Andrew Lutzke
Presented by Sean Oliver and the Kayfabe Commentaries Crew
The Man: Kevin Sullivan broke into the business in 1970 and like most workers in that era Kevin had to spend his early months looking up at the lights in defeat. He spent his formative time in Georgia before moving on to Gulf Coast Wrestling where he worked under the name “Johnny West”. He enjoyed success here as he and Ken Lucus captured the area’s tag titles. He next split his time between Florida and Memphis, even capturing the Florida tag belts with Mike Graham. He also ventured to Stu Hart’s Stampede wrestling and was lucky enough to be able to tour Japan for Giant Baba before entering the WWWF in 1975 where he stayed on as a mid-card babyface for several years.
After that experience, Sullivan returned to Florida, as well as bouncing around Memphis, Central States and other southern wrestling territories. Sullivan ended up in a heated feud with Professor Toru Tanaka that spanned through the Memphis AND Knoxville’s territories after Toru had attacked Sullivan’s father. This angle seemed to be a favorite of Kevin’s, as it appears he ran the same angle with Bob Roop doing the deed previously and possibly also later on with Austin Idol – the memories of the historians I researched appeared fuzzy. In 1979 Sullivan ventured back to Georgia for a substantial amount of time. It was here where Sullivan feuded with a young trio known as the “Fabulous Freebirds”, and ultimately with Austin Idol after Sullivan turned on Idol in the middle of a tag team match.
Sullivan took his heel persona to Memphis and joined Jimmy Hart’s “First Family” and became one of legions to have battled Jerry Lawler on Hart’s behalf. Sullivan and Hart would split before Sullivan’s Memphis run ended.
Sullivan returned once again to Florida and was on the side of Dusty Rhodes, Barry Windham and Mike Graham fighting the ruffian’s of the world, until Jake Roberts announced that “Nivek Navillus” was paying him a $1000 bounty every time he injured Barry Windham. If you read that name back wards you’ll get it…
So Sullivan was revealed as the evil behind this plot and thus was started the infamous “Army of Darkness”. This was a bizarre group of men who Sullivan had some not quite understood control over. The idea was that Sullivan and his clan were Satanists, but the term was never used. Rhodes would call him “Devil”, and strange rituals that Sullivan undertook certainly made people feel something sinister was afoot. Kevin called up the Rev. Mr. Black up from the ground, respected veteran Mark Lewin crawled out of the Florida Oceans and was now dubbed “The Purple Haze” and former straight laced Olympic wrestler Bob Roop suddenly walked around with half his head shaved and half his face painted after falling under Sullivan’s influence. Sullivan had many other members of his Army as well including Luna Vachon, The Fallen Angel (Nancy Benoit), Kharma (The future WWF Hillbilly Cousin Luke), Jake Roberts, King Curtis (later to be part of the Dungeon of Doom as “The Master”), Incubus (the future Hillbilly Mighty Wibur in JCP). Buzz Sawyer, Superstar Billy Graham and others.
To get around not being driven by “Satan” Sullivan would cut bizarre promos saying that he was “tutored by Abudadein and the Chairman of the Board, whilst chewing the betel nut in the slums of Singapore, and being hung in the tree of woe at the top of the thirteenth step with The Lady with the Third Eye”. Just wild stuff. Someone was kind enough to upload 4 hours of this craziness on youtube!:
I covered the Dusty Rhodes/ Sullivan feud in my Dusty shoot, so I’ll by pass the story arch that saw both men “suspended” from Florida only later to return in masks (as The Masked Rider and Lucifer) and ultimately having Sullivan lose a “Loser Leaves Town” match to Dusty. This didn’t stop Sullivan for long though as during the celebration on TV that marked Dusty’s “return” from suspension Sullivan entered the party and “accidentally” blinded Dusty’s baby sister, a move that drove Rhodes to ask for Sullivan’s suspension to be raised so he could seek further revenge.
This took the feud all the way through May of 1984, at which point a series of specialty matches marked the end of that era of the feud as Dusty was off to Jim Crockett to book. I’ll pick up Sullivan’s story from there on Tuesday!
The Shoot: Sean delivers an excellent monologue on the history of the NWA to set the mood.
Sullivan takes us through Georgia Championship Wrestling on Superstation TBS in the late 70’s and how influential it was given the scope of the viewing audience
We go onto Black Saturday – when Vince McMahon bought out GCW and took the time slot and onto JCP’s eventual take over of the TBS wrestling slot.
Ted Turner buys out JCP and brings in suits to run a wrasslin’ company – the idea doesn’t work.
Turner went to a WCW event after buying the company and told all the guys he’d never cancel wrestling on his networks.
The Suits:
Harvey Schiller – Came on after helping run the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, kept his nose out of the product. Never seen, kept himself in the Turner offices.
Brad Siegel – replaced Schiller – rarely seen.
Bill Busch – Accountant for Turner, liked wrestling – actually came around the TV and PPVs to get feedback.
Vince Russo and Ed Ferrara – WCW was fortunate to sign these guys after helping the WWF achieve so much success. Sullivan supported the move. Kevin feels they tried to mimic WWF and turned off the core WCW audience.
J.J. Dillon – Talent relations manager and a key ally for Sullivan and a good ear to lay booking plans out for.
Gary Juster – Baltimore promoter, close with the Crockett’s and helped with legalities.
Terry Taylor – Agent, booker, producer, in ring worker. Total asset.
Mike Graham – An excellent guy for coming up with finishes, thanks to learning from his father for so many years.
Kevin Nash – Hall and Nash changed the industry. Their early months earned WCW a lawsuit for copyright infringement. Sullivan helped convince Hogan to turn heel. Kevin says he had Hogan stay at his house the night before his heel turn so no one could convince him to not go through it.
Disney got mad at WCW after an angle that saw the nWo beat down some WCW workers in a parking lot lead to cops being called to the park, since some fans thought it was a shoot.
September 1999, WCW removes Bischoff from his role as President of WCW due to ratings dwindling. Bill Busch hires Russo and Ferrara to replace the creative team.
Starrcade 99 – Benoit is handed the WCW US title due to Scott Hall being injured. Sullivan disagreed with the move since it devalued the belt.
Russo booked 3 inter gender matches – so Sullivan relates a story from 1983 when Joyce Gable wrestled a man and she took one punch and was pinned. That’s (allegedly) the way a shoot would have gone.
The main event had 3 ref bumps in one match – and 5 ref bumps in all during the night. Sullivan talks about overdoing gimmicks, finishes and angles.
Oklahoma was used that night as well – the JR parody (complete w/ Bell’s Palsy). Sullivan was disgusted.
The main event was a Montreal Screwjob rehash.
Sullivan was irate when Tony Schiavone buried Cactus Jack while announcing Foley’s pre-taped WWF title win on a Nitro. Sullivan told him in his ear piece that everyone will now turn to RAW to see it happen AND Foley is a good guy and you shouldn’t shit on him.
Ric Flair was dragged in the desert and literally buried by the nWo. Flair apparently missed the symbolism.
Russo wanted to try a syndicated show called “Rope Opera” – an angle heavy sort of wrestling show.
Russo’s “re-education” of the WCW audience to accept his WWF inspired stuff would have taken too long to implement.
January 14th 2000 – Russo is relieved of booking duty. Sullivan, Ferrara, Mike Graham, Bill Banks, JJ Dillon take over the booking.
Bret Hart and Jeff Jarrett are both injured and have to miss a PPV with barely any notice.
Russo’s last idea was for Tank Abbott to win the now vacant WCW title (Hart forfeited it). Sullivan’s picked Chris Benoit to show Chris that the heat between them wasn’t going to be a factor, and also because Benoit deserved it.
Nash was the long term plan as World champ, as he would beat Benoit down the line.
12 Wrestlers ask WCW for their release after Sullivan is named head booker.
January 16th Souled Out PPV – half the guys asking for their release drop their request.
Sid didn’t want to job to Benoit – but Sullivan convinced him to do it, with his foot under the rope to leave and “out” in case Benoit really did leave.
January 17th Nitro – Eddy Guerrero is released. Konnan and Kidman drop their release requests. Dean Malenko, Perry Saturn and Shane Douglas come to Nitro but are asked to leave. Benoit vacates the title.
Sullivan had them taken off Nitro to avoid having to have the guys leaving be promoted in a lame duck fashion.
Kevin admits the released guys were the work horses and this gutted the mid card.
January 18th – Bill Goldberg calls WCW’s offices and voices his support for Russo.
January 24th Nitro – Sullivan went to a family function during the week and guys started to bury his lack of dedication to WCW.
Sullivan drafts plans up to Starrcade. Goldberg’s injury at this point hurt but Sullivan plans on restarting the streak and rebuilding Goldberg.
WCW toyed with signing MMA’s Don Frye and they had discussions with Pride Fighting Championships about possible cross promotions.
Sid pins Ron Harris to win the vacant WCW title, Sid is stripped for pinning the wrong Harris brother but reclaims the title in a 3 way with Don Harris and Nash. Sid is built up for Goldberg’s eventual return.
January 31st Nitro – Nash is injured via slipping on ice, Bobby Heenan calls in sick and is replaced by Mark Madden, Jeff Jarrett is named WCW Commissioner. Ric Flair returns and starts a feud with Terry Funk.
February 1st Thunder – Hogan returns and says the young guys aren’t nearly as good as they think they are. Sullivan figures it was a shot at Russo not using the old guys much.
February 7th Nitro – Scott Steiner shoots on Flair – says he watched RAW when Flair came back, Flair needs his teeth fixed etc.
February 8th Thunder – Scott Steiner and Flair have an altercation in the parking lot over the previous day’s events. Steiner was almost fired. Bill Busch was more worried about keeping his job and isn’t afraid to release guys regardless of star power.
Nash strips Jarrett of commissioner position – Hall and Jarrett meet for number 1 contendership and due to backstage politics (Sullivan wanted Hall to win) – it ends in a draw.
February 9th – 13th – Sabu and WCW fail to come to terms; he actually signed his contract but WCW’s brass didn’t sign their end.
Scott Hall gets drunk on a plane and is almost suspended.
Sonny Oono, Bobby Walker and Hardbody Harris sue WCW for racial discrimination. Sullivan testified on their behalf.
Super Calo, Hector Garza, Ciclope and Damien all lawyer up, thinking of their own lawsuit.
Jerry Only of the Misfits looks into suing WCW based on his run a few months earlier – WCW bans the Misfits. Vampiro loses his entrance music.
The Misfits thought Turner would give them a record deal, when it didn’t happen they decided to get revenge.
February 14th Nitro – Sid vs. Jarrett, Hogan vs. Flair, Luger vs. Funk in a triple main event
Hall and Nash made a good pair since Nash kept Hall in line.
February 15th Thunder – Sid no shows claiming he’s injured. Scott Hall says he’s going to shoot on Terry Taylor – management finds out and sends Hall home. The taping is in chaos and the fans see a empty ring for 35 straight minutes as the show is rebooked on the fly.
February 20th – SuperBrawl PPV
Original Line up:
Sid vs. Bret Hart, Kidman vs. Jarrett and Flair/Funk vs. Hall/Nash – Funk, Nash and Hart are all injured. All plans scrapped.
Hogan vs. Luger – Hogan booked his own angles, Luger was ok with what they went with.
Sullivan puts over Luger during this run for his willingness to play ball.
Tank Abbott pulls out a knife on live PPV – it was supposed to be a piece of soap wrapped in tape but Tank or somebody changed the plan. Sullivan got heat from the Turner brass for the incident.
Music legend James Brown makes an appearance for free as a favor to Ernest Miller.
February 21st Nitro – Sullivan is heard saying “We can’t beat Vince, we can only hope to be a respectful number two”.
Hogan vs. Luger in a cage match ends with Ric Flair being pinned. OH WCW!!!
February 25th – Bill Busch tries to locate Goldberg and fails. Brad Siegel wants results NOW. Sullivan wanted a 10 month window to rebuild the roster. Terry Taylor quits the booking team. Sting doesn’t want to come back to WCW.
Sullivan thinks he could have over taken Vince in 6 weeks if he had the full roster.
February 28th Nitro – “YAPAPPI INDIAN STRAP MATCH” announced. Sid forces Tank Abbott to submit.
March 8th – The plans are still for Sid to hold the belt till July when Goldberg would beat him.
Sullivan believes the Turner brass wanted WCW dead ASAP so they could sell off the assets and move along.
Jerry Jarrett comes in to WCW for a chat and declines a booking spot since it appears he sees the WCW tombstone being prepared.
Sullivan wanted to go back to all the old angles to resurrect the company – nWo, Flair, Hogan, Luchadores flippity flopping etc.
March 13th Nitro – Arn Anderson is asked to go back on TV with Flair and Luger but quits WCW instead and goes home.
March 19th Uncensored PPV Hogan wins in the main event, going on after the World title match
3 days later Sullivan and company gave their plans thru Starrcade – secretly Russo and Bischoff do the same and Sullivan’s team is sent home so Eric and Vince can take over.
Sullivan had just signed a 3 year contract so he got paid long after WCW died.
Sullivan wanted to give Goldberg a 2 year run on top. Build a monster heel up by banning him from TV.
Final Thoughts: This was great fun, and I really wish they would have gone past the two hours allotted and covered through Russo and Bischoff’s run and onto the bitter end. Wanting more is always a sign of a good thing! Fascinating shoot covering a train wreck of a company. Solid recommendation to buy this DVD!
