick Kiniski and Kevin Kelly, but Kiniski was let go this week and they’re building to a face turn for Kelly). The rest of the card has Dick the Bruiser vs. Adnan al-Kaissey, Billy Robinson vs. Tom Zenk (particularly interesting since Robinson is in for a one-off but has a reputation as a shooter, as well as competing against Verne as a promoter sometimes, so there’s a chance he may go into business for himself), Wahoo McDaniel and Baron Von Raschke vs. The Nasty Boys, and Billy Jack Strong vs. Soldat Ustinov.
Adrian Adonis broke his ankle at the AWA tv tapings in Minot, North Dakota.He was getting whipped into the turnbuckle and stepped into a hole in the ring. He won’t be back for at least two months. Adonis has about 4 months left before he dies.
AWA released a song called “Superstars of the AWA.” Jerry Lawler and Jeff Jarrett were in it due to the increased swapping of talent between Memphis and AWA. I could not find the song.
Something Dave forgot to mention about the WWF battle royal in San Francisco. Technically there were 19 guys, but only 18 actually worked the match. George Steele came out about a minute late, walked around the ring for a few minutes without getting inside, and then just walked to the back with JYD when JYD was eliminated (JYD was the second out of the match). Dave guesses at George’s age he didn’t want to take the bump or something. Dave recalls a story he heard about an unnamed WWF “neanderthal character” who stalled outside the ring for a complete match, and when one fan yelled to “Get in the ring, you lazy bum” he retorted (despite his character not being able to speak English): “What do you think this is, the NWA?”
WWF Superstars tapings were held on January 26 in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Barry Horowitz and Steve Lombardi beat Lanny Poffo and Scott Casey, which set up the main event for the second hour of the taping where the Killer Bees beat Horowitz and Lombardi. Rick Rude and Ricky Steamboat had a match that ended in a big brawl that got Hercules, Harley Race, Jim Duggan, and Ultimate Warrior involved. The main event of the live show was not taped for tv, but had Hogan and Bigelow going over Andre and DiBiase (Hogan pinned DiBiase). Andre’s contribution to the match was one minute (of nine total for the match) in the ring, and a body slam to Hogan before almost collapsing. Commentary for this taping was not done live, but rather will be done in post-production due to the fact that they’re waiting for The Main Event first, since these will all air after that sets up the angles.
Dave hears that the decision on what to do with Hogan/Andre at The Main Event will be decided this week once his filming schedule is determined. If he’s available for weekends, he’ll stay champion through the summer. If not, then a title change will happen and DiBiase is the likely beneficiary.
[Stampede] Badnews Allen and Jason the Terrible were fined $200 and $300, respectively, by Calgary City Hall. This is in relation to their brawl in the audience on December 18 that led to a woman in the audience suffering a concussion.
Oregon will be holding a special show on February 16 as a Frank Bonema Memorial show. Bonema was the tv announcer from Portland who passed away in 1982 or 1983. They haven’t announced any matches yet, but Curt Hennig is supposed to defend the AWA Title against their Northwest Title holder at the time, and there are plans for a tag title match, a strap match, and a cage match.
The February 12 card will be the last card by Continental in Knoxville before Ron Fuller’s new promotion takes over the area from them. The situation with Alabama’s territory continues to confuse me.
Nobuhiko Takada beat Owen Hart on January 13 in one of the highlights of New Japan’s jr. heavyweight tournament. As of January 26, here’s the status of the tournament: Koshinaka leads with 34 points (7-1 record), Takada has 31 points (6-1-1 record), Hart at 29 points (6-2 record), Hase also has 29 points. Yamazaki has 24 points (5-2 record), and Yamada is 4-2-1 with 21 points. Kobayashi has 24 (5-1), Saito at 19 (4-4), and everyone else is negligible at the moment. The finals will be on February 7.
All Japan is pushing a big show for March 9 featuring Hansen vs. Tenryu. That will be a double title match, as Tenryu puts up the United National Title against Hansen’s PWF Title (Dave expects a double countout. Other matches will include Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Tiger Mask II, Baba and Wajima vs. Kimura and Tsurumi, and others.
Giant Baba’s been negotiating with the Funks and David Manning about getting All Japan on tv in the U.S. All part of his angling to help the promotions outside the NWA and WWF against the juggernauts.
AJW is building a big match for February 25, Dump Matsumoto’s retirement show. Dump and Yukari Omori (also retiring that night) will face the Crush Gals in a tag match. Also on the card will be a battle royal and Yumiko Hotta/Mitsuko Nishiwaki vs. Bull Nakano/Condor Saito for the vacant tag team titles.
AJW’s annual rookie auditions took place on January 17 in Tokyo. 1500 girls showed up, and seven were picked based on their performance in various athletic and endurance drills. Dave says this is one of the main reasons it’s ridiculous to attempt to compare joshi wrestling to any American promotion. Only the top half a percent in terms of athletic ability are chosen for training in the first place, and then “they train them like spartans from the age of 15-17 and by the time they are around 22, if they’ve even survived, they are better workers than virtually all the men.” And with the retirement age of 26, nobody stays on so long they feel stale. Then again, that level of training sounds kind of easy to become mega abusive from a 2020 standpoint.
Lots of rumor that NWA’s recent firings aren’t due to discipline issues but due to the company having financial issues. That’s the story those being fired have given. Michael Hayes in particular claims that he and Crockett agreed to a two year deal for $150k per year, but Crockett never signed it and when he pressured Crockett to sign (he wasn’t making money with the contract unsigned), and so he got fired for missing the January 23 show in Cincinnati. Even as Crockett’s financial issues become more and more apparent, they do seem to be recovering at the gate a little.
Unlike WWF, NWA’s weightlifting competition used legit weights. All four guys did 460 pound bench presses easy, then Paul Ellering called to move the bar to 600. Animal failed first, and they threw chalk in his eyes and he bled and was “taken to the hospital” and the whole thing came across well.
The road to Barry Windham joining the Horsemen (not that Dave suspects anything yet) continues as he and Luger are being pushed as a tag team. Meanwhile, Flair and Sting are set to feud.
Dave once again clarifies about Hawk’s line (because apparently he’s still saying it). It’s Neo Maxi Zoom Dweebies, not Neo Nazi Zoom Dweebies.
Crockett referee Jeff Goldberg writes in to correct the record on something. In the January 18 issue, a reader wrote in about the December 26 show in Philadelphia and said it looked like the referee screwed up the finish. Goldberg says he acted as instructed, and Flair would not have congratulated him later on if he had screwed up. He also says readers often blame referees for screwing up finishes, but that’s usually the wrestlers who screw up (or the finish is in fact supposed to look screwed up). Referees can be green just like wrestlers, but he’s proud not to be one of them.
Another reader tells us that his cable company had Bunkhouse Stampede, but Crockett did a LOLNWA. Crockett announced that Sammons cable would have the show on January 23 (day before the ppv). Except they didn’t air the announcement until 2 pm that day, had given no announcement ahead of that time, and Sammons closed their company office for the weekend at noon on the 23rd.
The longest letter this week is all about how Bret Hart deserves a bigger push. Brief version: Vince is making a big mistake by not pushing Bret as a singles star. Even the casual fans buy into him. He’s got promo ability, the ability to make a bad wrestler look good (very important in WWF), and he’d make a great opponent for Randy Savage after an Intercontinental Title change. Give it a few years, Jeff. You’ll get your wish and then some.
Crockett’s apparently going to keep two offices open. The Dallas office will be for tv production, and the Charlotte office will remain as the base for talent.
Mike Rotunda won the NWA TV Title from Nikita Koloff on January 26, then gave the Florida Title to Rick Steiner. Interestingly, Dusty did a promo referencing the Hogan/Andre/DiBiase title situation and said that in the NWA you can’t buy a title. Well, Dave points out, DiBiase offered $1 million to Hogan for the title, so that seems to be the going rate for the WWF championship for a year. Meanwhile, Rick Steiner got the Florida Title for free, which pretty accurately reflects the worth of that title.
World Class drew a crowd of 80 in Houston on January 26. No, you didn’t read that number wrong.

THURSDAY: Hogan drops the WWF Title (really the only big story next week)

Wrestling Observer Rewind ★ Jan. 1, 2001

Going through old issues of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter and posting highlights in my own words. For anyone interested, I highly recommend signing up for the actual site at f4wonline and checking out the full archives.
PREVIOUS YEARS ARCHIVE:
1991 • 1992 • 1993 • 1994 • 1995 • 1996 • 1997 • 1998 • 1999 • 2000
Hi everybody! Man, I missed y'all. So in case you missed my explanation for why I took the last 2+ months off, basically my whole life changed recently. Wife got a new job that required us to move to a new city. Which meant I also had to find a new job, we had to sell our house, find a new place to live, get settled in a new city, and all that fun stuff. It's been a really hectic and crazy couple of months, but everything has worked out great and we're all good now. A million thanks to everyone for all the nice messages and well-wishes during all this. You guys are awesome and SquaredCircle is by far my favorite corner of the internet.
In the midst of all this, I finally managed to get caught up on writing these things. My plan is to hopefully keep the usual M/W/F at noon EST schedule that has worked so well for the last couple of years. But full disclosure, that may not always be possible. My last job was pretty comfortable, I could sit at my desk and surf Reddit while working at the same time and it was never a problem. My job situation has changed so this will probably be posted during my lunch breaks and that might vary. So while I will always try to post at around the same time as everyone is used to, that may not always be possible. So just bear with me while we make this work.
That's pretty much it. And now, let us begin....the final year of the Observer Rewind!
Oh yeah, one other thing. I hate to come back after such a long absence and drop a turd. But this issue kinda sucks and there's almost nothing major happening this week. But don't worry, they get better from here!

Dave opens the first issue of 2001 with a look back at the top wrestlers of 2000. The Observer award votes are still being tabulated and whatnot but Dave decides to look at the top candidates and give his own personal thoughts.

Kurt Angle had a star-making year. One of the best talkers in the business and already one of the best in-ring guys after only really one full year. Dave says if he continues to improve at this rate in 2001, barring injuries, he may be the best in the world by this time next year (yup).
Chris Benoit is probably the best in-ring guy in wrestling today and his jump from WCW to WWF (along with the other 3) pretty much tore the heart out of WCW and they've never recovered. Benoit was going to be a main eventer and likely multiple-time world champion in WCW, headlining PPVs and TV, and who knows what may have been different if he had stayed. They almost certainly would have still self-destructed, but at least the matches would have been better.
Triple H is the likely Wrestler of the Year winner and Dave wouldn't argue it. He spent 2000 as one of the top guys (alongside Rock) in WWF and had numerous MOTY-quality matches, was a top draw for PPV, tickets, ratings, everything. Held the title repeatedly. An incredible feud with Kurt Angle that unfortunately fizzled out but was great while it lasted, etc. Hard to argue that Triple H had the best 2000 out of anyone in wrestling.
Toshiaki Kawada. Without him, AJPW ceases to exist in 2000. His star power and that alone is the only thing keeping that promotion alive and the feud with NJPW has put Kawada in a position of having dream matches that will sell out the Tokyo Dome. His match with Kensuke Sasaki was one of the biggest matches in the history of Japanese wrestling. And in ring, he's a Benoit-level worker. You could argue that other wrestlers were better this year, but nobody was more valuable to their promotion than Kawada was to AJPW.
Mitsuharu Misawa didn't really have the kind of amazing in-ring year that he's been known for in the past. But the importance of the NOAH split from AJPW is hard to overstate and was likely the biggest business story in wrestling all year in Japan (worldwide, Dave thinks the slow death of WCW is a bigger story in the long-term). If this award was for most influential wrestler outside the ring, Misawa would get it due to the successful start of NOAH.
The Rock should probably be the favorite. He's not the in-ring talent that Triple H has, but he's still pretty damn great and has had some classic matches this year. He was the top draw for WWF by far and kept the company afloat with Austin out injured for most of the year. Plus, his sheer celebrity and mainstream value to the company is huge.
Kazushi Sakuraba is a controversial pick and there's been a lot of debate over whether he qualifies, since he's MMA and not pro wrestling. Dave argues the case to why he should be eligible but it's hard to make a fair comparison to wrestling. But Sakuraba's historical legacy in MMA was cemented this year when he started beating members of the Gracie family one-by-one in PRIDE. Speaking of......

Kazushi Sakuraba added another Gracie head to his mantle last week, defeating Ryan Gracie at PRIDE 12. It was controversial because Gracie came into the fight with a shoulder injury suffered in training a few days earlier and doctors had told him not to fight. Gracie agreed to still do the fight but only if it was limited to a 10 minute time limit, which fans didn't find out about until the day of the show and booed the shit out of it. There may have been an agreement made before the match because though Gracie's injury was well-known (Gracie cut a promo about it before the fight, about how their family is tough and they don't listen to doctors and yada yada. Basically, giving themselves an out if/when Gracie inevitably lost), Sakuraba never went after it in the fight. But he dominated the match and won by decision after the 10 minute time limit. He has now beaten Royler, Royce, Renzo, and Ryan in the span of the last 13 months (and that's why they call him the "Gracie Killer").
The next major story is a recap of the recent RINGS show, and then a brief note that TV ratings aren't available and then....that's it for the top front page stories. We're already halfway through the bulk of the issue and there's not much on actual wrestling at all so far. Just a bunch of MMA recaps. Let's see what the second half brings us...
RVD will likely be appearing at the AJPW Tokyo Dome show in late January. No word if he'll work a match but he's at least hoping to be there for the Stan Hansen retirement ceremony, since Hansen helped him a lot in his earlier years when Van Dam worked for AJPW in the early 90s.
The biggest show in Pro Wrestling NOAH history took place last week, selling out a 12,000 arena. Shinya Hashimoto debuted, pinning Takao Omori. Kenta Kobashi beat Jun Akiyama in a match many are calling the best of the year. Hashimoto is expected to work a few more shows for NOAH but he isn't signed.
A couple of rookies in NOAH are getting a lot of praise. Takashi Sugiura is already being compared to Kurt Angle, because he's a former amateur wrestler who is making a good transition. And the other is Kenta Kobayashi (later KENTA and then Hideo Itami), who will actually main event a show next month, teaming with Kobashi (the names are SO similar) against Misawa and Marufuji.
Dave saw NJPW's latest show (which aired on PPV in Japan) featuring an inter-promotional match against with AJPW's Masa Fuchi and Kawada against NJPW's Takashi Iizuka and Yuji Nagata and he gives it the full 5 stars. Which is funny because on most lists you find online, this match isn't listed. Most people thought NJPW didn't get a single 5-star match between 1997 and 2012 but in a throwaway paragraph reviewing this show, he calls it a definite 5-stars and potential MOTY. So there ya go: the lost 5-star classic.

WATCH: Masa Fuchi & Kawada vs Takashi Iizuka and Yuji Nagata - AJPW vs. NJPW inter-promotional match

Antonio Inoki will have a 5-minute "exhibition match" at his New Year's Eve show (Dave is seemingly unaware at this point that Inoki's opponent will end up being Renzo Gracie).
Legendary wrestler Johnny Valentine is on death's door. Back in August, he broke his back falling off his front porch, which nearly killed him. In September he nearly died from a lung infection. He's been in and out of comas throughout that time and now he's back in the hospital again for the same reason (he ends up hanging on until April).
Dave saw the latest TV taping from the UPW indie promotion in California. WWF sent the Hardyz and Lita to work the show. Juventud Guerrera, Christopher Daniels, and Michael Modest were on it as well. WWF developmental wrestler Nathan Jones recently started there. Of all the guys working for UPW, Prototype (real name John Cena) shows the most promise. He's got an incredible look and superstar charisma, but he's not that good in the ring yet. Dave hopes he won't be rushed to the big leagues too soon because he will be exposed and it's hard to overcome the rep as a bad wrestler. Lots of people have been comparing Cena to a young Sting. Either way, Dave thinks the guy has a ton of potential to be a star if they don't fuck it up.
RVD seems to have accepted the idea that he's not going back to ECW and has said at some point in the next few months, he'll decide whether he's going to WWF or WCW. His agent has had talks with both companies. WWF is interested but they're more interested in Jerry Lynn because apparently the wrestlers in WWF who have worked with both of them prefer Lynn (RVD kinda had a reputation for accidentally hurting people). WCW is interested but can't do anything because there's a hiring freeze right now. RVD is probably the most marketable free agent on the market right now but there's still no guarantees of anything for him.
Randy Savage will appear in the Spider-Man movie as villain named "Saw Bones McGraw" (close enough, Dave). They're filming scenes with him and Spider-Man in a cage match.

WATCH: Randy Savage as Bone Saw in Spiderman

ECW held a show at the ECW Arena that was said to be somewhat of a weird show. The crowd was down from usual, only about 1000 people, rather than the usual over-packed crowd. Everyone on the roster were given checks post-dated for the following Tuesday, which now leaves them 6 weeks behind on pay. But there's no more shows scheduled until the PPV next week. Super Crazy returned, even though his father died the night before. And during the main event, Sandman tried to recreate the famous chair incident from a few years ago, asking fans to throw chairs in the ring, which many thought was pretty negligent considering how dangerous that is for all the fans at ringside. Justin Credible caught a chair in the head that he wasn't prepared for and several fights broke out in the crowd during the incident also, due to fans getting hit by other fans. Then security ended up attacking fans and it was a whole mess for awhile there. (And that, folks, was the very last real ECW show ever at the ECW Arena. Pour one out for the end of an era.)
Notes from the latest ECW Hardcore TV: neither the Dudleyz match or the Tazz promo from the tapings aired. Dave assumes WWF wouldn't allow it. Joey Styles talked about Mikey Whipwreck having 17 documented concussions which Dave thinks is pretty scary. That's basically it.
Notes from Nitro: Kevin Nash, DDP, and Sid Vicious all returned and none of them were punished for walking out last week, nor was Scott Steiner punished for his off-script promo. Nor were he or DDP punished for their backstage fight. Eric Bischoff flew out the day before and basically sat down with everybody to hash out their problems. He gave everyone the impression that he'll be taking over the company in 2001 and is trying to start things with a clean slate. Needless to say, there was a lot of resentment from the undercard wrestlers about top stars being able to just walk out of live TV tapings, shoot on the mic, and get into fights and not only go unpunished, but be put right back on TV the next week in their same top positions. Lex Luger walked out earlier this year and came back in a stronger position than when he left. Buff Bagwell has been in and out of trouble all year, is hated by much of the locker room, but still gets significant TV time in the uppercard. Meanwhile, guys like Lance Storm and Mike Awesome are out there every night busting their asses (with Awesome fighting to overcome the career-killing 70s guy gimmick) and they're barely a focal point of the show. Some in management wanted to punish everyone who walked out, but with Bischoff expected to take control any day now, they were afraid to because it's no secret that DDP and Bischoff are close friends, as are Bischoff and Nash. So it was believed any punishment levied against them would just be overturned by Bischoff anyway. Anyway, this is the Nitro that isn't airing in the U.S. but was still taped for international markets. Not much in the way of storyline progression, mostly just matches.
Former wrestler Tom Zenk was on a radio show discussing the potential WCW sale to Bischoff, calling it "a fire sale to the arsonist" and saying Time Warner is selling the company because it's not profitable, to the guy who made it unprofitable to begin with.
Remember an incident last year where Bagwell punched a ring crew member and got charged for it? Bagwell plea bargained out of it and was ordered to pay a $500 fine, one year of probation, and perform 20 hours of community service. At the time, Bagwell was suspended for 30 days over it, which cost him approx. $45,000 in pay. A rare example of WCW actually punishing someone.
WCW sent a few guys (David Flair, Mark Jindrak, Sean O'Hair, and Jung Dragons) to work the NWA Wildside show, which is their developmental territory. Speaking of, wrestlers Air Paris and AJ Styles have been stealing the shows at the Wildside events lately.
Road Dogg was sent home from the Smackdown tapings and was suspended indefinitely without pay. At this time, there's no plans to bring him back. He showed up in bad shape to the tapings and had a match teaming with K-Kwik against Lo Down that was said to be an embarrassment because of his performance. WWF wants him to get his life in order before they even consider bringing him back. He's gone through rehab a couple of times but it never took. Dave says the difference between WWF and WCW is that chances are, you're not going to see Triple H and X-Pac going on TV for the next few weeks doing Road Dogg's catchphrases and trying to go into business for themselves on his behalf, unlike some people. (Here's the match. I dunno, doesn't seem any worse than Road Dogg's usual bad matches. But you do hear the commentary talking about Road Dogg looking out of it and hinting that maybe he has a concussion. And you can definitely tell that he's a little off his game, but if you didn't know to specifically look for it, I doubt you'd really notice. He was never Ric Flair in the ring to begin with.)

WATCH: Road Dogg & K-Kwik vs. Lo Down

Notes from Raw: they had a hardcore match with Blackman, Holly, and Raven that ended up outside in the 9 degree winter weather. Dave feels sorry for those guys out there in tights and no shirt wrestling in that. The RTC cut a promo talking about how bad the internet is. (I went on the Network and watched this and it's great. Bull Buchanan cuts a promo on the APA's "Always Pounding Ass" shirt and then Goodfather finished it off with this quote: "The internet has become a harbinger of nothing more than filth and decay. The world wide web is there to trap you until it slowly strangles all the goodness from each and every one of you!" Well, he's not wrong.)
WWF officially sold the hotel and casino they bought in Las Vegas a few years ago. The original plan was to remodel the hotel as a WWF theme hotel, with a TV studio and small arena so they could hold live shows. But they quickly realized that it just wasn't feasible and have spent the last two years trying to sell it. They finally unloaded it for $11.2 million which is about $2 million more than they paid for it in 1999, so at least there's that.
There's been talk of bringing Bobby Heenan back to WWF to do commentary on one of the B or C-level shows, but that discussion seemed to go nowhere. Larry Zbyszko will also be getting an announcing audition soon and has pitched himself to be the new WWF on-screen commissioner as well.
The Rock was supposed to be doing announcing for the Orange Bowl Parade but WWF pulled him out of it. The company is being extremely protective of Rock right now and want to make sure he looks good in any non-wrestling mainstream thing he does, and there was concern about him doing commentary on a parade since, I mean, wtf does Rock know about parades? They didn't want him to look out of his depth or put in a situation he wouldn't be good at.
Update on WWF possibly moving out of Titan Towers: right now, many of the employees are doubled up in offices because they've outgrown the building and are out of space. There's been talk that they may sell the building and move to a new location soon.
Davey Boy Smith had another hearing for allegedly making death threats towards Bruce Hart. He pleaded not guilty. Bruce's estranged wife Andrea is now living with Davey Boy. His previous charges stemming from threats against Diana Hart Smith and Ellie Neidhart were dropped. Smith now says he's been clean since July, that he wants to open a wrestling school, and that he's no longer in the WWF. In a Calgary Sun story, Smith said, "I was involved in that (Hart) family for 20 years and I'm sad to say it was the worst 20 years I ever had." That led Bret Hart to speak out to defend his family name, and he said, "If it wasn't for my family and the opportunities my father gave him, Davey would still be working in the Wigan mines. He's talking about a dysfunctional family at the same time he has taken off with my brother Bruce's wife--you're right in the thick of it, buddy." (It's amazing how much of the Hart family drama played out in the Calgary Sun over the years.)
The Chyna issue of Playboy reportedly sold more than a million copies, while the first Sable issue did around 800,000. Dave expects a lot more WWF women in Playboy considering those kinds of numbers.

WEDNESDAY: Paul Heyman in talks to sell ECW, Antonio Inoki's New Year's Eve show, Vince McMahon Playboy interview, WCW fires Mark Madden, and more...

Wrestling Observer Rewind ★ Nov. 6, 2000


1-3-2000	1-10-2000	1-17-2000	1-24-2000
1-31-2000	2-7-2000	2-14-2000	2-21-2000
2-28-2000	3-6-2000	3-13-2000	3-20-2000
3-27-2000	4-3-2000	4-10-2000	4-17-2000
4-24-2000	5-1-2000	5-8-2000	5-15-2000
5-22-2000	5-29-2000	6-5-2000	6-12-2000
6-19-2000	6-26-2000	7-3-2000	7-10-2000
7-17-2000	7-24-2000	7-31-2000	8-7-2000
8-14-2000	8-21-2000	8-28-2000	9-4-2000
9-11-2000	9-18-2000	9-25-2000	10-01-2000
10-09-2000	10-15-2000	10-23-2000	10-30-2000

Bret Hart officially announced his retirement this week due to concussions he suffered starting back at Starrcade from a Goldberg kick. Doctors actually speculated that Hart may have had a concussion going into the match, but the kick magnified the damage. Following the Goldberg match, Hart continued to wrestle for a couple of weeks and got rocked again several times, particularly in a hardcore match with Terry Funk. Doctors said he's suffered about 10% brain damage, some of which may be permanent. Despite the injury, there was always the possibility that he could have remained an on-screen character in some role. But Hart was fired by WCW last week, which basically left him with no real options, since he has no intention of ever working for WWF again and said he doesn't want to end his career by working his way down the minor league food chain like so many other wrestlers do. Dave says Hart will be remembered for many things, and while his career had no shortage of memorable moments, the name Bret Hart will always be mostly associated with what happened in Montreal 3 years ago and with the death of his brother Owen. The first was the most historically influential match in modern times and Owen's death was the biggest mainstream news story in wrestling history. The last 3 years of Bret's life have been hell, from a disappointing WCW run, injuries, and the utter destruction of the Hart family in the wake of Owen's death. Dave thinks it's sad because if this was Japan or Mexico, the wrestling culture there is different. If a star on the level of Bret Hart retired there, they would have elaborate retirement ceremonies and make a huge deal of it. But here in America, he was double-crossed out of the WWF to avoid giving him a fond farewell, and then he was unceremoniously fired from WCW rather than having a chance to officially retire in the ring or give a speech for his fans. Then again, with the state of WCW, nobody would have believed a Bret Hart retirement speech anyway, since everyone would just suspect an angle. But it sucks that he's having to hang up the boots while unemployed and with no outlet to be given the send-off he deserves.
Dave recaps Bret's career, starting as a teenager in the Amarillo territory with Dory Funk, his time in Japan, and then starting in Stampede and working his way up the ladder there (he started as an opening match jobber). Forming the Hart Foundation with Neidhart, their years together in WWF, his singles run, becoming IC and WWF champion when business was down and Vince needed someone who wasn't exploding with steroids to be the face of the company. As WWF champion, business was weak in the U.S. but Hart was a huge draw when WWF toured internationally (which they did a lot more back then because U.S. business was so bad). And then of course, Shawn Michaels, the Screwjob, and off to WCW where he was the hottest star in the business upon arrival. But from there, he was the victim of injuries and horrible booking and Hart in WCW never clicked. Dave goes on and on about the countless times WCW dropped the ball with how they booked Bret. Anyway, Hart has ruled out ever wrestling again, for fear of more brain damage and not wanting to live the rest of his life as a drooling vegetable. He also shot down the idea of ever being a manager because he's unhappy with the direction of the business and says he's leaving the industry entirely, not just the in-ring part. He plans to spend the next year working on a book about his life and doing some acting. Luckily, he should be well off financially. He earned north of 7 figures during his last four years in the business and has a Lloyds of London disability policy that will pay him the equivalent of 6 months salary, which will be another million or so.
Bret Hart announced his retirement in his Calgary Sun column and since you can't just easily find this online anymore, here's what Bret wrote:

There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. That'll be the beginning." -- Louis La'Amour.
I'm really sorry to have to say that my professional wrestling career is over--forever. Although I've expected it to end for some time now, I could in no way ever prepare for it.
I suppose it doesn't do much good to speak negatively about how this or that has gone for me. I feel it is more fitting right now to remember the more positive aspects of my long and great career. I have not one regret. I'm proud of all my achievements, especially my seven World Heavyweight Championships.
I will miss the cities, the countries, especially the people--all colours, all religions, all ages, all languages. I've always tried my absolute best in every match, in every city, big or small, in countries all around the world.
I cannot begin to explain how proud I am to have touched so many people with the ability to wrestle. My heart is filled with memories. Like when I was mobbed at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem by Palestinian children, tears in their eyes, kissing my hands. In Belfast, Ireland, being cheered on by both Catholic and Protestant fans, the emotions that poured out as I walked around the ring high-fiving our victory together. The time I was in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, where they waved Canadian flags and chanted O Canada! I could go on endlessly, but maybe it's easier to say I was privileged to be the only world champion who really travelled the world.
I hope that my fans who have kept the faith, believing in me, may in some small way take some lesson from me that will help them in their lifetime. I will never forget how touched I was in Rochester, N.Y. in one of my last matches, when a bunch of die-hard fans held up a sign that read: Parking $10, Program $5, Ticket $35, watching Bret Hitman Hart wrestle--priceless."
I'm forever grateful for the doors that opened bringing me to America. Thank you for having me, for giving me so much. I thank all my fans everywhere. I owe you all for everything I am.
As for the wrestlers, it would mean a lot to me to always be remembered as "one of the boys." I've made great friendships that will last my lifetime and look forward to an easier life filled with reminiscing.
To all of you who worked with me, carried me, and trusted me, those who allowed my success to continue while theirs did not, all from a deep sense of tradition and honour. I tried to always work hard to be champion in your eyes first. My greatest accomplishment is knowing that I never seriously harmed one wrestler. It may not seem important, but I want it remembered that in all the years I never, ever refused to lose to another wrestler--except once--and that was that fateful day in Montreal, where it's clear that I stood up for "the boys."
I could begin to list all the great wrestlers I either watched or worked with, but it would take forever. I will simply say that I'd give anything to climb into the ring with so many of you just one more time. To most people, wrestling is stupid, it's fake, it doesn't mean anything. When I think about it, I'm reminded of a quote by George Braque: "Art is a sound turned to light."
I drift back to a time when I was 23 years old, wrestling for my father, in Regina, making $150 a night. It looked like it was going to be a near full crowd on hand to see me take on my arch rival, The Dynamite Kid, in a ladder match. The title and a bag supposedly containing $5,000 dangled from a string above the ring. Whoever could climb the ladder and grab it first would be the winner.
We were both so young when I look back on it now, so intense, when the bell rang, we tore into each other, ferociously, eventually spilling out onto the floor. I went to slam Dynamite's head into a steel chair. He, of course, had his hands up for protection, but I had no idea he would hit it so hard. His head bounced back, I tried to turn, but our heads smashed. I split the back of his head open and shattered my face, one of those rare accidents.
I could tell it was bad. I could poke my finger through a gaping hole in the middle of my nose. The blood poured. We fought on. I remember Dynamite jumping up high, gripping that heavy steel ladder coming down straight down on my head. I didn't move. The crowd gasped. I dreamed a smile--because he never even touched me. He really was the best. Finally, I had him right where I wanted him, but the referee was down. That's when J.R. Foley crept up on the apron and whacked me across the back with his heavy walking stick. Down I went. The crowd was furious--so unfair. Dynamite began to climb to the top, his fingers reaching. Suddenly, I jumped up, throwing a perfect desperation drop kick, just like he asked me. "...just barely touch the ladder with your toes. I'll control how I go over."
Sure enough, the ladder wobbled and tipped, he grimaced, over they both went, with amazing timing. Dynamite leapt off, straddling the top rope, bouncing up and out right on top of J.R. Foley. But the ladder hit the top rope with such force, bouncing all the way back, heading right toward me. I was lucky I saw it. I rolled and rolled as fast as I could. It crashed with a thud, missing my head by only inches. I sat up, checking to see if Dynamite was hurt. He appeared to be all right, but still both of us knew we'd be going for some stitches.
He was riding with me, so he had to duck down when we drove past the fans on the way to the Pasqua Hospital. From there, we drove back home, all night, so that we could wrestle the following night, too tired to say a word to each other.
But if I can stop right there...to somehow try and explain just what it is that I will miss the most about wrestling, I loved it all so much. I stood that big steel ladder up, one step up, climbing higher and higher, the crowd soaring with me, louder and louder, the blood dripping off my nose...reaching...I pulled that belt down and there it was--it happened. The crowd exploded.
We blew the roof off...so loud I could not hear a single sound except the beating of my own heart. If you're lucky enough to find a way of life you live, you also have to find the courage to finally say goodbye.
I'll put my guns in the ground. I can't shoot them any more.

The WWF/Owen Hart lawsuit was verbally settled out of court, pending a court approval scheduled later this week. Various sources have pegged the settlement at $18 million. It's believed Stu and Helen Hart will receive somewhere between $2-3 million, with the rest going to Martha Hart and her two young children. Martha told the Calgary Sun that the whole ordeal has been a nightmare and she can't say much more for legal reasons but that she's satisfied with the settlement. It's believed that WWF may file suit against the company that manufactured the rigging equipment, but Vince McMahon would only say that they are exploring their options on that. Martha Hart had previously vowed she would never settle before the case went to court, but those close to her say she was tired of the stress and was particularly upset that the case had torn the Hart family apart. Stu and Helen in particular were eager to settle and get it over with. The first round of settlement talks went poorly, with McMahon reportedly offering $17 million and refusing to budge, while Martha's initial asking price was said to be $32 million. It ended with Martha "cutting a promo" on Vince (oh Dave...) and talks broke off. The case was made more complicated by different Hart members' inability to stop talking to the media against lawyers' advice. At one point, Ellie Neidhart (Nattie's mom), who has sided against her parents and with WWF in the case, took a document from Stu Hart regarding all of the Hart children getting money out of the case and passed it on to WWF's lawyers, which engulfed the Hart lawyers in a storm of controversy and nearly blew up their whole case. The original Feb. 2001 court date was postponed indefinitely following that and with no new court date in sight so it was likely to continue dragging on for months and maybe even years. So ultimately, Martha decided to settle (yeah I think to this day, Martha blames Ellie for almost destroying the case and that's why she was forced to settle). As of press time, Bret Hart hasn't yet commented on the settlement, but he knew it was coming. He was on the Observer Live online show the day before it was finalized and said he understood Martha's position and would support whatever decision she made.
The downward spiral of Davey Boy Smith hit a new low this week when he was arrested on 2 separate occasions for allegedly threatening the life of his estranged wife, Diana Hart-Smith. Dave talks about Smith's worsening drug problems in recent years along with all his health issues in between and how he's been in and out of the hospital constantly in the last two years. He also had a motorcycle accident a few weeks ago, multiple rehab stints, etc. Anyway, Smith was arrested on Oct. 25th and again on Oct. 26th. The first time, it was on 2 counts of threatening to kill his wife and her sister Ellie (again...Nattie's mom). After being released the next day, he allegedly threatened his wife again and was arrested again. She thought he was still in custody and went back to the house and was surprised to find him there and that led to the second arrest. Police have been to their house several times in the last few months for domestic disputes. There was also an incident a while back with Smith getting into a fight with Diana's new boyfriend, a Stampede wrestler who wrestles under the name Dick Butkus Jr. during which 85-year-old Stu Hart had to get involved and help break it up. Anyway, Smith spent this past weekend behind bars in Calgary, spending his time signing autographs for other inmates, but was released on the 30th on bail. But he faces 5 charges related to all his threats. Part of the conditions for his release were paying a $10,000 fine and he's not allowed to have any contact with Diana, Ellie, Bruce Hart, or Diana's new boyfriend. (Dave later mentions that Davey Boy is shacking up with Bruce's estranged wife Andrea now. Man, this fuckin' family, I tell ya...) He's also not allowed to drink or take any non-prescribed drugs and is ordered to stay away from where his wife is staying, along with staying away from Bruce Hart's home and Stu Hart's home. He was also ordered to enter rehab, even though he denied in court that he still has a drug problem.
Davey Boy is still under WWF contract, though he hasn't wrestled a match in months. But the WWF has suspended him pending the company's own investigation of the charges. In the past, he blamed his drug issues and back problems from taking a bump on Ultimate Warrior's trap door in the ring when he was in WCW. Dave recaps the series of events that led to him getting rehired by WWF and talks about how they hired Jim Neidhart back as well and it was no secret that Smith, Diana, and Neidhart's wife Ellie were all planning to testify against the family in the Owen Hart case if it had gone to trial. So it wasn't exactly a coincidence that both Smith and Neidhart got jobs that neither of them really had any business getting (Neidhart was hired as a trainer, which everyone knew he wasn't qualified for and Smith was brought back as a wrestler despite a crippling back injury and more crippling drug problem). Neidhart was quietly released a few weeks ago and with the Owen Hart lawsuit finally settled, it probably doesn't look good for Smith (indeed, he never stepped foot in the WWF again).
WCW Halloween Havoc is in the books and was possibly the worst wrestling PPV of the year. At this point, you'd think everyone in WCW would be putting their best foot forward to impress potential buyers, especially if that buyer ends up being the WWF and Vince becomes their new boss. But it was almost all bad matches and abysmal booking. The only bright side is that it was in Vegas and a lot of the tickets were sold to casinos for giveaways, so the show ended up being one of the biggest live gates WCW has had in awhile, even if the crowd wasn't exactly all wrestling fans. Russo is now out of the picture (claiming post-concussion syndrome and stress), but the show was booked by guys like Ed Ferrara and Bill Banks, who are basically mini-Russos and are just keeping his chair warm. So it wasn't quite the same scattershot chaos as most Russo-booked shows, but it still had the same lack of understanding about what makes a good wrestling show that Russo has perfected. Everyone involved (Ferrara, Banks, Terry Taylor, Johnny Ace, etc.) were told to continue Russo's stories rather than changing direction so everything mostly stayed the same.
Other notes from Halloween Havoc: the opening tag title three-way match was the best and really only good match on the show., due to Mysterio, Kidman, and Alex Wright's performances. In typical WCW fashion, they had a top notch snafu showing Palumbo and Stasiak in their street clothes backstage, just seconds after being in their gear and doing a run-in on the previous match. So they put up a thing on the screen that said "taped earlier in the day" to cover for it, but then during the segment, Palumbo and Stasiak were talking about what they just did in the ring minutes earlier. David Flair looked totally lost in his first blood match with Bagwell and even though he's been a midcard star in WCW for over a year now, Dave says if he went to OVW, he'd still be the worst guy on the roster. David Flair is just not ready for the big leagues and it shows. Negative star. Mike Sanders vs. The Cat in a kickboxing match was a total clusterfuck that Cat apparently refused to do the job for since it's "his" gimmick match, so he lost by count-out instead, even though the time limit for the last round had already expired and it was just a mess. Negative half star. Mike Awesome vs. Vampiro is negative 2.5 stars. That's three matches in a row in the negatives, with 2 DUD rankings book-ending them. Dave expected Awesome/Vampiro to actually be good but it had more blown spots than any match he's seen on PPV in years. They were apparently supposed to do a table spot to end the match but they couldn't find any tables under the ring and the match fell apart and Vampiro ended up taking a top rope powerbomb that gave him a concussion and shook him up badly (didn't stop WCW from having him take another powerbomb at the Thunder taping the next day, even though he told them beforehand about the concussion, but we'll get there). And babyface world champion Booker T was booed by a good chunk of the crowd during his match with Scott Steiner.
The latest PRIDE event in Japan drew a sellout crowd mostly due to so many pro wrestlers being involved. It also saw Naoya Ogawa defeat Masaaki Satake in a match most people believed was worked. Ogawa is Antonio Inoki's protege and he's keeping Ogawa protected. Dave says it definitely helps Ogawa keep his name and star power in a highly publicized match, but it doesn't say a lot for PRIDE's credibility. There's also suspicion that Nobuhiko Takada's fight against Igor Vovchanchyn was somewhat worked. Takada lost, but Igor is one of the top ranked heavyweights in the world and Takada went nearly 2 full rounds with him. Most people suspect the finish wasn't worked, but that Igor was told to take it easy on him because Takada is still a big draw and they wanted him to look strong in defeat against a guy he had no chance with. There were several other wrestlers on the card as well. Inoki came out at intermission and announced he was putting together his own show at the Osaka Dome for New Year's Eve (this ends up being the Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye show, which also sees Inoki come out of retirement for his final "match" ever. More on all this in a bit).
Genichiro Tenryu, at age 51, defeated Toshiaki Kawada to win the tournament and be crowned AJPW's newest Triple Crown champion, filling the vacancy left over after previous champion Kobashi left for NOAH. This complicates the AJPW/NJPW angle. There's 2 Tokyo Dome shows coming up in January. The first is NJPW's Jan. 4th show and there's another one near the end of the month that's an AJPW show, but will have some NJPW involvement. But Motoko Baba wants to protect the champion because she's hoping AJPW will still survive after the NJPW angle is over. In the past, companies like UWFI and WAR were desperate to survive and started working with NJPW, only to be devoured by NJPW's booking and left to die after the angle ran its course. Mrs. Baba is hoping to avoid the same fate, so she's not going to let Tenryu work a NJPW show and lose (remember, at the last show, NJPW's champion Kensuke Sasaki lost to Kawada and they won't let that happen 2 times in a row). Now that he's not the champion, it frees Kawada up to have a rematch with Sasaki, where he will presumably return the favor and do the job, but it won't be to unify the titles anymore.

WATCH: Genichiro Tenryu vs. Toshiaki Kawada - AJPW Triple Crown Championship match

Let's look at some various poll results. Every issue has results for the polls they run online every day or so. Usually I skip over these because they're boring but they're kinda interesting this week. "How should WCW handle the situation with Kevin Nash and Scott Hall" got 55% of voters saying Nash should be suspended for going off script on live TV. As for the future of ECW, 30% of voters think it won't last much longer, while most everyone else thinks it will struggle but continue to survive. Whoops. And finally, Bret Hart's greatest match was 35% for the match with Owen at WM10 and 33% for the match with Austin at WM13.
Stan Hansen has an autobiography that was released in Japanese that is selling like crazy in Japan. Hansen is near the end of his career, but he's probably the most popular American wrestler in Japanese history and has been a top star there since the 70s. (Hansen had an English autobiography released in 2012 called The Last Outlaw. I'm not sure if it's the same book translated to English or if there's another one out there in Japanese from 12 years earlier).
NOAH will hold tournaments early next year to crown their first heavyweight, tag team, and junior heavyweight champions.
Shinya Hashimoto was pulled out of upcoming NJPW shows because they're apparently doing an angle where he is starting his own promotion, in order to do a feud with NJPW (turns out this wasn't an angle at all. Hashimoto really did get fired from NJPW around this time and started Pro Wrestling Zero-One. The real story there is murky and no one seems to know for sure exactly what led to his firing. I think he ended up doing one or two more matches for NJPW over the next year or so, but otherwise, this is the end of Hashimoto in NJPW).
Dave recently had a chance to read the book "Bodyslams!" by former WCW ring announcer Gary Michael Cappetta and liked it. It's not better than Mick Foley's book or anything, but Dave gives it credit for accuracy. Mostly it glosses over a lot of the scandalous stuff and is more about Cappetta's personal experiences rather than giving much detail on what was happening in the business at the time. Dave thinks the book could have gone into more detail on the things going on behind the scenes in WCW during pivotal periods like when Jim Herd, Kip Frey, or Bill Watts was in charge. Overall, definitely better than The Rock's farce of a book but still lacking what made Foley's and Dynamite Kid's books so fascinating.
Steve Allen, the famous comedian and first ever host of the Tonight Show, died last week at age 78. This is only relevant here because most recently, Allen has been one of the lead spokespeople for the PTC and has been one of the most vocal opponents of WWF programming. Ironically enough, early in his career, Allen worked on TV as a wrestling announcer in the 1950s, though he never took it seriously, and in 1990, he appeared at Wrestlemania 6.
The documentary "Gaea Girls", which is about a young woman trying to get into Japanese women's wrestling, has been winning some awards and been admitted to some film festivals.

WATCH: Gaea Girls documentary

"Walker: Texas Ranger" this week did an episode loosely based on Owen Hart's death. It's about a wrestler, in costume, who fell from the ceiling during a show. Although in the case of this show, it was a murder ordered by a ruthless promoter trying to take over the territory of another promoter, who's a kind, older guy. The obvious parallels were a more evil version of Vince McMahon and a gentler version of Stu Hart. Dave thought the episode sucked and also got really sad by it. Dave says he hasn't watched Over The Edge again since Owen's death and seeing it fictionally re-enacted for a TV show was really depressing.

WATCH: Walker: Texas Ranger re-enacts Owen Hart's death

Scott Hall was arrested this week for probation violation while he was already in court for a child custody hearing. This charge stems from some 1998 case where he keyed up a limo outside a strip club in Orlando. At the time, Hall had been given probation and ordered to complete a bunch of community service by April of 2000. He never completed the community service, so....probation violation. Hall was in court with his estranged wife Dana and he filed for sole custody of their 2 children, claiming Dana is "emotionally and mentally unstable and an unfit parent" but then Hall got arrested at the courthouse and the hearing was postponed. Speaking of, Dana herself has had 2 contempt-of-court charges against her recently for refusing to let Hall have visitation with their kids when she was supposed to.
PPV news: CMLL in Mexico is holding a big year end show in December and are negotiating for it to air on PPV in the U.S., which would be the first Lucha Libre PPV to air here since When Worlds Collide in 1994. And remember a few months back when a promoter in Australia brought in Dennis Rodman and a bunch of other kinda big name stars and ran a show? Well it will also air on PPV in the U.S. and Canada and Mexico next month. That show was headlined by Rodman vs. Curt Hennig which ended in a double-count out because apparently Rodman refused to do the job. Word is that show was terrible, like this year's version of Heroes of Wrestling, but Australia is so starved for live wrestling that the crowd heat was still off-the-charts.
Juventud Guerrera worked an indie show in Puerto Rico and right now, he's trying to get hired in WWF, or at least stay out of trouble long enough to get rehired by WCW. Guerrera has reached out to WWF through friends he has there, but after what happened with him last month in Australia, WWF apparently isn't interested.
The latest OVW show saw Nick Dinsmore win the OVW title from Rob Conway. On the same show, Brock Lesnar wrestled a dark match against former UFC fighter Ron Waterman. Lesnar won and hey, who knows, maybe he's got a future in beating up UFC fighters.
Ted Dibiase and Nikita Koloff are on a church tour together where they wrestle matches against each other and then preach sermons or something.
The lines between wrestling and MMA got blurrier this week when Atsushi Onita went to the PRIDE offices and met with their promoter. Onita then issued a challenge to Antonio Inoki for a match, saying he wants to retire (of course) and his last match has to be with Inoki. PRIDE officials put out a statement saying they wouldn't promote one of Onita's exploding barbed wire matches, but that they would gladly promote Inoki vs. Onita under PRIDE rules in their ring. Inoki responded, telling reporters that he's retired. There's rumor that Onita will be appearing at Inoki's New Year's Eve show to set up some kind of angle.
Paul Heyman and Sabu have a court date scheduled for later this month over their issues. If you remember, Sabu left ECW to go try to go to WCW but his contract prevented it. Heyman then sued Sabu for breach of contract when he started working other shows (particularly for XPW). Meanwhile, Sabu has also filed some legal paperwork to try to get out of his contract, so hopefully that will all be settled soon.
Speaking of ECW, there doesn't seem to be anything new happening on the TV front. Negotiations with USA have apparently stalled. So....not great news. The latest episode of ECW Hardcore TV shows the signs of how things are going. The in-ring action was good but the show is beginning to look more and more low-budget by the week, as the company continues struggling to stay afloat. The announcers weren't flown in (it was dubbed in later in post-production) and the lighting was terrible.
Still nothing new on the sale of WCW but rumors are flying like crazy because everyone is paranoid. For the first time, in an interview, Linda McMahon acknowledged that it's true that WWF is in discussions to purchase WCW but word is no substantial progress has been made yet.
Notes from Nitro: it was a sad episode because the crowd was tiny and it almost felt like a bad indie show, especially because the small crowd was pretty dead. It was a disaster, with a total of 1,454 fans in the building and only 768 of them paid. Even worse, they tried to paper it but only 33% of the free tickets that were given out were used. WCW literally can't even give this shit away. Ric Flair returned as the new CEO of WCW and got almost no pop at all from the crowd, then cut a boring promo. Dave thinks it's sad that this is where things have gotten for him. The greatest of all time, cutting middling promos in front of a small crowd for a dying company. Then Jarrett came out to talk and the mic went dead. The fans chanted for Scott Hall all through the Kronik/Palumbo & Stasiak match. Kevin Nash was on commentary but after last week, he was finally ordered to stop talking about Hall. So instead of mentioning Hall himself, when the crowd started chanting, Nash kept asking, "What are they chanting?" but the other announcers wouldn't acknowledge him.
Thunder was taped immediately after Nitro and the only notable thing there was a Lance Storm vs. Norman Smiley match that was apparently so bad that Storm went on his website afterward and pre-emptively apologized to the fans for the match. As of press time, it hasn't aired yet so I guess we'll see (the 2000 Thunders aren't on the Network and I can't find this online, so no idea how bad it was or wasn't).
Backstage morale in WCW isn't great, which probably goes without saying. Word is much of the crew, wrestlers and backstage employees alike, are so drained by all the negativity and sale rumors that everyone has pretty much mentally quit. They're all just going through the motions every week now while waiting to see what's going to happen with their jobs.
Buff Bagwell did an interview with the Observer website a few days before the Halloween Havoc PPV and had plenty of interesting things to say. He ripped on Vince Russo for the way he booked himself along with guys like Luger and DDP and basically just how awful Russo's booking is. He also complained about WCW fining people for showing up late. He complained about not getting a big raise like everyone else got back in 1998 because he was out with a neck injury when Bischoff was giving raises and complained about being underpaid compared to all the other "A-talent" like himself. Talked about how screwed up WCW is, saying Lex Luger is being paid $1.3 million a year to do jobs for Hugh Morrus. "Are you kidding me? Hugh is a great guy and all that, but he's not A-talent. I love him to death, but he's never going to draw a dime. We're talking about drawing money and he's never going to draw a fuckin' dime. And Luger is putting him over at house shows? Nothing is adding up. I know for a fact that if they try to get me to job for (David) Flair at Havoc, I'm going to walk out the door. I'm not doing it." In response to all this, WCW put Hugh Morrus over big on Nitro while they had Bagwell job to Luger in 2 minutes on the same show. Well, at least someone in WCW gets punished for the shit they say.

IMPORTANT NOTE: For only the second time ever in writing these Rewinds, I have hit the 40,000 character limit. So once again, the rest of this Rewind will be posted in a comment below, so keep scrolling. Upvote it for visibility I guess?

Wrestling Observer Rewind ★ Feb. 1, 1999


1-4-1999	1-11-1999	1-18-1999	1-25-1999

Posting this right at the start of OilMania seems like a bad idea but who knows, let's see how it goes!

Dave looks at business numbers for 1998 and needless to say, basically every record got destroyed. The 1998 numbers compared to 1997 are staggering. WWF live attendance increased more than 71% over the year before. TV ratings increased nearly 49%. PPV buyrates increased 67%. Over 33% of their live shows were legit sellouts (compared to only 16% in '97). WCW was the same story. 46% increase in attendance, 56% increase in ratings, 17% increase in buyrates, and 49% of its shows sold out. An estimated 3.85 million people attended WWF and WCW shows during 1998, generating about $78 million in gate revenue ($38m for WCW, $40m for WWF). Dave starts tossing in other numbers and percentages, accounting for ECW and other indies and whatnot. WWF did better numbers than WCW in every category throughout most of 1998. WCW peaked in March and has been on a steady decline ever since. Meanwhile, WWF peaked in December and still seem to be on the rise. There's a lot more detail in this but yanno....numbers. Meh.
AJPW and NJPW numbers are also covered, but in less detail. AJPW attendance was down slightly (10%) from last year, and both years are the lowest of the decade, so not good news there. For most of the year, they were having their lowest attendance numbers in company history, but the arrival of Vader seems to have given them a boost near the end of the year. TV ratings held steady and basically didn't change. And no matter what, AJPW's first ever Tokyo Dome show more than made up for any declining numbers by generating millions of much-needed dollars for the company. As for NJPW, attendance increased slightly (about 5%) but TV ratings dropped significantly (nearly 20%) which is obviously not great news.
Toshiaki Kawada won AJPW's Triple Crown title last week from Misawa but he also broke his right wrist and forearm during the match by hitting Misawa in the back of the head with a spinning backfist that hit so hard that it hurt the wrong guy. He finished the match, going another 15 minutes after. Three days after the match, Kawada underwent surgery and it's believed he'll be out until May (when AJPW has their 2nd ever Tokyo Dome show). Kawada will be vacating the title he just won and it's unclear what they will do next to crown a new champion. There's a lot of problems because they had months of booking planned already and now it all has to be scrapped and it throws plans for several upcoming major shows into chaos (man, I bet it sucked to be Misawa right now. At this moment, Baba is hospitalized and no one knows why, not even Misawa allegedly, and he's running the company while also having to deal with this shit. I can only imagine the stress that dude was dealing with).

WATCH: Toshiaki Kawada vs. Mitsuharu Misawa (injury happens at 12:50)

WWF's Royal Rumble is in the books. From an in-ring standpoint, aside from one match (Rock/Mankind), it wasn't great and shows the lack of depth WWF has when it comes to in-ring talent. But from a story and booking standpoint, the show opened up a lot of possible doors. It was sold out weeks in advance and it's likely going to do a huge buyrate if early projections are any indication. Some of the show (specifically Rock/Mankind) was brutally violent but aside from that, the show was actually somewhat toned down compared to recent Raws and PPVs. There's starting to be whispers of sponsors getting uncomfortable with the product so that's probably why.
Other notes from the show: Christian beat Jeff Hardy in a dark match. Too Much (Brian Christopher and Scott Taylor) also did a dark match job and Dave mentions that the plan to have them do a gay wedding angle at the February PPV has been scrapped, which is why they have been de-pushed on TV. Word is neither guy was exactly thrilled about doing it (we'd get Billy & Chuck a few years later). The announcers talked about how Mankind has never submitted in his entire career, which Dave points out is just patently ridiculous because he tapped out on WWF TV just a few months ago. Then they said the same thing about Billy Gunn later in the show, which was even more absurd. Mabel returned and will end up as part of Undertaker's group, which Dave is just THRILLED about. The finish of X-Pac/Gangrel was screwed up when referee Teddy Long counted 3 for a spot when he wasn't supposed to. The crowd chanted "you fucked up" at everybody as the match went to the planned finish a moment later. The Sable/Luna strap match ended the exact same way every strap match since the beginning of time has ended, with the heel dragging the face to each corner while, unbeknownst to them, the face is also touching each corner, and then the face manages to get the last one. Dave points out how that doesn't even make sense because the object is to drag your opponent to each corner, and every time they do this finish, the heel is the one pulling them, so that shouldn't count. But whatever. And the Rumble match was basically built around Vince and Austin. As far as Rumble matches go, it was probably the worst Rumble ever, but it at least had some stories going on within the context of the match.
Oh yeah. The Rock vs. Mankind match. For starters, Dave congratulates Observer reader Bryan Alvarez, who called the Observer hotline and predicted the finish (playing the audio of Mankind saying "I quit" from the previous week's Raw). The match was going along fine and then Rock handcuffed Mankind's hands behind his back. And from there, it got sick. Eleven full-force brutal chairshots to the head. Beyond overkill. Dave says it didn't remotely qualify as entertainment and he's worried that Mick Foley is going to end up with no brain cells left and says 90% of the calls they got on the Observer hotline were people pissed at Foley for going along with that. Dave pretty much found the whole thing sickening and hopes we never see anything like it again (yeah, needless to say this one is famous for pretty much all the wrong reasons).

WATCH: Mankind vs. The Rock - Royal Rumble 1999

Raw's ratings streak over Nitro is now 13 weeks in a row and counting and the gap between the two shows seems to be getting wider every week, although this week it was actually kinda close. WCW experimented with doing the main event match at the end of the first hour to try to prevent people from switching over to Raw when it started and it seemed to work a little bit, although not enough to matter. Raw still demolished them.
Still no real details on the condition of Giant Baba. Every year, AJPW does a big birthday celebration show for him, and this year, he obviously wasn't able to attend as he's still hospitalized. But word is they brought him a tape of the show and he watched it with a big smile on his face. There's hope that Baba will be back before AJPW's Tokyo Dome show in May. Those close to him aren't saying what exactly is wrong but are telling people that it's not that serious (spoiler alert: we'll be covering his obituary in the next issue).
Scott Norton is said to be really upset about how his IWGP title reign went down. He was apparently told it was going to be a year-long title reign, but it ended up getting cut short (about 4 months) and he lost the title to Keiji Muto at the Jan. 4th show. Norton is telling people he's finished with NJPW (naaaah).
Still a lot of news coverage of the Hashimoto/Ogawa match from the Jan. 4th show. It's looking more and more as if it was a real shoot and some are saying Hashimoto was aware beforehand that it was going to be a 100% shoot match. There have been claims that he covered himself in oil before the match so he could slip out of Ogawa's holds and Dave says looking at the match, that does appear to be true. But at this point, the consensus is that the match was a shoot, not an angle. Whether Hashimoto was aware of it being a shoot from the beginning is still somewhat debated.
Jesse Ventura was recently sworn in as the governor of Minnesota and it's already going poorly. His appointee to head the Dept. of Natural Resources resigned 6 days after starting the job when it was discovered he had several fines and citations for hunting and fishing violations. Fun side note: the judge who swore Ventura in as governor is the same judge who ruled in his favor in his lawsuit against WWF several years ago.
Tajiri vs. Super Crazy matches have reportedly been stealing the show at all of the recent ECW house shows and it's expected that they will face each other on next month's Living Dangerously PPV (yup).
Dawn Marie is getting breast implants this week. ECW is paying for it since they basically asked her to do it.
Speaking of ECW women, they did a backstage interview with Tammy Sytch and Chris Candido, which is the first time they've really shown Tammy's face up close on TV in awhile and Dave says she looks like she hasn't slept in months (yeah she was really starting to look haggard during this time. Drugs are bad, mmm'kay).
There have been rumors that Sid Vicious no-showed a recent ECW house show but for once, it's not true. He actually wasn't booked. "He will no-show at some point soon, it just hasn't happened yet," Dave says.
WCW is almost certainly going to do a match at SuperBrawl that will lead to Rey Mysterio being unmasked. Bischoff tried to get Mysterio to unmask in 1997 and it turned into a huge issue, with Mysterio almost quitting the company and Bischoff threatening to sue him for breach of contract. But this time, Mysterio is said to be okay with it, since Kevin Nash is booking everything now and Mysterio says he trusts Nash to do right by him (Mysterio has since completely gone the other way on this and says he regrets ever doing it).
Wrestling media for the week: DDP appearing on Regis & Kathy Lee. Goldberg appearing on Jay Leno. Maxim, Forbes, and Playboy all doing magazine stories on wrestling. Larry Zbyszko appeared on MTV with Rob Zombie, leading to Zbyszko saying the last time he worked with a zombie was when he wrestled Dusty Rhodes, which Dave thinks was hilarious. A bunch of other WCW guys appeared on the MTV show also.
Chris Jericho's sidekick Ralphus is actually one of the ring crew guys who drives the ring from city to city. He gets paid $200 per appearance for being on TV every week.
Stu and Helen Hart won't be losing the Hart family home after all. Whatever shit was going on with that has been settled, although they may still have to sell some of the land near the house that they own.
A big group of school teachers and the school board in Winnipeg are still fighting to get WWF's Raw pushed back to a later airtime so kids won't watch it. Dave points out that kids still know to use VCRs. WWF of course tries to push the narrative that they are for adults and that their prime audience is the 18-34 demographic. Dave calls bullshit and says that the highest rated age group for Raw is actually teenagers and young children aren't that far behind. Obviously, that is the parent's responsibility, not WWFs, but regardless, the idea that kids aren't watching WWF is ludicrous because they're actually watching it more than any other demographic.
When reviewing Raw, Dave goes on a rant about WWF bringing Mabel back and putting him with Undertaker's group. He talks about how WWF basically buried Vader due to his size, despite him being 10x the worker Mabel ever was and in much better shape. He was also a big star and doesn't have a reputation of carelessly injuring people that Mabel apparently has. "They should have brought back Sid or Ahmed Johnson way before this clown," Dave says. Tell us how you really feel. Besides, Dave wonders, when they're just weeks away from bringing in The Giant from WCW, what purpose does Mabel serve?
On Raw, Mankind challenged the Rock to an empty arena match to take place during halftime of the Super Bowl. Dave thinks whoever came up with the idea deserves a raise because it's a pretty brilliant idea.
Remember how WWF bought into that casino in Las Vegas and planned to turn it into a WWF Hotel & Casino? Well now they plan to tear down the whole building and rebuild. They want to be able to do live shows from there, but the current building isn't structured in a way that would allow them to set it up as an arena to do shows.
WWF's upcoming Super Bowl commercial will reportedly be called "A Day At The Office" and will feature a bunch of wrestlers and stunt men and explosions and whatnot during a tour of WWF's Titan Towers. Dave recaps the entire commercial, frame by frame exactly, even though it hasn't aired yet. But he's got the scoop on what it will be. Anyway, WWF reportedly paid $1.6 million for the 30-second ad and it will air in the 3rd quarter. The next day, they plan to launch a multi-million dollar ad campaign, mostly to shit-talk all the critics of their product.
Lance Storm writes in a letter to the Observer and Dave responds, so let's watch these 2 notorious goofballs totally not take wrestling too seriously:

Just a small complaint. When writing match results, do you actually watch the match or are you retelling someone else's account. Perhaps I'm a bit too detail conscience or even a bit anal retentive, but I find it frustrating when match details are incorrect. Your recent account of my PPV match with Rob Van Dam strongly resembled our match, but had a couple of moves credited to the wrong person and a false finish out of order or wrong. Maybe these details are insignificant, but in a newsletter that voices its opinions as absolute, it would be nice if the actual facts were as well.
Lance Storm Calgary, Alberta
DM: I watch every PPV match. In doing match write-ups, the idea is not to list moves or spots in order but attempt to tell the story of the match listing things that stick out after it's over and thus had impact, and not necessarily to place those spots in their specific order. If a spot is credited to the wrong person, that's an unforgivable mistake.

Other letters this week: people pissed at Mick Foley for likely allowing himself to get brain damage in the Rumble match, someone pissed that Steve Austin won wrestler of the year ("He only has 5 moves, and flipping off Vince McMahon is one of them"), someone comparing Tony Schiavone following Eric Bischoff's orders to bury Mick Foley to the Nazi's following Hitler's orders, and more.

MONDAY: the death of Giant Baba, Bischoff and McMahon bickering in the media, Empty Arena match, and more...

Wrestling Observer Rewind ★ Aug. 17, 1998


1-5-1998	1-12-1998	1-19-1998	1-27-1998
2-2-1998	2-9-1998	2-16-1998	2-23-1998
3-2-1998	3-9-1998	3-16-1998	3-23-1998
3-30-1998	4-6-1998	4-13-1998	4-20-1998
4-27-1998	5-4-1998	5-11-1998	5-18-1998
5-25-1998	6-1-1998	6-8-1998	6-15-1998
6-22-1998	6-29-1998	7-6-1998	7-13-1998
7-20-1998	7-27-1998	8-3-1998	8-10-1998

WCW Road Wild is in the books, featuring the "wrestling" debut of Jay Leno. Well, really he did a hold, 2 punches, and a double-clothesline and that's about it. The finish was supposed to be Leno hitting the diamond cutter on Bischoff, but they didn't trust him to do it properly, so they ended up having Kevin Eubanks do it instead. DDP and Hogan worked the majority of the match and worked well together so it was better than the Rodman/Malone match, but that's a pretty low bar. Sure, they got a few weeks of mainstream publicity but it doesn't seem to have helped the ratings at all and Dave doesn't think it's going to do much for the PPV buyrate either. Leno was reportedly paid $1 million to participate, although that figure might not be accurate. But even still, there just doesn't look to be any way that this Leno experiment was a good business decision. Beyond that, this was the worst Road Wild PPV ever and that's saying something because that show is a disaster every year. If not for Jericho vs. Guerrera, it would have been the single worst PPV in history. Dave calls it part of "the speedy self-destruction" of a company that was arguably the hottest promotion on the planet just a few weeks ago. It's a free show for the Sturgis crowd, which means foregoing an easy $300,000 or more at the gate, plus another $100,000 in merch that they would do at a normal PPV. It's also a crowd of mostly non-wrestling fans, so the atmosphere sucks the life out of everything. As for this show in particular: horrible matches, horrible booking, etc.
Other notes from Road Wild: Steve McMichael vs. Brian Adams was originally scheduled for 17 minutes but was thankfully cut down to 7, which probably saved it from being the worst match of all time. Dave gives it negative-2 stars anyway. Disco Inferno/Alex Wright vs. Public Enemy gets negative-1 star. Stevie Ray vs. Chavo Guerrero gets negative-1 star. There was a 9-man battle royal that Goldberg won and the only interesting note from that is that Kevin Nash was in it. The heat with him is so bad right now that WCW wasn't even sure if Nash was going to show up but fortunately he did. But in the battle royal, he simply stepped over the top rope and eliminated himself so he managed to be the only person not thrown out by Goldberg. And finally, after the main event was the 30-minute Travis Tritt concert which is interesting because at the show, Tritt's management held up WCW to make sure they got their money in advance, plus they wanted a Learjet ride home and 3 motorcycles, or else Tritt wouldn't perform. For some reason, a lot of PPV outlets didn't air the Tritt concert which has caused issues because now they're offering full refunds to anyone who wants them. That means a loss of money to WCW as well. WCW is arguing that the Tritt concert wasn't the draw of the show and telling the PPV providers not to give refunds for the show and are making noises about legal threats if they do.

WATCH: WCW Road Wild 1998 highlights

New Japan drew its smallest crowd ever for a Dome show, drawing 35,000 to the Osaka Dome this week. Last year, they sold it out (53,000) but this year, due to stale business and the weak Japanese economy, they didn't even come close. As expected, the show was capped off with Masahiro Chono winning the IWGP title from Fujinami.
Rick Martel has quietly retired from wrestling due to recent knee and neck injuries. Dave recaps his career, from his early AWA days where he was one of their top stars, to the WWF as part of Can-Am Connection, his Model gimmick, and finally to WCW where he returned only to injure his knee twice and suffered a recent vertebrae injury. He ultimately decided he didn't want to end up crippled from wrestling and he has invested his money well, so he decided to retire while he still had most of his health.
USA Today ran a story on WWF and WCW, featuring lots of choice quotes from both sides and enough incorrect facts to drive Dave to suicide. It said the companies combined do $650 million in merchandise yearly which is such exaggerated bullshit that it's laughable. It claimed WCW began Nitro to compete with WWF a year ago (it's been 3 years). Claimed WWF has been mostly winning the ratings battle since the beginning (obviously not true). So on and so forth. It also talked about the early history of both companies, basically describing it that Vince was the only wrestling promotion in the world until Ted Turner suddenly decided to open the checkbook and steal all his top stars and start his own company which is, of course, total bullshit.

Here are some of the quotes from the USA Today story:

Goldberg had this to say about allegations of being a clone of Steve Austin:

"I respect the guy for what he's done, but I don't respect him enough to copy him. Steve Austin is known as one of the best promo guys in the world. But Steve Austin doesn't do one thing that I can't do in the ring."
In response, Austin had this to say about Goldberg:

"Goldberg is squashing people with his power moves, and that's great. But he doesn't know the psychology yet. I'm able to go out there and take the fans on a 30-minute roller coaster ride."
Vince McMahon had this to say about the Monday night wars:

"It's the same old Hulk Hogan situation. Every time Hogan is on the air, we clobber them. It's a tired, old situation." (Dave points out that this is complete bullshit because Hogan is still one of the few people in WCW who actually does strong TV ratings, "but McMahon has never let the truth get in the way of a good quote.")
Hogan had this to say about retiring:

"My wife doesn't want me to quit, my kids don't want me to quit, the promoters don't want me to quit, the fans don't want me to quit and the IRS really doesn't want me to quit."

The Monday night ratings trend went completely backwards this week. For once, Nitro was the much better show, Raw sucked, and in the end, Nitro actually won the ratings battle for the night. The news isn't all bad for WWF though. The 2nd episode of the new Sunday Night Heat did a monster rating almost on par with Raw. Furthermore, the episode of Pacific Blue that aired afterward (featuring Triple H) did double its normal rating, which makes USA Network plenty happy. So expect more WWF tie-ins on other USA shows. As for Sunday Night Heat, this show is being done on a 5-week trial basis right now, but given the ratings, you can almost certainly expect it to be added to the permanent Sunday schedule going forward.
The International Wrestling Institute and Museum will open in Newton, IA next month. It will mostly focus on amateur wrestling but will also feature a section devoted to pro wrestling, but mostly focusing on guys like Lou Thesz, Danny Hodge, Verne Gagne, etc. (this museum was later named the Dan Gable Museum and was moved to Waterloo in 2006. In 2010, the National Wrestling Hall of Fame absorbed it).
Speaking of Halls of Fame, the next round of the Observer Hall of Fame will be next week and Dave mentions that ballots have been sent to dozens of other major names within the business. Top wrestlers, promoters, wrestling historians, reporters, etc. All of those people will be voting on it so if you don't like who is and isn't inducted, don't bitch at Dave about it because he has no more say in it than everyone else (this is still how it operates to this day, and yet every year, people bitch Dave out as if he's personally choosing to spite their favorite wrestler by not inducting them).
A big news story aired on TV in Puerto Rico building up the recent 25th anniversary show for WWC. The story paid tribute to all the wrestlers who were stars in WWC who have since passed away like Eddie Gilbert, Junkyard Dog, Andre The Giant, Dick Murdoch, etc. However, there was no mention of Bruiser Brody. Considering his death was the biggest story in the history of wrestling in that part of the world and Brody was the biggest foreign star there ever aside from Andre, it's a little conspicuous. But to this day, the reputation of WWC never fully recovered from Brody's murder and the man who killed him still works for the company, so no surprise that they've essentially wiped his name from their history.
After a decade of rumors, it appears Stampede Wrestling will be starting back up again in September under Bruce Hart. They plan to produce a weekly TV show to air in Calgary and Edmonton. Dave assumes it will be mostly local talent.
UFC is planning to run low budget shows for awhile until the PPV companies come to their senses. The way wrestling is these days, they figure the PPV companies can't keep singling out UFC for too much longer without it being obvious to everyone how unfair it is. Dave says that's the logical argument, but logic has never played a part in these decisions before so he isn't holding his breath.
Sandman still hasn't signed a new deal with ECW. In the meantime, Paul Heyman has been having Sandman do 3-minute clean jobs to Justin Credible at every show. Heyman is openly telling people that if Sandman doesn't re-sign, he will use the money Sandman would have made and attempt to buy out Chris Benoit's contract from WCW. This has gotten a lot of people within ECW excited and now a lot of people don't really care if Sandman stays or goes if they can get Benoit in exchange. Dave says this has almost no chance of actually happening because he's pretty sure Bischoff wouldn't go for it and besides, that's not how money works in the wrestling business (which Dave goes into detail on, but I'm really sleepy right now and it's numbers so....no). But it's made Heyman the babyface among the locker room and doesn't really help Sandman's bargaining position.
The New Jack/Eric Kulas (Mass Transit) case is still pending and has been continued until October. The D.A. is still deciding whether to prosecute or if this whole thing is more suited for civil court rather than criminal.
Tammy Sytch didn't appear at the most recent ECW show because she recently had some surgery done. For the crowd, they announced that WWF wouldn't allow her to be there (in reality, she's already been fired from WWF). Lance Storm cut a promo saying that WWF may be able to keep her from being at ringside, but they couldn't stop her from coming to his hotel room later.
Ultimate Warrior is still scheduled to debut on Nitro this week, but it's not like you'd know it. WCW hasn't even hinted that he will be showing up which is mind-boggling because he's only going to matter to the ratings for a couple of weeks. His biggest value to the ratings would be his debut, so why wouldn't they hype it up for weeks in advance? Surprises are good at times, but often the best bet is to give something the proper hype so you can get a ratings boost out of it. Also, he will only be known as The Warrior because there's still legal issues with WWF owning the name Ultimate Warrior.
Still no real update on the Flair situation. Everybody expects him to return eventually but not until after the next court hearing regarding his contract. Bischoff himself has reportedly told Chris Benoit and Dean Malenko that Flair is coming back because they're part of the new 4 Horsemen plans and they weren't thrilled with the idea of doing that gimmick without Flair involved. Speaking of Benoit...
Chris Benoit is reportedly extremely hesitant to sign a new contract with WCW. Right now, it seems that odds are he will be leaving when his contract expires next year. If he doesn't re-sign soon, WCW likely won't use him in the Horsemen angle.
Rey Mysterio Jr. injured his knee in a three-way match on Nitro and rolled out of the ring off camera for a bit before getting back in to finish the match. But he's expected to miss some time, no word on how severe it is yet though. Dave thinks that knee seems to give him trouble every time he lands which is getting scary to watch.
Lex Luger won the US title from Bret Hart on Nitro, but Dave suspects he'll be dropping it right back to Bret on Thunder in a couple of days (yup). Dave calls Bret a miracle worker for getting a pretty good 16-minute match out of Luger.
On Thunder last week, Scott Hall came out holding a drink in his hand as a joke about his alcohol issues. Dave says at this stage, it's no longer funny since Hall clearly has a real problem and it's pretty classless of WCW to turn it into an angle.
With WWF winning the ratings battle in recent weeks, there are a lot of people within WCW who want to push the product in a more risque direction to try to compete. They have talked of having the Nitro Girls in more revealing outfits since Sable has been such a big hit for WWF.
The WWF is getting into real estate. WWF (well, technically Titan Sports) was part of a group that were the top bidders for the Debbie Reynolds Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas. There's still a lot of legal hoops to jump through but if it all goes through, the plan is for it to be turned into a WWF-themed hotel and casino (this almost happened, and they even started construction on it before abandoning the plan and selling it in 2000). WWF also has recently bid on a restaurant location in Times Square in New York City with the plan to open some sort of WWF-themed restaurant.
So many random interesting notes from Raw: David Heath debuted doing some sort of vampire gimmick "called something like Gang Grill." LOD came out but Hawk was doing his drugged out gimmick again (and much like the Scott Hall drink gimmick, this is pretty shitty on WWF's part given Hawk's well-known real life issues) and then Droz came out. Dave thinks they may be doing an angle to put Animal and Droz together as a team and get rid of Hawk. Austin did an interview and threw Michael Cole in the shower. "It sucks being him," Dave adds. Val Venis came out with John Wayne Bobbitt (of getting-his-dick-chopped-off-fame) in a stupid segment with Venis revealing his dick never got chopped off last week because of cold shrinkage.
There will be some sort of risque Sable video being released in November. Can't find it online, at least not while I'm at work. It might be available on....other....websites. But here's a WrestleCrap entry for it.

READ: WrestleCrap - Sable Unleashed

It's only been 2 weeks but the commentary on Sunday Night Heat sucks because Shane McMahon is apparently just horrible at it and his whole rich kid gimmick is getting old fast.

MONDAY: Warrior debuts in WCW, Observer Hall of Fame, Eddie Guerrero cuts worked-shoot promo on Eric Bischoff, and more...

Words and frequencies across all lyrics

Bit of a pointless post but something I was curious about. Combining all the lyrics from DCFC songs Ben has written, here are all the words used and the frequency of them.
834 the 587 and 479 you 432 i 369 a 356 to 264 in 235 of 180 that 175 your 148 it 146 all 144 me 141 so 140 on 135 my 132 we 125 be 123 but 121 for 119 as 116 when 114 was 113 with 110 is 107 this 100 are 85 no 84 they 82 it's 77 there 77 from 76 our 76 like 72 there's 69 know 68 will 66 what 64 just 61 you're 61 love 61 at 60 can't 59 don't 57 if 56 never 56 gold 54 were 54 rush 54 down 52 time 52 through 50 nothing 49 i'm 48 away 47 out 47 not 46 have 46 could 44 oh 43 where 43 way 42 into 41 'cause 40 heart 39 same 39 one 38 then 38 only 37 how 37 every 36 see 36 i'll 35 would 34 some 32 more 31 up 31 find 30 been 30 back 29 their 28 won't 28 why 28 here 28 do 27 who 27 or 27 can 26 now 26 by 26 an 25 stay 25 new 25 got 25 go 24 sun 24 something 24 she 24 little 24 feel 24 around 23 you'll 23 sunlight 23 open 23 night 23 i've 23 always 22 used 22 home 22 had 21 you've 21 us 21 than 21 said 21 didn't 20 wanderer 20 too 20 let 20 left 20 keep 20 he 20 days 19 they're 19 long 19 both 19 about 18 think 18 them 18 sound 18 say 18 make 18 lines 18 life 18 hold 18 eyes 18 end 18 change 18 boys 17 want 17 these 17 off 17 loved 17 his 17 cause 17 before 16 someone 16 skin 16 past 16 need 16 gotta 16 am 15 we'll 15 waiting 15 take 15 spend 15 remain 15 ooh 15 head 15 far 15 fall 15 doors 14 true 14 that's 14 tell 14 place 14 people 14 mind 14 inside 14 hear 14 alone 13 underneath 13 turn 13 things 13 sea 13 old 13 move 13 morning 13 man 13 live 13 last 13 i'd 13 get 13 fool 13 did 13 behind 13 air 13 again 12 words 12 unlocked 12 trying 12 took 12 told 12 thought 12 much 12 many 12 friends 12 ever 12 come 12 along 11 thing 11 still 11 slowly 11 sky 11 should 11 seems 11 remember 11 look 11 light 11 her 11 haunted 11 hard 11 free 11 everything 11 digging 11 black 11 bed 10 years 10 year 10 well 10 those 10 such 10 street 10 slow 10 room 10 monday 10 modern 10 knew 10 hope 10 getting 10 face 10 even 10 empty 10 drive 10 dream 10 day 10 dark 10 came 10 best 10 age 9 wonder 9 we're 9 under 9 turned 9 town 9 thinking 9 someday 9 side 9 safe 9 possess 9 once 9 ocean 9 near 9 moved 9 meet 9 lying 9 kept 9 help 9 hands 9 fire 9 finally 9 door 9 distance 9 disappeared 9 city 9 begin 9 beautiful 9 anymore 8 windows 8 while 8 truth 8 tried 8 tonight 8 speak 8 soul 8 right 8 please 8 pity 8 mouth 8 mirror 8 mean 8 leaving 8 lead 8 kind 8 hole 8 gonna 8 glass 8 give 8 floor 8 fading 8 fade 8 everyone 8 ending 8 cannot 8 burning 8 burn 8 break 7 young 7 you'd 7 worse 7 within 7 wish 7 wind 7 wha 7 walls 7 walking 7 until 7 tears 7 standing 7 speed 7 sometimes 7 sleep 7 quite 7 own 7 over 7 oo 7 name 7 motion 7 mine 7 may 7 making 7 lonely 7 leave 7 ho 7 hand 7 ground 7 gives 7 filled 7 fear 7 dreamt 7 different 7 debris 7 cool 7 body 7 better 7 being 7 ask 7 arms 7 anything 7 alright 7 alive 7 'til 6 yet 6 upon 6 two 6 try 6 today 6 times 6 thread 6 talking 6 takes 6 synapse 6 sycamore 6 summer 6 stop 6 start 6 stars 6 spoke 6 soon 6 sleeping 6 single 6 play 6 paper 6 nothing's 6 names 6 myself 6 mess 6 memories 6 made 6 looking 6 lights 6 its 6 higher 6 hearts 6 he's 6 has 6 half 6 grows 6 gone 6 girls 6 ghosts 6 full 6 found 6 first 6 felt 6 feeling 6 fast 6 ends 6 else 6 el 6 either 6 each 6 dorado 6 document 6 couldn't 6 clothes 6 closer 6 clear 6 call 6 california 6 built 6 bring 6 brain 6 belly 6 believe 6 bah 6 bad 6 baa 6 awake 6 another 6 against 5 yourself 5 yes 5 work 5 window 5 went 5 watching 5 watch 5 wasn't 5 wanted 5 wait 5 turns 5 together 5 three 5 thin 5 tangled 5 talk 5 taken 5 swim 5 summer's 5 stage 5 song 5 somewhere 5 shoulders 5 shoes 5 set 5 seem 5 screaming 5 scene 5 saw 5 save 5 sad 5 roll 5 revolved 5 read 5 rain 5 put 5 pretend 5 pass 5 parallel 5 nue 5 must 5 moving 5 mistakes 5 mistake 5 meets 5 lovers 5 lost 5 lose 5 listen 5 lips 5 line 5 late 5 kid 5 ing 5 hotel 5 hides 5 held 5 heaven 5 grow 5 gotten 5 goodbye 5 gave 5 gates 5 frame 5 followed 5 follow 5 faster 5 fair 5 faces 5 expect 5 enough 5 engine 5 dying 5 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comfort 4 clouds 4 closed 4 climbed 4 climb 4 clean 4 child 4 car 4 cameras 4 calling 4 brothers 4 boy 4 bound 4 bones 4 blinding 4 blame 4 beneath 4 awoke 4 autumn 4 after 3 youth 3 yours 3 world 3 working 3 worked 3 word 3 wine 3 wife 3 what's 3 weeks 3 we'd 3 wave 3 watched 3 warm 3 wander 3 vultures 3 very 3 vacancy 3 understand 3 type 3 twin 3 trust 3 top 3 tired 3 tiny 3 though 3 thinks 3 tether 3 television 3 taste 3 tall 3 sweet 3 swallowed 3 surround 3 supposed 3 strong 3 streets 3 stranger 3 storm 3 stood 3 stays 3 stayed 3 station 3 static 3 stare 3 stand 3 stable 3 spread 3 spent 3 speaks 3 snow 3 smaller 3 slip 3 slept 3 skies 3 size 3 sink 3 singing 3 signs 3 sights 3 shroud 3 shared 3 series 3 self 3 second 3 seat 3 seasons 3 searching 3 school 3 saved 3 satisfied 3 runs 3 running 3 rubble 3 river 3 rhythm 3 remains 3 remainder 3 regret 3 reflection 3 recall 3 really 3 re 3 rather 3 rainy 3 promises 3 possibilities 3 plates 3 plastic 3 planned 3 plan 3 plain 3 places 3 placed 3 part 3 others 3 ones 3 nowhere 3 noise 3 neighborhood 3 music 3 mother 3 monument 3 mistress 3 meant 3 matter 3 maps 3 makes 3 lover 3 lookin' 3 longer 3 lie 3 learn 3 lake 3 lack 3 kissed 3 kids 3 keeping 3 isn't 3 island 3 inaccurately 3 illuminate 3 hunger 3 hung 3 hours 3 horizon 3 hell 3 hang 3 grid 3 grey 3 grass 3 good 3 gon' 3 glued 3 front 3 four 3 fly 3 fish 3 feet 3 familiar 3 falls 3 failure 3 failing 3 explain 3 eventually 3 endless 3 embarks 3 echoes 3 easy 3 east 3 early 3 drown 3 double 3 doing 3 discover 3 died 3 die 3 diamond 3 design 3 defeated 3 defeat 3 deep 3 decide 3 death 3 countless 3 counting 3 count 3 comes 3 collide 3 cold 3 cloud 3 claim 3 cigarette 3 children 3 changes 3 ceiling 3 care 3 burst 3 brown 3 bright 3 breathe 3 bought 3 bottle 3 born 3 bodies 3 blurs 3 bird 3 become 3 became 3 beach 3 bar 3 band 3 astound 3 asleep 3 apartment 3 anywhere 3 ain't 3 ago 3 across 3 'no's 2 york 2 wreckage 2 worry 2 winter's 2 win 2 wild 2 wide 2 whose 2 whole 2 whiskey 2 weight 2 weathered 2 we've 2 waving 2 wash 2 wants 2 waking 2 wake 2 waitresses 2 vows 2 voice 2 vine 2 views 2 veins 2 upstate 2 untrustable 2 unobstructed 2 unfold 2 underground 2 unconscious 2 twos 2 twenty 2 tv 2 turning 2 truths 2 tripped 2 towards 2 touching 2 touch 2 tongue 2 tones 2 tires 2 tire 2 till 2 tied 2 ticking 2 thrown 2 threw 2 threes 2 thousands 2 thousand 2 they've 2 there'd 2 ten 2 technicolor 2 tear 2 taking 2 synchronized 2 symphony 2 sworn 2 swift 2 swept 2 sweat 2 sure 2 superhero 2 suit 2 strobe 2 strange 2 stranded 2 straight 2 store 2 stopped 2 stones 2 stomach 2 step 2 states 2 state 2 starts 2 starting 2 stands 2 stake 2 stairs 2 stacked 2 st 2 sputters 2 spring 2 splinter 2 spit 2 sphere 2 speaking 2 spat 2 spark 2 son 2 something's 2 someone's 2 soaring 2 smugded 2 smiling 2 smile 2 smell 2 slipping 2 slightest 2 slide 2 skid 2 six 2 sitting 2 sit 2 sings 2 silver 2 signed 2 sign 2 sifting 2 shrugged 2 show 2 shouldn't 2 shore 2 shift 2 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1 age's 1 afraid 1 advantage 1 addictions 1 actors' 1 ached 1 account 1 accidents 1 abuse 1 absorbing 1 absence 1 abscence 1 able 1 abhor 1 abandon 1 'round

are any casinos open in calgary video

Pure Casino Calgary also offers numerous dining promotions throughout the week, giving you something to look forward to every day. Our 24-hour poker room is open again! The beautiful and spacious design with ten tables and knowledgeable poker team makes our room number one in Alberta! Our team will offer any limit or buy-in amount for No-Limit Hold ’em, Limit Hold ’em, or Pot-Limit Omaha Cowboys Casino is in the heart of Calgary's Entertainment District during the annual Calgary Stampede. Millions of visitors join our locals to celebrate the Western culture Alberta takes pride in. Located close to downtown, the C-train, Stampede Park, BMO Centre and Scotiabank Saddledome. Our hotel remains open with safety as our main priority and we are taking every precaution in order for our guests to feel safe and secure during their stay. BOOK YOUR STAY The health and safety of our guests, staff members, and communities will continue to be our priority, and as such, we will act in accordance with the mandatory closure of all casinos as ordered by the Alberta government. Grey Eagle Resort & Casino is Calgary’s premier entertainment destination. Located on the Tsuut’ina First Nation in Calgary, we offer our guests professionally conducted, exciting entertainment in a unique environment. HOURS OF OPERATION: Open daily at 9:30AM Slots open daily from 10AM – 3AM Come to Calgary’s premiere Off Track Betting hotspot and feel all of the excitement of being at the races. Ready, Set, Go! Previous. Next. Come for the food, stay for the fun – let the good times roll! The first hotspot on the Red Mile, Sammy’s Sports Bar shows all the best in sports from around the world. Check out our upcoming big screen events. Home; Player Rewards; Responsible Gaming The COVID-19 pandemic closed all commercial and tribal casino properties in the United States. This map tracks reopening across the country at the property-level. A property is considered open based on gambling availability. Please contact an individual property to determine what amenities are available. Current Status: 78 Closed | 919 Open Its official capital is Edmonton and its main city is Calgary. We count around 25 casinos in activity within the territory of Alberta (AB). The gaming offer is wide with more than 10,000 slot machines, 390 gaming tables, 70 poker tables as well as 6 horse tracks. The biggest gaming establishment in the Province of AB is the River Cree Resort & Casino of Enoch. This gaming venue provides not They are open all day; therefore, it is an excellent opportunity to spend quality time with family and kids. Last but not least – the dining area. It’s a full-service grill restaurant with a changing menu. This way, you can have a new experience every time. Deerfoot Inn and Casino. Deerfoot Inn is a resort, as well as one of the best casinos Calgary, Alberta. A 4-star hotel has a huge Casinos in Manitoba have been given the green light to re-open under the province’s Phase 4 guidelines. Casinos in Winnipeg and Manitoba had closed their doors four and half months ago, as New Restrictions announced on December 8th: The province is shutting down restaurants, casinos, gyms, recreation centres, libraries, and theatres. Outdoor skating rinks and ski hills will be allowed to remain open. Retail stores and churches can remain open, but at 15 per cent capacity.

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Manitoba casinos re-open under province’s Phase 4 protcols

are any casinos open in calgary

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Covid-19 Update for December 8: 1,727 new cases, 1,397 recoveries, 9 deaths + Announcement of additional mandatory measures

Covid-19 Update for November 24: 1,115 new cases, 916 recoveries, 16 deaths + Announced Restrictions to Limit Covid-19 Spread

Wrestling Observer Rewind ★ Feb. 8, 1988

Wrestling Observer Rewind ★ Jan. 1, 2001

Wrestling Observer Rewind ★ Nov. 6, 2000

IMPORTANT NOTE: For only the second time ever in writing these Rewinds, I have hit the 40,000 character limit. So once again, the rest of this Rewind will be posted in a comment below, so keep scrolling. Upvote it for visibility I guess?

Wrestling Observer Rewind ★ Feb. 1, 1999

Wrestling Observer Rewind ★ Aug. 17, 1998

Words and frequencies across all lyrics

are any casinos open in calgary video

are any casinos open in calgary top

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