______________________________________________________________________ __ __ __ __ _ ____ | | | | | \ | | | |/ _ \ | | | | | \ | | | / \ | | |/\| | | \| | | | | | | | | |\ | | | | | | /\ | | | \ | |__| |_| |__/ \__| |__| \__| [ n a i d O ' s - W r e s t l i n g - N e w s ] Edition 213 December 10, 2000 "I get the news, so you don't have to." ______________________________________________________________________ [Official newsletter & complement to:] http://www.naidOsWorld.com To subscribe: naidoswrestlingnews-subscribe@egroups.com To unsubscribe: naidoswrestlingnews-unsubscribe@egroups.com ______________________________________________________________________ [Table of contents] **Note from naidO **TOP NEWS STORY **Latest news from the WWF, WCW & ECW **[Article] Open Letter to Brad Siegel **[Column] Random Thoughts **Parting chair shot ______________________________________________________________________ [Note from naidO] Hello to those just joining. Tell your friends about the BEST up and coming newsletter around to subscribe today! - As usual, Sunday is a slow news day but that's to be expected. However, Former WCW and WWF wrestler Tom Zenk has written a fairly interesting piece below. It's quite a read. **Until tomorrow, enjoy this latest edition of nWN! - naidO nWN Founder - http://www.geocities.com/naidosnews ______________________________________________________________________ [TOP NEWS STORY] **In a surprise announcement today in Los Angeles, Antonio Inoki announced that the main event of the New Years Eve show at the Osaka Dome would be Keiji Muto & Nobuhiko Takada vs. Ken Shamrock & Don Frye. The announcement was made at a press conference attended by Muto and Takada at the Meridian Hotel. It's a strange match on a card which only has one other match announced, a singles match with Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Kendo Ka Shin. It's interesting to see Shamrock, who has only done one traditional style pro wrestling match in Japan (a match with Vader on an FMW Kawasaki Stadium show) since the formation of Pancrase, although he did what amounted to pro wrestling matches in that organization, and Sakuraba, the leading shootfighter in the world in his weight, who started out as a pro wrestler with the UWFI organization and only began shooting when that company went down, involved with pro wrestling. Muto vs. Takada was at its time in late 1995 and early 1996, a headline match that drew two Tokyo Dome sellouts and two of the largest gates in the history of pro wrestling. The two have never formed a tag team since their famous program. Shamrock and Frye is an even stranger team, because Frye has been attempting to promote a grudge match on a shoot show against Shamrock for more than one year. Shamrock always maintained because of how Frye handled it, that he would never do the fight because he wasn't going to allow Frye the payoff. Frye was in the corner of Kazuyuki Fujita on 8/27 when he upset Shamrock at the Seibu Dome. Logic would say that the two would do a split-up angle to build for a program in Japan, based on a real- life program. (Dave Meltzer) ______________________________________________________________________ [News from the WWF] **The Holly cousins will be hosting tomorrow's RAW Is WAR party at WWF NY. **More than 2,000 angry people stormed Earls Court in London, England yesterday after they found out that they had been misinformed about the on-sale time of WWF InsurreXtion tickets, resulting in them being shut out of the sold out event. Everyone who showed up at the box office was under the impression that the tickets would not go on sale until 9 o'clock Saturday morning, but then learned that 15,000 tickets had been sold over the internet on Friday. **The latest line-up for the WWF Armageddon PPV tonight: - Kurt Angle vs. Rock vs. HHH vs. Rikishi vs. Undertaker vs. Steve Austin in the Hell in a Cell match - Billy Gunn vs. Chris Benoit IC title - Chris Jericho vs. Kane - Four-way for the tag team title with Bull Buchanan & Goodfather vs. Road Dogg & K.Kwick vs. Dudleys vs. Edge & Christian - Perry Saturn & Dean Malenko & Eddy Guerrero vs. Hardys & Lita (this may be an elimination match) - Molly Holly vs. Trish Stratus vs. Ivory for womens title - William Regal vs. Hardcore Holly for European title - Val Venis vs. Chyna - Lo Down & Tiger Ali Singh vs. Steve Blackman & Too Cool (Cred: Ultimo Wrestling) _______________ [News from WCW] **As rumblings of Chavo Guerrero Jr's possible jump to the WWF to join uncle Eddie arose, WCW began to push him and gave him the Cruiserweight Title in an effort to try and convince him to stay with the Atlanta-based promotion. Only time will tell if it works or not. Don't be surprised to see Jeff Jarrett vs. Kidman on Nitro this coming Tuesday. On the last 2 episodes of Nitro, we have seen Jarrett vs. Rey Mysterio Jr and then Jarrett vs. Konnan, and WCW are probably saving the best match of the series for the last edition before Starrcade. WCW.com has also announced that it will be Lance Storm and Major Gunns vs. The Cat and Miss Jones on Nitro. **Terry Bollea was on Bubba the Love Sponge this morning doing nothing but complimenting Vince McMahon and stroking McMahon's ego, his booking, his creativity. He really tried to hint he was going to the WWF when his WCW contract expires in March. He did nothing but run down WCW. According to the report, he went on and on about rims for his seven cares, restaurant tabs he picks up, his fat checks he gets fed-exed for sitting home by WCW and sounded terribly insecure, like a guy screaming, I'm rich and I wrestled Andre before 93,000 fans. (Cred: Ultimo Wrestling, Bruce Ford) _______________ [News from ECW] **Nothing at this time. (Cred: ) __________________ [In other news...] **Top Ten Billboard Video's in the Category of Sports and Recreation 12/16/00 1. MLB: World Series 2000 (Last week: 1) USA 2. The Rock: The People's Champ (Last week: 3) WWF 3. Eve of Destruction (Last week: 5) WWF 4. Tables, Ladders and Chairs (Last week: 4) WWF 5. Tony Hawk - Skateboarding Trick Tips - Volume 1 (Last week: 2) RLE 6. Ken Burns Baseball (Last week: 7) PBS 7. Chris Jericho: Break Down The Walls (Last week: 6) WWF 6. Ken Burns Baseball (Last week: 7) PBS 8. Kurt Angle: It's True, It's True (Last week: 8) WWF 9. Divas - Post Cards from The Caribbean (Last week: 9) WWF 10.Path of Destruction (Last week: 10) ECW **Bret Hart's latest commentary is up. Here's a passage: It's always been a challenge to find the time to write to you each week, what with my crazy schedule. You'd think now that I'm retired, I could kick back. Well, that hasn't happened yet, and so, of course, it's 2:30 on Friday afternoon and I just sat down to write. To read the rest, click http://www.canoe.ca/SlamWrestling/hitman_home.html (Cred: 1Wrestling, SLAM!) ______________________________________________________________________ [Article] Open Letter to Brad Siegel The following is an open letter written by former WWF and WCW wrestler Tom Zenk to WCW Executive Vice President Brad Siegel: December 8, 2000 Dear Brad, Re the rumoured sell off of WCW to a Bischoff consortium, I'd like to: (a) draw your attention to the following questions, which WCW may later be required to publicly respond to, and, (b) make a few suggestions on a possibly revamped wrestling show for TBS. Re: the Bischoff buyout - (1) Are there potential conflict of interests issues involved in the rumored sale of WCW at a depressed price to a former employee (or current consultant) who is widely regarded as having made the company unprofitable in the first place? (2) How much did Time-Warner shareholders lose as a consequence of the recent settlement of the WCW-WWF lawsuit? Is any action contemplated against WCW staff responsible for actions leading to the suit? (3) Does the current sale proposal raise potential issues of fiduciary duty to shareholders - that is, does the deal achieve the best possible return for shareholders? (4) Has the company been undervalued through failure to use its complete roster to produce a high rating, high value product? In particular, why is 'Hollywood Hogan' paid a reported $4 million a year to stay at home instead of working to enhance the company's product? Why is Dustin Rhodes paid a reported $750,000 to stay at home instead of working to enhance the company's product? How many other wrestlers are similarly paid exorbitant salaries while contributing nothing to the company's product. Is anything being done to recover those moneys for alternative investment or distribution to Time-Warner shareholders as dividends? If this sale is to go ahead, can I suggest that you consider: 1) Selling off a stripped-down WCW. Use the opportunity to get rid of unproductive staff; refuse to sign a no-compete clause with the Bischoff consortium and encourage Turner to start afresh, producing their own New Generation TV wrestling show, with its own distinctive TV wrestling style. 2) Appoint a competent leader to the company. Leadership involves a vision and bringing the best talent forward to help achieve that vision. And once they've made their contribution, move them to the back, and allow someone else to carry the promotion forward. 3) Create a cycle to the top for those who can keep the fans' interest. Provide top spots only for those who draw for the company - no more neighborly love or Daddy's boys. Clearly that doesn't work!! The next boss of WCW MUST be able to fuse traditional wrestling culture with modern corporate management to ensure both profit and quality wrestling. But traditional wrestling culture should be restricted to the locker-room. That means: (a) Encouraging a return to paying dues, jobbing to put other talent over, and putting the company first. That way, everyone benefits. In effect, a new wrestling ethic based on altruism over ego to replace kayfabe, which seems to have almost disappeared. (b) Reappoint some of the workers that Bischoff discarded, to help pass on skills to the new generation and act as their mentors. Beyond that, wrestling management and working conditions should be thoroughly modernized. This means: (i) No more independent contracting - employee status will take care of a blanket of problems; wrestlers to get the same basic entitlements as any other employee of the Time/Warner company; (ii) Merit-induced pay and fewer big paying contracts - meaning fewer layers of separation between top talent and the undercard. Both are putting in time and taking bumps. Both are essential to the final product; (iii) Clear rules in the employee contract and the same rules for everyone; (iv) Basic health plan; 401k retirement plan; employer contributions of taxes and workman's compensation insurance as required by State and Federal law; (v) As far as possible, remove contributory causes for drug abuse and apply a comprehensible and enforceble drugs policy; (vi) Finance the company commensurate with what it is - the second ranking wrestling show in the US, with a target rating audience of around 3.0. Summary: To succeed, a revamped TBS wrestling show should fuse the best of wrestling tradition with the best of modern corporate management techniques. Arguably, WWF is already halfway down the road to this fusion. Yet in 10 years, with all of Turner's money and business savvy, no one has managed to achieve this at TBS. Instead WCW has either been controlled by carnies who refused to work with 'corporates' or, more recently, corporates and marks who've been suckered by the carnies. As a result, WCW fumbled the opportunity to modernize and professionalize its product. In a year or so from now, the Bischoff consortium will probably be out of business, and TBS left without wrestling product. There is a better way. Yours sincerely. Z-Man Tom Zenk. (The Law) ______________________________________________________________________ [Column] Random Thoughts - by naidO WWF Raw is WAR: **WOW!! A clean pin! **Oh look...RTC versus the Hardy Boys again **Yippie! it's "The One who always blows up" Billy Gunn! **Nice haircut Kevin Kelly **At least we didn't have to hear them rap! **What's with the King tonight on Gore...I DON'T CARE! **Lita/Dean...why? **Oh look...a new Austin t-shirt! **Ha ha...Vince still has that tobacky on his shoulder! **Welcome back Vince WCW Monday Nitro **Nice "WWF" sign there behihnd you chief **The Canadian Maple Leaf has never looked better than on Gunn's bosom **Ohhhh...Ms. Ms. Jones! **Now that's a very TIGHT shirt on Ms. Mamaluke **How long is this Lex thing going to go on? **Hehe...Shannon Moore has braces **Wait, they were serious about the "Insiders" name? **I'm sorry, did they thing we liked Mayhem? What's with all the return matches? **Did he deserve that spear or what? **"Luchadore with implants" - Madden. Now THAT'S funny! ______________________________________________________________________ [Parting Chair Shot] Remember, tell your friends about nWN - naidO's Wrestling News today! **Missed any TV Shows? Go to the following link to read the results: http://www.naidosworld.com/tvshows.html Also, be sure to check out the NEW internet home of nWN, http://www.geocities.com/naidosnews for all your archived stats, tv shows, wrestling links, terms and PPV's, and most of all PICTURES! - naidO nWN Founder ______________________________________________________________________ [Affiliates] **http://green_mist.homestead.com **BECOME AN AFFILIATE OF nWN and make it your official newsletter!! Email naido@h... with your website's address for consideration. ______________________________________________________________________ [News gathering links] **Dave Scherer, Buck Woodward, Bob Ryder @ http://www.1wrestling.com **Dave Meltzer, Zach Arnold @ http://www.wrestlingobserver.com **Chris Clarke, Jeff Pollock @ http://www.liveaudiowrestling.com **Blake Wolfson @ http://www.ultimowrestling.com ______________________________________________________________________ [Ads] ESW - Come to the number one Internet Wresting Federtion on the face of the Earth! http://www.geocities.com/the_esw The ESW! Extremely Suicidal Wrestling. We even have a womens title, and you can pick any WWF superstar you like! ______________________________________________________________________ [nWN Staff] Founder & Editor: naidO - naido@h... Columnist: Sam Jerry - SAMJERRY@a... Columnist: The Vile - stoncold@b... Columnist: Ted Cabata - tcabata@r... ______________________________________________________________________ [Disclaimer] naidO's Wrestling News was founded on April 30, 2000 and is owned and operated by naidO. He, nor this newsletter is in no way, shape, or form affiliated with World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, Turner Broadcasting's World Championship Wrestling, Extreme Championship Wrestling, or any other wrestling organization. Nor the people (staff members), wrestlers, or any other talent in the wrestling. News is gathered from various sources around the net, including newsgroups and are believed to be of public domain and truthful (uh huh). As long as proper credit is given it exempts nWN and it's staff. I (naidO) am just promoting their organization/website. nWN is not responsible for content on affiliate websites or where they may link to including mp3's, warez, kiddie porn and/or other unlawful content. This exempts myself & this newsletter (nWN) from all legal disputes. Anything taken from this newsletter requires written consent from naidO Copyright © 2000 naidO. All Rights Reserved