Bischoff must stop game of chicken
The in-fighting in WCW continues to rage on. There are all kinds of truisms in wrestling about when locker room and front office politics typically are most vulnerable. Some argue it’s when times are bad, such as when the WWF’s business hit unheard of depths in late ’95 leading to the locker room crisis with The Clique. Others argue it’s when business is good and everyone is fighting for credit that egos begin to clash. Others contend the worst time is when a promotion is on the verge of either success or failure — a middle ground where everyone is arguing over different directions.
The real truism is that locker room and front office problems result from a lack of leadership, or a lack of faith in leadership. In the “Titanic Sports” era of the WWF in late-1995, the locker room upheaval resulted mainly as a result of Pat Patterson’s (short-lived) retirement. After Patterson left and Bill Watts’s reign as his replacement was cut short after a disagreement with Vince McMahon, no one was in control. Jerry Brisco didn’t carry the authority that Patterson or Watts did, yet he was having to fill that role by default. The Clique were trying to protect their territory despite crashing buyrates and doomsday house show figures. Others blamed the Clique for the drop in business. It was the lack of an authority figure to choose a direction and take it that, more than anything, created the perception among various factions that power was there to be seized.
In WCW, members of The Clique are up to their old tricks, bonding on and off camera to the degree that others have gotten jealous or feel threatened. Despite record-setting business in most categories, rather than everyone basking in the success, they are fighting for credit, manufacturing blame, and vying to be the ones standing in the end.
Kevin Sullivan wants to protect his turf as WCW booker as long as possible. But he knows any booker’s run is limited and thus he tries hard to cater to the “hardcore” fans and indy promoters who will support him if he loses his WCW job. He also stays in close contact with ECW folks, working hard, despite the WCW-ECW tension, to keep doors open there.
Hulk Hogan makes more than three times the money anyone else does in WCW, including Eric Bischoff, but he has to play politics and choose sides, and try to figure out if anyone is threatening what he hopes is two to four more years of earning well into the seven figures working a limited schedule.
Ric Flair is just starting to figure out that WCW used to be “his baby” and now he has been turned into a comedy figure who makes appearances at box offices on opening day for ticket sales. He’s earning around $450,000 a year compared to the $780,000 to $900,000 being earned by Scott Hall and Kevin Nash.
Hall and Nash have relatively cushy deals, don’t get drug tested (as if any main eventers actually feel threatened by WCW drug tests), have a limited number of dates structured into their contracts, and have cozied up enough with Bischoff that everyone else feels threatened or jealous.
The promotion has separated into three factions — the Nash faction (Nash, Hall, Syxx, the Mexicans, and few others on the edge of the inner-circle such as Randy Savage), the Sullivan faction (Sullivan, Flair, Roddy Piper, Chris Benoit, some road agents, and others on the Steve McMichael level), and the Independents, the largest group, who are either self-interested, disinterested, or playing the role of everyone’s friend and thus alienating everyone in the process (Dallas Page, Sting, Lex Luger, the Steiners). The most important question, asked most often, especially when Hogan isn’t around, is: Where does Hogan really stand?
The weekly battles and accusations range from petty to profound. The latest strong suspicion being circulated in more than one circle relates to where Hogan stands. The theory says that Hogan may be working against Nash and in favor of Sullivan. The rationalization is that Hogan has pulled himself away from WCW recently, not just because he’s “too busy” to fly in for a pay-per-view match because of his movie schedule, but mainly in order to “show WCW management” what happens to ratings and buyrates without him.
In order to help Hogan make his point, the theory suggests he may have encouraged Sullivan to “sabotage” certain aspects of booking to nudge ratings and buyrates down when the Nash faction is operating on top. Even though that would make Sullivan look bad, the assumption is Hogan would assure Sullivan that when he returned to the scene he would use his pull to make sure Sullivan didn’t lose standing. Hogan would time his return to coincide with the “sure-fire buyrates” involving his matches with Dennis Rodman, Luger, and Sting.
When Hogan took Eric Bischoff with him to Dennis Rodman’s movie premier, some assumed it was Hogan and Bischoff taking the opportunity to talk business, hob-nob, and party together. Others now wonder if Hogan was taking Bischoff away from Nitro so Sullivan could more easily get away with putting on an edition of Nitro six days before Spring Stampede that did little to promote the PPV.
The Nash faction was so upset with Sullivan’s booking of that show that they supplied Bischoff with a tape and a list of specific grievances. Apparently Bischoff found it difficult to explain away some of the more bizarre decisions by Sullivan that night. The theory is Sullivan never expected Bischoff to go back and watch the show.
But why would Hogan risk alienating Nash’s faction? That’s easy. For two reasons. Hogan would side with Sullivan, Piper, and Flair because not only does he relate to their “elder statemen” position in the industry, but they also don’t threaten his power in WCW in the way Nash does, who is years younger and fresher and more marketable than the other three.
Hogan would have the confidence to pull off such a scheme with Sullivan because he knows Bischoff wouldn’t risk messing with him (Hogan). If WCW fails with Hogan on top, Bischoff can write it off as an industry-wide trend. If Bischoff were to side with Nash and get rid of Hogan — should the head-butting reach a state where a choice were necessary — and WCW business dropped, Bischoff’s supseriors might blame him for not being able to keep Hogan happy. Bischoff just needs another year or two heading up a successful run for WCW before he will likely be offered a position as a division chief; that’s where the real money kicks in. Hogan is keenly aware of the position Bischoff is in.
Anyone in the industry who has been around Hogan, especially those who either threatened his position at one time or were in a decision-making position of any kind, have the utmost “respect” for Hogan’s political techniques. Hogan is considered the master of self-preservation and manipulation. He is smooth. Nash is less experienced at locker room games. Sullivan thinks he’s more clever than anyone, so Hogan and Sullivan probably would assume Nash would be an easy mark, especially if they felt Hogan had lulled Nash into thinking he was his friend and looking out for his interests.
If the “devious plan” by Hogan is more than just people’s imaginations, the plan may be backfiring. Rather than making Nash appear to be a trouble-maker as intended, Bischoff may be suspicious enough of the possible plotting (or sabotaging or incompetence) to punish everyone but Nash’s faction. In fact, the rumor this week is that the Hogan-Sullivan conspiracy theory and other factors have led to Sullivan’s position as booker to be in trouble. His rumored replacement? Dallas Page, who is considered a detail-oriented student of the game. If Page thinks he has heat with wrestlers now because of his push and how people are interpreting his subsequent demeanor, wait until he tries the booker hat on.
With everyone looking at everyone else with suspicion, with every glance being interpreted as threatening or accusatory, with gamesmanship at an all-time high, with certain powerbrokers warning wrestlers who they should and shouldn’t hang out with and what they should or shouldn’t be doing when they hang out with them, with Hogan’s absence creating tension, with Bischoff’s overall conduct raising eyebrows, and with Nash, Hall, and Syxx appearing to be doing exactly what caused locker room problems in the WWF, the entire scenario is going to get worse before it gets better.
