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The Decemberists

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Everything posted by The Decemberists

  1. The Decemberists

    A serious question about TNA

    That's like saying if the UFC started doing shows in Canada more people would pay to see it on PPV. It'd be nice, and TNA would certainly make a bit of extra money from the ticket says but the main source on income is PPV and why would the location of a show make any difference to someone at home wondering if they should pay $40 to see it? You must be joking about the double reverse battle royale... King of the Mountain and Ultimate X though are good (KotM just works) but KotM is best of as a once a year thing and UX has been horribly overused in the last year. As the reverse battle royale showed though it's very hard to come up with good gimmick matches which haven't been seen before. Either way, any lack of them isn't the real problem with TNA, it's like comparing a paper cut to a beheading. Yes. Although there's nothing wrong with pole matches in and of themselves, just they need to be done for a reason and not every other damn week. Something that can easilly be solved by eliminating Russo. Yep. More of three men who have never really drawn any money on their own for any company they've been at? Won't make any difference apart from adding more meaningless 'stuff' the midcard which they can't afford to do. And I'm a fan of all three men (I think Nash and X guys skits have been awesome) but they ain't going to turn anything around at this stage of their career.
  2. The Decemberists

    A serious question about TNA

    They need to start being different instead of just claiming to be different and instead of trying to increase TV ratings they need to convert the viewers they have into PPV buyers. UFC has proven that you no not need a packed undercard to draw big PPV sales. Not one single person bought UFC 66 for Tony DeSouza vs. Thiago Alves, for example. The 900,000 or whatever who bought the showed wanted to see the main event. That's what TNA needs to try and start doing. I'm not saying ignore the undercard completely, but not every single PPV match needs to have an angle going into it. Again, on UFC 66 Chris Leben vs. Jason MacDonald were having a fight to see who'd win and if you won that might help get a title shot down the line. That was it. I can see no reason at all why on a TNA PPV you can't have Austin Starr vs Jay Lethal having a match just to see who's better and if you win then you're closer to getting a X title shot down the line. What this enables you to do is spend much more time on getting your Main Eventers over as it those who're going to draw. They waste far too much time trying to get everyone on TV and trying to get everyone over but it's just a waste of time. Remember, UFC does not get ten times the TV ratings TNA gets. It does though get ten times the number of PPV buys TNA gets. On the upcoming TNA PPV they've two 'big' matches - Angle vs Joe and the three way for the title. They have 44 minutes (more or less) TV time a week. They should've been spending at least 25/30 minutes a week for the last four weeks or however long it's been getting those fives guys over. I personally wouldn't even have who you consider to be top guys have matches of TV. When was the last time a UFC title was defended on TV? When was the last time any major star was fighting on TV for that matter (and Shamrock/Ortiz obviously doesn't really count)? But just getting rid of Russo would be a decent start.
  3. The Decemberists

    David Beckham joins MLS

    £500,000 a week.... Jesus.
  4. The Decemberists

    WON News + Notes, January 8th Issue

    I saw that Impact was being listed as being on this evening, but when I went to the channel to check they were actually showing NOAH.
  5. The Decemberists

    OAO 1/4 Impact Thread

    I used to go out of my way to watch Impact every week, but in all honestly the only thing I care about now is Nash and PCS as half the time it's fucking hilarious. There's not been a single week I've missed the show and having read reports of it though 'Shit, I should've watched it'. But also when I do watch I never think 'Thank God I saw the show this week'. Same old shit every single fucking week with nothing going anywhere.
  6. The Decemberists

    WON News + Notes, January 8th Issue

    WWE officials have either finalised or are putting the finishing touches on a deal that should get them, temporarily, back in the US mainstream. The Vince promo of 1/1, which mentioned Donald Trump and Rosie O'Donnell and telling Rob Conway "You're fired!" was scripted to be the start of a big angle. The only details available at the moment are that it will lead to a Vince McMahon vs Donald Trump 'Battle of the Billionaires' angle leading up to, most likely a match at the Royal Rumble with Trump and Vince in the corners of two wrestlers. This would be great to get two wrestlers some mainstream publicity as whoever Trump picks to be his wrestler will get a major rub and it's great for Vince from an ego stand point as he'll get mentioned in the same breath as Trump in all the stories. Surprisingly this idea wasn't one that WWE came up with, but rather they were asked to do it by NBC Universal who were looking for some publicity stunts to 'heat up' Trump to help ratings for the next season of 'The Apprentice'. The McMahon vs. Trump progam is scheduled to be heavily promoted by NBC with the idea being that will lead to increased ratings for Raw. The pay off for the angle is likely to be either at the Rumble or a Raw shortly afterwards. Live event attendences have started to improve, which is normally the first sign of a business turn around. Not including the traditionally huge post-Christmas week shows (they drew 20,411 fans for the 12/28 show in East Rutherford, NJ), the last two months of house shows and TV tapings have been averaging 6,600 paid. To beat that two month average you'd have to go back to March/April of 2002. The 12/18 Raw did 4.85 million viewers, although if you ignore the opening hour it did 5.29 million in it's regular time slot. The 12/22 Smackdown did a 2.87 rating. The major market ratings were... 3.0 in New York (3.4 for Matt Hardy vs Nitro), 3.2 in LA (3.8 for UT & Kane vs Booker & Finlay), 3.9 in Chicago (4.3 for UT & Kane vs Booker & Finlay), 2.4 in Philadelphia (2.9 for Batista vs Sylvan), 2.0 in San Fran (2.4 for JBL promo and Diva promo/match), 3.2 in Detroit (3.5 for Hardy vs Nitro and UT & Kane vs Booker & Finlay), 4.4 in Atlanta (4.7 for Hardy vs Nitro and JBL promo and Diva match) and 4.0 in Houston (5.2 for UT & Kane vs Booker & Finlay). The show did a 2.61 in English speaking household and a 5.1 in Spanish language households. Segment-by-segment rating - Benoit vs Chavo gained 126,000; the Mercury promo followed by the Hardy/Nitro match added 407,000 viewers; The JBL promo and Divaz match added 112,000; UT & Kane vs Booker & Finlay gained 112,000 which isn't all that great for a lengthy main event. The Christmas night 'Tribute to the Troops' show did a 2.75 rating (2.75 first hour; 2.74 second hour). It was the second highest watched show on cable that night behind the NFL which did a 7.85. The 12/26 ECW 'Best of 2006' show did a 1.36. Although the lowest rating ECW has had, it still held up better than was expected. The 12/29 Smackdown 'Best of 2006' show did a 2.5 rating with 3.82 million viewers which was better than expected and thanks to most network programming was reruns. Smackdown finished in last place, behind FOX airing 'The Rundown', the 2003 movie starring The Rock, which did a 3.1 rating and 4.84 million viewers. K-Fed is getting plenty of internal praise for his attitude backstage. Unlikely many outsiders they bring in he eats with the wrestlers and hangs out in the locker room and was asking advise from the boys over what he could do with his angle. Batista's Rumble opponent at the Rumble will be decided by a 'beat the clock' angle where whoever wins their Smackdown match quickest gets the title shot. Heyman is still under contract and still on the payroll. He's at home working on non-wrestling projects and WWE have kept him to stop him from going to TNA and to give time for fences to be mended. David Lagana was pushing hard for Masters to join ECW and get a major heel push. It's 50/50 over this happening though as Brian Gerwitz wants to keep him on Raw as he sees him as a guy they can use to put people over without devaluing him as he's seen as a jobber anyway. There will no Assy McGee vs Vince McMahon's Ass lawsuit. WWE and Cartoon Network have worked out a deal where WWE.com can continue the cartoon. Jay Leno mentioned K-Fed beating Cena on Tuesday night, saying "Usually when Federline is on top of someone for ten seconds, they end up pregnant". It's not 100% by Conway is likely to be moved to Smackdown and reform La Resistance with Sylvan. The story behind HBK's promo on Raw this week was that he was attacking TNA's James Gang (when he spoke of people who used to be big stars and are now certain jerking somewhere else) and also Bret Hart and Kurt Angle (when he talked about those who calls themselves 'the best in-ring performers in the world'). Michaels legitimatly feels that he (or maybe he and Flair together) is the best in-ring performer of modern times and has a genuine resents others who claim they are. The DX vs Rated RKO match at the PPV will be a Tag Title Match after all. This is the first time in long while when main events have had a match of the tag titles. The following comments were heard from fans under the age of 25 prior to the 1/2 Smackdown tapings, "Isn't TNA another brand of WWE?'; 'ECW needs tag team titles'; 'What channel is CW on?' and 'This show will be airing on Spike TV tonight'. George Murdoch who debuted on the 12/26 Smackdown house show is 6'8 and 375lbs. No guessing as to why he was called up to the main roster without even being on Deep South TV then. He only started training in August. He got recuited when some wrestlers spotted him working as a bouncer in LA and Dreamer said that with his size he should enrole in UPW but Murdoch said he wasn't interested. Dreamer took his phone number and Laurinitis rang him soon after and signed him immediatly. The front runner for the location of Wrestlemania in 2008 is Orlando. It was orginially planned to be in Las Vegas. Claudio Castagnoli was fired due to visa issues. He was in the States on a tourist visa rather than a working visa. WWE signed him before checking this out. The blame for that has gone on Mike Bucci (Simon Dean). When Laurinitis found out he cancelled the contract as it would cost several thousand dollars to sort out a working visa and he didn't feel Castagnoli was worth the extra investment. Having said that, ROH booker Gabe Sapolsky who has used Castagnoli for a long period of time says that he has a Green Card so none of that should have been a problem. Kenny Bolin, 46, the OVW color commentator was hospitalised over the weekend due to congestive heart failure, which sounds a lot worse than it is. Brolin, who weighs about 425 to 450 had put on about 150lbs over the last seven years without any change of eating habits and his childhood best friend Jim Cornette had made him go to a doctor who had given him Lisx (diuretics) to take as he was retaining a lot of water. Apparantly he wasn't too good about taking them. Bolin's been told that he has to start taking this pills and needs to change his diet. It wasn't that he was eating a lot, but what he was eating was very unhealthy. In what sounds like a sitcom angle Jim Cornette is going to teach him how to shop for healthy food. Danny Basham is currently in a commissioner-type role in OVW as he recovers from injury. The the 12/26 house show they confiscating a ton of signs at the door. On the banned list now is anything lewd, anything TNA related, anything anti-babyface and anything plugging a website. When Teddy Long came out later on in the show and said they were having a best sign contest that didn't really get him over with a lot of fans there. In the new WWE magazine JBL is asked about his least favourite match and he picks the infamous mixed tag with Trish, Chris Nowinski, Jackie and himself, saying that it was "the worst I've ever been associated with, I was so embarrassed, I wanted to quit the business." As a birthday present for Jason Roberts (Tony Chimmel's understudy on Smackdown) they had Big Dick Johnson molest at a house show.
  7. The Decemberists

    English Football

    No it wasn't. Considering Warnock was playing the reserves and couldn't care less even fucking Macc would've beaten them.
  8. The Decemberists

    HHH tore his quad tonight

    Different. Vince, I think, tore the tendons to the quads rather than the quads themselves.
  9. The Decemberists

    WON News + Notes, December 25th Issue

    Final Resolution PPV line up. 1) Angle vs Joe - 30m Iron Man Match 2) Abyss vs Christian vs Sting - NWA Title Match 3) LAX vs Team 3D - NWA Tag Title Match 4) AJ Styles vs Rhine 5) Jerry Lynn vs Christopher Daniels vs Chris Sabin - X Divison Title Match Spike TV has offered TNA a two-hour show. It's as good as good though really but the hold-up is over Spike wanting a multi-year exclusive commitment and TNA wants more money than Spike are offering. Internally TNA are aiming at getting ratings up to 1.4 over the spring and summer inorder to get more cash from Spike. Wrestling always does better in the first half of the year as the networks are showing reruns and wrestling remains first-run shows. Plus no more NFL of Thursday nights should help. Bob Sapp has been in talks with Jeff Jarrett about coming up for a 'shoot' program with Angle. Daniel Puder was their first choice, but after they offered him what was been called an embarrssingly low offer Puder decided he didn't want anything to do with it. Although how on earth they expect to get Sapp who turned down $1,000,000 from Vince and won't come for anything less than ten times than it would have taken to secure Puder is a mystery. Vince Russo is constantly being told backstage that he's writing just too much stuff for a one hour show and they have to edit like crazy to get it all in. His response is just to carry on doing it. Not quite sure how, but Jim Cornette is now working with Russo on the booking committee. Starting with the 12/11 tapings Jarrett and Mantel managed to get Cornette to get involved. Russo and Cornette do actually talk to each other and are being civil for the good of the company. Cornette is helping produce a lot of the interview segments and sits in on the production meetings - although they make sure that Don West and Mike Tenay sit between Russo and Cornette. At the meetings Tenay hands out the lastest Russo script and Cornette then openly challenges any segment that he's involved in that doesn't make any sense. Everyone bites their tongue because Russo is described as taking it but appears to be bottling everything up inside. Andy Douglas appears to be gone. Joe's MCL sprain was a severe second degree sprain based on his second examination on 12/13. He is not expected to under go surgery. Jackie Gayda, who is 25, gave birth to a girl named Kayla on 12/14. Joe was black and blue at TV before he hurt is knee as Angle isn't holding back on anyone. The AJ Pierzynski and David Eckstein was covered by CNN Headline news, ESPN Sports Center, and the Sports Illustrated website. A photo of Pierzynski holding Eckstein made the front page of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and is expected to be mentioned in the 12/23 issue of Sports Illustrated. The plan is to build to Dale Torborg vs Lance Hoyt. Hoyt got the spot thanks to Russo who wants to push him, but had nothing to push him with. TNA has pulled out of its deal with The Wrestling Channel in the UK. They are expected to move to Bravo, the channel that airs UFC in the UK and used to show WCW. It's a major step up in what can be a major wrestling market. Angle filmed his segment for the George Michael Sports Machine this past week. In what is become trademark Angle style he was asked one question and repied with a 30 minute monologue which will have to be heavilly edited for the show. Angle, Joe Rogan and Dana White were at the Video Game awards which aired on 12/13 on Spike but was recorded a few days earlier. Angle ripped off his shirt on stage and went crazy to try and get some more attention. Backstage he was telling people that he was going to be facing either Couture, Ortiz or Liddel at some point in 2007. This is only known about as Mike Swick of UFC was backstage with a camera and filmed it. If this was wrestling that would be a sure fire sign of an angle, but it's not in this case. AJ Styles tried to work heel against Runt at the 12/15 house show but the fans wouldn't boo him. Impact will have to be moved on 1/25 as there's a UFC special 8-10. There is a definate interest in Amy Dumas if she's interested. Russo is booking Angle as if he was Steve Austin in 1997. It's working a whole lot better than when he tried to push Jeff Jarrett in that way, but still shows where Russo's head is at wrestling wise. The LAX vs AMW angle ending with AMW breaking up was a great example of an angle going from A to E and missing out on B, C and D.
  10. The Decemberists

    WON News + Notes, January 8th Issue

    I think the idea was that HBK was saying there are people who say they're better than him, but he's yet to face anyone who actually is, which would fit Angle/Hart.
  11. The Decemberists

    WON News + Notes, December 25th Issue

    Armageddon Star Ratings 1) Kane vs MVP = * 2) London & Kendrick vs MNM vs Hardyz vs Regal & Taylor = ****1/4 3) Boogeyman vs Miz = DUD 4) Benoit vs Chavo = ***1/4 5) Helms vs Yang = *** 6) Taker vs Kennedy = **1/4 7) Dave & Cena vs Finlay & Booker = *1/4 News There's a very good chance Piper wouldn't have found out about his cancer had he not won the tag belts with Flair. It wasn't untill he got hurt and had to be operated on that the cancer was discovered and he was told by his doctor that it could have been another three years before he found out about it and by then it would've been far too late. Simon Inoki's meeting at Stanford on 12/14 was about doing possible talent exchanges between New Japan and WWE. It's not expected to go anywhere as New Japan has no one WWE is interested in. There is talk that Antonio Inoki arranged the meeting to make possible investors think he might be able to being in WWE guys and help him buy back a controling interest in New Japan. Jim Ross asked, for the first time ever, for a week off at the start of the year to attend the University of Oklahoma Fiesta Bowl game. He was refused. The smart money is on Tazz leaving when his contract expires, probably going on to present a radio show in New York. Brad Armstrong was thought of a posibble replacement for him which was why he was at the broadcast table on the 12/19 ECW tapings. That's also why Tazz ate him alive when they were both on air. Amy Zidian, who was playing the part of Jimmy Yang's girlfriend was fired for rubbing the wrong people the wrong way. Firstly she made a comment to Layla El asking if she was bothered that she was getting a push when the girl who won the Diva Search El was part of was "collecting dust". Secondly, she made fun of Kristal Marshall's hair extentions. Thirdly she asked Vickie Guerrero why she was a diva and made a comment about her looks. As you can imagine, there is nothing that will get you universally dispised in the WWE locker room than upsetting Vickie. Vickie responded by saying that as she wasn't pretty enough she better get out of "your" locker room. Zidian honestly didn't have a clue who Vickie was and had no idea why she was on the roster, which is scary in and of itself. She was a second away from being fired for that, but John Laurinaitis went to bat for her and managed to keep her on the payroll. At this point Jimmy Yang refused to have anything to do with Zidian backstage. What did get her fired was when her and Yang were doing a backstage segment that was benig produced by Steph, and Zidian asked Steph who she was to dare give her any advice... Steph told her exactly who she was and Zidian rolled her eyes at her. And that was that. Laurinaitis got a lot of heat for all of this, as he was the one who hired her, put her on TV and then defended her after the Vickie incident. Following on from the Zidian problems there are people shuddering backstage as Laurinaitis and the company want to bring in 20 (twenty) more women to be on the three brands in the next few months. Mike Bucci (Nova/Simon Dean) has started a program in OVW to try and teach the women a bit of wrestling history to avoid another Zidian. Cornette did something similar years back when he was horrified that Linda Miles had no idea who Lou Thesz was. Vince decided when he got back Iraq he didn't want the Hardy Boyz as a tag team. However, thanks to them popping good quarter hour ratings, he keeps telling the writers that they can stay together for 'one more week' so they seem to have an indefinate stay of execution. Ken Doane was given the last name Dykstra as one of Brian Gerwitz's favourite baseball players was Lenny Dykstra. They want him as main event heel, but he's not going to be shot to the top. The mentallity on his is simliar to the one they had for Orton when he was called up. The idea is he'll be a main eventer by 2009. The plan for Vladimir Kozlov is for him to the geeky Russian who thinks he's a babyface but will be a heel, similiar to the orginial gimmick for Kurt Angle. The gimmick is that he's a sambo and MMA champion. The McMahon's have decided he's going to get a main event push, which has caused a lot of concern as he's really bad. So bad that Deep South didn't want him to wrestle on their TV when he was down there. See No Evil did $3.3 million in gross this last week, which gives a total of $7.09 million after two weeks. The Marine is at $18,719,747 domestic, and $19,776,273 when you include overseas. Federline may not be around after 1/1 as he's rumoured to be a contestant on "Celebrity Big Brother" in the UK that starts on 1/3. Stephanie seeing Daniel Rodimer as "the new Diesel" and to that end wants to put him with Edge and Orton. There are already house shows being advertised with DX vs Edge, Orton and Rodimer in 2-on-3 matches. Danny Doring has been released. As things stand the 2007 PPV line up is, 1/7 New Years Revolution 1/28 Royal Rumble 2/18 No Way Out 4/1 Wrestlemania 4/29 Backlash 5/20 Judgement Day 6/10 ECW One Night Stand 6/24 Vengence 7/22 Great American Bash 8/26 SummerSlam 9/16 Unforgiven Russel Simpson has signed a developmental deal. Simpson, 32, has previously worked in Japan for Hustle. John Laurinaitis sold 1,900 shares of WWE stock for $32,400 on 12/12. He still has 42,472 shares which are worth $713,000. Head of legal Ed Kaufman sold 9,618 shares for $161,600 after being allowed to buy 4,167 at only $9.60 per share, which is well below market price. He currently has 37,719 shares worth about $633,000. The company has spent $1,635,000 on video libraries this year. 59.5% on the companies profits come from live events, TV advertising, TV rights and PPV. 37.3% come from merchandising and 3.2% comes from the website. UFC, on the other hand, draws around 90% of their profits from live events, TV advertising, TV rights and PPV. Hogan is likely to pitch Hogan & Vince vs Show & Bischoff for Wrestlemania, with a "will Vince turn on Hogan?" angle. The company now spends $2.2 million on producing each PPV. That means the break even point is 138,104 buys. The lowest recent number they've done is 195,000 for No Mercy, but without international buys they would only just have broken even on that show. WWE Magazine averaged 197,400 paid circulation ove the past quarter which means a profit of around $900,000 for the quarter. The old Raw and Smackdown magazines averaged 141,875 in sales, but did make more profit per sale than the new magazine. So more sales has actually still lead to lower profitabilty. The company averages $12.47 income per DVD, which means $6.02 profit on each disc sold.
  12. The Decemberists

    WON News + Notes, December 25th Issue

    Hogan is likely to pitch it as he's been talking about it with Jimmy Hart during the tour he's been doing with Brooke and Hart has been asking fans there to see Hulk what they think of the idea so they can go to Vince saying that the marks love the idea.
  13. The Decemberists

    WON News + Notes, December 18th Issue

    Turning Point Star Ratings 1) Senshi vs Shelley vs Starr vs Dutt vs Lethal = ***1/4 2) Daniels vs Sabin = *** 3) Styles vs Rhino = **1/2 4) LAX vs AMW = ***1/4 5) Abyss vs Sting vs Cage = *1/4 6) Joe vs Angle = ****1/4 News + Notes Samoa Joe suffered what is believed to be a third degree MCL sprain on the 12/11 tapings. He's been having problems with the knee for months, but he probably won't need any surgery. He'll be out for a few weeks to heal up. He should be fine for the 1/14 PPV. Once again Kurt Angle's appearance on Bubba the Love Sponge involved hardly any talk about the PPV match with Joe he was there to promote and concentrated on Angle claiming he was planning on doing four MMA matches, the first of which would be on a TNA PPV in May or June and that he would face one of either Tito Ortiz, Randy Couture, Chuck Liddel, Ken Shamrock or Daniel Puder. He also claimed that this PPV would do one million buys and headbutts would be legal. Although Angle is being announced in TNA as 'the only Olympic gold medalist in pro wrestling history' he's not. The Olympic gold medalists in either wrestling or another event who went on be pro wrestlers are; Dimitrios Tofalos (1906 - weightlifting) Henri DeGlane (1924) Robin Reed (1924) Russell Vis (1924) John Spellman (1924) Bobby Pearce (1932) Jack van Bebber (1932) Pete Mehringer (1932) Paul Anderson (1956 - weightlifting) Wilfred Dietrch (1960) Anton Geesink (1964 - judo) Willem Ruska (1972 - judo) Leon Spinks (1976 - boxing) Angle is thought one of only two who could in really be considered a superstar though, alongside Henri DeGlane who won a world title from Strangler Lewis in a double cross finish in 1931. Management has decided that Lance Hoyt cannot dance... There has been talk of bringing in a babyface latino group to face off with LAX headed by Apollo. There's opposition to bringing Apollo back though after he no showed dates on his last run in the company.
  14. The Decemberists

    IE being Hijacked

    I'm really not sure how I've managed this, but when I start IE rather than taken to the F4W site I get redirected to http://www.syssecuritysite.net/ which tries to convince me the only way I can stop this is to give them my credit card details. I've done numerous full system scans with Ad-aware, Spyware Doctor, TrojanHunter and Norton Anti-Virus and I've deleted everything that they found, and although that has reduced the number of pop-ups I was getting, it hasn't stopped the hijacking of the home page and I still get a pop-up when I start IE saying there's lots of local women who want to fuck me NOW. So having scanned with everything I've got I'm now totally out of idea's over how to fix this. Anyone know???
  15. The Decemberists

    WON News + Notes, December 18th Issue

    Ratings Smackdown on 12/1 did a final 2.81 rating with 4.72 million viwers. Raw in 12/4 did a 3.66 final rating with 3.54 and 3.79 hours. ECW on 12/5 was up to a 1.76 rating with 2.01 million viwers. In the quarter hours; RVD & Punk vs Holly & Test = 1.8 Dreamer vs Daivari = 1.7 Kelly vs Ariel = 1.7 Lashley vs Show = 1.8 with a 2.1 overrun Smackdown on 12/8 did a 2.6 rating with an early estimate of 4.17 million viwers. CW finished 5th out of the 5 major networks that night. The show did a 2.6 in New York (2.9 for Noble vs Yang, Benoit vs Sylvan and Miz vs Scotty), 3.2 in LA (3.4 for Kennedy/Taker), 4.0 in Chicago (4.7 for Noble vs Yang), 1.7 in Philly (1.9 for Dave vs Fit), 2.4 in San Fran (2.7 for Dave vs Fit), 1.7 in Boston (2.1 for Benoit vs Sylvan), 3.4 in Dallas (3.9 for London and Kendrick vs Regal and Taylor), 2.4 in DC (3.0 for Kane vs Kennedy), 2.4 in Detroit (3.1 for Miz vs Scotty), 4.5 in Atlanta (5.7 for Kane vs Kennedy) and 4.1 in Houston (5.5 for Kane vs Kennedy). Segment by segment based on the majot markets the show performed like this; London & Kendrick vs Regal and Taylor + 98,000 Batista vs Finlay + 265,000 Noble vs Yang + 491,000 Benoit vs Sylvan - 197,000 Miz vs Scotty and the Boogeyman + 296,000 Kane vs Kennedy + 70,000 Raw on 12/11 did a 3.8 rating. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ October Business Comparisions Estimated Average Attendance Not Including the ECW Brand events 2005 = 5,273 2006 = 4,853 Estimated Average Gate Not Including the ECW Brand events 2005 = $179,736 2006 = $160,147 Percentage of House Shows sold out 2005 = 4.8% 2006 = 4.2% Average Raw rating 2005 = 3.84 2006 = 3.66 Average Raw viwers 2005 = 4.80 million 2006 = 4.74 million Average Smackdown Rating 2005 = 2.59 2006 = 2.57 Average Smackdown viwers 2005 = 4.03 2006 = 4.21 No Mercy Attendences 2005 = 7,000 2006 = 7,000 No Mercy Gate 2005 = $440,000 2006 = $400,000 No Mercy PPV Buys 2005 = 235,000 2006 = 195,000 No Mercy PPV revenue 2005 = $3.83 millon 2006 = $3.30 millon ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- News + Notes When he got back from Iraq, Vince told people that Heyman was done with the company in every way. However it is not believed that Heyman has been given a contractual release. Heyman himself believes that he's done with the company and has headed off to Hollywood for meetings with people about scripts he's been working on. WWE is have meetings and discusions about getting into the MMA business. The idea is not to buy Pride, which was offered to them, but to look into doing something on their own. They had a meeting with MMA people who were not from UFC or Pride 12/14 but there's no word yet over what the end result of that was. With Heyman out the current writing structure is like this; Raw Brian Gerwitz Ed Koskey Dave Kapoor Smackdown Michael Heyes Dusty Rhodes Court Bauer Chris DeJosephs ECW Dave Lagana Pantelis Ypsilantis The general feeling among the writing staff is that they feel Heyman leaving was the best thing for Paul and the company. Ypsilantis was the only writer upset by Heyman leaving as he felt Paul had helped him keep his job over the last three weeks and was considered his latesd protege. Booker strained his back a while ago and was advised to rest up for a while. He worked through Survivor Series as he was in the main event, but was then given time off from in ring work. This lead to Big Show being asked to work Smackdown shows for another week and they were so lacking in star power. There was an article on Booker in the Houston Chronicle by Ken Hoffman, who is semi-famous in the business for being responsible for a North American title change when he wrote that Jake Roberts would be losing to Dick Slater because Roberts was leaving. On reading that Bill Watts had Roberts win the match and the title just to prove Hoffman wrong. In this article he said the King Booker gimmick was his wife's idea and the WWE has given Booker permission to use their talent when he runs indy shows in South Texas. His first is booked for 12/21 in Pasadena, TX with Booker vs Haas in the main event and Boogeyman (who is Booker's personal training project) and Umaga on the card. Booker has been running a training school and hopes to start a small territory. Flair came back earlier than scheduled as his divorce was settled out of court. Terms were undisclosed, but Beth had threatened to to reveal 'everything', whatever that may mean, in court but her kids managed to convince her to settle without going to court. The card for New Year's Revolution is, Umaga vs Cena (for the title) DX vs Rated RKO (probably not for the titles) Hardy vs Nitro in a cage (for the IC title) James vs Victoria (for the title) Carlito vs Masters Flair vs Kenny Cryme Time vs WGTT The plan for ECW is to go back to having it be a glorifed developmental territory. There's no names yet, but several OVW guys are expected to start on ECW TV soon. Vince seems to have decided against having MNM and the Hardys as full time tag teams. A lot of people backstage have high hopes of Nitro as they feel he's at the right age and has the right look to be a big star and don't want him dragged down by being a tag team wrestler. Tazz's contract expires soon and he's looking for a raise. He's probably not going to get it as he's very low on the priority list now he's on ECW. There is already talk that he may well be leaving. The DVD for See No Evil has grossed $3.79 million and was No. 9 in the DVD charts in its first week of release. The idea on Smackdown is that Batista is the one carrying the ratings, so they want his TV matches to be as long as possible to try and boost the average. The problem is that Batista doesn't usually do long matches very well. A second single from the Brooke Hogan album has been released, called Heaven Baby. It is getting airplay on around nine stations. Brooke and Hulk will be going on the road aggressivly to promote it. The Rock's Greatest Matches DVD will be a 3-disc set. Sandman is getting unpopular backstage by, basicly, being the Sandman. The Undertaker was especailly annoyed at Hak being his loud and goofy self on the European tour, and that's not someone you want on your bad side. Referee Marty Rubacable has been given the TV name Marty Elias. Torrie Wilson is in the 2007 FHM calender for September. The shows on 12/4 and 12/5 in Portugal both did about $533,000 on the gate.
  16. The Decemberists

    NAME THAT WRESTLER!

    I think that was the idea, but since HTQ got it right I don't think he felt he was able to lower himself to play with us mere children on the board.
  17. The Decemberists

    WON News + Notes (December 11 Issue)

    Heyman + ECW 1) Hardy Boyz vs MNM = ***1/4 2) Balls vs Striker = 1/2* 3) Terkay + Berke vs FBI = *1/4 4) Daivari vs Dreamer = DUD 5) Thorn + Ariel vs Knox + Kelly = -* 6) Elimination Chamber = **1/2 There's four pages on Heyman and ECW and I'm not bloody typing it all, but you should get a general idea. Before the ECW PPV Heyman and Vince had a meeting and verbally agreed that they should sever ties immediatly and Heyman would be fired. However, the next day Steph told staff that due to a conflict between her dad and Heyman they needed to replace Paul as head writer of ECW but they were going to find another job for him to do in the company. No one is really quite sure if Heyman is still employed at this point, but it should all be cleared up when Vince gets back from Iraq. Heyman was under the impression he had been fired on 12/4 but on 12/5 he thought that would still be employed but not as either talent or a writer. Both sides blamed each other for the PPV. As Heyman came out for his pre-Main Event promo he was fully aware that the show had bombed and something major could result from it (like getting fired), but Vince felt it had been a decent show untill he became aware of the feedback the next day. At that point he blamed Heyman for getting the script in late and not giving him enough time to fix everything and the idea's that didn't work were Heyma's. Heyman though argued that the things that failed were changes that had been made to his script. Clearly though much of the creative was Heyman just as clearly some of the booking of the Chamber match wasn't. Those within WWE cite several different things that lead up to the decision to send Heyman home. Firstly there was a feeling that the pressure of the new ECW was getting to him. Secondly he was blamed for Lashley's poor crowd reactions since he had pushed so hard for him to jump to ECW. Another story is that talent in ECW would go to Heyman with ideas and he would get back to them and say Vince didn't like it. But when the talent went to Vince he had no idea what they were talking about. Heyman also stood up to Vince about McMahon's idea of turning Van Dam heel after his suspension which didn't put him on Vince's good side. The arguement about Lashley not being over as a super babyface though doesn't really hold up though, as Heyman's plan was to turn Lashley heel with Paul as manager to re-create the Hayman-Lesnar deal from 2002, and build towards Lashley vs Van Dam or Punk at Wrestlemania. Vince was strongly against this as he sees Lashley as a potential superhero babyface. But on the day of the PPV Lashley was still telling people he was expecting to turn heel on that weeks TV. The reason Sabu was not in the Chamber match was not because he's about to fired (although he's still in the doghouse) but because they belived that of the four babyfaces in the match (Sabu, Punk, Van Dam, Lashley) Lashley would be the least popular, which isn't ideal when he's going to be winning the belt at the end. Sabu being taken out was confirmed a couple of days before the PPV, but replacing him with Holly wasn't decided on untill the day of the show. That also influenced the finish of Lashley and Show being the last two in the Chamber as there would be no one there more popular than Lashley and try and make sure his victory wasn't a disappointment. Heyman was also blamed for the show ending early, but that sort of thing goes through so many people that's very unfair. There are lots of different stories coming from WWE about what Heyman's original plans for the Chamber match were. However, everyone is saying that Show had agreed to tap out to CM Punk's Anaconda Vice to get Punk over strong even though he wasn't going to win the title. There are then differing reports of when this would have been done. Some are saying Heyman's plan was for Punk and Show to open the Chamber and have Show tap after 4:00, which would give a minute for Show to leave and get a 'Thank You Show' chant or whatever from his hometown crowd as well as getting Punk over. Although Show was more than happy with that idea, Vince turned it down flat. Another version is that Show would eliminate Van Dam before tapping to Punk. Punk would then have been pinned by Test, would in turn would have been pinned by Lashley for the finish. This was rejected by Vince as it was felt it would be more helpfull to Lashley for him to pin both Test and Show. If he is fired, it's highly unlikely he'll go to TNA as they are not going to want to disrupt the power structure there and Russo won't be sacked untill his terrible booking drasticly affects the Impact ratings. The PPV drew 3,600 paid (4,800 total) which included a huge walk-up thanks to two days of Van Dam being in the market pushing the show. You'd have to go back to the Great Amercian Bash 1991 to find a live crowd more unhappy with the direction of the product they were paying for. David Lagana is probably going to be the new ECW head writer. It's hard to say who is responsible for the failure of ECW (2.79 rating to a 1.53 rating don't forget). Although Heyman was restricted from pushing Van Dam as the top guy, the pushes of Holly, Test and Mike Knox were his ideas and none of them got over as top talent with the crowd. Knox, a definatle Heyman project, ended up worse in ECW than he had been in Deep South. Punk, Heyman's other big project, as he's the only sucess the brand has had in making any new stars. They stylistic changes to make the product more WWE-like with the DQs etc were not his ideas. It's hard to pin point who made the call for the production changes (although all would have been confirmed by Kevin Dunn) but the darkening of the arena was a bad mood as to modern fans it made the product come across as cheap. Although the WWE had pushed the idea of doing ECW live every week it had fallen back on doing taped shows, and due to the ECW audience being more internet friendly taped shows had tended to do about 15% worse in the ratings than the live shows. Another major difference in the inital succes and now is that they now longer do Monday-to-Tuesday booking were the ECW mian event angle would be built up on Raw the night before. The most fans ECW was a distant 'C' show that was promoted more strongly than Velocity. It's audience consisted on the hardcores somehow clinging to the idea that their old ECW still existed and the significant number of WWE fans who will watch anything do to with the company. Financial Report For the quarter than ended on 10/27 the company grossed $96,236,000 and posted an after-tax profit of $10,396,000. Last year in the same quarter they grossed $88,933,000 but made a profit of $11,702,000. In the last quarter they grossed $93,267,000 and made a $11,302,000 profit. The profits didn't cover the $17,174,160 paid out in dividends, including the $12 million paid out to Vince. Also not included was about $4 million more in production costs over the quarter for 'The Condemned', the first of three movie deals signed for Steve Austin. They have spent about $18 million on this so far, compared to the $23 million for 'The Marine'. At this point the company has spent a total of $52,827,000 on its three movies, and aren't expecting any income on these untill 2007. Because of these factors the company has $252 million on its balance sheet as opposed to $267 million at thet same time three months ago. PPV was a mixed bag in the last quarter. SummerSlam did 528,000 buys wordwide, Unforgiven is listed at 290,000 and No Mercy at 195,000. In terms of the core US and Canadian markets for those three shows compared to last year the company has gone from an estimated 702,000 buys all together to 700,000 buys this year, at a higher average price, which has to be looked at as a success. House show gross revenue was $17.6 million for the quater on 101 live events which breaks down as 63 Raw and Smackdown US and Canada shows, 27 ECW shows, and 11 international shows. Last quater was $15.9 million on 86 events, which was 75 Raw and SD shows, 8 ECW shows and 3 international shows. The 90 US House shows averaged 4,000 paid attendance and $144,000 per show. Keep in mind the WWE includes PPV event house show gates. Even though there were more live events merchandise sales dropped from $4.7 million from 86 events last quarter to $4.2 million from 101 events this quarter. And last quarter didn't have the foreign shows to boost the average. Average spending at a house show is $11.2 a head. Televison rights fees were $21.8 million for the quarter, down from $22.2 million the previous quarter. TV ad revenues were $1.5 million, up from $1.1 million. DVD sales remained at $14.5 million for the quarter. The biggest seller was the Hulk Hogan Anthology which sold 200,000 units. Licensing was up from $5.6 million last quarter to $7.3 million. Smackdown vs Raw wasn't released untill after the end of the quarter, so there should be a huge increase here in the next report. Magazine revenue went up from $3.1 million to $3.4 million. Internet ad revenue was up from $2.1 million to $2.7 million. WWEShop orders online went up from $3.3 million to $3.6 million. TV Ratings Raw on 12/4 did a 3.7 rating. Smackdown on 12/1 did a 2.8 rating with 4.71 million viewers. The show did a 3.2 in New York (3.9 for Dave vs Finlay vs Booke), 3.2 in LA (3.5 for Guerreros interview), 4.2 in Chicago (4.8 for opening promo), 2.5 in Philadelphia (2.9 for Taker vs MVP), 2.2 in San Francisco (2.8 for Taker vs MVP), 1.3 in Boston (1.6 for Dave vs Finlay vs Booker), 3.5 in Dallas (4.0 for Dave vs Finlay vs Booker), 1.8 in DC (1.9 for Benoit vs Guerrero and Dave vs Finlay vs Booker), 2.9 in Detroit (3.4 for Taker vs MVP), 3.7 in Atlanta (4.2 for Taker vs MVP) and 4.5 in Houston (5.5 for Dave vs Finlay vs Booker). Segment gains and losses MNM vs London + Kendrick - 239,000 Dave vs Finlay vs Booker + 590,000 Chavo + Vickie promo - 84,000 Benoit vs Chavo - 211,000 Layla vs Marshall - 109,000 Taker vs MVP + 449,000 General Piper's cancer was caught early so it's not as bad as it could be. If you want to send Piper a get well card the address is Roddy Piper 18645 Southwest Farmington Rd. PMB 12 Aloha OR 87007 The company is planning a relaunch of its website over the next few weeks. According to an article in TV Week they are going to change the focus from promoting the brand to being an entertainment site. They are planning online made-for-broadband TV shows ranging from 90 second to 20 minutes in length, such as the 'McMahon's Ass' cartoon and well as putting up matches up for PPV buys. Tom Barecca who runs 24/7 and is in charge of buying tape libraries will be running it. Everyone is now pretty much against buying Pride. Even Shane, who is a MMA fan now has a negative feeling to the idea. The WWE though does recognise the value of the Pride tape library and would be interested in some of the fighters. Basically they want the heavyweights who have 'the look' and also those they feel are marketable characters, such as Bob Sapp, Tank Abbott (!) and Butterbean. They don't believe that the lightweight fighters will draw and although they'd use them they'd never give them a chance to be anything other than what they'd allow pro wrestlers of that size to be. The only person in the company though with any MMA knowledge though is Shane, but even he is a big casual fan who thinks he's an expert as he feels he's a tough guy and likes to talk to Taker backstage about MMA. Shane even used to tell Ken Shamrock when he was in WWE about how he'd be able to do well in UFC as he's tough and won a few fights as a kid. The 11/8 to 11/15 European tour was the company's most successfull overseas junket in history, grossing $8,000,000 for 16 shows, including topping $1,000,000 for both shows in Manchester, England. As well as a bad back and knees, Big Show has been working on a hernia that needs surgery and he knows he needs to drop 100lbs. His contract expires in February but the odds are good he'll work Mania. Since he and Hogan are friends they are planning to negotiate a package deal with Vince for the match. If he gets a Hogan-like deal, like Mick Foley got, he'd work the major PPV's of the year he'd do it, but he has no interest in going on the road full time. If WWE don't give him the deal he wants there's also the outside chance of going to TNA to take advange of their light schedule. Van Dam though has expressed firm interest in working indies and TNA when his contract expires in a few months. As things stand he is not expected to sign a new contract, but things can change. He feels he's never get any chances do to will in the company after the refusal to go to Iraq again and the drugs bust. There were some long-term booking discusions that went all the way to SummerSlam 2007. The company has given up on Austin working WM this year although they are expecting him to be part of the show. Hogan vs Show is still pencilled in and will be confirmed one way or the other in February. There are no definate plans, but Cena is probably going to go into Mania as champion and the two favourites to get the challenger role are... HHH and Randy Orton. Flair could well return on the 12/18 Raw. His divorce proceedings are due to end on 12/15. If not he will be on Raw on 1/1. 'The Marine' is now at $18,605,662 domestic and $1,054,324 overseas. The WWE mentally of signing people who look great and then teaching them to work is now official company policy instead of just being what they do. They feel that likes of Edge and the Hardy's who'd drive 700 miles and sleep in their car while getting bookings for no money are a dying breed so there's no point looking for people out there who can work and have a decent look. Under Jim Ross the idea was to try and get people with real athletic backgrounds as they would have a good look and the mental toughness to surive on the road, but that's no longer the case so the odds on them getting another Angle, Lesnar or even Lashley are slim. Laurinaitis is now looking for good looking guys or bikini models. The prototype they're looking at is Cena who was signed in this manner, although Cena was actually a fan growing up thanks to his dad, and was a Division III college lineman. Michelle McCool is now out of hospital. A DVD called 'The Rock's Greatest Matches' is due to be released in June. If the new Rocky movie does any business at all Flair and Hogan will be pitching like mad for one more title run. Hulk Hogan did an interview in Australia this past week and was asked if a wrestler ever refused to lose a match. Out of the 1000s of examples of this happening, this is what he replied with Rebecca DiPietro (ECW woman who's dating Big Dave) and Maryse Ouelett (French-Canadian Diva Search woman who's some cameos on SD) will be in December's Playboy. Say thank you!
  18. The Decemberists

    WON News and Notes (11 December Issue)

    Impact on 11/30 drew a 0.97 rating and 1.1 million viwers, do a 1.12 in Males 18-34 (best since the time slot change). Show opened at a 1.0 for the Christian promo and Sabin vs Lethal vs Dutt. They lost 68,000 for the LAX promo and the Mike Tenay/AJ Styles/Rhino promo. They gained 11,000 viewers for Nash, Hoyt & Killings vs Shelley & Starr, some VKM stuff and the Sting/Abyss promo. The gained 68,000 viewers to a 1.01 peak for LAX vs Angle & Joe. The James Gang, Vince Russo and Jeremy Borash went to the WWE house show on 12/1 in Knoxville to shoot footage for Impact. They did a deal where they went to the box office and got mad as ringside seats were $50 which is stupid as TNA will be charging at least that for ringside seats for on the road PPVs. Everyone but Russo ended up inside the building. Dave says this would be better if it was Nash and X Division guys as at least Nash has the sense of humor to carry it off. BJ James does very well in this role, but he's too much of an established mid-carder and Kip James is... well Kip James is Billy Gunn. The 'George Michael Sports Machine' is working on a major feature on Angle. The new interviewer, Letitia is not someone from Spike, although Spike did say they wanted more woman on the show. Jesse Ward, who works backstage in production found her somewhere. She was brought in for an audition which she was horrible in and then, of course, got hired. Jeremy Borash is obviously not happy that he's been replaced by someone who just can't do the job properly. There's surprise that Jarrett didn't stick up for Borash more. Borash has no replaced Don West in a backstage plugging segment, which again makes no sense as he just isn't as good at that as West was. Borash and Russo had a falling out a while ago that may explain JB's relative demotion. Heyman is unlikey to come in if he's available as it would upset the balance of power and Russo isn't going anyway untill ratings drop like a stone or he walks out. Rob Van Dam is interested in coming in when his WWE contract runs out in a few months. He feels he'll never get a chance in WWE following the drug bust, refusing to go to Iraq and Heyman losing his influence. Big Show might be tempted by the light schedule if he doesn't get the Hogan/Foley-like contract he wants from WWE but that's unlikely. Thats it.
  19. The Decemberists

    WON News + Notes (December 11 Issue)

    After typing 2,884 words, I'm somewhat surprised I only mis-typed one thing.
  20. The Decemberists

    WON News + Notes, 4th December Issue

    Joe/Angles at Genesis was booked to go 25m, but Angle was told he could go 30m if he thought it would make the match better. Angle hasn't given anyone a reason as to why he went home go early, but the feeling is that he just isn't in good enough shape to go for 25m. The internal reaction to Genesis was mixed. They felt that they really needed a blow out show to take advantage of the new viewers they hoped they'd have buying the show. There was disappointment over both the LAX vs AMW match and the Shelley and Starr vs Hoyt and Killings matches inparticular. The main event disappointed a lot of people, but that was time issue rather than the quality of what was done, and there's unhappiness over Sting vs Abyss reaction, but that's being blamed on the botched finish. The DQ was supposed to be for Sting throwing Rudy Charles into the barbed wire table, but instead Charles called for the bell after he was thrown to the floor. They were very surprised with the reaction stripping LAX of the titles got. Spike and TNA are closer than ever following the 1.0 rating for the special. The rating was proof to Spike that TNA can attract new viewers to the station. Spike were obviously aware that the good rating TNA had gotten at 11pm were due to the UFC lead in, but at 9pm there have no build up lead-in audience, as CSI at 8pm is mainly watched by older women, who straight away switch to CBS to watch up to date CSI shows. It's gotten to the point where if they were to go two hours every week Spike would move Ulimate Fighters off Thursdays to another day of the week. The company is hopeful it's problems with The Dish Network will be sorted out by 12/10. They only get around 4% of their buys from TDN so it's no a huge issue for them, but obviously one they would rather get sorted as soon as possible. Konnan is getting his hip replaced after the 12/10 PPV. The TNA show in Monterrey was the largest crowd and gate ever drew for a TNA show, despite only 4,200 or so fans being inside the 14,000 seat arena. The most over guys on the card with the Mexican fans (apart from Konnan and Cibernetico) were Angle, Jarrett and Ron Killings. For some reason there was no TNA merchandise for sale at the event. LAX at the show consisted of Hernandez and Shenshi as Homicide was booked for ROH. They have planned a TNA vs AAA show for May. TNA were charging $100 for ringside tickets, with is less than the WWE charges in Mexico ($160) but far more than CMLL charges ($36.35). The plan is to do as many PPV's from outside Orlando as possible next year. They are desperate to do a border town - ideally Laredo, but that would have to be untill April as there is a WWE house show there in January and the WWE insist that buildings they use don't have any other wrestling shows two months before or after their own. The desire for a border town show comes from wanting a Candanian Stampede type atmostphere with LAX taking the place of the Hart Foundation. Abyss with defend his 1PW title against Runt at the TNA show in Portgual on 1/5. The general concensus, especailly from X Divison guys, is very negative regarding the current direction and Vince Russo. The reaction to Angle has changed greatly as well. Angle is being very hands on with everyone, talking to everyone about their promo's and matches, which isn't really a bad thing but he's rubbing everyone up the wrong way by constantly telling people backstage he's the greatest wrestler of all time. He's also telling people that he'll be running the company soon enough. Jarrett is still sticking up for Angle 100% as you'd expect. Scott Steiner isn't even mentioned by anyone backstage anymore, so you've probably seen the last of him. Raven's new flock will not be called The Movement, but rather will be known as Serotonin. TNA were fined $225 after the fire that took place on 8/13.S
  21. The Decemberists

    WON News + Notes, 4th December Issue

    Survior Series Match Ratings 1) Legends vs Sprit Squad = **1/4 2) Benoit vs Chavo = ***1/4 3) Mickie vs Lita = *1/2 4) Team DX vs Team RKO = **3/4 5) Kennedy vs Taker = *** 6) Team Cena vs Team Show = **1/4 7) Big Dave vs Booker = *1/4 Obviously there's news about Piper, but nothing anyone here doesn't already now. Lita obviously wasn't happy with her on screen exit from WWE. She wrote on her MySpace two days after the show, "... To say I was disappointed with my final moments with WWE is quite an understatment. It was comforting to read all your comments and e-mails when I got home. I appreciate that you were able to see I did my best in the situation that was handed to me to give you guys an entertaining match and play along and be a professional with the other stuff that went along with my big farewell night... If that were why I was writing, it'd probably be about 10 pages long and with a bunch of (expletives) and captial letters." She was very happy though with her farewell when it came to the wrestlers themselves. Edge reserved the top floor of a bowling alley and all the wrestlers came to honor her with a surprise party. Jim Ross signed a a one-year contract, rather than the standard three-year deal with a two year company option. Ross was coming off a ten-year contract negotiated in 1996. After all the attemptst to replace him over the past year they seem to be admitting they've not been able to find anyone, but are not committed to JR is anything other than short term. His actual contract expired on 10/29 and he signed a two week extention. At one point there was talk of allowing to work without a contract, but Vince wouldn't have that as it would allow him to walk into TNA any time he wanted. Ross, who turns 55 in a few weeks, is largely out of the loop in the power structure of the company after being the number two guy for a long time. His duties now involve announcing Raw, doing the talent payroll and giving written feedback on the TV shows. There is talk of having Matt Hardy move to Raw full time and have the Hardyz as a full time tag team again following how well they got over the the ECW show. Sabu is in the dog house after being in rough shape and falling asleep backstage on 11/20 in Baltimore. They decided not to fire him, but it was strongly talked about. The company wants to keep him around untill at least Wrestlemania as they want him to induct the Shiek into the Hall of Fame in Detroit. Sabu isn't happy though as he feels the WWE isn't allowing him to be the old Sabu and he thinks that without that character he's nothing. After the MNM vs Hardyz match at the ECW PPV Nitro and Melina will head back to Raw while Joey Mercury will stay on ECW as a singles heel. For Armageddon on 12/17 the main events will be Undertaker vs Kennedy in a Last Ride Match and Kane vs MVP in an Inferno Match. The top match will more than likely be Batista and Cena vs Booker and Finlay. There's probably also going to be a Benoit/Chavo rematch. The 1/7 New Years Revolution show will have Cena vs Umaga for the title and probably some sort of gimmick match between DX and Rated RKO. Flair is going to be taking time off for his divorce situation this month. He's already paid Beth $540,000 in cash, plus $20,000 a month in alimony. A casting call has been set up on 11/29 for women who are "18-28 yrs Super hot. Great attitude. Big personality". Michelle Deighton, Jonny Fairplay's girlfriend, has an interview with Laurinitis coming up soon. She was on America's Next Top Model. Cena is in People magazine's 100 sexiest men of the year list. Apparantly they're going to put over his 'sexy eyes'. Settlement talks are starting soon between Warrior (the artist formally known as Jim Hellwig) and WWE regarding 'The Self Destruction of the Ultimate Warrior' DVD. In a prior legal settlement over the catchphrase "Always Believe" the two sides agreed never to disparage each other in public and Warrior feels, probably rightly, that the DVD did exactly that. They have been pushing the 1/1 Raw with Cena and K-Fed hard, so hopefully there's been some forward planning and they at least know what they're going to do on 1/1 and maybe even can use it to build to Mania. Candice Michelle suffered a deviated septum from a stiff kick from Victoria. She will be under going nasal surgery very soon. Michelle McCool has been hospitalised for more than a week due to an enlarged kidney and anelectrolyte imbalance. The condition was serious enough that it could have led to heart of kidney failure if left untreated. 'The Marine' is now at $18,518,049 domestic, and $991,837 internationally. They have hired Brian Friedman and Nick Florez, two choreographers to set up new individualistic ring entrances for the women.
  22. The Decemberists

    Show's over

    Kayfabe, Show, kayfabe... Anyway, I always liked Show and he did what he did pretty well. Wouldn't go as far as to say I'll miss him being on TV, but best of luck to him.
  23. The Decemberists

    WON News + Notes, 27th November

    The story of the week is that TNA delivered a lot of good wrestling, but the questionable booking left a bad after taste which took away from the product. When Sting was told he was going to lose the title on a DQ he said it was stupid and asked to lose the title clean as he felt that was best for business. He was told no - he had to lose by DQ. TNA worry too much about the ratings. UFC have proven that even with a 1.0 rating you can get big, big buyrates if you're actually any good at promoting your PPVs. The Thursday special did not do a record viewership, but the PPV a few days later did do a record buyrate, or at least came very close. The ratings pattern for the two hour special was; Nash vignette, Team 3D vs Naturals = + 83,000 VKM vs VKM = + 70,000 Cage vs Rhino = - 59,000 AJ vs Daniels vs Sabin = - 12,000 Angle vs Abyss = + 140,000 The Angle vs Joe match went 13:31. However, the plan was for it to go at least 20. Everyone on the undercard had it made very clear to them that they could not go long under any circumstance. However! During the match, Angle just decided that that they'd gone on long enough and made the call to go to the finish. Angle refusing a handshake and heeling wasn't a bad idea, but would've been much better if they hadn't already done two handshakes earlier in the show. The match itself was great for what it was, but wasn't long enough to live up to the hype fully. Meltzer says that they probably did the right finish. The build to the match was based around finding out 'the best wrestler in the world', and seeing as that's how Angle is being marketed, and how he's the face of the company he really did have to win the mythical 'best in the world' title in his first major PPV match. Genesis Star Ratings VKM vs Movement = * Naturals vs Lethal and Dutt = **1/4 Daniels vs Sabin = ***1/2 Hoyt + Killings vs Shelley + Starr = *1/2 Cage vs AJ = ***3/4 LAX vs AMW = **1/2 Abyss vs Sting = **1/4 Angle vs Joe = ****1/4 There was a press conference on 11/14 in Monterrey to promote the 11/25 show at the Arena. Abismo Negro was there since he was due to be working on the show and Konnan attacked him. The promoters are very worried as at press time they've old sold 1,000 tickets in a 14,000 seat arena, which is bad even for a Mexican advance. The promoters are desperate to try and get Sting on the card in the hope he'd sell some tickets, but it's very unlikely to happen. The blame is that Impact has only been on TV there for a few weeks and despite getting strong ratings most fans aren't familiar with the characters. AAA has pulled Cibernetico, Negro and La Parka off the show, so there's no AAA talent to help draw. Nash has been telling friends he has an eye on Cornette's figuehead commissioner as the feeling is that Cornette won't last long with Russo and there's a race to see who quits first between Jim and Vince. Christian Cage is listed as one of the top three stars of a horror movie called 'Dark Rising' from director Andrew Cymek. There is more undercard unhappiness than ever before, pretty much all thanks to Russo and his booking of them. Lance Hoyt and Christy Hemme have suggested to the bookers that they get their hair braided and go with Ron Killings as a tag team and manager. Killings himself has asked for a release but Terry Taylor told him they won't let him go so he can go to the WWE. Because he hasn't been used much they were talking about taking up a collection of $10 each to fly A-1 into the next tapings so he can see everyone. Johnny Devine may be getting a new name. Angle told Sabin he was a great wrestler but didn't like his look, and suggested he should have food and dirt all over him like 'Pig Pen' from the Peanuts shorts. A lot of people who were initally excited about Angle's creative involvment were shaking their heads at that one. Jeremy Borash has been removed from doing the interviews. There was a problem with his look and some people didn't like his style. He has been replaced with someone named Letitia; described as 'a worse Rebecca DiPietro'. To quote Meltzer, "Has the world gone mad? Why does the interviewer have to be a pretty girl if she's incompetent and doesn't know how to do the role. She was super nervous aside from not having a clue how to do the job..." They're doing a storyline where when Abyss was a child something really terrible happened to him, and Tomko knew him as a child and knows the secret and has told Christian. They are so scared of calling Tomko 'Problem Solver' Christian can only refer to him as 'the man who solves my problems'. The card for Turning Point Joe vs Angle II Abyss vs Sting vs Christian for the NWA title LAX vs AMW for the NWA tag titles and the winners get their flag raised and national anthem played AJ Styles vs Rhino Daniels vs Sabin for the X title with Jerry Lynn as ref Traci Brooks vs Eric Young in a bikini contest. In case you missed that, it's Traci Brooks vs Eric Young in a bikini contest
  24. The Decemberists

    OAO 11/30 Impact Thread

    The new woman interviewer reaches whole new levels of bad. She has no idea what she's doing.... I suddenly realise JB wasn't actually all that horrible afterall.
  25. The Decemberists

    WON News + Notes, 4th December Issue

    Afterward Cryme Tyme came out and sold Lita's bra, panties, vibrator, an empty box of Monistat (for yeast infections). It ended with a big empty box called "Lita's Box". Went on for faaaaaaaaaaaaar too long and wasn't funny.
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