EdwardKnoxII 0 Report post Posted October 6, 2003 Ok here's the deal at a wrestling I go to the guy gets the Torch and posts it there and I'm just going to post it here for you fine folks. credit to wade TOP STORY: The Rock made a movie! The Rundown opened at #1 with a take of about $18.5 million, which is kinda disappointing. Early studio estimates were over $25 million, then they cut it back to $20 million despite the positive reviews, and it still came in under that. Scorpion King did $36 million, although it had the benefit of being part of the Mummy franchise and opening as an early summer movie instead of a late summer movie. The movie cost $85 million to make, so it will probably make that back when overseas money and everything is all tallied. But it's gonna need some good word of mouth to keep drawing strong if there's any chance of it becoming a big grossing blockbuster of some sort. In some interesting stats about the audience, over half of ticket buyers were non-white with Latinos around 30%. The ages were split between a teen audience and people over 25. For some comparisons, Vin Diesel is usually pegged as Rock's biggest competition as the new action star. His last movie "A Man Apart" opened to only $11 million, but Rundown does have the benefit of an ensemble cast aside from just Rock. And "XXX" was a big hit. The #2 movie this past week was Diane Lane's "Under the Tuscan Sun," which overall drew under $10 million but actually outdid The Rundown in theater comparisons. Rundown did an average of $5,869 at 3,152 screens while Tuscan Sun did $7,672 at 1,226 theaters. No Holds Barred only drew $4.9 million it's opening weekend, but in a theater by theater comparison it did $3761 on 1318 screens. That's only $2000 short of Rock, and when you figure the change in movie ticket prices since 1989, Hogan might have been just as strong a draw at the box office. Plus, Rundown got all sorts of advertising that No Holds Barred didn't. But obviously there's no comparing Hulk and Rock in terms of critic reviews and futures in the movie business. Rock's next movie will be the Walking Tall remake, which doesn't have any other big name actors like Rundown did with Walken and Seann William Scott, so it will be interesting to see how that one draws and what impact it has on future movies. It opens next April. The only other known project in the works for Rock right now is the Spy Hunter movie. TOP 5 STORIES OF THE WEEK: #1 - Rundown opens at #1. #2 - WrestleMania XX sold out in like two seconds. #3 - Raw and Smackdown ratings have dipped with the new Fall season starting. #4 - Stephanie will fight Vince at No Mercy. #5 - Kane vs. Shane McMahon headlined house shows last weekend, with Shane getting the win in their street fight matches. Kane knocked Shane out cold at one of the shows with a big boot, but he was able to finish. WWE NEWS: - On Byte This, Steve Austin mentioned that he'd met with Bret Hart recently about Bret maybe going on tour with WWE and doing promos for the fans at house shows and whatnot. Kurt Angle has been kissing up to Bret for the past few weeks about wanting to wrestle him at WMXX, despite Bret being in no condition to do any such thing. Bret mentioned in a recent column that he'd spoken to Vince recently, as well as Angle. So it looks like they're sweet talking Bret pretty hard. An invite to WMXX was offered a while back. - RVD got a big ovation after his ladder match, but on TV the show ended almost right after the match finish. The overrun had gone almost to 10 minutes after the hour and they had to get outta there. - Chris Jericho's wife had their baby and he did name it Ash. People thought a few weeks ago that Jericho was just kidding when he said he'd name his kid after the Evil Dead character, but he wasn't. Now didn't Jericho call Nash a "Nash-hole" a while back? Why set up your own son for a life of that? - Paul London has been getting real good reviews for his house show matches. - The Sports Marketing Group did a survey on the most hated sports, and wrestling came in at #2 just behind dog fighting. WTF, dog fighting? Is there a dog fighting show on TV that I'm missing? That sounds pretty bad, but the rest of the top ten list of most hated sports had stuff like boxing and NASCAR, which are doing pretty well. - Steve Blackman was backstage at Unforgiven, and as a wedding gift for CRZ he told WWE.com that he was considering the Kurt Angle neck surgery and maybe a comeback. - Batista should be back on Raw in a few weeks. It's expected that he'll be back in Evolution, Maven will join, and Randy Orton will be the group's leader from here on out. Jazz should also be back anytime. - Jimmy Yang has signed a three year deal. There was a Heat report of a guy using an Arabian type gimmick where he'd climb the ropes holding a flying carpet or something. A live report suggested that it was Yang, but Torch sources say it wasn't. - It looks like one of the people who will try collecting the bounty on Goldberg will be a heel-turning Nash when he comes back. His contract is up in February and, if he's re-signed at all, it surely won't be for the money he was first signed to. So he'll probably need that bounty money. TNA NEWZ: - Early estimates on the 1-penny PPV are that it did around 100,000 buys, which would mean a whopping $1000 of profit. But early PPV numbers are always off. - Hogan looks to be coming in, at least for one show. Jerry Jarrett is apparently focusing on trying to get a TV deal now, and thinks Hulk will help in that regard. Panda really sees TNA as an investment worth getting behind, so that's probably helping them meet Hogan's pricetag. - Russo is trying to get Marc Mero to come in for some reason. - Working for TNA continues to pay well for indy guys, since they can still work other shows on the weekends. During the week was usually a dead time for indy workers, so now they get an extra payoff in addition to their indy work. Since the whole contract situation a lot of the wrestlers are saying things like they wouldn't even want to go work for WWE, which may be true in a few cases, but overall the guys really repeating such things are the ones people figure were the most upset that there was no interest in them. - There were reps from a trading card company backstage taking pictures of the wrestlers for a series of cards. - Management liked Teddy Hart, but the cost of flying him in from Canada every week may be too much to use him as a regular. - Vampiro unmasking to attack Raven wasn't a long-term plan. Terry Funk and CM Punk were among the people who were thought about for that mystery man spot. - TNA is now doing a free 30 minute pre-game countdown show on Wednesday nights, but not all PPV companies will carry it right away. Check your local PPV listings! OTHER NEWS: - Pitbull #2 died at the senseless age of 36 this week. Among people that liked him, he was well liked. CLASSIC TORCH: - WCW drew 600 fans to Atlanta's Omni for a house show, while the WWF sold out the Boston Garden. Jesse Ventura and others explained to the Torch why WCW was doing so badly while the WWF wasn't. - Rumors of Hogan going to WCW began to pop up. Tatanka's undefeated streak was ended at the hands of Ludvig Borga. Darryl Van Horn aka the Sinister Minister debuted for SMW. ON TOPIC WITH JASON POWELL: It's the September hitlist! Hit: The Rundown. Miss: WWE doesn't go after TNA wrestlers. THIS WEEK WITH WADE KELLER: The Bret/Angle talk has him thinking about his dream Mania card, with all guys at their peaks. So he put one together. Bret vs. Angle: what a match! Hogan vs. Austin: two biggest draws The Rock vs. Randy Savage: colorful, cocky sumbitches Ricky Steamboat vs. Ric Flair: natch Mick Foley vs. Jake Roberts: masters of psychology The Rockers vs. The British Bulldogs: gotta get Shawn in somewhere Benoit vs. Guerrero vs. Owen: if only! Big Show vs. Andre: they're both giants, you see Piper & Orndorff vs. Hall & Nash: big 80's heel team against 90's counterparts Triple H vs. Mr. Perfect: could have been great RVD vs. Ultimate Warrior: a train wreck of epic proportions Hardys vs. Martel/Zenk vs. Edge/Christian vs. Beefcake/Valentine: all good teams Ahmed Johnson vs. Junkyard Dog: a possible negative 5 stars George the Animal Steele vs. A-Train: shave your back! Undertaker vs. Dusty: Dusty at his (fat) peak, remember. Is Taker's peak right now? THE MCNEILL FACTOR: A parody of a Raw production meeting! Oh, he hits all the good ones. Bruce Prichard and Kevin Dunn, now get this, they kiss Vince's BUTT!!! And Stephanie, upset at the notion of replacing Jerry Lawler, says he's a nice guy and "he hasn't even hit on me in years". Because he likes underage girls!!! Whoa, nelly, does the fun ever start. TORCH TALK WITH RAVEN: He talks all about TNA. You've gotta put out a good product so people will hear about it and get interested. Like 24, he was telling Tommy Dreamer how good 24 is and Tommy finally got the DVD and loved it so much he watched all 24 episodes in like 5 days. Jeez, I think I watched them in about 3 days. Am I a bigger loser than Tommy. END NOTES WITH WADE: What was the point of Coach fighting JR? I hope they book Steiner to try taking out Goldberg! Somebody's getting hurt if those two hook up. BYE Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Downhome 0 Report post Posted October 6, 2003 No Holds Barred only drew $4.9 million it's opening weekend, but in a theater by theater comparison it did $3761 on 1318 screens. That's only $2000 short of Rock, and when you figure the change in movie ticket prices since 1989, Hogan might have been just as strong a draw at the box office. Plus, Rundown got all sorts of advertising that No Holds Barred didn't. But obviously there's no comparing Hulk and Rock in terms of critic reviews and futures in the movie business. Fannnnnnnnnntastic! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Fook Report post Posted October 6, 2003 OTHER NEWS: - Pitbull #2 died at the senseless age of 36 this week. Among people that liked him, he was well liked. I would hope so! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Internet Warfare 0 Report post Posted October 6, 2003 What a nice read. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest wildpegasus Report post Posted October 6, 2003 600 people in the Omni? I never realised that WCW was in that bad of shape before. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Steviekick 0 Report post Posted October 6, 2003 OTHER NEWS: - Pitbull #2 died at the senseless age of 36 this week. Among people that liked him, he was well liked. I would hope so! Could that have been a backhanded comment, meaning that a lot of people didn't like him? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Slickster 0 Report post Posted October 6, 2003 OTHER NEWS: - Pitbull #2 died at the senseless age of 36 this week. Among people that liked him, he was well liked. I would hope so! Could that have been a backhanded comment, meaning that a lot of people didn't like him? That's correct. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jobber of the Week 0 Report post Posted October 6, 2003 600 people in the Omni? I never realised that WCW was in that bad of shape before. That's what Starrcade 89 (I think, it was titled "Future Shock") felt like. Same arena, even. Official records appearantly cite 7,000 people but at the start of the show there was so many empty seats even in the areas close to the ring that JR was making up bull to explain them all. By the end of the nite, there was a couple hundred people max. I have it on tape and it's fucking pathetic. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
The Ghost of bps21 0 Report post Posted October 6, 2003 (edited) That Pitbull line is hilarious. Edited October 6, 2003 by bps "The Truth" 21 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest Nanks Report post Posted October 6, 2003 Kane knocked Shane out cold at one of the shows with a big boot, but he was able to finish. I can't help but be a little impressed with this. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Spaceman Spiff 0 Report post Posted October 6, 2003 - Paul London has been getting real good reviews for his house show matches. Which means he'll be jobbing soon enough on TV. - Steve Blackman was backstage at Unforgiven, and as a wedding gift for CRZ he told WWE.com that he was considering the Kurt Angle neck surgery and maybe a comeback. LOL @ CRZ mention. Blackman coming back, however, does nothing for me. - Batista should be back on Raw in a few weeks. It's expected that he'll be back in Evolution, Maven will join, and Randy Orton will be the group's leader from here on out. Here we go, time to push the hell out of the green guys. Meanwhile, Jericho does...what? Bitch-slapped by Austin every week? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest THE MIGHTY THOR Report post Posted October 6, 2003 Triple H vs. Mr. Perfect: could have been great RVD vs. Ultimate Warrior: a train wreck of epic proportions This dirtsheet compare HHH with Mr. Perfect and RVD with the Warrior, isn't this the same dirtsheet that said that Rob wasn't being pushed because of his arrogance?Keller sounds like a typical RVD hater beeyotch. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
cabbageboy 0 Report post Posted October 6, 2003 Personally I think if you take the Warrior of 1990 or so and put him against RVD it would be a cool as shit match. Warrior was a much better wrestler than given credit for. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
KTID 0 Report post Posted October 6, 2003 ...no, no he wasn't. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
haVoc 0 Report post Posted October 6, 2003 I'd love to see Warrior who was super stiff in 1990 go into the ring with Lesnar or Goldberg and try that crap. It sure as hell wouldn't be a ***** classic but might be funny as hell. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Guest THE MIGHTY THOR Report post Posted October 6, 2003 Well he had 2 well booked matches, against Hogan and against Savage. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
EdwardKnoxII 0 Report post Posted October 6, 2003 I'd love to see Warrior who was super stiff in 1990 go into the ring with Lesnar or Goldberg and try that crap. It sure as hell wouldn't be a ***** classic but might be funny as hell. Well Warrior was stiff with Andre and Andre fixed that problem real quick. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TheOriginalOrangeGoblin 0 Report post Posted October 6, 2003 Well he had 2 well booked matches, against Hogan and against Savage. Yah and Warrior did nothing in either match. It was ALL Hogan & Savage. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Slayer 0 Report post Posted October 6, 2003 OTHER NEWS: - Pitbull #2 died at the senseless age of 36 this week. Among people that liked him, he was well liked. That's right up there with "The greatest match with Shawn Michaels jumping onto Ric Flair on a table" from another thread Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
