by Rick Scaia
OnlineOnslaught.com

It was with Liz's death, and with the job of eulogizing the second of my most fondly remembered performers inside of 3 months that I realized that 2003 would be remembered more for what we lost than for what we saw inside the ring.

Making it even more tragic is that Liz's death was shrouded in all manner of messy tabloid controversy.

When coronor's reports came in weeks later, her cause of death was listed as "acute toxicity," included copious amounts of painkillers and tranquilizers, as well as a blood alcohol level of 0.29 (or almost quadruple the legal driving limit).  The prescription medications were available to her thanks to a stash kept by her boyfriend, Lex Luger, with whom she was co-habitating.

It didn't take long for authorities to search the house after they were called there to tend to Liz, and they found boxes and boxes of steroids, performance enhancing drugs, and the aformentioned painkillers.  His head probably still swimming after the sudden death of his girlfriend of 3 or 4 years, Luger was arrested on drug charges that same day, and released on bond.

And if that's not enough: the cops had been called to Luger's house less than a month before, on Easter Sunday, on a domestic disturbance, and Luger had been charged with abusing Liz and was free on bail following that incident.  Liz's death weeks later meant authorities were extra careful in combing the crime scene for clues, but all signs pointed to an accidental overdose.

WWE hopped on the sensationalism bandwagon.  Able to point the shining beacon of truth at somebody other than themselves, they did a warts-and-all expose on the tragic incident on Confidential (even airing Luger's panicked 911 call).  When it generated nearly double the usual ratings for the show, they repeated much of the same material again the next week.  It stuck me as kind of inappropriate given the Fed's recent move to treating their own internal issues with such on-air obliqueness (even on the "smart" shows).

Anyway, in the name of forgetting all the crap that surrounded Liz's death and remembering all the good stuff she brought to us, I encourage you to check out the OO Tribute to Miss Elizabeth.
 

IN OTHER NEWS

• At the start of the co-GM Era, the game of one-ups-manship between Austin and Bischoff led to the May resurrection of the InterContinental Title. Defunct for over six months since being quietly unified with the RAW brand World Title, the historic belt was brought back to give the brand a much needed secondary title. The new belt was put up for grabs in a Battle Royal limited to only past IC Champ on the RAW roster, and was won by Christian...
• Also effective very soon upon the start of the co-GM era was the return of Steve Austin's beer fueled celebrations. After getting some heat with probation officers for his "dark" beer bash prior to his February return, the terms of Austin's probation were relaxed, and Austin was busting out the Miller Lites with abandon again in May...
• Mr. America makes his TV debut on May 1, and is quite obviously Hulk Hogan under a mask. This sparks the ire of Vince McMahon, of course, but it is Roddy Piper who becomes Mr. America's #1 target when Piper, during a taping of Piper's Pit, went after a one-legged "fan" at ringside. The fan, of course, was Zach Gowen, who would become the protégé of Mr. America, and admitted that he was a recovering Hulk-a-Maniac from back in the day. Hogan (as Mr. America) and Piper even went one-on-one for the first time in a TV match since the very first wrestling PPV (the October '85 "Wrestling Classic"), when they faced off at May's Judgment Day, in a match that ended in a very rare Hogan pinfall win over Piper...
• Attempting to push himself to return too soon, Batista re-tore his biceps while training. Thinking he was perhaps only 6 weeks away from a return, Batista was shelved for another four months...
• The Road Warriors, Hawk and Animal, were brought back to WWE for a one-night shot. It was originally to be a dark match try-out to see if they were ready for a more full-time schedule, but when all was said and done, the LOD wrestled Rob Van Dam and Kane in a World Tag Title match in RAW's opener on May 12. The trend-setting duo looked decent, but apparently not eye-catching enough to earn that full-time slot...
• On that same edition of RAW, Freddie Blassie appeared (to promote his auto-biography), and actually got involved in an angle with Eric Bischoff and Three Minute Warning, and was saved by the Dudleys (who allowed Blassie to utter the phrase "D-Von, Get the Tables"). It's kind of a morbid occasion given the fates awaiting both Blassie and Hawk later in the year...
• That SAME fateful RAW in Philly on 5/12 also marked Goldberg in-ring WWE debut on FREE TV. Although his first month was a scattershot, hit-and-miss affair, Goldberg hit big with a Steel Cage Match against his nemesis du jour, Christian. That RAW banged a 4.4, a gain of nearly a half-point from the week before, and the second best rating the show would do all year. RAW would also not match that rating at any point the rest of the year...
• Chavo Guerrero went down with a serious arm injury at tapings a week before the Judgment Day PPV, one that would sideline him for over 3 months. In his absence, Tajiri stepped in as Eddie's tag partner, and "Los Tajiros" actually won the tag titles from Team Angle. Actually, many of the Lying, Cheating, Stealing tactics Los Guerreros were known for were taken to another level and perfected with Tajiri and Eddie teaming together (the blatantness of their tactics, and ability to get away with them, helped explain how a makeshift team managed to win and hold onto the tag titles)...
• Yoshihiro Asai, better known as "Ultimo Dragon," agreed to terms with WWE to begin wrestling stateside. The innovative performer (the Asai Moonsault is named for him) had thought his career over after a botched surgery, but was able to return to the ring in 2002. After knocking the rust off, WWE took an interest in him... he was working dark matches by the end of May, but didn't debut on SD! until June...
• Following up on break-out performances against the Rock the month before, the Hurricane did a couple rounds of house shows where he upset Chris Jericho. In all cases, Hurricane would take advantage of a hastily issued challenge to beat Jericho by surprise during what was SUPPOSED to be an edition of the "Highlight Reel," but a win's a win, no? Unfortunately, after cracking the wrestling world up with the Rock and scoring dark wins over Jericho, Hurricane's momentum would die not soon after when stuck in the tag ranks...
• Booker T suffered a serious bout of pneumonia in May that had him missing a week's worth of bookings...
• Chief Morley was fired/suspended by co-GM Austin for the wrongs he perpetrated as Bischoff's right hand man. Morley turned up about 2 weeks later reprising the Val Venis porn star gimmick, when he was a surprise entrant in the IC Battle Royal...
• At a live RAW in South Carolina, the longtime fans of NWA and the Crockett territories got a treat when Ric Flair reverted to babyface form for one night only. Forced into a match against World Champ HHH, Flair refused early in the show to just lie down for the champ. He wanted to try HHH, just to see if he still had it. And although Flair fell short of winning the title, he most certainly DID still have it that night in terms of holding the audience in the palm of his hand. He dropped the pinfall decision in one of the year's most dramatic contests. After RAW went off the air, the entire WWE locker room emptied for a celebration of Flair's amazing career. A few jumped to the conclusion that it was a retirement celebration or something, but it was actually kind of an impromptu thing cooked up in the locker room that day because they were in Flair's old stomping grounds and he was getting a rare main event title shot, and they just knew the atmosphere would be electric...
• WWE announced the launch of a nationwide "Diva Search," where fans and aspiring models could compete in fan voting to see who is hottest, with the prize being a WWE photo shoot, and possible future employment...
• Triple H went on "Byte This," and made statements that may have been his honest opinion, or which might have been HHH doing his hardest heeling to piss off the internet fans. OO could not tell for sure. But OO also decided that it did not matter. Either way, HHH was wrong, as OO explained in this memorable column (well, it's memorable to OO, which thinks of it as one of the better pieces it ran this year). 
• WWE called up the decided un-related Doug Basham and Damaja (real name, Danny Hollie) from OVW, where they had been feuding viciously. SD!'s creative team dubbed them the Basham Brothers, causing a few headaches for Jim Cornette, who needed to explain the sudden partnership to OVW's fans. The Bashams managed to finish out their OVW commitments, and by the end of the year had Shaniqua (TE2's Linda Miles) and the WWE Tag Titles in the grasp...
• Jeff Jarrett defeated Sting in the main event of the final show of a World Wrestling All-Stars tour of New Zealand and Australia. In doing so, Jarrett unified the NWA and WWA Titles. TNA showed footage of this match, and WWA packaged the event as a 3 hour PPV for US audiences in June. Also of note from that tour: Bret Hart made an appearance, which marked his first TV gig since suffering a stroke about 9 months previous...
• WWE adopted a new policy that I believe stayed in effect for just about all televised events in May: any member of the US Armed Forces who came to a TV taping in uniform would be admitted free of charge. They also did a gimmick in May where Steve Austin "enraged" Eric Bischoff by making the upcoming RAW-only PPV free for any member of the military (they had to send in proof of purchase and a copy of their ID, and WWE refunded the purchase price)...
• Nathan Jones -- savaged by internet critics and not exactly a darling of WWE management (they did an angle to keep him out of a planned WM19 tag match with the Undertaker) -- went down with an arm injury in May. Originally taken off the air at the same time as Taker just because there was no creative plan for him, Jones was absent upon Taker's return to TV in May due to the injury. He would remain sidelined for almost 6 more months...
• Two months after being used in a cool little swerve angle on SD!, Eric Angle was cut loose from the WWE developmental program. Kurt's big brother was apparently a borderline prospect, but at his age, was not deemed worth the effort to continue pouring resources and time into. On the upside, he got engaged to Nidia at some point prior to his dismissal, so that's all good...
   

NOTABLE quOOtables

RATINGS TRENDS
(Note: RAW's cable ratings are converted to broadcast numbers 
for our monthly comparisons)

PAY-PER-VIEW RESULTS

TITLE CHANGES

Christopher Daniels beat Jerry Lynn/Amazing Red in a handicap match to win the NWA Tag Team Titles for Triple X on 5/07... Chris Sabin beat Amazing Red and Jerry Lynn in a 3-way match to win the TNA X Title on 5/14... Christian wins a 9-man Battle Royal to win the revived InterContinental Title on 5/18... Eddie Guerrero/Tajiri beat Shelton Benjamin/Charlie Haas to win the WWE Tag Team Titles on 5/18...

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