Tossing Salt - 12/29/03
Hey Hey! Greetings once again from the dark and danky basement of Wrestling Informer HQ. I'm the resident degenerate and all around good guy, Doug M coming at ya! And if I'm here, you know it must be time for a little "Tossing Salt". So go wake the kids, go get the neighbors, pull mama in from the kitchen, and pry Grandpa out of the bathroom. Time to gather around the computer and bear witness to my mama's favorite wrestling column - "Tossing Salt". Can ya give me a hell yeah on that?
Wait. I forgot this on a reading venue and not a live action scenario. The "hell yeah chants" don't really work too well in this particular form of medium. Oh well. I really do need to get out more...*sigh*.
It's the holidays and I hope that everyone has had a really great Christmas and is looking forward to the New Year. 2003 has been a helluva ride, and I expect 2004 to be more of the same.
Well, anyhow - I've got a little bit of news from Japan to report on. Antonio Inoki is having issues. I'll get into that in a bit. Plus, you've all seen the reports on Dick Slater and his arrest for attempted murder. I've got some comments on that as well. All Japan has brought it's wrestling here to the states in joint cards with Ring of Honor and River City Wrestling.
I've got those match results for you, plus a big xWx event from Essen, Germany. Plus I've got some year end "Salty" awards to give out. And quotes from Jim Cornette and Bobby "the Brain" Heenan. It's a packed card as always. So, let's do this already.
ASSORTED SPICES:
The biggest item in the news right now is the arrest of Richard "Dick" Slater on Saturday for the attempted murder of his ex-girlfriend Theresa Halbert. Apparently they had broken up and he (Slater) had gone to Halbert's house to get his clothes. He hit her from behind, attacking her with a kitchen knife and sat on her and stabbed her. He wanted to watch her bleed. He then said something about killing himself and left. He was discovered nearby at a friends house, overdosed on pain killers. This is a really sad situation. I only know what I've read on the net, and it just sounds like Slater snapped.
Apparently the daily struggles of life since his wrestling career ended mixed with the addiction to pills and the pressure of breaking up with his girlfriend, especially around the holidays, was just too much. I've met Slater one time, probably 10 -12 years ago. It was at a show in Raleigh, NC and he signed some autographs for me. He was a little quirky, but was really polite and seemed like a nice guy. I've still got the autograph tucked away in a little scrap book. Now he just sounds like a lost soul who just got pushed one time too many.
I'm not making excuses for Slater. There is never any reason to attack another person and try to kill them. But I think it's more a cry for help than anything else. Miss Halbert was treated and released from the local hospital. Slater is curently sitting in the jail, awaiting a bond hearing. 10 years ago, he was on top of the world, as a World Tag Team Champion with Bunkhouse Buck in WCW. Now, he's sitting in a jail cell. That really bites.
Another man who seems to be having major issues is Antonio Inoki as he prepares for his big event on New Years Eve, the "Bon Be Ya" show. Advance ticket sales have really sucked badly for this event. Zero-One and PRIDE are also having major events on New Year's Eve, and the competition may be too much for Inoki. Plus, he's had a major problem getting stars to commit to this event. His announced main event was scheduled to be PRIDE superstar Fedor Emelianenko versus Yuji Nagata. But PRIDE threatened legal action against Inoki, claiming that Emelianenko had signed an exclusive contract with PRIDE.
So Inoki's people announced he was off the show. Now, earlier today (Japanese time) Inoki announced the main event of Emelianenko versus Nagata will go on. So, whether it will or not is anyone's guess. Plus, in another situation, boxer Ray Mercer, who was supposed to face wrestler Kazuyuki Fujita in another main event match, decided to bail and didn't come to Japan as scheduled.
Now, with less than two days left before his big event, Inoki is forced to attempt to find a top caliber opponent for Fujita. Maybe it seems cruel, but after seeing Inoki play politics and run over so many people at New Japan this past year, I don't feel too sorry for him to see his big year end event is falling apart. It almost feels kind of nice. You have to think that somewhere, Tatsumi Fujinami and Masahiro Chono are smiling as they watch Inoki struggle to pull everything together. Well, it couldn't happen to a nicer guy.
Nikkan Sports, who are major players in the world of Japanese Professional Wrestling, announced their 2003 year end awards earlier this week. The main award winners in the field of professional wrestling are as follows:
MVP: Yoshihiro Takayama
Best Technical Wrestler: Osamu Nishimura
Most Outstanding Performance: Shinsuke Nakamura
Best Fighting Spirit: Hiroshi Tanahashi
Best Promotion: NOAH (37.1%) New Japan (22.5%) PRIDE (13.6%)
Congratulations to all the winners.
All is not rosey in the world of NWA-TNA. Many are questioning the recent decision by TNA officials to pursue a cable deal with Chicago-based Superstation WGN. It looks like a done with with WGN airing a one hour Saturday morning show on NWA-TNA programming. But WGN is charging TNA $60,000 for the time slot.
And the big questions at TNA are why? and can we afford this? The current word is that TNA feels the cable exposure would be a big asset to the company and their future, but that price tag is just too much. There is even some talk of only producing a thirty minute show instead of a sixty minute event, therefore cutting the costs in half.
Maybe it's just me, but those numbers look kind of steep, especially when you consider that WGN only reaches about 85% of the country. It's not available here where I live. I think TNA would be much better off talking to the USA Network or even someone like FOX, where the network would asorb some of the production costs and salaries rather than paying WGN that much for a Saturday morning spot. The folks who watch wrestling are not going to be watching TV on Saturday morning. That's the kiddies time to enjoy their cartoons or whatever.
I don't know. The whole WGN deal just smells fishy. They (TNA) have already gotten screwed over dealing with Hulk Hogan. And it looks like they're going to get screwed over again by Jimmy Hart & WGN. My advice to the Jarretts and the Panda Bear people. Before you commit, think again very hard.
The word from the WWE is that Chris Jericho and Trish Stratus have done most of the writing for their current storyline. If so, hats off to them because this has easily been one of the most interesting stories on RAW in a while. There is also talk that Mick Foley, Triple H, and Shawn Michaels have all been contributing and helping the creative teams a great deal backstage at RAW.
I think this is a positive move on the part of the WWE and it shows a real interest in putting out the best product possible. Who knows wrestling and what the fans will and won't react to better than the wrestlers themselves? The writers may create the characters, but the wrestlers live them, and have to sell them to the public.
Whatever they're doing, it's working. The shows are looking more crisp and the storylines seem more long term and thought out. The thing everyone is talking about right now is the Mick Foley walking out of RAW, and the return of Stone Cold Steve Austin. The last live RAW was two weeks ago, so that means that people are interested and paying attention. Long range planning and storys that don't insult our, the fans intelligence. That's all we ever asked for . And it looks as if the WWE has finally began to listen.
BOBBY HEENAN QUOTE OF THE NIGHT:
(talking about Chris Jericho)
Lee Marshall: He is an ego-maniac.
Brain: But he's good at it.
ADDITIONAL SEASONINGS:
wXw "3rd Anniversary: Huss-mas" 12/27/03 Essen, Germany Europa Palast
Schock & Hade Vansen defeated Darksoul & Mad Cow in 13:31.
wXw TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH
HATE & Tyrant defeated Bas van Kunder & Louis van Eden in 15:37 to retain their titles.
Ares beat Joe E. Legend (The WWE's "Just Joe") in 15:10
wXw HARDCORE CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH
Alex Pain defeated Thumbtack Jack to capture the Hardcore title in 3:42
Johnny Storm & X-Dream defeated Steve Douglas & Aviv Maayan in 17:20
Martin Nolte won over Wildman Bellomo in 3:22
wXw WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH
Double C. defeated champion Jimmy Jacobs to capture the wXw World Championship. in 22:30
Ring of Honor / All Japan "Final Battle 2003" - Philadelphia, PA 12/27/03
"American Dragon" Bryan Danielson defeated Jay Briscoe
John Walters pinned Xaiver in a "Fight Without Honor" match.
Matt Stryker stopped B.J. Whitmer
RING OF HONOR CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH
Samoa Joe (c) defeated Mark Briscoe to retain his title.
CM Punk & Colt Cabana beat Tomaoki Honma & Kazushi Miyamoto
AJ Styles beat Kaz Hayashi
Satoshi Kojima defeated Homicide
ALL JAPAN TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH
Great Muta & Arashi defeated "Fallen Angel" Christopher Daniels & Dan Maff
River City Wrestling / All Japan San Antonio, TX 12/28/03
J.B. Kid pinned Puertorico Patriot
Texas Renegade & Ryan Roberts beat Ricky Rhodes & Jacob's Ladder
Bio-Hazard and The Blue Angel wrestled to a draw.
Kaz Hayashi won over Jeremy Lopez
The SAT beat The Border Patrol
Masadu beat Fast Eddie
Homicide conquered Psycho Simpson
TRIPLE THREAT MATCH
The Shadow won over A.C. Riddiek & Tomaoki Honma
The Great Koji (Satosi Kojima) defeated Black Gordman Jr.
Jeremy Sage stopped Kazushi Miyamoto
ALL JAPAN TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH
Keiji Muto (Great Muta) & Arashi defeated Hot Stuff Hernanadez & Pete Lotherio
JIM CORNETTE QUOTE OF THE NIGHT:
(talking about Terri Runnels)
"She's another man's wife, another woman's whatever, I don't know what I'm saying!"
2003 SALTY AWARDS...
Everyone does end of the year presentations and awards. I'm no different. As this is probably my last column of the year, except for the RAW recap, and maybe a "Best of" thing in the next couple of days, I decided to go with the flow and do my own end of the year thingee. There is no voting and no discussion. The decisions are mine and mine alone. I decided to do five categories. Forget nominees and all that. Let's just announce the winners already.
MOST OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE FOR 2003: This one was rough. There were a lot of great matches during the past year. I thought about the Team Bischoff versus Team Austin at Survivor Series. I thought about HBK versus Y2J at Wrestlemania. But the match that made me cringe the most and really respect the hell outta these outstanding performers was the Intercontinential Championship Ladder Match on RAW. I hurt just thinking of the bumps that Christian and RVD took. Imagine how they feel. So the "Salty for Outstanding Performance" goes to Christian and Rob Van Dam.
BEST TECHNICAL WRESTLER IN THE WWE: So many guys who are so good at what they do. Chris Benoit. Eddie Guerrero. Brock Lesnar. Kurt Angle. Charlie Hass. SO many to choose from. All those guys deserve the honor, but there is only one "Salty" so the "Salty for Best Technical Wrestler" goes to Ric Flair.
When in doubt, go for the sure thing and Flair has 30 plus years of an outstanding record and fantastic matches to back him up. I like the newer wrestlers, but I have yet to see a match approach any Ric Flair - Rick Steamboat match from the 80's. You want to talk about technical magic - that's where it's at. So congrats to the "Nature Boy". He's still the man!
OUTSTANDING DIVA: This is one where you think you know me, but you really don't. My obvious pick is Ivory, right? Wrong! While I do consider Ivory the hottest lady wrestler around, and I would love to recieve a restraining order from my beloved (anything to know she cares) - this was not her year. From the cage match with Lita to the "street fight" with Trish - the top lady in the WWE right now is the "Psycho Mama" Victoria. She is consistant and is truly "that damn good". So the "Salty for Outstanding Diva" goes to Victoria. Congrats. Now, please don't hurt me.
2004 BREAKOUT STAR: Who is tired of being in the background and is ready to make their move in 2004. The obvious names are Randy Orton, Batista, Charlie Hass, Chavo Guerrero, etc. And they will all do it soon enough, and no one will be suprised. But the "Salty for 2004 Breakout Star" goes to Stevie Richards. He's been with the WWE for ovwer six years and is consistant on the mic. He's played the goofball and psycho (see any edition of HEAT) and he's played serious (Right To Censor). He's got the looks, the talent, and the right person by his side in Victoria.
I'm not sure exactly how or when, but Stevie is ready for a big push by the WWE. He's not quite World Champion material, but I could easily see a somber and serious Stevie as the WWE Intercontinential Champion. He and Rico would make a great tag team as well. But I think this will be his year, coming up. As he says in his intro-video, "I'll show you! You'll see!" In 2004, I think we all will.
SmackDown MVP: This one was easy. Conspicious by his absence over the past month or so, our Olympic Hero Kurt Angle is easily the most consistant and over person on SmackDown. Benoit, Eddie, Cena, etc.. they're all fantastic performers and an important part of SD, but since Angle has been gone, the show has been missing something. So the "Salty for SmackDown MVP" goes to Kurt Angle.
RAW MVP: I thought this would be easy, but it's not. As a wrestler, easily the most consistant person on RAW has been Chris Jericho. But is that enough to be the MVP of RAW. The more I thought of it, the major player on RAW though, around which everything revolves seems to be the RAW GM- Eric Bischoff.
So what's my choice. Jericho or Bischoff? I thought and I thought. I debated to myself again and again. And finally, I decided, I don't need this aggravation. So the "Salty for RAW MVP" goes to both Chris Jericho and Eric Bischoff. They can fight it out between themselves.
So my award winners for the 2003 "Salty's" are Christian & RVD, Ric Flair, Victoria, Steven Richards, Kurt Angle, Eric Bischoff & Chris Jericho. Congrats to them all.
And that's going to do it for another episode of "Tossing Salt". It's been a great year for me here at the Wrestling Informer and I hope that ya'll have enjoyed the experience as well. Thanks to Brad for making a cash register jockey's dream come true by taking a chance on me.
A quick note about the "Time Warp". It's alive and doing well, and if you'd like to see it in your e-box every morning, drop me a line and let me know.
Also if you have any questions, comments, good recipes for lasagna, or whatever - contact me at either Doug28352@yahoo.com or at DougMaynard@wrestlinginformer.net. To all my comrades here at the Informer, all my friends and associates in the world of Yahoo-chat, and everyone else out there, have a Happy New Year. I'll see you in 2004 with more "Tossing Salt". I'm Doug M. Happy New Year and until next time, take it light.
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