BUSINESS TRENDS OVER THE YEARS



WORLD WRESTLING FEDERATION



HOUSE SHOW AVERAGE ATTENDANCE

'95 '96 '97 '98 '99 '00

January 2,900 4,890 6,843 7,603 11,195 11,801

February 3,590 6,070 4,633 9,464 14,082 11,842

March 3,190 6,553 5,678 10,363 13,404 11,894

April 3,530 4,485 5,425 7,920 12,894 12,438

May 3,440 5,890 5,421 9,382 11,447 11,997

June 3,000 5,028 5,687 9,568 12,216 12,028

July 2,980 4,733 6,343 9,549 12,317 12,263

August 2,300 5,520 5,359 11,311 12,243 11,010

September1,940 3,872 4,348 8,526 8,593 11,053

October 3,170 4,133 6,122 11,084 11,862 10,947

November 3,200 3,861 7,440 12,341 11,981 9,890

December 3,230 3,500 6,616 12,963 11,974 10,353



Yr. avg 3,039 4,881 5,826 10,006 12,017 11,460





WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP WRESTLING



HOUSE SHOW AVERAGE ATTENDANCE

'95 '96 '97 '98 '99 '00

January 2,060 3,050 5,494 8,203 8,661 3,593

February 1,960 3,830 3,823 6,879 8,814 3,567

March 2,040 3,720 5,548 8,512 7,934 1,896

April 1,580 3,790 6,024 7,018 6,876 2,370

May ---- 2,750 4,348 6,379 5,752 2,631

June 2,400 4,070 6,678 8,579 5,874 3,204

July 2,890 3,200 5,346 10,359 5,453 2,432

August 1,800 2,492 5,224 7,879 5,392 2,385

September 2,140 3,454 6,811 8,086 3,155 2,101

October 2,930 2,963 3,944 7,559 4,628 1,746

November 2,750 4,037 4,777 6,654 4,434 3,469

December 2,730 3,911 7,649 10,243 3,593 2,726



Yr. avg. 2,207 3,439 5,472 8,029 5,511 2,677



For the year, WWF remained at strong levels, but there are the noticeable signs the core business has past its peak. Attendance dropped 4.6% over the course of the year. However, live arena business increased to an average of $330,588 per show due to ticket price increases across the board that more than made up for the drop in attendance, up 15.4% from $286,495 last year and nearly doubling the $188,482 from 1998. WWF now averages $28.85 per ticket, up from $23.84 per ticket in 1999 and $18.84 per ticket in 1998. WWF played to 53% sellouts in 2000, which was down from 63% sellouts the previous year. However, business has declined more noticeably at the arenas from August to December, although not to levels one should worry about too much, averaging 10,651 and 44% sellouts.

PPV was up from a 1.25 average buy rate to a 1.34 average buy rate, a 7% increase. Considering that Royal Rumble, traditionally the second best PPV draw of the year (last year it was third as the Austin at return at Backlash beat it out), only did a 1.35, it is very likely that number isn't going to hold this year.

Raw for the year averaged a 5.88 rating, down only 3% from the 6.04 of last year. Breaking it down, it was a 6.17 average on USA and a 5.03 average on TNN. That can't all be blamed on the network switch, as the decline started in August, two months before the switch and much of it is attributable to competing against football. In 1998, when WWF was growing in popularity, football had no affect on Raw, as it did a 4.66 before football and a 4.74 against football. But last year, Raw was averaging a 6.57 before football and dropped to a 5.84 once football started (-.73), so one can blame probably blame, of the 1.14 ratings points drop with the move to TNN, about two-thirds on football and one-third to the switch to TNN. Nitro last year dropped from a 3.75 average before football started to a 3.18 against football (although of that .57 drop, some should be attributed to Vince Russo). This year Nitro averaged a 2.72 in the months preceding football and dropped to a 2.54 against football, although with Nitro pretty well down to the core audience of real die-hards, football isn't going to have the affect it would on a mainstream product like the WCW of 1999 or Raw of this year. So overall wrestling averaged a 1.32 ratings point drop when football season started, very little of which returned after football ended. One should also note that Raw's numbers should have increased significantly over the year as opposed to slightly dropping, because the second hour went unopposed all year, while in 1999, Nitro was competing with the second hour of Raw as well as the first.

WCW was a disaster this year, with attendance being cut more than in half, a total of 51%, coming off a 46% decline the previous year. WCW averaged $70,188 per house show, down from $142,669, also down 51% as the average ticket price remained basically constant, $25.89 in 1999 and $26.22 this year. Nitro averaged a 4.47 rating in 1998, slightly beating the WWF's Raw for the year (4.40). It dropped to 3.66 last year, and to 2.68 this year, or a 27% drop in a year where the number should have increased with the show being cut from three hours to two. Last year's 3.66 was over three hours which means the theoretical advertising income points for a weekly Nitro episode was 10.98 ratings points while this year it was 5.36 ratings points, which means, all things being equal (and if anything, they are worse than equal because WCW had even more of a loser stigma last year and was no longer a hot property that advertisers would seek out), that advertising from television on Nitro, a major revenue source for both WCW and Time Warner, was cut in half at the same time production costs for much of the year increased because of attempting to do more with the show outside the arena setting. In 1998, WCW sold out 49% of its house shows, dropping to 15% in 1999. In 2000, the company sold out exactly one show domestically (it did some sellouts on international tours), and it was back in January.

Buy rates fell from an 0.93 average in 1998 to 0.55 in 1999 all the way down to 0.17, a 69% drop in the company's main revenue stream over the course of one year. So with house show revenue cut in half, advertising revenue cut in half or more, and PPV revenue cut in less than one-third, one can see how $15 million in losses can add up to $65 million the next year.

All Japan actually increased its spot show attendance in a very tumultuous year from 2,158 fans per show to 2,232 fans per show, a 3% increase. Overall the company decreased because in 1999 they ran a Tokyo Dome show which drew more than 55,000 fans, which changes the average quite a bit. In comparing the pre and post period of all the talent leaving, they were averaging 2,560 per show before the guys left (19% up) and and 1,959 after they left (9% down), which, all things considered, should be called a miracle. The fact the decline wasn't worse can be attributed to sympathy, but the sympathy has pretty well run out and this year is going to be a lot tougher. They played to 35% packed houses this year, down from 37% the previous year. The TV show was doing a 3.71 average on Sunday nights in the old time slot, almost identical to the 3.69 it did last year. Even with the fantastic numbers considering it aired after midnight on Sundays, because the numbers, like with wrestling everywhere in the world, doesn't translate into equivalent sponsor buys, Nippon TV moved it to Wednesday after midnight where the rating cut in half to 1.88 before the show was canceled in the wake of the promotional split. NOAH will pick up the show in April after after it has been off the year for nearly a full year in that form (a weekly wrestling news show has aired in the time slot virtually every week) but in the harder to draw Wednesday late night slot.

New Japan's regular spot show business dropped to 3,794 per show, down 3% from 3,911 in 1999 and from 4,124 the previous year. The sellout percentage dropped from 43.6% to 35.3%. New Japan TV ratings showed an increase to a 3.48 rating, up 6% from last year. Ratings last year are up 32% from what the show did in the same time slot in 1999, at a time when house show business was noticeably higher and the belief was the company was hotter, so go figure. Not only that, but until the end of this year, the quality of the TV was way down over previous years as for the first time probably in the history of the company, the early part of this year, except for the occasional big shows, the TV was boring. What seems to have been the pattern is the weekly TV on average was down, but big shows as far as TV audience when the real hyped matches took place, were way up.

The XFL went from television's penthouse to its outhouse in record time as ratings plummeted on NBC to the point the entire league is already being labeled, just two weeks in, a major failure in most circles.

It got so bad, that on 2/12, just eight days after the initial ratings for opening night came in at well above the levels even the most optimistic in NBC expected, that emergency meetings were held after an embarrassing show with a tremendous finish went 45 minutes long due to an alleged generator problem, an injury, and a double overtime.

The prime time rating fell from a 9.49 to a 4.4 on NBC (I believe with the 45 minutes past prime time that actually did better with the close game in double overtime, the final NBC number was a 4.6), going from first place to last place in the prime time race over the course of one week. At press time we don't have the UPN final number, but it appears to be in the 2.0 range as the overnights dropped 33% (4.2 to 2.8) and last week did a 3.08, again putting it in last place among all network programming and even dueling even head-to-head with Sunday Night Heat. The TNN debut, heavily hyped virtually 24/7 on the network, finished with a 2.4 (a scary figure since RollerJam, with one-fiftieth the amount of promotion, debuted on the same network at 1.7). That would combine give them 8.8 to 9.0 ratings points, already below the 10.0 the XFL had promised advertisers as the season average, basically if they were going to consistently decline, they are at week six or seven level in week two.

There was already much opposition internally at NBC Sports to going into bed with Vince McMahon due to his reputation, so much so that the bigwigs from NBC Sports like the "A" level announcers steered clear of the XFL, leaving the announcing in the hands of basically pro wrestling announcers and a rank amateur who was a cult figures from another era in Brian Bosworth. When the second game forced Saturday Night Live's biggest show of the year, with Jennifer Lopez as host, to start at 12:15 a.m. on the East Coast, causing the expected near 10 rating for the show to come in at a 6.3, its lowest rating of the year, Executive Producer Lorne Michaels was furious. It was reported in many circles including the New York Times that had Lopez not been there and so much promotion been done for the show, he was willing to shut the show down and tell NBC to just put a taped show in its place. It should be noted that Michaels should have been pleased the previous week as the XFL strong opening week combined with showing a tape of the SNL with The Rock had drawn a tremendous number for a rerun, the previous week.

Jeff Zucker, the President of NBC Entertainment said to the New York Times the next day that "we are absolutely not abandoning the XFL," and that "We are absolutely committed to it for the full season." That last statement was scary, because it seemed to indicate the three year commitment of two weeks ago is now down to 11 more weeks. With the announcers being excoriated and the product being viewed as a laughing stock almost universally, it has led to significant drops in the public opinion, particularly among women, in Minnesota over Jesse Ventura's involvement. But even with Ventura being his trademark ill-prepared, he was hardly the embarrassment that Bosworth is in the same role on the UPN game or that Jerry Lawler was on the back-up game where Lawler clearly had no clue how to announce a football game and hardly the knowledge enough to analyze even though he is a huge football fan, coming across reminiscent of Bobby Heenan did a decade ago when Vince made the call to have him co-announce the World Bodybuilding Championship PPV fiasco. But most important as it pertained by both Ventura and Lawler, hired for their entertainment ability, is neither was the slightest bit entertaining or funny. Matt Vasgersian, who had become a sympathetic media figure as last week went on, even though his first week performance was bad, but he had the background of being a baseball announcer and was being replaced by a wrestling announcer (Jim Ross). In the nearly one quarter that aired, Vasgersian, without Vince McMahon in his ear, was much improved.

The second week was a comedy of errors that actually started the previous night with The Rock on Jay Leno. Johnson, who hasn't come across embarrassing in public since his ascension to stardom, on the show didn't know the nickname of the Chicago team in the game he was on the show to plug (Enforcers) the next day, which became painfully obvious. Brought in to give the huge wrestling audience that watched the NBC game the first week, but not the UPN game, some familiarity, Rock did an embarrassing diatribe in Rock-speak telling the suits in the NFL to stick it up their candy asses while there was a sparse crowd in the background, explained on television as being late arriving. Rock also, despite his own background as a college player and in his day was probably equivalent a player as some of the marginal guys in the league, had little to say when brought in at halftime, praising the guys for playing for "peanuts." At halftime, in the middle of the sentence, he paused and did his trademark, "they're chanting the Rock's name," and you really didn't hear a chant at all, although there was a decipherable murmur. They switched to a quick crowd shot, which, instead of seeing people chant the Rock's name, they were laughing.

Stephanie McMahon, no longer a Helmsley, did the attempt at a WWF angle that so was poor and unintentionally hilarious, it seemed right out of the WCW playbook. First, Ventura told us that Jamie Milanovich, the wife of the back-up quarterback for the Los Angeles Xtreme, was five days overdue, and was in the stands watching her husband, and the great moment could occur at any moment. They cut to Stephanie (who replaced the even worse Dara Torres and Carol Grow as the female voice in the stands), reverting back her whitebread early 1999 wrestling character, standing under a helicopter, ready to transport Jamie to the hospital in the event she goes into labor. Stephanie said she was four days overdue. Later in the show, when Milanovich himself was being interviewed about the same subject, and blew it off since the game was on and he was concentrating on that, we found out that Jamie was actually at home.

Then there was the generator blow-out, causing NBC to switch to Vasgersian and Lawler in Orlando for the Rage against the San Francisco Demons for 33 minutes while the Coliseum filled up. At least nobody from the XFL tried to insinuate the problem was due to sabotage from the NFL (remember Eric Bischoff during a power failure on Nitro a few years ago). The credibility started falling when the announcers talked about the sellout last week in Orlando when they never opened the upper deck and claimed a similar sized crowd for the second game. They were actually down 11,500 to 25,049--which did keep the league's streak of every game drawing at least 25,000 although no word on paid vs. paper and how accurate the announced crowds were. The New York media was reporting that in the Hitmen opener the next night which drew 35,000, that there were 5,000 to 10,000 in the stands by late in the game as people were leaving in droves in what was actually a close game for the home opener. In Los Angeles, credibility was stretched when the Xtreme two days before the game announced it was sold out and people were laughing because they claimed 38,000 tickets sold in a 95,000 seat stadium was a sellout. Then, at game time, the Coliseum was sparsely filled, although by the time they came back from the generator problem, they had a healthy enough crowd to look decent for television and announced the number at a believable 35,813.

Throughout the weekend, the 35-second play clock, an idea on paper that seemed to work the first week to speed up the game, made the game come off amateurish. There were far too many delay of game penalties and a few untimely time outs all weekend called because teams couldn't get the play off in time. The NBC emergency meeting to speed up the game by changing the rules, keeping the game clock running during change of possessions and starting the clock faster on incomplete passes as well as starting the games themselves five minutes earlier. But it only adds to the league's lack of sports credibility when a league takes the pro wrestling approach of changing the rules as they go along.

Ross was going to be destroyed in the media for announcing no matter what, between his pro wrestling delivery, the fact McMahon wants the announcers to be shills praising the XFL ad nauseam (how many times to we hear that there's no fair catches, like every single punt in every single game), and killing Ventura's credibility with his constant knocking of the NFL when there was not one way, not entertainment, not quality of play, nor production, announcing or anything, that this product was anywhere close to the NFL. After the knocks by the wrestling announcers, when talking about the critics and Dick Butkus was brought in for an interview, Butkus, taking the football people approach, claimed that he couldn't understand why the critics were so harsh because he said nobody ever claimed they would be as good as the NFL. At another point, Ventura, trying to get over the oft-repeated but rarely lived up to tag of smash-mouth football, made himself look stupid by saying how the quarterback isn't allowed to slide and how they don't have pansy quarterbacks who avoid a hit in the XFL. Late in the game, when a quarterback slid to avoid a hit, Ventura sheepishly said they made him out to be a liar.

There were so many mistakes in approach this week it was scary. First off, McMahon drew the huge first week audience based mainly on teenagers and young adults who are WWF fans--75 percent of the first night audience called themselves WWF fans. He promised the WWF mixed with football, but then didn't provide them with WWF quality of entertainment and thus the tune-out factor as the first game went on was huge, which was the ominous sign even when the first numbers came in strong. Instead of increasing the outside the field entertainment, perhaps spooked by the critics (to the point that while insinuating the most violent football in ads before the season started, the acquiesced to potential knocking of the league by not airing any clips of an apparently brutal injury), they largely eliminated it, which should have, but didn't please the critics of the first game, but this league has no prayer to make it unless it draws non-football fans. They had less cheerleader shots than the first week. They made fewer gambling references, and didn't interview half drunk fans in the stands about whether they had bet on the game. In a sense, while all that was probably good, by presenting nothing but a bad football game with generally bad announcing that everyone was considering a bad joke, that isn't a recipe for success. There was only one pro wrestling interview, by Jamaal Dupp, giving himself the stage name of "Death Blow," and he came off as that embarrassing indie level wrestler promo. There was an 11-minute delay when Octavious Bishop broke his leg in two places, which they decided against airing a clip of the injury. They did have Kat strip down to a teeny bikini at the Memphis game.

A huge mistake they made was playing up how little the players were earning, which made it come off like a cheap game show, and giving their regular occupations as opposed to hyping their athletic background. People watch pro sports to see larger then life stars who can do things that they themselves can't do and have special talents. The strategy of making these every day guys, not making much money, made it seem even more like semi-pro ball, like the downplaying of actual NFL credentials that many of the players actually have in favor of saying they were roofers and algebra teachers who went to training camp without getting paid any money, which only made the league look even more minor league.

The first week, the WWF had its solace. They could say the criticism didn't matter, use the line that bad publicity is good publicity, and claim the critics were eggheads out of touch with the public, using the all important ratings as their holy grail. The second week, the holy grail that determines everything, seemed to indicate the critics, who largely predicted the big drop, knew more than those in control of the destiny of the league, which is a hard pill to swallow for a company used to using ratings--we appeal to the public--not the critics, as their justification.

Can it be saved? I don't know. It seems the big drop the second week indicated that the prime first week audience, the wrestling fans, weren't satisfied. If it doesn't drop from this level, it would be considered not a failure, but not a success either, but USFL history shows the drop doesn't end after the first week. Trying to attract the wrestling audience will alienate the football audience and be a black eye for the network which after one week of declining numbers was already in an emergency meeting about the project. But that is McMahon and the WWF's expertise and the hail Mary to save it. The plan seems to be to start building the personalities, highlighting a few guys on each team to try and get them over with the "common man" theme, and it is expected there will be more changes in how the games will be presented. Without it, as the next USFL, you can learn from history. Opened at 14.2, a 7.4 by the second week, and being down to 3.3 by the end of the first season.

More important from a wrestling standpoint, but what does success or failure mean for McMahon's core product? Success would enable Vince McMahon to be viewed as the greatest sports promoter of our time. He bucked the trend of falling sports ratings with a minor league product and marketed it to the public, which bought it. Failure. Vince becomes the guy who is good at promoting wrestling, who was a failure when he left his familiar world and tried to play in the so-called real world. For McMahon, how he is viewed by the movers and shakers of this world, who don't give a rats ass about pro wrestling other than this quirky entertainment form that is around but is this fad thing they expect will go away, but certainly care about football, will be determined by this venture. And psychologically, what are the other effects of failure. Of course, like Antonio Inoki, Vince McMahon will always come back in this world. If he's knocked down. He'll get up. But McMahon and the WWF's most loyal followers are not used to also being knocked down. Paul Heyman managed to create a scapegoat in TNN to keep his loyal followers from having to accept the fact that, financially, no matter how much noise 1,400 people could make in a small building, the product didn't fly economically. The realization that, if this goes down hard, that by their own standards--the ratings--that McMahon's critics this time had the last laugh in his most high profile venture of his life, will be a tough pill for many people to swallow.

With competition coming from the Espy awards on ESPN and the Dog show on USA, pro wrestling dropped down to 7.5 million viewers--the lowest figure in many years. Raw did a 4.77 rating (4.40 first hour; 5.11 second hour) and a 7.2 share. Nitro tied its all-time record low for a live show with a 2.08 rating (2.32 first hour--the lowest unopposed hour in the history of the show on a Monday and a 1.84 second hour) and a 2.9 share.

Raw peaked with the Rock vs. Rikishi main event doing a 5.29 rating, with HHH vs. Billy Gunn at 5.20. Angle & Raven vs. Show & Rios only finished fifth on the night at 4.94, barely beating out the opposed Undertaker & Kane vs. Edge & Christian match.

Head-to-head saw Raw open at 3.93 (The long interview with HHH, Stephanie, Rock and Rikishi) to 2.03 (ending of Rick Steiner vs. Rhodes, beginning of Kidman vs. Skipper); Raw at 4.28 (ending of the long interview with Austin getting involved, Jericho vs. Guerrero) to 1.59 (Kidman vs. Skipper--a terrible number for the best match on either show); Raw at 4.62 (Hardys & Lita vs. Benoit & Saturn & Terri) to 1.74 (Stasiak vs. Palumbo, Page/Jarrett angle beginning) and Raw at 4.75 (Edge & Christian vs. Undertaker & Kane) to 2.00 (ending of Jarrett/Kanyon/Page angle, Scott Steiner vs. Nash).

Smackdown on 2/8 did a 4.02 rating and a 6 share on the very competitive Thursday night which included Survivor at 17.4, Friends at 13.9, CSI at 13.8, Millionaire at 11.7, etc.

Thunder on 2/7 did a 1.99 rating and 3 share.

For the weekend of 2/10-11, Live Wire did a 1.2, Superstars did a 1.2 and Heat did a 2.05 rating and 3 share.

The Lucha Libre block on Galavision on 2/6 drew a 1.5 Hispanic rating.

Matches confirmed for No Way Out 2/25 in Las Vegas are Austin vs. HHH in a best of three series with the first fall being a straight wrestling match, the second fall being a street fight and the third fall being a cage match, Angle vs. Rock for the title, Dudleys vs. E&C vs. Undertaker & Kane in a three-way for the tag titles and Stephanie vs. Trish. There will probably be three more matches added, because they would likely need to give both main events a lot of time

Raw from the Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, NJ on 2/12 was a decent show. Nothing terribly bad, but nothing great either. Show opened with the dreaded 18 minute interview. Rock came out and guaran-damn-teed he'd be winning the title from Angle at No Way Out. If he does, I don't want to read any moronic comments about it being predictable. What would be smarter for box office, swerving everyone with Angle vs. Austin at Mania or Rock vs. Austin? Rikishi came out. Luckily he only got to speak for a minute, hardly long enough to kill the segment, before Austin came out. Rock attacked HHH. Rikishi attacked Rock and Austin from behind. Jericho beat Guerrero via DQ in an IC title match when X-Pac returned for the DQ. Basic TV quickie, but it was good. HHH asked Rikishi to lay down against Rock so he could pick the stips. Man, no wrestler in the WWF would ever lay down, but you can't blame a guy for trying. HHH was about to attack Rikishi when Haku walked through the door and he had second thoughts. Someone somewhere needs to explain to the other 99.9% of the viewing audience that doesn't talk to wrestlers why anyone should be afraid when Haku walks in. Hardys & Lita beat Benoit & Saturn & Terri when Lita pinned Terri after a moonsault. Fast-paced. Not that great. Saturn gave Lita a backbreaker after. Malenko seemed to get mad at Saturn for hurting Lita, but then gave her a savage clothesline. E&C DDQ Undertaker & Kane. Taker sold nothing. Dudleys were at ringside. Kane whipped Edge into the Dudleys and they had a six-way brawl, in which Undertaker & Kane didn't sell anything. Vince said that he would tape for Smackdown his Valentine's Day celebration with Linda, and told the doctor to keep the medication high because he wanted Linda happy. He also announced the three-way for the tag title. HHH pinned Gunn clean with the pedigree. I guess the best we can hope for at this point, even with HHH involved, is for a Gunn match to be decent and this was. X-Pac vs. Scotty 2 Hotty went 1:10 before Scotty worked a knee injury. This set up X vs. Grandmaster, and X destroyed him in 48 seconds. Jericho ran in and gave X a lionsault until Justin Credible, using that name, debuted, helping X in a run-in. Amazing the size illusion. X-Pac has spent the last few years with the giants while Credible has been in ECW. I'd have figured Credible was a good 20-25 pounds heavier than X-Pac, but with the two guys standing there together, they looked the same size. They mentioned Credible was a former ECW world champ and then Lawler asked if ECW even still existed. Snow dressed up as Mankind to build for Foley's imminent return. He went out on a sitdown strike in the ring. Vince came out. Before Vince went to attack Snow, Regal came out. Regal was still doing the deal where Stratus was his girlfriend. As Regal was talking to Snow, Vince gave Snow a low blow and Regal hit him with about 500 lefts in 30 seconds, leaving him laying. Kat stripped in WWF New York down to a bikini while Richards looked on in horror. Angle & Raven beat Rios & Show when Raven pinned Rios after Angle's Olympic slam. Ninja Girl brought out weapons which Angle & Raven used on Show, wearing an amateur singlet, which made him look totally enormous. By the way, he's now a babyface. They destroyed him with weapons but could only knock him to one knee. He was about to make the big comeback but Angle ran and he choke slammed Raven. Rock, representing HHH, pinned Rikishi, representing Austin, with a rock bottom. Austin & HHH were both out. Some strange scenes with HHH helping Rock and Austin helping Rikishi. Crowd, which was packed but only loud in spots, must have been totally confused who to root for. Stephanie slapped Austin at one point. After the match, Rikishi and HHH joined forces to attack Rock. Austin made the save, giving Rikishi a stunner, but never attacking HHH. When TV went off the air, Lillian Garcia announced HHH as the winner, although he wasn't in the match, and that he would pick the stipulations for Wrestlemania (and not No Way Out). HHH apparently went ballistic in the ring on Garcia for the screw-up. The production people cut out his mic and HHH then went ballistic on them

Notes from the taping at the Nassau Coliseum on 2/13. It was another sellout crowd, but the typical reserved Nassau crowd which was quiet much of the way. A lot of non-finishes. HHH announced the No Way Out stips. Vince then announced the top matches for TV are Austin vs. Benoit and Rock vs. HHH. Kane pinned Edge clean. After the match it appeared the Dudleys were supposed to put Kane through a table but the table didn't break. Kane & Taker ended up choke slamming both E&C to end the deal. Snow said he was leaving the building to visit Foley since he lives near the Coliseum. Hardys told Lita to stay away from the ring, so of course, she didn't. Matt pinned Saturn clean. Malenko goes after Lita and kisses her. Sets up Lita vs. Malenko singles match for Raw. Austin pinned Benoit despite distraction from HHH. HHH threw Benoit a chair, but Austin stunned him first. They show clips of Vince visiting Linda and bringing her flowers, but then Trish takes the flowers from her. Stephanie then tackled Trish and they later set up the singles match on PPV. X-Pac has Jericho beat for the IC title when Guerrero runs in and attacks X-Pac for a title saving DQ. They doubled on X-Pac until Credible made the save. Jericho cleans house of everyone and then hits Guerrero with a chair. Hardcore title match with Raven vs. Show is another non-finish. Show sells nothing. Half the world interfered while Raven just escaped and bout had no ending. Rock makes Kevin Kelly pick his nose. So much for Kelly getting any dates the rest of his natural life. Rock vs. HHH also has no ending. Austin is at ringside. Angle hit Rock with the belt but Austin then attacked Angle. HHH uses the pedigree but ref bump time. Benoit does a run-in and puts the crossface on Austin. Angle puts Rock in an ankle lock. Ref sees all the interference and rules it no contest. HHH throws beer in Austin's face before leaving. After the show went off the air, Rock & Austin made the comeback laying out Angle & Benoit. Rock and Austin drank 16 beers after cleaning house on Angle & Benoit a second time

Lynn and Tajiri both signed their contracts on 2/13 and sent them to the office for finalization. It is believed both signed three-year deals with one year options with downside guarantees in the $125,000 range. Both are expected to start in a few weeks. At this point, WWF has expressed some interest in Crazy but haven't made him a bonafide offer. There has been discussions, since McMahon just isn't into Mexican wrestlers, of offering him $85,000 but no offer has actually been made. Crazy is of the impression that getting any less than Tajiri is a slap in the face so he's not interested, similar to Tajiri feeling WCW insulted him by asking him to try-out. Due to the fact WCW can't offer anyone big money contracts, what they have proposed to Crazy is a short term deal similar to the ones they've signed Daniels and Modest with, offering in the ballpark of $750 per week guaranteed plus $500 per appearance and saying they'll give him a real offer in the $85,000 range when Fusient officially buys. Crazy may simply work AAA and Puerto Rico, where he's expected to move this week from Philadelphia, until Bischoff takes over and a real offer is made

At press time there was still no change in the Heyman situation. WWF has an offer out to him. He hasn't accepted it. He's still holding out for someone to come forth with the money to save ECW

Malenko is expected to return to the ring at the house shows this coming weekend

Ross report notes for this week. Notes that Shawn Michaels had signed the contract for several years that they had been negotiating, which means he'll be brought back as a major TV character imminently. They had wanted Michaels to sign before putting him on TV to protect themselves against a possible Bischoff raid after they established him to the new audience. Snow also signed a contract extension while Terry Gerin (Rhino) signed his contract, believed to be $100,000 per year downside for three years with an option for a fourth year plus a $5,000 signing bonus. Angle taped an AT&T commercial this past week. David Taylor, Snow (who has trained wrestlers in Ohio), Tazz (who trained wrestlers for ECW) and Jackie look to be the trainers for "Tough Enough." Taylor is there in case they need a shooter. And people probably thought with Tazz there they wouldn't need someone like that. Paul E. is the greatest, isn't he? Chyna's book was No. 3 on the New York Times bestseller list. Was that in the fiction or non-fiction category? In other New York papers, it was No. 7 in the Manhattan Barnes & Nobles stores and No. 6 in Newsday's weekend listings. Mentioned Paul Bearer working in the talent development department. Said Regal should be back in the ring in a few weeks. Praised Big Show for his performance on Smackdown against Rock. Catered to the internet audience to saying Tazz is underutilized (people still buying the ECW hype, but to Tazz' credit, he does get a far bigger pop than he should given how he's been portrayed) and that they should push the light heavyweights more

CNBC did an interview with Linda McMahon about the XFL. Without saying so, there is an interesting dichotomy to the XFL. As noted from the crowd shots in Vegas and the "two beers for every boy" lines in the newspaper, the beer consumption at the Orlando game was the most of any event ever in the stadium, despite the stadium having an empty upper deck

The actual number of viewers for the first XFL game on NBC was 15.7 million, not the 14.1 million number we listed, and the combined of the two games was 20.3 million. There actually was some sort of a stat of 54 million people watching at least one minute of the game which is where they used that 54 million stat on WWF promotions, which is realistically a totally bogus number no matter how one figures things. If a 9.5 rating were to equal 54 million people, than a 40 rating that the Super Bowl drew would equal 227 million people, which is most of the population of the entire country, and I'm sorry, but if Friends drew 27 million people and was one of the highest rated shows of last week, how does XFL, at No. 30, have twice as many viewers by any form of math

Smackdown on 2/8 was probably the best wrestling TV show in many weeks, which also says something about the state of the shows of late. Dudleys vs. E&C was a very good match, although not much of a climactic finish, but at least it made sense based on where they were going. Lawler was kissing up unmercifully to Vasgersian. HHH vs. Jericho also had a very good match, highlighted, or lowlighted, by the single worst choke over the ropes in the history of pro wrestling by Stephanie on Jericho. Rock vs. Show on top was a lot better than you'd figure it to be. In fact, considering Show was in the match, it was really good and the crowd was into it big-time

There was an article regarding the stock prices dropping after such a successful business first weekend of the XFL. Reasons given, besides the buy on rumor, sell on news, is that people want to get out because critics labeled the XFL opening a bomb, and because ratings for the WWF core product are going down combined with a softening ad market makes any television and radio vehicle tough for growth. There is also the thought that WWF management is being spread too thin and it has weakened the core business. There is validity in that

Christi Wolf, who worked as Asya in WCW, responded to the negative comments made by Joanie Laurer about her and other WCW personnel in her book. "I feel let down somewhat. Here's an individual whom I thought could be a great role model for heavily muscled women wrestlers. Unfortunately, to my surprise, Chyna seems to be lacking a major part of her well being. Maybe someday when her feet come back down to Earth, she'll realize how lucky she got being at the right place at the right time. Chyna didn't get hired because of her wrestling skills. No, Chyna, you got hired for your amazon status. Same as me. The fact is, Chyna, you need to stop believing your own hype. Vince McMahon made you a star. Joanie didn't make Chyna. The McMahons made Chyna. Vince gave you the world. You say you paid your dues? In what, three plus years to the top? Try telling that face-to-face to Madusa, another one you ripped in your book. Here is a woman who paved the way for women like you and me in this business. A woman who has wrestled for 15 years. She can wrestle circles around you. She would beat you in a shootfight any day of the week

The nerve of you to bury Bill Goldberg. He's a great athlete with a huge heart. He's done so much for kids. Isn't that what life is really about, supporting our real heroes. Yes, I'm talking about sick and dying children who wrestle for their lives every day. Bill knows the most important aspect of being a superstar is for the kids, it's not about ourselves. Chyna, you need to stop living in a fantasy world and live in reality. You are at minute 13 and a half of our 15 minutes of fame. You better enjoy it. I wish I still had my job at WCW, but I don't. I didn't get the lucky breaks and the push you got. I'm even beginning to wonder if the rumors are true that you blocked me getting into the WWF after all. What are you worried about anyway. Afraid of a little competition?" There was a valid comment about Chyna downing Madusa and Goldberg. Madusa has done more on her own and learned more but simply wasn't as lucky as she was in the WWF during a dead period and was marketed differently and probably made a lot of her own mistakes as well. Goldberg, who was pushed too fast but was a phenomenon, with less training and experience is a better in-ring performer, although that deal with HHH at the Toy Fair was embarrassing in hindsight. But who cares about who would beat who in a shootfight. It's irrelevant in this business, and why would WWF want Christi Wolf? Doesn't make sense in the first place and blaming Chyna hurts the validity of some of the other stuff

Foley, in compiling his own survey to counteract the famous University of Indiana survey talked about, said he watched about 15 episodes of Raw and 5 of Smackdown and came down with much smaller numbers. Again, the product is so greatly toned down in that manner from late 1999 and early 2000 that the numbers should be much lower. Foley said he didn't see any incidents of either simulated drug use or simulated sexual behavior on any of the shows

However, Ch. 4 in the United Kingdom was censured and fined by British television regulators for airing a segment in October where Rikishi used a sledge hammer. The Independent Television Commission upheld three viewers complaints and said by broadcasting the incident, Ch. 4 had violated regulations, because the show aired at a time when large numbers of children were watching. The sequence in question was Rikishi smashing up a car with a sledge hammer (building up to the Austin PPV match). Rikishi teased using the sledge hammer on Jim Ross but actually never did. The station claimed it aired the footage because the sledge hammer was only used on a car and not on an individual and because the end of the story was that Rikishi was persuaded against using it on a person. However, the report stated that on reflection, everyone involved agreed that this judgement to air the sequence was wrong and it should have been edited out. The ITC report stated, "The ITC recognizes that American professional wrestling is essentially a mixture of soap opera and pantomime which, in general, viewers do not take seriously. But certain conventions and limits must be recognized, especially when children could be watching in numbers. Fighting staged away from the ring and the presence of weaponry are two elements that can give rise to problems. In this instance, very real aggression had been displayed in the destruction of a vehicle which had been followed by a violent threat to a prostrate and defenseless man in a location that was far removed from the conventions of the ring. The program breached the Program Code's requirements in respect to the portrayal of violence in programs." The U.K. has stricter regulations when it comes to violence on television, particularly programs where large numbers of children are watching, but it far more lenient when it comes to portrayal of simulated sex on television than the U.S. Years ago, WCW World Wide 60 minute shows were often edited down to 35 minutes because so much of what was allowable in the U.S. wasn't in the U.K. Ch. 4 agreed to talk with its staff about adhering to guidelines on violence. The report stated, "In this instance very real aggression had been displayed in the destruction of a vehicle which had been followed by a violent threat to a prostate and defenseless man in a location that was far removed from the conventions of the ring.

Bobby Eaton debuted for Power Pro on the 2/10 Memphis TV tapings as the mystery partner for Victoria for a house show match on 2/21 against Jerry Lawler & Kat. Well before Eaton gained fame as part of the Midnight Express, circa 1982, he and Koko Ware had some great matches for the time period against Lawler. Eaton said he left Memphis 18 years ago and blamed it on Lawler and Dundee not letting anyone else get over. Dundee brought up that Eaton was his son-in-law (true, Eaton's wife is the former Donna Crookshanks). Eaton said that if Dundee did anything to manager Brandon Baxter, that he'd never see his grandchildren again. Ended up with a brawl with Grandmaster Sexay, going by his Memphis name of Brian Christopher, fighting with Eaton

Saturday Night Live after the first XFL game, which was the third showing of the program hosted by Rock, drew a 7.4 rating, which is a tremendous number for a first run episode of the show, let alone a third replay

The Miami Herald gossip section reported that Dany Johnson, 32, the wife of The Rock, is pregnant with the couple's first child, due in May

It was reported that Matt Vasgersian in the "A" game last week had McMahon in his ear the entire game, and in particular, whenever Vasgersian would start talking about a player's NFL background, McMahon started screaming at him not to. The feeling seems to be that since most of the players who had NFL backgrounds with a few exceptions, were failures at that level, that why bring it up. It was said that McMahon had already made the decision to go with Ross by the end of the night

While Smackdown usually finishes in the 80s in the weekly ratings, it is far more popular among ethnic households. Smackdown, largely due to the popularity of UPN as a network, finished No. 13 among Black households in the fourth quarter of 2000. A more telling difference in cultures is "The Parkers," which is No. 2 among Black households and No. 119 overall. Smackdown is No. 3 among Hispanic households, trailing only The Simpsons and Monday Night Football. It is interesting because the WWF has never attempted to market ethnic appeal, let alone to the Hispanic audience, and the WWF TV show in spanish on Telemundo does not do as strong ratings (although it does better than the EMLL/AAA block on Galavision) as WCW did. With Hispanics the fastest growing minority group and their greater than average cultural interest in pro wrestling, it is interesting that nobody has attempted to tap into it by creating a breakout Latin star

Regarding Michaels, he's expected to debut on TV within a few weeks. They may hold him off until the PPV or Raw right after. The plan is for him to play a prominent role in Mania, so he'll be on TV likely for several weeks to build up to whatever that plan is, and use Mania to springboard the angle to build for his first match back

Lisa Marie Varon, who was Victoria of the Godfather's ho's, will make her in-ring debut for the WWF on one of the shows on 2/18 against Kat. They've been programmed together on the Memphis circuit. When the ho's were dumped, Mandy was released but because Victoria is tall, they decided to give her training to be a wrestler because of the feeling with their size, she could match-up well with Chyna at some point

Vince McMahon nixed a deal involving Dwayne Johnson and NASCAR Busch Grand National series race driver Hermie Sadler. The two were set to become business partners in a Winston Cup operation called Rock Racing. But McMahon told Johnson he wouldn't allow him to use the name or likeness of The Rock for that purpose and the deal was nixed, forcing Sadler to renege on plans to purchase equipment, cars, tools and personnel

Former short-lived WWF personality Caryn Mawr (Muffy, Stephanie McMahon's physical trainer for about a week or so) is appearing on the 2/25 episode of Battledome

A WWF inside joke is that Terri Poch (Tori), who is Ninja Girl, is so old-school that backstage she talks of Ninja Girl as if it isn't her. It became something of comedy at the Meadowlands show when she did the run-in and the fans started chanting "Tori.

MSNBC ran the Vince McMahon "Heroes and Legends" profile on 2/12 head-to-head with Raw. It was basically the same not good show that aired, except they updated it, and in the update, talking about the XFL and changes in wrestling, were far less complimentary to Vince than the original airing. In showing a lot of the racier clips from 1999, those who saw it said seeing those clips now make

one realize just how much tamer the product really has become

UK TV ratings for the week saw Raw with 410,000 viewers to Nitro's 90,000 and Smackdown's 280,000. The Super Bowl aired this week in the UK, and to show the interest in the NFL over there, it only drew 50,000 viewers, which shows why there is little TV interest in broadcasting the XFL. WWF Heat on broadcast Ch. 4 drew 960,000 viewers, which is considered low

Indie wrestler Low Ki as well as former ECW wrestler Tony DeVito got looks at the TV tapings this week

Smackdown tapings on 2/6 in North Charleston, SC drew a sellout 9,357 paying $272,130. House show in St. Paul on 2/10 drew 8,660 paying $299,327. House show on 2/11 in Boston and the Fleet Center drew a near sellout of 15,493 paying $478,688. Raw taping at the Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, NJ drew a sellout 15,345 paying $444,348. Arena merchandise for the week totalled $360,128 or $7.37 per head. In St. Paul, they went with the same Austin & Undertaker & Kane over Rikishi & Haku & HHH main event, again dropping the Austin/HHH no physicality angle. They used Angle over Benoit as the title match. Said to be a great match but with little crowd reaction as nobody knew who to cheer or boo. Stratus' interference led to the win. In Boston, since Rock worked the show, the main event was an eight-man with the Undertaker & Austin & Kane over Benoit & HHH & Rikishi & Haku ending when Rock pinned Benoit after a rock bottom. In Boston, they explained HHH and Austin fighting each other by saying that Vince had waived the TV angle for one night only, so at least they tried to give a reason. With Benoit moved to the main event, Angle pinned Jericho in the mid-card title match. They were doing the hardcore title change gimmick both nights. In St. Paul, it was a three-way with Raven, Blackman and Hardcore Holly, with Holly winning the title, but Ninja Girl (Tori) then attacked him and Raven pinned him for title win No. 6 for those keeping track of such things. In Boston, Raven lost the title in a four-way (adding Snow to the mix) when Snow first won the title pinning Blackman, then Holly pinned Snow, and then Raven got No. 7 pinning Holly thanks to Ninja Girl.