WWF/E Tidbits from the past

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

Now, was this thing scripted or partially scripted or was Jarrett actually told to shoot?

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

Now, was this thing scripted or partially scripted or was Jarrett actually told to shoot?

It was a worked shoot.

[BUTT 0]

The drug addict Jarret was talking about was Road Dogg.

Are you sure? I got the feeling he was talking about Scott Hall. I don't think WWF would have been very happy with Jarrett referring to a guy who was currently working for them like that.

[The Czech Republic 0]

Jeff Jarrett had really cool tights in 1997-98.

[Human Fly 0]

What was the reason for Austin feuding with Owen after Canadian Stampede? (I know the storyline reason) At the time it seemed to me that it was a step down for Austin and he should have been in Main Events every month at this point.

 

What would have happened if he had not been injured?

 

My apologies if this has been covered.

[Guest MikeSC]

You know what's ironic? He's STILL using the country singer schtick he claimed he hated.

 

It's the only explanation for him still having a guitar.

-=Mike

[Guest Arnold_OldSchool]

Any tryth to the rumor that Rock was to turn heel in oct/nov of 02

 

and when he refused his match vs Rikishi was placed low on the card as SSeries?

[Guest Arnold_OldSchool]

Now, was this thing scripted or partially scripted or was Jarrett actually told to shoot?

That angle also included an angle I liked where Jarrett refused to wrestle Crush because his "catered meal" he was promised in his new WWF contract was served to him on a cafeteria style plate.

 

Crush was attacked by Kane to finish the segment IIRC

[Guest Arnold_OldSchool]

The Legion of Doom defeated Crush & Judas (sub. for Savio Vega) when Judas was pinned; Ken Shamrock was the special referee

 

 

June 97...... Judas?!??!?!?

[Guest Arnold_OldSchool]

Now, was this thing scripted or partially scripted or was Jarrett actually told to shoot?

That angle also included an angle I liked where Jarrett refused to wrestle Crush because his "catered meal" he was promised in his new WWF contract was served to him on a cafeteria style plate.

 

Crush was attacked by Kane to finish the segment IIRC

WWF @ Fayetteville, NC - Cumberland County Center - November 24, 1997 (8,074; sell out)

Crush defeated Jeff Jarrett via forfeit when Jarrett refused to come ringside to wrestle; moments thereafter, Kane came to the ring and the DOA held Crush back from getting involved in a brawl; Kane eventually hit a chokeslam on Gerald Brisco

[cawthon777 0]

Any tryth to the rumor that Rock was to turn heel in oct/nov of 02

 

and when he refused his match vs Rikishi was placed low on the card as SSeries?

I think you're about 2 years off there. Rock / Rikishi was Survivor Series 2000.

 

I haven't heard anything about him turning heel. If it's true, that's a dumb idea because turning him heel at that time would have left only Austin and Taker as the top babyfaces in the company.

[Lt. Al Giardello 0]

So they must have had SOME plans for Hogan as a heel post-Mania that got changed...

 

Maybe still HHH vs. Hogan?

Actually, they were planning Evil Taker Vs. HHH after Wrestlemania 18, but that idea was scrapped after the popularity of Hogan. They had to capitalize on it.

[Slickster 0]

Something was SCRATCHED due to the Owen death?

 

You mean something was worse than Vince being carted out on an ambulance AFTER Owen died?

 

The mind boggles.

-=Mike

According to 'Sex, Lies, and Headlocks," the Vince McMahon segment had just been taped as the Owen incident occurred, leading them to try and get the ambulance back to the arena ASAP.

 

As we saw Vince getting loaded into the ambulance on the PPV telecast, in real life Owen was fading away inside the same ambulance.

[Jericholic82 0]

What was the reason for Austin feuding with Owen after Candaian Stampede? (I know the storyline reason) At the time it seemed to me that it was a step down for Austin and he should have been in Main Events every month at this point.

 

What would have happened if he had not been injured?

 

My apologies if this has been covered.

I would assume it was so he could get the ic title. Bret was wining the wwf title that night and austin would not be facing him until mania (allegedly) so it made sense to have austin win the ic title which could occupy him until the new year.

I dont really know though

[Guest Arnold_OldSchool]

Any tryth to the rumor that Rock was to turn heel in oct/nov of 02

 

and when he refused his match vs Rikishi was placed low on the card as SSeries?

I think you're about 2 years off there. Rock / Rikishi was Survivor Series 2000.

 

I haven't heard anything about him turning heel. If it's true, that's a dumb idea because turning him heel at that time would have left only Austin and Taker as the top babyfaces in the company.

GOD!! I've been confusing myself so bad by watching my Taker tapes out of order.....

 

I watched Taker/Angle and thought...well that can't be only a year after Kurt debeuted....

 

good lord i watched this stuff LIVE!

 

AUGH!

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

The drug addict Jarret was talking about was Road Dogg.

Are you sure? I got the feeling he was talking about Scott Hall. I don't think WWF would have been very happy with Jarrett referring to a guy who was currently working for them like that.

I just watched the interview again, and Hall does seem more likely, but his description could easily have fit Dogg as well.

 

Watching the interview, one thing stood out. It's the only time I've seen someone get booed in a WWF ring for ripping into Eric Bischoff and WCW. Think about that one. Jarrett knocked the evil enemy, Eric Bischoff and WCW, and he still got booed.

[Some Guy 0]

What was the reason for Austin feuding with Owen after Candaian Stampede? (I know the storyline reason) At the time it seemed to me that it was a step down for Austin and he should have been in Main Events every month at this point.

 

What would have happened if he had not been injured?

 

My apologies if this has been covered.

I think they wanted Austin to win the belt at WM 14 and needed to do something to get him more over and keep him visible so they had Owen roll him up at Canadian Stampede and put Austin in a feud with Owen who was the IC champ. Austin/Bret had been done to death and Austin/Shawn wasn't really possible becaues Shawn had quit at the time and was unreliable to say the least anyway. Owen just made the most sense for him. It was a slight step down the card for Austin but he was over enough that he was bringing everything up to his level. That's my theory. I'd be that HTQ could shed more light on it.

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

What was the reason for Austin feuding with Owen after Candaian Stampede? (I know the storyline reason) At the time it seemed to me that it was a step down for Austin and he should have been in Main Events every month at this point.

 

What would have happened if he had not been injured?

 

My apologies if this has been covered.

I think they wanted Austin to win the belt at WM 14 and needed to do something to get him more over and keep him visible so they had Owen roll him up at Canadian Stampede and put Austin in a feud with Owen who was the IC champ. Austin/Bret had been done to death and Austin/Shawn wasn't really possible becaues Shawn had quit at the time and was unreliable to say the least anyway. Owen just made the most sense for him. It was a slight step down the card for Austin but he was over enough that he was bringing everything up to his level. That's my theory. I'd be that HTQ could shed more light on it.

That's pretty much correct. The long term plan was for Austin to win the WWF Title at WM 14, and they couldn't start building towards it at that point, because Undertaker was still champion. As SG said, Austin v HBK wasn't possible, both because Shawn was a headache to deal with when it came to elevating people and they probably even then had plans for Shawn to feud with Undertaker, even though Shawn was gone at the time; Vince knew Shawn would return at some point, willingly or not, because Shawn was locked into a long term contract and wasn't able to leave. Austin v Owen made sense coming off of Owen pinning Austin at Canadian Stampede, and it also played into the Austin v Bret feud, because they could use Austin's IC Title win to, eventually, segue back into his feud with Bret, and climax it with his winning the WWF Title at Wrestlemania 14.

[Lil' Bitch 0]

Is it true HHH was supposed to job the Undisputed Championship to the Undertaker at Backlash in 2002 originally?

[Slickster 0]

I think so, since Taker-HHH was announced as the main event on week 1 of the brand split. Then they decided against it and explained it away by saying that the person who got to draft first also got to pick the #1 contender for Backlash. SmackDown! won the first draft pick, so Vince got to choose first.

 

Of course, this would have worked had they explained that part of the stipulation BEFORE the draft or had even mentioned it before Flair picked Taker to face HHH.

 

Instead, they added this stipulation into the storyline retroactively.

[JoeDirt 0]

I saw this old Wrestling Observer for sale on Ebay and in its description it said this:

 

"A very historic issue!.

 

Dave's battle with the WWF. This is a review of something that happened between Dave Meltzer and the WWE in 1987 that Dave had not published until this issue.

 

This issue was dedicated to a few people but one of the dedications was:

 

"To Frank Goodish (Bruiser Brody) who if he were alive today, would have a big smile on his face in around 15 minutes."

 

The issue contains numerous letters by Dave, by WWE staff and others revolving around a touchy subject

 

10 pages well worth the price."

 

So what was this all about?

[strummer 0]

I'm pretty sure it was probably either about steroids or the sex scandals, not sure though. Meltzer has stated that he was public enemy # 1 for the WWF in the 80s. Dave hated the direction wrestling was going (well the way the WWF was going) with the cartoonish booking and big muscleheads on top, but he sort of mellowed out by the early/mid 90s. The Observers that I've seen from the early/mid 80s are VERY anti-WWF and I can see why the company had a problem with him

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

It had something to do with Jake Roberts. I can't rememebr what exactly, though I can check the issue itself later, but it had do with an incident that Roberts was involved in. Dave was going to print the story, but he got a call from someone in the WWF, and they asked him not to print the story; I can't remember their exact argument against printing the story, but whatever it was, after hearing it, Dave gave it some thought, and decided not to print the story.

 

When Brody heard what had happened, he wrote to Dave, and basically told him flat out that he did was wrong to not print the story, as it's his job to print what goes on in wrestling, both good and bad, and he took Dave to task for going along with the WWF's wishes. Brody wasn't malicious about it, as I think he actually liked Dave. He just felt disappointed that Dave had, in his eyes, caved in.

[strummer 0]

HTQ, when did Meltzer go from "Public enemy # 1" to "Ok, let's deal with this guy" in the WWF. Trying to figure out Meltzer's code is tough, but it seemed like he and the company had real big problems in the 80s, but like I said they sort of died off in about 94 or so. Any idea what happened?

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

HTQ, when did Meltzer go from "Public enemy # 1" to "Ok, let's deal with this guy" in the WWF. Trying to figure out Meltzer's code is tough, but it seemed like he and the company had real big problems in the 80s, but like I said they sort of died off in about 94 or so. Any idea what happened?

I don't think WWE have ever seen Meltzer in what could be called a friendly light. I think what changed the level of their dislike of Meltzer was when they were on a big downward slide, and they were looking to just about anything to get some idea of what to do to turn things around. At that point, they'd entertain ideas from just about anyone, including someone who they don't really like.

[JoeDirt 0]

HTQ, when did Meltzer go from "Public enemy # 1" to "Ok, let's deal with this guy" in the WWF.  Trying to figure out Meltzer's code is tough, but it seemed like he and the company had real big problems in the 80s, but like I said they sort of died off in about 94 or so.  Any idea what happened?

I don't think WWE have ever seen Meltzer in what could be called a friendly light. I think what changed the level of their dislike of Meltzer was when they were on a big downward slide, and they were looking to just about anything to get some idea of what to do to turn things around. At that point, they'd entertain ideas from just about anyone, including someone who they don't really like.

So the rumor that Meltzer was unofficially on WWF payroll as a consultant in the past is false?

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

HTQ, when did Meltzer go from "Public enemy # 1" to "Ok, let's deal with this guy" in the WWF.  Trying to figure out Meltzer's code is tough, but it seemed like he and the company had real big problems in the 80s, but like I said they sort of died off in about 94 or so.  Any idea what happened?

I don't think WWE have ever seen Meltzer in what could be called a friendly light. I think what changed the level of their dislike of Meltzer was when they were on a big downward slide, and they were looking to just about anything to get some idea of what to do to turn things around. At that point, they'd entertain ideas from just about anyone, including someone who they don't really like.

So the rumor that Meltzer was unofficially on WWF payroll as a consultant in the past is false?

I don't believe he was ever on their payroll, though I'm pretty sure he got some kind of offer, but I can't remember the specifics. You could always e-mail Dave about this one.

[The C Man 0]

Back to the Jarrett subject for a moment, but does anyone else think he could have got over as Vince McMahon's 'Chosen One'. I think after he lost the hair-vs-hair match with X-Pac they could have kept him off TV for a while and then brought him back with his changed look, and as a McMahon allay. And that could've easily let to a Jarrett/Austin feud.

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

Unless Vince pushed for it, Austin wouldn't feud with Jarrett, and I don't see Jarrett as someone Vince would be willing to take heat with Austin for.

[Guest Shadow]

HTQ, when did Meltzer go from "Public enemy # 1" to "Ok, let's deal with this guy" in the WWF.  Trying to figure out Meltzer's code is tough, but it seemed like he and the company had real big problems in the 80s, but like I said they sort of died off in about 94 or so.  Any idea what happened?

I don't think WWE have ever seen Meltzer in what could be called a friendly light. I think what changed the level of their dislike of Meltzer was when they were on a big downward slide, and they were looking to just about anything to get some idea of what to do to turn things around. At that point, they'd entertain ideas from just about anyone, including someone who they don't really like.

So the rumor that Meltzer was unofficially on WWF payroll as a consultant in the past is false?

I don't believe he was ever on their payroll, though I'm pretty sure he got some kind of offer, but I can't remember the specifics. You could always e-mail Dave about this one.

Didn't Vince personally call Dave up and asked for his opinion on how to run the invasion(which felt was a good idea he gave vince) and then Vince did precisely the opposite?