By Dave Meltzer Feb 09 1998
For 1/19, Monday Night Raw drew its largest rating since the Monday night wars began, doing a 4.00 rating (3.78 first hour; 4.23 second hour) and 6.04 share, peaking with a 4.7 rating (3,381,000 homes) for the final 15 minutes when Tyson and Austin, who had both been held off appearing except in teases up to that point, had their confrontation. Still, that figure wasn't enough to beat Nitro, which registered a 4.44 rating (4.95 first hour; 4.04 second hour) and 6.63 share. Nitro peaked before Raw got on the air drawing a 5.2 rating (Steiners vs. Bagwell & Konnan) from 8:45 to 9 p.m. The largest total audience watching American wrestling at one point in the history of Monday night wars and since WWF lost NBC was from 10-10:15 p.m. when WCW had the Hogan vs. Giant match do a 4.7 (3,413,000 homes) and WWF countered with DX roasting weenies getting a 4.1 rating (2,934,000 homes) or a combined 6,347,000 homes watching wrestling during that time period. In the 79 minutes the two shows went head-to-head, Nitro drew a 4.04 to Raw's 3.84, a very close margin, including having the advantage for the first 15 minutes head to head by a 4.1 to 3.5 margin which no doubt was over the curiosity revolving around Tyson. However, the second quarter saw WCW ahead 3.8 to 3.6 and it remained ahead the rest of the head-to-head slot. In addition, the WCW Nitro replay came just shy of its all-time record doing a 2.26 rating and 4.57 share.
While Tyson proved, in his WWF television debut when his novelty and curiosity value would be the highest, to be worth about .5 to the total rating, even the novelty of Tyson wasn't enough for Raw to beat Nitro. The truth was, that the Hogan vs. Giant singles match which went opposed by Raw had more viewers than the Tyson-Austin angle despite that going unopposed with Nitro already off the air. But both companies probably could make a strong case for being thrilled with the 1/19 numbers, WWF because they did show a strong increase and had their largest audience since the summer of 1995 and largest ever in a competitive situation on cable; WCW because even with Tyson on the other show, they still drew more viewers and drew a great rating both for the live show and the replay, prompting one WCW exec to say that if WWF couldn't win on that night, they'd never be able to win.
One side shouldn't have been happy on 1/26. The WWF. Coming off a week world wide publicity the likes of which the federation hasn't received in more than a decade and when it left the air with a cliffhanger of Tyson challenging Austin following what will go down as an all-time classic angle, its rating fell to a 3.48 rating (3.50 first hour; 3.45 second hour) and 5.25 share, a very good number on the surface, but actually lower than it did the week before the Tyson angle took place. This showed that all the publicity and the angle itself actually meant little or nothing when it comes to increasing mainstream curiosity in their product for more than a few days. This isn't to say the angle is dead or worthless or won't draw money at the end or anything of the sort, but it did not result in any increase in mainstream curiosity about seeing where the angle was going after a cliffhanger end of the show, let alone in the World Wrestling Federation seven days later. Nitro, increased to its now permanent three hour length, drew a record for an opposed time slot despite having its worst show of the new year, with a 4.66 rating (4.90 first hour; 4.83 second hour; 4.25 third hour) and a 6.88 share. The Nitro replay, moved back to a 1 a.m. to 4 a.m. time slot after the movie "Police Woman Centerfold," did an 0.8 rating and 3.5 share. The head-to-head two hours were 4.54 to 3.48, the first ever combined audience for a two-hour period to top an 8.0.
Individual quarters were 4.2 (Bloom vs. Neidhart, Guerrero Jr. vs. Psicosis) to 3.9 (Shamrock vs. Henry); 4.7 (Spicolli vs. Guerrera + NWO soap w/Savage) to 3.5 (LOD vs. Jarrett & Windham); 5.3 (NWO soap interview w/Savage) to 3.3 (DX interview) or the peak total audience period; 5.1 (Raven vs. Mortis; Wrath vs. Page) to 3.3 (Vader vs. Goldust and Kane angle); 4.2 (Bret Hart interview + Nitro party clips) to 3.8 (Funk & Cactus vs. Outlaws and Pantera vs. Christopher); 4.6 (Booker T vs. Saturn and Jericho interview) to 3.2 (Angle with DX - Funk & Cactus, Bangers vs. Quebecers); 4.3 (McMichael vs. Bulldog and Nash vs. Traylor) to 3.3 (Owen vs. Goldust) and 3.9 (Hall vs. Luger and typical Sting/Hogan finish) to 3.5 (Don King and Austin interviews).
By Dave Meltzer Feb 23 1998 So now that we have the answer to the big question on Mike Tyson, it brings up the next question.
Tyson's role, as announced by Vince McMahon at the beginning of a press conference at the Official All-Star Cafe in Manhattan on 2/5, would be as an outside the ring "enforcer," a second referee of sorts, for the Shawn Michaels vs. Steve Austin main event at Wrestlemania on 3/29 in Boston's Fleet Center.
The press conference was widely attended with some 27 television cameras and more than 100 reporters attending from all over the world, the timing of which was fortuitous for the WWF stemming from mainstream media reports nationwide coming the two days leading to the press conference of an apparent Mike Tyson-Don King business split over (what else?) King taking so much of Tyson's money and leaving him near broke with a $7 million income tax bill to pay, and this was Tyson's first public appearance since the news broke.
The press conference made virtually every major newspaper in the country, although most of the stories didn't focus much on pro wrestling other than the obligatory "just how far Tyson has fallen" comments and negative comments toward the wrestling industry and more on what the evil King did to a stupid Tyson once again. But the name "Wrestlemania" and the date did make a lot of mainstream press that under normal circumstances would never mention it, even if the mentions were virtually all with an unmistakably sarcastic smirk. The WWF got almost no positive press out of this aside from a Bob Raissman column in the New York Daily News headlined "Vince revels as King for a day." The story proclaimed McMahon as the big winner saying he's already gotten full return on his investment because signing Tyson has put the spotlight in wrestling back on the WWF from the WCW and the crossover publicity will bring new fans to their television sets and new fans to his arenas. Raissman at least understood the big picture as it related to wrestling, but the majority of coverage, besides the smirking talking heads on television, were proclaiming Tyson as one of the new Three Stooges, a phrase the WWF must have been particularly sensitive about since the New York Times three stooges headline actually aired on Raw on 2/9, however the word "stooges" was whitewashed out of the clipping. Presumably the other two stooges were Michaels and Austin, and not McMahon and King, who were knocked with lines like being either hair extensioned or steroid bloated phonies. There were the expected stories talking about how Tyson was sinking to a new low, actually quite similar to the news stories three years ago when Lawrence Taylor worked Wrestlemania. It's really quite shallow anyone saying or thinking that to believe doing a pro wrestling gig was lower than biting Evander's ear twice, being a street thug, an alleged wife beater or a convicted rapist. ESPN tuned out of the press conference within seconds realizing it was mainly a pro wrestling hype job. Others, like FoxSports and CNN-SI gave it coverage throughout the day, with wrestling mentioned as an afterthought to the King/Tyson split as the "real" story. As bad as pro wrestling can be and often is, its horror stories pale in comparison to those in the so-called sweet science where Tyson has been one of the few lucky ones to at least make large chunks of money on the way to every charismatic boxing champion's ultimate destination, being a special referee for pro wrestling, putting over a Japanese wrestler in a mixed match or sticking around longer than Giant Baba and either doing commercials for Meineke or showing up on Tuesday Night Fights against nobodies. The company reasonably couldn't and didn't expect a lot of positive press since the story combines pro wrestling, Don King, Mike Tyson and Vince McMahon. But the feeling is that Tyson's involvement would create a major awareness to the WWF and to the Wrestlemania show, which it has.
But for most wrestling fans, the announcement of Tyson as nothing more than an outside the ring sort-of ref was a huge letdown after the hype and the Fresno angle. TCI Cable, which last week had actually threatened not to carry Wrestlemania if Tyson's role would in any way adversely affect his boxing re-instatement, has agreed to carry the show now that Tyson's role was defined.
Despite speculation to the contrary, and even statements by McMahon at the press conference hinting otherwise, this role had been the plan from the start according to several who had been appraised of the conclusion of the story from the start. It appears that the belief originally was that they would tease an Austin vs. Tyson match after doing the angle in Fresno to gain tons of mainstream attention, which did work on a world-wide basis probably even greater than their most optimistic expectations. Then, to show deference to the Nevada State Athletic Commission and perhaps ease his transition back into boxing by showing that deference, use that as the excuse to only use Tyson in the outside the ring ref role (the reason he's not the ref inside the ring is so he doesn't get in the way of Michaels and Austin's spots due to inexperience). When the commission didn't come down hard on Tyson being a participant in the match in the first place and become the so-called heels to the wrestling fans in the story, a major piece of the storyline puzzle was thrown for a loop, and from a storyline standpoint, there was no explanation even attempted by the WWF as to why both Tyson and Austin wanted the match, that there was no reason given not to have it, but that Tyson was only going to wind up as an outside the ring referee. There had been recent discussions between McMahon and the Nevada State Athletic Commission regarding this storyline "snafu" but the commission wasn't willing to "play along" to that degree and be the so-called bad guys in this story. There was never any consideration given to Tyson being a participant in a match with Austin at Wrestlemania or even a tag team match, even under very controlled circumstances, let alone whatever else had been speculated here and elsewhere over the past few weeks.
No matter. From a wrestling standpoint the next question is: Will it all be worth it since the drawing power of Tyson as an outside the ring ref won't exactly be the same as Tyson being a participant?
Much of the New York media, which had been covering the story far closer than any other media in the country due to its long-term fascination with Tyson, had reported Tyson as receiving $3.5 million for the gig. At the press conference, Tyson claimed that figure was low, and the figure listed since that time has been $4 million. It is well known that Don King received $300,000 for the rights to Tyson's likeness, a fee which was said to have been the catalyst for the Tyson-King attempted split, and King was also paid by McMahon for helping promote the match and appearing on Raw. WWF sources claim that despite what Tyson said at the press conference, the $3.5 million figure is higher than the real number and that the company doesn't need a 2.0 buy rate to make a profit on the show. When WCW made attempts to sign Tyson, the total cost of everything which included a lot of paying off a lot of people, would wind up supposedly being $6 million for the deal, a figure they felt wasn't economically feasible and why they quickly chose to pass on the deal. The printed figures for celebrities at Wrestlemania have in the past been greatly inflated. William "Refrigerator" Perry was reported everywhere as getting $350,000 when the real figure was $135,000. Lawrence Taylor didn't receive the reported $1 million. And even Muhammad Ali, whose match with Antonio Inoki was back in the news due to Tyson, was reported in the New York media this past week as having received $6 million to do that 1976 match when he really received $1.8 million, although in his case he was really supposed to get $6 million for doing the job that he didn't do. One of the oldest tricks in boxing promoters dealing with boxers when it comes to big numbers is to give them a big hunk of cash up front immediately, which they understand and deal with from their upbringing in lieu of the check or in lieu delaying the payments for the promised amount of money which is why the boxers in most cases never get anywhere near the purses you read about them getting in the newspaper and why such a high percentage of them wind up broke. As it turns out, unlike McMahon, Ted Turner probably wouldn't have been thrilled with this kind of negative publicity for his wrestling company and even if WCW had agreed to terms with Tyson, there is no guarantee the higher-ups at Turner or Time-Warner wouldn't have nixed it due to the media reaction it was going to receive. Last year, when WWF planned on using Dennis Rodman as their major celebrity, WCW outbid WWF for his services and got a lot of media attention for the company in doing so. Nevertheless, the attention WCW got with Rodman will and already has paled in comparison. Since Tyson's name was brought up on Raw, WCW first attempted to use Oscar de la Hoya as a referee, but de la Hoya's people nixed that deal because they felt it would hurt his image being involved with pro wrestling. WCW also opened negotiations in a later virtually unpublicized effort that didn't come to fruition involved attempting to get Evander Holyfield to referee the Hogan-Sting Cow Palace match.
To answer the next question itself is complicated. First off, WWF has decided to raise the Wrestlemania price from $29.95 to $34.95, which only slightly changes the economics from the last time we looked at it. One has to figure Tyson was already worth $750,000 to the WWF just for his part in the Royal Rumble buy rate. How much he's worth to the company when it comes to whatever, if any, TV ratings increase he's responsible for is hard to ascertain. How much he's worth to the company in the long run for raising the visibility of the company's top star, Austin, is also hard to ascertain, and for raising the visibility of Michaels, as he'll no doubt do since there are more angles planned in this story leading up to the match. More people are attending WWF house shows, but more people are also attending WCW, ECW and independent house shows as well, and Tyson's involvement in pro wrestling has nothing to do with that. More people are watching wrestling on television as WWF ratings are up, but WCW is still winning the ratings battles by about the same margin as before this angle came about. Still, if we take the package as being $4 million, which may be a low figure for the total overall cost, and take off $750,000 for what he helped draw already at the Rumble, while they can turn a profit on less than a 2.0 buy rate, they still need no less than a 2.0 buy rate (567,000 buys) to make it worth while on the show itself, going under the impression that without Tyson's involvement that Michaels and Austin under the current boom economic conditions in wrestling were going to do a 1.2 on their own, and that may be a conservative assessment. Wrestlemanias have done figures in that range and quite a bit better in the past, although not in the last few years.
From a standpoint of the buy rates on the two PPV shows that Rodman did with WCW last year and how much he was paid ($750,000 per shot), it was really almost a wash, and generally speaking, the Lawrence Taylor angle was considered at the time a PPV flop even though both Rodman and Taylor in the ring did better than anyone had the right to expect from people going so long in their first professional match. Even with all the media pub, WCW with Rodman didn't do the buy rates (approximately 0.89 on both shows he worked) that the Hogan-Piper cage match did, it did maybe half of Hogan-Sting and for that matter, was actually less than even the recent Flair-Hart, and Rodman was a participant in a match on the second of the two shows, both of which got a ton of mainstream hype going in. Taylor's match with Bigelow in 1995's Wrestlemania, which was an excellent overall hype job going in and he was a participant in the main event, drew an estimated 1.4 buy rate. Of course, Tyson's name is bigger than either Rodman or Taylor's, even more so on an international basis, and Bigelow just didn't get over to the mainstream like at least Austin has the potential of doing, and certainly wasn't over to the wrestling audience anywhere close to where Austin or Michaels are today. Would WCW, turning back the clock one year, make the deal again? I'd guarantee the answer is yes, for the visibility it gave the company and ego gratification of those involved of being perceived as a big time business player and the fact that Rodman's first appearance last March, also in an out of the ring role, led to WCW's Uncensored beating out last year's Wrestlemania, which came one week later, when it came to PPV buys. And the huge increase in interest in WCW over the past year, while it can't be all or even majorly attributed to the fact Rodman was involved in two PPV shows and one Nitro, he was responsible for at least a small part in the company's overall growth last year.
According to an article by Wallace Matthews in the 2/4 New York Post, Tyson owes the government $7 million in taxes and is down to either $150,000 or $4 million in liquid assets which would mean that Wrestlemania payoff would come in handy, although it's 90 to 120 days after the event before he'll be getting whatever the money is that he's really getting. Tyson at the press conference naturally denied having any financial problems saying he has more money than anyone could ever spend, and claiming it could take him one year to earn $200 million. The truth of Tyson's money woes appear to have been exaggerated as between his three homes, his cars and trust funds for his wife and kids, his worth was estimated at between $70 million and $150 million.
King, who was originally scheduled to appear at the Wrestlemania press conference before his falling out with Tyson, was said to have been confronted by Tyson after Tyson's wife got information from the WWF that the WWF had paid King $300,000 for his likeness, which Tyson believed he himself owned. The Post story claimed that Tyson slapped and kicked King and banged him up pretty good in a confrontation outside the Hotel Bel Air in Los Angeles on 1/31, which Tyson sort of denied at the press conference saying "I would never strike anyone outside the paid profession. I won't even make a fist if they don't pay me." Reports indicated King paid the money back to Tyson, but that Tyson would rid himself of King and his co-managers, John Horne and Rory Holloway. At the press conference, McMahon told reporters that they were there to talk about Wrestlemania, not about Tyson's personal life, although virtually nobody was there to talk about wrestling. The press conference was almost taken over by Stuttering John Melendez of the Howard Stern show asking questions like, "What does an ear taste like?" and "Are you the first convicted rapist to appear in Wrestlemania?" At other points McMahon acted indignant when it became obvious the feeling in the room was that doing pro wrestling was beneath Tyson.
The actual figures for the sold out live house at the Fleet Center are 15,516 tickets, of which 14,758 were paid (they really limited comps this year as usually they have thousands of them since that's when they invite a lot of guests plus do a lot of media trades and the like) for a gate of $943,145, the latter figure naturally being an all-time record for Boston and the largest gate for U.S. pro wrestling in four years (since the 1994 Wrestlemania at Madison Square Garden, and when all is said and done this figure may end up topping that $960,000 figure). Mania will probably be an eight-match card with nothing that could be considered a surprise match-up based on the current storylines. The line-up itself isn't officially finalized but obviously Undertaker vs. Kane is the semifinal and you can easily figure what most of the matches are going to end up being based on current television with only one or two preliminary exceptions that aren't finalized but that also would not be considered major by any definition. The show will consist of mostly matches to climax the feuds that are going around the horn currently and the show itself will set up new feuds, rather than having a feud started in the next few weeks for Mania or having anyone not currently in the television storylines appearing in a participant role (with probably one exception in a preliminary role). The originally scheduled match between Marc Mero and pro boxer Eric "Butterbean" Esch with Butterbean "competing" as a pro wrestler has been postponed until a later PPV. The feeling is that with Tyson on the show, it makes no sense to use Butterbean. In real life, or at least as real life as the world of boxing is, there is also bad blood between the two. In addition, the working idea is to put on a good-to-great series of different style matches so that if Tyson brings some new curious people to the table, the WWF will be able to impress and entertain them and make new fans out of them. Michaels is being kept out of the ring to heal up and perform a match to impress whatever non-wrestling fans tune into the show, combined with Austin being in by far the biggest match of his life. The feeling is that if the two have a super match, and that Tyson gets maybe two or three spots in to make newscasts and the final spot to get a big pop, that all masters will be served. Obviously Mero vs. Butterbean wasn't going to be a good match and the feeling is it would be better saved for a different show. WWF is attempting to contact, through the William Morris Agency, a list of sleazy celebrities to appear on the show although the only name we know of that has confirmed at this point is Pete Rose and his role in the show hasn't been decided.
While Tyson's role in Mania is not expected to change, he is expected to be involved in one or possibly two more major angles that WWF is hoping to garner strong mainstream media attention out of, most likely taking place on live Raw shows on 3/2 in Cleveland and 3/16 in Phoenix, no doubt at least one involving Shawn Michaels and DX. WWF is also hopeful of Tyson appearing on the Raw shows taped on 3/3 in Wheeling, WV and 3/17 in Tucson, AZ. Tyson wasn't expected at press time to appear in Houston for the PPV on 2/15, and the decision was made not to use him at the Raw taping on 2/16 in Dallas because that show won't air until five days later and thus if they shot an angle, they'd either have to release the tape to the media before it airs, which USA network wouldn't like and would "expose" their Saturday Raw show as having been taped, or get little media play out of the angle because by the time it airs it would be five days old. From what we believe, there is no definite commitment by Tyson to the WWF after Mania, but that whatever is to happen at Mania will probably be an open-ended story allowing Tyson one more PPV appearance. Tyson's people for obvious reasons are very protective of his "baddest man on the planet" image that they want to use for merchandising and a phrase the WWF is repeating often on its television, and the WWF isn't allowed to do anything in its storyline to jeopardize that image, nor would the company do anything in its storyline to jeopardize the perception of Austin as the baddest man on their planet. A return appearance would all depend upon how well the angle at Mania comes off and how the buy rate comes in as to whether it would be worth everyone's while to bring him back since the cost would be considerable and the novelty may be gone by that point. WCW still has one more match with Rodman under contract and the feeling is at this point the novelty is gone and it would be hard to justify the price tag. Once Tyson returns to boxing (his re-instatement hearing is on 7/5), that would almost definitely spell the end of his involvement with the WWF. The WWF has three PPV shows, 4/26 in Greensboro, 5/31 in Milwaukee and 6/28 in Pittsburgh (King of the Ring) between Mania and Tyson's hearing, the latter would be the most likely to be the one if there would be a return appearance.
Michaels himself is going to be kept out of the ring until WM with the exception of the PPV match in Houston to avoid the possibility of aggravating one of his existing injuries, but will appear at all the television tapings and the plan at this point is for him to appear at a few arena shows, such as 3/22 Madison Square Garden, in Hunter Hearst Helmsley's corner for main events against Austin as they will be doing a storyline of Helmsley and DX attempting to injure Austin before the Mania match. Michaels repeated his line at the press conference about "not laying down for anyone," which should guarantee that he's begrudgingly going to put Austin over in the title match.
The Tyson-King split may not be as easy as has been indicated since King has Tyson under contract for four more fights. The Post story indicated Tyson might use documentation over his financial situation as leverage to get out of the deal since King himself has a re-trial scheduled for next month on mail fraud charges.
During the press conference, both Michaels and Austin made statements that basically challenged Tyson with Tyson, used to this sort of situation from boxing press conferences, not backing down. Michaels said that if Tyson got in his way he'd be glad to kick his teeth out while Austin said he'd put on the gloves and beat the hell out of Tyson and still hinted about a possible future confrontation, while many in the media smirked about the idea a fake wrestler could really win a fight against a ferocious warrior (even though, much to the chagrin of many of the reporters in attendance, the odds are great that at least one if not more of the current WWF stable would have to be favored in a legitimate confrontation with Tyson although Michaels certainly wouldn't be on that list). It built to Michaels and Austin challenging each other and looking as if they wanted to go at it, with Tyson and Shane McMahon (who is said to now be a close confidante of Tyson's) holding them apart. As this was going on, because Tyson had his back to the multitude of TV cameras during the key scene of the show, Vince McMahon screamed, "Ring the f---in bell," (whoops, wrong story). Actually he screamed, "Turn around, Mike."
Submitted February 21, 2016 at 10:55PM by GermanoMuricano117 http://ift.tt/1UgcLTM TheDirtsheets
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