Hunter's Torn Quad

It's always funny hearing people like him insist that Cena turns people off, even though his segments regularly draw a high increase in viewership and often manage to get Raw's peak rating. Though, I have come to expect it from someone who last year, just before the Hassan character was dropped, said that if he had the book he'd have Hassan beat Batista for the World title at Summerslam, in Batista's home town, and then have Batista get the belt back the month later at Unforgiven.

As of 7/1, all personal use of the “Air McMahon” corporate jet will be paid for the McMahon family. It had been paid for by the company. Vince and Linda continue to waive salaries and bonuses, due to making so much on stock dividends. Vince had been making around $2m a year in salary, half from his executive role and half from being television talent. The last fiscal year, WWE made $24m profit on DVD’s, compared to $9m the year before. They have 13,000 subscribers for 24/7 in North America. 24% of WWE income comes in from outside of NA. There is apparently concern for Angle, as when the company listed the biggest stars under contract, the names were; HHH, Cena, Batista, Michaels, Flair, Undertaker, Mysterio, Booker, Show and Kane. WWE has 165 wrestlers under contract. The public reason for Angle taking what will be at least a month off is that he is injured and he asked for the time off. The actual reason is the company made the call, and felt they really had no choice but to do something to help Angle deal with “personal and emotional issues”. The 30 day suspension starts on 6/28, and right now is just the minimum time Angle will be off. A lot of people have said that things are not looking good for Angle. They are close to having Canadian clearance for ECW. It’s major clearance, but is said to be a bad timeslot, late at night. WWE now believe Trish Stratus won’t be coming back when her current deal expires. It’s felt Trish wants to pursue acting, and her WWE schedule wouldn’t allow that. Vengeance did 6,8000 paid for $4000,000, which can’t be considered good from a live attendance standpoint. The word on 6/27 is that Paul Heyman’s power has lessened again. Dreamer has had no power for a while, and is now said to have less than no power. Heyman’s current role is the head writer of ECW, but he just presents scripts to Vince, Stephanie and the creative time, who will then make whatever changes they want, and ‘liberally’ so. One person close to everything, says that Heyman’s position was hurt by the reaction at the Philadelphia house show, as he was blamed for creating a fan base that refused to accept any changes to the product. Heyman was also knocked for not being able to turn the crowd around with his promo, and it was used as proof that Heyman was not as important to the project as he said he was. Francine got a little negative feeling towards her after the Philly house show, but more for her behavior towards Kelly than being out of place for the moonsault from Trinity. Trinity will be out for 6-8 weeks after knee surgery she needed after the spot. The morale of wrestlers in ECW has sunk in recent weeks, primarily from being told that the reason the Rise and Fall of ECW DVD and first PPV did so well is because Raw fans brought it after learning about ECW over the past five years through WWE’s marketing of it and their encouragement of ECW chants at television tapings. At the tapings, Vince was said to be more hands on for the ECW TV than he was even for Raw, and was personally instructing everyone on what they were to do in their segments in great detail. The only segment he didn’t worry about was Angle vs. Van Dam, which Heyman was in charge of, because it was considered bullet proof with Angle in there. Jeff Hardy is reportedly doing a lot better, and there is strong talk of reuniting the Hardy Boyz. Brooke Hogan’s CD is set for release on 9/26 which is why the original plans for the angle were for Summerslam and not Wrestlemania. Eric Bischoff’s contract is believed to have expired or to expire very shortly. Harry Smith was recruited to appear in recently season of “Hogan Knows Best” to play someone that Brooke dates. It’s also been hinted at that Smith will be programmed with Randy Orton when he debuts. RVD’s suspension is without pay, and will cost him at least $20,800, based on his minimum guarantee. When Sabu met with Vince, he was apologetic over what happened, but Vince refused to shake his hand. The pills Sabu had in his possession were believed to have been for gynocomastia, which is the proper medical term for the slang term “bitch tits”. “Because males produce both testosterone and estrogen, some, often when getting off a steroid cycle, which due to injecting testosterone, causes the body to slow down it’s own production, which means it doesn’t produce much when getting off steroids. As men using steroids age, it becomes a more significant problem. Brunk (Sabu) is 42. Without producing testosterone, the estrogen the body still produces causes side effects, including the nipples to swell and develop like the beginnings of female breasts, which can only be corrected via surgery. It is not uncommon for wrestlers and bodybuilders to have the painful surgery.” Sabu did not have prescription for the pills. Apparently, WWE did not suspend Sabu because the drugs in question are not on their list of banned substances, and received the $1,000 fine for possession of the crack pipe. There is an understanding that, while the drug policy prohibits the use of marijuana, the company is not vigilant on it and talent knows they will not be tested for it. It is, however, specifically written that it is against policy to use marijuana before shows, and the company will test if they have probable cause to. The policy is more aimed at prescription pain pill abuse and to have something down on paper because steroids are a hot button issue. The policy does have a loophole, in that steroids are allowed with a prescription due to injures, and with virtually everyone having some kind of injury it is very hard to not get a prescription for steroids. At least one wrestler got into trouble for a positive steroid test as his prescription had expired. The original plan for 7/3 Raw was Van Dam and Sabu vs. Edge and Mick Foley vs. Cena and Flair. Even before the decision was made to suspend Van Dam, it was a very strong consensus that the title had to be taken off Van Dam that night. Several have noted the bad timing for Van Dam, who was meant, along with Angle, to be one of the top stars in ECW. Van Dam was not favored by management, due to their feeling he was overrated in the ring and couldn’t do the promos they wanted out of a headliner, which was, despite being popular enough to headline in the past, and when a decision was made to put the World title on Van Dam, emphasized by HHH in order to nix the decision. Unless forced, WWE has an old-line wrestler philosophy regarding the ability of a wrestler to carry the company, and that the guys who have been players are the only money players. Edge and Rey were meant to be short-term headliners, but because of how well they got over are more accepted at top, but Edge far mores so than Rey because of Rey’s size. Van Dam got the belt not because they wanted him to have it but because they wanted to establish the ECW brand and Van Dam fit the bill. However, with how strong his matches have been, Van Dam was starting to get seen in a new light. One source said that Vince was warming up to Van Dam and was blocking out the anti-RVD movement in the company, but he’ll now have to rebuild that when he comes back. The booking plan for SNME and the three-way was for Cena to lay out Van Dam but for Edge to steal the pin. For 7/4 on ECW, the plan was for Van Dam to beat Edge clean. The idea that was to play out was that Van Dam was getting worn out by his hectic schedule of title defenses, to build up to his eventual title loss. While Heyman turning on Van Dam looked to have been built up since the beginning of ECW, it did become the plan until Monday and wasn’t even finalized until the Tuesday. One source said that it may have happened eventually, buy not this soon. The original plan for Van Dam was for him to hold the ECW Title until at least early next year, because of the feeling that the title needed to be established. Apparently, Ironton, OH is known as a speed trap area. Dave doesn’t see any kind of buy rate for the Bash, but does say he may be underestimating Batista so who knows. Matches are Batista vs. Henry, Rey vs. Booker for the title, Lashley vs. Regal vs. Finlay for the US Title, Undertaker vs. Khali in a Punjabi prison match, London and Kendrick vs. Noble and Kash for the tag titles and Crazy vs. Psicosis. Chris Masters is in rehab over drug usage, but he did not fail a steroid test. As Hogan’s storyline now stands, it does include him beating Orton at Summerslam. It could change, but regardless of that it’s Hogan’s call. There is internal pressure regarding SNME, as NBC aren’t happy WWE hasn’t promoted the show well on Raw or ECW. Dave called the Raw segment with DX messing around with Vince as he talked in the ring “horrible”, and “in one week, DX went from being hilarious to jumping the shark and then some”. ECW on 7/4 drew about 1,500 for $45,000. The crowd chants garnered a very negative reaction internally. Gunner Scott is being sent back to OVW. Jim Mitchell has been calling to try and get into ECW, going to Sabu to try and get in as his manager and mouthpiece.

She's too old for him. Lawler likes them a little younger.

I believe the intent was for Brock to begin touring properly around the start of the year, as that was when the talk began to come up of New Japan wanting Brock to tour came up. If Brock was able to negotiate a sweet deal for himself that was to the detriment of New Japan then the blame lies solely with New Japan for giving him such a deal. A wrestler should try and get the best deal for himself he can, because nobody else is going to get it for him. Lesnar is meant to be signing a deal with an MMA group soon, almost certainly HEROES, so that is where he is likely headed.

From a money drawing standpoint, his first match back should be at the Bash. But WWE really need a strong rating tonight after the disaster last time out so they are having to load things up.

From DM: The wrestlers in the tournament, according to SSS: As expected, the SSS crew have begun to tear Lesnar a new one before the all the facts have come out. I'd be interested in hearing what the exact nature of the dispute was before laying the blame. As for the tournament, I think it'll be Nagata or Tenzan winning, and Tanahashi will get the belt in January.

The number of buys would have been at least 600,000. Even at $30 a pop, and I think it was nearer to $35, that's still $18m in PPV revenue, of which WCW would have received around $5-6m at least. Assuming 40,000 at the Georgia Dome, with an average ticket price of $40, that's $1.6m at the gate. Add in an average of $30 per head in merchandise, that's another $1.2m. Combine that all and you're looking at around $8m. What happened was that the PPV was set to go 3hrs and 15 minutes. The problem was that there was a miscommunication between WCW and Viewers Choice and the cable people, and they didn't get word that the PPV was going longer than 2hrs 50 minutes that the PPV was originally scheduled to last for. Around a quarter of PPV systems around the country cut out before the end of the PPV, some just before the end of Hogan vs. Warrior match and some as the Goldberg vs. DDP match was being introduced. WCW wound up replaying the Goldberg vs. DDP match on Nitro the next night, and it garned a 7.18 rating.

Re: Goldberg vs. Hogan The match wasn’t even originally going to happen. Then, Hogan saw the huge advance for the Georgia Dome, and proposed a Goldberg vs. Hogan non-title dark match. His idea was that Turner brass, a lot of whom would be in attendance at the show, would be there, see the huge crowd and be tricked into thinking that Hogan drew the house. Then, the ratings for the week before came in and Bischoff panicked into putting the match on TV with only a few days notice. The ratings for that period were as follows: June 29th: Nitro – 4.1, Raw – 5.4 July 6th: Nitro – 4.8, Raw – 4.0; Goldberg vs. Hogan July 13th: Nitro – 4.5, Raw – 4.7 Eric Bischoff gave away $7M+ in PPV money to win the ratings battle for one week

Angle in his prime would have had the dedication to have learned enough that he would be a real threat, assuming his neck would have held up. Chuck Liddell is very well-rounded and is definitely more than a random tough guy. One UFC exec has even said that if WWE do any more of those open challenges, like the Kurt Angle one, they'll use Chuck to call them on it.

I agree it should have been built to on a PPV. At point early in 1999, Bischoff was wanting the match for Halloween Havoc that year, but with Nash in charge, the idea got shockingly dropped.

Apart from the no-contest deal on Nitro that spawned into Hogan vs. Sting, Hart and Hogan actually did wrestle three proper matches in WCW. It was on three house shows in late August of 1999, on the 20th, 21st and 22nd. Randy Savage had one of his infamous tantrums and pulled himself off the house show run. On the 19th, Bischoff called Bret up and told him he was going to sub for Savage on the house shows against Hogan. The matches were ok, went about 10 minutes, and all ended in a no-contest when Sid Vicious and Rick Steiner ran in. A bunch of other people ran in to, including Goldberg and Sting, and the whole thing ended with Goldberg spearing a bunch of people.

-3.9, up from last week's holiday rating of 3.6.

I think the match you're talking about is from Hardcore Heaven. The official result was a No Contest when Lance Storm ran in.

Re: Flair vs. Hogan at WM VIII: The plan was always for Hogan vs. Sid. Had been for almost a year. Goldberg could have done great business against Rock, Hunter, Angle, Undertaker and a few others if he was handled correctly. The big money would have been against Austin and, to a slightly lesser degree, Lesnar, with the correct build.

Joe beating Sting will mean more than Joe beating Jarrett, whether it’s for the title or not. The fans have twice seen someone beat Jarrett for the title and then Jarrett wind up getting the belt back relatively quickly. Having Joe beat Jarrett for the belt runs a very real risk of people thinking that they’re going to see the same thing again, with Joe getting the belt for a few months before it goes back to Jarrett again. What the fans have not seen before is Joe beating Sting. Joe vs. Sting makes sense because they have still to resolve the issue of Joe shaking Sting’s hand at Sacrifice only to leave him to get laid out by Jarrett and Steiner. After Joe beats Sting for the title, the next night on Impact they can have Joe shake Sting’s hand, before teasing Joe leaving Sting to get another beatdown from Jarrett and Steiner, only for Joe to finally make the save. Joe can then tell Sting he’s earned his respect at last because he finally faced him in the ring, while Sting can tell Joe, and the fans, that Joe has proven he’s the man and that he is the man to carry TNA. This can bring out Jarrett and Steiner, they can go back and forth to set up Sting/Joe vs. Jarrett/Steiner as the main event that night, and they can run an angle at the end of the match to set up Joe vs. Jarrett as the main event of the next PPV. Samoa Joe beating Sting for the belt means people will see Joe beating a guy who was seen as one of the top names from wrestling’s boom period, and that alone means Joe’s big World title win will mean far more if it’s against Sting than Jarrett. It will not just be Joe winning the World title, but it will be the rubber-stamping of the new face of wrestling, Joe, beating the old face of wrestling, Sting, and that will do wonders for the perception that TNA is about the new rather than the old.

Oh I know the muscle buster was out of the question. And I understand that the match needed to have a "quick, surprise" pin to prolong the feud. But that's typically done with a roll-up or schoolboy or something... just felt odd to me, I guess It's not really odd that they used the powerslam given that Joe uses it a lot.

Elaborate on the botched finish remark. I still have yet to understand why the power slam finished the match (and by all means, if you've heard or understand why, tell me...) but Steiner apparently was supposed to crotch himself on the ropes and instead fell early and landed on his feet. I don't remember off hand why they didn't have Joe use the choke, but with what has happenen since I think it was so they could prolong the feud and I suspect they are saving the choke out finish for their second match. And it wasn't the muscle buster because Steiner, due to his injuries, didn't feel physically up to taking the move.

You are correct. Bischoff was at the Dome for the New Japan vs. UWF-I feud, saw the heat was off the charts, and he got the idea for the invasion angle from that. Short term? Yes. Long term? No.

Elaborate on the botched finish remark.

Am I one of the few people to hate the gimmick? That's good. He's a heel. There's a difference in being a heel to make people hate you and people not being able to stand you. For HTQ, it's the latter in regards to Booker's King gimmick. Correct. If I happen to catch anything with King Booker, I instantly skip it. Shouldn't the fact I said I hate the gimmick make it pretty obvious that it's not getting the right kind of reaction from me?

DX have to start selling sometime soon for their match with Vince and Shane at Summerslam to mean anything.

Does it have to be televised to count?

Does anyone think Vince and Shane might finally get one over on DX in some fashion this Saturday, or will it be DX getting the last laugh for the sixth or seventh week in a row?

And he still couldn't get over as a main event player.