Enigma

WWE has bought Scott Steiner out of his deal and he’s now completely gone from WWE. Also, the trademark for "Big Poppa Pump" is abandoned for obvious reasons. credit: PWInsider Steiner's last appearance in WWE was as a participant in the 2004 Royal Rumble. Afterwards, he was put on the injury list for a hip flexor. WWE decided to keep him off TV instead of bringing him back, despite suggestions that they should have used him on Smackdown to put over Eddie Guerrero.

That IS sarcasm, right? RIGHT? And this guy goes beyond talentless slug. He was ALREADY taken off TV once. Why even bother again? Like him or hate him, but accept that in 98 he was over bigtime as leader of the Wolfpac. BTW, remember that "Blue Chipper" Rocky Miavia who was pushed despite being insanely green, failed miserably, and was taken off tv? Yeah, good thing they never brought his talentless ass back. He wasn't taken off TV. He injured his knee and needed surgery. He came back when he was healthy and turned heel.

Well, if it worked for DDP, then why don't more people do it? Old-school mentality or not, if it produces a higher quality match, then what's the problem with doing it? Kudos to DDP doing what it takes to produce high quality everytime. And by your statements on Undertaker, you obviously have not seen any of his matches since the beginning of 2003. He's pulled good matches out of Big Show, A-Train, and Orlando Jordan, had great matches with Kurt Angle and Brock Lesnar, and worked many miracles with John Cena. Given Cena's recent work, it's obvious now who carried who in those UT/Cena matches. The only times I've seen UT put on a less-than-good match since Jan. 2003 were gimmick matches (Vince, Dudleys, Biker Chain vs. Lesnar, etc.) and WMXX vs. Kane. Other wise, UT has been an absolutely solid worker since January 2003. And he's kept the political bullshit down to a minimum too, so more kudos to him.

Watch their WWE Title match on Smackdown in September 2003 I think it was. An absolutely awesome match. They worked circles around their Fully Loaded 2000 and Survivor Series 2000 matches.

Are you trying to say Undertaker is a talentless slug? Oh lord...you've just opened the flood gates. Goldberg, Luger (in his earlier days), and Nash were able to be carried to good matches. DDP got a good match out of Goldberg when everyone thought it was impossible. Flair made Luger look like a million bucks. Jericho did yeoman work with Nash in that hair-vs-hair match. I don't even think Angle or Benoit could carry Heidenreich past *.

Going back into my Observer archive to the November 1st, 2003 edition, I see: "Nathan Jones and Jon Heidenreich were both signed to 3-year contracts last week." They have until October 2006 to figure out what to do with Heidenreich. But also... LESS THAN 2 YEARS LEFT FOR MARK HENRY!

It's not really the same We're giving UT thumbs up for having a brain and realizing that this thing was going to bomb. And if anything, he did Heidenreich a FAVOR to keep him from being totally exposed as a Nathan Jones-esque lack of talent. However, UT did no favors for Brock Lesnar at Unforgiven 2002 by completely squashing him and not putting him over. It just made Brock look like a clown. UT kept Heidenreich from looking like a clown.

HHH power?

That's not the point. Classic was fired because he was pretty unreliable, amongst other things and I think Eddie even knew that he probably shouldn't be there because he was just going to get Chavo Jr. buried. Konnan wasn't hired because TNA wouldn't give him a release.

Ugh. Please don't have Eddie vs Luther. Kurt beats Taker at Series to win the belt, then they start the feud with Eddie again. Simple. I think Eddie should be given power backstage. Eddie does have power. Chavo Classic was hired completely as a favor to Eddie. According to Meltzer, Classic was supposed to be gone after Royal Rumble, and ended up staying until a few weeks before Great American Bash. Also, Konnan was going to be hired completely as a favor to Eddie and Rey Mysterio.

This is news about UT and Edge's reactions to the crowd. Not the crowd itself. And plus, it had a piece in there completely unrelated to the crowd.

WWE's completely missed the window of opportunity on Rob Van Dam. 2002 was his time to be world champion and by him not getting it, they've lost any chance of him being able to make any money. People accuse him of being unmotivated. Wouldn't you be if you were asked by so many people when you were going to be champion and being told by so many people how over you are? Wouldn't you be if the political actions of others in higher positions than you kept you from being the #1 guy? Remember, Kevin Kelly told us once upon a time that RVD was booked to beat HHH at Unforgiven, but HHH got it changed and his defense was, "I'm better than him." I'd be unmotivated as fuck too if that happened to me, because I would know, despite how much I nearly break my back for this company, someone else in power thinks they're better than me. Does RVD deserve a chance to be WWE Champion? Yes. Will it bring good business? Probably not, because it would be two years too late. If Bradshaw somehow deserved it, then everyone does by default.

I must say, UT gets a high-five for getting the kilbosh put on this upcoming feud with Heidenreich, if in fact UT was the one responsible. And if he wasn't, a high-five to whomever was.

But there's a difference. The IWC mainly hates HHH for the things he does in real life, not for his television character. It's not like they are saying, "You are such a good heel, I hate you," it's, "You're such a fucking asshole to your co-workers, I hate you." I say "they" and not "we" because I like HHH, but you know what I mean.

Undertaker and Edge were said to be noticeably upset backstage with the reactions from their respective matches last night. For those who missed it, Edge was loudly booed in his hometown of Toronto while the fans chanted "Spanish Tables" and did the wave during Taker's match with JBL. The word I received on Edge was that he was stunned and somewhat dumbfounded by the way that the crowd reacted to him. Taker was said to be pretty ticked off at the fan reaction to his match. Others in the company felt that the fan’s treatment of the Dead Man was inevitable considering how little interaction Taker had with JBL in the weeks leading up to their bout, as well as the fact that JBL has not really been put over by anyone except Eddie Guerrero. There is a feeling among a number of people in the company that Taker's lack of interaction with the champ made the match, and JBL himself, seem unimportant to the fans and thus helped lead to last night's reaction. Speaking of Taker, originally, there was a lot of talk that Jon Heidenreich would get involved with Undertaker’s match at the PPV, costing him the decision against JBL. The word making the rounds yesterday though was that they shelved that idea for now in favor of having a rematch between JBL and Taker, leaving Heidenreich out in the cold. There are a number of people who think that Taker played off of his power to avoid a feud with the green Heidenreich due to the fact that he knew it would make for bad matches, but that is just a theory at this point. credit: PWInsider

That's impossible. Remember? Tori said he had a burnt-up weiner.

I will more than likely be at Armageddon.

While not announced officially, several sources have confirmed that TNA has made the decision to cease weekly PPV shows and 9/8 will be the final one. As noted from the start of doing weekly television, this was the only feasible decision. The company had fallen to about 6,000 buys per week on PPV before getting on Fox Sports Net. The decision was to wait about eight weeks to see if the new TV show increased buys. After ten weeks, there is no indication that aside from one or two shows, the normal levels of buys had changed at all, and the money losses were probably hovering on $100,000 per week. The decision at this point is do to monthly three-hour shows on Sunday evenings, similar to WWE and Pride, starting in November. The final show at the Asylum in Nashville, at this point, is 9/8. Starting on 9/14, the Orlando tapings will be moved from Thursdays to Tuesdays, to give them more time to edit the post-produce the show for Friday. There will be taped best-of PPV shows airing on 9/15, 9/22 and 9/29, but as of the end of September, TNA won’t have Wednesday night PPVs, and won’t be doing any PPV shows in October. The idea is to have a 7-to-10 week build for the first Sunday show. Since WWE is the powerhouse and has its dates locked up months in advance, it will become a game between Pride and TNA to get dates locked up first. On months that WWE does two PPV shows, those two companies would have to fight over the remaining two dates. While Pride is far bigger, and does slightly better on PPV in the U.S., TNA is more organized long-term. The idea at this point is to charge $29.95 per show, which I think may be a little on the high side, at least to start out. The plan is to upgrade the shows, running them in mid-sized arenas (5,000-to-7,000 seats) throughout the country. Most likely, that will change when they find they can't sell tickets. The original TNA PPV show plan was similar, but after only being able to sell about 100 tickets for the debut show in Huntsville, AL, they moved to Nashville as a permanent home, at the 9,000-seat Municipal Auditorium. When they couldn’t sell tickets there, they moved to the 1,300-seat Fairgrounds, where they usually come close to filling the building with free tickets, as paid is usually hovering around 300 to 400. At press time, no wrestlers had been told of the changes, which will cut their pay down as they will be working five or six shows per month instead of nine or ten, after getting only four dates in October after seven in September. There are even rumors of further cutbacks to where they would tape two shows every other Tuesday at some point, which would also be cost effective but would leave a lot of the wrestlers with three dates per month. If the budget for the monthly show is increased from about $100,000 for the current weekly shows to $150,000 for a monthly show, and the number of buys only stays the same (and I think it will increase significantly), the savings to the company would be $225,000 per month. Instead of maybe $300,000 per month in losses, the losses would be $73,000 (and again, that's saying the buys are only 6,000 for a monthly show, and I'd expect them to be far more than that). Most TNA wrestlers, aside from the bigger names, earn $300-to-$500 per show. With the expansion in dates, that means generally $2,700-to-$4,500 per month, which for the $500 guys that also get weekend independents, is a decent living, and the bigger names like Raven, Dusty Rhodes ($1,500 per show), America’s Most Wanted, and A.J. Styles were doing quite well. This cuts the numbers down to $1,500-to-$1,800 per month for prelim guys (and a further cutback could put those numbers as low as $900 or less per month), which is not a living unless they get independent dates, and $2,500-to-$3,000 (and even $1,500 with a further cutback). There is talk about running Wednesday night house shows for at least some of the guys to help morale and keep them from being cut so much on pay, but others think this company trying to run Wednesday house shows and PPV shows in mid-sized arenas will flop so badly it could be the psychological blow that will endanger them from continuing farther, similar to how the XWF money backers largely gave up on the product after dropping big money running some house shows, and those shows in 2002 in the Midwest with the Road Warriors and Roddy Piper, drew better than TNA shows would probably be expected to do. There is also fear as to what will happen in Orlando once the fall starts and crowds at Universal drop 80% on weekday nights from their current levels. The feeling is about 75% of the TNA crowds is tourists looking for a park attraction and the rest are the weekly wrestling fans from the area. Going to 5,000-to-7,000 seat arenas, and different cities, will increase costs somewhat. With major monthly shows, they can hype them better, and also should bring in outside headliners. They could probably do shows like that on a $150,000 budget, and maybe a little less. At $29.95, they can break even for the night on 10,000 to 11,500 buys, which is hardly an unreasonable number. As noted before, taking into account the costs of still doing weekly television, as a company, they aren’t going to do well on less than 27,000 buys. If they can hit that number regularly with four weeks of build-up is not impossible if the company gets at least some buzz. At this point, there is talk of Fox Sports Net moving the show from Friday at 3 p.m. to a Sunday morning time slot. No decision has been made, but the slot talked about is 11 a.m., which would go head-to-head with WWE Experience on Spike TV. That wouldn't be the worst idea, because nobody watches Experience, and it would look good if the company could come close to, or even beat a WWE show on Spike, head-to-head while on the weaker FSN. That gives them something to brag about, and if they can dual evenly in the slot with WWE, and I'd think they might be able to, it might also help their chances to get the necessary time slot upgrade, because in this day and age, Sunday morning isn’t it either. The negative, for Sunday morning, is come September, once the NFL starts, the show would be bucking NFL football on the West Coast, and football is the only thing that historically is proven to bite a chunk out of wrestling ratings. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It is now August and there is no end in sight to the DirecTV stalemate. Nobody knows exactly what has kept the deal from being put back together, but it costs the company roughly 18-25% in buys every week, although the addition of Dish Network should probably come close to balancing out the loss. There has been a lot of heat on Frank Romano in the office for his inability to get the deal done, as even if DirecTV offers less favorable terms, TNA needs DirecTV far more than DirecTV needs TNA. The business relationship with AAA and Antonio Pena fell apart. As noted here for months, it had been hanging by a thread, particularly when Armando Quintero had to book minis independently at the last minute for the anniversary show after AAA screwed up. No reason was given for the break-up other than the general impossibility of doing business with Pena, and his frequent promises to come to Nashville or Orlando to talk about projects, but coming up with reasons that he cant come, or sometimes, not even bothering doing even that when he doesn’t come. They were talking about a joint PPV in San Diego when he stopped coming. The sides were supposed to trade talent, but TNA was bringing in Pena's guys at good money, while the only guy Pena would book was Abyss. Someone close to the situation believes Pena did this on purpose, as he didn’t want a repeat of the mid-90s, where he developed a whole crew of superstars, and then they started to get over in the U.S., and he lost the top ones. Even though TNA hasn’t used Hector Garza, suddenly Garza decided he could make better money and be paid on time and didn’t feel like being under Pena's thumb and quit. With Latin Lover threatening to leave and Heavy Metal also making noises, Pena didn’t want to send guys to get a taste of better money, so just stopped doing business. Jeff Jarrett and Dutch Mantel at first wanted to go to CMLL, which has better wrestlers overall and far more depth than AAA, but Mike Tenay advised them against doing so, saying they would just wind up with the same problems, and they could book the biggest name talent in Mexico on their own since the highest paid guys now are independents. On 8/11, they will debut the original La Parka under his name L.A. Park (to avoid legal action from Pena who owns the rights to the Parka name). Strangely, they are billing the original Psicosis under that name, even though Pena owns the rights to that gimmick as well and uses a different wrestler under that name, and Psicosis wrestles in Mexico as Nicho de Millionaire. At this point, the company is not booking Hector Garza until he can offer proof that he is legally out of his AAA contract, as they aren’t looking for legal problems from Pena. They are also going to start using Super Crazy when his paperwork gets down, and plans are to use El Hijo del Santo for major shows as an attraction and Perro Aguayo, Jr.'s name has also been bandied about. Nigel McGuiness is scheduled to debut in an X division gauntlet match on 8/11 since the title was declared vacant since Frankie Kazarian and Michael Shane came down tied in the Ultimate X match. McGuiness is much taller than the X guys, and he's a real talent doing the European style, and is better off working as a heavyweight. They are really trying to push Monty Brown and Jeff Hardy as the top stars in the company aside from Jeff Jarrett. Brown, because he played in the NFL, is able to get on a lot of sports shows that won’t book the "no-name" wrestlers, and this past week was on both "Best Damn Sports Show Period" and "Cold Pizza." He's starting to get a little star aura, which few of the guys in the company have, even though they are far better in the ring. Vince Russo announced the championship committee idea, with Terry Funk and Larry Zbyszko, as noted from the original idea. They decided to put Harley Race in the third spot, to keep the Dusty Rhodes vs. Russo feud, which takes up far too much air time and goes nowhere, alive. Rhodes is expected to feud with Scott D'Amore, probably as part of continuing an AMW vs. Team Canada program, using the U.S. flag and Canadian flag as props. The mystery "coming soon" guy is a heel D-Lo Brown returning. Although TNA constantly, for whatever reason, pushes the idea that Vince Russo has no involvement in creative and that it's all Jeff Jarrett and Dutch Mantel, that isn’t the case. There are certain things on the show which are uniquely Russo, and upon further look, it comes out that in almost all cases, they are. The case in point was the interview Monty Brown did a few weeks back talking about not being interested in wrestling anymore because all he cares about is his baby daughter. That was totally scripted by Russo, with the idea that Brown goes home, and somehow returns as a crazed mad man. Brian Kendrick (Spanky) was backstage at the show on 8/5 in Orlando. He was asked to debut on 8/11 for the X gauntlet, but couldn’t do so because of Zero-One commitments.

Bruno Sammartino did an interview with Mike Lano this past week regarding his dealings with WWE. Sammartino said that it was WWE that approached him, as is well documented by Jim Ross flying in to meet with him on 6/22 and having an amicable meeting. Sammartino said, it's "Not me, I have no use for them... I've not contacted them, not pursued them, this is all their doing, and I'm giving them a few more weeks to put down on paper exactly what they are proposing to me, what they want us to do, what money will be involved for my attorney to consider and review. I'm not really interested. I don't want any of my fans to think I'm selling out. I'm just politely listening to their offer rather than discounting it and being seen as bitter." WWE attorney Jerry McDevitt had been calling Sammartino's attorney regularly while he went to Italy a few weeks ago. He got back on 7/24, two days before Raw, and Sammartino described it as his attorney convincing him to attend the show, listen to what Vince McMahon was offering and to keep an open mind. Attorneys for both sides talked after Sammartino spoke to McMahon briefly. "And Flair snuck away from me like a thief in the night," Sammartino said. "We were staring right at each other, and he took off before I could reach him. All I wanted to do was talk, but I guess he's afraid of me." Sammartino said he went into a room with McMahon and McDevitt at about 2 p.m. before Raw on 7/26 in Pittsburgh. Sammartino said McMahon, “acted like we were long lost buddies, came right up to shake my hand as if we were always friends, the same deal he did with Billy Graham after he got Graham to do whatever he did. McMahon introduced Sammartino to Shane, Stephanie, and HHH, and HHH said it was ‘an honor to meet you, sir, heard so much about you, etc.’” He told McMahon about a documentary called "Big Like Sammartino" that starts shooting next month. He asked Vince what ideas they had because he was busy with other projects, and if Vince isn’t serious about doing something, not to waste everyone's time. "You don’t need me, Vince, and I don’t need you, either," Sammartino claimed he said. "You should have seen the look on his face," Sammartino said. "I don't think that many people speak to him in that way. I was standing. He was sitting." McDevitt told Sammartino that Vince has great respect for the old-time wrestlers, and Sammartino claimed he cut off McDevitt and said, "No! If he had respect for the people who grew this company for his dad and himself, he's never shown it," he claimed he said. "He used people like Killer Kowalski, Domenic (DeNucci), (Lou) Albano, (Fred) Blassie, all for his own purposes. He threw $1,500 for Domenic to do that little show with Mick Foley on PPV. That shows great disrespect to me for someone who busted his ass for the WWWF. The rewards were small then, and they still are now." He claimed he then told Vince that he gave a convicted rapist, Mike Tyson, $3.5 million for WrestleMania and gave a disgraced Pete Rose more than $400,000. Sammartino claimed he said he told Vince to put something up in writing, "But don't show me the respect you showed those other wrestling legends. Show me the same respect like the people who didn't deserve your financial respect." He said Vince interrupted and said, "Bruno, I had the utmost respect for you always. I learned so much from you." "I didn't let him finish," Sammartino said. "I said, 'is that why, Vince, on that two hour A&E cable documentary, you made sure I was left off?" Vince reportedly said, "I had nothing to do with that," and Sammartino claims he responded with, "I differ with you. A&E wanted to do a story on me for the documentary but after it was completed, they leveled with me and said they got lots of flak from you and were told in no uncertain terms-No Bruno. They said they were told it was a choice between you or me, Vince, and that you said if they even mentioned my name, you wouldn't give them any film clips. So you had me completely ignored, and my peers like Pedro (Morales) and Ivan (Koloff). It came right from them, Vince. You intentionally didn’t want me in it, and forced me out of it." Sammartino said McMahon looked down and never answered, and everyone in the room went quiet. Sammartino said he got up, told Vince that was all he had to say, the lawyers can negotiate, and whatever you want, put it down on paper. "If we can live with it, and it's proper, well have more meetings and discus your interest with me," he claimed he finished with. "If it's something not acceptable or decent, I’ll tell you to forget it, and well go our separate ways again." He also told McMahon not to ever tell him to not attack him on the drug and steroid problems. "I must talk about what I choose to talk about…I want to continue to go around the country and talk out against the dangers of drugs and steroids, a real cancer in this country. I won’t point out you or your wrestlers specifically. I don't even know any of these guys now really other than Angle, Benoit, (and) Eddie Guerrero. I won’t verbally attack your wrestlers, but I will talk about the dangers of these drugs anytime I want." He said he left the room and everyone went quiet. He said he didn't want to stay because he was afraid they would film him at the show, and refused to be seen at ringside. After declining the invite to stay and watch the Chris Benoit/HHH Iron Man match, leaving the building, and going out to eat, Vince called him on the cell phone and asked him to at least make an appearance at the next Madison Square Garden show (a live Raw on 10/4). Bruno said he told Vince, "No way," since Vince had kept him out of the Madison Square Garden Hall of Fame. He also said he wanted to defend himself against Flair on radio for Flair's comments about him, but wanted to wait until McMahon had time to make a legitimate offer. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Apparently feeling the recent experiment of doing three PPV in six weeks was a success, WWE has released a PPV schedule with 15 shows in 2005, with two shows each in January, May, June, and October. However, the shows are spaced out better, and there will be no period with three shows in six weeks. Among the notes are that the 10/19 Tuesday night Raw PPV, after shooting a huge angle the night before, will take place in Milwaukee at the Bradley Center. This is an experiment with a Raw showing taking place 16 days after the No Mercy Smackdown event from East Rutherford, NJ. The 10/19 show will be called Taboo Tuesday, and not Halloween Havoc, as was the original idea. Survivor Series on 11/14 will be from Cleveland, and the final PPV show of this year will be Armageddon (Smackdown) on 12/12 in Atlanta. For 2005, the first show will be a Raw show on 1/9 from San Juan, Puerto Rico at the new building, the 18,500-seat Jose Miguel Agrelot Coliseum. That show is almost guaranteed to be a sellout since WWE has never done a PPV show from that island. The Royal Rumble will be 1/30 in Fresno. No Way Out (Smackdown) will be on 2/20 from Pittsburgh. WrestleMania will be on 4/3 from the Staples Center in Los Angeles. The remainder of the dates are Backlash (Raw) on 5/1, Judgment Day (Smackdown) on 5/22, Bad Blood (Raw) on 6/12, Great American Bash (Smackdown) on 6/26, Vengeance (Raw) on 7/24, SummerSlam on 8/21, Unforgiven (Smackdown) on 9/18, No Mercy (Raw) on 10/9, a 10/30 Smackdown show that is as of now not named, Survivor Series on 11/27 and Armageddon (Raw) on 12/18. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ric Flair's book will be at No. 8 on the 8/15 New York Times best seller list in its fifth week out. Sakoda was fired this past week. He and Akio (Jimmy Yang) were sent to OVW some time back (although they were brought back for a few TV matches). Sakoda was just starting to show improvement, but he's been bothered by a bad back and hadn't had much ring time of late. Jim Cornette didn’t want to book them as a team in OVW because Akio, even though he lived not all that far from Louisville (he lives in Cincinnati), had missed a few scheduled dates. The Rock has signed to play a juvenile detention center counselor and football coach as the lead role in a movie called "Gridiron Gang" for Columbia Pictures. It's about kids in the center gaining self respect and confidence through football. Add Rey Mysterio, Billy Kidman, & Paul London vs. all three Dudleys after Spike Dudley’s heel turn on Smackdown, to SummerSlam. Upon further examination of his broken nose, it was found The Hurricane's right sinus is damaged and he can’t breathe out of this right nostril. He underwent corrective surgery on 8/9 and will be out of action an indefinite period of time. Trish Stratus was scheduled to perform on stage in Toronto doing comedy sketches on 8/12 with the “Second City Invasion Free Since 1812” revue. Brock Lesnar made a lot of press again this past week, with stuff almost daily about his trying out, and apparent rapid improvement. Any wrestling fan should have figured his improvement would be rapid given his athletic ability and how quickly he picked up pro wrestling. Whether he’ll ever play in a regulation game is still a long ways away. At a Vikings-Chiefs scrimmage on 8/6, Lesnar made four tackles and a QB sack, and was involved in a few minor skirmishes as well. The Chiefs felt the scrimmages had unwritten rules that nobody would try to hurt anyone, but the Vikings were playing at a "different tempo," which led to some fights. Lesnar, in particular, when sacking back-up Chiefs QB Damon Huard, tackled him so hard he hyper extended Hoard's elbow. There was a "no-contact" agreement when it came to quarterbacks in this scrimmage, and that you don't hurt people. Vikings coach Mike Tice said that Lesnar was progressing faster than they expected, but he still gets lost a little bit at times, but backs down from nobody. John Clayton, one of the more respected NFL analysts, said after the scrimmage, that he thinks Lesnar has a very good chance to make the Vikings practice squad, changing his belief from the day before, thinking he'd never make it. After seeing him play, he said he's a phenomenal athlete. Sable had a lot of interesting comments in an 8/6 article in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette. She talked about pro wrestling being a sexist business, saying that the women are hired based on their looks and not ability, and admitting she's benefited from it. When asked about her 1999 lawsuit, a WWE P.R. person on the phone (they usually have P.R. people listening in to all media interviews) broke in and said to steer the conversation away from that subject. She said she returned because she enjoyed performing and didn’t get the same feeling of excitement elsewhere. But she said the most gifted women wrestlers get passed over for WWE jobs because they lack a certain look, saying "Men aren’t hired on looks." Actually, they are, but it is easier if you have a lot of talent to overcome not being great looking if you are a man in WWE than a woman, but to say men aren’t hired on their look is ridiculous. Nathan Jones, Tyson Tomko, & Jon Heidenreich were all hired for their look alone. She also said women are held to a higher performing standpoint than men, as well as a different moral standard. I don’t believe the former, as I think the men, with more competition for jobs, are held to a higher performing standpoint. How many male wrestlers get the acting TV time of Lita and Torrie Wilson that are as bad at acting as those two are? Moral standard, I don't know, but there is a good chance she's right there. I do know that there is a general standard, and it was very big in wrestling, and just compare how wrestlers who slept around were judged as compared with Missy Hyatt or other women who did the same thing, to know what she said was very true until at least recent years. Since I don’t know of any woman wrestlers who have slept around that have gotten reprimanded by management for doing so (and Hyatt was reprimanded in WCW for sleeping around, something no male wrestler would have been yelled at for the identical thing, even if they were married at the time, remember B.B. getting fired for having an affair with a married Bob Holly?) in recent years, it's may not be as overt as it once was. Still, I know of one female character who has a rep for sleeping with married male character(s) and the heat among wrestlers I’ve spoken with was every bit as much on the guy for doing so. She also said women in wrestling have to make more sacrifices, and when it comes to getting ready to appear before the public, and stringent dieting and frequent plastic surgeries, no question they do because of the emphasis on a body that can’t be attained naturally. But it isn’t as if the guys don’t have that pressure, but again, not as much. A woman with a body like JBL can’t overcome it by wearing a suit and cutting good promos. She said women who leave their children to go on tour are judged more harshly than men. That's true, and it's wrong, but that is hardly limited to wrestling. One of my best friends growing up was a world class female athlete and everyone thought of her as having messed up priorities because she didn’t retire after having a child as a single mom. If she had been a man, in the same sport, there would have been no pressure from society on her for that. She said women also aren’t part of the management structure at W WE. Well, there is Linda & Stephanie McMahon on the wrestling side, and other women fairly high ranked on the corporate side. "I know women who know as much about this business as any man," she said. I wish she'd given an example as to who she was talking about, but I think that's more of a business deal, because I know men who have more far more ability to write wrestling than the WWE writers, and it isn’t like they've gotten opportunities. Trish Stratus is booked as wrestling on house shows against Victoria after SummerSlam. Even though he has toned down his style, Kurt Angle has already been told by management that he's taking too many bumps at house shows. The paid attendance for the Raw taping in Pittsburgh with HHH vs. Chris Benoit in the 60:00 match on 7/26 was 7,200. Paid for the Smackdown tapings in Cincinnati on 7/27 was 2,800. 8/7 Smackdown house show in Baltimore drew 5,800 paying $175,000, which was by today's standards a big success. 8/7 Raw in Trenton drew 2,400 and $85,000. There was a communication problem at the Baltimore show in a match between Rene Dupree and Johnny Stamboli. Dupree did a walk out count out loss to Stamboli. This was set up when the Divas were in the ring and Dupree attacked Miss Jackie. Theodore Long ordered a Stamboli vs. Dupree match, but Dupree quickly walked out and was counted out. This was not the planned finish but the refs are told to call it as a shoot. Stamboli was supposed to break up the count and bring Dupree back to the ring, but he's never wrestled in an environment with "breaking up the count" when a guy is out of the ring, as silly as that sounds. Dupree was way gone, apparently waiting for Stamboli to jump out of the ring and bring him back, but that wasn't happening either. Paul Heyman no-showed the Baltimore show due to travel problems. On the Trenton show, Shelton Benjamin wrestled his first match since breaking his hand in a Heat match against Garrison Cade. He defeated Chuck Palumbo, but reports say that the match was not good. Also in Trenton, Mike "Nova" Bucci got more time to get over his Tony Little/Richard Simmons character. The name he used on the show was Simon Dean (many of you will recognize that as a rib on Dean Malenko, whose real name is Dean Simon). He came out and yelled at the crowd for being out of shape and how he can help them get in shape, and told everyone to join him in doing squats. Some fans did it with him, thinking he was a babyface. Jonathan Coachman came out to join in and praise Dean so people knew he was a heel, and then Steven Richards pinned him in a singles match. The next night in Toledo, Bucci was using his real name again, so “Simon Dean” may have just been a one night rib.

If WWE just drops this angle, they will lose more creative credibility than WCW did when they just dropped the hummer angle.

A-Train's been on RAW, what, 1 time since he was traded over?

Yeah, Matt really wasn't harsh at all in his response. Unlike JBL who went the 8th grade route and called everyone gay. By the way, WWE.Com has deleted Matt's commentary.

I'll watch it at Hooters.

Wrestling Noir 08.13.04: A Response To Matt Hardy Posted By Asteroid Boy on 08.13.04 The war of words continues..... Quick History For those who have missed it.... - I wrote a column on Thursday linking Matt Hardy's falling career to Lita's influence (Wrestling Noir 08.12.04: Matt Hardy V2.0 - 'Til The Mid-Card Do Us Part). - Matt Hardy then responded to the column on his official website (Matt Hardy Responds To 411 Article On His Career). - Now, here is my reply to Matt's reply..... ------------------------------------------------- "If you want me to watch the shows, buy tickets when you come to town, buy t-shirts, and pay for a PPV every three days, you bet your ass I'm going to hard to impress. And when you give me stuff that blows and then tell me I don't get a vote on sharing that opinion, I'm going to tell you to go catch an STD." - Hogan's My Dad, The-W.com Okay Matt, I'm still not gonna call you an idiot, but you seem intent on proving me wrong. Let me put this in one-syllable words: This won't end well for you. Right now, you're Randy Savage without the world title reigns. And he's the only one in the WWF that made the loving husband gimmick work. And frankly, Randy Savage in the 80's could wrestle circles around you. We don't care that you have a girlfriend. We don't want to know about it. They tried this crap with Steve Austin in the buildup to WrestleMania X-7 and they dropped it quicker than your company drops blondes with big tits. From a character perspective, you are being cast as a pussy-whipped dupe of a boyfriend who forgave his woman for sleeping with Satan and won't listen to those who are politely trying to tell him that he's shacked up with the village whore. You're coming off as one degree away from Richard Simmons and guys who do interior decorating on Lifetime, Matt. Do you REALLY think that guys are sitting around, saying, "Dude, do you think Kane is really the father of Lita's baby??" Guys don't like that soap opera shit. We hate it when people dismiss our hobby as, "Oh, that's just a soap opera for guys." We don't want to think about you having a family. When you're not wrestling, we want you to live in the wilderness, train like Rocky when he whipped the Russian's ass, eat bugs and chop logs. Not being the supportive spouse. That's what we have to do, Matt, and we don't watch wrestling for some badly-acted mirror of our personal lives. We want to drink a beer with our buddies and watch guys kick the shit out of each other. Why do you think that Steve Austin became the biggest star in wrestling? We like blood and broken tables and physicality that gives us cause to turn to our friends and say, "That is one tough motherfucker." We don't want to watch guys in ponytails and black Gap button-down shirts deliver awkward lines like, "Lita, Ah've decided that ah want to be with yew." Yeah, the angle's getting a lot of play right now. Don't you think that might have something to do with the WWE hiring writers with soap opera experience? They put it on the job application, Matt. You're a guinea pig, you're a fifth-grade writing exercise. And when the angle ends, guess who they're gonna have nothing for? You're an afterthought. If you're being led down a path, at least have your eyes open. Do you really think the internet's too negative? If so, I'd invite you to read the other fine columnists on this site. You'll find that they are invariably positive, but when they see crap, they'll point it out. All of us are fans of the business. Personally, I think you're just picking out the criticism and whining about it. And a lack of perspective leads to stuff like Katie Vick and the half-assed "Rosemary's Baby" storyline that you're currently mired in. And as long as we're generalizing, one thing I've noticed about WWE is its inability to accept anything less than glowing feedback. And when your back's up against the wall, it's even worse. You're right, I don't know you personally, but that column was entirely about your wrestling character. Lita's too. But you don't know me personally, either. I'm a kid? Matt, I'm 28, if that's young to you, then your career is in more trouble than I thought. Pigeonholing us as bitter "kids" on computers is about as asinine as calling wrestlers a bunch of high-school dropouts with Eugene's mental prowess who only deign to interact with the fans when it means a chance to sell their merchandise. You're not like that, right Matt? We're too negative? We like you, Matt. We've rooted for you from the beginning. Don't piss off one of your major fan bases. Getting defensive and attacking the fans that are still around doesn't make sense. Grow a thicker skin, but more importantly, work on your reading comprehension, be more choosy about your angles and don't blame the Internet or knee surgery in a few months, when you're putting over Tyson Tomko on Heat.

It was Vince Russo's SMART and WITTY way to incorporate the word "ass" into his finishing move.