Hunter's Torn Quad

Bomb might be too strong a word, but because it missed projections by such a big margin, Snipes, and he's not the only one, sees it as too much of a failiure, and doesn't want to be associated with it anymore.

He's realised that the movie is going to be a huge bomb, and he doesn't want to be associated with such a failiure.

I wonder if either of them will talk about Wesley Snipes not doing press for the movie anymore.

Here’s a novel concept: don’t insult the audience’s intelligence. The casual audience is smarter, not necessarily in terms of insider wrestling knowledge, but in terms of sensible and logical thinking, than a lot of people give them credit for. The casual fans will get into an angle if they can credibly suspend their disbelief and let themselves believe it. They know wrestling is not real, but, just as they know movies and tv shows are not real, they will still lose themselves in a storyline or angle if it’s believable. The difference between wrestling and movies or TV, though, and this is a difference that a lot of people don’t get, is there is a different internal logic in wrestling than in movies or TV. The Lita pregnancy angle didn’t get over, not only because it was something that just shouldn’t have been in wrestling (fans will not get into any angle that doesn’t ‘belong’), but also because it was filled with so many holes and logic gaps that it wasn’t even possible to suspend your disbelief, even if you wanted to. The Arab angle isn’t getting more than the standard “USA” chants because, for one, there is no backbone to it. Sure, Arab American have been discriminated against since 9/11, but has this Arab American been discriminated against ? We haven’t seen it if he has. It would be nice to have something that shows him being discriminated against, because so far, he just comes across as a moaning bitch, and that doesn’t get anything but the most limited of heat. In any event, I don’t think any angle that capitalizes on 9/11 would get over a lick, regardless of how well it was executed, simply because, once again, it doesn’t ‘belong’. If marks were still marks, they’d be disgusted with what happened, but not in the ‘right’ way. They wouldn’t want to tune in or spend money to see Snitsky get beat; they’d tune right out and wouldn’t pay one cent to see the guy. Why would they ? He just killed a baby, and, logically, would any mark spend money to see someone who had killed a baby ? And why would they feel for Kane’s loss ? He raped Lita. That’s one of the biggest holes in the entire deal; we’re meant to feel sorry for a rapist. That fact alone, that the rapist is being pushed as the face, is enough to make people unable to suspend their disbelief. Have you been to any events at all where a chant as started out small, then gotten huge ? Judging from that, I don’t think you have. If a section of fans, no matter how small, keep chanting something for long enough in a crowd like the one in MSG, rabid and wanting action during a match that is boring, then the chant will slowly begin to get picked up by the rest of the crowd. They might not know what’s behind the chant, and they might not even care, but with a match that is boring them silly, they’ll get behind the chant, just to get some excitement. There are less smart fans out there than you think. I keep trying to get the point across that they make up a tiny percentage of the audience out there, but it doesn’t seem to get through. There might be a lot of smart fans in terms of numbers, but as far as their total audience goes, they make up just a minute fraction. And that is why they were fad fans, and why they won’t come back. They were the crash TV type fans, looking for that immediate buzz of something cool happening right there and then, and weren’t the type to stick around for a long and intensive storyline. Don’t bother trying to get those fans back, because it isn’t going to happen. They tuned out long ago, and aren’t tuning back in. Chances are that any wrestling fan on the ‘net already knows about any one of a million wrestling news sites. And if they did, and went to that site religiously, then they’re into the product so much that they are no longer the fad fan that isn’t coming back. Actually, I said you can’t credit smarts to the wrestling boom. And you can’t. You seem to have this idea that smart fans were a creation of the Internet age, which just isn’t true. There were smart fans around long before the Internet came along. They just didn’t have a place online to congregate and share their views. They used newsletters for that. You can say that about any fan, regardless of their mark/smarkdom. If any fan, regardless of their level of inside knowledge, is loud and boisterous enough, they’ll leave an impression. You give way too much credit to the smart fans. That one was started, not only by smarts, but marks too, because Rocky was being shoved down their throats. People didn’t need to be smart to feel that he was getting push that they didn’t think he deserved. If you’re old enough to remember, check the reaction that Erick Watts got in WCW when his father was pushing him to the moon. WCW fans were still mostly marks back then, and even they knew when a guy was getting a push that he didn’t deserve and they didn’t think he warranted. They already talk about the product. And they do care about the show, when it’s good. Why are those points lost on you ? What will get the marks interested is a quality product, angles that don’t insult their intelligence and/or aren’t in bad taste, and people they can get behind and will pay money to see. You keep giving smart fans way too much credit, and I’m beginning to see why now. Which shows he already cares enough about the product to talk about it, something that you want to happen, but here it is, and you don’t seem to get that it is happening. There are so many faults with that idea. For one, if anyone did that to Hunter, they’d be fired right away. If they weren’t, then the smart fans that you seem hell bent on wanting to fool for no good reason, would think it was a work, and wouldn’t ‘believe it’, or wouldn’t care, because fake shoots lost their buzz long ago. Even if they were ‘fired’ to further the angle, for the angle to get over as a shoot means treating it in a way that wouldn’t get it over with the casual fans, and that doesn’t make the company any money with an angle that doesn’t get over to the casuals. And even assuming the angle is played out as a shoot, and does fool some smart fans, because it won’t fool them all, and they do want to see them wrestle, you’re still only fooling a small percentage of a segment of your audience that is very small to begin with, and whatever money you make from fooling them isn’t worth the time and energy that the whole angle used up. Angles and storylines don’t get over because they fool people, as much as they get over because are something that the fans, both casual and smart, are able and willing to let themselves suspend their disbelief over. Angles based solely on fooling people either don’t get over a lick, or get over to such a tiny degree that it’s a waste of time doing them in the first place.

I understand what you are saying but did you see this past Wrestlemania and how vocal that "small percentage of their audience" was during the Brock vs. Goldberg crapfest? I realize that we are talking a New York audience and that the Brock-leaving rumors did leak out to a few major newspapers leading into the show but I also believe that WWE under estimates the size of that "smart" audience. When I run into people that used to watch wrestling during the late 90's boom and no longer follow the product they aren't necessarily marks. They were on the net during the Monday Night Wars era. They were reading the insider wrestling columns that were popping up in regional newspapers at that time. They may still check out an online wrestling site from time to time to keep up with what's going on but they don't have the time or interest to watch the product. I think smarks grew out of the past wrestling boom more so than marks. They were the 80's kids that came back to the product when their childhood hero turned into a bad guy, a middle finger waving Stone Cold was beating up Vince McMahon, rumors about which WWF guy was going to join the NWO, DX, ECW, each show making shoot comments at the other and cruiserweight and hardcore action that was different than the wrestling they were bored with in the early 90's. I would agree that it's a smaller portion of their audience than the gullable marks but it's still a portion of the audience that deserves to have a bone thrown to them from time to time. Just say Brock really wasn't leaving for the NFL and it was just a storyline to play the media while giving the big lug a break. The media, Meltzer, etc. bought into it and Brock comes back at 2005's Mania. Is it a mistake for the company to devote time to have a few jollies at the expense of mainstream media, the Internet and "insider wrestling journalist"? It's the creative team being creative. The MSG chants weren't necessarily down to everyone being 'smart', as much as a small section of 'smart' fans started it, and it just caught on fire. I'm sure that 'smart' fans were the first ones to start the chanting, but the entire Garden wasn't made up of 'smart' fans, and I think a large portion of those chanting were doing it just because everyone else was. As for the fans from the MNW era, a lot of them were fad fans, and aren't going to come back, regardless of what WWE do. 'Smarks' were marks to begin with, and if they were into wrestling enough to become 'smarks', then I doubt they stopped being fans in the first place, so I think it's wrong to credit 'smarks' to the wrestling boom. It's stupid to devote that kind of energy into trying to fool a small percentage of the audience, when that segment of the audience is going to tune in anyway. What's the point in trying to fool the 'smarts' or Meltzer et al ? To prove it can be done ? Big whoop. Who gives a shit if it can be done ? They're going to tune in anyway. It's better to devote time and energy to trying to get the casual fans, who make up the vast bulk of the audience, to tune and pay money, rather than trying to fool the fans who will tune in regardless.

Then I see this: Tenzan pins Choshu Chono pins Choshu Choshu pins Tenzan Chono pins Choshu Chono pins Tenzan, and wins it. If it's non-title, it sets up Chono as the number one contender, and also sets Choshu up for a possible title shot.

If WWE changes plans because they get out on the 'net, then they're stupid, because the 'net makes up such a small percentage of their fanbase. By the same token, because the 'net and sheet reading fans make up such a small percentage of their audience, spending any time at all in trying to reduce whatever influence they have is stupid, because it won't have any affect at all on their business. Why make an ass out of Meltzer et al ? Assuming they ever do such a thing, the only thing it does is allow them to fool themselves into thinking they did something special by making a fool of the big names in inside reporting, when the only ones made a fool of are the people who actually spent time trying to mess with such a small segment of their audience, while neglecting the majority of their audience, just to get a few jollies.

I predict Hunter to win EC, with him getting involved in eliminating Batista in such a manner as to build towards a match between the two at WM XXI. I don't think Hunter v Orton is on the cards for WM XXI anymore, because everything on tv is building towards a Batista-Hunter split, and I think they'll face off at WM XXI, with Batista probably beating Hunter for the Raw title.

Meltzer would never knowingly run a story that was fake.

Trying to work the sheets is pointless, because it won't draw a dime. It doesn't mean people don't try it from time to time, just to try and get their jollies from it, but it doesn't draw one dime. Any effort spent trying to work the sheets, just for the jollies of trying to fool them or the fans that read them, who are usually the most ardent, should be spent on trying to produce a better product.

"SHE LIKES IT TONY, SHE LIKES IT!!!"

In the same vein, Hogan's loss the Warrior saw Hogan get over more than Warrior, who won the match. Instead of the focus being on Warrior pinning Hogan to win the WWF Title, all the attention was on Hogan being a gracious loser (and his actions after the match weren't entirely scripted, if you know what I mean), and Hogan gained more with the loss and how he handled it, leaving Warrior's big moment in the shadows.

If it's a series matches like the Misawa-Kobashi-Kawada deal from '97, then I think it'll go like this: Tenzan beats Choshu in a hard fought match Chono beats Tenzan, capitalizing on Tenzan's exhaustion from his match with Choshu. Chono will then beat Choshu, thus making him the number one contender for the IWGP Title, and setting him up for a title shot.

Armageddon was just an extended Smackdown, with nothing at all to make it seem special whatsoever. The only thing that I enjoyed was Funaki's upset win, which I happily marked out for. And while that was great fun, it wasn't enough to make Armageddon special, and within a few weeks, the whole event will have slipped from memory.

Maybe a tour of Japan is in the works.

I'll say 170,000 buys, and JBL pinning Booker to retain the title.

Paul Heyman's three months on the WWE main creative team ended on 12/3, which, depending on one's position regarding Heyman, became the biggest internal WWE news of the week for a number of reasons. Heyman being dropped from the team wasn't expected by most wrestlers, a lot of whom were very negative about it. In hindsight, it was noted to me that Ranjan Chhibber, a writers' assistant who is close to Heyman (he was on a three month trial basis and has since given notice in the past week or so, claiming a family situation), had mentioned to several Smackdown stars two days earlier that he expected some fireworks imminently on the writing team, and strongly praised Heyman to those people ahead of the other writers. He didn’t hint Heyman would be gone, but in hindsight, those who talked with him said it was now what they thought he meant and knew based on what he was saying. He told one wrestler, who Heyman was wanting to push but was met with resistance, that their spot had turned into a political game and intimated the other writers had no plans for the person, largely because Heyman did. Others said he had mentioned to at least one other wrestler the frustrations of the writing team, which largely recognized their job at this point was to appease HHH, and write things that entertained Vince McMahon. People were throwing out as many ideas as they could come up with, with no commitment or conviction to the ideas, hoping Vince would agree to them or gave them a direction to take the product. The term "glorified stenographers" was used as well for the writing team. What makes the demotion of Heyman more interesting is it came just days after Vince McMahon approved the concept of a revival of the ECW brand name for a one-shot PPV in early 2005. With Heyman off the team, there is no word if that is still the case. Heyman is believed to be back in the role he was in after his last demotion, basically a consultant to the writing team who will be occasionally asked for ideas, and a television talent in the role of a manager of John Heidenreich on Smackdown. It is not clear if he'll be sent back on the road. He did work the 12/5 Madison Square Garden house show, but that was advertised before his demotion. The word internally was given that Heyman was caught not telling the truth and dismissed from the team, and whatever the infraction, he was caught red handed, which may have been a claim said by one source that he was listening in on a Raw writers call. Heyman was added to the writing team on 9/6, against the wishes of Stephanie McMahon, when a spot opened up due to Bruce Prichard taking a leave. Prichard has since returned, although he was not put back on the writing team, but that being the next step wouldn't surprise anyone. According to one source, Heyman, who was asked by Vince personally to come back, was reluctant to do so because he saw it ending up the same way it did the previous time, with his butting heads with both Stephanie and Brian Gewirtz. There is no secret Heyman and Gewirtz are as opposite philosophically as things could be, as Gewirtz is into wrestling as comic book comedy, and Heyman is into it as primarily drama and fake sport, and with comedy there only when it doesn't detract from hammering home the main points. Both were even reprimanded more than a year ago when arguments got so heated that both were said to behaving like children. In addition, there was the resentment among many wrestlers that Gewirtz seemed to have more power with management, despite him having virtually no respect among most of the wrestlers (there are a few wrestlers very close to him, like Edge and Kurt Angle), and with little product knowledge or time as a wrestling fan, while Heyman had run a company for years and followed wrestling closely since childhood and was considered one of the smartest people when it comes to the modern business among many close to the situation (even some who would tab themselves as his personal enemies). Vince convinced Heyman to come back by saying he'd have his back, so to speak, but those close to the situation said that really didn’t happen. It was said Stephanie was mad from the start Heyman was brought back against her will, and was reflexively knocking every idea he'd come up with. One person close to the situation said Heyman was the only person fearless about suggesting things and even tabbed him as a threat to her dominance of the writing team. There was also the description of the "New York swagger" or confidence, and Heyman bringing up that Vince had personally asked him back. Michael Hayes was also part of this, but in a different way. While Stephanie and Gewirtz knocked almost all of Heyman's ideas, Hayes was far more political, only speaking up when he felt he found a hole in the ideas and then speaking out against them. Hayes came across to the other writers as the one who genuinely disagreed with the ideas as opposed to hating the ideas because of the source. The tide has worked against Heyman for some time now, said to be half because of Stephanie's relentless burial of him and his ideas to Vince, and half due to Paul's own tendency to push against authority, such as leaving meetings early, hanging up on conference calls and arguing with Vince. Vince started taking roll on conference calls and on more than one occasion, Heyman wasn’t there, according to one source, although that has also been disputed by others. This softened Heyman up for Stephanie and Gewirtz' most recent push to get him out. It turned into an internal catch phrase Gewirtz constant complaints that Heyman was a "cancer." It was noted that Vince tended to support most of Heyman's ideas, including, most recently, approving a 2/20 Smackdown PPV main event of JBL v Big Show in a barbed wire match. According to one source, Heyman was able to convince McMahon to dial back the JBL push, at least slightly, as Vince's plan was to build Smackdown and the WWE title picture around him for all of 2005, apparently crediting him for the recent ratings increase on the show. One person noted that while Vince liked Heyman's ideas most of the time, and used many of them, he felt it wasn’t worth the pain in his ass from the complaints by Stephanie and Gewirtz as well as the problems in putting up with Heyman. The idea of doing an ECW PPV show dated back a few months. It was first suggested by Rob Van Dam, and when taken under consideration, coincides with Van Dam's publicly doing minor knocks against the company, in as far as saying ECW used him better and that ECW was the best period of his career. It also makes sense of the recent Byte This show where Heyman, Van Dam, Tommy Dreamer and Rey Mysterio were less than complimentary to aspects of WWE booking and pushing that ECW made better use of their talents, make a lot more sense. Dreamer even knocked David Lagana, the head writer of Smackdown, noting that he was a big ECW fan, yet couldn’t find anything to keep him (Dreamer), one of ECW’s biggest stars, on the active roster. Since Dreamer's role is in John Laurinaitis' new talent relations departments, if s almost impossible to believe he'd speak out against the company, considering his role, if it wasn’t for pushing of an angle. In fact, if not for the leaving of Chhibber, one could be easily think it possible Heyman's demotion could be an angle to set up him rebelliously starting ECW. That is almost assuredly not true, being that WWE, with hours of television, is not about to shoot a major angle like this, particularly working their own front office to the point where Stephanie was very upset the word about Heyman being off became internet knowledge. Wrestlers normally are strongly discouraged from saying anything against the company mindset in public, let alone comparing the company unfavorably to a different modern company. The writing team has been vindictive enough that when Steve Austin publicly complained about them in the summer of 2002, he was immediately booked to job on television to Brock Lesnar in a match that made no sense to happen at that time. They also made Mick Foley so miserable that Foley broke ties with the company temporarily when they had a match idea for a PPV and there was a spot open in a six-man tag, wanted Foley to do it, and Foley turned it down, not wanting to trivialize his comeback by being simply thrown into a match because there was an open spot, and without a strong storyline build. Van Dam reportedly told McMahon about all the talent under contract that had worked for ECW, with the idea of reviving it for one night. McMahon, and everyone, thought feat it was Heyman's idea, but Heyman was using Van Dam as the messenger. In meetings, Heyman always denied it being his idea, even though others on the inside termed it "Heyman's crusade." Vince was positive about the idea, as was, reportedly, Jim Ross, and particularly, the Dudley’s. Stephanie kept avoiding putting the idea on her to be discussed docket, so nothing had been done on it. Then, when the DVD did so well (it is currently No. 3 on the sports chart and No. 183 overall), Heyman brought it up again, in front of Vince, forcing Stephanie to deal with it. Stephanie was said to be against it, and nobody knows if it will be done at this point or not. Another source said Stephanie had never publicly said anything against it, but when she privately asked the writing staff their opinions, their belief in how it was brought up was feat she was against it, and thus they should be. When word of that got to the wrestlers, there were ex-ECW wrestlers who were led to believe she was the hold-up. One of the big questions originally was whether the show would be handled like a normal WWE show with the agent involvement, the same type of production, as opposed to a different feel, and really be Heyman's own man creative show. But if it is done, at this point, Heyman will have very little if anything to do with the creative end, as it would be put together by the WWE creative team and the WWE agents, just using former ECW talent currently on the active roster and probably Tommy Dreamer, since he works for the company, and possibly one or two outsiders. It will be like the gimmick a few years back of Extreme Smackdown during a ratings sweep, where people expected an ECW-like show, but it was nothing like it, and in reality, the Extreme moniker only seemed to mean something on the internet as ratings were the same as they had been even wife it being hyped as something special. The idea was just to do one show, but as is natural once the door is opened, several former ECW types, many of whom were frustrated with their lack of push, were hoping it could become an annual thing where they could play a major role on a big show. Ratings for Smackdown have gone from a 3.03 average in August and record low 2.83 in September, to a rapid rise to where the October average was 3.40. Some could say part of feat is seasonal, as more people watch television in October, but last year, the same three month were 3.27, 3.32 and 3.41 showing the seasonal evidence can only make up a very small degree of the increase. Various people have tried to credit the increase to either JBL catching on finally as champion, the introduction of a fresh new character getting a serious main event push (Carlito) which was desperately needed, or Tough Enough (Linda McMahon brought this up at the investors conference). Based on gaining and losing viewers regarding the stars of the brand since the first week of October when the turnaround has come, as far as average viewership gain or loss when this person was in a match or focal point of a segment, the numbers are as follows: JBL (-100,700), Big Show (-249.400); Carlito (-39,400); Kurt Angle (-192,500); John Heidenreich (-68,000); Eddie Guerrero (+118,600); Tough Enough (+128,700); Booker T (-56,100); Rob Van Dam (+112,400); and Undertaker (-4,000). Since atop star should be +250,000 and a superstar should be +400,000, its pretty clear it is an overall flow of the show, and feat there isn't one character over in a big way. If anything, JBL is a negative, Carlito is a mid-carder as far as moving ratings, Undertaker is overrated right now, and Show, Angle, Guerrero and Van Dam are moving numbers but nobody is knocking the ball out of the park, nor is Tough Enough, although it is not the failure Diva Search was. ---- ---- ---- World Wrestling Entertainment got some surprisingly good news when the first estimates for Survivor Series on 11/14 from Cleveland came in at315,000 buys (0.57 buy rate), which was only down 13% from last year's first estimate of 360,000 buys for a show headlined by Team Austin vs. Team Bischoff with Austin's career on the line and a Bill Goldberg vs. HHH singles match for the Raw world title. As expected, it will wind up being me fourth biggest show of the year, trailing Mania, Rumble and SummerSlam. We had figured it would not beat Backlash (290,000). For a comparison, the Erik Morales vs. Marco Antonio Barrera fight on 11/27 drew 325,000 buys at $44.95. For total buys, this would likely trail three WWE PPV shows this year: Mania, Rumble and SummerSlam. Its notable it was the third meeting between the two, and is notable because this was a heavily Hispanic ordered show and the two fighters 130-pounders. Their second match, in 2002, drew 300,000 buys. The buy rate tied with the 1995 Survivor Series (where Bret Hart beat Diesel to win the title and immediately turned the company's box office around), for the lowest buy rate of any big four WWE PPV event in history. The 1996 event headlined by Sid Vicious beating Shawn Michaels for the title in Madison Square Garden did a 0.58 buy rate. This year's show, headlined by an elimination match with Randy Orton & Maven & Chris Benoit & Chris Jericho vs. HHH & Batista & Gene Snitsky & Edge for the control of Raw for one month and JBL vs. Booker T for the WWE title, did nearly double the numbers of Taboo Tuesday the prior month. It did better than nearly all expectations, particularly with tickets live moving so slowly and the bad PPV numbers in recent months. ---- ---- ---- HHH, in promoting his book, "Making of the Game," and the movie "Blade: Trinity," which premiered on 12/1 in Toronto, has done recent interviews with TSN's "Off the Record" mat aired on 12/7, as well as Penthouse magazine, which came out this past week. The story is a good one, because it brings up his not being popular among his colleagues and noted the resentment of his being married to Stephanie McMahon. In all interviews, HHH makes the point that while hell be do acting roles, the top line on his resume will be pro wrestling, and that he won't be like Rock and leave wrestling for the movies. In reality, if he got the offers Rock got, there is no way he wouldn't. He noted he turned down a lot of non-speaking roles or movies with one or two lines where he'd play a bouncer. He said Hollywood needs new action stars. He said one or two movies a year would be the most he would want to do. He said he avoids going to bars, mainly because of guys wanting to take him on. He said he'd rather play heel than face. He deflected criticism of his having input by saying Vince has the final say, although he didn’t deny he has significant input. "A lot of people look at me and go,' You have an advantage, you're the son-in-law.' Vince is where he is today because he can separate business from everything else. If if s right for business, hell do it. If not, he wont, no matter whose idea it is. We all have input, within our characters. Vince really wants the wrestlers to be comfortable with what they're doing, because if you feel it, you'll give a better performance. And as Vince says, nobody knows the character better than the guy doing it. But Vince decides the ultimate direction." HHH said he hated the Katie Vick angle, claiming he said, "Vince, this is horrible. This is not gonna be good." He said Vince wanted it very dark and disturbing while he wanted to play it for comedy (I thought watching it that it was being played for comedy). "But Vince was adamant. We did it, and I tried to do it as good as I could. But when we were leaving, I was in the car going, man, that was brutal. I didn’t even want to watch it when it aired." He claims he hates it being brought up and that he's never talked to Vince about it (that1 s believable), "but knowing Vince, he'd think it was great. Because people still talk about it, don’t they? But you cant hit a home run every time." While the article got HHH to talk about a lot of things, what hurt the article was nothing was brought up about the decline in popularity over the past few years. If business was booming with HHH as the top star, son-in-law or not, and he'd still get some criticism no matter what, there would at least be justification for not changing the status quo. The argument rarely brought up, is, business is in the toilet, and the company needs to prepare for the future, which means moving new guys into top positions. There is some of that being done, in particular with John Cena and Randy Orton, and the big Dave Batista tease (although Batista is actually turning 36 in a month, but he's a new character wrestling-wise), as well as Carlito and Shelton Benjamin, to a lesser extent. When it was brought up that a lot of the wrestlers don’t like him, he said, "Here's my feeling on it. There's an old saying,' Its lonely at the top.' When you're one of the top guys, there are gonna be people that hate you. There's always gonna be people that don’t have the ability, but think they do, and think they should have your spot. The fact is, if they had the ability, they would be there. There will always be that kind of jealousy in any business... But I don’t read the dirt sheets and don’t go online. Anybody in our business that needs to go online for justification as to whether they had a good match or not, (for) a 12-year-old on the internet (to say)_they did-that’s the reason they're not a top guy. If you don’t know whether you had a good match or not, if you don’t know whether your interview was good or not, that's the reason you're not a top guy. Because you suck bad enough that you cant figure it out on your own." In an interview on The Score (a Canadian all-sports station), he was asked if Pat Patterson left because of his political power, and he said, "You'd have to ask Pat that." He said he and Patterson get along great and that Patterson ate Thanksgiving dinner with the family, and that he thought Patterson may come out of retirement. On "Off the Record," he noted that Ric Flair did a lot of things during his career that he shouldn’t have done and weren’t in his characters best interest. However, he then used that as an example because Flair is still a top star that if you have the ability, you will overcome bad creative and the cream always rises to the top. Of course, that isn't the case, as there were many times Flair's career appeared to be over. Flair, like Hulk Hogan, because he was such an institution in the minds of the fans, had the ability to overcome bad booking because the people considered him a super legend. Very few people historically could have done that, and it was because he was the consensus best wrestler in the world for so many years in the eyes of so many fans who grew up watching him that he was able to overcome it. Almost nobody else, regardless of talent, would have been able to. He also said if the time came and he had to fire Hair, who he said was also his childhood hero and noted how few people get to work so closely with their hero, he would be able to do so. He also said, when asked why Bob Holly wasn’t fired, that he was given one last chance, and 1hat what he did to Rene Dupree was inexcusable. ---- ---- ---- Raw on 12/6 drew a 3.86 rating (3.83 first hour, 3.86 second hour, 4.38 million viewers). The gutsy move of putting a women's title match in the main event slot, while it delivered as a great match, wasn’t a ratings success. It was actually the second lowest rated segment of the show and the first main event to lose viewers in months. The show opened strong, with a 3.89 first quarter with the Highlight Reel, and Vince and HHH talking about the title situation. The first HHH-Batista backstage confrontation and Eugene vs. Maven lost 154,000 viewers, bad for so early. The Divas limbo contest gained 75,000 viewers, also somewhat weak for early in the show. Dean vs. Hurricane gained 61,000 viewers, also weak. The Edge-Orton in-ring confrontation gained 108,000 viewers. The ratings peak of the show was Benjamin vs. Christian, gaining 85,000 viewers in what is usually the death part of the show, doing a 3.93 rating and 4.56 million viewers. The HHH & Batista vs. Jericho & Benoit match lost 234,000 viewers. Ifs about what would be expected at that point of the show, but with the talent involved and a hot match, you'd hope it would do better. Lita's title win over Stratus lost 16,000 viewers to a 3.80 overrun. Smackdown on 12/2 drew a 3.4 rating (3.8 realistic rating; est. 5.03 million viewers). The show did a 3.6 in New York (4.0 for Jackie vs. Dawn angle); 3.8 in Los Angeles (4.3 for Jackie vs. Dawn angle); 4.1 in Chicago (4.5 for Guerrero & Booker vs. Bashams); 4.9 in Philadelphia (5.8 for Tough Enough guys in drag); 2.9 in San Francisco (3.2 for Tough Enough guys in drag); 3.1 in Boston (3.4 for Undertaker vs. Jordan & JBL); 5.4 in Dallas (6.7 for Jackie vs. Dawn); 3.2 in DC (3.5 for Guerrero & Booker vs. Bashams); 4.4 in Detroit (5.0 for Tough Enough guys in drag); 3.7 in Atlanta (4.4 for Undertaker vs. Jordan & JBL); 6.0 in Houston (6.4 for Eddie & Booker arguing while stretching). We don’t have foil details on the shows segments other than vague details that the first Tough Enough segment gained about 290,000 viewers, the Bashams vs. Guerrero & Booker gained about 145,000 viewers, the Angle challenge plus Big Show angle with Team Angle and Joy Giovanni gained about 290,000 viewers to a 3.6 rating, which was the peak of the show. Christmas in Iraq and the Tough Enough guys in drag lost 145,000 viewers, while the Undertaker vs. Jordan & JBL handicap match stayed even. Raw on 11/29 drew a 3.94 rating (4.03 first hour; 3.86 second hour; 4.94 million viewers). The average viewership age has also dipped in recent weeks down to about 3 5, so the new viewers are skewing younger, but Raw is the only show where the average viewer is under the age of 41, including the Experience show on Saturday morning aimed for kids. It was the third straight big week for the show, since they began doing the more detailed storylines with the babyface G.M. It was the highest rated episode of Raw since 6/21, barely beating out the previous two weeks. The big gain was for the Battle Royal, which added 557,000 viewers between the midpoint of the match and the finish. The post-Battle Royal, with Orton talking to Vince, Edge and Benoit and the Eugene/Maven argument added 253,000 viewers to a 4.26 rating and 5.42 million viewers, and was the high point of the show. Lita & Victoria vs. Molly & Stratus lost 103,000 viewers. Flair vs. Lawler tanked in the No. 2 spot on the show, losing 228,000 viewers to a 3.99 rating. The faceless women's lingerie deal as well as Eugene & Regal vs. La Resistance lost 89,000 viewers. The big surprise was the Benoit vs. Edge vs. HHH lengthy title match only gained 5,000 viewers to a 4.09 overrun, which is terrible for a main event.

Raven kind of kills his point when using Ricky Morton's mic skills as part of his reasoning for the RnR's v MX being a big draw. 99.99% of the money Ricky Morton drew was because of what he did in the ring, and nothing to do with his mic skills, which even Ricky himself admits were never that good. Ricky Morton drew because he sold his ass off in the ring, and was such a great babyface, that he had fans jumping the rails to help him out. Ricky Morton didn't draw with his mic skills, so using that to promote mic skills is weak. Same thing with Shawn Michaels. His drawing power, was down to his charisma, personality and flamboyance, and nothing do with his mic skills, which were, at best, good, and then not often. If a guy can't talk, then give him someone to talk for him. You don't get anywhere by emphasising someone's weaknesses, and I'd have thought someone of Raven's intelligence would know that. Does that mean giving Ultimo a strong mouthpiece could make him a draw ? Maybe, maybe not, but unless you try, and not just with him but with anyone who can't talk, then you could be missing out on something. As for the TNA PPV poll, is it any wonder that the two most anticipated matches were the two matches given the most hype.

So, a wrestling promotion should move away from wrestling ? And they’ve been making less and less money, as opposed to more and more. The goal of wrestling is to make money. Building new stars is a key part of that, but it sometimes isn’t the primary part. And what is this mythical code of ‘ethnics’ you’re talking about ? If you’ve followed wrestling for any real length of time, you’d realise that it has no ethics. The fact that WWE’s newest heel act is exploiting 9/11 should tell you that. No one is saying the wrestlers have to be happy about a potential return for Brock. But if you need to get a boost, and a big one, and one that will definitely create interest, and make money, you welcome him back, regardless of any feelings that might get hurt. If the business only made money that could be made by not creating hard feelings, no money would get made. I’m not arguing that Brock didn’t handle his departure the wrong way; he did. I’m just not pissing and moaning like a lot of people over him making a choice he had the right to make. If anyone is being delusional, it’s the person talking about wrestling having ethics, and talking about things being reasonable within the wrestling business. Do you even have clue one about how the wrestling business works ? Or even how the WWF expanded its operations in the 80’s ? I’d hardly call what went down ‘reasonable’ Thank you for proving you don’t have a clue about wrestling. If handled right, and booked in a manner that can make money and build up someone for the future, then it’s reasonable to bring back any wrestler. And if a wrestling promoter wants to do that, build to the future, then sometimes he has to ruffle a few feathers in his locker room. Brock never ‘whined’ about the ropes hurting his ‘precious knees’. And by the way, it’s nice to know you care so much for the people busting their necks to entertain you. If Vince didn't want open up such a path to people refusing to job, etc, he would have kicked out practically every top star he’s ever had, as pretty much all of them over the years has refused to do a job at one time or another. I will correct you, because you are wrong. Lesnar’s beef was with being fed to Undertaker, and being made to look ineffective, as he’d not only be looking weak in the angles, he’d also be doing the clean jobs in the matches. With Holly, despite looking weak in some angles, he was still coming out on top with the clean wins in matches. And Brock’s problem wasn’t looking weak with either matches or angles but coming out on top in angles or matches, but in looking weak in both matches and angles.

And it's all over, at last. From the commentary, Williams' corner should have pulled him out of the fight a couple of rounds ago. Williams was totally out of his league here, and got exposed as a mediocre fighter.

I'm listening to it online, and Williams is getting the shit beaten out of him. Vital is owning Williams.

Anywhere online to see this ?

Neidhart was being released, so they wanted the tag titles off of the HF. The decision to let him go was changed, so the title change was nixed, and they explained the ropes breaking up to explain to the fans who did see the match why the titles didn't change hands. It's called attention to detail, and that such an important thing is being critcised is sad.

And if you want to see what someone pushing themselves too far does, take a look at Kurt Angle's arms on SD. Those things freaked me out. It's great that Angle has so much drive, but to do that kind of damage to himself ? No thanks. But of course, I'm sure that doesn't matter to people who just want Angle to come out each week to entertain them.

The 4/4 Raw show the day after WrestleMania at the Staples Center in Los Angeles is almost sold out. The only seats left are in the $35 (nosebleed) price range. It will end up being the earliest advanced sellout ever for a Raw show, but that's meaningless because it's also the earliest in history before an event Raw tickets were ever put on sale. . . .An update on Dwayne Johnson, who is still in Prague, Czechoslovakia filming a movie. He is planning on wrestling at WrestleMania in Los Angeles and hopes the company comes up with a good storyline for his return. He's been studying 70s and 80s wrestling videotapes during his down time, in particular the old Memphis, Dallas and Portland territories. "I absolutely love it," he said. "The ideas I'm getting from them are amazing. Creativity plus simplicity (for the fans to easily absorb) plus passion equals success. . . It should be mandatory for the boys to watch (70s and 80s tapes from all over the world). They have no idea how much that would help them. When the babyfaces sold, the people felt it. When the heels got heat, the people believed it." He returns to the U.S. in January after this current movie finishes up. He'll spend February promoting "Be Cool" with John Travolta and Uma Thurman. He's working on a daily for a Sony movie that he'd start shooting in May, and has a finalized deal for a big movie this summer... The 1/1 date for the ECW DVD version of the PPV may significantly hurt DVD sales. The PPV will be just under two hours edited down from the three hour DVD, but the key is, with so many stores backlogged getting copies, and even amazon.com backlogged to the point they are expecting delivery after Christmas, this may be the case where, for the first time, a lot of people will have access to the PPV of the DVD before even having a chance to get a copy of the DVD. .. The "Theme Addict" CD with all the new company entrance music songs debuted at No. 38 on the Billboard charts, with 35,952 sales. That was well under predictions of a 45,000 first week. It fell to No. 131, with sales of 14,888 during its second week. That number was a disaster. The record business was up 20% during that second week due to it being Thanksgiving weekend, one of the best weekends of business for the year, however this CD dropped 59% at the same time. Compared to previous WWE theme song CD's, this is alarmingly behind even the worst standards.. . Jesus was injured on the 12/6 Johnson City show, with either a strained abdominal muscle or a groin pull. He was wrestling Haas. He went for a running kick into the corner and somehow his foot got hung up and he went down. He couldn't move. Haas went for a springboard moonsault off the middle rope and Jesus stuck his knees up and rolled over for the pin. Jesus couldn't get up after the match. Nick Patrick, Fit Finlay and other agents came out. It was several minutes before they could get him out of the ring. He was protected at TV and didn't wrestle a match, but he's expected to work the PPV. . . The complete Armageddon line-up for 12/12: JBL vs. Undertaker vs. Booker vs. Guerrero for the title. Guerrero should win, but that doesn't seem likely to happen. People at the shows the past few weeks have noted how Guerrero is by far the most popular wrestler on either brand right now, even though he's gotten a mid-card push. Also, he's the only drawing card in the company, as even in the Carolinas and Georgia at house shows, people have noted that they've never seen so many Hispanics at wrestling shows in that part of the country. Smackdown is also outdrawing Raw in that part of the country and there is no logical reason for that to happen. Guerrero selling tickets won't last forever as at some point, fans will lose patience unless he's portrayed as more of a top guy. Also, Cena vs. Carlito in a street fight, RVD & Mysterio defending the tag titles (which they strangely won on TV on 12/7 in Greenville before the expected PPV change) against Suzuki & Dupree, Puder vs. Mizanin in a boxing match (this is a shoot match, but the only way Mizanin has a chance is if there is divine intervention), Show vs. Angle & Jindrak & Reigns in a 3-on-l, Jackie vs. Dawn with Haas as ref (this match has been stinking up the house shows) and Spike vs. Funaki for the cruiserweight title. .. On the boxing match, as much as Mizanin has made himself into a heel to where most viewers will be glad to see him take a beating from Puder, I hate the idea. I don’t hate the idea of a shoot on a wrestling show, because in this instance, its fine, because its been built up for eight weeks and people should care. I actually think more people care about that match than anything but the main event, and in some circles, more than the main event. But boxing, and all forms of fighting, are serious business. If you put trained fighters against each other, well, they know what they are doing and it is their sport. Even then, people always get hurt, but to me, that's a part of the sport, just like in football or any sport where there are going to be injuries from full contact. But a fighting combat sport is not for untrained individuals, or in this case, an untrained person against a real fighter. Puder is not a great boxer. Boxing is the weakest part of his game. But he has boxed amateur and his MMA training consists of kickboxing training, under world champion Javier Mendez and Frank Shamrock among others. Ifs not boxing, but it is at least training in punching people out. This is every bit as bad as Mike Bernardo vs. Bobby Oregon in K-l, or maybe worse. At least that fight is MMA, and if Oregon can take Bernardo down, Bernardo is nothing on the ground. Of course, Bernardo hits much harder than Puder, but Oregon has trained for years in kickboxing even though he's never fought and taking on an experienced pro. Mizanin got beat up on "Real World' by some guy who was not even a fighter or even a big or tough guy, and now you're putting him against a real 230-pound fighter. This is the recipe that can cause serious and needless injury. There have been real tragedies in Tough Man competition that never should have taken place because the boxing ring is not a place for untrained people. If Mizanin gets hurt, WWE is at complete fault, because they are aware of all this and not only let it happen, but really, forced Mizanin into it because you know of free will, if not for the fact he has to do it or get DQ'd from a million dollar contest, there is no way in his right mind he would do it. And the Georgia athletic commission should step in, because I'm told they are sanctioning this under boxing rules, and what are they there for if not to prevent horrible mismatches and the potential beatings that can come from them from taking place. The only possible saving grace would be if they used gigantic gloves, like they planned for the Diva Search before sanity prevailed and they pulled mat idea. But that would make the match come across as a joke, and at this point, that1 s not what the paying customers are expecting. It also, if he gets killed, basically forces the company to give Mizanin a developmental deal (and maybe they've decided to do so even though he doesn't fit their espoused size requirements and is not that great of a worker, only he can wrestle and has a minor celebrity name), or they're opening themselves up for a possible lawsuit because when he signed on, he clearly didn't sign on to face a trained fighter in a boxing match. I'd be a lot happier with a submission wrestling match or an amateur wrestling match, as even though ifs more of a mismatch as those are Puder's bread and butter, without striking, the chance of a serious brain injury, which is really the only thing that concerns me, is far less likely. I keep thinking in the same situation, I'd have no qualms doing a submission or wrestling match with Puder, even though I'd lose in seconds, because I'd get pinned or tap before getting hurt, but boxing, no way would I and no way should I even be allowed to if I was dumb enough to say I would. If this was on a boxing card, I'm pretty sure this match wouldn't even be allowed, and that tells you why it shouldn't take place. At least in the Divas search, it was two women with no fighting experience, and they weren't allowed to box by the commission, but with no punching training and the big gloves, the odds of anyone getting hurt from a 100-pound woman's punch are far less than a 230-pound man trained at knocking people out. This isn't even Brawl-for-All. which nearly ended Savio Vega's career and did end Mark Canterbury's career, plus injured half a dozen other guys. In that, you had big, tough and athletic guys who were real athletes that willingly went into battle, even though they weren't skilled. Even though a few even had legitimate backgrounds, they hadn't competed in fighting for many, many years. Puder is a guy in his prime who was in training with UFC fighters just over two months ago, going against someone who is not naturally big and doesn't appear to have any significant athletic background, but only has heart, great desire to be a wrestler, and is obnoxious enough on camera that people aren’t thinking things out in hoping to see Puder beat him senseless. . . The Smackdown crew will be going to the Middle East again to tape a show for the troops that airs on 12/23. Another strong Raw show on 12/6 in Charlotte based around HHH vs. Batista. It was the Jericho show as G.M. It started with Jericho bringing Vince out on the Highlight Reel segment to discuss the World title situation. Vince came out with the belt over his shoulder doing the Vince-walk. HHH came out. Vince put HHH over as being a best-selling author (his book, the next morning after a heavy push on TV was No. 1,900 on the Amazon charts and still behind Flair's book, released six months ago, in sales for the week, which is a very weak open and a far worse open than either of my books did with no comparable promotion reaching millions); and a movie star. Vince said he wouldn't make a decision regarding the belt, and it was up to Bischoff to make the decision next week when he returned. Nobody had said anything to me, but TV led many to think they would do either a tournament, or more likely, an elimination chamber match, with HHH, Benoit, Edge, Batista, Orton and possibly Jericho. HHH was mad at Batista once again. I was just hoping it wasn’t another two hour long swerve. Batista wasn’t there at the finish last week, and left with a smile on his face. Batista talked back to him saying he pulled the ref out of the ring when Benoit had HHH in the Crossface, so if it wasn’t for him, Benoit would be the champ outright, and then said, "You're welcome" and stormed off. HHH threw around some furniture and said "Thank you" in a sarcastic tone. Eugene beat Maven via DQ in 4:12 when Maven was choking Eugene as he was upside down in the corner. Maven did a good job as a cocky heel here. Regal made the save. Maven got one of the tag belts, and as Regal wasn’t looking, cracked Regal with it. Next up was a limbo contest with Keibler, Hemme, and women nobody knew like Candace Mitchell (wasn’t she the make-up girl last week), Melina Perez and Maria (who was an announcer two weeks ago) for a limbo dance contest. Maria and Hemme were actually good at this, but Hemme cheated to win, although it wasn’t acknowledged as she was kind of given the star treatment and thus allowed leeway to get over. Perez, who was the shortest woman, and thus should have won, literally couldn’t get under the bar at the end because her implants stood straight up as her back was bent over, not that she was the only one facing that handicap, but she was facing it worse than most. Keibler was so just tall she had no prayer in this. There were two new women this week holding the limbo stick. One of them ended up joining the contest. One of the two was Lana Kinnnear, from the old Women of Wrestling group. While everyone was partying, Hassan & Daivari did a promo and announced they would be live next week. There is something really creepy about this company exploiting 9/11 so strongly and at the same time spending the entire war clinging to the troops for TV feature after feature. I’m sure the troops love it, but 1his exploitation of our worst national tragedy is, well, traditional wrestling. Dean pinned Hurricane with a schoolboy using the tights in 3:47. I felt sorry for me commentators, because they had to sell that Dean was an amateur wrestler who had no pro experience, but after the first minute, he did straight pro style. They also acted like it was his first match ever and his first win ever, which only insults everyone who watched ECW, everyone who has attended a house show in the last month and any fan with the slightest bit of knowledge of the game. They spent the entire show airing clips of Stratus harassing poor Lita, building up to them in the main event spot on the show. They did a lot of good stuff. One clip was the heel women, including the departed Gail Kim and Jazz, giving her bridal shower gifts: Orton did an interview. It should be noted that a bunch of Hawaiian lei's came from the ceiling at the start of the show like it was a big party and Jericho did joke after joke about being getting laid. Orton did this embarrassing deal with Coach saying how Coach never got laid, which was again trying to have Orton do Rock, and he only comes off second-rate when they script that stuff for him. Edge saved the thing from dying by doing a promo of his own. Fans chanted "you tapped out" loudly at Edge, who did a great promo here. Orton came out and they knocked each other before getting into a big pull-apart brawl. They had half of some of history's most famous tag teams break it up, I saw Slaughter (Slaughter & Kernodle), half of the Fabs, half of Malenko & Benoit, Half of the Brainbusters and one-fourth of the Horsemen, and finally, half of the Dynamic Dudes. During the commercial break, Orton gave Edge an RKO. That’s also the main event for the 12/13 Raw in Huntsville. Benjamin pinned Christian in 5:28 to keep the IC title. Earlier in the show, Jericho told Christian he could only get a title shot if he dressed up in this foolish looking ring gear as Capt. Charisma. It was this terrible Indy outfit with a mask. In real life, he was not thrilled at all about having to do this, but it ended up being entertaining for what it was. Benjamin kicked out of Tomko's interference of a high kick, then cam back and knocked Tomko off the apron and turned Christian's mask around so he couldn't see. He then gave hi ma T-bone for the pin. HHH did another backstage promo where Flair put him over as being a best selling author and having the best body in the history of wrestling as they plugged the book, and acted like he was a movie star. He talked to what was supposedly Bischoff on the cell phone, telling Bischoff he him, Raw goes to hell, and there's only one real champion. Big Dave hung up the cell phone. HHH got mad. Dave said HHH was stupid, threatening to beat up the G.M. who has all of their fete in his hands if he didn’t give him the title, saying he took the wrong approach. HHH said there was only one real champion and Dave walked off saying, yeah, there’s only one real champion. Jericho & Benoit beat HHH & Batista in 11:43. Your typical top-notch **1/2 Raw main event. Great heat and everyone looked good. It was funny because the crowd clearly was into Benoit & Jericho as the faces, even in Charlotte. However, when Benoit did a baseball slide kick on Flair, the place totally turned on Benoit. But when he started German suplexing HHH, they were back with him. Crowd was chanting "We Want Flair," realizing Flair wasn’t going to wrestle. They should have at least had him do a Heat match or an earlier match as a babyface just because it’s what the fans paid to see. HHH hit Benoit with a chair for the DQ, and this unprotected chair shot to the head business should be stopped because we've learned enough about concussions to not encourage them in this business. He then hit ref Jack Doan with a chair when Doan DQ'd him. He then went to hit Jericho, who moved, and hit Batista, knocking him silly. Flair this time got mad at HHH. He hit Jericho as well with a chair. HHH was apologetic to Batista, saying it was a mistake, but neither Flair nor Batista seemed to be buying it. Show ended with Lita kissing Stratus for no apparent reason, leading to their match. Lita won the title in 7:11. This was the best women’s' match on TV in a while as the crowd was really behind Lita as the local Carolinas girl. I thought for sure she ended her career doing a tope and she landed on the ground like she was given a DDT, but not all the way over as she landed on her face. It looked like she broke her neck. She shook it off and continued the match. They traded a lot of good near falls before Lita got the clean win with a reverse twist of fate and a moonsault. After she woke up the next morning, her back and neck were hurting, but she didn’t think it was anything major. ---- ---- ---- Flair has a three-year contract extension on the table that he's expected to sign. His original contract expired last month.. . Esquire magazine has a two-page spread on Vince dedicated to "What I've learned," which should be interesting. Among the things he's learned. "Steroids work. When I took steroids back in my 40s, I could feel a tremendous difference. Should they be banned? Yeah." Stop laughing. "What I learned from my XFL experience is to be smarter the next time I take on the NFL." Stop crying. . . Rico Constantino is now working security at the Palms in Las Vegas and looking at getting back onto the Vegas police department... Hardy has been filming vignettes on his own for when he returns to have a direction, and has shown the tape to HHH, who was said to have liked it... Angel Medina, who was Angel of Da Baldies in ECW years ago, was about to be brought in for a bodyguard role. Vince was looking for a big Latino type to be another Jesus and Heyman made the suggestion that he had a guy to fit the bill. Not sure if this was in addition to Jesus or as a replacement for this one. Also not sure what Heyman's demotion does to this idea. . . Ron Simmons is still affiliated with the company in a P.R. capacity . . . Ryan Reeves and Daniel Rodimer will start in mid-January in Louisville. Both have solid potential, although in the ring Rodimer was ahead of Reeves. They delayed both guy's start because the company had started so many of the new women there (who are already working on both Raw and Smackdown) and they felt mere were enough beginners for one time. It is believed Chris Nawrocki was not offered a contract. It's considered a good bet that no matter what happens, Daniel Puder and Mike Mizanin would join them in mid-January. Justice Smith just hasn't gotten the wrestling at all, so if he were to get a deal, it would be because the company does have the idea right now based on John Laurinaitis to find "stars" (that is, guys who are big, have good bodies, and are nice looking) and teach them to wrestle as opposed to trying to find good wrestlers… Todd Grisham was off Heat this past week because he just got married. Hopefully there are a ton of DVD's that need voiceovers this week while he's gone. . . The Shaw cable (a Canadian company) guide listing for Armageddon read: "Matches include Triple Threat match for the world heavyweight championship—Kane vs. Goldberg vs. Triple H; Shawn Michaels vs. Batista; Intercontinental championship match-Rob Van Dam vs. Randy Orton' Booker T vs. Mark Henry and many more!" Yes, just like some newspaper ads last month got the ad slicks for the 2003 Survivor Series instead of this year, somebody made the mistake again, since this was the scheduled line-up for last year's Armageddon…The 12 wrestlers who were let go weeks ago, all are being paid for three more months’ severance. By getting paid, they aren't allowed to wrestle elsewhere (they will let people do Indies or even Japan, it really means they just can't work for TNA, which even though the company says differently, they by their actions do view as competition) until 90 days after their release. This is built into every contract so someone can't go from being fired and on WWE TV to TNA TV right away. Raven actually did that, but that's because he gave up his 90 days severance and refused to sign the release, because he wanted to get on TNA right away and was willing to give up significant guaranteed money to do so 12/5 in MSG saw pretty much the same show before a crowd of 5,821 paying $244,000. It would be the fifth lowest MSG crowds for pro wrestling of the past 65 years. The last show to draw at that level was a January 16, 1995, house show headlined by Diesel (Kevin Nash) over Jeff Jarrett for the WWF title, which drew 5,400 fans. The modem all-time low is August 25,1994, which drew 4,300 for Shawn Michaels & Diesel vs. Samu & Fatu and Bret Hart & Razor Ramon (Scott Hall) vs. Owen Hart & Jim Neidhart. The only other shows that drew as bad or worse was a 1949 show headlined by Gorgeous George vs. Ernie Dusek, that drew the all-time modem record low of 4,197 (and marked George's only appearance in MSG because it was considered such a flop), and a 1969 show headlined by Bruno Sammartino vs. George Steele (keep in mind that there was no wrestling on television at all in the New York market at this point in time) that drew 5,527. They were selling both ECW T-shirts and ECW DVD’s at the show. In a cost-cutting measure, for the first time in years at an MSG house show, there was no pyro at all