Hunter's Torn Quad

I see Savage leaving without returning the favor to Jarrett.

WON switches to the more familiar format around April or May of 1991.

The best Foley promo on Orton was the one where Foley was backstage sitting down, and had the barbed wire baseball bat, and it ended with Foley smashing up the set with the bat.

Hogan's black eye at WM XI was due to an accident, and not Savage punching him.

WON January 8th 1991 Page 1 WON January 8th 1991 Page 2 WON January 8th 1991 Page 3 WON January 8th 1991 Page 4 WON January 8th 1991 Page 5 WON January 8th 1991 Page 6 WON January 8th 1991 Page 7 WON January 8th 1991 Page 8 WON January 8th 1991 Page 9 WON January 8th 1991 Page 10 The reason I've posted this issue as a series of pictures, is the marks you see on the pages make it impossible for them to be scanned as a text file. Well, not impossible, but the results are such incomprehensible gibberish, that they read like an Ulitmate Warrior promo, and are just as impossible to decipher. They are very readable, though, and you can make everything out that isn't covered by the marks. Thanks go to S D for pointing me in the direction of the program that I've used to scan this issue.

This was yet another wonderful pointless swerve from Superbooker Vince Russo, in conjunction with Hogan. The idea was that to push Hogan as being a rebel due to not being cooperative with the new hot writers in WCW, one of which just happened to be Russo. In the angle, Hogan, because he didn’t want to put Sting over, would just lie down for him, and thus not have to really put him over. Hogan would then be suspended, and later come back to feud with whomever. When the angle played out, as soon as Sting ‘pinned’ Hogan, they immediately went to a video package, to try and further the illusion that it was a shoot. In addition to that, also in order to try and make it seem legit, they never talked about it again, and when Sting came out on Nitro, explaining his match with Goldberg was non-title because he only offered to face someone to help WCW out of a jam because of having no main event, he did so without make-up, once again to try and make it seem legit. It never dawned on Russo that if nobody talks about an angle, it doesn’t register with anyone and it doesn’t get over. But, of course, Superbooker was too smart for such outdated concepts like making money Coincidentally, ratings at the time were beginning to slide, and Hogan usually pulled some kind of vanishing act at times like this, so as to avoid being associated with bad ratings. Then, after a while, Hogan would come back, cause an artificial jump in ratings, and use this to fool executives who didn’t know any better, and even some that did, that this was proof that without him people stopped caring about WCW, and thus he deserved his big salary and the top spot.

I'm not sure Abby seemed like the kind of guy who bled a lot...

I think they should have gone around 60 minutes, and teased that if Punk can get Joe to go more than an hour, he's got the title won because that's when Joe is easy pickings, but have Joe fight like crazy to get the win before the 60 minute mark, and then finally get the win just at the 60 minute mark.

Austin v Show was meant for WM XVI, but sometime around the middle of the year they lost confidence in Show for that spot, and the plan was changed to Austin v Rock. Actually, I'm not sure they didn't lost confidence in Show, not necessarily as a WM main eventer but in general, not long after he showed up, because he did a clean job five weeks into his run, which is a strange thing to do with your 'hot new monster'.

According to several sources, the Carters and Panda must have given Jerry Jarrett the word they are wanting to pull out. Jarrett has told people he's on a time limit to find a new ownership group. The company has booked a 2/13 PPV date, which is the last PPV date on the schedule at this point. It's said Jerry has gone to Bob Carter and suggested before pulling out, to put himself in charge of the company and he'd be able to make it financially viable through cost cutting. It's very unlikely to happen since Bob's daughter has the position in charge of those financial decisions, which is why there was surprisingly little advertising for the 11/7 PPV . . . When Dusty Rhodes was introduced, he gave a football coaching speech to the talent and I've heard very mixed reactions to his speech. Some said it was like a college football coach rah-rah speech, but others said people were not at all positive. It was even compared with the famous Eric Bischoff speech where he said Hogan, Savage and Piper were the only people in the company who had ever drawn money so nobody had a right to complain, which pissed off the entire locker room, in particular anyone who had been friends with Flair, who was sitting there when Bischoff made that speech. Rhodes got heat by saying he heard there was a lot of heat because of how Hall & Nash came in, got the top spots, and in particular when Nash went way long on the interview and had nothing to say. Rhodes said he's tired of hearing complaining about Hall & Nash, saying they had proven themselves at the top level, and said, thanks to Hall, Nash & Savage, the company drew a good buy rate. Some say he lost credibility right there, because nobody even knew Savage was going to be on the show, so his being there had zero effect on buy rate. Plus, others thought it was a slap in the face, as he was insinuating they were the reasons for the buy rate and some took it like he was saying they were the only proven stars in the company. There was a ton of scepticism given his track record. Rhodes has booked out his major storylines as much as six months in advance, because he is an old school proponent of knowing where he's going and telling longer stories. He's into a lot of mystery stuff, and like Russo, is into copying from movies he's seen. The difference is, from those who know both, Russo copied with no idea how to tie the skits into anything that had wrestling intrigue, while Rhodes has a level of depth of knowledge Russo never understood, but he's also the product of a decade plus before. Rhodes said the biggest problem in the company is the lack of communication, which many agreed with. That's the biggest problem in both WWE and TNA right now. For example, things were so bad that even though the company had been told by FSN that the 11/26 show was cancelled, whomever got the word, didn't feel it important enough to let people know. Keith Mitchell, who does production, didn't find out until he called FSN to coordinate satellite time for 11 /26. and was told, "don't you know, you don't have a show." On the 11/19 show, even though the company knew (although almost nobody was aware of it, because when Keith Mitchell doesn't know and he's the one who does the coordinates, you can imagine how few were let it on it), nobody felt it important enough to announce on the air that next week's show would be airing on the following Tuesday. . . Rhodes' new- philosophy is to run fewer matches on TV, and make the matches longer, and try and slow down the X division matches with the old make the spots mean more ideas. He also emphasized letting guys have more interview time, and that the guys who can't pick up the slack on their interviews will eventually be replaced by those who can. The positive is a lot of the wrestlers no know long-term angles, so hopefully in knowing where they are going, they can tell the stories, as opposed to the past where the top guys may have had 2-3 weeks of knowledge of where they were going, but most everyone else didn't know until they showed up for TV. The negative on Rhodes is the same as many; not recognizing what shouldn't be on TV. He booked Scott Hall vs. A. J. Styles for a TV main event, but Hall was a good 20 pounds overweight and looked to have aged. Part of the problem was he was wearing those small WCW tights from when he was in shape at 245, and it only accentuated his gut because the tights were four sizes too small. All that was accomplished was Styles having a bad match that made people less interested in buying the PPV. The feeling by some is, they exposed that Hall can't do anything before the PPV. The funny thing was, the live fans were super into the match, chanting "Let's go A. J." alternating with "Let's Go Scott Hall" like it was a classic.. . They are really going to miss David Sahadi, because those videos are the best thing on the TV show. . . The plan right now is to air footage on the PPV of the deal when the WWE came to film the Rumble commercial in Orlando. It will have to be announced this week, so not sure how hard they are going to push it as one of the major selling points. . . A lot of people were also mad because nobody was told directly exactly how their pay will be affected by the double tapings. In fact, it wasn't even a sure thing the company would even address to the wrestlers the new taping schedule, other than they posted a note in the locker room listing upcoming dates for December as 12/5 (PPV), 12/7 and 12/21 and left it to the guys to deduce that meant taping ever}' other week. Eventually, after coaxing from some veterans who said it had to be addressed, they called a meeting, which was where Rhodes was introduced and gave his speech. It may not even be a sure thing, since Panda is looking at cutting costs wherever possible. It's known the wrestling side tried to make it so wrestlers who came in for a taping would be paid the equivalent of two shows instead of one, so the wrestlers and announcers wouldn't get their pay cut in half which would be one that would be received poorly. Panda hadn't approved of that at last word. Bob Ryder told the wrestlers at the 11/23 taping that they would all be getting paid for two shows "this time," with the important words being "this time." Lots of people are nervous, because the TNA gig, if you make $500 a week plus a PPV, is $2,500 per month. It's not liveable on its own, but it's a base. If cut down to $1,500, it makes a big difference. For those who don't get outside Indy work, and these are the guys who need this the most, they'll be the first ones hurt. The fact Konnan would miss a PPV show to work in Mexico tells you a lot about the long-term confidence in things here. . . Jeff Hardy is said to be now in the best frame of mind since he's come. Hardy gets along great with Hall & Nash because when he was a teenager being brought in to do jobs on WWF TV, Hall & Nash were always friendly with the Hardy’s and were again when they came in here. Hardy has been pretty much told he has carte blanche to arrive late, as long as he gets there on time for the TV show . . . Erik Watts is back partially because DDP, who had been friends with him for years since both trained at the Power Plant at the same time, went to bat for him. . . Dale Torborg has been backstage at Orlando shows of late. He's a life-long fan who has always looked at getting back in, even though he has a career as a major league baseball coach. . . Petey Williams came up with the Canadian Destroyer move a few years ago in practice with Chris Sabin. He said the move is a lot safer than it looks. The funny thing is Amazing Red had come up with the move in 1998 in training, but never used it in a match. Williams, 23, said he's preparing for a career in law enforcement in Canada in case something happens with his wrestling career. .. Kid Kash will be back in the doghouse after an interview in this month's Power Slam magazine in the U.K. When asked why he's unhappy, he said, "It's the politics, the favoritism. In every other company I've worked for, and I've been around a long time-there was always room for advancement (I guess his memory of his stay in WCW has vanished). That's your main goal in any job, to advance. That's my goal. But, in TNA, that doesn’t seem possible because they've already selected the people that are going to be pushed. . . Most companies have their chosen ones. I understand that. But most companies allow the other talent, the true talent, to advance (he's still not remembering WCW). TNA doesn't allow that. Even when you watch the advertisements (for Impact), they only advertise Jeff Jarrett, Raven, AMW and A.J. Styles. . . Bob Ryder asked me if I watch the television show. And I told him that I did, but I don’t anymore because you can't even tell if I work (for TNA)... They don't even have an explanation for anything.. . I've taken a lot of flak over the years because I tell you what's on my mind. (TNA management) never tells you anything straight . . . TNA wants credibility. They want the company to be credible enough to run with WWE. So they started realizing that the only thing people are tuning in for is to watch the X division. When I was in the X division, it was exciting. But it was guys like me, Jerry Lynn, Christopher Daniels and Elix Skipper, guys who know how to wrestle the cruiserweight style and tell a story in a match. Now they have guys who are in over their heads, who are buddies with people in the office.. . Don't get me wrong; some of these kids are good. But they have not one ounce of ring psychology. They take a big bump off the top rope and what do they do? They kip right up. They have no selling ability, no microphone ability. The only thing they can do is big spots. But they can't even do their spots where they are supposed to go. If you watch an X division match, all you see is a cluster of moves. . . TNA claim they don't have money in the budget to pay the wrestlers decent wages. They should pay us at least what we're worth. .. TNA says (they can't pay more) because it's not in the budget. But they can bring in different people, like Lex Luger, of all people, a washed up guy with more demons in his closet than he can deal with." He complained how TNA can pay Hall & Nash $50,000 each and not give him a few hundred dollar a week raise. He said he's asked to get a release a few times and been turned down, but wouldn't go to WWE if they offered him a developmental deal. .. TNA lost its TV in the U.K. on The Wrestling Channel effective 12/15. The channel, which is having its financial issues, offered TNA a lower priced deal for 2005, and TNA turned them down. Rick Norton on The Wrestling Channel forum said they've been unable to agree to new terms, plus had constant comments from viewers about the delayed feed (they were airing shows from months ago), and said they felt the time lag was unacceptable considering WWE is able to get its shows on Sky the week of airing.

The plan was for a heel Austin to face a face Rock at WM XVI. As part of that, the finish for Austin v Rock v Hunter at Survivor Series was Austin accidentally hitting Rock with the sledgehammer, and Hunter to pin Rock. As for Austin not wanting to put Hunter over at Summerslam, that isn't true. Austin had always agreed to put Hunter over at Summerslam. The only reason Mankind got put in the mix was because with Austin banged up, it was felt that an excellent match was unlikely, which they wanted Austin v Hunter to be, so Mankind was put in to, if you can believe it, carry the load.

Maybe SAT went into business with Feinstein so they could tag team with him.

Jeff Jarrett leaving the WWF Because Jarrett’s contract expired the day before No Mercy, he was legally under no obligation to wrestle at No Mercy, and could have simply not shown up. However, Jeff agreed to wrestle and drop the IC Title to Chyna, but only if he were paid all the monies he was owed from merchandising, etc, as well as any money he would be due from PPV payoffs, upfront. This amounted to around $250,000. Needless to say, Vince wasn’t that happy about having to do this, even though Jeff was perfectly entitled to do so. This resulted in a lot of bad blood, and saw Jeff, for all intents and purposes, fired live on air on the last Nitro. Hogan laying down for Sting: This was yet another wonderful pointless swerve from Superbooker Vince Russo, in conjunction with Hogan. The idea was that to push Hogan as being a rebel due to not being cooperative with the new hot writers in WCW, one of which just happened to be Russo. In the angle, Hogan, because he didn’t want to put Sting over, would just lie down for him, and thus not have to really put him over. Hogan would then be suspended, and later come back to feud with whomever. When the angle played out, as soon as Sting ‘pinned’ Hogan, they immediately went to a video package, to try and further the illusion that it was a shoot. In addition to that, also in order to try and make it seem legit, they never talked about it again, and when Sting came out on Nitro, explaining his match with Goldberg was non-title because he only offered to face someone to help WCW out of a jam because of having no main event, he did so without make-up, once again to try and make it seem legit. It never dawned on Russo that if nobody talks about an angle, it doesn’t register with anyone and it doesn’t get over. But, of course, Superbooker was too smart for such outdated concepts like making money Coincidentally, ratings at the time were beginning to slide, and Hogan usually pulled some kind of vanishing act at times like this, so as to avoid being associated with bad ratings. Then, after a while, Hogan would come back, cause an artificial jump in ratings, and use this to fool executives who didn’t know any better, and even some that did, that this was proof that without him people stopped caring about WCW, and thus he deserved his big salary and the top spot.

I laughed at the 'Train Lady' getting bounced all over the place. I was always disappointed whenever the video was shown on TV, because it would get frozen right at the good part.

Another reason I do not subscribe to the Observer, I do not give a fuck about international wrestling. Then subscribe to the Torch. You'd love them, as they totally ignore anything that didn't happen in America.

I wonder what picture you get if you play connect-the-dots on Joanie's ass.

Just for the record, the top story in this weeks Observer was Zero One shutting down.

God forbid he tries to educate wrestling fans on the modern history of wrestling and the people who influenced it.

Oh...god...the imagery. It's...too much.

During the Sandman v Justin Credible match on the last ECW card, Credible has Sandman in a side headlock and Sandman goes, "drop toehold, drop toehold", before shooting Credible into the ropes and taking him down with a drop toehold.

WWE can't mislabel the number of buys and never did so for Backlash No, but that didn't stop some internal gloating over the number before it was revealed as untrue.

...and the guy who proposed the second idea WAS fired. Yes, but he was fired because he want straight to Vince with ideas for midcarders, rather than going through Stephanie. True, but I didn't say he was fired for proposing the idea. I just wanted to make it clear he wasn't fired for being asshole.

...and the guy who proposed the second idea WAS fired. Yes, but he was fired because he want straight to Vince with ideas for midcarders, rather than going through Stephanie.

The only talk I head in regard to Luger and Bret facing each other, was when Luger was still planned to come out of WM X with the WWF Title, and that he'd be facing Bret at Summerslam in a face v face match. As for the Billy Gunn story, that's almost certainly false. IIRC, the actual story is that he was originally going to lose due to some sort of interference from Bossman, but he pissed someone off, and the finish was changed to him tapping out clean.

Heyman did get into a volatile argument with Brian Gewirtz around the time of the 2003 Rumble, which saw both men suspended from creative for a week. Heyman was removed as SD head writer not long after.