QuestionMan

From the July 5th, 2004 Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Support Dave Meltzer and his newsletter by subscribing. Information at the Wrestling Observer website. WWE GREAT AMERICAN BASH 2004 Thumbs Up = 21 Votes (8.1%) Thumbs Down = 205 Votes (78.2%) In The Middle = 36 Votes (13.7%) BEST MATCH POLL Rey Mysterio vs. Chavo Guerrero = 151 Votes Eddy Guerrero vs. John Bradshaw Layfield = 82 Votes John Cena vs. Booker T. vs. Rene Dupree vs. Rob Van Dam = 8 Votes WORST MATCH POLL Billy Gunn vs. Kenzo Suzuki = 79 Votes Torrie Wilson vs. Sable = 77 Votes The Undertaker vs. The Dudley Boys = 32 Votes Mordecai vs. Bob Holly = 9 Votes Goose stepping your way to the WWE title, and a storyline homicide were the themes of what was the worst WWE PPV show in a long time. One of the key reasons WWE business overall, even with popularity falling, looks nothing like WCW, is because WWE has maintained a large percentage of its PPV audience. The reason? Unlike with WCW at the end, WWE PPV shows consistently deliver. But a collection of matches, most of which had no storyline build-up, featuring talent that wasn't ready for the PPV stage, led to a sad undercard. John Bradshaw Layfield became the most unlikely WWE champion, with the possible exception of Vince McMahon, in company history, by winning a Bullrope match over Eddie Guerrero, ending a planned long-term reign that wound up lasting four months. But the company can't afford too many shows like the 6/27 Great American Bash at the Norfolk Scope. The fact PPVs are starting to feel like WCW in its decline was evident with a disappointing crowd of 6,500 fans for first ever WWE PPV event at the Scope, with about 5,500 paying $320,000. The major storyline the show was built around was would Paul Bearer be put to death by Paul Heyman, inside a magician like glass case that was supposedly to be filled with quick drying cement that would suffocate him. In a scene that was partially pre-taped, Heyman's attempt to kill Bearer when Undertaker didn't lay down for the Dudleys ended when a lightning bolt came out of nowhere, stopping Heyman in his tracks. Then, Undertaker "surprisingly" pulled the lever and killed his long-time manager, for no apparent reason. What the purpose of all this was, other than an attempt to sell a weak PPV, is unknown. Bearer had just come back and only been on television a few times, so there was little emotional tie with him and Undertaker, even though they had a longstanding tie in the past. Most felt this was done to turn Undertaker heel, but that is very much up in the air, and Undertaker at this point is still being booked as a babyface at house shows. Bearer, who signed a three-year contract in late 2003, when McMahon came up with the idea to bring back the old Undertaker, is expected to work at least the remainder of his contract off in a front office job. The reaction to the angle was strongly negative. In the building, fans were quiet for a main event that came off more like a religious (non) passion play than a pro wrestling match, worse because it was in the main event spot. Fans leaving the Scope were said to be quiet, reacting as if this was hardly what they wanted to see out of pro wrestling. The curiosity over the Undertaker character has slightly increased Smackdown ratings, and strongly in his quarter hours, but it's not even certain where it ends. There has been talk of putting Undertaker with Heyman as a full-fledged top heel, but even though that seemed the most logical direction, it's also the least likely. There was heat between Undertaker and Heyman stemming from the period when Heyman was head writer of Smackdown and wanted to tone down Undertaker's push and use him more to build newer characters. It is said Vince McMahon wanted Undertaker to be a tweener, who could work with anyone, figuring the fans would keep him babyface because it'll take a lot of work to get them to boo him. Smackdown is so weak on star power and he's considered by fans by far the biggest star, which makes it hard to be a heel, but the same thing can be said for HHH on Raw. There are three-ways with JBL vs. Guerrero vs. Undertaker booked. As things currently stand, plan for SummerSlam on the Smackdown side is JBL vs. Undertaker for the title, with Undertaker as a face, and Guerrero vs. Kurt Angle. Angle is already medically cleared to wrestle after resting his often injured neck, but the plan right now is to hold his return off until SummerSlam. Angle could also work against Cena, since that was his main rival as G.M., if Guerrero is put in the title mix. Working with Guerrero in a single would put a lot of pressure on Angle in what would likely be his first match back, because fans would be expecting a great match. The title change to JBL was a relatively recent decision. It was McMahon's decision, as much to get the belt off Guerrero, as there was the feeling it was time for a heel champion to be chased. While Guerrero is far more popular than JBL among most of the wrestlers, and the reaction we got was negative to the decision, from a box office standpoint it really doesn't matter at this point. JBL's character has been thought of strongly by McMahon from the start. Michael Hayes and Bruce Prichard were also said to be strong advocates of JBL as champion. JBL was helped greatly by the controversy, because putting the belt on him enabled Vince in his own mind to thumb his nose at his detractors and win what was really an imaginary fight. It was clear from the interview on Smackdown that Vince was seeing JBL, due to the controversy, as an extension of himself, being unfairly persecuted in his mind, and vowing the last laugh. The Bullrope match saw both men touch three corners, and Guerrero apparently leap over JBL to touch the fourth, and he was announced as the winner and still champion. Angle came out and showed an instant replay, which showed JBL's back hit the fourth corner before Guerrero's hand, and the decision was reversed. McMahon was not at the show, suffering from diverticulitis, a colon infection, that hospitalized him for a few days and didn't allow him to travel. Billy Graham was suffering from it in March. It would have been the first PPV show since King of the Ring 1994 he'd missed, but he was constantly on the phone during the show. Stephanie, Shane, HHH, Jim Ross, and Kevin Dunn were all in various forms of charge in his absence. Besides the final match being a travesty, the show was marred by four matches with almost no build-up until days before, thrown out, all of which were bad. The three consecutive matches with Billy Gunn vs. Kenzo Suzuki, Torrie Wilson vs. Sable, and Bob Holly vs. Mordecai were as bad as any three straight matches on a WWE PPV in recent memory. Paul Bearer was not actually inside the crypt, but instead they had someone dressed up like him. The close-up shots that aired on the screen were filmed earlier in the day. When Heyman pulled the lever for the cement to come out the first time, there was a snafu in the building and no cement came out. However, on the screen, they used the pre-tape, which showed Bearer in a case filling up. The guy in the crypt was buried underneath the cement for a few seconds before they opened the door and all the cement poured open. A. Spike Dudley pinned Jamie Noble in 4:13 with the Dudley dog. Fans were into this match as this started as a hot crowd. Both worked well given the time limitations. 1. John Cena won the four-way to keep the U.S. title over Rene Dupree, Booker T and Rob Van Dam in 15:52. Cena, in his rap, brought up "G.I. Bro," which was Booker's first ring name and a name he used briefly in WCW 2000 when nobody was watching. It appeared that remark was over the head of the crowd. He also talked about Norfolk, a Navy city, saying Dupree was overly excited when he's surrounded by seamen. Van Dam was running wild, hitting a frog splash on Dupree, and another on Booker. Cena then pinned Van Dam in 8:19 with a schoolboy. This put Cena as the face in jeopardy as they got heat on him. Cena used the FU on Dupree and Booker hit Cena with an ax kick, but went to pin Dupree instead of Cena in 11:17. Cena's forearm was all bandaged and it started bleeding. Booker missed an ax kick and Cena pinned him after the FU. Nothing wrong with the match, but Cena in the ring was clearly not at the level of the other three. I think they'd have wanted more out of this bout. ** Backstage, Cena was hitting on Miss Jackie to a degree, right in front of Charlie Haas, who was doing the same. Haas was already suited up when Angle told him he had to face Luther Reigns immediately. 2. Luther Reigns pinned Charlie Haas in 7:11. Angle was at ringside for the match. Reigns looked bad. It's a broken record, but he needed to have spent months talking before being put in the ring, because the in-ring is never going to be his thing. He won with a move that starts as a reverse DDT and ends as a neckbreaker. They badly need to give catchy names to these new guys' finishers. * 3. Rey Mysterio retained the cruiserweight title over Chavo Guerrero in 19:40. They did reference Chavo Classic. Mysterio took a very believable looking spill that looked to have hurt his left knee. He sold it the rest of the way. Very psychologically sound and from a technical standpoint this was easily the best thing on the show. I just don't think people want cruiserweights to wrestle like small heavyweights. Mysterio kicked out of a Gori bomb, and came back with an enzuigiri and 619. Guerrero did a half crab working on the leg then went for another Gori bomb, but Mysterio reversed it into an infared for the pin. ***1/4 4. Kenzo Suzuki pinned Billy Gunn in 8:06 with a low blow and another move that started like a reverse DDT, but dropping high on Gunn's back on his knee like a backbreaker. Crowd was dead. The show started falling apart here. Suzuki's push is that he's a personal project of John Laurinaitis, who saw something in him that nobody else sees. Can you believe that, having never seen him wrestle (even though plenty of tapes of him in TNA and MLW were available), that this guy was booked to headline Bad Blood and all summer against Chris Benoit before it was dropped because his planned gimmick was recognized as a bad idea? -* 5. Sable pinned Torrie Wilson in 6:06. Only thing entertaining here was when Michael Cole talked about how the crowd was chanting for Torrie, and if you looked at the crowd, they were dead. The two knocked heads and that looked good. Sable was selling like she was knocked out. Problem is they've done this spot far too many times. You could see nobody buying it. Wilson wouldn't press the advantage. Sable then woke up and used a schoolgirl and turned Wilson over so far that one shoulder was nowhere near down and the other may not have been down either. It was so bad Cole and Tazz had to say how ref Charles Robinson counted when her shoulders weren't down. I thought the refs were instructed to call a match as if it was a shoot. I guess with these two in there, he didn't trust to not follow the original plan and force them to improvise. -* 6. Mordecai pinned Bob Holly in 6:31 with the razor's edge, which at least has a name and people popped for the finish. They made a big mistake having Mordecai sell so much, because it went from the powerful squash it needed to be to a boring match that hurt the guy who won. Holly was making the new guy pay with hard clotheslines, which is well and good, but that's not how you elevate a newcomer being geared for Undertaker and Guerrero. After this match, maybe they'll have second thoughts.1/4* 7. John Bradshaw Layfield won the WWE title from Eddie Guerrero in 21:06 in a Bullrope match. The rules were you had to touch all four corners and they had lights, one for each guy, when you touched a corner, which was a new touch. No pinfalls or submissions. As someone who saw tons of Bullrope matches involving Dusty Rhodes and others, it's not the easiest match to work and they did a good job. This wasn't as good as the Judgment Day match. There was good strategy such as guys hooking themselves to the ropes so they couldn't be tugged to new corners. Cole called Guerrero's car wrong, prompting Tazz to say that he didn't know his wrestling or his cars. JBL bled after a chair shot, in basically the same scene as their first PPV match. Guerrero rocked him with a second chair shot. Guerrero used three vertical suplexes and a frog splash, but Bradshaw rolled out of the ring before Guerrero could touch for fourth comer. JBL threw Guerrero off the middle rope and onto the Spanish announcers table, and the table didn't break, which had to jar the hell out of Guerrero. JBL then power bombed him through the table. Match ended with your classic Bullrope match finish, as both guys touched three corners and were struggling for No. 4. Guerrero leaped over JBL to win, which is the classic face finish, and was announced as the winner, until Angle reversed it. When fans realized Guerrero lost the title, he got a hell of a reaction out of appreciation. ***1/4 8. Undertaker beat The Dudleys in 14:42. Remember "The Dudley" gimmick to push them as singles? Yeah, in another month, nobody else will have either. Bubba taunted Undertaker, telling him to lie down and be pinned. He lay down, but then snatched D-Von and started fighting. The match consisted of Heyman pulling the lever whenever he was mad at Undertaker, who was supposed to lie down. Bearer kept saying that Undertaker would never let him die, and became so obnoxious about it that people would have half wanted him gone, if they cared. This was just dying as if felt like people just didn't want wrestling to turn into this and they didn't have their finger on the pulse. D-Von used a low blow, but Undertaker sat up. Paul Heyman pulled out the urn to control Undertaker, but instead, he choke slammed Bubba and pinned D-Von after a tombstone. Heyman vowed to flip the switch for good, when lightning struck him down. Undertaker paused in front of the switch, and then pulled it. A major flop of a main event. *

Thanks algrim for posting completely the same thing I did.

The guy who did the call-ins said the PA system was horrible and couldn't hear a lot of the backstage segments, so he may have neglected to include them.

Updated. By the way, Dave Meltzer has confirmed that these spoilers are legit.

Maybe Booker was secretly fired!

Updated.

Patience, grasshopper. When PWInsider's guy calls it in, it'll be posted.

PWInsider claims one of their people is calling them in, so I'll roll with it.

Jeff Hardy's debut was a nail-biter, since they were afraid he wouldn't come, and he was hardly in the shape they wanted, but he got an incredible reaction. They are doing a storyline where they are pushing him as the hottest free agent on the market. Not sure if he's signed or not, or if he is, how long he'll last. The last thing they need is to start pushing a guy and have it turn out to be another Hulk Hogan tease. Hardy was telling everyone how thrilled he was because of the crowd response, and was telling other wrestlers he was coming in weekly. The AAA relationship was in critical condition last week, but seems okay right now. As we noted, Jeff Jarrett wasn't happy that Antonio Pena didn't bring him in for TripleMania. In addition, Hector Garza had told Jarrett he was going to be leaving AAA and wanted to keep working here. This was going to have political implications, because Pena wouldn't be happy if TNA was using someone who quit him. Jarrett told Garza he would still use him. Then, on 6/23, they were scheduled to have the AAA Mascarita Sagrada and Mini Abismo Negro. Because Mascarita didn't have the proper paperwork, AAA had told TNA they had Octagoncito as a back-up. Well, the day before, Mascarita got flagged at the airport. Mini Abismo, for whatever reason, then didn't get on the plane. Armando Quintero, who works as the liaison with AAA, kept trying to find out if they got on the plane and who got on the plane. Pena, who TNA had invited to come in for the show and they wanted to take him to see Orlando, had disappeared, as every so often he disappears for days. AAA officials kept saying they would call back and never did. Finally at 4:30 p.m. the day before the show, Quintero told the AAA office that they needed to let him know what was going on, as by this point they did know that Mascarita was flagged and Mini Abismo didn't get on the plane. He said they were closing the office at 5 p.m. so they had to know. The AAA people said they'd call back before 5 p.m. and never did. At 5 p.m., Jeff Jarrett told Quintero to get him two minis from somewhere, so he called the original Mascarita Sagrada, who quit Pena many years ago and works independents, and he and regular opponent Pierrothito came in. The frustration from the TNA side is also because they bought non-refundable tickets for the AAA minis, that Abyss had yet to be paid for TripleMania, while TNA was up-to-date in paying Pena for his guys (although whether they've got the money is another issue). It was figured when Pena found out about using rival minis, he'd be unhappy, as he'd be if they were to use Garza after quitting him. However, when Pena got back in contact, he never said a word about the minis. Garza wasn’t booked this week as the only Mexican scheduled was Abismo Negro, booked through Pena. Dennis Rodman appears for a one-time publicity stunt on the 7/1 Impact tapings. Rodman's people made it clear he wouldn't wrestle, wouldn't do anything where he could get hurt, would only appear once, and this was the only date available. There was a lot of talk about what to do with him. The idea was to do something that would get on Sports Center, similar to Brian Urlacher, but again, while Urlacher got the company pub, it didn't mean much because it didn't build to him coming back for a match. The belief was Rodman wouldn't take the guitar shot. It was talked about having Rodman hit Jarrett with the guitar, but Jarrett didn't want that because he would never get his revenge back. They were also talking with Ken Shamrock about coming back. Jeff Hammond of Fox Sports Net's "Totally NASCAR," will be joining TNA for the TV show as an announcer starting 7/9. He was on the PPV once in the first year and did well. Word has it he'll mainly be doing features, and sitting in on calling some matches. There have been talks of this deal for about six weeks or more. Billy Gunn showed up at the 6/24 tapings in Orlando. He lives in the area, but he talked a lot to former tag partner B.G. James and expressed his frustration with WWE right now. He is not the only Smackdown wrestler with interest in trying to get in (Bob Holly is also extremely unhappy), feeling they can be big fishes in small ponds, and if they can cut a deal where they make $2,000 to $3,000 per week, work in a featured role and only work two shows a week, it all of a sudden sounds pretty good. Kid Kash did an interview with wrestling radio show host Brian Stull off the air, complaining about the company, which legit got management furious. He complained about how the company is willing to pay big money for former stars like Lex Luger but not the people who carry the company, as well as the 15% booking fee on his independent dates. He said that he asked TNA for a. release, which he apparently did again this past week. Bob Ryder told him the company has too much invested in him with merchandise that has yet to be released like dolls and video games. As with Konnan, it appears company policy right now is to not give people releases. Kash, who clearly doesn't understand the lay of the land today, truly thought if he got a release, he could go to Smackdown and get a big push because of his relationship with Paul Heyman, not realizing Heyman's influence is really limited there. He also said the company favors AMW, A.J. Styles, and Raven (and he wouldn't be the first person to say that, but it's natural in a company that is largely having to create stars that people will second guess their choices) and it is hurting morale. There always has to be someone pushed and others will always feel they are just as good and not pushed, and the company does bend over backwards for the ones they push, including helping get Styles a make over and clothes because they want their stars to look like stars. The comments were taped up to the locker room door in Nashville, so everyone saw them. He thought a lot of the wrestlers were supportive of him, and those we talked with were sympathetic toward his views, knowing that he's only making $500 per show, but also felt he was very lucky they didn't fire him. Ryder asked him if he said it, and he told Ryder that he did, but thought it was off the record, and then complained about the normal subjects being paid more and pushed more. The main thing I always hear complained about is more the pushing of Jarrett, but nobody getting a paycheck in the company will say that one publicly. The decision was made to give Jonny Fairplay another shot, so they are going to reintroduce him, maybe as the manger of Titus, on the 7/2 TV show. The idea they are going with is to have him wrestle other reality TV show personalities as a way to get mainstream pub. Fairplay is a heat magnet backstage. As a rib, he said he got word that WWE was interested in Monty Brown. Nobody panicked since they've signed Brown to a contract, and right now, WWE is kind of leery about even talking with TNA contracted talent so as not to fall into a tampering lawsuit. Not to be stopped from his rib, he then said WWE was interested in D-Ray 3000 to do another Eugene like gimmick, and apparently said it to Vince Russo. The company then signed D-Ray to a one-year deal, and Fairplay was bragging to friends that he made it all up, which no doubt has to have the wrestling people thrilled with him. It was noted that when they showed the vignette billing Fairplay's debut for next week in Orlando, the reaction from the live Orlando crowd was that you could have heard crickets chirp. There is talk of doing a championship committee to either replace the Director of Authority position or work with him, and they'd use ex-wrestlers to fill that role, which could include Larry Zbyszko and Dusty Rhodes.

How about reminding everyone that Paul Bearer is the entire reason that Kane is in WWE? That's pretty evil.

The recent WON said it was expected that Bearer would work off the rest of his 3-year contract in a front office job, so I doubt he's going to be brought back to TV.

Rhyno should attack all his partners after every match when they lose, like Cactus Jack was doing in WCW before finding Maxx Payne.

Does anyone else see the poetic justice of a total retard who is close with HHH running a television show? Art imitates life.

A school project on A.J. Styles? WTF.

Heh, it's the fact they lost in a court battle to hippies that gets me. Well, Vince got what was coming to him, cause he didn't honor their agreement. And the World Wildlife Fund was around a lot earlier than 1982.

WWE was near bankruptcy in 1997, and had it not been for Stone Cold Steve Austin, they probably would have bit the dust and Vince McMahon would be working for Eric Bischoff right now. WWE is nowhere near that point in 1997, so there's nothing to worry about now. They're still riding the financial success of the Attitude Era and with slightly higher ticker prices, PPV prices, etc., they're making up for the loss. However, I will say this: The company will go down the shitter quickly if Stephanie McMahon and HHH take it over 100% and Shane doesn't get a piece. Just because Stephanie's been in the business all her life doesn't necessarily mean she'll be good at it. My parents have owned a chain of pet stores since before I was born, so I've been in the pet store business all my life. But I know that if I had to take over the stores tomorrow, they would go down the toilet very quickly because it's just not my thing. And pro wrestling is just not Stephanie's thing.

I always found it unbelievably ironic, yet poetic, that Hogan, the epitome of morals and stuff, was a huge asshole to his peers and majority of fans.

I think bitterness is also a big factor in Saturn's attitude. If he was this unpleasant in 1998, I can only imagine how he is in 2004.

Greg Valentine doesn't really seem like someone who'd be a nice guy. I think the 2004 Hall of Fame stuff is the first time I've ever seen him smile. The only ECW show I ever went to was in December 1999. When we got there, we noticed this big crowd of people at the back of the arena. When we got a better look, RVD and Balls Mahoney were out there just sitting on the steps hanging out and talking wrestling with fans. I thought that was super cool. On the other side, I one time saw Raven, Perry Saturn, and Disco Inferno at a Steak & Shake in Atlanta after July 1998 Nitro. I simply walked by them (I never even stopped walking) and said "Hey guys" and they just gave me "Please go away" looks. That was funny, because the next night at a WCW Saturday Night TV taping I went to, my friend and I saw them outside the arena and asked them for autographs. Their response? "Fuck off." One time I saw Glacier in the local Mall signing autographs. This was only about one month after Vince McMahon bought WCW. I sat down and talked to the guy for over an hour. He was one of the nicest guys I've ever met, which shocked me because I thought he would be incredibly bitter for some reason. He even invited me to the TCW (Dusty Rhodes' Turnbuckle Championship Wrestling) show later that night that I unfortunately could not attend. He even let me in on something funny: Kaz Hayashi still has all the external Glacier gear.

Linda McMahon's mention of Bruno Sammartino at the investor’s conference, as one of the wrestlers from the past when they talked about signing older talent up, sounded strange. As it turned out, later that day, Jim Ross and Jerry McDevitt had a meeting with Sammartino and his attorney in Pittsburgh. The meeting went well enough that they'll probably continue talking. Sammartino gets along with Ross better than anyone in the company, and his willingness to even take the meeting surprised a lot of people. Once, after the accident with Darren Drozdov, Ross and Sammartino were on a news show on opposite sites of what the TV station (I forget the station) thought would be a hot debate, and while both stated their view, it didn't degenerate like the TV show hoped as both were clearly respectful of the other, even though Sammartino was still very negative about the company. Sammartino, 68, and McDevitt had talked earlier in the year after depositions in Larry Zbyszko's lawsuit against WWE about Sammartino coming to Wrestlemania and doing the Hall of Fame thing. Sammartino isn't really into the Hall of Fame personally, as he believes he's in a few real Halls of Fame for sports, and this one is bogus since they have some job guys and Vince Sr.'s limo driver in, so dangling that carrot in front of him meant nothing. However, the company recognizes the constant criticism of its Hall of Fame right now with Sammartino, Hulk Hogan, and Bret Hart not in. The sides talked about releasing a Bruno DVD, his being involved with it, the WWE 24/7 idea, and Bruno doing a new autobiography that they would promote. Bruno, like Hart, is said to be concerned at how it would look after all the years of being so negative toward Vince and hating the company and the business, to take a job with them. Sammartino at the meeting expressed how strongly against steroid use he still was, and he made it clear he wanted nothing to do with Vince personally, and was very negative about Hogan ever coming back. McDevitt and Ross did everything to placate Sammartino. McDevitt, Hogan’s former personal attorney, apparently even told Sammartino that Hogan was just a lucky guy who was in the right place with the right look with the right marketing behind him. Without the timing and push, nobody would have made it. And with the timing and push, many could have short-term success, and there isn't one enduring legend of this business who became one without having a special ability to connect with the audience. The company must be somewhat confident they will make a deal, since Linda mentioned his name, and also because they put Sammartino in a TV commercial for the Great American Bash PPV. The only matches announced thus far for Vengeance on 7/11 in Hartford is the same as the house shows, Chris Benoit vs. HHH for the World title, Randy Orton vs. Edge for the IC title, and Chris Jericho vs. Batista. The only other thing even hinted thus far would be Kane vs. Matt Hardy. Rob Van Dam signed a short-term contract extension while all the final issues in his long-term deal were being worked out. The contract has basically been agreed to, and Van Dam has publicly said it's all but finalized. Office morale was hardly up after the strong earnings report. The company's strong profitability was partially through cutting back more than $21 million in administrative expenses and another $30 million in other expenses from last year. All departments were hit with major cutbacks, forcing fewer people to work more hours. And so much of the profit went directly to Vince's pocket through the dividends (another $3.24 million this quarter) and to pay off his private jet, although that is a company plane that transports all the major executives. Writer Dominick Pagliaro officially quit this past week, although it was a mutual thing as the company is looking at making changes. He said he had a job lined up with MTV, but there were people who wanted him out because of the feeling he knew nothing about wrestling. He'd been around for more than a year and was very close to Stephanie Levesque, and it was thought his job was protected. One company source felt that because Stephanie personally hired him off the production staff after his parents were in a horrible auto accident, she always protected him, and also, he was almost like another assistant to her. Personally, I don't see how someone could write pro wrestling without having been a fan for several years, yet at the same time, most childhood fans want it to be like their childhood. That doesn't work either. Eric Bischoff is missing Raw this coming week because he's trying to sell and put together a new reality show called "777" that his production company, Bischoff-Hervey (yes, Jason Hervey) Entertainment are partnering with Scott Sternberg and Rick Hilton (Hervey is friends with the parents of Paris Hilton) on. The premise is they would take seven multi-millionaires, who would all put up $1 million in Las Vegas, compete in a bunch of different gambling encounters and the winner would get the $7 million pot. They are trying this week to sell it to a network. Bischoff, Hervey, and Rick Hilton have already sold a show to NBC called "The Good Life," which would be a reality show starring Kathy Hilton, who is Paris' mother. They are also looking for their seven multi-millionaires, who would risk $1 million as a way to become celebrities on network prime time. At Raw, when they aired the Great American Bash PPV highlights on the Smackdown rebound, the crowd booed. We're told it also appeared like most fans had no idea of the results, which is a double whammy because it meant they didn't buy the show, but didn't even care enough to attend it as Norfolk is not a far drive from Richmond. The worst reaction was to the footage of the Taker vs. Dudleys and Paul Bearer angle, as well as JBL winning, although the latter was designed to get a negative reaction. Ultimo Dragon is still scheduled to return in the fall as was the original arrangement. I could easily see this falling through just because the company won't push him and he's got business interests in Japan. Rodney Mack is expected to be booked on some house shows over the next few weeks to check on his progress. The first two overseas tapings, on 10/10 and 10/11, will both be from the Manchester Evening News Arena in England, where WWE recently did a $1 million live gate. Even though he has continued to talk about it in many interviews, there was never a $1.5 million offer by WWE to Rulon Gardner. Coming off the Olympics in 2000, Gerald Brisco spoke with Gardner about joining the WWF. Gardner wanted to continue until the 2004 Olympics. His agent did propose the idea of him doing one PPV match, for huge money, and the WWF passed, but Gardner never actually turned down an offer of any dollar figure, let alone a seven figure offer. The agents continue to do some double-crossing of sorts. On the 6/20 Fort Myers house show, Val Venis got in the ring for a match with Tyson Tomko. Instead, Chuck Palumbo was sent to the ring and was told he was going over, and they had to work the entire match out on the fly. The reason this is being done is to get guys used to working old-style without planned spots. Matt Hardy aggravated his bad knee this past week. Trish Stratus has been bothered with a strained lower back. WWE recently had an interview with a well respected soap opera writer about joining the writing team for a supposed $200,000 per year role doing among other things, keeping storyline continuity. It was the role that movie writer Paul Guay (a lifelong wrestling fan who wrote the Jim Carrey movie "Liar, Liar") held for some time before quitting. The key to this was the writer was not only never a wrestling fan, but had no knowledge whatsoever of the product. They've revamped the line-ups for the Japan tour. What is interesting is they are keeping Kenzo Suzuki off the tour, I guess feeling the stereotypical Japanese with a geisha girl would be bad taste. No Booker T as well. 7/16 at Budokan Hall is JBL vs. Eddie Guerrero, Undertaker vs. Dudleys, John Cena vs. Rene Dupree vs. RVD, Rey Mysterio vs. Chavo Guerrero, Charlie Haas vs. Luther Reigns, Billy Gunn vs. Mordecai, Torrie Wilson vs. Dawn Marie with Sable as ring announcer, Spike Dudley & Funaki vs. FBI, and Billy Kidman vs. Mark Jindrak. Next night in the same building is JBL vs. Guerrero vs. Undertaker for the title, Cena vs. Dupree for U.S. title, Dudleys vs. RVD & Mysterio for tag titles, Spike vs. Chavo, Kidman vs. Mordecai, Haas vs. Jindrak, Gunn vs. Johnny Stamboli and Funaki & Wilson vs. Nunzio & Dawn. ESPN.com ran a front page article on 6/28 on Brock Lesnar. It had a quote from Scott Studwell, the personnel director of the Minnesota Vikings, the team he most wanted to play for, who came across negative about him. "As much as you'd like to take a shot on a guy like him because of his athletic history, do you do it at the expense of cutting another player? Probably not. At the expense of taking reps away from a promising young player? Probably not. With Brock, it's like you're starting from scratch." Studwell said Lesnar's chances of making it were less than 50%. Lesnar said he saw older wrestlers, Ric Flair and The Undertaker, and saw how much they missed their families, and didn't want to wind up like them, plus he didn't like the direction his character was going (code for not wanting to job to Undertaker again) and said he couldn't get any straight answers out of Vince McMahon. He said he blew up and quit after the South Africa tour. "I think Vince thought I'd change my mind and come back," he said. "But it wasn't going to happen." The article said the feeling was Lesnar would have to spend two years on the practice squad and play NFL Europe to learn the game, and by then he's 28 and they're wondering if he'd be past his prime. The story made Lesnar come off like an asshole, as he talked about wanting to fight, and that he'd get into fights every day if it wouldn't cost him money. It's funny because I spoke with him years ago about doing MMA and he said he wanted no part of fighting, that he was a wrestler. At the time, he also said being a pro wrestler was the greatest job in the world. He also talked about how much he hated homosexuals which is not going to get him good publicity. Melissa Coates, who is on the "Extreme Dodge Ball" show on the Game Show Network that we mentioned, has not given up pro wrestling. She's still training and wrestling for OVW. She is not under a WWE contract. Christian is now out of action until August at the earliest with his back problems. Friends of his say. He's pretty down about it because he felt the injury came at the worst time possible for his career, since his pairing with Trish Stratus looked to have the most potential of anything he's done in a long time and he was in the middle of perhaps his biggest push since joining in 1998. Chris Jericho is being honored by both the province of Manitoba and city of Winnipeg on 7/5, before the Raw TV taping. Manitoba premier Gary Doe and city mayor Sam Katz were going to honor him in separate ceremonies. According to the local newspaper story written by former wrestling personality Don Callis, Jericho had recently spoken up against the WWE's decision to announce him from New York instead of Winnipeg. Too bad the city of New York didn't give him the same treatment when he worked there this past week, nor has Atlanta given Benoit the hero's welcome that Edmonton did. That should be some food for thought for Vince, but at this point, because it was his decision personally, and he gets defensive often about decisions getting criticized, this may be a hard one to overturn. Test, who was only in his second tour since coming back from a neck injury, was injured on 6/26 in Madison Square Garden. He worked as a second the next night in Salisbury, but didn't take any bumps. Announcer Rue DeBona was fired, as the decision was made not to renew her contract. She was told by Jen Good last week while her direct supervisors, John “Big” Gaburick and Kevin Dunn were in Chicago doing the Diva Search. She was one of those hires questioned from the start, as they brought her in after an extensive interviewing process to be a wrestling announcer, even though she had no product knowledge, because she was very pretty and had a good singing voice (I'm serious). It was clear she had no product knowledge while on the air, and it was clear in recent months they'd given up on her as I never saw her. In some of the pre-PPV show stuff she had been doing, they put Ivory in the spot as the dressed up pretty girl, because Ivory could talk about the product and sound like she knew what she was talking about. DeBona had become tight with broadcast partner Josh "Matthews" Lomberger, who was said to be the most upset of all. There has been a feeling at house shows that there is too much Eugene, so they are going to limit his segments and shorten up his matches. 6/14 Raw TV shoot in Dayton drew 8,000 and 6/15 Smackdown TV shoot in Chicago drew 6,600. 6/20 Raw in Fort Myers drew 2,600 and $89,000. 6/25 Raw in Buffalo drew an estimated 3,000. 6/26 Raw in Madison Square Garden drew 8,624 paying $353,145. 6/27 Raw in Salisbury, MD, drew 2,200. 6/28 Raw TV shoot in Richmond drew an estimated 5,000. 6/28 Smackdown in Winston-Salem drew an estimated 2,000. 6/29 Smackdown TV taping in Fayetteville drew an estimated 3,700.

Booker T. used to be one of most friendliest guys ever. I saw him arrive at a Nitro in Atlanta in July 1999 and he was smiling, waving, and slapping hands with everyone. Maybe he was just still in gimmick.

Why the fuck can't anyone spell his name right? I've seen "Moredecai" "Mordechai" "Mordicai" M-O-R-D-E-C-A-I That almost ranks right up there with the people who still spell "Devon Dudley"

I think Bradshaw has stepped up his wrestling for Bradshaw. I mean, honestly, who gave Bradshaw a chance of pulling ***+ matches, even if it was with Eddie Guerrero? Guerrero couldn't pull * out of people like Kevin Nash or Nathan Jones or any of Hoss, Inc. so I think Bradshaw deserves credit where credit is due. At least he's gotten to a level where he can be led through a better-than-average match.

No. He was Booker T. in the Ebony Experience.

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