From the Archives: 1 1997 WWF Riot at House Show

I thought i'd do something from time to tome.. and dig up little known stuff in wrestling history and provide some info on it.

today is the first effort i'm making with that idea... this is about a real life riot that happened at a wwf house show in late 1997 in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Most of this subject will be brought to you via archived wrestling observers from the time period written by Dave Meltzer.

honestly with this topic i had no idea a major riot had happened with wwf in 1997 i first heard about this about two years ago.

anyways hope you guys find this entertaining.

And yet a third problem, which may at least for the time being be the most serious of all, occurred both at house shows on 12/14 in Memphis and 12/15 in Little Rock, when, due to actions and decisions that appeared at least to people at the show to be by Michaels, the main event didn't take place at either show, resulting in a near riot in Memphis and a full-blown riot in Little Rock. In Memphis, the scheduled main event of Jerry Lawler & Jeff Jarrett vs. Michaels & Helmsley never took place. Before a crowd of 5,078 fans at the Pyramid, Michaels, came out for his once per week scheduled arena match and was met with so much garbage thrown his way that he simply refused to wrestle and the show ended without the match ever taking place. As it was described to us, the show itself was poor and the crowd, many of whom had been drinking heavily, were getting unruly even before the main event. Michaels was hit with a few cokes, and a large wad of tobacco juice nailed Helmsley in the face, at which point Michaels grabbed the house mic and said,"Well, that just cost you your main event," and walked out of the ring with Helmsley and Chyna. When the crowd realized what had happened, they got even more unruly. There was an attempt by Dude Love, who was at the event but couldn't wrestle due to fractured ribs, to get the crowd to chant "HBK" to get Michaels to change his mind and wrestle but he refused to come back out. Finally Lawler tried to apologize to the crowd, but the crowd pelted the home town hero with debris after chanting for Lawler and Jarrett to wrestle each other and Lawler responding by saying that since he didn't have a contract to wrestle Jarrett that match "couldn't" take place. That combined with no refunds being offered when some fans began demanding them at the box office made the mood of the fans even worse with the general feeling leaving the building among many fans according to our reports is the WWF had killed the city for themselves and fans swearing that they'd stick with WCW. Of course with the big promotions running so infrequently in specific markets, usually the fans forget a bad show by the time the next show comes to town. However, WBII, the Memphis area television station that broadcasts the syndicated show in the market, received more than 130 complaining phone calls from fans that attended the house show by early the next morning due to the main event fiasco, and in addition that morning, another group of fans who attended the show were picketing the television station from the start of business until noon, claiming to be in protest against the tactics of the WWF. Based on the report we had of the incident, the fans actions could not be blamed strictly or even largely on Michaels inciting them as much as a few fans being drunk and out of control. However, this situation came close to happening in other cities where Michaels' gimmick is to incite the audience into throwing things at him, including in at least a one recent case by saying things like he's heard the fans in (insert city) have terrible aim, thereby making himself the target for every object every idiot has nearby. It was Michaels who decided to walk out when the fans were so unruly. The WWF backed Michaels up in Memphis claiming WWF officials were the ones who decided to end the show early for the safety of all concerned, although that decision actually made the arena even more unsafe because it only made the fans behavior worse. They blamed the problem on local security that didn't search fans as they entered the arena as they routinely had done for other wrestling events in the city, and that allowed fans to bring bottles of alcohol into the building with them resulting in several drunk and unruly fans who had empty bottles in their possession. The reports the WWF received from the agents on the road were the fans were throwing empty bottles, and there were internet reports saying Michaels was hit with a bottle or with flying ice, although several live sources have denied Michaels was hit with either a bottle or ice. The throwing of things began to get out of hand in the previous match between Shamrock and Phineas Godwinn, with Henry Godwinns' antics at ringside starting fans in the mood to pelt the ring, and when Michaels and Helmsley came out for their main event, they might as well had painted bullseyes on their faces.

Little Rock was even worse. According to several reports, the undercard for the show at the Barton Coliseum was terrible and even the densest marks were getting restless about the poor quality of the matches, in particular a terrible match with Kane vs. Chainz and an Undertaker vs. Rocky Maivia casket match that only lasted two minutes due to Undertaker being injured and having high blood pressure. In addition, fans were upset because the card that was taking place was completely different than the line-up that was advertised with no explanations given. The scheduled main event was to be Shamrock, with Danny Hodge, one of the greatest real wrestlers who ever lived and was also the top pro wrestler in the area during the 60s and 70s as the perennial NWA world junior heavyweight champion, as his manager for one night only, against Helmsley, with Michaels in his corner, which drew 6,449 fans. We're not clear if that was going to happen as we received a report that Helmsley was going to face Dude Love in the main event, although that may not have been correct since Dude has fractured ribs and was supposed to only make appearances and not wrestle this week. Since fans had no idea what was going to take place because everything had been changed, my impression is that the show was stopped when Michaels and the rest of DX walked out, and that neither Shamrock nor Hodge actually came out for the main event match before the show ended. Michaels and Helmsley came to the ring and began riling up the crowd that was already mad about the poor undercard. Naturally they became target practice again, and when a piece of paper hit Michaels, he told the crowd that they had just lost their main event and walked out with Helmsley and Chyna. Fans, thinking it was just part of the act, didn't react right away. After several minutes, DX failed to come back in the ring, no opponent for Helmsley appeared, and the ring announcer said that they had refused to come out and the show was over. At this point, a real riot started, with chairs and whiskey bottles being thrown everywhere including at police trying to get the crowd out of the building. The situation got so bad that the police had to spray the building with tear gas to get the fans outside. Several fans tried to get refunds and were unsuccessful and at that point a second riot took place in the parking lot before the police broke it up. At least one fan was rushed to the hospital but there didn't appear to be any serious injuries to fans either night. This incident was so out of hand it was reported on the news later that night with at least one report giving the impression that the WWF wouldn't be allowed back in the city although with this all happening at deadline it is really too soon to figure out how this is going to unfold locally. The reports from this event live pointed the finger directly at Michaels for the problem starting, although the behavior of the fans was the actual real problem but unlike in Memphis, the real problems didn't occur until the fans realized that they weren't going to see the main event and that DX walking out wasn't simply part of the show to get heat.

Crowds pelting Michaels with garbage have become commonplace since he made his latest heel turn, but these were the first situations where a show ended abruptly and a main event never took place, although situations beforehand with Michaels and at some WCW house shows on the West Coast a few months ago threatened to get to this level and ECW was having fan problems on almost a regular basis of late and came close on a few occasions from nearly having a show stopped on them before the main event.

The actions of the wrestlers have encouraged fans throwing objects so even though it is a minority of fans, some if not most drunk and engaged in mob mentality, that are ruining things and making conditions dangerous for the rest of the fans and the wrestlers. The fact is Michaels' act encourages it, and in Little Rock, basically caused the riot by walking out. Supposedly the difference between a professional top heel is they can rile the crowd up to a certain point, but calm them down before things get out of control. That fine line is easier to write about than totally control, but if the WWF hasn't gotten the message that the DX act at least on the road shows needs to be toned down, then whatever happens is being asked for at this point because Memphis was a warning. Actually there were many warnings before Memphis that clearly have been ignored by the WWF. Little Rock was no longer a warning. Little Rock was caused by ignoring warnings.

Hopefully 12/15 can be a wake up call for both WWF and WCW, because on the live Nitro that night in Charlotte, about a half-dozen fans at different points in the show hopped the guard rail and security was having a field day trying to stop them before hitting the ring, and at least three made it into the ring, one stomped on by Randy Savage, another pulled out by security and another snatched by ref Randy Anderson. It was described as the single most unruly crowd in the history of Charlotte wrestling, blamed in some part by being a three hour show with fans drinking for the entire three hours and lots of incidents of fans throwing things at the wrestlers. As mentioned before, some day the drunk fan or fan looking to impress his friends on television isn't going to be smaller than Randy Anderson and the situation is going to get worse than it already has. In Charlotte, the main angle to end the show was totally botched up because so many fans were hitting the ring, ruining the built-up climax to the show. WCW only has itself to blame. After the idiotic angle they ran to glorify fans hitting the ring at Havoc in Las Vegas, it was inevitable what would happen and the fiascos in both Charlotte and Little Rock on 12/15 were not isolated instances, but the result of fans reacting as the promotions on television have "educated" them to act. If they don't get "educated" differently, this industry is going to blow its current level success, not due to risque programming or gutless booking of talent that thinks it is above the business, but due to an unforeseen tragedy taking place at one of its live events.

WCW officials after the Charlotte event said that they were going to institute a policy similar to the NFL, NHL and many concert acts in that drinking will be banned after the mid-point of the show at all their arena events. In addition, they are going to beef up security at the shows.

And this is the finale from the following weeks newsletter that is also about incidents happening on WCW nitro that same night

After major problems screwed up shows over the past week in Charlotte, Memphis and Little Rock, it is apparent that changes have to be made given the current climate among wrestling fans and the direction of the promotions.

The World Wrestling Federation was forced into making a "damned if you do and damned if you don't" decision when crowds, apparently fueled by alcohol, became unruly throwing things at the wrestlers and creating a dangerous environment in both Memphis and Little Rock. The end damning result in both cities was the main event in each city being canceled, which in both cases made the crowds that much more upset and resulted in significant problems both nights among fans after the call to end the show. The other call, given the behavior of the crowd throwing things could have meant serious injury from an errant or on target bottle, to either fans at ringside or wrestlers in the ring, although the call that was made almost guaranteed fairly serious problems, just not to the wrestlers.

In Charlotte, WCW at a live Nitro had so many problems with fans hitting the ring while the lights were being turned off for the climactic angle of the show involving Sting, that the angle never made it to the ring and ended up being botched to the point that there was an audible voice, which may have been Eric Bischoff's, in the ring swearing over a live mic about the angle.

The problems wouldn't be front page news if they were isolated incidents, or if one could truly say that it wasn't the result of problems that have been festering not only in WWF and WCW, but also in ECW for more than the past year.

The wrestling audience has in many cases changed from being a family mainstream suburbia crowd, if it truly ever was that, to a crowd largely consisting of the old stereotype white trash fans from another era. The fact is, and don't let anyone fool you about this, this new direction is working. WCW and ECW are doing record business for those companies and WWF is the most profitable the company has been since its business took a nosedive in the wake on 1991-92 scandals. In November (see business comparisons), the WWF averaged 7,440 fans per show and over the month grossed $2.4 million in 20 house shows. That's the best month for business since we started keeping a monthly tab on things in 1992, and without question, the $123,455 per show average would be the best average over a one month period in the history of the promotion and rank just behind WCW's September mark of this year as the best month, money-wise on a per show basis, in the history of the business, which is in some sense a misleading statement because prices for tickets are higher than ever but nonetheless is hardly misleading in showing that the popularity of pro wrestling at this point is on the rise. Interest is the highest it has been since it lost semi-regular network television in this country nearly seven years ago. Merchandise is selling like never before, which shows the level of loyalties either to companies or to the top talent in that companies to be at a level that surpasses even the mid-80s peak period. While there are exceptions, generally the crowds at the arenas are hot. Everything should be great, but the direction that has made things hot is the same direction that has caused all the problems.

The current direction of wrestling, best exemplified by its coolest star in its universe, Steve Austin, is one of glorifying, among many things, defiance of authority. The crowds that go to see the top stars, whether they be Austin, Hulk Hogan, Kevin Nash & Scott Hall, Shawn Michaels or whomever else, are going to see their heroes that have been popularized in both companies by doing weekly anti-social behavior and getting away with it. No rules and no limits. Fans who rally behind those wrestling cultural symbols, whether they be young kids, or more violent prone older teens and early 20s males, are going to emulate that behavior.

And the problems aren't limited to the characterizations of the top stars. WCW glorified fans throwing things by capturing it on camera, starting with the Hulk Hogan turn in Daytona Beach. Fans at ringside, not to mention the NWO wrestlers, were getting hit by whatever fans had at their disposal to throw. Fans were taught, from television, as they always are and probably always will be, that the people who are important to pay attention to are the ones who get all the interview time, what holds are important and what holds aren't, and more importantly when it comes to these problems, that with your purchase price of a ticket to a pro wrestling event comes with it the right to use the heel wrestlers (that in many cases those same fans cheer for) as target practice at the end of the show. Not that in recent weeks the WWF, with Degeneration X basically copying the NWO gimmick and trying to take it to the next step, hasn't taken over in giving its audience that feeling. Both companies as well have glorified fans hitting the ring. Nitro is a live television show and it's no secret that it draws big ratings to the point that a lot of fans believe the most important result of the week is not the winner or loser of the PPV match on Sunday, but the result of the ratings on Monday. Any drunk punk who wants to impress his friends knows he can hit the ring on Nitro, and the worst that will happen to him is he might take a few worked punches from Hulk Hogan, or get snatched by a 150-pound referee, neither of which on television looks to be all that awful a fate for a story you can brag about to your friends for weeks. Both groups in recent months, WCW with the Vegas fan angle and WWF with the original Steve Blackman angle before Survivor Series, have glorified fans hitting the ring to attack heel wrestlers. ECW, which has actually had more crowd problems then both the other groups put together over the past year, took crowd participation one step farther by encouraging fans to bring weapons to hand to their favorite wrestlers to use in the matches. It is no wonder that in their trips into Smalltown Grungy suburbs of Philadelphia that local toughs would think a ticket to ECW wrestling enables them to bully fans and try to start a fight with the local scrub wrestlers who they believe to not really be big-time and don't respect as stars. The company is almost lucky situations haven't been worse, because there have been numerous situations where they came one step from being full-scale riots.

Which brings us to Little Rock. We have a lot more details on what took place on 12/15. It was a strange show, headlined by Ken Shamrock, with Danny Hodge in his corner, against Hunter Hearst Helmsley, with Michaels and Chyna in his. Earlier in the show they were going to do a special presentation to Hodge. For reasons that make absolutely no sense other than he simply wanted to do it and has the juice to do what he wants, Michaels asked to present the award to Hodge as the top star of the WWF today. Forgetting that Michaels as a heel has been on television every week and even though Hodge was probably the biggest wrestling star in the area at one point, it's been more than 20 years since he was regularly featured on television. And forget the storyline that they were on opposite sides in the main event later in the show and the presentation was planned, nor did it lead to an angle to heat up the main event, but simply something Michaels talked agent Jack Lanza into doing out of respect for Hodge and ignoring the storyline itself. Michaels felt his ability with words and to control the crowd would result in it being a dignified presentation. It ended up being target practice, which made everyone associated with the show that grew up watching Hodge totally embarrassed with the fans' treatment of the 65-year-old two-sport Hall of Famer. It probably did wonders for Michaels temperament for later in the show. As DX went out for the main event, it was more target practice. From later reports, we understand that Helmsley got something thrown that hit him in the eye hard enough that his eye started swelling badly. Chyna was also hit with something in either her back or her neck hard enough that she was hurt. Although Michaels didn't get nailed with anything worse than paper, when Helmsley got nailed, he took it upon himself to call off the show. Shamrock never even made an appearance. And Michaels never got to work his angle where he would put Hodge over, and where Hodge's participation would lead to Shamrock winning at the end. Problems were made worse when fans went to the box office demanding refunds since the main event never took place and basically the entire show was changed from what was advertised and by all accounts was a poor show. As detailed last week, a riot took place afterwards, first in the building, and then outside the building. At one point when leaving the arena, rowdy fans began pounding on the rental car driven by Charles Skaggs (Flash Funk) and Charles Wright (Kama Mustafa). They got out of their cars which nearly started an incident that would have benefitted nobody, but as it turned out, were talked by other wrestlers into getting back in and leaving the area. Michaels and company needed a police escort to get out of the parking lot. All in all there were about 13 arrests, mainly for misdemeanor alcohol charges including several who were underage, and another for disorderly conduct.

Historically in wrestling, situations with top heels carrying that kind of heat, or near riots aren't that unusual. In the past, they usually resulted from screw-job finishes rather than simply public appearances and it is so rare I couldn't even remember the last time it happened that a major league promotion canceled its main event because the crowd was so unruly, let alone it happening on two consecutive nights.

But I can remember seeing it every three weeks at the Cow Palace growing up with situations that could have gotten as bad as the worst situations of today, with trashier and more violent fans, some of whom were carrying knives which were regularly pulled out in the parking lot as fans argued leaving the arena. The difference seemed to be that the numbers of security in those days was much larger than today, and when there were even hints of problems, they reacted far more quickly and FAR more aggressively. I'm not sure if it's better for all concerned to see a hoard of security guards crack open the head of someone who threw a cup at the ring which was a routine occurrence at the Cow Palace in the 70s, but that usually quelled any problems when it came to people throwing things at wrestlers in a hurry. Fans never hit the ring in those days, because they were stopped and pounded on long before crossing the demilitarized zone. I'm not advocating security being as overly aggressive as it was in those days, but that did keep people in line at a time when the heel wrestlers aggravated fans to a greater degree than the heels of today usually do.

There is a problem. Hopefully this past week was just a series of weird coincidences resulting from a full moon, but deep down anyone who believes that is fooling themselves. Solutions aren't as easy.

Alcohol isn't the problem, but alcohol fuels the problem. I've been to numerous sports and entertainment events in this area where alcohol sales are cut off about halfway through the show. This won't eliminate problems, but at least might cut down on a percentage of them when fans are completely out of control after three straight hours of unbridled drinking. Fans hate to be searched at the door. It gives them the feeling going in that this isn't a safe environment to take their kids. But this also happens routinely at concerts and sporting events. In Memphis, WWF officials blamed fans not being searched, which had been routine policy at matches at the WCW matches at the Mid South Coliseum, which allowed them to smuggle bottles into the building that they later used for their target practice.

Problems cited by fans in both Memphis and Little Rock included fans becoming impatient and unruly due to poor action and bad matches. As wrestling gets more and more spectacular on television and PPV, the physical toll it takes makes it impossible for a regular house show to be of the quality fans are used to seeing weekly on television. In addition, fans in those cities grew up on a wilder style of wrestling and a tame house show after seeing all that wildness on television doesn't cut it. But that's a catch-22 that can't be answered. The injury rate in this business is already alarming. The idea that wrestlers should take the risks they do on PPV at the nightly house shows is unreasonable, especially when there are very few wrestlers in their early 20s in the major league promotions whose bodies can recover fast enough from that kind of punishment, even if the road schedule itself isn't anywhere near as taxing as it was during the "good old days."

So then we move to television. Do we change back to the 80s style of television where evil are slapstick villains that are made to look like fools by superheroes, standing in a chorus line taking bionic elbows or having their biggest moves not sold by babyfaces who then put them away like impotent refuse? That wouldn't play today, particularly with long-term contracts, little new talent being developed and little movement between two groups, so the idea of heels being fed to babyfaces and moved out for new heels just is no longer feasible. If the Steve Austins, NWOs and Shawn Michaels types weren't drawing money, you could say to lighten up the product. But they are, so that isn't the answer. However, once people pay their money at the arena show and are rowdy to the point things can be out of control, the wrestlers need to know to immediately tone the show down rather than antagonize the crowd and make it worse. If the crowd is already out of control, the monologue spots insulting the members of the audience can be dropped in favor of starting the wrestling match. But there are changes that should be implemented yesterday. If fans start throwing things, particularly at television tapings because that's where all the behavior is learned, it needs to be stopped before it's raining debris. Go to a commercial. Announce in the building the show will be stopped if the fans can't police themselves. I was at an ECW show in 1996 in New York where the fans were throwing more stuff that at nearly any Nitro and where it was bad enough that the commission wanted to stop the show which no doubt would have created New York's version of the Little Rock massacre. Paul Heyman got in the ring and told the fans that if they can't police themselves, the show is going to be over. The problem stopped immediately. If it doesn't stop and it's a live shoot, go to the talking heads, keep the stars out of the ring and keep the cameras away from the "action" until it's over. It'll make for boring television. Once. Sure, some fans will take it as empowering them to shut down a national broadcast, but those dozen fans will soon be discouraged by the 10,000 others whose neighbors aren't getting to see them hold up their posters with the cameras on. And it discourages it as being acceptable behavior. It won't stop it completely, because doing unacceptable behavior is what fans want their wrestling heroes of today to do so it's a catch-22 unless one changes the product to a product that would be less successful financially, and in a business like this, that isn't going to happen, particularly during a period where there is no company that has a true monopolistic hold. NEVER run angles where fans come out of the stands to be part of the show. Maybe when fans respect the product again. But not today when fans have no respect and see that as a license showing it's okay to follow. There are plenty of swerves to fool the marks that can be done without spots which encourage dangerous follow-ups by the audience.