WWE Notes from the 5/3 Observer

[Enigma 0]

Jim Ross was on Byte This on 4/22 and talked in depth about his position change. It was nothing that wasn't mentioned in more detail here last week. He said he considers Steve Austin a friend and that it was unfortunate they couldn't come to terms on his new contract. He said he expects him back at some point, but figures he'll explore other options before coming back. He said he hopes the people who are advising him don't put him in a position where he is going to wrestle and said he didn't think Austin would allow it to happen. He said Austin can help Japanese wrestling, which he said, "They're desperate. The Japanese pro wrestling is sucking pond water. It's not drawing. Goldberg went there. He did not draw maybe once or twice." A lot of people ripped Ross for the remarks, and the sucking pond water comment is too strong from a quality standpoint, and there are so many versions out there that generalizing an entire industry is a bad idea. You could make the same statement about the popularity of the U.S. industry in 2002-03. Ross' business appraisal isn't off, as the traditional version of pro wrestling isn't drawing well and his statement on Goldberg was accurate, in that after his first two All Japan appearances, every show he's done has been a disaster, although that's more the fault of the direction and lack of long-term planning of the promotions he's worked for. Goldberg came into Japan with great hype, and he came across like a superstar on his first two shows, reminiscent of the 1985 debut of the Road Warriors. But he didn't deliver the excitement they did, and even though he's got the great deal and works on top on high profile shows, he doesn't have the drawing power legs they had. From a quality standpoint, I'd disagree, as NOAH is a strong product and New Japan is actually real good as far as a lot of the house shows and semi-major shows go. Their booking direction is a disaster and they've prostituted their business, and affiliating with shoot groups may line Antonio Inoki's pockets and give them short term big cash, but they've killed their fan base for the long run in the process. Ross felt putting Austin in with a Japanese wrestler or Goldberg would be short sighted and poorly advised and said he didn't think Steve would allow it to happen unless a lot of money is thrown in his face. It's probably good for the future that WWE considers his agent as the heel because it's easy for him to come back, but Austin is steering his own ship. He's not the passenger, and he is the one who will make the decision to wrestle and has talked openly about doing occasional matches in Japan. Ross said he read Goldberg was offered a new contract but he wasn't. That's a semantic deal because Goldberg was asked if he wanted to come back, but told they wanted world wide rights, and no deal was reached. Even after Mania, Goldberg at least discussed with friends the possibility of taking the deal, and the decision was based on what would be better for his career, to stay on TV every week and be in the public eye, or to not be on TV every week, but not be misused. He said Brock Lesnar may be back next year if he doesn't make it in the NFL, but it's best for WWE in the long run if he makes it in football and then comes back. He didn't knock Lesnar at all. He praised Mick Foley, as he should have. He talked about some day writing a book on his life, said Simon & Schuster has expressed interest, but there are no plans as of right now. He said his new job will give him more time for such a project. He also said he's been talking with Jeff Hardy about returning, saying he belongs in WWE. There are hold-ups on this one and the return at this point isn't imminent. As mentioned before by friends of Jeff’s, that the biggest problem involves Jeff’s own stubbornness. I believe WWE wants Jeff to go into rehab first, because of his two failed drug tests and company policy, before signing him to a new deal and Jeff has always been in denial of having any problem. Ross also talked about a possible revival of Tough Enough in a year if reality TV stays strong.

 

In the weekend movie box office, "The Punisher" fell to No. 4 in its second week out doing $6,289,000 for a two week total of $24,732,000. "Walking Tall" fell to No. 11, with $2,660,332, for a total at this point of $40,716,354.

 

On the Mania 3-disc DVD which comes out this week, they've changed the crowd noise for the Goldberg vs. Lesnar match. They turned the noise down to take away most of the chants about how the match sucked. Some of the booing for the match couldn't be taken out, and the "Na na na na" on Lesnar was left in. You could hear "You sold out" chants at Lesnar. Some of the negative chants couldn't be taken out, but they did take out "boring" chants and a lot of the loud booing. The "na na na na" was there, but edited down. They didn't change the commentary, which led to a funny spot where Lawler says, "that's not boring," which made no sense because the loud "boring" chants had been edited off. They also edited out both of Ultimo Dragon's slip-ups, and played different entrance music (rights fees) for Victoria.

 

As things stand right now, Lance Storm, 34, has retired with his final match being in his home city of Calgary on 4/19 against Steven Richards on Heat. Storm started wrestling almost 14 years ago. He was a college volleyball player and went to Calgary to be trained by Keith Hart. He will be starting on 5/2 full-time as a trainer in OVW. His career started in the dying days of the Stampede territory, and he worked Canadian independents, most notably in Winnipeg where he first met with Chris Jericho. The two formed a tag team in Winnipeg, worked together with the old WAR promotion in Japan, before Storm started full-time in Austria for Otto Wanz. Storm & Jericho made their first U.S. name as a tag team called The Thrillseekers for SMW. The team, which Jim Cornette wanted to make into a younger version of The Rock & Roll Express, didn't work out. Storm wrestled mainly in Japan after that, before getting a gig in ECW, where he and Justin Credible worked as The Impact Players tag team. From there he went to WCW, where he had his good moments when he got a push, more as a heel under Vince Russo playing the Pro-Canada babyface role off the 1997 Survivor Series. He got a little push early in coming to WWE after the folding of WCW (they immediately put the IC title on him in probably only his 2nd TV match, although this was probably due more to Albert’s reign tanking big time and desperately needing the title off him), but when they tried to make his blandness into a gimmick, like everyone else historically this has been done with (Doug Furnas, Phil LaFon, and Steve Blackman come to mind), it was career suicide. One of the reasons Storm hadn't been wrestling for the last several weeks is that he'd talked about getting out of the ring and everything was on hold until they came to an agreement as to what he'd do next. Storm wrote a long story on his web site saying, "I have been dissatisfied with my in-ring career for quite a while. I have been lost in the quagmire for the better part of the year, with no direction, no focus, and quite frankly, no forward motion. This isn't anybody's fault so much as it is a compilation of several factors. I have always wanted to be an important part of the product and I had come to the point where I was feeling that I could contribute more outside the ring than I have been inside it." His decision was made easier because of back problems. He has four bulging discs in his lower back and a problem with his sciatic nerve. There were bumps he could no longer take and was limping and in great pain after most of his matches. He's had his legs go numb on more than one occasion. He said if everything else was going well with his career, he could rehab it and work through it, but since his career was going nowhere, the combination of the two had him looking for ways out. A lot of the older wrestlers in the company are hoping for agent jobs, but quite frankly, there are only so many agent jobs necessary and they are all full. When the decision was that they didn't want to make him an agent, citing it would be too quick a transition from talent to office, he was offered the OVW job. Storm said he was emotional about it that night, noting he lives in Calgary, he was trained in Calgary, had his first WWE appearance in Calgary and what may be his last match was in Calgary. He was originally to beat a local wrestler, but Richards asked if he could lose to Storm. Storm said he would have liked to have gone out with a great match, but they didn't present it as a big deal so he just did a 6:00 TV match. Nothing was said about it in the commentary and the cameras cut out right after the finish, so you never saw the post-match celebration.

 

Because WWE did more than 7,000 tickets on the first weekend of sales for 7/6 Smackdown TV in Winnipeg, they are planning on doing Raw there on 7/5. The announcement should be made next week as they are sending Eric Bischoff to Winnipeg to promote the ticket sale opening in early May.

 

WWE is still planning on producing three movies on its own. The HHH and Kane (horror movie) vehicles are a go. The movie that was supposed to be a vehicle for Steve Austin is still going to be produced. Vince McMahon hasn't made the final decision on who is going to be put in the Austin lead role.

 

The debut of Tyson Tomko (who is no relation to former Vancouver and Winnipeg promoter Al Tomko) with Christian makes the Sean O'Haire firing perplexing. Even though O'Haire wasn't catching onto WWE style, he was far more charismatic, better athletically, and a far better worker than Tomko. I think the main reason was that one was a WCW product and the other was a WWE find.

 

It's also interesting to note that after several years of mainly giving wrestlers personalities that are exaggerated versions of themselves, and teaching talent that the successful characters like Steve Austin, The Rock, and Ric Flair are like that, that they've switched gears with people like Hirohito, Eugene, and Mordecai into the mid-80s cartoon era. I don't know if Vince McMahon feels this style has run its course and thinks this is the way to attract more of a casual audience with characters instead of "real people," because the audience itself wasn't taking the product to that direction. It just could be that Hirohito was an offshoot of the old Japanese wrestling stereotype heel of another generation, and Mordecai seems to simply be a big guy to give Undertaker new cartoon foe, and Eugene was because somebody on the writing staff watched Rain Man.

 

There is talk of putting Dawn Marie and Rene Dupree together as an act.

 

WWE's ledger books had to be redone and trading of shares was temporarily suspended after a Securities and Exchange Commission review of the company. Basically the company hadn't listed the expenses in the purchase of WCW, which totaled $9.1 million, in its annual books. The $2.5 million purchase price of WCW assets like the tape library, intellectual property, and some of the contracts were originally taken over an indefinite period of time on the books, or basically not counted. The SEC ruled they have to be taken as expenses, so they've added $417,000 in expenses over a six-year period from 2002 to 2007. In addition, the other $6.6 million in expenses, which was a combination of $5 million in promised advertising with AOL Time Warner and paying off some licensees and other expenses having to do with getting the rights to the company, was taken off the 2001 and 2002 fiscal year books. Basically that means the 2000-2001 company profit listed of $15.9 million is now $14.9 million (it would have been much higher but that was the XFL year). The 2001-2002 books profit originally listed at $42.3 million is now $38.9 million. The 2002-2003 books listed losses of $19.2 million (largely due to the losses from WWF New York) and now the losses are $19.5 million.

 

Kensuke Sasaki was called about coming to San Jose for Raw on 5/10. It is believed he will be asked to be the bodyguard for Hirohito, although he himself wasn't even positive of that. It's funny because Kenzo Suzuki (Hirohito) is 6’4’’, and Sasaki is 5’7’’. The Hirohito promotional footage on Raw was edited off the U.K. version of Raw, probably due to the bad taste issue.

 

The Dudley deal is they are going to push them for now as singles wrestlers. The idea is that the wrestlers will sign to face "The Dudley," but they won't know which Dudley until the match starts. And, of course, the other Dudley will constantly interfere.

 

Tim White was back on the road last week working as an agent. He needs yet another shoulder operation because his shoulder popped out of its socket when he counted to three during the Christian vs. Chris Jericho match at Wrestlemania. He had only refereed one match in several months leading up to that match (another Christian vs. Jericho match on a house show), and was injured and replaced midway in that one. Christian and Jericho asked he ref their match, but I was still surprised he did so, since he got hurt a few weeks earlier. He told people how much of an honor it was that wrestlers asked that he ref their match at Mania. He also joked that he was bummed about the APA gimmick being over, because now he doesn't get a new bar renovation when they come to the Providence area for TV tapings. A couple of times they did staged bar fights that tore up White's "Friendly Tap" bar, and of course, whenever they do that type of a segment, the company pays for damages, since the wrestlers are allowed to go wild.

 

Minneapolis Star-Tribune sports columnist Sid Hartman had an item saying that John Wolf, who is Brock Lesnar's agent, claimed that 14 NFL teams have expressed interest in attending his tryout to see if his 4.65, 40, and 290 pounds is legit. Wolf claimed that Lesnar earned $10 million in his four years as a pro wrestler. That number is ridiculously inflated, since only two of those years he was even on the main roster. He did make more than $250,000 per year in his two years of training because he signed one of the biggest developmental contracts ever (the only other person I can recall getting that kind of money unproven at the start was Mark Henry). He topped $1 million last year and was probably in that range the year before, so $2.5 million is probably close to the real number, with it possibly hitting $3 million. Wolf said that Lesnar, "Wanted to compete and pro wrestling doesn't include actual competition." Some wrestling fans will get mad at that, because of it coming off negative to the business, but it is the truth. There is actual competition in wrestling to be sure, but it's not in a traditional sports context. There are reports that Sports Illustrated is planning a feature story of Lesnar's attempt to make the NFL. The Kansas City Chiefs have already expressed interest in him and Minnesota Vikings coach Mike Tice has softened his stance on him as well.

 

Terry Funk will work doing the Steve Austin sheriff like role, doing an all-show program with Bischoff, on the 4/30 house show in Amarillo.

 

Coming on the heels of Victoria and Christopher Nowinski making a Democratic Party gathering to promote young people voting, Hilary Rodham Clinton said that she and Bill used to watch wrestling all the time. This also came up during CNN's "Crossfire."

 

The new TV schedule goes into effect this weekend. The final episode of Confidential (consisting of several previously aired segments) aired on 4/24. This coming weekend Velocity moves to 7 p.m. and WWE Experience starts at 10 a.m. Sundays, all on Spike.

 

Jerry Lawler had told people that he's talked with Ross about starting a developmental territory in Memphis, because they've got the live TV that still does good ratings which is what young talent needs experience at, plus there are a lot of small-time shows in the area. Memphis had a several-year run as a WWF developmental territory, and was actually the first place both The Rock and Kurt Angle worked, but it fell apart due to all sorts of personality clashes that involved Lawler, his then-wife Stacy Carter, promoters Terry Golden and Randy Hales (who worked with each other, then split apart). Later, when Lawler quit the WWF, Hales, who owned the Memphis group at the time was told not to use Lawler, his biggest draw, on TV or shows. He sided with Lawler, so the WWF fired him and pulled all the talent, and having nothing to do with that issue, the live TV was canceled by Ch. 5 very shortly after that because they didn't want tapings in their studio any longer. While nothing is likely to happen in the immediate future, the idea of adding to OVW with one or more new territories has been talked about as a long term idea. The idea would be to sign up a lot more prospective wrestlers into the system and training them, which as noted, is something that needs to be done. Memphis, Connecticut, and Atlanta have all been talked about as potential new sites for developmental territories. This is one of the new projects that John Laurinaitis will be in charge of getting off the ground and stocking.

 

Speaking of John Laurinaitis, in his first weekends in full charge of the house shows, the shows have continued to have pinfall finishes up and down the show. There hasn't been as much impromptu stuff as there was a few weeks ago, but there is still some, but I think that's more because Paul Heyman isn't involved in the house show booking as opposed to Laurinaitis taking more control over the shows.

 

The Rock will be getting Punk'd on an episode of the MTV series. Last we heard is the schedule was for the episode to air on 5/16 at 10pm, or head-to-head with Judgment Day.

 

Although it has been reported a few times in recent weeks that Chris Jericho's wife was from Winnipeg, Don Callis on his radio show this past weekend said she was actually from Minnesota.

 

Edge was kept off the weekend house shows because of his broken hand. He appeared and got involved at the shows, but didn't wrestle.

 

Sable has been out of action since having to undergo surgery when one of her implants leaked. She has more than one year left on her current contract but it is not definite if she will or won't be brought back. Brock Lesnar leaving didn't help her status any.

 

I believe WWE sent a letter of apology to the Cauliflower Alley Club over the behavior of Chavo Guerrero, Sr., even though he was there on his own and not sent by the company.

 

A correction from last week. Michael Jenkinson is the comment editor, not the sports editor of the Edmonton Sun.

 

The Rochester Democrat & Chronicle ran a story on 4/27 about High Falls Brewing Company, which was scheduled to make the Stone Cold Steve Austin beer. The story noted WWE had already started production of Stone Cold Beer t-shirts. High Falls Chief Executive Tom Hubbard said that after all the work, it was very possible that a WWE branded beer "will never resurface."

 

Ernie Ladd, 65, who is suffering from cancer, gave moving speeches to both the Raw and Smackdown crews at this week's TV. Because Raw is on Phoenix, Billy Graham is scheduled to attend the show, possibly along with his friend Don Frye.

[DCMaximo 0]

The debut of Tyson Tomko (who is no relation to former Vancouver and Winnipeg promoter Al Tomko) with Christian makes the Sean O'Haire firing perplexing. Even though O'Haire wasn't catching onto WWE style, he was far more charismatic, better athletically, and a far better worker than Tomko. I think the main reason was that one was a WCW product and the other was a WWE find.

 

Aw shit, how badly is this guy going to suck? He already looks pretty goofy, like Justin Credible's idiot brother, and sounds like his abilities stretch as far as Nathan Jones Mk II.

[Guest The Winter Of My Discontent]

what did chavo sr. do at the cauliflower club?

[Guest Choken One]

So they basically admited that SOH was only cut because he was from WCW?

[Mearl267 0]

A Kane horror movie? These guys can't make him look like a moster in the 7 years they had him, what the hell is a movie going to do?

[Spaceman Spiff 0]

what did chavo sr. do at the cauliflower club?

 

http://forums.thesmartmarks.com/index.php?showtopic=54195

This was originally written by Dave Meltzer:

 

Most of the talk around the Cauliflower Alley Club weekend revolved around Danny Hodge and Chavo Guerrero Sr., in a number of incidents. Guerrero Sr. showed up a few days early, and confronted Nick Bockwinkle on 4/14. Guerrero complained that the club had never honored a Guerrero and it got bad enough that security had to come. Guerrero was also mad that there were no rooms left at the Plaza Hotel, and reportedly flew back to Texas that night. He flew back and there were more foreworks on 4/16. He apparently was waving a recent WWE paycheck for $18,000, so it may be from the Mania house show, apparently trying to rub it in people's faces how much he was making. At least that is how a lot of wrestlers saw who would be happy he's still there, since he was originally brought in for a two week program and its only because his brother is such a huge star that he's likely still around. On that night, Guerrero got belligerent to Bob Orton Sr., who is wheel chair bound. Hodge had to step in and grab a hold on Guerrero, who couldn't move since Hodge still has his death grip.There were people who witnessed it that thought Guerrero was about to start a fight (Guerrero in his youth was a hell of a tough guy for his size, as I saw him take apart a college football star twice his size who hit the ring trying to show wrestling was fake, even though that was about 25 years ago; and in 1995, tried to start a fight with Vader at a post show party after the Bash at the Beach).

 

Anyway, when he recognized Hodge, nothing happened. The final incident saw Guerrero take off on Gagne and start screaming about being stiffed on a 1988 PPV show. While most recognize he probably was stiffed on a payoff, it was felt is was hardly the time or the place. Some watching thought Guerrero was trying to goad Gagne, now 78, into a fight. Gagne was calm through the situation and told Guerrero to come back and discuss things calmly when he hadn't has so much to drink. Unfortunetly, Verne at this stage, probably has no idea about what Guerrero was mad about, as he didn't remeber people introduced to him five minutes earlier, and couldn't remember how many grandchildren he had. Then Guerrero started claiming Gagne was racist and was predjudice against Mexicans (the AWA promotion was notorious about not promoting African-Americans and other minorities to the top level). Even life long haters of Gagne were mad at Guerrero, and he was escorted by security once again, and this time told not to come back. He was not back on 4/17 for the banquet, and was in Medicine Hat for the WWE Smackdown brand house show on 4/19.

[Guest JMA]

There is talk of putting Dawn Marie and Rene Dupree together as an act.

I would dig this idea. Of course, I'd be happy if they put Dawn with ANYBODY at this point.

 

I just like seeing her on TV.

[Scroby 0]

Kensuke Sasaki was called about coming to San Jose for Raw on 5/10. It is believed he will be asked to be the bodyguard for Hirohito, although he himself wasn't even positive of that. It's funny because Kenzo Suzuki (Hirohito) is 6’4’’, and Sasaki is 5’7’’. The Hirohito promotional footage on Raw was edited off the U.K. version of Raw, probably due to the bad taste issue

 

Wonder if Alex Wright is upset because he's getting ripped off.

[Guest Man Of 1,004 Modes]

Ernie Ladd has cancer?! Damn, I didn't know. Hope he get's better.

 

 

And is Sasaki gonna dress in all white, and do some spectacular shit when no ones looking? Sorry, was watching some tapes of the Simpsons.

[haVoc 0]

Storm started wrestling almost 14 years ago. He was a college volleyball player and went to Calgary to be trained by Keith Hart. His career started in the dying days of the Stampede territory, and he worked Canadian independents, most notably in Winnipeg where he first met with Chris Jericho.

 

I thought these two were trained together?

[Vyce 0]

The debut of Tyson Tomko (who is no relation to former Vancouver and Winnipeg promoter Al Tomko) with Christian makes the Sean O'Haire firing perplexing. Even though O'Haire wasn't catching onto WWE style, he was far more charismatic, better athletically, and a far better worker than Tomko. I think the main reason was that one was a WCW product and the other was a WWE find.

 

Finally, some VINDICATION for us SOH fans.

 

And damn, it looks as if the Guerreros just can't be social drinkers.

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

Wow, the Sasaki thing is a perfect example of the WWF right now. He's going to play a non-wrestling bodyguard role for a guy who's terrible in the ring. Not like Sasaki can really do anything these days either.

[Guest Trivia247]

Its just my opinion but I believe that the reason Goldy boy didn't sky rocket in Japan because he wasn't mean't to last long there. Its like japanese wrestlers who tour US Promotions, they hang around for a couple of weeks maybe a month promoting their company in tour (In return for state side wrestlers going to japan) and then they disappear...

 

Why give Goldberg a biggest boost if he is not even gonna be there full time?

 

but I guess good ol JR needed some examples to call Japanese wrestling Pond sucking. Must be because they stealing his beloved SCSA and won't even buy his BBQ sauce.

[Guest Choken One]

Wow, the Sasaki thing is a perfect example of the WWF right now. He's going to play a non-wrestling bodyguard role for a guy who's terrible in the ring. Not like Sasaki can really do anything these days either.

kinda like how Shawn was Diesel's Manager for most of 1994...he didn't have many signifanct injuries...They just decided to make shawn a Manager for the most part of 1994.

[snuffbox 0]

Because Raw is on Phoenix, Billy Graham is scheduled to attend the show, possibly along with his friend Don Frye.

Can we assume some tv time with Randy Orton is in store for the Superstar?....

[Guest Brian]

It'd be hella funny if he spit of Graham and Frye knocked his ass out. Not that I dislike Orton.

[Guest Sturgis]

And is Sasaki gonna dress in all white, and do some spectacular shit when no ones looking? Sorry, was watching some tapes of the Simpsons.

(Akio comes to the ring during WrestleMania XX in a white suit)

 

Sturgis(slightly intoxicated): "He's gonna something cool"

 

Room of causal wrestling fans and Simpsons enthusiasts: HAHAHAHAHAHA

 

 

Ah, the power of Budweiser