Has anyone else heard anything about the following

[Guest bps "The Truth" 21]

Things I've found on a pretty reliable source...although the stuff they report is pretty much always on the nose...I tend to wait for Meltzer to say something before posting it...

 

But I found this stuff interesting...so take them for what they are worth.

 

1.  Raven and Stasiak have left HWA to rejoin the WWF roster.

(I've seen this in a bunch of places too...Raven!)

 

 

2.   Things between the WWF and Austin are still not good...and it is as of yet unknown if Austin will be leaving Texas today (Sunday) or tomorrow morning to be at Raw.

 

 

3.  RVD turned down a 5 year WWF contract because they offered him a very low downside guarantee (this would seem to go along with the previous reports that Jericho and other stars whos contracts were coming up would be low balled)

Does anyone know how long RVD signed for?  I've never thought of it before...but given the angle he was brought in for...I wouldn't be surprised if he and Dreamer were just signed for 1 year.  If this is true...he will be depushed again...and then what?

[Guest teke184]

All I'd heard was a little on WO Live about how NO ONE knows what's exactly going on between Austin and the WWF.  Dave figures that either Austin and the WWF worked it out today or he won't be on TV this week.

[Guest KOR420]

I've only heard the thing about Austin,and if thats true its not a good thing,pissing off austin he is one of the reasons the WWF made a comeback in 96-97 i would be kissing his ass

[Guest Tony149]

I haven't heard the RVD turns down contract rumor. I wouldn't be surprised if he turned it down.

 

Austin & the WWF thing is weird. Will he or won't he show it?

[Guest goodhelmet]

"I haven't heard the RVD turns down contract rumor. I wouldn't be surprised if he turned it down."

 

If Vince is lowballing guys, then they could probably make more money outside of the WWF. For the toll their bodies take then they need to grab every penny they can. The real losers in this ordeal would be the fans who will see their favorite wrestlers disappear one by one when the wrestlers start realize that the peanuts Vince is paying them isn't worth the pain.

[Guest teke184]

When I called in to Meltzer, he said that the contracts won't affect people until they get hurt because they usually make above their minimum when they're on the road.

 

That being said, employees with high-risk offense shouldn't take lowball deals if they can help it.

[Guest Dangerous A]

I just listened to Meltzer today as well and he said that he thinks, but is not positive that Jericho has signed. Also Konnan was a guest and he said that Rey Misterio Jr is all but signed.

 

On the Austin front, he said if we see him on Monday, that shit got ironed out. If not, there is BIG trouble in paradise.

[Guest goodhelmet]

"I just listened to Meltzer today as well and he said that he thinks, but is not positive that Jericho has signed. "

 

Do you mean that Jericho has signed an extension?

[Guest bps "The Truth" 21]

Jerichos contract comes up in August, I beleive...

[Guest teke184]

Meltzer implied that Jericho signed a new contract before the lowball bids were sent to everyone.

[Guest bps "The Truth" 21]

That would be good news for Jericho and his fans.

 

Everyone else with a contract coming up must be pissed though...

[Guest goodhelmet]

If Jericho did resign then I have faith in his Main Event status. Let's just hope Benoit also has a long solid contract so he may grace us with his presence once he returns!!!!

[Guest teke184]

Don't take it for granted.  I only half-remember the Jericho comment because I think that was during the hour I spent waiting to ask my question on the air.

[Guest goodhelmet]

Man I should go into a rant ala Grandpa Joe from Willy Wonka

"What kind of a sick being are you. YOu build up a little boys dreams just to smash them down!!!!"

[Guest teke184]

IIRC, Meltzer said "Jericho has probably resigned, but we don't know for sure."

 

It implied that they had started contract negotiations before the pay cuts started and that, if they weren't in agreement yet that they were close.

 

 

Look, if someone's going to be listening to WO Live's replay in 3 hours or so, THEY can repeat what Meltzer had to say about Jericho's contract.

[Guest muzanisa]

It would be so retarded if Vince signed Perfect to keep XWF from having a chance, then let Jericho and RVD go by offering them shitty contracts.

I believe it.

[Guest Mystery Eskimo]

On a different note...

 

Stasiak. Yuck.

[Guest Brian]

The only people I've heard that were getting contracts cut were the wrestlers who were still sitting out following the InVasion angle.

[Guest MARTYEWR]

bps, I've heard 1 and 2, but not 3.

 

On a side note, if they put Stasiak in his comedy role that he had last August again, I promise I won't b*tch!

[Guest Human Fly]

Stasiak always cracked me up when he was in his comedy role. As long as they do that and forget about Meat everything will be ok. He really isn't that bad.

[Guest thebear]

Is there any chance that the Austin thing could be a work to fool the smart(k)s... Just to keep him off TV, so fans are a bit better towards his return tonight???

 

Just a thought

[Guest teke184]

Bear,

 

We've discussed this in another thread and I've put forth the argument that the WWF isn't working the 'net because it would mean that they thought out this angle at least 2-3 weeks in advance, due to the timing of the first stories about Austin's recent disagreements with WWF management.

 

The only way that the WWF could have worked everybody was by taking advantage of the Austin stories in the sheets (if false) and sending him home for a week to get everyone in a tizzy.  However, I doubt Vince wants to work the sheets so badly that he'd risk having his biggest draw off of TV during important angles.

 

 

 

Oh, and BPS...  the RVD contract story just appeared at rajahwwf.com, so either the rumor is spreading or it's true.  I guess the big determination of how true it is will be if RVD jobs the IC strap soon to someone like Test.

[Guest mastermind]

Not RVD. The wwf knows they can make money off the guy pay him already. It is pretty disgusting how they have treated Perfect regardless of that match with Austin(which I say is another part of Austin half-assing). Perfect was over the first two days he was back. If they were serious he could have been put into a program with Angle at Mania which would have been a way better match or with Austin(or did Austin vetoe that one too *lol*).

 

Teke you have a good point, but if the wwf really had planned for Hall to win at Mania and Austin vetoed the outcome then I think it's safe to say the wwf wouldn't have any plans for the guy on Monday or Thursday. It could all be possible that last week the wwf was getting something planned for Austin to do. No one has even brought up this as a legit reason for Austin being a no-show. Let's hope it is in the worst case scenario.

[Guest]

yeah i heared all three of those on www.wrestling-edge.com

[Guest Kahran Ramsus]

If Jericho did resign then I have faith in his Main Event status. Let's just hope Benoit also has a long solid contract so he may grace us with his presence once he returns!!!!

 

I don't think Benoit will have a problem.  He is very well respected in the lockerroom, if only because he gave up the WCW World Title for a chance to be in the WWF.

 

You can see the evidence of that in the ring, where Benoit has been almost constantly pushed since his debut.

 

1) Feb-Mar 2000:  Fights HHH in first match after jump.  Given big introduction.  Moved in to top angle in company after heel turn.  Main events several TV main events.  Beats Rock a couple of times.

 

2) Apr-Jun 2000:  Wins the IC Title at Wrestlemania.  Dominates Jericho in a two month long feud.  Jobs to Rikishi to get the belt off him.  Made to look like a monster.

 

3) Jul-Oct 2000:  Main eventer.  Leader of the Friendly Coalition, along with Shane, Big Show, Angle, Edge & Christian.  Screwed out of WWF Title at Fully Loaded.  Dominates Jericho some more for the next month.  Moved back to the WWF Title picture in time for Unforgiven, where he is screwed out of the WWF Title again.  Jobs, not cleanly, to HHH at No Mercy.  Reforms the Radicalz the next night as Angle gets the WWF Title, and there is no place for him in the main events.

 

4) Nov2000-Feb2001:  Humiliates the former DX.  Crushes Billy Gunn for the IC Title at Armaggeddon.  Does high profile job to Jericho at Royal Rumble.  Continues feud for another few weeks.  Gets kicked out of the Radicalz, and destroys them on free TV ending the feud.

 

5) Mar-Jul2001:  Feuds with the former WWF Champion Kurt Angle, and dominates the feud.  Angle wins two controversial decisions at Wrestlemania & Judgement Day (in a ladder match where it took three guys to beat him).  Benoit wins at Backlash, and in two straight falls at Insurrextion.

 

6) Jun 2001:  Given WWF Title push, after defeating Austin & HHH with Jericho to win the Tag Titles.  Was the big factor in winning TLC3.  Almost defeated Austin on several occasions.  Was almost guaranteed to win the WWF Title in the summer, before being injured at KOTR (some argue that he was supposed to win in that match), causing the WWF to panic and bring in the Invasion angle.

 

7) KOTR2001-Present:  Given video package of surgery.  Appearances on Heat & Excess.

 

Benoit's WWF Career has much more in common with Angle than with Jericho, except that Benoit is over as both a heel and a face, whereas Angle was only over as a heel.  I think its safe to say that barring injury, Benoit will be with the WWF for a long time.

[Guest J*ingus]

Ramsus, I'm gonna save that post, and paste it onto any thread where people are whining that Benoit has been held back in the WWF.

[Guest Kahran Ramsus]

Ramsus, I'm gonna save that post, and paste it onto any thread where people are whining that Benoit has been held back in the WWF.

 

I don't understand how anyone could say that, unless they think that Benoit was intentionally injured by Vince.

[Guest bcu1979]

The rumor about RVD rejecting the contract extention started in this week's Torch. They had a small blurb saying there was a late breaking rumor that RVD had rejected a 5 year contract extention because he did not like the downside. RVD probably signed a 2 or 3 year deal when he signed back in July so he still has plenty of time remaining on his contract. The WWF is just trying to wrap him up long term.

 

I also heard the rumor about Jericho re-signing on Meltzer's show last night. He  mentioned it in response to a caller who brought up what a bad spot Jericho was in with his contract up soon.  There was no indication from Meltzer if it was a good contract or not.  At least, I did not pick up anything from his comments.  

 

Meltzer did say at one point during the show that the WWF was planning on cutting the guarantees of all but the very top guys since Vince has always hated downside guarantees. It would most likely only be a problem for guys who get injured since everyone who is out on the road usually makes far more than their downside.

[Guest muzanisa]

Yeah it was WCW that forced him into giving guaranteed contracts. I bet he's been waiting to drop them since Invasion. I reckon Vince hurts inside if he has to write large cheques for workers who are sitting at home skiving on his time with injuries that they could have quite easily avoided.

When they're all back on performance related pay look for Shane to come back and lay out half the roster with garbage matches. Oh and Ahmed Johnson and Vader to get their spots back.

[Guest The Masked Yodeler]

Kahran, while I wouldn't say Benoit has been held down and had his pushes fucked with like Jericho has, the WWF could have done so much more with him.  The WWF had WCW's undefeated champion coming in, and they barely even mentioned it.  They could have built it up huge, and had a money match where the "Real" WCW champion, Benoit would face the WWF champion, HHH on PPV.  But they didn't.  They gave away the match on free TV, and Benoit jobbed.  (Not that I'm saying he should have won the WWF title, because he shouldn't have, at that point).  And aside from the big 10 man on Raw, Benoit didn't do a whole hell of a lot of importance until he won the IC title at Wrestlemania.

 

However, after that, the WWF did a good job making Benoit look good, and if he hadn't been injure, I agree that he probably would have won the WWF title by now.  Of course, when he comes back from his injury next month, he'll have no momentum coming into a roster crowed with main eventers, so he'll probably get pushed down into the midcard for a good long while.