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

by Dave Meltzer

  With Michaels out of commission, house shows over the weekend, originally scheduled as Bret Hart & Sid vs. Austin & Michaels main events, changed first to triangle matches with Michaels removed, and then changed again with an injury to Ahmed Johnson, to double mains with Sid vs. Faarooq and the same Final Four with Bret, Undertaker, Vader and Austin that would be on the PPV show on Sunday, giving the wrestlers two try-out matches to get out the kinks. Major house show main events when the group returns from the European tour which starts this week are going to be triangles with Bret Hart, Sid and Austin. With most of the big names gone to Europe, there will be a skeleton crew for the live show at the Manhattan Center, and they are going all out for shocks and surprises for that show.

  Exactly what is the true story involving Michaels is anyone’s guess. There is no doubt there was a knee injury. Anyone who does what Michaels does is going to wind up with knee damage. Obviously there are serious problems that were a lot more important to address than any knee problems. Just because someone appears on the surface to outsiders to lead a charmed life, in that they have money, looks, ability and can entertain outsiders and are admired and even worshiped by people who don’t know them, doesn’t mean that on the inside they are any less immune to the same problems that face each of us. A broken heart and broken dreams don’t hurt any less if you have a million dollars in the bank or nothing in the bank, or if you have people clamoring for your autograph or blowing smoke up your ass. In fact, if anything, in Michaels position, he’s a lot more susceptible because he was put under a microscope and put in a pressure cooker position.

  You have the illogic from a professional standpoint in his mind that he may be unable to come to grips with. He rose to the top in his profession by doing things a certain way. All the people riding the bandwagon with them on the road up there, many suddenly turn against him and point out his flaws for doing exactly the same thing he did to make it to the top, once he’s under the microscope.

  Despite performing in good matches most nights and great matches on the big shows, and more importantly from the top man position, house show business with him as the key draw and headliner being the best in years—everything he dreamed about being important on paper was going exactly according to plan, suddenly everyone focused on TV ratings and suddenly he was a failure as champion. He was the standard bearer, the quarterback of sorts, on a team that people wrote was on a 33-game losing streak, going downhill fast, despite it really being the most successful it had been in years.

  And being a perfectionist to his craft in an imperfect world where others make mistakes often, his immaturity showed, particularly when his big buddies left him. If anything, it made the injuries, and the injuries on the inside that are a lot more painful than back and knee hurts, hurt that much worse. And his starting QB position was going to be being taken away either by the former starter who walked out making it somewhat public he was waiting for his rival to self destruct, and came back in with the biggest money offer in company history looking like the wisest clairvoyant in the 20th century; or by someone who couldn’t lace his boots but whom fans chanted for while he did the most important and closest to real interview of his life, a cry for help that some people may have understood, but that the fans for the most part thought and the promotion treated as being just business as usual.

  And maybe his problems had little or nothing to do with the profession that he called his entire life. Maybe it was the fact at 31, he stepped back and realized outside the profession he didn’t have a life, which is awfully scary. Maybe it was simply he needed time off to get his house in order, and maybe simply because he was setting up a new home in San Antonio and there’s stress moving and all this was to get time away from work to move everything in. Or all of the above. Or none of the above. Maybe his best friends know and are disappointed he isn’t getting the help they think he needs. Maybe they don’t.

  The last word appeared to be Michaels returning in a non-wrestling role at Mania, probably to do an angle to lead to his in-ring return, and then he’d work some major shows over the summer before going full-time in the fall, ironically not all that different than the original plans Bret Hart made after he had to drop the title.

  Rumors will flourish, most of which won’t be true and some of which will. The fact WWF after the fact played it up for all it was worth turned it into just another fake-shoot wrestling angle. Michaels has been in them before. The irony was just last year, the last time they played this game and teased Michaels never wrestling again, set him up for the biggest run of his career. Perhaps he forgot, or hoped people wouldn’t remember that when he talked in the interview about a doctor telling him he may not be able to wrestle again for the first time in his life, that it may have been the first time a doctor actually said that to him, but it wasn’t the first time that story had been told about him.

  It was the third time Michaels hadn’t lost a WWF belt in the ring. In September of 1993, he walked out as IC champion, only to return a short time later. In October of 1995, after being mugged, he wasn’t able to return in time for a PPV show and gave back the IC title.

  MARCH 3

  The story on Shawn Michaels at press time appears to be that it is becoming more acknowledged within the WWF that more likely than not his leaving had to do with being burned out from all the travel and pressure and needing a break, combined with the timing of having to put over Sid for the WWF title on the 2/13 special and knowing he was going to follow it up in his next high-profile match having to put Bret Hart over at WrestleMania. Michaels saw how Hart improved his stock by walking out last year and that may have affected the decision, combined with the fact he’s good friends with Kevin Nash, Scott Hall and Sean Waltman, all of whom appear to be very smart in handling their personal business and using whatever leverage at the right time to make the right moves.

  While there is little doubt there was sincerity in his now-famous interview, it was also a clever business maneuver to build himself into a major sympathetic character to build interest in his eventual return. The WWF continued on that same path with attempts at touching music videos this week regarding Michaels. By leaving before doing the job and giving that interview, Michaels made himself the man of the hour in a positive way, plus both avoided losing the title in the ring and put off the inevitable favor for his legitimate rival.

  There is little dispute that he had a knee injury but the belief is that it was something he could have continued to work on had he wanted to, although it was bad enough that any doctor would have recommended taking time off and this was the opportune time.

  While it was reported here last week that the expectation is for Michaels to return in a non-wrestling role at WrestleMania, the last word we’ve received is that at present there are no plans for Michaels to appear on the show, although that could change at any time.

  It has been confirmed that Michaels is not in any kind of rehab, other than for his knee, despite rumors within the business to the contrary. Friends of his have also said that in the ten days since walking away and being away from the pressure, he’s found that lost smile he talked about.

  Michaels has five years left on a lucrative contract with the WWF and the idea of him going to WCW is at best remote because it would require the WWF releasing him from the deal. We’ve had it confirmed that Michaels did show up at the Continental Arena in East Rutherford, NJ on 2/9—three days before telling the WWF about his knee injury and that he was giving back the title since his doctor said he couldn’t work the title change match with Sid or do an angle. However, it is also said that as far as there being any kind of serious heat for doing so has been blown way out of proportion in that he did do it but that nobody considered it as either important or a warning sign of anything.

  5 – WWF vs. ECW vs. USWA

  FEBRUARY 24

  Several people were sent to the USWA this week by WWF. Sunny did color commentary on the television to work with Lance Russell and began a feud with King Reginald
’s Queen Nikki. WWF sent in a team called The Truth Commission who are doing a gimmick that they are from South Africa. They are trying out the gimmick here first. The team consists of Barry Buchanan, formerly The Punisher in SMW and Sunset Sam McGraw in Georgia; and Mike Halac, formerly Mantaur in the WWF and Bruiser Mastino in Europe. They have a manager who is actually from South Africa who is an actor from that country who is friends with Bret Hart that Hart worked with in doing the television series “Sinbad.” Brooklyn Brawler was also at television, and Doug Gilbert returned to a big babyface pop saying he’s coming in to get rid of the Nation of Domination and team with Brian Christopher. Gilbert had been working opposition shows in Louisville for Ian Rotten. Ken Wayne was also at television looking really heavy.

  MARCH 3

  In yet another of the weekly versions of the most important Monday night in history, WWF threw shock after shock—the debut of ECW wrestlers, the debut of Ken Shamrock, the return of the Road Warriors and the return to the Manhattan Center in an attempt to reverse its ratings woes. WCW countered by coming one day after a PPV headlined by Hulk Hogan vs. Roddy Piper.

  The result on 2/24 was a slight closing of the gap from the previous week but still a victory for WCW Nitro, doing a 2.97 rating and 4.50 share to Monday Night Raw’s 2.43 rating and 3.56 share. On 2/17, the first live head-to-head two-hour week, Nitro did a 2.96 rating and 4.40 share to Raw’s 2.08 rating and 3.03 share. However, the live two-hour Raw is producing an effect for the later night USA programming, as on 2/24, La Femme Nikita did a 2.4 to Robin Hood’s 1.6, and the previous week La Femme won 1.7 to 1.0. Robin Hood had been winning that race handily before Raw went to two hours.

  While the consensus was that WWF on 2/17 had one of its best Raws in a long-time, clearly winning the quality battle over a fairly good Nitro, on 2/24 the roles in that regard were definitely in reverse. There is a strong argument that the overall ratings of a show in regard to going up and down from week-to-week are largely determined by the quality of the show the previous week as opposed to the current week. However, the quarter-by-quarter breakdowns show changes that are indicative of viewership patterns and likes and dislikes about the individual show.

  That being said, 2/17 was really strange. WCW held a 2.5 to 2.2 lead off the blocks with Rey Misterio Jr. vs. Super Calo opposing the first tease of the Bret Hart vs. Sid title match. WCW maintained the lead throughout. With a weaker show, WCW’s numbers steadily increased as the show went on, while WWF’s declined most of the way. At the start of the second hour, when WCW had Nick Patrick vs. Randy Anderson and Chris Benoit vs. Roadblock opposing the second tease of Hart vs. Sid, WCW held a shocking 3.2 to 1.9 lead. Clearly the idea of teasing the match throughout the show was a ratings negative once they did it the second time because ratings sputtered for the remainder of the second hour until Hart and Sid finally got into the ring and started their match. The Bret Hart vs. Sid match itself did pick the rating to a 2.4, still trailing WCW’s 3.0 for a Giant handicap match and Lex Luger/Eric Bischoff angle.

  On 2/24, despite or maybe because of all the surprises on WWF, depending on your point of view, Nitro had the far superior show. The so-called legendary atmosphere of the Manhattan Center turned into a romantic myth that couldn’t hold up to its fantasy as WCW had far more enthusiasm in Sacramento, not to mention the smaller Manhattan Center looked bush league from a television standpoint in comparison. The Manhattan Center reacted well to ECW, but died for the WWF matches, making the show almost come off like someone playing a practical joke on the WWF.

  McMahon, noticeably exhausted and for good reason, reacted like he recognized things were going badly. Nevertheless, even though WWF lost even with the advantage of coming from New York and the Internet hype on ECW, the scariest thing of all for WWF is that the ratings were slightly stronger during the ECW segments. While the three ECW segments drew a 2.5 average against Nitro’s 2.9, the first segment with ECW, with WWF’s Raw having the Stevie Richards/BWO show against Nitro’s deadly double of Jim Duggan vs. Galaxy and Hugh Morrus vs. Joe Gomez saw Raw ahead 2.7 to 2.6. But at that point, Raw went down slightly and Nitro went up. With Taz vs. Mikey Whipwreck opposing Faces of Fear vs. Eddie Guerrero & Chris Jericho, Nitro led 2.9 to 2.5. With Tommy Dreamer vs. D-Von Dudley opposing Dean Malenko vs. Ultimo Dragon, the gap increased to 3.1 to 2.3. Nitro peaked at a 3.4 for the final segment with the Luger/Bischoff confrontation, while Raw never again reached the 2.7 mark it had when the BWO came out.

  Even though the ECW segments didn’t play well on WWF television, they blew away what the WWF offered with most of its big names in Germany. WWF had a poorly designed 11:00 long Road Warriors debut that saw them do a double count out with Head Bangers (at the same time WCW presented Rey Misterio Jr. vs. Juventud Guerrera and held a 3.1 to 2.5 lead); a dull Savio Vega vs. Goldust match which debuted Miguel Perez doing a run-in to feud with Vega; and a negative star Undertaker vs. Faarooq match.

  But there is no question the appearance, even if it was a letdown in many ways, was a positive for ECW in that more people saw the product than ever before and they were allowed to plug their PPV. It is both amazing and mind-boggling to see a television show four weeks before WrestleMania have more hype for a supposed rival promotion’s PPV than for their own biggest show of the year.

  Still, ECW came off as a minor league promotion on big-time television since Vince McMahon didn’t even know who the wrestlers are and when the fan at home sees that arguably the most powerful man in the industry and the voice they recognize in wrestling doesn’t even know or seem to much care about these guys, how important can they be?

  The positive of the segment was the work of Jerry Lawler, who as the heel foil to Paul Heyman, was nothing short of phenomenal in his knocks of the product as a heel putting it over. The irony is that Lawler truly does hate Heyman and ECW but as a pro put his job in front of his personal feelings. He also made it if he and Heyman worked it out, if he worked for ECW, he’d go in as the hottest heel the promotion has ever had.

  The plan going in was for the ECW wrestlers to return on the 3/10 Raw from Worcester, MA, but after this first appearance, the consensus of Tuesday morning quarterbacks in the industry seems to be WWF would be better off pulling the plug now because it’s a bad mix. For ECW, it’s pretty much a no lose proposition at this point.

  Raw on 2/24 from Manhattan Center drew a sellout 1,000 paying $13,000 as Blackjacks beat Godwinns in 5:50 when Windham pinned Phineas in a DUD match. Phineas had his leg under the ropes and after the match, Henry slopped the ref who took a few pratfalls outside the ring. Eliminators did the total elimination on a non-wrestler to a big pop. Stevie Richards beat Little Guido in 3:39 of a good squash match. Raven showed up. McMahon called him Stevie Ray and Paul Heyman said that McMahon needs to watch the tapes Bruce Prichard puts on his desk every Monday morning. Marlena beat Sunny via DQ in arm wrestling when Sunny threw powder in her eyes. Savio Vega came out to threaten Marlena and Goldust hit the ring and they started their match, which went 11:45 ending in a DQ when Crush interfered. Miguel Perez, who was doing color, made the save. Bad match. Taz beat Mikey Whipwreck in 3:33 with the choke. During the match Sabu dove off the R on Raw onto the members of Team Taz. Taz looked really short in that big ring. Road Warriors double count out Head Bangers in 10:53. Bangers carried it so it wasn’t that bad, but it was a terrible debut having Warriors last that long. They did the double impact on Thrasher after the match. Tommy Dreamer pinned D-Von Dudley after a DDT on a chair in 4:25. They used the frying pans and chairs but it was pretty bad. McMahon as an announcer blew off some of their object spots and never acknowledged when Beulah gave D-Von a low blow. After Buh Buh ran in, Sandman made a save with some chair shots and smashed a beer can on his forehead and juiced. Apparently McMahon didn’t want the cane being used. They took the camera off the blood almost immediately. Undertaker beat Faarooq via DQ in 14:00 of a -*1/2 match. Just awful. DQ finish when Vega and Crush ran in, and Warriors made the save.

  MARCH 3 />
  There was real heat on the 2/17 Raw between Paul Heyman and Jerry Lawler when Heyman brought up the neighborhood watch program, alluding to Lawler’s legal problems a few years back and Lawler shot back about cracking his jaw—which he did with a punch in Haiti, MO in 1987 when Heyman was a rookie. Although both sounded like they hated each other on 2/24 and both probably meant the majority of what they said, everything on that show was worked out beforehand as WWF talked with Heyman on 2/20 about what he couldn’t say about Lawler on the air and that the two were to act professional with each other.

  MARCH 10

  The ECW angle was continued with separate phone calls with Jerry Lawler and Paul Heyman and to the surprise of many, including Heyman himself, ECW will be on the live Raw as originally scheduled on 3/10 in Worcester, MA. This will no doubt lead to even more speculation as to why this is happening so close to a WrestleMania that needs all the help it can and that won’t at this point have any ECW involvement.

  While the ECW segments drew slightly better overall than the WWF segments on the 2/24 Raw when it came to ratings (actually it was only the Stevie Richards BWO segment that did any better), the overall consensus was it was among the worst Raw shows ever from a technical standpoint and something of a disaster from the WWF end. There was a lot of talk after the show that while any exposure was a plus for ECW, the mix was not beneficial to WWF and the plans for 3/10 would be pulled.

  Bret Hart, who has long hated ECW, ripped on them in his column in the Calgary Sun and it’s no secret that Jerry Lawler’s line on Raw about a lot of the WWF wrestlers being mad at the association was a shoot although at the 2/24 Raw there was no sign of problems by anyone and even Jim Cornette and Heyman grudgingly shook hands. Even Heyman himself wasn’t sure of whether or not his crew would be invited back until the afternoon of 3/3 when he was asked to phone in on Raw to hype being there for next week. WWF did hype the ECW wrestlers on most of its weekend programming and put together an excellent video package for Raw, completed with digitized footage of the violence, that Heyman himself couldn’t have done a better job of to get his company over as something different.