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1We are clearly in a transitional period for pro wrestling in the United States, and a dangerous transition at that.
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3The big stories of the first few months of 2001 were the chickens coming home to roost of the huge money losses of 2000--the official folding and impending bankruptcy of ECW, which may be announced before you read this but even if it hasn't been is an inevitability, and the sale of WCW, which may not be exactly smooth sailing but is still expected to go through. Even if the sale goes through before you read this (and it appears it will be at the earliest a week or so later), it leaves a world of question marks for its future. And like while following the fortunes of ECW and WCW last year, the questions, like for virtually the last year, really aren't about now. They are about one year from now and where this business is headed if and when it stabilizes.
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5Whether or not the WCW sale goes through and if so, when, the company is in for a major uphill battle. In some ways, when one looks at attendance figures and television ratings, the company isn't in any worse shape than it was in 1993, before the signing of Hulk Hogan started the ball moving and the popularity of Nitro, the Flair-Savage feud and eventually the NWO and hotter overall product spearheaded the major turnaround. In money losses, obviously things are far worse because of the increased salary structure and huge increases in costs of what would be considered competitive television production. But the point is, the company came from depths of averaging less than 1,000 paid attendance per show over the course of a full year and ratings lower than they are getting today, to the levels it reached in 1998 where it was a hugely profitable company with a similar salary structure as it now has. Creation of a superstar who clicks, and some hot angles, and there is a chance because they have the key ingredient in television exposure. That is far easier said than done. The battle plan of the 1994-96 turnaround of WCW can't work today. There are no marquee players out there a few years past their prime that WWF is letting go while they still have fresh match-ups on the table like Hogan did with Flair, Vader, Piper, Savage, Luger and Sting, or players that can be raided by offering more money because they aren't tied up long term. There are no undiscovered superstars revolutionizing the in-ring products in Japan and Mexico that can be brought in and make the competition product look slow and boring by comparison. The competition is no longer presenting a slow and boring product so doesn't have that weakness to exploit. In 1996, the WCW roster had guys in their mid-30s entering what should be their prime earning years in the business and a group of legends who may have been past their prime, but still had numerous fresh money drawing matches that people wanted to see. Today the roster is filled with guys in their early and mid-40s, past any sorts of primes and inexperienced guys who are years away from the name recognition and star power level people WCW had on their roster in 1994-96 had, with no possible marquee match-ups that anyone today cares about. There is not the focus on the company or enthusiasm among company fans to create an environment where a Bill Goldberg can sneak in and become a cult phenomenon. And the ratings are no longer such, nor is Ted Turner strong enough in power, that one can safely say, as was considered a given even one year ago, that TBS will always have pro wrestling as one of its prime vehicles.
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7Paul Heyman's starting with the WWF this week as a television announcer, and probable signing of a long-term deal is not just about the inevitable folding of ECW, it is another decision that few have talked about. If Heyman believed TBS would always want a wrestling show, based on the fact the station and its predecessor having been airing hours of wrestling every week dating back nearly 30 years, he would be better served not going to WWF, as opposed to it being his only viable option. He could sit tight and be the guy on the sidelines who could make a difference. Whether he could or not is immaterial, it's a great position to be in because his legend will live on, even if ECW's financial failure may or may not warrant such a feeling. If this current regime doesn't make it, and certainly the betting odds are good enough to play the hunch it won't, if TBS were to be looking for wrestling in one year or whenever in some form if wrestling ratings remained above competitive levels (which they are for the first time ever in danger of actually falling below), he'd be there with as a guy from the outside who can provide a fresh alternative product. While a new version of ECW starting in one year would probably not make money, as compared with the losses TBS suffered on WCW over the past 18 months, the losses would be a drop in the bucket. But with the AOL merger, it doesn't appear the company has any interest in funding a losing company, although some losses can be justified as programming costs if the show were to deliver a competitive prime time or weekend rating. For wrestling to make it, it needs strong television and a good outlet, which TBS still will be in one year barring an unforeseen collapse of an entire network. Going with the WWF, which would likely include signing a no competition agreement for several years, says Heyman's inevitable feeling by making what he thought to be his only possible decision is that if this regime doesn't make it, the era of wrestling on TBS is likely over, and that no strong start ups will be around that he can be part of at any time in the foreseeable future. No matter what one thinks of Heyman, that's a very depressing final decision for the business if it is made, maybe most depressing, because it probably is the right one.
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9And where does that leave the genre. If you go back 18 months ago, which would be October of 1999, I would have figured someone with good business knowledge and a competent person running the wrestling product of WCW could keep costs under control and turn it around with the young talent on board. ECW was just starting on TNN. I wasn't nearly as positive of their chances, because they had to deal with the moment of truth, where smoke and mirrors could no longer hide reality. And 0.9 turned out to be the reality, which wasn't enough of an audience for whatever reason, to turn the company into a profitable one and save itself from the losses built up in prior years, and in fact, sped up the decline in hindsight with the company losing $2.5 million in the year it had the most exposure it ever had.
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11Most of that WCW talent I'm speaking of is gone. The other things didn't happen. The hole is so much deeper that it will take a brilliant wrestling strategist with a lot of patience and a long-term plan to turn this around. Even then, there are no guarantees that outside forces, whether they be economic, or business decisions by television stations that don't share the patience, may ruin that plan. In a business where everyone looks at ratings week-to-week it's almost impossible for anyone to have patience as those with patience or building for two years from today usually find themselves out of power because they haven't made moves fast enough because their superiors and the fans barely give people two months, let alone the needed one to two years.
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13As mentioned when Vince McMahon nearly bought WCW last year, one company is bad for wrestling on so many levels. The talent will get stale with no place to learn, and don't kid yourself, performing in Memphis and OVW before 100-200 fans a few nights a week helps, but there is a transition needed between that level and being a star on the big-time stage. There is no negotiating leverage for talent and politics as it pertains to who becomes a star become more powerful than ever with a lack of alternatives. The indie groups that garner the most attention work a style that does little to prepare its guys for a real job in the industry. The jobs will be scarce and they'll all be with one owner, giving him almost absolute power over the entire industry. Japan has less interest in using Americans than ever before. Mexico doesn't have the economy to support using Americans to any real degree. So many of today's top stars came from that Europe, Mexico, Japan travelling mode for many years, and those training grounds also don't exist.
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15Most likely, the next big thing will be something altogether different. Copying WWF is never going to make it unless Steve Austin or Rock walk out and you use both of them, because one won't be enough most likely to rebuild a brand, a mistake that McMahon probably won't make even though he's done so in the past with a large percentage of the big stars he ever had which caused his short period where he wasn't the king of the American industry. But even if McMahon were to think he was untouchable and have a showdown with a few superstars for whatever reason, the wrestlers themselves today would likely back down. There is not an alternative offering more money to you or, except for Rock, a legitimate movie career waiting, while you risk screwing up your career going into uncertain waters.
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17Paul Heyman sort of popularized something different. Then Kevin Sullivan and Bischoff first in WCW, and McMahon and Vince Russo later in WWF, copied, and rode to success, until it burned itself out. Hardcore wrestling is no longer cutting edge. It's yesterday's news. There are kids doing it in their backyards across the country and indie workers doing it everywhere and all have one thing in common. Almost nobody cares except for the moment. People may pop for a table breaking, but nobody goes home from a show after seeing a table break with that feeling in their stomach that they have to come back to see the story advanced or a match set up that is what drives repeat business. And Heyman hardly invented hardcore, he just took something, done elsewhere (FMW style using smaller workers to provide more acrobatic moves which is where Sabu learned of the table breaking spots he popularized on U.S. indie shows) and which was successful elsewhere (Onita and Terry Funk drew 41,000 fans to Kawasaki Stadium long before anyone took ECW seriously), modified it for his tastes and his audience, created a few terms, and all those things and people everyone said couldn't get over were being copied and many of them got over.
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19But the brilliant ideas overseas that can be transplanted here aren't there anymore. Junior heavyweights? That's yesterday's news. People have seen them, and for a variety of reasons, stemming from everything from lack of understanding how to do it to jealousy of what they can do, it's been killed. Can it be rebuilt? Sure, with smart ideas and patience, but it won't draw numbers any time soon as evidenced on Nitro quarter hours, and in today's environment with the stress level, slow builds usually aren't happening. Interpromotional stuff? That's all the rage in Japan this week, but that requires cooperation between groups. Celebrities? Been done. The right one at the right time with the right scenario can work to give a wrestler a rub, but done too often, or a bad one, will mean nothing, and may hurt. Don't think for a second Jay Leno didn't hurt Hogan's drawing power in the long run. Nobody will even consider that David Arquette as world champion wasn't among the bonehead moves of the century. Worked shoots? Once you've seen real shoots, people can see through them and attempts to do them over the past year have been outright pathetic. There isn't even one company in Japan, where fans understand shoots, that can survive on worked shoots, although in the right circumstance it can be used sparingly very effectively to draw big time money and heat with a promotion that understands and concepts and educates the audience by peaking something for a specific show, neither of which any American companies have figured out how to do yet. Japan also still has the "we know it's a work but at times it's a shoot" mind set among its fans, something American fans today don't have, and you need that "it could be a shoot" in the back of your head to believe the interpromotional and worked shoot aspect of a program. But that can't be the backbone of the company. Real shoots? Not on a pro wrestling card. Brawl-for-all was a disaster and the injury rate would be too high, plus certain pro wrestlers who are very entertaining don't need to be exposed to anyone that they aren't very tough. As we've seen in Japan, careers can be made in shoots, or worked shoots, when carefully manipulated or when luck is on your side. But careers just as often can be destroyed.
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21A pure shoot show? In Japan, the biggest events of the year now to wrestling fans are the Pride shows. In the last two weeks, more people than at any point since probably 1995, have seriously suggested an opinion that I think is very possible. With weekly television--which is the key and has been talked about for the first time in the history of the company and may be closer than a lot of people think--a UFC like promotion, or UFC itself since it does have the financial backing to get things done now--and a great promotion behind it as well as clearance on PPV--can become the No. 2 promotion in the sports entertainment genre behind WWF. No. 2 may also mean nothing if it isn't done correctly, or it's No. 2 based on attrition because nobody else exists on a national level. If WCW goes down, every indie in existence will claim to be No. 2, just like with ECW going down, everyone will proclaim being No. 3. It's a number that at this point means nothing. After all, today, WCW is No. 2, and from a financial standpoint, all that means is the ability to burn lots of money weekly and garner a lot of attention in doing so. With the current economic climate, combined with a younger audience that more and more has turned away from sports, as mentioned last week, that won't be easy. On the other hand, in a country as large as this one with a century long history of pro wrestling, one would think there would be enough interest in a decently run alternative product.
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23But decent won't be good enough today. The TV has to be strong. The star power making mechanism has to be stronger yet. The people in charge need a long-term plan--a week from Monday isn't long-term, and the patience and foresight to modify when needed and the finances to last it out, but not to abandon the battle plan if it's viable while tweaking things as needed each week. See WXO or Urban Wrestling as examples of groups that actually bought their way on television with decent clearances in major markets, but never made an impact immediately, and didn't have the money to sustain themselves long enough to where in hindsight one questions what they were even thinking when they started.
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25Ultimately, going the washed up wrestler route is death. Forget about Heroes of Wrestling or iGeneration's show quality, because it wouldn't have mattered if they had great shows, they didn't draw. Neither group could even get nostalgia buys for a one-time show featuring a lot of people who were big stars not all that many years ago, let alone sustain a promotion. A WWF copy with less money is death. A start-up probably needs to spend several months running live shows and start with regional television in small markets getting ready for a national debut, and to avoid the XFL/RollerJam mistake, of rolling out the product with all kinds of publicity, then finding it you aren't ready, and have the masses give up in case before you actually hit a groove. Nevertheless, history does show that pro wrestling in the United States has a rich and long tradition dating back more than a century, and there are no danger signs regarding the future of the WWF and it's doubtful, once they exorcise themselves of the XFL Demons, that outside pressure will cause them to take the foolhardy path that destroyed WCW. The sad part is, there are many other countries that could say the same thing that are without any localized wrestling to speak of at any significant level today.
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27In another look at the ratings since the end of football season, when the bounce back should have taken place, but in fact, really hasn't do any great extent.
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29Out of the seven head-to-head weeks since football ended, not including this past weekend, Raw has averaged a 5.04 rating, with the high rating being 1/29 (5.43) and the low rating being 2/12 (4.77). Nitro during the same period has averaged a 2.27 rating, with the high rating being 1/15 (2.65)--the first Nitro after the sale announcement, and the low being 2/19 (2.05).
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31 
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33NITRO
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35Biggest main event rating: 2.31 (Scott Steiner vs. Nash 1/15)
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37Lowest main event rating: 1.55 (Scott Steiner vs. Jarrett 1/8)
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39 
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41The best rating over the head-to-head period was not for a main event, but a 3.05 for the in-ring confrontation involving Dusty & Dustin Rhodes vs. Road Warrior Animal & Ric Flair, without question largely for Flair and Dusty with the nostalgia kick.
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43 
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45RAW
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47Biggest main event rating: 5.79 (Austin & APA vs. Angle & Edge & Christian 1/15)
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49Lowest main event rating: 5.21 (Rock vs. Rikishi 2/12)
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51 
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53In comparing the top line talent, in that they've been in at least two major television matches since 1/8, the average ratings for their matches come off like this:
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55 
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57WWF
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59Steve Austin 5.76
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61HHH 5.68
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63Kurt Angle 5.49
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65Kane 5.49
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67Rock 5.47
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69Rikishi 5.40
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71 
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73Due to injuries to HHH and more angles and less wrestling, the television shows this year have, as far as main events are concerned, been built around Austin, Angle and Rock. Chris Benoit, who was in a lot of TV main events, largely to get a good-to-great match out of one of the stars, and whose matches actually were in the top group in ratings (5.50 average against football), was only in one television main event during this period, on 2/19 in a tag.
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75 
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77WCW
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79Lex Luger 2.19
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81Scott Steiner 2.12
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83Buff Bagwell 2.05
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85Kevin Nash 2.04
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87Diamond Dallas Page 1.98
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89Rick Steiner 1.98
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91Jeff Jarrett 1.58
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93 
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95I'm not sure what this really shows, as everyone is bunched relatively close together except for Luger at the top and Jarrett at the bottom. In the last look, which would be the period from 9/25 through the end of football season, Jarrett was in the middle of the pack (2.08) while Steiner was roughly in the same position (2.09). The big draw during that period was Booker T at 2.23, and his first appearance back on 2/26 drew a 2.26 as part of the six-man. Nash moved from the bottom (1.86) to the middle with his big push as the top face with Goldberg taken out of the picture.
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97We only have sketchy notes from the weekend ratings as we didn't get our usual complete record. Raw dropped to approximately a 4.57 rating (4.05 first hour; 5.00 second hour) while Nitro did a 2.06 rating (2.33 first hour; 1.80 second hour). The combined audience watching wrestling on a head-to-head night dropped to seven million, the lowest figure in years, and this is without football or any sports competition. The Raw rating was, with the exception of the holiday shows, the lowest Raw rating in several years while Nitro beat its all-time record for a live show low set two weeks ago by only .01.
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99In a very strange occurrence, the Raw main event with HHH & Angle vs. Rock & Austin only did a 5.0 rating, which would be the lowest Raw main event except during the holidays in years. Even stranger, the rating fell for the main event from a 5.6 the prior quarter which was the ring entrances for the match as well as the Show vs. Snow match, which makes no sense. The Vince-Stratus angle did a 4.8, which had to be disappointing.
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101Head-to-head saw Raw open at 3.6 (HHH & Stephanie interview with Austin, Angle and Rock coming out) to a very disappointing 2.1 (Dusty Rhodes-Flair segments with Jarrett and Dustin), Raw at 4.0 (Angle injures Scotty 2 Hotty, Radicals dissension, Guerrero vs. Jericho beginning) to 1.6 (Guerrero vs. Helms), Raw at 4.3 (Jericho vs. Guerrero finish, Ivory vs. Lita) to 1.6 (Awesome vs. Morrus) and finishing at 4.3 (Undertaker & Kane vs. Haku & Rikishi) to 1.9 (Steiners vs. Page & Booker).
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103We should have more details and weekend ratings next week.
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105XFL failed to break the big record but did set a dubious record on NBC on 3/3. XFL did a 2.4 on Saturday night, which from a record standpoint technically would make it the third lowest rated show in the history of major network prime time television although from a record keeping standpoint it is second (a Stanley Cup playoff game in 2000 did a 2.3) because a 2.2 was registered on a Christmas Eve. Still, the game did set a record for the lowest rated hour in the history of prime time major network television as from 10-11 p.m. the steadily declining rating of the broadcast fell to a 1.9. Even more bad news was that Male 18-34 demo was only a 1.4 and the teenager demo fell from 1.5 the previous week to 1.0. The UPN game fell to a 1.2 (so much for the argument that it is Saturday night that kills the ratings) making it the lowest rated show of the evening then as well, and the TNN game did an 0.9, which would be an 0.7 national number. Overall the cumulative national rating of 4.3 is about a ten percent drop from the 4.8 of the previous week.
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107Smackdown on 3/1 finished with its second consecutive 4.5 rating and 7 share. The Thursday competition was a little easier with Friends in reruns (9.9 and 10.5 for two different episodes) the Survivor did a monstrous 18.0 and CSI did a 14.8 against Smackdown, which also battled Millionaire on ABC at 12.3. UPN placed fourth, its usual position, among the six networks.
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109Thunder on 2/28 drew a 1.8 rating.
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111The 2/27 Lucha Libre block on Galavision drew a 1.8 Hispanic rating.
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113Added to the Greed PPV on 3/18 in Jacksonville are Ric Flair & Jeff Jarrett vs. Dusty & Dustin Rhodes (adding Flair and Jarrett to what was originally a singles match--supposedly they have a unique finish worked out), Rick Steiner vs. Booker T for the U.S. title (originally Hugh Morrus was in that slot) and with Kronik out doing an injury angle with Bryan Clark (immediately after he recovered from a real injury) and another to Brian Adams (to explain his absence due to appendicitis), they moved Morrus & Konnan in the slot as a babyface tag team against Storm & Awesome
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115Nitro on 3/6 in Greenville, SC started decent but lost something along the way. They opened the show with Rick Steiner challenging Booker and they started a match very quickly. They did some inside reference with Steiner talking about Booker playing in a band (there is an irony in that Booker in a wrestling ring is one of the most agile guys out there but he actually never played any sports as a kid and was in the band in high school) that probably went over everyone's head. They totally messed up a reverse out of a death valley driver spot. Booker did the rock bottom when Scott interfered for the DQ. DDP made the save to set up the tag main event. The most notable thing was the terrible production work in the next match, as they missed one great spot after another, and the arena shots because the Bi-Lo Center, which is a 16,000-seat arena, looked so empty and that fact was shown over and over. Skipper & Romeo beat Paris & Styles in the cruiserweight tournament. Romeo got a nice reaction coming out based on the advance promo work and he showed a lot of charisma and ability. Actually that is what it sounded like on TV but they were pumping in a lot of fake crowd noise that the reaction to Romeo may have been that. Tons of great moves, probably far too many for one match that short as the dives weren't even having impact. Cameras seemed to miss half of them as well. Skipper did a top rope Asai moonsault. Romeo pinned Paris after a move that sort of looked like a Northern lights bomb. O'Haire pinned Luger after a seanton bomb in a match with a lot of interference by Bagwell and Palumbo. Luger looked so lazy in every single move he did that it almost had this effect of putting a viewer to sleep. Maybe that was the idea in his , because if every viewer fell asleep, they'd miss seeing him doing the job. Either way, it was one of the worst individual performances on Nitro or any wrestling show by someone who actually knows what they are doing that you'll see. Bagwell laid O'Haire out with a blockbuster after. From a booking standpoint, using a guy who was once a star like Luger to put O'Haire over on paper is good, but when you figure the body of the match, it wasn't that good. Also, with all the interference in front of the ref and no DQ called, it's one of those things where you tune out seriousness and there is no impact on any finish. Announcers did try to play the pinfall over a star up, but audience didn't react like it was anything. Awesome & Storm beat up Konnan backstage and Morrus helped. The entire segment took less time to take place than it took to read one sentence. Jarrett came out to wrestle Dusty. Ric Flair came out with padding to look like he was 400 pounds and a mask. It was obvious it was Flair because he couldn't help but do a Buddy Rogers strut. Jarrett pinned him right away. Dustin came out and they fought until Flair unmasked. Flair, who turned 52 last week, really looked bad taking one bump when nothing even remotely was even aimed at him to miss, let alone hit him. Flair & Jarrett did a few chairs to the back when the real Dusty showed up. The Rhodes' cleaned house and this time it was Jarrett who took a bump from an elbow that missed by about 18 inches, made worse by it being shown in the replay. Rhodes after all these years got to call the padded up Flair "fat boy," which was what Flair used to taunt him as in the 80s. Rhodes also said that Flair used to be a mega-star and now on TV he's just an extra. It was kind of sad because everyone was waiting for one more great bit of mic work from Flair and Rhodes and it just wasn't there from either of them. The few fans left wanted it so bad because so many grew up with it and have fond memories of it. Guerrero Jr. pinned Helms in a non-title match with a brainbuster when Romeo and Skipper helped out. Isn't the challenger supposed to go over in the non-title before the PPV? They sure swerved us, and unless Helms is winning the belt, and in doing so did a finish that made no sense. They gave Helms a ring entrance with the Nitro Girls dancing and a little new costuming to make him look like a star, and then the first thing they do is beat him. I was watching and thinking they were really doing something right with him and building the PPV and then he got pinned. They did a segment with Cat and Kanyon fighting in a hospital room as Kanyon threatened to do grave bodily harm to Ms. Jones. Kanyon laid Cat out a bunch of times and Cat kept coming back. Jones kept yelling for help. Nobody came. Worst hospital I've ever seen. By the time the segment was over it was one of the weirdest things I've ever seen. It wasn't as dumb as the Austin embalming angle but it pretty well killed the rest of the show. Earlier in the show, they had one of those only can happen in WCW moments. They showed a limo pulling up to the arena and the announcers referenced a limo pulling into the arena. Then they cut to a shot inside a limo of Stasiak and Kanyon and in the conversation they were talking about arriving not at the arena, but as the hospital. Morrus pinned Awesome clean with a moonsault after Awesome had missed a splash. Storm attacked Morrus after and put him in the half crab until Konnan made the save. For the first time in the last few years when Konnan ran in for a save, he didn't get punked out. Main was Booker & DDP over Steiners in 9:01. Booker and Scott brawled to the back and all the heels including Animal, Jarrett, Luger and Bagwell attacked Booker backstage. In the ring, DDP pinned Rick with a diamond cutter but as DDP was celebrating in the crowd, Scott attacked him as the show went off the air
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117Thunder after the show ended opened with the cruiserweight title tourney match with Moore & Karagias over Jason Broyles (E.Z. Money in his debut) & Scotty O when O was pinned. Stasiak beat Smiley in what was called a terrible match. Helms pinned Skipper. Some rough spots early but some real good moves as well. Romeo interfered and then Konnan and Kidman made the save. Rick Steiner pinned Morrus. After the match, Team Canada all attacked Morrus until Konnan made the save. That's three saves in a row for Konnan without getting punked out. Palumbo pinned Luger. This was supposed to be a non-title with Palumbo & Stasiak vs. Luger & Bagwell to set up the PPV, but Bagwell's neck injury made it a single. Storm beat Konnan. Awesome interfered which brought out Morrus. Main saw Scott Steiner over Cat with the recliner. Before it was over, you had Rick out, but Booker attacked him. Page came through the crowd to attack Scott. Jarrett, Luger and Animal attacked Page. Steiner then hit Page with a low blow and put him in the recliner. Konnan, Palumbo, Morrus and Booker made the save with the show ending with faces holding the ring and heels on the platform
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119A correction from last week. When we stated the Jeff Jarrett vs. Dustin Rhodes match, drawing a 1.61 quarter, was the lowest rated main event in Nitro history. It was actually the second lowest. The lowest was on 1/8 for Jarrett vs. Scott Steiner. As you can tell there is a constant
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121The Dusty deal was really weird. This angle was supposed to take place a few weeks ago but fell through, reportedly because Dusty and them didn't agree on money terms. Then Dusty agreed to do the angle for Monday. WCW put out Dusty vs. Jarrett on its web site, than claimed it was a mistake and put out that the deal had fallen through. That time, the deal hadn't fallen through and it was a work as they weren't supposed to release Dusty being there (after all, since they had so few tickets sold for Greenville and Dusty was once a draw there, advertising him being there may have sold tickets) so they could surprise people when he showed up. When the communication signals were crossed and it got out, they decided to put the word out that it wasn't happening so they could "surprise" people
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123There is also communication continuing to put together the worked angle where Hogan would start his own company on FOX to feud with TBS in a Japanese style company vs. company angle. That's why Hogan is getting the word out that he would never work for WCW again. It's simply setting up a proposed angle. At this point, there is no FOX deal
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125Bischoff wasn't in Greenville
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127Nothing new on the sale of the company. There was a major meeting over the past week with heads of Time Warner and Fusient attempting to close the deal. It wasn't closed, although I'm not sure how significant that is or isn't. There were no plans this week for a subsequent meeting this week because Brad Siegel went on a planned vacation. The feeling is that whatever the problems were in finalizing weren't significant enough to make him cancel vacation plans. That can be taken in a good way or a bad way. As far as shutdowns, start-ups, bringing back Goldberg and Sting and Hogan or anything else, until the deal is finalized, there aren't going to be any decisions made so the booking remains in a holding pattern, which it sort of has been in really since Russo got a concussion and stopped writing. There is no question that the announcement of the deal was premature and that Brad Siegel pushed for it so it would be out there before the announcement of the AOL merger going through (hours later). At press time, everyone was working with the idea that the deal would be completed but it could still fall through and there are people considering their back-up options as well. The big question is how much in the way of losses Fusient can afford after taking over. The less they can afford, the less patience they would have
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129Broyles was supposed to do a try-out match with Dan Factor (real name Faquir) in Greenville but when Jamie Knoble was called him because his wife was giving birth, he was moved into Knoble's spot in the cruiserweight tag tournament. Some thought Broyles was a little big for the cruiserweight division, but did a lot of nice moves and the feeling was it was a successful debut. Factor ended up doing a try-out match with Stone Mountain, a huge but unimpressive guy that headlines for Wildside
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131Bischoff is said to heat the new PPV names that were done during his absence like Sin and Greed. The May PPV will be called "The Big Bang," which I guess means the explosion which starts the new universe
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133Bagwell was scheduled to work at TV but came in with a neck injury and instead just did outside interference
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135In an effort to keep the fans in their seats through the end of the Thunder tapings, they started this week and will continue every week to giving away trips to the next PPV. New Orleans last week was said to be an embarrassment as there were only a few hundred left in the building for the Thunder main event. Unfortunately, that lure wasn't good enough to keep most of the fans sticking around
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137On Thunder on 2/28, they never aired the Kanyon interview with the mop and attack of the mop that he called Ms. Jones for some reason. Don't know why. They put in a hastily done video package of Kanyon and Cat instead
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139Vampiro was officially cleared by his doctor to return on 3/1, which is about six months earlier than what was originally figured. So much for that musical career with ICP
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141The Arn Anderson suspension came because he okayed Luger & Bagwell doing an interview on the show before one of their matches which they requested but wasn't on the script for the show
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143Due to his insurance situation where he got a huge settlement from Lloyd's of London on what was at one point said to be a career ending back injury, Road Warrior Animal has it in his contract that he can only wrestle in tag matches. He had that in his WWF deal and as you can imagine, they weren't particularly thrilled with that either
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145If there is a shutdown at any point, they really ought to send O'Haire, since it's obvious he's the one more than anyone else they see potential in, along with as many of the green guys like Jindrak and Palumbo on a couple of New Japan tours since they'll be able to work with solid workers who are experienced five nights a week. High Voltage improved tremendously doing a few New Japan tours (I know, they ended up not making it, but they actually were on the verge of getting good when Rage got hurt and it just fell apart). If the company had more of a long-term goal, I don't think it would be bad if they actually sent O'Haire away for six months and let nobody see him, then give him a makeover as far as look, a strong heel manager, and bring him back as a top heel and let him squash people once his work got to the level there wasn't the hesitation and mistakes that keep people from taking him as a top guy
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147E.Z. Money and Dan Factor (Dan Faquir) practiced what was to be their try-out match at the Wildside TV tapings in Cornelia, GA on 3/4. WCW is still sending Wildside talent through the end of the month with Lash Leroux, Air Paris, A.J. Styles and David Flair appearing on the show
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149Jason Lee, who worked last week's TV as a last minute replacement partner of Johnny Swinger's in the cruiserweight tournament when Christian York & Joey Matthews signed with WWF, apparently never told anyone at OVW that he was doing the TV. According to Jim Cornette on Wrestling Observer Live, they would have had no problem with him doing it had he told them ahead of time, but because he didn't, both he and Dan Briley (Danny Davis) had a problem with and at this point they aren't going to be using him
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1513/4 in Johnson City, TN drew 1,536 paying $32,655. Nitro/Thunder tapings on 3/5 in Greenville, SC at the huge Bi-Lo Center drew 4,703 in the building which was 2,020 paying $63,720. Johnson City house show was headlined by Rhodes & DDP over Scott Steiner & Jarrett when Jarrett accidentally hit Steiner with the guitar and DDP scored the pin. Amazing that Rhodes is doing main events