QuestionMan

Guess Edge shouldn't have taken all those steroids while he was out.

Bad Blood 2003.

This was the night after Survivor Series 2001.

On this August 24th, 2004, Vince McMahon, the owner of World Wrestling Entertainment, celebrates his 59th birthday. Use this thread to talk about some of the things that you like or dislike about this man who, like him or not, has become the Emperor of United States wrestling.

Right after Kane removed his mask, RAW's rating was consistently getting higher and it's obvious it was for Kane. But, then Shane McMahon came along...

It wouldn't change anything. The WWF Title and IC title haven't had the classic designs for a long time now. Most of the newer fans wouldn't really know the history of it. I don't really see the problem with any of the current designs except for the U.S. title. Why make such a crappy belt when you had a good design with the WCW version? The U.S. Title looks like someone took the Light-Heavyweight Title and stuck a U.S. flag sticker on it.

I remember the original version of the Undisputed Title was just about as small as the Cruiserweight Title. That was great.

April 25th was the day my brother died.

The after-SummerSlam celebration for Vince's birthday was on the Stone Cold Truth DVD. It was quite amusing.

His face is starting to age somewhat too. But yeah, he'd look younger if he'd get some Just For Men or Hogan's spraypaint.

There must have been some sort of problem with the Xplosion tape that was to air the weekend of 8/14. Both Sunshine Network and Fox Sports Pacific aired the show from two weeks earlier. I do know the tape Sunshine was to air on 8/6 had a tracking problem, so they aired the 7/30 show again. The tape then aired for a third week in a row on 8/13. TV in Orlando wasn't full, but it was considered a miracle they got 700 people out with all the TV about the hurricane coming. Due to Pacific Trading Cards business problems, as they are selling off everything including their fax machines, office chairs, and photo library, plus laid off most of its workers and losing their office building, there probably won't be a second edition of TNA trading cards. And if there is, it will certainly not be with that company. Johnny Swinger was told that he's indefinitely off television. He's under contract through September of 2005, although the contracts only guarantee pay for 26 dates as the minimum. Big Vito, who was saying goodbyes last week, was said to be booked for 8/18. At the tryouts at the bodybuilding expo in Atlanta from 10/8 to 10/10, they will be testing candidates in back bumping, tie-ups, interview ability, and running the ropes. Well, it's a given with novice bodybuilder types they won't be able to do any of that, and it would be far more effective to give them endurance and agility drills to check on their athletic ability and guts.

The whole Katy Vick bullshit is still at the top.

I don't think Rock is that insensitive to make fun of someone's drug problem while they are in rehab. But then again, that company constantly put Scott Hall around alcohol on television during 2002. So who knows.

The latest WWE annual shareholder booklet listed Vince McMahon as earning $1,085,000 in salary and another $1,085,000 as a bonus (not to mention another $9.4 million in stock dividends). It didn't indicate how much, if any, McMahon earned from being a performer, but it is believed to be around $850,000 to play Mr. McMahon. Linda McMahon earned $750,000 in salary and another $750,000 in bonuses last year. She also earns money as a performer, but it's fairly negligible since she only makes here-and-there TV appearances as Linda McMahon, the TV character. Kevin Dunn, head of production, earned $517,692 in salary and received a $300,000 bonus. WWE's closed circuit of SummerSlam in Windsor, ONT, as the "Famous Players" theater, has signal problem, and about 80 minutes into the show, it was canceled and everyone was given refunds. More notes on Carmella DeCesare, who everyone has tabbed as the favorite in the Diva Search coming off her 2003 Playmate of the Year winning. She's 22, and attended an open call at a restaurant near her home town of Avon Lake, OH, to appear in a reality show called "The Girl Next Door." She made the cut, but quit the show after one day. The show was putting 12 girls in a house and the winner would become a Playmate. After quitting, Playboy asked her to do a test shoot anyway and put her on the cover. She wasn't at SummerSlam because she had a prior promotional tour that day she had committed to. The other women didn't like her also because of a newspaper article where, when she was asked her goals, she didn't even say working in WWE, but that she wants to be a game show or talk show host. DeCesare was also in the news over the past week regarding boyfriend, Cleveland Browns quarterback Jeff Garcia. Former San Francisco 49ers teammate Terrell Owens made several remarks questioning whether Garcia was gay, and DeCesare was quoted defending his sexuality. There were all kinds of rumors regarding Bret Hart being in Toronto to negotiate with WWE. In actuality, he was in Toronto, but it was to film a CBC television show on national heroes in Canada. He was narrating a piece on, I believe, NHL announcer Don Cherry. He had no contact with any officials from WWE. A lot of fans saw him, of course. Actually the rumors were almost natural in the sense that he'd told people when he was in Buffalo the night before, that he was going to Toronto, and people put it together. It was interesting with SummerSlam being in Toronto, but WWE never once called Hart, asking if he'd be interested. After being turned down so many times on previous attempts to get him to make live appearance on TV shows and big shows, they must have gotten a message, and particularly with the Ric Flair book, it wasn't going to happen now. The Lycos Network listed Torrie Wilson (No. 5) and Trish Stratus (No. 7) as the most searched for athletes in the world. The top four are Russian tennis player Anasataia Myskina, tennis player Anna Kournikova (who is almost always No. 1), Kobe Bryant, Softball player Jennie Finch, Wilson, tennis player Maria Sharapova, Stratus, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Christiano Ronaldo (soccer) and track star Amy Acuff. There was an incident the morning of SummerSlam at the hotel that many of the wrestlers and fans were staying at right across from the ACC. Someone must have pulled the fire alarm at 5:30 a.m., and they had to evacuate the building. One reader there noted that several of the Diva wannabees were there, including Amy Webber, who is a highly paid model in real life, and a couple of the others. Anyway, as you can imagine at 5:30 a.m., some of the fans were shocked at how they looked. Yes, women don't wake up at 5:30 a.m. and look like they do on television. Nunzio was off this past weekend because his wife was having a baby. The company is going to advertise its 10/19 Taboo Tuesday Raw show as the first interactive PPV in history. I don't know what that means. They are doing a Raw house show on 9/17 in Bossier City, LA, billed as a tribute to Mid-South Wrestling. Steve Williams will be brought in for the show, plus they will have appearances by WWE personnel Jim Ross, Michael Hayes, and Arn Anderson. Bossier City is the sister city to Shreveport, where Mid South did its television tapings in the late 70s through the mid-80s. This week's scary coincidence: Tess Broussard, Steve Austin's ex-girlfriend, is best friends with Tracy Dali, the actress who played the role of Undertaker's old girlfriend who claimed she was having an affair with him in a blackmail storyline involving Paul Heyman and Brock Lesnar in fall 2002. Because of recent violations, wrestlers have been threatened with fines regarding the new dress code, which is, nice slacks and a dress shirt have to be worn into the arena. A lot of wrestlers, being that it is summer and hot out, have been vocal about having to travel in uncomfortable clothes. Marcin Makulski, a graphic designer in the front office, passed away on 8/12 in a motorcycle accident in Stamford. He was 31. He was hit while riding his motorcycle, thrown, and pronounced dead on the scene at 1:45 a.m. He came from Warsaw, Poland, and moved to the U.S. in 1985, and lived in New York before moving to Stamford in high school. 8/16 Smackdown house show in Owen Sound, Ontario, drew 1,800.

SUMMERSLAM POLL RESULTS Thumbs Up: 144 Votes (38.7%) Thumbs in the Middle: 86 Votes (23.1%) Thumbs Down: 142 Votes (38.2% BEST MATCH POLL Chris Benoit vs. Randy Orton: 268 Votes Eddie Guerrero vs. Kurt Angle: 56 Votes WORST MATCH POLL Diva Dodgeball: 110 Votes Booker T vs. John Cena: 95 Votes John Bradshaw Layfield vs. Undertaker: 69 Votes Kane vs. Matt Hardy: 43 Votes Eugene vs. Triple H: 19 Votes Edge vs. Chris Jericho vs. Batista: 12 Votes Based on phone calls, fax messages, and e-mails to the Observer as of Tuesday, 8/17. The story of the 8/15 SummerSlam show at the Air Canada Center in Toronto was supposed to be Randy Orton winning the World title from Chris Benoit. Instead, the story was the crowd reactions on a show that sold out with an announced crowd of 17,640, sold out weeks in advance, and an approximate $1.3 million ($1.0 million U.S.) live gate. WWE hasn't had a crowd like that for a show since WrestleMania. But when it was over, it seemed like the company didn't want the crowd it got. The problems are best explained in a letter from someone there live (see reader’s pages). The crowd cheered HHH and Orton probably more than anyone on the show. Chris Benoit was also cheered, as was Kurt Angle. They crapped all over the JBL vs. Undertaker WWE title match, doing a long wave, openly not paying attention to the match, clearly were reacting to things not in the ring, chanting "Spanish table," apparently wanting someone to go through the table (HHH's fault on that, because by clearing out the monitors, everyone expected a table spot, and kept chanting for the spot that never came for the rest of the show; I'm sure his mentality is doing it was to show clearing out the monitors doesn't equal breaking the table so that it won't be so "expected" the next night someone cleans out the monitors), "boring," and by the end, the entire upper deck was said to be chanting, "end this match." Undertaker's face while this was going on seemed to indicate he was furious about this. Most of the response indicated it was a condemnation of both JBL as champion, and the slow build of the match. But there was even a "Benoit sucks" chant, that nobody could explain, even though live reports said Benoit and Guerrero weren't booed so much as their opponents and then were all cheered. Edge was booed out of the building even though he was announced from Toronto, but that seemed more because the crowd was so pro-Chris Jericho, who they probably saw as more deserving of the push. Orton, born April 1, 1980, became the youngest world champion in company history with a clean pinfall on Benoit after the RKO. At 24 years and 4 months, he would trail only Lou Thesz, Kerry Von Erich, and perhaps Danno O'Mahoney (who is believed to have been 22 when he won the title in 1935) as the youngest major world champion in history. Orton shook hands with Benoit after the match, and broke down, clearly turning himself face, and even did a few Rock mannerisms since the company has decided to use him to try and replicate The Rock. There were a ton of pro-Orton signs, which, of course, is because in 2004, people are going to get behind the people who are successful, no matter what the means, and that means Evolution. HHH always comes out on top (he may have lost to Benoit, but who is the biggest star on TV?). Orton has been pushed as winning all his matches and as the next superstar. Ric Flair is a face just because of who he is, no matter what he does. Even though those in the company even acknowledged that HHH was the most popular wrestler on the show, he wanted to stay heel for what looked to be the inevitable Mania feud, although at this point it may be main-eventing in some form by the 9/12 Unforgiven PPV in Portland. The turn by the rest of Evolution on Orton at the end of Raw the next night, was not a long-term planned out event. The original idea was to go with Benoit vs. Orton, William Regal & Eugene vs. HHH & Flair, Shawn Michaels vs. Kane, and La Resistance vs. Rhyno & Tajiri as the top matches for Unforgiven. After the bad rating for the 8/9 show, combined with the reaction to Eugene at SummerSlam, the plans were changed. The 8/16 Raw show was designed to give Benoit his rematch and do the turn as fast as possible. There was no mention in the commentary of Regal & Eugene, and HHH's programs are never ignored, so it's clear he got himself out of that. Even as late as a week or two ago, while HHH vs. Orton had been earmarked for WrestleMania for some time (all of these things are more ideas than definites because plans change weekly), it was not clear which one would be the babyface. They were entertaining ideas in both directions. On this show, heels won every match except John Cena over Booker T, and the three-way (where Edge won, but the babyface in the match to the fans was Jericho). Even stranger is they were clean wins, in that the heel didn't do anything but deserve the win. Apparently Kurt Angle convinced Eddie Guerrero that losing would be better for Guerrero. I was shocked at that one, because Guerrero is fading fast, hasn't scored a major win since WrestleMania while losing heat, and a potential talked about program with Luther Reigns (who Angle has been pushing for), will just make him another guy. Judging from television, they are at least for now, still keeping the program with Guerrero vs. Angle short-term. Instead of a show that figured to have an abundance of outside interference endings, since heels were going to win, they had no interference, but the heels still won. It wasn't a bad show, since the main event delivered, and Angle vs. Guerrero was very good, and aside from John Cena vs. Booker T, there wasn't really a bad match on the show. But it looked better on paper and was a disappointment for the traditional No. 3 show of the year. Most of the under-card matches were shorter than they needed to be, and there was a major disconnect between what the promotion thinks the business is and what the ticket buying public, at least the base in Toronto and those willing to travel for one of the biggest shows of the year, wanted it to be. The biggest things pushed on TV have been the Divas Search, Eugene, and the Lita wedding. The former two flopped, and worse, everyone knew the first would, and I knew the second would on this show because, like with Zach Gowen last year, they took what was a great babyface character who people got behind, and then decided to build television around them, not realizing they were great mid-card level characters. It's also something to note that in both cases, it was the family who used the hot characters to get themselves over as heels, and in doing so, had to beat the gimmick babyfaces far too early in their run. It should also be noted that weddings have traditionally done great numbers on Raw. Gowen (who the Toronto crowd turned on to the point they had to re-edit the crowd noise at a Smackdown taping), due to his own immaturity, and the fact his handicap was going to lead to injuries if he wrestled any kind of a schedule, plus would be resented going over on any "real wrestler," wasn't going to make it in the long run. Eugene's long-term is still undecided. But it isn't as if this is the first crowd that booed him due to the nature of the writing and overexposure of the character. But there are two sides to the strange Toronto crowd, because it was also Toronto that started the ball rolling on Eddie Guerrero as a babyface, and he got very hot very fast as a regional television draw, enough that he was eventually groomed for a long-term (which turned into a short-term) title run. The company has gone to a more serious style, with longer title reigns, slower paced and more psychologically oriented matches, and generally speaking, winners and losers. Then, you do something implausible like Lita agreeing to marry the winner of a match, and nobody is about to believe it, even in their "wanting to believe" mode. There were a few interesting things teased on the show. There was a confrontation between Eric Bischoff and Teddy Long, which seems to lead to another angle between the two at Survivor Series. John Cena and Orton had a confrontation as well (this wasn't good for Cena, because he looked like a mid-card gimmick guy from a weak show standing next to a superstar), although most figure Mania at this point to be HHH vs. Orton and Undertaker vs. Kurt Angle as the top match from each side. On the former, I was surprised they shot the angle the next night in London with no build-up, figuring a long build-up of tension (think Rock and Faarooq in the Nation of Domination split which ended up with Rock becoming a major superstar) before shooting the angle would hook people and make them want to see the match before it was delivered. With so much talk regarding the split in recent weeks, I knew it was coming sooner, but it felt rushed. Angle and Undertaker have an understanding they are going to work with each other, largely because each sees the other as the top guy on the Smackdown side, which also makes them major political allies right now. They apparently want to keep themselves apart, and avoid doing jobs as much as possible to build to a match with two guys who have been winning. Originally, when JBL vs. Undertaker was booked for no DQ matches at house shows, JBL was going over, almost surely due to interference. Those were changed to DQ finishes and the no DQ stipulations were dropped. JBL was at first set to go over, possibly with interference from Orlando Jordan and Jon Heidenreich. The Heidenreich push for Undertaker had already started. Interestingly, ever since Undertaker vowed revenge on Paul Heyman, almost killing his best friend and saying imagine if I'd do that to the one person I care about, what would I do to you, it was then dropped like a hot potato, and even in the Heidenreich build-up and videos, Undertaker's name hasn't been mentioned. Now it appears JBL vs. Undertaker is being brought back to headline No Mercy on 10/3 in East Rutherford, NJ. Undertaker's character has gone downhill ever since he was back established as a face, as he would have been far more effective with a heel run, since the company is so weak on the Smackdown heel side. With both Angle and Undertaker as heels, they could have been easily kept apart, and even aligned, to set up a Mania program, perhaps with Heyman as the catalyst. With Heyman's lack of exposure on a show in need of strong heels, it appears he's out of favor, and also we've heard nothing about him having booking input of late. In fact, he wasn't even in Toronto for the show and hasn't been in Heidenreich's corner at most of the recent house shows. Really, JBL and Undertaker didn't have that bad of a match. The problem is, and Undertaker should know this better than anyone, is that the submission holds, even if they are realistic, mean nothing unless people have been educated that they are finishes by seeing them work on television. This is not Japanese wrestling where all the fans see Pride and wrestling as the same thing and a "real" finish is instantly recognized by the crowd. This is the U.S., and UFC may as well be underground as far as its influence on the vast majority of wrestling fans. Once the crowd turned on them, they had an uphill battle. There were time management issues. The Diva Dodgeball ended up embarrassing because you had a shoot competition, pre-taped, and the company's women under contract looked bad in every way possible. First, the WWE women were dressed up as athletes while the non-contract performers were wearing very skimpy outfits, thus looking far sexier. Second, no doubt the idea was the non-contract workers would be embarrassed by looking totally unathletic, as compared to the actual athletic looking WWE women. Well, they did look unathletic, except for Michelle, who was then dumped the next day, playing the role of this year's Bart Gunn, and still whipped the contracted women to where five of them were left while all the WWE women were eliminated. All I could think of when this was over was thank God they didn't try and have them play volleyball. But that was a minor issue. The big issue is, the idea was dumb to begin with, and worse, it took several minutes away that could have helped every under-card match. In particular, Angle vs. Guerrero could have used five more minutes, although perhaps they were given less time due to Guerrero's hamstring problem. Kane vs. Hardy was short, and anti-climactic, but Hardy was risking enough just trying to do a short match on totally destroyed ACL. However, the Dudleys match and most of all, the IC title three-way, were rushed, and both of those matches would have likely been better as just TV bouts, where Edge and Jericho, for example, got more than twice as much time on Raw for a set-up match than they got for their big match. If the Diva thing wasn't already a proven loser, I could see the idea of getting them on the show as filler. But since it has become one of the great flops in company history, taking time away from good matches made zero sense. I think that was the frustrating part of the show. Everything that ended up being a problem was something that people paying attention should have seen, except the JBL-Taker reaction. And thus, why were the mistakes still made? Based on our response, it appears SummerSlam will be down in buy rate from last year. Our response was down 20% from last year, when SummerSlam, headlined by an elimination chamber match for the World title (Triple H vs. Goldberg vs. Chris Jericho vs. Kevin Nash vs. Shawn Michaels vs. Randy Orton), did 465,000 buys. A. Rob Van Dam (Robert Szatkowski) pinned Rene Dupree in 9:35 with a frog splash in the Heat match. Van Dam has two speeds, reckless or slow and careful and he looks bad. This was the latter. Dupree shoved RVD off the top and he crashed into the barricades. Tazz started singing when Dupree did the French tickler deal, which is amusing. Michael Cole was so bad (not necessarily here, but throughout the show) that Tazz was really on him, although when Cole would screw it up, Tazz played it off like he was being a heel in making fun of him. RVD's frog splash was two-thirds of the way across the ring. *3/4 1. Dudleys (Mark LeMonica and Devon Hughes) & Spike Dudley (Matt Hyson) beat Rey Mysterio (Oscar Guiterrez) & Billy Kidman (Peter Gruner) & Paul London in 8:06. The dynamic here was good, but they were rushed. Spike is playing the leader of the Dudley clan in a Napoleon role as "The Little General." It's effective because the Dudleys are great bullies and Spike plays the schoolyard punk who has the big friends backing him very well. Kidman & London need personality, Kidman in particular, but Mysterio has that, and they all can work. London did a lot of nice moves, particularly jumping off Kidman's back with a dive outside the ring. Finish was 3-D on Kidman, with Spike getting the pin. **3/4 2. Kane (Glen Jacobs) pinned Matt Hardy to get a wedding with Lita in 6:08. Hardy even did a plancha on his bad knee and a twist of fate on the floor. Kane just beat the 10 count back in. Lita gave Hardy the ring bell and he hit Kane with it, but Kane got his foot on the ropes. Hardy even came off the top rope, landing on his feet, which had to be a killer on his bad knee. When Hardy climbed the ropes a second time, Kane caught him and choke slammed him off the ropes for the pin. For such a strong angle, the people didn't seem to care much about it. Ending seemed "too fast" and it didn't build enough drama considering the amount of TV time and stakes. Hardy had posted on his web site that he needed knee surgery and that this would be his last match, which caused internal unhappiness because of the feeling it gave away the result. Any thoughts of Shawn Michaels getting involved here were dropped because his wife hadn't given birth yet, and was actually overdue by show time. *1/4 3. John Cena pinned Booker T (Booker Huffman) in the first of their best-of-five series for the U.S. title in 6:25. Cena looked bad on offense, even in a short match. You can really see the difference in quality of a worker that Booker is compared with Benoit or Angle, who got great matches out of Cena. Most of this match was watching Cole miscall kicks and Tazz correcting him, particularly when Cole called a jumping side kick, or leg lariat, a spin kick, when Booker never spun. Lots of timing issues at the end, and Cena used the FU out of nowhere. 3/4* 4. Edge (Adam Copeland) retained the IC title over Chris Jericho (Chris Irvine) and Batista (David Bautista) in 8:26. Because they had two faces and one heel, they mostly did spots where one guy would be hurt and the other two would fight. They set up to were Batista finally got hurt, so Edge and Jericho could fight. Crowd severely turned on Edge. He made heel facials as this was happening. It would build to one getting his finisher, and then the third guy who was playing injured would recover to make the save. Nothing wrong with it, but it was far too short. **l/4 5. Kurt Angle beat Eddie Guerrero in 13:38. Great early wrestling sequences. Fans were cheering Angle and chanting for him. Guerrero used an ankle lock early. Angle came back with the Angle slam and ankle lock. Guerrero was bleeding from the bridge of his nose. Guerrero finally made the ropes. Guerrero used the Angle slam as well. Angle did his arm whip superplex like move. He tried an Angle slam again, but Guerrero turned it into a DDT. Guerrero missed a frog splash and Angle did the Angle slam again. Angle took off Guerrero's boot, playing off the fact the boot cost him the Mania match. I can't say that was explained well. After a ref bump, Guerrero hit Angle and Luther Reigns (who interfered once) with a boot shot, then hit a frog splash on Angle. By the time the ref counted, Angle kicked out. Angle used an ankle lock on the leg without a boot. They sold it like it was an unprotected leg, and after a while, with Angle pulling him to the center and turning it into a heel hook, Guerrero submitted. In reality, ankle locks was far less effective when opponents don't have boots on because the boot limits the ankle's flexibility, but since 99.9% of the audience wouldn't know that, it doesn't matter. ***3/4 6. HHH (Paul LeVesque) pinned Eugene (Nick Dinsmore) in 14:06. It was funny, in that perverse way, when I figured these two would get more time than the previous match, particularly since they haven't realized Eugene is best in small doses. Crowd booed Eugene, which is happening more and more. He's becoming this summer's Zach Gowen, and I remembered what happened when Gowen went to Toronto. They had to redo the crowd noise it was so embarrassing to the company. HHH did the fake knee injury spot. Eugene did a rock bottom at one point. HHH used a spine buster. Eugene got a cut near his shoulder when he was whipped into the steps. Eugene flipped HHH off and gave him a stunner for the biggest pop of the show. Unfortunately, that reminded people of Steve Austin. HHH rolled out of the ring, and got up without selling it. Ric Flair came out. Eugene Hulked up and hit a leg drop. Eugene even hit a pedigree, and Flair put HHH's foot on the ropes. Flair tripped Eugene. The ref threw Flair out of the match, and as he was leaving, William Regal KO'd Flair with the power of the punch. Eugene was distracted and smiling, and then turned around, and HHH hit the pedigree for the pin. **1/2 7. JBL (John Layfield) beat Undertaker (Mark Calloway), via DQ in 17:37, so JBL kept the WWE title. JBL came off the top with a shoulder block. He then started working on Taker's knee after a chair to the knee. Crowd was paying no attention to the match. Undertaker used a lariat and a choke slam for near falls. Fans booed the ref bump since it was so telegraphed. Both hit high kicks and were knocked out. Orlando Jordan, who was managing JBL as his Chief of Staff, threw him the belt. JBL used the belt but no ref. Jordan grabbed ref Nick Patrick and picked up his hand and began counting but Taker kicked out. Taker threw Jordan out of the ring, but JBL used a clothesline on him. Undertaker used the last ride power bomb but again no ref. Undertaker then grabbed the title belt and hit JBL, but Patrick got up and saw that for the DQ. Fans booed the hell out of that finish. The post-match saved it in a sense, as Taker beat him over to the car. JBL was bleeding pretty well. The big move was a choke slam through the gimmicked limo roof. Crowd did the "holy shit" chants at that. The worst thing was the replay showed the roof was gimmicked. JBL ended up being taken out on a stretcher, although Jordan was as concerned that the belt came with him as of he getting medical care. There was noticeable second guessing of that one, with the idea that Undertaker could have lost due to Heidenreich's interference, and still done the post match where he would be the one left standing at the end. ** 8. Randy Orton pinned Chris Benoit in 20:08 to win the World title. Orton got a sharpshooter in the middle early. Orton threw Benoit's shoulder into the ring post. Earl Hebner was the ref, so tons of "You screwed Bret" chants. Not like that wasn't predictable. They should have limited Earl to reffing the taped dodge ball game. Fans wanted someone to take a bump through the Spanish table. Benoit dirt a DDT on the apron: Benoit went to the top but Orton moved and Benoit cracked his head into the barricade. In the ring, Orton got Benoit up in the old Bruno Sammartino backbreaker, and then dropped Benoit from that position for a near fall. Benoit got a near fall with a Northern lights suplex. Orton got a near fall with a crossbody. Benoit came back with a German suplex and a sharpshooter. Orton made the ropes. Benoit hit five German suplexes and went up for a diving head-BUTT. Orton got his foot up and Benoit crashed into it. It looked great. Orton's mouth was busted by this point. Benoit went for a crossface, but Orton escaped, and hit the RKO out of nowhere, and got the pin. Lots of fans were rooting for Orton, apparently wanting to see a title change, and there was a big pop for the three. Benoit left, but then turned around, got back in the ring and told Orton to "Be a man" and shake his hand. Orton shook his hand, and did a total face reaction, crying as he held the belt. ****1/4

That was such a horrible contest. There were only two keys out of 40 that unlocked the casket. Basically, it was just an excuse to get Sunny and Sable on the PPV. Wasn't it Todd Pettingail's last appearance? (Yeah, I know I spelled his name wrong) If it wasn't, it was close to Pettingil's departure. Michael Cole debuted two months later at In Your House - Badd Blood.

That was such a horrible contest. There were only one key out of 40 that unlocked the casket. Basically, it was just an excuse to get Sunny and Sable on the PPV.

Regarding last week's story on the changes, the company has not officially released any information confirming it. Most of the wrestlers are aware of it, but have not been told officially. We're guessing part of the reason is they do not want the fans in Nashville aware they are leaving. There is a lot of considering to having the November PPV in Nashville, if only because it alleviates a lot of the pressure on the tent show by being in a place they are familiar, and also keeps them from having to do the 5,000-to-7,000-seat arena in a new city gig until December, to where they won't have to rush local promotion. The TV production people in Nashville have been told that 9/8 is their last Wednesday night date, and as best we can tell, they are the only ones given official word. Jeff Jarrett had another meeting with FSN about getting the Sunday morning time slot. Nothing was official but they were positive to him about the show. The plan is, once they no longer have to sell weekly PPV shows, to have more competitive matches on television. Sabu and Jeff Hardy have become fast friends, which isn't necessarily good, since both showed up late for TV on 8/12 in Orlando. Late is in they arrived hours before taping started, but well after they were supposed to get there. Vito was hugging people backstage on 8/11 saying goodbye. When he was asked if he was fired or quitting, he responded with, "I'm not wanted here and I know that. My time is about over." Glen Gilberti is expected to take some time off selling his storyline firing, but he'll probably be back. They were unhappy about him missing the show to do the Hawaii show. Vince Russo was complaining more loudly than usual this past week about how much he hates the company and the business because Jeff Jarrett & Dutch Mantel, who are totally running the show, don't listen to his ideas. There is a realization that the Irish Pat Kenney idea was a flop, and they are talking about repackaging him. They made a big mistake breaking him and Johnny Swinger up, since both have floundered since the split. They are going to be scouting for new talent at a bodybuilding and fitness expo in Atlanta from 10/8 to 10/10, and are co-sponsoring the event and promoting it on their television. David Sahadi, who produced some award winning commercials and videos for WWE before quitting last summer, has been at several shows. Two weeks ago, he even flew in the company's private jet from Nashville to Orlando. Bill Banks, who worked with him in WWE, is particularly high on him. Sahadi had a great rep from everyone in WWE until he gave notice, at the time saying he wanted a sabbatical. He hasn't cut a deal at this point. There has been a noticeable difference in the reaction to AMW, who the fans in Nashville treat as stars, but the Orlando crowd isn't as hot for. Of all the acts, the move out of Nashville may hurt them the most. The final Wednesday night show in Nashville will be headlined by the Jeff Jarrett vs. Jeff Hardy NWA title match. The 8/18 PPV will be Sabu vs. Raven in a Hangman's Horror match, Monty Brown vs. Ron Killings, Petey Williams defending the X title against Chris Sabin, with Dusty Rhodes in Sabin's corner, A.J. Styles vs. Kid Kash in a street fight, the second in the best-of-three with AMW vs. Christopher Daniels & Prime Time, and The Naturals defending the tag titles against Konnan & B.G. James.

Austin refused to work with Hogan because he was bitter about Hogan squashing his main-event push in WCW in 1994.

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

The 8/23 Observer is the Hall of Fame newsletter. The 8/25 is the regular edition of the Observer. There were two different Observers sent out this week because HOF one is a special editon. haha, oh crap, I should check my mailbox then

Um, where in the WON is this? I've got it and can't find any of this stuff anywhere in it. And by the way, it's the August 23rd edition, not August 25th.

Ugh, that GAB buy rate needs two asterisks next to it. Let us not forget that GAB was offered free to any military personell, but they still had to order the show first, which is factored into the buyrate and can be quite decieving. Also, none of the Blast Areas showed the PPV (unless they independently ordered it, which I know a Hooters in another city did), so the people that really wanted to watch the PPV that go to Blast Areas had to go home and order it, which also has to factor in to that GAB buy rate.

LA got WrestleMania because it's the second biggest media market in the world. And Vince wants to do the next couple WMs in massive media markets. Atlanta will probably be the home of WM22.

He's also at RAW whenever they're in Miami.