Enigma

THE LATEST VERSION Aug. 12, 2004 Hello, again. It’s your friendly neighborhood sports entertainer here to battle crime and evil courtesy of the Latest Version. Hopefully, the Hurri-Shane won’t take offense to me opening like that, considering that it’s a little close to his stuff. While on the subject of Shane Helms, I’d like to send a get-well wish to one of my favorite amigos. This past Monday, Sugar Shane underwent surgery on his broken nose so that he’ll be able to breathe out of both nostrils once again. Anyway, let’s carry on as you prepare to be injected with your monthly dose of Mattitude. To begin with, I want to apologize to anyone who has attended a live event recently and expected to see yours truly. My knee is not allowing me to work a full-time schedule right now, much to my frustration. I hate not being at any WWE show, but that’s how it has to be right now. After having more-detailed MRIs done within my knee, it turns out I’m unfortunately dealing with a worst-case scenario. My North Carolina orthopedic doctor confirmed that my MCL is torn, but not badly enough to do any damage on its own. My meniscus has a severe tear in it that has to be scoped and cleaned so that knee will no longer lock up. My ACL, the most important ligament in my knee, is non-existent now. The doctor said there were no fibers of my ACL remaining within my left knee. Not good. The tests also showed my ACL has been destroyed for months. The doc couldn’t believe that I was walking without my knee buckling and giving out, much less wrestling a full time schedule up until four weeks ago. With that said, I have to get total reconstructive surgery on my left knee. The typical recovery time for this surgery is usually six to eight months. But before this happens, this tough bastard named Matt Hardy has a match left in him at SummerSlam. I’m gonna miss seeing everyone for a while, but I’m gonna bust my ass to get back as soon as possible. As I sit and type this, I am on my way home from the Birmingham, Ala., office of the world-renowned Dr. James Andrews. In case you’re not familiar with Doc Andrews, he is the orthopedic specialist responsible for putting so many of the WWE Superstars back together after they tear or break something. Yours truly visited the good doctor to get his very respected opinion on my damaged knee. His response was the same as the first orthopedic specialist that diagnosed me — that my knee needs to be totally reconstructed. Andrews was also a little freaked out by my "jimmy legs," as I had to explain that the genetic makeup of my pelvis causes my femur to anatomically rotate wider than that of a normal person. We actually X-rayed my hips, and yes, they are anatomically incorrect. They also have bone spurs that should bother me in a couple of years. Hey, when it rains, it pours — but that’s all the bad news I have for you. The good news is I just saved a ton of money on my car insurance. (Just a played-out joke, I needed to lighten up the mood for everyone a little.) Since I missed the cities of the month last month, let me update everyone. Spartanburg, South Carolina was an awesome old-fashioned type of crowd that was red-hot and happy to see their fellow Carolinian. New York, N.Y., home of Madison Square Garden, was very good to their sensei when I was there last time. It took a while for New York and the Garden to grow on this country boy from the South, but it is truly a special place filled with incredible fans. Time for a little OMEGA news. When in Spartanburg, I got to spend some time with my long-time pal, Thomas. After our show that night, myself, Edge, Thomas, Krazy K, and some others enjoyed dinner while reminiscing over the old days and the fun we had running OMEGA shows. Before I left to go to Charleston the next day, Thomas impressed me with his sushi chef-like talents. Knowing that I’m a big sushi fan, Thomas whipped up some restaurant quality sushi rolls. He made an extremely mean freshwater eel roll. Who would have known? Just recently, I spoke with Ted Hobgood, a.k.a. "Scott Sullivan," who was the voice of OMEGA. About a week or so later, we were able to get together and catch a bite to eat. It was great to catch up on things and once again recall all the rewarding fun we had during the OMEGA period. It had been years since I last spoke to Ted because of our phone numbers changing and moving and whatnot. Ted is an extremely creative and talented guy and has a genuine love for professional wrestling. He was a big contributor to the OMEGA product with his ring announcing and commentary, as well as creative suggestions. Ted is a guy who still has a lot left to offer to the wrestling business. It would be great if one day he got that chance. The last rendition of the Latest Version was quite the issue of discussion among the Internet wrestling community. I thought I’d post a follow up to some of the feedback I received and read about my statements. Overall, I think most people understood the points I was trying to make and appreciated the way they were made. The reason I wrote the article was to help people view the business in a more open-minded and positive way. It’s important to me to help better the business as much as I can. I want people to enjoy watching and following wrestling, enjoy learning about wrestling, enjoy their entire sports entertainment experience. I love the wrestling business. It consumes my daily life and always will in some form or fashion. I passionately enjoy the business on every level, from A to Z. I love watching all other wrestling groups, no matter how big or small the promotion. I want anyone else who passionately follows the business to be able to allow themselves to enjoy the business like I do. Whether you’re in the business or not, I want you to be unbiased and flexible with your point of view, as well as question popular opinion. Praise things that you think are good. Offer constructive suggestions to what you view as bad. I get frustrated about things as well, and I know realistically that everything on a wrestling show isn’t always going to be great. I suggest that you don’t hate or trash something for no rhyme or reason. I plan on doing as much as I can on my end to make the business better. I’d like it if you’d do the same. My goal isn’t to insult you or your intelligence, it’s to help you better your sports entertainment experience. I’m not here to start fights, I’m here to set examples. Random thoughts: But first, merchandise plug time … Current Mattitude items available that will make you a better MFer: (1) Warning T-shirt — Mattitude may cause severe side effects (2) Sensei T-shirt — The Sensei of Mattitude (3) V1 pendant (4) Ruthless Aggression Matt Hardy action figure with white pants (5) Exist to Inspire — Hardy Boyz autobiography (6) Soon to be released Matt and Lita action figures two-pack The last rock CD I bought was Blink-182’s latest offering, and I’ve enjoyed it as I have five songs on it I really like. The last rap CD I bought was Lloyd Banks, "The Hunger for More." I think Lloyd is going to be a big rap star who will be around for quite a while. I really dig both of the "Warrior" songs. I love to eat out and try new foods, especially when it comes to experimenting with other culture’s cuisines. My latest venture has been into Thai food and so far my favorites have been their spicy soups and Pad-Thai. I never drank coffee until I was older, but recently I fell in love with Starbuck’s white mocha chocolate concoction. Everyone who is taking time to read this column probably knows that my primary goal in this business is to be the World Champion, which symbolizes the fact that you are the best in this business. Recently, I’ve have my mind set on a goal that may be even more important to V1. I want to make my mark on the wrestling industry by changing the business for the better in some form or fashion. I want to help the business evolve into its next stage. Several people have recently asked about my brother, Jeff, and my thoughts on his current situation. I support my brother unconditionally in whatever he chooses to do with his life. We’ve been through too much together for me not to. I’m glad he has a positive situation to once again invest his talent and time into. I think the wrestling business is definitely his calling in life — Jeff just has to be able to find a happy medium between his career and his independence. The main things I want for my brother is for him to be happy and healthy. Adios amigos! Take care of yourself, and remember positivity breeds positivity. Be well, and until then … THE MATT HARDY V1 The Sensei of Mattitude I’m Veeeee-Oonnneeeuuuuuhhhhhhhhhhhh! P.S. — It’s 3:00 a.m. on August 12, and I was just getting ready to send my commentary to my friends at WWE.com. Before doing so, I decided to scan the Net and check the headlines, and I came across something quite absurd. After reading this, I just had to use this as an example of the "wrestling negativity snowball" that I’ve been speaking about. I encountered a ridiculous article that some kid wrote that made an analogy comparing Amy (Lita) to credit and debit cards. This person went on to talk about how my career’s screwed because I’ve reunited with Lita and because of my recent storyline. The most asinine part of the article is how it criticizes the reality of Amy and I being put together on the same schedule, not just on TV. He then rambles on about how I’ve made a career-destructive decision and how Amy is deteriorating. He then states that one of the Diva Search contestants is going to take Lita’s place. He also quotes a sign from a fan to back up his claim that Lita’s days are numbered in WWE. This was too much. At this point, I had to wake up Amy up to read this laughable nonsense. To begin with, anyone who doesn’t personally know Matt Hardy or Amy Dumas can’t accurately comment on our personal lives. You can comment on the characters of Matt and Lita that you see on TV because you’re familiar with them. But the only information you have is your opinion of what you see on screen and what you read or hear about. People have no idea about what goes on and our status behind the curtain. Is Matt Hardy’s career suffering? Absolutely not. Right now, I am in the best spot I have ever been in as a singles competitor. I loved the stuff I did on SmackDown! It was great and good for my career. Although it took me a while to get where I wanted to be on RAW, I am currently in a better position now. If I didn’t have to get some work done on my knee, my snowball would keep rolling and getting bigger. Whether you love the Matt-Lita-Kane saga or think it’s rotten, you don’t understand the business if you don’t realize it’s a huge, high-profile part of the RAW show. It’s these types of negative, nonsensical articles that set bad examples for other fans and give the IWC a bad rep. But, if you happen to disagree with my comments and doubt my views, just remember this: Growing up, people said I would never be able to wrestle in WWE. I did. People said I would never become a legit WWE Superstar if my brother and I kept losing on TV early in our careers. I did. Most people thought I’d never be able to survive as a singles star without my brother. I did. When I had my run as Cruiserweight champ, a majority of people thought I’d never break the cruiserweight stigma. I did. People thought I would never get out of my "slump" on RAW. I did. Nobody thought I would beat Kane at Vengeance. I did. If you don’t think I’ll come back from my injury better than ever and become one of the biggest stars in all of WWE, please, bet against me. Matt Hardy loves to prove people wrong and make them eat their words. You can quote that — because I mean what I say, and I say what I mean.

You might be confusing her with Lady Storm. And the reason they are still in business? They run in a bunch bars and stripclubs that are full of horny guys, promise nudity and deliver. Plus from the clips I saw, they have a Rock rip-off called The Smoke. And it looks like he went through Rico's closet.

The Ric Flair book moved to No. 6 on the New York Times bestseller list that will be coming out on 8/8. It was No. 5 in the Globe & Mall list (the most prestigious list in Canada) for the second straight week. Those numbers do reflect the new promotional strategy revolved around knocking Bret Hart and Mick Foley, and it was up from No. 7 on the New York Times list the week before. An update on SummerSlam from last week: the Chris Jericho vs. Batista match was made a three-way with Edge for the IC title. Matt Hardy vs. Kane has the added stipulation that the winner gets to marry Lita. I think FMW under Kodo Fuyuki may have done some deal where if somebody lost a match they would have to marry Kyoko Inoue many years back. My guess is Kane will have the match in the bag, when Shawn Michaels will be the knight in shining armor. Of course, then Matt will be destroyed (knee surgery) so the wedding is postponed for a while. If not, they do have the possibilities of doing a Kane-Lita wedding and do months of vignettes of Lita driving Kane insane until he finally agrees to let her out of the marriage. Hey, much of their audience is now men over the age of 35. There was a good deal of national media pub, and even more in the Minnesota area obviously, regarding Brock Lesnar's signing with the Minnesota Vikings. It was covered on ESPN news and talked about on their talk shows and on many sports talk shows. When asked about the pay cut, going from an estimated $1.5 million per year guaranteed for seven years to maybe $85,000 this year since it's most likely he’ll wind up this season, with no guarantees of anything, he said, "Money's just money. It doesn't make you happy. I've been on both spectrums, a poor dairy farmer in Webster, South Dakota, and I've been a millionaire. One doesn’t make you happier than the other." Lesnar said if the team suggested it, he would be willing to play next season in NFL Europe for experience, which is what Vikings coach Mike Tice said is the most likely scenario. Lesnar is currently earning $750 per week in camp. Lesnar also apologized for the anti-gay remarks he made in an ESPN interview a few months back, since it resurfaced as an issue when he signed. “I’m sorry for my statement," he said. "I'm sorry for anybody's feelings getting hurt." Lesnar, when being interviewed by ESPN's Wayne Drehs in June, had a woman come up to him and say that a guy with her "thinks you're kinda cute." Lesnar responded with a curse-laden outburst and told the reporter, "I don’t like gays. Write that down in your little notebook. I don’t like gays." Lesnar's appearance in camp has been the major story out of the Vikings camp, with daily coverage so far. ESPN Sports Center covered it, with interviews with Tony Dungy and The Rock. Rock said the chances are slim he'll make it but he put over Lesnar as a great athlete who has a chance. Dungy talked about how Lesnar has this great body and has never used steroids. Lesnar did his "bring me your pee cup" line and said it was a big mistake to go to WWE (three years ago he told me pro wrestling was the greatest job in the world). He said the travel and fame were too much. If he doesn't like fame, the NFL may not be the place to go. Sable, who is still Lesnar's girlfriend, accompanied Lesnar to his first day of practice on 7/30. Lesnar, swarmed by autograph seekers, said the football fans were "a lot more polite than wrestling fans, that's for sure." He will be rooming in camp with Chris Hovan, the Vikings' starting defensive tackle. The two have known each other for several years, plus it will be better for Lesnar in learning the position. "I was telling my girlfriend (Rena Mero) on the way down that I'm finally starting to feel like a competitor again. It kind of went away for me a little bit in the entertainment business. This is a good feeling. I missed this feeling." Lesnar's agent has claimed when Vince McMahon found out Lesnar was serious about leaving and trying football, he wanted to call a big press conference and make a big deal out of it. Lesnar refused, thinking that nobody would take him seriously at that point, figuring it was just a WWE publicity stunt. On the first day, he worked out one-on-one with coaches as they didn’t want him to be embarrassed against football players for several days. As it turned out, by Monday, he was in there as part of the third string defense against the third string offense, and was stood up at the line and pushed down the field several times, but did get one tackle. The WWE Experience has been moved back one hour to 11 a.m. on Sundays. For some reason, this time change has barely been publicized other than the crawl they put on TV that almost nobody even looks at. The line-ups for the Australia tour were released. 8/27 in Sydney will be JBL vs. Undertaker, Eddie Guerrero vs. Kurt Angle, John Cena & RVD vs. Booker T & Rene Dupree, Billy Kidman & Paul London vs. the Dudleys (they've been having strong house show matches), Spike Dudley vs. Rey Mysterio vs. Chavo Guerrero and the women in a best body deal. 8/28 in Brisbane is JBL vs. Guerrero, Undertaker vs. Angle, Booker vs. Cena, Kidman & London vs. Dudleys, Spike vs. Mysterio vs. Chavo and RVD vs. Jon Heidenreich. 8/29 in Melbourne is JBL vs. Undertaker no DQ, Guerrero vs. Angle no DQ, Booker vs. Cena vs. Dupree for US title, Kidman & London & Funaki vs. Dudleys & Spike, Torrie Wilson & Miss Jackie vs. Sable & Dawn Marie, Mysterio vs. Chavo and RVD vs. Luther Reigns. Danny Williams, the British boxer who knocked out Mike Tyson on 7/30, is a huge wrestling fan. Through intermediaries, he had contacted WWE about involvement in 2002, but was turned down. He's very interested in participating in an angle when WWE does TV in the U.K. in October. Not sure how beating Tyson has made him in the U.K., but in the U.S., it was more that Tyson lost to a nobody, as opposed to Williams becoming a somebody who KO’d Tyson. After beating Tyson, one of the first things on his mind was shooting an angle with Randy Orton with the idea (his) of legend killer vs. legend killer. The San Francisco Chronicle had a story on 7/25 about "neuro marketing," which is movie studios using brain-scan technology to evaluate ad campaigns and interpret viewer surveys. According to the article, one of the things studying brain scans on women is that women secretly adore The Rock. "We showed a trailer for Rundown. A lot of females didn’t want to admit (in writing) that he was intriguing. He's got this wrestling past, so maybe it's not socially acceptable (for general public women) to say that they're attracted to this guy. But they gave off very powerful brain responses." That's all well and good, but the fact is, Rundown didn’t knock them dead at the box office, and there is a difference in women wanting to sleep with a guy and if they want to pay $10 to watch him for two hours act in a movie. I don’t know what my brain scan would say about Torrie Wilson, but I promise you, if write I don’t want to watch her wrestle or watch her act, I'm not lying. When Ric Flair was on "Best Damn Sports Show Period" and asked who he admired the most as a performer, he said Ray Stevens (who, in the 60s, when Flair was young, was often thought of as the best worker in the business). Reports are the Chris Benoit DVD is awesome. Of course looking at old matches today can disappoint since matches are worked for their time frame, as work styles and fans expectations constantly change, but the Benoit vs. Kurt Angle match from Royal Rumble 2003 apparently watching things today looks better than his Japanese matches. I haven’t seen it, but have been told Michael Cole was not good doing voiceovers of old matches, but that he was Mike Tenay next to Todd Grisham, who had no clue about anything, to the point Dean Malenko, doing color, was badly making fun of him. Once, he asked Malenko how be and Benoit got to Japan, and Malenko deadpanned, "by airplane." Grisham knew none of the guys, including mispronouncing Jushin Lyger and having no clue whom he was, nor having any clue what the Super J Cup was. I'm not saying he should know off the top of his head, but he should have enough "working knowledge" that when someone says, this was a one-night tournament of most of the top junior heavyweights in the world 10 years ago from many promotions, you should be able to handle it from there. More on Beth Phoenix, who wrestles in OVW as the cousin of Brent Albright doing a female shooter gimmick: her real name is Elizabeth Carolyn from Elmira, NY. She's 23 years old, and lettered in high school wrestling against guys. She debuted on a show Roddy Piper promoted in Washington in 2001, worked some Northeastern independents and did most of her wrestling for Apocalypse Wrestling out of Toronto under the name Phoenix, working a lot against Felina (Gail Kim) and Tracy Brooks (TNA). She also once wrestled current OVW wrestler Jillian Hall in Toronto. More on Ric Flair's interview with Kevin McKenzie from last week: he said it's an automatic that son Reid Fleihr (who starts his junior year of high school next month) will end up as a pro wrestler and be very good at it, but he doesn’t want him doing it until after he finishes college. After some of the house show stuff, there is talk of doing a mixed feud with Steven Richards & Victoria vs. Rodney Mack & Jazz, since the latter two have no program and Mack hasn’t even returned to TV (aside from the 7/26 Raw Battle Royal where he was barely noticeable). The Undertaker is really working with Jon Heidenreich of late since that's his planned next program, and Heidenreich is under pressure since he's not ready, everyone knows he's not ready, and he himself I think is naturally shy to go along with not being much of a worker, which is something he’ll have to overcome because his only chance right now is a wild and aggressive heel. Eric Bischoff and Jason Hervey will both be hosting as well as producing a PPV from the Sturgis rally which will be a taped show airing on 8/20. Bischoff-Hervey Entertainment is the producer. Bischoff’s bio in the publicity for the show says, "Eric Bischoff of Bischoff-Hervey Entertainment is a seasoned television producer of over 1,500 hours of television on the TBS, TNT networks, and syndication." No word at all on what it was he produced or what he's doing now. Ever since Vince McMahon praised the talent of Hiroko (whose poise behind a microphone should be natural as a former television news anchorwoman in Japan), the Suzuki family act has been praised by everyone, even to the point of talking about a babyface turn for them coming off the "I love America" stuff. Vince McMahon came last week to OVW to look over the talent and gave a speech, and talked about signing more guys up for developmental, and opening up more developmental territories. There was some heat over a misunderstanding with Stacy Keibler at a weekend show. She got to the building and was asked to do a meet and greet, and refused, saying she had just arrived after a long drive and nobody had told her about it. It became something of a big deal in the locker room. This isn’t going to be viewed well for her. The problem that a lot of people don’t understand about the women is that it takes a ton of work to look like that, and part of their aura is if fans see them and they aren't looking good, it ruins what they have, not that making a fuss over meeting fans ever goes over well. Christian is just about ready to return, but they look to be holding it off for a few weeks because there's no point in putting him on TV before SummerSlam since he doesn’t have a program. He is booked with Edge on some-house shows in a few weeks, but that could mean nothing. Chuck Palumbo suffered a neck injury over the weekend. There was a major issue during the week at a live amateur class show at the Davis Arena on 7/31 that drew 300 fans. Most of the TV guys were there cheering their fellow students on. OVW teaches old-school ways, most notably that babyfaces and heels should never socialize anywhere people can see them, particularly if they are feuding. A lot of the younger wrestlers, if not most, were too young to understand the old ways and don’t have the instincts on the whys of this. At the show, Matt Morgan (heel) and Alexis Laree (face) were talking at the hot dog stand and Jim Cornette blew a gasket. He doesn’t like it if they would be in the same night club because of the possibility that a fan might see them, let alone talking at the Davis Arena filled with nothing but the weekly regular fans. He didn’t even like that the TV regulars were in the stands watching the matches with the fans, feeling there should be separation of wrestlers from fans. He told Morgan, who would be OVW's biggest star right now, that he's the big star, and if he went to a Stones concert, it's highly unlikely the fans would see Mick Jagger in line to buy hot dogs, because he's a star, and Morgan should act like a star. He also didn’t like Morgan being around with all the guys he abuses weekly en TV, where fans can see it, with him just acting like a fan. Paul Bearer wrote a long web site article on his battle with obesity. He said he had gotten way out of control, as noted by his TNA appearances. He was called in September about returning, and because of his weight issue, the company helped pay for his Gastric Bypass surgery, which he got on 11/25. After surgery, he developed an irregular heartbeat and his resting pulse ranged between 160 and 180 from the stress of his body from the operation. On three different occasions before WrestleMania, they twice had to shock his heart back into regular beatings. He had dropped 129 pounds by WrestleMania, and has dropped 71 more since then, with a goal of dropping 75 more. His gall bladder problems came on 5/21, which necessitated the kidnapping angle. It wasn’t unexpected, as 30% of the patients who get that kind of surgery experience gall bladder problems from the rapid weight loss. Actual attendance for the 7/19 Raw tapings in Washington, DC, was 7,800 and for the 7/20 Smackdown tapings in Philadelphia was 5,500. 7/30 Raw in Albuquerque drew 3,300 and $117,000. 7/31 Smackdown in East Rutherford, NJ drew 5,609 and $213,000. 7/31 Raw in Austin drew 2,800 and $92,000. 8/1 Smackdown in Bridgeport drew 3,300 and $84,000. 8/1 Raw in Corpus Christi drew a sellout 3,700 and $135,000. By today's standards, the Raw brand tour was a success.

Speaking of which, whatever came of Maxx Payne's lawsuit against Rockstar Games for the using the name "Max Payne" for their video games?

Bring back Fully Loaded.

The World Wrestling Entertainment Raw brand PPV scheduled for Tuesday 10/19 will be titled "Taboo Tuesday." The PPV's name was revealed in a mailer sent to cable subscribers listing the WWE PPV schedule for the remainder of 2004. Taboo Tuesday PPV will take place just nine days after that month's scheduled Smackdown PPV, No Mercy. Last June, WWE brought the old WCW Great American Bash PPV out of mothballs as an additional Smackdown PPV event. Taboo Tuesday is the added Raw brand PPV, which brings the promotion's total number of scheduled live PPVs for 2004 to 14. credit: PWInsider

Based on the info in last week's Observer, I'm sure Sakoda was fired due to his chronic back problems and WWE felt he was too injury-prone. Now, for everyone's enjoyment, allow me to bring to you Sakoda's bio from Smackdown's website: The tag team of Akio & Sakoda could be one of the most dangerous duos ever seen on SmackDown! The team gained notoriety because of its alliance with Tajiri, but now that Tajiri is a member of the RAW roster, this team could be headed for new heights. While little is known about this mysterious man, it is clear that Sakoda has been well versed and trained in the great Japanese wrestling tradition, and he has both the power and in-ring ability to be the next great product out of Japan. When he has to mix it up in the ring, Sakoda clearly can hold his own. With such skill, strength, and the Japanese wrestling tradition behind them, Akio & Sakoda could be a household name in the wrestling world in a very short time! Indeed.

I can tell you why Great American Bash did a high buyrate. The GAB was not part of the PPV package plan for bars (or what WWE calls "Blast Areas") that show WWE PPVs. Our usual group that goes to Hooters to watch PPVs went and was told that they weren't showing GAB because it wasn't part of the package. So, we went back to a friends house and he ordered it. I'm sure a lot of other people ended up doing this too.

If WWE 24/7 is like this and will only cost $6-$10 a month as speculated, I'm totally subscribing.

I really doubt Bret would come back for a non-match. And if you advertise a Bret Hart vs. Kurt Angle match, it better be a 5-Star classic or else people are going to be disappointed. This would disappoint me.

I don't know how anyone can accuse Cena's promos of being too goofy and comedic and then claim that Angle's promos are better. All of Angle's best promos were where we was being goofy and stupid. I can't remember a single promo by Angle in which he was serious because they're not that memorable.

Becca would be proud! (nothing personal, I just wanted to use a Becca joke)

While he was signed only a couple of weeks after his TNA debut I don't really think that WWE gave a lick who worked for them. I'm guessing they signed London after Cornette's repeated visits to ROH showed to him that he was a talent worth having in WWE. Alexis Laree was signed at the same time when she was in a prominent position in TNA and she's still never been on TV. London's mainly been a JTTS since he was signed too. How anyone can say these two were signed for any other reason than pissing off TNA is beyond me.

You mean that version of the 4 Horsemen that had only 3 members? And did you ever notice during that entire run, not withstanding the uniting, Ric Flair never once had any interaction with Paul Roma at all?

In a surprise, on its day of release, the Chris Benoit DVD “Hard Knocks: The Chris Benoit Story” set had sold out in many stores. It was No. 13 among all titles on the Deep Discount DVD best sellers list and No. 10 among all titles on amazon.ca (the Canadian branch) and No. 53 in the U.S. While not the early rush the Ric Flair DVD initially had, it's well above DVD's for far bigger stars like Steve Austin, The Rock, Kurt Angle, Brock Lesnar, and Shawn Michaels coming out of the chute. This may say that the DVD market is based on guys who have a track record of great matches, as aside from Flair, the biggest individual wrestler DVD was for Michaels. Eddie Guerrero’s is coming out this year, and among people who at least have reps for great matches, that leaves perhaps Bret Hart as the strongest candidate, although there are many obstacles there. Due to Eddie Guerrero's hamstring injury, he was out this past weekend and may be out until around SummerSlam, or at least not used on house shows to allow him to heal. At the house shows starting this coming weekend, Kurt Angle will be back, and he'll work with John Cena, which pulls Cena out of scheduled four-ways. In one of the statements of the bizarre Joanie Laurer interview on the 7/22 Howard Stern show, she said that she and Sean Waltman had broken up because HHH had gotten him his job back in WWE as long as he went into rehab. I guess she broke up with him over going back as she said, “I had this boyfriend who is going back to WWE, and I told him to take a hike. I just realize I’ve been a chump for him for a couple of years.” Funny thing is I expect them to get back together. Waltman had talked with HHH back in February at the No Way Out PPV. I don’t believe he has a job waiting for him simply by going through rehab, but HHH can get him in since he's either the first or second most powerful person in the company, and since HHH and Vince McMahon paid for the rehab personally, I think it's a pretty good sign they expect him back. My own thoughts when it comes to situations like this, is the company should tell the person in question to work on the independent scene and monitor their track record. Eddie Guerrero had a great track record when he went on the independent scene, and turned down the wrestlers when they wanted him to party with them. Others, like Scott Hall, were hired, even though his track record on the independents and New Japan was terrible, and guess what? His stint in WWE was a three-month disaster. Waltman should be told to work independents for a few months. If his work is good and reports are good, you at least have a foundation to give him a chance. Making him a deal because he went through rehab without him proving himself is asking for trouble, and there are a lot of friends of Waltman that believe the worst thing for him is to be in the business. Laurer's appearance was bizarre, and before she even came on, Gary Dell’abate told Stern that she was acting kind of odd, and she, early in the interview, told Stern he was acting weird. She had a hand injury which she first said was from working out at home and busting it on the corner of a table. I’ve never done that one before. She brought up HHH marrying Vince McMahon's daughter, said the people in WWE were immoral and unethical, and kept calling HHH, "Triple Ass." She said she hadn’t gotten a royalty check from them for some time. She said Triple Ass looks like he's all gassed up and he needs to go to rehab or something. It was brutal. She noted WWE has threatened to sue her for using the name Chynna Doll and marketing a likeness similar to her WWE character, because they claim ownership of the Chyna name and gimmick. She mentioned she had been arrested when her boyfriend (never mentioned Waltman specifically) told the cops she had hit him. Dell’abate read about a different arrest (when Waltman had his problems). She mentioned she was put in jail for four days after her arrest. She said Antonio Inoki always treated her like a queen. Stern told her she should stop dating wrestlers and suggested she try dating chicks. She also brought up she has a home video of her and Sean having sex and is thinking of releasing it, but Sean may not want it released. She must be bad off for that. Chaunce Hayden called into the show, said he had seen the tape and said it was pretty hot, and suggested Laurer become a stripper. It got even worse from there. She said she's had a bad couple of years but things are turning around. She sang. Brooke Hogan is a million times better at singing. Sean Waltman responded after haring about this, posting on his message board from the Talbott Recovery Campus in Atlanta. He said he still loves her more than anything, but thought it was wrong of her to say he was in rehab on Howard Stern. He said he was hurt after hearing her comments, but only wants to make her happy. He said he has no problem with the sex tape being released (that just comes off so bad). Pushing The Lope Entertainment of Santa Monica, along with John Piermarini and Frank Murgia are filing claiming to be failing a lawsuit against WWE, saying they came up with the Diva Search idea. The group claimed they came up with the idea, and they and Trish Stratus presented it to Kevin Dunn. Dunn then brought the idea to Vince McMahon and Jim Ross. Piermarini said he met with Dunn on 12/8, along with Stratus. Dunn said he loved the idea and it was very original (so original that UPN was already doing a similar TV show at the time). The complete idea for a show was presented to Dunn on 1 /7, who told them Vince McMahon was very impressed with the idea, but didn’t want to commit to it until after Wrestlemania. The group never heard anything from WWE again until hearing on 5/24 that WWE was doing the idea. Hulk Hogan did an interview with Alex Marvez on our web site, mainly to push his daughter's career. He said that if Brooke doesn’t make it as a singer, she wants to be a woman wrestler, and he said he wants to manage her. Funny, because on the VH-1 special, she specifically and adamantly says she doesn’t want to wrestle even after, also on the special, her father talks about getting her into wrestling if her singing career doesn’t take off. He claimed he could have gone to Wrestlemania XX and Gerald Brisco kept calling him about it, but was still mad about his payoff for XIX ($250,000, although that was as much as anyone on the show got, and the buy rate was disappointing), saying he made more for Wrestlemania I, and he didn’t want to come back for that kind of money. There may be something to that, because we'd heard a similar story a few weeks before the show, said off the record from those close to Hogan although WWE denied any interest, but Ric Flair, who is very close to the key people in the company on "Off the Record" did say it was a shame Hogan wasn’t at WM 20 because he was the big star of the early Manias, and intimated the reason was Hogan priced himself too high. Hogan said even though the payoff for WM18 was good (Hogan vs. The Rock, which was the second biggest show at the time, now third biggest, in history), he and Rock should have gotten double what they did. He said he didn’t go to TNA because even though they told him Russo wasn’t with the company, he really still was (a convenient excuse because Russo was involved from day one, then told to leave because Hogan was coming in, and really did leave until the Hogan deal fell through). He got hip replacement surgery (the surgery will be airing on the 7/29 VH-1 special) even though the doctors said he didn’t need it (although at some point he would) and said he's fine now. On the special, they showed him telling his kids his hip hurts, he's not going to retire from wrestling, so he got surgery to be feeling better for when he comes back. Even though he doesn’t need to do much to get over, with an artificial knee and hip that is God's way of nicely asking you to retire from wrestling. Hogan said he can do everything in the ring that he used to do, being that he never did much. He said if he cut his head, Hulked up, and dropped the leg, that's all he needs, and he can do it all now. But he said if Vince McMahon wants to be beating him, he doesn’t want to go back. "But if he wants a scenario where the people see a 50-year-old man use the power of Hulkamania to slip by, he can make a lot of money." Mick Foley's knee damage was more extensive than originally thought, including needing a PCI replacement and having a torn meniscus. He's supposed to be on crutches for a few weeks but was off them within days (and walking around at the Democratic Convention this week), largely to keep up with his young kids, but that doesn't speed up the healing process. His baseball novel is tentatively scheduled for a September 2005 release. Vince McMahon talked with him about writing another wrestling book, and he's considered doing a novel based on a crazy foreign tour he did early in his career, but that's mainly just a thought. WWE Films will start production in September on a $15 million budget feature film called "The Marine," which will be a vehicle for John Cena. Cena would play an injured Marine who returns to find his girlfriend had been kidnapped. The movie would start filming in mid-September. If it goes through, Cena would be taking a short hiatus from wrestling during the filming. Regarding company developmental expansion per last week, at this point it appears the first new territorial expansion would likely be the Northeast, based out of the Trax building in Stamford that they have leased and where the wrestlers trained for the first two seasons of Tough Enough. Tampa and Atlanta have been discussed as noted, but neither is official, and if it does happen, it would likely be months to a year away, although plans are to expand. The 7/23 OVW show at Six Flags in Louisville drew 1,500 fans to see John Cena face Matt Morgan, even with threatening weather, which was considered a major success. Speaking of John Cena, on 7/24, he was in Cleveland for the National Sports Collectors Convention, along with heavy hitters like Jim Brown, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Pete Rose, Johnny Bench, John Elway, Joe Namath, Lawrence Taylor, Reggie Jackson, Whitey Ford, and Dan Marino. Cena had completed his signing session and was browsing the memorabilia dealers and came upon some game used NFL helmets. He went nuts. He started grabbing helmet after helmet, and started asking fans which helmets he should get. After about ten minutes, he settled on 32 helmets for a price of $7,200. On his way out, he saw a fan that was a quadriplegic in a wheelchair and on a ventilator. Cena and the boy talked for a few minutes and the boy must have said something about how cool it would be to get a Ken Griffey, Jr. signed bat. Cena, with a big smile on his face, peeled off three $100 bills (price was $295), gave them to the boy to buy the bat and told him to keep the change. When the boy said to him, "You're the man," Cena came back and said, "No, you're the real man." This wasn't a publicity stunt and there were no cameras there and you won’t be seeing it on TV and you wouldn't be hearing about it except a couple of my friends were right there when it happened, so that’s a testament to just what kind of person Cena is. After the success of the Ric Flair DVD, WWE is now in the process of doing a history of the Four Horsemen DVD. The 10/3 No Mercy PPV has been moved from the MCI Center in Washington, DC to the Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, NJ. It also has been confirmed to now be a SmackDown PPV. There is disappointment in how Mark Jindrak and Rene Dupree are developing. It appears from how they used him at the house show that Tyson Tomko may fit into that category, but I haven't heard it expressed. Jindrak has been around for four years and they just don’t think his wrestling and charisma and progressing fast enough. Dupree, on the other hand, is criticized for taking too many shortcuts at house shows. Bruno Sammartino was at the Pittsburgh Raw because they wanted him at a wrestling show for a documentary being done independent of WWE of his life. A lot of the wrestlers went up to him. He saw Ric Flair and wanted to confront him about the book but Flair skedaddled. After doing the program at all the house shows where Steven Richards dressed in drag and helped Victoria to win, on a match taped for the 8/1 Heat, Molly Holly & Jazz beat Victoria & Nidia when a non-drag Richards distracted Victoria and set up her getting pinned. The Canadian Broadcast Standard's Council stated that TSN had breached its agreement in its airings of Raw. Because of some of the content problems of the past, TSN was told to place a warning before the start of the show and when they come back from commercials stating: "Warning. The following program contains material that may offend some viewers. Viewer discretion is advised." TSN had been posting this message, but not having anyone read it aloud. The council said since they weren't reading the message aloud, they weren't properly warning visually impaired viewers. TSN had to announce several times on the 7/26 show it had breached its agreement during last week's show, and on 7/26, the warnings were both written on the screen as well as verbally read. I had figured the first Raw and Smackdown tapings in Manchester, England in October would be immediate sellouts, even in the large building. As it turns out, floor seats for both events are still available. During the October European tour, the Raw crew runs 10/6 in Helsinki; 10/7 in Sheffield, England; 10/8 in London; 10/9 in Frankfort, Germany; 10/10 in Cardiff, Wales; and the 10/11 Raw in Manchester. The Smackdown crew starts 10/7 and 10/8 in Belfast, Ireland; 10/9 in Florence, Italy; 10/10 in Turin, Italy; 10/11 in Nottingham; and 10/12 for the tapings in Manchester. Actual paid for the 7/12 Raw in Manchester was 7,500 and for the 7/13 Smackdown in Providence was 5,500. 7/24 Raw in Erie drew 2,500 and $78,000. 7/25 Smackdown house show in Roanoke drew 2,000 and $70,000. 7/25 Raw house show in Wheeling drew 1,600 and $50,000. 7/26 Raw TV taping in Pittsburgh drew 8,000. 7/26 Smackdown house show in Huntington, WV drew 2,300 and $80,000.

Anyways, I don't see what future a guy could have that was signed only to piss off TNA.

Oh yeah, because Lord knows Vince McMahon ALWAYS books for the internet.

BORCK is a better misspelling.

Piper made those comments and did that interview before he was hired back anyways.

Might want to warn about the potential "Sean O'Haire Got Arrested" threads too.

(Hilton Head Island-AP) July 28, 2004 - A former professional wrestler has been arrested on Hilton Head Island. Sean Haire, known to WWE fans as Sean O'Haire, is charged with assault and battery against two women at a nightclub last month. Haire was arrested Tuesday. A warrant states Haire punched Ivy Rowland and Deidre Clancy at Club Hypnotic on June 12th. Haire also is accused of kicking Clancy while she lay on the ground. The Hilton Head Island resident was released from WWE about a month ago. http://www.wistv.com/Global/story.asp?S=2100269&nav=0RaPPGrM

Now this brings up an interesting question. If JBL keeps the title after the UT feud who does JBL fight next? The only face I can think of that will work is Cena. Unless they want JBL and Eddie to feud again. Cena/JBL are scheduled for some house shows. I can't see them putting the title on Cena just like that could they? They're about to chuck the RAW Title on Randy Orton. So, yes.

It was the original.

Can someone remind me if I'm watching a wrestling show? Because I could swear this isn't.

1Wrestling.com has learned that talks have taken place between WWE officials and Kamala about a possible storyline that could result in the former WWF Superstar returning to the company, possibly as early as tonight. credit: 1Wrestling.com