by Rick Scaia
OnlineOnslaught.com

In a Team Austin vs. Team Bischoff challenge in which one of the two General Managers would go away for good, Austin's team lost.  Shawn Michaels fought valiantly in the 35 minute war, going up against 1-on-3 odds, and eventually getting it down to a one-on-one battle against Randy Orton.  But he fell short, and thanks to the interference of Batista, Orton pinned Michaels and supposedly ended the Austin Era for good.

WWE sold it like the real thing, with Austin getting a segment following the match to say goodbye to his fans.  But of course, now that we were on to them, few if any of us really bought it.  Before the Survivor Series PPV went off the air, fans were wondering what convoluted storyline would be used to re-introduce Steve Austin.

They wound up severely over-thinking the matter, as RAW's creative team, at year's end, basically re-introduced Austin in the exact same role (just calling him a "sheriff" instead of a GM).  Well, so much for sticking to the stipulations of an incredibly well-built up five-on-five match, eh?

Austin was all over the place in November, as well.  His autobiography was released, and was the first WWE book in a while to make a serious mark on best seller lists.  And UPN took advantage of Austin's popularity to milk a November Sweeps Month special out of WWE.  Featuring a ton of never-before-seen interviews with Austin's friends and family, the UPN show was a very interesting program...  at least until the sappy final 10 minutes that tried, again, to sell us the bill of goods that Austin was gone forever.

Also in November: Michael "Crash Holly" Lockwood passed away at the age of 32.  Estranged from his wife, he had been living with Steven Richards in Florida and was preparing to move out to California to begin a job as a lead trainer at a wrestling school out there.  A known hard-partier, Lockwood likely passed away due to overconsumption of some type or another, though.  His wife tried to keep those rumors from making it to the press, but let's face it: 32 year-old men don't just expire for no good reason.
 
Sadly, because of the tabloid nature of Crash's death, WWE distanced itself from the tragedy and never gave Lockwood an adequate tribute on any of its programs (at least, not until a brief 10 second snippet on the RAW Year in Review special, or unless you count a teary-eyed Heat match wrestled by Richards in the style of Crash).  You can review OO's own Tribute to Crash Holly right here, if you like... 
 

IN OTHER NEWS

• Major League Wrestling, an indie group based out of Florida known for running monthly supershows and getting their weekly TV syndicated pretty widely (even up here in Dayton, OH), put all present and future show on hold pending a complete re-assessment of financial and strategic plans. MLW's end product, which was often comfortingly-familiar in an ECW sort of way, was certainly worthy of a look from even casual fans, and MLW would, by the end of the month, announce a restructuring that would allow them to resume operations shortly into the new year...
• Hit by Hulk Hogan's knee surgery, but hoping to keep momentum rolling, TNA brought in both Lex Luger and Sting for a PPV in November. The two were on opposite sides of a tag match, and Sting even came back for a second week. Luger's entry even launched a minor internet controversy over TNA going outside of its own roster to boost buyrates instead of pushing from within. TNA even had to issue a press release on the issue...
• John Cena, getting more cheers than boos for almost six months by this point, finally turned babyface for real in November. He was courted by Paul Heyman's "Team Lesnar," but dismissed them, and despite a rivalry with Chris Benoit, wound up joining the opposing "Team Angle". WWE even tempered the "loose cannon" aspect of Cena's character, as they edited a show-ending F-U to Benoit out of a November edition of SD! to make sure fans didn't get confused. And they didn't: Cena went over huge as a fan favorite....
• Vince McMahon and the Undertaker embarked on a feud that led directly to a Buried Alive Match at Survivor Series. When Kane aided Vince in burying Taker, it only strengthened pre-existing rumors that Taker would lose the match only to come back sporting his old school supernatural look for a feud against Kane....
• At Kowloon's, a Boston-area Chinese restaurant that had earlier in the night been the setting for another of those overly-cheesy Kane/Shane skits, Randy Orton and Mark Jindrak were involved in a pull-apart brawl sometime after midnight. Or so it seemed. Even though pictures were published on the 'net, and a lot of people got into a tizzy over the incident, it turns out this was a pure prank by Orton and Jindrak to put one over on the assembled smark fans, and even the cops were in on it...
• Kurt Angle began experiencing neck pain again in November, and an examination revealed that with some poorly placed chairshots several months prior he had undone much of the work done in his first surgery with Dr. Jho. Though Angle worked through the pain to make it through the Survivor Series, he was immediately taken off TV afterwards to have a second surgery to repair the damage and would miss the entire rest of 2003...
• Nidia was blinded by a rare use of Black Mist by Tajiri. Not only did the blinding set up any number of entertaining options for her character upon her return to TV, but during her hiatus, she also underwent a (seemingly unnecessary) breast augmentation...
• Despite making the misstep of demoting Tajiri vs. Jamie Noble to a 5 minute Heat contest in order to make room for an ego stroking PPV appearance by billionaire Mark Cuban in a Survivor Series angle, the show still comes off strong due mostly to Shawn Michaels' incredible 1995-caliber performance in the show-defining Team Austin vs. Team Bischoff match...
• Goldberg's more-than-bit-part in "Looney Toons: Back in Action" is largely ignored by WWE, save for one segment on Confidential... the movie was also far from a hit, opening in fifth place with under $10 million, but those who saw it said it was a fun flick and that Goldberg was very effective as Steve Martin's silent muscle. Also in November, Goldberg committed to "Santa's Slay," a Christmas-themed horror movie slated to film in early 2004. Goldberg assured fans it would not impact his pressing one-night-per-week wrestling schedule...
• Goldberg also crossed paths with Brock Lesnar in a little 10 second throw-away moment at the joint-production Survivor Series PPV. Many speculated that it foreshadowed a Goldberg/Lesnar match at WMXX, perhaps even a champion vs. champion bout...
• An IGN interview with Ricky Steamboat about the upcoming "Legends of Wrestling" videogame included mention by The Dragon that he'd actually be very amenable to a final farewell contest against Ric Flair on the WWE stage, if it could be worked out. It was notable because Steamboat had, in years past, presented himself as VERY retired due to the back injuries that took him out of the ring in the mid-90s...
• Jackie Gayda's nipple was exposed on RAW! And somehow, it was newsworthy... that brought to three the number of nipples to peak through on wrestling telecasts in 2003...
• Gail Kim snapped her collarbone in a Heat match against Trish Stratus. Gail completed the match, but as soon as she was examined, was put on the sidelines for the rest of 2003...
• Matt Hardy jumped to RAW, and was introduced into the simmering Love Rhombus storyline on a memorable edition of The Highlight Reel where it first appeared as though he was going to propose marriage to Lita, but by the end of the night turned heel on her. Of course, after that brief flirtation with relevance, Hardy was just as abused by the creative team as he was on SD!, relagated to C-level material on the Fed's B-level shows...
• The Ultimate Ric Flair Collection DVD was released late in the month, and was an immediate smash hit. Not only did fans wet themselves in glee over the incredible assemblage of 3 DVDs worth of footage, but the came out in droves to pick up the set: the entire first pressing sold out within 2 weeks, and many fans who'd put the Flair Collection on their Christmas list were screwed when WWE could not rush a second pressing out to stores before the holiday... 
• WWE did a test swap on some house shows, plugging John Cena into main event spots against Brock Lesnar, where Chris Benoit had been scheduled. Then they returned the favor on subsequent overseas shows in Asia, where Benoit was given the main event slot instead of the as-scheduled Cena...
• WWE announced that it would not be renewing Dustin "Goldust" Runnels' contract when it expired shortly after the New Year. The decision baffled many fans, who found Goldust one of the few solidly entertaining things WWE could count on to deliver from the lower- and mid-card. But WWE would not be swayed to keep an expensive, injury-prove veteran around longer than they had to...
• John Heidenreich, an over-sized but apparently under-skilled call-up from OVW, wasn't really getting anywhere with his mysterious talk of his "Little Johnny." But he really did himself in during a few televised matches where he visibly botched his finisher, in one case causing Steven Richards to miss a weekend's worth of house shows with a shoulder injury. I don't believe he was seen on WWE TV after that incident, and was relegated back to the developmental territories...
• Larry Booker, known to a generation of wrestling fans as "Moondog Spot," passed away late in the month. Spot actually collapsed in the ring during a Memphis wrestling show designed to celebrate the birthday of Jerry Lawler, and then died in the ambulance on the way to the hospital. He was 61 years old... 
   

NOTABLE quOOtables

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

PAY-PER-VIEW RESULTS

TITLE CHANGES

NWA Tag Team Titles held up following controversial match on 11/19... Konnan, BG James, and Ron Killings beat Simon Diamond, Johnny Swinger, and Glen Gilberti on 11/26; any two members of the winning team may now defend the NWA Tag Team Titles...
 

E-MAIL RICK 
RETURN TO OO FEATURES HOME

All contents are Copyright 1995-2009 by OOWrestling.com.  All rights reserved.
This website is not affiliated with WWE or any other professional wrestling organization.  Privacy Statement.