OO: Online Onslaught Special Features (Pro Wrestling News, Analysis, and Commentary... WWF, WCW, ECW, The Rock, Steve Austin, RVD, Undertaker, Triple H)

2001 YEAR IN REVIEW
February : Houston, We Have a Problem...
January 11, 2002

by Rick Scaia
OnlineOnslaught.com

So, Fusient Media was announced as the new owner of WCW, complete with Eric Bischoff at the helm? It only took about a month before just about everybody involved in the proceedings began to seriously question the reality of Fusient's impending take-over.

For book-keeping reasons, Turner/Time Warner wanted to be completely divested of WCW by March 31. That meant either selling the company or shutting it down by that date. Everybody figured that once the Fusient deal was announced, it didn't matter any more: the company had been sold, and would be somebody else's problem by then.

Problem #1: the agreement-in-principle apparently needed to be finalized by February 28. And there were just too many road blocks popping up in the transition process for people to think the deal would be signed off on as scheduled. This led directly to Problem #2, as a frantic Time Warner decided to start canceling reservations at scheduled venues after the March 31 date (fearing that they, instead of Fusient, would be saddled with running events if the sale of WCW did fall through).

At first, people figured that this just played into the rumored "going dark" phase that WCW would go through immediately before being relaunched as a new, Fusient-owned entity... afterall, there are always road blocks anytime a transition of this magnitude is attempted, so there was no reason to think that they'd actually prevent the sale of WCW to Fusient from taking place. Sure, Fusient got a few surprises when they got good looks at WCW's books and at WCW's internal structure... but nothing so shocking as to preclude the deal going down as scheduled, right?

Everybody who thought exactly that figured their reasoning had been confirmed when WCW started REscheduling venues for April, with new word being that WCW would not be going dark after March 27, afterall, and that advertising had already been sold for shows, so they'd rather not cancel them outright. WCW even announced that the new "super-mega PPV" for May 6 would be titled "The Big Bang," a fitting title for the genesis of an all new entity.

There were serious questions about Fusient's takeover of WCW in February, but by month's end, they seemed to have once again faded into the background...

And just in time to steal headlines, the WWF had a little inner turmoil of its own to deal with. Stacey "the Kat" Carter was dismissed from the company on the afternoon of 2/27 (at SmackDown!) tapings, for reasons that were said to be related to a "creative dispute." Though later commentaries indicated there was no problem at all with storyline directions being suggested for the Kat, rumors about personality clashes between Carter and other WWF personnel were never quite adequately squashed.

In any case, Carter left the WWF, not of her own accord, that afternoon. What no one really saw coming, however, was that her then-husband, Jerry Lawler, would walk out with her. In trying to show support for his wife, Lawler took an "if she's gone, then I'm gone" stance, and walked out of the SD! tapings. Though the Fed remained open at all times to a Lawler return, they at no time wanted to give in to his demands that they also take his wife back.

For whatever it's worth, Lawler had negotiated, but not actually signed, a contract extension, and was legitimately a free agent at this point. He did not, however, choose to jump to WCW, a decision probably made easier because the in-transition WCW was in an awkward position to negotiate new contracts at this point.

In Other News

In an attempt to get the books right before handing the company over to Fusient, Time Warner/AOL cut Tygress, Major Gunns, Daffney, Leia Meow, and Paisley from the roster...

Shawn Michaels' wrestling school shut down, resulting in increased speculation that rumors about HBK's imminent return to the WWF were true...

Jerry Lynn, Tajiri, and Rhino all decided to quit waiting around to see if ECW would survive, and agreed to terms with the WWF in early February; at the time, Rhino was ECW's Unified Champion, and his defection was taken as a big sign that Paul Heyman had finally given up the noble fight...

Vince McMahon's XFL debuted to huge ratings, pulling in NBC's largest prime time Saturday night audience in quite a while; the league enjoyed a brief mainstream popularity until ratings halved in each of the next two weeks, leaving XFL football as one of the lowest rated shows on network TV...

Stacey Keibler returned to WCW TV after taking almost a month off due to a pay dispute...

WCW showed serious interest in signing Brian "Road Dogg" James to a contract after his dismissal from the WWF...

A half-hour over-run during week 2 of the XFL got Saturday Night Live honcho Lorne Michaels ultra-pissed and axed any hopes of finalizing a deal for Steve Austin hosting the show to hype WrestleMania in March (as the Rock had done a year earlier)...

Kevin Nash joined Sid and Goldberg in the "retired as far as WCW is concerned" category when he lost a stipulation match to Scott Steiner at the SuperBrawl PPV; like the others, he would miss out on participating during the final days of WCW...

The WWF was briefly rumored to be purchasing the distressed film company, Artisan Pictures, though those rumors rapidly evaporated...

Justin Credible became the first of the ECW signees to appear on WWF TV, doing so under his established gimmick (despite original word from the WWF that he'd be due for a makeover)...

Roddy Piper claimed -- after being upset by the content of Eminem's latest released -- that he'd be releasing a rap album in 2001; we're still waiting...

Booker T returned from an injury on the last Nitro of February, marking the first of Scott Steiner's "victims" to stage a comeback...

Quotable OO:

"Then again, I thought the bald chick in Star Trek the Motion Picture was hot, so who knows what my real interest here is." -- OO's first humorous hair-related observation about WOW's "Unleashed" PPV, previewing the hair vs. hair match, 02/02/01

"Of note: this match features mullet vs. mullet (if you want to be clever: femullet vs. femullet), a rarity in women's wrestling!" -- More hair-related WOW humor, this time previewing Thug vs. Selina Majors, 02/02/01

"I like that William Regal is staying on TV despite his injury (albeit in the role of Vince McMahon's butler, it seems... did Regal get in a car wreck with Vince and not have auto insurance?)." -- OO wonders if the WWF wandered into an episode of Seinfeld, 02/02/01

"I'm sure that, despite the claims to the contrary, the swimsuit contest is rigged/booked for Starr and your votes don't matter a damn. If you think I'm wrong, I think you should go vote for Ice Cold on the website, just to screw with the company, since they'd have to admit that the V'Ger Unit won the thing." -- OO sneaks in another reference to the bald chick from Star Trek in discussing WOW, 02/05/01

"Of course, with all the talks of Paul Heyman joining the WWF as a member of the creative team if ECW can't be resurrected, that's exactly the sort of thing that will only inflame the rampant belief that the WWF should do an ECW invasion angle to help put the company back on the map." -- OO wonders about the possible return of ECW to WWF TV a full five months before it actually happens, 02/09/01

"I know what I liked best: it was Raven's George Carlin-esque Sentence Never Before Uttered in the English Language, when he said, 'My ninja is quite voluptuous.' High-fricking-larious." -- OO on the best part of the 2/22 SmackDown!, 02/23/01

"I'd probably call it near-perfect but with the caveat that the finish knocked it down 1/4 or 1/2 a star to keep this from mythic Match of the Year type status." -- OO foolishly overreacts in the wake of the finish to the NWO HHH/Austin match, which OO would later vote as Match of the Year afterall, 02/26/01

"In years past, this would probably have made Stacey a very desirable free agent. I mean it's her FREE AGENCY that would've been desired in the past... oh you know what I mean. But we've since seen what happens when signature WWF babes leave the fold. It's apparently one thing to look like a million bucks, and another to have the Fed's multi-million dollar hype machine behind you." -- OO on the actual value of divas to the WWF and vice versa, 02/28/01

PPVs:

WOW Unleashed (02/04/01) -- Teri Gold regained the WOW Title by beating Danger, while Ice Cold got shaved bald after losing the fall in a tag match to Lana Starr. Other match results: Randi Rah Rah beat Jacklyn Hyde... Farah/Paradise and Beach Patrol went to a draw after two refs couldn't agree on the finish... Tanja beat Jane Blond... Nikki Law beat Heather Steele... Caliente and Boom Boom beat the Asian Invasion... Bronco Billie defeated the Disciplinarian... Slam Dunk and Rody Powers went to a draw when both were disqualified... Riot defeated Wendi Wheels in a hardcore rules match... Jungle Grrrl beat Beckie the Farmer's Daughter in a Splash Match... Caged Heat defeated Harley's Angels to become the first WOW Tag Team Champions... Thug beat Selina Majors inside a steel cage.

WCW SuperBrawl (02/18/01) -- Scott Steiner retired Kevin Nash by defeating him in the main event WCW Title match at this PPV. In other match results: Shane Helms was a last second replacement in a six-way cruiserweight match, and wound up winning (defeating Shannon Moore, Kaz Hayashi, Yang, Jamie Knoble, and Evan Karagias) to earn a CW Title shot... Hugh Morrus defeated the Wall... Sean O'Haire and Chuck Palumbo retained the WCW tag titles with a win over Mark Jindrak and Shawn Stasiak... Chavo Guerrero Jr. retained the CW Title with a win over Rey Misterio Jr... Rick Steiner defeated Dustin Rhodes to hold on to the US Title... Lex Luger and Buff Bagwell beat Kronik, thanks in part to an entertaining ruse that had Mike Awesome disguised as a fake Bryan Clarke who eventually attacked Brian Adams... Ernest "the Cat" Miller once again regained the Commissionership of WCW, this time by defeating Lance Storm... in a "bonus" match arranged by Jeff Jarrett, Kanyon defeated Dallas Page... then, Page's regularly scheduled match, he was able to rally and defeat Jarrett despite the latter's attempts at chicanery.

WWF No Way Out (02/25/01) -- Triple H beat Steve Austin in an epic Best of Three Falls match that was immediately considered by many viewers to be an early Match of the Year Candidate. Also, in the night's main event, the Rock finally wrestled the WWF Title away from Kurt Angle. Other match results: a scheduled Hardcore Title match between champion Raven and challenger the Big Show saw others get involved to create minor chaos; the title was won by Billy Gunn, regained by Raven, and finally won decisively by the Big Show... Chris Jericho retained the IC Title in a four way match, by pinning X-Pac; Chris Benoit and Eddie Guerrero were also involved... Stephanie McMahon beat Trish Stratus (thanks to William Regal) in a match that was way better than anyone expected... Steven Richards beat Jerry Lawler, forcing the Kat to join the Right to Censor... the Dudley Boyz won a tables match to retain the Tag Titles, overcoming Edge/Christian and Undertaker/Kane.

Title Changes:

Rick Steiner defeated Shane Douglas for the WCW US Title (2/5)... The Rock defeated Kurt Angle to win the WWF Title (2/25).

YEAR IN REVIEW OPTIONS
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2001: A Wrestling Odyssey -/- January -/- February -/- March -/-
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October -/- November -/- December -/- The Best of 2001 -/-
2001 By the Numbers -/- Coale's YiR -/- Jonny X's YiR

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