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

by Dave Meltzer

  Usage of blood on consecutive PPVs in the wake of last year’s letters from Vince McMahon to Ted Turner when WCW used blood does make McMahon come off as a hypocrite of the highest order, but we are talking about wrestling promoters here and situational ethics, let alone any kind of ethics, is about as much as we can hope for. Self mutilation with a razor blade to one’s forehead comes off as barbaric to the general public, but the real dangers of it are far less then many practices used regularly within the pro wrestling world.

  So, Bret Hart and Steve Austin was awesome. And the Road Warriors Chicago Street fight was a better version of the same match WCW tried the previous week. And the real biggest story of the show? Next year’s WrestleMania will be on March 29, 1998 at the Fleet Center in Boston. The same building WCW is about to put tickets on sale (4/10) for a 6/9 Nitro date. Raw is War. Monday night is War. The arena business is War. All is fair in love and a wrestling war. Take no prisoners.

  This year’s WrestleMania on 3/23 drew a sellout 18,197 fans to the Rosemont Horizon in Chicago (16,467 paying $837,150). It was more than double the largest previous gate for pro wrestling ever in Chicago, and the largest gate for pro wrestling in the United States since the 1993 WrestleMania at Madison Square Garden. The total number of fans and paid attendance was a few hundred more than WCW got for its Nitro at the United Center in January, so WCW’s claims of drawing what would be the biggest wrestling crowd of the year in Chicago didn’t hold up to the show the knock was specifically designed for.

  Best poster award. The guy with the giant scissors with the names Sid and Arn on them. Least creative poster? How about “Austin 3:16?” And what about those R.F. Video plugs and phone number signs? Somebody let me know their publicity agent. Worst crowd shot. During the Hart-Austin match, the shot of Bret’s nine-year-old daughter with her hands over her eyes because she was horrified of the violent nature of seeing her dad in such a match. That came off as real exploitation.

  WCW Spring Stampede

  It was just another Sunday afternoon on 4/6 for WCW’s Spring Stampede. It was a show that few were expecting much from, and even fewer were pleasantly surprised when it was over. It didn’t have the booking flaws of the Uncensored show three weeks earlier, but the quality of the matches wasn’t as consistently good either.

  And with WCW being the hot promotion that it is, the show drew a sellout 8,356 fans (7,428 paying $107,115) to the Tupelo, MS Coliseum. The announcing was improved from the depths of Uncensored, largely because Dusty Rhodes was only mildly awful. There were a few funny notes in the announcing. Bobby Heenan, during the confusing Benoit-Malenko finish, in his inimitable way, brought up that they needed to call Banecek (a TV detective series that didn’t last very long from a generation ago) to get to the bottom of it, but earlier in the show, when talking about the National Enquirer story this week regarding Rey Misterio Jr. and Jennifer Anniston, only knew of Anniston, one of the country’s biggest celebrities, as “one of the women from Friends.” Lee Marshall was even funnier, knowing the exact make of Madusa’s Harley from the Hog Wild PPV show last August, but not knowing any of the wrestling holds that were used during the Madusa vs. Akira Hokuto match.

  Most reprehensible award goes to WCW this year for its handling of the Scott Hall hiatus. Hall has been gone now for a few weeks dealing with personal problems, both marriage and other apparent vices that, as Kevin Nash stated on Nitro six days earlier, are far more important than pro wrestling. However, WCW never addressed to the fans who were buying the PPV the FACT that the company knew weeks in advance that Hall wasn’t going to be doing the show. Yet WCW continued to advertise Hall as appearing. Nash did say that he didn’t know if Hall was going to be there or not on the previous Monday’s Nitro, but it is believed that was his personal doing and not a company directive.

  On the weekend television, the subject of Hall was brought up with them hinting that they didn’t know if he’d be there or not. But even during the pre-game show, they continued to mention Hall & Nash as defending the tag team titles without even a hint that Hall might not be there. Then, when the show opened, Tony Schiavone announced that Hall wasn’t there and that Nash would wrestle in a handicap match, and because doing the handicap match itself (which at one time was being strongly considered) would have been a disaster from a psychological standpoint with Nash as a heel, they created a really contrived angle to get Scott Steiner out of the picture early in the show.

  ECW Barely Legal

  The debut of Extreme Championship Wrestling on PPV on 4/13 is now history, and perhaps, even historical.

  The show was a very slightly toned down version of the product, with a high work rate, a few, well not death defying but certainly injury defying spots, some sloppiness and nervousness, several booking swerves, a few technical problems, some excellent matches and undoubtedly the best pre-game show for a PPV in the history of the business. In the end, the show was stolen by the two oldest performers on the show, the first one of pro wrestling’s bonafide legends, and the other one of the most underrated enduring great workers in the history of the industry.

  Terry Funk, a few months shy of his 53rd birthday, came out with a stellar dramatic performance in a triangle match, winning over Stevie Richards and Sandman to get a title match that took place immediately thereafter, and then bled heavily and sold big in a short swerve-laden main event which ended with him coming out of the ring as new ECW world heavyweight champion. In the pre-game show, they aired an incredible taped promo of him at his father’s grave site talking about winning the title.

  Actually the best worker on the show, amazingly enough since he was in a match doing a style that isn’t exactly geared for someone who is past 30, let alone 44, was Gran Hamada, the undersized Japanese star who became a lighter weight major star in Mexico in the late 70s. Hamada is one of the few survivors who has remained a top worker from the original class that put junior heavyweight wrestling on the map in Japan in the early 1980s original Tiger Mask era (actually the only other survivor as a top star from that era is Bret Hart).

  Hamada has always been something of an unsung star in the business, his prime coming during a period when people of his size weren’t given breaks, and a real rarity in that how often does someone make noticeable improvements as a worker updating his style between the ages of 43 and 44? And because he was part of a “cold” match in that it was guys thrown in with no storyline, and since the star of the show and only person who appeared to really be known to the fans was Great Sasuke, he came out of a PPV show where he was the best worker almost totally unsung once again.

  He’s probably held more major lighter weight world titles than all but a few wrestlers that have ever lived, somewhere in the vicinity of names like Danny Hodge, Rey Mendoza and Perro Aguayo, all bona fide legendary Hall of Fame performers. And Hamada was a far better worker than any of the men mentioned above. But as a Japanese wrestler who was too small for Japan in his youth, and made too many enemies due to some questionable business in his 30s, has now become a small promotion main eventer after basically retiring from his second home in Mexico and is surviving past 40 on more than just reputation, doing the one thing most veteran performers don’t do, adapting the 90s style into his repertoire rather than relying on what he did in his youth and mental acuity to get him through.

  When it was over, the show had to be considered a major success aesthetically for ECW. It was far from perfect, and the flaws many talked about with the promotion were more than evident, but when it was over, the strong points overwhelmed the weak points.

  Very preliminary buy rates estimates at press time with less than 10 percent of the systems reporting were in the 0.2 range, or probably about 26,000 buys and an estimated total company revenue of $210,000 (break even was between $350,000 and $400,000) which, due to the limited number of homes available because so many major systems refused to carry the show, would be a money loser as a show itself. ECW had to guarantee Request a certain number of buys to get them to car
ry the show.

  Paul Heyman was expecting that going in and was majorly downplaying the show’s chances of being a money maker and claiming it was more as a way to put on a show with a product content that would get those who didn’t carry the first show into changing their position for the future. Some of the losses could be offset in the future by eventual videotape sales and from the live gate.

  As a first show, it appeared to do from a buy rate standpoint (which is a fair comparison, total homes wouldn’t be) if the early figures are a national indication, well below the debuts of such groups as UWFI, Pancrase and EFC, none of which succeeded on PPV. It would be slightly less than AAA, which also never got a second show but that was more due to disorganization than anything else. However, all the aforementioned groups that are no longer around saw buy rates decline significantly after the first show, which is the general pattern for most events on PPV. UFC, which debuted in 1993 with 80,000 buys, pro boxing and major league pro wrestling are the notable exceptions although all three have suffered consistent gradual declines as a pattern in recent years.

  There is a good chance ECW would fall into the category of exceptions, and if the second show on 8/17 were able to clear the vast majority of the cable universe and maintain a 0.2, it would break even or show a small profit to the point it could stay in the game. Meetings with Cablevision and Viewers Choice, both of which didn’t carry this show, are expected soon. A decline in buy rate on a second show would make it difficult to continue on PPV. But keep in mind any figures this early are preliminary at best.

  There were no major problems or excesses that should prevent this show, if used as a demo tape, to alarm PPV carriers to the point they won’t carry the second show. The angles and problems that led to the first show only being available in around half the PPV universe have largely been rectified. A second show was announced for 8/17, which Heyman said will be from a larger building likely in a major market that ECW hasn’t run in the past. Heyman is steering clear of running a major show within the New York City limits because of the political climate and because he realizes as a small fish playing with the big fish that he can’t afford to make enemies right now.

  Joey Styles, doing his first live broadcast, doing the show solo almost completely (Tommy Dreamer and Beulah McGillicutty sat in during the final two matches but Beulah said literally nothing and Dreamer might as well have) was somewhere in the range of very good to great, getting over all the key points, getting enough storyline over for first-timers, and not only calling the key spots but getting the individual Japanese wrestlers over as more than simply nameless faceless clones as several of the major promotion announcers do routinely when foreign talent is imported.

  The booking was excellent. The camera work wasn’t, particularly early. The guys busted their asses, but there was far more sloppiness than you’d ever see on a major promotion big show. There was heavy juice by Funk, but the juice wasn’t used so often on the show that it become a cliché. There were a few swear words—limited to three, all of which were presented in a script beforehand weeks ago to Request. No “f” word and overall the language was kept pretty much inoffensive. The only woman beating was a woman beating a man, Reggie Bennett attempting (and not quite succeeding) a power bomb on Funk. There was some knocking of WWF and WCW, but not a whole lot. Some aspects of the show technically looked second rate, but when the show was over, it was better overall than the vast majority of WWF and WCW shows.

  The show drew a sellout of 1,250 to the ECW Arena, which was given a face lift and cleaned up with a new paint job, plus they had a new ring with “ECW Hardcore Wrestling” written on the canvas. The show sold out a few days in advance. The gate had to destroy any previous company records, probably well in excess of $60,000 with 320 tickets at $100 and about 900 others at $40. The show also set a company merchandise record doing just under $20 per head, which is an unheard of figure for almost anything short of a Tokyo Dome show.

  Just 24 seconds after the show went off the air, the generator blew and all power for television went off. Had this happened five minutes earlier, it would have destroyed the climax of the show. Heyman along with Funk, Dreamer, Eliminators and a few others got in the ring and thanked the crowd in the ring in a short speech.

  AJPW Champion Carnival

  Toshiaki Kawada was the winner of All Japan’s 1997 Champion Carnival tournament coming out on top in only the second gimmick singles match in the 25-year history of the company.

  Kawada came out the winner of a triangle match with Kenta Kobashi and Mitsuharu Misawa on 4/19 at Tokyo’s Budokan Hall before an announced sellout of 16,300 fans in what is by tradition the second biggest show of the year (behind only the December tag team tournament finals) for the company. It was the second time that Kawada has captured the Carnival tournament, having won in 1994 in a famous final match beating Steve Williams. Perhaps more significantly, it was the first time Kawada has ever in his career pinned Misawa in a singles match.

  With the three wrestlers coming out of the Round Robin tied with 19 points, it was announced that the Budokan tournament final would consist of each wrestler having a 30-minute singles match against the other two and whomever wound up with the best record out of their two matches would be the champion. If the wrestlers were to all split matches (finish 1-1), the Carnival champion would be determined by who scored the fastest victory.

  It started with Misawa and Kobashi going to a 30:00 draw. The storyline of the match was that Misawa was “injured” from a previous match against Jun Akiyama. Kobashi dominated the final 2:30 of the match gaining near falls with at least two brainbusters and a DDT. So Misawa went into the match with Kawada “exhausted” and Kawada destroyed him early until Misawa hit a Frankensteiner. Misawa had a few flurries during the match but Kawada dominated, using his stretch plum submission and a power bomb to gain a pin in 6:09.

  This left Kawada vs. Kobashi, and if Kobashi won, he’d win the Carnival, but all Kawada needed was a 30:00 draw to win. As it was, Kawada pinned Kobashi in 21:27 after a series of high kicks. One would expect this sets Kawada up as the next challenger for Misawa’s Triple Crown and the match as the more than likely main event for the 6/6 show at Budokan Hall.

  The final 15:00 of Misawa-Kobashi and the entire Misawa-Kawada match aired on television on 4/20, and the Kobashi-Kawada match airs on 4/27. Even though the 4/20 show was moved due to other programming to the unlikely time slot of 1:40 a.m. on Sunday, it still drew a 3.7 rating which at that time slot is a 34.2 share.

  It was only the second gimmick singles match in the history of the traditional promotion, the other being a Texas death match in 1974 between Giant Baba and Fritz Von Erich.

  Misawa made it to the finals with a win over Johnny Ace on 4/17 in Soka, in which they teased the 30:00 draw by going 26:27 before Misawa scored the pin with a Tiger driver. Kawada and Kobashi had already clinched spots in the final after wins on 4/14 and 4/15 respectively. Baba crossed up his patterned booking as many times All Japan will have a situation where a top name needs a win to make the finals on either the final night or the final round-robin night, only to be held to a 30:00 draw that knocks them out of contention.

  Final standings were:1. Kawada 10-1-3, 23 points; 2. Kobashi 9-3-2, 20 points and Misawa 9-3-2, 20 points; 4. Akira Taue 9-3, 18 points and Stan Hansen 8-2-2, 18 points and Steve Williams 8-2-2, 18 points; 7. Gary Albright 6-6, 12 points; 8. Johnny Ace 5-7, 10 points; 9. Jun Akiyama 4-7-1, 9 points; 10. Giant Kimala II 3-9, 6 points; 11. Takao Omori 2-10, 4 points and Tamon Honda 2-10, 4 points; 13. Jun Izumida 0-14, injury forfeited most of the tournament.

  WWF In Your House 14: Revenge of Taker

  Raw certainly overshadowed the final PPV in a six week run with a show every weekend. The 4/20 show from the Rochester War Memorial Auditorium, entitled “Taker’s Revenge,” was a largely forgettable show with two strong main event matches and a total nothing undercard. The plethora of DQ finishes (three in five PPV matches) run-ins and ref bumps was only mad
e worse by a DQ finish in the Bret Hart vs. Austin main event.

  In addition, the mystery surprise protege of Honky Tonk Man turned out to be Billy Gunn, renamed Rockabilly, which caused the crowd to either go into a temporary coma or flock to the bathroom and basically put the final nail in the undercard’s coffin. Even with the final two strong matches, the screw-job laden booking and disappointment of a surprise made this a slight thumbs down show. It does continue the competitive situation with WCW in that WCW has the far stronger undercards and WWF has far stronger main event matches on PPV.

  The show drew a sellout 6,477 paying $87,414, selling out five days beforehand, again showing just how hot pro wrestling is these days, and drawing the largest gate in the history of pro wrestling in Rochester.

  FMW Anniversary Show

  Frontier Martial Arts and Wrestling ran its annual Anniversary show, which by tradition is its biggest show of the year, before an announced sellout crowd of 16,000 on 4/29 at the Yokohama Arena.

  Although it was probably a trios match with Atsushi Onita and Terry Funk on opposite sides that was the main drawing card, FMW used a women’s no rope two sided barbed wire electronic dynamite barricade double hell death match for its two womens championships and the retirement of its long-time poster woman, Megumi Kudo, as the main event.

  Perhaps the most noteworthy news from the show was the announcement by Onita that FMW was going to book Kawasaki Baseball Stadium (52,000 capacity), which is currently under renovation, the site of FMW’s biggest shows in its history, for a show on 9/28 and he’s looking to make it a joint show with the World Wrestling Federation and also looking to include wrestlers from several other Japanese offices. Onita will be meeting with Vince McMahon on 5/1 to discuss a talent cooperation agreement and working together on this show.

  Kudo, 27, had what was billed as her final match of a nearly 11-year career that began with the All Japan Women’s promotion and saw her involved in the same training camp as such luminaries as Aja Kong and Bison Kimura. Kudo captured both the WWA womens championship and the World Independent womens championships that she had recently lost to Shark Tsuchiya (Eriko Tsuchiya) in 21:46.