Enigma

With WWE ready to roll out its WWE 24/7 television concept, perhaps its most valuable nostalgia commodity, Hulk Hogan, may have his matches tied up in a legal choke hold. Adding to the recent court case that Marvel Characters has filed against WWE, they've added a second case, against Terry Bollea, claiming trademark infringement and asking for $100,000. As noted before, in either 1984 or 1985, depending on which side you believe, the WWF and Marvel Entertainment Group had a 20-year agreement where the company would have the rights to use "Hulk" name under certain provisions. Those included paying Marvel royalties on Hogan appearances and merchandise. One of the provisions of the agreement was that WWF could no longer bill Hogan as, "The Incredible Hulk Hogan," the name he used in his first WWF run in 1979-81, as well as used in the AWA from 1981-83, where he became the country's top box office star. The comic book news site newsarama.com, which had an in-depth story on the situation, also said the lettering for "Hulk" could never be larger in any advertising or promotional material than the lettering for "Hogan," no logo for Hulk Hogan could resemble a Marvel Entertainment logo for The Incredible Hulk, the WWE could never register the name Hulk Hogan, that the trademark for the name Hulk Hogan would be Marvel property and not WWF property, and WWF agreed never to challenge that in court. Also, there could never be a Hulk Hogan comic book, nor could the character Hulk Hogan be used in any comic book form. In exchange, Marvel Entertainment Group would receive 1% of the total gross on all projects involving Hulk Hogan and 10% of the money Bollea would receive as Hulk Hogan, and $100 for every wrestling match Hogan appeared in. This would have worked out to several million dollars over the years. As noted before, there is an argument over the date, and thus when this expires. The licensing agreement dates back to July 9, 1984, so it would have expired last month. However, WWE claims it was signed on March 25, 1985, so it doesn't expire for several more months. Marvel claims WWE has been in violation of the agreement for five weeks. Where it gets even more confusing is in 1994, Hogan and Marvel signed a second agreement with WCW. The WCW agreement was a one-year contract, with terms for renewal. WCW renewed the contract through 2002. The WWF claimed that it purchased the contract, for automatic renewals, in the WCW fire sale, and have renewed it. Marvel Characters, the new company which came up in the reorganization of the former Marvel Entertainment Group, has stated it will not renew the deal any longer, and believes the deal expired last month. They claim WWE has no rights to produce any more videotapes, or produce more television that would use the name Hulk Hogan. WWE is alto making the claim that the Marvel Entertainment Group which cut the deal with the WWF, no longer exists, and claims the new Marvel Characters group does not own the name Hulk Hogan to begin with. WWE is asking that they be declared the owner of the trademark of the name Hulk Hogan, and thus be allowed to use it in perpetuity. Both sides are scheduled to have a settlement meeting on 9/17. Marvel's lawsuit against Bollea continues, with the close of discovery being 10/31. WWE claims Marvel violated the 20-year agreement first, because in April of 2003, Marvel attorney Eli Bard told WWE they were using the Hulk Hogan mark without permission, and violating Marvel intellectual property rights, and wrote a cease and desist letter. WWE immediately came up with the contract, which had yet to expire, and also, one of the terms of the contact was marvel was prohibited from making any legal claim against either the WWF or Terry Bollea until the contract expired. However, Bard may have done this purely as a negotiating tactic, because he also proposed a new agreement for the company to continue to use the Hogan name. WWE rejected Bard's offer, noting they had a contract still in effect and wouldn't change the provisions of it, and Marvel conceded they had no case. WWE claims they are sole owners of all material made during the 20 year period under the contract, claiming the ownership of the performances and imagery since they owned the license during that time period to use the name. Now even this gets tricky, because based on that logic, it would mean, if you use WWE's version of the dates, that everything prior to March 25,1985, would not have been covered, which would include Hogan's first WWF run, which includes the August 9, 1980, Shea Stadium match with Andre the Giant that the company is currently marketing on the internet, his entire AWA run as well as his first 15 months in WWF the second time, which would include marketing his first title win over Iron Sheik or using any of his footage from that period. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On the Bruno Sammartino front, there is a lot of controversy over the Mike Lano interview, some quotes of which were used in last week's issue. Sammartino's people told WWE that the interview never took place. Others close to the situation said it did, but he meant some of the comments, which he did say, to be off the record, and other things he didn't say at all, although nobody has differentiated what is and isn't accurate. Sammartino hasn't gotten an offer from WWE, and the part about him asking to put an offer and paper and he'd decide was legit, feeling that Sammartino's reps have asked for things WWE consider outrageous. At this point the odds of a deal have diminished. Sammartino himself would not be against doing the WWE 24/7 deal, and commenting on matches from the 60s and 70s. He's not against doing the Hall of Fame, but isn't going to live or die over it, and doesn't want to be a current TV character or do angles. All the talk has opened up a lot of opportunities as Sammartino has agreed to do a few autograph shows and wrestling conventions in the Northeast. Some updated buy rate numbers: Backlash (HHH vs. Chris Benoit vs. Shawn Michaels; Mick Foley vs. Randy Orton) is now at 293,000 buys. Judgment Day (Eddie Guerrero vs. JBL), still the lowest buy rate in years, is now at 224,000 buys. Bad Blood (Shawn Michaels vs. HHH Hell in a Cell) is at 265,000 buys. Great American Bash (Guerrero vs. JBL Bullrope match) is at 235,000 buys and Vengeance (HHH vs. Benoit) is at 232,000 buys. Matt Hardy's knee turned out to be far worse than it was believed after being thoroughly examined by Dr. James Andrews in Birmingham, days before SummerSlam. Hardy has a minor tear of his MCL, a severely torn meniscus, and his ACL is totally destroyed, all in his left knee. Andrews said the ACL had been gone for some time and was amazed he'd been able to work without it. He will be haying reconstructive surgery on it, and will be out six to eight months. Worse, it was also found he's gone bone spurs in his hip that he's going to have to get taken care of at some point. While the HHH vs. Randy Orton idea for WrestleMania is the current plan, it has not been decided which one is going face in the Evolution break-up. HHH is the natural one as going face, but he has the most power and knows he's a better heel. They are using the fact Orton got some cheers at house shows against Edge as the basis for those who want Orton to turn, even though HHH got as many, if not more cheers at house shows, working with Chris Benoit, and Benoit doesn't have the negative backlash babyface thing going that Edge had with the initial push after his comeback. After her interview last week in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazelle, Rena "Sable" Mero, who turned 37 on 8/8 (nobody believes that age, but it was documented in her lawsuit and it does add up as she was 28 when she was first signed by the WWF in early 1996), was fired before the Smackdown taping the day after the Fort Wayne show. Well, it isn't as if she doesn't know the rules of the game. Her status had been in question long before the interview, as after one of her implants punctured and she was out for a while, when she was taken care of, there was considerable talk of her not being brought back. She had signed a three-year contract in February 2003, but all the contracts have 90-day renewal cycles. They ended up bringing her back, but it was clear they weren't going to do much with her. She had asked for an easier schedule due to family issues (not regarding Brock Lesnar, but her having to raise her 16-year-old daughter, Mariah), and got taken off a lot of bookings. All things considered, with her only wanting to work a few dates per month, and her not being involved in any significant stories, nor any long-term ideas for her, that led to her release. It's almost always very difficult, on both sides, for someone who was a major star (in 1998, she was just as red hot in marketing and merchandising as Steve Austin) to be hanging around like a big player, even not throwing all these factors in. Brock Lesnar was moved to nose tackle after Vikings Coach Mike Tice, citing the numbers game, felt there is no way he'd be able to make the team, or even practice squad, at defensive tackle. The Vikings already had ten solid players at defensive tackle, and the team is only going to keep eight of them. Lesnar played on the kickoff team as well as the final minutes of the 8/14 Vikings win over the Arizona Cardinals by a 23-6 score before 63,658 fans in the preseason opener at the Metrodome. Lesnar went into the game with 6:26 left, and got a big pop coming out. He assisted on one tackle, and the name got a big reaction there as well. The Ric Flair book was No. 4 in Canada on the 8/8 Globe & Moll bestseller list and No. 8 on 8/15. It will fall to No. 11 on the 8/22 New York Times list. "Be Cool," starring John Travolta, with The Rock being one of the supporting cast members, opens now on 3/4, having been moved back a few weeks. “Be Cool” is the sequel to 1995’s “Get Shorty.” British media regulator Ofcom listed two shows that have gotten complaints for violation of content codes. One was on 5/8 and the other was 4/19. It doesn't specify the violations, but on 5/8, they aired the Eddie Guerrero's mother having a heart attack angle, and on 4/19 they aired the incident where Big Show choke slammed Kurt Angle off the balcony. The Rock coming to Samoa was gigantic news on the island this past week. It was only the second time he had ever been to the island of his ancestry on his mother's side, the other being on a trip with his grandfather at the age of 14. The leading newspaper, the Samoan Observer, ran front page stories all week and every day there were huge photos. Rock was given, by Samoan Head of State Malietoa Tanumaflli, a new Samoan name, "Seiuli," and like his grandfather, is now a Chief. To show how he's viewed, one of the newspaper headlines read, "Ordinary Samoans Humbled by Dwayne Johnson Visit." Ric Flair, while doing a book signing in Raleigh; reopened the idea that he might get involved in Republican party politics after he retires from wrestling. He had been talked about when it came to running for Governor of North Carolina for years. After he talked with Jesse Ventura, and Ventura told, him how they open up your personal life, Flair decided against it because he's got too many skeletons in his closet Flair said, "The reason I didn't run was because of the book. Now if they want me to run, I'll run. Because there's nothing I haven't told them." Flair was on the not-at-all watched John McEnroe show, which was gotten a 0.0 rating (I'm not making this up), 19 of his first 25 shows on CNBC. It was funny. First, Flair talked about how he was getting along so well backstage with Eliot Spitzer (New York state attorney general, who wants to be governor), but when he came out and he found out he was a democrat, he wanted to wrestle him. Then Flair started talking about how Vince McMahon should be governor because he'd get things done, and talked about how wonderful it was to work for him the past three years. McEnroe was stunned that anyone would have something good to say about Vince. I don't think anyone in WWE has clue one what the real world thinks of Vince. Tickets for the 10/10 Raw show in Cardiff, Wales (4,500 seats) sold out in one hour. It's the first company show in Wales in ten years. As for the other U.K. shows, the 10/7 show in Sheffield has a few seats left. 10/8 in London and 10/10 in Cardiff are both sold out. While WWE hits both 10/7 and 10/8 in Belfast as sold out, there are tickets available in most price ranges at press time. The 10/11 Raw TV taping in Manchester has the floor seats sold out but tickets remaining everywhere else. The 10/12 Smackdown TV tapings in Manchester have tickets in all prices ranges available. Trish Stratus performed on 8/12 in Toronto at the Second City comedy club. The show got a lot of local publicity, as she worked with established comedy professionals, but was clearly the draw. She got a positive response for a sold out show which included celebrities in the audience like Maple Leafs Tie Domi, Paul Godfrey, the president of the Toronto Blue Jays, and famous 70s boxer George Chuvalo, as well as WWE's Victoria, Gail Kim, and Doug Basham. She brought Victoria and Kim on stage at the show. Former WCW employee Kevin Eck wrote a story on JBL last week in the Baltimore Sun. It was mostly bio stuff that is well known, his playing football before wrestling, spending all his money from football and winding up broke, and learning from the experience about finance. He credited Mick Foley with his break, saying that Foley did an interview in Fortune Magazine and made a passing remark if they asked he invested in the stock market, he said, "No, but Bradshaw does," and suddenly, some people were interested in finding out this wrestler who invests. It noted his firing from CNBC from the goose stepping. JBL is in major denial about the incident these days, failing to see the other point of view. Recently on the WWE web site, he thanked people in Germany who backed him, and then said that those from Germany who wrote negatively about his goose stepping don't know what they were talking about and don't they realize it's all an act. "I did it not as an anti-Semitic thing, goodness. I was just trying to irritate the Germany people, so I was trying to pick at the most sensitive issue they had. Nobody was offended in the audience. In fact, the German media came to my defense. They said, ‘this guy is just portraying a role.'" If nobody was offended, why was he specifically told not to do it ever again the next night, before it became any kind of an issue in the U.S? If nobody was offended, why were the most offended letters the first day coming from people at the arena live, who said it put a negative cloud over the event? And while I don't read German, I don't know of any German media defending him (it's possible someone may have but I'm thinking if it was any kind of high profile thing; and a consensus to where you could even say 'German media' because I was told it got no coverage one way or the other, we'd have heard about it by now) other than an article from a writer in a German wrestling magazine. Rico should be returning soon from a hamstring injury, as he's in OVW this week preparing to come back. He made it back a lot faster then expected. Stacy Keibler's name was mentioned on the Spike TV's 52 hottest women in show business special. I believe she was around No. 35, and was the only WWE personality mentioned. The guy doing the voiceovers talked like she was some bruising tough wrestler. Bobbi Billard, the ex-Playboy model who briefly worked in developmental until suffering a neck injury, underwent double vertebrae fusion neck surgery under Dr. Lloyd Youngblood (taken car of by WWE), so that answers to the legitimacy of her injuries while in OVW. The company returns to Edmonton on 9/14, and as a sign of the times, instead of booking the Rexall Place, where Backlash took place in, they are booking the Shaw Conference Centre, which holds maybe 2,500. They are doing a three-way for the title with JBL vs. Eddie Guerrero vs. Kurt Angle. Chandra Costello, who was voted off in the Divas competition on the 8/9 Raw, said in an article in a local paper in her original home town of Lexington, KY (she now lives with her twin sister in Los Angeles pursuing the acting gig), before she was cut, that the WWE told her that both she and her sister had a spot on Raw waiting for them no matter how the voting went. The two sisters were the "Juggy Twins" on "The Man Show." I guess we'll have to wait and see on this one. The 8/27 Smackdown show at the Sydney, Australia Superdome, has sold out. The Honky Tonk Man claims he's twice been asked, most recently for the 7/5 Raw in Winnipeg, to come in and do a quick TV angle, leading to putting Randy Orton over. He's declined both times, feeling doing a 3:00 squash on television isn't good for his independent business. Shawn Daivari, who has claimed to be the nephew of Sheik Adrian Al Kaijsie (he isn't), has signed a developmental deal, so he should be in QVW shortly. Christian went on a vacation to Germany (his wife is German), but should be back, perhaps before you even read this, if not, very soon after. At the 8/9 taping in Cleveland, Mike Bucci worked as Simon Dean again, but it was a dark match, so the company hasn't committed to the name. 8/8 Raw in Toledo drew 1,900 and $63,000. 8/8 Smackdown in Hershey drew 3,300 and $125,000. 8/9 Smackdown in Fort Wayne drew 1,900 and $63,000. Attendance for the 8/2 Raw TV in San Antonio was 6,000 and the 8/3 Smackdown TV in Houston was 5,700.

That's not really fair. Lesnar working through a broken rib at Survivor Series 2002.

Haha! I always mock that whenever my friends and I get together to watch wrestling. "ONE! TWO! HE GOT HIM! HE GOT---no, only 2."

I smell a ban.

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. I was at the Smackdown in December 2002 in Atlanta when Albert officially transformed into A-Train. The main event of that show was Edge & Kurt Angle vs. The Big Show & A-Train. People were leaving the arena during the match because it was so boring. I even heard people in the crowd say, "I hope he's not going to be a main guy" and "Why is he in the last match? He sucks." Face it, A-Train is boring and he's nothing special. Other than sleep-inducing matches and his verbal in-ring scream tributes to Lex Luger, there's nothing he can contribute to the company, whether it be his fault or not, so there is no reason for him to be on the payroll.

I wonder if he gave that same speech to his daughter-led creative team because the wrestlers can only do so much.

JR: Everybody make sure you tune in to "This Tuesday in Texas", tomorrow night, live from the Bradley Center in Milwaukee, Wisconsin! I really hope that was just a smart ass joke and not assuming that I would actually want a PPV called Tuesday in Texas in Wisconsin. I thought that was implied.

Then they are bigger assholes than Vince McMahon could ever be.

I thought the original plan was to have Orton and Batista turn on HHH and Flair with a new Orton-led Evolution with Garrison Cade and Maven (and Mark Jindrak before his move to Smackdown).

Then the law is stupid. If their primary name is "World Wide Fund for Nature" then the fuckfaces have no right to WWF. That would be like the National Basketball Association claiming rights to "NB".

It was originally supposed to be held in the MCI Center in Washington, DC, but it was recently moved to the Bradley Center in Milwaukee, WI. That's why there's not that much info on it, but it was changed about two weeks ago.

They should have gone back to Tuesday in Texas. If they had done that, I probably would have ordered it out of respect to the old-school. ...and I just realized how old I am. Yikes, that was 13 years ago.

But Vince McMahon is stubborn, and when questioned about the issue, he still states that he likes the "WWF" name better.

If they could legally do it, they have to go back to the WWF name. WWE is too goddamned awkward, even after two years. They could unedit all of their old library and they could even leave stuff since May 2002 as it is because they could keep the stuff to WWE. I just cannot believe these assholes did this. They made a big stink about initials that they ended up only keeping for two more years. I know what Vince did was wrong (not once adhereing to their 1994 agreement), but these morons cost Vince a lot more money than he cost them with this stupid ass court case. And anyways, what kind of moron would confuse the two anyways?

Not as dumb as Hogan calling Rock "Rock-a-jabroni". What was dumb about that? I thought it was witty as hell. You've never heard of the Rock of Jibralter (sp?) ?

I still believe this is all a swerve and Orton will turn back next week in a Orton/Benoit vs. HHH/Flair match, just like Flair's one week face turn in mid-'03.

He is a WWE homegrown star and they take care of their own, this is the same company that got rid of Jerry Lynn while he was injured but they don't want to fired Test because they all of a sudden don't get rid of injured wrestlers. And he should have a job. Easily one of the more entertaining superstars in the WWE and he has still has potential to get better. We've gone through this before on this board. A-Train is both underrated and underappreciated. End of story. Oh, so that's why every attempt to push him and get him out of the lower mid-card ends up with a miserable failure on our hands and A-Train back to the lower mid-card? Boy, he sure does earn his stripes, doesn't he? He's had 6 years to excecute this "potential to get better" and he hasn't. He's still the same old garbage. Just like Test. "You can't make a living on unrealized potential." -- Jim Ross

Imagine someone saying "at TABOO TUESDAY" while trying to be pissed. It'll sound as dumb as Hulk Hogan saying "GOLDBERG! I'M GONNA KICK...YOUR...BUTT!

A lot of the heat on Jerry Lynn came from a television interview he did. Paul Heyman, one of Lynn's enemies, sabotaged him on this one. They were interviewing Lynn at WWF New York during Judgment Day 2001. Paul Heyman told him through his headset at ringside to cut a bitter promo against the WWF holding him back and how worthless the title he was holding was ("I hold a WWF title, and I'm not even on the PPV. Shows how important this title is"). After the interview (and if you watch it, you can tell Jim Ross is confused), Vince McMahon was reportedly furious at Lynn, and the heat was so bad that it eventually led to his firing. I never heard of any heat he had with Crash Holly or the WCW cruiserweights.

I bet next week, there's a Benoit/Orton vs. Flair/HHH tag match and Orton turns back heel, just like the HHH/Flair/HBK stuff from mid-'03.

Worse than Team Hoss '03-'04 (Nathan Jones, Jon Heidenreich, and Tyson Tomko)?

...and A-Train still has a job.

If it's so low on his list, then why are piledrivers and overhead belly-to-belly suplexes restricted from being used?

Yeah, but still, calling UT a talentless slug is completely inaccurate. Talentless slugs don't stick around for 14 years. And there's been a lot more physically impressive people than UT to come through WWE over the years and couldn't last because they were the actual talentless slugs.

They made the decision a few months ago not to use him on TV anymore, but they've now officially cut him free.