Straight Shooting: Sabu is making a huge mistake!
Perhaps WCW's downturn wasn't all Eric Bischoff's fault - either way, it's not the place go now!
February 5, 2000
by Fritz Capp
Once again everyone I was set on writing one column but I believe I am going to go another way. I was going to write about how good it was to see Chris Benoit, Dean Malenko, Perry Saturn and Eddie Guerrero finally leave the cesspools of WCW and make it to the WWF. Now the only reason I call WCW a cesspool right now is because of the quagmire that it has allowed itself to become. I am sure that even though a lot of people are now scrambling to disassociate themselves with the promotion to cover their own butts sooner or later they will hit on a formula that will make them credible again.
Which brings me to a thought, "With all the trouble going on in WCW why would Sabu want to go there?" It is no secret that Sabu has had past troubles with ECW and would want to leave. It is not like Heyman is the easiest person to get along with or work for. But to go to WCW right now is basically suicide. Does he really think that he’ll get a better shake then he did the last time he was there? If I am not mistaken almost the same booking committee is there now that was there then. Have they changed their philosophies between then and now? Hardly. But I guess in a perfect world it wouldn’t matter where you go now would it.
The WWF is not the place for him to go. Pretty soon if things keep going the way they are the WWF will end up in the same situation as WCW is right now which is a carbon copy of the troubles that the WWF went through in the late eighties. Too much talent in their locker room.
I stated way back in 1996 when WCW was amassing it’s locker room that there would be trouble down the road but no one wanted to hear that then. All they saw was that WCW had the largest and by far the most talented locker room in the business, bar none. How could they lose with that much talent? Very easy my friend, very easy.
You see when you have that many people you must realize that you have that many ego’s. Not that everyone in WCW had a large ego but one thing was for sure, they all wanted a push. That is only natural, it is the nature of the business. What happened was WCW did not have the outlets to push over 100 wrestlers. Even though they have more television then they ever had in order for them to have successful television shows they still had to push their top draws. Look at WCW Saturday Night as an example. This is nothing but a glorified house show. The show is for all pretense and purposes a waste of time as far as wrestling fans are concerned. There is hardly anybody worth noticing on the show and it’s ratings bear that out. They cannot book their top draws on that show too because in this age of wrestling too many guys do not want to work the way they used to have to in the old days. Plus it would be hard to have them work that show and do the main shows plus house shows. Don’t get me wrong, I understand where they are coming from but WCW’s workers have become the Guns and Roses of the wrestling circuit.
I remember when GnR was just getting big. I was living in Hollywood at the time so I got to know the guys somewhat. After 6 weeks of touring they were already canceling shows due to exhaustion. That would have been fine except for the day they had canceled their Long Beach Arena show instead of resting they were hanging out on Hollywood Blvd. partying it up. I walked up to Axl just shaking my head is disbelief. Here I was a musician who would have given anything in the world to be where they were and here they were pissing it away. Needless to say when I told him that moniker of "Scums and Posers" was starting to fit he got really mad. Maybe that’s why we never talked again.
The average working person works about 246 days a year if they do not work weekends have an average of 7 holidays off plus one weeks vacation. Today’s big star wrestlers in WCW want to work about 2 major TV shows a week, maybe a house show and throw in a PPV once a month. That comes out to about 156 days a year. There are even reports of some of them trying to get out of European promotional tours by exaggerating injuries so they do not have to go. This is the kind of people that WCW has to work with right now. Is it any wonder they are in the predicament that they are in?
When you lose 4 of the top wrestlers in the business to your competition mainly because of working conditions wouldn’t you think that it would be time for management to sit and try to find the pattern to why this is all going down?
Even though Eric Bischoff did create some of his own problems by becoming to buddy buddy with some of the guys I now believe that Bischoff was handed a raw deal. He was made to be the scapegoat to cover up a lot of the problems down there. Since Bischoff left it has gone downhill. Now of course the effects of what he had done should have gone on for awhile but the cascading effect of downward spiral that WCW has been locked into cannot all be blamed on Bischoff. It is time that someone down there gets off the political bandwagon and grows enough hair to fix the problem.
You don’t have to look far either. The first thing I would address is the overpaid under talented Kevin Nash. Nash talks a great game but his end results are always the same. When he isn’t booker or getting his way he either phones in his matches or takes time off. When he is booker it is key that he gets put over. This hasn’t changed since he went from wrestler to self appointed Godhead in the company.
Does anyone really think that Vince McMahon wants someone like Nash back in his locker room right now? Why would he want that kind of distraction? His locker room is running very well right now. Sure there are going to be the guys that have been there for awhile who bitch and moan because the new guys are getting a push right now but they have to remember that they also received a push at one time or another. It was being said that D’Lo is unhappy right now. Whether that's really the case or not is yet to be seen, but just for the sake of argument say he is....did he forget the push he received when he was European Champion? Do you think that D’Lo would be a name in the WWF without that push? Like I said I highly doubt that D’Lo is whining but stranger things have happened.
Anyway to get back to Nash I believe that WCW is all this guy has going for him. If WCW let this guy go he would either have to take up the autograph circuit or sit home. I don’t think Vince needs or wants his trouble.
Scott Hall is a no brainer. It is no secret that people in the business have been waiting to find this guy in the hospital for a long time now and it doesn’t appear that he is showing any signs of letting up in the near future. This is a sad story because of all the potential that Hall had at one time. But when ego comes into play it does strange things to the mind. Ask Curt Hennig. He still thinks he’s the greatest thing since sliced bread and he is nothing but a used to be. Funny how that name power really doesn’t travel with you like you think it would after you leave the place that made you. While people still know Hennig’s name his demeanor and rudeness to fans shows them right away just how much of a jerk people can become in this business.
The names I mentioned above are just some of the things that WCW can change. What they basically have to do is tear everything down and start over again. It doesn’t matter how many "farm promotions" they sign up as long as they have the core of the problem still sitting in power in the company it will always play out to be the same in the end.
WCW "bought" their way to greatness but that has now been shown to be short lived. Sitting for 2 year atop the wrestling world does not a legend make. It is time for them to decide whether they really want to be in the wrestling business or not. If not sell it to Rupert Murdoch who’ll take it to Fox and run with his new toy for awhile. If they do want to stay in wrestling it is time that they start acting like it and giving the fans a credible product. It is also time that they stop listening to the inmates who work for them as they only have self serving agendas.
And with that I am outta here. Remember wrestling is nothing more than it appears to be.
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