Grilling JR - Fully Loaded 2000 [Show Notes] (Patreon)

Fully Loaded 2000

Coming off King of the Ring 2000 which featured a main event of The Undertaker, Kane & The Rock facing Triple H, Vince McMahon & Shane McMahon where the WWF Title changed hands with Rock pinning Vince McMahon while Triple H was champion. 

Wrestling Observer 7/3/00:

WWF cable programming is moving from the USA Network to Viacom stations TNN and MTV.

How much fear that there was a lawsuit issue that would’ve prevented the move from USA to TNN?

“WWF had released both its quarterly and annual business report.

For the fiscal year ending on 4/30, WWF/E took in a record $379.3 million on expenses of $293.6 million for a before tax profit of $85.7 million. For the period of May 1, 1998 through April 30, 1999, those same figures were $251.5 million gross income, $195.1 million in expenses for a before tax profit of $56.4 million.

In breaking down the growth, revenues from both live events, PPV and television grew from $170.0 million to $265.5 million, an increase of 56%, both from increasing ticket prices to live events, growth overall in PPV and increase in advertising revenue from the addition of the Smackdown program in September. A breakdown of the $96.5 million increase in revenues was advertising up $47.8 million, much of it due to the addition of the new Smackdown show, PPV revenue up $25.6 million, live events up $19.2 million (largely through increasing ticket prices as actual attendance only slightly increased) and television rights were up $2.9 million (both from Smackdown and international deals). WWF/E merchandise jumped from $81.4 million to $113.8 million over the course of the past year, which included a $7.5 million jump in internet merchandise revenue.

The new contract with Viacom should lead to a huge increase in television revenue, as the cable contract alone increased in value from the $5.2 million WWF received for this current television season to the $26 million just for the four cable shows it will receive this coming season. In a stock prospectus, CEO Linda McMahon estimated the first season of the XFL would result in $80-85 million in gross revenues and an estimated $120 million in expenses, which would result in a $35-$38 million first year loss, half of which would be paid by NBC, which owns 50 percent of the league.

For the quarter from 2/1 to 4/30, the WWF/E had its biggest gross to date of $116.4 million and a profit of $19.4 million. The quarter came in well ahead of budget due to the extremely strong performance of the three PPV shows during that time frame. The February PPV show, headlined by the retirement gimmick of Mick Foley, drew what up until that point in time was the largest number of buys (480,000) and most revenue in history for a so-called non-big five PPV event. It was followed by Wrestlemania, which was the largest grossing pro wrestling event in history, garnering 825,000 buys, beating the old record of 820,000 buys set the previous year, not to mention an undisclosed percentage of the viewership purchasing a 12-hour all day plan for $49.95. The 4/30 PPV, headlined by the return of Steve Austin, drew more than 600,000 buys, destroying the non-major record set two months earlier by the Foley retirement show, thereby easily making it the most successful run of PPV events in the history of the genre.

Even so, the total profit for the quarter actually declined from the $21.8 million for the period from November 1, 1999 through January 31, 2000. The major differences were due to $1.1 million in expenditures for the start up of the XFL, and approximately $4 million in added legal and accounting costs to put together the deals with NBC, Viacom as well as start up costs for WWF New York and the out of court settlement of the Jim Hellwig lawsuit.

USA Network ran the numbers on matching Viacom's complete bid, and in doing so, calculated the network would lose more than $18 million over the next three years if doing so, which resulted in attempting to keep the programming through an interpretation of the right to match any outside bid clause in the contract. If USA Network had signed contracts for each individual show, as opposed to a deal with the company to provide programming, its case would have been stronger. USA Network, before filing the lawsuit, had downplayed the loss of WWF programming noting that if the ratings for Heat and Raw were taken out of the network's weekly schedule, it would still be the No. 1 rated cable network in prime time and matching the entire deal couldn't be done profitably.

Heat will start on MTV in September while the other shows move to TNN. There is expected to be a ratings decline, although nobody can predict how severe, in moving from the No. 1 prime time cable network to TNN, which ranked as No. 15 among cable stations in prime time this past season. However, WWF, this past season in going to UPN, which was drawing no ratings, drew similar overall viewership numbers to Raw (ratings were lower because network ratings are calculated differently than cable ratings) for Smackdown and WWF numbers for both Raw and Smackdown are so much higher than either networks prime time average that it is clearly destination programming which should do close to its current levels no matter what station it's on as long as the station has the same exposure levels. Currently TNN is available in a little more than 76 million homes while USA Network is available in 77.7 million homes, but whatever difference will probably be even more negligible by the time the TV season opens since the WWF Raw show immediately makes TNN into a major player on cable.

Where this leaves the rest of the industry as the new TV season starts in September will probably be decided imminently.

"A week from now, I'll either be a champ or a chump," said Paul Heyman.

At press time, USA Network had not made a proposal to ECW, but feelers were sent out immediately upon the conclusion of the trial and meetings are expected later this week. FOX has also had discussions of late with both WCW and ECW.”

WWF: Raw on 6/26 in Worcester, MA drew a sellout 10,829 paying $331,365. Show opened with a Rock interview. Vince came out and basically found religion. At least that's where I thought he was going. It was actually even sillier. He said he was going home to produce some more babies with Linda because he's a genetic jackhammer. Vince wanted to shake hands with Rock, but Rock gave him a rock bottom. Vince bowed off TV for the time being. No more of that Mil Mascaras strutting for a while. Rikishi beat Benoit via DQ in an IC title match in 2:26 when Tazz interfered but hit Rikishi instead of Benoit with a chair. Rikishi threw punch after punch without selling the arm. Benoit destroyed Rikishi with a diving head-butt after. I can't believe they are going to do a Rikishi vs. Tazz program so it really didn't make sense. X-Pac pinned Jericho in 2:44 when Stephanie distracted the ref and Dogg interfered. They held Jericho for Stephanie to slap him and give him a low blow. Venis beat Guerrero via DQ in a European title match in 2:55 when Chyna interfered. Chyna & Guerrero gave him a double-team DDT. Michaels came out. The only thing good I can say about him is at least he wasn't wearing those shorts. Aside from that, he looks as dated as anything on the show. HHH came old and mentioned how he lost the title the previous night and never did the job. Michaels didn't say how proud he was of having taught his protege the game he mastered as an active wrestler, but many did pick up on it. Anyway, after a zillion turns, they are back being best friends. Michaels then introduced Foley as commissioner. Foley made fun of HHH's boring 20:00 promos by doing one of his own. Actually Foley was hilarious in everything he did on the show. He set up a three-way with HHH, Angle and Rock as the main event. Angle is now wearing a robe an oversized crown, like a younger, fitter version of 1980s Harley Race. Lawler beat Malenko in a stripper match. They did this in December in Houston. When someone is thrown over the top, either Kat or Terri had to take off clothes. They were both there in bra and panties when Malenko went over, meaning Terri had to take off her bra. She did, but Stevie Richards came out as the evil censor. When they did this exact same match in December, they had the exact same ending. A Battle Royal to earn a title shot on Smackdown (they pushed the hell out of Smackdown throughout the show, showing the weaker than usual rating didn't go unnoticed) ending with Acolytes winning in 3:53 after throwing out Saturn, who teamed with Brown. Undertaker & Kane destroyed Edge & Christian in a non-title in 1:27 when Taker pinned Edge after a choke slam. They made their tag champs, and with the exception of Foley and Angle, the most entertaining pieces of talent on the show, just get squashed. I swear I thought I was watching Hogan & Nash at work explaining how the young guys were getting a rub just being in the ring with them while they make them look like they're not in their league. Taker can't do much so I guess it's the only way. HHH vs. Angle vs. Rock ended with Rock pinning HHH with a rock bottom in 8:54 in a pretty good match. Jericho interfered snapping HHH's neck on the ropes leading to the pin

Results from the 6/27 show in Hartford, CT. It opened with a dark match with Steve Bradley (who has been working Puerto Rico) & Scott Vick over the Dupps. For Heat, Too Cool beat Taka & Funaki when GMS pinned Funaki with the hip hop drop. After the match Taka & Funaki shook hands with them and they all danced. Malenko came out with two women and said he's beaten every light heavyweight and challenged anyone. Jacqueline came out. Malenko made her tap to the cloverleaf. In an elimination match, T&A & Stratus bet Hardys & Lita. Jeff pinned Albert. Lita pinned Stratus after a moonsault. Test pinned Jeff. Test pinned Matt with the melt down and finally Test pinned Lita after a high kick. Lita did a great huracanrana and moonsault for near falls before losing. Saturn pinned Gangrel with an elbow off the top. Gangrel has a new shirt. Match got no reaction. Chaz Warrington & D-Lo Brown, dressed up like the Baldies in ECW as a new tag team, beat Joey Abs & Rodney when Brown pinned Rodney with a frog splash. In a segment that won't air, Rock came out and they introduced WyClef Jean, who is in the front row and plug the video on MTV. They pushed the hell out of WWF New York with fans asking Rock question. He did the poontang pie deal with Jonathan Coachman. Smackdown opened. HHH demands both a match with Rock and with Jericho. After HHH leaves, Foley does the Dude Love dance. Rikishi & Guerrero NC Benoit & Venis ends with T&A attacking Chyna and Too Cool making the save. Too Cool, Chyna, Rikishi and Guerrero all danced, so Guerrero is now an official face. Angle did some funny byplay with Kaientai, explaining that he was King. They didn't understand. He then said he was Emperor and Head Ninja. Bob Holly then kicked the crown. Angle talked about how they don't have a crown repair shop in Hartford and pinned Bob after the Olympic slam. They switched the Edge & Christian vs. Acolytes to singles matches against Taker & Kane. Stephanie blames Vince for HHH losing the title. She said she and HHH have a good relationship while Vince & Linda's marriage is a mess. Foley said the last time he was in Hartford HHH retired him. He announced HHH & X-Pac & Dogg against Jericho & Dudleys, and Foley then talked about loving being in the commissionary position. Godfather came out to do his mic work but Richards came out as Steven the censor. Didn't Lenny & Lodi already do that one in WCW. Richards said he's going to make sure there are no naked women and no promotion of sexual activities. They have to make the fight personal. For as smart as the WWF is, they sure never learn from their mistakes. That's why they'll always end up falling in the mud at some point no matter how many millions the company makes and why the stock will always be one stupid move away from dropping. Buchanan pinned Godfather clean with the kick. Christian pinned Kane when Tazz hit Kane with a chair, followed by two more chair shots. Undertaker pinned Edge after a choke slam. Christian ran in until Kane made the save and Undertaker power bombed Edge while Kane choke slammed Christian. Crash was wrestling Snow in a hardcore title match when Blackman came out and hit Crash with nunchakus and pinned him to win the title. Blackman got in his truck and the Mean Street Posse attacked him trying to get the belt but he beat all of them up. HHH & Dogg & X-Pac beat Jericho & Dudleys when HHH pinned D-Von after a pedigree. They teased putting Stephanie trough the table but X-Pac saved her and Jericho dropkicked HHH off the apron through the table.

The New York Times on 6/25 ran a feature on Brock Lesnar signing with the WWF. It said that Lesnar will report for pro wrestling training on 8/1 for Ohio Valley Wrestling (he had already committed to numerous amateur wrestling summer camps before signing with the WWF on 6/8). Jim Ross in the article said they have no plans to rush Lesnar but said they hoped to have him on the WWF roster within one year (which would be rushing things as people who progress at the pace of Kurt Angle are huge exceptions to the rule). The article credited Gerald Brisco, who in the 1960s when he attended Oklahoma State University was the roommate of J Robinson, the current University of Minnesota wrestling coach (another U of Minn. wrestler, Shelton Benjamin, is already training in Louisville), with being the key in getting him to sign with the WWF. The story said that Lesnar turned down offers from WCW and All Japan (actually it was New Japan). Lesnar, according to the story, was not a standout in either football or high school wrestling. He's 270 pounds with nine percent bodyfat according to the story and sort of resembles Dolph Lundgren. After high school, at Bismark State College in North Dakota, had a 53-3 record and won the national Junior College heavyweight championship in 1998, which got him the scholarship to Minnesota where he took second in the nation behind eventual world champion Stephen Neal in 1999. His record at Minnesota over the two years was 55-3

How big a get was Brock Lesnar? Before he even gets on TV it’s getting published in the New York Times. He really was the Next Big Thing wasn’t he?

Raven has not signed a contract with WWF but the sides have come to a verbal understanding and it's basically a question of when he gets his ECW release that he'll be coming to WWF. There are no major guarantees so he's going to have to prove himself due to his baggage and past as opposed to people who are brought in with basically a guaranteed push

Was Raven a hard negotiation? Was there pushback from people in the company due to his past with the company and the rumors of him and Shane being out all night partying leading to some idea that it shouldn’t happen. Any truth to the story that when Raven was hired Vince said in a meeting, “Who the fuck hired Raven?” Did Heyman try to sabotage him in the negotiations and was the rumored drug problems something that stood in the way of his hiring?

Smackdown tapings 6/20 in Memphis drew a sellout 16,061 paying $396,486. Madison Square Garden was the 11th consecutive sellout at the building with 19,588 total which was 16,975 paying $511,857. Not including the PPV in Boston, the arena merchandise for the week was $297,631 which was $6.79 per head which is below the normal standard of recent weeks and that's with MSG in the mix. The MSG gate was by about $2,000, the largest non-PPV gate once again for wrestling in the history of the building. It was announced as the 14th straight at the start of the show although the last show after the show was said to have been the tenth straight. It was the 14th show in a row that drew what could be called a full house, as there were two shows that came just shy in 1998 that would have to be considered sellouts to make 14

Wow business was so red hot. The boys had to be happy because the gates are up which equals more pay. Who was the chief complainer on the roster at this point for pay?

Wrestling Observer 7/10/00

Johnny Ace informed the office (AJPW) that he wasn’t coming and is expected to take a backstage job with WCW...Ace had apparently been interested elsewhere as he had a try-out more than one year ago with the WWF, but WWF wasn’t interested in him.

Too bad for no Bruce impersonation here. What about Johnny Ace didn’t make sense a year ago and without him making this move into WCW right here at this point do you think the point of history for you changes with him and his eventual move to WWF and replacing you as head of Talent Relations and now still with WWE?

Caught the "Discovery Channel" special called "Wrestling School," based on Rick Bassman's Ultimate Pro Wrestling School in Southern California, which airs on 7/11. The show follows the training and indie matches of several wrestlers, building to a visit to both a practice and a house show by Bruce Prichard of the WWF, along with following two of the wrestlers to doing a dark match at a Smackdown taping in San Jose and eventually a few of them getting developmental contracts. The highlight of the show is John Sena, who has the look of a young Sting, a physique of a competitive bodybuilder (in fact, there are clips of him in competition) and a tremendous interview delivery in his character of "The Prototype," which is a little too corny 80s as a character but his ability to do an interview in character would probably translate well into any character. Until you see him wrestle in the ring, he looks like a can't miss. Watching him wrestle, you see that he needs a lot of work, but if he gets that down, he has a shot at being a genuine star. One somewhat funny exchange was after he potatoed female wrestler Loony Lane (Jenny Lane, also featured heavily on the show) with a punch, and when he apologized for screwing up, she said it was okay because it made it easier for her to sell it. A highlight of the piece showed him stocking up on groceries for a week with 40 pounds of meat, 35 pounds of chicken, seven dozen eggs and a few gallons of milk and nothing else, making one ask the obvious question of how he can stay so cut up and muscular eating that volume of food.

Whatever happened to this John Sena guy? Think he’s got a shot?

Vic Grimes' WWF contract wasn't renewed. The feeling seems to be that he didn't improve on his in-ring work and conditioning over the year he was under contract. He is technically still with ECW, but hasn't been used because he moved back to Northern California and with money being tight, they aren't going to fly him in

Tell me about Key and the supposed drug dealer gimmick for Vic Grimes before he was sent to ECW.

The 7/23 Fully Loaded PPV will be headlined by Rock vs. Benoit for the WWF title, HHH vs. Jericho and Angle vs. Undertaker, so they are giving Benoit, Jericho and Angle each their highest profile matches on this show. They are putting Benoit with Shane as his manager. I think it's real important the buy rate stays at a competitive level or else fingers will be pointed at people for not being main event caliber. Rock vs. Benoit and HHH vs. Jericho should be great matches if their shorter TV bouts that have already taken place are any indication. I have no idea how Angle is going to be able to get a match out of Undertaker. Whether you want to chalk this up to being perceptive, paranoid, or simply that plans change so quickly in wrestling that looking back a few weeks makes things not make sense, there is an awareness that Benoit and Jericho are coming off PPV's where they were eliminated in the first round and coming off no major wins each (and in both cases, one or more major losses) and are now expected to draw a PPV from the main event position

Do you agree with the assessment it’s going to be tough for Benoit and Jericho to be considered draws after not being held in high regard at the last pay-per-view. This was the highest point in a main card setting for all 3. Was it make or break? Sink or swim? Or knowing the plan all along was for them to not go over the perfect setup guys for the 3 going over needing great workers to put on great performances and have great matches for the guys going over?

Raw is the funniest show on television took place on 7/3 in Orlando, FL. Whoever came up with the repartee in the various Foley segments needs to be given a major raise and Foley needs to be working in a comedy sitcom. The wrestling wasn't bad, either. Benoit beat Guerrero via DQ in 4:17 when Chyna interfered. After the match, Benoit KO'd Guerrero with a belt shot and put the crossface on Chyna, who sold it big. At least someone did on the show. Since it was a European title match, Benoit couldn't win clean. Aside from Guerrero messing up a victory roll spot, it was a hell of a TV match. Foley came out to a big pop. He joked that he thought Hegstrand (Road Warrior Hawk) was behind him because the pop was so big (the Road Warriors used to incessantly talk about how big their pops were, even in their sad final days in the WWF when their pops weren't any larger than anyone elses). Rock and Shane came out to set up Rock vs. Shane for the title as the main event. HHH double count out Rikishi in an IC title match in 4:31. Ross called Rikishi the Sultan of Swat, which was Babe Ruth's old nickname, although I'm sure it was meant as an inside reference to Rikishi formerly being The Sultan. Match was passable. Jericho rammed HHH into the ring steps after the match and Rikishi gave him the stinky face. Do you realize Trish Stratus has never looked the same since he did that to her. Venis beat Jeff Hardy in 5:55 with the money shot. Real good match. Stratus distracted the ref while Tazz choked Jeff out. Foley said there would be a handicap match with Jericho vs. Dogg & X-Pac, but then came out and said he didn't mention it was a 3-on-2 and Jericho's partners would be the Acolytes. Jericho pinned X-Pac in 3:55 with a lionsault in another good match. They teased a spot where Jericho took a Bradshaw tag in place of Faarooq, who made a dirty face. HHH threw food all over the dressing room. Undertaker & Kane beat Edge & Christian via DQ in a mop up. E&C got no offense. Angle hit Undertaker in the knee with the scepter for the DQ in 2:24. It actually didn't stink for action, but they should have at least allowed the tag champs some offense even if they should have done a lot of bouncing around as well, since they were also being laid out after the match. The only reason this isn't going to end up like Kidman in the Hogan feud is that E&C are so funny on the mic they can somewhat get away with it. Undertaker didn't sell the shot much anyway. Kane choke slammed Edge after while Taker power bombed Christian. Angle did an interview saying he was helping out his friends and meant no ill will toward Undertaker. Malenko beat Crash in 2:02 after a power bomb in a real good short match for the light heavy strap. Jacqueline & Ivory attacked Malenko after the match. Foley and Brisco did one of the funniest promos ever with Brisco begging Foley to cancel the Rock vs. Shane match since Shane was hurt. Dudleys beat Angle & Brooklyn Brawler in 3:50 when Angle walked out on his partner, who got the 3-D. After the match they power bombed Brawler through a table. Another real good match even with Brawler involved. Test pinned Godfather in 1:52 after an elbow. Steven Richards put sacks over the ho's in his role as censor. While I hated it on Smackdown because WWF doesn't need to be provoking bad publicity, on Raw, which the PTC doesn't watch, the character was real funny. Snow read this funny as hell and totally stupid goodbye poem to Blackman, who was attacked by all the lowest rungs of WWF talent (Posse & Kaientai) trying to get the hardcore title while Snow was oblivious to it all. Rock beat Shane in all of ten seconds via DQ when Benoit interfered and put Rock in the crossface after a few chair shots. Shane beat up five refs while Benoit held the hold for about two minutes. Foley finally came out to get Benoit off. Rock got up and sold way too little considering the circumstances. So Shane is now managing Benoit which is great for Benoit

What did you think of the pairing of Shane & Benoit? It had to have been the best mic person to put with Benoit who had shown the tendency to not be able to do the main event promos especially against a guy like the Rock?

7/4 tapings were in Fort Lauderdale, FL. The show came about 1,000 tickets shy of capacity. In a dark match, the Dupps beat Rodney & Joey Abs. Davie, FL Mayor Harry Venis, who has wrestled a few times on indie shows and is being trained for a future WWF angle by Rocky Johnson, came out, announced for some reason as the Mayor of "South Florida." Rodney & Abs stomped on him until the Dupps made the save. Vick pinned Gas in a terrible match. For Heat, Too Cool beat Hardys. Stratus dragged Lita to the back while choking her with her jacket allowing GMS to pin Jeff. Cool and Hardys both saved Lita. Buchanan pinned Crash to reverse his KOR loss. Saturn beat Godfather via DQ. Steven tried to put sacks on the ho's, but both Saturn and Godfather jumped out of the ring. Godfather tried to hit Steven with a stick, he moved, and instead he hit Saturn for the DQ. Snow beat Rios with a new submission move. Bradshaw beat Mideon & Gangrel in a handicap match. For Smackdown, Angle pinned Jericho. Angle apologized to Undertaker before he match. Jericho, since he can't call Stephanie a slut or ho on Smackdown, now calls her a tramp. Stephanie was at ringside at interfered hitting Jericho with a low blow with the scepter to set up Angle's win. Angle was throwing food around in celebration, and got some of the food on Taker's bike. Mideon told Angle it was Taker's bike and Angle ran out of the building and grabbed a taxi. Benoit challenged Rock to a title match. Foley instead made it a six-man for the main event with Edge & Christian & Benoit vs. Chyna & Rock & Guerrero. Dudleys beat Warrington & Brown. Dudleys were about to use a table but Steven grabbed the table and took it backstage. Steven said he was going to stop gratuitous violence. Foley said HHH could have a singles match with Jericho only if he could win a handicap match on Smackdown. Ivory & Jacqueline beat Malenko. Apparently they were practicing early so it wasn't that bad. Malenko came out with two of the women that were Godfather's ho's on Heat. Crash interfered allowing the women to win. Venis beat Rikishi to win the IC title when Tazz hit Rikishi with a WWF TV camera and then the money shot. T&A interfered earlier but Too Cool made the save. Rikishi's belt came off and it was awkward as he tried to hold it on while still wrestling. Blackman pinned Bossman when Snow, disguised as a vendor, hit Bossman with a tray. Undertaker & Kane beat T&A when Kane pinned Albert after a choke slam. Kane was about to choke slam Stratus but Venis pulled her to safety. Kaientai & Brooklyn Brawler beat HHH in a three-on-one. HHH pinned Funaki and Taka and had Brawler laid out, but shoved Earl Hebner. Jericho ran out and laid out HHH with a lionsault right in front of the ref, who counted to three as Brawler pinned HHH. HHH then beat up Funaki, Taka and Brawler after. Brawler even juiced. While he was doing this, Jericho left in HHH's limo. Main saw Guerrero & Chyna & Rock over Edge & Christian & Benoit. Benoit and Rock never locked up and Chyna was kept out until the very end. Chyna pinned Christian with a power bomb. Shane came out and attacked Rock. Rock chased Shane to the back and Benoit put Chyna in the crossface again. After the show went off the air, Rock gave Benoit a people's elbow

I don’t have much to say about this other than Chyna pinning Christian with a power bomb.

Bob Holly had surgery this past week for the broken arm he suffered when Angle moonsaulted him and his knee landed on Holly's forearm. Holly needed both plates and screws inserted in the arm and is expected out of action for three months. Maybe he can come back with a bionic forearm like Lex Luger used to have

Holly was always regarded as one of the toughest guys in the locker room and that was evidenced after this. Did Holly deserve the rep he got?

Tori suffered a shoulder separation the night before King of the Ring in Madison Square Garden. She may need surgery as well. It was not the same injury, although it was the same shoulder, that she had injured first in Japan. Her injury nixes the planned program of X-Pac & Tori vs. Guerrero & Chyna which would have been the first in-ring major program Chyna would have ever worked against another woman. The whole gimmick of Chyna is that she was a woman who worked like she was a male wrestler

Dean Malenko has been working through his shoulder injury

Was Malenko one of the most underrated pickups in WWF history considering his quick transition from wrestler signed from WCW to agent and how long he was in that position for and now his position in AEW?

Big Show will probably return to television imminently, but not go back on the road for a few more weeks

How much of your time during this era was dealing with Big Show and his weight and injuries?

WWF has had talks with Eric Angle, the older brother of Kurt, but he hasn't been signed to a developmental deal. WWF is also talking with at least three wrestlers who failed to make the team in the recent Olympic trials, but none have signed at press time

Was Kurt pushing to have his brother signed or was he just someone on the radar anyway and it helped he was Kurt’s brother?

Ross & Lawler auditioned for an XFL announcing job for this coming season

Did you know what you were getting yourself into?

Smackdown tapings on 6/27 in Hartford, CT drew a sellout 11,007 paying $300,241. 7/1 in Houston drew a sellout 15,871 paying $475,365 (I think that's nine straight sellouts for Houston) and 7/2 in Tampa drew 11,029 paying $316,026. Because of it being a holiday weekend, no merchandise figures for this week are available. In Houston, Bossman & Buchanan were still teaming up and actually won since they faced the soon-to-be broken up Headbangers, although they teased dissension throughout. They pushed the upcoming Jericho vs. HHH feud on the show. First HHH interfered in the Jericho vs. Angle match, causing Angle to lose via DQ. Jericho was laid out by both a pedigree and Olympic slam. Godfather said that he was no longer allowed to do the "fatty" line on TV but could do it at house shows. After Acolytes beat Snow & Blackman, Crash came out and hit Blackman with a garbage can lid to try and win the hardcore title but Snow saved Blackman and Crash ran off. Main event saw Rock over HHH. At one point HHH hit Rock with the title belt but ref Earl Hebner was bumped. When Tim White ran out, Rock kicked out, and HHH decked him. HHH hit the pedigree but no ref (what a moron for punching two refs at this point, huh?) and Jericho came in and gave him a lionsault, but when Hebner recovered, HHH kicked out. After all this, Rock used a people's elbow for the pin. They pushed hard the fans Axxess convention on 3/30 and Wrestlemania at the Astrodome on 4/1. In Tampa, they had Mideon hit the ring dressed up like the Undertaker, and Gerald Brisco, coming out to "Real American," hit the ring and put him in the figure four. Brisco, since he lives in Tampa and gets to push his body shop on the local house shows, got to play face for the night. They also had Crash Holly regain the hardcore title from Blackman and seconds later had Blackman win it back. At the show they announced Survivor Series coming to Tampa on 11/19.

Gerald Brisco and Mideon working here needs to find it’s way to the Network don’t you think?

WCW Bash at the Beach where Hulk Hogan, Jeff Jarrett, Vince Russo and Eric Bischoff do the big shoot-work-shoot angle with Jarrett laying down for Hogan happens the next week.

Did you watch WCW PPVs at this point? Was this something that was talked about heavily among the office, the boys, even Vince? Or did no one really care and just see the writing on the wall for this company that was quickly going down the drain?

USA appeals the lawsuit loss for the switching of the TV rights.

Any expectation this was going to be an issue?

Wrestling Observer 7/17/00

As far as any bump from doing the angle, WCW got none. On 7/10, Raw drew a 6.03 rating (5.17 first hour; 6.79 second hour) and a 9.8 share. Nitro drew a 2.58 rating (3.07 first hour; 2.14 second hour) and a 4.4 share. The total wrestling viewing audience of 8.6 million was the lowest, except for the holiday week the previous week, in several years.

The Rock vs. Benoit main event drew a 6.77 final quarter and a 7.37 over-run, which is good for Benoit because those are numbers slightly above normal, although one can question giving away the PPV main event on Raw less than two weeks before the show. Nitro's four-way main event with Jarrett vs. Kanyon vs. Goldberg vs. Scott Steiner drew a 2.54 rating on the over-run. Raw also got a very strong unopposed 7.08 quarter from Lita vs. Stratus and HHH vs. X-Pac with the Jericho attack.

For the head-to-head quarters, it was Raw at 4.56 (Benoit, Shane and Rock interview) to 2.36 (Cat, Steiner, T, Kanyon, Jarrett confrontation), Raw at 4.98 (Too Cool vs. T&A vs. Hardys) to 2.24 (Vito vs. Smiley & Ralphus), Raw at 5.10 (Dogg vs. Jericho) to 2.00 (Storm vs. Artist, Kronik vs. Rection & Cajun) and Raw at 5.67 (Undertaker-Angle angle and beginning of Venis vs. Rikishi vs. Kane) to 1.74 (Vampiro-Demon angle).

For 7/3, largely due to the holidays, both Raw and Nitro had their lowest ratings in more than one year. Raw drew a 5.27 rating (4.65 first hour; 5.83 second hour) and a 9.5 share. Because HUT (homes using television) levels were down about 12 percent from usual, this would be equivalent to a 6.00 for a normal week. Nitro drew its lowest rating in its regular time slot since 1995 with a 2.24 rating (2.59 first hour; 1.89 second hour) and a 4.1 share. This is realistically equivalent to about a 2.55 rating, which wouldn't be at an all-time low level, but would still be considered a bad number. The total audience watching pro wrestling was down to 7.7 million fans, which was a 27 percent drop from July 4th weekend last year, and that is a scary stat. Of the total audience, roughly 98 percent were watching the Rock-Benoit angle to end Raw.

Rock vs. Shane Raw main event, which was really the Rock-Benoit title angle drew a 6.43 rating. The Nitro Battle Royal main event drew a pathetic 1.70 rating in the final quarter, although the three minute over-run did a 2.60.

For the head-to-head quarters, it was Raw at 3.91 (Guerrero vs. Benoit, beginning of Foley interview--making it the lowest rated quarter of Raw in its regular time slow in years) to 1.89 (Jarrett, The Viking women, S&P angle and Booker vs. Douglas); Raw at 4.98 (Foley interview with Rock and Shane) to 1.53 (the lowest rated quarter hour in the history of a live Nitro in its regular time slot for Vampiro vs. Demon), Raw at 4.50 (HHH vs. Rikishi) to 2.12 (Storm & Kidman vs. Misterio Jr. & Guerrera plus Daffney/Hancock angle) and finally Raw at 4.91 (Venis vs. Jeff Hardy) to 1.70 (Awesome-Steiner angle/Battle Royal).

Smackdown on 7/6 drew a 4.35 rating and 8.0 share. Even though the networks are in rerun programming and Smackdown is first run, the show is showing a noticeable decline over the past few weeks, because the share is showing a drop and that eliminates blaming the drop on fewer people watching TV because it's summer.

Thunder on 7/5 drew a 2.28 rating and 3.8, peaking at 2.66 for the David Flair vs. Crowbar match with the Daffney/Hancock angle. The only other good quarter was a 2.46 for Loco & Gunns vs. Guerrera & Tygress. I guess that guarantees more real bad physical altercations with women.

For the weekend of 7/8-9, Live Wire did a 1.3 (fourth highest rated show on station that day), Superstars a 1.5 (second highest on station) and Heat did a 2.77 rating (highest). WCW Saturday morning did its second straight 0.8, which was the lowest rated show on TBS between 11 a.m. and 2:30 a.m. the next day and second lowest during the period from 8 a.m. to 2:30 a.m. so it is not drawing competitive numbers.

For the weekend numbers of 7/1-2, Livewire did a 1.1, Superstars did a 1.4 and Heat did a 2.72 rating. WCW Saturday Morning debuted in its new time slot with an 0.8 rating.

Steve Williams ends up back in All Japan. Did you have any doing here in helping ol’ Dr Death in heading back? Were you excited for your old friend to get back in the game at this point?

Nash hasn't been shy about telling everyone that he's getting ready in about 15 months to get back into the WWF for one last run as Big Daddy Cool, get in shape for final main event runs with Austin and Rock and whomever else, and retire for a job on the booking committee. While I've always believed that when push came to shove, McMahon would take Nash back, a few months ago when Nash came calling saying he wanted out of WCW and would try and get a release, McMahon gave him a lowball figure and told him it would be best for him to stay put because he couldn't match the $1.6 million that Nash was getting in WCW (which is the nicest way of saying we don't have a spot for you) after polling many in the front office, all of whom were very negative about the prospects of bringing him into what WWF officials call the best locker room environment the company has ever had. Nash may also be saying this to get an early jump on a renewal and a few more years at the same rate even though he's old, does nothing in the ring, and hasn't drawn or meant much in ratings for a long time, but may feel that if he can get over that WWF will push him big, WCW will spend big to keep him. Jim Ross actually on the WWF web site wrote about older injury-prone guys using WWF as leverage that the WWF has no interest in. One could take that at face value, which is actually how I'd take it. I guess one could also take it that if WWF wants someone, and they publicly say they don't, it drives their value to WCW down so they make them a lower offer, thereby making it easier for WWF to then sign them. But still, I don't see WWF having any reason to want Nash, Luger or Hogan at this point because there are more long-run downsides to it than potential upsides. Even if there may be short-term money in all of them, and surely is with Hogan, they would be messing with a successful formula at a time the formula is still working

Do you agree with Meltzer’s sentiment that you guys weren’t interested in the Nash’s, Luger’s or Hogan’s at this point? Was your comment in your column about not wanting older injury-prone guys using WWF as leverage a real take or a negotiating tactic?

Raw on 7/10 drew a sellout 13,733 paying $408,287 to the San Jose Arena. Benoit and Shane came out and they pushed hard that Foley wasn't there, and was in Southeast Asia. Rock came out to set up their match. Guerrero and Chyna ended up running out and Chyna hit Shane with a chair while Benoit left untouched. Chyna was wearing a lot more clothing than usual, which may be toning down content due to advertisers getting squeamish. T&A won a three-way over Too Cool and Hardys. First Jeff used the swanton on Test, but the Albert gave him the neck hanging tree slam and Test got the pin eliminating them. Scotty 2 Hotty went for the worm, but Tazz came out and choked him out, allowing Test to pin him after an elbow off the top in a good match. Jericho beat Road Dogg in 5:09 with a lionsault that looked particularly dangerous since Jericho's knee caught Dogg in the face. HHH, obsessed with Jericho, threw a fit backstage. HHH shoved Dogg down and X-Pac acted as the peacemaker. Undertaker came out and challenged Angle. Undertaker's mic work was bad, but he can get away with it because he's such an icon. Still, this segment was dragging before Angle came out, and Angle's mic work was well below his standard so it dragged when he came out as well. Angle was funny in saying that they couldn't waste such a great match for a city like San Jose and suggested it for the PPV instead. He also said he didn't know if anyone actually wanted to see them wrestle. That must have been some funny inside rib, because on paper the match isn't going to be pretty. It'll probably be kept short and leave Jericho-HHH and Benoit-Rock to put in time. Angle told Undertaker to clean up him image and came out with this lame motor scooter for him to use instead of the bike. Undertaker chased him, but Angle escaped, which was no surprise given the respective foot speed of the two. Undertaker knocked the scooter off the ramp. A three-way for the IC title saw Venis DQ'd for hitting Rikishi with the belt in 5:42. Kane was the third guy. Very little heat for Rikishi-Venis feud and Kane was thrown in for no reason. Stephanie came out and tried to lure Jericho into the ring by promising he could take sexual liberties with her in front of almost 14,000 fans. Jericho seemed intrigued by the idea, but, it was all a swerve. DX was waiting with sledge hammers and Jericho never came out, and then did his speech on what Stephanie was, and since it's Monday and not Thursday, called her a ho. I don't know why I found it so funny when he called HHH "Trip." Edge & Christian did an interview about a tag title match with Acolytes. Christian said he had the sniffles and couldn't wrestle. If you think about it, him getting away with that makes the WWF look really lame. Edge pinned Bradshaw in a singles match in 3:00. Christian tried to interfere but Bradshaw lariated the hell out of him. Edge got the ring bell Christian dropped and hit Bradshaw with it for the pin. Lita beat Stratus in a street fight in 1:22. Fans were really into Lita. She did a moonsault and took Stratus' top off. Richards came out to censor it seeing Stratus in her bra and stopped the match. When Richards came out, there was an anti-PTC sign in the crowd that the cameras zoomed in on. Road Dogg pretended to leave because he was mad about an HHH vs. X-Pac match. They wrestled for a few minutes before Jericho came out to attack HHH. But it was a trap. They all turned on Jericho and Dogg came back with a sledge hammer. Stephanie slapped him. This was a big-time attempt at heat angle with several sledge hammer shots, Jericho coughing up blood, and eventually going out in an ambulance with his head covered in the proverbial crimson mask. Benoit vs. Rock ended with Shane attacking Earl Hebner and taking over as ref. Benoit got the crossface on. Rock put his hand down reaching for the ropes and punched the mat twice and Shane took it as a tap for the win in 4:56. Hebner got up and reversed the decision for Shane's interference. Rock did get up to deliver a rock bottom to another ref but this week sold the hell out of his neck to get over Benoit's crossface as a threat

It’s hard to find a time when WWF creative wasn’t at its strongest compared to this time period. What was just clicking at this point for creative?

TV tapings on 7/11 in Oakland before a sellout at the Arena. Prototype (John Sena) beat Damian Steele kind of a spinning back suplex in 4:36. Prototype also was the featured guy at about the same time on the Discovery Channel special. Match was really bad but Prototype showed a ton of charisma and is going to make it some day. Rodney & Abs beat Dupps when Pete Gas interfered in 5:08. Dupps are big guys who can move, but at this point they aren't that good. For Heat, Edge & Christian beat Dudleys when Edge pinned Buh Buh with his feet on the ropes. Well, they were supposed to be, but it was botched because his feet barely got to the ropes. Dudleys gave Christian a 3-D after and power bombed Edge through the table. Tremendous heat for the entire match. Dudleys brought out a table right away and Richards took it away. That got major heat as well. Godfather beat Buchanan via DQ when Tazz interfered and choked out Godfather. Godfather looked pretty bad. D-Lo & Chaz beat Michinoku & Funaki with the old Power & Glory finish, with Chaz doing a top rope superplex and D-Lo with a frog splash on Taka. No heat but the fans popped for the finish. Match wasn't as good as you'd think. Saturn beat Rios with an elbow off the top. Rios missed spot after spot until hitting this awesome double springboard spot. Bad match. Saturn's elbow off the top landed on Rios' mouth and knocked a few teeth out. Even with the win, Saturn walked back like he was really unhappy because the match was so bad. Bradshaw destroyed Gangrel with a clothesline. Before Smackdown started, Tazz did a promo. It was amazing as the crowd during every commercial break chanted for Rock, and when they changed to the blue ropes for Smackdown, the place popped like one of the top babyfaces had come out. Smackdown started with Too Cool & Rikishi over T&A & Venis in 6:57. Really good match. Lita & Hardys ended up brawling with T&A, leaving Venis alone and Rikishi pinned him with the banzai. Hardys & Lita danced with Cool & Rikishi after. There are plenty of fans dressed like wrestlers which is no surprise with how hot WWF is, but there was one fan walking around dressed like Roadkill of ECW. Now that was strange. HHH & Stephanie came out. HHH did kind of a boring interview to build up the main event against Undertaker. Road Dogg tried to hit on Lita. She slapped him, which led to DX vs. Hardys. Best match on the show even though Jeff was hurting badly (low back) and missed a few things, slipping off on a spinning head scissors and a ridiculous looking moonsault miss that kind of left everyone looking at each other. It built great at the end. Stratus, Venis and T&A came out and grabbed Lita, which brought Matt out. Jeff was on the top, but Dogg shoved him off into X-Pac's X factor for the pin. Fans gave the Hardys a huge cheer afterwards because of how good the match was. That doesn't happen every often. Malenko pinned Snow with an inside cradle off a superplex in 4:58. Snow came out with two blow-up dolls to counter Malenko's two women. Snow was pretty funny, slapping one of them around when they kept falling down. Match was technically real good but not much heat. Richards came out and took away the blow up dolls as well as the real life women. When he left, however, it totally killed the rest of the match. Richards did the interview saying it was his job to do what's right to keep the people from seeing that kind of stuff even if they wanted to. Benoit had a handicap match against Guerrero & Chyna which ended with Benoit DQ'd for not breaking the crossface. For a guy about to headline his first PPV challenging for the title, Benoit sold WAY too much for Chyna. Real good match. Shane interfered pulling Chyna off the apron. Benoit's eye was busted open badly hardway. Benoit wouldn't break the crossface on Guerrero while Shane attacked Chyna. Rock came out for the save and Benoit and Shane split. Edge & Christian ran out for no reason other than to take bumps for Rock's rock bottom. Rock then said because Benoit was a chickenshit, he was going to give him a title shot on the PPV even though Benoit lost the match Monday where he was supposed to win to get the shot. Acolytes were to get a tag title shot but Edge claimed his back was hurting from Rock, so Faarooq beat Christian with a power bomb in a quick nothing match. Edge tried to interfere with the bell but Bradshaw tripped him and he dropped it. Christian picked it up, swung at Faarooq and missed, and Faarooq used the power bomb. Angle was so depressed about facing Kane that he hugged Stephanie just as HHH came out to see it. HHH was mad and Stephanie explained it saying he forced himself on her. Kane beat Angle. Kane really made Angle look bad. He wouldn't even sell his actual wrestling. Angle got a little offense dropkicking the knees, and it went from looking like a bad 80s American match to a bad 90s Japan match. HHH threw Angle into the steps and Kane won with a choke slam. After seeing Angle with Kane, my interest in his match with Undertaker diminished. Blackman pinned Crash (not using the Holly name but still from Mobile) with a kick to the face while Crash was sitting in a chair. Up close, Blackman's rubber nunchakus and those flimsy garbage cans were almost as silly as weapons as the famed popcorn shots Mick Foley talked about doing in his book in a San Jose match against Owen Hart as a rib to see how bad a review they'd get for their match. Finally HHH beat Undertaker. Much better than you'd think. Angle came out and tried to hit HHH with a sledge hammer, but HHH moved and he hit Undertaker instead in 7:34. After the show ended, HHH came back and Undertaker choke slammed and power bombed him to send the people home happy. First hour of the show was really good, but it dragged toward the latter stages

Benoit selling that match for Chyna didn’t make sense than and doesn’t make sense now. Making sure Chyna was pushed and strong seemed to always be a case. Was a lot of that Triple H influence, the HHH-Stephanie dynamic that was growing at this time as well as a deflection or was it more?

Austin is said to be in much better condition, particularly his thighs are said to be stronger than they've been in years which is an indication he's been training very intensely with his fiance Debra Marshall. It won't be until late August until he gets evaluated as to when, and if, and how much he'll be able to do as far as resuming his career. What he's told the WWF is that he wants to return and do as much as he can, but he won't return if he has to live off his name and be like Hulk Hogan. If he can't wrestle, he'll have plenty of acting opportunities as he's the person possibly in the most demand as part of the Viacom/CBS deal over potential TV acting work including a possible spin-off series of the Jake Cage character he played on several episodes of "Nash Bridges" over the past two seasons

How close was Austin to becoming an actor full time versus returning to the WWF after this neck injury...especially at this time?

Michael Hayes has been helping with the television writing. They have a three-man team of former TV writers, and Hayes is used to bounce ideas and tweak them to where they'll fit within the pro wrestling environment before Vince McMahon sees the show

Doot doot doot.

Former UFC fighter Ron Waterman, who somewhat resembles a 260-pound Bill Goldberg, has signed a developmental contract and will start with Ohio Valley Wrestling. Waterman only suffered one loss in UFC competition, that to another indie pro wrestler, Andre Roberts via knockout in a match he was dominating. He was a Division II All-American college wrestler at Northern Colorado but in his early 30s, he's on the old side to be starting in wrestling

Ron Waterman was always talked about as a guy in developmental for a long time it felt like. Same with guys like Reckless Youth (Tom Carter). What was about guys like these who spent a lot of time down there that didn’t amount to much. Creative?

Wrestling Observer 7/24/00

ECW’s Heatwave takes place where a brawl at a Pay-Per-View between ECW and XPW wrestlers happens live. 

Is this just a black eye on the business or because it happens where it happens it doesn’t even make a ripple in the WWF world?

Going unopposed, Raw drew a disappointing 6.17 rating (5.77 first hour; 6.58 second hour) and 10.1 share, its lowest unopposed rating since 1998. There are two factors in the rating, the first being that overall viewership was down, and the second is that TNT's movie "Nuremberg Part Two" drew a 5.31, nearly double Nitro's average in the same slot.

Raw's Undertaker & Kane vs. Angle & HHH main event did a 6.97 rating, slightly below the average main event. The Rock & Acolytes vs. Benoit & Edge & Christian match drew a 6.54, actually the third highest segment, as Rikishi vs. Test hit 6.63.

Smackdown drew its lowest rating in months, a 4.03, on 7/13. To once again show that summer and lower number of viewers can't be labeled as the problem, the total share of 7.3 was far lower than the show usually does. The show did show consistent growth, which means people weren't tuning it out as it went on, just that less people tuned in to start, peaking at 4.46 with the HHH vs. Undertaker main event.

Summer used to always be a slow time for ratings but houses were up. Just a normal sign of the times for business?

Preliminary estimates for King of the Ring are a 1.19 buy rate, which would be 475,000 total buys, slightly up from 1.13 last year. We also heard another estimate quite a bit lower, in the 375,000 to 400,000 buy range

For Fully Loaded, added stips are Rock vs. Benoit is title can change via DQ, Jericho vs. HHH is now last man standing, Venis vs. Rikishi is a cage match and they've added Snow vs. Tazz and appear to have started something with Saturn vs. Guerrero and there will be something involving T&A & Stratus vs. Hardys & Lita in some form and Edge & Christian vs. Acolytes for the tag titles

Highlights of Raw on 7/17 from Albany, NY saw Lita take a bump off a ladder backwards through a table while she and Stratus were both struggling on top of the ladder. Hardys brought out a ladder in match with Dudleys which included Jeff doing a plancha off the top of the ladder in the ring to the floor. That and the six-man with Benoit were the in-ring show highlights. Lita did a stretcher job, but did a remarkable backstage recovery to call Stratus a bitch. It appeared the Smackdown rating had everyone spooked because they upped the raunch big-time, even Rock getting away with using the word chickenshit on the air. Buchanan was given a new gimmick as Richards' hit man being dressed the same as Richards and left Godfather laying. They had a hot match with Edge & Christian & Benoit over Rock & Acolytes. Benoit gave Rock a wicked chair shot after Shane attacked Rock. Benoit hit Faarooq in the back with a chair leading to Edge pinning him with the downward spiral. After the match, Rock went into Benoit's dressing room and laid him out with a chair and he bled. Edge & Christian & Shane attacked Rock but he beat them up as well. He went back and attacked Benoit who took some awesome head shots into a locker and into a pop vending machine. Rock hit Benoit with another chair shot and gave him a rock bottom on the hood of a car before Shane got Benoit in the limo and drove off. Saturn attacked Guerrero and powerslammed him on the ramp while he was watching Malenko vs. Chyna. Chyna didn't wear high heels, so as to not accentuate Malenko's lack of height, but she missed a lot of moves in a short match. Tazz vs. Snow was set up when Foley (who had just flown in from a Southeast Asian tour before the show and seemed tired) and Snow were doing some comedy and Tazz choked Snow out. Tazz' interview until Foley came out was, word-for-word, the same as his practice interview he did without the cameras rolling in Oakland six days earlier. Stephanie, without even being asked, vigorously denied ever having sex with Angle. Since it's wrestling and everyone lies. TV main was Undertaker & Kane over HHH & Angle. Angle's role to stay heel is to constantly run away from Undertaker, since he's starting to get cheered. That doesn't make for very exciting matches, however. Undertaker and Angle brawled to the back leaving HHH with Kane. HHH set up the pedigree when Jericho came out. HHH dropped the pedigree and instead got choke slammed. After the match, Jericho hit the ring and attacked HHH, who bailed, and Jericho hit him with an awesome dive over the top as the show went off the air. After the show was over, Jericho and HHH did a 10:00 match as a run through for their PPV match. Since their PPV is last man standing (which almost guarantees both being down for a ten count, interference keeping one of them from getting up and the other gets a fluke win), they definitely didn't do the finish since Jericho, since it was off TV and it was send fans home happy, got the pin with the lionsault

For Smackdown the next night, Guerrero won a short three-way over Malenko and Saturn. As Rock was signing an autograph, Benoit put him in the crossface. Angle got a late push hitting Kane with a chair to the knee for a DQ, then costing Undertaker a match with Bossman when he started ruining his bike and Undertaker chased him for the count out. Angle hit Undertaker in the knee with a wrench when he got backstage. HHH & Benoit beat Rock & Jericho via DQ when Rock punched ref Hebner. The idea is that if Rock does that on the PPV, he'll be DQ'd and lose the title. After the bout, Jericho put HHH in the walls and Rock put Benoit in the crossface and the refs had to pull both faces off. Unless the idea for heat is Benoit winning the title on a fluke, it's hard to see if Rock is to retain, why they put Rock over in so many of the confrontations including the last one on both shows the week before the match, when, if anything Benoit was the one needing extra help to get over for his first PPV main event as the title challenger

He’s not wrong where it seems the booking is backwards in final go-home push.

A group called Wrestling Fans Against Censorship is doing a letter campaign to merchants who are involved in the PTC marketplace program, threatening to boycott their products as long as they attempt to target advertisers on Smackdown. Thus far they've gotten two merchants, Omaha Steaks and Smoke Shop, to pull out of the PTC Marketplace program. It should be noted that the PTC itself has removed numerous merchants from its own site, thus cutting itself off from potential money when it created the hypocritical stance for that company off making money off WWF merchandise, such as ToysRUs, ICS Collectibles and K-Tel. Obviously any group has the right to organize and pressure the PTC, since it does that itself. It also has to be noted that if anyone agrees with using those pressure tactics against the PTC and obviously the PTC has zero right to complain about it, is also by doing so endorsing the methods the PTC is using itself because the methodology of the approach is exactly the same, just coming from a divergent political agenda

How much of this PTC bullshit weighed on everyone at this time Vince included?

Crash was fined after an incident where he apparently passed out doing a p.r. appearance for the company at WWF New York. He just a few months back had signed a new deal, but it was the third such incident reported to the company and was given the riot act about one more such incident and his future

Any memories of this and how much it affected Crash’s future with the company?

Davey Boy Smith has been in and out of the hospital of late in Calgary dating back to an apparent

overdose on 7/4, battling the same problems including a morphine addiction and his potential divorce from Diana Hart Smith, which has been a source of ongoing pressure for months now. He is still under contract to the WWF but is not on the active roster since he showed up in bad shape for a match in Calgary and in worse shape for a match in Edmonton and was sent home once again at the end of May. This came after his well publicized long-stay in an Atlanta rehab center was cut short when he signed himself out, apparently due to the marriage problems, and then went back on the road with the WWF for a brief period after making a surprise return at the last England PPV event. An article in the 7/18 Calgary Sun claimed he was back in the hospital for a shoulder infection after surgery was done to save his arm, and he had been in the hospital a few days earlier due to pneumonia, but the story admitted he was still hooked on pain killers and to his marriage problems

The hindsight of Davey Boy Smith’s life and issues just shows how much trouble he was in at this point. How much did you know was going on and who and how would the company could’ve helped?

Finally at the PPV…

In what many considered a throwaway show between King of the Ring and SummerSlam, the WWF put on arguably the best PPV show of the year with Fully Loaded card on 7/23 from Reunion Arena in Dallas.

WWF FULLY LOADED: Thumbs up 389 (77.0%), Thumbs down 53 (10.5%), In the middle 63 (12.5%). BEST MATCH POLL: Chris Jericho vs. HHH 336, Rock vs. Chris Benoit 64; WORST MATCH POLL: Undertaker vs. Kurt Angle 127, Tazz vs. Al Snow 88, Acolytes vs. Edge & Christian 49

Preliminary estimates are that the Fully Loaded PPV drew 415,000 buys, which is about a 1.04 buy rate and would be about a $5.34 million company gross. Any figure over 350,000 buys would have to be considered a success because they were putting so-called unproven drawing talent in the main slots and also because Benoit was not hyped and portrayed as Rock's biggest challenge as much as simply a transition challenge before getting back to HHH. Yet, this show actually appears to have drawn (and remember, there can be major discrepancies between the first announced estimates and the final numbers, which actually aren't for sure until 90 days after the fact) drew slightly more buys than Rock vs. HHH drew (400,000) for their 60 minute match at Judgment Day. It marks Rock's eighth PPV main event that topped the 1.0 mark, putting him, at the supposed age of 28, in fifth place on the all-time records behind only Hogan, Flair, Austin and Hart. Officially, the Backlash PPV on 4/30 drew right at 700,000 buys, which would be one of the largest of all-time and the biggest so-called non-major card. The fact that Backlash greatly outdrew King of the Ring and that Fully Loaded did about the same, shows that the idea of major and non-major events, at least outside of Royal Rumble, Wrestlemania and SummerSlam, is no longer an issue when it comes to getting people to buy, as they buy based on the card, not the name of the show with those noted exceptions

After the first six matches, it seemed like just an average show, but the final two matches were as strong a pair of main event matches on any PPV show in a long time. The show was totally built around three matches, Rock vs. Chris Benoit, HHH vs. Chris Jericho and Undertaker vs. Kurt Angle with the idea that Benoit, Jericho and Angle were being put in key positions against the three major established stars of the company. During the show, they had, during the undercard matches, on the video wall, a flashing screen over-and-over listing the three main events which was annoying to a home viewer and probably slightly distracted the live crowd from the undercard matches going on in the ring with the attention being diverted. And all of the guys in their biggest break matches lost. Looked at it from a straight win-loss perspective, it seemed like WCW booking of the past few years or New Japan booking its April Tokyo Dome built around heavyweights vs. junior heavyweights as the undercard theme. But I don't see how anyone can say in matches the quality of Rock vs. Benoit and HHH vs. Jericho, that anyone lost. Not either wrestler, and certainly not the audience. Obviously, you can't say that for Undertaker vs. Angle, and in hindsight, I still can't think of anything positive to say about that match. It's a question of whether and how the losses are played and how Benoit and Jericho are positioned from this point on, and in the case of Benoit, it was clear on television the next night that the fans took him as more of a threat to Rock than ever before, so it appeared to be a success in elevating him with the loss because of the match quality.

Helmsley, who made a strong case for positioning as this year's Wrestler of the Year (it's hard to argue with his being on top for some of the biggest money shows in the history of the industry and four-star matches with Jericho, three times now, Foley twice, Rock, Benoit and even near four-star matches with Taka and Rikishi on TV), equalled his performance in the Royal Rumble match with Mick Foley in his match against Jericho, which was going to have a hard time living up to the standard of their two previous singles matches on television. He went into the match with a sciatic nerve problem giving him a lot of lower back pain and some numbness in his leg. The pain from the Smackdown match on 7/18, was a flare up of a previous injury and had lots of intense treatment leading up to the match. His back was said to have been very stiff going into the ring but he was said to be in a lot less pain than earlier in the week. They stole the show with a Match of the Year calibre performance, which wasn't Jericho's flashiest, but may have been his best all-around major show singles match in American rings. Rock and Benoit weren't far behind, with a match that was even more solidly executed. The announcing of Jim Ross was top of the line, particularly in attempting, after Benoit's loss, to establish the match as the beginning of a feud for the ages as opposed to simply a PPV main event where the champ won and now it's time for a new challenger. The reverse Dusty finish by Mick Foley was good, but it did seem like the finish in the re-start with Rock scoring the rock bottom for the pin was too quick.

1. Matt & Jeff Hardy & Lita (Amy Dumas) beat Test (Andrew Martin) & Albert (Matt Bloom) & Trish Stratus in 13:12. A good opener. Matt had one very rough spot early where he slipped on the ropes a couple of times trying to execute a spot. Test & Albert have really improved as far as work goes but are kind of lost in the shuffle as huge guys who aren't particularly charismatic. Lita has superstar potential in her tomboy role where she could be the first real hero to the teenage girl fan base as a real person as opposed to the fantasy figure of Chyna. They have to be careful because the reason her moves look so spectacular is partially because she has a male base for her lucha spots and none of the women in the WWF could make her stuff look as good, and like Chyna, being put in a lot of singles matches against men will only emphasize what she lacks. While her work with Stratus was better than anyone could hope for given Stratus' very limited training, although she clearly has the willingness to learn, and even her somewhat limited ring time. Still, although they were the focal point, they needed to only be in for limited time. Michael Seitz (Hayes) and Tom Prichard worked with them earlier in the week in setting up and running through their spots. They did a three-on-two suplex spot where Hardys & Lita suplexed Albert & Stratus. Albert pressed Jeff and dropped him over the top rope to the floor. Test did the melt down to Matt, but Jeff delivered his swanton to Test. Lita did a tremendous tornado DDT then on Test and a real good plancha on Albert as well as a huracanrana off the top on Test for a near fall. Finally, Test power bombed in and tagged in Stratus. Lita superplexed Stratus with both standing on the top rope, which was kind of scary to watch given Stratus' lack of experience. Lita scored the pin on Stratus after a moonsault. After the match, Albert clotheslined Lita and Test laid out both Hardys with high kicks, leaving Stratus to whip Lita with a belt. **3/4

Watching this and seeing how the talent evolved: Matt Hardy, Jeff Hardy, Lita, Matt Bloom and Trish Stratus have achieved so many different things in this business it’s amazing. Andrew Martin is the sad case.

They had two early show skits with several segments. In one, Undertaker kept chasing Angle around backstage. It was kind of silly because Undertaker was on his motorcycle and Angle was running away, yet Undertaker could never catch him. Later Angle was fooling around with Undertaker's bike and Undertaker came chasing him. Undertaker doesn't move so well, so at least his not catching him that time was believable. Actually Angle was able to lap Undertaker running around some wood and went from being chased to hitting him in the knee again with a wrench. The other skit was Stephanie McMahon getting all sorts of flowers, presumably from Angle. When Bruno Lauer was carrying more flowers and HHH confronted him about where they came from, HHH said he was going to kick Angle's ass, but instead got his ass kicked by Jericho. Aside from that, this was pure wrestling.

2. Tazz (Peter Senerca) beat Al Snow (Allan Sarven) in 5:20. Little heat. Fans live saw this as something of a popcorn match. There was even a boring chant at one point. Snow did a good job in this basic match including getting near falls after a legdrop off the top and a moonsault. He went for head, but Tazz clipped him from behind, gave him a captured suplex and his choke submission, which Snow broke the first time, but couldn't break a second time. *1/4

The bloom was very off the rose by this point for Tazz?

3. Perry Saturn (Perry Satullo) won the European title from Eddy Guerrero in 8:10. Chyna chase Terri away from the ring and Saturn chased away Chyna. Guerrero looked very good here, with huracanranas coming from all directions. Saturn had a small cut on the top of his head. The finish saw Saturn clothesline Chyna through the Spanish announcers table. Terri came back out and Saturn gave Guerrero a low blow and an elbow drop off the top rope to his back for the clean pin. **1/2

Watching this the wrong guy won right?

4. Acolytes (John Layfield & Ron Simmons) defeated WWF tag champs Edge (Adam Copeland) & Christian (Jay Reso) via DQ in 5:29. They did the bit earlier in the show where Christian was pretending to have the heaves and brought in a doctor and commissioner Mick Foley, who they were able to work. But just before match-time, Foley caught Christian in the act of pretending to throw up (climbing the wall so he could see into the bathroom stall) and Christian was so busted. E&C did their mic work running down Texas. They talked about the JFK assassination (which took place in Dallas in 1963) saying he'd have killed himself if he had to spend any more time in Dallas. That was weird for two reasons. First, most of the WWF audience was not even close to born, and second, that isn't a subject really ripe for a lot of comedy. Bradshaw came out and in probably his most inspired mic work in a long time, talked about this being the building where Dick Murdoch, Bruiser Brody, The Freebirds and The Von Erichs performed. I guess Murdoch is something of a hero to Bradshaw, because I can't ever recall Murdoch even wrestling at Reunion Arena unless it was at the tail end of his career during his short stint with the WWF. It was fast paced and seemed to be building toward a decent match, except it ended abruptly with a terribly weak finish where Edge hit Faarooq with one of the belts right in front of the ref. There was said to be strong consideration to putting E&C over, but the decision was apparently made because this DQ finish did play into the main event stipulation and because E&C had gotten the best of the feud at almost every turn leaning up to the match. Finish still ruined the match. *1/2

Comedy promo was AWFUL. Jesus christ. Bad finishes twice in a row.

5. Val Venis (Sean Morley) pinned Rikishi (Solofa Fatu) in 14:10 in a cage match. They both worked hard, but Rikishi is really a dancing gimmick with the stink face spot which doesn't lend well toward long matches. Venis appeared to have busted his eye hardway since the cut was at the side of the eye instead of the usual forehead. Rikishi did the banzai but Venis got his foot on the ropes. Rikishi went to escape the cage but Stratus slammed the door on his head. This was the same building where 18 years ago in the Flair vs. Kerry Von Erich match when Terry Gordy did that to Kerry, it popularized that finish, although I'd bet almost nobody in the building even remembers that finish. Venis did the money shot for a near fall. Lita came out and took Stratus' shirt off and began whipping her back to the dressing room with a belt. Venis fell onto Teddy Long in a somewhat lame looking ref bump. Rikishi then climbed to the top of the cage which looked to be a good nine feet, and teasing it literally forever, came off the top with a splash. That was one scary looking spot, because you're talking about a 400 pound man doing the same spot a 240 pound Jimmy Snuka gave Jeff Jarrett a concussion doing. The ring may have broken or was at least damaged because some of the bumps later in the show had a clanging sound to them. Best sign of the night was T&A = Bradshaw & Rikishi. As Rikishi was going to leave, Tazz came out and hit him with a television camera and Venis got the pin. **3/4

Jesus Rikishi off the top of the cage was such a dangerous move and gimmick. 

Shane McMahon challenged Rock to a non-title match, wearing a Rock "Just bring it" t-shirt. That t-shirt is actually a reminder Rock is basically copying Scott Hall's catch phrase. Rock came out, which gave Benoit the chance to go into the dressing room and tear up all of Rock's clothes.

6. Undertaker (Mark Calaway) pinned Kurt Angle in 7:34. Undertaker destroyed Angle early, refusing to pin him on two occasions. Angle came back and worked on Undertaker's knee for a few minutes until Undertaker made the comeback hitting a choke slam and his high power bomb for the pin. They had one real good exchange of punches in mid-ring, but other than that, there was nothing to say positive about this match and Angle really was booked to not look competitive. It was exactly what I expected, but I was still dumbfounded when it was over. 3/4*

I agree with this assessment. Almost put the brakes completely on Angle.

7. Hunter Hearst Helmsley (Paul Levesque) beat Chris Jericho (Chris Irvine) in a last man standing match in 23:11. Jericho hit the springboard dropkick early and dominated early. HHH cut him off by hot shotting him on the security barricade and dropping him on the steps. HHH pulled all the wrapping off Jericho's ribs (worked injury) and suplexed him on the floor. Jericho came back but HHH got his knees up on the lionsault. HHH used a sleeper with a body scissors. They tried to paint the picture of Jericho being tough as he'd struggle to get up at nine. He got up after the pedigree at nine. HHH used a chair to the ribs and back. Jericho came back with a chair shot and HHH bladed big-time. Jericho hit a missile dropkick and a facebuster on a chair and then HHH took a Harley Race bump out of the ring. HHH came back and went for a pedigree on the ring steps but Jericho back flipped him over to the floor. Both hit each other with TV monitors for a double nine count. Jericho blocked the pedigree and hit the walls, but HHH made a rope break, but since this was last man standing, Jericho didn't have to break. Finally Stephanie came in, and Jericho dropped the walls on HHH and put it on Stephanie. HHH recovered and hit Stephanie with a clothesline to the back. HHH then pulled out a sledge hammer from under the ring. Jericho managed to get it and use it to HHH's guts. They ended up brawling outside and HHH back suplexed Jericho through the American announcers table. Both guys were down for the nine count and HHH rose, then collapsed, to win the match. ****1/2

Such a great match even 20 years later. Right guy did go over in the long run but at the time the established guys going 2 for 2 seems like lazy booking.

8. Rock (Dwayne Johnson) pinned Chris Benoit in 22:09 to retain the WWF title. These two had a real tough act to follow. This was a tremendously well executed match. In that sense it was better than the previous match although the other match had a better finish, built better and had more gimmicks associated with it. Benoit hit Rock with the title belt for a near fall. It was too early in the match for the fans to buy that one. Benoit used a sharpshooter but Rock got out. Shane pulled down the ropes and Rock took a bump over the top. Rock came back with a dragon screw into a figure four. Shane distracted the ref and Benoit made the ropes. Shane clotheslined Rock twice outside the ring. At one point after they brawled in the stands, Benoit suplexed Rock back over the security barrier inside. Rock got near falls with a DDT and with a power bomb like maneuver dropped backwards into a hot shot. Benoit got a near fall with a diving head-butt. Rock hit the spinebuster and people's elbow, but Shane distracted Earl Hebner and Benoit kicked out. Benoit got a near fall with a top rope superplex. What appeared to be the finish was Shane hitting Hebner with a chair. Rock then got the chair and Hebner acted like he didn't see it as he was recovering. With Hebner down, Rock got Benoit in the crossface and they did a total Dusty finish with Hebner crawling over and signalling for the bell, like Rock had won with the move. Instead Hebner told Howard Finkel that he thought Rock hit him with a chair and DQ'd Rock, awarding the title to Benoit in 19:28. Fans were starting to pelt the ring seeing what they thought was a title change using the Dusty finish. Not so fast. Foley came back out and said that even though the title could change hands via DQ, he didn't see a DQ, and ordered the match to continue. Benoit came out with a rolling german suplex for a near fall and got the crossface, but Rock made it to the ropes. Rock scored the pin rather suddenly after a rock bottom at 2:41 of the re-started match. It was an excellent main event, but it's still hard to make sense out of a storyline where Benoit, the heel who is in his first ever main event, gets laid out on Monday, taps out on Thursday, gets locked in his own hold for an apparent loss on the PPV, but is handed the belt, only to get pinned cleanly a few minutes later. ****¼

Dusty Finish! Great match but Dusty Finish! Benoit’s first PPV main event with the WWF didn’t disappoint.