STW - Diesel [Show Notes] (Patreon)

Diesel

Wrestling Observer 6/8/93

“Shawn Michaels regained the Intercontinental title from Marty Janetty on 6/6 in Albany, NY at a house show. It was pretty well-known Janetty was just going to be a short-term champion, although short-term being 20 days was a surprise. Michaels' new bodyguard Kevin Nash (WCW's Vinnie Vegas who was let out of is contract by Ole Anderson earlier in the week after being asked to be released after being turned down when asking for a raise, which was obviously a ploy since he must have had the WWF spot lined up), who hasn't been given a name in the WWF, interfered causing the win. Michaels and Nash appeared on 6/7 at Raw, with Nash still not being given a name and Michaels being acknowledged as new champion.”

The rumor was always that Kevin Nash was discovered by the WWF when the Steiner Brothers were watching WCW Saturday Night with Shawn Michaels and Michaels watched him and he knew he had his “heater.” How true is that?

Do you know the story between Ole and Nash about asking for the release?

Who handled Diesel’s contract? At the time it was JJ Dillon correct? Do you know if he signed a contract or was it a per date scenario?

Was he signed just to be Michaels’ bodyguard or did you all see potential in him?

Why the name Diesel?

Why the title change not on TV but at a house show? Was it just another case of Marty Janetty being Marty Janetty?

Wrestling Observer 6/21/93

King of the Ring 1993

8. Shawn Michaels retained the IC title pinning Crush in 11:14. Crush has improved in that he can do good moves and has agility, but doesn't work well with others. He's going to have a problem in that he's so much larger than almost all the wrestlers, especially with most everyone off the juice. In this match it was hard because they'd down all the cliche big-man, little-man spots in three previous bouts on the card. They gave Kevin Nash the name "Diesel" in a pre-match interview. Diesel distracted Crush allowing Shawn to post him several times but Crush kicked out of the pin. Crush came back by reversing a front facelock and throwing him over the top rope to the floor. Crush got several near falls until both Doinks came down and distracted him, allowing Michaels to come from behind with a superkick for the pin. *1/2

Why did Crush get so many chances lol

How coachable at this time was Diesel and how open to learning was he?

Wrestling Observer 7/26/93

The 7/19 Monday Night Raw show featured the best match on WWF television, perhaps ever, with Shawn Michaels vs. Marty Janetty, in the ****3/4 range. Janetty scored a pin early but Michaels had his feet on the ropes so they restarted. Finish saw Janetty miss a crossbody and take a bump over the top rope to the floor. Diesel threw him back in the ring, where he was pinned. These two worked almost a state-of-the-art style match combining Lucha moves and choreographed spots, Japanese pacing and a little American psychology.

How good were Michaels & Janetty together?

Were there hesitations to putting Nash in the ring at this time because of his work or because it wouldn’t make sense for the character?

Kevin Nash’s WWF debut happens on July 27, 1993 at a TV taping but it’s a dark match where Razor Ramon (Scott Hall) & Marty Janetty team up to face Diesel & Shawn Michaels. Jannetty defeated Michaels.

Kevin Nash’s MSG wrestling debut where he headlines with Shawn Michaels & Bam Bam Bigelow against Mr. Perfect, Tatanka & Marty Jannetty in an elimination match. Diesel pins Jannetty for the first elimination before it comes down to him and Mr. Perfect when Diesel punches him in the back of the head to pin him. This is a big thing to be having your first match in MSG...you’re in the main event...get two pinfalls including the winning fall and pinning Mr. Perfect. Rocket strapped to him?

Wrestling Observer 9/6/93

Summerslam 1993

3. Michaels beat Perfect via count out in 11:20 to retain the IC title. The first big spot came at 5:40 when Perfect catapulted Michaels over the top rope. While on the floor, Diesel distracted Perfect and Michaels gave him a superkick. Perfect made a comeback and did the Perfect plex but Diesel broke up the pin. Perfect slugged Diesel and threw Michaels into the ring where he took out the ref. Diesel then posted Perfect, who lost via COR. After the match, Perfect went after both until Diesel hit him with a KO punch, which looks to be his gimmick, and left him flat. ***

So Diesel begins with the knockout punch but transitions into the power bomb. Why and when did that get decided?

Wrestling Observer 9/27/93

“A considerable bit of talent turmoil hit the World Wrestling Federation this past weekend, including the first time in more than a decade that a champion left the promotion before losing his belt. Intercontinental champion Shawn Michaels (Michael Hickenbottom), 28, considered by many as the best worker in the country, quit the company early last week, before a match could take place where he would lose his title. While this was not confirmed, at press time it was believed that there would be a 20-man tournament for the vacant title held on 9/27 at the television tapings in New Haven, CT.”

Where did this leave Diesel?

Wrestling Observer 10/4/93

“Razor Ramon (Scott Hall) became the new WWF Intercontinental champion by beating Rick Martel in the 9/27 match in New Haven, CT to fill the title vacated by the departure of Shawn Michaels. While rumors have continued to persist as to the reason Michaels quit the WWF, nothing has been able to be confirmed. The storyline reason given was that Jack Tunney suspended Michaels and stripped him of the title for failure to complete his contractual obligations, which sounds like a pretty honest reason. Michaels' departure was first announced on the 9/27 edition of Monday Night Raw, which aired live from New Haven. It was announced on that show that a 20-man Battle Royal would take place on television 10/4, and that the final two men left in the Battle Royal would meet in a singles match to determine the champion in a match that airs 10/11. Both matches were taped 9/27. The Battle Royal went 19:24 and was rated **1/4, or better than a typical Battle Royal. Order of elimination went Giant Gonzalez, Mabel, IRS, 1-2-3 Kid, Diesel, Bob Backlund, Jimmy Snuka, Mr. Perfect, Marty Janetty, Tatanka, Bastion Booger, Bam Bam Bigelow, The MVP (Steve Lombardi) and Owen Hart. This left The Quebecers, Martel, Ramon, Randy Savage and Adam Bomb. Savage and Bomb then went out together leaving Ramon with three heels for several minutes. Jacques held Ramon for Pierre's clothesline, but Ramon ducked and Jacques went out, and Ramon quickly dumped Pierre, leaving he and Martel. Their match took place a few hours later, lasting 12:29 with Ramon winning with the Razor's edge in a match given *1/2 with little action until after the 10:00 mark when it picked up.”

Was Diesel ever given any consideration for the title?

When was it known that Diesel & Razor were becoming a pact? Was it before or after Shawn left?

Once Razor goes over was the natural program going to be Diesel - Razor since Diesel was Shawn’s bodyguard? Any reason why it never got there?

Wrestling Observer 11/15/93

Reports we get are that Backlund and Diesel are having some of the worst matches anyone has ever seen. In many cities, Diesel has been getting cheered.

I don’t find this terribly hard to believe...both scenarios.

Wrestling Observer 12/6/93

Survivor Series 1993 - Diesel’s PPV Wrestling Debut

“1. Marty Janetty & 1-2-3 Kid & Razor Ramon & Randy Savage beat IRS & Diesel & Rick Martel & Adam Bomb in 26:58. At one point in the first fall they teased something with Rick Martel as he and Harvey Whippleman got into it and Adam Bomb came to protect his manager. Savage pinned Diesel to win the first fall with the elbow off the top in 10:20. Crush came out to distract Savage, who was on the top rope, jumped down, and was pinned with a schoolboy by IRS in 6:27. Ramon pinned IRS with a Razor's Edge in 3:45. IRS jumped back in as Ramon had Martel up for the Razor's Edge and hit him with the briefcase and Ramon fell out of the ring for the count out in 1:10. IRS eye was busted open at some point. This left Martel & Bomb vs. 1-2-3 & Janetty. Kid pinned Martel in 5:07 with a sunset flip out of the corner, and almost immediately Janetty leaped over the top rope with a sunset flip on Bomb at :09. Basically a good match to start the card off on a positive note. **¾”

Big deal for Savage to pin Diesel in his PPV debut or just kind of glanced over?

How impressed was the office with Diesel at this point?

Wrestling Observer 1/17/94

Worst Wrestler of the Year Award

Honorable Mention: Diesel (8 votes)

Wrestling Observer 1/31/94

Royal Rumble 1994

“4. Yokozuna kept the WWF title beating Undertaker in 14:20 in a bizarre casket match. Yokozuna tried to use a chair but Undertaker got it and used it to Yokozuna's back and another to the head. Yokozuna then threw salt in the eyes and used the chair to the back and to the head. Yokozuna then tried to put Undertaker in the casket but he rose up. He immediately did a choke slam and DDT and tried to get Yoko in the casket but Crush ran in. Then Kabuki, Tenryu, Diesel, Adam Bomb, Head Shrinkers, Bigelow, Jarrett and just about every heel in the promotion came out. Somehow during this Mr. Fuji got the urn from Paul Bearer. I think Jim Cornette was vomiting during all this. Bearer got the urn back and hit Cornette and Fuji with it and Undertaker made a comeback against every heel in the promotion. The least they could have done was show the babyfaces dressing room door locked to explain why it was 10-on-1 with nobody coming to help. Finally Yokozuna got the urn from Bearer, KO'd him and Undertaker with it and opened it with a green smoke bomb special effect coming out. Bigelow, Samu and Fatu all came off the top on Undertaker and they got him in the casket and started wheeling him down the aisle. Then the music played and the lights went back out and on the video wall came a message from Undertaker, direct from inside the casket, largely saying that he was about to die but his spirit would live on forever and that eventually he'd be back. He then closed his eyes as if to "die" and the video showed the Undertaker's spirit leaving his physical body and a special effect showed him levitating in mid-air, and finally raising to the heavens, with his arms spread wide ala the crucifixion. *”

Who booked this shit?

5. Bret Hart and Luger tied in the Royal Rumble after 55:08. The time of the entries was said to be cut from 2:00 down to 1:30, although many were in the 1:40 range, because they ran long underneath. For all the praise WWF gets for out of the ring production (which usually is deserved) and criticism WCW gets (ditto), at least nine times out of ten WCW doesn't screw up the timing underneath and have to redo main event stips because of it, while WWF either has to rush matches, slice and dice time (for example, at Wrestlemania, the Bret Hart-Yokozuna title change had to be cut from a scheduled 23 minutes down to 8 because they couldn't do the undercard in the correct time), and even eliminate matches. After all these years, you'd think they'd be able to correct that problem since it comes across on three out of five PPV shows. Scott Steiner opened with Samu. As Samu had Scott just about over the top, it was Rick Steiner's time to come in. Rick, realizing it wasn't Japan and that means no effort is desired, required, or going to happen, walked to the ring slowly and mindlessly shook people's hands rather than add intensity to the match by acting concerned his brother was in trouble. The Steiners dumped Samu at 3:05 (3:05 of personal ring time), who did a great bump choking himself on the ropes before being booted out. Kwang the Ninja (TNT, subbing for Ludvig Borga who has a badly injured ankle and will be out for a few weeks) with manager Harvey Whippleman was in next, and he blew Kabuki mist in Rick's eyes. Then Owen was and dumped Rick at 5:50 (4:20). Bart Gunn was the next in. 

At this point it became the Diesel show. Diesel dumped Bart Gunn at 8:55 (2:55 ring time), Scott Steiner at 9:04 (9:04), Owen Hart at 9:09 (4:49) and Kwang at 9:23 (6:23) to empty out the ring. Next in and out was Bob Backlund at 10:20 (:50). Dumping Backlund firmly established Diesel as a babyface (he'd been getting sizable cheers at the house shows anyway, so expect a turn around Wrestlemania time). Next in and out was Billy Gunn at 11:27 (:22). At this point, with nothing going on in the ring, they took us backstage showing Tenryu & Kabuki beating up Luger in the locker room with a broom. Tenryu couldn't keep a straight face doing the angle. They teased Luger wouldn't be able to come out for the Rumble. Next to play in and out was Virgil at 13:15 (:41). The Diesel show ended when Randy Savage showed up, followed by Jeff Jarrett. Jarrett was surprisingly out next, via Savage at 17:13 (1:24). Crush came in, followed by Doink. As Doink was distracting the crowd, Savage was dumped by Crush in 19:12 (5:05). Doink used the flower gimmick to spray Diesel and Crush, but then quickly destroyed him when Bigelow entered. Bigelow dumped Doink in 21:14 (2:24), leaving Bigelow, Crush and Diesel 40 seconds to brawl with no crowd reaction. Then in came Mabel, Sparky Plugg (subbing for 1-2-3 Kid who blew out his knee in the MSG Royal Rumble and will be out six to ten weeks) and Shawn Michaels. Diesel was finally eliminated at 26:00 (18:30) via Bigelow, Crush and Michaels, with the seed planted for the eventual Michaels-Diesel break-up since Michaels didn't help Diesel when he was in trouble and helped to dump him. The ring filled up with great workers at this point, Mo, Greg Valentine, Tatanka and Kabuki. Luckily Michaels carried the match at this point doing all kinds of body contortion moves to appear to be on his way out but somehow wind up still in. If any promotion in the world had five wrestlers with this guy's talent, they'd never have a bad show. Everyone threw Mabel out in 32:32 (10:31). Then it was time for Luger to come out, and he went right after Kabuki, didn't sell anything from his prior injury, and dumped Kabuki in 33:39 (2:05). Tenryu was in next. Luger and Tenryu went at it at this point and it wasn't pretty. Tenryu chopped Luger to death, then got ready for Lex to make his comeback. Lex didn't do anything and they both stood there. The next guy in was nobody, first said to be Bret Hart, but later said to be Bastion Booger. Rick Martel was next in, followed by a limping Hart who immediately played Ric Flair (ie everyone took turns beating up on him), and Fatu. At 42:39 (25:16), Crush was dumped. In came Janetty next and for a few seconds, he and Michaels had the hottest exchange thus far in the show. Bomb was next in, at No. 30, or 29. At this point, it was elimination time, starting with Plugg at 45:22 (22:44), Valentine at 49:16 (20:50), Martel at 49:34 (11:37), Bomb at 49:49 (5:41), Mo at 49:55 (23:02--you know the depth is bad when Mo is in for that long), Tatanka at 50:17 (20:19), Bigelow at 51:05 (30:36--the match iron man) and Janetty at 51:45 (8:57). This left Tenryu, Fatu, Michaels, Hart and Luger. Luger & Hart together threw out Tenryu in 52:31 (17:53). At 54:49, Luger and Hart simultaneously dumped Fatu (13:35) and Michaels (29:33). Luger and Hart had just 24 seconds before they took a flying bump out together. Luger was first announced the winner, then Hart was, and then it was announced it was a tie. Because this is booked so much more carefully and is conceptually better because it's less unwieldy, much of this match was better than the Battle Royal at Battle Bowl. Because of the great finish and more good workers around at the end, the Battle Bowl Battle Royal was a far better Battle Royal. **½

Who’s idea was it for the Diesel push? Who structured it? Isn’t it amazing that’s it become a staple every Royal Rumble about who gets the Diesel push?

Wrestling Observer 3/28/94

WrestleMania X

8. Razor Ramon retained the IC title in a ladder match with Shawn Michaels in 18:47. Diesel clotheslined Ramon early and was thrown out.

It just made sense to get rid of Diesel early to let these two go...but how does it make sense for a referee to throw out Diesel when it’s a ladder match and there’s no disqualification?

Wrestling Observer 4/4/94

They set up what will apparently be an IC title match on TV at the next taping with Razor Ramon defending against Diesel, which will probably be a title switch to set up a house show program. It also appeared that Crush and Randy Savage will work cage matches and that Yokozuna will be programmed against Earthquake.

We’re finally at the Razor - Diesel program. Now that everyone is back...how strong was the “Kliq” at this point?

Wrestling Observer 4/18/94

Shawn Michaels was working as Diesel's manager, which it appears he's going to do at all the tapings until he goes back in the ring. He's wrestling in dark matches on TV nights as well.

Why the decision here to get Michaels to stop working and let Diesel work? Injuries to Shawn?

Wrestling Observer 4/25/94

Diesel (Kevin Nash) won the IC title from Razor Ramon at the 4/13 Superstars taping in Rochester, NY in a match that will likely air in syndication during the May sweeps. Finish saw Ramon go after Shawn Michaels and was caught from behind and then pinned with the jackknife (power bomb).

Why here and why now? Sweeps as Meltzer’s speculates?

Wrestling Observer 5/9/94

The line-up for the WWF's second King of the Ring tournament on 6/19 from the Baltimore Arena is taking shape. The top two non-tournament matches will be Bret Hart vs. Diesel for the WWF title

Big move for Diesel to be facing Bret Hart just weeks after winning the IC title. Did everyone think we found our new Hulk Hogan at this point?

Wrestling Observer 6/6/94

Bret Hart did an interview saying he would have a family member in his corner for his match with Diesel, which may mean either Jim Neidhart or Davey Boy Smith, both of whom WWF has shown interest in of late. Owen Hart did an interview saying he was tired of his parents harassing him. Mabel had one of the world's worst matches with Nikolai Volkoff, ending when IRS interfered for the DQ and he and Volkoff were doubling on Mabel which brought out the other six wrestlers in the tournament for a brawl.

Is this the yearly Stu Hart phone call?

Wrestling Observer 6/27/94

King of the Ring 1994

“5. Diesel beat Bret Hart via DQ in 22:51 so Hart retained the WWF title. Considering Diesel was working much longer than he's ever had to on a major card and was working with a torn groin, he deserves praise for at least being good enough that Hart could carry him. Hart was great in doing the impossible and making this a almost a great match except for a few screwed up spots. Diesel has improved from when he was in WCW, but he was still being wet nursed through this. Shawn Michaels and the returning Jim Neidhart were in the respective corners. Hart worked over Diesel's knees early. Diesel needs a lot of work when it comes to selling those type of moves. Hart used a figure four and a spinning toe hold but Diesel made the ropes. Hart rammed Diesel's knee into the post twice but Shawn Michaels interfered and clotheslined Hart on the floor. After a screwed up spot which ended up in a lengthy bearhug by Diesel, Hart broke free and dropkicked Diesel over the top rope. Well, that was the idea but Diesel got tangled up and Hart had to help him over. Hart then missed a plancha and Diesel smashed Hart's back into the post. Diesel used a side slam but Hart kicked out. Then a backbreaker. Bret tried a comeback but took the hard whip into the buckles for another near fall. Hart came back with a schoolboy for a near fall. Diesel did another backbreaker for a near fall and then put Hart on his shoulders while Michaels started undoing the turnbuckle pad. Hart got out of the move into a sleeper which looked pretty cool, but Diesel rammed him backward into the buckles. Then Hart got the sleeper on again and we had our first ref bump. Diesel exposed the metal by ripping off the padding of the turnbuckle, but Hart reversed things and Diesel took the metal buckle. Hart took over with three clotheslines but Diesel kicked out, then a leg sweep and a fist drop and a bulldog off the top rope (which hardly was executed excellently). Hart went for the sharpshooter, but then Michaels got on the apron, Hart released Diesel and decked Michaels who took a super bump off the apron to the floor. Hart did a clothesline off the top rope but Diesel kicked out. Diesel went for a backbreaker but Hart turned it into a small package for a near fall. At this point Diesel was totally blown up but caught Hart with a foot to the face, but somehow Hart reversed things and got Diesel in the sharpshooter. Diesel made the ropes. Hart dropkicked Diesel over the top rope and Diesel attacked Neidhart. In the ring Michaels hit Hart with the belt and Diesel got in, delivered an elbow drop, but Hart kicked out. Neidhart then clotheselined Michaels. At this point Diesel gave Hart the jackknife (power bomb) and Neidhart jumped in the ring and attacked him for the DQ, leaving the story open ended since "we don't know" if Hart would have kicked out of the jackknife. Neidhart then walked out to the dressing room, leaving Hart, who was double-teamed by Michaels and Diesel until the officials broke them up. The announcers (with the exception of Randy Savage who at least was on the right page but couldn't get his points across because of the other two) did a poor job of getting over the significance of Neidhart leaving and that we don't know if Hart could have kicked out of the jackknife, both of which appeared to be angles to be built upon for the future. ***¾”

How good was Bret Hart? Was this the best Diesel match you’ve ever seen at this point? How important was it for him to work even with the groin issue?

Speaking of that, Davey Boy Smith was called to return for the European tour in September. While it's not definite, it'll probably happen, but there was never any talk of him returning prior to September. Kevin Nash (Diesel) called Sid Vicious up and told him the office was interested in bringing him in, but that he should call first.

Do you remember any conversation about Sid coming back and Nash reaching out?

Wrestling Observer 7/4/94

The extent of Sid Vicious is simply that Kevin Nash (Diesel) phoned him telling him to call the office because they were interested in talking with him. Vicious never called the office because he supposedly isn't interested in working there at the present time and would rather work for either All Japan or WCW. Vicious really is playing softball almost every day this summer.

Oh Sid.

Wrestling Observer 8/29/94

Michaels had an altercation with a fan at the Portland tapings. No reports seem to indicate how it got started, but Diesel had to hold Michaels back after the fan heckled Michaels and got under his skin and Michaels shot back.

Do you remember this incident?

Summerslam Preview - Razor Ramon vs. Diesel with Walter Payton and Shawn Michaels in the respective corners looks to be an Intercontinental title change. It has the potential to be a decent match if Michaels is the focal point.

How did the Walter Payton gimmick come about?

Wrestling Observer 9/5/94

Summerslam 1994

1. Bam Bam Bigelow & IRS beat Head Shrinkers via DQ in 7:20. Shrinkers had lost the tag titles to Shawn Michaels & Diesel on 8/28 in Indianapolis, which was not only announced on the show, but Michaels & Diesel were on "Regis and Kathy Lee" the next morning with the belts.

Why Michaels & Diesel over on the house the night before the PPV? Couldn’t you have held that until Monday night TV?

“3. Razor Ramon captured the Intercontinental title from Diesel in 15:02 in a match with NFL Hall of Fame running back Walter Payton in Ramon's corner as the local sports tie-in. This was a well scripted match with it being sloppy at times as both men need to be carried and the other wasn't the one to do it. Still, taking their ability into consideration it was a good performance. Shawn Michaels undid one of the turnbuckles early playing into the spot in their television title change match. At one point, while Diesel distracted Payton, Michaels did a flying clothesline off the ring steps onto Ramon on the floor. Diesel whipped Ramon into the unprotected turnbuckle and did a side slam for a near fall. Diesel did the snake eyes (dropping Ramon face-first on a turnbuckle) and did a long abdominal stretch spot. Ramon came back with a stretch of his own but Diesel powered out. Ramon shoved Diesel into the unprotected turnbuckle and did a schoolboy for a near fall. Ramon, who sold most of the match, finally made a comeback crotching Diesel on the post (it should be noted that WWF's television standards don't apply to PPV since they both did a crotch shot and Ramon flicked his toothpick at Diesel, both of which are banned on television). Ramon did a bulldog off the top for a near fall. At this point Diesel was blown and too tired to pull off the next several moves. Ramon powered out of a power bomb (jackknife) attempt. After Michaels distracted Ramon, Diesel used a flying shoulderblock. At this point Michaels took the IC belt and had a tug-of-war with Payton over it. After Payton won the tug-of-war, as Diesel held Ramon, Michaels went for the superkick but Ramon ducked and Diesel got hit with it and Payton tackled Michaels and Ramon scored the pin. The booking made up for the limits of the two men's ability. After the match, Payton and his son celebrated in the ring with Ramon while they once again teased a Michaels/Diesel break-up. **¾”

Thoughts on this match? How awesome was Michaels as a heel manager?

Wrestling Observer 10/10/94

9/28 in White Plains was Challenge and Action Zone tapings. They taped three Action Zone matches, all of which were said to have been great matches, with Michaels & Diesel keeping the tag titles beating Razor Ramon & 1-2-3 Kid

How fucking awesome was this match?

So at this point in the year...Bret Hart is champion...being built to face Bob Backlund...with Owen Hart right behind it...Diesel & Michaels are tag team champions. How do we fast forward almost a month and Diesel pins Backlund in 6 seconds and Diesel is a babyface champion? When were the wheels in motion put in place?

Wrestling Observer 11/21/94

The babyface/heel era is on its way out. There will always to "good guys" and "bad guys" in pro wrestling just as there will always be the home team against the visiting team in sports, but the visitors to draw real heat don't have to take on unbelievably comedic roles or exaggerated roles. The outrageous overplayed characters are on the way out. Look at the total failure of The Gangstas, which should have gotten the most heat of anything in wrestling but it drifted too far. Hulk Hogan's the biggest draw, but throwing out the manipulations, half the people don't like him at all, although they'll still pay to see him. AAA was refreshing in that while it's heels wrestle dirtier, they don't overplay the roles as heels to ridiculous proportions and if the fans cheer them, nobody seems to care since they paid their money to get in. ECW, in appealing to a renegade group, has everyone play traditional heel, but in reality has little in the way of babyfaces and heels. Japan has been like this for ten years. People love Shawn Michaels and Diesel. Nobody gives a rats ass about Lex Luger although they'll pop for him when the music plays. People don't take the roles seriously. They never could do enough to get people to really hate Ric Flair no matter how hard they tried. Those overplayed roles can garner the Pavlovian response when they do the Pavlovian spots or musical pops, but what the AAA show exposed (and even UWFI to a totally different degree) is none of the crowd response comes from the heart.

I don’t know if you want to include this but this was a fascinating look forward into the business by Meltzer.

Wrestling Observer 12/5/94

Diesel (Kevin Nash) became the latest attempt to re-create a Hulk Hogan by capturing the WWF title from Bob Backlund in just eight seconds with a jackknife (power bomb) on 11/26 in Madison Square Garden. The title switch came just three days after Survivor Series, where Backlund had won the title from Bret Hart and Diesel had turned babyface on partner Shawn Michaels.

The quickie title change was largely given away to anyone who could read between the lines on television Saturday, both nationally and locally in the New York market. On the USA network's WWF Mania show, it was announced there would be a title match between Backlund and Diesel, replacing the "injured" Bret Hart, at the Garden and that the WWF would open its 900 number line for live commentary of the match starting at 9:30 p.m. Eastern time. In the New York market, the title change was telegraphed even deeper by announcing that the match was no DQ, no count out and no submissions, thereby rendering Backlund's chicken wing useless. Backlund also did an interview for the New York market complaining he had trained to wrestle Hart, not Diesel.

At the Garden before a crowd estimated at 7,300, announcer Howard Finkel made the announcement of the match but stated, in a tease, that it would be a non-title match, and then exuberantly corrected himself after a supposed change of plans given to him by agent Rene Goulet. Earlier in the show Backlund did a live interview to a chorus of heavy boos claiming he would be a much better moral leader than Hart, while fans chanted for both Hart and Diesel. The match itself was short, as it needed to be because of who was in there, with all the fireworks adding to the huge crowd reaction to the title change. Later in the show, Diesel came out to thank the fans amid another barrage of fireworks, and he was called the leader of the new generation on Monday Night Raw live on 11/28.

Nash, 35, billed at 7-0 (he was listed as 6-9 when he played basketball), is a Michigan native who played college basketball at Memphis State in the late 70s and played in European leagues for a few years in the early 80s. He started bodybuilding and was working as a bouncer at an Atlanta club where wrestlers and WCW management frequently hung out, and the huge bouncer caught the idea of several who talked him into trying wrestling. The plans were to give him major pushes due to his size from the beginning, but he flopped in his original roles of Master Blaster and Oz, and eventually became Vinnie Vegas as a tag team partner of Dallas Page, a character that was basically the prototype for his Diesel role. In 1993, over a contract dispute, he left WCW where he was going nowhere in prelims, to join WWF as Shawn Michaels' bodyguard. It was evident after getting over as a face by being portrayed as an unbeatable monster clearing the ring at the 1994 Royal Rumble, that his future was as a face and they teased the turn virtually the entire year, to the point where he was pretty much heavily cheered the past few months at most of the house shows despite playing a heel role.

Backlund, 45, who held the title twice between 1978 and 1983, got the honors of being the three-day transitional champion, and until Shawn Michaels recovers from his hand injury and can return to the ring and wrestle, will be the headliner who opposes Diesel on his first house show run.

What a rise in almost 14 months from after thought bodyguard to this?

Wrestling Observer 12/5/94

Survivor Series '94 on 11/23 in San Antonio wound up drawing an evenly mixed set of responses. It was interesting because it was more a polarization of views, a lot of people loved it and a lot thought it was awful, more than most thinking it was average. As the weekend played out, it was positive booking, although the idea of Backlund as champion, which largely appealed to the 30+ set which isn't their prime audience nor should it be in a company attempting to rebuild an audience base, seemed like a cute idea gone haywire. But it really doesn't matter who the transitional champion is. The Diesel turn was well-done although the match was a major disappointment. None of the matches were particularly good and the second match was particularly awful. While most liked the Hart-Backlund title match, I was bored to death by it for the first 25:00. The angle at the end was really creative on the surface, but had more holes than Swiss Cheese. There was nothing really good or really bad about the final two matches, other than the Undertaker's ring entrance. The show drew a legit sellout of 8,000+ at the Freeman Coliseum and they opened up an 800-seat theater for closed-circuit showing. We have no buy rate estimates at press time.

1. The Bad Guys (Razor Ramon & 1-2-3 Kid & Davey Boy Smith & Head Shrinkers) beat The Teamsters (Shawn Michaels & Diesel & Owen Hart & Jim Neidhart & Jeff Jarrett) in 21:45. In the first fall, they opened by teasing the angle where Fatu can't wrestle in boots. The timing in early spots with Sionne (Barbarian) and Jarrett and Kid and Neidhart wasn't good. The first good wrestling was a quick spot with Hart and Smith. Michaels, who really couldn't work because he's supposed to be out at least another month with his broken hand, and Diesel, never tagged in for the first 13:00. Finally Diesel tagged in and immediately jackknifed Fatu in 13:31 for the first fall. Diesel then jackknifed Kid in :42 for the second fall. He then jackknifed Sionne in :31 for the third fall. Diesel wanted to tag out but Michaels told him to stay in. After a boot to the face of Smith sent Smith outside the ring, Jarrett and Hart beat up on Smith in a weird count out finish in 1:14. This left 5-on-Ramon, who was allowed to look competitive against Diesel before Diesel hit the jackknife again. Michaels then wanted to tag in, and had Diesel hold Ramon for the superkick and naturally Ramon ducked. The two started arguing, Diesel chased Michaels out of the ring and the building, throwing around his partners on the floor and at 5:47 it was ruled a five-way count out leaving Ramon as the sole survivor. After the match Michaels threw the tag belt on the ground and drove off making it clear he would have nothing to do with Diesel again. Good angle, wrestling was below par, finish with the five-way count out was horrible. *1/2

Finish sucked but it got to it’s point didn’t it?

On the live Raw on 11/28, Jerry Lawler was back doing color. IRS vs. Adam Bomb ended when a guy in a cloth who came out with IRS (who turns out to be Tatanka) shoved Bomb off the top and he was pinned. Luger made the save. Diesel did an interview which was entirely too long and he isn't smooth at all as trying to be a face. This isn't to say this isn't going to work, but if the Diesel thing is to work they have to be careful and leave it in short doses, like 911 in ECW, because it won't work if they don't keep the matches and interviews short. His weaknesses will be exposed if they aren't careful not to let them be exposed, because a great deal of his charisma was the ability to stand there and do nothing and take the rub off Michaels. The gist of it was he'd give Bret Hart a title shot.

Diesel wasn’t the best in the beginning at promos but considering he didn’t talk for a while it needed experience to work.

Wrestling Observer 12/19/94

Diesel's first test as champion was this past weekend with three house shows in upstate New York. According to our reports, in all cities they had Diesel beat Bob Backlund in 30 seconds, then jackknife both Owen Hart and Jim Neidhart when they did post-match run-ins and he left all three laying. Diesel got huge pops when he came out and when he left people laying, but crowds in at least two of the three cities were less than half of what WWF "B" shows used to do in those cities and these were "A" shows. No other "A" house shows until a California swing from 12/26 to 12/30 in Sacramento, Los Angeles, San Diego, Anaheim and San Francisco respectively. The traditional rule of thumb in wrestling is that the babyface champs first time around the horn should increase crowds and if it doesn't, it won't get better. But usually faces have had better heels to draw against than Backlund, who it was a huge mistake to headline with. Backlund's gimmick is awesome, but everything has its place and the place for a gimmick like that is to be managed by Paul Jones and feud with Jimmy Valiant and work 5:00 gimmick matches (or today's equivalent, be managed by Jerry Lawler and feud with Doink in the third match with embarrassing stips and never go more than 5:00). Actually I'm told the only good thing on the house shows this weekend was Bob coming out early in the card and ranting and raving about how he isn't there to manipulate all you people.

How soon into the run did you see house show business start to slip?

Wrestling Observer 12/26/94

On television this past weekend, WWF announced for Royal Rumble on 1/22 in Tampa, FL a main event of Diesel vs. Bret Hart for the WWF title. My guess is they will try and run a storyline to portray Hart very subtly as a heel because if they go in and don't try to lead the fans, there is the possibility of Hart getting the majority of cheers or even a split mixed response which would kill everything they're trying to get across right now. 

Was it important to get Diesel a big WWF title win over a solidified main eventer.

Wrestling Observer 1/9/95

There's already a lot of talk from within the company that Diesel isn't the answer and the idea of going with Backlund on top was a fiasco blamed on Patterson. I don't know if they'll do a change to Hart or Michaels. My feeling is they've got Wrestlemania plans locked in whatever they are. Whatever changes in direction will be made really won't go into effect until "the new season" in late April. At the house shows this week they had Michaels doing live "Heartbreak Hotels" (believe it or not they weren't any good) where he pushed the idea of him winning the title at Mania which seems awfully early to push something like that, particularly since they don't want to be giving stuff away. It is beginning to look like Hart may wind up like Flair as a ten-time champion because he'll constantly be replaced and shoved aside for the latest new monster, and as soon as his successor can't hang once put in the spotlight, they go back to the solid guy.

Any thoughts on this?

Wrestling Observer 1/16/95

Tag Team of the Year - Honorable Mention Diesel & Shawn Michaels (242)

Most Improved - Diesel 1st

Most Charasmatic - Honorable Mention Diesel (96)

Most Overrated - Diesel 5th

Worst on Interviews - Honorable Mention Diesel

Best Gimmick- Honorable Mention Diesel

Wrestling Observer 1/30/1995

Royal Rumble 1995

3. Diesel retained the WWF title going to a no decision with Bret Hart in 27:19. Hart came out aggressive playing subtle heel wrapping Diesel's leg around the post and using a figure four for two one minute segments in the first 6:00. As Diesel went out to regain his bearings, Hart hit him with a tope. Hart posted Diesel, but Diesel reversed a whip and sent Hart into the ring steps. Diesel then took over including using a backbreaker over the shoulder which looked really good with a guy of that height doing it. Hart made a comeback and took the tape off his wrist and tied Diesel's legs up with it around the post and began stomping the helpless Diesel but even then the fans didn't turn on him. He did his typical bulldog, leg sweep and backbreaker for near falls followed by the forearm drop off the top. Diesel took control when Hart went for a plancha, Diesel caught him and rammed his back into the post. Diesel then raised his arm signifying the finish but heard more boos than cheers, then hit the jackknife. Michaels ran in to break up the pin going after Diesel's knee. The ref ordered the match to continue rather than call the DQ. At this point the storyline clearly should have made Hart the heel but it was working in reverse, to the point that the crowd cheered Michaels' run-in breaking up the pin. Hart got the figure four back on but Diesel punched his way out. Diesel started the comeback but again surprisingly to no reaction. He missed a kick and got caught on the ropes. Hart once again wrapped his leg around the post and hit the knee with a chair, which for the first time got a lot of boos directed at Hart. Hart put on the sharpshooter when Owen Hart interfered breaking it up, undoing the padding on the turnbuckle and whipping Bret's throat into it. The ref ruled the match would continue again rather than calling the DQ. Both were selling great from this point on. Diesel was run into the exposed metal turnbuckle. They went back-and-forth Japanese style until a ref bump. At this point, Michaels, Owen Hart, Backlund, Jarrett and Roadie all did a run-in attacking both guys. Finally Backlund got Bret in the chicken wing while the other four were on Diesel. Diesel made his own comeback chasing everyone away and saving Bret and after the match the two shook hands and hugged. ****1/4

Best matches of Diesel seem to be with Bret Hart at this point in his career.

Wrestling Observer 2/6/95

The reason the Clash was moved from its original site of Hampton, VA to Las Vegas was because the NATPE convention was being held in Vegas from 1/24 through 1/26. The idea was that WCW would hold a major event, get major TV execs there and show off a hot product with Hogan and Savage. While it didn't appear there were any TV types there with the exception of two or three faces like Mitch Ackerman from Disney that are there for big shows all the time anyway, WCW did seem to come out strong from a psychological standpoint from NATPE because for the first year in history they stole the spotlight from WWF.

Titan flew bigwigs like Vince McMahon, Diesel, Undertaker and Jim Ross in from Florida on the red-eye after the Raw taping Monday night and they were in Vegas on Tuesday afternoon (and Diesel was flown back to work Wednesday night in Florida). According to those who were there, when Diesel was walking around, he did turn heads because he was in costume and his size, but nobody knew who he was. WCW got much larger crowds to the Turner booth with Hogan and Savage, who everyone knew. Bischoff even gave a speech where he talked about WCW as being where the stars are and knocked WWF saying that their mid-card castoffs like Diesel are now world champions in WWF. And although I was told it was embarrassing to witness, the interview Lauren Hutton did with Hogan garnered a lot of attention. There were no lines for autographs of Diesel, Undertaker or McMahon while there were lines for Savage and long lines for Hogan. Some WCW officials were openly talking about "smoking" Titan at the convention. By Thursday, when foot traffic was down, Ross and Shane McMahon were in the Titan booth with The Bushwhackers, Mr. Fuji, etc. looking like Maytag repairmen while the crowds flocked around the booth where the "Blade Warriors" did skating exhibitions just a few feet away. WWF is still far and away No. 1 in the United States, but they didn't look like it in a venue that they used to be one of the feature attractions in.

You’ve talked about this as a rebuilding period. Was it obvious at this point how long the rebuilding period might be?

Wrestling Observer 2/13/95

Diesel is participating in a celebrity slam dunk contest in conjunction with the NBA All-Star game this week and also in an MTV softball game and judging from a lengthy interview at Raw where they called him Kevin Nash and tried to put him over as a real person as opposed to a cartoon character they look to be committed to building the company around him. It was the same type of interview McMahon did with Hulk Hogan before the match with Sid Justice and again when he came back ten months later after the steroid controversy. Even the normally conservative Japanese mags are calling him a box office failure.

Do you feel the presentation of Diesel as Diesel instead of as Kevin Nash hurt him in the beginning?

Wrestling Observer 2/20/95

Do you think the WWF made a prudent move in making Diesel champion? Personally, I feel Vince McMahon has sacrificed his strongest drawing card in Bret Hart.

Edie Bailey

Aberdeen, Maryland

DM: The situation in comparing the two is this. Bret Hart will never be a super drawing card. Diesel probably won't be either. But when the decision was made, nobody knew that. Titan, as always, was looking to create a new Hulk Hogan and clearly Bret Hart will never be that person. Nobody else may be for a long time, but someone saw this gigantic guy was getting great crowd reactions as a heel and appeared to have a lot of charisma, so at the time it looked to be at least a decent gamble and nobody ever struck gold in pro wrestling without having to gamble on pushing unknowns to the moon at one point or another. Usually it doesn't work but all you need is one success. Thus far it hasn't succeeded but Hart also hasn't been sacrificed. If it doesn't work, they can always go back to Hart in a credible manner.

Do you agree with this assessment at this point in his reign?

The build to WrestleMania 11 is on and although it feels like Diesel is the headliner because he’s the champion the focal point is on Bigelow vs Lawrence. Do you feel the resentment of Nash at this point knowing even though he’s the headliner that his match isn’t the real push?

You’ve talked about before how you & Pat Patterson always knew Michaels was a babyface. Was there a fear he would be cheered over Nash?

Wrestling Observer 3/13/95

The World Wrestling Federation hit a publicity home run this past week stemming from its press conference announcing Lawrence Taylor's participation in Wrestlemania. The news, which received major press coverage world wide, and in particular in the Northeast, will probably turn the 1995 version of Wrestlemania, on 4/2 from Hartford, CT, into the one with the most mainstream publicity since the first two.

The reaction within this profession to this has also shown a 180 degree change from the previous old-school promoters. Most media coverage of Taylor included strongly negative remarks about pro wrestling and almost all openly talked of scripts and "fixed" outcomes. Within the mainstream sports community, Taylor has been heavily criticized for participation because of the latter aspect.

The irony is that virtually everyone within wrestling accepts that the WWF made a major score for both publicizing its show and for its faltering company image. Years ago, promoters were deathly afraid of mainstream media because of the fear that a story may include a reference to matches being scripted, and thus they believed, the entire business' future existence would be threatened. The WWF openly went into and courted a situation where it was guaranteed that would be the only media reaction, it was guaranteed going in the WWF would be portrayed as a scripted joke and that Taylor himself would be heavily criticized. But there was no fear whatsoever that either would threaten the existence of pro wrestling as we know it, and in fact, the belief that all the publicity would help jump-start mainstream interest in the characters like Diesel, Shawn Michaels and Bam Bam Bigelow that the WWF is planning to build its future around. In fact, Bigelow came out of the week as something almost of a household name.

Despite the magnitude of the media coverage itself, it was almost laughable how many major errors were involved. The New York Daily News supposedly broke the story with something billed as an "Exclusive" on 2/26, despite everyone within the wrestling business and several other newspapers having already reported on this for five weeks, listing the wrong date and giving a $500,000 figure for Taylor's fee. This led to media across the country all following in the Daily News' footsteps reporting both the wrong date and the heavily inflated money figure. The former was corrected virtually everywhere once Titan held its press conference two days later in Manhattan at the Harley Davidson Cafe, with an incredible amount of media from around the world present. Clips of the press conference aired on local sports reports throughout the United States, news made most newspapers and was carried on ESPN Sports Center (which was the only media outlet to report Taylor's fee as $100,000--which is probably much closer to the truth that the figure reported everywhere else), particularly the clip of Taylor kissing Bigelow during a stare-down and calling him an Easter egg because of his tattooed skull. But perhaps the strangest part of this story of "The First Time. The Last Time. The Only Time" as it involves Taylor's participation in pro wrestling is that it isn't the first time.

Taylor's actual fee for being involved in the show is unknown. One source very close to Taylor told us that there may actually be a non-disclosure clause in Taylor's contract regarding the exact fee because Taylor wouldn't talk specifics claiming legal reasons, although admitted it was nowhere even close to $500,000. Two sources close to Taylor have given the legit figure as being $150,000, slightly more than the $135,000 that Refrigerator Perry received in Wrestlemania II. The $150,000 figure is the figure that most within pro wrestling believe to be the real figure apart from our own non pro wrestling sources who gave us the same figure. Given the publicity, it's already been a bargain for the WWF. The biggest Wrestlemania ever, the 1989 version headlined by Hulk Hogan vs. Randy Savage grossed in excess of $20 million making it the biggest grossing wrestling show in history. Last year's Wrestlemania X grossed $12.4 million, although roughly half of that figure winds up in the hands of cable companies and cable distributors leaving Titan's estimated take at $6.2 million, by far the biggest money wrestling show in North America annually but now trailing New Japan's annual Tokyo Dome show (a reported $6.8 million and that's without any PPV revenue) as the biggest money show of the year worldwide.

Taylor himself, despite being a New York celebrity, was not an in-demand performer when it came to things like commercial endorsements and is name was largely out of the spotlight. This put it back in. As funny as this sounds to Americans, it also makes Taylor a celebrity for being in Wrestlemania in several countries where pro wrestling means more than the NFL. Ironically, it wasn't the only news he'd make during the week, as three days after the press conference, he was fired from his main job, that of being an analyst for the TNT pro football package. While there was some talk that being that his main job was with a Turner company and he had signed to work with McMahon that it may have played a part in his dismissal, it had been rumored for most of the week Taylor was going to be dropped and it's doubtful it really played a part.

As most wrestling fans remember but obviously was never mentioned at the press conference and surprisingly no mainstream reporters have gotten a clue of to date was that on January 11, 1991--just two days before Taylor participated in the NFC championship game, Taylor was involved in a pro wrestling angle. It was with World Championship Wrestling for a house show at the Meadowlands put together largely by Taylor's long-time friend Paul Heyman and current WWF assistant booker Jim Ross. The television angle largely building up a feud with Taylor, who received $10,000 for the angle, and Paul E. Dangerously culminated with Taylor seconding Lex Luger for a football match against Mr. Hughes. As the Giants continued winning in the NFC playoffs, it turned into a major source of controversy and took a lot of work not to fall through the cracks including agreements that the original plans for Taylor to hit some tackles on Hughes and Dangerously be dropped for fear of him doing anything two days before the NFC championship game. The event, best remembered for being the semifinal on the night Ric Flair supposedly tied Harley Race's record for most world title reigns (a specious record at best since so many title changes that took place are ignored in records like this) beating Sting in the midst of a blizzard which kept the crowd down to 5,000 paid and $78,000--both figures less than WWF did the same night with Hulk Hogan running the Nassau Coliseum.

And for all the sportswriters who complained that somehow Taylor was hurting his reputation as a soon-to-be Hall of Fame football player didn't realize that Taylor has already done this, and did it not only when he was still an active player, but was involved with a pro wrestling angle during the weeks leading up to his participating in an NFC championship game. Did that somehow taint the Giants victory over the Bears and subsequent Super Bowl two weeks later?

Although Taylor was a perennial All-Pro in football, he is far from the biggest name athlete to work as a pro wrestler. This is the most publicity any mainstream athletic superstar was received for being involved in pro wrestling at least since Muhammad Ali's 1976 mixed match with Antonio Inoki in Tokyo. People like Ali, Babe Ruth, Joe Louis, Jack Dempsey, Rocky Marciano and Jim Thorpe have been involved with pro wrestling dating back to its early history. In the case of Ali, he refused to do the originally scripted job for Inoki and the actual shoot match turned into a disastrous 15 round draw with both men fearing each other and staying as far away from each other as possible for the entire match, something that absolutely won't be the case here. Bronko Nagurski, a football legend, actually quit pro football to be a pro wrestler in the late 1930s while in his prime because he could earn more money, and because of his name value from legit sports, was quickly made into the most recognized version of the world heavyweight champion in pro wrestling. Indeed, when Nagurski passed away some ten years back, the press stories that came out having to deal with the fact he quit football in his prime for pro wrestling recreated history claiming that in Bronko's day, pro wrestling was real so therefore it wasn't like today's carnival when it was in many ways the exact same thing, just a more primitive version. Alex Karras, who was a superstar lineman with the Detroit Lions in the 60s, although not quite a Taylor-level football player but close, wrestled in the early 60s while he was serving a one-year gambling related suspension from football and his wrestling career included a legendary out of the ring brawl leading to a match with Dick the Bruiser.

Because football lineman in the 50s and 60s weren't well paid, certainly by comparison to today's players, many of them worked the off-season as pro wrestlers, perhaps the most famous and successful of those being Leo Nomellini, a college teammate of Verne Gagne's at the University of Minnesota, who was the Lawrence Taylor of his era and was pushed heavily as a pro wrestler each off season. In fact, the most hyped and talked about pro wrestling match ever in Northern California took place on March 22, 1955 at the Cow Palace when NWA world heavyweight champion Lou Thesz lost via disqualification to Nomellini before almost 17,000 fans, which I believe is a Northern California attendance record only topped by one or two Ray Stevens matches in the early 60s. There was tremendous media hype of the event locally and it got publicity nationally, all pushing it as a legitimate sports event with Nomellini, in the midst of a Hall of Fame career with the local 49ers, saying if he won the title from Thesz, he'd retire from football to concentrate on defending the title because it was more lucrative than football. No snide remarks in those days about scripts or predetermined endings or about Nomellini somehow hurting his personal reputation or integrity. Interesting how times change. And for the record, the DQ finish in such a big match did kill the territory when it was at a peak and when Thesz came back for a rematch they were only able to pop the crowd back up to 8,000.

Virtually none of the media stories even mentioned anything about the Diesel vs. Shawn Michaels main event although the AP story did list both men and one or two others as the wrestlers at the press conference, but most mentioned the WWF having lost Hulk Hogan to WCW. The WWF had Taylor attempt to get Diesel over as an athlete and get the rub as a celebrity (largely the same way they created Hulk Hogan as something more than a top drawing wrestler by getting the rub off Cyndi Lauper and Mr. T in 1984--the difference, of course, being Hogan was an incredible drawing card as a wrestler in the AWA and with New Japan, whereas Diesel isn't one yet despite a WWF megapush) as Taylor praised wrestlers being great athletes and claimed he was at Royal Rumble because of an invitation from his "friend" Diesel.

In another surprise, the only other match Titan announced either at the press conference, and has pushed on television as of this date, is the Michaels vs. Diesel main event, a big shock since next weekend leaves them with only three weeks left, so it's obvious this will be pushed to the end as a two-match show. It was announced on the 3/6 Monday Night Raw that Bret Hart vs. Bob Backlund in an I Quit match so Hart can gain the win back for his loss at Survivor Series and so Backlund can be put out to pasture in a storyline sense will also be on the show, with Undertaker vs. King Kong Bundy announced on 3/5. The rest of the show, based on rumors and talk we've heard include Razor Ramon vs. Jeff Jarrett for the IC title, Smoking Gunns vs. Men on Mission for the tag title, Lex Luger vs. Tatanka, Bull Nakano vs. Alundra Blayze for the womens title and Owen Hart vs. Davey Boy Smith.

How do you feel the press conference went?

Wrestling Observer 3/20/95

TV tapings for push to WrestleMania:

“Diesel did an interview with McMahon. McMahon was carrying the interview which was going nowhere with Diesel saying things like if Michaels played baseball he'd have hit .400 and saying Michaels is the best athlete in the world today. Finally Michaels and Psycho Sid came out. Michaels' made the interview basically saying unlike Diesel who had things given to him, he had to work his way up for seven years to reach this spot and promised the performance of a lifetime.”

Counter productive for a heel to be saying this to a babyface don’t you think?

Wrestling Observer 4/10/95

WrestleMania XI

BEST MATCH POLL

Shawn Michaels vs. Diesel 119

Titan made the most of getting Taylor, with all the mainstream media hype that went to Taylor and using it to rub off on soon-to-be-babyface Bam Bam Bigelow and on Diesel, who the company is clearly planning to build its future around (Diesel teaching Taylor the jackknife). Those who viewed the match itself predominately thought it was something of a miracle just how good it was. I pretty much expected they'd do a good job because Bigelow is a tremendously underrated worker when he's motivated and there was going to be no night in his career where he'd be more motivated. The Taylor-Bigelow match overshadowed everything else on the show, and it's probably why the company waited until Monday Night Raw live the next night to implement several new angles, including a surprising apparent turn of Shawn Michaels when Psycho Sid (Vicious/Eudy) gave him three power bombs during a commercial break after Michaels told Sid to stay home in a rematch for the title and Diesel and Michaels both talked about their friendship for each other. The Raw show ended with Diesel and Sid going at it. With the next PPV show on 5/14, just one week before WCW, entitled "In Your House" (in which a house in Orlando will be given away), it appears they may do either a Michaels & Diesel tag team match, Diesel vs. Sid or a triangle match with all three with the title at stake.

6. Diesel pinned Shawn Michaels to retain the WWF title in 20:35. This was a very good match but it was all Michaels. Turturo was ring announcer and Thomas was timekeeper. With Anderson missing, Michaels came out with Jennifer McCarthy of MTV. When Diesel came out, it was with Anderson, solving the mystery of her disappearance. Lawler said Turturo was a lousy detective since he couldn't solve the mystery on his own and McMahon said that maybe he could get a job working for the government. Up to this point, the heat in the show had been decent but during the beginning and end of this match the heat was excellent. The audience was split 50-50. Michaels was fantastic taking bumps for Diesel for several minutes. Michaels sent Diesel over the top with a clothesline and followed with a crossbody onto the floor. Michaels started a scuffle with a photographer but Diesel tried to save the photographer and ended up crashing into the steps selling his ribs. The match showed as Michaels worked on Diesel. He nailed Diesel with an elbow off the top with Diesel halfway across the ring. He got the sleeper on in 12:50 when they did the usual spot where Diesel's arm fell limp twice but not the third time. Diesel made the comeback with Michaels taking the Flair bump over the turnbuckle. The two were brawling on the floor. The ref jumped from the ring to keep Sid from getting involved and the ref twisted his ankle. (The storyline of this spot changed on television the next night with instead of the ref twisting his ankle, it was Sid who kept the ref outside the ring so he missed the spot where Michaels delivered the superkick). Michaels delivered the superkick but the injured ref got in too slow and Diesel kicked out. Sid used a knife (what kind of a sick person would play on his stabbing incident with Arn Anderson as a high spot?) to remove the padding from the turnbuckle. Diesel was supposed to slingshot Michaels into the unprotected turnbuckle to lead to the win, but the spot was screwed up and Michaels hit a padded turnbuckle, then used a foot to the face and the jackknife for the pin. The only weak spot was Michaels recovered too quickly after being pinned as he got up immediately. Diesel brought out all four celebrities into the ring with him for the a post match celebration. ****

Lot to go over here. Do you feel Michaels stole the show from Diesel? The immediate turn of Shawn Michales the next night. Was this ever Diesel’s company? Did Diesel really get a rub from LT?

The top foreign star in today's Japanese wrestling scene, Steve Williams, is the subject of much speculation after missing All Japan's second most important tour of the year, the Champion Carnival tour. … All that is known of the situation is that Williams arrived on 3/20 at Narita Airport but returned home without leaving the airport. Rumors immediately began flying that he had either jumped to New Japan or the WWF, although at the time neither group had even made any contact with him. It is known that WWF is very interested in him as a top heel since they are short on that side, even shorter now with the recent turns, and that he'd be given a serious program with Diesel. 

Was this true?

WWF allowed all the photographers at ringside at Mania but they got in Shawn Michaels' way during the title match so that policy is thought to be over already. WWF wanted as many photos of Diesel surrounded by celebs and of Taylor and Bigelow in as many places as possible.

Hahaha.

Wrestling Observer 4/17/95

With the two national promotions in the United States relying more and more on PPV as the largest source of revenue, the Wrestlemania buy rate has become a sobering situation within the industry.

While the World Wrestling Federation at its post-WM press conference claimed the company expected it would be the largest grossing wrestling event of all-time (which at no point was a realistic prediction), the final buy rate appears to have fallen short of even the most conservative predictions. Depending upon which source one choose to believe, estimates vary from 1.3 to 1.8 percent. At a major cable convention this past week in Los Angeles, the fact that the show "flopped" despite so much mainstream publicity was a leading topic of discussion with estimates ranging from "1.3 to 1.5 tops," based on almost across the board responses that buys were down about 15 percent from last year (which did about a 1.7) for a show that had almost no mainstream publicity going in. Other sources have pegged the figure only slightly higher, with another national survey of major markets coming in at a 1.56 buy rate (365,000 buys) which would be approximately a $5.8 million gross to Titan Sports--well behind the Larry Holmes-Oliver McCall fight six nights later. The live gate in Hartford, CT was in the $750,000 range with a sellout of 15,000--more than double the largest house show gate in the United States since Wrestlemania X in Madison Square Garden and seventh largest ever in the United States. Business in Canada, while we don't have a number, was said to be much lower than in the U.S. which is probably because Taylor has minimal name value as a celebrity in that country and they built the show around him. Total revenue between the Wrestlemanias X and XI will probably wind up very close to one another because of the increase in price from $29.95 to $34.95.

At the convention, the blame for the disappointing figure (according to one source, based on the level of advanced buys, a figure above 2.0 should have materialized) was pointed at the price increase. There is no doubt there was tremendous mainstream interest in the Lawrence Taylor angle since there is a direct correlation between the start of the angle and an increase in television ratings for WWF shows. The difference in crossover publicity was like night and day. For whatever reason, this didn't materialize into more people ordering Wrestlemania. There are a lot of other maybes for this surprising turn of events. Maybe Taylor, who although a well-known sports name was not a beloved sports idol outside the New York area, didn't have the drawing power expected. Taylor has never gotten significant national endorsements which is the sign of major celebrityhood among star athletes. Maybe the fact that despite getting all the publicity, that since virtually all the publicity was negative and all pointed pro wrestling out as a farce, that non-fans may have been aware and even had some curiosity about Taylor and Bigelow, except for the true pro wrestling fans, for the most part they weren't interested in spending $34.95 to see "a farce." The Monday Night Raw rating the next night, a 3.5, a figure even more impressive than it sounds since the show went head-to-head with the NCAA finals in most of the country (which last year blitzed Raw), showed that an awful lot of people were interested enough in tuning in to find out what happened--for free. The scary maybe in all this is what if the buy rate was a result of the proliferation of pro wrestling PPV shows? Especially in an industry that is going to run them with even more frequency the rest of the year. Literally the future of both major companies are hung on a certain level of PPV success.

Last week, when it was expected the buy rate would top 2.0, the possibility that Taylor would return to the WWF for a second angle playing off the original one, particularly based on his post-show comments, looked strong. Now, depending upon the real price he would charge, it may not make economic sense. If the WWF really paid $1 million for his services as both he and the WWF were claiming to reporters during the final week of hype, this was a major financial flop. Since the real figure was probably $150,000, all in all it was probably not a bad decision to use Taylor in hindsight even though business was below last year because the WWF's name did get a lot of publicity, albeit much of it not favorable but also not damaging, and it did translate into an increase in ratings and seems to have revitalized the house show business in the New York market. It was a good decision based on the idea that the rub from Taylor could help some of the guys have a little more star quality similar to what Mr. T and Cyndi Lauper did for the company ten years earlier.

Shawn Michaels, who was the wrestling star of the show, is doing an injury angle leading to a babyface turn stemming from the incident the next night with Psycho Sid (Sid Eudy). The decision to turn Michaels was based on him getting cheered at most of the arenas in the weeks leading up to Wrestlemania and him getting almost as many, if not more cheers than Diesel at the big show. From a traditional standpoint, because of his size (Michaels looked to be about 195 to 200 pounds at Wrestlemania), looks, charisma and how well he sells, he looks to be tailor-made for a babyface role. The only problem with that is the WWF is so weak on the heel side to begin with, and this turn leaves them almost totally dependent on a rushed push of Sid to anchor the heel side. Sid, who was immediately put with Ted DiBiase's Million Dollar Corporation, will headline the 5/14 PPV show from Syracuse, NY in a title match against Diesel. Besides the obvious conclusion nearly everyone would come to in regard to relying on Sid based on his track record, the fact is, he also is going to end up getting cheered as a heel because of his unique charisma. There is nothing wrong with a heel getting cheered in modern pro wrestling, especially if it's going to be pushed as more athletically based, but it's going to be hard to deal with by those who try to make their business decisions based on 1980s criteria that if someone is getting cheered, he needs to be turned. The idea of Michaels as a babyface is not a bad idea, it's just that the timing of it seemed rushed and and based on the depth on the face side as compared with the heel side, this didn't appear to be a smart time to make the move. However, if Michaels wanted a few months off, which is apparently the reason for the injury angle, maybe this is the time to make the move for him personally, but the company is badly in need of charismatic heels to feed its faces and the Million Dollar Corporation isn't the answer.

When was it known in the office how WrestleMania fared?

The bad was they had no celebrity rub from LT or anyone else. They promoted the show and LT well. Since the storyline started with LT meeting Diesel at the NFL's 75th anniversary dinner, LT should have made more references to him at the press conference. Diesel should have been shown training LT. Diesel, or anyone else for that matter, should have come into the ring to share the victory spotlight at the end of the show. It was the celebrity rub that made Hogan a celebrity and that's what they need to make Diesel the next Hogan. It was really bad that the biggest wrestling show of the year ended with not one wrestler in the ring. If Diesel helped LT get ready, then Diesel should be there at the end. Bad ending.

Don’t disagree here.

Wrestling Observer 5/8/95

Monday Night Raw set its all-time record on 4/24 for the Diesel vs. Bam Bam Bigelow title match doing a 3.9 rating which translates into 2.28 million homes, the largest audience to watch pro wrestling in the United States since the Hogan-Flair match last August from Cedar Rapids. Other ratings that weekend saw both Action Zone and Mania do 1.7.

So the house show business not being great but TV ratings being up gives some hope for Diesel’s reign right?

Wrestling Observer 5/22/95

In Your House #1

WORST MATCH POLL

Diesel vs. Sid 57

Probably more important than the reaction was the light response, by far the lightest to any WWF PPV in recent memory which is a very preliminary indication that the experiment isn't off to a good start. The noticeable empty blotches of seats, even in the first elevated ringside section right in front of the camera, indicated the same thing. The only match that seemed to have real heat going in, Diesel vs. Sid, was also the worst match on the show. The idea of the top face vs. top heel with a decent storyline going in, going into a medium-sized market that has never had a show of this caliber and the result is a nowhere near full building (and you know if the advance was weak that they papered the city heavily) is a sign that the casual fan didn't take this as a major event, something that needs to happen if this concept is to work. As a show itself, I gave it a slight thumbs down. I had it at thumbs up before the main event and even in the middle as time was running out on the show. But doing an every Saturday afternoon WCW uninspired heel run-in DQ as a PPV world title match main event finish made me give it thumbs down. With Jerry Lawler wrestling, Dok Hendrix (Michael "Hayes" Seitz) did the color with Vince McMahon. He said nor did anything memorable, funny, insightful or stupid.

Doot doot doot.

6. Diesel (Kevin Nash) retained the WWF title beating Sid (Sid Eudy) via DQ in 11:29. Clumsy predictable match. Sid got his advantage with a knee-dive after Ted DiBiase distracted Diesel. The match had the most heat going in because it was the only match on the show with a good television build-up, but the two guys couldn't work together at all. Sid used a choke slam and a power bomb for near falls. Diesel came back with a foot to the face which missed by a foot, and hit the jackknife. Tatanka interfered for the DQ. Sid tried a second power bomb but Diesel backdropped him over. Bam Bam Bigelow made the save. 3/4*

It feels like the monster vs monster main events with Diesel aren’t good. Why the push to go back to it?

Wrestling Observer 5/29/95

More television tapings notes. From 5/15 in Binghamton, NY, during the second hour of the taping (which aired on 5/22), Shawn Michaels returned to a huge reaction (Michaels and Bret Hart got the best reactions all three nights) pinning King Kong Bundy with a superkick. They are changing their philosophy completely because 200-pound Michaels' superkick has "knocked out" monsters like Diesel, Sid and Bundy already. It was about as good as a match with Bundy could possibly be. They aired another "Backlund for President" segment which was hilarious. They are going as far with this gimmick as possible, hopeful of mainstream publicity and trying to get him on the ballot in New Hampshire. They also heavily hyped building to a Lawler-Hart match. Highlight of third hour is Undertaker pinning Jarrett to go into King of the Ring.

What do you think of the whole letting smaller wrestlers getting over on bigger wrestlers as the times were changing back then?

Wrestling Observer 6/5/95

The World Wrestling Federation pulled off a major coup striking a deal with NBC-TV to broadcast a one-hour special on 6/4, airing both the Lawrence Taylor vs. Bam Bam Bigelow and Diesel vs. Shawn Michaels matches from the 4/2 Wrestlemania show.

The deal, reportedly a one-shot only deal based on the perceived name value of Taylor, put together by Michael Ortmann and Vince McMahon of Titan Sports with NBC's Dick Ebersol, supposedly pays Titan $200,000 to $250,000 for the rights. The show is tentatively scheduled for a 7 p.m. Eastern and Pacific time slot, however that is dependent upon whether or not the Indiana Pacers vs. Orlando Magic NBA playoff series goes seven games. If it goes seven, the wrestling special will air at 7 p.m. on the West Coast, but, depending upon who at NBC one talks with, it will either be moved to a 10 p.m. slot or air directly after the game (which, if it were to take place, should end at about 9:30 p.m.) on the East Coast or possibly be moved to a later date.

The show will be the first on NBC for the WWF since 1991. The WWF enjoyed a strong run on NBC, predominately in the 11:30 p.m. Saturday slot for occasional specials from 1985 to 1991. The Saturday Night Main Event deal, put together and co-produced by McMahon and Ebersol, drew excellent ratings in the early going, peaking with a record rating in February of 1987 for a Battle Royal which included Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant (11.6 rating at 11:30 p.m. Eastern which is probably still the highest rated show in that time slot in the history of television), and for a February 1988 Prime Time special where Andre beat Hogan with the twin Hebner finish (15.2 rating, which was 33rd in Prime Time during that particular week and the most viewed pro wrestling match in the United States in history. However, ratings began dropping after 1988, and by 1991 when WWF got a Prime Time special during the midst of the Hogan-Slaughter Gulf War angle, the show drew miserably and resulted in Titan losing NBC. FOX later broadcasted two Prime Time specials, the first of which drew well and the second of which did poorly. Before that period, pro wrestling hadn't appeared as a network prime time event in the United States since 1954. The loss of NBC, and later FOX, for national specials played a major part in the inability to get over the newer wrestlers to the extent the stars of the mid-to-late 80s got over and because of less mainstream visibility, led to a decline in PPV buy rates.

Even though it is a one-shot deal, a strong rating would almost assuredly open the door for future specials. The deal gives exposure to Diesel, Bigelow and Michaels, who are in the position to be the top draws at the King of the Ring PPV show three weeks later.

How big a coup was this for the company at this time?

Diesel underwent elbow surgery to remove bone chips on 5/25 in Birmingham, AL with famed sports surgeon Dr. Jim Andrews and is expected to be out of action until mid-June but will almost assuredly be in King of the Ring.

His elbow landed wrong and his hand was in the wrong place in the PPV match against Sid during the power bomb and choke slam spots. Although he didn't work much at television over the next few days, he did work, wearing an in-line skating elbow protector in the ring, against Sid in 6:00 main events during an Eastern Canada run the following weekend. After the match in Montreal on 5/19, it was expected he might miss the rest of the tour, particularly since the 5/21 show in Trois Riveres wasn't expected to draw well and already had an IC title change planned, but apparently as a favor to Joanne Rougeau he worked the entire weekend against Sid. Apparently the injury became worse as the weekend run went on. Reportedly the pain became unbearable as one of the chips lodged in a nerve. Bone spurs and chips in the elbow are probably fairly common with any wrestler, particularly those in their 30s (Diesel is 36) who have done heavy tricep movements in training but they are often one of those pains people simply live with. The chips lodging in the nerve was apparently the difference.

When examined by Dr. James Andrews, a world-renown surgeon who fixed Sting's knee and Bo Jackson's hip, it was discovered both the chips, a ruptured bursal sac in the elbow and a clot. The surgery was done almost immediately, which was taped and clips were shown on Raw on 5/29 along with interviews with both Andrews and Diesel. It was mentioned Diesel would be out of action as WWF has become far more honest in this regard when it comes to main eventers missing shows than it had been in the past.

Bret Hart subbed in the main events against Sid on the Western Canada house shows this past weekend in Edmonton, Calgary, Regina and Winnipeg. WWF policy has always been to put the babyface over clean when there is a babyface no-show in the main event and based on the result in Calgary, this was no exception even with Sid involved.

The major shows Diesel will be missing are the television tapings 6/5 to 6/7 and the three New York area shows 6/9 to 6/11 at Nassau Coliseum, Madison Square Garden and the Meadowlands, all six of which he was in the main event on. As of press time, WWF hadn't officially decided on how the main events would change, although it's a pretty good bet Shawn Michaels will take some or most of the shots. All information is expected to be decided in time for the weekend television in the New York market. Diesel is expected back for the California tour the following weekend.

Was there a worry about Diesel and being injury prone as at this point in his career he had a major groin injury and now this?

Wrestling Observer 6/12/95

It was supposed to be the night that the World Wrestling Federation returned to network television. In the end it was a rare case of World Championship Wrestling winning a one-upmanship battle against its rival office.

The prime-time NBC one hour television special on 6/4 that was supposed to contain a re-voiced over version of the Shawn Michaels vs. Diesel and Lawrence Taylor vs. Bam Bam Bigelow matches from Wrestlemania, was abruptly canceled, apparently on 5/31. Reasons for and circumstances surrounding the cancellation remain sketchy. WWF officials claim it was canceled because there was uncertainty over the Sunday night NBC programming because it wouldn't be known until Friday whether or not and at what time slot they would be running an NBA playoff game that night. However, the fact the NBA playoffs would take precedent over the network schedule that evening was well known before the WWF special was ever decided upon. WWF officials and those at NBC (who wouldn't even confirm that there was a special to begin with until the day before it was canceled despite TV Guide printed up weeks earlier having the show listed) were both saying late in the week that the show would possibly be re-broadcast at some point during the summer. Others were saying, including WCW officials on their own hotline, that the special was canceled due to a decision from a higher-up at the network who was on vacation when it was first okayed and the idea of WWF being on NBC again was totally dead. After it fell apart, NBC officials were denying Dick Ebersol had anything to do with the deal from the get-go.

The second half of the NBC double whammy on the WWF this week was during the Orlando Magic-Indiana Pacers seventh game which took place that evening. Due to their association with Shaquille O'Neal, both Hulk Hogan and Jimmy Hart were again visible at the game in front of a huge mainstream audience and mentioned once or twice, and live, Hogan did his shirt ripping routine during one of the breaks during the game to a big pop.

To show just how much WWF officials felt the sting, on the 6/5 Raw show, in airing clips to build up a Lex Luger vs. Yokozuna match on 6/12, they showed Yokozuna pinning Hogan with his own legdrop finisher from their 1993 King of the Ring title match.

WWF did get one bit of television good news over the past week when the ratings came in for the 5/29 Monday Night Raw show (Undertaker vs. Jeff Jarrett main event) which set the all-time record for the show with a 3.9 rating. The new record came just five weeks after the Diesel vs. Bam Bam Bigelow match on 4/24 set a record with a 3.9. The 5/29 show was in slightly more homes so even though the number is the same, the audience was a slight bit larger thus the new record. I don't know if anyone can come up with a reason that there is no correlation between these record number of viewers every Monday (although these new highs don't carry over into either syndication or the other cable shows) and increases at the live shows or on PPV buys since as Raw's numbers increase, the other numbers decrease which would seem to make little sense.

Was this as big a sting as Meltzer says it was?

Wrestling Observer 7/3/95

King of the Ring 1995

8. Diesel (Kevin Nash) & Bam Bam Bigelow (Scott Bigelow) beat Tatanka (Chris Chavis) & Sid (Sid Eudy) in 17:35. Bigelow worked most of the early portion. When Diesel tagged in, the heels went to work on his bad elbow for several minutes. Bigelow did the hot tag in but after a brief flurry, was distracted by DiBiase and cut off. Sid gave him some lame looking punches from behind and a choke slam off the middle rope. Tatanka used a back suplex. When Bigelow was in with Tatanka the match was good, but the rest of the time it was bad. Bigelow went for a slingshot over the ropes but Tatanka grabbed his foot and dragged him to the floor. Bigelow was pounded on until Diesel hot tagged in at 11:20. Diesel used an elbow drop but then started selling his elbow and immediately tagged out. Bigelow was worked over including Tatanka doing a nice leaping DDT. Bigelow made a comeback with an Edouardo Carpentier somersault splash and an enzuigiri leading to tag to Diesel. Diesel gave Tatanka and side slam and foot to the nice and a very sloppy jackknife. Diesel picked Tatanka up at two and signalled he wanted Sid to tag in. Sid simply walked to the dressing room to build up their rematch next month leaving Tatanka alone to be pinned after an elbow drop. Finish was flat and did wonders for Sid as a killer heel, making him more a Buddy Landel/Lawler type of coward heel. *1/2

Was this a legit low point for the company with this show?

Wrestling Observer 7/31/95

In Your House 2

6. Diesel (Kevin Nash) retained the WWF title pinning Sid (Sid Eudy) in the blow-off of their feud in a lumberjack match in 10:02. This would have been a negative star match if not for the lumberjacks. Sid somehow gets worse every time you see him and Diesel didn't look any good either, but he's not exactly the caliber of a performer who can carry someone that bad. It was weird because Diesel looked so much taller and larger than Sid. The lumberjacks, particularly the heel ones, kept interfering to take attention from the fact these two simply can't work together. Finally Diesel did a plancha (seriously) onto all the heel lumberjacks who caught him but I'm sure he's still the largest man ever to try a stunt like that. At one point Mabel squashed Diesel into the post and leg dropped him outside the ring as the angle to set up the next PPV, however Diesel kicked out of the pin attempt. After a lengthy chinlock, Sid hit the power bomb but Sid was high-fiving everyone so Diesel kicked out of the pin. Diesel backdropped his way out of the second power bomb. Sid then for some reason went out of the ring and started fighting with all the face lumberjacks allowing Michaels to come off the top with a double sledge to the head of Sid. As Sid stumbled in, Diesel hit him with a poorly timed foot-to-the-face for the pin. 1/2*

Was there frustration from Nash at this point over his matches and performances and who’s he working with?

We've got a lot of major show news and line-ups. For SummerSlam on 8/27 in Pittsburgh, the top two matches scheduled are Diesel vs. Mabel for the WWF title and Michaels vs. Sid for the IC title.

WHY? WHY? OH DEAR GOD WHY?

Wrestling Observer 8/21/95

All kinds of behind-the-scenes news. First off, they began a Davey Boy Smith heel turn, which was almost clearly not planned out in advance, on the 8/12 Madison Square Garden show and more subtly on the 8/13 Albany, NY house show, and officially turned him during the portion of the 8/14 Raw that airs on 8/21. Smith turned on Lex Luger at the Garden, but instead of turning on Luger, turned on Diesel at TV and will be managed by Jim Cornette. That may be because Luger at the taping gave notice.

Was the turn because Luger gave notice and they needed to do something with Davey Boy?

They are doing a Diesel vs. Lafitte main event in Montreal on 9/15. Most likely Diesel will get booed out of the building as Lafitte is the most popular WWF wrestler in Montreal. Lafitte was on a major radio show this past week with most of the questions much smarter than the garden variety. When asked about Jarrett and Roadie leaving, Lafitte, who was called Pierre Karl Oulett who wrestles as Jean Pierre Lafitte, said that among the wrestlers, it wasn't a big thing. He said he hopes the fans boo Diesel out of the Forum and kind of laughed when a caller said how it was almost sure to happen. When someone called up about the money problems and other problems in the WWF, Lafitte said that the crew now is a bunch of young guys and he's not at all scared of the future of the WWF.

Was this something considered about putting babyface champion Diesel into this situation and that he would get a bunch of heel heat out of it?

Wrestling Observer 8/28/95

The Wrestlemania special scheduled originally for NBC with the Taylor vs. Bigelow and Michaels vs. Diesel matches will be on the Fox network. While it's rumored to be in a Sunday 7 p.m. slot after NFL football, our reports are that it'll be on a Friday night in prime time in early September.

Was this a point of contention for a long time with NBC?

Wrestling Observer 9/4/95

They should have ended the show with the ladder match because there was no way for Diesel and Mabel to follow them. In fact, nobody should ever be put in a position to have to follow Michaels when he has a decent opponent. I'm more convinced than ever that Michaels should be the guy the company is built around rather than Diesel. Even if Diesel was a good worker, and this makes a string of four PPV shows in a row he's been terrible (although a lot of people would be against Sid and Mabel), by having him as champion it totally limits the quality of the top match on the card. It limits heel headliners to guys with freakish size because they don't want to push the idea that a smaller heel can beat a large babyface. Unfortunately, there are no Vaders in WWF so it puts the title match in a position where it's almost always going to be a letdown and anti-climactic, which hurts the title itself as well and in this case in some circles made a good show seem only average because the last impression is the most lasting. If you did a poll of WWF fans after that show, what percentage do you think when asked who the best wrestler was, would say Diesel? I doubt it would be 10% and virtually all those who didn't say Michaels would say Bret Hart. If that's the case, than the title loses its credibility as well when the guys who the fans think are the best are neither the challenger nor the champion in the main title match, nor appearing in the main event on the PPV shows.

Hard to disagree with a lot of these points.

Summerslam 1995

9. Diesel (Kevin Nash) pinned Mabel (Bobby Horne) to retain the WWF title in 9:15. These two couldn't work a match at all inside the ring. Diesel did another plancha and took a nice bump into the post. Mabel used a poor sidewalk slam for a near fall. Mabel then sat on Diesel for a while. Diesel got a great reaction and the match had heat even though it was terrible. Mabel shoulderblocked the ref out of the ring which brought Mo into the ring to interfere. Lex Luger made the save but for some inexplicable reason, maybe a blown spot or who knows what, twice Diesel threw Luger out of the ring as if he was a heel. Luger then ran Mo to the dressing room. Mabel hit the belly-to-belly but Diesel kicked out. Mabel missed a splash off the middle rope and Diesel used a very sloppy clothesline off the top for the pin. 1/2*

This is a well-known match because of a lot of reasons. First things first, Nash talks about in a shoot interview how Mabel sat on Diesel and hurt his back without protecting him and Vince was ready to fire him after the match and Nash had to talk him out of it. Is that true? Also what exactly was going one with Diesel and Luger in this match? AND WHY WAS MABEL PUSHED LIKE THIS?

Vince McMahon did an interview with Lex Luger where they acknowledged that Diesel had attacked him at SummerSlam figuring since Bulldog turned on him that Luger was part of it, but they said Luger showed his true colors by running Mo away from the ring.

None of this makes sense.

Diesel & Shawn Michaels are billed as "The Dudes with Attitudes," a rip-off of the WCW moniker for a top babyface tag team from around 1990.

Here’s your FDM cue.

Next PPV booked is Diesel & Shawn Michaels defending both their singles titles against Yokozuna & Owen Hart defending their tag team titles. 

Huh?

They announced that if either team gets itself DQ'd or counted out intentionally in the Triple Header match at the 9/24 In Your House with Owen Hart & Yokozuna vs. Michaels & Diesel, that the title would change hands.

Double huh?

Wrestling Observer 9/25/95

The first live head-to-head will be 9/25 when WWF does a live Raw from Grand Rapids, MI headlined by Diesel vs. Davey Boy Smith. WCW will be live from Florence, SC with Randy Savage vs. Kevin Sullivan and Disco Inferno vs. Alex Wright, a Kurosawa squash plus possibly Lex Luger vs. Meng (they had a graphic set up for it but Eric Bischoff never acknowledged it as a match). The aspect of it being the first live head-to-head is overrated within the business because Raw's ratings on taped shows are actually slightly higher than on live shows.

It was very important to book the first live Raw vs first live Nitro to have Diesel defending the title isn’t it?

The WWF held a press conference in Winnipeg this past week to announce the line-up for the 10/22 In Your House PPV show at the Winnipeg Arena.

The six-match PPV show is headlined by Diesel vs. Davey Boy Smith for the WWF title.

How important is it for Diesel to have a good to great match on a PPV?

What looked to be the biggest show of the past week was 9/15 in Montreal for the Diesel vs. Jean Pierre Lafitte title match in Montreal. It wound up in a major brouhaha because Lafitte refused to do the job. For one thing, the crowd was 5,825 and about $85,000 (which translates into a lot less since Canadian/U.S. exchange rate is so bad these days) which, while great by normal WWF standards of these days, was a major disappointment since people were hoping for well in excess of 10,000 fans for this match. It was far below what Montreal has been doing the past year regularly since aside from New York, it has been the WWF's hottest city with local wrestler Lafitte believed to have been the top draw. Lafitte did a ton of local publicity for the match and when he arrived for the show, was told by Tony Garea it was a jackknife finish and he immediately refused. Garea tried to talk him into it by Lafitte said he thought the finish would not only hurt him, but hurt future crowds in Montreal and said he would walk out and not do the match and cost himself his job rather than do the job. Finally Vince McMahon was called at home and after a 15 minute conversation, McMahon and Pierre agreed to a double count out. Diesel was really mad about this, made worse because Shawn Michaels was riling him up about it saying that Pierre should be fired. There has always been heat between Michaels and Pierre to begin with because Michaels isn't well liked in the WWF dressing room and if people try and defend Michaels by pointing out his workrate, the response usually is that Pierre can do anything Michaels can do (which really isn't the case and even if it was, he doesn't have Michaels' charisma). Pierre said he'd do a job for Diesel anywhere else except his home town (although I don't have the results, I presume he did the next night in Quebec City and in Toronto on Sunday had to put over Fatu) but that didn't quell hostilities and there was a lot of bitterness when they went into the ring although both were professional about it in the ring and actually had a good match. The other surprise is that Diesel was cheered by about 60% of the crowd in French-Canadian Montreal. Pierre did a Liger dive onto Diesel on the floor and both were counted out. After the match Michaels came out backstage and began cussing him out and Pierre responded in kind and Pierre wound up so riled up he went to Diesel's dressing room but no blows took place but it was definitely the talk of the territory.

Who knew Pierre was the first Bret Hart?

There was more to the Diesel-Lafitte story from last week. The rematch between the two on 9/16 in Quebec City saw Lafitte do a legdrop off the top rope and wound up landing with his butt on Diesel's face. Diesel got up immediately and started throwing hard punches and jackknifed him for the pin. One WWFer told me the scheduled finish was another double count out but since the night before Lafitte was saying he'd do the job anywhere but Montreal, I don't know if that was the case but they were the topic of all the dressing room talk. Anyway, by the end of the week, every problem was cleared up and that's probably why Lafitte did the clean job for Raw next week.

-- END OF PART ONE -- 

Wrestling Observer 10/2/95

In Your House

6. Diesel (Kevin Nash) & Shawn Michaels (Michael Hickenbottom) beat Smith & Yokozuna (Rodney Anoia) in 15:42 when Diesel jackknifed Owen Hart for the pin to apparently win the tag titles. They ran a storyline through the show that Hart didn't show up. Gorilla Monsoon ordered Jim Cornette to either send Yokozuna in their alone or pick a new partner. They teased the new partner would be Sid or Mabel, but wound up with Smith. The next night on Raw, they aired a taped segment where Monsoon ruled that since the pin was counted on someone not in the match, that the tag titles go back to Yokozuna & Owen, so the guarantee hyped for the past few weeks that at least one title would change hands was broken, with the idea being that it was okay to false advertise because in the end babyfaces were going to get the belts. Yokozuna has gained so much weight he's got to be pushing 700 pounds legit. When you consider that weight, he's an incredible worker, but if he doesn't start losing weight fast, I feel very sorry for him because his life will get even harder as he ages. Diesel was barely in enabling Michaels to put on a very good, but not great one-man show. Michaels did a splash off Diesel's shoulders, took a lot of great bumps including a high backdrop. After Yokozuna missed the banzai splash, Michaels hot tagged to Diesel at 13:30. They went to a four-way and first the faces whipped the heels into each other, than they both whipped Smith into Yokozuna, who fell on top of Smith. Michaels superkicked Yokozuna out of the ring. Smith powerslammed Diesel but Michaels came off the top with an elbow to break up the fall. Hart then did a run-in, and was immediately power bombed by Diesel and the pin was counted. ***

Defend the pin on Owen Hart. Please.

Wrestling Observer 10/30/95

Just as the cameras faded to black signifying the end of the In Your House PPV show on 10/22 in Winnipeg, a disgusted Vince McMahon threw down his glasses and his headset and said the words, "horrible" as he started to walk to the back with Jim Ross while a pull-apart brawl with Bret Hart and Diesel was still going on in the ring. Seconds later, as the brawl ended, Diesel, the person McMahon had planned to build his company around one year earlier, was being booed out of the building, yet another in the long line of failed experiments in his quest to find a new Hulk Hogan. The virtually unanimous crowd reaction to Diesel after yet another unimpressive main event match seems to make it only logical that Bret Hart is destined to have a career similar to the man who his being compared with results in outbursts--Ric Flair. Like Flair, Hart is the man picked to pick up the pieces time-after-time when experiments of creating new world champions that will be the next big thing in wrestling end up with declining box office figures.

How bad was all this?

In Your House

6. Diesel (Kevin Nash) retained the WWF title beating Davey Boy Smith in 18:14. Virtually the entire match was Smith working on Diesel's left knee. Diesel sold the knee well so it was a logical match and would have been a good match if the crowd was educated to submissions, which they aren't, if they had done five good minutes at the end, which they didn't, and it had a strong finish, which it had anything but. So it came off as a boring match. Early in the match, Diesel took a bump outside the ring and crashed into Bret Hart, who was doing commentary, and shoved Hart hard. During the match Smith used a sharpshooter but Diesel powered out, to tell the story he may be able to survive Hart's finisher. Later in the match, Diesel made his comeback starting by pushing Smith off as he went for the powerslam and kicked him in the face. Jim Cornette, who interfered more than any heel manager in a WWF title match in years, wound up crashing in Smith's way and got hit with a forearm. Smith ended up posting Diesel outside the ring and slapped Hart at ringside. Hart jumped into the ring and went wild on Smith for a DQ on Diesel for outside interference. Diesel then attacked Hart for costing him the match to build-up their singles match on the 11/19 PPV show and they went off the air with the pull-apart brawl. *

Another bad matchup for him. When is it determined it was time to get the belt off him?

Wrestling Observer 11/13/95

Vince McMahon had a surprise meeting with the wrestlers at the 11/3 house show in Cincinnati. Don't have much in the way of details but it apparently was to combat the poor morale of late. With the cutting out of the money-losing "B" shows, a lot of paranoia has started and some of it is justified. With half as many shows, the mid-card guys for the most part are going to be work a lot less dates and make a lot less money, and underneath guys will for the most part have it even worse. Even the top of the card guys are concerned, since they'll all be on the same show the feeling is the money will be cut up in a manner where it's split with more top guys so even the top guys will be earning less. The idea is that in the past, if you had Undertaker and Razor on one B show, and Michaels, Hart and Diesel on the A show, then none of them is ever more than three from the top. Now one of those guys is going to be five from the top, which is a lower spot when it comes to making money. The guys were also upset about several shows that either have been canceled or were canceled which has or would leave them on the road away from home in the middle of a tour for a day making no money. In WWF, wrestlers only get paid when they work a show, so if a mid-card guy is cut from 20 dates down to six or eight, his income will go down 60 or 70%. Some guys are being cut down in dates even worse and there are guys who go a month without bookings and thus without income. However, the company can't go on running shows that lose money for the company so wrestlers can have work.

Was this because of the Kliq or was it just time to have this meeting?

Wrestling Observer 11/20/95

On the WWF side, the status of the Intercontinental title apparently changed regularly over the past week. Razor Ramon faced Sid in what was announced live as a non-title match with 1-2-3 Kid as ref on 10/23 at the Raw taping in Brandon, Manitoba. The match, which aired on 11/13, with Sid winning due to Kid helping him out and completing his heel turn, was billed as a title match on all television leading up to the match. The plan was for Sid to come out of the match with the title--a plan that was changed after the Superstars, Action Zone and Mania shows were taped in mid-week. The cover story announcement was made early in the Raw show of it being a non-title match with the explanation given that Gorilla Monsoon had considered what happened at the house shows over the weekend (they did minor Kid turning angles at every show) in Nassau Coliseum, Worcester and the Meadowlands, and smelled a rat. The word among the wrestlers is that Sid, who left the tour because of a family emergency, was pretty upset after being promised the title and having it pulled from him, and that Hunter Hearst Helmsley will eventually be getting the title from Ramon. This has caused major morale problems because people see it was "the clique" (Michaels, Ramon, Diesel, Helmsley and 1-2-3 Kid) controlling the championships and people believing that different rules apply to them then the other wrestlers. Of course, the fact is the leader of "the clique" is scheduled to be losing the WWF title to Bret Hart this coming weekend and there aren't any signs that decision is going to be reversed at the last minute. When the status of a title change match changes at least once and possibly several times from the time it is taped until the day it airs, that tells you just how solid all long-term plans must be.

Did the locker room have a right to feel like this in your opinion?

Wrestling Observer 11/27/95

Bret Hart captured the WWF title from Diesel to headline the Survivor Series PPV show on 11/19 from the U.S. Air Arena in Landover, MD. The title change was more noteworthy in the midst of reports of outside the ring turmoil within the WWF stemming from the strong power base of "The Clique" (Diesel, Shawn Michaels, Razor Ramon, 1-2-3 Kid and Hunter Hearst Helmsley) and an apparent marketing switch within the WWF to switch gears from aiming to a childrens audience to an adult audience.

The title change, however, faded into the background in less than 24 hours due to the most important, and most daring, Monday night battle in the less than three month history of the two groups going head-to-head, a battle in which WCW scored the ratings win but in reality both sides came out as losers because each side threw everything out at once and both ratings were disappointing.

WCW put what should have been on paper its ultimate never-seen-before match, Hulk Hogan vs. Sting to counter the WWF going live during sweeps, one day after a PPV show in which it was going to switch the title. The general belief was the impact of Hogan vs. Sting was lessened by the weak build-up for the match the previous week and on the weekend shows. WWF countered with its most daring, and in some eyes, its most galling angle, in years. Playing off Michaels' legit injury a few weeks back after being pulled out of a car and assaulted outside a Syracuse night club, the WWF had Michaels simply collapse in the ring in the midst of a hot main event match with Owen Hart and stay there the remainder of the show, teasing either a stroke or brain aneurism. WWF personnel and EMT's looked concerned and gave him oxygen for the last 7:00 of the show. The angle was convincing enough that from our reports, the majority who attended the show live believed it wasn't an angle. Initially those live believed it was an angle, but as it got played up stronger, most seemed to believe it was real. Most phone calls here that viewed it on television knew it was an angle but many didn't.

Even though WWF had overall by far the superior show, as is usually the case, WCW won the night with the Hogan-Sting match by drawing a 2.5 rating and 3.6 share to the WWF's 2.3 rating and 3.3 share. Neither figure can be considered successful. The Hogan-Sting dream match drew a lower number than the Flair-Anderson cage match which shows, even with the best match possible, Hogan has no juice left to have a major impact on ratings. Nevertheless, WCW's Nitro is geared more toward beating WWF and as long as that happens, it doesn't really matter what the numbers are, it's cause for celebration. The WWF, coming off the PPV with a world title change and a Diesel turn tease at the end, doing a 2.3 for a live show is outright disastrous. The WCW replay did an 0.9 rating.

Because of the way ratings are figured, the Michaels angle could not have had any affect on the ratings so to make any conclusion about the angle not working because WWF lost the night is faulty logic. However, if it doesn't spike the ratings next week for those curious to see how the cliff-hanger ends, the angle's legs were non-existent and at best it would be a great topic of conversation for a few days.

Diesel loses the title and immediately the biggest story is Shawn Michaels. The Clique have everything wrapped up except the top spot which is Bret’s but it’s obviously going to Shawn at this point.

Michaels does have that problem and this angle was a guise to keep him out of action because the injuries suffered in Syracuse were worse than originally anticipated. Obviously as business, we'll all have a better idea of whether it's good or bad over the next few weeks when future ratings and crowd figures for Michaels' return (I'd guess they'd hold him out until Royal Rumble, which he may then win again since the initial plan was to go with Bret Hart vs. Michaels at Wrestlemania) come in, but it was the most talked about angle in wrestling in years. Whether that carries over to gaining interest is something we'll only need a week to find out because if there is any impact for this angle, it should show up immediately in the weekend television ratings. It's an interesting twist because there was no heat put on any heel for what happened. According to one story, when this angle was first concocted, the idea was to involve someone like Jeff Jarrett (who wasn't at the show) and have him attack Michaels leading to the angle so as to put heat on someone for future grudge matches, but the feeling was that would make it too obvious it was just another wrestling angle. As far as taste goes, if they knew about Grinkov and still did it, they are really sick. But this is a sick business and it wouldn't shock me either way. If not, it didn't strike me as tasteless immediately but it's hard to rationalize it not being tasteless if the Von Erich deal was except times and tastes change and as time has gone on and nobody takes wrestling seriously, standards have changed and they really didn't go so far as to tease a death as they did in the Fritz Von Erich angle, nor were they playing off deaths, only teasing a stroke or aneurism playing off a mugging. In other words, the same basic thing, only not nearly as bad. But how many angles have been done where the babyface is "left for dead" or even "blinded for life?" I thought it was great execution and nobody tried to tease that he could have died on commentary while it was going on which would have crossed the line. Any defense for the angle being no different than what you see on any other television soap opera or drama was taken away by the WWF itself. If there is an illness or near death on a soap and you call the network, they won't try to pretend the illness or death wasn't part of the script.

Obviously the WWF show was far superior. Besides the angle, the other highlights were Diesel taking on a new bad-ass babyface image blaming Vince McMahon on an interview for creating a fake image for him the past year, again in attempting to appeal to the 26-34 male audience as a kick-ass no apologies babyface, and what was an excellent Michaels-Owen Hart match before the angle and a good Hakushi-1-2-3 Kid match which Kid won.

Was this what Diesel needed at this point for the character?

Survivor Series 1995

The WWF title change meant the group's top position was no longer in the hands of one of "The Clique," although only time will tell if that is temporary or not. The show also left a question in fans' eyes regarding Diesel, who strongly teased a heel turn by giving Hart two jackknifes after the match was over and attacking several referees. Diesel appeared to have been booed by 65 to 70 percent of the fans after the match and announcers McMahon and Jim Ross played it up as if it was a turn. The new character and new attitude of the promotion was set up by Diesel's mouthing motherf---er when he lost the title, so it appears they believe the ECW approach, or at least a toned down version, is now the most marketable approach in this country, which is funny on a lot of levels. He'll apparently also wrestle other babyfaces, as they did an interview where he complained that he was being packages by Titan as something that he wasn't for the past year. Whether this winds up being a successful approach or not, faced with the conclusion based on all available figures that the direction they were going had run its course and with the increasing popularity of UFC PPV events that have surpassed WWF events as the most-widely viewed regularly scheduled events on PPV, that it's time to take the big step and go in a rougher and more violent direction.

6. Hart pinned Diesel (Kevin Nash) in 24:54 to win the WWF title. Both men uncovered one turnbuckle at the start of the match. Diesel dominated the first 7:30 destroying Hart. Hart made a comeback working on Diesel's knee and using a figure four but Diesel made the ropes. As Hart went for a sharpshooter, Diesel kicked him into the unprotected turnbuckle to regain a short advantage. But Hart came back ramming Diesel's knee into the post twice and tied his foot to the ring post. Hart destroyed Diesel for the next few minutes as Diesel couldn't untie the knot. Finally Diesel broke free and did a great job selling the knee for the remainder of the match. Jim Ross had a Vinnie Vegas hallucination when Diesel dropped Hart's face on the top turnbuckle calling it "snake eyes." Hart made a comeback by ramming Diesel into the unprotected turnbuckle, and used a flying clothesline, a bulldog off the top and a leg sweep for near falls. However Hart missed a plancha and began selling his own knee. While on the apron, Diesel shoulderblocked Hart off the apron where he flew through the table that the spanish language announcers were sitting and Hugo Savinovich (a long-time former wrestler/manager in Puerto Rico) began selling his knee as well. Diesel threw Hart in the ring and signalled for a jackknife. He stalled for a second, and it appeared the storyline was (although it didn't appear to be the case) that he was asking the ref to stop it rather than have to jackknife Hart and the ref said no. As he went to do the move, Hart small packaged him for the title. Diesel then jackknifed Hart twice after the bell and beat up several referees. ***1/2

Was Diesel the first badass babyface in WWF history...and it ended up turning him heel.

Wrestling Observer 12/4/95

Major house shows this weekend saw them do 4,300 and $95,000 in Philadelphia on 11/24, and 7,400 and $163,000 at Madison Square Garden the next night. Both are well below what you'd normally expect from major house shows on Thanksgiving weekend, although the Garden was roughly the same number of people as the Thanksgiving weekend show last year where Diesel won the title from Bob Backlund. Told people weren't disappointed with the figure because the advance was weak and because it wasn't until the Sunday before the show that people knew Bret had won the title and would face Undertaker on top.

1 year after the Diesel push and no movement in money or fans. Do you think the Diesel push and title reign wasn’t successful or how would you rate his title reign looking back at it now?

Wrestling Observer 12/11/95

WWF received complaints regarding Bret Hart and Diesel using the chairs and Diesel mouthing motherf***er at the Survivor Series. They're trying to do a balancing act between making it a rougher product but not alienating any of the audience or the sponsors. That isn't going to be easy.

How hard was it to toe that line back in 1995?

Wrestling Observer 12/26/95

4. Owen Hart beat Diesel (Kevin Nash) via DQ in 4:34 when Diesel shoved the ref after using the jackknife. After the match he used another jackknife. Hart did a great job of carrying this. *1/2

Treading water for Nash here. Was there ever a feeling at this point of unhappiness?

Wrestling Observer 1/29/96

4. Shawn Michaels (Michael Hickenbottom) won the Royal Rumble in 58:49 by superkicking Diesel over the top rope just as Diesel was eliminating Kama. They played everyone's entrance music as they came to the ring. This led to artificial high pops and then dead crowd reactions afterward. Overall the Rumble was below par due to a lack of depth as far as talent that's over, too many people in the ring at once for almost the entire match so there were few focused squaring offs, a lack of over grudges in the promotion so not much time of known rivals going after each other and it basically dragged. There were a few worked out high spots. Henry Godwinn threw the slop bucket on Jerry Lawler, Bob Backlund and Helmsley. Jake Roberts put the snake on Lawler and cleared the ring with the snake. When Dory Funk came out, Vince McMahon acknowledged him as a former NWA champion and said his brother Terry was in Germany with Bruce Willis and mentioned that Terry was invited to be in the Rumble. Lawler hid under the ring for a long period of time. It was 14:48 before Backlund may have been the first man eliminated by Yokozuna (Henry Godwinn's elimination, which came earlier than scheduled because Mabel accidentally injured him and he just got out of there, was never acknowledged on television nor was it apparent on the screen, several eliminations were missed by the announcers but Godwinn's was the only one not at least seen being set up on the screen) . When 1-2-3 Kid came in, Ramon (not in Rumble) came out and chased after him before Ramon was sent to the back. It was funny to see Kid trying to spend as much time as possible working with Funk, who was probably a boyhood idol of Kid, who grew up as a big-time wrestling fan in Florida. Yokozuna eliminated Mabel in 20:59. Jake Roberts eliminated Takao Omori in 21:13. Vega eliminated Funk in 23:22. Vader made his debut at just past the 22:00 mark and immediately didn't sell for Roberts. Doug Gilbert came in, and Perfect mentioned that he had been a tag team partner of his brother the late Eddie Gilbert. Vader clotheslined Roberts over the top in 25:08. The elimination looked sloppy since Vader hit him in the middle of the ring and Roberts had to go all the way to the ropes and over. Vader was destroying everything in his path at this point. Vader eliminated Gilbert in 27:29. Gilbert, announced as USWA rep, got zero crowd reaction, but his work, and bumps in particular, were better than all in the Rumble with the exception of the acknowledged great workers. Vader threw out one of the Squat Team (Head Hunters) in 27:45, and then the second twin came out, and Vader and Yokozuna then threw both over the top simultaneously in 29:22. To say they didn't show a thing would be the understatement of the year. At this point Vader and Yokozuna started working as a team destroying Vega. At this point Michaels came in at just past 32:00. Vader clotheslined Vega over the top in 32:54. Vader and Yokozuna then went at it and Vader finally going down after a head-butt. The idea appears to be to first team them, then turn Yokozuna face and feud them. As the two fought near the ropes, Michaels eliminated both of them at 33:47. Michaels threw Kid out at 34:04. Vader got back in and threw out everyone in the ring, before Monsoon came out and the two went jaw-to-jaw and Monsoon overruled all the eliminations Vader did after being eliminated. Owen Hart threw out Hakushi in 38:30. At this point Michaels went under the ring and pulled Lawler out and got him back in the ring. Tatanka threw out Aldo Montoya in 40:32. I believe either Montoya or Bob Holly was a sub for Bam Bam Bigelow, who was the only no-show in the Rumble. Michaels threw out Lawler in 40:37. Diesel entered and dumped Tatanka in 41:06. When Ringmaster entered, Vince McMahon called him "Steve Austin, known as the Ringmaster." It was amazing to see the physical difference in Austin compared with just a few weeks ago in ECW. Ringmaster kneed Holly over the top in 45:47. Diesel dispatched Helmsley, who was there from the start, in 48:03. Owen Hart threw out Barry Horowitz in 51:06. Michaels eliminated Owen Hart on a reversal in 51:40. Michaels, more than anyone else, continually teased being eliminated similar to last year. Davey Boy Smith eliminated Marty Jannetty in 55:26. Fatu clotheslined Ringmaster over in 55:50. Isaac Yankem then clotheslined Fatu out in 56:08. Owen Hart, after being eliminated, came back out to attack Michaels. At 58:03, Michaels dropkicked Yankem out. At 58:11, Diesel and Kama threw out Duke Droese, the final man in, leaving Diesel, Michaels, Kama and Smith. Michaels clotheselined Smith over the top in 58:32, followed by Diesel throwing out Kama in 58:45 and Michaels superkicking Diesel over in 58:49. After the match they teased that Diesel would attack Michaels, but instead they did their high-five routine. **1/2

Why not have Diesel turn heel right here on Michaels or was the thinking that it would mean more to be matched up with Taker since that was his WrestleMania program.

5. Undertaker (Mark Callaway) beat Bret Hart via DQ in a WWF title match in 28:31. Before the match, Diesel, leaving the Rumble, met with Undertaker in the aisle. Diesel shoved Paul Bearer which caused the two to square off and officials pulled them apart, but it pretty much gave the finish away (as if it wasn't obvious beforehand and as if they hadn't done it already at numerous house shows). Undertaker dominated early with power moves but the crowd was dead during this period. Hart had a brief comeback including using a plancha at 6:00. Hart came off the apron but Undertaker caught him and rammed his back into the post. Hart drove Undertaker's shoulder into the post but Undertaker hit Hart with a foot to the face on the floor as he attempted to follow up. Hart whipped Undertaker into the steps and he hit his knees on the ring steps. Hart worked over the knees for a long period of time (which even though it made sense, actually got boring because I don't think anyone accepted it as a possibility that Undertaker would lose to a knee injury). Hart put on the figure four and immediately McMahon killed the intensity to the television audience by saying he didn't think Undertaker would ever submit in a match. Undertaker reversed it after Bearer held up the new urn (supposedly from melting down Kama's chains). Hart went back to working the knee but Undertaker made a comeback but was still selling the knee. He smashed Hart's head into the steps, hit him with a chair and threw him over a table all while Bearer distracted the ref. Undertaker received a few boos (the crowd had been cheering both to this point) at this point. However, when Hart came back working on the knee, the boos for Hart were louder than the boos for Undertaker, and from this point forward Undertaker was the clear crowd favorite even though Hart had done nothing heel-like as he had in matches with Diesel. Hart wrapped Undertaker's leg around the post twice and went back to work on the leg. Match was dragging at this point. Undertaker made a comeback and went for the tombstone, but Hart wriggled away. Hart used a DDT for a near fall, then used his regular sequence of the leg sweep, bulldog and backbreaker, with Undertaker sitting up from the first two and laying there for the forearm drop for the third. As Hart went for the sharpshooter, Undertaker snatched him by the throat as a "Rest In Peace" chant began. Hart undid the padding on the turnbuckle and then got Undertaker's mask off and ran him into the post twice. There was a lot of booing for Hart at this point. Undertaker made a comeback and hit the tombstone piledriver. Diesel then grabbed the ref and threw him out of the ring and the ref called for a DQ. The match was dull in spots but had excellent psychology and built into a good match, but the horrible finish just killed it. **3/4

The finish was horrible. It’s tough to end a pay-per-view that way don’t you think?

Wrestling Observer 2/5/96

Business is booming, which you've got to attribute to the return of Shawn Michaels because everything else is basically a constant. Besides the PPV, the live show in Fresno did a sellout (9,600/8,000+ paid) and $130,000; Stockton for Raw sold out a small (2,904) arena; San Jose, with no television (although it was promoted great in the market) sold out (4,500) for Superstars. 1/24 in White Plains, NY did 3,000 out of 3,400 capacity and $41,000; 1/25 in Baltimore did 5,900 and $87,000 which is about double the usual at the Arena; 1/26 in Madison Square Garden did a whopping 15,000 (12,800 paying $268,000) and it's expected the 3/17 show with Shawn & Diesel vs. Bret Hart & Undertaker may be the first non-PPV sellout at MSG in so many years nobody can ever remember the last time; 1/27 in State College, PA drew 7,860 and 1/28 at the Core States Spectrum in Philadelphia on Super Bowl Sunday drew 5,312 paid and $101,240. The Philly figure is nothing special for the market but phenomenal for Super Bowl Sunday.

The change from taking down Diesel from the top of the card seems to increased attendance. Do you think there was a correlation there?

Wrestling Observer 2/12/96

There is very much talk and/or concern that either/or both Diesel and Razor Ramon may go to WCW after their contracts expire.

How prepared were you for them to leave and/or how prepared were you to try and keep them to stay?

Wrestling Observer 2/19/96

McMahon complained of contract tampering, bringing up in specific, Diesel, The Bushwhackers and Jean Pierre Lafitte. He claims Diesel was offered a three-year deal by an intermediary (from all sources this has basically been confirmed that Hogan wants to bring him in as a heel and work a program with him) but not an official representative of WCW. McMahon told others, and Diesel has also claimed to those in the dressing room that they are offering him $750,000 per, and most expect him to take it when his Titan contract expires in April. At his age, with a family, if that figure is accurate, he'd be a fool not to. Other sources claim the real figure being offered is closer to $450,000. The Bushwhackers were definitely offered $120,000 per year apiece a few months back, but although rarely used, are still under contract to WWF (which I don't believe WCW actually knew). When they went to McMahon to get out of their contract, he refused to let them out, citing that he's in a wrestling war. Lafitte, whose Titan contract doesn't even expire until 7/7, on the surface appears to be tampering since it is well known and has been reported everywhere that he's going to WCW after his deal expires, so obviously he was talked with about a deal while under contract to Titan, although there are technical ways around it such as Lafitte doing his dealing through Jacques Rougeau, who didn't work with WCW but made a package deal for the two of them. It is believed WCW has also made overtures about bringing in Razor Ramon, who was originally a strong WWF team player in the locker room, but his mood has changed with a shrinking paycheck during the fall along with being unhappy about many aspects of how he's been used, including the feud with Goldust, not to mention family issues which are a prime issue since the WCW road schedule is so much easier. McMahon claimed that the money being offered as the word has gone through his dressing room, along with the easier work schedule, has hurt morale.

How real were the issues with contracts and contract tampering between WWF and WCW at this point?

Wrestling Observer 2/26/96

In Your House

5. Bret Hart beat Diesel (Kevin Nash) in a cage match to retain the WWF title in 19:13. From reports live, it appeared Diesel received about 70% of the cheers, although some attributed it to the USWA television show that aired this weekend in Louisville where Hart was on doing several heel interviews for his match in Memphis with Jerry Lawler. I don't think the portrayal of Hart as a guy who is lucky to be champion and doesn't really deserve it in this day and age helps. With the exception of the Smith match in December which was the perfect match to get over the champion (since he wins clean), challenger (since he looks so great--better than you'd expect--while losing) and belt (since the obvious king of the promotion holds it). However, from a storyline standpoint, Hart lucked into the belt in a match Diesel should have won but was too nice a guy, and then Undertaker should have beaten him twice but Diesel saved his ass both times which is the last thing fans want to see happen involving a babyface champion against a popular challenger because the natural reaction to begin with is to want to see the title change. Anyway, the first 15:00 of the match were boring as Diesel was just so limited in what he can do in a match where the object is to climb and he's not climbing. Even forgetting the confines of the match, Diesel looked slow and unimpressive and Hart lacked fire. It picked up in the last few minutes and had a great finish. As Diesel was about to go out the door to win, Undertaker came from under the ring and grabbed his foot and dragged him under the ring and special effects of smoke under the ring went through the ring. Hart then escaped the cage to win but come out of the show once again as a second-tier star underneath Undertaker, Diesel, Michaels and Vader. Diesel then climbed back from under the ring, with his pants torn, and climbed the cage "running away" from Undertaker to show he was afraid of him. Ironically, after largely being cheered during the match, Diesel was almost 100% booed afterwards. *1/2

There’s been a well heard shoot interview where putting this match together Diesel attempted to hit Hart with the power bomb to make the angle with him & Undertaker hotter and Hart refused and went to Vince and Vince agreed and that’s when Nash knew he was leaving. Do you have a memory of this?

Another thing lending credence to why Warrior would be brought back is internal fear that several of the top babyfaces (not just Diesel and Ramon) could be leaving.

Was this part of the reason Warrior was brought back?

Wrestling Observer 3/4/96

Diesel, the other half of the twosome wildly rumored all week to be WCW-bound, also missed the weekend shows with a degree of controversy somewhat attached. Diesel suffered a combination separated and fractured shoulder, apparently early in the In Your House cage match against Bret Hart. The injury may partially or totally explain the poor quality of that match compared with previous matches the two have had. Diesel did swing an axe pretty good the next night in the angle where he destroyed the Undertaker's casket, and also worked against Bob Holly (in the Raw match which aired on 2/26 in which they worked a storyline about him being injured coming in since he had missed the weekend shows but they were airing the taped match), but didn't work at the Superstars taping the next night where they were scheduled to hold the first "Triple Threat" (Triangular) match involving himself, Bret Hart and Undertaker in Huntington, WV. Diesel was said to have been unhappy with that headline program even though it figured to be a big draw. In that match, Diesel was pulled due to the injury and Hart wrestled Undertaker for the title, with Diesel's interference leading to Undertaker getting pinned. It was expected that similar endings were planned for the weekend series of major shows at the Continental Arena (formerly Meadowlands) in East Rutherford, NJ, the Pittsburgh Civic Arena and the Gund Arena in Cleveland. Diesel was expected to appear at those shows, be announced as injured, and then get involved in the match, one would assume in the finishes allowing Hart to retain the title. However, Diesel refused to make the weekend bookings, leading to Goldust getting involved in the East Rutherford and Cleveland matches leading to non-finishes, and in Pittsburgh, an apparent booking snafu led to them having no interference and doing a double count out finish which left fans unhappy, because it was the same finish that had ended the previous Hart-Undertaker match in the same city and it was a much weaker match than the first time.

Was there a worry of not investing in Nash at this point because of injuries, age and money? Or was one more than the other?

At press time, the future of Diesel, also 36, in the WWF was speculative. The dressing room gossip was leaning toward the idea he was also-WCW bound, as he also has a family and the WCW combination of guaranteed long-term money and easier travel schedule is more family friendly. Rumors have been that they are offering, depending upon whom you choose to believe, anywhere from $450,000 to $750,000 per year for a three-year guaranteed deal to make the jump and go in as a heel and work a program against Hulk Hogan which naturally would be the top angle in the company. Unlike the Scott Hall deal, this isn't considered as a virtual lock and more that simply the odds are better than 50% he'll make the jump. He's also been unhappy about his role in WWF since the decision was made to take the title from him last year. As of right now, the expectations were that they didn't know if Diesel would be back in time for Madison Square Garden on 3/17, and instead of waiting to find out, the WWF made the announcement at the East Rutherford show that the card was being changed from the Diesel & Shawn Michaels vs. Bret Hart & Undertaker main event to a Hart vs. Michaels WWF title match and a Goldust vs. Undertaker IC title match. Presumably Diesel would work underneath if he even appears. There was also concern regarding Wrestlemania, although the belief was it was probable Diesel would still appear against Undertaker and it is believed they will continue to go on the assumption that match would take place. Diesel's window to give notice or his contract automatically renewing for one year was to end at the end of this week. While he could give notice and leave in 90 days at any point in the year, according to wrestlers under a WWF contract, if he were give notice "late," he'd likely be given a conditional as opposed to unconditional contract release meaning they would let him work anywhere except for their rival, WCW, until the end of the rolled-over contract, which should he not give notice, would be the late spring of 1997.

It was just time for all parties to move on wasn’t it?

Wrestling Observer 3/11/96

Kevin Nash (Diesel) officially gave notice that he would be leaving the World Wrestling Federation to accept an offer from World Championship Wrestling in a phone call to Vince McMahon at 10:50 a.m. on 3/5.

No contract terms are available but the general belief within the industry was that WCW was offering Nash a three-year guaranteed deal with reports on the price being anywhere from $450,000 to $750,000 per year, more likely closer to the lower amount. Nash is expected to be joined by Scott Hall (Razor Ramon), who gave notice on 2/20. Hall had not officially told the WWF that he would be accepting a WCW offer, although it is widely believed that will be the case within both companies, but that he was giving notice to explore the possibilities elsewhere. Nash is scheduled to start back with the WWF on 3/15 after missing a few weeks with a separated and fractured shoulder which was believed to have taken place in the 2/18 PPV cage match against Bret Hart. An interoffice memo sent in the WWF by Linda McMahon stated that there would be no change in previously scheduled bookings involving Nash, who would continue to work with the WWF through June 6, 1996.

Was there any conversations on after him giving notice to renegotiate?

Wrestling Observer 3/25/96

The Bret Hart & Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels & Diesel match on 3/17 drew the first sellout at Madison Square Garden for a non-PPV event so many years nobody can remember the last one along with setting an all-time record house show gate.

So Diesel’s on his way out after the year he had and business is starting to get hot again.

Wrestling Observer 4/8/96

Wrestlemania XII

5. Undertaker (Mark Calloway) pinned Diesel (Kevin Nash) in 16:46 with a tombstone. The match was slow moving and didn't have much heat, but it was better than you'd expect considering who was involved. Diesel basically pounded Undertaker for most of the match. Finally he used his jackknife, but then smirked forever allowing Undertaker to sit up. He did it again, and then when he went for the pin, Undertaker grabbed him by the throat. Diesel used a back suplex and Undertaker sat up again. Undertaker then finished Diesel off with a nice flying clothesline, a choke slam, and the tombstone. **1/4

Was there ever talk of Diesel going over Undertaker before he gave notice?

Wrestling Observer 4/22/96

It appears that Wrestlemania XII did approximately the same level of buys as last year's show, although what that level actually is and was remains a subject of widespread discrepancies. However, the WWF did shatter a record one week later by drawing a 4.7 rating unopposed for the 4/8 edition of Monday Night Raw which featured the television return of the Ultimate Warrior and Shawn Michaels vs. Jerry Lawler and Vader vs. Yokozuna matches.

The latter figure, which amounted to 3.05 million homes, was the second largest audience from start-to-finish average ever to see a pro wrestling television show in the history of cable television, training only the 1988 Royal Rumble (which was a USA network special that year to go head-to-head with the NWA Bunkhouse Stampede PPV show) which averaged 3.2 million homes on an 8.2 rating (since so many fewer homes had cable in 1988). It would have been the most viewers for a regular weekly wrestling television show in the history of cable television, although not the highest rated as in the early and mid-80s, when fewer homes were wired, pro wrestling was the routinely the top rated show of any kind on cable and routinely drew ratings that would be considered way off the charts today. It destroyed the all-time record for a Monday Night Raw show of a 3.9 that the show hit twice in the spring of 1995 for Undertaker vs. Jeff Jarrett and Diesel vs. Bam Bam Bigelow main events. WCW has had a few Clash of Champions specials, including the last one, peak with more homes during the latter stages of the show and even during entire hours, but never averaged as many viewers over a two-hour period as Raw did over the one-hour period. The last time a regular cable show broke the 4.0 barrier and the only two times previously in the 1990s were in 1990 when WCW did twice on a weekend in February when the Saturday show did a 4.0 and Sunday a 4.4 for Ric Flair vs. Brian Pillman and Flair & Arn Anderson vs. Rock & Roll Express matches. While going unopposed during a time when wrestling is on a hot streak helped (both WWF and WCW in previous unopposed positions did 3.6 and 3.7s respectively), it is no doubt the debut of Warrior that put the show over the top much as the debut of Elizabeth for WCW led it to set its company viewership record in January. It was a one-time curiosity about seeing a star from the past who had disappeared for years. Only a small percentage of fans actually order PPV events (Raw was probably seen by eight to ten times as many people as Mania) so for most it was their first chance to see Warrior.

The WWF took excellent advantage of its largest Raw audience ever with one of its best shows ever. The company shot angles to heat up the upcoming Shawn Michaels vs. Diesel and Ultimate Warrior vs. Goldust PPV matches on 4/28. They also built farther into the future for an eventual PPV match with Vader vs. Yokozuna that will likely take place in May or June and Ahmed Johnson vs. Davey Boy Smith, which will be a house show program for May and no doubt hit PPV at some point.

Diesel & Razor are leaving while things are getting hot. Was there a thought to try and keep the band together at this point with TV ratings starting to get up?

Razor Ramon and Diesel both finish up on 5/19. I believe that after the PPV and TV tapings, both are only going to work the Baltimore, Philadelphia and MSG house show run 5/17 to 5/19 and that's it. There is no truth to any rumors that Ramon wanted to stay and was turned down.

We’re here at the end. What’s Diesel’s legacy in WWF?

Wrestling Observer 5/6/96

Shawn Michaels and Diesel put on a memorable performance to make an otherwise average show into a strong show on the 4/28 WWF In Your House PPV at the Omaha Civic Center.

The show drew a sellout 9,563 fans (8,273 paying $120,668). It was the largest wrestling gate ever in Omaha for a show that sold out about five hours before match time. There were reports of it being the largest crowd for wrestling ever in Omaha but with wrestling having the big history in Omaha and numerous previous sellouts in the same building for shows without production kills for PPV, I wouldn't think that would be the case.

If Michaels and Diesel were the strength of the show, putting on easily the best WWF PPV match so far this year, then Ultimate Warrior and Goldust were every bit as much of a negative.

The highlights of the main event were Diesel power bombing Michaels through Vince McMahon's broadcast table, sending the monitors and other expensive equipment scurrying for cover. McMahon and Jerry Lawler were then forced to announce the remainder of the match without their monitors and standing up so they could see the action in the ring. Diesel then threw wrestling legend Mad Dog Vachon, an Omaha resident, over the guard rail and pulled off his artificial leg (it was a major news story in Omaha years back when Vachon was hit by a car while either jogging or walking on the side of a road and needed his leg amputated) to use as a weapon. As it turned out, Michaels gave Diesel a low blow and got Vachon's artificial leg, and used it to set up the winning pin.

Both Diesel and Razor Ramon were given PPV sendoffs before they leave for WCW that would be classified as far less than burials. While Ramon also did the job on the show, putting over Vader, he was given a great deal of offense in a match made to look far more competitive than most would have figured under the circumstances. In the post-match commentary, McMahon went out of his way not to bury Ramon, and actually did quite the opposite praising him for his performance. It appeared McMahon was trying to do exactly the opposite of what he thought Eric Bischoff would do in the same situation.

During the pre-game show, they had a Warrior interview which ended with Goldust blowing the dust in his eyes which was poorly done. They showed Jose Lothario talking to Mad Dog Vachon to set up Vachon's presence in the building. Diesel did a fake shoot interview teasing that since they were on live, he could say or do anything he wanted and called himself the baddest mother trucker in the WWF and threatened he'd do something to McMahon at the PPV. They dropped the hints of Diesel pulling a shoot and leaving for WCW for those who knew he was leaving, without directly saying it for those who didn't, similar to a Japanese style angle. Dok Hendrix announced Goldust ran away from Warrior, slipped on water and hurt his knee, but they never acted as if he wasn't going to wrestle on the PPV show. They pretended that Sunny had flashed Phinneus Godwinn backstage.

5. Shawn Michaels (Michael Hickenbottom) retained the WWF title pinning Diesel (Kevin Nash) in 17:53. Michaels did an Orihara moonsault (moonsault from the top turnbuckle outside the ring to the floor). Diesel pulled off (Spanish language announcer) Hugo Savinovich's boot and used it. Michaels did the Ray Stevens flip into the corner and crashed into the guard rail. Diesel took over and choked out ref Earl Hebner with tape and pulled off the belt from his pants and began whipping Michaels. He hung Michaels over the ropes tied to the ropes by the belt. Diesel threw Howard Finkel out of his chair and gave Michaels two chair shots to the back. As he went for a third chair shot, this time to the head, Michaels moved and Diesel's chair shot hit the ropes and rebounded in his own face. As Michaels went to use the chair, Diesel hit him with a low blow. Michaels' selling was tremendous. Diesel power bombed Michaels through McMahon and Lawler's table with the monitors flying. Michaels made a comeback by spraying Diesel with a fire extinguisher that was underneath the ring. He used two chair shots before Diesel cut him off with a foot to the face. He went for the jackknife but Michaels fell on top of him and came off the top rope with an elbow drop. As Michaels went for the superkick, Diesel blocked it and hit a clothesline and sent Michaels over the top rope with a second clothesline and dropped him on the guard rail. Diesel then went after Vachon, pulling him over the guard rail and taking off his artificial leg. Before he could use it, Michaels hit the low blow and used it, with Lawler's headset wrapped up in the leg. Michaels then used the superkick for the pin. ****1/2

Between the interview and the match is the first real look at Attitude era PPV main events right?

The reason Razor Ramon and Diesel didn't do any TV jobs on the way out was different in each case. Ramon was scheduled to put over Mankind and Bulldog at the tapings, but when he came to Omaha for the PPV, he had a note from his doctor saying he had a groin injury and couldn't work. He then agreed to do the PPV match against Vader (since fewer people see it and more money is at stake) but couldn't do the TV tapings. Ramon is booked for this coming weekend against Goldust. Goldust probably won't be ready to work but is expected to make the towns, and no word if Ramon will be ready for the shows. It wouldn't have made any sense for Diesel to do any jobs on TV except for the Raw show that airs 5/20, because he still had the MSG main event on 5/19 for the title, so they just gave him both nights off.

Weird way to send a guy out which is the opposite of what normally happens at this time in the business…

Wrestling Observer 5/27/96

The final appearances of Diesel and Razor Ramon in the WWF came in a strange curtain call finale of the clique before the first indoor non-PPV house in WWF history to top $300,000 on 5/19 in Madison Square Garden.

The Garden's second straight sellout, the first time that's happened in 11 years, of 18,800 fans (16,564 paying $319,411) saw what many were saying was the best MSG house show since Wrestlemania X.

The big news on the show was supposed to be the tag team title change where the Godwinn Brothers (Mark Canterberry & Dennis Knight) won the belts from the Bodydonnas (Chris Candito & Tom Prichard). That happened, with Phinneus (Knight) recovering from being kissed by Sunny to score the pin on Zip with the slop drop. While that happened, and results in the Godwinns defending the tag team titles in the Free-for-all match on the 5/26 PPV show from Florence, SC against the Smoking Gunns, it was hardly the main topic of conversation regarding the show. Eventually the belts are supposed to wind up going to Owen Hart & Davey Boy Smith.

Both Diesel and Ramon, in their final appearances before starting with WCW in mid-June, were the recipient of chants of "You sold out" and "Please don't go" by a decent percentage of the crowd that seemed to know it was their final show. Ramon was booed in his match with Hunter Hearst Helmsley (who replaced Goldust who missed another weekend because his knee hasn't recovered well enough for him to work), and heavily booed with a loud "You sold out" chant after he did the job. After the match, he grabbed the house mic and before he could get more than a few words out, panicked WWF officials, since this wasn't part of the show, cut off the power. As it was, all Ramon ended up saying was something to the effect of telling people to "Say Goodbye to the Bad Guy."

However, it wasn't over for the Bad Guy just yet. After a very strong main event cage match where Shawn Michaels beat Diesel to keep the WWF title, it was time for the curtain call. Michaels had won the match by walking out the cage after laying Diesel out with the superkick. After the match, Michaels kissed Diesel, who revived like the frog kissed by the princess, and the two hugged in the ring. Diesel got a lot more cheers during the match than most would have figured, although Michaels was still the most popular wrestler on the show. Ramon and fellow clique member Helmsley then came into the ring and the four got on all four posts and gave clique signals to the fans, some of whom were teary-eyed and saying it was one of the best moments of wrestling at MSG in years. Supposedly this final display wasn't approved by WWF officials, but it got over great with the audience so little will probably result from it. However, there were other wrestlers who were very unhappy at what they considered a kayfabe violation, particularly since Helmsley was in the ring hugging Ramon and Diesel had just finished a match with Michaels and magically arose from a finishing move by being kissed. The other clique member, 1-2-3 Kid, wasn't at the show as his future with the company is somewhat in question after he showed up at the Superstars taping on 4/30 in no condition to perform, and won't be back until June at the earliest.

The MSG show climaxed a four-show tour which drew $664,192. While there have been numerous larger crowds, in fact most crowds at MSG during the 80s were larger, this was the largest non-PPV gate ever, breaking the $299,526 record set at the previous show in March. The previous afternoon, Philadelphia drew its largest non-PPV house since 1992 when 8,308 fans paid $158,402. Hershey that night drew 4,783 and $80,410, its best non-PPV house since 1991. The tour opened on 5/17 in Baltimore at the Arena drawing 6,559 fans and $106,329, its best non-PPV gate since 1989. Perhaps the most impressive stat of all is that they did $251,000 additionally in merchandise at the four shows including $111,000 in Madison Square Garden. They averaged close to $7 per head in merchandise over the weekend, which is close to double what you would expect, which shows that the characters on top that they are merchandising are very over.

With the exception of Hershey, all the shows were headlined by Michaels beating Diesel in cage matches. Davey Boy Smith attempted to interfere in all the matches, but they were teases of title change finishes. Diesel refused to work Hershey after he was originally booked in the main event, saying he wasn't going to do a double-shot, so Smith worked that show against Michaels.

Various times through the next couple of years the rumors would always sprout up about Kevin Nash returning to WWF. Was there ever any smoke to the fire or was it just Nash trying to bump his contract up with WCW?

Wrestling Observer 10/29/01

According to those close to Nash, he's acting as if it's a given he's coming in. He's largely given up on the idea of doing the Tokyo Dome show since New Japan doesn't seem that interested in paying big money for an Outsiders reunion. The money doesn't seem to be a major sticking point since he's expecting to work on top and those on top are still very well paid, regardless of downside. His sticking point is said to be the schedule as we've talked about. He doesn't want to work more than 12 days per month. There are WWF guys who contractually have 15 day maximums. As noted last week, on a four weekend month, theoretically Undertaker is doing 13 dates. Rock, when he goes back as a regular, is theoretically going to be doing 13 dates (he's been given an easier schedule at this point because he just had his first child and hasn't worked many house shows). While nobody is saying this publicly, there are mixed feelings regarding Hall because of his track record. Nash is saying he won't go in without Hall.

When was the first conversation about using Nash?

Wrestling Observer 11/5/01

Regarding Hall & Nash, at this point, negotiations with them are not nearly the given they are being made out to be. It is considered at this point maybe less than even odds a deal will be made at all, as noted, because of the negotiations regarding schedule. Nash has made it clear he doesn't want to work a full schedule, pretty much wanting a 12 date per month max. WWF doesn't want to sign anyone with less than a 15 date per month minimum. The posturing regarding going to Japan as an alternative is just that, since New Japan hasn't expressed interest in paying big money for them as a team

Was the dates always going to be a sticking point with him?

Wrestling Observer 12/6/01

This week's Nash story is that Nash is going to propose the concept of working short-term programs, such as working three months where he'd agree to work full-time, take a few months off to rest, and then come back for another full-time run, kind of like big stars would do in a territory in the old days. He is adamant about not working a 180+ day per year schedule. Nash is also attempting to get onto the WWA tour in Australia for April if he doesn't make a WWF deal and that group is probably willing to pay him big money since they've paid big money to other stars on their recent tours. At this point, Nash has not officially proposed this to the WWF and there have been no negotiations with Hall & Nash for quite a while, nor are there expected to be any until January at the earliest. It's actually considered a dead issue right now and after the situation with Guerrero and that being the third firing in recent months over substance abuse issues, it would probably be a bad idea to hire Hall. If Hall had come through with New Japan it would have been one thing, but the reality is, he didn't. While his name would help him get over without doing as much in the U.S., there is still a certain demand for a level of performance from headliners that he hasn't shown in years and he's now 43, even without his long track record of out-of-the-ring problems with substance abuse. As mentioned numerous times, the business situation at the moment will always play a major factor. The better business is, the less likely they'll be brought in, and certainly Hall. If business is bad, more risks will be taken. Of the free agents out there, really the only one left that there seems to be interest in is Scott Steiner, who would probably be brought in as soon as he's physically ready to work the schedule. There have been talks with Sting of late, but he has no interest in working full-time because of his non-wrestling projects. There have been no talks with Hogan at all

When was the nWo discussed for the first time?

Wrestling Observer 1/7/02

At press time, those within the WWF and Kevin Nash himself are said to expect closing a deal imminently.

Nash, whose Time Warner contract paying him $31,250 per week expired on 12/31, had previously indicated being close to signing with the WWA, with its easier schedule. At 43 and more than a dozen knee operations, he had told friends all along that he wasn't going to work the more rigorous WWF road schedule. WWF officials had indicated they weren't interested in him unless he agreed to work a full schedule, and many had considered it a deal breaker and negotiations between both sides had been dead for more than a month. However, it was an inevitability, just like you aren't supposed to look at an eclipse because they say you can go blind and you look anyway, that Nash would be in the WWF this year even with everyone claiming it wasn't going to happen. Even I was surprised it would be this quickly, because it's in neither side's best interest. Yet.

Nash and McMahon negotiated just before Christmas. Reports are they didn't come to a money figure, but that number hasn't been considered an obstacle from the start. Nash did agree to come in without Scott Hall, something he had first claimed he would never do. This was as much Nash cutting bait as WWF not wanting Hall, although both were true. Before he was committed to WWF, Nash was talking with independent promoters and autograph show promoters and kind of pushing the idea of not wanting an Outsiders combination. Friends of his were saying that he recognized Hall's life had spiralled out of control, and since this isn't a kindergarten playground like WCW, he didn't want Hall to do something that would end up burning bridges and ruining his rep with promoters in the process. The schedule also has to be worked out, but there are various stories going around that it will no longer be a major obstacle. And it shouldn't be. Nash's decision was apparently swayed by the fact he wasn't confident long-term in WWA, and as much, may have been afraid that making the deal with WWA, that if they didn't make it, McMahon would take it as a slap in the face that he turned him down and not be willing to deal with him. With WWF, you know they are going to be around for more years than Nash probably plans on spending in the ring.

Those close to the situation are saying Nash won't be on the 1/7 show in Madison Square Garden as is widely rumored, but could be in before the month is over, although that could always change. HHH was seemingly against being part of a kliq type reunion of being grouped with Nash, so that doesn't appear to be the storyline direction, at least for now, because eventually everything gets tried.

Most feel Nash will change the entire dynamic of the WWF. Certainly there will be the initial reaction pop, and probably a few weeks of ratings, if only because, like with the WCW first invasion waiting to see which stars would show up, Nash on TV will make people think Hall or others are coming as well and create a few weeks of curiosity. Nash himself had told friends he wished he could work a short-term schedule where he'd come in and agree to work a hard schedule for a few months, and then be given a break to freshen up. That is probably the best usage of him.

First off, Nash is right at the top of the list of the best manipulators among wrestlers in the country, with Hulk Hogan and HHH. In some ways, Nash is better, because he's never been the draw the other two were and isn't in their league when it comes to charisma or mainstream name identity. Clearly, whatever money there would be in him would be to start him at the top with major names in fresh match-ups, as the traditional slow build-up and the new guy putting the stars over right away that every WCW name coming in has done would likely render his drawing power useless very quickly. Without his drawing power, which at best is unproven without Hall and Hogan, you are inviting problems without even having the justification that the business is worth the risk. You also create a double standard, because Nash's ring work will likely be, with the exception of someone like Big Show, the worst of anyone in the company, but he'd still likely get a push. If he is used in main events, it is an immediate concession to product quality because for several years now, probably dating back to the era when Nash was ousted on top in favor of Bret Hart, during good times and bad, WWF PPVs more often than not delivered good to excellent main event matches. What will be really interesting is the ego involved, in if they want to bring him back as Diesel, the name of the worst drawing champion in WWF history, or by his real name. The name he's far more famous under and was far more successful with, but a name he used in the hated WCW where all ideas, even the ones that worked, are believed inherently inferior.

While nobody publicly can say it (or at this point, nobody publicly can say anything), privately there seems to be a strong negative vibe about bringing him back, from all parts of the company and in particular wrestlers who have experience long-term of being around him. Nash was directly responsible for Chris Jericho's WCW push getting thwarted when he convinced Bill Goldberg that Jericho was too small to work with, just prior to when Nash was going to end Goldberg's win streak. Nash also labeled Chris Benoit one of the "vanilla midgets," a term for guys too short and lacking charisma to be anything more than undercard talent when many thought Benoit should get a big push in WCW. The feeling is, like with WCW, it'll make it next to impossible to newcomers to get over, because that had already been a problem. Nash, with his size, could become like another Undertaker, that doesn't put guys over (he may lose on occasion, but there is a difference), but probably won't sell for much of the crew. Anyone with any kind of a crystal ball today can see there just aren't the charismatic big guys in the business today that are young, so the future of the industry is in the ability to draw money with smaller guys or in shooting less talented but physically imposing young guys like Brock Lesnar or Dave Bauttista to the top before they are ready for lengthy matches. The single worst thing the company could do right now is feature older big guys that don't let smaller guys get over on them because they don't pass the torch and are smart enough in business psychology to get away with it. Nash is also excellent at garnering allies and always having strong influence. To this day, he had the Kevin Sullivan knack of being able to be a political ally of nearly everyone in power, even maintaining his influence after bitter political fallouts when people who were diametrically opposed philosophically and hated each other took over power. No matter who was in charge in WCW and who was on the booking committee, the one common point was that Nash was their buddy, even though anyone watching TV saw he always had his own agenda and, aside from a short-term period, his agenda and what was best for business, were never the same. The period he had his most influence in the WWF coincided with the worst years of business in the modern history of the company, and also periods where Vince McMahon at the agents had the least control of the locker room.

There is a time that the Nash experiment is worth the risk. When the company is losing money, which it isn't yet. When the talent is thin on top, which if anything, with HHH and Chris Benoit coming back and neither Rock nor Steve Austin injured, this is the one time depth isn't an issue and with HHH's return as the short-term spark on the heels of the Ric Flair signing, one would think they should at least let HHH's return play out and get stale, and the initial novelty of the split crew television shows play out, before introducing Nash when he isn't needed. Because the odds are, there will come a time that they'll be desperate for something new, and they'll have already exhausted that option.

nWo - 4 - life!

Wrestling Observer 1/21/02

Although contracts were not signed at press time, barring an unforeseen change, it seems inevitable that Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall will return to the WWF over the next six or so weeks, if not sooner.

There are several scenarios that have been talked about, but the basic idea seems to be that Hogan, Nash and Hall would head up a group of wrestlers which would be a renegade faction. They would be the lone wrestlers who appear on both Raw and Smackdown and on both monthly PPVs when the changes are made. While nothing is official, and even if it was, it would change at least 30 times between now and then, the move to two monthly PPV events looks to be shortly after Wrestlemania. The split of talent into the Ric Flair company and the Vince McMahon company with each getting a prime time television show and all talent except in the renegade group appearing on only one major show per week, delayed about 30 times since last summer, last scheduled for 1/21, was once again delayed indefinitely this past week. Rumors coming out of television this week were that it had been delayed until after Wrestlemania. It might as well be, because it makes little sense to break up the company into two groups, and then have both groups appearing on the same PPV. Then again, one could say the same about having talent on both shows defeats the purpose of the split, which was supposed to add more jobs and give more wrestlers main television time. Clearly, the former may or may not happen. The latter isn't happening.

The new faction is likely to also include HHH (who even in the earliest scenarios last year of the split had suggested being a floater who appeared on both shows and that idea was strongly under consideration) and possibly X-Pac. While there are rumors floating everywhere regarding Shawn Michaels, the word we have gotten is that while anything can happen, that Michaels' name has never come up as a serious thought in regards to this scenario. Hogan, Hall and Nash all want the new group to be called the NWO and be portrayed as Outsiders, basically doing exactly the scenario that both increased the popularity of WCW for about 18 months before ultimately killing the entire company. McMahon is at this point against using the NWO name, both because it would appear he's recycling someone else's ideas. He's never understood the value of the outsider philosophy even when handed to him on a silver platter, as noted already this past year with the botched Invasion, in 2000 with the Radicalz arriving and instead of being pushed when they were fresh and at their drawing power peak, they were instead immediately jobbed to the top guys and established at a mid-level, and most notably in 1991 when Ric Flair arrived having never lost the WCW world title in the ring at a time when such a thing was a really big deal. He is looking for more of an internal DX like group, but not necessarily with that name, as many would say it also has a dated connotation. Clearly, the semantics are far less important than the execution.

Sources that would be considered fairly reliable have indicated both Hall and Nash are coming in with similar three-year deals and downside guarantees in the $700,000 range. Hogan's deal is said to be not close to agreed on from a monetary standpoint, but still considered an inevitability that it will happen.

This has created polarized viewpoints from nearly everyone, thinking this will either be the greatest thing possible for a stale company, or the beginning of the end. It could even be both, as it was for WCW, with the end result being the latter.

Exactly how this went down is unclear. Trying to piece together a variety of stories goes something like this. McMahon secretly met with Hogan, according to a source close to Hogan, this took place on 1/7 at the Marriot Marquis in New York the day of Raw. I wouldn't trust any info as it involves this completely for a variety of reasons. It is believed few if any were privy to the fact this was going on. When Hogan's name surfaced a day or two later in the inner circle, it was largely a surprise. Before this meeting, Nash had been told point blank that the company wasn't going to take Hall and had agreed to come in. There was another meeting, with most of the key decision makers in the company present, that McMahon wanted kept secret for everyone to air their views on bringing Nash and Hogan in. At the meeting, it is said that everyone with the exception of the Stephanie/HHH faction spoke out against the idea because even though Nash and Hall left nearly six years ago, memories of that low point in WWF history are fresh. It was said, like 18 months ago when McMahon asked his staff their opinion on bringing Nash in when Nash claimed WCW had breached its deal and wanted to come in, the response among the agents was said to be unanimous, and McMahon cleverly, instead of saying no to Nash, gave him a low-ball offer knowing Nash, earning $1.625 million per year in WCW, couldn't afford to take it. Although Nash is one of the best at talking, whether it be with anyone, the period when he was with the company and on top with Michaels and Hall, was the biggest money losing period in company history. Admittedly that was due to the state of the business itself and can't be blamed simplistically on just who was on top. But it also says he, Michaels and Hall were not difference makers. It was also considered a nightmare backstage for both agents. Most of the wrestlers who were there at the time who remain bitter toward the politics that went on.

Even though it was supposed to be a secret meeting, word got to Nash immediately, who then called up McMahon and complained that he didn't want to come in if he was going to be sabotaged. It is believed that this is what led to McMahon agreeing to Nash's idea to basically allow Hall to come in, and with the planned storyline, guarantee he, Hogan and Hall top positions. While all previous talk of Hogan coming in was always to work an occasional special attraction type of event but not be a weekly character, instead it appears Hogan will be put in a top singles position. There were already rumors that Hogan would face Rock at Wrestlemania among the wrestlers as part of a double main event with Austin vs. HHH, the latter likely being the title match. It appears, again based on sketchy info, that is premature and those decisions and specific matches haven't been made as a final, but the basic positioning is looking to be accurate.

Morale among the wrestlers, which has declined as business has dropped and as younger talent was largely losing their heat due to a crowd starting to give up on them. This is because of a series of very short teases of pushes that are always cut off and very limited upward mobility and the strange situation of so many of WCW's mistakes that put it out of business being copied. The Kurt Angle turn, and then turn back, leaving him lost, is a classic example of what is different now from 1997. That year, the Austin turn, which saved the company, was built up for months. It climaxed at Wrestlemania with the double turn in the famous Bret Hart match. Remember, business at this point in time was terrible and that show, while important historically in hindsight for the Austin turn and for the quality of the match itself, was still the low point business wise in the history of Mania. Just a few months into the turn, at King of the Ring, one of the many attempts at doing a Hart vs. Michaels main event fell apart due to Hart's knee surgery. To save the show, the decision was made to have a babyface battle with Austin vs. Michaels on top. To the surprise of almost everyone, Michaels was cheered far more than Austin at the show. If it was 2001, Austin would have been turned back heel within a week, like Angle did. And if that had happened, who knows what the history of the company would have been other than it likely would be nowhere close to the level it is today.

Morale in Texas was said to have hit rock bottom, both from the wrestlers who were in WCW and were never elevated until leaving, and the rest, who had heard all the horror stories about what it was like there. Some felt it was a slap in the face at them, who had worked hard to establish a certain level of performance, to have guys who can't perform at that level being brought in with far better deals and being promoted ahead of them. However, the decision by McMahon not to do so last summer is what caused the original Invasion angle to fail and caused everyone's pay to drop anyway.

If nothing else, this will create short-term success. As we've seen with HHH, short-term these days is very short-term. From the McMahon standpoint, there is handwriting that can be seen. House shows are down and all prospective main event matches have been done to death. There is nothing new to put on top. These additions gives them a plethora of fresh match-ups and angles, even if the match-ups themselves for the most part will lower the quality of the in-ring product. While one can argue that Hogan, Hall and Nash meant nothing at the box office while carrying huge salaries in WCW, there are some basic points. When one goes to a new company, they become a new character to the fans. Their tarnish as being part of failure at first goes away and instead they are remembered for their former high points. While Sid Vicious failed in every attempt as a headliner, every time he was brought back, while he did fail again, there was initial interest in a star being brought back. This is short term, and often, as WCW showed, did more harm than good. Hogan played this game his last few years in WCW, creating angles to disappear, then come back fresh, each time to diminishing ratings or business boosts but the same illusionary big audience pops from crowds who in his absence, forgot that they hated him and wanted him gone. The same will happen here.

However, three year deals are insane. We don't have details of the contracts and WWF usually has out clauses, but McMahon clearly wanted Nash badly to not only not listen to a near unanimous negative feeling about the move from those in his company, but to also increase their offer to Nash by at least $200,000 a few weeks back. Hogan, to come in for Mania as a one time deal, provided he isn't priced too high, can be justified. Long-term, even throwing out the politics, it's certainly questionable. On his own, there's no chance. The one thing is there was a nearly two year period of time when Hogan, Hall and Nash together had a very rare and almost magical charisma. Nobody knows if it's a nostalgia act that will last a few weeks, one week for each, or a few months. They won't last two years. Nash isn't stupid. He got ridiculous power in WCW and when he's wanted, it's doubtful he'll fall into a trap where the deal can be easily dumped. In addition, McMahon has had the mentality of not sending people home if he has to pay them, even if, like with Big Show and the weight issue, it serves to embarrass those put in disciplinary positions in the company. Some think the logic in the three-year deals is that it guarantees that nobody can get started as competition, even though the odds of these new groups weren't good. McMahon laughed at Bischoff for picking up retreads like Hogan, Randy Savage and Roddy Piper in the mid-90s feeling they were long past their prime. At that time the three left, Hogan was gone from WWF because he refused to be phased out and create new stars as McMahon felt his time was up. Savage was working as a TV announcer and doing p.r., and wrestling sparingly because McMahon felt his time was up. Piper would come in maybe once a year, they'd hotshot an angle for him, and he wouldn't draw so he was really thought to be done. But in a new environment, they all drew big at first and for a while McMahon was done in by guys he thought were done, and perhaps this is his way of making sure he closes that tiny little window of opportunity. Hogan is still a name to people in the TV industry and Hall & Nash with the right exposure can create at least a small amount of spotlight if they were to bring some of their friends with them. All it takes is one executive making a call and the right financing, and the pesky monster, or fly, or whatever you want to kill, that McMahon finally squashed last year, can buzz around. Of course, hindsight has also shown competition is the best thing for McMahon as well as everyone else long-term, but short-term, viable competition increases the salary structure.

It's the long-term where this looks disastrous. Because even though McMahon proved to be wrong short-term about people like Hogan, Savage and Piper, in the long run, he was correct. They did kill his opposition because fans tired of seeing stars from the past. The question nobody can answer is how long will the impact of this move become a positive before it turns out to be a negative. When will the public tire of the new additions in a few weeks. Will they physically, in the case of Hogan, with bad knees and decades of steroid use, collapse; or mentally, in the case of Hall? When will the game be played to where, like in WCW, they create reasons to take time off at about the time they are supposed to elevate newcomers, and then those same said newcomers are thrust into the top without the baton passed to them, fail? Then the company goes back to the older guys to diminishing returns. Two years from today, Hall will be 45, and this is a guy who has put himself through hell so he's not a young 45. Nash will be just shy of 45, and he's already had a dozen knee operations and has no mobility. Hogan will be 50, and because of years in the son, looks far older even with the wonders of modern science when it comes to maintaining a physique. Unlike Ric Flair on Raw this week, I don't see them bumping at their current or advanced age for each individual chop of Chris Jericho. Quite frankly, Hogan and Nash are too smart to be worked into elevating new stars at their expense, and aren't going to kill their own gravy train in a company where there is even less incentive economically than WCW to create new stars because economically your pay isn't guaranteed, and dropping on the card from those top spots means a substantial decrease in income.

What of elevation of the Angles, Jerichos, Benoits, Rhynos, Van Dams, Edges and whomever else are considered on the next rung? Unless you haven't been paying attention, it is clear the company has no confidence in any of them at any higher level than they already are, no matter what it may publicly say. This decision is an affirmation of what anyone who closely follows the company has realized for months. Jericho was given the belt and a push after a period when he was the coldest he had been since arriving because of all the false starts. He didn't get over immediately as champ, as people saw him as not on that level. And guess what, even as champ he's portrayed as not on that level. And he won't be champ much longer.

The guys with the most to lose are the aforementioned names, likely Van Dam and Benoit more than the rest. None of the new guys can mix with Van Dam, plus, he's easy to badmouth even with his charisma, because of his obvious weaknesses in interviews, timing and that he hurts people. Benoit can be said to have no drawing power, or even Angle for that matter, even if examining the facts and comparisons would indicate otherwise. Benoit was the guy that was always held back in WCW because the existing main eventers liked that easy main event style, and Benoit's matches are not physically easy. Jericho, who can do a better promo, was even more of a threat in WCW when that fact surfaced. Physically they can't at their age, nor would they want to, consistently work that style.. Nor have any of them besides Hall at any time ever shown the inclination to work a style where they can put over believably someone of Van Dam's size. Ditto Jericho and Benoit. And with adding three more guys to the main event mix, television time is only going to be harder to come by, and the glass ceiling will become thicker because the guys on the other side are piranhas that really understand the business.

Publicly, as Jim Ross did in a SlamWrestling interview this week with John Molinaro, where he defended the impending signings given their track record by blaming it on WCW management, is to ignore a major point.

"I think in WCW there was very little leadership and very little structure and they were surrounded by a lot of inexperienced talent that felt insecure as it relates to the main event guys in the WCW locker room," said Ross. "I think our locker room is an entirely different atmosphere. We have strong leaders in our locker room. I think Undertaker and Austin and Triple H and Kurt and Rock and among others...It's not a competition. If you're a leader today you should be a leader tomorrow no matter who comes in.

He added, "I don't think anybody should be forced to be judged by their decorum or lack thereof in another environment. I don't know that anybody had great attitudes in WCW the last couple of years. Hall and Nash just happen to be two names on a long list from where I sit. We would like to believe with strong management and direction they could fit into a more structured system with some already strong leaders in place. Hopefully everybody we bring in will have a positive team-first and company-first attitude. If they don't, no matter who it is, we'll try to solve the problem."

In the case of Hogan and Nash, they were the key component that stirred that dressing room recipe and Nash had a similar track record in the WWF dressing room before leaving. All the chaos Hogan caused there with his attempts to work the boys because he wanted to do what Pillman did were partially problems of management that were marks for him and him just playing the game as selfishly as it probably should be played when you have power in an uncaring industry. All the chaos Nash caused, with the showing up people on interviews and not selling for them in the ring, convenient injuries and the months of Scott Hall references were ultimately not his fault. They were the fault of management that didn't have the guts to do anything to him. As the saying goes, the first time he did it, he was at fault. Every subsequent time, it was the company's fault. And over the last year of the company, the company was at fault a lot. For better or worse, a strong argument can be made to at least give them a chance. Even if you look at Nash on his own at not having much of a record as a draw, or much ability in the ring, he has a name and charisma and not everything he's been involved with, at least short term, has been a failure. And for better or worse, Hogan has a tremendous track record as a draw, even if his track record since the Flair feud in early 1999 has been worse than dismal. Again, in a new environment with new opponents, it'll work at first and the question is how quickly before people stop paying. Ultimately, the public will decide. Whether, if like in WCW, they can smooth talk management into not letting people take their spots when it doesn't work, well, that is the fault of management for not looking at business patterns and being blinded by cheap pops and smooth talk.

The case of Hall is completely different. How many drug tests did Hall fail in WWF? That wasn't something that can be blamed on WCW management. What was his injury rate like in WWF, this is when he was six years younger? He had a rep for getting frequent injuries and the most opportune time before ever signing with WCW. After Hall was gone from WCW, did he stop crashing cards, or getting arrested, or spending time in jail. When Hall was in the New Japan locker room this year, which is even more structured and while far from perfect, still far less of a political quagmire as even the WWF locker room, did he respond with great performances? Did he keep his nose clean for that group? Did he have good matches? Did he get over in the slightest? The answer to all those questions is a resounding no. So tell me, how is WCW, for all its management faults, to blame in the slightest for Scott Hall today?

When Eddy Guerrero and Brian James and Brian Lawler were all fired last year, I never wrote one negative word about it from a company standpoint. I believed in all three cases, the company made the correct decision and nothing has convinced me yet that wasn't the right view. None of the three have anywhere close to the track record, either the severity, the proliferation, the failed rehabs, the arrest record or anything else even close to Hall. All were harder performers, all except James have a better track record as far as showing up for work. While Lawler had his problems in the locker room with his personality a bit, and James sometimes rubbed guys the wrong way because he said some things in newspaper interviews negative about some of the talent, they paled in comparison to Hall. This is not defending any of their actions, or saying any of them should be brought back. They all in their own way blew it big-time, and quite frankly, all when pressed, will admit it. James' track record since leaving hasn't been the best. Guerrero has, in the world of indie wrestling with all the problems, has made all his dates, and generally speaking, got good reviews for his work. This can't be said for Hall, who is nine years older, hasn't drawn a dime in this business or had a good match in four years, despite numerous opportunities. But this is not an issue about drawing money, or good matches. This is about a very serious problem in the industry that has led to untold early deaths and even more near misses. Will Hall be required, like Darren Matthews, to regularly take drug tests to prove, in fact, his past problems that he must deal with daily are, in fact, in the past. We all know the answer, as do they, because this is a walking see no evil hear no evil double standard.

You can say all you want about Hogan, Hall and Nash having to fit into the system and be team players. None have ever been before, and you can't teach an old dog new tricks. They may draw, but they'll milk the company for all they can get, and when it comes time to give back, watch what happens. You don't have to watch, you can just look back at your videotape collection for the matches that aren't there. Like the match where Hogan put over Hart over on his way out of the WWF to pass the torch directly? Or the young guys Nash elevated when he left WWF for WCW. Or the superstars they created while in WCW. Hogan did put over Goldberg, who was already at the top the hottest thing in all of wrestling. And Nash didn't even do that, and both politically buried him if you remember the fall and winter of 1998. Particularly smart old dogs who have been successful with those tricks. Everyone knows that's a joke. There will be a double standard. They can talk all they want about WCW. By signing Hall, without even stipulating he at least must first get through rehab and regularly pass tests, the standard set for Matthews, the message they sent to every wrestler in the company was, they are WCW.

Wrestling Observer 1/28/02

The imminent arrival of Kevin Nash and Scott Hall to WWF was teased on Raw on 1/21 when Vince McMahon, talking about gaining revenge for his loss to Ric Flair at the Royal Rumble, talked about making a move that all the wrestlers, the fans and even he himself may regret.

McMahon over the past week is said to have acquiesced to the majority of Nash's demands to come in, including the lighter schedule. It is said that Hall's money will be less than Nash's, and less than what was reported here last week, because he will be given an even lighter schedule than Nash. That is being explained because he is a single parent with custody of his children (and think of what that must say about Dana Hill if with his track record he was given custody?). It is a luxury that no other WWF wrestlers have been given.

In what was a surprise to me, but it is probably the best thing for business, Hall, Nash and presumably Hulk Hogan, McMahon has agreed to allow them to be brought in using the NWO name. The NWO name itself debuted with McMahon sitting on a chair with those initials at the 1/22 Smackdown tapings in North Charleston, SC. There had been some objection within WWF about using the name and even by McMahon himself a week ago, because it would come across as stealing an Eric Bischoff idea. At least for the foreseeable future, HHH will not be part of the group, and will feud with the group. I have this scary vision of Stephanie McMahon coming out as the NWO spokesperson to feud with HHH while the rest of the guys don't have interview time. Well, hopefully they've learned. There has been talk that if Hogan doesn't come, that HHH would be eventually moved to that side to give it more star power. When the company split comes in April, the plans still seem to be that the NWO group would appear on both television shows and be the only wrestlers to do so, and headline both sets of monthly PPV shows. Last week, when talking about the wrestlers who will be victimized the most, we didn't mention the wrestler who appears to be benefitting the most from this angle, and that's Sean Waltman. Waltman's career was going nowhere fast in WWF, but as almost a charter member of the NWO, the plan is to put him with this group and his star power is guaranteed to increase tenfold just by hooking up to their gravitational pull. The name Shawn Michaels has popped up. Nash has told friends that he is pushing for Michaels to be in the group and hopeful Michaels can wrestle a lot more than one match. The idea of Michaels, even at half of what he once was, and Waltman being the workhorses of the group in carrying the in-ring action has been talked about. However, we're told at this point Michaels is at best a maybe. The idea on paper is for the group to be heels, but one would think without a very carefully planned scenario involving a square off with the very top babyfaces, the initial reaction to them will be as babyfaces.

Hogan has not signed a contract at press time, although the office staff has been told he would be coming in. There are said to be enough details to work out that it's not considered a 100% done deal. Nash and Hall both signed over the past week. Holding off their debut until the 2/17 PPV in Milwaukee would be the best way to bring them in for maximum gain, particularly since the jury is out whether the gain will be short-term or not, and if it is, you at least want to maximize that.

If Hall & Nash are going to be working both sets of television and PPVs, in the case of Nash, that would leave only one to three house shows per month maximum. If Hall is having a lighter schedule, that would seem to indicate even fewer, and Hogan hasn't worked a full schedule in pro wrestling since he worked for New Japan in the early 80s so it's doubtful that will change. That will leave WWF in the same situation they always decried when WCW was in it, with the top guys being pushed on TV not appearing at the house shows, leaving secondary talent, much of whom will get buried on TV, having to get reactions and draw on the road. The flip side is that WCW's house show business went way up at first just because the promotion itself got hot even when the big names didn't go on the road regularly. In WCW, Hall & Nash arrived in the summer of 1996. House show business, which had struggled for years, actually picked up in a big way months earlier with the Ric Flair vs. Randy Savage feud. It really wasn't until January of 1997, six months later, that the business really turned around at the house shows. PPV was up, but the numbers for the shows had been consistently good with Hogan as a PPV headliner and didn't sizably increase from Hogan's previous big numbers until the next year. The peak period was from December 1997 through March of 1999, at which point they nosedived and never got it back, with the company losing $15 million that year before piling up record debts the next year which led to the company being no more. It was pretty clear they were damaging the company throughout 1998, the peak year, so what looks like a quick nosedive was actually something building for quite some time and it was after most of the wrestlers turned. Once Russo was put in control, then everyone turned weekly and it was over. That entire big period came when not only Hall, Nash and Hogan, but many of the other big names pushed on TV like Sting, Roddy Piper and Randy Savage all worked few house show dates. WCW also killed its business by its ridiculous amount of no-shows and lackadaisical performances, a disease WWF has shown no signs of suffering from. Well, that's also because up until now, they were guarding against infectious diseases instead of courting it.

The next thing to look out for, even before a reslotting of talent since, is how the front office situation develops. It is no secret the trio will want to get as many of their own people into the creative and managerial positions, as they will particularly want to exercise major influence on the writing staff since they are a key component of getting over. There are also people in a power position who are likely aware of what that means, particularly those, like Gerald Brisco, who it is well known spoke strongly against all of their returns, and John Laurinaitis (Johnny Ace), who frequently butted heads with Nash when both worked at WCW.

Were you worried about business at this point?

Wrestling Observer 2/4/02

The official signing of Terry Bollea (Hulk Hogan), Kevin Nash and Scott Hall by the WWF, with their return announced on television this week, will be the precursor to full scale changes in the way the company will be handling business after Wrestlemania.

All three signed two-year contracts. Hall & Nash signed on 1/18 and, according to friends of Hogan's, he signed on 1/25, although others claim he actually had signed before that day. All three were flown to WWF headquarters in Stamford, CT on 1/25 to meet with all the key people in the front office and meet about storylines, marketing and merchandising ideas from 8 p.m. until about 4 p.m. All aspects of business were discussed including the idea that they have to prove themselves in the dressing room because of the legit skepticism (which is being used as an insider television angle and there are aspects of this that are being booked dangerously too inside) within the company whether bringing them in is the right decision. They are being sold on the ideas they can make their legacies end on a positive note and change their insider reputations in the business. At first, because of their reputation, which will be pushed hard and overblown on television for storyline drama, there is little doubt they have to come in and be nice to everyone, which is no different than their time in WCW. The reason these guys, well Hogan and Nash anyway, have been so successful as manipulators is because of their ability to befriend people, many of whom like them and end up respecting them for that ability to always wind up as winners economically in a business as political and cutthroat as it is, but knowing the damage it caused to the industry itself. Others don't necessarily recognize what really happened until hindsight much later. The problem is that game was played in WCW and everyone knows the results. A large percentage of the WWF dressing room was part of those games and have the benefit of hindsight. The rest have all heard the horror stories, both from the wrestlers who came, and even more emphasized by the company itself while the war was going on. Many of wrestlers in the company have been told Hogan, Hall and Nash aren't being brought in to be the top stars, positions held by Steve Austin, HHH and Rock, nor will they supplant them, but be part-timers used in short matches for storyline purposes to heat up angles. Everyone is wary, and also recognizing they will be a boost short-term and business is about to pick up through Wrestlemania.

According to various reports, Hogan was said to look to be about 280 pounds, and also described by one person as looking like a remarkably fit 70-year-old because his face looked so old because of all the years in the sun. Hall looked to be about 250 pounds, while Nash at around 300. Another report said Nash, with a ton of grey hair, looked very old, but nothing that a dye job wouldn't take care of.

As far as how long before they become a negative, or if they become a negative, ultimately the fans will decide that. It is most likely that the three will not be affiliated with Vince McMahon over the long haul, and more likely end up feuding with him. Whether or not they will appear on both shows after the proposed split is uncertain at this point although it was the original plan and hints have been thrown out that it has changed. Nevertheless it is believed that at the meetings, all three were under the impression they would be appearing on both shows. It would make sense as outsiders for that to happen and would maximize their effectiveness and their power, both in a positive light at first and negative light at some point because if that's the case, they'll be the key people on both shows and the company will be built around part-timers who don't do house shows. Again, with the WCW example, that doesn't hurt at first because the value of the product if this is a hit does go up and fans don't know they aren't going on the road. It may have changed for political reasons to make the rest of the crew think they aren't getting preferential booking treatment since many would consider them already getting a preferential schedule. The problem with that is once they start playing the political game, it starts watering down the effectiveness of the angle for short-term.

WWF has never historically gotten anywhere near the mileage it should have over huge name jumps to create dream matches. Dusty Rhodes got his biggest reactions after leaving WCW TV before he appeared on WWF TV, because rather than go with his well known character, they gave him a humiliating makeover. Ric Flair didn't get a makeover, but the idea of champion vs. champion was downplayed and his feud with Hulk Hogan was another one that actually cooled off greatly once it was promoted on WWF TV, and again had more heat before hardly any TV involved Flair. Chris Benoit walked out of WCW as the champion, and was immediately beaten by HHH as opposed to playing him up stronger. The most recent invasion angle, where they botched whatever potential was left in feuds with WCW and ECW, was far bigger as far as this type of thing. The difference here is to an extent McMahon may have learned, and just the fact he is using the NWO name goes totally against the mindset that weakened all the previous angles. The plan is to also use the Outsiders name, and use their WCW characters including Hollywood Hogan and NWO history. But he also seemed to have balked on them being true outsiders.

The other booking problem with this is, for morale, the thing to do would be have them come in and lose first, like they did with Benoit, and the rest of the WCW crew and just about everyone that comes in. It was the right thing for morale of the wrestlers, but in all cases, the wrong thing for business. Eventually the success or failure of this as a business move, like with WCW, will be determined at the end. Will business be stronger when they are gone than when they came? For all its fond memories of the glory period of WCW and the Nitro winning streak, ultimately, the angle and the power given the participants and what they did with it was a colossal failure, costing the company not only more money than it earned them, but costing the company its very existence. But the beginning was done correctly. Somewhere along the way, when it came time to give back, the giving back was fake. Hogan made Sting, then cleverly outmaneuvered him. Hogan made Goldberg, then cleverly outmaneuvered him. He kept himself the focal point while pretending to put people over, and in the Goldberg case put him over as well as possible in the ring, but then the game was played starting the next week. Nash didn't make anyone, but pretended to make Misterio Jr. while destroying Goldberg's drawing power to try and make himself into the big star, a position the fans didn't buy. The whole place was in chaos and by the end, Hogan was booked in a memorable feud with Kidman--one that ended up hurting Hogan badly and killed Kidman dead because it was flawed in its very design and worse in execution, and basically booked by people who didn't realize the flaws of booking to the internet audience. In a nutshell, if Hogan, Hall and Nash come in and first prove to the dressing room they are business by putting Austin, Rock, HHH, Undertaker and whomever over early, everyone is so busy swerving each other that they forgot about maximizing business. Hogan, Hall and Nash have to go over strong on everyone until it's time. When it's time is the tricky call. But at that point, it shouldn't be Austin, Rock and HHH who go over on them, because they are already established at that level. It should be new stars that they create and put over strong. If you go back in history to Hogan, Hall and Nash, you'll find a Ted DiBiase (Hogan), Randy Savage (Hall) and Curt Hennig (Nash), bigger and older stars who put them all over in the right way to give them credibility in their first WWF runs. Whether it be Edge, Benoit, Jericho or Van Dam, or a Lesnar or an Orton, whomever it is time to wave the magic wand on, and that is what this business is all about, is putting a rocket to somebody's back, will they put them over like DiBiase did to Hogan in Madison Square Garden in 1979 when Hogan was a huge unknown, or will they put them over like Hogan did with Sting and Kidman to show the world he's all business? That's the ultimate story here.

The current plan is to tease the arrival of Hogan, Hall and Nash on television to build ratings, but not bring them in live until the 2/17 PPV in Milwaukee. The idea of teasing it and then promising it on the PPV would maximize revenue, because, as noted here previously, a big buy rate can mean millions of extra dollars and their most value will be for their first appearance and first match. Their value will decrease greatly after that novelty is gone, and again after they put people over. The time for them to start making people instead of making themselves is when their value starts to be nothing out of the ordinary, but before it becomes a negative and the audience is decreasing. It's harder to make new stars with a declining product but relatively easy with a hot product. This is going on the assumption everything will run smoothly for business, which it won't.

The plans change hourly, and will continue to do so. At this point it appears the goal is for the NWO to only consist of the three aforementioned wrestlers. At this point Sean Waltman is not in the plans, but that has changed several times. At this point there seem to be no plans for Shawn Michaels' involvement with the group, nor for Michaels to wrestle, but that is not a dead issue either.

According to those in the company, Michaels' own feelings change with every conversation. One day he talks about making a comeback and the next day has a change of heart. Because of that, it's hard to make plans, and nobody, including himself, knows how his body will hold up physically if he tries to wrestle, since his doctors have advised against it. With his recent cameos, it does appear likely Michaels would return to WWF television even if it's in an out of the ring role.

On Raw on 1/28, in an interview that may have won Ric Flair the Best Interview award for 2002 already and some of the best non-wrestling television the company has produced in recent memory, Flair set the angle up with a performance in getting the guys over that ranked with his making Sting inside the ring for 45:00 in 1988. The storyline is that Hall, Nash and Hogan are the cancers that killed WCW and will kill WWF for the same reason, actually playing off feelings many in the company had upon hearing the news. McMahon and Flair both agreed, but the demented McMahon insisted he would kill his creation, the WWF, rather than let Flair have a part in it because he believed Flair would kill it as well. In the storyline, Flair had to sell his 50% back to McMahon at no profit or McMahon will bring in the NWO and bankrupt the WWF, making it worthless. On Smackdown, just as Flair was about to sign his stock over, Steve Austin stopped him and they beat up McMahon, for the storyline excuse for McMahon to bring them in. While some will argue that the NWO killing WCW is too much of an internet angle, and it is at this point in all the wording and scripting because it assumes far more knowledge of inside wrestling history than most fans have, it was put over so strongly as a major deal that it should work. To the average wrestling fan, WCW died because it sucked from a storyline perspective and the matches got boring. The average fan doesn't know about Hogan's manipulations or Nash's period as booker or that older guys didn't put younger guys over. In the WWF's own storyline, WCW was bought by Shane and destroyed by the WWF wrestlers all summer and put out to pasture in November. Now there is a new storyline that somehow it was Hogan, Hall and Nash who killed WCW, even though none of them were even around when WCW died, either in reality in March, or in storyline in November. This requires the announcers to tell the story, something WCW, when it tried similar angles, never let the announcers do, which was one of the reasons for their failure.

On that show they also played a Kid Rock music video airing clips of virtually every major star of the past 30 years in the WWF, doing more to acknowledge history in four minutes than the company had in the previous 20 years. It began with Vince McMahon Sr., Bruno Sammartino, The Valiants, Superstar Graham, Chief Jay Strongbow, Killer Kowalski, Gorilla Monsoon, Jesse Ventura, Jimmy Snuka, Don Muraco and many others from that era, also including Pat Patterson, Blackjack Lanza (who did hold the tag team title but spent less than one year in 1975-76 as a WWF wrestler), Jerry Brisco (who worked a few months for the company at the end of his career in 1984) and Michael Hayes (who really only had a cup of coffee with the company as an active wrestler for about four weeks in 1984) that seemed illogically in the video (except Patterson, who was major WWF in-ring star for several years) that currently work in the office. Went through all the classic spots, from Arnold Skaaland throwing in the towel for Bob Backlund, Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant, Roddy Piper hitting Jimmy Snuka with the coconut and staring down with Mr. T, Wendi Richter and Cyndi Lauper and even the Muhammad Ali-Monsoon angle from 1976 to set up the Antonio Inoki match and Mike Tyson with DX aired. They also hit the downer period, showing clips of the NWO showing up on WCW TV, Madusa throwing the WWF belt in the garbage can on Nitro and Bret Hart spitting in Vince's face and finger painting "WCW" after the famous match in Montreal. It was interesting that they blinked on that one, interspersing a clip that made it appear that in Montreal, Vince & Shane were on the ramp laughing at Bret when it happened, showing that inability to get past that match. Storyline is they were down and out and then created the Attitude era and came back. Actually they were down and out from 1992-95 and started the comeback in February 1996 which was the build for the Hart-Michaels Wrestlemania and the excitement caused by the Monday Night Wars before hitting it around November 1997 as much for the Survivor Series unique fallout and the explosion of Steve Austin as the big drawing card and to a lesser extent the beginning of the WCW meltdown. Saying that today, that the comeback of WWF popularity actually started months before the NWO arrived in WCW, largely spurred on by the entire business going up due to the head-to-head competition and that WWF business was increasing even while it was losing the publicized battle, serves nobody's time line purpose today. The video ended with clips from the past that were remade, such as Savage & Elizabeth kissing dissolving into Matt Hardy & Lita, Savage's spinning around the ring into Michaels into Angle, womens wrestlers from Moolah to Madusa to Chyna to Lita to Trish Stratus, and WWF key champions, the three-generations of Maivia with Peter Maivia, Rocky Johnson and Rock, and a history of major champions from Sammartino to Morales to Backlund, Andre, Flair, Savage, Bret Hart, Michaels, Undertaker, Austin, Rock, Foley, HHH, Angle and Jericho. Even people like Sid Vicious and Ultimate Warrior were shown in clips, as well as the first airing of Owen Hart on Raw since the week of his death, along with clips of besides Andre, other deceased wrestlers like John Studd, Rick Rude and Yokozuna (no Brian Pillman). The video was to both set the stage as to which traitors would be coming in, with a strong hint of Hart, but more so, to show what the McMahon family created. I was very surprised videos like this weren't done, for WWF, WCW and even ECW before Invasion and Survivor Series last year.

Basically, about 83,000 added buys equals a million extra dollars to the company. Normal PPVs were doing 350,000 to 400,000 buys last summer but Invasion did 681,000, and Steve Austin's first two appearances after neck surgery both did numbers in that range which shows how much added revenue saving a hot item for PPV can draw. Numbers are lower now, partially due to the DirecTV fiasco. If saved, the first live appearance of these guys, if properly promoted and not used as a surprise, with a hot angle, should be worth a few million on PPV. If we are conservative and say they'll add 166,000 buys, and I think the number would be considerably higher, particularly since Hogan is involved and hasn't been seen in nearly two years by a national audience so all but the hardcore fans have forgotten why they wanted him gone, for them to debut on a live Raw with publicity and garner that same revenue, they would have to increase the rating on that show (not just their quarter hour but the entire two hours show) from a 4.5 to a 23.1, an impossibility. Already the excitement has led the No Way Out PPV on 2/17 in Milwaukee to sellout the Bradley Center in three hours when tickets were put on sale on 1/19. Current plan for the show is a triple main in the ring, with Chris Jericho vs. Steve Austin for the WWF title, HHH vs. Kurt Angle and Undertaker vs. Rock. For the same reason, their first actual matches, or at least serious matches, should be held off until Wrestlemania.

Until we get there, this seems to be the current battle plan. After Wrestlemania most likely, since the schedule now has been booked in this manner by the end of March, they will do whatever angle leads to the big split. This has happened before and last year the live events department had to rearrange and rebook the schedule seemingly a half dozen different times when McMahon changed his mind about the split. Nothing is guaranteed until the day they split the shows because we've had more false alarms on this one than missed spots in the Undertaker & Kane vs. Kronik match.

There will be two crews, most likely split up by a draft, but another method could come up. For purposes of semantics, we'll call one crew the Raw crew and the other the Smackdown crew. Each crew will consist of 40 to 45 performers. If they don't split the unified world title into two belts, the unified champion would appear as the champion on both shows and perhaps be the only performer to do so. Since this is after Wrestlemania, that would likely be HHH. There is also talk of having Vince McMahon and Ric Flair appear on both shows. Austin would be the top star on one show and Rock on the other, as mentioned numerous times. While a weekend quote from referee Brian Hebner in the Charlottesville, VA newspaper created a story about them expanding to three shows per night, we're told there are no plans at all for this to happen and the plan is to increase from the normal current month of about 22 house shows to about 30.

The Raw crew would work a weekly schedule with house shows on Friday, Saturday and Sunday night, then end their week working the live Raw on Monday. The Smackdown crew would go on the road on Saturday at a different show, work house shows on Sunday, Monday (a house show that would be booked the same night as Raw) and do the Smackdown taping on Tuesday. Because of the realization that Smackdown ratings weren't affected at all by going live, this schedule makes things much easier for management and the production crew because they can stick to their Monday and Tuesday on the road schedule, rather than Monday, having to either fly back to work in between or pay a road screw to stay out on the road, to do a live show on Thursday. The long-range plan talked about of doing Smackdown live has officially been dropped. The Smackdown crew would likely do most of the overseas tours, such as the May European tour, because those weeks they could run four shows overseas, fly home, and have the leeway of doing Smackdown on Thursday instead of Tuesday when needed.

At first, there would only be one PPV show per month. The idea seems to be that the PPV would consist of probably about four matches from each crew. There would be no interpromotional matches or angles or major interaction between the two companies on those PPV shows, at least at first. Well, at least that's the battle plan, which of course could change. At some point they would expand to two separate PPV shows per month.

At the point of the switch, probably late next month, the split would likely open up many new spots on the roster. The plan is to bring up Brock Lesnar, Ron Waterman, Rico Costantino and Randy Orton to the television roster with Orton and Lesnar likely receiving at least minor pushed roles. There is also a decent shot of bringing back people like D-Lo Brown and/or Haku. A question mark is Steve Bradley, the most experienced of the developmental crew, who started out in Memphis three years ago with Kurt Angle, who his trainers have long since said was ready but creative has shown no interest.

The handling of Lesnar is going to be very interesting because of his combination of physical impressiveness and inexperience. Actually the same can be said for Waterman, although the difference is, Lesnar got a big contract coming in due to timing and the fact New Japan and WCW both wanted him so with more money invested in him, there is more pressure for him to be a money player and he's not complete enough that he'll be able to be one at this point without preferential booking. There are the natural Goldberg similarities, and if Goldberg would have been beaten early, or wrestled long matches early for that matter, there would have been no Goldberg. Orton, who is 21, is more of a long-term project and there is no need to rush him, but very few wrestlers if they are established as jobbers ever overcome it without lengthy absences so he has to at least be a decently pushed player. Costantino, because of his interview ability, actually is the most complete of the four, but for various reasons, seems to be the one who will get the least chance.

There is, for the first time since 1997, legitimate talk of a serious cruiserweight division. In 1997, WWF was more reacting, because it was one of the ingredients that WCW had when they were caught asleep at the wheel during the new smaller talent revolution that everyone was talking about and made WCW the more exciting television product. WWF gave up in it very quickly (the division was going to be built around Taka Michinoku, who in those days was one of the most spectacular wrestlers in the world, and he instead quickly became a comedy jobber). After years of establishing small guys as not worth anyone's emotional investment, and WCW killed its most exciting division the same way, it's going to be an uphill struggle to make this work. However, most of the good talent on the indies are smaller wrestlers, and to continue this attitude of making smaller wrestlers into not serious performers, they may have trouble in the future when they make up the bulk of the in-ring talent. It isn't definite, but McMahon has apparently given serious thought on giving it another try. How much time he's willing to invest before giving up on an idea that likely will take time to develop only he knows. The idea is that one of the two shows would be the cruiserweight show, not that the entire show would be cruiserweights, but that all the cruiserweight talent would be put in one of the two companies, which would likely whether the idea is for this to happen or not, end up being the higher workrate show.

Another motivation for having a cruiserweight division is to basically insure opposition, should a serious threat come about, wouldn't have the edge of using smaller guys and better matches, like ECW did first as one of the parts of its niche and WCW later capitalized on it and made money with it. It's pretty clear that while it may not be priority No. 1, picking apart XWF so it never gets seriously off the ground, has been a priority. From television and lack of ideas of what to do with him, it's clear the signing of Curt Hennig was more to strip XWF of its potential flagship in-ring wrestler. Of late, some of the other smaller wrestlers in the group that WWF seemed to have no interest in, such as A.J. Styles, David Cash (Kid Kash) and Josh Lomberger (Josh Matthews of Tough Enough) have gotten feelers and in the case of Styles was pretty well told he'd be brought in if/when the cruiserweight division is started after the split. The Jimmy Hart situation is different, as his name came up more because Hogan wanted him in since the two have worked together on virtually every Hogan project for ten years. Hart was given an offer to come in at Hogan's request, and whether he does or doesn't do so would probably depend on the confidence level he has long-term for XWF, which, according to one company source, he owns five percent of. At this point, like Rey Misterio Jr., none of the wrestlers mentioned have been offered deals until the timing and plans for the cruiserweight division are finalized. The company has also talked about reviving its weekly camps in Connecticut when they were more aggressive about signing new talent due to the wrestling war, camps that produced many of the companies current stars such as Kurt Angle, Edge, Christian, Val Venis, Test, Albert and Lita, in particular to bring in smaller independent wrestlers for slots in the cruiserweight promotion.

Was the nWo the built of the brand split?

Wrestling Observer 2/18/02

It took almost no time for Scott Hall to be in the WWF doghouse.

As noted last week, Hall, claiming to have kicked his now legendary alcohol and drug dependencies, showed up on 2/11 in Las Vegas and made a complete spectacle of himself in public to where he had to be dragged into his hotel room to keep from further problems, totally embarrassing management that had gone to bat for him and pleaded his case among wrestlers who with few exceptions, were dead-set against the idea of bringing not only Hall, but also Hulk Hogan and Kevin Nash back.

To make matters worse, the next day in Los Angeles, when Steve Austin was told by Vince McMahon and Jim Ross of the plans to work an Austin vs. Hall match at Wrestlemania and to come up with ideas to build it and to work together to get comfortable, Austin's response was reportedly something to the effect of why even waste my time, he's not going to be in the company by the time Wrestlemania comes around and we all know it, so why start something when we know it's going nowhere. Austin was hardly the only wrestler to have those feelings, as several wrestlers came to management saying they didn't want to work with Hall.

Hall gained even more heat on himself when he, Hogan and Nash showed up to do some production work in Los Angeles. It was the first time Hogan and Nash had been around the current crew, and were met with the expected skepticism. While Hogan and Nash, as everyone expected, went out of their way to be nice to everyone, the reaction to Hall was different. The big story was Hall going up to the Dudleys and saying one of two things, as we've heard two different version of essentially the same story. Either he said to Bubba, "That's a great move you have (in reference to the 3-D). I can't wait to kick out of it" or "That's a really realistic finisher you have" and then started laughing as to mock the move. While those who know Hall from WCW say that was typical Hall, in that he's always pushing buttons and think the dressing room overreacted. But they could understand the feeling, being that when the mood was so strong against him going in. Him making things worse for himself the night before by exposing the having turned around his life story as a farce, that it probably wasn't the time to be a smartass and try to get under people's skin and play his "I'm an untouchable star" card.

There is a point that Hall was hardly the first WWF wrestler to have a problem and it isn't as if problems among wrestlers is uncommon. He wasn't even wrestling in Las Vegas, and there is sort of a code among wrestlers that you can do what you want on your own time, just show up in shape to perform up when it's company time because a messed up wrestler puts his opponent's body in jeopardy. However, Eddy Guerrero and Brian Lawler were also both fired for things that didn't occur even on the location of a show. In the case of Guerrero, he got into a minor auto accident while allegedly under the influence on a night off, shortly after being released from rehab. He was sent to rehab when he showed up for a television taping unable to perform. The Guerrero-Hall double-standard has been expressed even before Hall's escapade, and was made worse by Hall confirming everyone's predictions before he got there. There is also a different standard that wrestlers who have been through rehab are to adhere to, as William Regal, for example, is regularly tested, because of his past problems, while overall testing is uncommon in the company, usually reserved for developmental talent to as to ascertain whether they are bringing any bad habits up. When Regal came out of rehab a few years ago and relapsed, like Guerrero, he was fired by WWF in his first stint. According to one WWFer, Hall had ten times the heat Marcus Bagwell had in the dressing room at the time he was fired. Even members of management who had by their position had to be firmly behind the Hall hiring publicly, which was a decision made by McMahon that was opposed by most in the company, have said Hall's position with the company is a day-to-day thing. However, at present time, they are going with the idea of an Austin vs. Hall match at Wrestlemania on 3/17 in Toronto to go along with a pencilled in top of the card that would also include Chris Jericho vs. HHH for the WWF title, Undertaker vs. Nash and Hogan vs. Rock. The plan seems to be to promote the Jericho match as the main event to wrestling fans, but Hogan vs. Rock at Wrestlemania for the general public push as the top card.

In Los Angeles, Hall was told by Vince McMahon and Jim Ross that this wasn't WCW and his behavior wouldn't be tolerated and some believe he is exactly one more incident away from being let go even with the major plans earmarked around him. Hall's defense of having an addiction problem apparently didn't go over well.

About the only wrestler who spoke up for the three in Los Angeles was HHH, who told the crew that the three would go to Cincinnati to train to show they were really dedicated to earning their spot. While most were skeptical and it was largely a political move to earn trust and support of the crew, Hall & Nash did show up in Cincinnati to train with the HWA crew with Sean Waltman on 2/11 to stay for the week leading up to their debut on the 2/17 PPV. Hogan didn't go. None of the three were at the television tapings this week. Nash hasn't wrestled in about a year since one of his many WCW gimmicked retirement type deals which allowed him to have highly paid vacations. Hall, 43, hasn't wrestled since October, when he had some incredibly bad matches (not all his fault given the competition, and did have a decent match with Keiji Muto in Osaka but it's also Muto) in a tournament with New Japan. Hogan, who turns 49 this summer, since the falling out with Vince Russo on July 9, 2000 where their worked angle ended up in some form of a legit dispute which now has a lawsuit outstanding regarding it, has since only worked one match, with Curt Hennig, at the first XWF tapings in December.

The dressing room mood in Los Angeles was said to have hit an all-time low with comparisons being made to 1995, when company business hit rock bottom. The difference between now and then is now people are making good money. Hogan and Nash were said to have been "fantastic politicians" according to several reports, but for obvious reasons, there was a lot of skepticism. Nash in particular was trying to win over Undertaker, who is considered the locker room leader. Both did what they had to do in Los Angeles and didn't stick around. There is a feeling of negativity in some, while others consider it just a temporary bump in the road. Many wrestlers, particularly with Hall's initial problems, were openly talking like they thought Hall would only last a few weeks and the others wouldn't last much longer. There seemed to be two schools of thought on Hogan. One was that he would be able to work his way into power and be around for the long haul, and another that he wouldn't stay over on the long haul and that he's a short-term act, and when he didn't, he'd bail like he continually did in WCW, but this time it would likely be for good.

Hogan and Nash both looked in cosmetically great shape in this era of money being able to buy cosmetic shape, although Hogan looked much older, as mentioned before, than his age. Some in the WWF believe that Undertaker and Austin won't allow the product to decline after all the work everyone has done to bring the in-ring to the current level and that because of that, none will last because they won't be physically able to hang with the current main eventers. But that's probably wishful thinking, because the top of the card is never about workrate, it's about drawing money, and it just so happens that the current top draws, some of whom, like Rock and Austin, could work hard enough to get by and still maintain their spots, take enough pride in their ring performance that they don't. Others closer to Nash believe he's the biggest charmer in all of wrestling, and of the three, over the long-run, the most dangerous because of his ability to align with whatever power there is. In WCW, while people in management were constantly at everyone's throats, even to this day, people on every side of the fence in management consider Nash to be among their best friends of the wrestlers. The feeling is that Hall isn't dangerous, except to himself and possibly his opponent. Hogan is always out for himself, but Nash is out for influence, such as wanting his friends in writing positions to take care of him, and if he can't get his friends in, he'll become friends with those who are in. He's tremendous at getting it done, and probably understands better than almost anyone that success in this profession is not a matter of ring work or interview ability or even the mythical drawing money (a line used in the business that precious few truly have an understanding of), but on politically making friends with the people in power and having at least one of those qualities or at least the right look. Just the fact he was able to maneuver himself into this angle, on all his own terms, speaks volumes. Particularly since he's not Hogan, who at least has the phenomenal track record at from 1981 through early 1992, and again from 1994 through early 1999. Nash has no track record as an individual draw, yet was able to get in and create a double-standard from day one, and get Hall back in, against the wishes of everyone. This speaks volumes to those who think he won't be able to work his magic because this management is different and smart enough to see through him.

The current plan after Wrestlemania and the split, which at this point is tentatively scheduled to go down right after the show, are for Hogan, Hall and Nash to work only on the Raw team. It does appear at this point that Raw will be the more star-driven show, and that Smackdown will be the more workrate oriented show, which is interesting because it is very rare when Smackdown doesn't actually deliver far more viewers than Raw. If there is a McMahon promotion and a Flair promotion, which was the last split idea when Flair was brought in nearly three months back, that would seem to indicate Smackdown to Flair, and likely the cruiserweight division as well. History has shown that ratings are driven by star-power, and ultimately promotions are driven by their ability to create new stars. It also should be noted that there have been nearly a dozen of timetables and battle plans for the split, none of which took place, in several cases even after the scheduled had been revamped. The split has been talked about for so long that until the draft, or whatever angle it will be, is shot on television, you can't help but be skeptical as to whether it will happen or when.

The new schedule written about a few weeks ago goes into effect when the crew comes back after the post-Mania TV's. The 3/25 Raw at Penn State University will consist of only Raw team members. The rest of the crew will be working a house show in Wheeling, WV and then working Smackdown the next night in Philadelphia (while the Raw crew works a house show in Reading, PA, although that will be a scheduling rarity because they are keeping both crews on the road from 3/25 to 3/28 and then giving everyone Easter weekend off). The Raw crew will start working Friday night dates regularly on 4/5 in Denver. There will be However, even with this schedule on paper, and the TV in Montreal being the most likely date for the big split angle, many are skeptical. McMahon has not officially told anyone a specific split date to work toward.

With their limited dates, Hogan, Hall and Nash will be working five or six TV's per month, leaving four to seven house shows they can also work so it won't be just television. The problem with the split is that, with both crews appearing on PPV, it's really not enough of a split where they come off as separate promotions.

There is advertising out for the Wheeling show listing HHH, Chris Jericho, Rob Van Dam, DDP, Rikishi, Hardys, Tazz, William Regal, Booker T, Christian, Spike Dudley and Billy & Chuck as appearing, which would indicate a Raw crew headed by Austin, Undertaker, Angle, Hall, Nash, Hogan, Dudleys, Edge and Test. However, we're told those decisions have not been made.

Was it surprising to you that Hall took the turn he did at the time?

Wrestling Observer 2/25/02

After a very disappointing PPV show, Hulk Hogan put on his best mic performance of his career while going back-and-forth with The Rock to set up the main event at Wrestlemania. What had at first seemed like a huge match on paper for the biggest show of the year, suddenly became a dream match transcending generations as the two went verbally toe-to-toe before an entranced crowd in Chicago.

The handshake, staredown, and heads toward the camera were reminiscent of the famous face-offs in the recent WWF promotional video, most notably last year's Austin vs. Rock match, which holds the company's live gate and the all-time overall revenue records for pro wrestling. Then it got a little silly, as after an attack of Rock by Hogan, Scott Hall and Kevin Nash, he was put in an ambulance. Supposedly Hogan drove a forklift into the ambulance where Rock was locked in, leaving him with unspecified serious injuries in a scene that seemed right out of an action movie. It wasn't needed, as the mic work had already sold the match better than anything possible could have done. But maybe it was felt it was needed to do that something spectacular for the NWO's first TV appearance that was lacking at the PPV the night before, as well as try to give Raw more of a less predictable edge. We had first heard of the forklift destroying the ambulance plan about a week back, but it seemed to be geared toward happening at Wrestlemania or the Raw the day after, where Hogan would put Rock over, but the NWO would use that to get their heat back. That timing would have been better anyway, because they would need a big follow-up angle, and could keep Rock off television for several weeks to make it mean something, rather than have to rush him back due to only four weeks between PPV shows.

In HHH-like fashion, when he was "nearly killed," then came back with nary a scratch a few weeks later, the angle will keep Rock off television for only a few weeks. The plan was, due to commitments in doing promotional work for "Scorpion King" combined with having had so little time at home so far this year and with a new baby, that Rock was given off next week's tapings in Providence and Boston. He was also going to miss the Raw taping on 3/4 in Austin, as will Chris Jericho, Ric Flair, Kane and others due to still being on the Japan, Singapore and Malaysia tour. They will still be selling his injury while he works overseas, and his return will likely be either on the Smackdown live show on 3/7 in San Antonio, or the 3/11 Raw in Detroit, which would be the final Raw before Wrestlemania.

The instant you knew the nWo was a bust but Hogan was going to be the hook was when?

How dumb was the ambulance gimmick between Rock & Hogan?

Did nWo have any issues with creative?

Wrestling Observer 3/4/02

The one that was supposed to be the gimmee, wasn't. The return of Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall to the WWF drew a 4.70 rating (4.35 first hour; 5.00 second hour) and a seven share. The rating was up only six percent from the previous week. It was the second highest rated Raw of the year, trailing the 1/7 show, which did a 4.93 for the return of HHH.

Unlike with the HHH show, where they kept him off until the final segment, this show featured Hogan, Hall and Nash all over the show. The first quarter's 4.0 rating was above the usual open for the show, but still a disappointment for a segment which not only had the Hogan, Hall and Nash debut on TV, but the star power of Austin. The show had what would be considered a healthy build for the next 30 minutes.

Was the business just in a cooling off period and the nWo couldn’t save it?

Wrestling Observer 3/18/02

Going into the biggest show of the year, a major cloud of uncertainty about the future of the WWF, and for that matter, American wrestling in general, has hit.

The NWO, for numerous reasons, are being talked of internally by many as a major flop due to the lack of increase in ratings. In fairness, while the short-term ratings boost ended up being limited to exactly one episode of Smackdown, the return of Hogan, Hall and Nash did spark the buy rate for No Way Out, and the Hogan-Rock marquee value and name Wrestlemania will probably prove to be a huge success this week. That is far less of a certainty than it appeared to be just a few weeks ago, and few are predicting a PPV number close to the record setting level of the Austin vs. Rock match last year.

But there was never any thought there would be any serious problems until after Wrestlemania anyway. The period after Wrestlemania historically has been funny. In the early days of Wrestlemania, the post-Wrestlemania letdown of business was considered a given, the inevitability of building everything up for a climax and then having to start new programs. It happened after the first three shows. But then, after No. 4 in 1988, a period when everyone would have expected the letdown with Hulk Hogan, the company's biggest draw, off doing the movie "No Holds Barred," business was remarkably strong. Randy Savage and Ted DiBiase carried the company feuding over the big belt, it proved to be the beat post-Wrestlemania ever, showing it wasn't an inevitability. The biggest post-Mania drop came in 1992, when Hogan once again took time off in the wake of the steroid scandal. Unfortunately, that drop lasted for most of the next three-and-a-half years, coming back at about the same time the company started pulling away from the drug testing that led to having less marketable physiques than the opposition. There was a post-Mania decline again in 1996, but that didn't happen again until 2001, which was the worst post-Mania TV ratings decline in nine years, precipitated by the heel turn of Austin. Now, while there has been a house show comeback the past few months and ratings are higher than they had bottomed out during football season, last year had programs being built up (Austin against both HHH, which never materialized due to HHH delaying his planned turn, and Rock, which did materialize but came at a time when people didn't care) for post-Mania that were obvious leading into the show. This year the only thing obvious is a split that will theoretically force the company to put more time into acts they've spent most of the past year establishing as not being "good enough" for the people to get behind.

What went wrong with the NWO or an argument can be made, has anything went wrong other than disappointing ratings stemming from bad television? After all, the company is selling out shows at a better rate than it has in months. Merchandise is now moving at levels the company hasn't seen since the heyday of the Austin 3:16 black t-shirts. The ratings do tell a different story. It appears once the Invasion was botched and ECW and WCW were established in the fans' eyes as non-competitive brands, bringing back bigger stars from one of those companies wasn't going to move business. I believe it would have been different short term had people like Flair, Goldberg and even Hogan been involved in last summer's angle, but the mind set involved in the booking, that a McMahon had to own it and people who weren't McMahon creations weren't going to be put over any McMahon creations ultimately doomed it. Now, I don't believe the inevitable last home run, Goldberg, after already disappointing the fans who would have cared will have any different results aside from perhaps one big curiosity buy rate. Short-term, building the anticipation and hiding the shortcomings seemed to at least make this one easy at least through the big show. Hogan and Nash know how to talk to McMahon and McMahon sees them as his creations to begin with, so they've been able to get a lot more favorable portrayals. But they were still established right away as part of the nightly unrealistic entertainment.

It seemed like a simple formula to execute. Heels get heat until the big show and they shouldn't be put in a position to sell until that point. While the debut in Chicago seemed a huge success, something the Smackdown number against the Olympics, seemed to also show, the cartoon nature of the build-up has seemed to doom it since that point. Some think the moment the Hogan-Rock confrontation degenerated into the parking lot that it was over. But after that Smackdown, it was no longer an outsiders angle, and it went from the aura of something much bigger to "just another cartoon wrestling angle." The incredible viewership turnoff at that point should have signalled what the modern fans didn't want. Since nobody has been able to ascertain what fans want, perhaps the best method is to at least avoid an overemphasis on what they don't. On the Smackdown, before the largest audience to watch a WWF television show since last summer, Hall was kidnapped, bound and gagged while Hogan and Nash limped around backstage looking for him. They even did as much as having them run away from a tire iron wielding Austin. Nash and Hogan had to run. The most elementary mistake of making people who need to be larger than life exposed as old men who can't move.

It is no longer just the fans, but nearly everyone it seems privately in the company have expressed the frustration of repeating the WCW mistakes. Why is nobody ever helping Austin and Rock when they get beaten down? How come there isn't even a storyline explanation? How can you practically murder someone, and three weeks later they come back, unharmed? Didn't they learn anything when they did that with HHH a few years ago in a similar skit? Apparently not. There was no value in exposing Hogan, Nash and Hall in the ring before Wrestlemania. Even with Rock losing, the second confrontation means so much less in this instance and the only solace is that it is Wrestlemania and that name is so strong it will make the PPV a probable success. Besides, like with Ric Flair, Hogan at this stage of his career has to be a babyface, which most likely is going to happen. The heel thing worked because fans got sick of him. But there's a whole new generation of fans who don't know about his downside, and see him as an aging all-time great, which, whether it be Bruno Sammartino, Perro Aguayo, Baba, Inoki or Flair or even former heels like Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe at the end, people just aren't going to boo a guy in that situation.

They already saw when Rock's return (because he had wrestled for free on television) at SummerSlam and HHH's return (because he did as well) at Royal Rumble drew disappointing PPV numbers as compared to Austin's two returns (because he didn't). The formula is simple. Their own business over recent times only proves it. And if anything, Rock and HHH were good enough workers that there was no threat of exposing them by having them wrestle early but it's the novelty aspect that's the draw. Hogan, Hall and Nash don't fit into that category, and before Raw on Monday, Hall had worked twice, and has diminished his star power each time. It was so easy to lay out, because the NWO shouldn't have sold anything for anyone and been used sparingly but wisely until at least after the big show, at which point the faces did have to get some retribution. Instead, between the non-believability of the angles, the NWO going back and forth before the show, you have what looks to the public like a rerun of the failed invasion angle to newer fans, and a rerun of things they saw in a now dead company to longer-term fans.

This has been the WWF's biggest problem for the last year and has resulted in so many screwed up angles, is that they make simple things complicated. They think they are producing a television adventure show. And with talent, they think they are doing, as silly as this sounds, 90s All Japan Pro Wrestling as far as who gets on top.

The adventure show mentality allows them to ignore the most simple parts of booking, which is, protecting the people you want to push and constantly creating new stars on the rise. And above all, giving your storylines enough of a thread of reality that the audience doesn't feel insulted pretending it's real. You don't have to be Bill Watts and be deadly serious at all times, and I do believe you need humor in today's wrestling and a wide variety of type of products on a television show. If anything, it's much harder, not easier, to get the audience to react than ever before even if the storylines aren't insulting to the intelligence and make fans feel bad about being consumers. As the so-called future of the company was at stake, the crowd in Detroit was having a ball at the building chanting "What," which also meant, they were paying no attention to what Vince McMahon was saying in that skit except to wait for him to end a sentence for their cue.

Getting fans behind characters and then not having those characters let the fans down, while constantly stumbling while climbing due to unforeseen things thrown in their path, is a climb to the top people can get behind. Modern fans won't get behind people who let them down due to stupidity, impotency against the top guys, or incompetency. Nobody, with the exception of HHH, Steve Austin, and Undertaker, have been protected. Rock was on fire when he came back, and it didn't last long, many pointing to his downfall as something special to when he was selling evenly for Shane McMahon and doing a job on TV for Stephanie. Rock became just another clown at the circus doing the bidding for the owners, rather than any kind of a pro wrestling hero who was set apart from the crowd other than he was more famous and did cool promos. His drawing power waned. Remember the Austin-Rock rematches after the record-setting Wrestlemania? Austin was protected, but his turn took his edge away. Undertaker has destroyed as many upcoming characters as the WCW booking committee did.

As silly as a WWF/All Japan booking comparison sounds, because from a believability standpoint they couldn't be more diametrically opposed, there is a philosophical similarity. In the early 90s, when that company was on fire, the quality of the wrestlers on top was so off the charts, that almost nobody in the world could come in and perform to the standard expected. This left the company going years with running the same awesome main events over-and-over again. Eventually, even before the guys started breaking down injury-wise and match quality diminished, the newness had long since wore off. While they satisfied their loyal audience, the casual base diminished. WWF has created a standard, in their mind, and perhaps in the fans' as well by beating down everyone who has climbed the ladder since the ascension of HHH two plus years ago, that a main eventer has to be so good in every aspect, that with the exception of a freak like Kurt Angle, who has had his own portrayal problems, nobody new is good enough to fit in on top. They're too short. They're physique isn't good enough. Their interviews aren't good enough. Their work isn't good enough. The crowd doesn't react to them after a two week push is given up on. This is forgetting their own history, of course.

Austin was a flop when he came to the WWF at first as the Ringmaster, HHH flopped as a top guy with one gimmick after another before standing next to Shawn Michaels and Chyna got him over as a star. Mick Foley then made him a superstar the old-fashioned way, putting him over an established superstar, clean, time-after-time. The fans turned on Rock for being forced down their throat too quickly, but his unique charisma was enough to turn that around, actually remarkably fast. Even with Rock, you're talking about the kind of charisma that comes across only a few times in a lifetime and we used to joke that if he was in WCW, once he stumbled, he'd have been put on the back burner and tagged as not having major star power. That may also hold true if he came into WWF today. So we've got Misawa, Kawada and Kobashi here in the same position for years, with Undertaker as a combination of Steve Williams and Stan Hansen as the big guy who isn't as good but because of rep destroys every up-and-comer anyway while being close to the same level. And that formula also worked for years, like this one has, even with people recognizing its future limitations even during the best of business days.

If Mania is to be huge outside of the live gate in Toronto, it's because of the name and reputation of it, and maybe, because of a general public curiosity of the main event. In all the national advertising, it is Hogan vs. Rock that they are plugging, not Jericho vs. HHH (which at last word seemed to be the leading contender to go on last) or Steve Austin, the latter of whom has been the biggest drawing card on PPV since 1998. It is said this week will be the biggest promotional push for a show in company history. They have saved Wrestlemanias in the past that didn't have a major buzz with strong go-home weeks. There has also never been a WWF title match on a Wrestlemania with the possible exception of Undertaker vs. Sid in 1997, that has so little steam. There has definitely never been a champion going in with less steam, as Jericho was project to begin with, and then emasculated totally in the build-up where he became a bit player carrying the belt and screwing up with the dog that HHH and Stephanie are fighting over.

Unless there is a brilliant idea on the table, the NWO figures not to have much legs after this show, whether they go over in the matches or add X-Pac, or bring in celebrities. And then what? Like WCW, a crew of wrestlers that the fans long ago lost faith in, who aren't ready for a top position. And if they won't get a top position, it means more matches from the same mix, with diminishing returns as is history for all stale companies.

Next up on the schedule after Mania is the split. It's been put off so many times that it's almost become comedy to talk about. The split, seemingly, will force new wrestlers to get more television time and be put in the mid-card mix. I hate to make judgements on it because we don't know how it'll be done, who will be on what team, and how the new shows will differ. It came off like a much better idea last summer when the company was hotter and had a lot of new talent that was fresh. In addition, with Rock now having tentative plans to take a few months off this summer to film an action comedy, it weakens the main event depth, particularly since the original idea was to build one show around Austin and the other around Rock. Each show is expected to have a roster of 30 to 40 wrestlers, which will mean most of the "name" talent that has been working HWA and some in OVW, as well as some developmental talent that has been touring house shows, will be brought to television at that point. A big test is do they get brought in, like Val Venis and Mr. Perfect, to flounder, or do they get brought in with the idea of making superstars.

Not helping morale any are the line of pay cuts that have been discussed over the past week. Several wrestlers have been asked to take cuts, although with income based on working shows and how business is doing and spots on the card, it isn't inevitably a pay cut as much as lowering the downside guarantees. Vince McMahon never even got into the business of paying downsides except to a few select top guys that he needed to sign during the wrestling war days, until 1996. At that point he was losing much of the talent bidding between two sides because the other side was offering bigger guaranteed money. As best we can tell, the wrestlers asked to take downside cuts are all wrestlers who haven't been working television ever since the November Alliance disbanding. However, it is expected these downside cuts will also be asked of current television performers whose contracts come due. This crew that has worked some house shows, but was never asked back to television, now going on four months, has been cut along with some of the higher paid developmental guys that for were signed to bigger money contracts at a time when there was competition.

Wrestlers in this category have been told 40 wrestlers fall under the umbrella, although when trying to figure the names, I'm not coming up with anywhere close to that many. The cuts are said to generally be $25,000 per year in downside, with the $125,000 guys asked to drop to $100,000, the $100,000 guys to $75,000 and the $75,000 guys to $52,000. On one hand, it is still a very livable wage for people who at this point aren't major stars. For guys who are not stars, they have better working conditions, easier travel and better money than wrestlers at the same stage of their careers and talent levels in the past have had by a great margin. On the other hand, they are cutting back on the lowest paying guys in the company, who $25,000 per year means a lot more to them than to stars making in the high-six or low-seven figures. The wrestlers have been told that once they are brought back with the split, that the downside drop may likely not affect them, because if they are booked regularly on tours, they are likely to earn more than their downsides anyway. Just not guaranteed. There are wrestlers who had escalating deals, such as, say, $375,000 deals over three years but only making $100,000 for the first year, and they were cut back to $75,000 for all three-years, so the cut is $25,000 per year now, but from a long-term standpoint, it can be construed as quite a bit more. Some have been given the option of a contract buy out, the dreaded career purgatory on the island of Puerto Rico, or agree to the new terms. With the market the way it is for wrestlers, it would be foolish for anyone who wanted a long-term career in pro wrestling not to cooperate. Obviously those being cut are unhappy, because 25% at low numbers greatly affects their lifestyle and some have asked around about hooking up with the various start-ups, but there is nothing but very risky propositions out there as alternatives. At that same time, it would be smart for the developmental talent, particularly those without families, to take advantage of the easier travel schedule and take college courses to prepare just in case. These cuts are being done right after the company has just outlayed so much guaranteed money for the NWO members that haven't moved ratings, and at a time when the company is still profitable. It's the reality of wrestlers today having no leverage in the marketplace, once again showing the long-term dating back to WCW being put out of business. An outsider can make a very strong case WWF already has too many wrestlers under contract when experienced guys are working developmental territories and in some cases sitting at home for much of four months. Since they aren't major contributors, they are from a purely economic standpoint lucky to have jobs. But is also puts uncertainty into the value of a WWF contract when the company will ax guys salaries under contract, through in some cases, no fault of their own, before any sign of financial problems.

The big question mark now is for the wrestlers whose contracts are due these next few months, the biggest name among them being Chris Jericho. Theoretically, Jericho is a much bigger star today than he was nearly three years ago when he came to the WWF. In fact, at least at this writing, he's the world champion. The options are a raise because he's a bigger star or no raise because he has no leverage, which will send a message to everyone. Quite frankly, management is in control now which is one of the affects that was bound to happen with a realistic monopoly, at least as far as national television is concerned. I'd be very surprised if Jericho is given a cut, but as we've seen already, for the guys not being used strongly, that is likely in their future.

How quickly was the thought process of getting away from the nWo?

Wrestling Observer 3/25/02

The original plan for the Austin-Hall match was for Hall to win, with interference coming from both Kevin Nash and X-Pac, who would debut as a new NWO member. This was to prolong the angle and also because of the thought that if both NWO members lost, it would kill the NWO too quickly, as unlike the WCW/ECW Invasion, this group understood the political side of not getting buried and knows how to talk with management. That was before the idea of having Hogan leave the group anyway. The finish was changed during the week. Vince made the call because so many had lobbied him that Hall had become a liability to the company while Austin was going to remain a major player. Hall was said to be in bad condition once again the day of the show. At that point, Austin himself wanted to put an end to the program so not only did he win, but they did a blow-off finish where he destroyed him with no questions, theoretically ending the program.

How did Nash feel about the change in ending?

7. Steve Austin (Steve Williams) pinned Scott Hall in 9:51. Another sloppy match. Shockingly little heat most of the way. Kevin Nash interfered a lot. Austin did a mistimed stunner early. Nash pulled Tim White out of the ring to break the count. Nash came in and they double-teamed very briefly. Austin came back with stunners on both Hall and Nash, but no ref. Jack Doan ran in but Nash again laid him out to stop the count. Austin backdropped Hall over the top to the floor. About six refs ran out and ordered Nash to lave. In the ring, Hall hit a stunner but Austin kicked out. Austin went for another stunner, which was even more mistimed than the first one. He then delivered another stunner, and Hall tried to make up for it by jumping as high as he could in the air in selling it, for the pin. *

How bad was this and did it kill Scott Hall?

Hall and Nash attacked Hogan after the match with Rock.

Kevin Nash gets drafted to Raw with Scott Hall.

Do you think the increase of payroll with Nash, Hall and Hogan and not really turning business around in the long run was worth the investment over the short term business Hogan drew but was it really business?

Putting X-Pac with Nash helped work.

Nash hurts his bicep and is taken off TV on 4/15/02 on Raw. Nash returned on the European PPV Insurrextion 02 to try and help Big Show defeat Steve Austin but it backfired.

Wrestling Observer 6/3/02

Basically here was the Nash & Waltman story from 5/20. They were told by Ed Koskey what the plans were for them on the show. Nash didn't like it, and then Waltman didn't either, since it involved him doing two jobs on the same show. Waltman did tell Koskey he was quitting and told Nash he'd meet him in the car. Nash told Shane McMahon that he'd calm Waltman down and get everything straightened out. Nash then left the building. Vince was told of the situation but there was no way of reading his reaction, although he didn't seem to react big one way or another. They came back and spoke with Jim Ross and Shane, and then with Koskey and Brian Gewertz (who wrote the segment). They got it changed to something more to their liking, in that Nash got to make his statement about Flair not running the NWO, he just runs the Raw brand (Nash hated the idea that Flair would be able to as a storyline bring people in and fire people from the NWO and the way the Hall thing was explained on TV as well as the Booker entree). Both caused a scene, Waltman in particular. Some feel they should have been disciplined for it, but weren't, but Waltman still did the job in the Hardys match. In that sense, they did get away with it even though the feeling is their behavior is yet another detriment to locker room morale

Wrestling Observer 6/10/02

Nash came out and said usually surprises are a letdown, but this isn't, and they played Michaels music. He pranced around. Crowd went wild. After doing the interview two days earlier saying HBK was dead, they did every Shawn & Diesel mannerism from eight years ago. 

The return of Michaels here was almost...a waste?

Wrestling Observer 7/15/02

Kevin Nash will be out of action at least another six months after a surgery on 7/9 to repair a torn left quadriceps from a match on Raw the night before in Philadelphia that was designed to make him into one of the top five or six major players in the company.

Nash, 43, suffered a similar injury to the one which kept HHH out more than seven months, and Nash is not about to go through the same 24/7 rehab program staying in Birmingham as a father as the single and married to the business HHH did last year, plus he's more than ten years older. The injury occurred after doing his first move after tagging in for his first match in more than three months. He had been out of action after rupturing his bicep tendon on 3/25 and undergoing surgery a week later. It was Nash's second major injury with the company in just six matches since signing a two-year contract on 1/18 for approximately $700,000 downside with a 12 date per month maximum.

The match, a ten-man tag main event which Nash hadn't been told he would be wrestling in until the day of the show (he had been booked to start wrestling on 7/12 in Lakeland, FL and had to get his gear shipped from home on the day of the show), with Nash & X-Pac & Big Show & Chris Benoit & Eddy Guerrero vs. Booker T & Goldust & Bubba Ray & Spike Dudley & Rob Van Dam was the main event. The match was designed to get Nash over huge as a monster wrestler, with the storyline that Nash would never tag in until the finish, and then single-handedly lay out all five babyfaces with high kicks before pinning Booker clean with a power bomb. Nash was being given the strong push because the plan was for Nash vs. HHH as the third match from the top at SummerSlam (underneath Rock vs. Brock Lesnar and Hogan vs. Vince) and HHH's opponents are going to be pushed correctly leading up to the big match, as opposed to Rock's.

Nash tagged in, and immediately tapped his left leg, which indicates something strange. He threw the high kick at Booker, but in Booker's landing, he kind of tripped Nash, who tried to step over him and when his left foot was planted, he went down screaming. He grabbed his leg like it was a knee injury, but an MRI revealed it was the same injury as HHH suffered, with the thigh muscle torn completely off the bone. The match fell apart as nobody knew what to do, until Shawn Michaels, who was outside the ring, literally took control, directing traffic, giving orders and superkicking Booker, as Show pinned him after a choke slam. With Nash writhing in legit pain, and Booker on the mat selling, Michaels then gave the interview regarding HHH having until the Vengeance PPV to give his answer about joining the NWO. Obviously, the original plan for his answer was to turn it down to lead to the singles match with Nash.

Nash underwent surgery under Dr. James Andrews, who has in the past operated on Nash for past knee, bicep and elbow problems. Carrying well over 300 pounds at his age, even being 6-10, is clearly too much because this was not one of those injuries from landing wrong or from a high risk spot, but literally, like with HHH, his muscles and tendons are so imbalanced that taking a wrong step leads to tearing a major muscle.

How bad was this to watch from your perspective?

When it was time for Nash’s return in 2003 how close was he to coming back as Diesel? How close did it come to it happening?

Wrestling Observer 4/21/03

WWE: Not really much more to report on the Goldberg-Jericho thing from last week. Goldberg was talking to Nash earlier in the night about his angle where Nash was going to power bomb Jericho and Goldberg made a comment about Jericho’s selling (I believe in reference to the Michaels match from Mania), which naturally got back to Jericho. It is believed either Nash told Jericho, or more likely that Shane Helms overheard the conversation and went to Jericho. Jericho went to Goldberg and said something to the effect of that they were no longer in WCW, and in WWE, guys try to help each other so if he had anything negative to say, to say it to his face or else stay out of his business. The two had words, which heated up and the language got colorful. Apparently, Goldberg went to grab Jericho by the throat, and Jericho grabbed a front facelock and they both went down, when it was quickly broken up. The two had more words after it was broken up, back and forth, before both shook hands. In some circles, Jericho is kind of a locker room hero since Goldberg is the outsider and there is the natural resentment of him for getting a great deal and starting out on top, having never paid his dues, plus Jericho stood up to a guy who is probably a good six inches taller and 55 pounds heavier than he is. Flair is also kind of a quiet hero backstage for what he did to Bischoff, who is quietly hated by the vast majority

How much of a shit stirrer was Nash?

4/12/03 - Kevin Nash returns to the ring teaming with Shawn Michaels & Booker T to face Triple H, Ric Flair & Chris Jericho at a house show. It is Michaels first house show in 5 years.

Backlash 03

World Heavyweight Champion Triple H, Ric Flair, & Chris Jericho defeated Kevin Nash, Shawn Michaels, & Booker T at 17:53 when Triple H pinned Nash by hitting him in the face with a sledgehammer after Nash hit the powerbomb on Jericho

Judgement Day 03

Kevin Nash defeated World Heavyweight Champion Triple H via disqualification at 7:49 when the champion hit referee Earl Hebner with his sledgehammer as Hebner attempted to stop Triple H from using the weapon on Nash; prior to the bout, Shawn Michaels and Ric Flair were scheduled to be in the participants' corners but were ejected for brawling before the opening bell; after the bout, Nash dropped Triple H with a Snake Eyes onto an exposed turnbuckle and hit the powerbomb; moments later, Sgt. Slaughter, Terry Taylor, Tony Garea, and referees came out to help the champion backstage but Nash jumped the champion, fought off Flair, shoved away Michaels, and hit the powerbomb on Triple H through the Raw announce table near the entranceway

How much did Triple H want to work with Nash?

Bad Blood 03

World Heavyweight Champion Triple H pinned Kevin Nash in a Hell in a Cell match at 21:03 with the Pedigree after hitting Nash in the face with a sledgehammer; Mick Foley was the guest referee for the bout; after the match, Ric Flair and Randy Orton came out to help the champion backstage (Hell in a Cell)

Why did Mick Foley get added to the match last minute? Was there a worry it was going to be bad?

Raw 7/7/03

Test pinned Kevin Nash with a boot to the face at 1:47 after pushing an interfering Trish Stratus into Nash; after the bout, Test pushed Trish into the ringside barrier

Test over Nash in 2 minutes?

Raw 7/28/03

Kevin Nash defeated Chris Jericho via disqualification in an impromptu match following a low blow; after the bout, Nash bloodied and brutalized Jericho inside the ring and around ringside until Jericho escaped into the crowd

Any hesitation to put these two together after everything that happened with them in WCW?

Raw 8/4/03

Bill Goldberg defeated Ric Flair via disqualification when Randy Orton interfered; after the bout, a brawl ensued involving Evolution, Shawn Michaels, Kevin Nash, Goldberg, and Chris Jericho; moments thereafter, Steve Austin announced that the new main event for Summer Slam would feature all six men in an Elimination Chamber match

Nash on top again? Was it just because of the contract at this point?

Rob Van Dam pinned Chris Jericho with a split-legged moonsault; after the bout, Jericho - blaming the earlier brawl with Kevin Nash on his loss - challenged Nash to a hair vs. hair match

Who thought this was a good idea?

Raw 8/18/03

Chris Jericho pinned Kevin Nash in a hair vs. hair match after hitting him in the face with brass knuckles; after the bout, Jericho cut off much of Nash's hair before Nash came to; it's important to note that Nash was accidentally hit with a spear from Bill Goldberg earlier in the show during the Highlight Reel

Why was Nash getting his hair cut here?

SummerSlam 03

World Heavyweight Champion Triple H (w/ Ric Flair) defeated Shawn Michaels, Bill Goldberg, Kevin Nash, Randy Orton, and Chris Jericho in an Elimination Chamber match at 19:15; Jericho pinned Nash at 8:05 with a roll over after Michaels hit the superkick as Nash attempted to powerbomb Jericho; several moments later, before leaving the ring, Nash hit the powerbomb on both Jericho and Orton; Goldberg pinned Orton with the spear at 13:01; Goldberg pinned Michaels with the spear and Jackhammer after avoiding the superkick at 15:20; Goldberg pinned Jericho with the spear and Jackhammer at 16:05; prior to Michaels' elimination, Goldberg speared Jericho through one of the plexiglass chambers; Triple H pinned Goldberg after avoiding the spear and hitting him in the face with a sledgehammer thrown in the ring by Flair; after the bout, Flair, Orton, and Triple H bloodied Goldberg before handcuffing him to the cage so that Triple H could once again hit him in the head with the sledgehammer

This is the last PPV main event of Kevin Nash’s career. Nash disappears from the WWE for now. He films the Punisher. He films The Longest Yard. 

Kevin Nash returns at the Royal Rumble in 2011.