Bix

http://www.wrestlingobserver.com/wo/news/h...t.asp?aID=21158 . ----------------------- Meanwhile, according to today's WON, either Vince McMahon or Kevin Dunn freaked out and was afraid that the name "Birmingham" sounded terrible, thus the tapings 2 weeks ago were only referred to as being from "the United Kingdom."

http://www.loserleavestown.net/ Lance Russell returns for another great interview. Lots of ground covered, including his departure from Memphis/the CWA for WCW in 1989, producing the WCW Hotline 900 number (as well as Jim Herd’s post-WCW hotline venture), Jerry Jarrett’s accusations against him and Jerry Lawler, the various Memphis bookers, random thoughts on various personalities that came through Memphis, and much more. Over 70 minutes long and well worth listening to.

Not really.

In fairness, he means if WWE pushed it as a basic cable channel that got a tiny amount of money per subscriber. Still a terrible idea, though.

I hope you understand that advertisers pay very little for ad space on wrestling shows.

Bret Hart was willing to drop the belt at any time to any person other than specifically to Michaels in Canada. Michaels elsewhere was fine. And yes, Michaels was refusing to job to anyone, which led to his European win and then the title being switched to Owen Hart the way it was.

The LeDuc clip was short enough to probably fall completely under the radar, Lawler-Hennig was just the post-match interview on the WWE DVD which I'm sure aired on AWA TV, and Lawler-Funk aired in other territories including Florida. There is plenty of master stuff that looks great. Lawler has some, I believe Jimmy Hart & WMC TV have some, PM Film has some via ICW, Jeff Osborne has some he got at a garage sale (really), Cornette might have some (and has a lot of off-air recordings that could be restored like the St. Louis was), and there may be a little more I'm forgetting. It might not be as much as other libraries, but it's out there.

Gotcha. I thought they had St. Louis since Crockett had bought that promotion out and was part of the purchase Turner initially made. I have been wondering about this lately, as it didn't really make sense that Larry Matysik had the rights unless he accquired them later on from Muchnick or KPLR. As far as Crockett, keep in mind that they didn't get the video libraries of any of the territories they bought out other than GCW. The belief is that technically, the Selker brothers (the guys conned by Lawler into overpaying for the USWA) own the rights, but either don't know or don't care. Lawler & Hart have used Memphis footage on the Opening The Vault show, segments on current Memphis TV, etc w/o repurcussions, but whatever rights they may or may not have isn't good enough for WWE to try to buy it.

They don't have Memphis (muddy ownership, they get to use some footage that exists via other libraries), St. Louis (owned by The Fight Network), or Portland (no actual master library, rights owned by Barry Owen and licensed to WWE for the Piper DVD set).

WWE 24/7 was specifically launched as video on demand as opposed to a regularly broadcasting channel because it was easier to get clearances that way.

So, did 83% of the posters in this thread stop reading the original post before this part of the story? I think the discussion is revolving along the lines of what happens when USA come back to renew the deal in 2008 and offer Vince far below what he's prepared to take, he takes his ball and leaves (or tries to), rather than an out-and-out cancelling. I suggested two ways (Wrestling Network, Internet only) as ways Vince could combat USA lowballing him and having no other network to go to. Both of which would kill the company. A wrestling only network would bring way more exposure than 2 hours on USA/CW and 1 hour on Sci Fi so I dont see how it would kill the WWF. I hope you understand that you're the dumbest person on internet wrestling boards this week.

I wasn't talking about just December To Dismember, which was all obvious Heyman booking except for the first half of the Elimination Chamber match, anyway.

It's just good to remember that the Guest Booker thing was a Gabecentric best case scenario based totally on what he would like to see. The unlikelyhood of anything he mapped out of actually happening is just too great. I mean RIC FLAIR in ECW? Please, I doubt Flair would ever go for that. That's really not the point at all. How was the Orton gets OMGDEMOTED!!!~~!111 angle not a bunch of ridiculous Russo-esque smarky bullshit that also buried ECW completely out of the gate? He did a "Guest Booker" DVD w/ Kayfabe Commentaries.

That doesn't mean that going on TV and saying "Randy Orton was punished for acting up and thus sent the the shitty brand" is not a terrible idea. Plus, the booking ideas were for the first year of the brand.

Bret Hart had it written into his contract that he had reasonable creative control (reasonable meaning that he and Vince had to agree) over his character for the last 30 days of his contract.

Yes. A thousand times yes. HIS MAIN ANGLE BURIED THE BRAND AND HE IS TOO DUMB TO REALIZE THIS. That and I'm pretty sure that Stephanie took over starting with the HHH-Angle "blowoff."

So, did 83% of the posters in this thread stop reading the original post before this part of the story? I think the discussion is revolving along the lines of what happens when USA come back to renew the deal in 2008 and offer Vince far below what he's prepared to take, he takes his ball and leaves (or tries to), rather than an out-and-out cancelling. I suggested two ways (Wrestling Network, Internet only) as ways Vince could combat USA lowballing him and having no other network to go to. Both of which would kill the company.

WWE has terrible ad rates anyway. Its value to USA is in boosting the network average.

Even if the ideas are rehashed from ECW, and something being 'rehashed' isn't always a bad thing, they'd be fresh to the WWE audience. I'm not a major fan of Gabe's, but I also recognize that he seems to have a good idea of what does or doesn't have a chance to get over well. And even if he tries something and the audience rejects it, Gabe is more willing than most bookers to react accordingly and change things rather than push back and try and force something on his audience. 1. They're still bad ideas. 2. Everything is undermined by his unwitting burial of the brand with the Orton angle.

What the fuck..."too classical"?!?! Have any of you watched any pre-1998 wrestling? The ECW Guest Booker plans were fucking terrible, built around a ridiculous SH00T!11 angle in Orton being "punished" by being sent to the lesser brand and full of retarded rehashed ideas from the original ECW, like Orton as a Raven/Credible hybrid, London & Kendrick as Sabu, MNM as Taz, and Melina as Bill Alfonso.

Link? I just did a little digging and you might be right that it wasn't in writing, but Hart did get Bischoff's word that he wouldn't announce it until after the title was switched.

Bret was originally supposed to stay until IYH: DX, but the Survivor Series issues and Michaels refusing to job to ANYONE (not just Bret) complicated things.

Jamie Keller was the exec. He left TBS in '03. He's now more famous for his comments about DVRs: "Because of the ad skips.... It's theft. Your contract with the network when you get the show is you're going to watch the spots. Otherwise you couldn't get the show on an ad-supported basis. Any time you skip a commercial or watch the button you're actually stealing the programming."

Completely Untrue. Says who? Was this due to the Razor/Diesel lawsuit? When the settlement was determined, this was one of those written rules? No, this predated the settlement by a few years.

Completely Untrue. Says who?