Hunter's Torn Quad

Hard Justice poll Thumbs Up: 82 (75.9%) Thumbs Down: 1 (0.9%) Thumbs in the Middle: 25 (22.9%) Best Match Joe vs. Rhino vs. Brown: 87 Styles and Daniels vs. LAX: 15 Worst Match Gail Kim vs. Sirelda: 72 Jarrett vs. Sting: 14 While Monty Brown was doing his long promo outside, the idea was for Joe and Rhino to attack him to start the FCA match but that idea was dropped when they got word they were ready to return inside. The FCA match came close to not happening. The original finish was Joe pinning Rhino, but with Rhino getting over so big with his recent promos it was changed to Joe pinning Brown. When Brown arrived and found out he quit on the spot, and had to be heavily talked into doing the job by Joe and Terry Taylor. Dave said that Brown wound up delivering the performance of his year if not his whole career, and said that, for the first time since his matches with Jarrett, Brown looked like the performer the promotion wanted him to be. The next day at TV, Brown and Ron Killings asked Terry Taylor for their release. Taylor has been trying to talk them into staying, but right now nothing is decided, though Brown is free to go anyway soon as his deal runs out. When Killings spoke to Taylor and Taylor mentioned that Brown had just asked for his release as well earlier, Killings noted that the two of them have something in common. The big angle was Christian turning on Sting, allowing Jarrett to retain the title which is set to build to a Title vs. Career match at Bound for Glory on 10/22. There is tremendous heat (and Dave calls that an understatement) on Kevin Nash, to the point that even people who supported his cause even though they could see him burying Sabin, and even those who never have anything bad to say about Nash, were burying Nash. Nash claimed an injury that would prevent him from wrestling, coincidentally when he was set to put Sabin over clean, and also coincidentally the day of the PPV was the last day of his contract, and a lot of people are admitting that he played the company and got away with it. The original idea of Nash putting over Sabin clean earlier was changed to Nash beating Sabin, Sabin beating Shelly in a tag and then Sabin finally beating Nash in the end. Most everyone conceded that the idea backfired, in regards to getting Sabin over, and Nash was only getting himself over. It was acknowledged by the booking committee that Shelly was also getting over, and that Sabin was going to beat Nash, for whatever that was worth, in the end, to build to a title shot against Sen Shi on 9/24. Except for Sting, Nash, at $5,000 a shot, is the highest paid guy in the promotion, and with his track record of injuries springing up the day before a PPV where he is scheduled to lose, nobody is believing his injury story, even if it is real. With his contract done, he’s not coming back to the job, and the strong feeling internally is to never book him to wrestle again. The only set matches for No Surrender on 9/24 are the main event, which will be LAX vs. Styles and Daniels in an Ultimate X match, and Sen Shi vs. Sabin. Also set are Christian vs. Rhino, and Raven vs. Abyss vs. Runt in some kind of garbage match. Eric Young vs. Johnny Devine: **1/2 Chris Sabin vs. Alex Shelly: **1/2 Abyss vs. Runt: *** Samoa Joe vs. Rhino vs. Monty Brown: ****1/4 Dave said all three gave blow-away performances Sen Shi vs. Petey Williams vs. Jay Lethal: **1/2 Dave said he doesn’t know what the point of Lethal almost beating Jarrett if they weren’t going to do anything with him after. Styles and Daniels vs. LAX: ***3/4 Jarrett vs. Sting: **1/4 Other News: Spike and TNA are negotiating for a new two-hour show. Day, time and start date are not decided on yet, but Monday night is not looking likely. The reason for taping three weeks of TV on 8/14 and 9/4 was purely a costing cutting measure. Goldberg signed a 90-day holding deal with Spike, and naturally the idea is coming up of Spike paying some of the money to sign Goldberg for TNA like they did with Sting. TNA attempted to get things with Hector Garza worked out as Dixie Carter finally made the call to go after the Latin market, but Garza is still banned from the US for nine more years, over the steroid deal a few years ago, so it’s not something considered doable right now. Sen Shi has a new contract but he has new heat from the PPV; in the match Jay Lethal missed a spot and Sen Shi responded by roughing Lethal up to where Lethal was either knocked out or nearly knocked out. Konnan and Homicide had been pushing for Shi to be put into LAX, but were told that after what happened were told that Shi isn’t going to be rewarded by being part of the hot group. Shi does still have a program set leading into Bound For Glory, presumably involving Sabin, so he’s still going to get pushed. The same isn’t so with Monty Brown, as his deal expires in less than a month, and he’s figured to have less then a 50/50 chance of staying and isn’t involved in any long-term plans. The frustration with Brown is that everyone sees him as a nice guy and great athlete, but he doesn’t have the drive to improve. The gist is that Brown makes enough money outside wrestling, that he doesn’t feel it’s worth it to wrestle on weekends to get ring time; he almost never works the Michigan indy shows that are only a few hours drive from his home. There is a plan to build a Konnan vs. Jim Cornette feud, nothing at all physical, but with verbal duels. Hernandez signed a deal this week, and wasn’t going to get the tag titles until he was signed. At the taping on 8/14 after the Dutt, Lethal and Sabin vs. Shelly Devin and Williams tag match, there was major heat on Shelly and Sabin, Shelly in particular, over their not selling for their opponents, with Shelly apparently not wanting to sell Dutt’s punches. Says the split-up of AMW is a back and forth problem, in that Storm and Harris want to break up as they are tired of teaming, but it’s also recognized that they may mean far more as a team than singles. Joe may have suffered a busted ear drum at the taping from a punch from Ron Killings.

August 21st No new deal for ECW TV has been signed yet, but it’s expected to be signed eventually. Vince wants “significant” rights fees; the original deal was dirt cheap as they needed to get on TV, but now the ratings are so much higher than predicted, Vince is playing hardball. NBC turned down Vince’s demand for a raise in rights fees, claiming there is no money in the Sci-Fi budget for that expense. NBC Universal wants the mobile phone rights, which Vince isn’t willing to give up. Both sides have agreed to repeat showings, but WWE want more pay for that. With no US deal, WWE hasn’t done a production budget for shows after 8/22. WWE pulled Great Khali off of Summerslam because the house show matches were so terrible they weren’t going to risk putting it on live TV. They put it on Smackdown so they would have plenty of time to edit the match so that it could be aired. Apparently, what you see of Khali on Smackdown is so heavily edited that there are a lot of bad things you never get to see. There was an argument to keep the match on the PPV because they had advertised it, but the majority argument, that the match would be so bad why ruin a good show, won out. The feeling is that they can something out of Khali because of his size, but they cannot risk doing anything with him on live broadcasts. Dave pointed out that they’ve put some “rank amateurs”, like Zeus (albeit in a tag match) on PPV before, but this guy was so bad they got scared off of putting him out there. The talk among the wrestlers is that the only drug you can get away with doing is pot. While some have beaten the testing, many guys, maybe even most, are getting off steroids. Though, there will always be exceptions. As things stand, Mysterio will be working wit Chavo until their program ends at which point he’ll be taking time off for major knee surgery that he has needed for some time. Mysterio is believe to knee full reconstructive knee surgery, so he’ll be out at least six months. The angle, and it may be it at Summerslam, as that Chavo is coming out of retirement for one match. Kurt Angle is working on a bad groin muscle, and it’s an injury he suffered before suspension. There has also been a drop in the level of respect towards Angle buy the wrestlers. At ECW shows, he’s always going to Dean Malenko with ideas to change things, not just for himself but for other people. People are talking openly about it, in a negative way, and Angle is being told to not make it so obvious what he’s doing for his own political good. The 12/3 ECW PPV was moved from Chicago to Augusta, GA. The Hammerstein Ballroom crowd on 8/1 led to the change, even though some were outwardly saying the reaction was great. Four new writers were hired, one of whom, John Carle, is described as knowing absolutely nothing about wrestling. The segments with Vickie Guerrero, Chavo and Rey on Smackdown were Vince’s idea. Dean Malenko was the agent for the angles, and while they were going over it, Malenko was nodding and approving it and told Vince that Eddie would have loved it. All of the ECW originals who were brought in for the project are considered to be tenuous at best, with the one closest to getting let go Francine, as Vince doesn’t think she is up to WWE standards; at the ONS PPV Vince went up to Laurinitis and asked who hired someone who looked like that (Francine). The only thing keeping here around is they need someone to lose to Kelly in the Bikini contests, but once those are done with she’s likely gone. The page on the WWE website detailing the steroid policy has been removed. The original wording had it that a positive test meant an immediate suspension, but now the policy is to keep them around to tie up loose ends and doing TV jobs before suspending them. There is talk among the wrestlers of reforming Too Cool, with Rikishi and Brian Christopher coming back, and possibly adding Ron Killings to the mix. Christopher was backstage at Memphis talking to John Laurinitis about coming back, but was said to have done himself no favors has his behavior has not changed from the last time he was there, when he lasted about a week before getting fired. There has been interest express in Killings, but nothing can be done due to his TNA contract. Killings has been unhappy with his push lately, especially at the last tapings when he was asked to put over A1 and almost quit over it. It was readily admitted internally that Sabu botched a lot of the spots in his 8/8 match with Angle. Sabu was telling people he was knocked silly from an early suplex and was going on fumes. Court TV will be covering the hearings regarding Ric Flair’s alimony to his ex-wife Beth. She currently receives $275,000 a year in alimony from Ric, but wants a lot more. Sean O’Haire has been trying to get back in the company. Johnny Fairplay and his girlfriend were set to have a second meeting with John Laurinitis this past weekend about coming in. His girlfriend is said to look like Lita, which might help her chances, but Fairplay didn’t help his cause the first time when he was asked what brand he wanted to be on and said “ECW”, which saw him labeled as a “mark”, because you’re meant to say you want to be on Raw, as it’s considered the top brand. Mysterio did an autograph session Mexico on 8/11 that drew 5,000 people to a shopping mall. He only signed for about half the people before getting rushed out, and the people turned away trashed the mall. Robert Brisko, a referee, and Eric Langley, a trainer, have quit OVW and it’s now said to be total chaos down there. Not from WON but the latest Figure Four Weekly: The demotion of Tommy Dreamer apparently came at a great time, because Danny Davis, who owns and runs OVW, was on the verge of ending things with WWE. August 23rd Internally, Kurt Angle is severely downplaying how badly injured his groin is (possibly torn), one friend has said that it’s pretty bad. The feeling was that with his mentality and the injury that he had to be pulled from the ladder match for his own good. Angle’s physical problems are not helped by his turbulent personal life, as he and his wife are divorcing after splitting and reuniting and also she is now pregnant with his first son. Angle is insisting to people he is not falling apart and wants to get in the ring to prove it. Foley got his angle in ECW changed, as the original plan was for Foley, Knox and Test to beat down Flair and Dreamer and Sandman would make the save. The storyline is controversial internally, because Foley ha creative control and isn’t doing anything he doesn’t want to. Also, some were questioning the ECW angle because Foley did the babyface promo and Flair did the heel attack. Some Summerslam notes: (written before the PPV) Vickie Guerrero is going to turn on Rey and manage Chavo, the Rey vs. Chavo blowoff is set for NO Mercy which will be Rey’s last date before knee surgery, and the DX/McMahon stuff will not be ending at Summerslam. Lita winning the women’s title was to set up a title match with Trish Stratus on Stratus’ last night, and was done because they have history of feuding and it never really hit its stride due to injuries. While you’d expect Trish to get humiliated on her way out, there is a good chance that she’ll get a happy ending and giving her a positive sendoff. Chris Masters has left rehab for his painkiller addiction and should be back on the road soon. Khali’s Last Man Standing match was a temporary blowoff as he is getting knee surgery. Called the Sabu/RVD ladder match a complete disaster.

Shelton could still be something special, but unless they have their hand forced, then I think WWE have him pegged as a midcarder and I don't see Shelton going any higher up on the card than that.

Pillman was never going to be part of the Bash as he was gone long before it happened. Apart from that, if he had stayed Pillman would have gotten hot and then had his legs cut out from under him by the usual suspects.

They dropped the ball with Shelton after only one week, when Hunter casually blew off Shelton wanting a rematch. Everything after that was standard WWE procedure when it comes to screwing up the push of someone who could have been something special. Well, with Shelton he doesn't seem to have much in the way of mic skills or charisma, Blame that on the writing staff giving him bad material. During that match with Hunter, Shelton showed a ton of charisma, but they've almost never let him show it. It's not an isolated problem, though, but one that so many people suffer from.

Vince McMahon in the USWA Vince McMahon being Mr McMahon in 1993.

-Can you believe one year ago we'd be asking a question if a SummerSlam featuring a Hulk Hogan match, seven bona fide main event level bouts, and a Ric Flair vs. Mick Foley I Quit dream match where both were given adequate time can do half the domestic buys as Ken Shamrock vs. Tito Ortiz. This industry has changed incredibly since February. From WO.com I think SS can do more than half the domestic buys as Oritz vs. Shamrock II, but no way is it beating it.

Correct. This was around 1996 I think. There was a lot of interest from WCW and I believe some from Calloway as well, but WCW lost interest when they realized they had no way of using the Undertaker gimmick, or even anything like it, and because that's all Calloway really has going for hiim they lost interest.

Without the kind of physique needed to maintain the credibility of his Masterpiece gimmick, Masters is dead in the water. They can put a mask on him and have him work a different style, but the moment he shows up on WWE TV the crowds are going to be all over him with chants and catcalls over his loss of mass, and when that happens he may as well just send him home.

Pillman never even wanted to leave WCW. Pillman's contract was coming due soon, and he knew that while he'd be able to get the same deal he was already on, it wouldn't be anything special and that he'd be kept in the midcard. His idea was to convince Eric Bischoff that he (Eric) had created this hot character so that Eric would give Pillman a big raise, and therefore Pillman would have to get a main event level push in order to justify the money Pillman would be getting.

It was groundbreaking, that's for sure. It was a very strong angle for that time, and was well executed for the most part. I'm not sure it had any long term impact, though.

I really hope this comes through. Something like this could be of great benefit to wrestling, not just in Japan but on a worldwide basis. Japanese wrestling as a whole has been on shaky ground for quite some time, mostly due to the most visible group, New Japan, having a terrible last few years, and this could be the very thing to kickstart Japanese wrestling back into gear.

Disc 1-2 This disc revolves around Jim Cornette and the Midnight Express and Ric Flair and the Four Horseman, but we also see some angles that centers on Magnum TA and Nikita Koloff. The Cornette/MX stuff deals with their feuds with the Rock and Roll Express and Dusty Rhodes, Magnum TA and Baby Doll. The first proper match of the set is the Midnight Express challenging the RnR’s for the NWA tag titles. It’s from a television special and so is a little shorter than their usual matches, but is still very good and a great display of old school tag team wrestling. The feud later evolves to include, to no surprise, Dusty Rhodes, as he offers the RnR’s the use of his cage, “Betty Lou”, to stop Cornette from interfering in their matches anymore; it had been due to Cornette that the MX beat the RnR’s for the tag titles. This development leads to some great promo’s from Cornette, who is on top form on the mic in this feud, and really for this whole set. The Cornette/MX vs. Dusty, Magnum and Baby Doll feud kicks into high gear with one of the most infamous angles in the NWA, where Cornette rams the end of his tennis racquet into the stomach of Baby Doll. It doesn’t sound like much of an angle today, but back then women almost never got touched like that, if at all, and the angle got an intense reaction. The crowd went batshit, David Crockett, the babyface announcer, stormed off the interview set and refused to talk to Cornette and the MX as the angle played out in the ring; this was a fantastic angle, and it got heat the likes of which you very rarely see anymore. The aftermath of this was another great angle that sees the mysterious James Gang/James Boys (both names would be used), who looked very familiar, jump the MX after a squash match, leave them laying, and then hog tie Jim Cornette and drag him to the back and tie him to their pick-up truck with only the timely arrival of the MX preventing a lynching. Ric Flair is involved in the second full match on the set against Ron Garvin, and it’s taken from the same television special as the MX vs. RnR match earlier. It’s another good match, though it does suffer from being very much a Ric Flair ‘special’; we see the standard Flair bumps and spots in their standard order, and it really does emphasize the repetitive nature of some of Flair’s matches. The other thing it suffers from, and it happened in the tag title match earlier, is the dreaded referee bump that plagued the NWA when Dusty had the book. One would have been bad enough, but two in the same night, and during a big special at that, was just lazy. The Flair/Garvin stuff continues later on, with footage from a house show of the post-match happenings from a Flair vs. Garvin 60:00 draw, that saw Garvin KO Flair with his Hands of Stone punch and get an unofficial three count from the referee. The feud doesn’t really expand from there, at least not on this disc, as things quickly move on to Flair vs. Ricky Morton. The Flair vs. Morton feud kicks into high gear with an impromptu studio match between the two that ends, after the obligatory and beyond stale referee bump, with Robert Gibson counting an unofficial three count for Morton over Flair. This was a (too) often used method of setting up a challenger for Flair, with the appointed guy getting a unofficial three count in some fashion, but it did get the job done here. The feud progresses on the disc with the ending of six-man elimination match that sees Morton get a clean pin on Flair to win the match for his team, which comprised of the RnR’s and Dusty Rhodes; no guessing as to which teammate was the first to congratulate Morton and which one was left in the background. This led to another great angle was Flair, Arn Anderson and Tully Blanchard, who were the heel team in the match, jump the RnR’s in their dressing room and Flair rubbed Morton’s face into the concrete floor. What gets this angle over even more is how Tony Schiavone and David Crockett talk about how Ric Flair has never gone into someone’s dressing room like that before in his career, which helps get over how mad Flair is at being beaten. Closing comments: The 1985-1988 remains my favorite period in the NWA/WCW, and this set shows why. Hot angles, great matches, the best promo men in the business coming out on a weekly basis, and crowd reactions you very rarely get today. If you’re a wrestling fan and what WWE is crapping out each week turns your stomach, then get this set and enjoy a wrestling promotion at its finest.

Wrestling Classics But get ready for pop-up and sometimes you might also get stuff trying to install itself on your computer.

I think he means he'd rather they reform X-Factor and put Killings in the new version. And I never got why people hated their music.

Gimmick stealer. Some people in WWE want to bring back Rikishi and Brian Christopher to reform Too Cool, and to bring in Ron Killings to be a member of the group. Do these people not realize that it's not 2000 anymore? Scotty 2 Hottyis dead in the water, Rikishi has a plum deal in Italy, and don't get me started on the gassed up midget.

Jeff Hardy was a mess in WWE. TNA has a much lighter schedule and he couldn't even cope with that without screwing up so badly that the person with the most power in the company gave up trying to save the guy's job. For WWE to hire Hardy back when he has shown no sign of being able to handle any kind of a schedule is reckless and encourages Jeff to stay on the substances that have killed his career.

Ultimate Fight Night 6: Round-by-Round Josh Koscheck vs. Jonathan Goulet Koscheck totally controlled the fight and was never close to being in danger. Koscheck continues to show that he could be a title contender down the line. Guess I’m going to have to wait a while for Josh to finally get the shit kicked out of him. Dean Lister vs. Yuki Sasaki A very slow start but it turned into a good round. Lister controlled the direction of the fight and clearly won the round, but Sasaki put up more than enough of a defense to avoid being blown out, so I have it 10-9 for Lister. Round two was again controlled by Lister who tied Sasaki up in knots on the ground, but Sasaki somehow weathered the storm and escaped to get things standing for the last few seconds. The question is does Lister win 10-8 for such dominance, or does he only win 10-9 for not being able to finish? I’ll go with 10-9, making it 20-18 for Lister going into the third and final round. The third round saw Lister gassed out from trying to put Sasaki away in round two, but Sasaki was equally gassed and was unable to take advantage. 10-10 round, so I have it as Lister winning 30-28. All three judges give it 30-27 to Lister. There was very noticeable booing from the crowd to that, probably from Lister actively trying to stall during round three. Chris Leben vs. Jorge Santiago Round one was even, and neither guy did enough to make me give them the nod so I have it 10-10. Round two was slow standing up until Leben hit home with a great left hand knocking Santiago out cold. They showed the punch a couple of times in slow motion and it hit Santiago right in the face and he was out before he hit the ground. Joe Riggs vs. Jason Von Flue It went to the ground and Riggs controlled Von Flue en route to a great triangle choke. Von Flue flipped the bird and then quickly tapped out, which was funny. Karo Parisyan vs. Diego Sanchez Round one was very heated with the crowd being loud and noisy. Sanchez was awesome with how easily he was able to get Parisyan’s back. Parisyan was cut under one of his eyes, so that may give the round to Sanchez with the judges, but Parisyan was able to take Sanchez down with some excellent judo throws, so I score the first round even. Round two was all-action and Diego again showed tremendous agility with his ground game. He was able to effectively neutralize Parisyan and dominated the round so I give the round to Diego. It’s 20-19 for Diego on my scorecard. Round three was exciting with a hot crowd who never let up. Diego was again in command with Karo trying to hang in there, getting limited respite. Karo did get a throw in there, but Diego was just dominating in this round and I’d give it to him 10-8. With that, I have him winning the decision 30-27. The judges gave it Sanchez with scores of 29-28. 29-28 and 30-26. An awesome fight, and a real FOTY candidate.

From yesteday's WO.com update: --An interesting coincidence or more than that. WWE usually releases buy rates 2-4 weeks after the shows. The company has not released one buy rate since May. That was the month that Gracie vs. Hughes did 600,000 buys and beat out Mania domestically. It will be interesting to see if they do release the last few shows at the investors conference later this month. I don't even think they were that bad, as noting indicated they would be falling from the levels of the past year and I was expecting Vengeance in particular to do well.

I'm calling around 450,000 buys.

Master's issues were apparently more psychological than drug related. Probably to do with him realising he'd have to lose the only thing that gave him his job. And Orton patterning himself after Rick Rude would explain his affinity for momentum-killing chinlocks.

They used to in WWE, but after Madusa dumped her title belt in the bin on a live Nitro, they got paranoid about it happening again and so the belt stays with someone else, usually a road agent, in between events. They can still get lost from time to time, though.

Kurt Angle. And he's not going to heal. Kurt pushes himself far too hard for the condition he is in, and WWE knows what condition he is in, but they continue to encourage his behavior by not taking a firm stand with him. Kurt is either going to die in the ring or have his career ended during a match.

They thought he looked/was too old.

Says that a written policy (the Wellness Policy) may look fine to an unknowing public, but the real policy is the hiring policy, and for all the appearances the Wellness Policy made the last few weeks, WWE showed its real policy this past week. While drug testing can, if applied fairly, be part of he solution, ultimately it’s the company that chooses the type of people they hire. With significant pain a fact of life in wrestling, and with promoters and fans wanting muscular bodies because they are more marketable, you are going to get significant drug issues. When people like Chris Masters and Bobby Lashley are rushed onto the main roster before everyone else, what message does that send? It’s a broken record, though, because promoters want physiques because of the feeling they make them money. A lot of big names wouldn’t have been in there positions without their physiques. The double standard is glaringly obvious, but it’s accepted in wrestling because it makes money and in wrestling it’s all about making money. Nobody wants recreational drug problems, because of the numerous problems associated with it, ie; missing shows, turning up loaded etc, however, few actually want to do something about it. Jeff Hardy’s hiring by WWE was expected for some time, and it’s represents something bad. Jeff’s drug history was well known within wrestling during his last stay with WWE, and after eventually being tested, which he felt insulted by and claimed to be clean, he failed and was fired for refusing to go to rehab. TNA had no problem hiring him with such a history, as they also did with people like Scott Hall, Crash Holly and BG James, all of whom had well known problems with drugs. Some nights Hardy was on, sometimes he wasn’t. At one PPV, he was expressly told by TNA not to do a stunt where he risked killing himself, but he went out and did the stunt anyway. Even with a very light schedule, Hardy missed dates, even missing a PPV, and was such a mess that Jeff Jarrett, who was the one keeping him in, gave up on him in the end. While everyone deserves a second, or sometimes third chance, if they prove themselves, Jeff didn’t. Bringing up names like Eddie Guerrero, William Regal or Shane Douglas to defend hiring Jeff misses a key point, because they did end up going to rehab. And while Guerrero got fired after messing up his first rehab, he wound up working Indy’s and Internationally, and made such a great impression in and out of the ring, by always working hard and never missing dates, that he had proven something, and he had to do that for months before being rehired. Hardy did the exact opposite, even with a much lighter schedule. And while Hardy has apparently worked hard to clean himself up, TNA was considering hiring him back not that long ago and the fact they didn’t is telling. While TNA were bad to hire him when they did, WWE proved to be as bad, maybe even worse, when they brought him back. TNA could rationalize hiring him because of the idea the easier schedule would be something Jeff could cope with, but when that blew up in their faces, to the point that Jeff Jarrett gave up defending him, they couldn’t rationalize anymore. If Hardy had done what Guerrero did, and worked all over with great reports of his in-ring and out of the ring performances, it would be one thing, but Jeff was even worse after WWE then he was when got fired. There is no rationale to bring him back. WWE don’t push tag teams, and while his return will get a big pop for week or maybe a month and he’ll be a favorite, after a month or so that and $3 will get out a coffee at Starbucks. He has a bad track record as it is, and his strengths involve a style WWE has moved away from, while his weaknesses are something now emphasized. Other news: With Hogan injured, Dave thinks it could be better for Hogan to lose to Orton, as someone hurt can get over better, if he does it right, by fighting against the odds and coming close to winning before losing. However, it’s all down to Hogan, as he has creative control. Hogan has always historically been more of a PPV draw than TV ratings draw, especially in WCW, where he was never one of their top five ratings movers, but was a legit PPV draw until 1999 when the company fell apart. Pat Patterson underwent surgery in 8/6 to remove a cyst from his main artery. Shawn Michaels has signed a five-year contract from $1.5M a year. Michaels was shocked by this and while he was going to reduce his schedule, this has changed his mind. The odds are currently against an ECW-only taping. Heyman is pushing for it but Kevin Dunn is strongly against it. The reaction the Hammerstein Ballroom crowd was mixed. Heyman was thrilled, believing the undercard to be great and the reaction to the main event more entertaining than it could have been. Others were unhappy with the swearing, as mentioned before. Kevin Dunn was on vacation at the time of the show, but people in the studio were giving him more negative responses than positive. Vince’s reaction was unknown because he gave no reaction either way, but he did lose his temper with Shannon Moore. He felt Moore cracked from the bad reaction from the crowd; Moore wound up grabbing the mic and saying, “I’m not here to impress the internet.” Moore was originally meant to beat Christopher W. Anderson in their dark match, but Vince changed the finish during the match to Anderson winning and also told them to switch roles with Anderson being the babyface. After all the vignettes with him, there was nothing on him at all on the 8/8 show, and it’s felt that he’s screwed himself up. Batista got negative feedback from his reaction to the Hammerstein Crowd, a lot of which was because he was apparently told ahead of time by Vince McMahon and John Laurinaitis exactly what was very likely going to happen, and still wound up losing his cool within seconds of going out. In the international versions of the show, during Batista’s entrance, they edited in fans cheering for him and holding up positive signs, while the negative chants were overdubbed with one long continuous “ECW” chant. Also, the commentary that called attention to the chanting was edited out. Lita may be around until November, as he contract is either up in September or November. As things stand, Trish’s blow-off will be the Unforgiven PPV. The Unforgiven main event will be John Cena vs. Edge in a TLC match, and the storyline would appear to be Cena winning the title in his hometown, and Edge getting a rematch in his specialty. Batista vs. Booker T headlines house shows after Summerslam. Ashley broke her hand on 7/31 during the tag match on Smackdown. She suffered a broken knuckle, and was close to needing surgery. Developmental changes will see Mike Bucci replace Tommy Dreamer as the director of the developmental system. The feeling is that Dreamer being on the road with ECW has allowed his work here to lag. The changes were talked about for a while, but where instigated after Vince watched tapes of OVW and Deep South and was unhappy with what he saw. Dreamer is now working solely as a wrestler, with no office or creative role. The Raw crew were drug tested on 8/7 in Memphis. It was meant to be confidential, but word got out about it at least a day ahead of the test. A lot of people were said to be very nervous backstage. Chris Benoit is expected back on Smackdown in about a month. With the Chavo-Mysterio deal, idea of the heel Chavo’s claims of Mysterio using Eddie’s name are to justify the company being babyfaces since they’ve been doing it for almost eight months now.