WWE News from the 5/31 Observer

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World Wrestling Entertainment faces a major challenge this coming summer due to ambitious plans being made at a time when the situation looked a lot different.

 

The company will be doing three PPV shows in a six-week period, unprecedented for them, with Raw's Bad Blood on 6/13 in Columbus, OH, Smackdown's Great American Bash on 6/27 in Norfolk and Raw's Vengeance on 7/11 in Hartford.

 

This precedes the summer's major event, SummerSlam on 8/15 in Toronto.

 

The split brand shows are a challenge due to all the problems that have cropped up with talent losses and injuries since Wrestlemania. The Smackdown brand, badly sputtering at present, will rematch Eddy Guerrero vs. John Bradshaw Layfield, coming off their bloodbath match. It is unknown what stipulations will be added, but coming two weeks after a Hell in a Cell match on the Raw brand show, even throwing in a specialized cage or gimmick will lose some of its effectiveness trying to hype what people think is a weaker show two weeks after a Hell in a Cell match. The show will be an even more difficult sell than Judgment Day was, because the Raw brand will have to be promoting Vengeance at the same time, perhaps confusing some viewers, and perhaps causing others to skip over the Smackdown show since the Raw line-up will probably be more attractive. It'll be interesting to see how hard they promote Vengeance before 6/27, but I can't imagine them not announcing the key matches before 6/28. While Raw is the hotter brand, it isn't hot enough to do a two-week build for a PPV. The buy rate for Judgment Day won't be in until later in the week. Even if it's bad, Layfield and WWE deserve a lot of credit for trying to quickly make a new top guy, and him for his performance in the role. If it isn't bad, they ought to throw a party for him. Granted, they went to extremes, but the two also saved what would have been a bad show. I know this sounds funny with ratings down and my own skepticism, but his performance in the role was far more than I expected. Smackdown had nothing on that side that was going to draw last month.

 

Layfield went from being a guy in a tag team that was an afterthought, a role he was entrenched in for years, to a guy who had to carry a television show and PPV title challenger role just weeks after a make over. It was too fast of a push to the top, and I think everyone knew it. But I don't think if the number comes in bad, that he and Guerrero should get any kind of blame even though the weakness of the main event and the brand, if that's the case, would be the reason. But if they didn't have him, and either put Booker T. in the spot, or turned Rob Van Dam heel, or even went face vs. face with Undertaker vs. Guerrero, which I'm thinking at this point is a direction they don't want to go with Taker's character, odds are the number would have been the same, if not worse.

 

Short term, if this was just one of those things where they were caught by an injury bug and a show or two suffers, this is the one company where that isn't a major issue. But the state of the industry and the Smackdown brand need to be of serious concern. Case in point, when comparing how much more difficult the business is today than in the past was the angle where Guerrero collapsed on Smackdown. It was a copy of a 1995 angle involving Shawn Michaels. That angle, controversial at the time because of how extreme they went, stating Michaels would never wrestle again, and then bringing him back to the triumphant return less than two months later, was a success and caused a ton of interest. Guerrero can't be kept out of action as there isn't the depth to allow that because he’s the champ, whereas Michaels wasn’t. But when it happened, nobody gave it a second thought. While the business is far stronger than it was in 1995 financially, and it was down when this was all happening, it's a sign of just how much more difficult getting people to care will be. Also, for the brand, it isn't like this is a temporary issue. From a talent standpoint, a return of Big Show is only minor. The current role for Kurt Angle is hurting him badly, and even when he returns, there are serious questions as to his physical durability. There are always Vince McMahon and Paul Heyman as strong television characters. Before more erosion is done, McMahon probably needs to return to a regular role on the show.

 

The update on Angle at this point is that he is probably not going to undergo neck surgery at this time. Angle will be out of the ring rehabbing for the next few months. The plans right now are for him to return to the ring around August, with SummerSlam as the target, and work a part-time schedule at that point. The current G.M. role, which there is considerable debate about, is, in their mind, a way to keep him on television while he can't wrestle. My feeling is that right now, this role has hurt Angle to the point where, as a fan, I don't see how you can be "waiting" for his return because the role seems to have taken him down. There is the feeling that they are paying him so much they want value, but sometimes it's better for a guy to be gone, and then the last few weeks, start building for a big return.

 

Even the strong Raw brand will be challenged on 7/11. It is not known yet, but it has been talked about as a good chance that neither Shawn Michaels nor HHH would be available for the show. Michaels has told friends he'd like to take six weeks off at about that time because his wife is due to give birth to their second child this summer. HHH is also due to be off at that time doing a movie. Neither of these is definite, as the time frame of the movie filming is still not firm yet, but July is the current target. From what we've been told, the company will be booking Michaels far less in July at best. It may not be a definite he's taking six weeks off, although as things were appearing, it was thought that at both the TV shows and arena shows in July, neither would be appearing live. The working plan at press time was to go with Chris Benoit vs. Edge for the World Title as the Vengeance main event.

This would most likely lead to Benoit vs. HHH, at SummerSlam. The HHH movie is a WWE Films production, so HHH's schedule may be able to be adjusted a little if he's needed, but the movie costs are such that the star is going to have to be on location most of the time.

 

Benoit vs. Edge is not set in stone, and other ideas have been talked about. The one good thing about WWE being in the shape it is in financially is that there is plenty of room for experimentation. If it doesn't work, chalk it up to learning about the audience. If it does work, particularly at this point in time, it's a green light to run more PPV shows, because this would be absolutely the worst time possible in the last six years to try this.

 

The company's ultimate goal (as Linda McMahon once stated was the goal for 2003) was to do as many as 20 PPV shows per year, which would be two shows except in January, March, August and November, where they would combine brands on the traditional "A" shows. It will be how the shows in that six week period do that will, to a large degree, make that decision. And with the $34.95 price tag for each of the three shows, I wouldn’t bank on a success.

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The weaknesses of the Smackdown brand will test the company's popularity in the Tokyo market with consecutive shows on 7/16 and 7/17 at Budokan Hall. I believe it would be the first WWE events ever in the traditional old-school pro wrestling arena.

While the last Raw tour outside of the Tokyo market didn't sellout, a pure Raw show headlined by HHH vs. Shawn Michaels sold out the Saitama Super Arena on 2/7, with 20,002 fans paying $1,959,636, which was the largest gate in company history for a non-televised event.

 

However, the over saturation this year of the Tokyo market combined with weak line-ups will provide a test. WWE doesn't draw strong ratings on Japanese television, but it draws a different audience than either Japanese wrestling or shoot fighting, and its popularity hasn't seemed to have been hampered by the growth of Pride. WWE ran two shows last year on successive nights at Yokohama Arena, which is a slightly larger and more modern building in the same market. The Smackdown crew sold out one show, but not the other. But these are the weakest line-ups offered to date.

 

The 7/16 line-up has Eddy Guerrero vs. Rob Van Dam for the WWE title, Undertaker vs. John Layfield, John Cena vs. Rene Dupree for the U.S. title, Rico & Charlie Haas vs. Dudleys for the tag titles, Rey Mysterio vs. Big Show (explained as a move made by heel G.M. Kurt Angle, but it's a stupid match for the Japan market), Billy Kidman & Paul London vs. Bob Holly & Billy Gunn, Torrie Wilson vs. Dawn Marie, Chavo Guerrero vs. Nunzio vs. Matt Cappotelli and Jamie Noble vs. Mordecai.

 

The next night as Guerrero vs. Layfield for the WWE title, Undertaker vs. Show, Cena & Wilson vs. Dupree & Marie, Rico & Haas vs. Gunn & Holly, Van Dam & Mysterio vs. Dudleys, Funaki vs. Mordecai, Kidman & London vs. Noble & Nunzio and Chavo Guerrero vs. Cappotelli.

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In a story that may have significant ramifications in a positive way, Spike TV lost out in its attempt to get the NHL contract, which will go to NBC and ESPN for the next few years. Spike had offered big money for the league, which, even though it wouldn't draw one-third the ratings Raw would, because of its greater prestige as a legit sport, would immediately become the most promoted thing on the station. Also, if Spike had paid big money for the rights, it would make it much harder to also spend $28 million per year for WWE when its deal expired in September 2005. With its focus on the network for men, I can't see any way possible, unless they go for another makeover, the station would want to lose WWE. The only question would be if they wanted to pay that level money for the franchise, particularly since they were expecting 5.5 to 6.0 ratings when they made the deal, and the show is doing 3.8's now, and may be worse by the time the deal runs out. Also, Heat was doing 3.5's and now it's doing 0.8's, and the Velocity and Experience ratings are nothing special either.

 

TV is the lifeblood of the industry. The price WWE is offering its stock over a 30-day period would be $11.50 per share (the stock was at $12 per share at the time the price was made; and fell to $11.65 on 5/25). They are offering 6,144,908 shares of Vince McMahon's stock (which would raise $70.67 million for Vince himself personally) and have the option to obtain another 921,736 shares (for which McMahon would get $10.6 million). Whenever the McMahon family sells stock, eyebrows start being raised with the idea people are speculating is they wouldn't sell unless they believe the price is going down. The story is that McMahon is planning his estate and the truth is he'll still own about 67% of the stock when it's done. Well, stock price is funny because the WWE stock of late has gone up and down more based on the market as a whole than the company. It's lower now than it was before the recent good business news came, and rose at a time when business didn't look as good. The key items going forward remain the television situation, which is very healthy short-term, and the talent situation, which doesn't look strong long-term because of the lack of new stars on the long-term horizon.

 

The deal with The Rock appearing on the 5/17 Raw was simply he was in Los Angeles, where he has a home, and just wanted to have some fun. He was telling people he had a great time and gave the impression he'd like to do it again if his schedule would permit. I'm presuming it was put together somewhat late since if they had advertised it, it couldn't have hurt the ratings any.

 

Here is the latest on the situation with Konnan coming in. TNA management hasn't decided what to do, but they believe Konnan is under contract because of the option year clause and they don't want to get into the precedent of releasing talent when WWE makes them an offer, even if they recognize it wasn't so much a raid on them as Konnan approaching WWE after Rey Mysterio and Eddy Guerrero went to bat for him. Konnan was at the TNA show this past week and pretty much saying his goodbyes.

 

As noted here a few weeks back, it is now official that John Woo has come aboard as director of "Spy Hunter," which is one of Rock's next movie projects. Variety this past week reported that Columbia Pictures is having a script made for a movie called "Battle for Paradise," about the life of Hawaii's legendary King Kamehameha, an 18th century ruler, which Rock has long wanted to play the starring role in because of his years growing up in Hawaii.

 

There is a lot of talk that Bruce Prichard on the Smackdown writing team is behind a lot of the retro gimmicks. It would make sense about Mordecai, since he's long been a gigantic fan of Undertaker and is currently considered Undertaker's political ally. Prichard briefly managed Undertaker out of the blocks, before the hiring of William Moody as Paul Bearer. Even if the jury is out on Mordecai, the fact is, his shot at getting over is a lot better with this angle than it would be as Kevin Fertig. Prichard also been credited (or blamed) for the cruiserweight situation. David Lagana is the Smackdown head writer, and he's long been a proponent of the cruiserweight division, even booking them in the TV main event position in the past. The fact the division is being turned into a comedy division seems to indicate a greater influence of Prichard. I believe Dan Madigan is behind the new Booker T. character, if they go there, as on TV this past week they didn't even hint at it after starting in that direction for a few weeks. Ultimately, where the ideas originate from is not really where ultimate credit and blame should go, because it's Vince McMahon's decisions on what to use.

 

Several of the cruiserweights themselves are frustrated because they recognize their only access to a push is if the division was given some prestige. They fear it turning into what WCW turned it into under Vince Russo, especially since a few were there when that happened.

 

Due to The Rock’s segment with Eugene on 5/17 going so long on Raw, they edited off a pre-taped skit that was supposed to air later in the show. Eric Bischoff in the skit yells at William Regal again for Eugene coming out strong and for Rock being there, blaming Regal for Rock. Regal claims he knew nothing about Rock, while Eugene did a Rock impression to Uncle Eric.

 

Sting did an interview on IGN Sports this past week talking about both TNA and WWE that had people in TNA talking at least. When asked about his future with TNA, he said, "I'm not an NWA wrestler. What ended up happening was when I first started my wrestling career, Jerry Jarrett was the only promoter who called us (he and Jim Hellwig) when we sent to those press kits (which he sent to every wrestling promoter as well as media outlets for acting gigs). Jerry called us three days after we sent those out, and even though there were four of us in the picture, he only wanted two of us, Jim and me. We got in the car and we left, and that was it. He gave me my break. So last summer when I got a phone calls from the Jarretts, I didn't want to do it. But then I started thinking about it, and Jerry gave me my break, so I decided to go out and help them out. I did four shows for them last year, but that was it." He never specifically said he wouldn't go back to TNA, but it sure sounded like he wasn't going to. The last time he was there it was only because they were filming the religious movie on him in Nashville, and all he would do on the PPV is be an outside the ring enforcer, although he did get somewhat physical. He said he'd definitely go to WWE (a change in his earlier thoughts as for a long time he said he wouldn't) now if it was done right. The hold-up is likely schedule, as he would want to work far less dates than even Goldberg, and after those in the company generally see the Goldberg experiment as a failure, it's a question how willing they are to make that move. Sting may not ask for Goldberg money, as he saved his WCW money and is financially set, and as far as coming in for a one or two month program, I'd give it a try. Everyone is aware of his limitations in the ring, and if it doesn't work, a short commitment works best for all parties. He said he'd have liked to have done last year's Wrestlemania and said he and Vince have talked several times over the past few years. He claimed that at Wrestlemania 19, they had discussed doing a deal where he'd come from the ceiling and do something with Steve Austin. He said he agreed to do it with Vince, but when negotiations started going, it fell through and he called Vince saying he couldn't do it. I remember there were talks going on at the time, but still, two things bothered me about the story. First is coming from the ceiling. Now it would have been four years at that point since Owen Hart's death, and Vince did say in 1999 that nobody would ever come from the ceiling in WWE again (the statute of limitations for the word "never" in pro wrestling is about eight months in most cases), but I don't know if they would have done that. But the idea he'd do something with Austin made no sense, because an angle with Austin would have made him a heel, and that's plain stupid, at least at first. Second, Austin wasn't wrestling after Mania, so that also wouldn't make sense. WWE sources who would be aware of creative at the time said that nothing for Sting at Mania that year was ever discussed creatively (that's Vince discussing with creative, not that Vince and Sting didn't talk and ideas were thrown around because that's very possible), so Vince couldn't have been that serious on it.

 

Jim Ross met with Kevin Von Erich this past week about trying to acquire his tape collection. Von Erich is supposed to have not only all the old World Class tapes, but a ton of older tapes from Texas.

 

Vince McMahon himself may be looking at doing the Ric Flair vs. Mick Foley angle for the fall, based on what really was some legit heat stemming from Flair's comments on Foley in the U.K. some weeks back and Foley writing Flair a handwritten letter, and also talking to Laurinaitis about it. Flair's book comes out on 7/6, but the June issue of Raw magazine will have excerpts of the book, and apparently the excerpts they are using has Flair's comments on Foley. Flair, who throughout his career has always pretty much been kind and stayed away from a lot of running down people as a shoot, apparently in the book was very different, and in his mind, gets his revenge on people who ran him down like Shane Douglas, Scott Steiner, Eric Bischoff, and others. I'm guessing the one he'll be the most negative on is Bischoff. I'm guessing the book also won't make Flair popular with Foley fans.

 

Mick Foley also has another TV series that he'd star in that is in development. He's had a number of these in the past, none of which were ever picked up. This is supposed to have people with more clout than the previous ones behind it, but this is a long process to get anywhere.

 

Rikishi is out with a sprained ankle.

 

Regarding Sean Waltman, who wants to come back to wrestling but is afraid he's burned bridges both here and with TNA, looked slim and clear headed. He was acting like he came just to say hi to people, but had a long talk with HHH and I believe he brought up working. HHH could get him in if he went to bat for him. If HHH and Michaels don't push for him, his odds lower significantly. Feeling is that everyone knows deep down he loves wrestling, but questions whether he should be in wrestling due to his track record and admitted drug problems and all the temptations that go with being on the road. Still, he does need for his own sake to be doing something, because with no creative outlet and nothing to do, his issues don't get better. He's been around forever, but he's actually only 32.

 

Chad Wicks, who we noted got tryout matches in California, was one of four people this past week signed to developmental deals, all of whom will be starting in June at OVW. Wicks, who started at Chaotic Wrestling in Massachusetts in 2001 using the name Billy the Lifeguard Kryptonite, before moving to Los Angeles to train at the Inoki dojo, was in the New Japan Young Lions tournament last month. I saw him wrestle just a few weeks ago at an APW show. He's short, thickly muscular, bleached blond hair and definitely a good athlete. By WWE standards, his height will work against him. He does a New Japan style, very snug and believable on everything and looked good. Three others signed this past week were Ken Doan, and 18-year-old from the Boston area who just graduated high school who I don't know anything about. Jim Ross was high on him, although this is now totally John Laurinaitis' department. Aaron Aguilera, who worked for the company years ago in developmental, including working the Memphis territory, before injuring his back and being let go several years back, was re-signed. He's a Southern California guy from UPW, better known as Hardkore Kidd, whose father manages him. He's also worked some in Tijuana as an American heel doing a Four Horseman gimmick. The final guy is Gene Snisky, which is his real name. He's 6-4 or 6-5 and is one of Afa the Samoan's protégés from the Allentown area. I've always heard it said about him that he has a good look, but very green as a worker. They are looking at signing a lot of new people over the next few months, including some amateur champions after the Olympics.

 

OVW has been told from this point forward when using WWE talent, they have to bill them by their WWE name, which is why Danny Basham is not billed as Damaja and why they put Nick Dinsmore under a mask as Mr. Wrestling II for the angle, because he couldn't go as Dinsmore and would have to be Eugene. Although, with Eugene given the TV time he's been getting and living and being from Louisville so they'd have easy access to him, they will likely create a storyline to explain Eugene logically (yes, this will be a good one) and use him later in the summer. I believe the plan is to use him for a few more weeks as Mr. Wrestling II, then not use him for a while. Johnny Jeter has been out of action because he had surgery to remove a calcium deposit from his hip. He'll be out probably another six weeks. The original belief was he'd only be out two weeks, so since they've done so many injury angles of late, they didn't bother, figuring by the time people would figure out he's gone, he'd be back. Now they'll probably acknowledge an injury because he'll be gone. Travis Tomko (Tyson Tomko) & Kevin Fertig (Mordecai) are still training in Louisville, but not being used on OVW TV because they aren't allowed to do Bane & Seven any longer, and likely won't be around long enough to bother with a storyline to recreate them. Standing Thunder is gone, largely because he ran out of money, since he doesn't have a developmental deal. He went home to work to try and earn enough money to come back. He will be getting tryout matches at upcoming WWE TV tapings in Canada. Luther Reigns will be off OVW TV shortly as he's moving back to California since he's on the road full-time wheeling Kurt Angle around. I want everyone to think about this one. Here is a guy with size, the juiced up physique that they love, and a great talker, who needs a lot of work inside the ring. So he's wearing a suit, doing no talking, and also, at this point, finishing up wrestling and training at the best camp possible to improve his weak points, nor wrestling at WWE house shows, which is the other best way to improve his ring skills.

 

I'm sure most of you heard that eerie news story about the circus performer at Barnum & Bailey's circus at the show in St. Paul, MN who fell 35 feet to her death after something went wrong doing a stunt, and not having a net beneath her. She hit her head (although other reports from eye-witnesses have said her back) on concrete. The eerie part was hearing this took place one day before the five-year anniversary of the Owen Hart death. They took her out on a backboard and distracted the audience with clowns performing, and then went on with the show. There is a technical difference in this decision and the Hart decision, but admittedly it's probably the same thing. Dessi Espana actually didn't die for seven more hours, or well after the completion of the show, but if she had landed head first on concrete from that height, I can't imagine the other performers wanting to continue. There were no mainstream stories making the connection with the Owen Hart incident, but I'm guessing almost every wrestling fan hearing the story did, particularly those who were aware of the anniversary. The company said it was the first fatality during a performance in more than ten years, although just last month, two performers suffered falls, but only suffered minor injuries because they had a safety net underneath. She was upside down, hanging by her legs on a scarf, which loosened, and she fell to the floor. In other ways, the circus was far more callous than even WWE, which was heavily criticized in the aftermath for continuing the show. I haven't read similar criticism of Ringling Brothers. WWE never put on an act to distract the audience while Hart was being worked on. Barnum & Bailey circus has a longstanding tradition that when someone is hurt or something goes wrong during the show, the clowns entertain to distract the audience.

 

Batista's stock has risen in the past month after being part of a lot of strong matches.

 

Credit has been given to Pat Patterson, Arn Anderson, and Michael Hayes for the layout and finishes of the strong Raw matches of late.

 

WWE has taken out a trademark on the name Carlito Colon, so that will likely be the name he uses since they just made the decision to call him up. I can't say Colon has been impressive on OVW, where he plays the role of a spoiled rich kid as they act as if his father was a millionaire wrestling promoter, which at some point, I'm sure he was. I suppose they could go somewhere with the Epstein from "Welcome Back Kotter" shtick that OVW touched on but never went anywhere with.

 

Norman Smiley, 39, has a tryout match on the 6/21 tapings in Miami. It will be the fourth time he's had tryout matches for the company, so the odds aren't good, and it isn't like everyone doesn't know at this point what skills he brings. Steve Madison, Scoot Andrews, and Antonio Banks will be doing dark matches at the tapings that day as well as 6/22 in Orlando.

 

Ashley Fliehr, Ric's daughter who was one of the most recruited volleyball players in North Carolina, who is just finishing her junior year, has committed to Appalachian State University on a five-year ride. She had been recruited by a lot of major colleges including Duke, Wake Forest, NC State and Michigan State.

 

Lamont/Maurice seemed to have disappeared off the face of the Earth. He's no longer part of Bolin's group on OVW, and hasn't been on WWE TV since Ernest Miller was fired. He's still under WWE contract, and attending classes at the OVW school, as they wait for creative to give him a role. He had worked OVW spot shows at Static D, wrestling, and was at the Six Flags show in an underneath match as a babyface under his real name, Demond Thompson. Most accounts have him a pretty good bump taker and WWE officials raved about him as a worker and his charisma when he did some matches on the road just before Miller was fired. He hadn't been on television and they hadn't done an angle to break him from Bolin. I think there is an unwritten rule that if they used a gimmick in OVW, it can't be used in WWE, so the easy role as Dupree's valet, which he was good at, has probably not been considered.

 

A correction from last week regarding Paul Heyman not being on TV the past few weeks. His girlfriend wasn't past her due date for giving birth, but it could come at any moment so he's off the road until it happens.

 

Alex Marvez spoke with Shawn Michaels this past week. Michaels claimed the constant rehashes of the 1997 Survivor Series in storylines make him uncomfortable. "Every time I've been up to Canada, they make an issue out of it. So I sit there with a big smile on my face saying to myself, 'How long are they going to keep doing this?' But if they want to go there, I'm fine with it. I always will be sorry that it happened." He said he cherishes the recent Mania match with HHH and Benoit as much as his ladder match with Razor Ramon or his hour draw with Bret Hart, because he was there when Benoit achieved his goal, saying it was the way the business showed Benoit that he's earned it. Michaels' contract expires on 6/6, and he's hoping to sign a new deal.

 

Both the Raw and Smackdown crews will be in the U.K. for the first time at the same time in October. Smackdown has dates on 10/7 in Belfast and 10/8 in Nottingham, while Raw has a 10/7 show in Sheffield and a 10/8 show in London.

 

Zach Gowen, who went from nobody to WWE PPV main eventer back to nobody in record time, finally came clean this past week. "It's time to make a confession, to come clean if you will. Since I've debuted in TNA, the story people were told is that Hulk Hogan visited me when I had cancer. On my dying bed, the Immortal Hulk Hogan gave me the strength to carry on. Well, that's bullshit. I made it up cause it sounded like a great story, and it was. It's funny because my fictional story actually led to my first storyline in the WWE with the whole Mr. America angle. Suckers. But I digress." When the word first got out the story was a work, Gowen had publicly blamed it on Mike Tenay making it up. Tenay had responded by saying Gowen was a complete liar. It's funny, because I thought Gowen was going to end up as this heartwarming story and almost a heroic figure in wrestling, which by all rights he should have been with as much talent that he had and what he overcame, plus his verbal ability. But a combination of WWE exploiting him for a successful short run and being his own worst enemy, as it went to his head bad and you can imagine how that went over in the locker room with a 20-year-old with one leg thrust into a PPV main event and then not being humble about it, and it didn't happen.

 

For a comparison point of view, the Roy Jones Jr. vs. Antonio Tarver fight on 5/15, the night before Judgment Day, did 360,000 buys, up from 300,000 from their first match. The gate was in the $4 million range in Las Vegas. Personally, I don't think that fight impacted the JD buy rate in the slightest, because the crossover audience is small, but cable people claim that people think twice and shy away from buying two PPV shows in the same weekend.

 

After getting the legal threats from WWE about using the AWA name, AWA promoter Dale Gagner is claiming that he has had the legal rights to the names AWA, AWA Wrestling, AWA Live Events, and All-Star Wrestling in the state of Minnesota since 1996. The AWA is also claiming to have a promoter in Dubai (Middle East) who is seriously looking at putting up money to promote a Steve Austin vs. Hulk Hogan match. At least that's what they claim.

 

Smackdown house shows scheduled for 6/19 Baton Rouge and 6/20 in Monroe were canceled. Current protocol is if something gets off to a terrible ticket sale start, the show is canceled rather than running money losing events.

 

The 5/3 Raw TV taping in San Jose drew 8,700 paid and the 5/4 Smackdown tapings in Reno drew 3,623 paid for a $124,880 gate. The 5/17 Smackdown brand house show in Palm Springs drew a sellout 2,600 paying $99,000. The 5/18 Smackdown TV show in Las Vegas drew 6,017 paying $192,455. 5/22 Raw house show in Philadelphia drew 4,500 and $175,000. That's a bad crowd for Philadelphia, but they used the competing sporting events argument with hockey (Flyers in the seventh game of the Stanley Cup semifinals) and a Phillies home game. 5/23 Raw in Moline drew an estimated 3,000. 5/23 Smackdown in Green Bay drew an estimated 2,500. 5/24 Smackdown in LaCrosse, WI drew an estimated 1,000. Hopefully we'll get the actual figures next week for the cities we only have estimates on.

 

In Palm Springs on 5/17, it was scheduled as a night of Judgment Day rematches. Report we got it was a small exhibit hall with chairs on the floor and two sets of bleachers on the side, but it was sold out. Eddy couldn't wrestle due to his being hospitalized, and wasn't at the show. They made the announcement right at the start, and as you can imagine, people weren't happy, particularly since it was a Hispanic crowd that came largely to see him. So they immediately brought out Wilson and announced a tiny teddy contest. It wasn't announced at the start, but there was concern Layfield wasn't going to be there either, but he actually walked right into the building and went right out in his clothes to cut an anti-Mexican promo. This brought out the Mexican superhero, the Undertaker. Layfield said that he meant anyone but Undertaker, and then asked for Paul London to come out for a match. Undertaker choke slammed him immediately, and was then jumped by Booker. Undertaker beat Booker in their very short choke slam and tombstone match. Main was RVD & Mysterio over Dudleys in a good match with a double frog splash finish. Cena pinned Dupree in what was said to be nearly a duplicate of their Judgment Day match, although the guys tried to change things up since they were told before the show that in all the rematches, try not to duplicate the match from the night before. Chavo won a three-way over Spike and Noble, with the big spot coming after the match when Jacqueline again pulled Classic's pants down.

 

Philadelphia featured a HHH vs. Michaels main event, and I don't even think it was advertised, as the last card I'd heard was HHH vs. Benoit in a single and Michaels in a tag match. No Flair in Philadelphia, and he seems to be working fewer house shows these days. Michaels even bladed, which they usually don't do on house shows. They did the finish they usually do with Benoit, so HHH likes the finish, where Orton and Batista come down to interfere, but HHH still does the job to a super kick. There was an African-American who was dressed like Kane at ringside. HHH went up to him and said he looked like he had really been burned because there was charcoal all over his face. The Benoit/Kane matches continue to get strong reviews with people saying that people will be surprised at the PPV. They have Benoit do two diving head-butts, with Kane sitting up after each one to show he's a monster, however Benoit gets the crossface and still makes him tap. Randy Orton beat Edge in a match that didn't get over live. It was slow paced with Orton using a long armlock on Edge. Batista interfered, but in this case it caused a distraction and Orton did the RKO. The style of match is what is favored by management right now, but Philadelphia is always a harder crowd and there were a few boring chants during the bout. Eugene shot both Johnny Nitro and The Coach in the groin with the t-shirt gun. Earlier, Eugene, who isn't wrestling on the road, distracted Garrison Cade so Rhyno could beat him. Rhyno got the "ECW" pop of the night. Chris Jericho beat Tyson Tomko (Christian still injured and not there) in the cage match. They used the famous blue cage out of the 80s and there were plenty of complaints about that. Crowd wasn't much into this one either, which was blamed on the cage having no noise. Jericho cut up his cheek with the cage. Test returned and pinned Mr. No Luck, Matt Hardy. Wow, now Hardy is getting beaten by guys who aren't even on TV yet. I guess the idea is Hardy has to be down and out for Kane to run in and choke slam him. Kane started running down Benoit, which immediately went to Benoit vs. Kane. At one point, Coach announced that the Flyers had just been eliminated.

 

In Moline, it was Benoit over Kane in 19:42 with the crossface as they go long to prepare for Bad Blood. Another good match. The show was similar to Philadelphia except no HHH. Michaels instead pinned Batista. Fit Finlay put his favorite blown out knee spot in during the Rhyno vs. Steven Richards match. Everyone bought that Richards was hurt this time. The crowd cheered when Richards was help to his feet, but then he made the big recovery and pranced around the ring. It was all for naught, as Rhyno gored him anyway. Orton/Edge sounded like the same match in Philadelphia, but had good heat and was a strong match. Jericho and Tomko had a different cage. This was better than Philadelphia but still the age seemed to be unstable. Tomko was walking out the door to win, when Jericho flipped him off. He then ran back in. Jericho rammed Tomko into the top of the cage, and he fell down in the ring. Jericho climbed over to win.

 

At the Smackdown show in Green Bay, they had Guerrero vs. Layfield in a street fight for the title as the main event, and had Angle at ringside during the match. They had Cena defend pinning Booker T. Chavo Classic retained the cruiserweight belt over Kidman and Spike when Chavo Jr. at ringside interfered.

 

In LaCrosse, Guerrero pinned Bradshaw after a belt shot and a frog splash in 2:42. Evidently Guerrero wasn't in good shape, because they did such a short title match and had ten guys interfere to distract, calling it a no DQ match. They put Cena pinning Booker on last with Cena winning clean and the rest was like Green Bay.

[Internet Warfare 0]

wow. The Gowen shit dosent surpise me one bit.

[art_vandelay 0]

Haha, it's funny because Hogan went along with it too.

[Scroby 0]

I swear thats just Gowen sticking his nose up Vince's ass. He probably thinks bashing TNA and Mike Tenay will make Vince happy and keep the door open for his return (knock on wood that he doesn't), if he gets one, much wider.

[DangerousDamon 0]

"Layfield said that he meant anyone but Undertaker, and then asked for Paul London to come out for a match. "

 

 

Does anyone know why JBL always likes to call out Paul London?

[JustJoe2k5 0]

Is there any chance that the increased amount of PPVs a year will bring the price back down a little bit?

[2GOLD 0]

"Layfield said that he meant anyone but Undertaker, and then asked for Paul London to come out for a match. "

 

 

Does anyone know why JBL always likes to call out Paul London?

 

Probably because he is viewed by the WWE as bumping jobber #2

[The Mandarin 0]

Ashley Fliehr, Ric's daughter who was one of the most recruited volleyball players in North Carolina, who is just finishing her junior year, has committed to Appalachian State University on a five-year ride. She had been recruited by a lot of major colleges including Duke, Wake Forest, NC State and Michigan State.

I found a cool article on Ric and his daughter.

 

Here.

 

A correction from last week regarding Paul Heyman not being on TV the past few weeks. His girlfriend wasn't past her due date for giving birth, but it could come at any moment so he's off the road until it happens.

So Paul Heyman isn't gay?

 

[Guest Choken One]

Haha, it's funny because Hogan went along with it too.

Hogan was so cracked up at that point he was willing to buy anything at that point and besides...made him look good.

[LivingLegendGaryColeman 0]

Does anyone know why JBL always likes to call out Paul London?

He keeps dodging Bradshaw's "initiation"

[AndrewTS 0]

Due to The Rock’s segment with Eugene on 5/17 going so long on Raw, they edited off a pre-taped skit that was supposed to air later in the show. Eric Bischoff in the skit yells at William Regal again for Eugene coming out strong and for Rock being there, blaming Regal for Rock. Regal claims he knew nothing about Rock, while Eugene did a Rock impression to Uncle Eric.

 

That part of it was on Bottom Line or something, according to a friend of mine who saw it.

[Vyce 0]

A correction from last week regarding Paul Heyman not being on TV the past few weeks. His girlfriend wasn't past her due date for giving birth, but it could come at any moment so he's off the road until it happens.

So Paul Heyman isn't gay?

 

Out of that big, long report, that was the one news bit that stunned me as well.

[LucharesuFan619 0]

A correction from last week regarding Paul Heyman not being on TV the past few weeks. His girlfriend wasn't past her due date for giving birth, but it could come at any moment so he's off the road until it happens.

So Paul Heyman isn't gay?

 

Out of that big, long report, that was the one news bit that stunned me as well.

Same thing here. I did a double take upon reading it.

[SuperJerk 0]

The version of the story I remember Gowan telling in WWE is that he was offered the chance to meet Hulk Hogan by a "Make A Wish"-type organization and turned it down because he was convinced he wasn't going to die.

 

He was already backpeddling from the story he told in TNA.

[RepoMan 0]

Eddy couldn't wrestle due to his being hospitalized, and wasn't at the show. They made the announcement right at the start, and as you can imagine, people weren't happy, particularly since it was a Hispanic crowd that came largely to see him... It wasn't announced at the start, but there was concern Layfield wasn't going to be there either, but he actually walked right into the building and went right out in his clothes to cut an anti-Mexican promo. This brought out the Mexican superhero, the Undertaker.

 

I don't know, I just thought that was funny.

[Spaceman Spiff 0]

Bruce Prichard can eat a dick. SD is having problems, ratings are down, match qualities are down, having problems filling out TV shows & PPV's, and they have these young, athletic guys who could get the crowd going, so obviously the answer is to make them comedy jobbers.