EdwardKnoxII

Various WWE Tidbits Which baseball player wants to pull an Anti-Lesnar and go to WWE? In a funny note from the Bakersfield show on Sunday, a lot of the guys were laughing at Teddy Long. The Smackdown General Manager did a promo and when he went for the cheap hometown pop, he said the wrong name of the town. Major League Baseball's website has an article online where Cincinnati Reds' 1B Sean Casey said that his dream career would be "a WWF wrestler." He added, "I've always liked wrestling. I don't think I could do it because I think the pounding they take would be a little bit too much, but if I could guarantee I wouldn't get hurt or anything, I'd be a pro wrestler." To read the article, click here. http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/news/mlb...field&fext=.jsp The Associated Press ran an article yesterday covering WWE's latest Tough Enough contest. It said that the contest will start in October and run through December. Credit: Dave Scherer, PWInsider.com

Off-Air Notes From RAW Report of what we did and didn't see on TV Doors were ready to open at 3:45 which was a bit surprising (for the West Coast shows, the call time here is 5:30), but the Arrowhead Pond personnel decided it'd be funny to tease letting us in from 3:45 until 4:45, so there they stood ready to open, but not actually doing it. They've touched up the "Desire" video with Kid Rock's song. It now has Randy Orton instead of Brock Lesnar, when they show shots of the champions. Also, Trish Stratus kissing Christian at WrestleMania, and Kane unmasking (just to name a few out of the many) have been added to the package. WWE was handing WrestleMania 21 cards to everyone. You can pre-order tickets before they go on sale by going to http://www.wrestlemania.com/presale.html. I'm not sure if that piece of news has been made public or not. Heat/Dark Matches: For whatever reason, Todd Grisham took over for Coach as play-by-play. I thought they'd do an injury angle with Coach on RAW, but I don't think the Rock beating would count at all. Al Snow got a good pop. Rodney Mack w/ Jazz defeated Maven, after a roll-up that looked ugly since they were in the corner of the ring, and were both tangled into the ropes. Chris Benoit (you read that right) defeated Tyson Tomko w/ Trish Stratus via submission, after six German suplexes, and a crossface. Chuck Palumbo defeated a Jobber who was dubbed from "Anaheim, CA." Lillian Garcia was looking very hot. She did a tremendous job with the anthem, as usual. A lot of people (and I mean a lot) came in late, but by the end of hour one, the Arrowhead Pond was pretty full. Method Man is in attendance, and the "Wu Tang" chants began here. Coach came out and jumped perfectly on the second rope of each corner to "salute" the crowd. He was great at his gimmick. He got very good heat. About 50% of the crowd knew The Rock would be appearing on RAW. Those who had come very early (like myself), saw him arrive and salute the fans, and others found out from those who were there. The building went insane when his music hit. La Resistance just laid there and left to the back once the segment was over, while Rock came back after leaving the ring with Rhyno and Tajiri, to salute the crowd (and Meth), then left again. The Evolution segment was horrible, since nobody really was able to hear what they were saying. There was a large chorus of boos towards Triple H when he first popped on the screen. Edge and Jericho didn't really get over with the fans in my section, but the rest of the arena seemed to be into it. Jericho cut a promo during the second commercial break... well, sort of. To fill time, he got on the mic and he cut his "never, ever again" line while telling "Edgeword" that he'll get an ass beating. NOBODY knew why Edge was disqualified until the repeat was shown on the Titantron. That had to be a horrible finish. Because of the confusion, Edge got a pop. The people who booed Triple H, and dis him on the Internet week after week on the mark sites, brought the house down when his music hit with a chorus of cheers. In the middle of Edge vs. Jericho, several security guards in my section (I was in a seat next to the stairway) were setting up for something. Obviously a run-in, or a "run-out" was to be done and we later found out it was for... Orton walked out through the crowd and I believe I made it on TV there, since I was a foot away from him. He looks tremendous in person, but much shorter than he looks on TV! His acting skills are ones to praise, as he didn't even care there was people touching him and screaming at him while he was holding that belt. Eugene quickly stole the spotlight during the commercial break before the Regal/Flair match. He walked around the ring area, saluted friends, did TONS of comedy spots with Regal, walked out to J.R. and Lawler, tried on J.R.'s hat, then Lawler's crown, walked back to the ring with Regal, got a sign that was cut in the form of a Pac Man, and chased Regal with it until Regal submitted to it. It was absolutely hilarious. He then hugged the referee, tapped Lillian, and hugged/saluted some members of the audience. The HBK commercial spot got a huge chorus of boos, as everyone thought he'd be returning tonight. However, the pop at first was huge too, because we thought he was indeed in attendance. The whole process of changing the ring for the wedding began. They moved very quick, and did a fantastic job timing-wise. This was all happening while shots of the arena, the backstage Lita segment, SmackDown Rebound, and Diva Search voting segment aired. I saw this on TV, and I don't know if it was the Pond's bad sound issues, or WWE editing something LIVE (so doubtful, it's impossible), but Kane got a HUGE laugh when he was shown backstage in his tux, walking down for the wedding. The video package they aired (which had no audio from the arena, of course) got big laughs as well. People actually seemed to enjoy the wedding at some parts, until the "What?" chants started. The Midgets and the one actor WWE has hired who did a good job, came in before Kane. That "Wall" (I guess that's what you'd call it) of fire that Matt and Lita had in front of them, was being started while Matt jumped Kane. You could see a tiny flame coming out of the stage. At first we thought, something was on fire, until the tiny flames exploded. Nothing of importance happened after the show went off the air. They wheeled Matt Hardy out on a stretcher, and Lillian thanked us for coming. Overall, good show if you saw it Live, but probably horrible for most at home, since most of what went down wasn't exactly good if you stop to think about it and ignore the fact you were there in person. The Rock is amazing, and he truly does seem to enjoy himself every time he does WWE. Eddie TheBalrogsLair.com Credit: PWInsider.com More Live Notes From RAW More on what happened after the show went off the air Reader Michael LeBlanc posted the following report of what happened on RAW: I was at Raw in Anaheim tonight and thought I would share some brief notes. I sat about nine rows back from the guard rail on the side opposite the TitanTron. I believe Method Man was a celebrity guest, and sat in the front row about thirty feet to my left. The building looked to be approximately 95% sold out, with only the entire upper section on the hard camera side tarped off. The Heat matches saw Rodney Mack (with Jazz) defeat Maven in a pretty decent match. Chuck Palumbo defeated a local Anaheim worker in your typical squash match, and Benoit defeated Tyson Tomko (with Trish). This last match featured the finish of Benoit getting six consecutive belly-to-back suplexes (after previously giving him three more) followed by the Crossface. They air-gunned out Unforgiven t-shirts after the Palumbo match, Lillian sang the National Anthem in her usual great voice, then Raw began! Nothing particularly interesting happened during the commercial breaks, except Jericho insulted and called out Edge during the second break during their match. The ref gave Edge to the count of ten to get back to the ring (or forfeit the belt), and he made it by about five. Eugene goofed off more both in the ring and on the outside with fans during that break, and also went back to the broadcast table and hugged JR and King, and even took King's crown and wore it! There was a fan sitting directly behind me that was insulting Flair and Regal all throughout their match. Some of it was funny, but after the first two minutes it got to be very disrespectful (in my opinion). The crowd chanted both "Boring" and "What" during the wedding, which kind of sums up their attitude towards this angle. After Raw went off the air, they showed Matt getting medical aid on the TitanTron. Credit: Michael LeBlanc/Buck Woodward, PWInsider.com

Former Killer Bee Running For Office, Scott Hall And Kevin Nash Updates First Jesse Ventura, now this... The Tampa Tribune has an article about former WWF wrestler B. Brian Blair (the former Killer Bee) running for public office down in Florida. Blair has run for public office in the past and is very committed to his community. The entire article is available here. http://news.tbo.com/news/MGB4QSDX7YD.html Hulk Hogan and Brooke Hogan will be making an appearance on the 2004 MTV Video Music Awards on Sunday, August 29th at 9PM. The Rock may also be appearing on the show although at this point he has not been confirmed as being there. "The Steel Cage" on WBZZ 1010 AM had calls from Scott Hall and Kevin Nash (separately) yesterday. Hall was on to discuss how the rumors of his death/incapacitation have been greatly exaggerated but that like several other members of his family he suffers from heart disease and a seizure disorder. Nash was on to plug "The Longest Yard." Credit: Dave Scherer, PWInsider.com

So does this mean Vince is going to do a "Who Shot JBL?" angle soon?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5769796/?GT1=4529 Contentious overtime overhaul to start Business groups, unions debate impact of new pay rulesThe Associated Press Updated: 9:22 a.m. ET Aug. 20, 2004 WASHINGTON - In an unprecedented overhaul of the nation's overtime pay rules, the Bush administration is delivering to its business allies an election-year plum they've sought for decades. The new rules take effect Monday after surviving many efforts by Democrats, labor unions and worker advocates to block them in Congress and kill them through public and political pressure. The Labor Department says as many as 107,000 workers could lose overtime eligibility under its new rules, but about 1.3 million will gain it. The Economic Policy Institute, a liberal Washington think tank, says 6 million will lose, and only a few will get new rights to premium pay for working more than 40 hours a week. But no one really knows. That makes the issue harder to demonize politically, a benefit _ or a problem _ depending on the side you take. "I do not see any kind of rush by employers to take away overtime rights," said Bill Schurgin, a labor attorney for the Seyfarth Shaw law firm in Chicago, who represents employers preparing for Monday's change. Critics claim that 6 million workers will lose eligibility is "a red herring." Regardless, "nobody should get their overtime pay taken away," said Karen Nussbaum, executive director of Working America, an AFL-CIO organization created for workers unable to join unions. About 115 million workers are covered by the overtime rules in the 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act. Monday's change is the culmination of decades of lobbying by business groups representing retailers, restaurants, insurance companies, banks and others that have been hammered by workers' overtime lawsuits, many of them successful. Wal-Mart is facing dozens of worker lawsuits claiming they were cheated out of overtime and worked off the clock. An appeals court upheld a $90 million verdict against Farmers Insurance Exchange, sued for overtime by claims adjusters. Other companies that have made multimillion-dollar payouts include Starbucks, Radio Shack, Rite Aid and Bank of America. Labor Secretary Elaine Chao told Congress the new rules would help stop "needless litigation" because it is designed to clarify who's entitled to overtime. She and department officials are traveling the country touting to employers, human resources officials and friendly labor unions what now is called the Fair Pay initiative. "As the new rules become effective, people will come to see that they do exactly what we've said they will do, which is provide a stronger and clearer overtime guarantee for more working Americans," said Deputy Labor Secretary Steven Law. He noted that a judge last month ruled in favor of Geico insurance claims adjusters, citing the pending new rules. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, who led the Senate fight to block the regulations, questioned the Bush administration's motives. "Let's face it, some of their major supporters in industries covered in here want this change," he said. The rules could be politically dangerous in an election year when the weak jobs market is a big concern for voters. "There is a risk _ we are in high season," said Rich Bond, political strategist and a former Republican National Committee chairman. "Every word at this point will be parsed, for good or bad." After an uproar from Democrats and labor leaders about the initial proposal and unsuccessful attempts in Congress, with the help of moderate Republicans, to block the final plan, the rules were revised. The Fair Pay title was added and estimates of the number of workers affected were trimmed. "It's absolutely true that it's been much more of a political issue than it should have been," said Michael Eastman, U.S. Chamber of Commerce's labor law policy director. "It's been on the regulatory agenda since the Carter administration. It shouldn't be this controversial." The critics were heard. Gone from the rules are estimates on workers who might lose overtime based on changes to the duties tests, which describe the tasks that entitle a worker to overtime. The draft had said 1.5 million to 2.7 million workers "will be more readily identified as exempt." The new analysis says: "It is impossible to quantitatively estimate the number of exempt workers." Language was removed suggesting employers could avoid extra overtime costs by cutting the hourly wages of newly eligible workers and adding back the overtime to equal the original salary. Sections were added to make clear that police, firefighters and other public safety officers are not exempt from overtime, regardless of rank or pay level. But labor officials say middle- and upper-ranking officers such as lieutenants still could lose overtime. Union workers covered by contracts will not be affected by the change, though labor leaders argue that unions will face tougher negotiations when their contracts expire because of the new rules. The rules address jobs that are targets of lawsuits, spelling out what duties would exempt them from overtime. They include pharmacists, funeral directors, embalmers, journalists, claims adjusters, dental hygienists and chefs. "We wanted clarity and we wanted reduced litigation," Eastman said. "Business was willing to accept some potentially increased labor costs in order to get it." Copyright 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

From the reports sounds like Joanie wasn't "just" there. She want there with the sole purpose of starting some shit with HHH and Waltman. Damn that bitch is just trying anything to get some spotlight now.

WWE News: HHH Takes X-Pac to Rehab And Meets Chyna, Hurricane Update, Fozzy Show A DX reunion at rehab... Sean "X Pac" Waltman was put into rehab with the help of Vince McMahon and Triple H. Joanie "Chyna" Laurer, Waltman's on and off again girlfriend, was even very vocal in recent interviews talking about it. Triple H personally went to pick up Pac and take him to rehab. When he did so, he ran into Laurer (his ex-girlfriend as well), who according to sources tried to goad him into a fight by hurling insults at him. Triple H ignored her and largely blew her off. Shane "Hurricane" Helms updated fans on his condition following the nose surgery that he underwent. He posted the following message on his website: "Shane is back in the gym working out. His nose is healing well but has not healed enough at this time for him to get back into the ring." Chris Jericho's band Fozzy will be playing at the House of Blues in Anaheim after the Raw taping at the Pond at 8:00 pm. Credit: Dave Scherer, PWInsider.com

WWE Breaks Their Own Rule: Wrestler To Appear On RAW & Smackdown OVW Talent gets the "honor" This weekend a wrestler will do break the WWE's own rule of keeping the brand extension separate and wrestle on both a Smackdown brand and Raw brand television program. Wavell Starr, a Canadian independent worker who has wrestled in Ohio Valley Wrestling (and used the name 'Standing Thunder') is the man who will do it. Starr will appear on both Velocity (a Smackdown show) and Heat (a Raw show) this weekend. According to the official Velocity preview on WWE.com "Mark Jindrak will take on Wavell Starr" and on the Heat preview it states "Tough Enough Champion Maven will be in action." Maven fought Starr at the last Heat taping. It will be interesting to see if WWE gives Wavell a different name for his Heat appearance, or if they actually acknowledge that he is wrestling for "both brands." It is not expected that many casual fans will notice. While it isn't unusual for wrestlers to appear on Raw and Smackdown cards in dark matches the same week, it is very rare for them to appear in television matches on separate brands that will air the same weekend. Credit: Buck Woodward, PWInsider.com

Yeah I think you're right. Sorry.

Yeah I kind of know who she was. I've seen a few of her moves late at night on HBO zone. Know the face now I know the name.

From what's been reported the wrestlers pay for they own flight but, if you're a main eventer the WWE pays for your flight in 1st class. Which is why they got piss that Billy Silverman got first class tickets never mind the fact he paid for them himself. But, then X-Pac was always flying in 1st class around that time to and lord knows he was anything but, a main eventer at the time.

This is from her website TessBroussard.net: To all of my supporters, I give to you my sincerest thanks for the love that I have been shown throughout my career, and especially during this difficult time. I am certain that the truth of this unfortunate situation will be revealed and you will find your trust in me to be well-placed. Thanks again for your concern and support. Sincerely, Tess Broussard

For those of you that get Inside Edition they'll be talking about this on there today. For me it's coming on in about ten minutes (at 4:30pm).

Yeah you're right. During the TE casting call when they were interviewing the people one of the guys, not Nowinski, had went to wrestling school. And Tazz flat out asked the guy if he would have a problem with TE reprograming him so to speak. And yes Nowinski did go to wrestling school. He was trained by Killer Kweilsil (sp?) the same wrestler that trained HHH and Chyna. During one of the eps Nowinski was showing some of the people how to do a move. Torri got mad and told him that's not how they do moves they do moves the WWF way.

Damn you. You forgot to blur out the logo.

Eddie Guerrero Gets Angry At House Show Fans Interesting note from last night's tapings Pat Harris who was at the Hamilton Smackdown tapings last night has an interesting report of what happened with Eddie Guerrero. He writes: During the Guerrero interview at last night's Smackdown tapings, Eddie was getting some jeers from a couple young kids a few seats down (may have been Chimmel's fans). Nothing too offensive, just typical "You Suck Eddie" etc. After the interview Eddie eyed them down and held the ropes open for them to enter the ring. After the main event, Eddie was getting my ringside jeers (again, nothing terribly offensive) and he came over to those young kids again and started saying things like "who wants to be a man?" almost overly aggressive and challenging someone to try something. I have to say I was a little disappointed in that. I admire Eddie's ability in the ring immensely, but I thought that was a little low. If we were a heel, I'd probably rationalize it as a heel tactic; however, he is a face and a very over one at that. Eddie by the way I want to be a man and I know a man wouldn't let something so insignificant phase him. I originally had 12th row floor, but when my friend and I asked where our seats were we were informed that we had been relocated... to the front row. So this definitely made things that much better. Heidenreich just doesn't seem to have much ring psychology yet. It's too bad they're bringing him back to TV so soon. At one point these guys had a huge banner with Heindenreich's name in red on it. They moved behind Michael Cole and Tazz as the camera was on the announcers. I wonder if these guys were plants. The diva t-shirt bazooka wasn't working quite well. Torrie walked over and told/asked this younger 16ish girl behind us to put it on. I don't know if she meant for her to take off the top she was already wearing to put the new one on, but she did. Ring announcer Tony Chimmel had his own fan club with two young males who constantly professed their love for him. Credit: Wade Keller, PWTorch.com

WWE News: HBK's Return, Eugene, RAW, More HBK vs. Kane announced, RAW not rewritten, and more.... - WWE has announced that Shawn Michaels will wrestle Kane at their September 17th show in Bossier City, LA. The show is being billed as a "Salute to the Legends of Mid-South Wrestling." Chris Benoit vs. Randy Orton is scheduled to headline the show. - Despite not being mentioned on RAW last night, WWE has no plans to drop the Eugene character. Eugene was not included on RAW last night because WWE wanted the focus to be on the Triple H/Randy Orton angle and figured Eugene would take away from it. - RAW was not rewritten following Summerslam due to the surprising crowd reactions at the PPV. WWE fully planned to turn Randy Orton face. WWE also had wanted the Triple H turn against Orton to be a shock, not something built up slowly. - Many Smackdown wrestlers have already violated WWE's new dress code. The company plans to start handing out fines soon if wrestlers continue to ignore the policy. Credit: 1wrestling.com; PWTorch.com

WWE Pays Out Millions In Salary & Wants To Reach Out To Internet Fans The details from the latest stock report are now available WWE stockholders received their Annual Report yesterday and here are the highlights. While usually WWE Annual Reports are very nice-looking and professional, this year they have been toned down. The cover features 3 small pictures of John Cena, Chris Jericho, and Rey Mysterio, Jr. "reaching" for the ropes as he's trapped in a leg submission by Chavo Guerrero, Jr. The word "REACH" is written in big letters horizontally and vertically. The back cover says "WWE Reach". The first 3 pages of the Report are full-color and have several pictures, most notably of Chris Benoit and Eddy Guerrero celebrating in the ring together. These are from Wrestlemania XX. The last page has a black & white photo of Triple H. Every other year, the entire Report was full-color and glossy, so WWE is definitely cutting back on expenses this year. Linda McMahon wrote the "Letter To The Shareholders". She's happy with WWE's international expansion. She called WM XX a "staggering success", garnering 885,000 PPV buys and making the company more than $20 million from PPV revenue alone. She said PPV buys in general exceeded expectations for the fiscal year. She liked the buy rates for the Raw- and SD!-only PPVs and said that was an indication of the success of the brand extension and the reason why WWE will be introducing two new PPVs next year. She said TV ratings have stabilized and talked about the key demos Raw and SD! excel in. She said WWE has begun to capitalize on the demand for "classic" programming and talked about WWE owning the rights to WCW, ECW, and AWA footage and put over WWE 24/7. Hilariously, after years of putting down Internet fans, Linda said that she realizes that WWE fans are "early adapters" who "love" the Internet, which is why they're going to make WWE.com more interactive in the future. She also put over the sales of WWE video games and albums, the "Smackdown! Your Vote" campaign, the "Smackdown! From Baghdad" episode, and the new "WWE Experience" show. She wrapped it up by saying how great 2004 was and how they will have continued success in 2005. The shareholders' meeting will be held on September 23 at the Weston Hotel in Stamford, CT. Obviously, only shareholders are invited. The 3 issues that will be voted on are: 1. To elect 8 members to the Board of Directors (Vince, Linda, Robert Bowman, David Kenin, Joseph Perkins, Michael Solomon, Lowell Weicker, and Phillip Livingston). 2. To appoint Deloitte & Touche WWE's independent auditors. 3. To approve a stock option exchange, which would require a long and boring explanation that no one would be interested in. Here are some salaries for fiscal year 2004: Vince: $1,085,000 with a $1,085,000 bonus Linda: $750,000 with a $750,000 bonus Kevin Dunn: $517,692 with a $300,000 bonus Vince owns 98.8% of the Class B common stock. Here's everyone's favorite part: the lawsuits! 1. The World Wide Fund for Nature case is discussed in detail. 2. A company called Shenker & Associates filed a complaint relating to the unlawful termination of an agency agreement (a company that did merchandise sales for WWE). 3. Marvel filed a complaint against WWE and Universal Wrestling Corp. (formerly WCW), but not because of Hulk Hogan. They're alleging that WWE breached the terms of a license agreement regarding the rights to manufacture and distribute WCW action figures. The case was dismissed but is being appealed. 4. A class action suit against WWE was filed with regards to their alleged violations of SEC laws relating to their IPO. A settlement has been reached. There's lots of other numbers to digest, but those are the main points. Credit: Steven Rossi & Dave Scherer, PWInsider.com

McMahon Says No Time Off, Randy Orton Makes Headlines McMahon also comments on the weird Toronto Summerslam Crowd Sources in WWE are saying that last night's crowd is being seen as nothing more than a vocal minority of fans and nothing to cause them to change course on any storylines (even with the impending Edge heel turn). Of greater concern is the drop in ratings for both Raw and Smackdown last week. Vince McMahon told wrestlers are a recent meeting that he expects all of them to make every show they're scheduled for and not ask for any time off for a while because they all have to work hard to turn business around. WWE has put a scan of the cover of yesterday's Toronto Sun on their main page showing Randy Orton as the victor last night holding up the World Title belt. Credit: Wade Keller, PWTorch.com

Well to be fair everytime they push A-Train it's a half assed push most of the time and they don't give him enough time to get over and then they just drop him back to the lower mid-card. And then they keep repeating it for the last few years. And when they keep doing that to a wrestler the fans get tired of it and just don't give a damn about the wrestler.

Well knowing Vince next week in the middle of the ring Vince will anal rape a panda while yelling out "Take that you bitch for making me change the name."

And the thing is I've never heard the World Wildlife Fund go by the WWF initials. They just went by the whole name while the fed has gone by WWF. So, like everyone else, I never saw what the big deal was.

Damn Broussard sounds like a crazy bitch.