QuestionMan

Lesnar was originally booked to successfully defend his WWE Title against Undertaker at Unforgiven 2002, but Taker was quoted by backstage sources as saying "I'm just not feeling it" when presented with the finish. It lead to the non-finish and the Hell in a Cell rematch at the next month's No Mercy where Brock won and Taker had one of the nastiest color jobs ever. They actually did have a PPV match. It was at the February '96 In Your House PPV. Owen was ducking Shawn until Shawn offered to put up his WWF Title shot at WM12, so Owen finally agreed to have a match at that PPV which Shawn won and that was the blowoff.

I didn't overlook it and shame on anyone that did. Flair vs. UT on WM18 was a really, REALLY good match. I marked like a bitch when Arn Anderson ran in and hit the spinebuster on UT all within a split second.

You asked for examples of when you re-post stuff. This is one. No it's not, because I posted the other one in the other thread. The story is relevant for both threads, so I posted it in both. Try again.

RIC FLAIR AND BIG SHOW LINKED TO DRUG SCANDAL The following is an article from today's Palm Beach Post:

Rob Van Dam's profile has finally been removed from the ECW section of WWE.Com's Superstar pages.

Yeah, I remember all that bullshit. That's where the honeymoon of Hogan and Vince's second marriage ended. Hogan wanted to win the WWF Title from Lesnar at Survivor Series that year, but Vince told him to fuck off.

RIC FLAIR AND BIG SHOW LINKED TO DRUG SCANDAL The following is an article from today's Palm Beach Post:

Well, it's not going to look good if no one gets punished or their pushes halted considering how Rob Van Dam was pretty much demoted to low mid-card status after he got busted with weed. Although, the other side of that is that Van Dam was WWE Champion at the time of his busting and none of these guys were (no, the ECW title doesn't count).

I kinda agree with Austin here but then again how often are you allowed to propose something to the heads and hope they approve or don't punish you for trying to change your gimmick? I think that's why a lot of people thought Austin was out of touch. You're not really encouraged to come up with your own stuff anymore.

MAJOR BACKSTAGE HEAT ON AUSTIN FOR PRE-SUMMERSLAM SPEECH WWE got all of the talent together before Summerslam so that Stone Cold Steve Austin could talk to them for a few moments. The speech was meant to be inspirational, but it ended up rubbing a ton of people the wrong way and helped to lower an already low morale within the locker room. Austin's speech contained three main points, all of which made people upset. His first point was he felt that the wrestlers dressed like slobs outside the ring. He criticized everyone for not looking and carrying themself anywhere close to professional. A lot of people couldn't believe who they were hearing this from. It was unbelievable considering that during the height of Austin's worldwide superstardom in the late-90s all anyone ever saw Austin in publicly was a black t-shirt and either blue jeans or blue jean shorts. Also, when WWE began their new dress code in 2004, Austin was doing his co-GM/Sheriff gimmick on Raw. He was one of the few who was exempt from the suit-and-tie dress code for gimmick purposes (the only others were The Undertaker and John Cena). His second point was that he felt WWE had no real superstars whatsoever and that it's time for someone to step up to take the ball and run with it. This also had a lot of people scratching their head, since both John Cena and Edge were members of the wrestler audience. His third point was that no wrestler should be sitting back and waiting for the bookers to give them a gimmick that will make them successful. Austin told the story about how he was "The Ringmaster" when he started with WWE in 1995 and how he thought it sucked so a few months later, he came up with his own gimmick, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin. This one had a lot of people silently laughing since it's a well-known fact that Austin's wife at the time that actually came up with the name. One wrestler in the audience noted that Austin seemed very out of touch with the current conditions and with how much money the wrestlers make now. He was said to constantly use phrases like, "With as much money as you guys make..." This wasn't very receptive since almost half of the locker room barely makes six figures now, as oppposed to the Attitude Era when lower mid-card people like Test and Al Snow were making well over a quarter million. A few wrestlers said that they were shocked at how Austin is now seemingly a puppet for McMahon, as some felt these were McMahon's words coming out of Austin's mouth. There was speculation among the locker room that Austin was acting this way because he is not dealing well with the fact that his movie "The Condemned" was a huge bomb in theatres.

I love how people think the ECW Title means anything. It's pretty cute.

That's a great idea. But the problem is that the guys who should have quit 10 years ago are better than the younger talent.

How about we just put the World Title on Flair and have Edge win it when it's time for him to return? Flair with the title is 100x more better than Khali or Rey, and Flair and Edge have a nice history anyways.

What the hell are you talking about? Both members of Cryme Tyme are listed and neither Highlander is on the list.

The interesting pieces here are that Sabu is still in the game despite being fired months ago. Not only that, but Sabu is listed as a WWE Legend instead of an ECW Superstar. Johnny Nitro's gimmick transformation into John Morrison will not be represented in the game. The biggest note is that it seems Vince McMahon got his wish of Chris Benoit being removed from the game. Being very familiar with wrestling video games, since the game wasn't delayed to remove all aspects of Benoit, it's likely that Benoit's code is still in the game but won't be accessible without some sort of hacking being involved.

At this point, no one is willing to give WWE the benefit of the doubt. And if all the stuff he is saying is true, they don't deserve it.

I apologize. I didn't see the Rajah paraphrasing earlier. But I am inviting you to cite other cases where I "always repost reports that are already mentioned at least once".

PWTorch.com reports that the Cryme Tyme release stemmed from actions the tag team performed following their Terre Haute house show match against Cade and Murdoch. According to the Torch report, the two teams had reportedly been developing heat with each other over the course of the past few weeks. That built into an incident prior to the match, in which Shad Gaspard told Lance Cade that "what happens in the ring happens," essentially implying that there might be some stiff shots exchanged. Cade mocked Gaspard's threat in front of a number of wrestlers backstage. In order to get back at Cryme Tyme for what they perceived as a threat, Cade and Murdoch met with the referee and arranged a rib. Essentially, the plan was to "fast count" while JTG was out of the ring, resulting in a count out loss for Cryme Tyme; Cryme Tyme was unaware of this plan until it was executed in front of the live audience. In what sources say was a move to save face, Cryme Tyme then decided, without telling the referee, to execute their finishing move on him (they reportedly did so safely, but it was still unexpected). They also tossed his belt into the crowd. Words were exchanged in the backstage area following the segment, and WWE management eventually made the call to release Cryme Tyme, who were reportedly on thin ice with management anyway due to what some backstage perceived as an attitude problem. The tag team was reportedly unhappy and surprised with WWE's decision. The increased scrutiny on WWE stemming from the Benoit tragedy, the Congressional investigation and the recent steroid controversy has resulted in a zero-tolerance policy backstage.

WWE CONTACTS SID VICIOUS ABOUT POSSIBLE RETURN WWE has shown some interest in Sid. A WWE official, most likely John Laurinaitis asked Sid if he would like to return to the company. This is ironic considering Sid has had heat with Laurinaitis for years since he was the WCW road agent that suggested he try the double axehandle off the middle-rope which caused probably the nastiest injury ever seen in a wrestling ring. However, before Sid could return to WWE he had to pass the Wellness test. Sid told the WWE official that he wouldn't be able to pass it. Sid is said to be going through some kind of therapy or is taking some medication to deal with whatever physical problems he may have. WWE is willing to work with Sid again, realizing how bad they need star power right now, especially with all the suspensions and injuries. But because of the whole Wellness situation, Sid may not be coming back at all.

Wow, have you ever been to a WWE house show? If this were on national television, I could understand your outcry. But they do ridiculous stuff all the time because they know only those 1,000-3,000 people will see it. One of the house shows I went to, Christian kept giving Albert a wedgie duing an 8-man tag match. He would periodically just run in during the match and pull Albert's trunks up his ass. The faces and the heels all laughed. Another one I went too, the MONSTER ANIMAL BATISTA~! was more focused on harassing Tony Chimel than his tag match with Edge against Chris Benoit & Randy Orton. I also recall a house show where Umaga wore a pair of Randy Orton's trunks outside his long tights and one of Edge's shinguards. House shows are full of ridiculous stuff. Finish changes like this are nothing as long as they are approved by the agents, which it likely was since Cade & Murdoch weren't fired too. Cryme Tyme making physical threats to Cade & Murdoch and then calling an audible to do their finishing move to an untrained referee who had likely never practiced the move with them before was 100% reckless and unprofessional.

Anyone else find it odd that Congress et al. aren't going after professional bodybuilders like Jay Cutler, Ronnie Coleman, etc. who eat oodles and oodles of steroids...blatantly? I'd love for Gov. Schwarzengger to take a stand against roids. WWE is a public company that is supposedly allowing its employee's to partake in illegal and deadly activity. They are going after WWE, not Randy Orton and Edge. Bodybuilders aren't dropping dead at a disturbing rate. Exactly. This is the same point Ultimate Warrior made when he was on Hannity & Colmes. You don't see the huge bodybuilders from the 70s dropping dead. They are all in their late-50s now and are healthy. It's the steroids mixed in with the destructive lifestyles that leads to wrestlers dying in their 40s. When you mix steroids with pain killer addiction, excessive alcohol consumption, and recreational drugs, you're on a path of destruction. Now that's not to say that steroids on their own aren't harmful on their own. They are. Look at NFL player Lyle Alzaldo from the 80s. He died of brain cancer that doctors said was likely a byproduct of heavy, heavy steroid use. But everyone doesn't get cancer. Warrior shamelessly admitted that he took steroids until 1991, but he is in perfect health today because he never lead a destructive lifestyle with pain killers, alcohol, or drugs outside of the steroids. The reason why everyone drops dead is because a very high percentage of people do.

Yeah but did the ref know that? I mean, obviously when they picked him up for it they gave him some sort of audible, what did they say? 'Take the finisher', 'Samoan Drop', know knows? If the ref didn't know ahead of time what he was taking, he wouldn't neccessarily know what was happening and how to take the move and was put in danger, whether it was a spike piledriver or what. He could have went with the part of the move JTG uses and landed on his head, took the drop at the wrong time, any number of things. The Raw brand has what? 5 Refs? This ref probably reffed about 40 - 50 Cryme Tyme matches over the last year. I am sure he was well aware of what their finisher was. He might not have known exactly how to take it, but I doubt he was pissing himself expecting the Steiner Screwdriver. How do you know this wasn't a new ref or a rookie ref getting a tryout?

So wait, Jeff Hardy is making 1.2 million a year??!! Probably a little less than that, but it would depend on if the houses were good, how well the PPV's draw and if he's on them and in a good position on the card. I'm guessing for 2007 he's making a high six-figure income, at least. This is Jeff Hardy. He's been one of the highest merchandise sellers for both TNA and WWE for the past 7 years. I'm pretty sure he makes more than 1.2 a year. At a stretch, I could buy Jeff making close to a $1m a year, if only because of strong merchandising. But no way he makes $1.2m plus. That's getting into Cena/Undertaker/HHH territory. As of 2006, Cena was making $1.5 million while both HHH and Undertaker were both well past $2 million.

Do we even know if the Ref had no clue how to take it? I'd be extremely shocked if WWE hired a Ref who didn't know how to bump. There's a big difference between getting squashed in the corner and taking a tag team's double-team finisher, especially if you've never practiced it with them before.

I referee a lot of Georgia independents, and I can tell you that I would have been FURIOUS of two huge dudes just decided to grab me and do their finisher on me without telling me beforehand, especially if I had never taken the move before. That is just 100% unprofessional and reckless. I'm glad they got fired for it.