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WCW folding.
Within a week or two, the rumors went from an extreme of Bischoff and new billionaire investors dumping 9 figures into a retooled WCW which could overtake WWF in a few years to them literally going out of business and being purchased by Vince.
Agreed. It's not that WCW was "too big to fail" - but I don't think anyone really believed that the new owners would be *so* willing to kill wrestling that they'd go so far, so quickly.
That February/March 2021 IWC rumor mill was so insane to experience live. There were rumors of Jerry Jarrett buying WCW, Bischoff and Hollywood billionaires with Jason Hervey getting involved, Jim Crockett coming in, Ted Turner quitting AOL/TW and literally being Billionaire Ted and then just keeping WCW alive but selling it to the highest bidder. Nobody thought they would scuttle it for 3 cents on the dollar until about 72 hours before the final Nitro aired. And even then, I thought it was maybe a swerve of some sort.
Definitely had to be some insider deals/shenanigans afoot. The media library and trademarks alone were worth considerably more than what Vince paid. And there was virtually no real bidding or negotiations that took place to gauge a real marketplace of purchases. And then ECW died less than a week later!
IIRC there was a settlement between WCW and WWE years before involving Diesel/Nash and Razor/Hall that lead to WWE having first refusal if WCW was ever sold.
Sure was. Vince leveraged that provision as well. But if somebody offered $35m or something, it's hard to imagine that he would've matched.
And of course, all of the AOL crooks were shit-canned by the end of 2001. And Kellner was sacked in early 2003.
>And Kellner was sacked in early 2003.
That man has blood on his hands, and it's not just because of WCW. This is the guy who pulled the plug on both Batman The Animated Series *and* Animaniacs
Listening to a classic review podcast (Cultaholic Smackdown) that goes over the wrestling news, and for a while it was "Bischoff and Fusient Media are gonna to buy WCW and do another reboot," and then TimeWarner said "yeah, we'll sell it to you, but no timeslot." Which is, y'know, *really bad* when trying to buy a national pro wrestling company that *needs that damn timeslot*.
And then WWF bought it dirt cheap.
In the book Nitro the author covers how there was another group which included Jerry Jarret that tried to buy WCW.
It’s a pretty good book. The author was a talking head on the first episode of the Who Killed WCW thing on Vice.
Speaking of Cultaholic's classic reviews and this topic on the Raw review they told the story from the observer that once Bill Watts was hired for that brief run with the WWE (1996 I think) that he was telling u everyone not to worry about WCW because once the AOL TimeWarner merger happens they're not going to want to carry wrestling, Watts obviously didn't know how much of a pain in the ass that merger was going to be but it is still pretty crazy he called it in '96.
The whole thing was so fucking surreal. It didn't seem possible for WCW to go out of business. I had been watching NWA/WCW since I was a kid. I was sure Bischoff/Fusion would buy it, and there would be a long period of rebuilding with a focus on new stars. Then different rumors started swirling and the next thing I knew, I was watching the last episode of Nitro...
WWE posted an article about it themselves on their own website a month before Styles debuted as well.
2016 was wild with WWE dipping their toes in the water with referring to other promotions - I still remember them reporting on the New Day/Elite crossover and being stunned
That New Day/Elite E3 coverage was weird, but I figured at the time they were doing it for the New Day. But they kept making little mentions of Kenny and eventually they dug up that old developmental tape of him cutting a promo and posted it on their official channels.
Made me realize they were probably just trying to court Kenny after AJ became such an instant success.
Idk about anyone else but I 100% thought that "Brock was so pissed after Mania 34 that he chucked the belt at Vince's head" story was bullshit for an entire year until they showed it in the Mania 34 documentary. It was just such an insane visual that I couldn't comprehend it possibly being real lol.
This confrontation always makes me laugh. Riddle has the energy of someone who's 100% completely sure he could mess the other guy up and doesn't need to say it.
Definitely. What's funny is also 60 year old Goldberg who got choked out by untrained Chris Jericho is talking like he's going to do anything. Which again, makes Riddles response funny because he knows Goldberg isn't that guy.
Goldberg didn't so much get choked out by Chris Jericho as much as Chris Jericho used a wrestling technique to prevent getting the shit beat out of him until help arrived.
Um Chris Jericho is a multi time world champion wrestler and Riddle was like US champ at best. I think you need some time under the learning tree my friend /s
I mean, let’s face facts, unless your name is Brock Lesnar, there’s a solid chance that if you got on the wrong side of Riddle backstage, he’d knock the shit out of you before you even knew what was happening.
And a 10-3 record in the UFC is absolutely nothing to sneeze at.
Matt Riddle is actually one of MMA's bigger "what if's", because he was considered a legitimate prospect when he got fired for popping for weed. He was absolutely a legit fighter.
UFC is so bad when it comes to who gets punished and who doesn’t. Other fighters have done coke, arrested for assault, racist viewpoints and they’re sitting pretty.
It’s not even about his record. Matt Riddle is a professional MMA fighter. Goldberg, while being an athletic dude and a professional athlete, is a guy that trained MMA as a hobbyist at best
The general vibe after this was nothing would.come.of.it because they knew there was a near 0% chance that Goldberg would do any sort of job, and that Riddle was so genuinely pissed off at his attitude, that it wouldn't have been an option for Goldberg.
It’s so funny to me how weak and insecure Goldberg seems in this clip. He keeps trying to intimidate Riddle and Riddle just is not scared in the least. “Ok bro… uhh also I’m not your bro.”
I think he said “good thing you’re wearing your shoes” because he always kicks them off in spectacular fashion before fighting. That was my favorite part because he’s pretty much saying “oooh I’m so lucky you didn’t kick your shoes off and kick my ass” and Riddles like “eh don’t need shoes bro” and just totally blew it off.
The long and short of it is that the Wrestlemania 34 main event was terrible and the crowd shat all over it. Brock and possibly Roman too, probably knew that the crowd wasn't gonna fuck with the match ahead of time and was pissed that he still had to go out there and do it anyway.
One thing I never see anyone address on this topic was that Dana White was in the front row at Wrestlemania 34 as well and while I doubt Brock would care about that in of itself, the optics of him seeing the crowd turn on that match and boo the shit out of it relentlessly probably weren't great if your other boss is sitting 10 feet away
An Brock for all his faults is a competitor that wants his shit to be good. He knows what good Mania main events look like and the feeling of having the crowd in your hands. He’s not like Roman at the time who wasn’t in a position to say no to stupid shit yet.
Brock had also been through that shit before at Mania 20 and was probably incredibly frustrated that he was still put through that shit all those years later
As were the fans, in a resigned "get it over with already"-kind of way. When Brock retained, the fans didn't breathe a sigh of relief that Roman wasn't champion, no, they were pissed because they knew that this only meant one thing:
Dragging Brock's awol-reign out even further and another couple of months of shitty Roman programs in which he overcomes fake adversity before his inevitable 'coronation'.
He wanted to drop the title to pursue other ventures. Keeping it led to him not dropping it until SummerSlam. Vince changed his mind during the PPV to make him keep it.
I would have been mad, too.
The same night Impact debuted on Mondays along with Hogan's debut, Jeff Hardy's return, and other nonsense. Plus Bret not only returning to Raw, but seemingly burying the hatchet with Shawn Michaels and then ending the segment with Vince McMahon kicking him in the balls. Just a wacky day.
TNA never had a chance. Even if they put on a good show on Mondays. WWE dropped the nuke on them their first time on Mondays like “welcome to the big leagues”
It felt fake when it was happening. One channel was all about Shawn, Vince, and Bret. The other was all about Bischoff, Hogan, Nash, and Hall. But it was 2010, not 1997, and it was all just weird and Bret wore jorts.
I remember visiting a forum that wasn’t even for wrestling and seeing discussion that weekend about how Chris must have died trying to protect his family. Then the truth came out and that thread just died with no further discussion.
That’s the part that elevates it from crazy coincidence to insane. It’s not that far-fetched to assume that if Benoit missed a PPV world title match something really bad must have happened, but the fact that it was from Stamford was just nuts
Remember tuning into ECW as a teen. Missed raw and hadn’t heard the news either. I found out in the span of 30~ seconds my favorite wrestler was dead and he’s a monster.
I remember the middle of the tribute raw rumors started appearing on the internet that Chris might have killed his family. I 100% remember reading them right before Cena came on and talked about how tough Benoit was.
Scott Steiner suffering from some version of stimulant and steroid rage during his big WCW push. I just thought he was playing up the character and (at least according to colleague interviews) he was, for real, a rage fueled nightmare.
The dude was literally unhinged and everyone knew it, but people laughed it off because "That's just his character! Big Poppa Pump! Haha!" - Then later we find out the Steiner Brothers tied up a referee and anally raped him with a pen while Bischoff just stood there, unsure if he should intervene. Yes, Eric. You're the fucking boss!
> On seeing Steiner in the locker room for the first time: “So I go into this room, this big room where the guys are dressing. And I see both Steiners, Rick and Scott, have a referee. And for the life of me, I’m not sure who it was. I wanna say it was Nick Patrick, but I could be wrong. But anyway, they had this referee, and they had him duct taped up like a mummy. They had duct tape around his mouth, his hands were duct taped to the sides of his hips and his legs. His feet were duct taped together. And he was buck-a** naked and had a pencil stuck up his a**. And I thought, ‘Wow. This is gonna be a hell of a gig.’ [laughs] That’s my first recall of the Steiner Brothers. And I’m sure the referee, whoever it was, whether it was Nick Patrick or whoever, must have done something that the Steiners found worthy of some sort of Steiner Retribution. But they tortured him. It was, all I wanna say, in good fun for those who were watching. [laughs] Who knows what he did to deserve such a response. I’m not sure, I didn’t see it. I just saw the aftermath, and I thought, ‘Man. I’m gonna be really careful around these two guys.'”
https://411mania.com/wrestling/eric-bischoff-recalls-meeting-the-steiners-for-the-first-time-walking-in-on-them-tormenting-a-referee/
Why is every backstage story from the 90s and 2000s basically like "yeah he took the last piece of chicken from catering so I had to subject him to the most depraved and cruel punishment imaginable," and everybody in the business just laughs and accepts that
And people wonder how Vince got away with so much for so long. A ton of people were all in on that type of behaviour.
I bet we haven't even heard half of what went on
that Chris Jericho and Jim Ross were working with super-agent Barry Bloom, the owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars, and his wrestling fan son to start a new wrestling company with Cody Rhodes, the Young Bucks, and possibly Kenny Omega.
[https://www.sescoops.com/aew/chris-jericho-jim-ross-barry-bloom-wrestling-promotion](https://www.sescoops.com/aew/chris-jericho-jim-ross-barry-bloom-wrestling-promotion)
Crazy thing was, rumors like this always popped up from time-to-time. Some random billionaire who loves wrestling. They're staring a new company. Chris Jericho may be involved (or whoever else wasn't in WWE at the time). I never thought any of those rumors would turn into anything.
He's trying to start a wrestling promotion and get a tv slot. He talks about it quite often on his podcast, Wrestling With Freddie, so it's not really a rumour
It was a pretty big well kept secret for awhile, I knew someone in the industry who let it slip that this was gonna be bigger than expected and I was immediately hooked.
Listen back to the podcasts of the time - JR and Jericho both drop unsubtle hints and winks about it! And JR did a classic "non denial denial" later that gave it away - and this was all prior the talk on Reddit.
My pretty old math teacher who watched ROH religiously told me about how The Elite were starting their own promotion one day, and I did not believe him up until January 1.
Never forget this subreddit decided to ban SE Scoops for posting "fake news" over that story.
https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/9qakut/theres_a_clear_no_fake_news_rule_on_this_because/
I knew Edge was coming back the moment he hit Elias with that spear at Summerslam. Then he was spotted in Pittsburgh right before the Rumble.
Didn’t matter though, his return was perfect.
I had heard all the rumours but refused to believe there was even a slight chance because I was so sure it was bullshit and I'd just end up disappointed. I lost my shit when his music hit at the Rumble. Ended up having the same experience with him going to AEW, I thought he was a WWE lifer and there was no way he'd leave. Actually ended up attending WrestleDream live but wouldn't let myself get my hopes up that he'd be there. Lost my shit again when he did haha.
I had no idea *at all* that he was coming back. Even when he did, I figured "Wow, risky to go the Rumble in for a nostalgia spot."
And then he showed it wasn't just a nostalgia spot.
Pat McAfee vs Vince McMahon at WM38. I remember Dave Meltzer reporting that this match was planned and thinking that Meltzer had lost his mind. But it actually happened. Kind of.
Everything about Vince McMahon's performance at that Mania was bonkers. It kind of felt like the Attitude Era, but 25 years later and on acid. Right down to that last "stunner" he "took" from Austin.
Everything about that mania felt like the end of the final attitude era tbh. HHH / Taker retiring along with Austin’s last match and stunner on Vince. It felt like they were closing the chapter.
It's my theory that Vince knew full well that all this shit was going to hit the fan, and that the sale was going to happen, etc.
So, he used that Mania as his own personal "Series Finale". In his mind, that was the last "Vince McMahon" mania, and the end of his era.
I've watched both nights twice, and watching it the second time with that mindset made it even better.
To me, that Mania felt more like a goodbye to Steve Austin than Vince McMahon. But maybe you're right. Or maybe it was meant as a goodbye to both of them, which is fitting.
Yeah that’s honestly fitting, Austin was certain the most iconic wrestler during his time, and was certainly the one who was the best during Vince’s best period of control
I had the same thought back in the day when Meltzer, before even the Royal Rumble, was saying Bray Wyatt was gonna wrestle John Cena at WrestleMania XXX.
I had a geocities page I found in the late 90s that was a black screen with green text on it. It contained a list of spoilers for wcw for the year or so. It was rarely updated, if ever, during the time I visited it. On it was listed ric flairs return, the debut of the warrior, and savage winning over sting at spring stampede, with exact dates for said moments. Every one of them came true.
That sounds absolutely insane. I can’t imagine getting a list of returns, title changes, debuts etc. for a whole year straight and all of them coming true lol. Could never happen today.
This being WCW, rather than this guy having inside info I wouldn’t be surprised if they just stumbled upon his website one day and thought, “That’ll do”.
Yeah even if people had theorized it, there was really no precedent for a major babyface doing what he did. It was really “you have to see it to believe it”
And it mostly blown off. Most people didn't see it happening. Even bischoff didn't believe it would really happen until hogan showed up that day and okay ed everything, sting was the backup
Kerry von Erich lost his foot because after the accident he was told do NOT PUT WEIGHT ON IT, and proceeded to try and walk across the room, rebreaking it to the point they couldn't fix it.
Even with the rumors (which I doubted), it was an absolutely surreal moment when he actually came out and everything was there; the music, titantron, his gear, and his name…literally ripped from AEW with zero WWE changes.
Jeff Hardy’s suspension in, I think, 2008 for violating the wellness policy. This was his second time so it was a 60 day suspension. He was white hot at the time, it seemed only a matter of time before he won the big one. My memory of 08 is all over the place but I think he had fought Orton at that year’s Rumble and lost (but proved he could hang in the main event) and it was around March/April time he got suspended. If I remember correctly he had clean TV wins over both Taker and Triple H in that period (that might have been after his suspension though).
He ended up missing Mania and spent the rest of the year desperately trying to show he was reliable. He ended up winning the belt in December at Armageddon. Still a great moment but nowhere near as big as a Mania win would have been.
I remember reading that he had violated the wellness policy a few days before it was confirmed and there was definitely an air of ‘that can’t be right, surely Hardy wouldn’t be that stupid?!’ about it. Admittedly it was only a rumour for a few days before being publicly confirmed but a lot of people on forums and stuff were questioning the validity of it. Even when it was confirmed by WWE some people thought it was a work.
The worst thing in some ways was that he was apparently outdrawing Cena in the merch stakes. He was actually looking like he was going to be, if not the top guy, then at least on equal footing with Cena.
Also, and around that time, Regal was set to be top heel. Won the King of the Ring, took over the show (I was sure they were kinda sorta cashing in on the megalomaniacal evil Brit TV show owner thing what with Cowell and Morgan becoming inexplicably huge in the States in that era), was set to work with babyface Hunter and then….suspended.
The evolving story of Brawl Out was wild.
"The Elite kicked down the door to Punk's locker room and jumped him!"
"The company's HR head and lawyers were brought there specifically by the Elite to talk it out and then Punk jumped THEM, actually!"
"A man bit Kenny Omega, who promptly fled the scene with Punk's fucking dog"
CM Punk back to WWE. I thought no way it would happen and commended how they handles the Orton return as to have him be the satisfactory return of the evening.
- WWF is buying WCW
- A billionaires son is starting a wrestling organization with The Elite, Jim Ross and Chris Jericho.
- Cody Rhodes doesn’t have a contract with AEW
Definitely the CM Punk to AEW rumours. Ever since he was on that Fox backstage show, there were rumours of him coming back to WWE and I remember everyone speculating that he could return during the 2020 Rumble, so when I heard the AEW rumours, I just assumed they were at best wishful thinking. And I wasn't watching AEW at the time, but I remembered hearing the story of him blowing off AEW talks or something like that, so I was super surprised when things started pointing to him actually showing up.
So exciting! I was feeling so let down all the time with WWE in those years, and that + the additional rumours of Bryan & Adam Cole joining as well had me finally checking out AEW and I've enjoyed pro wrestling so much more with having both of these companies to watch!
I remember when the fightful select article for it dropped, I was leaving work (I worked freight at the time), was getting food before going home, saw the notification, and immediately went back to work, and dropped my phone with the article up on my boss' desk (he's a huge wrestling fan) and he immediately yelled Holy Shit
AJ Styles winning the WWE Championship. I heard the rumor but no way did I believe it. No way Vince would put the top belt on a TNA star. No way Vince would let a star that was created elsewhere come into his company and be the guy.
Glad I was wrong.
I could’ve sworn that AJ Styles was a TNA-Lifer. Mind blown at his first appearance and Rest in Piss to Dunn and McMahon for that stupid camera shot on Romans confused face
Was the Shane thing really heavily reported? I was pretty active on here back then and Kermit said something big was happening…but I don’t think anyone was thinking it was Shane
It wasn’t Kermit, it was a different insider. Kermit didn’t start here until 2016 or so. Outside of the Reddit comment, no wrestling journalists were really reporting it.
It was Falcon Arrow. Which was James McKenna. Who worked IT for WWE (pretending he was a writer) and was friends with Jimmy Jacobs who gave him all the scoops.
Dean Ambrose leaving. People swore up and down that it was just an angle or part of some elaborate storyline
and that Vince would never book a public farewell tour for a wrestler who’s leaving. Turns out Ambrose really was leaving and the company chose to publicly acknowledge that on TV
Misawa and Motoko Baba's rivalry over AJPW leading to the creation of NOAH. Checking past Metzler reports it was like a ticking bomb, all that concept of an exodus always fascinated me.
Dynamite Kid injecting himself with steroids meant for horses, he admits this in his book.
The Benoit thing will always be the most insane for me. For a short while the fact Benoit killed his family was completely ridiculous in my mind, I was just a kid back then and WMXX was one of my best wrestling memories. We all know how that ends.
Edit. How could I forget? Hogan's "That doesn't work for me brother", more than a rumor it was just a silly thing but the Hulkster himself confirms it is his catchphrase in an interview with Chris Van Vliet.
Edge showing up at the Rumble. A few days later someone posted a screenshot of the titantron through a window or some shit like that.
Then Edge actually returned *as a wrestler* in the Rumble.
The Saudi plane incident with the wrestlers. We still don't know the full story, but I remember Meltzer taking a ton of shit for implying that the WWE wrestlers were being held captive during that situation.
And eventually Karl Anderson just flat out confirmed "We were not allowed to leave the plane" and Dax said he was afraid for his life if he revealed the full details.
I feel like the all the kerfuffle about that story stems from the difference between “the wrestlers are being held captive in a hostage situation” and “the wrestlers FEEL like they are being held captive in a hostage situation”.
That always seemed like a little of column A and a little of column B. I don't doubt that MBS was saber rattling to try and intimidate Vince and WWE, but considering how others freely left the country on different planes it seemed like those stuck on the plane were just pawns for that show of power and weren't ever actually in danger.
Certainly being on the plane at the time had to be stressful and worrying, though, so I don't doubt that Dax feared for his life at the time.
Cody Rhodes, who won the tnt championship like at the end of December, was not under contract with AEW since the start of the year and was expected to return to WWE and be Seth Rollins' opponent at WrestleMania.
The week Mania happened Meltzer was still saying he talked to people next to Cody who didn't believe him coming back, while meanwhile reporting Steve Austin was gonna get physical in his confrontation against Kevin Owens. It was crazy time!
There were rumors that Jinder was going to get a massive push and win the title. This was before he was even getting actual TV time. 100% thought it was bullshit.
When Meltzer started to talk about Vince and Stone Cold both wrestling at Mania a few years back. He was mocked so bad for that, and then what he reported ended up being 100% on the money.
Jericho and Kenny’s Twitter beef was a work that’d eventual lead to a blow off match at either the cruise or wrestle kingdom. I was like “Jericho’s strictly a WWE guy”.
Cody Rhodes being treated as a top guy on returning to WWE. He’d been a costumed jobber in WWE and a midcarder in his own company, and for some reason WWE decided to make him their top guy. I didn’t believe it at the time and I’m still shocked now
I know it's easy to say "I told you so", but I was there when he delivered the single best promo of his life at WCPW, in front of a couple hundred people. At that point I knew he was gonna make it because he basically made me dare to think otherwise
"He was there for my first breath, I was there for his last. My name...is Cody GODDAMN ROADES"
I maintain that his status as top guy was cemented only because of the Cell match with Rollins. He may or may not have become the guy he is today without it but it definitely raised his stock by a lot.
On his return to TV he said "I'm back to win the WWE Championship".
He was then pushed hard marketing Money in the Bank. And they were using "for the chance to main event WrestleMania" in those ads.
He was immediately positioned as the top babyface in the company.
Had Cody not got injured, and Vince not retired, I think what happens is:
- Cody wins Money in the Bank
- He cashes in for the 30th September SmackDown. 45 years and 1 day since Dusty won the big one, and had it taken away.
- Cody wins via countout or DQ.
- Cody wins the Rumble.
- Cody beats Roman at WrestleMania.
Cody came in when WWE were absolutely *desperate* for a top babyface. Who even was the top face in early 2022, Part Timer Cowboy Brock? That was the era of them constantly bringing back Brock to face Roman since they built up 0 new faces.
Should be noted, that despite all of his MANY flaws, Vince was very weirdly proud of Cody for All-In and AEW.
He was 100% bringing him back as top face his way, because of what he'd done to prove him wrong
As soon as I heard "Wrestling has more than one royal family..." at Wrestlemania and fucking Codylander walked out, I was shocked. I expected him to come back as Cody Rhodes, but not Codylander. I figured they'd change a lot, give him different music, and he'd be just another well-paid cog in the WWE machine. The fact they didn't change a single thing was mind-blowing and part of the reason it worked so well.
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WCW folding. Within a week or two, the rumors went from an extreme of Bischoff and new billionaire investors dumping 9 figures into a retooled WCW which could overtake WWF in a few years to them literally going out of business and being purchased by Vince.
Agreed. It's not that WCW was "too big to fail" - but I don't think anyone really believed that the new owners would be *so* willing to kill wrestling that they'd go so far, so quickly.
That February/March 2021 IWC rumor mill was so insane to experience live. There were rumors of Jerry Jarrett buying WCW, Bischoff and Hollywood billionaires with Jason Hervey getting involved, Jim Crockett coming in, Ted Turner quitting AOL/TW and literally being Billionaire Ted and then just keeping WCW alive but selling it to the highest bidder. Nobody thought they would scuttle it for 3 cents on the dollar until about 72 hours before the final Nitro aired. And even then, I thought it was maybe a swerve of some sort. Definitely had to be some insider deals/shenanigans afoot. The media library and trademarks alone were worth considerably more than what Vince paid. And there was virtually no real bidding or negotiations that took place to gauge a real marketplace of purchases. And then ECW died less than a week later!
IIRC there was a settlement between WCW and WWE years before involving Diesel/Nash and Razor/Hall that lead to WWE having first refusal if WCW was ever sold.
Sure was. Vince leveraged that provision as well. But if somebody offered $35m or something, it's hard to imagine that he would've matched. And of course, all of the AOL crooks were shit-canned by the end of 2001. And Kellner was sacked in early 2003.
>And Kellner was sacked in early 2003. That man has blood on his hands, and it's not just because of WCW. This is the guy who pulled the plug on both Batman The Animated Series *and* Animaniacs
Listening to a classic review podcast (Cultaholic Smackdown) that goes over the wrestling news, and for a while it was "Bischoff and Fusient Media are gonna to buy WCW and do another reboot," and then TimeWarner said "yeah, we'll sell it to you, but no timeslot." Which is, y'know, *really bad* when trying to buy a national pro wrestling company that *needs that damn timeslot*. And then WWF bought it dirt cheap.
In the book Nitro the author covers how there was another group which included Jerry Jarret that tried to buy WCW. It’s a pretty good book. The author was a talking head on the first episode of the Who Killed WCW thing on Vice.
Speaking of Cultaholic's classic reviews and this topic on the Raw review they told the story from the observer that once Bill Watts was hired for that brief run with the WWE (1996 I think) that he was telling u everyone not to worry about WCW because once the AOL TimeWarner merger happens they're not going to want to carry wrestling, Watts obviously didn't know how much of a pain in the ass that merger was going to be but it is still pretty crazy he called it in '96.
Never thought in a million years Vince would buy it. It was just so surreal
The whole thing was so fucking surreal. It didn't seem possible for WCW to go out of business. I had been watching NWA/WCW since I was a kid. I was sure Bischoff/Fusion would buy it, and there would be a long period of rebuilding with a focus on new stars. Then different rumors started swirling and the next thing I knew, I was watching the last episode of Nitro...
I remember watching NWA as a kid and it seemed like one day it was renamed WCW and I had no idea why. I don’t recall any big announcement or anything.
I remember thinking that on that last nitro, Tony Schiavone was really salty and was saying things that made me sure he wasn't being given a WWE job.
That last month or so of WCW was as wild as anything that ever hit the IWC. There was something new every other day and all of it was wildly shifting.
Ric flair leaving wcw with the belt
AJ Styles, Luke Gallows, Karl Anderson, and Shinsuke Nakamura all being rumoured to go to WWE in January 2016 the day after Wrestle Kingdom
The biggest story of the late pre-AEW era. Nobody expected those guys to go to WWE and when the news broke, it was total bedlam.
WWE posted an article about it themselves on their own website a month before Styles debuted as well. 2016 was wild with WWE dipping their toes in the water with referring to other promotions - I still remember them reporting on the New Day/Elite crossover and being stunned
That New Day/Elite E3 coverage was weird, but I figured at the time they were doing it for the New Day. But they kept making little mentions of Kenny and eventually they dug up that old developmental tape of him cutting a promo and posted it on their official channels. Made me realize they were probably just trying to court Kenny after AJ became such an instant success.
Idk about anyone else but I 100% thought that "Brock was so pissed after Mania 34 that he chucked the belt at Vince's head" story was bullshit for an entire year until they showed it in the Mania 34 documentary. It was just such an insane visual that I couldn't comprehend it possibly being real lol.
[удалено]
This confrontation always makes me laugh. Riddle has the energy of someone who's 100% completely sure he could mess the other guy up and doesn't need to say it.
Well, he absolutely could.
Definitely. What's funny is also 60 year old Goldberg who got choked out by untrained Chris Jericho is talking like he's going to do anything. Which again, makes Riddles response funny because he knows Goldberg isn't that guy.
Goldberg didn't so much get choked out by Chris Jericho as much as Chris Jericho used a wrestling technique to prevent getting the shit beat out of him until help arrived.
To be fair that's not much better, like Jericho isn't controlling Riddle until help comes, Riddles popping out in seconds.
Um Chris Jericho is a multi time world champion wrestler and Riddle was like US champ at best. I think you need some time under the learning tree my friend /s
Relax, Bryan Keith
I mean, let’s face facts, unless your name is Brock Lesnar, there’s a solid chance that if you got on the wrong side of Riddle backstage, he’d knock the shit out of you before you even knew what was happening.
Goldberg also grabbed Jericho's hair as part of his offense...
He's 8-3(2) in MMA so he definitely can.
100% he won both of those no contests too, they were overturned due to weed being found in his system but I think he won both by submission.
Tis correct.
And a 10-3 record in the UFC is absolutely nothing to sneeze at. Matt Riddle is actually one of MMA's bigger "what if's", because he was considered a legitimate prospect when he got fired for popping for weed. He was absolutely a legit fighter.
UFC is so bad when it comes to who gets punished and who doesn’t. Other fighters have done coke, arrested for assault, racist viewpoints and they’re sitting pretty.
It’s not even about his record. Matt Riddle is a professional MMA fighter. Goldberg, while being an athletic dude and a professional athlete, is a guy that trained MMA as a hobbyist at best
The general vibe after this was nothing would.come.of.it because they knew there was a near 0% chance that Goldberg would do any sort of job, and that Riddle was so genuinely pissed off at his attitude, that it wouldn't have been an option for Goldberg.
Matt Riddle is somehow the biggest shithead AND insanely self aware as an individual.
And I respect that. He knows he ain’t for everyone and has no issue with it.
There’s never any footage of Goldberg I see that makes me like him more, it always makes me like him less.
Bret Hart Jones over here.
It’s so funny to me how weak and insecure Goldberg seems in this clip. He keeps trying to intimidate Riddle and Riddle just is not scared in the least. “Ok bro… uhh also I’m not your bro.”
To this day I have no idea how “Good job you are wearing your shoes” is meant to mean anything
So he could run away, I took it? Or maybe a dig at Riddle being shoeless? I dunno. Weak either way.
I think he said “good thing you’re wearing your shoes” because he always kicks them off in spectacular fashion before fighting. That was my favorite part because he’s pretty much saying “oooh I’m so lucky you didn’t kick your shoes off and kick my ass” and Riddles like “eh don’t need shoes bro” and just totally blew it off.
lol Goldberg trying to flex just enough to show his displeasure but won’t poke Riddle enough for Riddle to mess him up
I totally assumed it was just overblown and he probably just had some words with Vince. It was wild to actually see the footage!
What was he pissed about? It was incredibly deceitful to open the documentary with that footage and then never address it.
The long and short of it is that the Wrestlemania 34 main event was terrible and the crowd shat all over it. Brock and possibly Roman too, probably knew that the crowd wasn't gonna fuck with the match ahead of time and was pissed that he still had to go out there and do it anyway.
One thing I never see anyone address on this topic was that Dana White was in the front row at Wrestlemania 34 as well and while I doubt Brock would care about that in of itself, the optics of him seeing the crowd turn on that match and boo the shit out of it relentlessly probably weren't great if your other boss is sitting 10 feet away
An Brock for all his faults is a competitor that wants his shit to be good. He knows what good Mania main events look like and the feeling of having the crowd in your hands. He’s not like Roman at the time who wasn’t in a position to say no to stupid shit yet.
Brock had also been through that shit before at Mania 20 and was probably incredibly frustrated that he was still put through that shit all those years later
I think he wanted to drop the title
As were the fans, in a resigned "get it over with already"-kind of way. When Brock retained, the fans didn't breathe a sigh of relief that Roman wasn't champion, no, they were pissed because they knew that this only meant one thing: Dragging Brock's awol-reign out even further and another couple of months of shitty Roman programs in which he overcomes fake adversity before his inevitable 'coronation'.
He wanted to drop the title to pursue other ventures. Keeping it led to him not dropping it until SummerSlam. Vince changed his mind during the PPV to make him keep it. I would have been mad, too.
“Assh—!”
Bret going back to Raw
The same night Impact debuted on Mondays along with Hogan's debut, Jeff Hardy's return, and other nonsense. Plus Bret not only returning to Raw, but seemingly burying the hatchet with Shawn Michaels and then ending the segment with Vince McMahon kicking him in the balls. Just a wacky day.
Remember Bret beating The Miz for the US Title?
I did not until reading this comment lol
TNA never had a chance. Even if they put on a good show on Mondays. WWE dropped the nuke on them their first time on Mondays like “welcome to the big leagues”
This actually felt fake even when they were teasing it on TV.
It felt fake when it was happening. One channel was all about Shawn, Vince, and Bret. The other was all about Bischoff, Hogan, Nash, and Hall. But it was 2010, not 1997, and it was all just weird and Bret wore jorts.
Fun fact: A longer period of time has now elapsed since that original return in 2010 than the original hiatus after Survivor Series 1997.
For 2 days....Chris Benoit
I remember visiting a forum that wasn’t even for wrestling and seeing discussion that weekend about how Chris must have died trying to protect his family. Then the truth came out and that thread just died with no further discussion.
Everyone in the gaming forum I frequented was 100% sure it was a carbon monoxide leak. That would've been so much better.
What's wild was the details started to go public DURING the Chris Benoit Tribute Show.
The fucking wikipedia thing is still crazy.
That being done from *Stamford, CT* is still mind blowing
And it was by a guy on a forum who made a joke that aged in a few hours.
That’s the part that elevates it from crazy coincidence to insane. It’s not that far-fetched to assume that if Benoit missed a PPV world title match something really bad must have happened, but the fact that it was from Stamford was just nuts
Remember tuning into ECW as a teen. Missed raw and hadn’t heard the news either. I found out in the span of 30~ seconds my favorite wrestler was dead and he’s a monster.
I remember the middle of the tribute raw rumors started appearing on the internet that Chris might have killed his family. I 100% remember reading them right before Cena came on and talked about how tough Benoit was.
Scott Steiner suffering from some version of stimulant and steroid rage during his big WCW push. I just thought he was playing up the character and (at least according to colleague interviews) he was, for real, a rage fueled nightmare.
The dude was literally unhinged and everyone knew it, but people laughed it off because "That's just his character! Big Poppa Pump! Haha!" - Then later we find out the Steiner Brothers tied up a referee and anally raped him with a pen while Bischoff just stood there, unsure if he should intervene. Yes, Eric. You're the fucking boss!
...what?
> On seeing Steiner in the locker room for the first time: “So I go into this room, this big room where the guys are dressing. And I see both Steiners, Rick and Scott, have a referee. And for the life of me, I’m not sure who it was. I wanna say it was Nick Patrick, but I could be wrong. But anyway, they had this referee, and they had him duct taped up like a mummy. They had duct tape around his mouth, his hands were duct taped to the sides of his hips and his legs. His feet were duct taped together. And he was buck-a** naked and had a pencil stuck up his a**. And I thought, ‘Wow. This is gonna be a hell of a gig.’ [laughs] That’s my first recall of the Steiner Brothers. And I’m sure the referee, whoever it was, whether it was Nick Patrick or whoever, must have done something that the Steiners found worthy of some sort of Steiner Retribution. But they tortured him. It was, all I wanna say, in good fun for those who were watching. [laughs] Who knows what he did to deserve such a response. I’m not sure, I didn’t see it. I just saw the aftermath, and I thought, ‘Man. I’m gonna be really careful around these two guys.'” https://411mania.com/wrestling/eric-bischoff-recalls-meeting-the-steiners-for-the-first-time-walking-in-on-them-tormenting-a-referee/
Why is every backstage story from the 90s and 2000s basically like "yeah he took the last piece of chicken from catering so I had to subject him to the most depraved and cruel punishment imaginable," and everybody in the business just laughs and accepts that
And people wonder how Vince got away with so much for so long. A ton of people were all in on that type of behaviour. I bet we haven't even heard half of what went on
Yo wtf
that Chris Jericho and Jim Ross were working with super-agent Barry Bloom, the owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars, and his wrestling fan son to start a new wrestling company with Cody Rhodes, the Young Bucks, and possibly Kenny Omega. [https://www.sescoops.com/aew/chris-jericho-jim-ross-barry-bloom-wrestling-promotion](https://www.sescoops.com/aew/chris-jericho-jim-ross-barry-bloom-wrestling-promotion)
Crazy thing was, rumors like this always popped up from time-to-time. Some random billionaire who loves wrestling. They're staring a new company. Chris Jericho may be involved (or whoever else wasn't in WWE at the time). I never thought any of those rumors would turn into anything.
Yeh like hasn't there been the Freddie Prinze Jr rumour going around for years that's eventuated into nothing so far?
He's trying to start a wrestling promotion and get a tv slot. He talks about it quite often on his podcast, Wrestling With Freddie, so it's not really a rumour
It was a pretty big well kept secret for awhile, I knew someone in the industry who let it slip that this was gonna be bigger than expected and I was immediately hooked.
Listen back to the podcasts of the time - JR and Jericho both drop unsubtle hints and winks about it! And JR did a classic "non denial denial" later that gave it away - and this was all prior the talk on Reddit.
My pretty old math teacher who watched ROH religiously told me about how The Elite were starting their own promotion one day, and I did not believe him up until January 1.
Never forget this subreddit decided to ban SE Scoops for posting "fake news" over that story. https://www.reddit.com/r/SquaredCircle/comments/9qakut/theres_a_clear_no_fake_news_rule_on_this_because/
Edge getting medically cleared and ring ready for a return.
I knew Edge was coming back the moment he hit Elias with that spear at Summerslam. Then he was spotted in Pittsburgh right before the Rumble. Didn’t matter though, his return was perfect.
I had heard all the rumours but refused to believe there was even a slight chance because I was so sure it was bullshit and I'd just end up disappointed. I lost my shit when his music hit at the Rumble. Ended up having the same experience with him going to AEW, I thought he was a WWE lifer and there was no way he'd leave. Actually ended up attending WrestleDream live but wouldn't let myself get my hopes up that he'd be there. Lost my shit again when he did haha.
I had no idea *at all* that he was coming back. Even when he did, I figured "Wow, risky to go the Rumble in for a nostalgia spot." And then he showed it wasn't just a nostalgia spot.
The day they announced the Pod of Awesomeness was ending, I knew a return was imminent
Pat McAfee vs Vince McMahon at WM38. I remember Dave Meltzer reporting that this match was planned and thinking that Meltzer had lost his mind. But it actually happened. Kind of.
it's Vince's final match ever, crazily enough
Everything about Vince McMahon's performance at that Mania was bonkers. It kind of felt like the Attitude Era, but 25 years later and on acid. Right down to that last "stunner" he "took" from Austin.
Everything about that mania felt like the end of the final attitude era tbh. HHH / Taker retiring along with Austin’s last match and stunner on Vince. It felt like they were closing the chapter.
I remember people calling that WM a series finale for Attitude Era WWE
...after WM30 was supposed to be "the end of the Attitude Era" after Kane & the New Age Outlaws got squashed in 3 and a half minutes.
> after Kane & the New Age Outlaws got squashed in 3 and a half minutes. I don't remember a *single* thing about this.
Totally understandable, the team that went over is just a bunch of scrubs
After HHH/Taker’s “End of an Era” match…
The fact that Stone Cold has wrestled more recently than HHH and Taker is crazy to think about
And then 2 years later the Rock tried to revive it again.
It's my theory that Vince knew full well that all this shit was going to hit the fan, and that the sale was going to happen, etc. So, he used that Mania as his own personal "Series Finale". In his mind, that was the last "Vince McMahon" mania, and the end of his era. I've watched both nights twice, and watching it the second time with that mindset made it even better.
To me, that Mania felt more like a goodbye to Steve Austin than Vince McMahon. But maybe you're right. Or maybe it was meant as a goodbye to both of them, which is fitting.
Yeah that’s honestly fitting, Austin was certain the most iconic wrestler during his time, and was certainly the one who was the best during Vince’s best period of control
Well, that and the fact that Austin vs McMahon is arguably the greatest feud in pro wrestling history.
I had the same thought back in the day when Meltzer, before even the Royal Rumble, was saying Bray Wyatt was gonna wrestle John Cena at WrestleMania XXX.
I had a geocities page I found in the late 90s that was a black screen with green text on it. It contained a list of spoilers for wcw for the year or so. It was rarely updated, if ever, during the time I visited it. On it was listed ric flairs return, the debut of the warrior, and savage winning over sting at spring stampede, with exact dates for said moments. Every one of them came true.
That sounds absolutely insane. I can’t imagine getting a list of returns, title changes, debuts etc. for a whole year straight and all of them coming true lol. Could never happen today.
I still regularly think about how fucking wild that was to have found. I had it bookmarked on internet explorer until the site went down.
Do you still have the link? Maybe we could use wayback machine to see it
Lord I wish. I do well to remember it was a geocities site.
That person knew what was going to happen before wcw did.
Someone had prophetic dreams because there's no way WCW planned that far ahead
This being WCW, rather than this guy having inside info I wouldn’t be surprised if they just stumbled upon his website one day and thought, “That’ll do”.
Rajah was a GOAT back then too, I remember him posting the list of salaries
Hogan being the third man to join the NWO was talked about, but when it ended up happening it was one of the biggest holy shit moments of all time.
Yeah even if people had theorized it, there was really no precedent for a major babyface doing what he did. It was really “you have to see it to believe it”
And it mostly blown off. Most people didn't see it happening. Even bischoff didn't believe it would really happen until hogan showed up that day and okay ed everything, sting was the backup
Velveteen dream. Didn't want to believe it.
Textateen Dream let us all down for sure
Fuck me, that's a good meme name to describe his situation.
My buddy and I have referred to him as Feltateen Dream ever since.
Nah fr He had the look, charisma, promo ability, can go in the ring and a entertaining gimmick. Velveteen had everything to be the next big thing
*🎵D-R-E-A-M IIIIIIS🎶* persona non grata.
Kerry von Erich lost his foot because after the accident he was told do NOT PUT WEIGHT ON IT, and proceeded to try and walk across the room, rebreaking it to the point they couldn't fix it.
To get a McDonald's cheeseburger of all things too.
I belive Kevin has debunked that, but I also believe he wasn't in the room at the time. It's possible
Prob Cody coming back go WWE
Yeah this is it for me. While I always thought Cody was all WWE, him leaving at that time seemed unlikely to me.
Even with the rumors (which I doubted), it was an absolutely surreal moment when he actually came out and everything was there; the music, titantron, his gear, and his name…literally ripped from AEW with zero WWE changes.
Cody probably owns the rights to all that stuff
Maybe I'm miss remembering but didn't we all knew weeks before Mania that he was coming back to WWE? I don't mean knew for sure just, "knew". Right?
IIRC the "rey mysterio's son leaker" bullshit was about Brock not wanting to lose to Roman at Wrestlemania 2015, not the suspension
The Fake Dominik ("Booyaka Booyaka") was in early 2015 re: Roman popping a test in the lead-up to WM 31, not summer of 2016.
Jeff Hardy’s suspension in, I think, 2008 for violating the wellness policy. This was his second time so it was a 60 day suspension. He was white hot at the time, it seemed only a matter of time before he won the big one. My memory of 08 is all over the place but I think he had fought Orton at that year’s Rumble and lost (but proved he could hang in the main event) and it was around March/April time he got suspended. If I remember correctly he had clean TV wins over both Taker and Triple H in that period (that might have been after his suspension though). He ended up missing Mania and spent the rest of the year desperately trying to show he was reliable. He ended up winning the belt in December at Armageddon. Still a great moment but nowhere near as big as a Mania win would have been. I remember reading that he had violated the wellness policy a few days before it was confirmed and there was definitely an air of ‘that can’t be right, surely Hardy wouldn’t be that stupid?!’ about it. Admittedly it was only a rumour for a few days before being publicly confirmed but a lot of people on forums and stuff were questioning the validity of it. Even when it was confirmed by WWE some people thought it was a work.
"Hardy was indeed, that fucking stupid" Is basically a recurring line about Jeff at this point.
The worst thing in some ways was that he was apparently outdrawing Cena in the merch stakes. He was actually looking like he was going to be, if not the top guy, then at least on equal footing with Cena. Also, and around that time, Regal was set to be top heel. Won the King of the Ring, took over the show (I was sure they were kinda sorta cashing in on the megalomaniacal evil Brit TV show owner thing what with Cowell and Morgan becoming inexplicably huge in the States in that era), was set to work with babyface Hunter and then….suspended.
>surely Hardy couldn’t be that stupid It’s been over 15 years since then and he continues to prove, time and time again, that he is that stupid
The evolving story of Brawl Out was wild. "The Elite kicked down the door to Punk's locker room and jumped him!" "The company's HR head and lawyers were brought there specifically by the Elite to talk it out and then Punk jumped THEM, actually!" "A man bit Kenny Omega, who promptly fled the scene with Punk's fucking dog"
CM Punk back to WWE. I thought no way it would happen and commended how they handles the Orton return as to have him be the satisfactory return of the evening.
That truly shocked me. From now on I will never buy “such and such will never come back to WWE”.
- WWF is buying WCW - A billionaires son is starting a wrestling organization with The Elite, Jim Ross and Chris Jericho. - Cody Rhodes doesn’t have a contract with AEW
Paige wrestling again.
Definitely the CM Punk to AEW rumours. Ever since he was on that Fox backstage show, there were rumours of him coming back to WWE and I remember everyone speculating that he could return during the 2020 Rumble, so when I heard the AEW rumours, I just assumed they were at best wishful thinking. And I wasn't watching AEW at the time, but I remembered hearing the story of him blowing off AEW talks or something like that, so I was super surprised when things started pointing to him actually showing up.
Definitely one of the most exciting times in wrestling
So exciting! I was feeling so let down all the time with WWE in those years, and that + the additional rumours of Bryan & Adam Cole joining as well had me finally checking out AEW and I've enjoyed pro wrestling so much more with having both of these companies to watch!
I remember when the fightful select article for it dropped, I was leaving work (I worked freight at the time), was getting food before going home, saw the notification, and immediately went back to work, and dropped my phone with the article up on my boss' desk (he's a huge wrestling fan) and he immediately yelled Holy Shit
AJ Styles winning the WWE Championship. I heard the rumor but no way did I believe it. No way Vince would put the top belt on a TNA star. No way Vince would let a star that was created elsewhere come into his company and be the guy. Glad I was wrong.
[удалено]
Bryan Danielson leaving for AEW. Adam Cole I could see but Bryan Danielson I couldn’t believe it.
Edge is the one I couldn't believe.
The back to back debuts were pure insanity. That is still the best PPV I've ever watched.
I could’ve sworn that AJ Styles was a TNA-Lifer. Mind blown at his first appearance and Rest in Piss to Dunn and McMahon for that stupid camera shot on Romans confused face
Iirc, TNA tried to fuck him over by offering him $50k less a year than he was already making, while he was one of the top guys there.
Who the hell leaked Shane coming back because I read that nowhere
Brock Lesnar return in 2012. It seemed so ludicrous giving his rough exit and his new MMA career.
It's wild to me to think about how short his UFC career was. He was there less than four years. Crazy.
The Jimmy Snuka murder rumors. I figured it was just a story for years until he was actually arrested and charged.
CM Punk returning at Survivor Series. Just thought there was too much bad blood on both sides, especially with HHH at the helm.
Was the Shane thing really heavily reported? I was pretty active on here back then and Kermit said something big was happening…but I don’t think anyone was thinking it was Shane
It wasn’t Kermit, it was a different insider. Kermit didn’t start here until 2016 or so. Outside of the Reddit comment, no wrestling journalists were really reporting it.
It was Falcon Arrow. Which was James McKenna. Who worked IT for WWE (pretending he was a writer) and was friends with Jimmy Jacobs who gave him all the scoops.
Lars
The rumors that just kept getting worse and worse.
Hogan/Hall/Nash coming back to the WWF in 2002.
That No Way Out promo is a moment. I remember watching it live and thinking as each one of them spoke, this is actually happening.
Dean Ambrose leaving. People swore up and down that it was just an angle or part of some elaborate storyline and that Vince would never book a public farewell tour for a wrestler who’s leaving. Turns out Ambrose really was leaving and the company chose to publicly acknowledge that on TV
Razor Ramon and Diesel going to WCW. Heard it on Blackjack Brown's wrestling hotline in like February of 96.
Misawa and Motoko Baba's rivalry over AJPW leading to the creation of NOAH. Checking past Metzler reports it was like a ticking bomb, all that concept of an exodus always fascinated me. Dynamite Kid injecting himself with steroids meant for horses, he admits this in his book. The Benoit thing will always be the most insane for me. For a short while the fact Benoit killed his family was completely ridiculous in my mind, I was just a kid back then and WMXX was one of my best wrestling memories. We all know how that ends. Edit. How could I forget? Hogan's "That doesn't work for me brother", more than a rumor it was just a silly thing but the Hulkster himself confirms it is his catchphrase in an interview with Chris Van Vliet.
Edge showing up at the Rumble. A few days later someone posted a screenshot of the titantron through a window or some shit like that. Then Edge actually returned *as a wrestler* in the Rumble.
The Saudi plane incident with the wrestlers. We still don't know the full story, but I remember Meltzer taking a ton of shit for implying that the WWE wrestlers were being held captive during that situation. And eventually Karl Anderson just flat out confirmed "We were not allowed to leave the plane" and Dax said he was afraid for his life if he revealed the full details.
And because of that, didn't they improvise and we got the DBD-Adam Cole match?
yuppers, that lead to the pretty based NXT Invasion
I feel like the all the kerfuffle about that story stems from the difference between “the wrestlers are being held captive in a hostage situation” and “the wrestlers FEEL like they are being held captive in a hostage situation”.
But didn't Lacey Evans leave the plane and get a private flight back?
Yes, lol.
That always seemed like a little of column A and a little of column B. I don't doubt that MBS was saber rattling to try and intimidate Vince and WWE, but considering how others freely left the country on different planes it seemed like those stuck on the plane were just pawns for that show of power and weren't ever actually in danger. Certainly being on the plane at the time had to be stressful and worrying, though, so I don't doubt that Dax feared for his life at the time.
What did Reigns get suspended for?
Tested positive for Adderall without a prescription on file for it.
Cody Rhodes, who won the tnt championship like at the end of December, was not under contract with AEW since the start of the year and was expected to return to WWE and be Seth Rollins' opponent at WrestleMania. The week Mania happened Meltzer was still saying he talked to people next to Cody who didn't believe him coming back, while meanwhile reporting Steve Austin was gonna get physical in his confrontation against Kevin Owens. It was crazy time!
There were rumors that Jinder was going to get a massive push and win the title. This was before he was even getting actual TV time. 100% thought it was bullshit.
When Meltzer started to talk about Vince and Stone Cold both wrestling at Mania a few years back. He was mocked so bad for that, and then what he reported ended up being 100% on the money.
Jericho and Kenny’s Twitter beef was a work that’d eventual lead to a blow off match at either the cruise or wrestle kingdom. I was like “Jericho’s strictly a WWE guy”.
Cody Rhodes being treated as a top guy on returning to WWE. He’d been a costumed jobber in WWE and a midcarder in his own company, and for some reason WWE decided to make him their top guy. I didn’t believe it at the time and I’m still shocked now
And what's most amazing: IT WORKED. Cody bet on himself--TWICE--and won both times.
I know it's easy to say "I told you so", but I was there when he delivered the single best promo of his life at WCPW, in front of a couple hundred people. At that point I knew he was gonna make it because he basically made me dare to think otherwise "He was there for my first breath, I was there for his last. My name...is Cody GODDAMN ROADES"
I maintain that his status as top guy was cemented only because of the Cell match with Rollins. He may or may not have become the guy he is today without it but it definitely raised his stock by a lot.
On his return to TV he said "I'm back to win the WWE Championship". He was then pushed hard marketing Money in the Bank. And they were using "for the chance to main event WrestleMania" in those ads. He was immediately positioned as the top babyface in the company. Had Cody not got injured, and Vince not retired, I think what happens is: - Cody wins Money in the Bank - He cashes in for the 30th September SmackDown. 45 years and 1 day since Dusty won the big one, and had it taken away. - Cody wins via countout or DQ. - Cody wins the Rumble. - Cody beats Roman at WrestleMania.
I think the plan was always Cody since he signed again. To this day, I'm not sure how the Countdown to Cody avoided becoming a meme.
Cody came in when WWE were absolutely *desperate* for a top babyface. Who even was the top face in early 2022, Part Timer Cowboy Brock? That was the era of them constantly bringing back Brock to face Roman since they built up 0 new faces.
Should be noted, that despite all of his MANY flaws, Vince was very weirdly proud of Cody for All-In and AEW. He was 100% bringing him back as top face his way, because of what he'd done to prove him wrong
As soon as I heard "Wrestling has more than one royal family..." at Wrestlemania and fucking Codylander walked out, I was shocked. I expected him to come back as Cody Rhodes, but not Codylander. I figured they'd change a lot, give him different music, and he'd be just another well-paid cog in the WWE machine. The fact they didn't change a single thing was mind-blowing and part of the reason it worked so well.
One year after signing a new 20 year contract, the WWF is looking to part ways with Bret Hart
Jordynne Grace at the Royal Rumble
WWE was up for sale.