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1The odds of success of the XFL increased greatly this past week with the announcement of the deal where NBC would become 50% owner of the league, and broadcast the games every Saturday night from February through April from 8-11 p.m. Eastern time.
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3In the deal, NBC and WWFE would each share half of the start-up costs for the league, estimated at about $100 million. NBC would provide the time slot. The TV advertising revenue, instead of going to NBC as it would for any other sports or entertainment package, would go to the XFL, which basically means half NBC and half WWFE. In addition, NBC purchased 2.3 million shares of WWFE at $13 a share, roughly a 30% discount as to what the stock was trading for at the time, meaning it owns approximately 3 percent of the stock, of which another 17% is owned by the public through the IPO and the other 80% is owned by the McMahon family and whatever major star wrestlers will be given stock free (as opposed to being given the right to purchase the stock for $17) in two years as part of a deal if they don't leave the company.
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5The move was somewhat shocking, since NBC had just backed out of a similar deal with Time Warner when both sides cited there was no way to financially make the league work. Dick Ebersol, who put the deal together with McMahon and has a business relationship dating back to being co-owners of the NBC Saturday Night Main Event shows in the 80s, claimed the model they are working on indicate the league would be profitable by its third season. He indicated that it gets NBC into the football business with only an $80 million outlay ($50 million for its share of the start-up costs of the league and the $30 million it paid for WWFE stock), a tremendously low figure, with no future rights fees having to be negotiated in the future, as compared with the billion dollar NFL deal where the networks consider their football package as a loss leader in many cases. Ebersol is somewhat under the gun for a success at NBC Sports these days because of the NBA's strong ratings decline. While it was a given the XFL would get television coverage, being the number of cable networks there are out there and figuring UPN, the NBC prime time coverage is an interesting attempt, which has led to a decent amount of media criticism of NBC for being in business with McMahon, but still makes the league's success both financially and as a TV entity far from a lock.
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7Saturday night is the lowest rated night of television per week. The fact that McMahon's wrestlers led to Saturday Night Live drawing its best rating in nearly one year, and its best among males 12-24 in nearly six years, brought up what Ebersol and others are pointing out about McMahon's success in delivery that demographic. Raw on Mondays, within that one demographic, draws significantly more viewers than Monday Night Football. In overall viewership, Monday Night Football drew just over three times as many viewers as Raw this past season. NBC is going in with the idea that because McMahon knows how to deliver viewers in that age group, viewers that the NFL and all other football at this point doesn't deliver, that McMahon promoting football would deliver those viewers, who at this point don't even watch TV on Saturday nights, based on the fact The Rock delivered those viewers once. NBC is also hoping that XFL skewing young, as a lead-in to the 11 p.m. news, would increase the number of younger viewers to Saturday Night Live. According to an article in Media Week, media buyers are questioning NBC's de-emphasis of the 25-49 demo while trying to increase the 12-24 as a Saturday night TV strategy, noting that even if ratings go up, better ratings while focusing on a demo with far less income may still result in less advertiser income. The article also suggests the strategy itself to increase ratings is also questionable, wondering how many 17-to-24 year-olds will stay home on Saturday night to watch television.
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9While making any generalization before the product is rolled out is dangerous, if NBC wanted young male viewers on Saturday Night, it would have been much safer to put on McMahon's wrestling shows, with a proven track record to those viewers, which NBC indicated it had no interest in, as opposed to going on the assumption the audience for entertainment soap opera pro wrestling would cross over to sport pro football, something they largely didn't do for boxing, movies or bodybuilding failed ventures McMahon promoted in the past. While having Rock and Stone Cold appear on the early live telecasts and do shtick at the stadiums will help jump start and give it curiosity among the fans, it still has to put on an entertaining product to keep them. It's actually very close to an equivalent to Aaron Spelling, who has promoted many successful television shows to the young demographic, suddenly starting up a baseball league, and the network that bought it expecting the people who grew up watching 90210 to suddenly become fans of minor league baseball.
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11The deal doesn't in any way preclude a deal that many believe is close to being done, for McMahon to sign an exclusive national deal for his wrestling shows with CBS, which would, in turn, buy another $100 million in McMahon's personal WWFE stock. The XFL is still expected to sign a second deal with a smaller network or cable carrier for its second-tier games, including talk of USA network broadcasting a prime time mid-week and Sunday afternoon game every week.
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13This football league will be unique among sports models. It will be the first attempt at doing a major league where the network itself would own the league as opposed to paying rights fees for it. In major markets, this model is being done with certain teams, most notably when Ted Turner owned the Braves, Hawks and TBS, where the stations that broadcast the games in some cases own the teams or the proposed New York conglomerate of teams and cable station, but there is no such national deal in existence with a major sports league. Turner tried to create his own Olympics in non-Olympic years, the Goodwill Games, which was a financial failure of epic proportions. NBC's involvement has to end speculation that the games would eventually be "worked," and stars created in the manner they are in pro wrestling, because while WWF can survive such a scandal, NBC can't. However, it doesn't preclude, with no individual ownership of teams, also almost unique in the major sports world (there is a soccer league where the league itself owns many of the teams and the WNBA is owned by the NBA), that the rosters can't be manipulated to give the major market teams a competitive advantage. If major market teams do well and this catches on, it should help the ratings, particularly in the playoffs. Ebersol was actually asked about this at the press conference and reacted as if the question was an insult, but when working with the WWF, it becomes a very logical question. One of the complaints about the NFL is that the league has become so well balanced and teams on top one year don't last, that there are fewer marquee teams than in the past which has led to lower Monday Night Football ratings which in the past were based on marquee team match-ups. Actually the lower ratings are probably even more to do with competition from 100 stations in a market as opposed to 20 in the past, plus the Monday night wrestling boom is a factor. The NBA's mid-80s and early-90s popularity boom was built around the Boston Celtics, Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers, who dominated the network broadcasts of the league, and has declined greatly without the same calibre of marquee drawing power teams. In a sport where the shelf-life of players is small due to injuries, it will survive based partially on local community involvement with the local team.
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15NBC had been drawing a 5.6 rating for its Saturday night line-up, and Ebersol said they are making a conservative projection that the football would draw a 4.5, but with a younger skewing demographic. If they do get the demographic that the wrestling gets, they will be a success among advertisers which means the league will probably make it. WWF draws one of the demos advertisers covet most, but still doesn't quite earn in advertising revenue what it could for what it delivers because many blue chip advertisers don't want an association with wrestling because of its negative connotations to many. The question is, can the XFL deliver a weekly audience of WWF fans, as opposed to simply the die-hard football fans who will watch anything, on a night when one would think it would be so difficult to draw those viewers that all the networks have for the most part given up on them in the first place. If it doesn't draw the former, it won't be a success.
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17There were some rule changes that were expected officially announced, such as no fair catches and one foot in bounds required for a complete pass, shorter halftimes and cameras in locker rooms, on sidelines and in helmets as well as locker room, huddles being miked and players being encouraged to copy wrestlers' playing to the crowd between plays in manners such as sack and touchdown dances. The Saturday night games start on February 3, 2001 and continue through the first championship game set for April 21.
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19While many comparisons have been made to the old AFL in the 60s particularly after the NBC announcement, since the AFL broadcast and really made by NBC and eventually merged with the NFL and thus was a huge success, people who romanticize about the comparison miss several basic historical points. There is far more sports competition today, but far more of an appetite for sports and televised sports, but also more successful sports. There is more competition, but it is still easier to make a sports league a success. The AFL in its infancy consisted of former NFL players who couldn't make the grade (some of whom, like George Blanda, lasted more than 15 years and ended up in the Hall of Fame after he was believed to have been washed up by the NFL) and in the early years, college players that the NFL didn't want and had high scoring games with bad defense, setting impressive statistical records that stood up for decades. But the league was not a success at the time. At the time, both leagues kept their salary structures low and the AFL was a huge money loser and actually in those early years considered a joke, a stigma it never fully erased until 1969 when an AFL team won the Super Bowl for the first time in a giant upset. The reason the AFL succeeded was long before that game. It gained a lot of publicity when it started outbidding the NFL for some top college players (most notable was the record offer Joe Namath, who was the quarterback of that famous game, received coming out of college), and then started offering huge, by the standard of the time, money contracts going after the NFL's biggest stars. The AFL signed John Brodie for an unheard of at the time figure and set its sights on more marquee quarterbacks. Rather than let the bidding war escalate for stars and the main NFL franchises lose their franchise quarterbacks because they didn't want to actually spend big money to keep big them, the NFL allowed the AFL to become part of the league in 1966, which set up the first Super Bowl, and that was the how that league succeeded, and not because it had high scoring wilder games because during that early 60s romantic AFL period, the league lost its ass and didn't draw.
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21Where the XFL model differed from the Time Warner/NBC model that was dropped is that the XFL plans on keeping salaries low, supposedly in the $50,000 to $100,000 range, and not compete with the NFL for talent, which did in leagues like the USFL (which had network television coverage on ABC and was a financial failure of gigantic proportions), the WFL (which had network coverage and failed just as badly). The WLAF, which had national coverage on ABC as well, although not in prime time, and played in the spring, so there was no direct competition with NFL and college football seasons, and had as high if not a higher calibre of play than the XFL and also kept salaries low and was sponsored by the NFL, failed miserably in the United States just a few years ago. This isn't to say the XFL is doomed because others failed either, just that even with this deal, there are no guarantees. One can point to Arena Football, which draws well in some markets using players that aren't of top calibre in most cases and doesn't pay the players well, as a model since it seems like it's doing okay. But it is far easier to draw 8,000 or 12,000 fans in a 16,000-seat arena and look impressive than what even drawing 25,000 people would look like in a 70,000-seat stadium. The International Hockey League sells out in some markets and it considered successful with players not deemed good enough for the major league in a sport not as popular or as TV friendly as football, but it would also die having to compete in network prime time, as would most sports regularly with the exception of baseball and basketball playoffs, college bowl games and the NFL. Most Arena league teams don't make money even with TV rights fees both nationally and locally, and the profit seems to be in the selling of the franchises. If NBC and WWFE own all the teams, that aspect of the money making, which is actually one of the biggest money makers for NFL owners as well, many of whom lose money annually but make the big score selling at far higher prices than they bought, is out the window, unless the idea is to actually make the money by selling the franchises later.
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23The other aspect is quality of play. There is no question the players won't be of NFL calibre, because they aren't bidding for them. The idea they are going with is they'll get the best players the NFL doesn't get, sign them up long-term with options so the NFL can't steal the stars easily, or at least quickly, because they'll pay better money than the World League, Arena League or Canadian League, which would be its competitors for the same players. On paper, that sounds like they'll have the second best players of any pro league, which may mean nothing since Canadian, USFL, WFL and WLAF each had them as some point and failed miserably in this country. But that's not even a guarantee. For third-rate players who don't have any hopes of playing in the NFL, this will be their best bet. For every player who makes the final cut of an NFL roster or is on the practice squad, there are 10-15 of fairly similar "second-rate" talent, which is what the XFL is looking at. But those players if they have any true competitive belief in their ability, also believe they are good enough to play in the NFL. Many, particularly those with agents looking long-term and with confidence in their ability, will take a one-year deal in a World League because it's NFL affiliated for less money because of the chance of advancing to the NFL and making big money, as opposed to slightly more money for the first year in the XFL but no chance of ever making really big money in a short football career.
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25There is also the question of public perception. Ultimately, people still have to buy tickets to fill stadiums, as much to make money as for the perception that there is any true value in the product. Whether it's on network TV on Saturday night or not, a 60,000-seat stadium with 15,000 in the building will be perceived as a loser quickly and it will negatively affect ratings with only a few week lag. Papering houses to fill stadiums will come out quickly in today's environment, and like it was with the USFL, will become a quick black eye for the league. There will be opening curiosity, but there was opening curiosity for RollerJam, whose first week drew almost twice as many viewers on USA as ECW's best week ever did, but curiosity only lasts so long unless you have a product people care about.
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27What NBC has done for the XFL, is that if they open by being taken more seriously by the media, and if they can create an interest in the product and then deliver an entertaining product, the odds of making it have been greatly increased. The good p.r. of not hiring felons may be negated by the bad p.r. of not drug testing (the other football failed leagues also didn't drug test and were known in the business as heavy drug leagues, as this will become without testing, but it never became a media issue nor would it have because those leagues were never successful, which it would have been had they lasted). Every marriage has its honeymoon period, like the NBC/WWFE merger has right now. McMahon himself can do just about anything within pro wrestling with little or no media awareness. About the only wrestling promotional move that really garnered any mainstream publicity has been his continuing with the show after the Owen Hart death (there has been a lot regarding content but that wasn't a singular promotional move). It's believed to be beneath the dignity of most of the media to focus much on wrestling aside from "one-time" stories because it's still, with all its current popularity, considered beneath their dignity to cover wrestling seriously. That will not happen in football, particularly if it shows signs of being a success, and particularly because the NFL has tremendous media advantages and will be quick to fuel the negativity if this becomes a viable entity. If something like this were to happen, such as the aftermath as the Hart death, even in wrestling at this point, it would no longer be a minor media story. It would be a huge black eye, not just on McMahon, who, quite frankly, has proven he can take it, but on NBC, which may not be nearly as willing.
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29Vince McMahon came out publicly in favor of regulation of so-called "extreme wrestling" in New Jersey. Assembly Minority Leader Joseph Doria, who is also the mayor of Bayonne, was originally going to introduce a bill on 3/27 that would ban anyone under the age of 19 from attending the shows and would allow local communities to ban the shows completely if they so desired, but wording as to what exactly constitutes extreme wrestling and first amendment concerns as well as the legislature shutting down will keep the bill from being finalized and introduced until May. Governor Christine Whitman indicated support of the bill.
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31Even though the bill is to regulate what is called "extreme wrestling," the bill is trying to be worded where it would not affect WWF or WCW, and ECW is of course attempting at getting itself in that category even though its name seemingly implies semantically to being what the bill is all about.
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33"We want nothing to do with them (promotions such as Jersey All Pro Wrestling, whose shows in Bayonne that Doria was unable to shut down prompted this issue, and ironically, which, in a few weeks is featuring many WWF stars as part of an autograph show in conjunction with its next major show)," said Steve Karel of ECW to Strictly ECW.com. "We're a fully accredited wrestling company like WWF and WCW, and don't want to be associated with those groups."
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35Extreme wrestling, in the AP article attempting to differentiate it from pro wrestling, stated that extreme wrestling attempts to draw blood and cause bodily injury resulting in maiming one's opponent, whatever that is meant to mean.
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37McMahon stated, "Extreme wrestling is a profoundly disturbing trend which has no other objective but to cause serious injury to an opponent in an effort to annihilate them. We share the Governor's concern that young people could be exposed to such a horrible spectacle as extreme wrestling. Extreme wrestling has no relation whatsoever to World Wrestling Federation's entertainment programming and the bill differentiates it as such. At the WWF, every effort is made by the athletes--who are trained professionals, unlike the local amateurs of extreme wrestling--not to cause harm to themselves or their opponent in our ongoing weekly action adventure series."
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39"I support regulation as long as it's fair," said ECW owner Paul Heyman, whose company is expected to be bypassed by the bill as well even with the name being a bullseye. "It's a necessary evil as without it you have people who are unqualified participating and someone may drop dead in the ring. It's too dangerous in today's environment (not to have regulation). A fair commission is to the benefit of the promoter, wrestler and consumer."
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41To show the lawmakers have studied the issue thoroughly, the difference between the category of pro wrestling and extreme wrestling seems to be this: "If you pretend to hit your foe and he spews fake blood, it's `pro' and it's legal. If you actually hit your foe and the red spray from his face is real blood, it's `extreme' and it would be illegal." In other words, from that wording, all forms of pro wrestling are exactly the same and either could be judged collectively as fine or not fine depending on how you take the statement since fake blood rarely exists in pro wrestling and almost never within the confines of the ring, but boxing and kickboxing by those terms clearly need to be shut down. Jennifer Sarnelli, a researcher for the Assembly Democrats claimed in her carefully researched report, "`Pro' Wrestling may highlight fake violence with occasional accidents, `extreme' wrestling features deliberate injury. Legally we can make a distinction between the two because one of them is a health and safety violation and one of them is not."
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43It appears at this point that the children 18-and-under provision for attendance may be modified to only ban children 18-and-under without a parent from attending and extreme wrestling would be put under the athletic commission jurisdiction but pro wrestling would not. The NBC affiliate in New York when reporting on this actually ran a clip of a Royce Gracie vs. Gerard Gordeau match from the first UFC in Denver in 1993 and billed it as a clip of an extreme wrestling show that took place in 1999 in New Jersey.
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45At the 4/1 Combat Zone Wrestling show, one of the groups targeted as being "extreme wrestling," President John Danzig came out before the show and gave a speech and stressed how CZW is entertainment and that the Governor is trying to keep them from entertaining the fans, which led to a "CZW" chant.
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47Due to a delay at Neilsen, the 4/3 ratings weren't available at press time.
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49Smackdown on 3/30 leading into Wrestlemania had its most impressive rating ever with a 5.32 rating and 8.4 share. It is actually the second highest Smackdown in history as on 1/27 it did a 5.43, but that was head-to-head with the President's State of the Union address on all the major networks so there was zero entertainment competition. Thunder on 3/29 drew a 2.05 rating and 3.3 share. The audience peaked with a 2.67 at the open of the show due to a strong lead-in from Ripley's Believe it or not, and declined throughout the show with the Wall vs. Vampiro main event ending at a 1.6.
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51Weekend ratings saw everybody down huge, which on 4/2 can be blamed on Wrestlemania, but there is no explanation for 4/1. Livewire did a 1.3, Superstars did a 1.3 and Sunday Night Heat going head-up against the 12-hour did what is believed to be its record low 2.07 rating. WCW Saturday Night fell below one million homes for one of the few times in the past 15 years (921,000) setting it's all-time record low with a 1.16 rating, making it the lowest rated show on TBS from Family Ties at 7:30 a.m. that day which did a 1.21 until "The Man who Shot Liberty Valance" which started at 1 a.m.
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53ECW on TNN on 3/31 rebounded from two low weeks to a 1.11 rating and a 1.9 share. RollerJam that followed did an 0.67
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55The 3/28 three-hour AAA/EMLL block on Galavision drew a 1.6 Hispanic rating (which was a 3.2 rating among the prime young male demographic).
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57OBSERVER POLL RESULTS
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59Traditional Observer PPV poll results based on phone calls, fax messages and e-mails to the Observer as of Tuesday, 4/4:
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61WWF WRESTLEMANIA XVI: Thumbs up 183 (33.4%), Thumbs down 263 (48.0%), In the middle 102 (18.6%). BEST MATCH: Christian & Edge vs. Hardys vs. Dudleys 311, Chris Benoit vs. Kurt Angle vs. Chris Jericho 43, HHH vs. Mick Foley vs. Rock vs. Big Show 30; WORST MATCH: Terri vs. Kat 127, Al Snow & Steve Blackman vs. Test & Albert 109, HHH vs. Mick Foley vs. Rock vs. Big Show 25, Road Dogg & X-Pac vs. Kane & Rikishi 24, Godfather & D-Lo Brown vs. Bull Buchanan & Big Bossman 19
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63EYADA POLL RESULTS
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65Results of the poll question on the eyada.com web site. New questions will be up every day at approximately 3 p.m. Eastern time with the results being announced at the start of the Wrestling Observer Live internet audio show the following day as well as each week here.
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67For Wrestlemania, will you buy: a) The 12-hour package for $49.95 41%; b) The four-hour package for $34.95 29%; c) Not buy the show at all 30%
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69What was the best match in the history of Wrestlemania?: a) Ricky Steamboat vs. Randy Savage 1987 27.3%; b) Bret Hart vs. Owen Hart 1994 12.5%; c) Shawn Michaels vs. Razor Ramon 24.6%; d) Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels 1996 10.8%; e) Bret Hart vs. Steve Austin 1997 24.8%
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71What was the worst match in the history of Wrestlemania?: a) Andre the Giant vs. John Studd 1985 8%; b) Roddy Piper vs. Mr. T 1986 14%; c) Hulk Hogan vs. Andre the Giant 1987 14%; d) Jake Roberts vs. Rick Martel 1991 24%; e) Undertaker vs. Giant Gonzalez 1993 40%
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73What did you think of Wrestlemania? a) Thumbs up 45%; b) Thumbs down 20%; c) Thumbs in the middle 23%; 3) Didn't see the show 12%
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75Raw on 4/3 from the Staples Center in Los Angeles drew a sellout 13,435 paying $493,237 for a good show. Shane apologized to Vince and challenged Rock to a singles match. HHH & Stephanie came out with Stephanie doing a big-time sell job from the rock bottom the previous night. Stephanie's acting was worse than usual. HHH challenged Rock to a non-title match. Vince came out and shook hands with Shane and hugged Stephanie. Vince challenged Rock and then called the audience phonies for having plastic cosmetic surgeries, which has some irony because every woman in the company has had half a dozen of them. His insulting the audience didn't get as much heat as you'd think. Guerrero beat Jericho to win the European title in 5:38 in a good match. After a ref bump, Jericho did the double bomb and quebrada but no ref. Chyna counted to three, raised Jericho's hand, then DDT's Jericho and put Guerrero on to for the pin. Chyna and Guerrero left together. The camera shooting of Chyna and Guerrero, and this isn't WCW so there are no accidents, is to use Chyna to make Guerrero a player, but also make sure he isn't too much of one. They shot low and had Chyna wear huge heels to accentuate making Guerrero look like a midget next to her and thus make it difficult to take him as a serious headliner. Guerrero is showing so much personality he's going to make it anyway, but maybe not all the way to the top. If Chyna wore lower heels and the camera took different shots, Guerrero wouldn't look like a joke because they actually don't have more than a two or three inch difference in real height, but it's shot to make it look like almost a foot. Dogg & X-Pac beat T&A when Dogg pinned Albert after X-Pac gave him the X factor in 3:35. Hot TV match. Angle was doing the Backlund gimmick where he's gone nuts about losing both belts without being pinned himself and chicken winged Howard Finkel. Benoit pinned Tazz in an IC title match with a german suplex in 3:21. Tazz had the Tazmission on when Saturn came out. Tazz suplexed Saturn off the ropes and slipped in doing the move so Saturn nearly landed real bad. This distracted Tazz for Benoit to get the pin. Tazz and Saturn brawled to the back afterwards. This was even better then the two previous bouts. Michael Cole put over the ladder match at Mania big and brought out Edge & Christian. They called out the Hardys. Everyone was overselling their injuries. Finally the Dudleys came out. Edge & Christian first laid out the Hardys and the Dudleys made the save and basically worked face style. Show beat Rikishi via DQ in 1:18 when Grandmaster interfered for no apparent reason. Show was clowning around trying a new persona where he's more over the top. Shane, Vince and HHH drew straws on who would get the Rock, and Shane won, and they acted as if Vince & HHH had double-crossed Shane. Show did an interview and danced in the ring like Rikishi, really bad. He made Brian Christopher look like a dancing fool. The fans liked it anyway. Crash regained the hardcore title from Bob in 3:01 when the Acolytes destroyed Bob and Crash got on top. The Posse attacked Crash but instead of pinning him, ended up fighting each other again while Crash got away. Angle beat Venis in a solid match in 4:19 with the chicken wing. Angle wanted to wear gloves because he didn't want to touch Venis because he was afraid of diseases. It was funny, but he never got the gloves on. They pushed Ft. Lauderdale next week because it's the only TV taping that they were having problems selling out since--well, Miami. Throughout the show they kept pushing that Pete Rose should be in the baseball Hall of Fame. It actually got annoying by this point in the show. Maybe they'll induct him into the WWF Hall of Fame as a publicity stunt. Kane pinned Buchanan in 1:15 after a choke slam. Only thing notable was Buchanan did his leap to the top rope, slipped and fell. It was as noticeable a missed spot in a while. Bossman & Buchanan handcuffed Kane to the ropes and Buchanan delivered a chair shot to the hand so Kane will be selling a hand injury. Rock beat Shane by pinning HHH in 5:19. Sounds like a WCW main event finish. Vince & HHH were interfering freely. After a ref bump, HHH did the pedigree and put Shane on top but Rock kicked out. They did a 3-on-1 for a while and the McMahons both left, leaving Rock with HHH. HHH shoved down the ref but Rock gave him the rock bottom
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77Notes from the 4/4 taping in San Jose before a sold out house of about 13,000. They had three dark matches. First saw Team Extreme with manager El Jefe beat The Ballard Brothers who also had a manager in 5:54. Fans were popping big for about 2:00. All four were green but they did some cool moves. One of the Extreme guys didn't have a major league look (read that, didn't look drugged up) but showed potential. D-Lo Brown, no longer doing the Godfather Jr. role, pinned Pete Gas in 4:00 with a power bomb. Seeing him live, Gas is really terrible. He blew up immediately, he kept being out of position and blew spots. Brown didn't look thrilled trying to work with him. Kat & Mae Young beat Terri & Moolah in 4:00. Kat & Terri look absolutely tiny in person. Terri is looking almost anorexic like she's down in the 90 pound range. Fans actually popped the first time Moolah squared off with Young but it was so bad. They also popped for Young & Kat doing a double bronco buster. Kat did the worst spear in history on Moolah, and Young did a splash for the pin. Heat started. Esse Rios beat Funaki in 5:02 after a moonsault. Lita did a moonsault as well. Rios & Lita have a great look together. After all these years, Rios still can't punch and kick to save his life. The fans started a "USA, USA" chant. Lots of missed spots. Lita did a spinning head scissors on Funaki that popped the crowd. Crash pinned Mark Henry to keep the hardcore title in 2:41. Crash used a drop toe hold and ref Jack Doan did a super fast three. Doan then took off his shirt and started choking Crash with it while Jimmy Korderas ran in as a ref. The spot where the ref attacked Crash was funny. Crash made a comeback and DDT'd Doan on a broiler pan and then left instead of pinning him. Crash got one of the biggest reactions, comparable to Jericho and Rikishi, of anyone on the show and he did a great job working with Henry. Venis & Stevie Richards beat Head Bangers when Venis pinned Mosh with the money shot in 4:01. Richards came out as Venis, with a towel, but "forgot" to put trunks on. He had to run to the back while Venis worked the match by himself, which is just as well because Venis and Bangers worked well, and when Richards was in, it looked minor league. Richards wore Val Venis trunks and had this giant exposed area on his upper thighs with no tan which was clearly a planned joke to make him look like a goof. Viscera pinned Jericho in 5:21 with a splash after Guerrero & Chyna came out after a ref bump and Guerrero hit him with the title belt. Believe it or not, this was a very good match, maybe the best Viscera match I've ever seen, and he wasn't the reason for it. Jericho was that good. Smackdown started with Lillian Garcia singing the national anthem. She sings well enough to be a professional, which she was in the New York night club scene because she had average singing talent and great looks, before joining WWF. If McMahon can market wrestlers who can't wrestle, he can certainly market a singer who had a marginally good voice. The crowd popped very big for her singing, although it was as much for her looks. She seemed more genuinely happy getting the big crowd response than anyone on the show. Benoit pinned Rikishi in 1:54 with a Northern lights suplex. Everyone was stunned Benoit actually pinned Rikishi. After the match Rikishi gave Benoit a Samoan drop, the butt in the face, a belly to belly and a banzai. Rikishi wasn't moving well and his knee had a big brace on it. Vince & Shane came out for an interview. Vince kept saying he was in Sacramento which didn't get as much heat as you'd think. He complained about what happened on Raw the previous night. He called out Earl Hebner and asked him why he made the count and how could HHH be pinned when he wasn't even in the match (because this is wrestling) and Hebner said because Rock told him to. McMahon threatened to punch him out if he did something like that again. He called out Lillian Garcia, who the crowd had been pre-conditioned by her singing to love by this point. McMahon acted like he was hitting on her and had her sing "Do you know the way to San Jose" which made her even more a face. Of course he turned on her saying women with marginal talent and good looks are a dime a dozen and she could be easily replaced. He announced that in the main event on the show, he and Shane would wrestle Rock. He also brought up being mad at Jim Ross' commentary, but Ross was never brought out, but clearly they are going to do an angle with Vince and Ross. Caryn Mawr came out for the first of her three appearances where she insults the crowd for being fat. For someone the crowd had never seen before, she got a really good reaction and had total star quality. Vince & Shane came out again. Seems Vince forgot one of his lines, to make it clear Rock didn't win the title on Monday, said his line and left, obviously to splice this in with the other interview. Dudleys beat Test & Albert in 5:16. Fans were chanting for a table. The 3-D was super over, which was used on Test. They teased the Dudleys attacking Stratus but Hardys made the save and they had a pull-apart. Angle was trying to get a tag partner for later in the show against Edge & Christian. He first went to Scotty 2 Hotty, who spoke in urban slang, which Angle acted was like another language and he couldn't understand him either being Angle plays the straight-laced type. Tazz vs. Saturn never made it to the ring as they just traded punches to the back. Neither throws good punches so it didn't play to their strengths. Bossman & Buchanan beat Snow & Blackman in 4:41 when Buchanan did the legdrop off the top on Snow. Not good and the crowd didn't like it. Snow did an Asai moonsault early. Blackman cleaned house doing karate movie kicks after the match. Guerrero & Chyna came out. Guerrero got a shockingly huge reaction. Jericho came out was first double-teamed, then made his own comeback and power bombed Guerrero until Chyna dragged Guerrero to safety. Angle went to Rios, who spoke in spanish, and Angle couldn't understand a word he was saying. This segment was funny. Malenko beat Taka Michinoku to keep the lightheavyweight title in 5:02 with a super stomach block and cloverleaf. Wrestling was pretty good. Crowd wasn't into it and a fight in the stands at this point killed the match live. Stephanie talked Vince into switching the main event to having Rock vs. Dogg & X-Pac. Stephanie & Shane look to be almost the only people, male or female, in the promotion who don't have visible telltale signs of steroid use. Show beat Godfather. Show came out dressed like Godfather and even did a dropkick and missed an elbow drop off the top. Still, this wasn't good. Finish saw one of the ho's distract the ref, allowing Show to hit Godfather with his walking stick for the pin. The woman, who is far prettier facially than any woman in the WWF right now and under the lights didn't have that weird look the women get when they've had lots of facial surgery done with implants the size of several European countries (seriously, her proportions are three times more ridiculous than Sable, Stratus or Chyna) then started making out big-time with Show. She's clearly a new character designed to make Show worth his contract. Christian & Edge beat Angle & Bob Holly, who agreed to be his partner, in a tag title defense in 6:35. Angle got a total face pop coming out first, but the fans treated Christian & Edge as huge faces even though they just turned this week. The wrestling was good, very good in spots, but it was marred because there was a beach ball being bounced around in the crowd and when security confiscated it, the crowd started the loudest boos of the night which on TV will appear to be for no reason. Edge & Christian used the stacked up superplex on Holly for the pin. Angle then blamed Holly for losing, and Holly beat up Angle and left him laying. Main event was next. Shane was ring announcer and kicked out Earl Hebner as ref and replaced him with HHH. Stephanie announced. Most of the match was Dogg & X-Pac pounding on Rock. Rock finally hit a rock bottom but HHH was nowhere to make the count. Hebner ran out with Vince on his heels. Hebner counted to two when Vince pulled him out of the ring and decked him. Rock chased Vince to the back and decked Vince. All the heels chased Rock, as the match had one of those non-endings. Rock came back with a chair and laid Vince, HHH, X-Pac and Road Dogg out with it to end the show
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79Some notes from the eight hour Wrestlemania pregame show. The show was very well produced from all accounts. Most of the reaction we've heard on it was largely based on the honesty of the history. There were people who either were surprised it was as honest as it was, but recognized there were outright lies and exaggerations, while others felt it was the typical manipulation and another attempt to re-write history. They heavily downplayed Hogan's contributions and tried to portray him as a star during the 80s, but Andre as the star, and ran a lot of his footage in black & white to make it seem even more ancient. Some of the wrestlers, such as Jericho, came across as having really been wrestling fans growing up while a lot of the suits, most notably Pat Patterson and Gerald Brisco, were out there trying to rewrite history. They were more respectful to Bret Hart, although they played up Shawn Michaels bigger, but praised the Hart vs. Steve Austin match. In one of the funniest segments, Patterson and Brisco were talking about themselves wanting to see a 60:00 match before the Michaels-Hart match and felt they were the only two wrestlers around who could pull it off. McMahon, they claimed, was against it, because he was afraid the audience wouldn't have the patience and people would walk out during the match. They acted as if the match was a huge triumph where they were proven right, but the funny thing is that even though it was a great match, the fans live did start leaving in droves from the 30:00 mark on, and the arena was 1/3 empty by the last 10:00. The show was used to push the McMahon family as the reason for Wrestlemania's success and downplay the contribution of the performers. McMahon even claimed credit for saving Andre's life, saying Andre was "ready to die" with nothing left to live for before the angle turning him heel and that angle kept him alive (funny that he lived six more years, many years after his heel run ended and had many years being "kept alive" working in Japan long after McMahon stopped using him). Kerwin Silfies then buried Hogan, saying it was Andre who drew the house at Wrestlemania III. Vince even took credit for creating the Hulk Hogan character and insinuated Terry Bollea would have been nothing in the wrestling business otherwise. The Rock did an interview ripping on SuperBrawl. When Undertaker vs. Nash was aired, the footage was edited to where Nash was never shown getting any offense
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81The WWF rap Armageddon CD opened at a strong No. 8 selling 109,539 units. The WWF Music Vol. 4 remained at No. 166 with 8,740 units sold
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83Among the new wrestlers starting out in the Ohio Valley developmental territory besides Sylvester Terkey (the original UFO Big Van Vader in Japan) are Shelton Benjamin, a former All-American football player at North Carolina State, and David Nelson, an agile former bodybuilding champion from California
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85RC Cola is beginning a huge advertising campaign based on attracting teenagers through WWF programming, for its brand "Edge," based around Rock, Austin, Chyna, Undertaker and Edge. They started with TV spots this week, will include product placement as you'll see RC Edge cans placed on the show and wrestlers drinking the drink on Raw and Smackdown as well as sponsorship of the September Unforgiven show
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87KBHK-TV, Ch. 44 in San Francisco, the local UPN affiliate, aired commercials for "Ready to Rumble" not only on the station but during the Smackdown show itself, as did several other UPN affiliates. Not sure if this was a national spot or a local spot but the significance of  it is that KBHK-TV didn't run any spots for "Beyond the Mat." In other words, if there was pressure on local stations not to run spots for "Beyond" but not for "Rumble," a far more high profile film put on by the competition wrestling group, the argument about not taking commercials because they categorized it as a competing product the same way they don't take ads for WCW PPV events suddenly is out the window
88
89On the Rec sports video charts, WWF dominated with 14 of the top 15 videos with only Super Bowl 2000 as No. 6 being a non-WWF. One through five were Rock, Austin vs. McMahon, Best of Raw, Austin, and WWF memorable moments of 1999 while 7-15 were Royal Rumble 2000, HHH & Chyna, Women of WWF, Wrestlemania 15, Armageddon, Best of Wrestlemania 1-14, DX, 1998 King of the Ring and Three faces of Foley. WCW's Sting video was No. 17
90
91The national British newspaper The Guardian in listing the 50 most powerful men in sports in the world, listed Vince McMahon at No. 39, the first time I've ever seen his name in such a list, and ahead of such heavyweights as Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods and Leigh Steinberg. Rupert Murdoch was No. 1. Ted Turner was No. 5 and in his profile, WCW was never mentioned, talking instead about the Braves, Hawks, Thrashers, HBO and AOL. Dick Ebersol was No. 10
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93THQ and WWF are working together to publish a WWF online game as part of THQ's strategy to develop content specifically for the internet
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95Kurt Angle was interviewed on the LAW and praised MMA calling it one of the best sports out there and talked about wrestling against Mark Kerr and Mark Coleman. Angle said he'd fight if the money was right, and said that Kerr had the talent but not the work ethic, and if Kerr had the work ethic, Kerr would have beaten him in the Olympic trials in 1996. He said Ken Shamrock and Steve
96
97Blackman were the toughest guys in the WWF and said he thought if they had gone into it that Chris Benoit, Chris Jericho and Christian would have all been great amateur wrestlers
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99Rock & Foley's book rank No. 6 and No. 8 respectively on the U.K. non-fiction best sellers list
100
101The 4/4 Philadelphia Daily News ran a column by John Smallwood on Pete Rose at Wrestlemania saying that by performing at the show he had sunk to an all-time low. Let's see, a guy gets banned for life for gambling on his own sport, but because he does an acting gig he's sunk lower. The reporter was clear to say he had nothing against wrestling, or even athletes like Malone, Tyson, Greene, Rodman, etc. doing wrestling as referees or participants, but more about Rikishi rubbing his butt in Pete's face for money, which, admittedly, is sinking pretty low for one of the greatest baseball players of all-time, except that he'd sunk lower many times before. It said that Rose didn't do anything wrong, said he made an honest buck and provided fans with some entertainment, but said as a baseball fan it was disturbing to see him delve even farther into his role as a cartoon character. The article concluded by saying McMahon made a rare marketing blunder at Mania, and that Rose should have come out with Godfather as part of the ho train
102
103The Axxess from most accounts was a great presentation with the exception of gigantic lines for autographs. They had something like 15,000 fans show up on 4/1 Smackdown tapings on 3/28 in San Antonio drew a sellout 7,600 paying $240,219. Arena merchandise for the Raw and Smackdown shows was $224,589 or $10.68 per head which is the highest weekly figure going back to the merchandise peak of a few years back. The WWF has been trending upward, which is due to Rock merchandise being out of control, but another part of that reason is that San Antonio, for whatever reason, for both WWF and WCW as well as for other sports and concerts is the No. 1 per cap merchandise city in the country. WWF actually did $12.78 per head at the Freeman Coliseum, a figure they've done very few times in history (I actually can't recall once off the top of my head) for a non-PPV event.