QuestionMan

Former WWF valet Marianna Komlos, who appeared for several months with the company for short stint during 1999-2000, passed away last month after a lengthy battle with breast cancer. Komlos was 35 at the time of her passing. Kolmos debuted for the company originally as Beaver Cleavage's mother in a series of vignettes that were immediately discarded after several weeks. She then portrayed the character of Chaz' girlfriend Marianna during a storyline where he allegedly beat her, which ended with G-TV revealing she was faking the injuries. Kolmos left the company shortly after the storyline had concluded. According to a number of bodybuilding websites (which was Kolmos' primary career), Komlos had been ill for well over a year at the time of her death, dealing with breast cancer and several other major medical issues. At one point, Kolmos had defeated the disease but it returned after it had gone into remission. Our deepest condolences go out to the family and friends of Marianna Kolmos. credit: PWInsider

While the company is billing Taboo Tuesday as leaving the booking up to the fans, it is pretty clear, like with the Diva Search, that they know what they want and will be manipulating that final result. As things stand now, the plan is to keep HHH and Randy Orton away from each other in a singles match until WrestleMania (unless HHH changes his mind and decides he wants a different opponent). Even though they originally announced Orton, Edge, Chris Benoit, and Shawn Michaels as the four people the fans can pick from (narrowing it down to eliminate the usual wacky WWE web site voting where a match like Tyson Tomko vs. Steven Richards gets tons of votes for best match on a PPV; in particular the idea Ric Flair or a goof vote like Richards would take over). At Raw on 9/27, they had a match where Batista beat Orton due to Flair hitting Orton with a chair, to eliminate him from contention. The company wants fans to pick Michaels, who HHH himself wants to work with once again, but they are willing to accept Benoit might win, and that's cool as well. The plan for Benoit is to team with William Regal against La Resistance, if they can get the voting in that direction. The other plan is to set up Flair vs. Orton in a singles match on the PPV. The new idea is to push Orton hard from this point forward, to make people want to vote for him to face HHH, but not be allowed to, with the idea it'll make them want the match even more as they hold it off for seven months. After the Raw contender is announced, they will have a poll as to who Chris Jericho will face (I'm guessing Michaels, if Benoit wins, or Edge, if he's ready, or Christian, with maybe a wild card choice like Tomko who they hope nobody votes for); as well as for La Resistance (Hurricane & Rosey upset top contenders Rhyno & Tajiri on Raw, so they'll probably be figured into the balloting, which will be pushed toward Benoit & Regal provided Benoit doesn't get the shot at HHH). The Eugene vs. Eric Bischoff match will either be a loser wears a dress, the loser becomes the servant of the winner, or the company plan, which is a hair vs. hair match. You knew Bischoff still had dues to pay. They also will have a match where the fans choose what the women will wear. They also want to have a Carmella DeCesare vs. Christy Hemme match, which may be with that stipulation, or they may have a match with that stipulation involving the actual women wrestlers. As things stand right now, DeCesare is supposed to be used until 10/19, but she has not been offered anything past that point. There will also be voting during the show on who is the show MVP. ********************************************************************** An interesting guest backstage at the 9/21 Smackdown tapings in Phoenix was Rulon Gardner, who, because of his win over Alexandre Karelin to win the 2000 Olympic Greco-Roman super heavyweight gold medal in Sydney, Australia, is among the most well-known amateur wrestlers in the history of the country. Gardner was there to talk about getting into pro wrestling after being invited down by WWE officials to open negotiations. After beating Karelin, there was dialogue, although exaggerated as to far it got, back in 2000. At the time, Gardner wanted to remain in wrestling until 2004, so he was only interested in maybe doing one gimmick PPV match at a high price. WWE wasn't interested because the price he wanted was so much. Gardner's career ended with a bronze medal in Athens, and his taking off his boots and retiring from amateur wrestling. He was one of the most publicized American athletes at the games, because of his great story where he came back from losing a toe while nearly dying in sub-zero weather when he got lost skiing and was left in the elements; as well as dislocating his wrist before the Olympic trials, and nearly not even making the team. He's been a regular on lots of talk shows, including Jay Leno. Gardner's background as a huge farm boy is not that different from Brock Lesnar, but they are very different. Lesnar had the great look, but was not a good talker. Gardner is a very eloquent speaker, which doesn't necessarily translate to wrestling promos, but is a good start. But he's not a muscular beast, and is your classic powerhouse farm boy, with deceptive strength and even more deceptive agility, but not the in vogue look. Also, his age is a factor, starting out at 33, as compared to Kurt Angle, who was 29 when he signed, and Lesnar, who had just turned 23 when he started at OVW. Gardner reportedly told WWE officials that he would listen to the offer, but needed to talk it over with his family before deciding, and didn't seem to indicate to anyone in the company that he was leaning either way. However, others who have spoken with Gardner say he's very seriously considering the offer. Gardner was considered the biggest star what was going to be involved with the Real Pro Wrestling promotion that does its TV tapings 10/8 and 10/9 in Los Angeles, although he was not going to wrestle for the group, which would do real matches. Gardner was telling people that his mother was against him doing pro wrestling, but his wife was positive on it. Even though Angle won a gold medal, Gardner got 100 times the publicity for his, and was a much bigger celebrity coming out. There would be a small window where Gardner debuting as a pro wrestler could get the company some publicity, but that would only be if he's rushed (which the company's track record indicates he would be), and in that case, he's almost guaranteed to get off on a bad foot like Mark Henry. Gardner had received offers from Pride (big money offers) and UFC, but had decided that wasn't a direction he wanted to go. As it turned out, also backstage at the show was Don Frye, who Gardner spoke with about his decision. ********************************************************************** The 9/12 Unforgiven PPV with the first HHH vs. Randy Orton match is estimated at doing 235,000 buys on PPV, or a 0.44 buy rate. That has been along the lines of all the recent singular brand PPV shows after Backlash, which has ranged at this point from 220,000 to 235,000 buys. So it appears we are at that level of core viewers. Keep in mind the original estimates for these shows are usually at least 10% below what the final number will end up being. On one hand, the number has to be disappointing since the HHH vs. Orton angle was supposed to be a big one, and this did the same numbers as two shows headlined by JBL vs. Eddie Guerrero (220,000 buys at Judgment Day and 233,000 buys at Great American Bash), one headlined by HHH vs. Chris Benoit (232,000 buys at Vengeance) and slightly below another headlined by HHH vs. Shawn Michaels (264,000 buys at Bad Blood) in a Hell in a Cell match. However, it really is no surprise. The angle was rushed and there was clearly no buzz that the match was anything special, and live ticket sales in Portland, a strong market, weren't good. As of right now, as compared with last year's Unforgiven show, which did 300,000 buys for the match where Bill Goldberg won the World title from HHH, it's a drop of 21.7%. ********************************************************************** WrestleMania tickets sold out in just less than one hour when they were put on sale on 9/25, to the surprise of nobody. One of our regular correspondents was actually the next person in line when tickets sold out. There are still tickets available at inflated prices from scalpers, and for several thousand dollars you can get into the luxury boxes. For the first time ever, they are doing Raw the next night from the same building as Mania, and that Raw is already close to sold out. For some reason, WWE sent out a press release two days alter stating the show sold out the 15,000 available seats in less than one minute, claiming it as the fastest sellout in WWE history. There will be a limited amount of new tickets released for sale down the line. Even stranger, the release quoted Brenda Tinnen of the Staples Center as claiming that all ten previous WWE events at the Staples Center had sold out, which is hardly the case. At the WrestleMania press conference, Vince McMahon said while there are 14 PPV shows per year, and four joint shows, Mania will be the only show which wrestlers from Raw can wrestle wrestlers from Smackdown. Other than that, everyone was in character and they teased HHH and Randy Orton getting into it. As things are currently scheduled, the HHH movie vehicle, "La Jornada," is looking at being filmed in February. There is no Raw PPV that month, and WrestleMania isn't until April, so that looks to be a good time for him to be off for several weeks. Here is some more background of the Eddie Guerrero/Kurt Angle situation. Guerrero complained that he thought Angle was disrespecting him in their matches. In particular, he thought Angle was working too stiff with him, and specifically noted Angle slapping him in the head hard a few weeks back when he asked Angle to stay away from his head. Angle did immediately apologize to Guerrero when it was brought up. Angle & Luther Reigns have also had troubles working with him because at times when he's down and selling and they try to pick him up off the mat, he refuses to let them. The incident itself was blamed on both guys being frustrated and Guerrero's nerves being frayed. Coming back from the airport in Tampa after Smackdown in Phoenix, on 9/22, Guerrero got in an auto accident, but his injuries weren't serious enough to keep him out of action. Vince McMahon was listed as the 364th richest man in the U.S. in the current Forbes Magazine list, with an estimated worth of $700 million. This past year's Mania will end up not being the biggest PPV event of 2004, as the Oscar de la Hoya vs. Bernard Hopkins fight is estimated at doing 1 million buys and grossing $56 million. Mania's current estimate is 885,000 buys. The show also did a $12.7 million live gate. Kurt Angle did an interview for The Sun in the U.K., and mentioned HHH, Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero as the best workers, Edge and Randy Orton as the guys coming on well and Christian and Jamie Noble as top workers who don't get the credit (the interview was done before Noble was fired). He also said the correct political thing, noting Undertaker and Big Show, who will be two of his biggest rivals going forward, as impressive big men. "But when it comes down to it, I don't think anybody has as much technique, credibility and charisma as I do. I have the whole package." He said his 2003 Rumble match with Benoit was his favorite match, although he also said it went 40 minutes (actually 19:48). But it was a hell of a match. In fact, people who saw the Benoit DVD all the way through, and you can imagine the quality of the matches on that one, said it was the best match on the entire DVD. He also has changed his feeling about long-term, saying he's going to be around for a long time to come. His answer used to be he was taking it day-to-day and hoping for three more years. He said he's going to work smarter, which he has been doing, and will not take any chair shots to the head (I wish everyone thought that like because mush brains in later life is not a good thing). He talked about toning down the style due to so many neck injuries. He said he'd never do anything like take a German superplex or do a moonsault off a cage again. He again noted he hated the G.M. role and said if he was asked to do it again, he'd turn it down. Billy Gunn has been sent to rehab. He was found passed out in an airport a couple of weeks back. This week's Tess Broussard (Steve Austin's ex-girlfriend) notes: According to a National Enquirer article that has been confirmed, when Austin met Broussard, she was advertising herself (all of this unknown to him) on the web as 26-year-old exotic Playboy model Tia (she would have been 36 at the time), and was charging $750 for sex. She also worked as a prostitute using the name Brenda Bing. She was arrested by undercover police officers in Los Alamitos, CA, on January 15, 2003, which would be around the time she met Austin. She was arrested at a Best Western hotel, carrying 113 condoms in her purse. She pleaded guilty last September, was put on probation, fined $600, and ordered to perform 80 hours of community service. Broussard's attorney claimed she was the victim of an overzealous police sting operation and pleaded guilty only to spare her family the ordeal of a trial. Speaking of legal issues, the lawsuit from many months back against Ric Flair, Scott Hall, Dustin Runnels, and WWE regarding the 2002 plane flight from hell has disappeared. Don't know how it was settled or if it was dropped, but it no longer exists. John Laurinaitis is trying to start a new developmental territory based in Atlanta. Hulk Hogan being positioned as a bigger deal than Steve Austin on TV was not deliberate, or something even thought about when the show was being laid out. Kurt Angle, Luther Reigns, and Mark Jindrak are going to form a top heel group with a name, as Smackdown's answer to Evolution. Angle is going to have to be a miracle man to make that one work given Jindrak's total lack of charisma. At least Charlie Haas & Shelton Benjamin, as Team Angle, turned out to be an awesome team. Rey Mysterio & Rob Van Dam are scheduled to become a regular tag team, and are at this point at least, scheduled to get the tag titles at some point. The Raw show had to be rewritten this week due to this week's communications snafu. Lita was supposed to be a major part of the show, but at first she had been told they were going to hold her off selling the miscarriage angle. Anyway, she was never told to come and wasn't there. The Raw writers blamed the Talent Relations department for the screw-up and Talent Relations blamed the Raw writers for it. John Laurinaitis was feeling the heat over it. Jesse Ventura has been doing lectures as college campuses over the past week talking about politics, mainly saying he's not going to vote in the presidential election, that the two party system is evil and ripping on President Bush, saying he's sending people to go overseas and fight, which is something he himself wouldn't have been willing to do. He also said he was considering running for president in 2008. Well, as long as he doesn't run for talk show host, he’ll be alright. On 9/22, he was at the University of Illinois and wrestling came up. He was asked if he still felt as strongly about unionization of pro wrestlers and mandatory drug testing as he did a few years ago. He didn't answer, just saying he almost got killed trying to unionize wrestlers once, so he got his SAG card instead. When asked whose side he took in the Vince McMahon/ Bret Hart dispute, he said Vince, because Vince was the owner. Nobody can ever accuse Jesse of thinking deeply on any subject. Then, out of nowhere, he asked the crowd if they had heard of Ric Flair. The whole place started doing the "Whooo! He said that he estimates Flair has taken 27,000 backdrops during his career (three per match times 300 matches per year times 30 years, and granted, that math is faulty because Flair hasn't worked 300 matches in a year for just about the last half of his career). He said anyone who thinks wrestling is fake should chew on that. The Mick Foley/JBL debate on 9/29 in Miami, the day before the first Bush/Kerry debate, was Foley's idea brought to Gary Davis of WWE. The idea was to debate Val Venis at first. As some people know, Venis is a staunch Libertarian and very smart when it comes to the subject, particularly when it comes to being strongly Anti-union. Foley's idea was a four-person panel of him, Venis, Chris Nowinski (legit left wing leaning Harvard grad who is said to be very smart politically), and someone else. Foley asked for Ric Flair, as he is very willing to do a debate with Flair, but doesn't want to wrestle him. Foley's children's book is being released on 10/18, so a TV return could be timed for right about then. Raw in the U.K., which would be the first rating for the new Thursday night time slot, did 160,000 viewers. The show had been ranging from 180,000 to 210,000 on its traditional Friday slot, in the heyday, the show usually topped 300,000, and so while house shows continue to sell out in the U.K., the overall interest level has dropped significantly there as well. As things stand today, based on what people understand about where things are scheduled, the WM top matches are supposed to be HHH vs. Randy Orton and Undertaker vs. Kurt Angle. There are no deals in place for big names to return, but those probably wouldn't even be thought about seriously until November or December. At the WrestleMania press conference in Los Angeles, KMEX-TV reported that 40% of the fans there were from outside the Los Angeles area and they also reported 40% of the fans there were Hispanic. They said most of the non-LA fans were from San Diego, who said they specifically came to see Eddie Guerrero (who wasn't there) and Rey Mysterio (who was). They also said fans came from Las Vegas, Phoenix, Tijuana, Tokyo, Vancouver, and San Francisco for the press conference. Starting with the 10/25 show in Des Moines, Raw is going to have a weekly interactive element to the show. For the week of 9/19, Smackdown was the No. 14 rated show in the U.S. among all shows on both cable and broadcast TV among teenagers, with 720,000 teenage viewers that week. Seventh Heaven on WB was the most watched with 1.19 million viewers. No WWE show made the top 30 in any other demo. Bob Orton hasn't been asked to do the obvious angle, now that his son is a babyface, where Evolution beats him up. Orton, 53, has a bad disc in his neck and probably wouldn't want to be in a position to take much punishment. JBL said in an article in the Wichita Kansan that he is considering going into Republican Party politics after his taste of being involved at the convention. He said his biggest concern is heath care and listed Ohio congressman Bob Ney as his political role model. WWE has a registration system that will make it difficult, but not impossible, for a single person to flood the balloting for the Taboo Tuesday voting. Still, a recent WWE web poll had tons of people vote (although apparently that system didn't have the mechanism to avoid the flooding) for Steven Richards vs. Tyson Tomko as the best match at Unforgiven as a joke. A correction on the deal we did about the youngest world champions. Besides Lou Thesz, Danno O'Mahoney, and Kerry Von Erich, another name forgotten would be Paul Wight. As The Giant in WCW, the Big Show was born February 8, 1972, and won his first WCW title from Ric Flair on April 22, 1996, on a Nitro in Albany, GA (at the time it was really controversial the idea of doing a title switch on a TV show), making him 24 years and 2 months old, meaning he was younger than anyone except Thesz, when he won his title at the age of 21 from Everett Marshall in 1937. With Taboo Tuesday on 10/19, the Smackdown tapings for the 10/21 show will be taking place on 10/17 in Rockford. The Raw show on 11/6 at Arena Monterrey has Shawn Michaels & Randy Orton vs. HHH & Batista in a cage match, Chris Jericho vs. Edge for the IC title, Trish Stratus vs. Victoria for the women's title, and fans pick the stipulations tag title match with La Resistance vs. Rhyno & Tajiri (choices being falls count anywhere, hardcore rules, or no DQ. For November, the TV taping dates are Raws on 11/1 in Peoria, 11/8 in Corpus Christi, 11/15 in Indianapolis, 11/22 in Buffalo and 11/29 in Baltimore. The Smackdowns are 11/2 in St. Louis, 11/9 in Corpus Christi (same arena two straight nights), 11/16 in Dayton, 11/23 in Rochester, and 11/30 in Richmond. Big Show did an interview promoting the Smackdown tapings in Wichita, since he played basketball (back-up center) at Wichita State at one point. He said his real weight is 470 pounds. He said he's looking to wrestle for five years after his current contract expires. I'm not sure exactly when it expires. He signed a ten-year contract at $950,000 per year in 1999, when Vince McMahon thought he'd been booked poorly in WCW and he could make him a modern Andre the Giant. Then, naturally, to make sure that didn't happen, in his first major match, he was pinned by Steve Austin on TV. As it turned out, McMahon's company did a far worse job of booking him than WCW. When it looked like he'd been a giant bust, they renegotiated his deal and cut a few years off. Show said that he recently bought a bus which is driven for him to his destination spot on tours. He flies to the city, and the bus transports him from city to city so he can avoid cities where he had to squish to fit into rental cars. WWE has been having more problems with overseas continuity. They advertised on the TV shows this weekend No Mercy would be airing live on 10/10 (the show is on 10/3, and it is airing live on Sky Sports 2), and then advertised Taboo Tuesday as being shown live on Sunday, 10/19 (which is a Tuesday, hence the name). Among ideas being batted around are a Booker T babyface turn on Smackdown, to join Eddie Guerrero & Big Show against Kurt Angle's group and William Regal going heel on Eugene. I don't think either is a definite, but the Booker turn is strongly being considered, I'd guess probably right after the PPV. They already tried it out at the weekend Smackdown house shows, as they had him work as a face against JBL. I believe John Cena is flying in from Australia just for the PPV, and will be flying back to Australia after the show. The reason "The Marine" and "Eye Scream Man" (Kane's movie) are both being shot in Australia is the Australian government is offering a great tax break to movie producers who shoot in the country. The Regal turn, based on last week, seems likely at some point. There was never a plan to make Regal a face and he didn't want to be one, but the crowds were cheering him so much that they went in that direction. The reason the Bashams appear to be in the doghouse when it looks to how they are being used, is somehow they rubbed the wrong officials the wrong way when it came to asking agents questions. Bubba Ray Dudley missed the weekend house shows due to problems at his home stemming from the hurricane. For those who pay attention to these things, yes, there was a suggestion this past week to bring back Johnny Nitro as a babyface. You know, he's young, nice looking, and has a good body. Sometimes I want to scream at the incompetence. Former UFC tighter Wes Sims was recruited by WWE for the Tough Enough contest. Sims is a huge wrestling. In fact, at the Smackdown tapings a few months ago when Eddie Guerrero stole JBL's hat, he was one of the fans spitting in the hat. He's 6’10’’ and about 240 pounds and a former college basketball player. He has a 4-5 MMA record, but because of his size and look, was signed to a UFC contract. His most notable match was being DQ'd against Frank Mir on June 6, 2003, for going crazy and stomping on Mir. He then played to the crowd and got into trouble with the commission, and he tried to explain it that he was playing heel pro wrestler and trying to get a deal. He was knocked out in a rematch with Mir, and after being knocked out by Mike Kyle on 4/2, UFC dropped his contract. As far as the 50 people being brought to Venice Beach on 10/15 for the tryouts to get to the final ten, Sims is said to be one of a few fighters. After all the hurricanes, a lot of the Florida based wrestlers (which a lot of the crew are based on weather in Tampa, proximity to easier flights, and nice tax laws) have started thinking about moving out. 9/13 Raw TV in Seattle drew 5,500 paid and 9/14 Smackdown TV tapings in Spokane drew 4,200. 9/24 Raw house show in Sioux Falls, SD, drew 2,400 and $90,000. 9/25 Raw house show in Sioux City, IA, drew 3,500 and $120,000. 9/26 Raw in Columbia, MO, drew 1,600 and $58,000. 9/26 Smackdown in Springfield, MO, drew 1,500 and $50,000, and that's in a traditionally very strong mid-sized market that used to draw 2,800 every time out for WC W when it couldn't draw anywhere. 9/27 Smackdown house show in Joplin drew 1,700 and $60,000.

She never looked like that in the WWF. She looked like a bigger Terri, but not mad-muscular like that.

Yeah, that's nice.

There was a lot of negative reaction backstage tonight at Raw centering around the Kane-Lita angle. Earlier today, the company realized that Lita was not at the show, even though she had been written into it. As best I can tell, there was a communication screw up between the Raw writers and talent relations and she was never notified that she had to be in Kansas City, despite the fact that an airline ticket was issued in her name (though it was never communicated to her). When they realized that she wasn't there, they had to rewrite the Kane-Lita segments. In their haste to get that done, they scripted the line about the baby not being the only person to die, completely forgetting the fact that Owen Hart died there in 1999. There was a lot of negative reaction backstage (and among fans) to the line when it aired, as many of the wrestlers couldn't believe that WWE would do that while the Raw writers basically said that they didn't realize what they had done. I don't even know what to say. CREDIT: Dave Scherer/PWInsider

If you really think Rey Mysterio is going to win the Royal Rumble and get a title shot at WM21, you're Eugene.

Um, I think some people might be more intrested in hearing about this story then me going OMG STINSKY BEAT SOME GUY IN THE FIRST MATCH in the results. And I was thinking about sending Metzler results, but I honestly don't remember and or care. It's a house show, for gods sake. Hey, if you don't like it, don't read it. Just because fans enjoy themselves at house shows, in ways other than watching matches that are mostly full of stalling...then good for them. Then again, I can't speak for you because all I know you've never been to one and you don't know what it's like...nothing wrong if that's the case, just saying. The story's not what pissed me off. What pisses me off is "You may know me as the guy holding the BENOIT IS GOD sign at Backlash 2003." No, we don't.

The one thing I hate about live reports: When the author finds it necessary to babble on about what they did during the show that has no relevance to anything, thinking it does.

Due to the increasing pressure on both the wrestlers and the company with the declining interest in the business, nerves are getting frayed, a fight broke out in the dressing room, and WWE advertised the return of Hulk Hogan (who, due to the legal fight with Marvel Comics over the Hulk Hogan name, was being advertised as simply Hollywood Hogan), Steve Austin, Mick Foley, and Stephanie McMahon for the 9/23 Smackdown show, billed as the 5th anniversary show from Phoenix. The advertising was misleading, as plans were for Hogan, Foley, Austin, and Stephanie only to do taped salutes to five years of Smackdown. WWE sent a camera crew to Hogan's home in Orlando on 9/17, and spoke with him just about the show. They also did more filming with both Hogan and Jimmy Hart for potential use on the 24/7 idea. While an Austin return has been considered likely at some point since Austin met with Vince McMahon on 8/23, when Raw was in Anaheim, right now there are no definitive plans for his return. Both sides have expressed interest in trying to come up with a good storyline that would bring him back, perhaps around December or January, to build an angle that would peak for WrestleMania. No storyline is believed to have been settled on, nor is it believed there has been anything more than discussions that coming up with an idea would be something both sides are interested in. Austin told Vince he couldn't do anything until "Longest Yard" was done filming, which is scheduled for October, but could go to November. There also was nothing decided regarding the impasse contractually both sides were at when Austin's contract expired in April, largely Austin having the rights to use the name "Stone Cold Steve Austin" in non-WWE entertainment endeavors. That probably explains the Bill Goldberg-Austin chasm after the two had been friends from their WWE days. Goldberg's idea was to start something up with a PPV show headlined by Goldberg vs. Austin, and Austin had been game for it, but now it's not happening. Without Austin, it weakens any attempt Goldberg or others can come up with to get something going. Potentially, and this is all pie-in-the-sky, the idea of a TV wrestling show with Hogan, Goldberg, Austin, Sting, and possibly Brock Lesnar (who would be a free agent next year), backed by a strong network, is everyone's panacea. Backed by anything else, there would be no chance, because the start up costs are unreal, and the only way to make money back is as TV programming because house shows would be losers and PPV will at best take time to be established. The other part of the equation would be Jerry Jarrett has most of the next level guys locked up, although who knows if they'd even be around by the time something like this could get off the ground. There are not plans at the present for Hogan to come back, but his appearing on the show, and being featured prominently on TV clips this past week, is a major step on both sides. Hogan was not used at WrestleMania XX, clearly using the idea he would work for TNA as an angle to get the deal, a strategy Hogan used successfully in the past with XWF in November 2001 which lead to his February 2002 WWF return, but not this time. The McMahon family, besides Vince, was said to hate Hogan, and all except Vince were said to be strongly against his last return. The fact they'd go to him, even if it was just for an attempt to use his name to spike a rating, shows concern for Smackdown, which had done three of its worst ratings in history over the past two months. Like Austin, Hogan is likely angling for something at WrestleMania, and has started to throw his name around again, negotiating with Dream Stage Entertainment and New Japan. Foley, on the other hand, is expected to return soon. He has a book being released in October, plus has come up with some ideas once again that he's pitched to creative. The question of advertising the return of all of them on the same night, against the season premiere of CSI (which, while the No. 1 show on television, has never seemed to have a significant affect on Smackdown ratings), seems to me almost a desperation move. A hyped return of Hogan alone, or Austin alone, should be enough that if anything would spike ratings, and there is no guarantee of anything at this point, that would be it. You'd still have another return "in the bag" for when you would need it, and with the state of the industry, you would. Also, in the cases of both Hogan and Austin, rather then just bring them back with an interview tease it would be better for a return to get them up and running in a storyline, to attempt to build some momentum. Hogan has been gone long enough to where his return will create a buzz. He's the ultimate nostalgia act, since many wrestling fans see him as synonymous with their childhood. There is no secret to anyone it is at best a temporary deal, like it was for a few months in 2002, and will burn out. His return in 2003 was not nearly as successful, even though, that one, like this upcoming one, will give the illusion of success because it is guaranteed he'll blow the roof off buildings. Recently turned 51, Hogan's last run as being an effective long-term player ended around March of 1999. With an artificial hip and knee, as much as people will give Hogan tons of leeway physically if he can't perform because of who he is, that doesn't help him because his body has been shot for years. He's only worked one match in the last 16 months, the Tokyo Dome match with Masa Hiro Chono, and needed another knee operation when that was over. The only long-term effective usage of any of these guys is to give the rub and get someone else over. Long-term, they can even be a detriment, because their personalities will overshadow nearly everyone, and the last thing the company needs is to make its stars that go on tour appear secondary. Hogan did make Lesnar into a major player in mid-2002, as Foley did this year, helping speed up the rise of Randy Orton. Internally, talent has been frustrated more as business has gone down. Besides the pressure leading to a brief altercation between Kurt Angle and Eddie Guerrero after Smackdown, there is tremendous heat on new Vice President of talent relations, John Laurinaitis. A lot of it has stemmed from the fines both for being late and dress code violations, as well as the doctrine that because of their gimmicks, John Cena and Undertaker don't have to follow the current dress code of dress shoes, nice slacks, and a nice button up shirt (tie optional) whenever wrestlers are seen in public, which even means on long driving road trips when they arrive at 2 a.m. in a hotel lobby. It's been noted that it seems management is focusing on unimportant things while there are very important issues at stake. Laurinaitis is also 39, younger than some of the wrestlers and not much older than most in a crew where few are under 30. Most of the current crew were also actually better wrestlers, which may be a moot point in a management position, but that doesn't stop the criticism of "Johnny Ace" as a guy who was not a major wrestling star in the U.S., and got booking power in All Japan for his ability to charm Motoko Baba, and it is believed reached the top in the U.S. as management for his similar ability with Stephanie McMahon. Even though his predecessor, Jim Ross, was not a wrestler and the position guarantees heat from wrestlers because it is the person who does McMahon's dirty work with the guys, Ross was older and had been in management for years, plus Ross' wrestling knowledge was respected. The Angle-Guerrero incident stemmed from the post-match angle on Smackdown in Spokane. In the contract signing angle, the plan was for Angle & Luther Reigns to knock Guerrero out of the ring. At that point, when Big Show then ripped up the contract for the Guerrero match and signed the Angle match, they both knocked Show down. They were supposed to beat down Show until getting good heat, at which point Guerrero would run in for the save, to set up the tag match. Guerrero ran back in for the save literally seconds after they went after Show, giving them no time to build any heat. After the show, Angle started yelling at Guerrero about it and Guerrero got really mad. It escalated. The reports we got were that Angle shoved Guerrero first. Guerrero then went to attack Angle, but Angle grabbed him in a front facelock (as opposed to choking him in a guillotine), powered him to the ground and basically kept him there, more neutralizing him rather than trying to hurt him. Several wrestlers convinced Angle to let him go. Guerrero flipped out while being neutralized and when Angle let him go, they had to hold Guerrero from going after him again. Even with guys as big as Show and Reigns there on the spot, the feeling was nobody was going to physically break it up as they wouldn't be able to pry Angle off him against Angle's will. Even after they were separated, reportedly both continued yelling at each other as they were taken in different directions. Guerrero went to the locker room and Angle was called in to see Vince, where he reportedly started complaining heavily about Guerrero. Even though there have been signs of burn-out ever since the Germany tour (yes, that Germany tour) regarding Guerrero, and while it was never publicly said, that was part of the reason the title was taken off him, most of the locker room is sympathetic toward him because he's so well-liked and respected. The company is well aware of Guerrero's issues with depression and has tried to help him out including Vince McMahon telling him directly they don't believe the ratings, buy rates, and attendance declines were his fault. Guerrero does have a temper, which is something of a family trademark as brothers Chavo and Mando were, in their day, quick to get into fights, usually with people much bigger than they were. Last year there was an incident at a Smackdown taping backstage involving Guerrero and Charlie Haas. As a babyface, he lost his cool when even a few fans heckled him hard at house shows on more than one occasion in recent months. There was also heat between Guerrero and Angle stemming from the 8/17 Smackdown match in Hamilton with Guerrero & Mysterio vs. Angle & Reigns, where Guerrero apparently believed they weren't letting him look strong enough. As noted last week, there were people who knew him who felt he needed to be given some time off, but that he himself would never ask for it. Although it is only in selected markets, it is the Smackdown events in the Hispanic markets, with Guerrero and Rey Mysterio, which are the most successful for the product and why Smackdown greatly outpaced Raw at the box office last month. As has been noted, if you take the Hispanic viewership, the strongest demo by far, away from Smackdown, you've got a 2.0 rated show (that is not taking the viewership away and figuring by a national number, but taking the Hispanic viewership away and also dividing by the non-Hispanic homes). It behooves the product to have an almost unbeatable Hispanic star for that reason. Guerrero's popularity flattened when he lost the title to JBL, particularly when people realized he didn't lose it to build to getting revenge on JBL, but that the racist beat the Hispanic idol in their feud when it was time to switch partners. Angle is respected as a wrestler and performer, but in some circles, there has been bitterness built up with him, particularly of late with the feeling that he and Undertaker are working together as the two top guys in the Smackdown brand to protect each other to build for a WrestleMania showdown. Angle was able to convince management to have Guerrero, the babyface who had just lost his program to JBL, lose clean to the ankle lock at SummerSlam. There was a lot of second-guessing that finish being so clean, particularly after Angle got the second win in their 2/3 fall match on television, although that one was due to outside interference. In reality, the company problems are far deeper than who wins and loses these matches and whether or not Guerrero gets pushed, but with business bad, everything is second-guessed and pointed at as far as what are the reasons fans aren't as avid. One company higher-up noted that Angle was the last guy anyone would want to start something with, and probably the last guy to start something with anyone. But the frustration on all accounts has gotten out of hand. When they had the house show in San Diego last month, there was some fear backstage Angle was going to go after Konnan over a non-wrestling related dispute and possible misunderstanding. Angle has become a lot more of a controversial character to some. For years, Angle was thought to be a great athlete who was naive to the political aspects of wrestling. Unlike most, he could get away with it because management loved him for his ability, and the fans took to him like a major player, so he was locked into a top spot. But he was outmaneuvered at times, and his career could have used better direction, particularly when the business got hot. Understanding that, he's become more aggressive in how he's been used and has spoken up now that he has more knowledge of how things operate, although some have felt Angle's knowledge is still of only a few years, and he overanalyzes the minor problems when it's the big problems that have caused the declines in business: But he's thought of internally as a lifer, in that whenever his career ends, likely due to his bad neck, they'll want to keep him around as either an agent or a trainer, as welt as to do P.R. He has studied the business, but still only has six years experience and only with one system. There is the natural frustration of being a headliner while things are good, and seeing them crumble the way they have. With Guerrero, he has many issues facing him, and both are key people in a stressful situation with the business going down and their own fears because both of their bodies are in constant pain and starting to give out after years of being superior athletes. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jamie Noble was fired on 9/14. No reason was given publicly. There had been discipline problems with him of late and attitude issues. It clearly has built up for a few weeks since Noble & Chavo Guerrero beat Paul London & Billy Kidman in a non-title match, to set up a tag title program. Granted, Guerrero got the concussion the next week, but it would have made sense for Noble to be working against Kidman before the turn, and they dropped it, so at that point I guess there was handwriting on the wall. Steve Austin has filed a multimillion dollar countersuit against Tess Broussard, his former girlfriend, alleging slander, extortion, and embezzlement. Broussard is suing Austin for $10 million, claiming the incident where she is accused of stabbing a business manager of Austin's with a steak knife at a Beverly Hills restaurant was a set-up on her, claiming the manager stabbed himself and claimed she had done it. She also is suing over alleged injuries suffered in a car accident last year, where she suffered a foot injury, and alleging other mistreatment during their relationship. Have I mentioned she's nuts of late? She was interviewed in this week's National Enquirer and claimed Austin invited her to dinner to work things out and get back together (which would explain why Austin's manager had a cashier's check for $1.5 million to give to her if she would stay out of Austin's life from that point forward). She said a man jumped her, threw her against a wall, and handcuffed her. She then saw Austin's manager knock silverware all over the title, throw dishes on the ground and yell, "She stabbed me." For Taboo Tuesday, besides fans picking opponents for HHH for the world title, they are supposed to pick an opponent for Chris Jericho for the IC title, tag title opponents, as well as pick a stipulation for Eric Bischoff vs. Eugene. The actual numbers for Unforgiven live at the Rose Garden in Portland was 6,562 paid and $472,400. There were 1,149 comps, and between that and other guests, the total tickets out were 8,313, but the actual turnstile total in the building was 7,305 (basically meaning 1,000 people who had tickets or comps didn't come). Karam Gaber, the Egyptian Olympic gold medalist in Greco-Roman wrestling at 211 pounds that we wrote about last month, has not talked with WWE since winning the gold medal. He went back to Egypt where he received a hero's welcome. He is scheduled to come to the U.S. in late October. WWE is planning on sitting down with him and making him an offer at that time. The person who probably wants him in the company more than any other is Kurt Angle. Angle did an interview with T.J. Madigan of the Calgary Sun last week where his main complaint was not the problems in the company, but how NBC treated the wrestling coverage in the Olympics. He felt the prime time coverage was geared too heavily toward female viewers, who like gymnastics, and that boxing and wrestling aired past midnight. Angle stayed up to watch Gaber, sand said, "Oh, he's awesome. The quicker he can come in, the better it will be. The longer you wait, the less impact he will have. I just hope everybody is smart enough to realize the big match will be between him and me. One Olympic gold medalist against another. If they don't put him on Smackdown, then I don't know what WWE is thinking." Angle also admitted he hated doing the General Manager character this summer. "I didn't like my character and I didn't like doing it. They wanted me to be angry all the time. It was one-dimensional, and I have a lot more dimensions than that. I didn't enjoy it, and I was just itching to get back in the ring." He gave the impression he's thinking past his current program with Big Show, saying he's more looking forward to doing programs with Undertaker and John Cena. When asked about winning the title back, he said, "I see no reason not to (give me the belt). I consider myself the best wrestler on Smackdown." Jackie Gayda mentioned in a newspaper interview with the Ottawa Sun that she had just gotten engaged to Charlie Haas. It's legit, and the latest example of two people booked together in a wrestling angle that quickly wound up together. They are scheduled to get married next year, but not in a wrestling ring. Haas proposed three weeks ago to Gayda at her townhouse in Orlando. Haas even asked for permission from Gayda’s parents first. At this point, No Mercy has JBL vs. Undertaker in the Last Ride match for the title, Kurt Angle vs. Big Show, John Cena vs. Booker T in match No. 5 for the U.S. title, Eddie Guerrero vs. Luther Reigns, and probably Spike Dudley vs. Rey Mysterio and Paul London vs. Billy Kidman. Updated numbers of SummerSlam have it up to 385,000 buys. As noted, many were upset at Tom Prichard's firing. He was considered very well as both a scout for talent (he frequently attended independent shows looking for talent) and as a trainer. He was not as good working in the office, which was what was said internally, as noted last week, as the reason for his dismissal. To show how well planned out Raw was this week, at about 12:30 on Monday, while Gene Snitzky was doing drills in class taught by Tommy Dreamer and Dean Malenko (Danny Davis is on vacation) in Louisville, Dreamer got a phone call that Snitzky was being written into the show and he was needed in Tucson. He got out of the ring and rushed to the airport. Somehow, there was a problem with his connecting flight and he wasn't going to make it in time. When WWE got the word, they sent Vince's private plane to wherever he was stranded to fly him in and he made it on time. Apparently the idea was for him just to be an unknown job guy in the ring and never seen again. The usage of Gangrel (David Heath) and Viscera (Nelson Frazier) as part of JBL's entourage is an interesting step by WWE. The company has for the most part only wanted to use people on long-term deals. Both men at this point were only brought in for a one week program and the handicap match with Undertaker was scheduled to be the blow-off for both. I wonder why they wouldn't at this point try to put together maybe a two month program for Sting. Granted, he's not the answer to any problems, but it's just something different to spice things up. Terrence Risby from UPW, who fought a K-l fight against Jerome LeBanner and was quickly knocked out, is one of the first 20 of the 50 finalists who will be taken to the "Tough Enough" casting call on 10/15 and 10/16 on Venice Beach. At least one other MMA fighter has already made the first 20, and they are looking at others. Velocity is being moved from 7 p.m. on Saturday nights to 11 p.m., and it started with almost no publicity in the new time slot on 9/18. What is interesting is that is the same time slot that TNA was looking at to put Impact on FSN. Matt Hardy's knee, after major surgery, is uncomfortable, but he's doing aggressive rehab and is ahead of the projections when it comes to recovery, although he's still five to seven more months away from returning. Christy Hemme of the Diva Search, under the name Sunni Hemme, appeared in a before & after ad for Trimspa recently, where she lost 25 pounds. The current version was in between those two versions, larger and more pumped up that the skinny version in the ad, but in better cosmetic shape than the before picture. She has been a juggy dancer on "The Man Show" and has modeled in magazines like Maxim, Muscle & Fitness, Stuff, and Rolling Stone. The Houston Chronicle noted that WWE has booked Reliant Stadium for a Smackdown taping on 3/26 because the Toyota Center was booked the same night. Mick Foley did an appearance in Hobart, IN with Dick Butkus at a local hospital, with both talking about their respective knee problems. Foley talked about ending his career and in hindsight felt it was the right move. "I got out at the right time. If I had stuck around another year full-time, I'd probably be in a lot rougher shape. I saw the writing on the wall." He said he has a bad back and bad knees, but doesn't complain much about because he knows it goes with the territory, but said climbing stairs is not very pleasant. The WWE web site had a story on HHH's title win saying at nine, he's tied with The Rock and trails only Ric Flair (16) and Hulk Hogan (12) for the most world title reigns in history. HHH said something like how great Flair's record was and how he could care less when it comes to Hogan, which shows that the decision to put Hogan on TV was made at the last minute, because he wouldn't have dissed him in that manner on that day if he knew he was going to appear. By our records, Lou Thesz has at least 12, and you could make the case for a few more based on what you consider and how you count, but then again, Flair's real number is a lot more than 16. At the very least, the number is 18, and a more accurate number would be 21. Speaking of Ric Flair, he's been bothered by a groin pull, although he's kept it quiet and is still taking all the backdrops and suplexes every night like he's not hurt, including at the house shows. This has been the case for some time. There was concern this weekend that even though he wasn't telling anyone, when they saw him after his match the first night on the tour and given his age and how much they've been working him (and how many bumps he takes on TV), that they are about to finish him for good. He was limited enough that on 9/18 in Waco, they had Batista work most of the match in a tag bout with Flair, which never happens, and even held Flair out of doing the run-in during the HHH-Randy Orton finish. Of course, that only got him motivated, and word was on 9/19 in Tyler, he totally took over the show, did everything to prove he wasn't hurt, claimed he wasn't feeling a thing and outshone everyone on the card. Sports Illustrated mentioned Carmella DeCesare's escapade at the bar and her arrest in a note on Jeff Garcia. Once again, no reference to WWE was made, although they did show a photo of her with rich heiress Paris Hilton. For the week ending 9/12, the 9/6 episode of Raw finished No. 18 in the ratings combining all shows of any kind, both broadcast and cable, among teenagers. Although there are rumors flying regarding Teddy Long being dumped as a General Manager, there are no plans in that direction. Of course, at some point, it will happen, just like everything does, but it's not on the drawing board. The Kansas City Star this past week reported that former area sports anchor Todd Romero is negotiating a WWE announcer deal. The company has had bad luck of late in trying to recruit good looking sportscasters (Todd Grisham, Marc Lloyd, and Jonathan Coachman all fell into that category) and teach them some wrestling and put them on the air. The only one with potential to actually be decent is Josh Matthews, with little broadcasting background, but a lifelong fan. Molly Holly was working an independent show this past weekend selling autographed photos of her, Bob Holly, and others trying to raise money for a gravestone for Mike "Crash Holly" Lockwood. Chris Candido, trying to make a comeback, has talked about going to OVW to kind of prove his stock once again under the eyes of WWE officials. Candido and Jim Cornette have a long history since Candido's first push as a wrestler was in SMW when Cornette was owner. It was Cornette who suggested making Tammy Sytch, under the name Tammy Fytch, into a wrestling manager and started her as a performer (and she was a natural from her first interview). Sytch was Candido's girlfriend who was moving to Knoxville to attend college with him while he pursued his wrestling career. Well, in hindsight, what at first seemed like a great introduction of talent wasn't a happy story years later. The plan for U.K. PPVs are that No Mercy airs live on Sky Sports 2, Taboo Tuesday airs live on Sky Sports 1, Survivor Series airs live on Sky Sports 1, and Armageddon will be a live PPV on Setanta Sports. It appears that in 2005, all the PPV shows will air on Sky Box Office, so no more free TV specials in the U.K. of what we pay for in the U.S. At the Raw in Tucson, when HHH and Batista hit the ring, they started doing old Superstar Billy Graham posing shots. Off the air, Hurricane also did the same thing, since they knew Graham was at ringside watching. Don Frye, just back from months in Japan doing Godzilla, was also at the show but not introduced. William Regal is coming down with Flair-itis. Even though he's a babyface, he's uncomfortable and wants to work heel. He was booked all weekend against Rodney Mack. The first night he wanted to go heel because Mack is from Lafayette, LA, and figured he'd get cheered, and also said the only reason he's a face in storyline is because of Eugene and with Eugene out for a while, he has no reason to be a face. As it turned out, Mack didn't get cheered. He then asked to referee the women's match with Nidia and Trish Stratus, a role Val Venis was doing, instead of working as a face with Mack, in Tyler, and the show was tweaked. Tyson Tomko suffered a knee injury in Waco. When he got to Tyler, he couldn't work on it at all, so his match with Hurricane was canceled. That's also why he was limited to a run-in at the Raw tapings. Due to what happened with Superstar Billy Graham, there is talk of doing public service work promoting organ donation with Victoria and Graham as the main spokespersons. There was some buzz about Tom Prichard being in the office on 9/16. All it was is Prichard had asked for a meeting with Vince McMahon, I guess to give his side of whatever the story was, and that was the day it was arranged. No word on what happened. The live Raw on 9/6 in Wichita Falls drew 3,800 paid and the Smackdown tapings on 9/7 in Tulsa drew only 2,800. 9/17 Raw in Bossier City drew 3,400 and $110,000. 9/18 Raw in Waco drew 2,100 and $68,000 for the first show in the market in almost three years. 9/19 Raw in Tyler, TX drew 3,000 paying $95,000. 9/19 Smackdown in Memphis was the success of the week, drawing 4,600 paying $120,000. The gate was about four times what the local promotion did a few weeks back with Jerry Lawler & Jimmy Hart vs. Terry Funk & Cory Maclin, but the local promotion (4,831) actually had slightly more paid attendance. It was the WWE debut in the new Fed Ex Forum. Still, by today's standards, this was a very successful show, and they had Lawler promote the hell out of it on his TV, and used him in an interview on the show.

...What he said.

And what exactly does responsibility for Owen Hart's death have to do with the original discussion? Pot, kettle, black.

Yeah, really. All I ever see Rudo do on this board is whine and bitch about something WWE is doing "wrong". If you can't find anything to get behind, shut up and quit watching it. And if a "Vince McMahon did/did not kill Owen Hart" flamewar starts, I'm looking at you.

Give Dave Scherer a break. PWI needs hits!

a tale of two monty's I'd think he'd go by "Kip Winchester" or something completely new as his name. William Gunn.

Why was Konnan at a WWE house show? Konnan always visits WWE shows backstage when they come to San Diego. Konnan and Mystero used to do that back when they were in WCW.

Nice misleading topic.

Wow, the SD thread reached 4 pages this week? Amazing.

I liked this article better when Meltzer wrote it in his WON a few weeks ago. All this dude did was write it around a different match (Meltzer wrote it around the HHH/Eugene cage match).

JBL should bring back Ahmed to feud with UT since Ahmed never got his WWF Title match with UT at Canadian Stampede.

"We don't do murder." -- Vince McMahon

As TNA starts its newest phase, the question becomes, what will make people shell out money to see the product, and how can they get new stars over? There are a few things the past two years of TNA have taught us. First is the number of hardcore wrestling fans who want alternatives has declined far more than WWE TV numbers would indicate. The TNA concept was built on the idea of millions of disenfranchised WCW fans who didn't like WWE but did like wrestling. If even a small percentage bought weekly PPVs as their wrestling fix, they'd all be rich. With many fans vocally complaining about WWE, there was an attempt to provide an alternative. It took many different forms, from trying the Vince Russo formula of wacky surprises where wrestling was a backdrop, to the Jerry Jarrett formula of Tennessee logic and cornball, to periods of serious wrestling, to pushing smaller guys, and of course, always pushing Jeff Jarrett. The idea of PPV with no TV back-up quickly changed, and Xplosion was soon born. The company stayed alive, very similar to ECW, on the carrot being dangled theory. The theory is to keep going while a carrot is dangled, to the performers, the fans and quite frankly, the people in charge. The first was television, and it took two years to get a real national outlet, buying their way on an awful time slot. The numbers started out very good considering the time slot and the station, but the bad news is they haven't maintained. The worse news is the TV hasn't appeared to make new fans willing to buy the PPV. Certainly, for reasons discussed, going monthly will cut down on losses and increase whatever slim chance there is to be successful. But the company, in the next steps being discussed, would have to be spending more money. The latest negotiations are to attempt to buy what would likely be more expensive time slots, an 11 p.m. Saturday night slot for Impact, and a Sunday morning slot for Xplosion, both on Fox Sports Net. FSN has been given the impression they are willing to spend enough to increase the exposure at this point to where they can get nearly any time slot they would want. The problem is, because of the nature of the network, what would figure to be the best time slots would face pre-emptions, so it needs to air at a time when there are no major sporting events taking place. If the Friday shows had maintained the positive but small buzz they had at the start, I'd be more optimistic when it comes to spending more money for better time slots. Whether this goes through is anyone's guess. The TV shows (as opposed to the PPVs) are rarely insulting or a turnoff, but they aren't turning anyone on either. They usually fill a great deal of time with wrestling, and up and down, it's mostly young guys working hard. But after four months, nobody has gotten over. This isn't even like a messed up WCW in the early 90s when they didn't draw any fans and lost lots of money, but most wrestling fans still considered Sting, Lex Luger, and the Steiners as superstars, and they got competitive ratings and were viewed by millions weekly. Even though ECW never got mainstream, they still at times made Rob Van Dam, The Sandman, Sabu, and many other characters into people that their own audience cared about greatly and thought were better than the stars in the big companies. Today, still, almost nobody knows A. J. Styles, and that's with a much better financed company and a much better produced television there to get him over. They are doing a more wide-open in-ring style as WWE has toned things down. The difference is, ECW had a minor league feel to the casual fan, but they managed to really connect with a small audience. TNA hasn’t been able to. What has been really strange is the company's cancellation of its first Tuesday night taping in Orlando on 9/14. With the hurricanes, which threatened the previous two shows, the fact it was canceled isn't strange, but how it was handled was. It was talked about on 9/9 as a probability they wouldn't run this week, and decided probably the next day. However, until 9/13, the day before the show, not only had TNA not announced it in Orlando, but announced it on either the company web site or Bob Ryder’s 1wrestling.com site. Many in the company didn't know for sure as late as 9/13. Some who tried to contact the company for info didn't have their calls or e-mails returned for days. Others were given very hazy information. Others were told over the weekend that there was no show. The decision was finally made on 9/13 to have the announcers do voiceovers of matches in studio for both Xplosion and Impact on 9/17 and 9/18. The company's biggest problem is the current marketplace. While the booking and matches could be better, even if they were, I'm not convinced they would be significantly more successful right now than they are. Part of it is probably the period we all lived through with shows produced weekly with a several hundred thousand dollar budget and huge star power by companies taking in hundreds of millions per year. Anything short of raiding WWE, or signing the big free agents like Steve Austin, Bill Goldberg, Mick Foley, or Hulk Hogan, would require huge expenditures and totally change the dynamics of the company. There's no guarantee it would work, and none of those four would likely do it under any viable numbers. Hogan once turned down several hundred thousand for one Japan appearance (Wrestle1) because he recognized the company had no clue, the show would bomb, and he didn't want to be associated, even in Japan, with a bomb. Hogan never went back to New Japan, and that was for six figures per show. Austin hates the Jarretts. Goldberg thinks it's beneath him, and Foley probably wouldn't want to do what WWE would consider as crossing them. When ECW established its cult following, Raw was one hour and closer to what Impact is today, except with bigger stars. TV was still squash matches designed to build arena matches. Heyman, showing his biggest matches on TV and offering things nobody had seen opened things up. The negative was the big companies started copying him, and taking his stars. Once the ECW fans saw ECW as the highest ranking minor league stepping stone to the big leagues, its popularity faded. TNA is producing the style of television to pre-Nitro fans that saw Nitro. But just as we are suffering from people remembering a hot product that overshadows today's product, in a similar vein, WWE with all its millions of viewers and major league status hasn't been able to create new stars, because nobody has been able to reach the charismatic level of the stars who are no longer in the company. You can imagine how hard it is for TNA, even though they have a crew of guys who they've pushed for years, some of whom have usually delivered good matches. Of course, it's easy to pick at what's wrong, and much harder to make it right. The idea since the first concept of PPV without television proved a failure was to stay alive until the company got national TV, and now, a viable time slot. The business is very different from the past and Panda Energy is far better financially than any of the old-time promoters who needed to draw to survive. This company has lost millions, but to Panda, they are looking at the potential of things like licensing, merchandising, PPV, and advertising if this thing can get the right TV and draw an audience. These are businesspeople, and while this may be a more fun entertainment thing to fund than buying real estate, there is a finite time before Panda loses patience. Ultimately, without real TV ratings, harder to get now than any time in history, none of the other avenues will open up to the degree necessary. The current system didn't fail when it came to ratings, given the slot, but the fact they weren't able to get people over and get PPV numbers up makes me less optimistic about the next carrot. Yes, the decision to make the current changes was not just the right decision, but the only decision. But that doesn't guarantee they will work. Bringing in Kevin Nash and Scott Hall is a greater expense (and given the end results of negotiations in the past with those two, Randy Savage, Hulk Hogan, and Joanie Laurer that never went anywhere, even though Nash has confirmed to friends he's going in). The increase in the production budget and hiring of David Sahadi is more money out. But if these moves don't start building PPV numbers and increase ratings within a few months, the final carrot will have been eaten. For a company which, from the start, has been based on hope, this may be the time they have to show some reality. Jarrett has been hinting about the term "Outsiders" in TV promos, and Nash & Hall have confirmed to friends they are coming in. I guess the big storyline will be whether Nash & Hall are with Vince Russo or Jarrett. They have to try something special to get people to buy the 11/7 PPV. They've also already reserved 12/5 for a second PPV show. There have been lots of rumors this week about Las Vegas being in the running for the first show, with the rumor being it'll be at the 7,000-seat arena at The Orleans. Jeff Jarrett, when in Las Vegas a few weeks ago, went to the building, which is one of the nicest mid-sized arenas of its type, and was said to have been blown away. The negative is that there is a Las Vegas Wizards hockey game on 11/6, which, because of the set-up time needed, would make it difficult, but Jarrett was said to want to do one of the first PPV shows from the building. There were people last week told about Las Vegas, but Don Harris was in Norfolk this past week doing a site survey on the building there for the possibility of 11/7. I expect to hear rumors of other sites as well. UPW also has a show at Buffalo Bills in Las Vegas on 10/30 that will have similar mainstream star power with Roddy Piper, DDP, Rikishi, Konnan, and Sean O'Haire. They need to eventually get into what is considered a glamour market, but finding a way to become an in-thing in that market is a lot harder than in Nashville or Orlando, because of the major league entertainment that is in Las Vegas every night. It's going to be impossible to sell tickets there, as when WWA went to Las Vegas for a PPV in February 2002, and used Randy Savage, Buff Bagwell, and Road Dogg's names (all of which ended up no-showing) with Jeff and Bret Hart as the big stars, and had a casino co-promoting the event, they only drew around 550 paid. But Las Vegas isn't that hard to paper. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The most notable thing over the past week is David Sahadi's videos, in particular, the commercial for the 11/7 show. They are masterpieces and position the company perfectly as the hot new alternative in wrestling. We heard one report that WWE told people when they read about Sahadi negotiating with TNA, and told its employees who were friends with him that they could no longer have any social contact with him, which has put a few people in an awkward position. WWE is weak, so the idea of what Sahadi is portraying in the commercials is strong positioning, but the company's problem has been an inability to keep its base audience or get much in the way of new fans, or get the new talent over. PPV didn't go up at all (actually declined, although some of that was due to losing DirecTV and we haven't heard a thing about that turning around) after four months of television. There has been some dissension of late, in particular with Konnan and Raven and others to a lesser extent, all unhappy with their positioning. Kid Kash hasn't been as vocal in recent weeks, but no doubt the frustration level with no sign of things moving upward after the initial better-than-expected ratings, is going to be getting to everyone now. Raven was at least positioned as a major title contender watching the Jarrett-Hardy match. But he hasn't been used much since he complained to Dixie Carter about the booking of Jarrett and Dutch, which is not the thing to do. Konnan and the Jarretts had a blow-out this week. You could see it was coming after Konnan's appearance on Wrestling Observer Live, as he talked about how he and B.G. James have more name recognition than almost anyone on the roster, they get a better reaction in both Nashville and Orlando than almost anyone, but don't get major storylines. The company's feeling has always been they are good for a pop, but TNA was afraid to book them in major programs because of the in-ring. Both were aware of it, and got into better shape and have performed better, at least based on the glimpses I've seen of them, and get as good a reactions from the live crowds as anyone, particularly in Orlando, where you have a lot of people coming who don't know the new guys. Konnan complained about how they get the strong reactions and both he and James had gotten into better shape and can do good promos, but haven't been moved to the top. This came after they complained and were put into the Dusty Rhodes storyline as backdrops. Konnan was on the air with frustration about getting Jeff and Mantel to listen to his complaints. He complained it had become like WWE, where they cut everyone off booking wise so nobody can rise to the top, and was mad because he felt he'd done good promos and his stuff had gotten over, but he did nothing but a late run-in on the PPV the night before, and was booked for a dark match in Orlando and just a quick run-in. With Jimmy Hart not there in Orlando to round up people from the park to come to the tapings, Konnan and James were asked to walk around the park on 9/9 to round up fans. Konnan complained about his bad hip bothering him and it started the wheels in motion with them asking why they were asked to go with Hart two weeks earlier and do the same job and nobody else is asked. Jerry Jarrett was furious at Konnan for his feeling he didn't want to do it. They sent Vince Russo to talk with Konnan, since he's good friends with him. Konnan complained to Russo, who then told Konnan he and Jeff needed to talk. 3LK was told it was because they are the few people that are recognizable as wrestlers from their prior TV, and Jimmy Hart said they and Ryan Wilson (who doesn't even wrestle on TV, but they are grooming him for a push because of his size) are the best people for him to work with the getting park goers interested in seeing a tape. Hart claims people get intrigued by Wilson because he's 6’9’’ and people gravitate toward seeing a monster, while Konnan & James are recognized by more people than almost anyone because they were pushed during the hot period of wrestling. Hart had told company people that nobody recognizes Jonny Fairplay, who he was originally using, other than older women who don't care about wrestling. As it turned out, Konnan also complained about getting no interview time and nothing but a late run-in the night before, and then being booked for a dark match with Wilson instead of on Impact. He brought up Wilson was green and might hurt someone, and then, in the match, Wilson ended up hurting James, who got a dislocated shoulder. Konnan said if they were three of the most recognizable people in the company, and that if he was a big enough star that Jarrett brought him to Las Vegas to help them on a merchandising deal, how come they don't get more of a push, noting that the advertising deal they have at the park for the taping doesn't list their name, and Konnan heard a radio commercial for Impact that listed several names (Jarrett, Styles, Fairplay, Raven, and Brown) but not he and James. He was told the Fairplay mention was Dixie Carter's insistence. He also complained about Goldylocks getting so much TV time as compared to him, and he's got a good one there. He was mad at The Naturals getting pyro for their ring entrance, but they don't. Jarrett told him not to be a mark; that The Naturals need it because they are trying to get them over, but 3LK can get over without pyro or belts. Konnan then asked Jeff why he needed pyro and a belt, and said people are conditioned to thinking the big stars get pyro now. As the talks heated up, Jerry Jarrett came in and was furious at Konnan. The Jarretts told 3LK as a group that they were in a good spot, at the level of AMW, and they could easily be in the Gilberti, David Young, and Pat Kenney level. They were also given an angle for the PPV where they wouldn't wrestle on the show, but would get lost traveling to the show and end up partying with the common people, maybe in a trailer park or something somewhere near whatever city the show is at, which didn't make them happy because they realized it had already been decided they wouldn't have a match on the three-hour show. The Jarretts noted to them they are on every TV and PPV, but Konnan complained they often are booked as faces that can't get the job done, rarely are booked to look strong and get their groups' gangster gimmick over, and much of their wrestling was in dark matches. It was also noted that at one point Killings had been asked to put a bone in his hair at one point and refused, and they wanted to bring up some outdated stereotypes with Konnan such as a Tequila bottle as a prop. Jeff told Konnan that if he didn't like it, he could go home right now, and later Jerry told Konnan that if he wasn't happy, he could leave. Konnan said he didn't want to quit. It is a buyers' market right now and TNA has no superstars who are going to make the difference single-handedly. For the talent, there are no alternatives, as WWE would be interested in very few, and given the situation there, it's doubtful anyone would fare better when it comes to a push in WWE. The only people who have any leverage in dealing with TNA are those with a bonafide regular Japanese deal. Jerry in particular was said to by mad when this happened. Savio Vega and (Bushwhacker) Luke Williams were at the Orlando show to negotiate a talent exchange deal, speaking with Jerry Jarrett. It's an interesting political deal because Dutch Mantel has been sending talent to WWC, and IWA had contacted some TNA people in the past, and the wrestlers had been told they couldn't go because of Mantel's deal. Jerry told them that the deal was Mantel got a booking fee for sending talent to WWC, but TNA wasn't involved in the deal. He told them a few WWC guys were coming for a taping in September and he wasn't going to cancel it, but wanted to start the deal in October. Things were verbally agreed to, but nothing has been signed. Jerry wanted Jeff to come in as NWA champion a few times a year, and the company would send other talent to IWA, probably starting 10/14 to 10/17 when IWA has its next round of big shows. Konnan's name was also brought up, as he headlined in Puerto Rico a few years back. Jerry said they wanted two Mexican stars and two Puerto Rican stars, and said it was because Fox was looking for guys to appeal to the Latin market. Because Armando Quintero was gone on a non-wrestling assignment, Vega also did the Spanish announcing for Impact. Quintero may be gone for good, since Vega was asked and agreed to come in full-time as an announcer, and Jerry Jarrett told them he wanted to work through Victor Quinones to get Mexican talent. Vega, whose hand was wrapped up because he accidentally cut it with a knife cutting food, got a much bigger reaction in Orlando than people expected. IWA is on Sunshine Network after Xplosion, although it's totally screwed up as nothing is shown in order and it's almost impossible to follow. TNA Impact doesn't even air in Orlando. From this point forward, the Orlando tapings are going to be far more difficult to get crowds. Attendance to the park on a school night is down something like 70% from the summer period. There are a lot of the old ECW guys who now wish they had never signed a contract. They look at WWE, and this may be (and in some cases is) wishful thinking, but they see Heyman back in a stronger creative position (but he doesn't have anywhere near the power he had when he was running Smackdown in 2002) and Tommy Dreamer (who almost every ex-ECW wrestler in TNA likes) and Lance Storm moving up the ranks in the Talent Relations Department and think this may be their opening. When one approached a company official about a release, he was told to not even think about it, because Jeff isn't releasing people, because he's not going to let anyone under contract go to WWE. Jerry Jarrett appeared on camera on Bert Prentice's TV show in Nashville briefly this weekend as they promoted their new group that runs the Fairgrounds. The "Date with Fate" show did 3 thumbs up (6.0%), 32 down (64.0%) and 15 in the middle (30.0%). The responses were higher than in recent months, but still below the average level from most of the run, and that's with pushing the Jeff Jarrett vs. Jeff Hardy match as the biggest in company history. Best match was A.J. Styles vs. Kid Rash with 29 and the X Division Battle Royal with 12. Worst was Dusty Rhodes vs. Scott D'Amore with 33 and Erik Watts, Sonny Siaki, & Desire vs. Abyss, Alex Shelley, & Goldylocks with 9. Jeff Jarrett-Jeff Hardy was a match everyone realized was going to be tough. Jarrett laid it out shorter than most NWA title matches (11:15), booked much of it as brawling outside the ring, as well as put a lot of the focus on Dusty Rhodes and Vince Russo outside the ring because he recognized Hardy's limitations. Jarrett won with a guitar shot while Rhodes and Russo argued outside, distracting Hardy. On TV the next day, Russo blamed Rhodes for the fact Jarrett retained the title. It would be wrong to say the match was disappointing when it was exactly what I figured it to be, but I think most expected a title change because of how hard it was pushed, and most NWA title matches in this company have been far better. The live crowd was sold out with 1,300. They sold more tickets than usual as usually the only purchased tickets are ringside, but they sold quite a few $10 bleacher seats as well. Still, based on the early lines, far more got in free than paid. The atmosphere was great as most of the crowd knew it was the last show in Nashville for the time being, and considered it as bigger than the usual show. The local paper had a story that day talking about it being the last show and that Jerry Jarrett would be opening up his own promotion in October. They did an angle during the show where Christopher Daniels was "injured" by The Naturals with chair shots to his bad shoulder. They also announced the worked James Storm injury from the week before. What had been scheduled as The Naturals vs. AMW, with the winners then defending on the same show against XXX, wound up as Naturals vs. Chris Harris of AMW and Elix Skipper of XXX. Harris & Skipper won the tag titles when Chase Stevens had a chair and Andy Douglas had powder, but Skipper beat Stevens' chair with one of his own, and Harris speared Douglas, sending the powder flying, for the pin. There was a big pop for the win, but the match wasn't good. A big mistake is that Skipper is really carried by Daniels a lot as a team. The decision was made since Daniels had the prior injury that it would be an easier sell, but they sacrificed a lot with the match, as Daniels & Harris probably would have made a far stronger team. Rhodes vs. D'Amore, with Rhodes winning with an elbow drop, was terrible. Unlike the previous week when the crowd was into seeing Rhodes as the Midnight Rider as their private joke, this went 6:40, and should have gone one-third that length of time. D'Amore was wearing what appeared to be a Terry Taylor hand-me-down robe. He couldn't carry Rhodes. Russo never turned on Rhodes even though they teased it when Rhodes hit Russo with an elbow. The post-match saw Team Canada in and Russo take off his shirt and start shoving around D'Amore. That was the funniest stuff in wrestling outside of internet posts on the subject in the last month. Styles won a 2-of-3 table match over Kash with the Styles clash off the middle rope through a table. Post-match saw Kash, Dallas, and Petey Williams do a number on Styles, with Williams laying him out with the Canadian Destroyer. The plan is to start a Williams vs. Styles X title program. Abyss finally turned on Goldylocks, giving her a backbreaker, and of course, that was a big pop. They haven't really given Abyss a new direction. The people think he's face, but that isn't Dutch Mantel's short-term plan for him. Mikey Batts & Jerrelle Clark were the surprise winners of the X division dominance match. It was a six-team Battle Royal, which came down to Clark and Frankie Kazarian. Then it turned into a regular tag, and Batts scored a surprising pin on Shane. Whatever this accomplished with an upset that the crowd got into was nullified at TV the next day when they had a rematch, which Shane & Kazarian won in squash fashion. Jonny Fairplay was back at TV for a dark match, managing Titus (Ryan Wilson). He was given a new story this week. It's the same story that Dixie Carter wants him because she personally signed him, and they were going to use him against Rupert. That will probably change weekly because nobody else wants him around. Carter even insisted he be put back on the web site. Elix Skipper & Chris Harris lost a non-title match at TV to Johnny Devine & Bobby Roode of Team Canada, which probably sets up a title match on TV over the next few weeks. The 9/9 show drew about 400, both because of the hurricane, and also because Hart wasn't there to round up people at the park to see the show. A.J. Styles is said to be thrilled at getting away from working with Kash and going toward Williams. Styles has a certain type of high-flying match he likes to do, and most veterans don't want to do it, so he tries to get opponents who do.

Kurt Angle shooting The Big Show with a tranquilizer reminds me of one of MY favorite Smackdown moments that involved the nWo and Steve Austin. Kevin Nash, you take it from here... HE'S GOT A GUN!

Tomko's injured, so I doubt it. I think WWE is aiming for HBK/Christian and Y2J/Edge, if Edge is healthy.

Watch Teddy Long during 1996 in WCW and you'll see he was quite chubby.

Yes, that was really the entire appeal to Austin. Austin had a cult-following for a bit, but didn't explode into a marketing phenomenon until the Mr. McMahon stuff started. All the middle-class people saw him beat the shit out of his boss every week, and they lived vicariously through that. However, in true WWE fashion, they had to completely ride the wave even after there was no wave left, and it went on and on so much where people got tired of it. Kind of like WCW's version of the nWo.