Hunter's Torn Quad

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.

Ron Simmons wound up wrestling Steve Williams instead of Rude. The finish was a DCO or a DDQ, which the crowd hated. What they hated more was when Williams kept attacking Simmons, the referee changed the decision to a DQ win for Simmons. And Simmons wrestled The Barbarian at HH '92. He faced Jack at Clash XX.

FTR, Hogan KO'ing Inoki to win the IWGP Tournament was the planned finish. It was long thought to have been a legit accident, but it was revealed to have been a work a few years ago.

As long as the squash matches don't last more than a few minutes, any effect on ratings will be minimal at best. They don't need to be long anyway; the star hits his signature spots, poses a bit, hits his finish, and it's over. Not only would be it give the guy a win on Raw or SD, but it might get finishers a bit more over, if fans actually see them used to get wins, rather than as a transition.

Keep in mind I said Meltzer probably no sold me. Maybe Meltzer is willing to share all his knowledge after all in e-mails, but then again, maybe not. I think it's more likely his family took precedence over the questions from a bunch of nameless people on the internet.

The latest update on WO.com says he's had a family emergancy all day, and things will be hectic at the site for a while.

I think anyone with half a brain has figured out by now that Meltzer, or anyone else, will eventually start to ignore you if you pester them daily with questions.

He knows when to start ignoring people, though.

Hard to imagine he'd get sick of someone constantly asking him questions. Well, not that hard if you use some common sense.

I'm not talking about not creating questions that people will want to see answered, I'm talking about the cliffhanger-type endings like with the World Title situation from last week. There is a difference between leaving people wanting to see the consequence to an action, like a turn, than leaving them waiting to see the conclusing of an action, like a disputed ending to a World title match. Too many endings of, "Oh no, what happens next ?", and it becomes annoying. You don't need to constantly go to a typical cliffhanger to make people want to tune in again next week.

If they don't have anybody 'ready' for the NWA Title, and they really do need a title switch, both to take the focus away from Savage and to shake things up, then they're going to have to go with the guy who is closest to ready, and that may be Brown.

They need something to take the attention off of Stick Man Savage screwing them over, so I wouldn't be surpised if they switch the NWA Title at the PPV. Of course, Triple J will get his belt back in short order, but I still think a quickie title change could happen.

What do you mean cliffhanger bullshit? Every episode of RAW should make you want to see the next. While every episode of Raw should leave you wanting to see the next one, there are ways of doing that without having to constantly go to the cliffhanger route. Do that often enough, and people get tired of being left hanging, and tune out.

Ultimate Jeopardy '96 was the name given to the main event of the October 5th 1996 Arena show, which saw Tommy Dreamer and Sandman take on Stevie Richards and Brian Lee. It was so called, because each man had stipulations he would have to adhere to if he lost; If Dreamer lost, Beulah was gone from ECW, if Sandman lost he would take 10 lashes from the cane, if Stevie lost Raven would lose the ECW Title, and if Lee lost he would have to shave his head. Richards took the place of Raven, who entered rehab that afternoon.

I don't think Savage wanted to win the NWA Title at all. I think he was just looking for an excuse to bail out and/or avoid putting Jarrett over, and this was it. He knew TNA would never agree to his request/demand, and if they hadn't sent him home, I have no doubt that Savage would have walked out anyway.

We'll find out if Hunter's comments had any merit the next time Holly does something unprofessional like this. My guess is we'll see something by WM XXI, probably over Holly being pissed at not being on the card.

Shawn may very well be one of the most overrated wrestlers of all time. Sure, he's a great performer, and can get the crowd going, but for the all round package, he's nowhere near the top 10, or even the top 20. His selling his top notch, when he does decide to sell, but when he's on offence, he has to rely on the other guy to look good, because he has Sid-level punches, in that they don't look like they could break an egg. And his selling, which is his undoubted strong point, isn't as great as his fanboys make it out to be, because, in numerous matches, when he's selling his back like crazy while it gets worked on, once he starts his comeback, he does his kip-up, and the back never gets sold again. How someone who can't follow the basic precepts of selling so often can get called an all-time great is beyond me. As for his offence, that's pretty much a joke. He can't work the mat, and no, a few chinlocks and headlocks here and there don't count. His aerial stuff is fine, but, again, he always goes for moves that, given what his opponent has done, he shouldn't logically go for; even if his back has been worked on, he'll still do the big elbow off the top, not sell the back at all, preferring to keep the kip-up in his routine, regardless of how little sense in makes in the body of the match. His mic work is ok, but he's only ever done a couple of interviews that I've thought were really good, with the rest being a mishmash of clichés and formulaic lines. I've always considered him a highspot artist who usually sells like crazy, and I've never yet seen him put on any kind of consistent performances that would make me think any different.

WON January 14th 1991 Page 1 WON January 14th 1991 Page 2 WON January 14th 1991 Page 3 WON January 14th 1991 Page 4 WON January 14th 1991 Page 5 WON January 14th 1991 Page 6 WON January 14th 1991 Page 7 WON January 14th 1991 Page 8 Enjoy

Konnan against Sandman at HP '96 is ok, if basic. It's pretty much just cane shots and some brawling, but it isn't bad by any means.

Yes. The Hogan v Goldberg match was meant to be dark, but when WWF started winning the ratings, Bischoff put the match on TV, thereby pissing away about $7m in PPV revenue. The Flock broke up when Saturn beat Raven at FB '98 in a match where, if Saturn won, The Flock had to disband. And they did. Put that down to Eric. He made the call to take Jericho off TV in the last months of his stay. Quite why they didn't bury him on the way out, I don't know. Probably in mid-1998 when he passed out backstage when he was doing commentary on an internet broadcast of Nitro.

This took place at the December 1995 ECW Arena show. The match was apparently only ok, but the event itself was never commercially released. I think that was because the card as a whole was only considered ok, and not release worthy.

What happened was four guys, Sandman, Sabu, Van Dam and, I think, Fonzie, wanted to leave ECW, all for different reasons. They told Todd about wanting to leave, and he offered to call Terry Taylor, with a view to getting them into WCW as a package deal. He called Taylor, told them what the deal was, and while WCW wanted to negotiate individually, Gordon was intent on keeping it as a package deal. At this team, Perry Saturn was wanting to leave ECW, and, on his own, made his own deal with WCW. This meant a dollar amount had been set in terms of what the four guys could roughly ask for, which weakened their negotiating position. At this point, Gordon ended his involvement, and the four guys ended up staying. The only guys to really take issue with what Todd were the 'New York Clique'; Tazz, Bubba Ray, Tommy Dreamer, etc. When it did come out that Todd was talking to WCW on behalf of the four, Tazz did an interview where he buried Todd, and ran him down for what he did. In response, Sandman did an interview burying Tazz, because he felt Tazz owed Tod something for giving him his break. Tazz apologised to Gordon, saying that Paul E told him to do it, that others would be doing interviews too, but that Tazz wound up being the only guy to do one.

Because of his current schedule, it's not thought likely he'll be at Mania, at least not to wrestle.

Bret was never going to be able to go to WCW with the IC Title. By the time he wanted out, Bret's contract had automatically rolled over for a year, and he wasn't able to leave.

Someone asked if Borga was in line for the WWF Title. I thought it was someone from here, seeing as it was recently talked about in one of the threads.