Night 1:

• Dave takes one last look at business numbers from the year 2000. Overall WWF attendance dropped 4.6% but due to ticket price increases, they still made 15% more money-per-show than the year before. They also had 10% less sellouts. PPV buyrates were up 7%. Raw ratings were down 3%. This is actually worse than it sounds because the second hour of Raw was unopposed all year because Nitro dropped their third hour back in January, so in theory, the average number should have gone up, not down. But even facing less competition from WCW, the numbers were lower.
  
• Speaking of WCW, their business numbers are just about as horrible as you can imagine. Attendance was down 51% from 1999 (and 1999's attendance was down 46% from 1998, just to show how bad the last two years have been). Live gate numbers were also down 51%. Nitro ratings were down 27% and much like Raw, this is actually worse than it sounds. Because Nitro dropped the third hour, that should have helped the average. But nope. Down 27%. If Nitro still had the third hour, that percentage would have been an even bigger drop. PPV buyrates, which is the company's biggest revenue stream, dropped 69% (nice). All in all, it's easy to see how WCW lost so much money. Cutting the third hour of Nitro led to a big loss of advertising revenue. Lost ratings, lost house show business, low attendance numbers, and a damn near 70% drop in their main source of income.....it's not hard to see how they lost $65 million last year. But hey, Vince Russo's a genius.
  
• AJPW has obviously struggled and Dave compares their numbers for before and after the NOAH debacle. They suffered only a 9% attendance decrease after the NOAH split, which is actually pretty miraculous, all things considered. TV ratings and all that stuff are hard to figure since they lost their TV deal after the split. And on the NJPW side, house show business is down 3%, sellout percentage dropped 8%, TV ratings are up 6%, etc. Nothing too notable for them.
  
• Bad, baaaad news for the XFL. The second week ratings suffered such a massive drop from week 1 that people are already writing the new football league off as a failure. The NBC game was also an embarrassing show that ran 45 minutes long due to a problem with the generator taking them off the air and the game going into double-overtime, causing all sorts of schedule issues. The late game forced the heavily-hyped episode of Saturday Night Live, featuring Jennifer Lopez, to be pushed back until after midnight and causing it to have its lowest rating of the year, reportedly infuriating SNL executive producer Lorne Michaels. Last week's NBC game was the #1 network broadcast in all of prime time. Week 2's game was in dead last place. Same thing for the games on UPN and TNN, and in fact, the game on TNN barely did better than RollerJam's debut. Basically, the ratings this week could not have been worse. The ratings have already forced NBC execs to come out and assure sponsors that they still support the XFL and are committed to sticking with it for the full season. But Dave says that's scary because they have a 3-season commitment and now NBC isn't talking beyond the next 11 weeks. There's also been a ton of criticism over the announcing, the quality of play, etc. and in the media, the XFL is already being treated as a laughingstock.
  
• The embarrassing presentation started early. During the game, they talked about one of the Los Angeles players having a wife who was pregnant and 5 days overdue but was at the game. Then they cut to a scene with Stephanie McMahon standing near a helicopter, ready to whisk away the wife to the hospital if she goes into labor, and teased that it might happen during the game as a way to keep viewers tuned in. Turns out the real wife wasn't actually there, the woman they showed was an actress, and it was just the type of dumb gimmicky bullshit that everyone was afraid McMahon would resort to. Then there was the generator blow out which forced them to cut over to another game for over 30 minutes while they got back on the air on NBC. There was also an 11-minute delay when one of the players ended up breaking his leg. During the Memphis game, the Kat stripped down to a bikini on the sidelines. On all the games, the commentary was constantly trashing the NFL, while every single second of the XFL came across like low-budget NFL amateur hour.
  
• So can it be saved? Dave doesn't know. The huge first week ratings were drawn by hype, mostly wrestling fans waiting to see what Vince McMahon was offering. But the first week didn't give wrestling fans the "extreme" wrestling-type product they wanted, and the football wasn't good enough to keep football fans. So by week 2, they lost both audiences in droves. Dave expects Vince to do as Vince does and start trying to turn it into a gimmicky wrestling show, but who knows if that will succeed. Dave doesn't have high hopes. If ratings continue to plummet from here, they're in serious trouble and Vince McMahon doesn't like to fail. But Dave is having a hard time seeing how the XFL can recover from this (yeah, this was pretty much it. XFL finishes out the season, but by week 2, they were already dead in the water).
  
• Eric Bischoff's proposed plan to shut down WCW for 3 weeks following the SuperBrawl PPV was nixed by Time Warner due to commitments already made to advertisers. WCW already has problems with advertisers due to the horrible ratings and the Time Warner execs didn't want to compound it by cancelling weeks of Nitro and Thunder episodes to which advertising had already been sold. There was supposed to be a big angle to take place at SuperBrawl to explain the company shutting down, but as of press time, that's been nixed also. For now, the shut down plan has been pushed back to either late-March or early-April. Right now, a lot of stuff is in flux until Time Warner and Bischoff's Fusient Media team finalize the sale, which isn't done yet. The sale is in the final stages and Fusient is meeting with Time Warner execs this week. They hope to have the sale finalized by the end of February though there's been talk that it may take longer. When the company shuts down and returns, Goldberg was expected to play a major role. But he just had shoulder surgery this week which was expected to be minor, but when they got in there, they found out it was worse than expected and now he's not expected to be return to the ring until at least May. Bischoff was in Los Angeles this week looking for new writers and producers to help run the new WCW.
  
• Bischoff appeared on the Observer Live show this week (but wait, I thought Bischoff always hated Dave Meltzer and never talked to him back then?) and spoke about going to Japan soon to negotiate with bringing in more NJPW stars to his new rebooted WCW. When asked about the decision last week to have Scott Steiner squash 4 of the hottest young stars in the company (Jung Dragons, Knoble, and Karagis), Bischoff admitted it was done poorly and didn't help anybody. Bischoff also talked about creating a cruiserweight tag team title soon.
  
• Riki Choshu worked a few NJPW house shows this week, on almost no-notice. So he's clearly coming out of retirement and the idea is for him to work a limited schedule, mostly just to help pop ticket sales when they're going to a city with low turnout. Antonio Inoki is heavily involved in booking NJPW now and he sees big money in NJPW wrestlers going against his own roster of "shoot" fighters, in sort of an outsiders-invading-the-company angle. The long-term idea is to help get Manabu Nakanishi over as the new top guy in NJPW because they see him as the guy with the most potential (never quite works out that way).
  
• Shinya Hashimoto announced the debut show for his Zero-One promotion next month, which will be headlined by himself and a mystery partner from NJPW taking on NOAH's Misawa and Akiyama. It'll be interesting to see who Hashimoto's partner is, since he hyped it up as a huge name from NJPW that would surprise people (it ends up being Yuji Nagata).
  
• Over in Arsion, the women's promotion in Japan, top star and manager of the company Aja Kong abruptly quit during a show due to business issues with the company's president. Dave isn't sure if this is an angle or not (not an angle. This was the downturn of Arsion and they'd be out of business less than 2 years later).
  
• In strange news, it's being reported that Hikaru Shinohara will make her pro wrestling debut in April. Who is that, you ask? Hikaru Shinohara is the daughter of Katsuji Murata, who is better known as the Yakuza gang member that fatally stabbed Rikidozan in 1963. She's been wanting to become a wrestler since high school, but her father always forbid it (I don't see much of her in pro wrestling, but she did get into MMA and has a 6-8 record).
  
• A Tunisian soccer player named Chokri El Ouaer was suspended for a year from playing after faking an injury. During a stoppage during a game due to some unruly fans, Ouaer rushed out to the field with blood streaming down his face, claiming he was injured by a bottle thrown by a fan. But turns out it wasn't true, because Ouaer actually bladed! Turns out his team was on the verge of losing the game and with chaos broke out in the crowd, he decided to pull a blade job in order to hopefully get the game cancelled. Didn't work. They saw him doing it and the game continued, they lost, and he's now been suspended. First rule of blading: don't let them see you do it.
  
• This is the first issue of the Observer since the early 90s that doesn't have an ECW section :(
  
• AJ Styles and Air Paris made their in-ring TV debuts at the latest Thunder tapings, losing to Knoble and Karagis in what was said to be a really good match. AJ Styles having a good match? I can't possibly imagine (they only have 3 more matches in WCW before it folds).
  
• WCW is attempting to get the racial discrimination lawsuit from Sonny Onoo thrown out and the judge will rule on it sometime this week. The key piece of evidence in the case is Vince Russo's 1999 interview where he talked about being an American and saying he doesn't want to see Japanese or Mexican wrestlers on TV and they'll never get over in the U.S. (I don't believe the case gets thrown out yet and in fact, I think it drags on for a long time after WCW is dead before it's finally settled).
  
• For the first time, in the WCW demographic breakdown, less than 10% of Nitro's viewers last week were under the age of 17. Needless to say, that's not a strong sign for the future and shows that among teen and kid viewers, WCW is basically non-existent. Normally, the average Nitro viewer age is 34-35 but with teen and kid demographic disappearing, the average WCW viewer is now 39 years old, which is traditionally very old for pro wrestling on TV.
  
• WCW looks to be offering Steve Corino a contract and are also going to give Simon Diamond a tryout. There doesn't appear to be any interest in Dawn Marie, since WCW has already cut almost all the women in the company.
  
• Don't expect to see Dusty Rhodes back anytime soon, despite the huge pop and TV rating he drew last week. Bischoff said he feels Dusty can still be used effectively on TV 2-3 times a year for a nostalgia pop but has no plans to do anything more than that with him. His appearance last week was only meant to help get Dustin over (he'll be wrestling on PPV within a month).
  
• Remember a month or so ago when Vampiro went on the Observer Live show and talked about how he was no longer with WCW and talked a bunch of shit about the company? Funny story. He is still with WCW and is still on the payroll. Whoops. And as a result of that interview, he was fined $5,000. Also, his pay was recently cut in half due to the time he's been out injured.
  
• Shane Douglas is out with a broken wrist and finger. When he returns, they're going to attempt to revamp his character (he never returns before WCW closes).
  
• Billy Gunn was on a radio show this week and said Road Dogg had signed a deal with WCW. Bischoff says this isn't true and said they wouldn't make a deal with him any time in the near future until his drug issues are cleaned up. He said if his problems were bad enough that WWF got rid of him, they don't want him either.
  
• Bischoff talked to Dave (he's sure doing a lot of that this week) about the loss of Meng, who jumped ship to WWF while still holding the WCW Hardcore title. Bischoff said it was an example of WCW being asleep at the wheel. He said he's upset that it happened but is happy that Meng got a job that can help him support his family, because he was working on a per-night deal with WCW that wasn't near as good. Bischoff said he doesn't blame Meng for the decision and doesn't blame WWF for poaching him, saying that if the roles were reversed, he'd have done the same to them. He said he was simply upset that the whole situation happened in the first place, calling it "typical of everything that went wrong" with WCW in the past.
  
• When the sale is complete, the salary structure in WCW is expected to be drastically changed. They still have to honor existing contracts, but when they're able to re-do them, everyone will be changed. Basically, everybody's getting a pay cut. There will also probably be other incentives built in, such as money-per-appearances, per-PPV, etc. WCW's current pay structure is out of control, with top stars making millions of dollars for doing very little work, and Bischoff realizes that's not a sustainable way of doing business under Fusient.
  
• Hugh Morrus was interviewed recently and was surprisingly candid and open. It's surprising because, with the impending sale, everyone, even the top stars, have been walking on eggshells and being careful about what they say publicly. Morrus talked about how hard it is to get over in WCW, saying that if you start getting over or selling more merch than the top guys, it's like signing your own death warrant because they'll cut you off at the knees and make you start over again. He said he hated the name Hugh G. Rection and refused to sign autographs with it and hated that he couldn't even explain the name to his own kids, but he was forced to go along with it. Classic Russo.
  
• This week in WWF raiding ECW talent news: Justin Credible debuted on Raw, still using that name. They referred to him as a former ECW champion, leading Lawler to jokingly ask if ECW even still existed. Jerry Lynn and Tajiri both signed WWF deals this week, believed to be 3-year deals with $125,000 downside guarantees. Rhino has also signed, believed to be for slightly less. There's minor interest in Super Crazy but not much. McMahon has never been a fan of Mexican wrestling and doesn't see money in him. There was talk about offering him an $85,000-per-year deal but Super Crazy has said any offer less than Tajiri would be a slap in the face and he wouldn't be interested. WCW is said to be interested in him though, but until the sale goes through, they aren't signing anyone to long-term contracts. If that doesn't pan out, he may just continue working in Puerto Rico and for AAA. And of course, nothing new on Paul Heyman. The WWF offer still stands, but he's holding out hope that he may still be able to pull together a deal to save ECW.
  
• Shawn Michaels has signed a new long-term WWF contract. His previous contract was almost up and WWF didn't want to put him back on TV and build him up, only for his contract to expire and have him jump ship to WCW. So they decided not to put him back on TV until he signed a new deal, so expect him back on TV soon.
  
• Kurt Angle filmed an AT&T commercial this week.
  

• This issue opens with a really in-depth look at the dangerous transitional period that American pro wrestling is facing right now, with the death of ECW and the impending sale (maybe) of WCW. Starting with WCW. If/when the sale goes through, they are still in for a major uphill battle for survival. On paper, they're in a similar situation to 1993, when business was at rock bottom and they were fortunately able to recover from that. If WCW can create a new superstar and create some hot angles, then they have a chance. The key ingredient is television exposure and fortunately, they have that (whoops). But creating new stars and running hot angles is easier said than done and WCW sure hasn't proven that they know how to do that anytime recently. When WCW recovered from the 1993 bottom, they did so by signing up guys like Hogan and Savage. That's not an option these days. There are no huge marquee name stars that WCW can poach from WWF the way they did then. Rock and Austin aren't going anywhere. There's no more exciting Mexican or Japanese stars they can bring in to make WWF look slow and boring by comparison because WWF is no longer slow and boring. WCW's roster is filled with past-their-prime guys in their 40s (with some pushing 50) and the young stars are still so young and inexperienced that they're years away from becoming marquee names. And, Dave adds, WCW ratings are in the toilet and Ted Turner no longer has much power over the company, so it's not a guarantee that WCW will always be on Turner networks if ratings don't improve. For decades, Turner has had a loyalty to pro wrestling and pretty much vowed to always carry it, but with him no longer in charge, WCW is in the same position that anyone else on TV is in: they could be cancelled at any time. (nah, that doesn't seem very likel.....what's that? Two weeks, you say?)
  
• 18 months ago, Dave felt a lot more optimistic about the industry. WCW was struggling, but they had a lot of good young talent to build around and a competent person should have been able to reign in costs and turn things around with a good product. That didn't happen. Most of the good young talent is gone. They lost untold millions and the product was godawful. And now, even under new ownership, it's going to take a miracle for WCW to climb out of the hole they've dug for themselves. 18 months ago, ECW had just landed their first national TV deal, but the ratings were about half of what TNN was expecting and they lost $2.5 million during the year 2000, when they had more exposure than they'd ever had before. Vince McMahon nearly bought WCW last fall before the deal fell through and Dave talks about how bad it would be for the business for only 1 company to have a monopoly on the industry. Wrestlers would lose all negotiating leverage and there would only be so many spots and a lot of wrestlers left looking for jobs. Japan is barely using Americans these days and Mexico's economy can't support bringing in any name-value American wrestlers for the money they would demand.
  
• Dave thinks for WCW (or whatever comes along after them) to survive, they have to present something different. Copying WWF never works. WCW's original resurgence came when they signed Hogan. These days, Austin or Rock walking out of the WWF and signing with someone else would be huge, but that's just not gonna happen. And even that might not work. In a monopolistic wrestling industry, Vince McMahon would be king and even someone like Austin wouldn't have many viable alternatives to make big money outside the WWF walls. The only person who would probably be okay is The Rock because he seems to have a budding Hollywood career waiting on him if/when he decides to walk away from wrestling. Whatever comes next has to be different to compete with WWF. Paul Heyman did it with ECW originally, but hardcore wrestling has lost its edge and isn't the attraction it was a few years ago to fans. All the other big things have been done and killed. Junior heavyweights? Nobody takes them seriously in America anymore. Inter-promotional angles? With what promotions? Celebrities? Been done to death and doesn't draw anymore. No one cared about Rodman's returns or Jay Leno's match and David Arquette as WCW champion will be remembered as one of the most boneheaded booking decisions in wrestling history. Worked shoots? Russo loves them, but we've seen how that goes. Real shoots? Brawl-4-All showed what a bad idea that is. All the old washed up names from the 80s mean nothing anymore (as evidenced by the raging success of Heroes of Wrestling) so that won't work. So what kind of tricks are left? Dave thinks a pure shoot company like UFC could become a viable #2 promotion if they could get some kind of TV deal and get all the commission and PPV issues worked out. If WCW folds, every little no-name indie company in America is going to claim to be the #2 promotion, but that's a meaningless statistic. Without a strong TV deal, nobody is going to remotely come close to touching WWF. And even with TV, you need a strong product. Dave lists several failed promotions that had some big money behind them and bought their way onto national TV with syndication deals in major markets, but they all flamed out almost as quickly as they came. Dave thinks that if any new start-up company comes along, they would be best served by starting small, running live shows and set up regional TV deals in small markets before trying to grow nationally. But if WCW can't survive, things look pretty bleak for American professional wrestling right now if your name isn't Vince McMahon (it's interesting to note that Ring of Honor basically did all these things when they started in 2002: totally different style of product, focusing on the best in-ring wrestling, started locally and grew regionally, etc. And they're the ones that are still around today).
  
• The departure of Jerry Lawler and his wife Stacy Carter (aka The Kat) from WWF and the subsequent hiring of Paul Heyman as his replacement has been a strange story. There's been a lot of rumors that Vince McMahon wanted Lawler out in order to replace him with Heyman and that he knew Lawler would quit in protest if they fired his wife. Lawler himself has said this might be true, but Dave doesn't know why WWF would want to break up the best announcing team in the business. On the surface, the word is Stacy had become a disciplinary problem and after complaining about an angle she was asked to do at No Way Out, several people backstage complained about her to Vince. The day after that, at the Smackdown tapings, McMahon made the decision to fire her and told Jim Ross to make it happen, even though she was already written in for an angle on that night's taping. Ross told Lawler about McMahon's decision only 2 hours before the taping was to begin that they were dropping Stacy's angle (she was doing a Right To Nudity gimmick against the RTC group) and firing her because they felt she had an attitude problem and was difficult to work with. Lawler was pissed, denying Stacy had an attitude problem or was difficult to work with, and said if she was leaving, he was leaving. Ross asked him to reconsider, but Lawler responded asking JR if he would stay with the company if they fired his wife for no reason and Ross agreed that he probably wouldn't. Lawler said both JR and Vince know him well enough to know that he would stand by his wife so he assumed they wanted him gone also. Lawler first went to Kevin Dunn and said it was clear that Dunn already knew, but said his hands were tied. So then Lawler and Stacy went to Vince's office and confronted him directly. When asked why they were firing Stacy, Vince played dumb and claimed to not know all the details and that it was a talent relations issue, thus kicking the ball back to Jim Ross. Lawler said that if there was a problem with Stacy's attitude, someone should have said something to her first before just firing her without ever letting her know there was an issue. Vince agreed that someone should have....but he still didn't change his mind. When Lawler said he was leaving with her, Vince replied that "I hoped you wouldn't" and then finished by shaking his hand and saying, "I want to thank you for all the hard work you've done here" and showing him the door. The whole conversation took less time than it took to read it here (Lawler writes about this extensively in his book but it's pretty clear he's talking to Dave at this point, because the Observer has exact quotes from people involved and everything).
  
• Lawler still has 2 more years on his WWF contract and although McMahon has agreed to release Lawler, it's unknown if he'll get a full release (which would allow him to go to WCW) or a conditional release (allowing him to go everywhere but WCW). It's believed Lawler and Bischoff have already talked. His son (Grandmaster Sexay) is staying with the company and this isn't expected to affect the developmental deal with MCW, which Lawler is involved in (just wait). Up until recently, Stacy had been off TV and Lawler had been pushing for an angle to get her back involved. Lawler had previously pushed an angle where Chyna and Eddie Guerrero's relationship fell apart because it would be revealed that Eddie was cheating on her with Stacy, but Chyna apparently nixed the idea and didn't want to do it. So then they pitched this Right To Nudity angle. On TV, the idea was that Lawler lost a match and thus, Stacy was forced to join the RTC. And that's as far as it ever got. In case you're wondering what the long-term plan was, it was for Stacy to tear the group apart from within, as she slowly seduced each member of the group and their morals would weaken and they would eventually succumb to her advances and sleep with her, until the leader, Steven Richards, would eventually break down give in to her also, destroying the group and ending the RTC gimmick.
  
• Word is Stacy's firing may have been about a lot of things over the last few weeks. Even in Memphis, on the MCW show, Stacy has been unpopular because she gets tons of TV time on the local show there because, well, she's Lawler's wife and naturally, people feel like there's some favoritism going on. At No Way Out, Stacy and Lawler apparently bickered with writers over the finish of the match they were involved in and at one point Stacy allegedly yelled at a backstage employee about something (she denies that). Lawler says "never say never" in wrestling but thinks it's unlikely he'll ever return to WWF. He's pretty upset about the whole thing. A few days later, Lawler took matters into his own hands. He posted a lengthy story on his website, explaining the situation, and encouraging fans to email various WWF creative team members about the situation.......and he posted their individual email addresses. That went about as well as you'd expect, with thousands of fans sending the writers tons of hate mail, forcing the WWF to change their email addresses. Later in the week, Lawler went online again and urged fans to bring signs supporting him and Stacy to Raw and to chant for them. He then posted the mailing address and phone number for Titan Towers and urged fans to write letters and call to complain about Stacy's firing. Security at the arena for Raw confiscated all LawleStacy related signs but there were several audible "We want Jerry!" chants during the show. And that's where things stand for now.
  
• Shinya Hashimoto's new Zero-One promotion had their debut show and it was a huge success. It's believed Zero-One hopes to operate as somewhat of a neutral ground between all the Japanese promotions and wants to work with them all and do inter-promotional angles. This show set up a possible dream match between Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Naoya Ogawa for somewhere down the line. Yuji Nagata and Keiji Muto from NJPW worked the show as well as K-1's announcer doing commentary and, of course, Ogawa represents Inoki's UFO group while Misawa is from NOAH. It drew 11,000 fans, selling out the arena. They're also talking about doing Misawa vs. Hashimoto which is another dream match and could be a historic title vs. title match. Misawa is expected to book himself to win NOAH's new world title (it would have been Kobashi, but with him out injured, Misawa is the biggest star they have) while Hashimoto is expected to win the NWA title soon.
  
• Raw did a 4.57 rating, which is the lowest non-holiday Raw in several years. And Nitro did a 2.06, which is a new all-time record low for the show during its regular live time slot. The combined audience watching wrestling on both nights was around 7 million, also the lowest figure in years. And this is without NFL competition. Oh hey, speaking of football, XFL's game on NBC this week did a 2.4 which is the 3rd lowest rated show in the history of a major network during prime time. The games on TNN and UPN also set near-record low ratings.
  
• In an attempt to re-create the success of old El Santo movies in Mexico, they are making a new movie called Infraterrestre which will star El Hijo del Santo, Blue Panther, and others. The plot is Santo investigating mysterious abductions that lead him to discover a society of supernatural underground beings.
  
• Kenta Kobashi had more surgery done on both knees this week, which is the 3rd surgery on both knees in the last year. Plus he had double elbow surgery recently also. Doctors have advised Kobashi to stay out of action for at least one year and that he really should retire. But obviously, he's Kobashi so that's not going to happen. Dave says knowing Kobashi, he'll probably try to return before the end of this year (nope. In his defense, Kobashi finally listened to doctors this time and stays out of action for over a year. And it was still too soon. When he finally returns, he immediately blows his knee out in his first match back and misses another 5 months. He doesn't return to full-time action until mid-2002).
  
• Misawa held a press conference to announce that NOAH wrestler Yoshihiro Takayama will fight for PRIDE later this year. Takayama is one half of NOAH's top heel tag team and Dave can't fathom why Misawa would allow one of his top stars to work a shoot fight and be put in the position to be humiliated. Takayama has had some shoot matches before and they didn't go well for him, and Dave thinks this is a bad idea (yup, this happens and Takayama ends up losing, but we'll get there. This becomes a bigger story).
  
• Kensuke Sasaki has an IWGP title defense against Scott Norton next week and Dave ponders the possibility of Norton winning the title ("god forbid") because NJPW is trying to cut his pay and Dave thinks they may try to throw him a bone by giving him the title to make him okay with it (yup. Norton wins the title and I'm sure Dave is going to just love that).
  
• The latest NJPW show, with Scott Hall working the tour, didn't even sell out Korakuen Hall, only drawing 1,600 people. Hall looked okay but not great.
  
• Masato Tanaka, Hideki Hosaka, Gedo, and Jado have all reportedly quit FMW. Dave doesn't know if it's real or gimmick (turned out to be real. FMW was having some pretty serious money problems at this point, deep in debt with the Yakuza).
  
• ECW still has a PPV time slot scheduled for this weekend, but last Dave heard, Viewers Choice is planning to show a re-run of January's PPV. No event has actually been booked.
  
• The Women of Wrestling PPV did a 0.01 buyrate which is among the lowest PPV buyrates of all time.
  
• Nothing much new on the WCW sale. Time Warner and Fusient officials had a big meeting this week to try and close the deal, but it didn't happen. Dave doesn't know how significant that may or may not be. Until the sale is finalized, booking is basically just in a holding pattern, and in reality, that's pretty much been the case for months now, ever since Russo got a concussion, went home, and never came back. In all honesty, the WCW/Fusient deal was clearly announced earlier than it should have been. But Brad Siegel pushed for the announcement back in January because they wanted to announce it before the AOL merger was announced (which was announced later that same day). But the announcement was obviously premature, as here we are some 2 months later still trying to finalize it and they keep running into hiccups. As of press time, everyone involved still seems to believe the deal is on but there's whispers that it could still fall through (we're going to hear a WHOLE LOT more about this very soon).
  
• Bischoff hates the new PPV names (Sin, Greed, etc.). Reportedly, WCW's May PPV will be called The Big Bang, which is a nod to the hit CBS series and #1 prime time comedy on television! Oh wait, sorry. I'm being told it's a reference to the start of the universe.
  
• In an attempt to keep fans from leaving the TV tapings before the end of Thunder, WCW is now giving away trips to the next PPV at the end of the tapings to entice them to stay. Didn't work. Last week's Thunder was said to be an embarrassment, with only a few hundred fans left in the arena by the time the main event started.
  
• The reason Arn Anderson was suspended last week is because prior to a Luger and Bagwell match on Nitro, they asked if they could cut a promo and Arn, the agent for their match, said yes. But that wasn't approved above him and it threw off TV timing since it wasn't scheduled and all that stuff. So Arn caught the heat for it.
  
• Road Warrior Animal has a weird deal with his insurance situation. Several years ago, he got a huge settlement from one of those Lloyd's of London insurance deals for what was supposed to be a career-ending back injury. If he came out of retirement, he would be expected to re-pay the money back. But through some wacky loophole, Animal is only forbidden from wrestling singles matches. So therefore, part of his current deal with WCW is that he can only work tag team matches. Dave says he had the same deal with WWF during his stint there awhile back (yeah, Bruce Prichard confirmed this on his podcast awhile back. So ridiculous).
  
• If WCW does end up doing a temporary shut-down angle, Dave thinks they should make a deal to send all their young, green guys (especially Sean O'Haire, since he has the most potential) to NJPW so they can spend a month or so working tours there. That way they'd be working with experienced vets 5 nights a week and probably learn a lot more in a month than they've learned in years of working out at the Power Plant. In fact, with O'Haire, Dave thinks they should send him away for a good 6 months to let him get experience in Japan and then re-debut him in WCW with a serious push and see if it clicks.
  
• Notes from Raw: it was a great show with a controversial Trish Stratus angle and the debut of Paul Heyman as Jerry Lawler's replacement. Dave says Heyman did well in the role, acknowledging right off the bat that Lawler had quit the company after Kat was fired. The RTC angle Kat was involved in was dropped and never mentioned on Raw. They had Kurt Angle "injure" Scotty 2 Hotty with an ankle lock to write him off TV because he's got neck issues. The angle with Trish and Vince got a lot of people talking (the famous segment with Vince ordering her to get nearly naked and bark like a dog on all fours). Dave seems a little put off by it, saying he's glad he didn't have anyone else watching with him and found it embarrassing. He also thinks the fans who were cheering for it were just living out their fantasies of humiliating every pretty girl who ever spurned them in their lives. TSN in Canada edited the segment off the show completely (no mention of Paul Heyman's "I'm in DC and I'm gonna get to see Bush!" line that nearly got him fired on his first day on the job. Anyway, if you've never seen this segment, it's just about as close to NSFW as you're going to get in wrestling so be warned if you're watching at work).
  

• 0: Trios Gauntlet Match - With all 3 members of the 6-man champions busy in other title matches, this pre-show match is to determine who will challenge them the day after Wrestlekingdom for the titles. Taking the place of the “New Japan Rumble” match of prior years, expect lots of comedy and maybe surprising cameos from legends, with a surprisingly good final stretch.
  
• 1: Never Openweight Title - Kota Ibushi(c) vs. Will Ospreay - The term “Dream Match” is thrown about too much these days, often about any match people think would be kinda cool that hasn’t happened before, sometimes it’s even already happened. But this match is a real dream match. These two men are the two most naturally athletically gifted men in NJPW, if not all of wrestling, being massive innovators in their countries of origin. Will Ospreay has been a Junior in NJPW since his arrival in 2016, while Ibushi has never quite become a top top star due to his refusal to sign a full time contract. This situation allows Ospreay to step up to the heavyweight world against the most naturally talented guy in the world. If given any semblance of time this match will set a very high bar for the rest of the show to follow.
  
• 2: Three-Way Tag Team match for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Titles - Suzuki-gun (Yoshinobu Kanemaru and El Desperado) (c) vs. Roppongi 3K (Sho and Yoh) vs. Los Ingobernables de Japon(Bushi and Shingo Takagi) - The Suzuki-Gun side have quietly been one of the most dominant Junior Tag team champions in history this year, mostly at the expense of Roppongi 3k and the LIJ team of BUSHI and the now injured Hiromu Takahashi. At the Super Jr Tag League, all 3 teams would make the finals with Roppongi 3k finally pinning the champions. Meanwhile, because they weren’t beaten and they beat the champions in the group phase, BUSHI and Shingo also did enough to earn a title shot. So all 3 teams meet once more at the dome, this time for the gold.
  
• 3: British Heavyweight Title Match - Tomohiro Ishii(c) vs. Zack Sabre Jr. - Over in the UK, Tomohiro Ishii has become a fan favourite of the RevPro fans, culminating in him ending a near 400 day long Zack Sabre Jr. title reign. Throughout the year Ishii has feuded with ZSJ’s new mentor Minoru Suzuki for the title, with the 2 trading it back and forth. Zack is now looking to reclaim his title and re-establish himself as Britain’s top dog.
  
• 4: Three-way tag team match for the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Titles - Guerrillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa) (c) vs. Los Ingobernables de Japon (Sanada and Evil) vs. The Young Bucks(Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) - At the world Tag league, LIJ’s EVIL & SANADA, beat the tag champs GoD in the final for the second straight year to claim a shot at the tag team gold. While The Young Bucks, who did not compete in tag league, are in this match because they’re The Young Bucks. Honestly I can’t explain this unfortunately, some would say it’s due to a rematch clause but they’re not really a thing in NJPW. The match should be fun though.
  
• 5: IWGP United States Title - Cody(c) vs. Juice Robinson - Back in July, the ever lovable underdog Juice Robinson, produced one of the feel good moments of the year, when he beat Jay White and finally claimed his first piece of silverware in NJPW. However due to an injured hand sustained in the build up to that match, Juice would do poorly in the G1, going just 3-6. And as soon as he won the title, he lost it to Cody on NJPW’s next show in America. After a strong showing in the undercard since then and a notable pinfall over the Elite’s Hangman Page in World Tag League, Juice is looking to reclaim his title from Cody at the dome. Also to note, 2 years ago when Cody debuted at WK11 it was Juice who was sent out to comfortably lose to Cody. So, should Juice win, it will be a real signifier of all the progress he has made.
  
• 6: IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title - KUSHIDA(c) vs. Taiji Ishimori - In June, one of the Junior Division’s most popular stars, LIJ’s Hiromu Takahashi, started his 2nd run with the title, really looking set to finally become the new Junior Ace. However, a freak accident later and Hiromu was forced to vacate the title. The ever present Junior Ace KUSHIDA would beat Marty Scurll in the final of a 4 man tournament to once again find himself on top of the division. Ishimori meanwhile has been quietly building momentum, include picking up multiple pinfalls on KUSHIDA during the Tag league tour. This match will lightning quick and potentially MOTN so keep an eye on it.
  
• 7: Special Singles Match - Kazuchika Okada vs. Jay White - At the start of the year, wrestling fans were puzzled by the clearly mischievous and villainous Jay White joining CHAOS and not a more traditionally villainous faction such as Bullet Club, Suzuki-Gun or even LIJ. Okada had clearly identified him as a future big player and wanted him on his side to keep an eye on him. Okada was in the final stretch of his 2 year title reign and when it finally came to an end, it put him in a bit of a funk. Meanwhile, Jay White would be building steam with a solid US title reign, which was kickstarted by him beating Kenny Omega. At the G1 Jay White would pin Okada and even beat eventual winner Tanahashi too. But his cheating manner caused friction with him and the rest of CHAOS. In September, Okada would answer the challenge of long time rival Tanahashi for the IWGP #1 contendership. After suffering a defeat, Jay White would pick his spot to not just attack Tanahashi but also Okada. Then Okada’s mentor of 6 years Gedo would stab him in the back (or I guess chairshot him in the back) and align with Jay White. Since then Jay White and Gedo recruited the disgruntled non-Elite members of the Bullet Club to become their new leader. Over the fall Jay White has repeatedly one upped Okada, as tension continues to build. Jay White’s focusing of both Tanahashi and Okada has also caused a slow merging of their two factions to happen, is everyone ok with that? Also Jay White has said he has a mole in CHAOS, how will that play in? Or is it just mind games?
  
• 8: IWGP Intercontinental Title - Chris Jericho(c) vs. Tetsuya Naito - On the day after Wrestlekingdom 12, Chris Jericho attacked Tetsuya Naito making a big statement to the man who had just fallen short of the big title. Jericho would not be seen for months after, while Naito would rap up a feud with Minoru Suzuki and win the Intercontinental title. When suddenly a fan dressed as BUSHI attacked Naito, it was none other than Chris Jericho. In June, Jericho would shock everyone and beat Naito for the belt. Naito’s stable mate EVIL, would then spend the summer wanting a match with Jericho. When EVIL was coming out for a match with ZSJ in October, one of the druids in EVIL’s entrance posse would attack him and you guessed it, it was Jericho again. In November EVIL would face Jericho and ultimately fall short. After an attempted post match beatdown, Naito makes the save and demands a rematch, which was ultimately made for the dome. On the final show of the year, LIJ would successfully win a multi man tag, when out of nowhere Chris Jericho attacked Naito from behind and you guessed it, it was Chris Jericho the whole time.
  
• 9: IWGP Heavyweight Title - Kenny Omega(c) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi - The first half of this year was rough for Tanahashi, he got the piss beat out of him by Suzuki, got tapped out by ZSJ in the final of the New Japan Cup and then lost a title match vs Okada, which meant Okada surpassed his record of 10 IWGP title defences in a single reign. In fact at the big June PPV he was 4th from the top in an ultimately meaningless 6-man tag (though it did feature Rey Mysterio) which his team lost. But when the G1 came around everything started to click, he was tapping into the Ace of old and just kept winning, ultimately going to a time limit draw with the man who surpassed him in the record books, Okada, which saw him beat his rival into the final by 2 points. Then he would beat, Kota Ibushi in the final and prove he really was back to his old self. Once again the winner of the G1 for the first time since 2015. Then after beating his rival Okada and the young hotshot Jay White, he is set for one more Dome Main Event. Meanwhile, Kenny Omega has been Changing the World™, At the June PPV where Tanahashi was unimportant, Kenny Omega was the man to finally dethrone Okada, beating him 2 falls out of 3 in a match that went over an hour, he was on top the world. Then in September he beat continued rival Tomohiro Ishii and then caused a big stir in October when he defended the title in a 3 way match against stablemates Cody and Kota Ibushi. The first time the title had been defended in a multi-man match in well over a decade. Now with them on a collision course, it’s a battle of the Old vs the New, and about who is the better professional wrestler (both in and out of kayfabe it’s weird). What should bring them into the next era of NJPW, The style of Tanahashi that bought them into the current golden era, or the new style of the current champion Kenny Omega.