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

by Dave Meltzer

  The less said about the NWO Beauty Pageant and the members of the washed-up band Jackal the better. If the Oak Ridge Boys, who are a real big name band, in Nashville, their home town, didn’t sell one ticket or one PPV buy and ended up as the bathroom break for the live wrestling fans, the idea of trying it again with a worse band just shows that those who don’t know anything about the past are doomed to repeat its stupidity.

  If that wasn’t bad enough, the booking was horrible as well. The Nick Patrick gag went from being a heat seeking missile to a tired worn out screw-job by the climax of one of the worst world title PPV matches in history. A Mexican death match without any Mexicans and without an explanation as to why? A wrestler running another over in a motorcycle and the announcers selling it as a comedy spot rather than a heat spot? And that same wrestler after having been run down, appeared two nights later on a live television show not selling an injury nor did the announcers even acknowledge the incident. A PPV show without even one interview with a wrestler, despite having some of the best interviews in wrestling sitting about four rows deep in the audience?

  Suffice to say that if someone wanted to put on the worst show possible on purpose, they could have put on worse matches, but they’d be hard pressed to have a worse show.

  UFC 12

  There was almost too much news to digest coming out of UFC XII and the circus atmosphere surrounding the political football during the week which made national headlines.

  When the week was over, UFC had moved from Niagara Falls, NY to Dothan, AL, had garnered major national media attention; had filed a $32 million lawsuit; had lost a court battle to save the show in New York; had the law they spent $50,000 getting passed to regulate and answer the question of legality in New York state be on the verge of being overturned; had spend an estimated $500,000 (not to mention losing out on as much as $200,000 more by not having the live gate in Niagara Falls) the profit margin and then some, chartering last minute flights and making all the last second changes necessary to save the show; and had introduced a new phenomenon; created a new champion; and unbeknownst to almost anyone created a new martial arts hero in Japan.

  The creation of a new monster champion in Mark Coleman, a freestyle wrestler who placed seventh in the 1992 Olympics at 220 pounds, who made Dan Severn submit to a combination headlock and choke in 2:59; and of a new phenom in 19-year-old Vitor Belfort (Vitor Belfort Gracie, the adopted son of Jiu Jitsu legend Carlson Gracie Sr.), who destroyed the competition enroute to winning the heavyweight tournament, paled by comparison with the questions regarding the future of the sport.

  If the economics of to maintain a new sport on PPV after the novelty has worn off aren’t hard enough, the political problems have made it that much more expensive. Whatever profit margin SEG would have made on the show had to be eaten up by legal fees, refunding the six-figure live gate in Niagara Falls and having to let spectators in free at the new location, the costs of chartering planes, booking last minute hotel rooms, ordering a new production truck, and paying overtime for the basic around-the-clock set-up of getting the Dothan Civic Center and Octagon ready for a PPV show at the last minute.

  If anything, it was a miracle the show ran as smoothly from a television standpoint as it did amidst all the commotion.

  While the majority of problems were thrust upon SEG, they made things worse by being overconfident about the court case, and then being not totally unprepared, but largely not ready for the last minute move after insisting all week that it was a 100% certainty the events would take place in Niagara Falls despite the court battle being in progress.

  This left the entire organization reeling when U.S. Federal Court Judge Miriam Goldman Cederbaum ruled in the early afternoon on 2/6, the day before the show, against SEG’s motion to throw out the new rules that were thrown at the group to cripple the show. Cedarbaum ruled that she didn’t believe SEG had proven that the imposition of a 114-page rule book governing the event, which totally changed the nature of the event of Ultimate Fighting from the Brazilian sport of Vale Tudo to what would approximate the Japanese sport of shootboxing while wearing amateur boxing headgear (not that any of the particulars involved in writing or ruling on the new laws even knew what either of those sports are), would cause SEG and UFC irreparable damage before the lawsuit itself comes to trial. No final decision has been made by SEG as to whether or not to continue the lawsuit against the state athletic commission, as the company is still hopeful of gaining yet another political reversal in time for a proposed 5/30 show at the Nassau Coliseum and would need the commission on its side at that point in time, although because of the media pressure, it’s highly unlikely such a reversal is going to happen.

  After the ruling, SEG arranged to move he event to Dothan, originally slated as a back-up site when the new rule book was sent to SEG. SEG officials had made arrangements to possibly hold the event in Dothan on 1/31, however three days later, called the Civic Center and told them they wouldn’t be needing the event, after being assured that it was a 100% certainty that they would win the case in court. Panic stricken on Thursday, they called back that afternoon with the building still available and willing to take the booking on short notice.

  At that point SEG chartered a jet from Niagara Falls, carrying about 200 fighters, entourages, reporters and fans from around the world on an excursion that none will probably ever forget. With numerous problems, not the least of which was the weight of the octagon which delayed the departure, the plane didn’t leave Niagara Falls until midnight. It landed in Montgomery, AL—more than 100 miles away, after 2 a.m., at which point several buses were rented for another two hour plus journey in the middle of the night down Alabama highways to four assorted hotels rented as the last minute, with most not getting into their rooms until 5 a.m. and everyone having to check out by Noon due to a religious convention that had booked all the rooms for Saturday.

  After flying and being in a bus all night the night before, it was literally a miracle that someone wasn’t hurt more seriously in combat—the very thing the politicians and reporters in New York grandstanding were proclaiming they were attempting to avoid. SEG chartered another plane immediately after the show leaving Dothan and returning to Niagara Falls, where everyone’s original flights were booked out of because the idea of flying everyone home from Dothan, which is only served by one airline, would be both a logistical and financial nightmare.

  After working around-the-clock, they were still painting the canvas on the octagon at 7 p.m., when the alternate bouts were scheduled to start. As it was, the show started live 15 minutes late, but on time for the PPV. The PPV itself was neither the best nor the worst UFC to date. Most of the matches were short and not really competitive. The only screwed-up aspect of the show was Tank Abbott’s performance in doing what was purportedly color commentary on three matches, and that had nothing due to with the change in location.

  The debut of the under-200 pound weight class was generally considered a success. Although the announcers never acknowledged and probably didn’t understand the importance of it, Pancrase fighter Yoshiki Takahashi became something of a national hero in his home country, at least within the martial arts world, winning his first round match over Wallid Ismael, a Brazilian Vale Tudo fighter of much renown who was brought into UFC with the expectations he’d destroy everyone in the tournament. No Japanese fighter had ever beaten a name Brazilian in a Vale Tudo match, and in this instance, it was a mid-card Pancrase fighter beating someone who many considered as one of the five best BJJ fighter around rather conclusively, and doing so while fighting with what he believed was a broken hand for much of the fight.

  In addition, it brought new respect for Pancrase from a martial arts world that somewhat dismissed the entire sport and its performers and their accomplishments within their sport as top level fighters due to it being part of the pro wrestling world (and perhaps for good reason in certain instances because there have been worked matches in Pancrase). Nevertheless, the clima
x was a letdown as the Pancrase vs. Lions Den grudge match with Takahashi vs. Jerry Bohlander, a grudge the announcers never mentioned (interestingly enough since Ken Shamrock was doing color for those matches), never took place since Takahashi had what was believed at the time to be a broken hand. It was later diagnosed as a severe sprain (ironically with all the talk in the New York media about potential deaths, this was the most serious injury to come out of the matches), which did require minor surgery. The belief is had Takahashi recognized it wasn’t a break, he probably could have come out for the championship match.

  Even though the natural storyline would demand a match between the two on the 5/30 PPV, that may not be in the cards. The battle plan right now is to have an under-200 tournament on that show, and invite Takahashi back, along with Pancrase’s Guy Mezger. Mezger would likely be the favorite in such a tournament, however that would create another problem if things went according to plan, as the two tournament winners are scheduled for a singles match in July to create the first UFC World lightweight champion. However, it has been made clear that Mezger won’t fight Bohlander because Lion’s Den fighters won’t fight each other.

  The heavyweight division was all Vitor Belfort, whose boxing prowess proved not to be overrated in the least. With the quickest and most accurate punches of anyone ever in a UFC event, Belfort won his two matches without having to display any real ground fighting technique. The irony of instituting weight classes is that the lightweight champion, Bohlander, likely weighed more than the heavyweight champion, Belfort (Bohlander was announced at 199 but was probably 205, and Belfort, announced at 205, was probably a few pounds lighter than that). Due to Brazilians coming up short in several NHB situations they were expected to win, both in UFC and in EFC, the Carlson Gracie side needed a find like this. The question now regards Belfort’s future. His boxing trainer, who also trained Oscar de la Hoya, said Belfort is the second best boxer he’s ever trained and could win an Olympic gold medal. There is far more money in being a top flight boxer than in a top flight NHB fighter so there is certainly an economic lure for Belfort to try the more lucrative sport.

  Coleman trimmed down from 255 to 240. If anything, he appeared to be more powerful than ever despite coming off a virus contracted in Brazil in November that plagued him for several months. The belief going into the fight is that Coleman’s superior strength would give him the early advantage, but if and once the match got past the 5:00 mark, Severn’s superior conditioning would turn the tide in his favor. Severn, who told friends that he had trained harder for this match than for anything in his athletic career, came in about ten pounds heavier and stronger than he had in his previous recent UFC appearances. However, it was for naught, as he apparently wrenched his back almost immediately and Coleman, with his incredible grip strength, turned a simple side headlock into a smother choke and Severn had no choice but to tap or pass out, either of which would have meant a loss. Severn, who had talked of retiring from NHB after this match and a possible match with Don Frye had he won, told friends after the matches that he felt he still had a few good matches left in his career.

  With no local publicity, the promotion was forced to open the doors for free and packed the 3,100-seat Dothan Civic Center, with the proviso that nobody under 18 would be allowed in the building (although the New York Times reported that teenagers were able to sneak in). The crowd was very enthusiastic and far more knowledgeable about the participants and the game than the promotion feared, so the atmosphere wasn’t a letdown. There was basically no acknowledgement by the announcers of the political problems and the last minute move other than a very brief mention in the open about a political storm. However, there were numerous chants by the crowd of “New York sucks,” which weren’t acknowledged on the air.

  Stories regarding the show were the lead story on page one in newspapers in both Dothan, AL and Niagara Falls, and also a first section story for several days in the New York Times, which published an editorial that largely turned the political tide in New York state against the event and ultimately was responsible for the event being moved. The Times event coverage claimed that blood was spilled in seven of the nine matches, although in actuality it in three, none of which were overly bloody by a boxing or pro wrestling standard although the story largely focused on in as bloodsport and used the human cockfight reference. USA Today ran the story on page three on 2/6. Newsday in New York in a column by Ellis Henican blistered promoter Bob Meyrowitz and the UFC, saying that he resembles Satan saying “Since 1994, Meyrowitz has been sending men, two at a time, into violent brawls for public amusement, and he chooses not to protect his fighters with many rules.” The column, which ran two days after the PPV show, went on to point out such facts as there are no rounds (true, but that generally makes it more of a cardiovascular sport since it gives conditioning and endurance an advantage over power), no judges (obviously the guy watched the PPV very closely), and no weight classes (he really watched the show closely). He wrote that UFC is a bore and the only thing that saves it is the blood, which he wrote, is what the “low-watt cretins” (the latest euphemism for UFC fans) were shouting for during the Severn-Coleman match. Well, there was no chant for blood during that match, but he did notice the New York sux chants which he attributed to “some of Alabama’s lower IQs.”

  During the week, NHB took several more political lumps. In New York, the state Assembly voted 134-1 to ban NHB events from the state. A similar bill in the state Senate, which wouldn’t ban the sport outright but give local politicians the right to ban the events within their jurisdiction, passed by a 33-0 margin. However, on 2/10, State Senate majority leader Joseph Bruno reversed his position and said he would ask the senate to pass the same bill as the assembly totally banning the sport in the state, which Governor George Pataki has already pledged to sign immediately. Bruno said he’d support the outright ban because the rule book implemented by the state athletic commission on the sport had effectively banned it in the state anyway, although Bruno still said that he considered UFC to be less violent than boxing. The Oklahoma legislature overruled the state boxing commission in allowing events with a few rule changes such as were on the most recent Extreme show. The Oklahoma rules that were allowed until the new ruling had banned head-butts and attacking the spine, added five-minute rounds (called phases) and mandated the wearing of gloves.

  Not that Meyrowitz and UFC are totally not at fault. There are problems which we speak of regularly. Lack of steroid tests leave an unlevel playing field and change the results and strategies to a great degree. And don’t think steroids are some secret that only a chosen few know about or recognize in the fighters. In one match on the show, virtually every insider when it came to predictions was using steroids as their reason for picking one or the other to win, based largely on the effects of steroids during the short and long haul. And they were probably correct since the match went almost exactly according to one of the two expected scenarios.

  We still have the unverifiable and obviously phony records, like the alternate named Jackie Lee, who looked like the middle-age cook in the Bruce Lee bio movie, being 98-0. We still have people who have no reasonable chance or ground skills and balance from a competitive wrestling or Jiu Jitsu background, to win, such as Jim Mullen, being put in tournaments, which there is no reason with a four-man field. It’s been established what a “real fight,” UFC style entails, and Mullen himself, despite whatever the WKA North American championship in kick boxing actually means, admitted in a newspaper interview the week before the fight that he wasn’t planning on using his kick boxing skills because he recognized they wouldn’t work. Trying to answer ignorant martial artists by putting people from disciplines that have no chance of winning into the event only makes the event look bad to outsiders.

  The newspaper advertising and some of the cable advertising that was in the days before the fight listed Ken Shamrock as appearing in the heavyweight tournament. Although there had been talk of this happening at one point, the f
act is the two sides had never agreed to terms and it’s been known for at least a month that Shamrock wasn’t going to be fighting in this show so they were advertising up to the last minute arguably their biggest drawing card for a show he wasn’t fighting on.

  I’m also confused about having weight divisions but not doing a weigh-in, made only more weird by the idea that the lightweight tournament winner may have weighed more than the heavyweight winner. The idea of putting Tank Abbott, who added nothing, on commentary for three matches backfired even worse than putting him out for one match did a few shows back. One positive is that Bruce Beck did an outstanding job throughout the show, particularly in keeping the commentary going while Abbott was babbling semi-incoherently.

  But while far from perfect in many aspects, what the media, the government, the athletic commission and the court system did to SEG was a downright scary commentary on our country. The fact SEG was seemingly oblivious to the end result of this one-sided game and was caught with its pants down at the last minute was no excuse or justification over what was done to them. They had gone through proper procedures to get a bill passed, overwhelmingly as it turned out, signed by the Governor, that clearly legalized their event in New York and stipulated what the rules of such an event were, and then booked a PPV for the state.

  The media, ignoring the existing lack of evidence as to serious injuries compared with sports like boxing, football and auto racing, crucified the politicians for passing the bill, citing dangers like a potential for death that the facts didn’t support. Politicians reversed their field, but had no legal leg to stand on in getting either the UFC or EFC show stopped in the state until they had time to enact the new law. Instead, they sucker punched SEG by having the commission attempt to sabotage the event with a 114-page rule book completely changing the nature of what the competitors were training for and the sport that was being advertised, despite the existing law having different rules written into it.