November 15, 2004 Observer Newsletter: Randy Savage debuts at TNA Victory Road, WWE cuts, Kurt Angle/Daniel Puder incident
The first part of the most important week for the TNA promotion, the Victory Road PPV, was not a home run, but was a mild success amidst all kinds of late negotiations.
In the end, negotiations with Sting fell through, and a last minute deal was made with Randy Savage, 52, who has not appeared on a wrestling TV show in more than four years, to take his planned spot which was to be in the final scene on the PPV after Jeff Jarrett, Kevin Nash and Scott Hall were wreaking havoc on everyone. But that turned out to be a waste, when two days later, Savage quit the company, blaming it on Hulk Hogan and saying the company had an unsafe working environment.
It was clear the company’s direction has totally changed, from one to a company trying to use talent from the past that Vince McMahon doesn’t want, to garner interest. Besides the aforementioned trio, Diamond Dallas Page also debuted the 11/9 Impact tapings, and Jerry Jarrett tried at the last minute to get Hulk Hogan to make an appearance on the PPV.
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Dave Meltzer is the founder and lead writer on the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the weekly constant when it comes to news and reviews in pro wrestling and mixed martial arts for more than 40 years. Dave also co-hosts Wrestling Observer Radio with Bryan Alvarez and had had bylines for The National, Yahoo Sports, MMA Fighting and others.