Dark Side of the Ring 4x9

1. Are you ready?

2. As the new millennium dawned...

3. Oh!

4. The once industry-dominating World Championship Wrestling...

5. Bischoff! Damn it all!

6. was struggling to keep pace with their rival,

7. the World Wrestling Federation.

8. You are lookin' at the next WWF champion,

9. and that's the bottom line!

10. In many ways WCW's fortunes and future

11. hinged on one key event.

12. Bash at the Beach 2000.

13. Candidly, one of the biggest disasters of my entire career.

14. Bash at the Beach was one of WCW's biggest annual

15. pay per view events, and in the year 2000,

16. it was the stage for an epic clash between two of

17. wrestlings most controversial creative talents.

18. And I promise you will never see that piece of shit again.

19. I think Vince Russo is motivated by attention.

20. I don't know why.

21. I don't know if he didn't get enough

22. when he was a little kid.

23. Eric represented everything I despised

24. in the wrestling business.

25. And bro, I'll tell ya, you're never gonna out work me

26. because I'm better than you.

27. If he believes that,

28. he's got a problem with reality.

29. The incident at Bash of the Beach 2000 is one

30. in which every participant has their own version of

31. what actually took place that night.

32. And I said, "Hulk, you're not walking out of here

33. the WCW champion. That is not happening."

34. What's Jeff doing?

35. Now it was script's out the window, what's gonna happen?

36. And it's like, nobody wants to watch wrestling and see that.

37. It was one of the dumbest things I ever saw.

38. And Hogan, you big bald son of a bitch, kiss my ass!

39. That was never my plan.

40. Hogan was pretty sensitive about being called bald,

41. even though he doesn't have any hair.

42. Did I know that Hulk Hogan was gonna take legal action?

43. How could you not?

44. There will come a time, there will come a place,

45. when I will tell the entire story of what happened

46. at Bash at the Beach.

47. The legacy of Bash at the Beach,

48. the single biggest black eye in WCW history.

49. I despise the wrestling business, bro,

50. I despise the people in it.

51. You cannot be a good person and

52. exist in the wrestling business.

53. You can't bro, because you enter a shark tank.

54. And unless you become a shark,

55. they will eat you alive.

56. My name is Vince Russo.

57. I was in the wrestling business since 1991.

58. So, I'm going on 32 years now.

59. You can boo all you want, that doesn't change

60. the fact that I'm better than you!

61. What I'm looking for tonight is ratings, big ratings!

62. And we're gonna deliver, you son of a bitch!

63. Vince, we've gotta know, who is the WCW

64. World's Heavyweight Champion?

65. - Question? - Question.

66. - There is no question, Mike. - There is no question?

67. Who is here with the belt?

68. Um...

69. Harm.

70. Yeah, I'd say, long-term harm. Yeah, yeah.

71. In the 1990s, professional wrestling is bigger and

72. hotter than it has ever been before,

73. as industry leader Vince McMahon's World Wrestling

74. Federation faces a serious challenge to its popularity

75. by an aggressive challenger- billionaire Ted Turner's

76. World Championship Wrestling.

77. WWF would have been the dominant company

78. from '84 through, I would say, '96?

79. In '96 it flipped over and WCW was dominant.

80. My name is Dave Meltzer and I'm the editor of the

81. Wrestling Observer Newsletter, and

82. I've been covering pro wrestling since the early 1970s.

83. The flaw of Vince McMahon is the only thing

84. so certain thing works. That's it.

85. And there's a million things in wrestling that

86. when done well can work.

87. As both companies engage in a fierce ratings war pitting

88. their Monday night shows against each other,

89. the rise of WCW is led by it's ambitious

90. young president, Eric Bischoff.

91. I decided the only way I was gonna be successful

92. was to be different.

93. I listed all of the things that made WWE successful,

94. and I decided to do exactly the opposite of

95. what they were doing.

96. I'm Eric Bischoff.

97. Former president of WCW.

98. I'm the first one that created a weekly

99. live television format for professional wrestling.

100. I looked at the WWE and they were taped and I thought,

101. you know, wrestling needs to be live.

102. When it's live the audience has to watch it.

103. WCW before Nitro was just a really bad

104. cheap imitation of WWE.

105. It was just silly, silly, childish stuff.

106. - The Shock Master! - Alright!

107. - The Shock Master.

108. They were ignoring men 18 to 39.

109. So, I thought, okay, there's my opportunity.

110. You know, I began wondering,

111. how can I transition into more reality based product?

112. Eric produced a different kind of a television show

113. than had ever been done before.

114. He was just ahead of the game and

115. Vince was behind the times.

116. Before launching Monday Nitro,

117. Bischoff aims to legitimize WCW

118. by head hunting major talent,

119. poaching Vince McMahon's biggest star

120. to be the new face of his company.

121. We're the number two wrestling company

122. in the world.

123. We're a fraction of the WWE's ratings.

124. And bringing in Hulk Hogan changed the perception of WCW.

125. It was a seismic shift.

126. I mean, I remember Eric telling me,

127. "Where Hogan goes, goes the money." That was his saying.

128. And all of a sudden my phone rings one day and

129. it's my buddy Diamond Dallas Page, and he said,

130. "Eric." You know, "Scott Hall wants to leave WWE."

131. He was Razor Ramon then.

132. So I do the deal with Scott Hall and about a week

133. after that I get a call from Kevin Nash.

134. Same thing. Bam!

135. The lightbulb went off in my head.

136. There's my storyline. There's my reality.

137. Here they come!

138. They've got baseball bats in their hands.

139. The NWO, the New World Order.

140. - Oh, oh, oh! - What is he doing?

141. - Oh my God! - Is he the third man?

142. He's the third man!

143. What the hell is going on here?

144. We left WWE in the dust. In the dust.

145. We weren't just beating them,

146. we were beating them badly.

147. But the WWF isn't down for the count,

148. as fans eventually begin gravitating to a new

149. generation of superstars, and a radical new approach to

150. wrestling storylines introduced by a brash

151. young writer, named Vince Russo.

152. Writing a wrestling show is not rocket science,

153. and one of the things I said to Vince when I first

154. sat down with him, "Vince, that wrestling handbook

155. gets thrown out the window." And I said,

156. "Vince, from now on they think we're gonna go left,

157. we're gonna go right."

158. Now all of a sudden week to week to week,

159. they don't know what's going to happen.

160. The idea of crash TV is

161. I am writing that TV like the

162. viewer at home

163. is sitting there with the remote in his hand,

164. begging me to give him the opportunity to see

165. what was going on on the other channel.

166. Look out!

167. So it would be short match, backstage segment,

168. vignette, short match, fight in the locker room,

169. vignette, boom, boom, boom!

170. And you are not giving that viewer the opportunity to,

171. "Ah, let's see what's on Nitro." That's crash TV.

172. Russo's concept of crash TV plays a key part in turning

173. the tide, and soon the WWF is back on top,

174. beating WCW every Monday night.

175. Towards probably the middle of '98, certainly in '99,

176. that had reversed again. Now WWE was on top.

177. And that was a magical period.

178. I don't want to dismiss Vince Russo's,

179. you know, contributions...

180. but, they had Stone Cold Steve Austin

181. and The Rock at the same time.

182. And that's like, you know, the Yankees with

183. Babe Ruth and, uh, Lou Gehrig.

184. WCW, by the end of '99 they started losing money.

185. They were the Titanic heading to the iceberg.

186. My budgets were becoming slashed.

187. - Oh! - Oh!

188. Eventually I got let go in '99,

189. because I was fighting that, I was struggling,

190. I was fighting it.

191. Turner executives relieved Bischoff of his

192. creative duties, while rumours emerge that Russo is

193. overworked and frustrated in his role at the WWF.

194. Well, WWF added a second show, Smack Down,

195. and did not give Vince Russo a raise.

196. So they went from doing one show a week

197. to two shows a week.

198. I went into Vince's office, I said, "Vince,

199. I want to be able to move my family closer to my

200. wife's family, so my wife isn't alone and

201. she has help raising the kids.

202. Because Vince, I'm never home."

203. And he turned around, bro, without missing a beat,

204. and said, "You make enough money.

205. You should be able to hire a nanny

206. to take care of your kids."

207. You don't tell a proud Italian man who loves

208. his family to hire a nanny to watch his kids.

209. Bro, at that moment, it was over.

210. And they had me up to WCW that weekend.

211. I was shocked when WCW brought him in.

212. It was a match made in heaven...

213. or hell, depending on who you talk to.

214. I know I'm going into this thing

215. with a target on my back.

216. This is the first time

217. I am going to be working with these veterans

218. that have been at WCW for a long time.

219. From day one, Hulk and Eric were like this.

220. I can actually remember locking eyes with Hulk

221. for the first time.

222. And what I read from Hulk immediately was mistrust.

223. Vince Russo was smart enough to know that

224. you couldn't build around Hulk Hogan anymore

225. if you wanted a future.

226. So, yes, I think he was trying to figure out a way to

227. remove him, because Hulk Hogan had so much power,

228. because he was Hulk Hogan.

229. And I've heard the critics ask the question,

230. "Well, is Hulk Hogan getting older?" Well yeah,

231. Hulk Hogan's getting older, and so is every other

232. damn wrestler in the back too.

233. - Day by day.

234. So there was this narrative that Hulk Hogan couldn't

235. wrestle in the ring anymore, or he had no value,

236. he should retire, blah blah blah, blah, blah...

237. where in reality, the business side of the

238. wrestling business still thought

239. very highly of Hulk Hogan.

240. Taking the reins of WCW in October of 1999,

241. Russo begins reshaping and reimagining the

242. company's flagship show, Monday Nitro.

243. Vince Russo believed, you know,

244. the more extreme and shocking you make it

245. the more they will like it.

246. We are just gonna hump you

247. like the dogs that we are.

248. Sometimes that's right, but you also run into a thing

249. where once you've done it, it's...

250. you desensitize the audience.

251. And then there's nothing you can do.

252. Yeah!

253. I don't know, I didn't watch his shit.

254. I couldn't watch it.

255. I was there for three months.

256. The ratings went up in those three months.

257. Well, he'll tell you they were improving.

258. But no, they weren't up.

259. Artificially it looked good, but every month,

260. if you'd do the month rating, the October, the November,

261. the December, every month it was down.

262. Slightly.

263. Next thing I know, management tells me,

264. "We're going in a different direction."

265. Then I said, "Okay, fine, just, I'll go home.

266. Send me my money."

267. Now that both Bischoff and Russo have failed to turn

268. WCW's ratings around,

269. the network lands on a new idea-

270. both men working together.

271. Brad Siegel is the head of TNT and TBS.

272. "Vince, I want you to meet somebody for lunch."

273. I know immediately he's talking about Eric Bischoff.

274. And now my job is to oversee Vince Russo.

275. You know, between Vince and Eric,

276. I never felt that there was a power struggle.

277. My name is Jeff Jarrett.

278. Some call me JJ, some call me The Last Outlaw.

279. 1, 2! New champion!

280. I just think philosophically those two guys view creating

281. and producing wrestling content entirely different.

282. A philosophical difference as opposed to

283. a personality difference.

284. Is Lance Storm officially in WCW now?

285. Yes!

286. I negotiated my contract with both Vince Russo and Eric,

287. and I much more preferred dealing with Eric.

288. Russo was the creative end of it and

289. he was, um, different.

290. Vince Russo sat down with, alright well,

291. he's the guy that's going to be in charge of creative.

292. He's looking at me and he's like,

293. "Just off the top of my head, the first thing I think of is,

294. like, maybe making you Eric's illegitimate son."

295. And I look at Eric and Eric has the same look

296. on his face, what the hell?

297. Like isn't Eric like ten years older than me?

298. How is he my illegitimate dad?

299. I did go into it with an open mind.

300. And, initially it was kind of fun,

301. but it became apparent to me that

302. Vince Russo is void of any

303. creative instincts or talents.

304. You could not have put two of

305. the most opposite people together

306. and said, "Go."

307. With WCW in trouble, the company's survival

308. hinges on reversing its downward spiral.

309. Eric Bischoff and Vince Russo devise a storyline

310. designed to play off the real life backstage drama,

311. and the tensions between Bischoff's veterans and

312. Russo's desire to push younger talent.

313. There's new sheriffs in town.

314. The idea of the program was The Millionaire's Club

315. versus the Young Blood,

316. where all these young guys that were held down,

317. now they're going to get an opportunity to shine.

318. Little bit of a civil war, creatively speaking.

319. Between young and old, because that's, like,

320. part of life, right?

321. Get that damn camera out of here!

322. Bischoff and Russo's storyline fails to

323. win over fans or improve the ratings.

324. Hmm... man.

325. That whole year of 2000 has kind of like blanked out of

326. my mind because it was so bad.

327. Oh! Good God!

328. It was destined for failure from the beginning.

329. Vince Russo, I was done with him creatively because

330. I knew he was a bullshitter.

331. Eric wanted to be in charge.

332. So I call Brad Siegal and I say,

333. "Bro, put Eric in charge of the show."

334. Brad Siegal said to me, "No, no, no, no, no, Vince,

335. we want you to write the show."

336. Okay, fine.

337. The next time I see Eric Bischoff...

338. Bash at the Beach.

339. In the week leading up to the pay per view event,

340. Russo prepares the show with a focus on

341. who will emerge the next World Champion.

342. That week I walked into our creative meeting and I threw

343. a question out there at the very beginning of the

344. meeting, and the question was,

345. "If you could put the WCW title on anyone in the

346. company right now, who would it be?"

347. And I went around the table.

348. "Booker T, Booker T, Booker T."

349. And unanimously everybody said Booker T.

350. I said, "Well, then that's what we're gonna do."

351. I had had the belt at this time, uh, a couple of months.

352. And so my overarching creative was for

353. "The Chosen One" Jeff Jarrett

354. to face multiple legends and be victorious,

355. until it was time to switch the title to Booker T.

356. I'm gonna tell you like this here,

357. we gon' turn this mother out!

358. Now can you dig it?

359. A lot of significance, a lot of upside,

360. and I saw Vince Russo's vision and bought into it.

361. So, the main event of the evening was Jeff Jarrett

362. versus Booker T for the WCW title

363. with Booker T going over.

364. He's one of those guys where you knew he was really good.

365. Wrestling had not been kind to African American wrestlers.

366. Give somebody else a chance, at least it's something new.

367. To add more intrigue to the event,

368. Russo makes the decision to give Jeff Jarrett

369. one last win before losing the belt to Booker T.

370. A win over Hollywood Hulk Hogan.

371. When I wrote the very first version of the show,

372. it was Jarrett against Hogan,

373. and I wrote Hulk Hogan very strong.

374. However, he was not going to win the WCW title.

375. Why?

376. Because you just had an entire room

377. agree on Booker T.

378. Vince Russo had his idea, what he wanted to do

379. at Bash at the Beach.

380. Hulk Hogan and I were on a completely different page.

381. What Vince Russo wanted to do didn't freakin' matter.

382. Hulk Hogan had 100% creative control over his storyline

383. and how his character was presented on television.

384. Back in 1994, Bischoff had lured Hogan to WCW

385. by offering him one of the most generous contracts

386. in wrestling history.

387. I think the technical wording was

388. he had control of his finishes.

389. It was like, if he didn't want to lose,

390. he didn't have to lose.

391. It's easy to sit here and say, "Unprecedented",

392. but to that date, someone with no ownership,

393. but to have complete creative control,

394. that is a conflict of interest.

395. When a talent has creative control,

396. it sort of comes down to the simplicity.

397. Are they worried about their bottom line?

398. Or are they worried about the company's bottom line?

399. It's radically different.

400. So I wrote the first script where Hulk Hogan looks

401. very strong, but he does not win the WCW title.

402. Hulk Hogan poo poo'd that first script.

403. So now I re-write the script, and I really make

404. Hulk Hogan look like King Kong.

405. Not only does he wind up killing Jeff Jarrett,

406. he winds up killing Scott Steiner.

407. He literally winds up wiping everybody,

408. but he does not leave with the title.

409. Hulk says he's good with the second version.

410. So now I walk into Bash at the Beach that Sunday

411. thinking everything's fine, and Hulk is gonna do

412. what the second script says.

413. Eric Bischoff comes up to me and says,

414. "You better go in the trailer and talk to Hulk Hogan

415. because he's not gonna do this." Who's in the trailer?

416. Me, Hulk Hogan, and Eric Bischoff.

417. So if you wanna break that down,

418. it is clearly two against one.

419. Did Vince Russo and I discuss it several times?

420. Yes, we did.

421. It was my job to oversee him.

422. It was my call, not Vince Russo's call.

423. He didn't get to vote.

424. He thought he did, but he didn't.

425. Eric informs me that they came up with a scenario,

426. and that scenario is Hulk winning the title.

427. He wants to win the WCW title.

428. Eric's idea is to blur the line between reality and

429. fiction, with a story angle where Hulk flexes

430. his creative control clause to win the belt.

431. As Jeff Jarrett throws the match in disgust,

432. Hulk, angry at Jarrett's refusal to fight,

433. is then scripted to storm out of the ring.

434. The idea was for Hulk to leave in a state of

435. frustration and anger as a result of the

436. finish of the match.

437. The important element of it was that once the WCW

438. realized that Hulk Hogan wasn't coming back and

439. he wasn't giving the belt back,

440. that would force WCW to then vacate that title,

441. and create a tournament for a new

442. World Heavyweight Champion.

443. And finally at Halloween Havoc,

444. which was our big October pay per view,

445. the two finalists in that tournament,

446. before it physically took place,

447. Hogan was gonna make a surprise appearance

448. and say, "Ah-ah-ah, I still have the belt,

449. and if you want this you've gotta beat me."

450. Boom. There's your story.

451. I was pissed.

452. Bro, you're pulling this bullshit the day of a show.

453. I re-wrote the show twice.

454. This show is starting in an hour.

455. It got to the point where I said, "Look,

456. we're gonna get on the phone with Brad Siegel and

457. we're gonna lay it out, and we'll let Brad choose."

458. And Brad said, "Go with Eric's idea." That's it.

459. Now you've got the president of the network

460. who's the tie breaker.

461. It was over and done.

462. Eric wanted to be in charge.

463. He wanted things to go back to the way they were.

464. Bro, I'm not an idiot.

465. So, Hulk lays out this elaborate story,

466. and I know the story ends with him winning the title.

467. While he's laying out the story, this ear is listening,

468. this side of my brain is

469. figuring out another story.

470. Because he's, I'm not,

471. he's not walking out with the title.

472. Pay per view show time starts at 8 o'clock.

473. 7, 7:30, somewhere in that window.

474. Vince comes to me and says, "Bro"- In his great

475. New Yorker accent- "This is what we're doin'."

476. "Jeff, Hulk doesn't want to do the job for you.

477. 'F' Hulk. Lay down for him.

478. Let him leave with his freaking belt.'

479. We wanted everybody to believe it.

480. Jeff was not in on it.

481. We wanted everybody in the back to believe this,

482. that was the goal.

483. Vince was pretty clear, "Go to the ring,

484. we'll get the bell to start the match.

485. Just make it very clear you're taking a dive.

486. You're laying down for him." And I was dumbfounded.

487. And I said, "Vince, this story is not well thought out.

488. It doesn't make any logical sense and-

489. for a babyface to capture gold this way."

490. There's a real bad taste that if a champion

491. is gonna be a champion,

492. don't you really wanna beat somebody?

493. And this was the opposite of that.

494. And there's a million other options, I felt,

495. that the audience would say, "This is the best you guys

496. could come up with?" I told Vince this.

497. Everybody loses in this scenario, everybody loses.

498. As Bash at the Beach 2000 begins,

499. a storyline is in place for current WCW champion

500. Jeff Jarrett to take a dive for Hulk Hogan.

501. Everyone is ready to put the plan in motion,

502. until Jarrett begins having second thoughts.

503. When it came down to match time,

504. I had a real overwhelming sense of,

505. "Do I really wanna do this?

506. Do I really wanna be a part of this mess?

507. Do I really wanna walk the aisle and

508. be a part of this finish?"

509. Those thoughts went through my mind.

510. Because my father, my grandmother,

511. my outlook on the industry, that you really only have

512. one boss and that's the fans.

513. Ladies and gentlemen,

514. welcome to the year 2000

515. WCW Bash at the Beach,

516. and the main event of the evening...

517. When they hit my music, I stayed in the back.

518. Where's Jarrett? I mean,

519. his music has been playing for well over a minute,

520. there's no sign of him. What's going on here?

521. This is not like The Chosen One

522. to stand us up on a pay per view.

523. So my music played quite a while,

524. I think it looped two or three times.

525. And I stayed over in the little tunnel and

526. really just thought through it.

527. I could take matters into my own hands and say,

528. "I'm not doing the dive." I could, you know,

529. jump in and make him punch me around,

530. and make him give me a big boot.

531. What are my real options?

532. What is gonna protect my family and my career best?

533. So much at stake here.

534. I can't say that I was legitimately angry.

535. I can say, thoroughly disgusted.

536. And when I finally said, "Let's get this over with,"

537. that was where my head was at.

538. - Here he is.

539. By the time I headed down the aisle way,

540. everything in my mind was, "Hogan,

541. you want your creative control so bad, take it."

542. You know somethin', Jeff Jarrett?

543. You are The Chosen One,

544. because I have chosen you to

545. power bomb your ass through this mat,

546. so come on down and get your ass kicked, Jarrett.

547. Looking across the ring, and looking at Hulk,

548. and knowing that he orchestrated all of this...

549. I never, ever looked at him the same way.

550. What's Jeff doing? What's Jeff doing?

551. Russo's talking to him, what's he saying?

552. Russo I think told Jarrett to lay down, what is going on?

553. Look it, Russo is holding the belt up like,

554. "Do you want the belt?" Pin the man, Jarrett's down!

555. I don't, and Hogan is as shocked as we are.

556. What in the world? Jeff Jarrett!

557. There's confusion.

558. Like, they really don't know what's going on.

559. The essence of professional wrestling through the

560. generations has been the ability to blur the lines

561. between what's not fiction and what's fiction.

562. But the old promoter adage,

563. "You confuse them, you lose them."

564. We confused 'em, and we lost 'em.

565. This can't be Jeff Jarrett,

566. a man that grew up in this sport!

567. Is there- what is going on?

568. He just threw the world title to Hogan.

569. What the hell? Now Russo.

570. I'll be honest with ya.

571. All I wanna make sure is this plan carries out the

572. exact same way I laid it out in the trailer.

573. Jeff laid down, Hulk Hogan,

574. you're going home with your belt.

575. This is all part of the story.

576. Is this your deal, Russo?

577. Wow...

578. That's why this company is in the damn shape it's in

579. because of bullshit like this.

580. Referee counted 1,2,3.

581. And I rolled out to the ring and went straight to the back.

582. My God, this is real life. 1,2,3.

583. Ladies and gentlemen, that is not something

584. they go over with us at the production meeting.

585. No, there are swerves and there are swerves.

586. We've all been swerved.

587. And we went forward exactly the way Hulk

588. wanted to go forward.

589. The audience believed that Hulk Hogan was pissed,

590. and he took the belt and he left the building.

591. It went according to plan.

592. We jump in the limo,

593. we leave the arena with the belt,

594. we go to the airport.

595. We're on the plane,

596. we're high five-ing, cracking a beer, laughing.

597. Everything went the way we wanted it to go.

598. As Bischoff and Hogan leave the arena

599. the show continues,

600. but what happens next will be debated by wrestling fans and

601. insiders for decades to come, as Vince Russo

602. takes matters into his own hands.

603. Well, here's Mr. Russo now.

604. What the hell is next?

605. 30 minutes later the plane lands,

606. and all of a sudden Hogan's phone is blowing up.

607. And so is mine.

608. Russo went out and

609. cut this scathing promo and buried Hulk.

610. This was like their big, great swerve,

611. that somehow turned real when Russo does the promo

612. later and things end up getting worse.

613. There's only one way for me to do this and

614. that's for me to tell it like it is.

615. You know, bro, again,

616. these are the things people hate me for.

617. As agreed upon before the show even started,

618. after Jeff Jarrett takes a dive,

619. Hulk leaves the building with the belt,

620. enraging and confusing the WCW audience.

621. Now, to the surprise of everyone,

622. Vince Russo makes his way out to the ring.

623. Well, here's Mr. Russo now.

624. - What the hell is next? - Now what?

625. I don't know.

626. Maybe Russo can explain to the world what we have seen.

627. My entire life, every promo I've ever cut...

628. There's only one way for me to do this and

629. that's for me to tell it like it is.

630. I don't know what I'm going to say.

631. I am in the moment.

632. That's real, and that's what people believe.

633. Here's where the story is.

634. Here's where my character is.

635. Go.

636. Let me tell you people what happened out here

637. in this ring tonight.

638. All day long I'm playing politics with Hulk Hogan,

639. because Hulk Hogan, tonight,

640. wants to play his creative control card.

641. And to Hulk Hogan that meant that tonight

642. in the middle of this ring, when he knew it was bullshit,

643. he beats Jeff Jarrett.

644. Because of Russo's crazy booking style

645. we're all like, "Is this the plan?

646. Are they working us?

647. If this was the plan, it's stupid,

648. and if it's not the plan, it's even stupider."

649. We're all just sitting there going,

650. "What the hell is going on?"

651. And let me tell you who doesn't give a shit about

652. this company, that goddamn politician Hulk Hogan.

653. Hogan got his belt and he went the hell home,

654. and I promise everybody or else I'll go in the goddamn

655. grave, you will never see that piece of shit again.

656. Adding to the confusion of the moment,

657. Russo shocks the crowd by announcing a new main event.

658. Hulk Hogan now has the WCW belt.

659. That belt don't mean shit!

660. Jeff Jarrett is still the official WCW champion and

661. he will defend that title tonight in this ring

662. against Booker T,

663. who for 14 years has been busting his ass

664. in WCW and can't get a goddamn break,

665. because of the Hulk Hogan.

666. There were real emotions

667. being fuelled during that promo

668. because I had it up to here with the wrestling shit.

669. I really did, bro.

670. I was over and I was done with it.

671. And Hogan, you big bald son of a bitch,

672. kiss my ass.

673. That was... that was not on the formats,

674. that was not in the production meeting,

675. that was nowhere to be found anywhere until this.

676. We do have Booker T now against Jeff Jarrett

677. for the WCW title.

678. That was just booked, that's added to tonight.

679. My plan for the main event, Booker T beats Jeff Jarrett

680. and becomes the WCW World Heavyweight Champion.

681. Booker doesn't see Jarrett.

682. So, Hogan, congratulations enjoy the title,

683. that's the fake title.

684. The real title is gonna be represented

685. in the match with Jarrett.

686. Booker goes over.

687. We've got a new champion! Oh my God!

688. Booker T is the world champion!

689. Booker T is the champ!

690. Oh my God, bro, I knew Hulk was going to be pissed.

691. Everybody is believing this 1000%,

692. and all I'm reading is,

693. "Vince Russo finally put Hulk Hogan in his place.

694. Vince Russo finally told Hulk Hogan

695. what should have been said to him years ago."

696. I'm reading this and I'm saying,

697. "He is going to have

698. a severe problem with it."

699. When Hulk gets really, really angry...

700. he gets very quiet.

701. Like, when he stops talking,

702. that's when you need to start worrying.

703. And he got real quiet after that, like, real quiet.

704. Russo claims he pitched this entire storyline to Hulk and

705. Eric in the trailer, and that they agreed.

706. Every single thing on that show was

707. what was discussed in that trailer.

708. Everything.

709. From Jarrett laying down, to them leaving,

710. to me cutting the promo,

711. to Booker T winning the title at the end.

712. It was exactly the way I laid it out to

713. Hogan in the trailer.

714. That was never my plan.

715. I guarantee you it wasn't Hulk Hogan's plan.

716. And, by the way, Hulk Hogan had creative control,

717. and we certainly didn't know that Booker T was gonna

718. walk out as the world champion.

719. Because Hulk Hogan had that world title and was going to

720. bring it back in October at Halloween Havoc.

721. That was the plan.

722. Oh my God, that was part of the plan!

723. This is a key point.

724. The reason you have to leave the building is because

725. if I go out there and cut a scathing promo on you,

726. and you're still in the building,

727. you're gonna have to come kill me.

728. Russo may believe it,

729. but that's where the pathological part of

730. being a pathological liar comes in.

731. None of that was discussed in advance.

732. None of that was approved by me.

733. None of it was approved by Hulk Hogan.

734. It was just the most unprofessional thing that

735. I'd ever seen in 30 years of television.

736. The next morning an incensed Hogan calls in to a

737. local Tampa radio show to rage at Russo.

738. His anger isn't for show, it's for real.

739. Ha!

740. Did I know that Hulk Hogan was gonna take legal action?

741. How could you not? How could you not?

742. Infuriated by the events at Bash of the Beach,

743. Hulk Hogan takes legal action against Vince Russo and WCW.

744. Because Hulk Hogan tonight wants to play

745. his creative control card.

746. Hogan files lawsuits for defamation and

747. breach of contract, asserting that

748. Russo's off-script tirade was a part of

749. the match outcome,

750. and violated his creative control clause.

751. I believe Hogan felt double crossed,

752. and whether Russo actually double crossed him,

753. or he just got carried away and said shit

754. he shouldn't have, I have no idea.

755. But it's like, okay, you don't file lawsuits

756. if this is just part of a storyline.

757. It gets to a judge and the judge basically says,

758. "Let me get this straight. This is a wrestling show.

759. Vince Russo is in a wrestling ring."

760. "He is cutting a promo on a wrestling character,

761. where is the defamation of character?"

762. Like, Hulk, you're really suing him for this?

763. Shut up.

764. I would not have been a good witness for that.

765. Strange times.

766. I am cutting my promo on Hulk Hogan,

767. not Terry Bollea. This is a story.

768. Vince Russo is a character, Hulk Hogan is a character.

769. If Vince Russo takes the position that because he was

770. performing it as a character that took creative liberties

771. with another professional, that that somehow makes it

772. legal and okay, is a reflection of the man's ignorance.

773. He's got more than a problem with facts and truth,

774. he's got a problem with reality.

775. And the first judge threw it out.

776. They appealed it, and it went to a second judge.

777. First of all, I don't think that it went to

778. multiple courts to begin with.

779. It's not like they took it to the Supreme Court

780. for crying out loud.

781. The sworn depositions reveal a key piece of information-

782. That two days prior to Bash at the Beach,

783. a fax was sent to the WCW head office.

784. I found out after the WCW office is closed,

785. Hulk Hogan's attorney

786. faxes a letter to the WCW office

787. saying, "Hulk Hogan is not approving that script."

788. I have no idea of this.

789. Here's why that doesn't hold up.

790. It was never a discussion or a debate

791. between Hulk and me and Russo,

792. as to whether or not we were going to do

793. something other than what Hulk and I had laid out.

794. It wasn't up for debate, therefore why would...

795. why would there be this after hours fax excuse?

796. I mean, I'm trying to decide between two dishonest people,

797. discussing something from twenty years ago,

798. to do with a fax.

799. Yeah, I don't remember a fax, but, you know,

800. I never heard the fax story. I'll just say that.

801. The fax exposes Hulk Hogan's real intentions

802. to maximize the full strength of his creative control,

803. and refuse any storyline Russo proposed.

804. Russo triumphs in the courtroom,

805. as an appeals court affirms that fictional characters

806. cannot be defamed.

807. However, it's Hogan who emerges victorious

808. in his battle against WCW.

809. Hulk made the decision the night of Bash at the Beach

810. that, "I probably will not get renewed,

811. so how can I get another paycheque from

812. AOL Time Warner?" And that's through litigation.

813. Well, Hulk Hogan was a key to building the company,

814. and he obviously had the biggest name,

815. but nothing is forever, and he'd been there too long and

816. he became the face of failure.

817. So, at that point he was getting paid so much,

818. but he couldn't draw ratings to a great degree anymore,

819. and people weren't going to go and pay to see Hulk Hogan

820. matches that they'd seen for all those years.

821. There was really nothing left to do with him.

822. And then you have scumbags like Dave Meltzer,

823. who is nothing more than a useful idiot.

824. Even though he calls himself a journalist,

825. Dave Meltzer to this day hates Hulk Hogan.

826. What Hulk Hogan was trying to achieve that night

827. remains clouded in uncertainty.

828. You know, I've asked myself that through the years.

829. What was Hogan's vision?

830. What was the upside? What was the ultimate plan?

831. Was it to create so much controversy,

832. or to get eyeballs on the product?

833. Was it to be his version of a Montreal Screw Job,

834. or his version of a...

835. of a publicity stunt? I don't know.

836. We certainly know the results of it,

837. but I have no idea what his vision was.

838. And Turner settled. I mean-

839. This is, this is fun.

840. Because I sat with Hulk and his attorney Henry Holmes

841. they day that they settled that.

842. They took me out to dinner and told me what happened.

843. They never gave me the amount,

844. that was confidential, but I know it was

845. well, well into seven figures.

846. Some folks play chess while others are playing checkers.

847. The night at Bash at the Beach,

848. Hulk decided to start playing chess,

849. and he had the patience, and he cashed out.

850. What's Jeff doing?

851. Russo I think told Jarrett to lay down, what's going on?

852. The facts of what actually went down at

853. Bash at the Beach 2000 will forever be murky.

854. But what was clear to fans that night

855. was that the chaos and confusion only

856. underscored the disorder and disintegration

857. at the heart of the company.

858. It was the reality the night this happened,

859. and it's the reality as I sit here today saying this.

860. In a business that gave him everything,

861. and that's what he gave back.

862. It's about the most self-centred, egotistical,

863. power playing move, that only benefitted Hulk.

864. And that's the reality.

865. But I mean as far as a storyline based on

866. what they were doing at the time,

867. it was something that would get people talking,

868. and could've built to something.

869. So I did like Booker T being champion,

870. I thought that was cool. You know,

871. it's not same old same old Hulk Hogan champion, right?

872. So, I guess I did like that.

873. I do remember that. You know thinking, "Ah."

874. You know, "At least it's something new."

875. And let me tell you who doesn't give a shit about

876. this company, that goddamn politician Hulk Hogan.

877. It was destined for failure from the beginning.

878. At the end of it all,

879. I don't think that Bash on the Beach

880. was the nail in the coffin for WCW.

881. You see what is says right here?

882. This is my ass, if you will.

883. You know what I mean? It was like

884. the gig was already up.

885. It was just kind of a floundering company.

886. WCW was a star that became a supernova,

887. and then burned itself out.

888. In its dying days, WCW is snapped up by its longtime

889. arch-rival Vince McMahon and the WWF,

890. despite having an attractive offer on the table from

891. a venture capital firm,

892. spearheaded by Eric Bischoff.

893. The deal for us to purchase WCW was for $67 million,

894. we buy all the assets, and we get placement

895. on Monday nights and Thursday nights.

896. That was our deal.

897. And I get a phone call.

898. They said, "Eric, it's done."

899. I thought he meant the deal was done.

900. Like, "Pew!" We own a wrestling company.

901. I'm about ready to jump up and start dancing.

902. I said, "You mean it's done?"

903. He goes, "No, Eric, you don't get it.

904. It's over, there's no deal.

905. Turner took it off the table."

906. It took a minute for that to sink in.

907. It was a fire sale at the end.

908. Time Warner wanted to get rid of wrestling.

909. I think it was like $2.5 million for the actual WCW,

910. and I think it was $1.7 million more for, um,

911. the tape library.

912. It was definitely the equivalent of, um,

913. you know, buying Manhattan for $25.

914. That's right.

915. I own WCW.

916. I have zero regrets, man.

917. I have zero regrets.

918. You know, regret to me is a negative thing,

919. it's like baggage.

920. I try not to carry any baggage with me at all.

921. I've said this about Vince Russo.

922. Vince is a guy who's very passionate, like a lot of us,

923. and does what he thinks

924. the viewer wants...

925. to watch.

926. And he's had successes and he's had failures,

927. like all of us.

928. Do you know how little this shit matters?

929. It is a form of entertainment.

930. At the end of the day

931. I don't hate any of these people, bro.

932. This was a job.

933. People ask me all the time today,

934. "Vince, what is your advice

935. to get into the wrestling business"?

936. And I tell them, "Don't."