411’s Dark Side of The Ring Report: ‘Bash at The Beach 2000’

-Now we get to the Dark Side of the Ring episode I have been waiting for since the episodes for this season were announced. This figures to be a lighter episode as it’s about the craziness around WCW in 2000 and we don’t have to see a family torn apart by drugs, alcohol, or anything we usually see with this series. Let’s get to it!

-Reminder that Chris Jericho is our narrator!

-The teaser shows we are going to get a lot of shots back and forth between Russo and Bischoff. This is going to be glorious! Jarrett calls BATB 2000 the single biggest black eye in WCW history.

-We start with Vince Russo and he immediately tells us, “I despise the wrestling business, bro. I despise the people in it. You can not be a good person and exist in the wrestling business. You can’t bro.” Well, it didn’t take long for him to exaggerate as we know there are plenty of good people in the wrestling business. We get a montage of the crazy stuff that Russo did in WCW including making himself World Champion.

-Next a producer asks Dave Meltzer if Vince Russo has done more harm or good for pro-wrestling. The look on Dave’s face is priceless! “Harm. Yeah, long term…harm.”

-We go back to the 90s as Vince McMahon and the WWF is faced with a real challenge in Ted Turner’s WCW. Everything flipped in 1996 according to Dave as WCW started to dominate. He notes the flaw with McMahon is he only thinks one thing will work.

-We meet Eric Bischoff and he tells the story of figuring out what WWF did to be successful and he wanted to do the opposite of what they were doing. He tells us he is the first to create a weekly live television format for wrestling as RAW was taped. He knew wrestling had to be live. He says WCW before Nitro was silly and WWF lite. They were ignoring men 18-49 and he was targeting that demographic. Meltzer puts Bischoff over by noting he was ahead of the game at a time when Vince was stuck in the past.

-We get the story of Bischoff bringing in Hulk Hogan and how it changed the industry as it gave WCW big star power equal to WWF. Dave notes that Eric told him that where Hogan goes, there goes the money. We jump a few years and DDP tells Eric that Scott Hall is about to be a free agent, so Eric calls and gets a deal done. A week later he gets a call from Kevin Nash who is also about to be a free agent and they also reach a deal. THE NWO! HALL AND NASH INVADING! HOGAN DROPPING THE LEG ON RANDY SAVAGE! INJECT ALL THIS IN MY VEINS! I feel bad for people who weren’t alive and missed out on this era. The nWo took off like nothing before and WCW started trucking WWF on a weekly basis.

-Vince McMahon turns to the ideas of a young writer named Vince Russo. Russo says he told Vince to throw the wrestling handbook out the window. He had the idea for crash TV and it was the idea that the viewer at home was given the opportunity to see what was happening on the other channel. The idea was short match, backstage segment, vignette, short match, fight in the back, etc. They didn’t want to give the viewer a chance to turn and see what was on Nitro. This took off with The Attitude Era and now by mid 98 into 99, WWF was back on top. Meltzer doesn’t want to dismiss Russo’s contributions, but WWF had STEVE AUSTIN AND THE ROCK on top. Yep! Just think of The Simpsons baseball episode where Mr. Burns genius idea is, “Strawberry hit a homerun.”

-By the end of 1999 WCW started losing money and the budget was getting slashed. This led to Bischoff fighting an uphill battle and he was gone and out of power. Meanwhile in WWF, Russo was getting burned out as WWF added SmackDown which was two more hours of content. Russo says he went to Vince and wanted to move his family closer to his wife’s family because he is never home. McMahon told him, “you make enough money and can afford a nanny to watch your kids.” Russo was pissed and was in WCW by the next week. He knew he was going to WCW with a target on his back. It was the first time he was working with the WCW veterans and knew Hogan and Bischoff were tight since day one. He remembers seeing Hulk for the first time and he realized Hogan didn’t trust him. Dave notes you couldn’t build around Hogan anymore if you were looking to the future, and Russo wanted Hogan out of the power he held. Bischoff notes the narrative was Hogan couldn’t wrestle and had to retire, but the business side of wrestling still found a lot of value on Hogan. That was true obviously as McMahon brought him back and made millions. Heck even as of a few years ago, he could still pop a rating when brought back for RAW. Again, he isn’t the future, but there is always value in the name Hulk Hogan.

-Russo gets control in Oct of 1999 and Dave notes that Russo believed that the more extreme and shocking the more people like it. He mentions if you do it too much, the audience stops carrying. Russo says he was there for three months and the ratings went up. Dave: “Well, he will tell you they were improving, but no, they weren’t up. Artificially it looked good, but if you did the month rating, each month was down.” Russo says the next thing he was told by management was they were going in a different direction. Russo: “Fine, I will go home and send me my money.”

-The next idea was from Brad Seigel, who was the head of TNT and TBS. He was asked to meet someone for lunch and Russo knew it was Bischoff. Eric says he was brought back to oversee Russo. That brings in Jeff Jarrett and he doesn’t think there was a power struggle between the two. It was more a philosophical difference on what a wrestling television show should be. Lance Storm is next and he tells us he negotiated his contract with Russo and Biscoff. “I much more preferred dealing with Eric.” HA! The first idea Russo pitched was Lance being Bischoff’s illegitimate son. FANTASTIC! Lance and Eric were both shocked! “Isn’t Eric only 10 years older than me?” Eric says Russo was void of any creative instincts or talent? I love this so much already!

-Commercials!

-The story they agree to is the young guys against the veterans that held them down. Bischoff says it was a Civil War and battle between young and old. Dave: “That year 2000 is blanked out of my mind because it was so bad.” Russo says it was destined for failure from the beginning and says Eric wanted to be in charge. Eric says he knew Russo was a bullshitter and wanted nothing to do with his creative. Russo says he told Brad to put Eric back in charge and Brad said no, as they wanted him to write the shows. The next time he saw Eric was Bash at The Beach.

-Week of the show and Russo asked if you could make anyone WCW Champion who would it be? Around the table everyone said Booker T. Russo said that is what they were going to do. I mean, I understand, but it’s the week before a PPV. Probably could have picked a better time to build up to Booker winning the World Title. Jarrett says his gimmick was The Chosen One and had the belt for a few months. His creative was to beat the legends and then lose the World Title to Booker T when it was time. Jeff saw Russo’s vision and bought into it. Russo says the Main Event was penciled in to be Jarrett vs Booker T with Booker winning The Title. What? I mean, the previous month Hogan beat Kidman to earn the Title Match at Bash at The Beach. Russo then had the idea to give Jarrett one more win over a legend, Hogan, before losing to Booker. Russo says when he wrote the creative for the show he made sure Hogan looked strong, but he wasn’t going to win.

-Eric says Russo had his own idea and Hogan and Eric had their own idea. He says what Russo wanted didn’t matter as Hogan had creative control on what happened to his character on television. Yes, I know people hated that stipulation, but the man had it in his contract. Same thing Bret had in his contract in the final days of his WWF run. Jarrett says that is a conflict of interest and then you wonder if the talent is worried about themselves or the company. JEFF JARRETT IS RAILING AGAINST CREATIVE CONTROL. Just go watch the early years of TNA! Also, Jeff is a promoter’s son, so he knows the deal.

-Russo says he had to rewrite the script and had Hogan wiping everyone out, but he doesn’t win The Title. He says Hogan was cool with it and he walked into the PPV on Sunday thinking everything was fine. Eric told him that Hogan was in the trailer and wasn’t going to do it. Russo says it was him, Hogan and Bischoff in the trailer and clearly it’s 2 against 1. Bischoff notes they discussed the show and that the final call was his as he was the one put in charge of overseeing what Russo was doing. Russo says Eric told him they had a different scenario which was Hogan winning the WCW Title. Eric pitched the idea of blurring fiction real life with Jarrett being annoyed at Hogan’s politics and throwing the match. The idea was Hogan to leave in a state of anger and once WCW realized Hogan wasn’t coming back with the Title, WCW would force him to vacate and create a tournament for a new WCW Champion. At Halloween Havoc in Oct before the two finalists were set to have their match, Hogan was going to return and tell them he was still Champ and they needed to beat him. I wonder if he was going to spray paint an X on the Title?

-Russo says he was pissed and the show was starting in an hour. Eric said they would get Brad on the phone and let him choose. Brad said to go with Eric’s idea. “We got the President of The Network who is the tiebreaker.” Russo says Hogan was laying out the story and one ear was listening and the other was figuring out another way out because Hogan wasn’t leaving with the title. He told Jeff to lay down and let Hogan leave with the belt. Jeff says he was dumbfounded and the story made no sense for a babyface to win a Title that way. “This was the opposite of that.” He told Vince that everyone loses in this scenario.

-Commercials!

-The show starts and Jeff starts having second thoughts. Jeff says he had an overwhelming sense of if he wanted to be part of this mess. He thought of his family and how the real boss was the fans. Heat le stayed in the back for a bit even as his music played. He thought about forcing Hogan to punch him and at least getting something resembling a physical match out of it. He went over his options and what would protect his family and career. He wasn’t angry, but just wanted to get it over with and walked to the ring saying if Hogan wanted his creative control he could have it. Jarrett says he never looked at Hulk the same way. Jarrett lays down and Hogan pins him with a foot on his chest while Russo tosses the belt into the ring. Russo notes the crowd was confused and Jarrett says the old saying is, “if you confuse them, you lose them.” Russo just wanted the plan to play out like he wanted. Hogan gets a pop for telling Russo the company is in the shape it is because of bullshit like this. As an aside, I do wish they would have touched on Halloween Havoc 2000 where Russo was in charge and they ran the same angle with Hogan laying down for Sting. The announcers have to act like it’s not part of the script.

-Bischoff says so far everything went according to plan. He and Hogan left with the belt and went to the airport and boarded a plane. They were giving each other high fives and felt they accomplished the start of the story that was agreed to. The plane lands thirty minutes later and Hogan’s phone is blowing up. Russo went out on PPV and cut a promo burying Hogan. Dave says it was a swerve that went real and made things worse. Russo: “Bro again, these are the things people hate me for.”

-Commercials!

-Russo says he was in the moment and just goes off on Hogan. He talks about playing politics with Hogan, who wanted to play his creative control card. Lance says because of Russo’s crazy booking style the boys still weren’t sure if this was all part of the plan. “If this was the plan it’s stupid and if not it’s even stupider.” Lance is great! Russo promises we will never see Hogan again. Yep, never again. I wonder what happened to this Hogan guy after this show? Russo then makes Jarrett vs. Booker for the World Title as the new Main Event for the show. He then calls Hogan a “big bald son of a bitch” and tells him to kiss his ass.

-Russo says his plan was for Booker to win and become WCW Champion. He tells Hogan to enjoy his fake Title because Booker was the new Champion. “Oh my God bro, I knew Hogan was going to be pissed.” He marks out reading people saying Russo finally put Hogan in his place. Eric says when Hogan gets really angry he gets very quiet and that is when there is an issue. Russo says everything on the show was what was discussed in the trailer including the promo and Booker winning. Bischoff says that was never his plan and was never Hogan’s plan. They didn’t know Booker was walking out as Champion because Hogan had that Title and was going to bring it back in October. Russo says it was part of the plan and the reason Hogan had to leave the building was because of his promo. If he cuts the promo and everyone knows Hogan is in the building he would have to come out and kill him. Unless your name is Adam Page I guess! Eric says Russo may believe it, but that is why he is a pathological liar. Nothing was approved by him or Hogan and calls it the most unprofessional thing he has seen in 30 years of television. Hogan calls it to a Tampa radio show and rips Russo a new one. Eric new Hogan was going to take legal action.

-Commercials!

-Hogan takes legal action against Russo and WCW for defamation and breach of contract. Lance: “you don’t file lawsuits if this is just part of a story line.” Russo notes the judge laughed as it was a wrestling show, with a guy in a wrestling ring cutting a wrestling promo against another wrestler. Jarrett: “Hulk, you are suing over this? Shut up. I would not have been a good witness for that.” Russo says he was cutting his promo on Hulk Hogan the character. Eric says Russo has a problem with reality. Russo says the first judge threw out the case and it went to a different judge. Bischoff laughs and says it’s not like it went to The Supreme Court. They found in discovery that Hogan’s lawyer sent a fax to the WCW offices (after they were closed) that he was using his creative control. Russo says he has no idea of this. Eric says that doesn’t hold up as it wasn’t up for debate between the parties involved. “Why would there be this after hours fax excuse?” Dave says he is trying to decide between two dishonest people twenty years ago and he never heard the fax story.

-The appeals court rules in favor of Russo again as they rule fictional characters can’t be defamed. Jarrett claims that Hogan decided that night that he wanted another check from Time Warner as he knew they weren’t going to renew his contract, so he sued. Dave says Hogan became the face of failure in WCW and there was really nothing left to do with him. He says nobody was going to pay to see Hulk Hogan matches they had seen all those years. Eric: “Then you have scumbags like Dave Meltzer.” I LOVE THIS SHOW! He calls Dave a useful idiot that calls himself a journalist. He claims that Dave hates Hogan to this day.

-Nobody is sure what Hogan was trying to achieve that night Jarrett has wondered what Hogan’s vision was and if it was his version of The Montreal Screwjob or a way to get more eyes on the product. Bischoff notes that Turner ended up settling and the amount was confidential, but he knows it was well into seven figures. Jarrett notes some people play checkers and others play chess. Hogan had the patience to play chess and cashed out.

-Commercials! Season Finale next week with Marty Jannetty!

-The facts of what actually went down will forever be murky, but it showed how screwed up WCW was. Jarrett takes another shot at Hogan and says everything the business gave him and that’s what he gave back. Oh cry some more! When WCW went out of business Hogan was the one back in WWF putting over The Rock and Brock Lesnar while Jarrett had to create his own promotion so he could be a World Champion again and bury people as badly as what Hogan gets criticized for doing. He continues by saying it was an egotistical, self centered, power play moved that benefited Hulk. Again, dude can’t get over the fact that Hogan didn’t want to do a job for him.

-Dave says it could have built to something and he liked seeing Booker T as Champion. At least that was something new. Russo says it was destined for failure from the beginning. Bischoff doesn’t think it was the nail in the coffin was WCW and they were past that point already. Dave calls WCW a supernova and it burned out quickly.

-Vince swooped in and bought WCW after Eric’s group had their deal fall through. Eric says they were going to pay $67 million for all the assets which included TV. He then gets a phone call saying Turner took the deal off the table. It ended up being a fire sale and Vince paid $2.5 million for WCW and $1.7 million for the tape library. That library has obviously paid for itself multiple times over at this point. We see Vince make the announcement that he “now owns WCW.”

-Bischoff says he tries to not carry any baggage with him and has no regrets. Jarrett puts over Russo again and says he has had successes and failures like everyone. Russo says this shit matters so little as it is a form of entertainment at the end of the day. He doesn’t hate any of these people, bro. It was a job and he tells people don’t, when they ask about getting into the wrestling business.

-This was everything I wanted it to be. We only had 5 talking heads I believe with Russo, Bischoff, Jarrett, Storm, and Dave, and that’s all we needed. I mean, Hogan would have been great, but we all know that wasn’t happening. I didn’t think coming into this that Jarrett would come off the worst, but I grew up on Hogan so perhaps his Hogan bashing just annoyed me. Jarrett complaining about someone else having an ego and not wanting to do business is something else man. Russo and Bischoff just going back and forth was wonderful and Dave was there to kind of present the facts as he knew them. I think Storm was there just to have someone else who was there talk about it, but he was great as he put over the insane nature of everything happening at the time. Again, I admit to being a Hogan fan since I was four and in this case I lead to his and Bischoff’s version, but only three people out there really know. I can see why the defamation lawsuit was tossed, but the breach of contract is something else and I think that’s why WCW ended up settling. Episodes like this are the easy ones to watch as you don’t feel heart broken or dirty. You just sit back in amazement at the craziness that can only happen in pro-wrestling. Definitely check this one out as it ended up being one of my favorite episodes of the entire series. Thanks for reading!