The Headbangers give away the finish to the WrestleMania X7 main event
I'll be doing an entry for the site soon about the day I think WWE officially jumped the shark -- April 2, 2001, the day after WrestleMania X7 in Houston. Which was a sad thing, because X7 was arguably the greatest overall show in the history of the company.
The main event at X7 was Stone Cold against The Rock, the second of the three times they competed at a WrestleMania. Rock was champion at the time, and Austin had just come back from his neck surgery and had earned the title shot at Mania, which just happened to be in his home state of Texas.
I was working for WWE.com at the time, and was actually in Houston for the show to help produce a number of live webcasts from WWE Fan Axxess. We had almost all the superstars on the shows, and it was a really fun weekend to be a part of.
But there was a little-known incident that happened during one of the last webcasts, and even though it went out live to thousands of people, I don't believe anything ever came of it.
One of the Headbangers (I forget which one -- please forgive me!) gave away the result of the main event of WrestleMania.
As we did during most of the shows, the host asked the tag team who they thought would win the Rock/Austin match, and one of the Headbangers gave some bogus worked answer. The host (might have been Kevin Kelly) then asked the other Headbanger who he thought would win the match.
Austin's gonna win, the Headbanger said totally matter-of-factly, because we're in Texas and Rock's leaving to film a movie.
Everything stopped.
We at dotcom knew Rock was going to film a movie, and there were some rumors already on the Internet that he'd be taking some time off, but no one had come out and used that logic to explain the finish, especially with such candor. That would have given things away for sure.
I mean, it was pretty obvious who was going to go over, but here you had a company employee on a live company show giving away the finish to the main event of your biggest show of the year for anyone to hear!
The show continued, and afterwards, we were freaking out. We feared word would get back to Vince of what had been said, and that there would be ramifications for both the Headbangers and for the web site. Yes, we were already towing the line between shoot and work, but it's not like we were going so far as to give out match results.
As it panned out, nothing ever came of it, and everything went off without a hitch. Which probably says more about the success of those webcasts than anything else, I guess ...
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Comments (10)
I wonder which Headbanger it was.
In case anyone is interested, Thrasher is currently the manager of a Papa John's in southern New Jersey.
My friend new I was a wrestling fan and told me that his manager Glenn used to be "one of those wrestlers that wore a skirt, the Moshers or something"
I'm pretty sure it was Mosh since he was part of that atrocious Lo Down tag team with D'Lo Brown where they were both managed by Tiger Ali Singh and came to the ring dressed in Arabian garb. The only reason I remember that team is because they had a match against Kaientai on the Heat before the Royal Rumble that year where the winning team got a slot in the Rumble for one member of the team - only for Vince to take it away and give it to Drew Carey. Yes, *that* Drew Carey.
I was there in the crowd at Axxess watching this happen. It wasn't the Headbangers being interviewed, it was Lo-Down, it was Chaz (Mosh) that said it while D'Lo looked a little shocked.
I was there in the crowd at Axxess watching this happen. It wasn't the Headbangers being interviewed, it was Lo-Down, it was Chaz (Mosh) that said it while D'Lo looked a little shocked.
Seth,
It's your opinion of course, but if you're going to use a TV-centric remark saying that WWE officially "jumped the shark" on April 2, 2001 seems to indirectly disrespect some of the most talented wrestlers who had performed in countless awesome TV matches since then for the company. Certainly there have been less than stellar PPV and TV matches, but are an equal share of unforgettable matches as well.
Regardless of what you think of the storylines, bookers, writers, agents, wrestlers or even Mr. Grapefruits, Vinnie Mac himself, WWE Raw still has one of the longest running 2-hour live TV programs for the past 15 years with steady viewership and ratings. Other shows that "jump the shark" are eventually cancelled, but that's not happening anytime soon for WWE's flagship program.
It can be argued that the company as a whole hasn't "jumped the shark," because there's millions of viewers, readers and fans still are fascinated with the WWE (whether some of them care to admit it or not...WWE is still one of the top search engine subject names) and your Newsday blog depends upon those same readers that share a similar fascination.
I think he means jumped the shark creatively. Even if it still ratings and fans, its no longer main stream popular at least among adults, mainly because the writing and talent is not as good.
I doubt he meant that the WWE jumped the shark creatively the day after Wrestlemania X7, seeing how he ended up working on the creative team.
(quote):
"Even if it still ratings and fans, its no longer main stream popular at least among adults, mainly because the writing and talent is not as good."
My reply:
I respectfully disagree, Eric... WWE Raw still retains mainstream popularity among adults, as they're the ones that make up the coveted demographic age groups (ages 18-35) that the USA Network covets. This is the same demographic that's buying the WWE DVDs, paying for the premium cable channel to get WWE 24, constituting the PPV buys, etc.
Okay, perhaps the writing leaves alot to be desired at times, but don't disrespect the wrestlers that bust their asses to entertain us by saying the "talent is not as good."
(Quote):
"I doubt he meant that the WWE jumped the shark creatively the day after Wrestlemania X7, seeing how he ended up working on the creative team."
(My reply):
David, if you re-read Seth's first sentence from that blog, that's exactly what he's saying. If that's the case, then Seth is at least being very candid without having any agendas.
That's funny, Seth, because Michael Cole actually gave away the finish of Rock/Austin's first WM match, something I don't think anyone caught either. But if you look back at an original copy of Wrestlemania 15 I think it was (I'm assuming someone found the blunder eventually and erased it for future DVD releases, but who knows it might be there also), either before or after the UT/Bossman HITC match, Michael Cole is advertising the WWF's 900# and then says something along the lines like "Call in after Wrestlemania to hear a live interview after the pay-per-view with our new WWF champion." oops!