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00:00As the new millennium dawned, the once industry-dominating world championship wrestling was struggling
00:17to keep pace with their rival, the World Wrestling Federation.
00:28In many ways, WCW's fortunes and future hinged on one key event.
00:39Bash at the Beach was one of WCW's biggest annual pay-per-view events, and in the year
00:452000, it was the stage for an epic clash between two of wrestling's most controversial creative
00:52talents.
01:20The incident at Bash at the Beach 2000 is one in which every participant has their own
01:25version of what actually took place that night.
01:49That was never my plan.
01:52Hogan's pretty sensitive about being called bald, even though he doesn't have any hair.
01:56Did I know that Hulk Hogan was going to take legal action?
01:59How could you not?
02:00There will come a time, there will come a place when I will tell the entire story of
02:04what happened at Bash at the Beach.
02:06The legacy of Bash at the Beach, the single biggest black eye in WCW history.
02:19I despise the wrestling business, bro.
02:25I despise the people in it.
02:27You cannot be a good person and exist in the wrestling business.
02:33You can't, bro, because you enter a shark tank, and unless you become a shark, they
02:41will eat you alive.
02:44My name is Vince Russo.
02:46I was in the wrestling business since 1991, so I'm going on 32 years now.
02:53You can boo all you want, that doesn't change the fact that I'm better than you.
03:10What I'm looking for tonight is ratings.
03:11Big ratings.
03:12And we're going to deliver, you son of a bitch.
03:13Vince, we've got to know.
03:14Who is the WCW World's Heavyweight Champion?
03:16Question.
03:17There is no question, Mike.
03:18There's no question.
03:19Who's here with the belt?
03:20Overall, do you think Vince Russo has done more harm or good for wrestling?
03:26Um, harm.
03:28Yeah, I would say long-term harm.
03:33Yeah.
03:34Yeah.
03:35Yeah.
03:36In the 1990s, professional wrestling is bigger and hotter than it has ever been before, as
03:41industry leader Vince McMahon's World Wrestling Federation faces a serious challenge to its
03:46popularity by an aggressive challenger, billionaire Ted Turner's World Championship Wrestling.
03:54WWF would have been the dominant company from 84 through, I would say, 96.
04:00And then 96 flipped over, and WCW was dominant.
04:04My name is Dave Meltzer, and I'm the editor of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, and
04:07I've been covering pro wrestling since the early 1970s.
04:10The flaw of Vince McMahon is he only thinks a certain thing works.
04:13That's it.
04:14And there's a million things in wrestling that, when done well, can work.
04:17As both companies engage in a fierce ratings war, pitting their Monday night shows against
04:21each other, the rise of WCW is led by its ambitious young president, Eric Bischoff.
04:28I decided the only way I was going to be successful was to be different.
04:32I listed all of the things that made WWE successful, and I decided to do exactly the opposite of
04:39what they were doing.
04:40I'm Eric Bischoff, former president of WCW.
04:44I'm the first one that created a weekly live television format for professional wrestling.
04:50I looked at the WWE, and they were taped.
04:52And I thought, you know, wrestling needs to be live.
04:55When it's live, the audience has to watch it.
04:57WCW before Nitro was just a really bad, cheap imitation of WWE.
05:02It was just silly, silly, childish stuff.
05:05The Shaq Master!
05:07The Shaq Master!
05:11They were ignoring men 18 to 39.
05:14So I thought, okay, there's my opportunity.
05:16And I began wondering, how can I transition into more reality-based product?
05:21Eric produced a different kind of a television show than had ever been done before.
05:25He was just ahead of the game, and Vince was behind the times.
05:28Before launching Monday Nitro, Bischoff aims to legitimize WCW by headhunting major talent,
05:35poaching Vince McMahon's biggest star to be the new face of his company.
05:39We're the number two wrestling company in the world.
05:41We're a fraction of the WWE's ratings.
05:44And bringing in Hulk Hogan changed the perception of WCW.
05:48It was a seismic shift.
05:50I mean, I remember Eric telling me, where Hogan goes, goes the money.
05:53That was his saying.
05:54And all of a sudden, my phone rings one day, and it's my buddy Diamond Dallas Page.
05:58And he said, Eric, you know, Scott Hall wants to leave WWE.
06:02He was Razor Ramon there.
06:03So I do the deal with Scott Hall, and about a week after that, I get a call from Kevin Nash.
06:08Same thing. Bam.
06:11The light bulb went off in my head.
06:13There's my storyline.
06:14There's my reality.
06:19The NWO. The New World Order.
06:24Is he the third man?
06:26What the hell is going on here?
06:28We left WWE in the dust. In the dust.
06:32We weren't just beating them. We were beating them badly.
06:35But the WWF isn't down for the count,
06:38as fans eventually begin gravitating to a new generation of superstars
06:43and a radical new approach to wrestling storylines
06:46introduced by a brash young writer named Vince Russo.
06:51Writing a wrestling show is not rocket science.
06:54And one of the things I said to Vince when I first sat down with him,
06:57Vince, that wrestling handbook gets thrown out the window.
07:03And I said, Vince, from now on, they think we're going to go left.
07:08We're going to go right.
07:10Now, all of a sudden, week to week to week, they don't know what's going to happen.
07:16The idea of Crash TV is I am writing that TV like the viewer at home
07:23is sitting there with the remote in his hand,
07:27begging me to give him the opportunity to see what was going on on the other channel.
07:35So it would be short match, backstage segment, vignette,
07:41short match, fight in the locker room, vignette,
07:45boom, boom, boom, and you are not giving that viewer the opportunity to,
07:51ah, let's see what's on Nitro.
07:53That's Crash TV.
07:55Russo's concept of Crash TV plays a key part in turning the tide,
07:59and soon the WWF is back on top, beating WCW every Monday night.
08:06Towards probably the middle of 98, certainly in 99, that had reversed again.
08:11Now WWE was on top.
08:13And that was a magical period.
08:15I don't want to dismiss Vince Russo's contributions,
08:18but they had Stone Cold Steve Austin on the rock at the same time.
08:22And that's like, you know, the Yankees with Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig.
08:27WCW, by the end of 99, they started losing money.
08:30They were the Titanic heading to the iceberg.
08:33My budgets were becoming slashed.
08:36Eventually, I got let go in 99 because I was fighting that.
08:39I was struggling. I was fighting it.
08:41Turner executives relieved Bischoff of his creative duties,
08:45while rumors emerged that Russo was overworked and frustrated in his role at the WWF.
08:52Well, WWF added a second show, SmackDown,
08:55and did not give Vince Russo a raise,
08:58so they went from doing one show a week to two shows a week.
09:02I went into Vince's office.
09:04I said, Vince, I want to be able to move my family closer to my wife's family
09:10so my wife isn't alone and she has help raising the kids.
09:15Because, Vince, I'm never home.
09:19And he turned around, bro, without missing a beat and said,
09:23you make enough money, you should be able to hire a nanny to take care of your kids.
09:29You don't tell a proud Italian man who loves his family
09:34to hire a nanny to watch his kids.
09:37Bro, at that moment, it was over.
09:41And they had me up to WCW that weekend.
09:44I was shocked when WCW brought him in as a match made in heaven,
09:48or hell, depending on who you talk to.
09:52I know I'm going into this thing with a target on my back.
09:58This is the first time I am going to be working with these veterans
10:05that have been at WCW for a long time.
10:08From day one, Hulk and Eric were like this.
10:12I can actually remember locking eyes with Hulk for the first time.
10:17And what I read from Hulk immediately was mistrust.
10:24Vince Russo was smart enough to know that you couldn't build around Hulk Hogan anymore
10:28if you wanted a future.
10:29So, yes, I think he was trying to figure out a way to remove him
10:33because Hulk Hogan had so much power, because it was Hulk Hogan.
10:36I've heard the critics ask the question, well, is Hulk Hogan getting older?
10:41Well, yeah, Hulk Hogan's getting older,
10:43and so is every other damn wrestler in the back, too, day by day.
10:48So there was this narrative that Hulk Hogan couldn't wrestle in the ring anymore,
10:52he had no value, he should retire, blah, blah, blah.
10:55Where in reality, the business side of the wrestling business
10:59still thought very highly of Hulk Hogan.
11:02Taking the reins of WCW in October of 1999,
11:06Russo begins reshaping and reimagining the company's flagship show, Monday Nitro.
11:12Vince Russo believed the more extreme and shocking you make it,
11:17the more they will like it.
11:18We are just gonna hump you like the dogs that we are.
11:23Sometimes that's right, but you also run into a thing where once you've done it,
11:28you desensitize the audience, and then there's nothing you can do.
11:32Yeah!
11:33What's the worst thing that he's done, that you've watched?
11:37I don't know, I didn't watch this shit.
11:39I couldn't watch it.
11:40I was there for three months.
11:42The ratings went up in those three months.
11:45How are the ratings doing? Are they approving?
11:47Well, he'll tell you that they were approving, but no, they weren't up.
11:50Artificially, it looked good, but every month, if you do the month rating,
11:54the October, the November, December, every month was down slightly.
11:57Next thing I know, management tells me we're going in a different direction.
12:02And I said, okay, fine, I'll go home, send me my money.
12:06Now that both Bischoff and Russo have failed to turn WCW ratings around,
12:11the network lands on a new idea.
12:14Both men working together.
12:17Brad Siegel is the head of TNT and TBS.
12:20Vince, I want you to meet somebody for lunch.
12:22I know immediately he's talking about Eric Bischoff.
12:27And now my job is to oversee Vince Russo.
12:30You know, between Vince and Eric, I never felt that there was a power struggle.
12:35My name's Jeff Jarrett.
12:37Some call me Double J, some call me The Last Outlaw.
12:40One, two, Neutralfanatic!
12:44I just think philosophically,
12:46those two guys view creating and producing wrestling content entirely different.
12:52A philosophical difference as opposed to a personality difference.
12:56Is Lance Storm officially a WCW man? Yes!
12:59I negotiated my contract with both Vince Russo and Eric,
13:03and I much more preferred dealing with Eric.
13:06Russo was the creative end of it, and he was different.
13:10Vince Russo sat down with, all right, well,
13:12he's the guy that's gonna be in charge of creative, and he's looking at me,
13:14and he's like, just off the top of my head,
13:16first thing I think of is, like, maybe making you Eric's illegitimate son.
13:20And I look at Eric, and Eric has the same look on his face.
13:23What the hell? Like, isn't Eric, like, ten years older than me?
13:26How is he my illegitimate dad?
13:28I did go into it with an open mind, and initially it was kind of fun.
13:32But it became apparent to me that Vince Russo is void of any creative instincts or talents.
13:38You could not have put two of the most opposite people together and said, go.
13:53With WCW in trouble, the company's survival hinges on reversing its downward spiral.
13:59Eric Bischoff and Vince Russo devise a storyline
14:02designed to play off the real-life backstage drama
14:06and the tensions between Bischoff's veterans and Russo's desire to push younger talent.
14:12There's new sheriffs in town.
14:14The idea of the program was the Millionaire's Club versus the Youngblood,
14:19where all these young guys that were held down,
14:23now they're gonna get an opportunity to shine.
14:26A little bit of a civil war, creatively speaking, between young and old,
14:30because that's, like, part of life, right?
14:32Get that damn camera out of here.
14:34Despite their efforts, Bischoff and Russo's storyline fails to win over fans or improve the ratings.
14:40Mm, man. That whole year of 2000 is kind of, like, blanked out of my mind because it was so bad.
14:46Oh, good God!
14:48It was destined for failure from the beginning.
14:53Vince Russo, I was done with him creatively because I knew he was a bullshitter.
14:58Eric wanted to be in charge.
15:00I call Brad Siegel and I say,
15:02Bro, put Eric in charge of the show.
15:06Brad Siegel said to me,
15:08No, no, no, no, no, Vince, we want you to write the show.
15:11Okay, fine.
15:13The next time I see Eric Bischoff, bash at the beach.
15:18In the week leading up to the pay-per-view event,
15:21Russo prepares the show with a focus on who will emerge the next world champion.
15:26That week, I walked into our creative meeting
15:29and I threw a question out there at the very beginning of the meeting,
15:32and the question was,
15:34if you could put the WCW title on anyone in the company right now,
15:39who would it be?
15:41And I went around the table,
15:43Booker T, Booker T, Booker T,
15:45and unanimously, everybody said Booker T.
15:49I said, well, then that's what we're going to do.
15:52I had had the belt at this time a couple of months,
15:56and so my overarching creative was for the chosen one, Jeff Jarrett,
16:01to face multiple legends and be victorious
16:04until it was time to switch the title to Booker T.
16:08I'm going to tell you like this here,
16:10we're going to turn this mother out.
16:12Now, can you dig it?
16:14A lot of significance, a lot of upside,
16:16and I saw Vince Russo's vision and bought into it.
16:19So the main event of the evening was Jeff Jarrett versus Booker T
16:24for the WCW title with Booker T going over.
16:28He's one of those guys where you knew he was really good.
16:31Wrestling had not been kind to African-American wrestlers.
16:35Give somebody else a chance, at least it's something new.
16:37To add more intrigue to the event,
16:39Russo makes the decision to give Jeff Jarrett one last win
16:42before losing the belt to Booker T,
16:45a win over Hollywood Hulk Hogan.
16:47When I wrote the very first version of the show,
16:51it was Jarrett against Hogan,
16:54and I wrote Hulk Hogan very strong.
16:58However, he was not going to win the WCW title.
17:02Why?
17:03Because you just had an entire room agree on Booker T.
17:08Vince Russo had his idea of what he wanted to do at Bash at the Beach.
17:12Hulk Hogan and I were on a completely different page.
17:15What Vince Russo wanted to do didn't freaking matter.
17:19Hulk Hogan had 100% creative control over his storyline
17:24and how his character was presented on television.
17:27Back in 1994, Bischoff had lured Hogan to WCW
17:32by offering him one of the most generous contracts in wrestling history.
17:36I think the technical wording was he had control of his finishes.
17:39It's like if he didn't want to lose, he didn't have to lose.
17:41It's easy to sit here and say unprecedented,
17:44but to that date, someone with no ownership
17:47but to have complete creative control,
17:49that is a conflict of interest.
17:51When a talent has creative control,
17:53it sort of comes down to the simplicity.
17:55Are they worried about their bottom line
17:57or are they worried about the company's bottom line?
17:59It's radically different.
18:01So I wrote the first script where Hulk Hogan looks very strong,
18:05but he does not win the WCW title.
18:08Hulk Hogan poo-pooed that first script.
18:11So now I rewrite the script
18:13and I really make Hulk Hogan look like King Kong.
18:18Not only does he wind up killing Jeff Jarrett,
18:21he winds up killing Scott Steiner.
18:25He literally winds up wiping everybody,
18:28but he does not leave with the title.
18:31Hulk says he's good with the second version.
18:35So now I walk into Bash at the Beach that Sunday
18:40thinking everything's fine
18:42and Hulk is going to do what the second script says.
18:47Eric Bischoff comes up to me and says,
18:50you better go in the trailer and talk to Hulk Hogan
18:53because he's not going to do this.
18:55Who's in the trailer?
18:57Me, Hulk Hogan, and Eric Bischoff.
19:01So if you want to break that down,
19:04it is clearly two against one.
19:07Did Vince Russo and I discuss it several times?
19:10Yes, we did.
19:11It was my job to oversee him.
19:13It was my call, not Vince Russo's call.
19:15He didn't get to vote.
19:17He thought he did, but he didn't.
19:19Eric informs me that they came up with a scenario
19:24and that scenario is Hulk winning the title.
19:29He wants to win the WCW title.
19:32Eric's idea is to blur the line between reality and fiction
19:36with a story angle where Hulk flexes
19:38his creative control claws to win the belt
19:41as Jeff Jarrett throws the match in disgust.
19:44Hulk, angry at Jarrett's refusal to fight,
19:47is then scripted to storm out of the ring.
19:50The idea was for Hulk to leave in a state of frustration
19:55and anger as a result of the finish of the match.
19:58The important element of it was that once WCW realized
20:03that Hulk Hogan wasn't coming back
20:05and he wasn't giving the belt back,
20:07that would force WCW to then vacate that title
20:12and create a tournament for a new world heavyweight champion.
20:16And finally, at Halloween Havoc,
20:18which was our big October pay-per-view,
20:20the two finalists in that tournament,
20:23before it physically took place,
20:25Hogan was going to make a surprise appearance
20:28and say, uh-uh-uh, I still have the belt,
20:33and if you want this, you've got to beat me.
20:35Boom. There's your story.
20:38I was pissed.
20:39Bro, you're pulling this bullshit the day of a show.
20:42I rewrote the show twice.
20:44This show is starting in an hour.
20:46It got to the point where I said,
20:49look, we're going to get on the phone with Brad Siegel
20:51and we're going to lay it out and we'll let Brad choose.
20:54And Brad said, go with Eric's idea.
20:56That's it.
20:57Now you've got the president of the network,
20:59who's the tiebreaker.
21:00It was over and done.
21:02Eric wanted to be in charge.
21:04He wanted things to go back to the way they were.
21:07Bro, I'm not an idiot.
21:10So Hulk lays out this elaborate story,
21:13and I know the story ends with him winning the title.
21:16While he's laying out the story,
21:19this ear is listening.
21:21This side of my brain is figuring out another story
21:27because he's not walking out with the title.
21:31Pay-Per-View Showtime starts at 8 o'clock, 7, 7.30,
21:34somewhere in that window, Vince comes to me and says,
21:37bro, in his great New Yorker accent,
21:39this is what we're doing.
21:41Jeff, Hulk doesn't want to do the job for you.
21:44F-Hulk laid out for him.
21:47Let him leave with his freaking belt.
21:49We wanted everybody to believe it.
21:51Jeff was not in on it.
21:53We wanted everybody in the back to believe this.
21:58That was the goal.
22:00Vince was pretty clear.
22:02Go to the ring.
22:03We'll get the bell to start the match.
22:05Just make it very clear you're taking a dive.
22:08You're laying down for him.
22:10And I was dumbfounded.
22:12And I said, Vince, this story is not well thought out.
22:16It doesn't make any logical sense.
22:19And for Babyface to capture gold this way,
22:23it's a real bad taste that if a champion's going to be a champion,
22:28don't you really want to beat somebody?
22:30And this was the opposite of that.
22:32There's a million other options.
22:34I felt the audience would say,
22:36this is the best you guys could come up with?
22:39I told Vince this.
22:41Everybody loses in this scenario.
22:43Everybody loses.
22:51As Bash at the Beach 2000 begins,
22:54a storyline is in place for current WCW champion Jeff Jarrett
22:58to take a dive for Hulk Hogan.
23:00Everyone is ready to put the plan in motion
23:02until Jarrett begins having second thoughts.
23:06When it came down to match time,
23:08I had a real overwhelming sense of,
23:13do I really want to do this?
23:15Do I really want to be a part of this mess?
23:19Do I really want to walk the aisle and be a part of this finish?
23:25Those thoughts went through my mind
23:27because my father, my grandmother,
23:31my outlook on the industry,
23:33that you really only have one boss, and that's the fans.
23:37Ladies and gentlemen,
23:39welcome to the year 2000 WCW Bash at the Beach
23:46and the main event of the evening.
23:50When they hit my music, I stayed in the back.
23:53But where's Jarrett?
23:54I mean, his music's been playing for well over a minute.
23:56There's no sign of him.
23:57What's going on here?
23:58This is not like the chosen one to stand us up on a pay-per-view.
24:03So my music played quite a while.
24:06I think it looped two or three times.
24:09And I stayed over in a little tunnel
24:11and really just thought through it.
24:13I could take matters into my own hands
24:15and say, I'm not doing the dive.
24:18I could jump him and make him punch me around
24:22and make him give me a big boot.
24:24What are my real options?
24:26What is going to protect my family and my career best?
24:30So much at stake here.
24:33I can't say that I was legitimately angry.
24:36I can say thoroughly disgusted.
24:39And when I finally said, let's get this over with,
24:42that was where my head was at.
24:44Here he is.
24:46By the time I headed down the aisleway,
24:49everything in my mind was,
24:51Hogan, you want your creative control so bad?
24:54Take it.
24:56You know something, Jeff Jarrett?
24:58You are the chosen one
25:01because I have chosen you to powerbomb your ass through this mat.
25:06So come on down and get your ass kicked, Jarrett.
25:10Looking across the ring
25:13and looking at Hulk
25:15and knowing that he orchestrated all of this,
25:18I never, ever looked at him the same way.
25:25What's Jeff doing?
25:27What's Jeff doing?
25:32Wait a minute, Russo.
25:34Russo, I think, told Jarrett to lie down.
25:36What's going on?
25:39Russo is holding the belt up like,
25:41Do you want the belt pinned to the man? Jarrett's down.
25:43I don't know. And Hogan is the shot this week.
25:45What in the world, Jeff Jarrett?
25:47How does the crowd react when Jarrett lays down?
25:50There's confusion, like they really don't know what's going on.
25:55The essence of professional wrestling through the generations
25:59has been the ability to blur the lines
26:02between what's nonfiction and what's fiction.
26:05But the old promoter adage,
26:07you confuse them, you lose them.
26:09We confused them, and we lost them.
26:12This can't be Jeff Jarrett, a man that grew up in this sport.
26:16What is going on?
26:18He just threw the whole title to Hogan.
26:20He threw the belt to Hogan. What the hell?
26:22Now, Russo.
26:23I'll be honest with you.
26:25All I want to make sure is
26:27this plan carries out the exact same way
26:31I laid it out in the trailer.
26:34Jeff laid down Hulk Hogan.
26:36You're going home with your belt.
26:38This is all part of the story.
26:41Is this your deal, Russo?
26:43Wow.
26:45That's why this company's in the damn shape it's in,
26:47because of bullshit like this.
26:49Wow.
26:51Referee counted one, two, three,
26:53and I rolled out to the ring and went straight to the back.
26:59My God, this is real life.
27:00One, two, three.
27:04Ladies and gentlemen, that is not something they go over
27:07with us at the production meeting.
27:09Now, there are swerves, and there are swerves.
27:12We've all been swerved.
27:14And we went forward exactly the way Hulk wanted to go forward.
27:18The audience believed that Hulk Hogan was pissed,
27:21and he took the belt, and he left the building.
27:24It went according to plan.
27:26We jump in the limo.
27:28We leave the arena with the belt.
27:30We go to the airport.
27:34We're on the plane.
27:35We're high-fiving, cracking a beer, laughing.
27:39Everything went the way we wanted it to go.
27:41As Bischoff and Hogan leave the arena, the show continues.
27:45But what happens next will be debated by fans and insiders
27:48for decades to come,
27:50as Russo takes matters into his own hands.
27:54Well, here's Mr. Russo, and he's next.
27:57Thirty minutes later, the plane lands,
27:59and all of a sudden, Hogan's phone is blowing up.
28:06So is mine.
28:07Russo went out and cut the scathing promo and buried Hulk.
28:13This was like the big, great swerve that somehow
28:17turned real when Russo does the promo later,
28:19and things ended up getting worse.
28:21There's only one way for me to do this,
28:23and that's for me to tell it like it is.
28:26You know, bro, again, these are the things people hate me for.
28:36As agreed upon before the show even started,
28:40and after Jeff Jarrett takes a dive,
28:42Hulk leaves the building with the belt,
28:45enraging and confusing the audience.
28:48Now, to the surprise of everyone,
28:50Vince Russo makes his way out to the ring.
28:53Well, here's Mr. Russo, and he's next.
28:56Now what?
28:57I don't know.
28:58Maybe Russo can explain to the world what we have seen.
29:03My entire life, every promo I've ever cut,
29:07there's only one way for me to do this,
29:09and that's for me to tell it like it is.
29:12I don't know what I'm going to say.
29:15I am in the moment.
29:18That's real, and that's what people believe.
29:21Here's where the story is.
29:23Here's where my character is.
29:25Go.
29:26Let me tell you, people,
29:28what happened out here in this ring tonight.
29:31All day long, I'm playing politics with Hulk Hogan
29:34because Hulk Hogan tonight wants to play
29:38his creative control card.
29:42And to Hulk Hogan, that meant that tonight
29:46in the middle of this ring,
29:48when he knew it was bullshit,
29:51he beats Jeff Jarrett.
29:53Because of Russo's crazy booking style,
29:55we're all like, is this the plan?
29:57Are they working us?
29:58If this was the plan, it's stupid,
30:00and if it's not the plan, it's even stupider.
30:02We're all just sitting there going,
30:03what the hell is going on?
30:05Hey, let me tell you who doesn't give a shit
30:07about this company.
30:09That goddamn politician Hulk Hogan.
30:12Hogan got his belt and he went the hell home,
30:16and I promise everybody else I'll go in the goddamn grave.
30:20You will never see that piece of shit again.
30:23Adding to the confusion of the moment,
30:25Russo shocks the crowd by announcing a new main event.
30:29Hulk Hogan now has the WCW belt.
30:34That belt don't mean shit!
30:36Jeff Jarrett is still the official WCW champion,
30:40and he will defend that title
30:42tonight in this ring
30:45against Booker T,
30:47who for 14 years has been busting his ass in WCW
30:52and can't get a goddamn break because of the Hulk Hogan.
30:57There were real emotions being fueled during that promo
31:03because I had it up to here with the wrestling shit.
31:06I really did, bro.
31:07I was over and I was done with it.
31:12And Hogan, you big bald son of a bitch,
31:15can't smile yet!
31:22That was not on the format.
31:24That was not in the production meeting.
31:25That was nowhere to be found anywhere until this.
31:27We do have Booker T now against Jeff Jarrett
31:30for the WCW title.
31:32That was just Book.
31:33That's added to tonight.
31:35My plan for the main event,
31:37Booker T beats Jeff Jarrett
31:39and becomes the WCW world heavyweight champion.
31:42Booker knows to see Jarrett.
31:47Hogan, congratulations, enjoy the title.
31:49That's the fake title.
31:50The real title is gonna be represented
31:53in the match with Jarrett.
31:54Booker goes over.
31:55We've got a new champion!
31:57Oh, my God!
31:58Booker T's the world champion!
32:00Booker T's the champ!
32:02Oh, my God, bro.
32:04I knew Hulk was going to be pissed.
32:08Everybody is believing this.
32:101,000%.
32:13And all I'm reading is
32:15Vince Russo finally put Hulk Hogan in his place.
32:19Vince Russo finally told Hulk Hogan
32:22what should have been said to him years ago.
32:24I'm reading this, and I'm saying
32:26he is going to have a severe problem with it.
32:34When Hulk gets really, really angry,
32:37he gets very quiet.
32:39Like, when he stops talking,
32:41that's when you need to start worrying.
32:43And he got real quiet after that.
32:46Like, real quiet.
32:48Russo claims he pitched this entire storyline
32:51to Hulk and Eric in the trailer,
32:53and that they agreed.
32:55Every single thing on that show
32:58was what was discussed in that trailer.
33:01Everything.
33:02From Jarrett laying down,
33:04to them leaving,
33:05to me cutting the promo,
33:07to Booker T winning the title at the end.
33:10It was exactly the way I laid it out
33:13to Hogan in the trailer.
33:15That was never my plan.
33:17I guarantee you it wasn't Hulk Hogan's plan.
33:20And by the way, Hulk Hogan had creative control.
33:23And we certainly didn't know
33:25that Booker T was going to walk out
33:27as a world champion.
33:28Because Hulk Hogan had that world title
33:30and was going to bring it back
33:32in October at Halloween Havoc.
33:34That was the plan.
33:35Oh my God, that was part of the plan.
33:38This is a key point.
33:40The reason you have to leave the building
33:43is because if I go out there
33:46and cut a scathing promo on you
33:48and you're still in the building,
33:50you're going to have to come kill me.
33:51Russo may believe it,
33:52but that's where the pathological part
33:54of being a pathological liar comes in.
33:56None of that was discussed in advance.
33:59None of that was approved by me.
34:01None of it was approved by Hulk Hogan.
34:04It was just the most unprofessional thing
34:06that I had ever seen in 30 years of television.
34:11The next morning,
34:12a furious Hogan calls into a local Tampa radio show,
34:16airing his grievances for real at Vince Russo.
34:20The reason Vince McMahon is home laughing his ass off
34:23is because of a deep jerk-off like Vince Russo.
34:27That idiot went out there and told the people
34:30that he was responsible for me and Jarrett
34:32not having a match.
34:34He is a very stupid man.
34:36But now I'm really pissed off.
34:38I don't know how I'm going to get even with this Russo guy.
34:40They can pass that stupid-ass belt to Booker T,
34:43but I'm the real world WCW champion.
34:45Did you know Hulk was going to pursue legal action?
34:47Ha!
34:48Did I know that Hulk Hogan was going to take legal action?
34:51How could you not?
34:53How could you not?
35:01Infuriated by the events of Bash at the Beach,
35:04Hulk Hogan takes legal action against Vince Russo and WCW.
35:08Because Hulk Hogan tonight
35:11wants to play his creative control card.
35:15Hogan files lawsuits for defamation and breach of contract,
35:19asserting that Russo's off-script tirade
35:22was part of the match outcome
35:24and violated his creative control clause.
35:27I believe Hogan felt double-crossed,
35:30and whether Russo actually double-crossed him
35:32or he just got carried away and said shit he shouldn't have,
35:35I have no idea.
35:36But it's like, okay, you don't file lawsuits
35:40if this is just part of a storyline.
35:42It gets to a judge, and the judge basically says,
35:46let me get this straight.
35:47This is a wrestling show.
35:49Vince Russo is in a wrestling ring.
35:52He is cutting a promo on a wrestling character.
35:57Where is the defamation of character?
36:00Like, Hulk, you're really suing over this?
36:02Shut up.
36:03I would not have been a good witness for that.
36:05Strange times.
36:08I am cutting my promo on Hulk Hogan,
36:12not Terry Bollea.
36:14This is a story.
36:16Vince Russo is a character.
36:18Hulk Hogan is a character.
36:21If Vince Russo takes the position
36:24that because he was performing as a character
36:27that took creative liberties with another professional,
36:31that that somehow makes it legal and okay,
36:35is a reflection of the man's ignorance.
36:39He's got more than a problem with facts and truth.
36:42He's got a problem with reality.
36:44And the first judge threw it out.
36:47They appealed it, and it went to a second judge.
36:50First of all, I don't think that it went to multiple courts
36:52to begin with.
36:54It's not like they took it to the Supreme Court
36:56for crying out loud.
36:58The sworn depositions reveal a key piece of information,
37:02Two days prior to Bash at the Beach,
37:04a fax was sent to the WCW head office.
37:07I found out after the WCW office is closed,
37:13Hulk Hogan's attorney faxes a letter
37:17to the WCW office saying
37:21Hulk Hogan is not approving that script.
37:25I have no idea of this.
37:28Here's why that doesn't hold up.
37:30It was never a discussion or a debate
37:33between Hulk and me and Russo
37:36as to whether or not we were going to do something
37:38other than what Hulk and I had laid out.
37:41It wasn't up for debate.
37:43Therefore, why would there be this
37:45after-hours fax excuse?
37:48I mean, I'm trying to decide between two dishonest people
37:51discussing something from 20 years ago
37:53to do with the fax.
37:55I don't remember a fax, but, you know,
37:57I never heard the fax story, I'll just say that.
38:06The fax exposes Hulk Hogan's real intentions
38:09to maximize the full strength of his creative control
38:13and refuse any storyline Russo proposed.
38:16Russo triumphs in the courtroom
38:18as an appeals court affirms
38:20that fictional characters cannot be defamed.
38:23However, it's Hogan who emerges victorious
38:26in his battle against WCW.
38:28Hulk made the decision the night of Bash at the Beach
38:32that I probably will not get renewed,
38:35so how can I get another paycheck from AOL Tom Warner?
38:40And that's through litigation.
38:42I'm trying to get out of a contract with these guys,
38:44and Brad Siegel's real snug
38:46about not letting me out of the contract,
38:48but that's all I've got to say.
38:50Hulk Hogan was a key to building the company,
38:52and he obviously had the biggest name,
38:55and he'd been there too long,
38:56and he became the face of failure.
38:58So at that point, he was getting paid so much,
39:01but he couldn't draw ratings to a great degree anymore,
39:04and people weren't going to go and pay to see
39:06Hulk Hogan matches that they'd seen for all those years.
39:09There was really nothing left to do with him.
39:11And then you have scumbags like Dave Meltzer,
39:14who is nothing more than a useful idiot.
39:17Even though he calls himself a journalist,
39:18Dave Meltzer to this day hates Hulk Hogan.
39:21What Hulk Hogan was trying to achieve that night
39:23remains clouded in uncertainty.
39:26You know, I've asked myself that through the years.
39:28What was Hogan's vision?
39:30What was the upside?
39:31What was the ultimate plan?
39:33Was it to create so much controversy
39:35or to get eyeballs on the product?
39:37Was it to be his version of a Montreal screwjob
39:40or his version of a publicity stunt?
39:44I don't know.
39:46We certainly know the results of it,
39:47but I have no idea what his vision was.
39:51And Turner settled.
39:53I mean, this is fun.
39:56Because I sat with Hulk and his attorney, Henry Holmes,
39:59the day that they settled that.
40:01They took me out to dinner and told me what happened.
40:03They never gave me the amount that was confidential,
40:07but I know it was well, well into seven figures.
40:13Some folks play chess while others are playing checkers.
40:16The night it bashed at the beach,
40:18Hulk decided to start playing chess,
40:20and he had the patience, and he cashed out.
40:30What's Jeff doing?
40:31Russo, I think, told Jared to lie down.
40:33What's going on?
40:34The facts of what actually went down
40:36at Bash at the Beach 2000 will forever be murky.
40:40But what was clear to fans that night
40:42was that the chaos and confusion
40:44only underscored the disorder and disintegration
40:47at the heart of the company.
40:49It was the reality the night this happened,
40:51and it's the reality as I sit here today saying this.
40:54In a business that gave him everything,
40:57and that's what he gave back.
40:59It's about the most self-centered,
41:02egotistical, power play move that only benefited Hulk.
41:08And that's the reality.
41:10But I mean, as far as a storyline
41:14based on what they were doing at the time,
41:16it was something that would get people talking.
41:18And could have built to something.
41:20So I did like Booker T being champion.
41:22I thought that was cool.
41:23You know, it's not same old, same old Hulk Hogan champion, right?
41:26So I guess I did like that.
41:28I do remember that.
41:29You know, thinking, ah, you know,
41:30at least it's something new.
41:32And let me tell you who doesn't give a shit about this company.
41:36That goddamn politician Hulk Hogan.
41:40It was destined for failure from the beginning.
41:44At the end of it all,
41:46I don't think the bash at the beach
41:48was the nail in the coffin for WCW.
41:51You see what it says right here?
41:53This is my ass, if you will.
41:55You know what I mean?
41:56It was like the gig was already up.
41:57It was just kind of a flattering company.
41:59WCW was a star that became a supernova
42:03and then burned itself out.
42:05In its dying days,
42:07WCW is snapped up by its longtime arch rival
42:10Vince McMahon and the WWF.
42:13Despite having an attractive offer on the table
42:16from a venture capital firm
42:18spearheaded by Eric Bischoff.
42:20The deal for us to purchase WCW
42:22is for $67 million,
42:24we buy all the assets
42:26and we get placement
42:28on Monday nights and Thursday nights.
42:30That was our deal.
42:32And I got a phone call.
42:34They said, Eric, it's done.
42:36I thought he meant the deal was done.
42:38Like, we own a wrestling company.
42:40I'm about ready to jump up and start dancing.
42:42I said, you mean it's done?
42:44He goes, no, Eric, you don't get it.
42:46It's over.
42:47There's no deal.
42:49Turner took it off the table.
42:51It took a minute for that to sink in.
42:54It was a fire sale at the end.
42:56Time Warner wanted to get rid of wrestling.
42:58It was like $2.5 million for the actual WCW
43:01and I think there's $1.7 million more
43:03for the tape library.
43:05It was definitely the equivalent of
43:07buying Manhattan for $25.
43:09That's right.
43:11I own WCW.
43:14I have zero regrets, man.
43:16I have zero regrets.
43:18You know, regret to me is a negative thing.
43:20It's like baggage.
43:22I try not to carry any baggage with me at all.
43:25I have said this about Vince Russo.
43:28Vince is a guy who's very passionate,
43:31like a lot of us,
43:33and does what he thinks
43:35the viewer wants
43:38to watch.
43:41And he's had successes and he's had failures,
43:43like all of us.
43:46Do you know how little this shit matters?
43:49It is a form of entertainment
43:53at the end of the day.
43:55I don't hate any of these people, bro.
43:59This was a job.
44:01People ask me all the time today,
44:03Vince, what is your advice
44:05to get into the wrestling business?
44:07And I tell them, don't.