WCW: Heart and Soul

Fan Scorecard:

World Heavyweight Championship: Goldberg vs. The Unnatural {©}

World Tag Team Championship: Jung Dragons vs. True Heroes {©}

United States Heavyweight Championship: King Corino vs. Rob Van Dam {©}

World Television Championship: Chavo Guerrero Jr. vs. Brian Kendrick {©}

Ultimate Fan Series Semifinal Round: Eddie Guerrero vs. Matt Hardy

Ultimate Fan Series Semifinal Round: AJ Styles vs. Sean O’Haire

Bryan Danielson vs. Colt Cabana

Steenerico vs. Calgary Bulldogs

What will be match of the night?

How many championships will change hands?

TIEBREAKER: How long was the main event? (minutes and seconds)

General diary comments/questions/critiques:

“It’s not about the money, Bret. Vince wants to bring me in to work, and Triple H seems really excited about it. You know that’s what I want to do.”

“I do.” Everyone knew that about Ric Flair. 55 years old and he still wanted to put on the tights. Personally I found him overrated, but even his biggest supporters would have to admit that he’s a shell of what he used to be. He could still talk with the best of them, but he just doesn’t fit with the work rate of the modern WCW. That’s why I had him lose War Games with the retirement stipulation and turned him into a manager.

“I’d be happy to stay in WCW, but I want to wrestle,” Ric said on the other end of the phone.

“I’m just not sure that’s the best idea anymore,” I said, trying to be diplomatic. “Are you really going to jump? I thought you were excited about eventually reuniting the Horsemen.”

“It’s not the Horsemen without the Nature Boy in the ring,” he said. “I’m a wrestler, Hitman. It’s what I do, and when I stop I want it to be on my terms. If you’re not going to let me do it, I’ll do it with Vince.”

“Just do me a favor and don’t sign anything yet, alright?” I said. “Give me some time to think about this.”

“Sure thing,” he said. “My contract’s not up for almost a month; I’m willing to wait a week or two if you want to think it over. But you know what I want.”

“Yes, I do. I’ll talk to you later, Ric.”

I hung up the phone and sighed. I’ve never been the biggest Ric Flair fan, but I’d never deny that he’s as synonymous with WCW as anyone except for maybe Sting. Could I really afford to let him walk away and go back to Vince in the middle of the war? But on the other hand, he’s not the guy he used to be. We saw what it looked like when he tried to keep up with the current generation of guys and work our modern style, and he struggled to keep up. What was the right answer here?

My computer’s email notification went off, breaking me out of my thoughts. I put the phone down and clicked on the inbox, seeing that it was from Sean O’Haire.

Your initial offer isn’t bad,, but WWE and New Japan have both reached out to me too. You’ll have to up your bid if you want me to stay.

When I saw the number he quoted at me, I relaxed. We’d definitely have to up our offer, but neither Vince or Inoki were exactly breaking the bank here. I was confident we could win this bidding war.

---

The next day on Nitro I ran into Goldberg, who asked to speak with me privately.
“What’s up, Bill?” I asked. “You have a chance to look over our contract yet?”

“I did,” he said. “Vince has made an offer too though.”

“Okay.” I nodded, having fully expected that. Of course Vince was going to make a run at stealing Bill from us, especially right on the heels of Austin jumping to WCW. This was a chance for him to deal a major blow to us. “What kind of terms are we looking at here?”

I exhaled when he quoted a number at me. It was more than our initial offer, but it was far from outrageous. Maybe this wouldn’t be so bad after all.

“I’m confident we can beat that,” I said. “Just give me some time to talk to the financial department, and then—“

“I got an offer from New Japan too,” he said, cutting me off.

“Oh?” That was a little surprising to me, especially after the massive commitment they made to Austin and the offer they made to O’Haire as well. I figured Inoki would be tightening the purse strings for the foreseeable future. It couldn’t be too bad though, right, especially given the WWF number? “What’re we looking at here?”

He showed me the rough draft of the contract New Japan was offering him, and my jaw hit the floor.

“Bret.” I smirked when I heard the voice on the other end of the phone.

“Vince, how are you? Feels like it’s been a long time. Did you call to wish me luck on Slamboree tonight?”

“Good one pal,” he said, though he definitely wasn’t laughing. “No, I just wanted to thank you on not seeing the value in one of the greatest of all time. Your loss is our gain, because now Ric Flair is coming home to a company that appreciates him and will allow him to be the Nature Boy again.” I just nodded silently, knowing he couldn’t see me over the phone. I was already leaning towards not re-signing Ric, knowing that he wanted to keep wrestling and also knowing that he just can’t physically keep up with our more athletic ring style in modern WCW. My decision was made for me when the bidding wars for Goldberg and Sean O’Haire started. The money that would have gone to keep Flair can now go to trying to keep Goldberg and O’Haire. Ric informed me of his decision earlier today, and I shook his hand and wished him luck. Maybe he’ll be a better fit in WWE, where he can get by on his charisma and his reputation.

“Ric will be missed in WCW,” I said. “We did hold onto Sean O’Haire though, and all due respect to Ric, I think he’s the more important signing. While you’re focused on the past, I’ll worry about building the future.” O’Haire had put pen to paper just this afternoon on a new four year contract that now makes him the fourth highest paid person in the company, at least for the moment.

“O’Haire’s a big, talented kid, and I could’ve made him a star,” Vince said. “He’s not Ric Flair though. He’s not the Nature Boy.”

“No he’s not,” I agreed. “But neither is Ric Flair, not anymore. Not in 2004. There’s another guy who thinks he’s Ric Flair circa 1985, but I’m guessing he won’t be sticking around your company too much longer, not with the recent news.”

“How dare you!” Vince snarled. “That’s a low blow, even for you! Business is business, but that’s personal!”

“Maybe so, but I have a feeling it’s going to affect business too,” I said. “Unless you’re actually going to tell me that you’re going to keep pushing your daughter’s ex?” Yes, amidst all the bidding wars, the Observer broke the major story of a split between Hunter and Stephanie. Not sure what happened there, and honestly I don’t really care. I have no problem with Stephanie, but I have no love lost for that piece of trash Helmsley. If Vince doesn’t keep him around after this he’s going to have to go to Japan or something, because there’s no way in hell I’ll ever sign him.

“Forget about private lives that are none of your business,” Vince said. “Forget about your second rate PPV tonight too. What you should be worried about is holding onto the biggest star you have left, especially since tonight will be the last PPV you’ll ever have him for if I have anything to say about it.”

“Yeah, Bill told me about your new offer,” I said neutrally. New Japan had come in strong and blown us both out of the water at first, but Vince hadn’t taken it lying down. While I stopped to think about what to do, the WWE had come back with a much-improved offer to Bill. It sounded like Inoki was preparing a response already as well, so I knew I needed to act fast.

“Inoki already swooped in and stole Austin from me with money he doesn’t have and a contract he can’t afford. He’s not doing it again this time,” Vince said confidently. “Goldberg is coming to the biggest wrestling company in the world, whether you or Inoki like it or not. I’ll make him a bigger star than he’s ever been, and just like you used ‘Stone Cold’ against me, I’ll use WCW’s biggest star ever to crush WCW once and for all!”

“We’ll see about that,” I said. “Don’t start penciling him into your plans yet; you haven’t heard the last of me, and I’m guessing Inoki’s not out of the fight yet either. Now I really have to go; I’ve got a PPV to prepare for. Give my best to Stephanie.” I hung up before he could respond, happy to get the last word in.

I still didn’t know what the right move with Goldberg was. Keeping him was going to require a massive, massive payraise. What if the younger generation sees that contract and expects something similar when their own deals are due? We’ve been really profitable, but a contract of this size could screw up our entire pay scale. And let’s face it; Bill isn’t exactly a top notch worker. This would be all about his name value.

Maybe we could go all-out and keep Goldberg, but would it be worth it?