The Wrestling Observer Yearbook '97: The Last Time WWF Was Number Two

by Dave Meltzer

  McMahon addressed the wrestlers in a meeting on 11/11 in Cornwall. His story line was that it was Bret who changed his mind on an agreed upon finish on Sunday and wasn’t willing to do anything but hand over the title belt on Raw when he announced he was leaving the WWF. McMahon tried to portray Hart as someone who actually believed he really was a legend in Canada to make fun of his not doing the job in that country. He brought up the idea of if Hart didn’t do the job, that it would be a break in the historical legacy of the belt (forgetting that the belt’s historical legacy already had a break earlier this year when Michaels handed it to McMahon rather than put over Sid). McMahon claimed to have taken the punch for all the boys. It’s unclear exactly who believed what depending upon who one listens to. It appeared even after the speech that most wrestlers poked holes through the explanation and most realized that Hart was never unwilling to do a job before leaving the company as it was portrayed, but some also bought McMahon’s story.

  The Bob Backlund vs. Iron Sheik finish on December 26, 1983 at Madison Square Garden was not a double-cross even though many throughout the years have claimed it to be, although most put no credence in that story. The question as to whether it was or wasn’t was resurrected after the Hart-Michaels finish. It was a finish negotiated to where Backlund could save face and claim never to have legitimately lost the title, but that they could get the title to Hulk Hogan who had been promised it to jump from the AWA a few days earlier. The Wendi Richter vs. Fabulous Moolah finish was a double-cross exactly as described last week.

  The 1933 Jim Londos vs. Joe Savoldi finish was actually a pinfall, where Londos was under the ropes but the referee in Chicago, who was bought off before the match by rival promoters in New York wanting to discredit Londos as a world champion, counted to three anyway. Before Savoldi went to New York to “unify” the title with their champion, Jim Browning, he first did a job for Strangler Lewis. The reason for that was if any state athletic commission ordered a match between Londos and Savoldi to settle the controversy from Chicago, the belief was Londos, who was considered a very good legitimate wrestler, would win a legitimate match between the two of them easily. So Lewis, who was one of the toughest wrestlers in history, was put in the Savoldi position, and there was little question that Lewis was out of Londos’ league. Londos in that era had a long history of avoiding Lewis since Lewis would never put him over and was a threat to shoot and embarrass him if they were ever to wrestle.

  A generation later the situation with Buddy Rogers, one of the biggest drawing cards of his era and the first truly great worker in the business, and Lou Thesz, the perennial champion, was somewhat like Hart and Michaels in that Thesz would never put Rogers over for personal reasons, and Rogers would never have a good match with Thesz when Thesz went over, and would only work to make the match good if they did a DQ or time limit draw finish. Although McMahon would like to portray things differently and maybe old-timers would as well, there are numerous historical precedents for what happened here. And one more note is significant in that story.

  Finally, in 1935, Lewis’ camp and Londos’ camp made peace and a match was arranged, advertised as “The last shooting match in history,” (and you thought using insider terms was something that had just come up this year) between the two biggest superstars of the era, who hadn’t worked together in years, probably because by that point Lewis realized his heyday was over and it was time to make the last big payday. It worked met because everyone knew they hated each other and “wouldn’t” work together, and maybe more than any other match would be the historical precedent for all the New Japan matches like Muto-Takada. The show drew 35,000 fans and $95,000—both at that point in time all-time records for wrestling. It was not a shoot, and Londos went over. The U.S. attendance record stood until Rogers vs. Pat O’Connor in 1961, and the gate record stood until Thesz vs. Baron Leone in 1952.

  So the battle lines were drawn for the next Monday night ratings war. WWF had been promoting, “Why Bret Why?” a candid interview with Vince McMahon, plus promising McMahon would discuss the situation further after the show on AOL. Bischoff beat him to the punch with an even bigger coup. In the Nitro open, out came the newest NWO member, Rick Rude, who 24 hours earlier (and since Raw was a taped show, one hour later, still sporting a beard he had shaved off to further embarrass McMahon) was a member of Degeneration X. Before getting into storyline matters, Rude stated that “Shawn Michaels never beat Bret Hart. Vince McMahon told the referee to ring the bell and rob Bret Hart of the title.”

  Rude, in the truest time honored traditions of the business, a day or two after debuting with the WWF on 8/4 in Atlantic City and appearing without signing a contract, called Bischoff up and the two opened dialogue. Whether they agreed at that point and held it off for the opportune moment, or whether Rude, one of the very few WWF television personalities to have not signed a contract, contacted Bischoff again this past week, figuring the timing wouldn’t ever be so perfect for his leverage, is unknown. He was among the group really upset with how McMahon handled things although it would probably be incorrect to describe this as anything more than a monetary deal that had been in some form in the works for three months. By mid-week the two had struck an agreement to appear on Nitro before McMahon could give his speech, but still had to work out the legal issues with Turner because Rude had sued the company after his career ending injury in 1994.

  “Rude was in the room when it (the fight) happened,” Hart said. “He didn’t know what was going on (in regards to the finish) and was waiting to hit the ring (for the planned finish). I got the impression that he, like a lot of people, had problems with the ethical side. I knew he had a problem. He called me Monday and asked me if I thought he should go to TV. I told him, like everyone else who called, to go.”

  One thing can be said: Even though this wasn’t an angle, as an angle, it was more successful than any the WWF has run in a long time. According to WWF sources, the Survivor Series is projected to do 250,000 buys, which would be an 0.89 buy rate—the best the company would have done since the Hart-Michaels match at the 1996 WrestleMania. Other U.S. sources weren’t as positive in their projections, as Request and Viewers Choice early returns projected an 0.55 buy rate, which would be absolutely miserable if true.

  The difference could be Canada, which would be really scary for the WWF if that was the case. A buy rate through the roof in Canada, where the stories of Hart leaving made mainstream press the entire last week, and where the national angle and Michaels picking his nose with the flag should have fueled the patriotic fervor, which would be logically expected, could explain the difference. Most WWF PPV events usually do better in Canada than the U.S. even without an angle geared toward the Canadian market as this match clearly was, and one of the reasons for the big drop in UFC buy rates was when they lost Canada.

  McMahon’s interview did strong quarter hour ratings although the end result was the typical Nitro win. Nitro did a 4.11 rating (4.33 first hour; 3.94 second hour) and 6.18 share. Raw did a 3.15 rating (2.95 first hour; 3.15 second hour) and 4.89 share. McMahon’s first interview segment went head-to-head with Guerrero vs. Malenko with WCW holding a 3.5 to 3.4 edge. His second interview segment went unopposed and drew a 3.5 rating.

  McMahon was unapologetic, some would say almost vindictive in spots, but also probably was persuasive on the surface to some who only half understood. One has to think his cryptic remarks about Bret refusing to do the job came off as out of place as the Melanie Pillman interview (which also drew great ratings for a quarter hour) about Brian being a loving husband to fans who follow the storylines and watch as two hours of weekly escapist entertainment and saw him supposedly sleeping with Marlena the week before. “Some would say I screwed Bret Hart. The referee didn’t screw Bret Hart. Shawn Michaels didn’t screw Bret Hart. I believe Bret Hart screwed Bret Hart.” Later he went on to say “There is a time honored tradition in this business that if someone is leaving, they show the proper respect for the organization a
nd its superstars. Bret didn’t want to honor that tradition.”

  McMahon explained that Hart’s leaving was a joint decision between the two of them and said together they put together an idea to “orchestrate the opportunity for Turner to steal Bret.” He said that he felt Hart’s salary was too high and that Hart felt he’d lost his spot to Michaels. He claimed Hart had signed a three year contract at $3 million per year for 125 dates per year. McMahon said that he is still contemplating legal action against Hart for the punch, saying it’s up to how Hart reacts, apparently meant as a scare tactic for Hart not to knock McMahon publicly. “I have no sympathy for Bret whatsoever. No sympathy for a guy not doing the right thing for the business and the fans that made him. Bret made a selfish decision and he has to live with it for the rest of his life.”

  McMahon came back later in the show and said wrestling was a strange business and he’d take Bret Hart back in the future, but he’d have to apologize and know if there was a problem in the future, he wouldn’t let Hart throw another punch at him, describing the punch as him giving Hart “a free shot.” “Bret sold out but it’s okay that Bret sold out. I helped Bret sell out. It’s not a big deal because I helped him do it.” He claimed Hart loses credibility every time he says he didn’t make the decision for the money. “I regret I was forced into making the decision. I regret Bret didn’t do the right thing. I regret that his fans are upset. I regret that his family had to endure his tirade. I regret that my son had to witness this. It was the right decision for the fans and the superstars that remained here[...] I felt I had to do what I had to do. I’m unwavering from that point of view. Perhaps he’s unwavering from his point of view.”

  McMahon said that Bret had a chance to prove he was the best there was, the best there is and the best there ever will be. “It’s just too damn bad that in the end Bret really wasn’t the best there was, the best there is and the best there ever will be. He had the opportunity to live up to that and he failed.” McMahon after the show went on AOL, where he said almost nothing and from all accounts, was shielded from all probing questions. He claimed the vast majority of WWF wrestlers supported his decision (from all accounts that isn’t the case although some did buy his explanation).

  Bret Hart, who actually didn’t watch Raw because TSN pre-empted the show on 11/17, but heard a tape on the phone, said he thought McMahon’s arguments were pretty lame to anyone that knew the story and was actually disappointed in his comeback. “Isn’t there more of a time honored tradition to tell the truth to your top stars? I don’t know how anyone could expect me to apologize for what they did to me [...] Money was not a part of my decision. It was an afterthought of my decision. I’ll always be thankful for the deal I got (from WCW). But even on Saturday (11/1), I never asked McMahon about how much money he would offer me. I asked him what (ideas) he had for me. In my mind, I didn’t do it for the money. If it was for the money, I’d have left last year. This was all about legacy, retiring to be a company spokesman and leaving the organization with a lot of pride.”

  In regard to a possible return, he said, “I don’t believe I could ever work with Vince McMahon, Jerry Brisco or Pat Patterson again. I’m very stubborn when it comes to my pride. I don’t think I can forget the finish. I put so much pride into my ring work. (Returning) would be like selling out my ethics to them.”

  And finally, Hart was scheduled for a return appearance on 11/19 on the TSN Sports talk show “Off The Record” that he first appeared on 11/7. However, when McMahon got himself booked on the show on 11/20 to do counter whatever Hart was going to say and do Canadian damage control, Hart canceled. Hart scheduled an on-line chat for 11/21, and then wants to get on with his career, think about getting acquainted with the WCW product which he really doesn’t know well, and leave this story for the history books.

  DECEMBER 1

  When you look up the term “bait and switch” in your dictionary, there should be a synonym to it—”World Wrestling Federation.”

  In a decision to forfeit potential PPV money, the biggest revenue stream in the company, in favor of television ratings and probably short-term at that, the 11/24 live Raw from Fayetteville, NC was built around Bret Hart. The same Bret Hart who wasn’t there and based on his own words, will never be there again. Nevertheless, the WWF had drawn two of its strongest ratings of the year basically due to the wrestler the company has now tried to label as not being worth what they were paying him in the wake of the double-cross finish at the Survivor Series.

  There can be little doubt based on the quarter hours, and logic itself, that the first week’s rating came from a combination of the curiosity over the finish the night before and a gift from WCW in making the Bret Hart announcement before Raw started, and even though WCW drew a better rating in the process, they also created curiosity as to what was going to be said on the WWF show later that night. Based on quarter-hours, there is no question that the strength of the 11/17 Raw rating was based on curiosity regarding the Vince McMahon interview about Bret Hart, an interview that the plan was originally done to put “closure” to the Bret Hart issue. Of course it only fueled the fire among some, but more importantly, it became obvious that after trying a million hotshot ideas and failing almost every time, that the WWF has finally found something that can move the ratings.

  So, for the 11/24 Raw, in newspapers around the country including USA Today, they listed the main event on that show as being Bret Hart vs. Shawn Michaels. That was the hook. To make sure when the show started that people didn’t wise up to the hook, they opened the show with Michaels doing an interview claiming he had a secret conversation with Hart, unbeknown to everyone including McMahon and using the term “As God is my witness,” even using terms like Internet and underground dirt sheet, and doing the interview out of character to make people believe he was shooting and not working in the new blurred environment the WWF is working under. He said that Hart was going to be there, and a white limo was shown several times for the remainder of the hour with announcers Jim Ross and Jim Cornette trying for all they were worth to sell the idea that it was Hart in the limo.

  Of course, you all know the rest of the story. Instead of Hart, they dressed a mini up in a leather jacket and sunglasses and called him Hart, had Michaels put him in a sharpshooter and Helmsley stick the mic in his face where the mini said that he submitted and that Michaels was the icon and the show stopper, put a “WCW” sign on his butt, kicked him in the butt out of the ring and said to go there with the rest of the garbage. Then WWF can hide behind the idea that it wasn’t the company doing a bait-and-switch but Michaels, the heel, who was lying to the fans, which is what a heel should do.

  Granted, the humiliating a big star with a skit like that is a standard wrestling gag, but in the past it has always been done to set up a big grudge match. Usually when it is done otherwise to bury talent that has left, such as in the Billionaire Ted skits in 1996, it has backfired in the face of the promotion doing so. No doubt, if this entire Hart-McMahon-Michaels thing had been an angle, it was the best one McMahon has done in years, and there would be tons of money to be made when the Hart-Michaels rematches were to take place.

  Only one problem: There are no rematches. The match they need to hype people for seeing is Michaels vs. Ken Shamrock, and how did anything on that television show result in that feeling in your gut that you can’t wait to see Shamrock beat Michaels? No, you wanted to see a match the company can’t deliver. In this case the skit was done with the idea of humiliating someone who has signed with the opposition, but if anything, it backfired, only making Hart even more of the focal point of the WWF than when he actually held the title. Whatever the company was theoretically trying to accomplish by doing the double-cross in regard to the so-called protection of the company has been made far worse. The focal point of the company, a bigger deal to the company when he held the belt itself and now a bigger deal than the belt itself, is about to debut on their rivals’ television show.

  How much time
did Michaels spend during the show talking about Ken Shamrock, his opponent on the next PPV, the revenue stream where the big money is generated? How much time did the announcers spend hyping that and the other matches on the next PPV? Let’s face it. Aside from Slaughter vs. HHH and Butterbean vs. Mero, can you name a match on that PPV based on watching the television show? How much time was spent trying to humiliate Hart, Rick Rude (because he had left the company and actually the skit with Harvey Wippleman playing Rude was hilarious had they dropped it at that point rather than try to run the same gag twice and it being not funny and really pathetic the second time) and Jim Neidhart (because of fear he was going to leave the company and because it was another way where the WWF thought it could get under Bret Hart’s skin)?

  The show itself is weird enough, like watching the last years of the AWA but with much super production values, where the emphasis is on burying the wrestlers who had left the company rather than building up what was left. The burials only made the wrestlers bigger and the promotion itself look like it was going down in those days, and it looks no different from the outside today. The legitimate bitterness the company appears to have toward Hart, which delivered another strong rating, appears to be taking it away from its job of promoting wrestling. And the weirdness of the attempts at other symbolism during the show, in particular Jeff Jarrett complaining about McMahon not fulfilling his contract to the letter trying to create the idea to the fans that people who take Hart’s side because of the valid point about not living up to contracts by the WWF are nothing but whining crybabies.

  As it was, against the weakest Nitro show in a long-time but with the marquee Hogan vs. Giant title match on top, Nitro drew a 3.88 rating (4.15 first hour; 3.66 second hour) and 5.82 share. Raw did a 3.05 rating (2.80 first hour; 3.30 second hour) and 4.66 share. In the average of the five head-to-head segments, Nitro beat Raw 3.66 to 2.88. In the quarters head-to-head, WCW drew a 3.5 (Iaukea vs. Wright and Savage vs. Disco) to WWF’s 2.7 (Rude spoof and Michaels interview regarding Hart), WCW drew another 3.5 (Malenko vs. Brad Armstrong) to WWF’s 2.7 (LOD losing tag titles to Gunn & Jammes), WCW did another 3.5 (McMichael interview and Bagwell vs. Jericho) to WWF’s 3.1 (Goldust introduces Luna, lengthy Slaughter interview but probably the teasing of the limo and saying Hart was in the limo is more of what peaked the rating), WCW did a 3.8 (Hennig vs. Traylor) to WWF’s 2.7 (Christopher vs. Flanagan and finally WCW did a 4.0 (Hogan vs. Giant) to WWF’s 3.2 (Bret Hart skit). The WCW peak was a 4.5 for Benoit vs. Sick Boy and the rating inexplicably dropped to a 4.2 for the Zbyszko-Bischoff challenge before the top of the hour where the expected 9 p.m. drop took place. WWF peaked after Nitro went off the air with a 3.4 for Shamrock vs. Vega, and the rating held for the Maivia-Austin angle, Jarrett gimmick and the Kane run-in on Crush. The Nitro replay did a 1.82 rating and 3.70 share.