sullivan isnt going to tell the whole truth about benoit i know he had to despise him after all he stole his wife legit!

Interesting that Sullivan says here that Benoit was always professional in the ring, and Benoit on his DVD said likewise about Sullivan never taking liberties despite the situation (and being booker at the time). Yet just a couple of years after this when Sullivan got the book again, Benoit and friends immediately bailed despite Sullivan giving Benoit the WCW title. Also, Nancy's sister says in that interview linked earlier that there was a "non-scripted physical altercation backstage [at the Bash] between Kevin and Christopher and when Chris phoned my sister afterward, I was told to come home with him and not to go home with Kevin."

I did think it was well done that the interviewer sent out a feeler about discussing that situation, but immediately moved on when it was clear that Sullivan was still emotional about it.

Although far from perfect, IMO Sean Oliver is a much better interviewer than Rob Feinstein.

Someone needs to buy Sullivan a map and point out what state Sturgis is in.

Seems like a bunch of this was Sullivan doing a bit of "oh, I always knew these guys who turned out to be big stars would be big, but I also knew that all of this things that turned out to be mistakes were totally mistakes at the time" self-revisionist history.

But it does sound very interesting.

And MAN that Harlem Heat/Hog Wild thing is spine-chillingly evil, and pisses me off to this day. I only saw it a couple years ago, too, and I was like "wait, is this the thing that Scott once talked about... OH MY GOD THE ENTIRE CROWD IS WHITE SUPREMACISTS". It made me literally want the Heat to walk into the crowd and just start stomping biker trash.

Nothing, really. it was just ten-fifteen minutes of unadulterated hate. The bikers kept doing that ridiculously childish "bring it on" pose (waving both hands)- it was like a sea of ten-year old boys, except they were racist trash with beards & tattoos.

Well to be fair his initial Hollywood persona was a perfect chickenshit heel character where he relied on the NWO to help retain the title. But his face persona? Yeah.

Good stuff. Love the series.

Just watched the JJ Dillon NWA 1988 A few days ago, pretty solid

Good work as always. Crazy that the biggest turn ever was planned partly to be done in a place with high concession sales and numerous surrounding bars. Makes a little sense though I guess.

Seems like a fairly fun shoot to me, will have to track it down. Good job as always sir.

Man, imagine if WCW had acquired Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart, and the British Bulldog in 1996. That would've really put Vince in a hole and I don't know what he would've done with a depleted roster that had the Undertaker, Yokozuna, Goldust, Owen Hart, "The Ringmaster", and Triple H. It would've opened up spots for lots of guys, but it would've created so much of a void that I don't think they would've been able to sell tickets in the smallest arenas or get many pay-per-views with that lineup. I guess Ahmed Johnson would've gotten the superman push to end all pushes.

Yeah I'm betting in hindsight Vince is glad he didn't have to rely on Ahmed as a main eventer.

WWF losing Shawn and Bret in mid to late 1996 does lead to many fascinating fantasy booking scenarios. Without Bret, Austin might have had a more difficult time with his Stone Cold character for one. Vader probably would have gotten a monster push as champ. And would Vince have put more of an effort to keep Warrior around?

I'm not sure WWF would've lost both Shawn AND Bret since I suspect if HBK had left, Bret would've stayed since he would've been rid of the Kliq (except for HHH, who would've been buried through the floor or even just released to join his pals in WCW since he meant nothing at that point).

How could WCW offer Shawn a contract in May 1996 anyway? Surely Vince wasn't dumb enough to have given Michaels the world title when he had a contract coming due, right?

Wasn't Sullivan one of the main antagonists of the whole Radicalz deal back in '99? I can't imagine that did his rep any good.

Yeah, and since they were beloved as good workers, Sullivan was made out to be a HUUUUUUUUGE villain on the internet. I mean, I don't think it was until the Benoit murders that anyone was willing to cut him any slack- quite a few in the business have bad things to say about him.

sullivan was know as atough no nonsense guy but he is also very brilliant as a booke ror writer mcmahon could sure use him instead of these movie and comic book dweebs like gerwitz

All I seem to remember is he was pushing for Benoit to get the title.

I have the Cornette YouShoot and the 1997 WWF Timeline that I can review in the future.

The '97 Timeline shoot is pretty good, but I felt that they didn't go as in-depth as they could have. Cornette had his entire booking notes for that period and barely touched them.

It was good but the rants about Russo get old quick

Hell, I didn't know Marc Mero was white until he had the boxer gimmick.

The hair was a dead give away,

Yeah, I think I always assumed he was black. I didn't even see the Little Richard stuff- he was just so DARK that I assumed he was a black guy. Keep in mind I was like 13 and lived in Central Alberta, Land of Few Blacks.

The only reason people would be interested in this is to hear Sullivan talk about Benoit, yet he barely mentions it?

Fuck this shoot.

This is a timeline shoot, so it would be about the entire year, not just Benoit. If it was just a shoot with Kevin Sullivan, then the Benoit questions should be asked.

Then they would have limited all of their discussion to 1996. But that was clearly not the case.

That was because Sullivan constantly went off track. If the intervierwer was stronger, he could have reigned him in but he is not.

"He is then asked about Elizabeth
turning on Savage an aligning with Flair. He says that it might have
been Hogan’s idea, as he and his wife were trying to get them back
together in real life."......so Hogan wanted Mach and Liz back together so he suggested they split up? Guess you shouldn't take relationship advice from someone who oggles his daughter

if hogan diid that its because he was guilty that he helped break up savage and liz the first time

Just commenting on Sullivan's version of the angle. Plus, now that I think about it, wasn't Liz with Flair at the time and jumped to NWO with Savage? That would make more sense than how Sullivan presented it

She joined Flair and Savage was doing the insane gimmick because of it. It was dropped when Savage went after the nWo. Liz was with Flair, then suddenly she ran out to save Savage from an nWo beat-down. I can't remember if she was a captive of the nWo for a few months and then Savage joined or she was Savage's reward for joining.

I'm guessing he was thinking at some point, in storyline, Liz and Savage would get back togehter and that would somehow ignite a real-life spark between the two.

Plus if they're working an angle together they could travel together.

Good point.

I liked this shoot and thought Sullivan come across as a good guy.

The analogies were a little much, though. Especially the ones involving US sports, they absolutely baffle me.

How does he not talk about his bathroom brawl with Benoit in June of that year? Guess he or the interviewer weren't comfortable bringing him up?

OK they do bring him up later but it's clearly awkward and they change topics.

That actually was brought up and all he said was that it was a match of the year candidate. He did not appear to want to discuss Benoit at all, which is perfectly understandable.

Only read the first two paragraphs and based off those, Sullivan is full of shit. I hate shoot interviews when the wrestler retroactively claims he knew what was going to happen.

Well he was the head booker..

I think he means how he basically goes "oh all that stuff that happened I TOTALLY PREDICTED" regarding stuff like Jericho becoming a star, the results-giving-away being a stupid idea, etc.

Yes.