April 2nd 2001

Wrestling Observer/Figure Four Online -- WWE, TNA, UFC and International Wrestling and MMA Headlines
F4W~!#301 - It's official: Vince McMahon buys WCW - April 2, 2001
F4W~!#301 - It's official: Vince McMahon buys WCW - April 2, 2001
F4W~!#301 - Its official: Vince McMahon buys WCW - April 2, 2001
There is a lesson that many people in the wrestling industry learned last week,
and a lesson that many others will learn in the very near future. The men
who have tried to ignore this lesson are many. Those men will no longer
be players on the national wrestling scene.
The lesson is simple. When it comes to pro-wrestling, Vince McMahon

always gets the last laugh. Always.
STAMFORD, Conn.(BUSINESS WIRE)March 23, 2001 World

Wrestling Federation Entertainment, Inc. (NYSE:WWF - news) today announced its
purchase of the World Championship Wrestling (WCW) brand from Turner
Broadcasting System, Inc. (TBS Inc.), a division of AOL Time Warner.
So began the press release which officially announced the end of the
long-standing wrestling war between Vince McMahons WWF and Ted
Turners WCW, and signalled the beginning of a
new era for pro-wrestling; an era in which McMahon, after eighteen years,
finally realized his dream of controlling the entire United States wrestling
industry.
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It is believed that WWFE Inc. purchased all of WCWs

major trademarks (including the NWO name and all of the PPV titles), the entire
Turner videotape library, and the contracts of 24 midcard
wrestlers. The WWF has not publicly released the sale price of the
deal yet, but because they are a publicly-traded company that information will
be available within a few weeks. It is believed that last year, when SFX
was negotiating to buy the company, Time Warners price tag was in the
$600 million dollar range. By the time Fusient
came on board, the price was down to around $80 million, and once the January
financials came in and investors began dropping out, Fusient
lowered their offer to an estimated $48 million. Finally, Jamie Kellner cancelled Nitro and Thunder, the two national
prime-time television shows which were the most
valuable assets the company had. Most sources believe that as a result,
the price dropped to between $10 and $20 million, which indicates Time Warner
at that point was just desperate to unload it.
The plan, at least for this week, is to keep WCW a separate organization and
attempt to rebuild it for a likely interpromotional
war six months to a year down the road. The WWF and TNN have already
agreed to air a new WCW program, which may or may not be called
Nitro, on Saturday nights from 11:00 PM to 1:00 AM. No start date was finalized
as of press time, although the belief is that the debut is at least six to
eight weeks away. The new promotion will probably consist of whichever
WCW performers are retained (mostly midcarders like
Shannon Moore, Shane Helms, Lance Storm, Kanyon, Mike Awesome and Kidman), some
former ECW stars (likely Jason Jett and perhaps a few guys like Little Guido,
who Paul Heyman is high on, and Kid Kash), some of
the WWF developmental wrestlers who the company has been wanting to bring up,
but hasnt found a spot for on the active WWF roster (Steve Bradley for
example), and a handful of current WWF stars.
Almost all of the 24 WCW contracts purchased were lower-end deals with 90-day
cycles built in, so the WWF will probably allow them to expire and then re-sign
the performers on whatever terms they desire. Clearly, one of the biggest
impacts this sale will have on the wrestling industry is the immediate
differences in the salary structure. Gone are the days of the million dollar guaranteed deal. With nobody else to threaten
his position, Vince will surely offer very low downside guarantees, and in
fact, before the sale was even completed, he had already begun offering
contracts well below $100,000 per year.
The big money contracts, such as those of Kevin Nash ($1.6 million per year),
Sting (around $1.5 to $2 million per year) and Goldberg ($2 million per year),
will remain with Time Warner, and those wrestlers will have the option of
either sitting home and getting paid for the duration of their deals or being
bought out for a percentage of the total owed, which would allow them to begin
negotiating with the WWF.
As of press time, absolutely no other decisions had been made about which
wrestlers, announcers and office staff would be retained. Sources say
McMahon prides himself on the generally positive morale backstage in the WWF,
and is adamant about eliminating the bad influences from the WCW locker
room. There is an understanding that guys like Shawn OHare and
Chuck Palumbo have a ton of potential, but unfortunately spent their formative
years in the old WCW, where some of the role models they were expected to look
up to were spoiled and unprofessional veterans like Lex
Luger. For that reason, it is believed that
there is little or no interest in Buff Bagwell, Kevin Nash, Luger
and Rick Steiner among others. Others, who have had problems with McMahon
in the past, are also screwed. Jeff Jarrett and Dustin Rhodes may have
actually been fired live on Raw.
It was initially thought that there was no interest in Scott Steiner due to
some non-wrestling legal issues and the fact that he cut several unscripted promos
on Nitro last year. He did, however, get the second biggest pop in the
building when his name was mentioned on Raw, and he also did the right thing
Monday night by dropping the WCW Title clean to Booker T with no complaints
despite being in a great deal of pain. One thing to note about Steiner is
that he was suspended during the Kevin Sullivan regime for cutting a shoot
promo on Ric Flair, but then when Vince Russo took
the book, he actually encouraged Steiner to act more out-of-control and began
pushing him towards the WCW Title. Its hard to blame guys like
Steiner and Nash for behavior they exhibit in an environment that not only
allows it, but often encourages it. Most likely, Steiner would realize
that McMahon is going to have a zero-tolerance policy, and would remain on his
best behavior under his employ.
Goldberg, who will make an estimated $2 million per year if he chooses to sit
out his contract, is an interesting case. Clearly there is big money to
be made with dream matches against the likes of Rock, Hunter and Steve
Austin. But Goldberg isnt as effective working a regular schedule
of competitive matches, and to properly build him up hed have to plow
through most of the guys on the active WWF and WCW rosters, which would upset a
lot of people. He isnt giving up the millions of dollars
hed make from Time Warner over the next few years to come into the WWF
for a $400,000 downside guarantee. Its also unlikely that McMahon
would want to destroy morale by making an exception and offering him a
multi-million dollar guaranteed deal if he accepts a Time Warner buyout.
But the bottom line in any wrestling organization really has to be making
money, and if Goldberg can draw $10 or $20 million on PPV working top WWF
names, maybe Vince would be willing to make that exception. Because of
these perceived problems, there was no immediate interest in signing him, and
the plan was not to mention his name on Raw. Unfortunately, the fans
began chanting for him, and Vince was almost goaded into bringing his name
up. He got the biggest ovation of any name mentioned. The WWF has
never been in the business of building towards something that they cannot
deliver, and if fans keep chanting his name during the television shows, Vince
might be forced to work something out to bring him.
The only high-dollar names WWF has expressed any interest in are Ric Flair, Booker T and Dallas Page. It seems a lock
that Booker and Flair will be brought in. Theyll both end up
taking pay cuts, but the alternative is the indy scene so I dont think itll be much
of a problem for them to make the decision. Plus, if you factor in the
buyout price, the WWF downside guarantee, and bonuses for eventual house show
and PPV appearances, the money might be comparable at least the first
year. Page has indicated to friends that hes willing to take a pay
cut in order to come in and work the top guys like Rock and Austin, but if they have a mid-card role
planned for him, he wouldnt necessarily take it. Page, who turns
45 in a few weeks, has great interest in producing motivational books and tapes
and doing speaking engagements, and has indicated that hes done all he
ever wanted to do in wrestling and would be willing to walk away. Of
course, countless guys before him have said the same thing only to come back
months later, but Page has spent a good deal of time preparing for the transition
and seems genuinely excited about it.
For the time being, none of the WCW performers are expected to appear on WWF
TV, but there will be WWF performers sent over to WCW, probably under the guise
of a raid by Shane McMahon. Shane, during a historic angle
simulcast on both Raw and Nitro (see TV reports), announced that he had
bought WCW right out from under the nose of his father,
Vince. Throughout both shows, Vince constantly buried WCW and its
performers, but also put himself over as this dastardly mastermind intent on
utter and complete control of the wrestling industry, the goal of which was to
help babyface the WCW organization.
Its going to be a very tricky situation. The new show

doesnt exactly have the worlds greatest timeslot, and its success
will rely solely on whether or not WWFE can create a compelling TV program that
fans want to see. If fans see the new Nitro as a B-show
featuring talent that couldnt hack it in the WWF, it will die a quick
death. In order for this thing to work, the show has to be perceived as
equal to or even greater than Raw and Smackdown. Its going to require a
raid of top stars from WWF, similar to the real-life raid of
Scott Hall and Kevin Nash that helped propel WCW to its most successful two years
of business ever. Its vitally important that at least one major
main eventer jumps ship, otherwise fans wont
perceive this as a real promotional war. But that opens the door to other
problems. For the foreseeable future, WCW isnt going to be running
any house shows or any PPVs. If someone like
Triple H jumped ship, hed go from making huge house show and PPV bonuses
to simply making his downside guarantee, which would be a substantial cut in
pay that nobody in their right mind would be willing to take since that
business is so hot right now. There is a simple solution if the WWF was
willing to make concessions, and that would be to pay that person bonuses for
the house shows and PPVs that they didnt work
until the time came when WCW was healthy enough to begin touring and running PPVs on their own. Of course, this
would upset most
of the current WCW crew, and they would have to be told point-blank that
everything was being done for the good of the company and with their best
long-term interests in mind. On the other hand, nobody would really be
able to complain since they wouldnt have any other employment
opportunities available anyway.
My top picks to invade the new WCW would be Rock, Undertaker,

Shawn Michaels and the Hardyz. Rock will be
leaving after WrestleMania to film his movie and will
probably end up with more film roles in the near future. Its no
secret that his ultimate goal is to wrestle a few more years and then become a
full-time movie star. If hes going to be doing outside projects
which will only allow him to work the TV tapings and PPVs,
a non-touring WCW organization with one TV taping per week might be the perfect
place for him. Plus, hes as big a star as has ever existed in this
business. Shawn Michaels is a huge star whose body physically wont
allow him to work a full house show schedule, and one TV taping per week with
an occasional match would be an ideal scenario for him. Undertaker is a
huge name whos getting older and would probably benefit from a more
relaxed schedule. Hardyz are young, talented wrestlers
who could have great matches with the other WCW cruiserweights, and probably
could use a more relaxed schedule for a few months after all the punishment
theyve received over the last two years working full-time for the
WWF. Other possibilities include guys like Al Snow and Dean Malenko, who are currently lost in the WWF shuffle and
could work good matches and help train the younger wrestlers in WCW.
There were two meetings before TV Monday night, with Vince addressing the WWF
wrestlers backstage at Raw and Shane addressing the WCW wrestlers at
Nitro. Vince, who was in a fabulous mood all day, thanked everyone for
supporting him and sticking with the company as it grew to the point where it
could finally purchase WCW. He said he had the opportunity to shut down
WCW but realized that the company was full of people with families to feed, so
therefore he was going to build it into a separate and successful alternative
company. He said a few of the WWF guys would be moving to WCW, but that they
werent building towards interpromotional shows
and werent planning on shutting WCW down in a year or two. Shane,
who received a round of applause before his speech to the WCW crew, said
everyone was going to get a chance to start with a clean state, and that his
goal was to rebuild the company to where it was as big or bigger than the
WWF. Most of the younger wrestlers were ecstatic, and the mood was said
to be similar to the mood in the locker room when Vince Russo who at
the time was generally considered to be the man who turned WWF business around
jumped ship. The older wrestlers were more leery, uncertain as to how the
industry would end up with one man having so much power and erasing any hope of
leveraging their way into a huge contract anytime in the foreseeable future.
So what does the future hold? Despite the claims, most of the people who
have closely followed the wrestling industry worldwide figure that an interpromotional feud is clearly being built towards,
and the losing company (WCW) will almost certainly
end up being absorbed by the victor. Although this is a very likely
possibility, I personally dont see the future looking quite as
depressing as I did last week for a variety of reasons.
First, things look good in the short-term as a fan. This sounds pretty
horrible, but the WCW organization under Ted Turner really deserved to
die. It was bleeding money, nobody was watching the television programs,
nobody was going to house shows, and nobody was buying the PPVs.
Four hours of television, especially taped all on the same night, was just too
much, and Thunder, while unintentionally funny at times, grew more depressing
by the week. There was no hope for any significant turnaround in the near
future.
Now, under the ownership of Vince McMahon, some things will change for the
better. The company will be down to one show per week, hopefully an
A show, featuring the best the old WCW had to offer, some new,
fresh faces from ECW and the WWFs developmental
groups, and likely a big star or two jumping ship.
Production will improve significantly. The locker room atmosphere will
improve with the cancers being removed, and morale will hopefully be up as guys
are given the chance to move up the card. Storylines will make more sense
and angles will be booked to lead towards money matches, as opposed to being
booked to fool the boys or make them laugh. When a person starts to get
over, they will no longer be immediately buried, taken off TV, or sued.
Everyone will be working hard to impress McMahon, and those who used to walk
that fine line will be forced to be on their best behavior. The WWF
isnt perfect, and the new WCW will not be perfect either, but many
things will certainly improve.
Clearly the biggest downside will be the fact that, without competition and
without anywhere else to go, the wrestlers will suffer financially. But I
have a feeling the future might not look so bleak after all, and maybe this is
simply a transitory period which could help open the door to another
organization starting from scratch.
You see, there is a reason TNN which has seen its ratings turn around
thanks to the WWF offered a late-night Saturday timeslot for the new
WCW show and not something in prime time. There is also a reason Paul
Heyman was unable to get a TV deal to save ECW. There is a reason why USA
Network, which benefited greatly from Raws
success for many years, has no interest in any wrestling programming. And
theres a reason that Eric Bischoff was unable to close a deal to get a
television show on FOX.
The reason is that the television industry has really soured on

pro-wrestling. Theyve seen the collapse of WCWs
ratings and the $60 million in losses. Theyve seen the stories,
some sensationalized and some completely accurate, of kids being influenced

negatively by the WWF product. Theyve seen Vince McMahon
thundering around on television and commanding a woman to bark like a dog and
take her clothes off. Theyve seen lawsuits and murder
trials. Theyve seen advertisers pull out. And theyve
seen a large portion of the fad wrestling audience turn away from the sport and
move onto something new.
There is little chance of a start-up group making it today because of this

negativity in the television industry. As we talked about last week, no
group can survive without strong national TV, and even Vince McMahon, the
one-time darling of the cable TV world, was only offered a late-night Saturday
slot for his new WCW show on a network he helped build.
But things could change. There is a very good chance that an invasion
angle into the new McMahon-controlled WCW could revitalize the promotion.
If the new Nitro is treated as a strong A-level show, fans are
going to watch it no matter when it airs. And, if it continues to do
well, TNN will almost certainly move it into a more favorable prime-time
slot. The WWF clearly wants to create a controlled version of the mid-90s
promotional war that started the last boom period, and even if this new
war doesnt reach nearly the heights of the last one, it
should still boost business and ratings for at least six months to a
year. If things go very well and the WWF can sit back and be patient,
they might be able to pull two years or more of strong business out of this.
A year in the television industry is a long time. Two years is an

eternity. If Raw, Smackdown and the new Nitro
can retain or build stronger weekly ratings for any length of time and avoid
any significant controversies, some network somewhere is going to take notice
and decide it wants to finance a wrestling start-up. There are going to
be a lot of former superstars (like perhaps Hulk Hogan, Sting, Lex Luger, Kevin Nash, Randy
Savage and Goldberg), foreign talents that the WWF has no interest in, and many
younger stars who didnt make the cut sitting on the sidelines ready to
make a move when the time is right. And there are always going to be
people with good connections and great negotiating skills like Eric Bischoff
who are going to work hard to put something together as soon as that slot opens
up.
History has shown that wrestling in the United States is a cyclical industry.
Promotions rise and fall, live and die.
Wrestlers, promoters, bookers and fans come and go, but in the end, like the
stock market, the business usually balances itself out and moves on. As
long as men have a passion for professional wrestling, it will exist in this
country, and it is unrealistic to think that weve entered a down cycle
which the business will never recover from.
As unrealistic, perhaps, as getting that last laugh at Vinces expense.
Top Stories
Sakuraba loses fight, Inoki loses mind
Legends fell and the reality of shoot combat set in with a lot of people at the
Dream State Entertainment PRIDE 13 event on March 24th at the Chiinama Super Arena in Saitama. The show drew
close
to a sell-out of 27,000, drawn mostly for the intrigue of seeing New Japan pro
wrestler Tadao Yasudas fight against the
experienced Masaaki Satake, and PRIDE superstar
Kazushi Sakurabas match against Vanderlei Silva. These two matches were billed as the
co-main event on posters and likely sold most of the tickets for the show.
It was a night of huge stories. The first was the institution of a new
rule allowing knees to the head of a downed opponent, and it resulted in quick
finishes in both the Sakuraba match and the Mark
Coleman vs. Allan Goes fight. The general reaction immediately after the
show was that the rule made the fights too dangerous, and there is already talk
of rescinding it for future events.
Sakuraba, 31, who was regarded by some as the best

pound-for-pound fighter in the world, was rendered a mere mortal at the hands
of the 24-year-old Silva. There was talk before the show that Sakuraba had been sick, and perhaps to spoof the reports
he
came to the ring bedecked in a white doctors coat and giant coke bottle
glasses. The fight was over in less than two minutes, with Silva taking him
down and punishing him with brutal knees and punches to the head. The
referee, feeling that Sakuraba was in too vulnerable
a position, stopped the fight. Sakuraba, who
was bleeding heavily but appeared to be OK afterwards, said he felt the fight
was stopped too early, and requested a rematch for a future show. Word at
press time, however, was that he was in pretty bad shape from a combination of
the sickness and the beating, and there was talk that he might not fight again
for over a year.
Yasuda, who nobody thought had even a prayer going in, ended up winning a
controversial decision over Satake 2-1.
Yasudas only real offensive move was a sumo-style takedown near the end
of round two. The rest of the time he bulled Satake
into the corner and held him there to try and avoid any punches. Satake punched him anyway every time he went for a
takedown. Basically, the fight was even, so Satake,
who was outweighed by 30 kg., should have gotten the win since the judges were
allowed to take weight differences into account on an even fight. Said to
be a horrible match, and the result was obviously considered a huge upset.
Tra Telligman, replacing an

injured Ken Shamrock on just two weeks notice, scored another of the
biggest upsets in MMA history beating the frightening Igor Vovchanchin,
nine years his junior, via a unanimous 3-0 decision. There were people
including backstage at the show who thought Shamrock was faking an
injury to avoid the fight, but his doctor, John J. Cassey,
really did diagnose him with bilateral upper extremity pain as well as radiculopathy. Im not sure what that means,
but it sounds pretty bad. Cassey recommended he
undergo cervical epidurals and physical therapy as well as not fight scary men
like Igor Vovchanchin at this time (well, he
didnt specifically use those words). Shamrock was at the show
live, but strangely was never mentioned at all.
The losses of Sakuraba, Satake

and Vovchanchin just offer further evidence that the
skill level which modern fighters have attained mixed with the almost countless
variables that must be taken into account during a real fight ensure that
nobody can stay undefeated forever. One guy was sick. One guy was
lucky. One guy was in better cardiovascular shape. On another day,
perhaps none of these variables would have mattered. But this reality is
important to note when we look at the story of Antonio Inoki
and his crazy booking ideas.
Inokis appearance was perhaps the biggest news

to the casual Japanese fan, although it was quite perplexing. Inoki basically shot his own pro-wrestling angle, an angle,
strangely enough, that completely buried New Japan. First, Inoki came out after the Dan Henderson vs. Renzo Gracie
fight, sporting the old IWGP Heavyweight title
belt and the old WWF World Martial Arts title belt. The Martial Arts belt
was used from 1978 through 1992 when Keiji Muto
basically unified it with the current IWGP Title. Anyway, Inoki claimed that the current IWGP Title held by Scott
Norton was fake, and that his version of
the IWGP Title, which he gave to Kazuyuki Fujita, was the real one. Of
course, Fujita is facing Norton at the Osaka Dome in a non-title match with
most insiders figuring Fujita is going over. Inoki
also announced that the winner of the Mark Coleman vs. Allan Goes match would
become the new WWF World Martial Arts Champion.
Nobody knew what to make of this, except to think that Inoki

had lost his mind. I think his idea is to have Fujita eventually beat
Norton to unify both versions of the IWGP Title, and then have Fujita go on to
wrestle Mark Coleman to unify that IWGP Title, the WWF World Martial Arts
Title, and the PRIDE World Title into a real World Championship or something
like that. God knows how this guy thinks. All I know is that he
really seems to want to do a New Japan vs. PRIDE feud, and the problem with interpromotional feuds, as weve seen a
million times
in the past, is that one side always dies in the end. Plus, as
weve learned from the death of WCW, the last thing a booker needs to do
is create angles that bury his own company. He also called out Tokimitsu Ishizawa, wearing his Kendo Kashin
mask, and Shinya Hashimoto, who got a huge pop. Ishizawa took his
mask off and pretty much begged Ryan Gracie for a rematch. Gracie, who
has no clue about goofy pro-wrestling angles, said he just wanted to fight in
PRIDE again. He never specifically said he wanted to kill Ishizawa again,
but Inoki said he was going to make the match. Poor Ishizawa. His career is all but dead after his
first loss to Gracie, and hes a pawn in Inokis
game and will have his career buried six feet under by the time this is all
over.
Inoki may think he has this all figured out. He

might have thought long and hard about a way to combine the success of PRIDE
with the falling business of New Japan. But he also shot an angle on a
show that proved no man was unbeatable in a real fight, and anything can happen
to anyone on any given day. The danger, as Inoki
will most certainly find out eventually, is that no matter how well-conceived
an angle may be, when youre dealing with real fighters, the man you
expect to be the best in the world on any given day could end up beaten and
humbled when the final bell rings.
1.
Vitor Belfort beat Bobby Southworth in 4:09 of the first
round.
Belfort, a former UFC golden boy who was
eventually humbled and rendered human, totally outclassed Southworth
and took him out quickly with a choke sleeper.
2.
Guy Mezger beat Eagan Inoue in 2:25 of the first round via KO. Mezger
basically just punched him out. Afterwards, he challenged Eagans brother Enson
to a future fight. Enson said he was
retired.
3.
Heath Herring beat Denis Sobolev via entangled armlock in 22 seconds of the first round. Not much to say about this.
4.
Dan Henderson beat Renzo Gracie via KO in 1:40 of the first round. Renzo
tried a takedown but Henderson cleaned his clock with two killer
right hands and knocked him batty. Said to be an exciting match. Henderson is the current RINGS King of Kings
Champion, so fans of that promotion were ecstatic about his win.
5.
Mark Coleman beat Allan Goes in 1:19 of the first round via referee
stoppage.
Goes foolishly started doing these fancy-ass theatrical martial arts kicks
before the match. Coleman responded by violently taking him down and
going for a neck crank. Goes fought free, so Coleman just started laying in the knees to the head and the referee stopped
it. Inoki gave Coleman, the current PRIDE World
Champion, the WWF World Martial Arts belt afterwards. Goes threw up
backstage after the fight and had to be hospitalized, which sounds like a
concussion to me.
6.
Tadao Yasuda beat Masaaki Satake
via judges decision 2-1. After the match, Yasuda cried under the arm of
his trainer, former UFC fighter and current New Japan wrestler Brian
Johnston. It was Yasudas lucky day as, backstage,
he ended up reuniting with his estranged wife and child, who he hadnt
seen in three months.
7.
Tra Telligman beat Igor Vovchanchin via judges decision 3-0. Tito Ortiz came out before
the fight wearing his UFC Middleweight Title and gave flowers to both
guys. Apparently, Ortiz wanted to issue a challenge to Sakuraba on this show, but Dream Stage refused to allow it,
saying it wasnt a money match in Japan. That should tell you where
UFC ranks on the totem pole over there. Telligman
managed to do a great job for himself standing up, and then managed to take Vovchanchin down several times. Fight
started out
very exciting, but then Vovchanchin started to get
tired, and when you tire before your opponent, youre in for a rough
night. Vovchanchin desperately tried for a
knockout in the last round, but Telligman took him
down and controlled him until the finish. This was Vovchanchins
first loss in a PRIDE ring.
8.
Vanderlei Silva destroyed Kazushi Sakuraba
in 1:38 via referee
stoppage.
Said to be just a brutal fight. Apparently Silva dieted down to avoid
exceeding the 10 kg limit in case the match ended in a draw, but by the time he
entered the ring hed regained all the lost fluid he was said to be
huge. Everyone was getting the word out, including during the telecast,
that Sakuraba had been sick the week before and
couldnt train hard. His loss was said to be no surprise to the TV
people or the guys backstage. Ortiz gave flowers to both guys here as
well and also kissed Sakuraba before the fight.
Kiss of death, as it turns out.
Ratings for the Big

Angle disappoint
Despite perhaps the biggest angle in the history of wrestling, Raw only drew a
4.7 rating (4.1 and 5.3) to Nitros 3.0 (3.1 and 2.9). The Raw
number has to be considered a disappointment, especially since the second hour,
despite being promoted on Nitro, only did a 5.3. Nitro, however, got a
big boost and scored its highest opposed rating since June
12, 2000. The simulcast saw Raw do a 4.4 to Nitros 3.5 for a
combined 7.9. In very bad news for Raw, not only did the second hour do a
disappointing number, but the rating dropped from a 5.4 to a 5.0 for the main
event, and grew only 0.1 for the overrun. Not the greatest news leading
into WrestleMania, but that show is still going to do
huge business. It may be an indication, however, that things will be
moving downhill post-WrestleMania.
In House Notes
I would like to thank the following individuals for their help this week in
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Jason Barrett, Manuel Gonzalez, Bob Barnett, Jared Kaye, Craig Allen, Tadashi
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Bradbrook.
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WWF
In a story
thats getting way too much attention, theyve added a Battle Royal
to WrestleMania this year featuring the

greatest gimmicks of all time in one ring. Among the participants
announced thus far: Bushwhackers, Doink the Clown, Brother Love, Sgt. Slaughter, Michael
Hayes (who is referred to as Freebird
Michael Hayes), Nikolai Volkoff, Earthquake, Typhoon,
Repo Man,
Hillbilly Jim, Kim Chee, The Goon, Kimala, Gobbledy Gooker and Iron
Sheik. This is scary beyond comprehension. First off,
its false advertising, because the WWF specifically said the GREATEST
gimmicks of all time. Second, this has to be setting up some sort of
run-in by a big star, because there is no way that
this match can go even one minute without being booed out of the
building. Plus and Im not saying this as a joke but
because its true if Iron Sheik in particular tries to take a
bump over the top rope he will die. People have also noted that now that
WWF has purchased WCW, they could throw in a bunch of horrible WCW gimmicks as
well, like Kevin Nash as Oz or the Ding Dongs. This battle royal is really happening and
its not a rib. I believe the guys are being paid between $500 and
$1000 each to make the appearance.
XFL was the

proud recipient of last weeks Disaster of the Day on the Forbes
website. The site included a pretty well-written article by Lisa DiCarlo, although she did downplay the total losses as only
$100 million over two years. The way things are going right now, even
with NBC absorbing half the total losses as a partner, the WWF will probably
lose somewhere around $80 million this season alone, and likely far more next
season if theyre stupid enough to keep the league alive. The 1.6
the XFL drew last week translated into just 2.16 million viewers, less than
have ever tuned in to any episode of Nitro in history. Shockingly,
theyre already forming expansion committees looking at possible new team
locations for the next two years. Of course, as in any business, the idea
is to look towards the future even up until the bitter end, so I wouldnt
put too much stock into this report. Speaking of the bitter end, the
league crept closer to it as Dick Ebersol, for the first time, publicly admitted
in a Washington Post article that
unless ratings take a major upturn during the playoffs, the league will be
dropped from NBC. McMahon also told the
New York Times that the league would not continue without network
backing, and if NBC pulls out, that leaves only UPN. Unfortunately for
Vince, UPN affiliates have also been extremely negative since the third week
about having to carry the low-rated football games.
Very negative reviews for the Smackdown

taping last week, particularly the fact that there were only two matches in the
first hour. Although it wasnt apparent on TV, there were
some very violent reactions during the 23-minute taped Rock/Austin interview,
with fans chanting for refunds and actually throwing things at the TitanTron. More anti-Rock signs had to be
confiscated. Apparently, there were far more signs that made it on TV
than I was aware of last week, including one sign reading FUCK YOU
ROCK that appeared at least twice before being taken away. In news
which may end up being extremely disturbing, Austin after the show tore his shirt off
and did a most-muscular pose, a la Hulk
Hogan. The good news is that, at least this week, talks
between Hogan and the WWF appear to have fallen apart.
Triple H did a long conference call

Thursday on behalf of the WWF and TNN. He said he preferred staying a
heel, but said if the timing was right, he was not opposed to turning babyface. Translated, that means that when the time
comes that he can be top babyface, hell do the
big turn. He said that the wrestling business had changed, and a person couldnt
be effective as a straight chickenshit heel. He
said a heel today had to be tough and back up what they said. Funny, I
remember Kurt Angle not being
taken seriously as a straight chickenshit heel at a
time when he also said that Hunter was helping him mold his character. He
said when Steve Austin was out

last year, he never felt the pressure to step up his game. He totally put
over Shawn Michaels as the
bomb. But, he said, he didnt want him doing a return and getting
hurt. Id hate to see Shawn put himself in jeopardy.
Id like to think nobody would do that. Only Shawn can do that, only
Shawn can tell people how he feels. He said if he could still go, it would be a pleasure and honor to work with him
again. He talked about WrestleMania and said he
was happy that Rock and Steve Austin were getting a chance to
headline in a singles match. He said that hed love to be there
with them, but in hindsight he also wishes that last year hed been able
to have a straight match with Rock as opposed to the four-way with Big Show and Mick Foley. He was asked about Foley
returning to the
ring, and he brought up all the trauma hed suffered during his career
and the fact that he had a wife and two children. He said he didnt
want Foley to get hurt and hoped he never made a full-time return. He
talked about helping to book the shows and said he wouldnt
necessarily say he was part of the writing team. He said he gave
his input and went to a lot of meetings, but the writing crew decided on their
own whether to use his ideas or not. He said he wanted to work on the
team when he was no longer physically able to wrestle. He said he loved
watching Ric Flair
as a kid and always wanted to be able to carry other people to great
matches. By the way, it would be a hell of an idea for Flair to come in
and steal Stephanie from Hunter to
finally split that marriage up. At the rate theyre going,
theyll be married forever, because neither side is going to want to be
the one who ends up dumped. Maybe, because he respects Flair so much,
Hunter would go along with having him steal his girl to lead to a feud between
the two. I dont see a whole hell of a lot of other options.
He talked about the incident years ago at Madison Square Garden where, on Scott Hall and Kevin Nashs final night in
the company, the three of
them and Michaels all broke kayfabe and hugged in the
middle of the ring. He said he talked to Vince afterwards and was told he
was going to be punished for it, and he just wanted an assurance that after the
punishment ended, hed be given a chance. He said if he could go
back in time, he wouldnt change a thing, because he learned a hell of a
lot about how to act and how not to act in this business. He said he
loved wrestling, but when the time came, hed be more than happy to work
on other outside projects like movies. He repeated the immortal line that
he didnt want to be one of those guys who hung around a bit too
long. But, he said, this was his dream job, and if he never made it on
the big screen hed still be happy. When talking about Kurt Angle, the first thing he said
was: Kurt sucks. He said he was kidding, but
added: Wouldnt it be funny if I said that and just left it
at that? Yeah, hilarious. He put
over Angle, saying he was perfect for the business, picked things up really
fast, and learned like a sponge. He got back to talking
about Flair, saying he was still entertained by him today. He said
sometimes Flair came on TV and it was kind of sad to watch, but he was still
often the most entertaining guy on the show and still had the passion to give
it his best every night.
According to
a WWF spokesman before the Hunter conference call began, WrestleMania
is completely sold out with nearly 64,000 tickets gone. They announced
another 1,000 tickets that would go on sale the day of
the event, and when all is said and done theyll probably hit that 65,000.
Some Ross Report notes for this week. Bob Holly has swelling between his C5 and
C6 vertebras and hasnt been cleared to work yet. Hell
probably be back on TV this week. He talked about Kane of all people doing a media day in Knoxville, TN, then
wrote this line which I found funny for some reason: The Big Red
Machine resides in the area. Undertaker
got sixteen stitches in his head after being clonked by Triple H on Smackdown. Scotty 2 Hotty
will make non-wrestling appearances at Axxess and WrestleMania. Same with Rikishi. He said some new assignments
would
be made in the developmental territories with some guys being switched around
and others released. He said Rhyno (not a typo) and Spike Dudley had solid debuts, but the WWF should have done a
better job letting fans know who they were, since not everybody has heard of
Extreme Championship Wrestling. The funny thing is that in the last
several weeks, Paul Heyman has
made several references to ECW and Ross has practically ignored him every
time. Get a load of this comment: We wish Randy Hales the best of luck with Memphis
Power Pro Wrestling and look forward to the possibility of working with him
again if the opportunity arises. As always, Jerry
The King Lawler and Stacy
Carter will do a great job with these folks. Always the politician, that Ross. Actually, Ross was
the one who originally gave Hales the OK to put Lawler on TV, so Im sure
it wasnt his call to have the territory pulled. He admitted that
the Smackdown taping kind of sucked with too many
long delays without in-ring action. He said theyd learn from their
mistakes. You know, I got a report on that show from a person who claimed
that at one point during the Austin/Rock segment, the crowd erupted into the
most pleasing chant I can ever recall: WE WANT
WRESTLING! Ross said, regarding the Gimmick Battle Royal:
This will hopefully give the event a little comic relief.
He said Val Venis
had singles star appeal and would probably get that push sooner
rather than later. He said Yoshihiro Tajiri had signed his deal and was getting paid,
but didnt have an official start date yet. Right out of nowhere,
he made this strange comment: Perry
Saturns in-ring work is unfairly compared to Chris Benoit, Dean Malenko and Eddie Guerrero, the three men Perry
arrived with in the Federation. Perry works very hard and if he keeps doing so
will no doubt end the perception that he is not on the same level as the other
three aforementioned performers. Perry is a solid hand, but the other three are
all extremely proficient. Working smarter solves lots of perceived ills. I
think Saturn will be just fine in the long run. He put over Terry Golden and Bobby Eaton as doing a great job in Memphis.
He said:
General weigh-ins will begin soon to monitor all our talents
physical status. OH~! He put over Ohio Valley Wrestling and
said Jim Cornette
and Danny Davis may attend WrestleMania.
The cops on Smackdown this week were Alex

Arion, an Al Snow trainee who has worked Memphis; Wagner
Brown from Sheldon
Goldbergs New England Championship Wrestling; Johnny Royal; and Bob Evans, who has done WWF dark matches
in the past.
Main event
of the sold-out March 23rd Madison Square Garden show saw Steve Austin & Undertaker & Kane beat Triple H & Kurt
Angle & Big Show.
Shockingly, the reports we received claimed that Show and Undertaker really
hurt the workrate level in this match.
Jerry Lynn debuted March 25th at the

Baltimore Arena house show, beating Essa Rios with the tornado DDT. Main event
of that show saw Undertaker & Kane
beat Kurt Angle & Big Show in 22:23. Read that time again.
I cant even imagine that match going that long.
Shawn Michaels was at Raw Monday night,

but with the whole WCW sale going down they ended up having to scrap his planned
return due to time constraints. The revised plan was for him to return on
Smackdown in an angle that would lead towards WrestleMania. They ended up having to scrap that
segment as well and he ended up storming out of the building late Tuesday afternoon.
Not sure what that means for his appearance at WrestleMania,
but things may not look good. Michaels was already lobbying for Kevin Nash to be brought back, and even
suggested a new DX crew to invade WCW, consisting of himself, Nash, X-Pac, Triple
H, and Justin Credible.

Of course, thats the original Clique group that
politically ran wild backstage in the mid-90s and nearly brought WWF to its
knees, so dont hold your breath waiting for that one to happen.
The idea of a 24-hour buy-on-demand wrestling

pay-per-view channel has already been discussed, with WWF now owning well over
a decade of WCW footage plus likely buying the ECW videotape library as
well. Combined, this will give the company well over fifty years
worth of historical wrestling footage, which could prove to be relatively
profitable if not an outright success. Publications such as Wrestling Observer and Figure Four have generally done well
through both hot and cold periods in wrestling, because they attract a hardcore
base of readers as opposed to a fad mainstream audience. Hardcore fans
love wrestling tapes, even tapes that look to be fifteenth-generation horrible
copies. A 24-hour buy-on-demand system would not only allow them to get
practically any match or event that they desired for maybe five dollars each,
but also a first-generation version that could be videotaped right off TV and
placed in their collection. It would be of benefit to hardcore fans who will spend money on videos regardless of the current
wrestling business climate, and also newer fans who are interested in checking
out footage of legendary wrestlers that theyve only read or heard about
and never actually gotten a chance to see. The WWF could also begin
producing more varied special events similar to the Fanatix
series, and since they own the footage from WWF, WCW and ECW they could produce
interpromotional programs perhaps chronicling a
wrestlers entire career instead of just his stint in the WWF.
Theres really nothing to lose now, since acknowledging a persons
career in another organization means nothing anymore because the WWF now owns
the history of every major US wrestling organization of the last
several decades. The WWF, probably in preparation for the deluge of new
footage, announced last week a deal with Sekani, Inc.
to store, catalog and manage the video and media archives in preparation for
digital distribution either via video-on-demand PPV or the Internet.
Vince spent about an hour on the Howard Stern show Thursday. They
joked around at the beginning with Howard claiming he thought Vince was just an
announcer and didnt know he was actually the WWF owner, and Vince
claiming he didnt know whether he was a billionaire or not. For
those of you wondering, this week he is not a billionaire. They talked
about this weeks version of Vinces childhood. Howard said
he had an idea for the XFL, to make it more like the TV show
Survivor. He said that next season, all the players and
cheerleaders should live in the same place, and when a team lost, they would be
removed from their place of living. Therefore, it would come down to just
two teams for the Championship. Vince thought this was a good idea, which
might lend some insight into why the last game did a 1.6 rating on prime-time
network TV. When asked who would take over the WWF when Vince
left (died I guess), Vince said
Stephanie, Shane and
Shanes wife Marissa.
This week, Vince does not necessarily like Jesse
Ventura. Vince, who has the utmost respect for women, said he
hadnt slept with anyone other than his wife in six years, but before
that, he was sleeping with anyone with a skirt. Then he
said that Linda would always love
him and vice versa, and that marrying her was the best move he ever made.
I wonder if he was thinking these things when he was sleeping with all those
skirted individuals. Vince was asked if he found Chyna
attractive, and he dodged the question. Vince ran down Bob Costas,
saying he used to be a fun-loving guy but was now a pansy. They talked
about Montreal and Vince said point-blank that he
screwed Bret Hart in the ring at
Survivor Series. He said one of his ideas for WCW was to keep the company
separate but have one title which would represent the top of both WWF and
WCW. Howard asked if Vince was on steroids and Vince explained that he
had a good balance of fitness and nutrition, and also a good diet consisting
of, among other things, egg whites and tomatoes. He did not
mention Dynamic Muscle Builder. They had a bunch of goofs come into the
studio to ask questions, including one undersized indy wrestlers named Don Bon Jovi
who actually offered to kiss Vinces ass if he pulled his pants
down. Vince declined the offer.
WCW
Kevin
Nash was
interviewed for Off the Top Rope Radio last Friday. He said
WCW died a slow, agonizing death and he was glad someone finally put it out of
its misery. He said the WWF was a machine that WCW never was, nor could
ever be. He said he always told people during the hot period that they
would never put Vince out of business. I said Vince McMahon is the Yankees and WCW is
the 69 Mets, they got lucky once. Nash said he always examined the
business and saw that even during the WWFs
down period, PPV buys were relatively strong. He said even when the
ratings were down, they still had that number-one
revenue stream with PPV, plus had good merchandising and a solid machine that
WCW couldnt compete with in the long term. As smart as he may be,
he still did blame Standards and Practices for derailing Vince Russo. He did note that Russo
had ideas that might have worked in the WWF two years prior, but the business
had moved on and his ideas became outdated. He talked about how the WWF
was doing the right thing by putting more emphasis on the belt. That was a
funny one. The smartest man in wrestling then said: My
contract isnt transferable so they are going to have to pay me out for
the next 10 months, and Ive saved my money so I dont have to work
anymore, so in 10 months if I feel like maybe doing something I will, if not
Im going to be a dad. You see, right now the WWF is not
going to take him. In the next few weeks, guys may be jumping back and
forth and the rebuilding process will begin. Nash is smart enough to know
that he might as well collect his $30,000 a week from Time Warner, because
theres no need for him now, but ten months down the road, things might
be very different. Ten months down the road, WWF may be looking for a new
fresh face to spark the ratings, and Nash will be right there, over a million
dollars richer, totally rested, healed and ready to go. He was asked
about showing up on Nitro Monday and said: Not a chance. Not a
chance.
Scott Steiners MRI came back clean,

which means he has no significant damage to his lower back. He still had
no feeling below the knee on his left leg, which was why it was taped up so
heavily for the Nitro match with Booker T.
Vincent from New Jersey, who was never actually identified

although it was clear he was the Artist Currently Known as Worst Booker Ever,
called into the final episode of WCW Live Monday night and thanked everyone for
all their support. He said Bob Ryder
and Jeremy Borash had always been
good friends and wished them luck with whatever they did in the future.
He sounded pretty emotional and the call only last about 30 seconds.
Shane Douglas, who wasnt on the

best terms with the WWF anyway, was stupid enough to no-show Nitro and his
scheduled match with Rick Steiner.
I hope XPW has an opening.
Speaking of
stupid people, Lex Luger and Buff
Bagwell walked out of Nitro before the show even went on the
air. Steve Regal, during a
promotional tour in Australia last week, went on several tirades
about how unprofessional the two were at the Greed
PPV.
US Indies
Bret
Hart will make
a very rare non-wrestling appearance on the March 27th NAWA show in Middletown, NY on April 27th.
Jerry Lawlers appearance on the Power Hour last

week did a 5.15, its highest rating in over a year. His interview segment
did a 6.75 quarter. The show the previous week did a 2.50. The
Memphis Championship Wrestling show, which runs head-to-head on the local UPN
affiliate, did just an 0.96. Promoter Randy Hales, who lost his WWF
developmental deal as a result of bringing Lawler back, is paid $1500 per week
by the station to air the programming, and obviously the ratings are of prime
importance to him since that revenue stream was greater than what he was making
working for the WWF. Lawler has historically been a great ratings draw
for the show and his appearances usually add at least one to two full ratings
points to any given show. Power Pro TV this week had Hales cut a promo
talking about how Lawlers segment last week did a 7.0 rating (well,
almost) and that it was worth it to bring him back at the expense of the WWF
developmental deal. Lawler cut a promo from his house, saying he
wasnt there because Stacy
had something she wanted to say alone. She cut a promo, crying, saying it
was all her fault that Lawler wasnt with the WWF anymore, and that
shed step aside if it meant he could go back to work there. She
was confronted by heels Brandon Baxter, Spellbinder and Tracy Smothers, but Ali
returned to a huge babyface pop and made the
save. This lead to the main event, where Ali beat
Smothers. Said to be a great show.
The latest
in the never-ending rigors of indy
wrestling. Road Dogg
no-showed a scheduled appearance at an indy
show on March 18th at the Memorial Civic Center in Canton, OH. It became a pretty big local
story as the building director, Bob Patt, got pissed since it was the second major
no-show in the past two years, and he threatened to never allow another
wrestling show to run in the building again. Dogg
called in and claimed an injury, so promoter Joe
Zappia replaced him with Brian
Knobs. Patt was not happy, claiming he could
not verify that Dogg had a real injury, and that Knobs as a replacement was a huge drop in
quality. Sucks to be Knobs. The
show drew less than 1,000 fans, which actually is pretty damn good for an indy show. Newspaper reports
said the last wrestler who no-showed (not identified) couldnt make it
due to a snowstorm, and Patt was OK with that because
he called and verified that it was, in fact, really snowing. Cant put one over on that guy, thats for sure.
David Flair & Dan Factor won the NWA

World Tag Team Titles from Rick Michaels
& David Young on the March 21st Wildside
show in Athens, GA. Flair is said to really be
improving. Michaels and Young regained the titles the following night in Toccoa, GA. Then, on Saturday night,
Flair & Romeo Bliss beat Kohl Brothers to win the NWA Wildside Tag Titles. Guys were talking backstage
about the possibility of Wildside becoming a WWF
developmental territory, but thats nothing but speculation at this point.
Rob Van Dam discussed many issues during

his latest website audio interview. He said his match with Mikey Henderson
at the UPW Proving Ground show was really great and might end up being voted
Match of the Year. Too bad nobody saw it. He said he taped an
episode of Spy TV, which is NBCs version of Candid
Camera, in which he played a prank on some wrestling school trainees in California. He hinted about starting a
wrestling school. He said he wasnt thrilled with the idea of there
being only one major wrestling organization in the US. That is understandable since
the reviews he got from WWF wrestlers who had worked with him in the past were
universally negative, which resulted in the company not bringing him in.
He said the death of WCW would certainly help independent promotions around the
country. Van Dam, unbelievably, said he was still optimistic about the
future of ECW. This is so sad. Guys, the company is dead.
They are working on bankruptcy proceedings as I write this. Paul Heyman
is on WWF TV. Its over. He said he was impacted by the
demise of WCW because he was in negotiations with them. He said that since
they were going under, it didnt look like the company would remain an
option. Good to see that Van Dam has been doing a lot of analytical
thinking about the situation. He said his movie career and comic books
were doing well.
Buddy Wayne is booking a show this Friday,

March 30th at the Edmonds Community College in Edmonds, WA featuring wrestlers from the local
Pacific Wrestling Federation. Show starts at 8:00 PM and Ill be working Buddy in
the opener.
The plants
and security guards working Greed and Nitro last week were all from Dory Funk Jrs
training camp.
Les Thatcher, promoter of Heartland

Wrestling Association, was interviewed by Chairshots
Radio last week. He said MTV was considering doing an update on the
oft-repeated wrestling special True Life: I Wanna
Be A Pro Wrestler that put Thatcher and Rapid Delivery Rory Fox, among others, on
the map. Theyve got to get that Matt
Taglia dude back. He talked about
the Pillman 2001 show, which will be headlined by Chris Benoit vs. Steve Regal in a rematch from the awesome bout
they had last
year. Thats the match everyone will always remember from that
show, and it wasnt even the main event.
New Japan
Some strange
changes to the April 9th Osaka Dome show. Theyre keeping the Manabu Nakanishi vs. Yuji Nagata number-one
contenders
match on, with Nakanishi likely being groomed as IWGP Champion in the near
future and Nagata being used to get as good a match as possible out of him on
the way up. The weird thing is that they shot an angle on March 20th to
set up Nakanishi vs. Shinya Hashimoto,
but then they announced Hashimoto vs. Kensuke
Sasaki for the Osaka Dome. The winner of Nakanishi vs. Nagata
faces Scott Norton on May 5th in Fukuoka, since the Norton vs. Kazuyuki Fujita match is going to be
non-title. Inokis angle is that the New
Japan guys are afraid of his guys, so they dont want to put the title on
the line. Inoki had to have booked that one,
because portraying the New Japan guys as cowards buries the company.
Based on his PRIDE win over Masaaki Satake, they are
also expected to add Tadao
Yasuda vs. Don Frye to
the show, perhaps under MMA rules.
Yuji Nagata & Jushin

Liger beat Minoru Tanaka &
Kensuke Sasaki in 13:35 to win the Naeba
Tag Tournament on March 24th in Niigata. Show drew 650.
All Japan
Champion Carnival
tournament began March 23rd at Korakuen Hall, drawing
an announced 2,000 fans. Stan Hansen

showed up to read the official declaration, which was said to be funny because
he was mispronouncing things left and right. Carnival results saw Mike Barton beat George Hines for some ungodly
reason in 17:13 with a powerbomb. Steve Williams beat Jim Steele in 12:14 with the doctor bomb. Genichiro Tenryu beat
Mitsuya Nagai in 3:08 with the Northern Lights
bomb. Lots of bombs in this tournament,
which might be poetic. Toshiaki
Kawada beat Yoshiaki Fujiwara
in 12:11 with a high kick. On March 24th at Korakuen Hall, Taiyo Kea
beat Steele in 14:46 with the Hawaiian Smasher. Williams
beat Fujiwara in 7:15. Kawada killed Hines
in 2:24 with a punch. Sucks to be
Hines, thats for damn sure.
Tenryu beat Barton in 11:17 with the Northern Lights
bomb. On March 25th in Fukushima, Kea
beat Hines in 14:41 with the Hawaiian Smasher. Fujiwara
beat Nagai in 10:31. Tenryu beat Johnny Smith in 5:51. It pays to book, they
say.
NOAH
The tournament to
determine the first Global Honored Crown Champion continued this week. On
March 21st in Kanagawa, Yoshinari
Ogawa beat Masao Inoue in
14:18 with a backdrop suplex.
Ogawa moves on to face Mitsuhara
Misawa on April 4th. Perhaps Im going out on a limb
here, but Ogawa has no chance. On March 22nd at Korakuen
Hall, Yoshihiro Takayama
beat Jun Izumida
in 8:22 with the high kick. Former ECW Pitbull Gary Wolfe
worked this show as well. On March 25th at Kyoto City Gym, Vader destroyed Akira Taue in 10:40 in another tournament
match.
Mexico
Juventud Guerrera jumped from EMLL to AAA last week,

subbing for a no-showing Essa
Rios on the Auditorio de Tijuana show on
March 23rd. Main event saw Guerrera & Hector Garza & El Zorro beat Jerry Estrada & Head Hunter 1 & Highlander.
Estrada and Hunter turned on Highlander after the match, but Zorro ran back out
to make the save.
Main event
of the EMLL TV Tapings at Arena Coliseo on March 21st
saw Atlantis & Villano
III & Brazo de Plata beat Cien Caras
& Mascara Ano 2000 & Universo
2000 via DQ when the rudos unmasked
Atlantis in the final fall. Semi-main saw Olimpico & Mr. Niebla
& Safari beat El Signo & Fuerza Guerrera & Blue Panther in two straight
falls, which is also a match scheduled for the PPV. Tecnicos
issued a challenge after the match for a shot at the Mexican National Trios
Titles, which have not been defended in five years. Since theyve
beaten the rudos twice, especially here in two
straight falls, this will probably lead to Fuerzas
team retaining the titles at the PPV.
There is a
big indy show running on
March 30th head-to-head with the PPV headlined by El Hijo Del Santo & El Dandy & Solar I
vs. Hijo Del Diablo
& Negro Navarro & El Signo Jr.

At the Neuvo Laredo indy show on March 19th they had La Parka & Villano IV
& Poder Del Norte beating Scorpio Jr. & Bestia Salvaje & El Dandy via DQ. This looks
to be leading to a three-way ladder match with Parka vs. Dandy vs. Bestia, with Parka likely winning to set up Dandy vs.
Bestia in a hair vs. hair match.
Aquiles beat Angel Azul,

former tag team partner of Sangre Azteca, in a
mask vs. mask match on March 18th at Arena Isabel. Azul
was revealed to be Marco De La Cruz Hernandez,
33, a ten-year veteran.
There is a
benefit show scheduled for March 28th at Arena Lopez to help pay for wrestler Pantera Surenas
recent double knee surgery.
Villano V is
expected to be cleared to return by the April 13th at Arena Mexico. Antifaz del Norte is also expected
back within two months.
Main event
of the EMLL TV Tapings on March 23rd from Arena Mexico saw Perro Aguayo &
Negro Casas & Dr. Wagner Jr. beat Hijo Del Santo & Emilio
Charles Jr. & Scorpio Jr. After the match, in somewhat of
a shocker, Santo joined Los Hermanos Dinamita in
stomping a mudhole in the fossilized Aguayo.
El Signo beat Challenger in a hair vs. mask match on

March 18th in Oaxaca. Challenger unmasked as Jose Antonio Alcantara,
44, from Oaxaca. Then, in something you dont
see everyday, Signo said he wasnt finished and
challenged Alcantara to a hair match the very next
day. What a greedy little bastard. Signo
won that match as well and took his hair.
Main event
of the Arena Coliseo EMLL show on March 25th saw Ringo Mendoza & Negro Casas & Villano III
beat Emilio Charles Jr. & Mascara Ano 2000 & Gran Markus Jr.
via DQ. Charles got DQd when he refused
to stop beating on Ringo, who was left in a bloody
heap. May be setting up hair vs. hair down the road.
Perro Aguayo
wrestled his latest Last Match Ever in Guadalajara on March 25th, beating Bestia Salvaje.
Ultimo Vampiro
beat Bombero
Infernal to win the IWRG Intercontinental Middleweight Title on
March 25th at Arena Naucalpan. Said to be a
great match.
Television Reviews
WWF Smackdown (3/22/01)
Raven beat Chris Jericho to retain the Hardcore

Title. They brawled to the backstage area and ended up in
Steve Regals office. Regal snuck in and
hit Jericho with a vase full of roses. Raven offered his
thanks by clonking Regal on the head with a pan. Raven, who I guess was
supposed to be blind since hed had his face stuffed into a plate of
crumpets, then pinned Regal.
After
commercial, an enraged Regal signed Raven vs. Kane vs. Big Show for WrestleMania. Now THAT is real punishment.

X-Pac & Justin Credible & Albert beat

Grandmaster & K-Kwiq & Steve Blackman.
Albert finally endeared himself to me by delivering this PHATASS scissor kick
to Grandmaster, who was sitting on the top rope at the time and ended up
bumping all the way down to the floor. That was really great. Credible and X-Pac MURDERED K-Kwiq with a
double superkick for the pinfall.
Cool finish.
Hunter
attacked Undertaker backstage. Taker chased him into his dressing room, where
Stephanie and the cops were waiting. Because Taker inadvertently violated
the 25-foot restraining order, he was arrested. You violated the
law! Steph astutely noted.
Im going to violate more than that! Taker responded.
OH~! I thought the WWF didnt do rape storylines. Steph said she wasnt sure she wanted Undertaker
taken to jail. So Undertaker was placed under house arrest.
Regal
revealed that the main event, scheduled to be Hunter & Show vs. Kane &
Undertaker, was now going to be a handicap match.
Ross met
with Austin and told him not to go wild during
the interview with Rock later.
After
commercial, Ross met with Rock and told him the same thing.
After
commercial, they aired a long-ass Rock vs. Austin promo.
Finally, the
face-to-face aired. Ross wanted to know what the WWF belt meant to the
Rock. He said a lot, but it took him much longer to say it than it took
you to read that. They discussed Debra. Rock said she was a cool
chick, but she wasnt his responsibility. Austin said they should take Debra out of
the equation. No wonder hes the babyface
here. Austin said he could care less about Rock
personally. Rock said personally he didnt like Austin. Crowd booed that one. Austin came off like a badass,
Rock came off like a total prick heel. There was one camera shot in
particular of Rock glaring at Austin that made him come off like a total
asshole. I thought Austin was totally awesome here, but the
segment dragged on way too long.
Show & Triple H beat Kane in a handicap match.

Well, Kane is supposed to be
handicapped. Bad guys kept beating on Kane after the match.
Undertaker, watching backstage on a monitor, finally went insane and beat up
all the cops. He was neither arrested nor shot. He also managed to do
this despite wearing handcuffs. Of course, the handcuffs caused him to
get his ass kicked by the bad guys once he got to the ring. Undertaker
isnt very smart, but I suppose if he was, he would have found a more
rewarding career than being an undertaker. No offense to all you
undertakers reading this. To make a long story short, Hunter revealed
that the cops werent real cops after all, but actually local independent
wrestlers in fake police attire. Well, he didnt use those exact
words. Hunter had the cops handcuff Kane too, then
hit Undertaker in the head with his sledgehammer. Undertaker gigged and
bled in a gruesome manner. It was so gruesome that they actually
digitized it. Really. Well, half the shots
were digitized, the other half showed the blood flowing everywhere. In
some ways, the fact that it was digitized made it seem even more
sickening. Loud ASSHOLE chants, which werent
digitized. A pretty good little angle.

Damn Dudleys beat Edge & Christian & Rhyno via DQ when Edge used a chair. Cole actually had the nerve
to theorize that he was bigger than Spike. A bigger
idiot. Tazz set him straight, then went
off on a rant about how Rhyno was the last ECW
Champion and he (Tazz) was a former two-time ECW
Champ. There is no way these comments are unplanned, which means
its almost certain theres an angle in the works.
Apparently, tables are now legal, but chairshots
still are not. Spike took such a tremendous beating, and youd be
very sad if you knew how much he is being paid per year for this gig.
Austin told Vince that if anything

happened to Debra, he was holding Vince responsible.
RTC came out

and began intimidating Tazz. Ivory cut a promo
and said she would have no mercy on Chynas
neck at WrestleMania. She really said
this. Steven started yelling at Tazz, who
jumped him. RTC punked out Tazz
until APA ran down to make the save. The transformation of Tazz into Jerry Lawler is complete.
Rock beat Kurt Angle & Chris Benoit in a handicap

match. Vince came down to do commentary for the main
event. Midway through the match, Rock tossed Benoit over the announce
table and onto Vinces lap. Vince was really funny during this
match and had some great lines, like this gem: What goes around comes
around, all right? Thats the story of my life. Benoit
got the Crossface on but Angle snuck over and put
Rocks foot on the bottom rope. Angle then tagged himself in, but
ate the uranage for the pinfall
about ten seconds afterwards. Rock put the Sharpshooter on Benoit after
the match as well. Angle, instead of helping, just walked away.
McMahon jumped into the ring and demanded Rock release the hold. Rock
gave him the uranage. Angle then snuck into the
ring, hit Rock from behind, and put him in the ankle lock. Austin, watching on a monitor, got up like
he was going to go help, but got a beer instead. Better show than
Id been lead to believe, although I can see why the live audience would
have been angry.
Raw is War (3/26/01)
Show opened with Vince in his

dressing room watching two TVs one airing Raw and one airing
Nitro. He said he was now the owner of both federations and would address
the situation later on. He then proceeded to run down Jeff Jarrett,
saying he was now G-double-O-double-N-double-E. I think
its safe to say Vince never made it to the finals of the Spelling
Bee. Maybe Vince can charge Jarrett that $180,000 that he held the WWF up
for before he agreed to lose the IC Title to Chyna at
Survivor Series. Jarrett, at Nitro, watched this on the monitor and had
absolutely no idea what to think. Everyone figured Vince just fired him
on national TV.
Kurt Angle
came out. He said fans were up in arms over the big news. The news,
Kurt said, was that he still didnt have an opponent for WrestleMania. He couldnt believe the
Gobbler, whatever his name is had an opponent at WrestleMania
and he didnt. The funny thing is that Angle probably really has no
idea what in the hell the Gobbledy Gooker was. He said it was particularly appalling
because he just happened to be the best wrestler in the world. Benoit
interrupted his promo. Crowd responded to his music like he was a
superstar, but still didnt know he was supposed to be a babyface. Benoit said if Angle gave him a chance,
hed make him tap out like the bitch he was. Crowd liked
that. Does Canada even have an Olympic team?
Angle asked. He said he was sick of carrying Benoit. Whoa, buddy,

thats pushing it. Angle accepted his challenge for a match at WrestleMania. Angle said hed never tap out to
that stupid Crossface thing.
Angle said he could make Benoit squeal in seconds. Prove me
wrong, Angle said. They got into a great ten-second brawl that was
better than 90% of the stuff on this show. Benoit ended up putting him in
the Crossface. Angle tapped like crazy.
Edge and Christian hit the ring and they all triple-teamed Benoit, which drew a
ton of heat. Well, hes a babyface now,
and they did a hell of a job doing it. WHOO-HOO~! Paul Heyman noted
that Angle had never tapped in high school, college, or Olympic wrestling,
which is true, although it would have been pretty strange to tap out in a sport
that does not have tapouts.
Backstage,
Vince was talking to Stephanie on the phone while making fun of Lex Luger and Buff Bagwell.
Apparently, Steph and Hunter are on vacation.
Vince announced Undertaker & Kane vs. Austin & Rock for later.
Tazz squashed Val Venis in less than a minute. OK then.
Doink was shown bebopping in the

crowd.
Regal came
out and said he had some important news. He began ranting about WC
Fields. I know you think Im going to say I made that up and he
really talked about WCW, but its true, he talked about WC Fields.
He challenged one of the Hollys. Crash foolishly accepted. Regal put Crash in the Regal stretch and Crash tapped.
Heyman forgot to note
that Holly had also never tapped during his amateur wrestling career. The
ref apparently thought this was an amateur wrestling match, because he looked
right at the tapout but didnt call for the
bell. Doink then hit the ring and put Regal in
the Boston crab. ITS RICK MARTEL!!! The ref
decided this was grounds to ring the bell. So I have no clue what the
decision was. Doink unmasked, revealing Chris
Jericho.
Vince made
fun of Dustin Rhodes backstage.
Regal,
irate, signed Jericho to a non-title match with Big Show
later.
Edge and
Christian met with Angle. He informed them that he hadnt tapped earlier, he was just trying to get to the ropes. They
introduced him to Rhyno. What in the
hell is that? Angle asked. They said Rhyno
was an old friend. Rhyno slobbered that
hed do anything for Angle. Even bleed, he drooled.
A WrestleMania promo aired. Then they aired clips from

the Rock/Austin debate at Smackdown. Then they
had an interview with Debra, who said nothing of value. Clearly the
company learned nothing from the violent crowd reactions at Smackdown.
Vince came
out. He demanded Lillian Garcia introduce him again when he gave her the
cue. Thats what Vince gets for trying to start while Flair and
Sting were still hugging in Panama City Beach. The Big Angle aired.
Check out the Nitro report, Im not typing it up again.
After
commercial, Vince was shown on the phone screaming at his attorneys. It

will be hard for people to believe me when I say this, but he reached a new
level of insanity here.
Hardyz & Benoit beat

Angle & Edge & Christian when Benoit made Christian submit to the Crossface. Christian, I would like to add,
also never tapped out during his amateur wrestling career, but he did tap out
once during a high school football game. Not a lot of heat. Benoit
took out Angle with a tope suicida after the
match. Rhyno then hit the ring and speared both
Matt and Lita TO DEATH.
X-Pac pinned Test in a non-title match.

X-Pac has new music again. Eddy Guerrero was ref, and of course he was
biased. Test finally got pissed and clotheslined
him out of the ring. Test hit the pumphandle
slam and another ref ran down to count, but Eddy pulled him out of the ring.
Albert then hit Test with the neck hanging tree slam, and Eddy hopped into the
ring to count the pin.
Mick Foley
came out to a huge pop. He shamelessly plugged his new book. He
said he was there because WrestleMania wouldnt
be WrestleMania unless he was involved. Vince
came out and said he was in no mood for this. Apparently there are days
when he is in the mood for guys shamelessly plugging their books on national
TV. He said Foley was fired and if he didnt get out of the ring
immediately he was going to call the police and have him arrested for
trespassing. Mick said maybe they should talk it over. Foley said
he needed to give Vince a history lesson. He talked about how Vince left
in June of 2000 to unsuccessfully become a genetic jackhammer, allowing Mick to
become Commissioner. Then, Mick said, Vince came back before Christmas
and fired him. Mick said he and Linda had a business meeting on December
5, 2000, and that hed like to show footage of that meeting to
Vince. A video appeared on the big screen of Foley and Linda signing some
sort of contract. Foley said the documents were all legal because he
signed them when he was still WWF Commissioner. Foley pulled out a piece
of paper which he said allowed him to referee any match he wanted on the
card. He said that match was going to be Vince vs. Shane. This
angle was REALLY stretching it and was like something youd see in
WCW. Plus, there was no point in bringing Foley back on this particular
show, since the WCW news totally overshadowed his triumphant return.
Show pinned Jericho. Man, this was horrible, and

Ill give you two guesses whose fault it was. Regal, Kane and Raven
all ran in, and Regal ended up giving Jericho his neckbreaker
to set up the pin. Kane hit Show with a chair and chokeslammed
Raven after the match.
Austin & Rock beat Kane & Undertaker.

Austin bonked into Rock, allowing Undertaker to hit the chokeslam. Undertaker went to give Austin the powerbomb,
but Hunter ran in and hit him with a chair. Austin then made the cover and got the
pin. The string of great WWF main events has ended. Austin drank a bunch of beers after the
match. As he was downing literally five at a time, Rock snuck in and gave
him the STUNNER~! Well that was different. Rock placed a beer next
to Austin and then left the ring. Kind
of an anti-climactic finish. It was really strange, because the
WCW news totally made this set-up for the main event of the biggest WrestleMania ever look like just another wrestling
angle in
comparison.
WCW Wednesday
Thunder (3/21/01)

After 29 years on TBS, they billed this, the final show ever on the station, as
the season finale.
Jung Dragons beat Air Paris & AJ Styles.

Paris and Styles were billed as Air
Raid. Their ring gear screamed Air Plain. Yang
was totally out of position to deliver a belly-to-belly overhead suplex, so Styles ended up smashing right into the
turnbuckle and almost killed himself. This may have been the sloppiest
match in 29 years on this station.
Dustin came
out and cut a promo. A fan held up a sign that said DUSTIN SCARES
FLAIR which may have been the least imaginative sign in 29 years on
TBS. Crowd was utterly dead. Dustin had a bag with him. He
said Well, Nature Boy, I got some stuff for you,
I think youre going to enjoy these. He began digging around
in the duffle bag for literally 17 full
seconds, and then finally pulled out a box so big that it totally
filled the bag. The box had a picture of a donkey on it with Ric Flairs face emblazoned on its ass. Wow,
hilarious. Dustin then went back into the bag. There was more stuff
in there. He pulled out some chapstick.
He said Flair would need it after kissing the ass. Oh yeah, good one
there. Dustin went back into the bag. My God.
He pulled out some mouthwash. He said Flair would need it after kissing
the ass. Boy, I cant stop laughing. This was six hundred
million billion times more absurd than it sounds reading it here. Flair
finally appeared on the big screen to save the day. He asked Dustin if he
had fun on Nitro. Dustin said yes. Flair suddenly went apeshit and cut this hilarious promo. Admittedly, I
have not watched every single Ric Flair promo that
has aired in 29 years on TBS, seeing as to how he hasnt been cutting
promos for 29 years and also because Id have been negative four years
old 29 years ago, but this may have been the funniest promo in 29 years on TBS.
Jason Jett beat Kid Kash.

Literally about three fans chanted ECW! Kash
did his crazy flip dive over the post. That got about nine additional
fans to chant ECW! Match was pretty good but nobody cared
aside from the 12 guys who chanted ECW!.
Shat & MI Smooth beat Kanyon & Animal.

I think this match went 29 years. Animal is just horrible.
Hugh Morris beat Rick Steiner.

Steiner was a professional this evening. Shane Douglas hit Rick with his
cast, allowing Hugh to drop him RIGHT ON HIS HEAD with a German. About
time someone dropped Steiner on his head instead of vice versa. Douglas gave Dave Penzer
a videotape after the match. Probably porn.
After
commercial, they aired Douglas video. It was of him cutting a promo
saying he wanted to beat up Rick Steiner and then go after Ric
Flair. Shane, its over, youre never going to have that feud
with Flair. Give it up.
Kidman & Rey Jr. & Shane Helms beat Kid Romeo & Elix
Skipper & Chavo Jr. in a really great six-man
match. Kidman pinned Romeo with the Kid Krusher.
Guys got really emotional afterwards realizing it was the end, but of course
WCW edited it off the show.
Chuck Palumbo beat Mike Awesome with the jungle kick.

This was not very good and went even longer than the Shat match from
earlier. Lance Storm tried to interfere but Shawn OHare made the
save.

Tony called
it the Season Finale again.
Ric Flair was shown laid out backstage. By the way,

Nitro ended Monday and we never found out who it was that was attacking the
Magnificent Seven. A fitting end, I guess.
Jarrett & Scott Steiner beat Dustin in a handicap

match. Dustin had Jarrett pinned with a small package at one
point but the ref was distracted. Steiner then hit him with a pipe and
put him in the Recliner for the submission. Booker T made the save as the
show ended. Man, what an anti-climatic finish to 29 years of TBS
wrestling.
WCW Monday Nitro (3/26/01)
The show opened with a shot of Vince McMahon live at Raw. He announced
that hed bought World Championship Wrestling and was going to take the
opportunity later to address all the fans and wrestlers. He grinned in an
evil fashion and proclaimed that he now controlled the very fate of WCW.
This was the weirdest thing EVER. One of my friends suddenly called
screaming, saying Vince was everywhere and there was no escape. My friends
do not usually behave this irrationally.
The
announcers opened the show talking about how everyone knew this was the final
Nitro on the Turner networks. Well how the hell was everyone supposed to
know that since they made no mention of it whatsoever prior to this evening?.
Ric Flair came out. He cut an AWESOME promo, saying

he wasnt going to go out crying, because he was a 14-time Champion for
the greatest promotion in the world, WCW. He said WCW had run
neck-in-neck with Vince for years. Flairs delivery was so great I
almost believed him. He talked about how in 1981 Vince McMahon Sr. was on
the NWA Board of Directors and voted for him to become World Champion. He
really said this. Crowd was going insane his whole speech. A big MCMAHON
IS SATAN! sign appeared in the front row. Let me tell you
something. If the version of history that Flair was ranting about were
true, Vince wouldnt own it right now and it would still be prospering
under Ted Turner. Flair said his greatest opponent ever in WCW was Sting,
and if they were going out with a bang, they were going out with Sting vs.
Flair. This was a HELL of a promo.
As Steiner
and Booker T walked to the ring for their main event and the cameras panned
across the crowd from above, all I could think was: How the hell
did it ever come to this?.
Booker T beat Scott Steiner clean with the uranage to win the WCW World Heavyweight Title.
Steiners left foot was completely taped up and he was clearly in worlds
of pain. Well, everyone was right, when the cameras are on, hes a
pro. In what may be his final funny line ever, Steiner missed a steel
pipe shot and Tony screamed: HE TRIED TO KILL HIM.
Vince was
shown on the phone with his lawyer.
Rey & Kidman beat Two

Count and Jung Dragons in a number-one contenders match.
These guys worked so damn hard, as youd expect. Huge
dive sequence early. Everyone hit their finishers but got the pin
broken up by someone else at the last second.
Vince and
Trish started swapping slobber backstage, saying it was time to

celebrate. God, its disgusting enough in one promotion, I
dont need to see it in two different ones.
Shane Helms beat Chavo

Guerrero Jr. to retain the Cruiserweight Title. Some moments of hesitation, but overall very good.
Michael Cole
met with Vince and said lots of WCW fans and wrestlers were concerned that
theyd never see their brand of sports entertainment again. Vince got
pissed and said if Cole didnt leave, hed be out of a job
too. Unfortunately, Cole left.
Shawn OHare & Chuck Palumbo beat Mike

Awesome & Lance Storm to retain the Tag Titles. Really short and not as good as last week. Announcers
spent most of the match talking about how the career of everyone in the company
was now in Mr. McMahons hands, and how they might leave Panama City without a job.
Shawn Stasiak beat Bam Bam Bigelow with help from Stacy.
Thankfully short.
They cut to
a shot of Vince meeting with Steve Regal. Regal said WCW was a bloody
awful place and there was a lot of nonsense that went on back there. He
said he just wanted to warn Vince in advance. Vince thanked him, but said
he was on the case. Regal was hilarious here.
A pretaped promo with Dallas Page aired. He thanked all

the fans from around the world for helping him become what he was today.
He said it proved that if a person wanted something bad enough, they could
achieve anything.
A video
package aired highlighting some of the former WCW and NWA World Heavyweight
Champions. Vince Russo and David Arquette were
conspicuous by their absence.
Vince was on
the phone again. He knew what time it was, he said. Ironically,
Prime Time Elix Skipper, who also knows what time it was, wrestled next. During the match, Tony ran down
Regal, saying they did a lot for him including putting his ass over on their
TV. Then he went off on a tirade about how WCW did Cruiserweight
wrestling better than anyone else in the world, and all of a sudden he got
bleeped. Well, I think we just witnessed the death of both Tonys
career and the Cruiserweight division. Romeo at one point hit Chris
Daniels double underhook Pedigree (Last Rites)
for a nearfall. Speaking of, poor Chris Daniels
and poor Michael Modest. Rey Misterio Jr. & Kidman
beat Elix Skipper & Kid Romeo to win the WCW
World Cruiserweight Tag Team Titles. Good short match and
they worked hard.
Sting cut a
spirited promo backstage saying he wouldnt miss this night for the world.
Sting beat Flair with the Scorpion Deathlock clean in the middle. Good old
Flair, putting guys over until the bitter end. This was as good a match
as youre going to get from two guys who havent worked regularly
in months and months. They hugged afterwards in a pretty emotional scene.
Suddenly,
they just cut away to Raw, where McMahon was strutting down the ramp.
Schiavone never even got a chance to say good.
Oh well. Vince cut a promo, saying for the first time ever, his interview
was being seen on both TNN and TNN. I think he meant TNT. Anyway,
he said there was only one man who could make history like this happen.
He announced that he had acquired WCW. A mix of cheers and boos.
Thats right, I bought my competition! he thundered.
He said it wasnt exactly final. He said Time Warner couldnt
sell it to anyone else because nobody else knew what to do with it, and that
they were practically begging him to buy it. He said Time Warner had
already signed the contract, but he was going to wait to sign until WrestleMania. He said he would have Ted Turner
himself walk down the aisle and deliver the contract to him in person.
Keep dreaming, dude. He said after Ted walked the aisle and begged him to
buy the company, he was going to give him a front row
seat so he could watch Shane get his ass kicked. Vince went insane,
saying you had to grab the competition by the throat and squeeze the life out
of it, just like he did to WCW. Vince said he had some ideas for what to
do with his new company. He said he could just put it on the shelf.
He said he could watch videotapes of Hulk Hogan flexing like an idiot all
day. He said maybe he could take WCW and turn it into a huge media
conglomerate like the WWF. He noted that he always got the last
laugh. Thats true. Thats damn true. He wanted
fans to vote for who should be part of the new WCW. He said Hogans
name and they booed tremendously. They booed Luger
like crazy too. Unfortunately, they cheered Bagwells name.
Oh no. They cheered Booker T. HYOOGE pop for Scott Steiners
name. Even Vince said WOW! about that one. Pretty big pop for Sting. Biggest
pop of all for Goldberg. He said it was very appropriate that WCWs last show took place in a beer hall surrounded
by a bunch of beer drinking rednecks. Big pop for that.
He said he wanted to line all the WCW guys up and tell them they were
fired. He said he was putting WCW on the shelf, that it was dead and
buried forever. Vince actually worked very hard to get the fans behind
WCW, and finally they started chanting ASSHOLE! at him.
I AM VINCE MCMAHON! He thundered. DAMMIT, I OWN WCW,
I OWN THE WWF, AND YOU OWE ME RESPECT! Suddenly, Shanes
music played. He appeared on the big screen from Nitro, stepping into a
WCW ring. This was the new weirdest thing ever. He said
Vinces ego had gotten the best of him and that he had snuck in the back
door and bought WCW out from under Vinces nose. He said just like
WCW did in the past, they were going to kick Vinces ass again.
Vince just stood in mid-ring, looking utterly shocked. A
tremendous angle and one of the biggest televised wrestling moments in history.
Show ended
with a Rock vs. Austin WrestleMania music video
promo. Well, they went out with a bang, thats for damn sure.
Only one small complaint. Spring Breakout was
always my favorite Nitro of the year. I understand this was the last
Nitro ever, and I understand that they had a bunch of WWF angles to put over
with the sale going through and all, but at the very least someone should have
taken a bump into the goddamn swimming pool one last time.

April 2nd 2001

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Wrestling Observer/Figure Four Online -- WWE, TNA, UFC and International Wrestling and MMA Headlines

F4W~!#301 - It's official: Vince McMahon buys WCW - April 2, 2001

F4W~!#301 - It's official: Vince McMahon buys WCW - April 2, 2001

F4W~!#301 - Its official: Vince McMahon buys WCW - April 2, 2001

The lesson is simple. When it comes to pro-wrestling, Vince McMahon

STAMFORD, Conn.(BUSINESS WIRE)March 23, 2001 World

http://www.f4wonline.com Powered by Joomla! Generated: 18 December, 2010, 11:56

It is believed that WWFE Inc. purchased all of WCWs

Its going to be a very tricky situation. The new show

My top picks to invade the new WCW would be Rock, Undertaker,

The reason is that the television industry has really soured on

some sensationalized and some completely accurate, of kids being influenced

There is little chance of a start-up group making it today because of this

A year in the television industry is a long time. Two years is an

As unrealistic, perhaps, as getting that last laugh at Vinces expense.

Sakuraba loses fight, Inoki loses mind

Sakuraba, 31, who was regarded by some as the best

Tra Telligman, replacing an

The losses of Sakuraba, Satake

Inokis appearance was perhaps the biggest news

Nobody knew what to make of this, except to think that Inoki

Inoki may think he has this all figured out. He

Champion, so fans of that promotion were ecstatic about his win.

Ratings for the Big

moving downhill post-WrestleMania.

Our website is newly re-designed at www.wrestlingobserver.com. The site

to WrestleMania this year featuring the

XFL was the

Very negative reviews for the Smackdown

Triple H did a long conference call

said when Steve Austin was out

The cops on Smackdown this week were Alex

Jerry Lynn debuted March 25th at the

Shawn Michaels was at Raw Monday night,

H, and Justin Credible.

The idea of a 24-hour buy-on-demand wrestling

Scott Steiners MRI came back clean,

Vincent from New Jersey, who was never actually identified

Shane Douglas, who wasnt on the

Jerry Lawlers appearance on the Power Hour last

David Flair & Dan Factor won the NWA

Rob Van Dam discussed many issues during

Buddy Wayne is booking a show this Friday,

Les Thatcher, promoter of Heartland

Yuji Nagata & Jushin

an announced 2,000 fans. Stan Hansen

Juventud Guerrera jumped from EMLL to AAA last week,

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Aquiles beat Angel Azul,

El Signo beat Challenger in a hair vs. mask match on

WWF Smackdown (3/22/01)

Raven beat Chris Jericho to retain the Hardcore

http://www.f4wonline.com Powered by Joomla! Generated: 18 December, 2010, 11:56

X-Pac & Justin Credible & Albert beat

Show & Triple H beat Kane in a handicap match.

http://www.f4wonline.com Powered by Joomla! Generated: 18 December, 2010, 11:56

Austin told Vince that if anything

RTC came out

Rock beat Kurt Angle & Chris Benoit in a handicap

Raw is War (3/26/01)

Show opened with Vince in his

Angle asked. He said he was sick of carrying Benoit. Whoa, buddy,

Tazz squashed Val Venis in less than a minute. OK then.