QuestionMan

So he botches tons of spots and is an injury magnet. He'd already be fired if he wasn't HHH's buddy and didn't have a father and a grandfather in the business. His push is forcefed, not earned by fan support. I had confidence in him when he pulled a good match out of The Undertaker in June 2002, but I guess UT was just carrying him more than I thought possible.

This was at Survivor Series 2002. The match was an Elimination Table Match: Bubba Ray Dudley, Spike Dudley, & Jeff Hardy vs. 3 Minute Warning & Rico. Hardy had just done his MSG table dive. Rico about 2 minutes later had climbed up to the top rope like he was going to do a moonsault and just started teetering on it like a retard with Jeff nowhere to be found. After about 20 seconds of this (!!!), Rico yells out, "COME ON, JEFF, GODDAMN IT" and Jeff finally wakes up from wherever he was and does what he was supposed to do.

And by the way, here's an idea: How about Benoit wins the title at Mania and defends the title at Backlash against someone NOT NAMED HHH? Novel idea, eh WWE?

Are you forgetting that Triple H walked into the main event as the heel champion in WM2000 and walked out the winner? And yes, Benoit vs. HHH will main-event Mania. That's what you get for winning the Rumble, and besides, I doubt Levesque could live going a 2nd straight year having his title match be on the mid-card at Mania.

Screw all this talk about giving Jeff a second chance. He already had it. The WWF gave him and Matt about 2 months off between December 2001 after their horrid singles match at Vengeance (which I think a lot of people forget was so horrid because Matt had stomach flu and said he threw up 9 times the day of the PPV) and February 2002 when they made their returns at No Way Out (not counting a cameo appearance at the '02 Rumble) to get their acts together. Matt came back much better and more energized. Jeff came back shittier and looking more drugged up than ever. He already had his second chance. Matt made good of it, he didn't. Fuck Jeff Hardy.

Why is this in the WWE forum?

Jericho didn't fuck up. The ropes were too loose. Tajiri messed up an Asai Moonsault earlier in the show against X-Pac for the same reason.

If Austin's elimination would have counted in RR97, then New Diesel would have made the Final Four in 1997, along with Bret, UT, and Vader. Scary, eh?

I remember Linda McMahon saying in 2002 that there would be 19 PPV events in 2003. 7 RAW-Only 7 SmackDown!-Only And the 5 Big Ones

Kevin Nash Talks About His Future January 8, 2004 On December 31, 2003 my contract with WWE officially ended. I met with Vince and we talked about the possibility of my staying with the company in a creative role. This would have meant working 5 days a week and spending too much time away from my home and family so I decided not to stay with the company. There are many options in wrestling with other companies and I am also looking into more film and television appearances. Stay tuned and we'll keep you updated here on any future plans. Check out the upcoming Premiere Magazine for some news about "The Punisher" movie that I appear in, which will be out in April. Right now, my immediate plans are to go on a cruise with my family and then go to Europe for a month. Kevin Nash --- www.kevinnash.org

I was feeling the same way about the Loss Guerreros break-up until it actually happened. The turn was done so well. Chavo was getting some major heat from that crowd, with chants of "Asshole" and "Chavo Sucks." But the problem is, they've got to make Chavo a big deal now and maintain this heat so that Eddie's eventual win over him will mean something. But yes, storyline build and continuity are certainly not one of WWE's higher priorities.

I used to be a Nash fan until about 1998, after knee injury #83.

He used it during his very first face run in August 2001, as a protagonist to the Steve Austin and the WCW/ECW Alliance. He only used it for about three weeks before going back to the original version.

Crush got into legal trouble in 1995 and spent some time in jail. He got busted for unregistered semi-automatic guns and anabolic steroids. This is where the jailbird gimmick, that he returned with in 1996 with Clarence Mason, derived from. Oh yeah, interesting sidenote. I'm related to Crush. Distant cousin. I'm not bragging either.

He used it once in April 2002 before he tore his biceps and had to sit out for 4 months. Despite what someone here earlier said, the song was not used in his return-build up promos. They used production music for that. The answer for both would be their WCW contracts. Flair finally took a buyout the weekend of Survivor Series 2001 and returned on the RAW after Survivor Series 2001, the night after the storyline death of the WCW/ECW Alliance. Rey's delay was a combination of both waiting for his WCW contract to expire (it expired in June 2002) and getting his knee in the best condition possible.

Yes, they have so much class. It's not like they would ever do any angles around necrophilia either. Right?

Russo fought Booker T. when he won the title. Not Nash. Doesn't sound too reliable.

The whole CD sucks ass. Except for Cena's theme song. I have no idea who this CD is marketed to, but it's certainly not wrestling fans.

Um, A LOT of these people were not mystery entrants. I distinctly remember over 60% of these people being advertised for their Rumbles. And Mabel wasn't even in the 1999 Royal Rumble. He was a suprise opponent for Mankind on Heat, and afterwards, he was kidnapped by the Ministry Of Darkness and returned the next night as Viscera.

Kurt Angle was telling the office that he overall feels great, which is the same thing he was telling soldiers who asked when he was on the Robin Williams tour of the Middle East last week. At this point, Angle is scheduled to return to wrestle on the 1/13 Smackdown show in Uncasville, CT, but that’s just a target date at this point. There have been reports that Angle will only work a part-time schedule from this point forward, and there is always the possibility that could end up being the case, but it is premature at this point. The plan right now is for him to work close to a full-time schedule, although he will likely get a weekend off from house shows here and there. If he comes back and asks to work less than full-time, there will be no problems in making that concession to him, but he hasn’t even suggested it to anyone yet, and when the subject came up, he denied wanting anything less than a full schedule. Angle’s blood clot in his neck, which at one point swelled to the size of a large orange and made it difficult to breathe, has disappeared. Goldberg is in the company plans through WrestleMania, but nothing after that. Goldberg just recently told the office he wants to fulfill his contractual commitments and also said he wants to change some of the negative perceptions about him (that would be impossible because no matter what he does, he’ll be resented by the wrestlers for getting such a good contract while not being a great worker or working his way up the ladder). Regarding a new contract, no talks have started. I’d hate to put odds on it, but it won’t be easy and the smart money seems to be that he’s done after Mania. For one, it is doubtful the company would offer him anything close to what he got for the first year. If they offer him less, it would be hard to get him to accept. Goldberg is said to be more than happy just doing Japan, but he’s only got a few matches left on his Pride contract, and if the 1/4 show doesn’t do well, I can’t see Pride doing more worked shows. I don’t see anyone else paying that kind of money for Goldberg, whose appearances in Japan hasn’t been huge hits since the entire pub from his first shows with All Japan. It is not even close to 100% that WWE will make an offer to him, although that decision has not been finalized. It is believed that when he gets back from Japan and returns to the RAW roster, that he and Jim Ross will talk about if either side is interested in serious negotiations or not. Goldberg is also a lot more physically banged up than most realize and that may be part of his decision about not wanting to do another year. It has apparently been told to Goldberg after he lost his cool after his match at Armageddon, that another outburst and it would be considered as a likely final straw. Goldberg said he was going to finish his commitments and try and make the last three months work and the feeling internally is there won’t be another situation. The latest update on Survivor Series is 384,000 buys and a 0.72 percent buy rate. We don’t have any estimates in for Armageddon as of yet. While The Rock had talked about clearing his schedule for January to return to television, right now his schedule has not been finalized and at this point he is not scheduled for the Royal Rumble. The plans for Mick Foley are to keep him off television until right around the Rumble and that would be when he would cut his interview explaining why he walked away from Randy Orton on the 12/15 show. WWE in its internal marketing profiles listed the following as the ten biggest stars of the RAW and Smackdown brands. For RAW, it was Goldberg, Steve Austin, Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Ric Flair, Booker T., Randy Orton, The Rock, Trish Stratus, and Lita. For Smackdown, it’s Kurt Angle, Brock Lesnar, The Undertaker, The Big Show, Bradshaw, John Cena, Rey Mysterio, Eddie Guerrero, Torrie Wilson, and Sable. The Executive Committee for the company consists of Vince McMahon as Chairman of the Board, Linda McMahon as Chief Executive Officer, Phil Livingston as Chief Financial Officer, Ed Kaufman as General Counsel, Shane McMahon as Executive Vice President of Global Media, Kevin Dunn as Executive Vice President of TV Production, Kurt Schneider as Executive Vice President of Marketing, Jim Ross as Executive Vice President of Talent Relations, Ed Cohen as Senior Vice President of Event Booking and Live Events, Stephanie McMahon as Director of Creative Writing, and Basil DeVito as Senior Advisor of Marketing. As of 12/12, the value of the McMahon family stock in the company with the recent rise in the stock market was $686,943,796, so Vince will be climbing the lists of the richest men on paper in the country for the next year. Kevin Nash’s two-year contract expired this past week. No serious negotiations have gone on about keeping him in any capacity although there were talks about him working in creative. There looks to be no interest in signing him to a new wrestling contract. On creative, the way I heard it was it appeared they were giving him the opportunity to be verbally part of creative, but not seriously thinking he’d take it, as they pointed out they’d want him at all the TV tapings, so it was a way to be nice, expected that it would be easier than saying there is no interest in him. Nash did try and float the idea of going to Japan as a tag team with Scott Hall, but there doesn’t seem to be any interest in them in Japan, particularly because, as mentioned, the big money only goes to people who want to do shoots right now. Barry Bloom (Nash’s agent) was attempting to negotiate a deal with them as a package for Japan. Hall didn’t leave New Japan in 2001 with either a good rep inside or outside the ring, even though everyone liked him at first because they saw him as a legit star that had no problem doing jobs. But after a few tours, it wore off because his work was bad and his behavior outside the ring was considered embarrassing to the company. Nash has talked with friends about trying to get a deal with TNA (although Nash is going to play any angle he can to get a new deal with WWE) and go in as a tag team with Hall. He has talked already with people at TNA and the current insider betting line is that it’s the most likely option. That is quite the decision, because Hall & Nash, at first, would raise the profile of TNA a little, and it would give them guys who at one point were national stars, and if they go on WGN, they have to make an impact quick because of the costs involved. The last time Hall was around, aside from the fact he in the ring was almost making fun of the fact he had to sell for smaller guys, he really meant nothing after a while. It will make TNA more entertaining to cover, but for all the wrong reasons. I can’t see him going in there and not forcing the issue of being programmed as a top star, nor making a power grab. He’s also not going to want to take bumps with his body in the shape that it’s in. The other problem with Nash is that he’s so big he’ll really expose guys like A.J. Styles and everyone else in the 5’8’’ brigade that they push. It will be a real test of how savvy the Jarretts and the rest of the company are in 2004. Desperation and star struck means they bring them in and push them hard. Selfish savvy, and by that I mean trying to maintain morale and protect the position as top star and most powerful booker in the company, says you don’t bring them in. What the right business move would be is more debatable. Triple H was pulled off the RAW house shows this weekend. Not sure why, but it wasn’t due to injury. The HHH vs. Kane title matches were changed to Kane vs. Jericho main events, with Jericho playing babyface. Reports that Triple H would defend his title against the Rumble winner at Mania and the winner would come from the Smackdown roster, with the Smackdown title bout being Brock Lesnar vs. Goldberg, are true based on what we’ve been hearing for sometime. Of course anything can change. It is said that the winner of the Rumble has been decided already because almost the entire top of the Mania card was done more than a month back with the idea of booking to build everything to get there right. The current plan for the RAW Title match is HHH vs. Chris Benoit, with Benoit playing iron man and winning the Rumble, despite his placement at #1. Comparisons will likely be made to Shawn Michaels’ performance in the 1995 Rumble as he won it with the #1 entry, but that really doesn’t hold up due to the fact that because of how long the Bret Hart/Diesel WWF Title match went, Rumble intervals had to be cut down to 1 minute, which meant Michaels realistically only spent about 35 minutes in the ring. With stories that have been floating for weeks that WWE would make cuts at the first of the year, a lot of the marginal guys were stressed out badly over the holidays wondering if they’d have jobs. When Spanky & Paul London then weren’t booked in Laredo, TX, you can guess what was going through their heads. An interesting note on the Larry Zbyszko lawsuit is that he didn’t register the name “Living Legend” with the U.S. trademark office until March 2002. Chris Jericho had started using the moniker a month earlier. Zbyszko had used the name for more than 20 years on AWA, JCP, and WCW television. The term “Living Legend” was most associated with Bruno Sammartino, but many other wrestlers had used that term in territories, such as Ray Stevens in San Francisco. The New York Times Magazine on 12/28 in a feature on prominent deaths in 2003 included Elizabeth Hulette with a brief story by Jason Zengerle. The story claimed that Elizabeth pushed the writers to give her a more prominent role, and claimed she was the one who came up with the famous love triangle with Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage in 1988-1989, which was one of the best laid out and most successful angles in history. The Hogan/Savage match at Trump Plaza in Atlantic City, NJ, headlining an otherwise pretty bad WrestleMania V, while not as big on closed-circuit as Hogan/Andre The Giant, since that was dying, grossed more money both live (a record that only stood one year) and on PPV than any wrestling match up to that time in history. I believe the legitimate number of buys for that match (650,000) was the record until WrestleMania XIV in 1998 with Mike Tyson. Those who were around in that period with the company and knew Savage and Elizabeth don’t buy that story, and I sure never heard it described that way. “The story had lots of holes,” said someone who worked with Vince McMahon at the time and knew both, “Who knows for sure what personal dynamics were at work then, but I’d never heard of Liz proposing angles as suggested. Plus, based on Vince’s later renditions for RAW, setting up a love triangle sure fits his M.O.” It claimed she did so to in real like make Savage jealous. The story also claimed she came up with the wedding angle in 1991 as a way to save her marriage, which also wasn’t exactly how I heard the story. Asking around, the general feeling was that Savage was very domineering and Elizabeth said very little to anyone. One person close to them at the time said that as the years went on, Elizabeth became more interested in the business side of things and understood wrestling was about making money and not loyalty or anything else. However, nobody else either had any recollections of Elizabeth coming up with angles. The story mentioned her death and sort of gave an implied blame of Lex Luger, noting he was arrested for beating her, although not mentioning all the charges were later dropped, a few weeks before she died. At RAW in San Antonio, the company sent people out when it came to t-shirts. One person, who was in the second row, had a WCW t-shirt from the 90s. They didn't approach him during Heat, but before RAW started, he was told he could not wear the shirt. The person actually told security, “You own the rights to WCW.” He said, "I know, but we don't want it on TV." They told him if the t-shirt aired on TV, he would be ejected from the building. Also in San Antonio, it’s pretty clear Test is in the doghouse because he lost to Steven Richards clean on Heat for the second time. After the show went off the air, Steve Austin gave Eric Bischoff two stunners, drank beer with Lillian Garcia, and the brought some of his friends into the ring and they sang and drank. He kept drinking and even wiped out and took a bad bump near the ramp, but wasn’t hurt and drank some more after that. Garrison Cade, who is from San Antonio and a member of the same class of the Shawn Michaels Training Center as Bryan Danielson and Spanky (all were signed after the same tryout match) was announced as being from San Antonio in a dark match and got a big pop coming out. People weren’t much into watching him wrestle, even though the openers usually are easy pops. His job opponent was Black Gordman, Jr., who is the legit son of Victor Manuel Barajas (Black Gordman). Gordman & Great Goliath in the 70s were one of the best tag teams in history, wrestled all over the world including headlining in Japan and Mexico, and held titles everywhere. On the new WWE Originals CD, while most of the tracks were written by Jim Johnston, the “Don’t You Wish You Were Me” song was written by Chris Jericho, Rich Ward (who is the husband of former developmental talent Shannon “Daffney” Ward), and Johnston. Jericho’s band, Fozzy, which Ward is a member, performed the song. The current scalper’s price for third row seats at WrestleMania XX is $2,800. There was an article in the Waynesboro Record Herald in North Carolina about Stephanie Bender, a local 20-year-old soldier from Iraq who was sent home for Christmas but goes back on 1/9. She was there last week when WWE was there and said the visit from Steve Austin was her favorite. “They (WWE performers) were there for three days and spent time with the soldiers. They were really supportive of the troops.” She said they were ordinary people and talked about how much everyone liked that Austin was throwing the football around with the soldiers. Even though wrestling has not been any part of this case for years, most of the media reports on Lionel Tate this past week called it the “pro wrestling death” case. Tate was offered a deal where he basically could be out of prison shortly and get 10 years probation, from his life without the possibility of parole original sentence in his murder conviction for beating 6-year-old Tiffany Eunick to death. Because he was so young at the time of sentencing (12), the life without parole sentence was heavily criticized. Tate is now 16. Here’s a funny note from SummerSlam 1994. During the Bret Hart vs. Owen Hart WWF Title cage match, Jerry Lawler asked Vince McMahon, “McMahon, could you ever imagine getting in the ring with a family member?” and Vince said, “Never in a million years, King.” Jim Ross was on the sidelines at the Oklahoma vs. Louisiana State Sugar Bowl game on 1/4 for the college football national championship. The 12/15 RAW in Tampa, FL, drew 3,700 paid and 12/16 Smackdown in Jacksonville, FL, drew 4,000. 12/29 RAW in San Antonio, TX, drew a sellout of about 12,000. Part of the reason was that they had a special deal where anyone who either had a ticket stub from the 1997 Royal Rumble or could provide a photocopy of a ticket stub to that show could get six tickets for $1. There were at one point around 60,000 of those ticket stubs, although one would guess the vast majority have thrown theirs away over the past seven years. 12/30 Smackdown tapings in Laredo, TX, drew an estimated 5,100.

Vampiro’s latest insane interview on the ICP web site also talked about the plans for him and ICP to come in as a trio (plan is to feud with 3 Live Kru). This makes just about every promotion that has tried using ICP, thinking it would help crossover to a young demo, and it failed with everyone so far, as nobody cared. This group is desperate for anything that would give the product attention so it’s something they have to try, but it’s probably going to fail. Vampiro talked about splitting up with his wife, losing his daughter, and leaving Mexico. When asked why he was coming back to MLW after quitting, he said, “money, drugs, the fans, and some nice looking ass.” Well, that’s the first I heard anyone say that about Court Bauer. You’ll love this quote. “All of the wrestlers, every fucking last one is a dirty, lying, fucking bitch ass liar piece of shit. I hate each and everyone.” When asked about Billy Kidman, he said, “Not only did I fuck his girlfriend (no truth to that one I’m betting strongly), but he has no talent, sucks, is ugly ass shit, and stole everything from Mexico and never gave us props.” When asked why he went to work for TNA, he said, “money and the xanex.” When asked about Jeff Jarrett, he said “Well, he had this sickness. It was called, ‘I am a bitch and a spoiled dick with no talent, so leave me alone.’ I thought he would get over it but I guess not. It has exploded like HIV, and now he has his own show. The ‘Jeff Jarrett Hour,’ but I think they call it TNA or something.” Don’t worry. If anyone asks about it, he’ll just say it was all a work. And he won’t be lying.

Yeah, Vampiro & Great Muta won the WCW Tag Titles in an impromptu title match against Kronic at New Blood Rising 2000. They lost them to Rey Mysterio, Jr. & Juventud Guerrera the next night on Nitro.

Not to take any severity off the situation, but I'm just filling people in who may not know. Maven's parents died when he was 2 and his Aunt took him and raised him, and that is who he calls his Mom. I remember them explaining this after he was granted a break from Tough Enough. My thoughts and prayers go to Maven.

I remember back in 1997, there were stories of people showing up to WWF TV tapings wearing nWo shirts, and they were given free Austin 3:16 t-shirts to wear over them.

In October 2000, WCW was taping Nitro and Thunder on the same day as a cost-cutting measure. Vampiro had just come back from arm some injury he had. He faced Mike Awesome at Halloween Havoc 2000. Awesome powerbombed him off the top-rope and he reportedly recieved a nasty concussion. The next night, during the live Nitro, he fought Awesome again and was powerbombed over the top-rope, through a table. Later in the night at the Thunder taping, he & Jeff Jarrett faced Sting & Mike Awesome in a tag team match, and Awesome did the top-rope powerbomb again. That was Vampiro's last-ever appearance in WCW due to the concussion. Vampiro claimed he had to re-learn how to walk because the injury was so bad. This is probably why Vampiro is so incompetent in the ring now.