QuestionMan

For the record, Heenan's voice sounded a lot better at WrestleMania than it did, say, around 2002. I remember the interview Okerlund did with Heenan for Confidential in mid-'02 and could barely understand him. His voice has improved a lot.

"Rick Michaels, who works regularly for Bill Behren's NWA Wildside promotion, will be joining World Wrestling Entertainment as the two sides agreed to a deal today. Behrens made the announcement on the NWA Wildside message board this afternoon. Michaels is slated to take a backstage role with the company (he has a talent for designing ring outfits) and will be on the road fulltime starting with this Monday's Raw taping in Chicago. It stands to reason they may use him in the ring at some point. Michaels is a former NWA Wildside champion and has held the NWA Tag Team championship with David Young." credit: Mike Johnson/PWInsider.com

Now, if they call the Tuesday RAW October PPV "Halloween Havoc," we'll be set.

Back to reality, I see. So much for that press release that accredited the higher ratings to the "fans drawn from WrestleMania 20." I can hear Triple H now..."Time to get Shelton Benjamin out of the main event. And Chris Benoit needs to lose the title immediately."

Bradshaw should have waited to cut his long hair off and shave until the heel turn. It would have made it even more effective. And is it just me, or does Bradshaw look like Gary Busey when he smiles?

You know, you people are really taking your hate for Randy Orton way too far. Who gives a fuck what he wears.

This was Scott Keith's defense of the statement he posted on the comment block of his LiveJournal: "I read the same things, credited to the WON, on other websites, so it's gotta be in there somewhere. Unless it's a case of the usual "loses something in the translation" bastardization of the stuff from there, I dunno."

With company stock closing at $14.40 per share, Vince McMahon's stock in the company has a paper worth of about $788 million. The close on 3/30 was the highest in more than one year. The increase, besides the increase in the market in general, is because a few analysts covering the stock have listed it as a buy, being underpriced based on the profit margin over recent quarters (and that was with underestimating this upcoming quarter). There is also the belief among analysts things are turning around. While there is no question there are signs of short-term gains, and I don't consider Mania because that was expected, but in the long run, and I'm thinking 2004 and 2005, it's the constant creation of new stars, and that's a subject we've been through. The 4/18 Backlash show in Edmonton is now Chris Benoit vs. Shawn Michaels vs. HHH (last I heard it was going to be a ladder match but that hasn't been announced officially), Randy Orton vs. Mick Foley for the IC title in a falls count anywhere match with Evolution barred from ringside (they need to explain this as barred from interfering, because presumably much of this match won't be fought at ringside), Kane vs. Edge, and Chris Jericho vs. Christian. While this isn't going to happen, if they are serious about the Shelton Benjamin elevation (and they are or they wouldn't have done it), they should add him to the main event. Logic says if a contender loses, the guy who beats him should be in line, or at least announce that Benjamin gets a shot at the winner on Raw the next night to make the win over HHH mean something more than The Hurricane's win over The Rock did in the long run. Since the show is in Edmonton, it would be ridiculous to have any winner other than Benoit. HHH's movie filming, I believe, starts in late-April so he'll be gone for a while after the PPV so his winning would be illogical as it would ice the belt. Michaels winning in Edmonton just doesn't make sense. I presume HHH gets the belt back either in late-June or at SummerSlam. Some of the new booking ideas for Smackdown are a Rikishi & Scotty 2 Hotty vs. The Dudleys program over the tag titles with the Dudleys eventually going heel before the Los Angeles PPV. The Mark Jindrak pairing with Teddy Long that we mentioned last week is on, as is the John Cena vs. Rene Dupree feud over the U.S. strap. That match, as well as Chavo vs. Mysterio for the cruiserweight title, is both tentatively planned for the Judgment Day PPV. Kurt Angle is on the road full-time as G.M. There is also a plan of making Funaki a heel manager for Kenzo (Kenzo Suzuki). His first program may be with Billy Gunn, and I'll bet anything that one is a disaster waiting to happen. After the first TV, there were already people second-guessing the Eddie Guerrero vs. John Layfield PPV main event direction. Randy Orton had a tonsillectomy on 3/19 which is why he missed Raw last week and the house shows. He won't be wrestling for a few more weeks but will be doing TV. Raw crowds have been noticeably up, but there has not been the same increase evident in Smackdown. An interesting note this coming week is the 4/2 show in Hidalgo, TX, which I believe is a 7,000-seat arena, is already sold out. They sold out their first time in the building, but it was thought at the time to be for Guerrero and Mysterio, since it was a total Hispanic audience. But they drew a return sellout with a brand that includes no Hispanics. Lots of character changes without actual turns. On Raw, Lance Storm is now a heel, Matt Hardy is now a face (which was really weird since they wrestled each other on Heat this weekend and played their new roles) even though people largely have been reacting to him as one all along. Storm did a heel promo on Raw, but that was more to establish Rhyno as the face probably than to get his own character over, since 35-second squashes really help get the person over being squashed. Shelton Benjamin, Chuck Palumbo, and Rhyno are all pegged as faces without turns, although with Shelton Benjamin they at least went all the way with him on the first TV. All were playing their new roles at the weekend house shows, although in the case of Rhyno, it backfired since it ended up with fans cheering Kane. Nidia is still a babyface, and was switched because she wanted to develop more as a wrestler. And she decided this after getting those enormous implants. The 6/13 Bad Blood PPV, scheduled as a Raw brand show, has been moved from Louisville to Columbus, OH. The company's marketing department is apparently of the belief that William Regal will never return to wrestling. Those who know the situation best say it is still up on the air, and if Regal's heart problems can be taken care of, he will wrestle again, but right now nobody knows for sure if or when that will happen. Regal wrote a book, which apparently was very interesting. I would have thought he has the potential for a great book with his experiences in the game since breaking in working carnivals as a teenager and just being an intelligent guy, which he is, and working for WCW is a book right there, not to mention his battles with drug addiction that nearly killed him, coming back, and his current health woes. The release of the book has been stalled for some time, because they wanted him back on TV first. Anyway, because they now no longer expect to bring him back as a television character, at this point it may never be released in the U.S. The U.K. branch of Simon & Schuster is trying to convince the U.S. branch that it could still be a viable project for that market, but no decisions have been made. The numbers listed last week for Brock Lesnar when it came to strength, speed, and dexterity, were top-of-the-line numbers for a 285 pound lineman. They were equivalent to what the top draft choices coming out of college were putting up, but the difference is, they also had years of football experience. Bob Sapp was another guy who had excellent speed for his size coming out of college, but wasn't a great player. He was still drafted in the third round coming out of college because people saw his numbers and saw potential (you know, the football version of Lex Luger or Sid Vicious), but he never panned out. I know of one team that this past week got a tape from Lesnar's people showing him training and doing the drills and the G.M. wouldn't even look at the tape or give it a thought. The feeling is he'd be, at best a several-year project and at 26, it will be hard to find many takers willing to take that risk. But athletically, he's at the level of the top guys in the league his size. Before Wrestlemania, when The Rock agreed to return, he and Pat Patterson (who guided Rock's career as a wrestler) proposed to Vince he wanted to come back for a dream match. He suggested Hulk Hogan, Goldberg, and Randy Savage as potential opponents but McMahon wanted him in the match with Mick Foley. Goldberg had his thing to do and McMahon wasn't even interested in discussing using the other two. He told friends he loved doing Mania, but it felt weird because he sees himself as the same person and he knows everyone, but so many of the people in the company and even wrestlers were wanting to get their picture taken with him and it was weird to him. Rock has earned $33 million in his last three movies. While The Rundown was not considered a box office success, its video release this past week was a big success, as it sold 1.5 million units in its first 24 hours of release. Rock did a million interviews this past week. In the Newark Star-Ledger, when asked if he missed doing a full-wrestling schedule, he said, "It's tough. There's no seasons. It's a year-long grind. Do I miss the grind and being tired? No. But I miss the road and camaraderie you have, not only with guys you travel with but with just being on the road, being in your favorite hotels." When asked about Lesnar, he said, "He's got a shot. I admire him. It's a tough move to the non-guarantee of the NFL. Brock is a great athlete, but the odds are against him." When asked about if there are banned substances and drug testing in wrestling, he said, "I don't think so. I've never been tested." Rock came out for the strongest drug testing possible for baseball players when he's been asked, but didn't for wrestlers (Mick Foley has for wrestlers, and they are probably the only ones who publicly could say that and get away with it). Rock also made an interesting comment in the Boston Globe regarding his return at Mania. He said that when he came back, he found that not everyone in the WWE was pulling for him. "I don't get that from the entire crew, just a handful of guys, who, interestingly enough are at the top now. But most of the guys are genuinely excited. They come up to me, and they're like,' Hey, I saw The Rundown. Congratulations. But you're going to get negativity from some people. That's just the nature of the business." Now everyone is going to be trying to figure out what he means. I know Goldberg, Foley, and Steve Austin consider Rock as their friend. I would strongly presume, based on what he's said and how Rock helped his career, that Chris Jericho would as well. Rock's current schedule is he's working on the movie "Be Cool," where he has a supporting role playing a large gay Half-Samoan in a movie starring John Travolta ("Get Shorty” sequel), then in July will be the top star in "Spyhunter." His own project he wanted to star in, where he would play the lead role in "King Kamehameha," is scheduled for shooting in early-2005. He's considering for later in 2004 doing a movie called "Skiptracer," which is a comedy written by Stevie Franks (who wrote "Big Daddy"). Maven has fully recovered from his knee and elbow surgeries and will be headed to OVW to get back in working shape. Matt Morgan has been sent back to OVW full-time, as they've acknowledged he was called up too soon. Worse, he got a lot of negative reviews when he was up as there are those internally who think he's a slow learner, after first getting a rep as a quick study. Jon Heidenreich has disappeared because of an injury. The debut in Mexico on 4/3 at Arena Monterrey is scheduled as Benoit vs. HHH (managed by Flair), Chavo (billed as Chavo Guerrero Jr. because his father was pretty famous in Mexico) vs. Mysterio (not billed as Rey Jr., even though his uncle is also pretty famous) for the cruiserweight title (this is a special Smackdown match to get a Lucha-Libre flavor on the show), Shane Michaels vs. Kane, which is billed as a match to determine the No. 1 contender, Chris Jericho vs. Christian, Batista vs. Matt Hardy, Victoria vs. Molly vs. Jazz vs. Lita, Rhyno vs. Garrison Cade, Tajiri vs. Val Venis (who was well known in Mexico years ago as Steele, and held the world heavyweight title in Mexico for five months in 1997 before joining WWF), and A-Train vs. Shelton Benjamin. Nick Dinsmore was given his new character this weekend on the Raw tour. He's called "Eugene," and plays the role of a backwoods hillbilly goofy babyface billed from Louisville. It's a total comedy gimmick, based on the Dustin Hoffman character in the movie "Rainman." Well, they are only a decade late. He's actually supposed to be a cross between that character and the old Mighty Igor character of a simpleton with superhuman strength he doesn't realize he has. The idea is he stops in the middle of matches and waves (ECW acid blowout brains Spike Dudley), and runs around shaking hands in the middle of matches. He's supposed to dress all funny, come out with one boot untied and things like that. They're clearly trying to make fun of someone, but I'm not yet sure who. The plan was to already introduce him doing TV vignettes. They were filmed, but then the decision was made to tweak the character so they may be redone. It's funny because basically everything Dinsmore has learned about wrestling over the years has to be thrown out the window, as they don't want him doing anything mechanically sound and nothing but comedy. As a babyface, and he did get over as that type of character always does (your Bushwhacker, Hillbilly Jim style character that the crowd responds to but doesn't sell tickets, not that anyone else does these days). Surprisingly, he jobbed to Garrison Cade at the weekend Raw house shows, as that type of character should be put over early in the run. People also reported he was managing Tajiri, which made people think at first he was a heel. Actually, people weren't supposed to think he was managing Tajiri. The idea was he's so stupid he came out when it wasn't his match. The reason on OVW they started teasing problems with Dinsmore and Impact & John Laurinaitis was when the decision was made for the gimmick, it's a way to explain that Laurinaitis now hates Dinsmore for screwing up and is making him do this gimmick to make sense to the OVW audience. Wrestlemania drew 450,000 TV viewers in the U.K. (they got the show for free on Sky Sports), making it the second highest rated show of the week on the station, behind a live soccer match. Velocity, which aired before Mania, did 160,000 viewers. The Raw which aired two days before Mania did 290,000 viewers. The early 90s episode of WCW World Wide Wrestling, which is marketed as WWE Classics, drew 30,000 viewers that week. WWE had actually decided to merchandise a Trish Stratus t-shirt that read "Blow Me" and was on the European version of shop zone web site. Due to complaints, the product has been pulled. How did it even get that far? The company received the "Legacy of Hope" USO award on 3/23 at a USO dinner in Washington, DC, for the company's frequent visits to military hospitals and running the wrestling show in Baghdad to entertain the troops. Mick Foley, Linda McMahon, and HHH were at the dinner accepting the award for the company. Thankfully, nobody at the dinner was aware this was the same company planning to market a "Blow Me" t-shirt. Soccer star Kieron Dyer Of Newcastle United, who John Cena mentioned in his rap when they were at the show, was shown on Smackdown in the film footage of the tour. He was the guy thumb wrestling with Torrie Wilson. Eddie Guerrero's neck has been bothering him the past week. Rey Mysterio was also shaken up, while Big Show's back is bothering him again. WWE has its first shows in Italy in more than a decade was the Smackdown crew runs 6/3 in Milan and 6/4 in Pesaro. The company has inked some new international TV deals. Raw and Velocity have been cleared in Portugal. A one-hour weekly version of Smackdown was cleared in Greece. Raw, Smackdown, Velocity and Heat were all cleared in Romania. Famous boxer Vinnie Paz (formerly Pazienza), who announced his retirement on 3/27, has told friends that WWE made him an offer to manage the FBI. However, they wound up being far apart on money so it didn't happen. If you recall, he was the ref in the 1999 Wrestlemania match with Butterbean vs. Bart Gunn from Philadelphia. He didn't know the match was a shoot until he got there that day, and went to Butterbean, and asked what the plan for the finish was. Butterbean looked at him, his manager, at him again, and then walked away. He talked about how all the wrestlers before the match were joking about how Bart Gunn was going to knock Butterbean out. The Dudleys got heat with the Smackdown crew on their first night in, because Bubba has a rep for working stiff and there was a feeling D-Von took liberties with the Bashams the first night in. There is the feeling that'll end in a hurry because they won’t work like that with Rikishi & Scotty because of Rikishi. Chuck Palumbo had heat with several in the Smackdown crew who were happy to see him switch over. Tim White is needing another shoulder operation, which would make the fifth one. He hasn't refereed since doing the Jericho/Christian Mania match. Catching up on the business notes: the paid for the Raw after Wrestlemania on 3/15 in East Rutherford, NJ was about 12,500, although it was sold out. For the Smackdown in Boston on 3/16, the paid was about 4,500. The U.K. numbers were 3/18 in Newcastle doing a sellout of 9,300 and $600,000. 3/19 in Sheffield did 10,700 and $650,000. 3/20 in Aberdeen Scotland was a sellout 4,300. 3/21 in Glasgow, Scotland, was a sellout 5,200. The company did $1.82 million for the four dates not including merchandise, so it was a big success. The only domestic house show from last weekend was 3/21 in Fort Wayne, which drew 3,300. The 3/27 Raw show in Cape Girardeau, MO, drew 3,400. The 3/28 Raw show in St. Louis drew 8,900 fans and $285,000. There was a lesson in this one, which this exemplifies one more time. This was, I believe, the biggest crowd for a domestic non-TV event in months, probably dating back to the first show in Portland about a year ago. It went head-to-head with the NCAA basketball tournament game which drew 30,648 fans to the TWA Dome, and was just one week after the NCAA wrestling tournament in the same building 87,675 fans over six sessions. The point being, if business had sucked like it did six months ago and it would have drawn 3,000,people would have used both of those things as an excuse, and probably buried whomever booked the city on that date. But the truth was, neither would have had anything to do with it. It's the second example of this in recent months. Raw was on a Monday night in the fall, in Chicago, going head-to-head with the first Bears game ever at the new Soldier Field, and this came at a time when attendance was at rock bottom. However, the show ended up drawing the largest paid crowd for a Raw event in months. The attendance is determined, 98%, based on how hot your product is on that given day, and every other excuse is just that. 3/28 Smackdown brand house show in Tampa drew 3,200. 3/29 Raw TV shoot in Cincinnati drew about 9,000. 3/29 Smackdown brand house show in Louisville drew 2,700. In Cape Girardeau, Benoit beat HHH again with a crossface, even though Batista tried to interfere. Said to be a great main event. Christian beat Jericho with Stratus distracting. There wasn't much else to the show. Tajiri debuted and beat Hardy, while Palumbo beat Conway on his debut. Coach did the m.c. work. After Benjamin beat Horshu, making it three Smackdown wins in a row, Coach said the streak would end, and put Kane out against Rhyno, and, the streak ended. Tajiri played heel, making Hardy the babyface. Tajiri won the match. Kane worked as the face against Rhyno. By the way, that wasn't the plan, as they expected, since Coach did a promo backing Kane, for the fans to cheer Rhyno, but they didn't. They tried to do it stronger the next night.' They did the spot where Benoit put Coach in the crossface before intermission, and he came back after intermission doing the announcing with his arm in a sling. St. Louis was largely the same show. Benoit beat HHH in another strong match, with the same attempted Batista interference. The only change in the show is Flair worked, and teamed with Batista over Hurricane & Rosey. Flair had his trunks pulled down, so I guess the deal from a few weeks ago where they didn't want Flair to do that in title matches anymore because they didn't want comedy in title matches is over. Flair was treated as something of a local legend since, with the exception of the Carolinas, he's been coming to St. Louis longer than any other city. Rhyno tried to play babyface with Kane, saying Kane needed an "ECW-style ass kicking." Still, the crowd cheered Kane all the way. Tampa saw Guerrero beat Show in the main event. After a ref bump, Show used a choke slam. Angle, who is touring as G.M., hit the ring and counted, but Guerrero kicked out. When Guerrero came back and had Show pinned, Angle turned around to tie his shoes. Guerrero then knocked Angle out of the ring, hit Show with a belt, used a frog splash, and the original ref counted the pin. After the match, Guerrero brought his two daughters into the ring as the crowd cheered him. One goof then threw beer at them from the bleachers and got it all over Guerrero, and just missed his daughters. Guerrero went on the mic and said the guy had no class. The crowd turned against the fan, of course, and everyone pointed him out to security. The sheriffs, told him that if he apologized to Guerrero, they wouldn't press charges for drunk and disorderly against him. Guerrero came back out for the guy to apologize to him. But Guerrero first told the guy he had no class and then the guy threw his hat at Guerrero and started swearing at him. Guerrero jumped the rail and was going after the guy. People were keeping them separated including some of Guerrero's friends who were in the stands. Guerrero and the fan were yelling at each other by this point when another fan blindsided the guy who threw the drink. The guy who threw the beer ended up arrested for drunk and disorderly. The guy who punched him was handcuffed, but was let go in the parking lot. Cena pinned Dupree in the first match of their program, as they'll be working nightly. Rikishi & Scotty beat Dudleys, who worked as heels and will be turning. Booker T came out as a heel saying how much better Raw competition was. Undertaker than came out and beat him very quickly. You can really see why Lesnar left after how badly Booker was squashed. To feed Undertaker, after the match they had the Bashams and Dennis "Mideon" Knight do run-ins and Undertaker choke slammed all of them. They teased the Jindrak and Long pairing as Long was scouting Jindrak as he beat Gunn. Knight had a try-out match over Steve Madison. He's friends with a lot of the guys, and Undertaker in particular, and has been looking at getting back in for some time. It's probably just a question whether Undertaker will call in a marker for him. Winky Wright, who just beat Shane Mosely in a big boxing match, was at the show... In Louisville, once again it was Guerrero over Show with the same finish as in Tampa, as well as Cena over Dupree. Basically same stuff with Undertaker squashing Booker T quickly. Spike Dudley worked on the heel side in a trios opener with Bubba & D-Von vs. London & Kidman & Jordan. They also did the OVW match, which was taped for the TV this coming weekend. Jeter & O'Haire beat Impact & Dinsmore (obviously not doing his gimmick). They did a post-match angle where they injured O'Haire's ribs from Impact giving him a spinebuster. O'Haire was scheduled to return home for a while so this was to explain it in the OVW storyline.

Batista needs to wear a shirt. His spaghetti-looking veins at the top of his shoulders fucking gross me out.

I remember during Big Show's first reign, he tried to wear the belt around his waist and was coming to the ring for a title match against Kane on RAW, and the belt just snapped off his waist halfway down the ramp. I laughed my ass off so hard at that.

Hi Brock! Brock is from one of the Dakotas isn't he? South Dakota. He grew up on a farm.

How can anyone say Sean O'Haire blew it when his first real PPV match was against *RIKISHI*?

Sean O'Haire got so fucked over, it's ridiculous.

Nice misleading topic.

from WWE.Com RAW EXCLUSIVE: KANE HEADED TO ATHENS FOR 2004 SUMMER OLYMPICS "Amateur wrestling, as any mat expert will tell you, is about as different from the professional game as night is from day. It requires very different skills, and very rarely has an athlete been able to translate success on the amateur mat into success in the ring. No one has ever done it in reverse. Yet, Raw Magazine has learned that this summer, none other than the rampaging madman Kane plans on doing just that. That's because the former WWE Champion now has his sights set on Olympic gold." Ok...what the hell is going on?

Well, I think it's pretty damn shitty of WWE to go on their website and write a serious preview piece on the story when it's nothing more than a joke.

I liked Spike's original WWF look, with the long-sleeve shirt.

The house show reports that UT beat Booker in less than a minute. I found that to be amusing, yet sad.

You're an idiot.

WWE has an offer on the table for Bill Goldberg to come back, which he is considering. Goldberg has come back with an idea to work limited dates and build to a singles match or program if possible with Steve Austin. Goldberg has been debating whether being off television for a few months would help or hurt his position, but I believe in his mind he does expect to come back at some point, but wants the timing and money to be right. Goldberg was on Harley Race's radio show on 3/22 and said he was supportive of Brock Lesnar making the decision he did, but said by doing so he did leave the company shorthanded. He said the fans in Madison Square Garden were too preoccupied with their own chants to get into his match. He said he wasn't happy with the fan reaction, admitted the match itself left something to be desired (wow, a wrestler admitting his Mania match wasn't the best) but that what they were trying to do was stepped on by the audience. He said in his time off he's going to increase his charity work and appearances. He said he was up for returning if the company gave him the right storylines and that he's hoping to get a part in a remake of the movie "The Longest Yard," and also is working on a television pilot for a show tentatively called "Goldberg is Tougher than you." He talked about being under contract for more matches in Japan, and also said he believed pro wrestlers should unionize. The original Mania finish was Lesnar pinning Goldberg and then Austin stunning Goldberg after he complained about bad officiating. The Canadian Radio-TV Commission has asked for a public call for comments by 5/17/04, when it will make a decision regarding whether Spike TV should be allowed on the CRTC's approved foreign services list. That won't affect Raw, which isn't broadcast on Spike TV into Canada due to non-duplication and WWE being on TSN. This started when the Canadian Association of Broadcasters went to the CRTC to ask for Spike TV to be removed from the list of stations available in the country. The CAB claimed that the license the station was issued back in 1984, as The Nashville Network, was to be a country music station. The claim is the current format is hurting Canadian stations like Men TV and TSN. Removal of Spike TV would mean viewers in Canada would no longer be able to see Velocity, Confidential or Sunday Night Heat. The Rock was on the Mitch Alborn show on 3/23/04 and was asked why wrestling's popularity had declined so much. He said when WWE was on top, it had himself, Steve Austin, and The Undertaker, but then when "we" left, there was nobody who stepped up to their place. Interesting if it was just a slip or just responding without thinking it out considering whose name in specific was not on his list. He also blamed the writing of the shows for the decline. On his first day of training in Arizona, Brock Lesnar weighed 283 pounds, did a 4.65 40, had a 35 inch vertical jump which is pretty awesome for a man of his size, a 10 foot standing long jump, which is also pretty awesome for a guy of his size, and benched 225 for 30 reps, which is very good muscle endurance and strength, but I'd have expected more. Edge's autobiography, which he did while he was out of action and without a ghostwriter (he would join only Foley and the 2005 Billy Graham book as WWE wrestlers doing books without a writer) has been renamed once again to "Adam Copeland on Edge" which is a whole lot better than "Over the Edge" for obvious reasons A few more notes about WWE finances. WWE earned $5.6 million in the last quarter on international TV rights. The company earned about $900,000 during the quarter for executive producer fees for a motion picture (one of The Rock's most recent movies, I'm guessing The Rundown). In the last quarter, the company averaged $8.56 per head at live events in merchandise sales, so merchandise per capita is holding up well, and is ahead of the pace of last year at the same time. That generally would say either they are producing better merchandise, or that to the people that attend live, the characters are more over than a year ago. The problem is fewer people are attending, and that's more important in the big picture. That's the old judging who is over by the size of the pop in an empty arena. Magazine sales are down 36% from last year. DVD sales are up 59% while VHS sales are down 57%, but in total because nobody buys VHS tapes it seems (only 32,900 sold during the quarter compared to 361,100 for DVDs, approximately one-fourth being the Flair DVD), the overall figure is up 29%. The company cut live event and PPV advertising down from $7.4 million from the same period one year ago to $3.7 million, but that should change in the next quarter with the $5 million ad budget for Mania alone. Currently, the budget for a producing a television taping is about $500,000. The company sent several PPV events to the Museum of Television and Radio this just before Mania, and was to have those donations screened as another publicity vehicle leading to Mania in New York. Apparently what was sent were several Wrestlemanias, to show the evolution of PPV and of Wrestlemania. What was donated were highlights of Hogan & Mr. T vs. Paul Orndorff & Roddy Piper, the Battle Royal from Wrestlemania II, Hogan vs. King Kong Bundy, Hogan vs. Randy Savage, Hogan vs. Andre The Giant, Hogan vs. Ultimate Warrior and Hogan vs. Sgt. Slaughter, as well as a history of Mania feature that includes more recent stuff. There's more heat regarding Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels stemming from the Wrestlemania 10 best matches special, when Michaels talked about being the innovator of the ladder match. As best we can tell, the ladder match was invented by Dan Kroffat (not Phil LaFon, but the Calgary wrestler of the 70s that LaFon took his ring name from). Hart, who had several, including a famous one with Dynamite Kid in Calgary, brought the idea to Vince, and did the first one with Shawn. It's well known Hart was mad about Michaels vs. Ramon being booked in a ladder match. Michaels blamed it on Vince and Vince said Shawn asked for it. You know how that goes. Vince had promised Hart that because he came up with it, he could have the first high profile one, but that kind of a promise means nothing. Anyway, the feeling was that Michaels going on TV and claiming to be the innovator of ladder matches could have only been said knowing it would get Hart mad. When he got back from South Africa, Brock Lesnar called John Schiley, his high school wrestling coach in Webster, SD, and told him he was quitting. He told his coach he was tired of never getting a weekend off, and that Wednesday and Thursday were his weekends. He said when he quit, he was the calmest, most rested and happiest he's been in a long time. Brian Lux, his high school football coach described Lesnar as being overly aggressive, and got personal foul penalties that hurt the team. He was having a great senior year until being injured, and his injury hurt the team even worse. Lesnar is going to Arizona to work out with a football guru and personal trainer to get him ready for camp this summer. The company stock is now being covered by Natexis Bleischroder, a Wall Street Firm, and Maxim (another stock analysis firm, not the magazine). Virtually nobody in Wall Street had been paying attention to the stock. The upswing in profits has gotten some attention even though the stock has very little trading. There are projections that 2005 will be a good year, but they are obviously seeing things that aren't there. Aside from the potential for more international expansion, there are no signs of a future turnaround, but they've got the business costs under control to where it's going to take a large step down to actually threaten a painful bottom line. Everyone is projecting lower for the fourth quarter of this year than it will wind up doing in my estimation. The APA angle was to set up Bradshaw going heel and to get rid of Ron Simmons. Simmons had long talked about retirement, but was fired. The company offered to put him in alcohol rehab. He refused. Simmons, who turns 45 in May, was the second-oldest active wrestler in the company beside Flair, who is ten years older. There was a lot of talk about what Simmons did to get him fired but it wasn't a single incident that caused this as much as that his time was up. An amazing stat on the 3/11/04 Smackdown show is that 26% of the viewing audience was Latino. Smackdown is, however, no longer the top rated Latino television show in the U.S., as it's now No. 3. The upcoming WWE Films movie vehicles for Austin, HHH, and Kane are being budgeted at between $15 million and $20 million a piece. The 4/10/04 Raw house show in East Lansing was canceled due to a poor advance. HHH is featured in the current Muscle & Fitness magazine. Roddy Piper did an interview on The Fan in Portland on 3/19 with Brian Wheeler (Trailblazers play-by-play guy who is a subscriber to this publication), and said that Vince called him six days before Mania and asked him to do a match with Hogan, but he declined. He said that he offered doing a Piper's Pit where he interviewed Vince, but Vince declined. I don't know how much of this is true, but this is not the first we've heard stories regarding Vince making a late offer to get Hogan on the show after all, but it's more likely not the case. We've heard that neither Hogan nor Piper were ever considered for the show at that point, because by that time, the show was filled, the belief is Hogan and Piper with no build wouldn't have added buys (their last singles match last year died on PPV also because of no time to build it) and Hogan wouldn't have come cheap so it made no sense. Piper would have had incredible heat in the dressing room being brought back in. By that point the company was more concerned, as you can see, with getting as many of the full-timers as they could on the show to share in the big payoff. He also said, and this does sound true, that when Dennis Rodman was in WCW, Hogan told Piper that they should stick as close to Rodman as possible so they could get their photos everywhere. We used to joke that Hogan was surgically attached to Rodman's hip in those days. Piper claimed he was the reason TNA wrestlers got health insurance (okay). He claimed it was a shoot when he slapped Vince Russo on TNA TV (okay) and that when he was a rookie, Moolah and Mae Young pulled him from the driver’s seat of the car into the back and tore off all his clothes. He also said he was with Mad Dog Vachon once on a beach and Vachon had the runs, pulled down his pants, crapped on the beach and said, "That's why they call me the Mad Dog." When he was at the OVW taping, Jimmy Valiant talked about meeting Cornette when Cornette was 12, and that Cornette has become the smartest man living in the business. Whether true or not (he probably is the smartest man living at booking 1984 Mid South Wrestling with totally green talent in the year 2004), this does lead to a story I heard when Scott Williams was talking with Booker T. Sharmell Sullivan (Paisley in WCW), who is Booker's girlfriend, was there, and she was asked about her stay in OVW. It wasn't much of note for her, since she blew out her knee training to be a wrestler and was then cut after an attempt to make her an announcer on Smackdown. She said she loved being in Louisville anyway, citing Cornette as the reason, saying it was one of the most amazing experiences in her life learning from him. She said Cornette was the smartest person she'd ever met in her life. In the 3/20 issue of Sports Illustrated, as part of their AOL/Time Warner ad campaign, they had an ad for Raw, which read on the bottom, "Don't miss Royal Rumble, January 25 on pay-per-view." WCW lives. Some upcoming DVD releases are a Rise and Fall of ECW, Chris Benoit, and a Four Horseman, which is basically an excuse to put more Flair footage to use after his first one sold so well. The Hall of Fame banquet was scheduled to go a little more than two hours on the night before Mania, but wound up going five hours plus. Part of the reason is everyone was requested to limit their speeches to three minutes. I believe Jimmy Hart (introducing Greg Valentine) was the only person who came close. Most of what happened was said to have been great. Heenan ended up getting something like four standing ovations. Ross also gave a great speech. Pete Rose gave Heenan a high-five when Heenan said that he used to bet on wrestling matches, which I guess shows Rose's true remorse. Apparently Heenan had come up with a promo on Rose, talking about him being arrested, kicked out of his sport, tax problems, gambling problems, as a prelude to, "Pete, welcome to the business." He ran it by Vince, who nixed it immediately. The one negative was also involving Heenan and that was the speech Jack Lanza gave to introduce Heenan. Apparently Jessica Heenan, Bobby's daughter, was in tears as Lanza went on-and-on about Heenan's heavy drinking and insinuated he was lazy, and that's why Heenan was a manager and not a main event wrestler. If you are realistic, Heenan could have been one of the best working prelim or mid-card guys in the business during the 70s, or he could have been probably the best wrestling manager of all-time for a lot longer period of time. Many were upset that Lanza never once credited or thanked Heenan for help in his career, as the feeling was Lanza was a main eventer everywhere more because he had the best manager more than he himself was the best worker. While almost everyone was putting themselves over incessantly, Jesse Ventura won the award for that one, and there were people who felt he went way too far. Greg Valentine was said to have been surprisingly good with his speech, considering what was expected out of him. Shane McMahon was sitting several rows deep at ringside at Mania. The two things noted to us were he was screaming with everyone else "You sold out" at Lesnar and that he was going crazy for everything Undertaker did. He also took his personal intermission during the cruiserweight match. At the Hall of Fame, where he was going crazy for Heenan, Shane went to Heenan after the speech to praise him, and Heenan said, "And your name is?" There were giveaways regarding the draft before Raw started in Detroit. They taped Heat first, and Cade did a singles match with no sign of Jindrak, while Jazz did a match with Lita, without Teddy Long. Storm worked heel against Hardy, which makes perfect sense being that Hardy has been an established heel. Jindrak did a promo talking about how happy he was to leave Raw. This may be inserted in Heat since it was done during a commercial break on Raw. Rhyno did a promo with The Bashams running down Detroit before his match with Benoit, but that was just to make sure he wasn't cheered in the match. The show ended with the big brawl, with everyone being run off except Show, Kane and Austin. Austin gave stunners to both, and then Benoit came out and he and Austin drank beer for several minutes. They sold both Raw and Smackdown merchandise at the show, and aside from Austin, the biggest seller appeared to be John Cena. WWE Originals fell out of the top 200 this past week. Steve Blackman is considering a return. Well, he's talked about it for years. But he's now able to go all out in training, and is coming to San Diego in May to be a training partner for Ken Shamrock as he prepares for his match with Kimo. The next European tour will be 5/26 to 5/29 with the first two dates in Dublin, both of which are already sold out, followed by 5/28 in Manchester and 5/29 in Birmingham. England. The company was planting the Molly Holly signs making fun of her being bald that aired on Raw on 3/15. Sylvan Grenier's injuries were ruptured C-5 and C-6 discs and a neck fracture. He declined surgery and has been training of late in Louisville and is ready to return to the ring, as he did a backstage skit on the 3/16 Raw. On the "Can you dig it," from Shaquille O'Neal, I'm now told he got it not from wrestling, but either from the Shaft movie or the 1979 "The Warriors" movie. Shaq's cadence when delivering the line after the Lakers first championship were the same as in the latter movie. In the Lesnar story from last week, when talking about Stephen Neal of the New England Patriots, while Neal is considered a success in football circles as it's very rare for someone who never played in college to start in the NFL, he only started one game last season before being injured. In the Smackdown handicap match on 3/11, the two guys Big Show beat were John Walters & Arch Kincaid. We listed it last week as Walters & Onyx. The 3/8 Bridgeport, CT sellout for Raw TV was about 12,000 paid and the 3/9 Smackdown TV did 8,100. We didn't get all the U.K. numbers yet, but the tour did just under $2 million on four dates, not including merchandise, so it was very successful. Apparently this was a lot easier tour, even though everyone was tired coming off Mania, than the South Africa tour. 3/18 Smackdown house show in Newcastle, England drew a sellout of about 11,000. 3/19 in Sheffield, England drew a sellout of about 10,000. Newcastle was headlined by Guerrero over Show with a frog splash to keep the title, plus Rikishi & Scotty kept the tag belts over Bashams, Cena beat Bradshaw to keep the U.S. title and Chavo Guerrero beat Mysterio and Nunzio for the cruiserweight title. Cena cut a rap mentioning Kieron Dyer, a soccer star with Newcastle United (who was at the matches along with a few teammates). Bradshaw ran in while he was rapping, acting like he was going to clean house on Heyman, but hit Cena with the microphone and Heyman set up the U.S. title match. Cena won that quickly. Guerrero told fans they are as great as the fans in New York, and Cena did a rap with Brian Hebner doing the human boom box gimmick. Sheffield was the same show as Newcastle, except there was a switch as Rikishi & Scotty beat Haas & Benjamin. Basic same show in Aberdeen as Newcastle. Based on reports, the schedule was getting to people as we heard it was a great atmosphere but not much for wrestling. Heyman got significant ECW chants. Benjamin did a promo with a Scottish accent. This turned him babyface in a match against Rikishi & Scotty. Guerrero used a low blow and belt shot to beat Show. Fans were into Guerrero but didn't seem into the match. They added something, as after Eddy won, Chavo hit the ring and they had a 20 second brawl with more action than most of the complete matches. As it turned out, half the crew ended up in the ring with the faces cleaning house. Bradshaw then came out and accused Scottish people of incest, and all the faces beat him up, and Rikishi & Scotty, along with Guerrero, Cena and Mysterio danced after the show. Rhyno did the fake knee injury spot, so I guess Fit Finlay was an agent. Makes sense because why wouldn't he be for a U.K. run? That was confirmed the next night. Finlay, who would be around 46, did his first match, if you can call it that, in years on the 3/21 show in Glasgow. After a blindfolded Noble beat Nidia in a replay of their No Way Out match that most have tried to forget (they did that match the entire tour but put Nidia over on previous nights even though that angle has been forgotten about on television since mid-February), he challenged Finlay, who was sitting at ringside. Noble started talking about how they were in Finlay's home town (well, Belfast, Northern Ireland and Glasgow, Scotland are different countries, but to Americans who never studied geography, would know better?). Finlay destroyed Noble in rapid order with about five moves and got the pinfall with his trademark tombstone piledriver. Finlay was one of Europe's all-time great heels in the 80s. Heyman got lots of ECW chants again, and responded with, "Stop chanting ECW, its dead and I wish you all were." There were also loud chants for Rhyno and it almost babyfaced him in the other cities when he was working in prelims. On this show, Cena pinned Rhyno in 25 seconds, so one or both were banged up. They moved Bradshaw to a match with Kidman. To make sure the people didn't cheer Bradshaw against someone who has gotten as much promo and character development time of late as a department store mannequin, Bradshaw made sure to talk about how much he hated Scotland, saying everyone knows it's just "England's bitch." Well, at least he knew what country he was in. Main was the same Guerrero over Show match. This time, after an early ref bump, Eddy was about to do a belt shot but Chavo stopped him. It wound up with Rikishi & Scotty, Bashams, Haas & Benjamin and Cena all doing run-ins while the ref was down. Cena used the FU on Show and Guerrero got the pin with a frog splash. All the faces, along with Nidia and Tome Wilson danced to end the show and tour. This was probably to cover for both being banged up. Show nearly fell asleep on the turnbuckle before the match started. In the stupid move of the night, ring announcer Tony Chimel was told to bring up the May tour of the Raw brand, which people popped for, but when he mentioned the shows were in England and Ireland only, the Scottish fans were none too pleased and booed him out of the building. The only domestic house show of the week was the Raw brand on 3/21 in Fort Wayne. It was headlined by Benoit over HHH with a crossface. It was something of a skeleton crew with RVD, Booker, Flair, Orton and Dudleys not on the show. Dudleys had transportation problems coming from New York. Spike was there but wasn't used. None of the aforementioned names were advertised as the show was built around HHH and Benoit in the advertising. Christian beat Jericho using the ropes and with distraction of Stratus. Storm worked as a heel against Richards, establishing it by saying that his dancing days were over. Richards' apparent heel turn on Heat aired after this show took place for those who actually try and keep characters consistent with television.

I'm in the Uk, we get it on a Thursday. How in the fuck do you get your newsletter before us? I didn't get mine today. I'm finding it really hard to believe that some guy in the U.K. got his newsletter 2 days before someone in the U.S.

Is it just me or does Bradshaw look like Gary Busey when he smiles?

Where was The Undertaker?

I've been a WON subscriber for over a year and I've NEVER gotten my newsletter on Thursday. Unless this guy lives in California, this is a joke.

“After a successful Wrestlemania, paced by what will probably be remembered as one of the great Mania matches ever, there is no time to savor the victory, because there are uncharted waters ahead. Early indications are that Mania will wind up near or above records as the biggest money pro wrestling event in history. We also set an all-time record, by far for poll responses to the show. That would seem an amazing comeback from the late 2003 low point of Armageddon. But much of the success of the show was based on other factors, the significance of a year-long promotion of the 20th annual event, and main stars that are not with the company as it goes forward. When Brock Lesnar told management at Smackdown on 3/9 in Atlantic City that he was quitting after Wrestlemania, a panic set in, even though business has been on the upswing. In particular, Raw now has a string of four straight television sellouts, with the 3/15 show in East Rutherford, NJ drawing an announced 17,418 fans, the largest crowd for a WWE television taping in a few years. The decision was made to shake things up, and on 3/22 in Detroit, they are going to have a lottery. Vince McMahon made the announcement on Raw on 3/15, claiming "Where it all begins again," the Mania slogan would be in force. He said that everyone, presumably including announcers, although he specifically said General Managers and his own family members (signifying a return of Stephanie and/or Shane as weekly talent), as well as Steve Austin and all wrestlers would be up in the lottery. He specifically pointed out that groups like Evolution would likely be broken up. He also said all champions are up, which may wind up with titles vacated. He claimed some General Managers have been favoring talent and indicated there would be changes there. All members of Smackdown will be rushed back from a 3/21 show in Glasgow, Scotland to Detroit on 3/22 and appear on the show. None of the Smackdown wrestlers were aware of any of this until they got word in Manchester, NH that McMahon had made the announcement on Raw, and that they had to now be in Detroit. It should also be noted that when McMahon was at a Wrestlemania press conference in New York where fans were invited, at Planet Hollywood, when he brought up the success of the brand extension, he was heavily booed. Many seemed to take the McMahon speech about being unhappy with the General Managers and making changes to apply to it being the end of Paul Heyman. What seemed to be a hint was Heyman on the 3/16 show from Boston talking about himself being the only one who was untouchable, and then the show ending where Undertaker laid him out with a tombstone piledriver.” -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Business of WrestleMania “While the indoor setting in Madison Square Garden drew a crowd announced at more than 20,000 (which sounds like an exaggerated number as the place sells out at just under 20,000, and they had a big stage set-up which would have blocked hundreds of seats), this may end up being the most lucrative wrestling show in history. The show grossed in excess of $2.4 million live, which would be the third largest live gate for a U.S. pro wrestling event in history, trailing Wrestlemania X-7 at the Astrodome and last year's show at Safeco Field in Seattle. It would be No. 6 in company history, also trailing two Wrestlemanias at Sky Dome in Toronto and the Global Warning show in Melbourne in 2002. The all-time record for total show revenue was Wrestlemania X-7, which combining live gate, merchandise and PPV, grossed $42.59 million. We don't have merchandise figures at press time, but reports were that all merchandise brought to the building was sold, so I'd guess that would be no less than $350,000, and likely significantly more. Because of the increase in price from $39.95 to $49.95, this show would need about 800,000 buys to top the record. If poll responses are any indication, it should have beaten that figure easily. The all-time record for wrestling in Madison Square Garden was November 17, 2002, for the Survivor Series at $1,250,580. Many had believed the company, in a concession to history, since MSG was where Wrestlemania started in 1985, was giving up money by holding it there instead of at a larger domed stadium. However, with the increased ticket prices, the total gross was nearly as large with probably 18,000 paid in MSG, as it was last year with almost three-times as many fans paid. Far more important, because even if it wasn't the case, the company generated tons of media publicity this year because of it being held in New York. This was probably the most publicized Mania mainstream since XIV and the $3.5 million fee for the appearance of Mike Tyson. Even if the difference was $ 1 million at the live show (and it was actually closer to $350,000), it only takes about 40,000 more PPV orders to make that up and all the New York media publicity going national had to easily be worth that and more. Evidently the company is feeling that way, because next year's show is on March 27,2005, will be at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, a building even smaller than MSG, figuring that would be the second best market in the country for mainstream pub. The Hall of Fame ceremony on 3/13 drew 2,900 fans, although tons of those were guests, and most of the stars, including Rock and Steve Austin, were there. Between the Hall of Fame, which went for $200 per ticket, and a Sunday morning brunch, another $365,000 was generated. The ceremony went five hours, and nearly didn't have one of the participants. Superstar Billy Graham was hospitalized all day in New York on 3/12 when his intestine once again started popping through his stomach. Still, he was in great spirits at the five-hour event. Everyone was told to limit their speeches to three minutes, but this was wrestling and that backfired. About the only person who did it in less than 3:00 was Jimmy Hart, a surprise guest to present the plaque to Greg Valentine. Bobby Heenan was the star of the show, doing a comedy routine that had people rolling on the floor. He also had people crying at other times, particularly when he broke up talking about former Prime Time Wrestling co-host Gorilla Monsoon. WWE agent Jack Lanza, who Heenan managed for years in the Midwest and South, presented him. Ric Flair presented to Harley Race. Ernie Ladd presented to the daughter of the late Junkyard Dog. Shawn Michaels presented to Tito Santana. HHH presented to Graham (HHH insisted, since Graham was one of his childhood heroes). Pat Patterson presented to Sgt. Slaughter (the two had a famous 1981 feud in the Northeast). Kane presented to Pete Rose. Rose was booed out of the building in MSG. Mick Foley presented to Don Muraco, since Muraco took the splash in the famous Jimmy Snuka clip with Foley at ringside, with Foley hitchhiking to MSG for hours from college to see that match. Show presented to John Minton Jr., the son of John Studd, which was apropos for more than one reason.” -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- “Guys’ switching from Raw to Smackdown and the other direction, from time-to-time is a good idea to shake things up and create fresh match-ups. It should only be done with a viable storyline reason (which more often that not, have been terribly weak), and not done with so much frequency that people consider the moves trivial. Mass changes end up as confusing and numbing. Smackdown desperately needed a top heel. The truth is, there are so many champions that almost nobody remembers them, and except for the WWE and World singles titles, nobody cares much about any of them. It was funny when the APA was on "Cold Pizza" plugging Mania, they forgot who the champions were in their match. Stripping them for no reason would only make them more meaningless. Other questions regarding the potential split up of the cruiserweight division on Smackdown, and putting the women who can wrestle onto the side with the women whose best talents are in doing bikini and lingerie matches. Every major restart we've had from both companies, from the WCW invasion, the later brand extension, the Raw re-start when Steve Austin quit and Ric Flair was made talent, and later when Eric Bischoff was brought in, as well as in WCW twice under Vince Russo, has resulted in an early ratings increase and an eventual decline a few weeks later to consistently lower levels of business than before. We don't know what's in store and have been given the idea the changes aren't going to be that widespread. Ideas, such as the hinted breaking up of Evolution don't seem like a good idea. The original brand extension, which broke up the established tag teams like the Dudleys, Hardys and APA proved to be a mistake, as all floundered as individuals. After the decision was made, the company got worse news the morning after Wrestlemania when Kurt Angle called and said he was numb in his fingers once again. Whether it was from the match or Angle has been keeping an injury quiet and working through the big show, was unclear. He is scheduled to undergo an MRI this week to see what the damage is, but based on what Angle had told people, there is tremendous concern about his future. He's coming off two neck surgeries in the past year, and has been told that another one could be it for him. He's been taken off the active roster. In addition, Ric Flair is also set for different tests to see what the neck damage he has, and has been working with. Flair has numbness in the three middle fingers on his left hand and can't grip well. He was telling people over the weekend he's decided against taking time off, and will try and rehab it through using traction during the week. Big Show was also scheduled to undergo arthroscopic surgery on his elbow and both knees after Wrestlemania. When Lesnar left, Show, recognizing the situation, postponed his surgeries, which would keep him out two to three months, for a few weeks. With Angle down as well, the last word is he's postponed surgery indefinitely, but he's hurting. While the biggest drawing thing on the show was the name Wrestlemania XX, it appeared that the two biggest money matches were Rock & Mick Foley vs. Evolution (which I thought was the biggest based on build-up) and Bill Goldberg vs. Brock Lesnar with Steve Austin as ref (which, based on a poll we did, got the most votes for what people thought was the biggest drawing match on the show). Of the 12 participants in the top four matches, three are done (Rock, Goldberg and Lesnar) at this point. Foley agreed to stay for another month for a singles match at Backlash against Orton. Angle and Flair are in question. HHH will have to take time off for a movie and Big Show at some point needs surgery. The return of Undertaker was not successful, as after his ring entrance popped the crowd, within minutes, people saw it was the same guy. While people were clearly psyched for his comeback, this was hardly a Hulk Hogan return. As noted before, the push of Edge on his return is of prime importance. The fact the company has Eddy Guerrero and Chris Benoit as its two main champions isn't nearly as significant as the loss of the main stars. Benoit is likely a short-term champion, getting a belt more for years of being one of the great in-ring performers ever. But it's doubtful the Raw brand will be built around him, and he's just keeping the belt warm for HHH's return. Guerrero, on the other hand, is pegged as a long-term champion, but unfortunately looks to be without obvious contenders. The plan for a rematch with Angle at June Smackdown PPV in Los Angeles (which was not a lock before Angle's injury) is up in the air and looking doubtful. With Lesnar gone, the next top heels would have been Show, who Guerrero has not had good matches with in the past, and Chavo Guerrero. Lesnar's decision to quit was based on a number of factors. As noted, while he loved the actual performing, although I'd bet he didn't at Mania, he hated the travel. He had personal issues of not seeing his baby daughter because he was gone so much. He told one person at Mania, that "I'm young, and I'm healthy and want to try something else," that being the NFL. On Mike Morris' radio show in Minneapolis. Lesnar said that he doesn't want to look back at age 40 and wondered if he could have ever been an NFL star. "I'm not saying I may never go back there somebody." Later, he said if he'd consider going back, that he was disappointed there and "I'm walking away from the wrestling business for now." He had expressed concerns over winding up crippled, seeing the plight of many of the wrestlers, and having consistently worked through an assortment of injuries much of his time on the main roster. The one thing he can legitimately be criticized for is only giving five days notice, because in most jobs you give two weeks. While walking out of a wrestling company is standard operating procedure by many, given the company's situation and him being in a valuable position, he should have given two weeks minimum. Lesnar claimed he had done so, saying he first told Vince two weeks before Mania that he would be leaving, and told him he wasn't happy about the schedule and the lifestyle six months ago (probably around the time his relationship broke up). Lesnar said he was tired of being unhappy, and that a lot of people in wrestling are unhappy. Lesnar has trained with NFL players, and no doubt, in the gym, he's probably stronger, and with his amateur wrestling background (amateur wrestlers train far harder then NFL players as a general rule), probably trains harder. He would likely have better balance, and his athletic ability is world class. But the negative is that while he has the athletic gifts to be an NFL player, he never played in college, so there is no way he'd have the football experience or skill. Those close to him note he's fully aware it's a long shot. Two former NCAA heavyweight champions of the past 15 years, Carleton Haselrig (who won three Division I titles and three Division II titles and was 143-2-1 in college wrestling from 1987-89) and Stephen Neal (who beat Lesnar 3-2, in the 1999 NCAA heavyweight championship match), both never played college football, and both ended up as NFL starters. Haselrig was even a Pro Bowl player, before being booted out of the league. Even though he had never played in college, his rep as a physical force was such that the Pittsburgh Steelers drafted him in the 12th round in 1989. He tried out as a defensive lineman, spending a year in developmental before being switched to guard and becoming a star. His NFL career ended in 1995 after several failures of the league's substance abuse policy (steroids among the problems) and he wound up in jail after football. Neal, who at 6-4 and 290 pounds is around the same size as Lesnar, is currently on the injured list with the New England Patriots. He's since become friends with Lesnar. The other similarity is Neal was 210 pounds when he got out of high school and was not recruited by any colleges for football, but was for wrestling. Lesnar also increased similarly in weight after high school. Neal was also in developmental for a while learning the skills, and he was considered a phenomenon as far as how quickly he picked things up. Then again, Lesnar was similar as a pro wrestler. But unlike Lesnar, Neal was always a football player at heart, and was a star in high school, but it was his size, surprisingly enough, that worked against him in (getting recruited. Lesnar was all-state in South Dakota as a junior, but was injured during his senior year and missed some of the season, but wouldn't have played since 1996. Neal was considered a better wrestler than Lesnar, as he followed his 1999 NCAA title with a world championship at heavyweight in 1999, but lost to Kerry McCoy the next year in the Olympic trials. In 2001, he tried out for the Patriots, lasted a month in camp, and was cut, which was actually considered good for someone with such limited experience. A week later, the Eagles, impressed with his speed at his size, picked him up, but also let him go. The Patriots brought him back for the practice squad at the end of the season. In 2002, he made the Patriots and earned a starting spot, until being injured, but he started much of last season. Still, even with those examples, most in football don't think much of his chances. Lesnar had, in 2000, talked about going out for the University of Minnesota football team, but after setting up doing so, ended up not doing it. He also had tryout offers from both the Washington Redskins and Tampa Bay Buccaneers coming out of college, but opted for the sure thing guaranteed contract in pro wrestling. He was heavily recruited, because of his look, for pro wrestling starting in 1999 and largely made his decision that year, although had he not won the NCAA tournament, he may have continued wrestling to make the Olympic team. When he won a national title, since he didn't win a state title in high school, he felt his wrestling goals were complete, felt burned out on wrestling, and retired rather than tried for the Olympics. He'd have been considered a major long shot for the 2000 games had he not turned pro. He was recruited by WWF, WCW and New Japan, which caused him to sign one of the most lucrative developmental contracts WWF ever offered at a reported $250,000 per year. Although Minnesota Vikings coach Mike Tice said they had no tryout with Lesnar scheduled and it was something he hasn't even thought about, the two teams that have expressed some interest in him are the Vikings and the Redskins. There is talk, because he's got great foot speed to go along with his power, to attempt to make him a monster middle linebacker, although most MLB's are in the 230 pound range and Lesnar is 290 right now. He has no interest in playing in Canada or NFL Europe if he can't make the NFL. The feeling is a best case scenario, like Neal, would be to spend a year minimum on a practice squad (standard pay is about $60,000 per year although there are exceptions). Of course, for the two notable success stories of wrestlers going into the NFL without playing college ball, there are many more former wrestling stars, including most notably Kurt Angle (who was a far better high school player than Lesnar, as an all-state running back in Pennsylvania), who never played college ball, that had an NFL tryouts after the 1996 Olympics, that weren't picked up. With Angle, it was more his size that was an issue. An NFL superstar takes punishment, but not the daily punishment without an off-season like a pro wrestler, and not for as many years. They also make more money generally, but in this case, Lesnar did anything but sell out. He had signed, and was walking away from a seven year deal that would be worth probably eight figures for him considering his position and age. He reportedly had gotten a downside in the $1 million to $1.25 million range. He left it to try something where the odds are strongly against him, and with no financial guarantees. A first-year player with no rep in the NFL will generally make the $230,000 minimum, but he'd have to make a 53-man roster to earn that, and the $60,000 developmental figure is far more likely. The average NFL career is 3.3 years, far shorter than pro wrestling, and most players start at 22 or 23. The difference between 24, when Neal started, and 26, is considered significant in the NFL. where generally big money comes once you reach free agency in your fourth year. If he was to become an average starting defensive lineman by age 30, by current NFL standards, his pay range would be roughly $ 1.3 million to $ 1.7 million. At the same time, he would also, if he fails, be able to go back to pro wrestling probably any time over the next ten years. A few guys have left wrestling to try movies or television, but they had people in their corner and were assured of some success, like Rock and Roddy Piper. A few people, like Steve Austin, walked out of wrestling due to pressure, pain and frustration, but Austin had made ridiculous money. Lesnar made good money for 20 months in developmental, and excellent money for the past two years, most of which he's spent as a consistent main eventer. It may seem like enough to live on now, but it won't last forever, and as an athlete, you only have so many years where you can make that kind of money. The odds are he'll regret walking away from it at some point, but it's his decision, and it may turn out to be foolish. But it's certainly one of the gutsiest moves anyone in wrestling has made. Lesnar had contacted Neal from the beginning of the year to talk with him about pro football. He told Neal he was miserable wrestling and asked Neal for advice. Ironically, two years ago, Lesnar was telling friends when he was in OVW, that he thought pro wrestling was the greatest job in the world. But while OVW prepares you for the ring, it doesn't prepare you for the travel or the politics. And if you look at everyone was the "the top guy" in WWF over the past 25 years, you'll find a lot of problems when it came time to being replaced. Bruno Sammartino left voluntarily twice, so it wasn't an issue. Hogan didn't take well to it. Bret Hart didn't take well to it. Shawn Michaels walked out on it. Austin was never replaced, but injuries did him in, but I think being on top while business declined greatly got to him at some level. Rock graduated from it, and HHH married his way into an untouchable position. Lesnar had just signed his new deal, since McMahon wanted to lock him in long-term at a high downside to keep him from leaving. Ironically, that led to "You sold out" chants at Wrestlemania. 1 had expected the decision to take him from the top because of the surprising popularity of Guerrero, and to feed him to Undertaker, would be hard for him to handle back in January, when signs of his discontent were getting known. Few people had anything bad to say about Lesnar months ago, because of his quick adaptation to the ring. But he did rub people the wrong way, thinking he had become the Smackdown locker room leader and because he was so confident in his ability, a trait that dated back to his success in amateur wrestling. His being broken up with by his long-time girlfriend who is the mother of his child was a big change in his attitude toward the business. That, combined with him being taken from the top and the company not having any tangible long-term plans for him after the Goldberg match, that he was originally to win clean, made him miserable. Many veterans, who never had the opportunities nor talent he had, and had been through the same personal life issues and the grueling travel as simply part of the business, were not sympathetic to him on the way out. Most also expect him back, since most major stars who make enough money to leave always wind up being drawn back. As soon as work broke that Lesnar was leaving, several MMA groups immediately started talking. Because Lesnar had a long-term contract, he either already has, or will have to negotiate terms of a contract release. It is not a question that WWE will release him where he can play football. I'm certain the release agreement would include a long-term deal of not being allowed to wrestle in the U.S., and possibly on PPV. The status of whether he could do MMA based on the release is unclear, but I'm betting it would be prohibited. Lesnar wasn't thinking in that direction anyway. Pride immediately expressed interest in him, both for fighting or doing their Hustle shows, both as a new opponent for Japanese headliners, as well as a Mania rematch with Goldberg. Sadaharu Tanigawa of K-l specifically stated that except for Mike Tyson, they would be more interested in Lesnar than anyone. Even UFC has expressed interest. Lesnar in the past has stated MMA wasn't something he'd be interested in doing, other than he was up for doing the boxer vs. wrestler match with Lennox Lewis when both sides were talking about it more than a year ago.” -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- “The problems noted in last week's issue involving EchoStar (owners of the Dish Network) and Viacom (owners of numerous TV stations, including CBS, MTV, Spike and UPN) were settled two days after they were made public. Terms were not disclosed, but it appears EchoStar got the worst of the deal when CBS pulled out of Dish Network homes in 16 major markets. A long-term agreement was signed on 3/11, which included Dish Network adding a new Viacom-owned station Nicktoons. It also extended the contract with Dish Network and many others stations, among them, Spike TV.” “The Wrestlemania DVD will be a three-disc set and will include the one-hour "Mania of Wrestlemania" TV special.” “Linda McMahon confirmed this past week to investors that there would be two PPV shows in June and 14 in total this year. We had the dates noted before, but at the time they weren't confirmed. They'll be a 6/13 Raw PPV in Louisville and a 6/27 Smackdown PPV in Norfolk. They will then come right back with a 7/1 I Raw PPV in Hartford. In October, there will also be two PPVs, a 10/10 Smackdown show and a 10/19 Raw show. The latter, in an experiment, a Raw brand show on a Tuesday night. I'm guessing that means Smackdown would either be taped that week on a Wednesday or air live. McMahon also confirmed that when the current contract with BSKYB in the U.K. expires this year, that all the PPV events will become PPV events in the U.K. Previously, some of the events aired on Sky television while a few of them were PPVs. They also said they have to clean up their video library even more due to music copyright issues, as well as the old WWF logo issues. That probably explains why, when they aired the Leilani Kai vs. Wendi Richter match from the first Mania on Confidential, that "Girls Just Wanna have Fun" was edited off and new music was put in its place.” “Updated figures from Royal Rumble are ahead of last year slightly. The show now looks to have done a 0.98 buy rate with 530,000 buys, up from the 515,000 in 2003.” “There were a number of incidents over the past week leading up to Mania. It basically started because a few weeks back on the South Africa tour, they flew commercial and there was a complaint about drinking (apparently directed at Bradshaw). When they got back, at the 3/2 tapings, John Laurinaitis brought it up at a group meeting that neither Ross nor McMahon were at. Big Show stood up and embarrassed Laurinaitis saying that they just got off a hard tour and they should be thanked before being yelled at. On 3/9, there was something with Ron Simmons and Show stemming from that, but it wasn't a fight and we're told what was reported was way overblown. Also on 3/9, Wilson and Sable got into a yelling match but it was also not a fight. Reports they were taken off the TV show because of it are untrue.” “Sable is temporarily out of action because one of her implants is leaking and she needs surgery to get a new one put in.” “In the ultimate irony for a number of reasons, the ghostwriter for HHH's bodybuilding book will be Mark Madden. The irony you don't know is that WWF went after Madden savagely during its lawsuit against WCW, but apparently Madden got in good graces with his work editing the Flair book (which is advertised as coming out in June, but we just heard this week the current plan is late July at the earliest). There is no date on the boards for the HHH book, which hasn't been written yet. Adam Copeland's autobiography, "Over the Edge," (which may be changed due to the connotation with the PPV show that Owen Hart died at), is scheduled for a November release. The Billy Graham book has been moved back to October of 2005.” “The next "Blade" movie, which features HHH, had its debut moved back from 8/13 to 12/10.” “Ric Flair was on ESPN 2's Cold Pizza on 3/10 and because of all the baseball controversy, and because John McCain was going to be on later talking about steroid use in sports, Flair was asked about the subject. He said there was no steroid use in WWE, that the company randomly tests and they are absolutely prohibited. Well, if he went into his time machine and it was 1992, he'd be pretty close to correct. He said he'd never seen anyone do steroids but had heard rumors, and said, "If you can't get it done with your own abilities, then go home, you don't belong there." Not that this will happen now, but the same company was devastated by a legendary blond world champion who said almost the same thing, but at least the other guy didn't try and claim the entire promotion was clean, just himself.” “And speaking of blond world champions, HHH was on ESPN radio the next day and asked the same question. He didn't seem ready for the steroid talk, because he's usually calm and relaxed discussing any subject, and suddenly got really nervous and started stumbling. When asked if he used steroids, he nervously said. "No." He said that while athletes have gotten bigger in other sports, the size of wrestlers has declined which he tried to use as evidence few are doing steroids. He said he can't speak for every worker in the country, but said overall there was no problem. That's such crap. The size of wrestlers has declined because the physical demands of being a wrestler have changed and because so many more talented guys who are smaller that used to have the door closed to them now have it open because Rey Mysterio in WCW in 1996 removed all size barriers if you have talent. Also, so few huge men are trying to get into wrestling, forcing even WWE, which likes big guys, to have to promote smaller guys. In addition, there is no place for a clumsy big man (the Nathan Jones’s and the Jon Heidenreichs of the world), as they don't get over, as opposed to the 80s where a clumsy big man if they were impressive enough physically, the fans would buy. In the 80s with Hogan and the Road Warriors, fans were taught the biggest muscles makes you the toughest guy, and modern fans look at things differently—he did admit doing steroids to rehab his torn quad in 2001, and then got defensive on them, saying that if performance enhancing drugs are outlawed (which, considering they are a felony, they are), then they should also eliminate weight training and cardio, since that also enhances performance. HHH said it's more than just appearance, because you need to be able to tell a story, have athleticism and the right look and that steroids get a bad rap because they aren't like heroin. He was said to have come off very poorly once that subject was introduced. Vince and Jim Ross need to talk with talent about this subject because it's not going away in sports.” “HHH also talked about liking being a bad guy better because he gets a thrill out of being better in the ring and creating new stars. Wrestling sometimes writes the greatest comedy. Well, he did a great job this week.” “The Rock wasn't at Raw, nor is he scheduled for any time in the near future, because there was a premiere of "Walking Tall" that screened that night in Nashville.” “Not only was the death of Ray "Hercules Hernandez" Fernandez not acknowledged on any WWE TV show, even though he worked on six Wrestlemanias, but the company's web site also never made mention of it. Fernandez had a military funeral on 3/12 in Bushnell, FL, but it was only attended by 50 people. The family tried to get out word that they would like any fans or wrestlers to come. The only people who attended were family and close friends, and one wrestling reporter, but none of his peers even though so many live in the area.” “While John Cena believed he had broken a few bones in his wrist from a TV match with A-Train on 3/2 in Savannah, X-rays showed no breaks. That may have been why his 3/9 match with Rhyno was so rushed. They've been booking Cena in short matches to help his knee recover, as well as because the book on using him right now is to have him rap, get jumped, make a fast comeback and hit the FU because of the feeling he can be a superstar if he isn't exposed in the ring for long lengths of time. Cena’s father, John Cena Sr., is now doing independent gigs as a manager in Massachusetts as Johnny Fabulous. Cena noted that when he signed his first WWF developmental contract, it was for $250 per week, and at the time his apartment in Los Angeles rented for $800 per week. Cena noted he didn't even know about his first TV match ever with Angle until 3:30 p.m. that day (it was a last minute idea from Heyman, who was wanting to create an instant star, and Cena had a rep for having the most potential in OVW, even though, like so many, he was brought up way too soon). That first match was a success, which he attributed all to Angle. "That was nothing to do with me," although his career floundered for a while until the rap gimmick turned his fortunes around.” “WWE Originals this past week fell to No. 156 with 8,317 sales, leaving the total sales at 174,371.” “In Lakers games last week after Shaq had big dunks, he looked at his hands like Booker T. does. A Lakers fan also noted that while Shaq has been saying "can you dig it" for years, Booker T. started using that catch phrase in WCW (and O'Neal has been a fan since before he started in the NBA) before O'Neal did.” “Regarding the piece from 3/8 on the Monday Night War DVD and the comparison of Jim Ross' leaving WCW for WWF and Lex Luger going in the other direction: Like all things, nothing is exactly similar. The major difference was that Luger wrestled on a Sunday night somewhere in Canada for WWF and showed up on Nitro the next day in Minnesota, since he found a loophole in his contract. WWF was not expecting it and Luger never told them he was leaving. The idea that Luger took a pay cut to leave was floated at the time (Bischoff himself claimed New Japan was funding much of it and Luger was coming for $150,000, but in hindsight, that was bunk since Luger never did work New Japan except for maybe a big show here or there and anyone who knows Luger knows he wouldn’t jump for $150,000 per year). However, we did have in the Observer beforehand that Luger was negotiating to leave, so the idea nobody knew wasn't the case. With Ross, he was taken off television completely as an announcer in the fallout of Bill Watts losing power, which was a decision made by Bischoff. He had a long-term contract with WCW, which assigned him to selling commercial time for syndicated TV. He asked to be released from his contract and he was. The radio show on WSB in Atlanta was his own baby, but it had been a pure WCW show. He was released first, by his own request, and then McMahon showed up as a guest on his radio show and announced Ross would be announcing at Wrestlemania (1993 version in Las Vegas where Ross showed up working with Heenan and both were wearing togas).” “Just to clarify the Howard Stern deal from last week. Vince didn't call Stern on 3/9. Stern just talked about it on his 3/9 show. Stern may have even confused Vince's offer for SummerSlam a few years back with a Mania offer.” “Jim Ross in an interview with "The Wrestling Guys" radio show said that he wouldn't be surprised to see Austin wrestle at least another match. He said nothing is on the drawing board but if his health continues to improve, they may do a retirement match at the right time and under the right circumstances.” “We did get a Hollywood insider who reviewed what is supposed to be the final cut of "Walking Tall." The prediction is the movie won't help Rock, but he will get good reviews. It's probably not going to be a blockbuster movie. The feeling is the buzz for this movie is nothing compared to Rock's other movies, but in Hollywood, people do like him because they see him as down to Earth. But that won't mean anything because it’s a "What have you done for me lately?" business even more than wrestling. He said it was a good movie and a good performance. Rock will be doing Conan O'Brien, Bob Costas, David Letterman and Regis & Kelly all on 4/1, since the movie comes out the next day.” “Mike McHugh, a WWF ref in the 80s who worked shows in Pennsylvania, passed away on 2/28 at the age of 47. He was never a full-time ref, but did it during the period the Pennsylvania State Athletic Commission would assign refs to the shows in the state. He was never a full-time ref and actually worked for Prudential Insurance before getting his law degree in 1996, and he had been practicing law since 1998 as well as teaching business law at a local JC. He was elected district justice in Jenkintown and Cheltenham, PA in November.” “Rip Rogers was fired as an OVW trainer. He hadn't been able to get in the ring after surgery to repair two torn rotator cuffs, so that could have been the reason. Danny Davis' assistant trainer position has been the musical chairs spot in the company, as in recent years we've had Bobby Eaton, Ray Traylor, Rocky Johnson, and Rogers all in the spot and none lasted very long. Rogers, when it comes to wrestling psychology, is one seriously smart dude.” “Jamie Noble stretched some ligaments in his knee at Mania. He worked the next night in a four-way, but they got him out very fast.” “Kidman's neck and shoulders were banged up from the bad landing on the shooting star to the floor at Mania, but he also worked the next night.” “From the April 10, 2000 issue: "Throughout the show, they kept pushing that Pete Rose should be in the baseball Hall of Fame. It actually got annoying by the end of the show. Maybe they'll induct him into the WWF Hall of Fame as a publicity stunt." It's funny in 2000 they were pushing the unfairness of Rose not being in the baseball Hall, considering who was and wasn't in their own Hall in 2000.” “Tentatively, the July PPV will be in Hartford and the August SummerSlam will be in Toronto. Royal Rumble will be 1/30 of next year.” “William Moody (Paul Bearer) actually signed his new contract back in October, so they were planning on putting him back with Undertaker almost from the time this angle started.” “Jim Ross in a New York Times story noted they were going to recruit at the NCAA tournament, which takes place 3/18 to 3/20 at the Savvis Center in St. Louis. All sessions are sold out as the goal is to top 100,000 tickets sold over six sessions. Last year, in the same building, they sold 96,994 tickets. I believe Gerald Brisco will be going since he's the unofficial liaison to keep up with amateur wrestling because of his background and friends in that game. Jack Brisco is also going, but not for recruiting. He'll be making an appearance and selling his new autobiography. The top seeds in the heavier divisions are Damion Hahn of University of Minnesota in 197, the defending champion, who we've written about here already since his father was a pro wrestler and he's talked about pro wrestling (although maybe not until after the 2008 Olympics) and the favored heavyweight is Tommy Rowlands of Ohio State. ESPN 2 will be covering the finals live at 6:30 p.m. Eastern time on 3/20.” “Actual paid for Raw TV on 3/1 in Atlanta was 9,000 and Smackdown in Savannah the next day was 3,400.” “Raw on 3/15 drew a sellout 17,418 in East Rutherford, NJ. Only house show of the weekend was Smackdown on 3/15 in Manchester, NH, which drew 3,500.” “In Manchester, with all the injuries, they were left with Eddy Guerrero over Show after a belt shot and frog splash to keep the title. Both guys were hurting bad after Mania. Guerrero was just beaten down and Show has his injuries he's trying to work through. Chavo won the four-way over Mysterio, Dragon and Noble to keep the cruiserweight belt when Chavo used the ropes and tights and held onto Chavo Sr. to pin Mysterio. Heyman did a promo and said Angle had the night off because he was so mad about being cheated at Mania. Lesnar's name was never acknowledged. Cena and Heyman did their verbal duel, and as Cena was about to attack Heyman, he was gored by Rhyno. Heyman made the match, which Cena won with the FU in 2:00.”