JoeDirt

A source close to the situation has told us that Amy Weber has given notice to WWE head of talent relations John Laurinaitis. According to the source, she chose to do so due to locker room antics and the usual "boys will be boys" kind of stuff that often happens in the WWE locker room and can rub some women (and men for that matter) the wrong way. I checked with some well placed WWE sources (obviously not Laurinaitis) and word of her giving notice had not reached them yet. As of this writing, Weber's bio is still up on WWE.com but according to our reports she did not appear on the weekend house shows. We will update this story when we get more information. Credit: PWInsider.com

I'll put it up again. EDIT: And here it is! http://s13.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=1HNDW6X...QX0FY98D195BIPG

http://s23.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=2G18RO9...8C2G3WM6D6KEIKT Samoa Joe and Jushin Liger vs. Low Ki and Bryan Danielson

Brian Pillman vs. Eddie Guerrero from WCW...Bobby Heenan drops the F-Bomb on live TV! http://s13.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=1VB7BF6...TH2FD1SD4J8FJWG

As requested, Steiners vs. Sting/Luger from WCW Superbrawl 1: http://s13.yousendit.com/d.aspx?id=2KDZJS2...F41JBWC23B8Y2N9

This was posted on Gamefaqs...thoughts? "I've been looking around a little bit, and I've only seen a few people suggest that the finish was botched, but only in speculative statements with no evidence to back it up. I checked a few wrestling news sites, and no one seems to have noticed the things that I did. I even googled some key terms and phrases that would have to appear in any description of what happened and came up with absolutely nothing about last night, which I suppose means that these observations have yet to be noted anywhere on the Internet. I was working all night and just got home a few hours ago and watched the Rumble. I can't be the only one who taped it. After you read this, go take another look. You'll see and hear exactly what I'm talking about. Here's what happened. When I saw Batista & Cena hit the floor virtually simultaneously, I thought what pretty much everyone else did. "It's Bret Hart & Lex Luger all over again. Why?" But in the moments that immediately followed, something just didn't seem right. I rewound the tape and looked at it again. As they moved towards the ropes Batista's hands were still up by Cena's waist in a ready-to-powerbomb position. As Cena began get tossed over the ropes Batista was leaning back a bit and Cena's weight tipped Batista backwards over the op rope as well. Batista's hands shot down immediately, desperately reaching for a rope to grab onto. The top rope wasn't there to grab because Cena was still hanging on it when he hit the apron on his way to the floor, and it was pulled down way out of reach. I began to suspect that maybe Batista was supposed to have hung on. I let the rest of the scene play out. After they hit the floor there was an awkward hesitation on the part of the officials. Jack Doan motions that Cena hit first, and raises Batista's hand in victory. Now, if this was all planned, the SmackDown refs would have immediately raised Cena's hand. They did just the opposite. Jimmy Corderas & Charles Robinson backed off, pointed at Cena, and agreed with the RAW official. "He hit first" Corderas said while pointing at Cena and nodding in agreement. Now I was positive that Batista was never supposed to hit the floor, but it gets even better. Both of Jack Doan's hands go to his left ear, as he is listening very closely to what someone(most likely an irate Vince McMahon) is saying in his ear-piece. He then returns to raising Batista's hand, while moving closer to Corderas to deliver the message. "Raise his hand." Jack Doan (RAW ref), while declaring Batista the winner, told Jimmy Corderas (SD! ref) to raise Cena's hand in victory as well. This simply wouldn't be happening if everything was going according to plan. Immediately, Corderas & Robinson, who just seconds earlier were agreeing that Cena hit the floor first and that Batista won the match, pulled a 180 and now declared Cena victorious. If I wasn't sure before, everything just became crystal clear. They couldn't let on that the finish of the Royal Rumble was just botched, so they switched gears on the fly to cover it up and played out the "refs siding with their respective brand's wrestler" angle. Then Vince himself (sans entrance theme) comes down the aisle looking very pissed off, at least some of which has to be legitimate frustration over the botched finish. Vince's appearance also serves to make the cover-up look more "non-cover-uppy", as it is the sort of "surprise" that wrestling fans have come to expect in planned situations that involve disputes between referees over who the winner of a match is. But we already know, thanks to the SD! refs contradicting themselves after Jack Doan is clearly seen receiving a message in his ear-microphone and clearly heard telling them to "Raise his hand", that this is most certainly not a planned situation. I have no doubt that only minutes prior to all of this, Vince had absolutely no plans to appear on camera at the Royal Rumble. Then comes another moment of hilarity; everyone noticed this one. Vince gets in the ring, apparently breaks his ankle within a second or two, and then just sits there. I'm loving all of this. I love it when something has to be ad-libbed on the spot. Usually it's something much simpler, like the top rope breaking in the middle of a match and the wrestlers having to improvise, but this is on a much grander scale. This is the once-a-year Royal Rumble match; the beginning of the lead-up to WrestleMania, and they don't want to let on that they ****ed up the finish. Everyone has that look in their eyes like they don't know what they're going to do next any more than the onlooking fans do. Like I said, I'm loving this. Both Batista & Cena take turns playing to the crowd, raising their arms in victory. Then Batista grabs Cena and tosses him over the top rope. Cena comes back in and tosses Batista over the top rope. They've jockeyed for crowd support long enough; a decision has to be made. At this point Vince really only had two good options: go with the botch and declare a "Batista Vs. Triple H, Cena Vs. JBL double-main-event" for WrestleMania, or restart the end of the Rumble and let Batista get the win like he was supposed to; void of the controversy of a double-elimination finish. He chose the latter. Overall, that was maybe the most complicated botch-recovery situations I've ever seen, especially since it was on a stage as grand as the finish of the annual Rumble Match. It was definitely more ****ed up than the 2000 Rumble finish botch, because The Rock at least held on to the rope and not only did they not show the replay of both of his feet hitting the floor before Big Show fell, they actually used to footage in an angle leading up to WM16. (I don't care what anyone says; Big Show won the 2000 Royal Rumble) I found the whole situation to be fascinating. When I thought the double-elimination was planned, I was disappointed. Once I realized that things weren't going according to plan, I couldn't wait to see what would happen next. I was thoroughly entertained. Your thoughts?" --Interesting piece. Another thing pointing to a restart not being planned was that Cena and Batista seemed a little lost when they restarted. Batista immediately put Cena in a powerbomb position and Cena didn't go along with it, instead punching Batista. He then runs into a spinebuster and gets tossed, and it's over. Now Meltzer has said that the finish was rushed...but no major source has said yet that the finish was BOTCHED.

Stylin' in the Summertime is a fun show. I was disappointed by the Petey/Shelley 2/3 falls match, but I really loved that Cannon/Dragon match, and Styles/Delirious was a lot of fun too.

Got this off the CZWFans board: "A few names were already leaked that Canseco says he helped or saw inject steroids. Well apparently there are many more in the book as well. On ESPN Radio this morning Mike Greenberg said he heard the rumors of a few names and one of them is "as big, if not a bigger name than McGwire". He went on to say that he is not going to say the name just in case the rumors are false and that name isn't in the book. But who could it be? Who was "bigger than McGwire" during that time. And it isn't Barry Bonds." Clemens, maybe?

I don't think they'll go into Wrestlemania without us knowing the main events...

Ken Shamrock was meant to wrestle Jarrett, but missed his flight, because, IIRC, it was delayed. But Edge was still booked for the PPV title shot...how did that come about? Or was it just pure randomness in the booking?

Yeah, I just heard that. Hilarious. What led to Edge getting an IC title shot at Jeff Jarrett at Fully Loaded in 1999? I know Edge won the title at a house show before the PPV, but him getting an IC title shot then seems kind of random and I don't remember him feuding with Jarrett or anything leading up to it.

Seriously??? I can't even see that...who the hell will be the main heel on SD? Eddie?

Hulk winning the title back the day after Bash at the Beach 1999. I don't know why, but this just showed to be that nothing would ever change in WCW. The real point of no return was probably earlier, but this really did it for me. You could also say Souled Out 2000, and the whole time around then when so many guys got injured...Hart, Goldberg, Nash, Hall, Jarrett, etc.

"So, as the day progressed and the stupid ol’ “Super Bowl” Got nearer, I finished up a few touches on my posters. I got a call from a friend (this is an important part so I hope you post ALL of this information). He’s a shuttle driver for a “nameless hotel”. I say nameless because a lot of them up here are chained and he does not necessarily work for the one that Amy Webber stayed at. Anyways, my friend called to tell me that he had just drove her back to the airport because she was leaving. I guess that during the flight, some ( I don’t know who or how many) of the wrestlers were being rambunctious or something, but they started pouring tomato juice all over her. Well she got fed up and quit. This is why I hope you post this whole e-mail because I know they have already filmed next week’s show’s and don’t know what’s going to happen. Weather or not she’s really going to quit. I’m sure it’ll still be up in the air." --Got this off another board.

This is all from Meltzer on the Wrestling Classics board: "The day before Owen's funeral, when Vince and Bret met on a bike path in Calgary to hash things out, Vince was wired and there was a Calgary police officer listening. I don't know this to be the case, but I do know Bret has alleged there were also SWAT team members waiting in the wings because Vince didn't trust that Bret wasn't going to throw him off a bridge near where they met. They talked on the tape about Montreal, only the two of them, and it was a shoot." "Owen never had an option. I had a discussion with him in November 1997 while this was going on. He wanted out of his contract to go to WCW, although he was not vociferous about it like Davey was. Vince refused to give him a release. Neidhart never had a contract so he was free to go. Davey was offered a release if he paid Vince $100,000, which he did. Owen did ask for a release and was turned down. His options at the time were either quitting the business or wrestling for Vince. Vince offered him a raise to stay, probably to make him feel better, but ultimately he had no options anyway." "HHH and Shawn, who were jealous of Rock (since Rock and HHH were on the same path upwards as the tall guys with good bodies who were good athletes that the company loved), wanted Bret to pin Rock in a TV match in 1997. Bret refused to pin Rock, perhaps as much because he liked him (which is why Rock always goes out of his way to praise Bret even though his stardom really came after Bret left), more because it was his way to stick to to Shawn and HHH for Shawn getting out of Mania"

Everyone will give you a different opinion...but at this point I'd go with three of the newer shows, and that way you can start following the current stuff better. So I'd suggest Joe vs. Punk 2, All Star Extravaganza 2, and Final Battle 2004. Of course Joe vs. Punk 2 is a lot better if you've seen their first match at World Title Classic. So another route you could go would be Generation Next, World Title Classic, and Survival of the Fittest. Those are three shows in a row that were great, so I know you'd enjoy them. I'm just a guy who likes to watch the shows in order instead of picking out random DVDs here and there. So decide what you're interested in seeing, and go for it.

Tons of stuff still available...

I have a first gen of IWA-MS Put Up or Shut Up I'm trying to get rid of. PM me if you're interested.

Steph turning heel at Armageddon 1999. Jim Duggan turning heel and joining Team Canada in WCW in 2000. And so, so many others.

PWInsider says that Mike Burns is back as booker. Looks like it paid off for this show.

Apparently Meltzer says in the latest WON that the finish was botched and Batista was supposed to hold on but couldn't.

I have Pillman vs. Eddie Guerrero with Heenan dropping the F Bomb on live TV coming fairly soon. So stay tuned for that!

Holy shit did that match fucking kick ass. I loved every second of it. The 2 counters to Low-Ki's Tidal Crush, including that sick looking chop block, Low-Ki's fucked up Pheonix Splash that looked like it should have killed him, playing up Daniel's intelligence for the whole match, seeing 3 Sliced Bread #2's,the swinging DDT off the apron to the floor by Williams on Spanky leaving Daniels and Low-Ki to end the match alone, the crowd's response to Ki winning the title and finally Low-Ki breaking down in the locker room showing what the match meant to him. Holy run on sentence Yeah, I love it too. Some people disagree, but I think it was ROH's first truly great match. Others don't think they even had a four star match in 2002, but I think that one was easily four stars.

I would also love Punk/Hero's TLC match. Thanks! I'll be uploading more stuff in the near future.

Quick results from the IWA board: Trik Davis d. Eric Priest Ian d. Abercrombie Shelley d. Williams Thomaselli d. Sydal Delirious d. Jacobs Joe d. Bradley Trik d. Ian Thomaselli d. Shelley Daniels d. Punk to win the IWA-MS world title Thomaselli d. Trik