Grilling JR - Raw 10.09.00 Watchalong [Show Notes] (Patreon)

WWF RAW IS WAR on Monday, October 9th, 2000 was live from the Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim, CA with the event doing a...5.36 rating.

It’s Columbus Day (not as popular a guy nowadays)

List of WWF Champions at the time:

●  WWF World Heavyweight Champion: The Rock (6/25/2000)

●  WWF Intercontinental Champion: Eddie Guerrero (9/04/2000)

●  WWF World Tag Team Champions: The Hardy Boyz (9/24/2000)

●  WWF European Champion: Al Snow (8/31/2000)

●  WWF Hardcore Champion: Steve Blackman (9/24/2000)

●  WWF Women’s Champion: Lita (8/21/2000)

●  WWF Light Heavyweight Champion: Dean Malenko (4/27/2000)

Overall, the seven matches of this event with a known match time contained 32:53 minutes of in-ring action.

Since the match time of all non dark matches is known, this is also the combined match time of the whole main show. Without the three dark matches with known match times, there was still a sum of 24:01 minutes of in-ring action.

The World Wrestling Federation on 9/27 announced a revised estimates of profit for the current fiscal year, stating profits would be lower than originally anticipated, leading to stock plummeting in after hours trading from $19.75 to $12.75. The price steadied later in the week after the McMahon family announced it was making a stock buy back which could have been as much as $10 millon to prop the price back up and stop the decline, and the price stood at $15 per share at press time, down 24 percent for the week.

How was the WWF stock treating you?

Dwayne Johnson has reportedly inked a $5.5 million deal with Universal to play the lead and title role in “Scorpion King,” a prequel to “Mummy 2,” which Johnson debuts the role in.

The movie, which will include Vince McMahon getting an Executive Producer credit, is expected to begin filming next spring and Johnson is expected to be working on the movie for approximately six months. They may work his schedule to allow him to continue working PPV shows and some television tapings during that period, or they may have him take a sabbatical. It would seem to be impossible given the publicity surrounding wrestling and the movie for them to do what old-school wrestling would have done in a similar situation, as in shooting a major injury angle right before he leaves to give him a big program to return for.

Vince McMahon said that the current plan is for Johnson to begin filming after WrestleMania, but with a strike in Hollywood as a possibility, that schedule could be moved up slightly. He said he expects Rock would remain having a presence in the WWF core product and would be available during the movie filming, but it would be a limited one.

Do you recall the news of this hitting the office and if anyone ever expected him to become the biggest star in Hollywood?

William Soloweyko, a fixture in the world of pro wrestling for the past four decades under the ring name of Klondike Bill, passed away early 10/3 after a long bout with Bulbar Palsy, a neuromuscular disorder similar to Lou Gehrig disease, at the age of 68.

Bill was a star wrestler, particularly in the 1960s playing the role of a powerhouse lumberjack billed from Kodiak Island, Alaska, under phasing out of wrestling and working for Jim Crockett Promotions and later World Championship Wrestling as the head of the ring crew.

He was actually Canadian, born in Calgary, and trained in the late 50s under Stu Hart, who gave him the Klondike Bill ring name when he started out in 1959, which stuck with him the rest of his life. He wrestled around the world, before finishing his career for Crockett in the 70s, and began working for the promotion after his career ended, full-time around 1977 although his final match is believed to have been in 1978.

Can you tell us anything fun about Klondike Bill in honor of the great man?

In one of the strangest stories we’ve heard, city officials in Gorham, ME canceled a pro wrestling event on 9/22 in their city. The reason? The city officials were enraged at the comments by a heel wrestler, Dr. Everett Payne (real name Nate Parent of Portland, ME), who stated in an in-character interview that Gorham was the bunghole of Maine. The local newspaper, the Phoenix, ripped on the decision, both because heels ripping the town is a part of wrestling and not something to be taken seriously, and more so because the show was promised to the Eastern Wrestling Alliance in exchange for playing two free shows at a family festival in Gorham for free. EWA played the free dates in exchange for receiving the Shaw School at no charge for a house show. EWA is trying to get pub from this by billing house shows for the EWA as the company that is banned in Gorham.

Got any stories about a heel getting too much heat and causing city officials to get involved?

WWF has removed the characters of Big Show, British Bulldog, Ken Shamrock and Lillian Garcia from upcoming video game releases. One of the games has an 80-person roster which includes Earl Hebner and Linda McMahon, as well as “a ho,” so the removal of Garcia is surprising. Show and Bulldog’s removal seem to represent a lack of confidence that they will return to the promotion in any major capacity, especially considering Mark Henry hasn’t been removed from the same games.

Can you talk about why these decisions were made and who made them?

Charles Barkley was among the guests at Jerry Lawler and Stacey Carter’s wedding in Las Vegas on 9/29.

Surely you were a guest and can give a fun story?

The situation with WWF allowing its talent to do wrestling media work is still up in the air. Jim Ross, on the Ross Report this week, did something of a 180, saying that John Molinaro and Slam! Wrestling wrote about things that he didn’t know about and now he realizes about. He hinted that he knows who the person responsible for not letting him know the problems was, but never identified that person. Ross’ comments regarding this were quickly taken down from the site by the WWF. Apparently there is a policy although there may be discussion this week about amending the policy.

What was this about?

Wrestling Observer Newsletter

With its wrestlers in Australia and its front office personnel in a total state of uncertainty, media reports continued hot and heavy regarding a potential imminent sale of World Championship Wrestling.

While virtually all reports listed Mandalay Sports as the prime suitor, with a group headed by Eric Bischoff, most of the talk over the weekend involved a longshot in the deal which has been rumored for some time, the potential of the World Wrestling Federation buying out its long-time competitor, particularly after a story on 10/9 in Multi Channel News.

Based on sources very close to the details of the potential sale, no deal has been finalized at press time. Both companies, and perhaps others, are involved in various degrees of negotiations to purchase the company from Turner Broadcasting, which has owned the company since buying out Jim Crockett Promotions in late 1988. Those close to the negotiations expect a deal finalized within the next two weeks.

Was the WWFE close to purchasing the WCW here or was this just the beginning of the eventual purchase in 2001?

The key is that TBS and TNT want to retain the prime time programming no matter who they sell the company itself to. What would also seem to work in McMahon's favor, is that McMahon would seem at this stage of the game to be by far the better bet in selling the company to someone that would produce ratings for the station as opposed to any other potential suitor. It may be the right move for TBS, but it's a bad move for the industry, because lack of competition doesn't benefit anyone, including the fans, after the short-term of the interpromotional angle has run its course. It certainly doesn't benefit the wrestlers, as whatever chance there was of starting a union is nil because there are too many mid-level wrestlers for the number of positions available, thus making it impossible to get a group to stick together, especially against a powerful leader like McMahon.

Could you have envisioned Vince McMahon producing wrestling on Turner television in 2000?

One interpromotional angle will be taking place in the United States this year, the Observer reported. That involves the two companies that have run head-to-head on television in Memphis--Memphis Championship Wrestling, which is run partially as a WWF developmental territory, and Power Pro Wrestling, which was a WWF developmental territory before Jerry Lawler switched sides and took the WWF affiliation with him.

As had been pushed for several weeks on the PPW show, Jerry Lawler returned on the live 10/6 show. Lawler, in an interview, claimed the reason he left PPW was because people like Brandon Baxter, Derrick King and Randy Hales were wrestling in the main events while people like Kurt Angle and Mic Tierney, who were there at the same time, weren't getting a big push. Lawler started knocking the promotion, which brought out Brandon Baxter, Derrick King, Rob Harlem, Koko Ware and Charlie Laird at various points to argue with him. Lawler wouldn't stop knocking the promotion and the PPW guys threatened to throw him out of the building. Lawler said they could try it, but if they did, he'd bring some friends with him to the studio next week. The PPW guys all attacked Lawler, ripping his shirt off and throwing him out of the studio with his shoulder going through a glass door, which no doubt leads to some WWF people or at least MCW people under WWF contract showing up next week.

The former owner of Power Pro Wrestling, Randy Hales, just recently released a book called Living the Dream: The Randy Hales Story. He wrote me(Conrad) a nice note in the book and said he was a fan of the podcasts, which we appreciate!

Do you have any memories you’ve never shared before of the WWF working with Memphis Wrestling?

Rikishi has been noticeably bothered by right knee problems over the past week which have been diagnosed as knee tendinitis. He's taking anti-inflammatory drugs to get through the next few weeks because of his big match coming. Because of his weight and age, his knees and ankles are going to be a problem and it's probably best for his career, even if not for his unique gimmick, to drop a lot of weight

Regarding Dennis Dunn, who passed away last week at the age of 76, he was the Executive Producer of WWF television during the period when Vince Sr. owned the company and continued in the early years of Vince Jr.'s taking over, including being the producer of Tuesday Night Titans in the mid-80s. He had remained until his death as a consultant for the company and as mentioned last week, his son Kevin heads television production.

Do you have any memories of Dennis Dunn?

Both News Corporation (FOX) and Warner Brothers have pulled all ads for "R" rated movies from Smackdown largely due to the recent FTC report which accuses so many industries that are supposedly not geared for children with directly targeted children in their marketing. The idea from both groups is that any show where more than 35% of the audience is children, and very few prime-time shows even fit into that category, would be off-limits for "R" movie ads

Would something like that have a big effect on revenue?

Big Show now has a shaved head for his feud with Leviathan (Bautista) in Ohio Valley Wrestling. Show has been doing Jim Cornette scripted interviews in OVW which are hilarious because much of the phraseology comes from 1970s Jerry Lawler interviews. Although he has yet to wrestle on television, they started to do videos in OVW to introduce Brock Lesnar, perhaps to start with a natural program with Collector (1993 NCAA champ) and their first angle aired on 9/30 as Lesnar saved Shelton Benjamin (his former coach, who, barring injury, is going to turn into an excellent worker when he gets more experience) from Collector. Lesnar was lacking (remember, this is day one) in facials but looks like a powerhouse. He launched, and I mean launched into orbit, Jerome Kronie, who, admittedly is about 185 pounds with a double underhook suplex with him flipping in mid-air (much of this is Kronie's sell but it looked great)

Lots of fun stuff here. Who were you looking at more at the time - Batista or Brock Lesnar?

Mark Henry and Big Show are being weighed in every Friday in OVW. On 10/6, Henry checked in at 360, down from about 415 when he arrived. They want him at 325 but are willing to bring him back if he gets down to maybe 340. Show was at 470. They want him at 375. He was given an ultimatum that they won't even consider bringing him back until he at least gets down to 400, which eliminates him at this point from being in the Austin angle. Show signed a ten-year deal at just under $1 million per year downside guaranteed because McMahon thought he had this generation's version of Andre the Giant as an attraction, and for various reasons, one of which is simply different things get over in different eras, it just didn't happen. Henry also signed a ten-year deal coming out of the Olympics with the thought they had a sure-fire attraction since Ken Patera was such a huge star a generation earlier with a similar background. There is a contract clause that requires both men to be in top physical condition, and with Henry, at this point, the feeling is he's making a great effort but with Show, the jury is out.

Things turned around for both guys, eventually. Do you remember the moment you knew that Henry and Big Show were back on track to be superstars?

Shawn Michaels has stated, no ifs, ands or buts, that he will wrestle again. He said that he wouldn't be able to wrestle as good as he used to, but he would still be able to be competitive at a high level

He ended up doing pretty good for himself after coming back, right?

ECW lost its national time slot in an announcement made on 10/11, after a meeting between Paul Heyman and TNN resulted in no new agreement being reached. The company, in a financial crunch, at a meeting among the wrestlers after the house show on 10/13 in Richmond, VA, Heyman said that they would continue with their new monthly PPV schedule.

Vince McMahon had given TNN his approval of allowing ECW to stay on the station through the end of the year. However, ECW and TNN had to work out the terms without his involvement. With existing bad blood on each side over numerous issues, including TNN feeling entitled to a percentage of the PPV revenue (they only received money from last year's November to Remember) and ECW's assertion that they aren't, along with ECW's assertion that the show was never promoted well, negotiations didn't go smoothly. At a meeting two weeks ago between ECW and TNN, the sides agreed to extend their agreement through the end of November, and that ECW could have left for a new station giving three weeks notice. ECW also wanted two more minutes of commercial time (four spots) in the 60 minutes that they could sell, as a way to attempt to make additional revenue.

Should Heyman have given the channel a cut of the PPVs, looking back?

Stephanie McMahon is now heavily involved in writing the TV shows

Thoughts?

Nora Greenwald (Mona in WCW) debuted in a dark match at the Raw tapings in Detroit against Ivory

Were you responsible for bringing in the future Molly Holly?

Jim Ross was pulled from appearing on the Regis show for the week of 10/23 to 10/27 but WWF will have guests every morning, Chyna, HHH, Lita, Angle and Austin respectively

What was this about???

RATINGS

For 10/9, Raw with the driver mystery storyline drew a 5.36 rating (5.03 first hour; 5.69 second hour) and an 8.1 share. Nitro from Brisbane, Australia drew a 2.52 rating (3.14 first hour; 1.91 second hour) and a 3.7 share, which I believe to be the lowest audience share in the history of the show. The second hour I also believe to be the lowest rated hour in the history of the show. The total audience watching wrestling during the head-to-head hour of 8.16 million was slightly lower than the previous week, making it at that point in time the second lowest number of viewers for Monday night wrestling (behind only the 7/3 show) over the past couple of years. Monday Night Football with the Vikings vs. Buccaneers did a strong 14.88 rating and 25 share and the number was in the same ballpark by CBS' "Everyone Loves Raymond" both in the head-to-head hour.

Raw peaked at a 6.42 rating for the over-run where Foley revealed Rikishi as the driver. The Raw main event going unopposed with Rock & Rikishi vs. Kane & Angle drew a 5.74 rating, making it up until this past Monday, the lowest rated main event of the year. The Nitro main event of Sting vs. Steiner drew a 1.87 rating, which was also the lowest rated main event of the year until this past Monday and one of the lowest rated main events in the history of the show. Probably the most alarming stat is that Nitro dropped from a 3.4 to a 1.9 when Raw started, meaning that 44% of the Nitro audience switched to Raw when the show started, a number which is totally unprecedented.

Head-to-head numbers were: Raw at 5.03 (Foley and Michaels interview) to 1.93 (Jarrett-Sting angle, Sanders & Nash vs. Booker & Cat); Raw at 4.86 (Lita vs. Jackie, Foley interrogates Debra) to 1.91 (Goldberg vs. Vito); Raw at 5.00 (Raven vs. Blackman and Foley interrogates Linda) to 1.94 (Awesome vs. David Flair and beginning of Konnan vs. Storm) and finally Raw at 5.23 (Benoit & X-Pac vs. Jericho & HHH) to 1.87 (ending of Konnan vs. Storm, Steiner vs. Sting).

EVENT RUNDOWN:

Dark Match: K-Krush defeated Christopher Daniels

Dark Match: Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray Dudley and D-Von Dudley) defeated Gangrel and Just Joe (2:01 minutes)

Dark Match: Too Cool (Grandmaster Sexay and Scotty 2 Hotty) defeated Sho Funaki and Essa Rios (4:03 minutes)

Dark Match: Albert defeated Crash Holly (2:48 minutes)

OBSERVER:

Raw on 10/9 from Anaheim. Show was built around the revelation that Rikishi was the driver. That's only step one in a lengthy angle with a lot of twists and turns, probably ending with Rock vs. Austin at WM.

Foley spent the whole show doing detective work, largely heelish, and getting mixed reactions, until fingering Rikishi at the end. It was a pretty good show with some unexpected crowd reactions, mainly Rikishi really not getting booed when revealing himself as the driver and Guerrero getting the majority of cheers when coming out of the shower with the ho's and breaking Chyna's heart. The women despised him, but they only make up 30% of the audience, and the core teenagers and young males thought it was the coolest thing around.

Michaels returned. He's clearly been training and has openly said he will be coming back. Nothing is a lock but there's been talk of him wrestling HHH at Mania. Michaels ended up saying he didn't do it, but he blamed Rock.

Lita pinned Jackie in a hardcore match after using a fire extinguisher and cookie sheet.

Chyna and Debra talked about weddings and honeymoons.

They matter of factly revealed Debra had just married Austin. I guess they figure everyone knows, but the Austin character that relates to the people doesn't relate well with the knowledge he has a wife who looks like that. Foley interrogated Debra based on the idea that she could have hit him because she wanted him home more. Debra's acting is so bad she makes Linda McMahon look like Meryl Streep and Stephanie look like Sandra Bullock.

Blackman beat Raven with a high kick. Crowd was dead for this.

Foley interrogated Linda, who still looked like Streep next to Debra.

Benoit & X-Pac beat Jericho & HHH when HHH crotched himself and fell into be pinned by Benoit. Very good match with the weakest looking finish. HHH sure has figured out the swerve of doing jobs that nobody believes. HHH demanded a match with Benoit and Foley put it on the PPV.

Hardys beat Lo Down in a tag title match when Brown had Jeff pinned but Matt came off the top with a Cameron, NC Jam and put Jeff on top. Chaz laid out Jeff with the belt after.

Snow beat Test in one of the most entertaining segments on any show in months. Snow came out representing Greece, but instead acted as if he was from the movie "Grease." Between that and Regal on commentary, this was well beyond side splitting. Test nearly killed Snow with a high kick. Crowd wasn't into the match but the two had a good match with Snow winning after a head shot.

Guerrero, who nobody could find, teamed with Chyna against Venis & Goodfather. GTV aired with Guerrero coming out of the shower with Mandy and Victoria. Crowd cheered Guerrero big-time for betraying Chyna. Chyna did the greatest acting job of her life acting pissed. It was so realistic as she stood there in this trance. Guerrero ended up getting pinned and chasing after Chyna, who threw down her engagement ring and drove off. Gunn told of Guerrero, and Guerrero ended up hitting him with a bottle.

Rock & Rikishi beat Kane & Angle. Bad match actually. Angle was rarely in but they teased dissension again. Kane choke slammed Rikishi and then choke slammed Angle who wanted to tag and get the pin. Kane walked out. Angle hit the Olympic slam on Rikishi, but Rock gave Angle the Rock bottom and Rikishi sat on him for the pin in 7:23.

Foley came out and teased he was going to finger Rock, but at the last minute said Rock wasn't guilty, and said it was Rikishi, because earlier Scotty 2 Hotty talked about partying with Rikishi in Detroit that night, and Foley said how Rikishi wasn't even in the WWF at the time (he had been doing dark matches but wasn't doing the Rikishi character). Rikishi admitted it, and said he did it on his own (fat chance), to help Rock, because the WWF never let the islanders headline and the stars were always great white hopes like Buddy Rogers (who was a heel), Bruno Sammartino, Bob Backlund (he forgot Pedro Morales because it doesn't fit the story), Hulk Hogan (which got a scary big pop) and Austin and by getting rid of Austin, it gave Rock the opportunity to be the top star. He said how the island boys like himself, Samu, Tonga Kid, Afa, Sika, Snuka and Maivia were never allowed to be big stars. There was tons of flawed logic (Yokozuna was champ a couple of times, although he wasn't billed as an islander). Enough that this might as well have been a Russo angle. The whole gimmick when Rock and Austin were feuding is that Austin was the champion the company didn't want but couldn't beat and Rock was the hand picked corporate champions and that dates back more than a year before the deal and Rock had already held the title several times. The choice of Rikishi was certainly controversial as they didn't elevate a young guy when they had the chance, and overtly played the race card, which left the show with a bad taste in a lot of people's mouth. The idea it was a good idea because nobody suspected Rikishi so people were fooled is the kind of logic Russo would use. The reason nobody suspected Rikishi is because it wouldn't have the impact as if it were a Michaels or a Vince or even a Jericho and people wanted impact. Lots of people were talking about it after it was over, however