WWE News & Notes

[Enigma 0]

Linda McMahon's mention of Bruno Sammartino at the investor’s conference, as one of the wrestlers from the past when they talked about signing older talent up, sounded strange. As it turned out, later that day, Jim Ross and Jerry McDevitt had a meeting with Sammartino and his attorney in Pittsburgh. The meeting went well enough that they'll probably continue talking. Sammartino gets along with Ross better than anyone in the company, and his willingness to even take the meeting surprised a lot of people. Once, after the accident with Darren Drozdov, Ross and Sammartino were on a news show on opposite sites of what the TV station (I forget the station) thought would be a hot debate, and while both stated their view, it didn't degenerate like the TV show hoped as both were clearly respectful of the other, even though Sammartino was still very negative about the company. Sammartino, 68, and McDevitt had talked earlier in the year after depositions in Larry Zbyszko's lawsuit against WWE about Sammartino coming to Wrestlemania and doing the Hall of Fame thing. Sammartino isn't really into the Hall of Fame personally, as he believes he's in a few real Halls of Fame for sports, and this one is bogus since they have some job guys and Vince Sr.'s limo driver in, so dangling that carrot in front of him meant nothing. However, the company recognizes the constant criticism of its Hall of Fame right now with Sammartino, Hulk Hogan, and Bret Hart not in. The sides talked about releasing a Bruno DVD, his being involved with it, the WWE 24/7 idea, and Bruno doing a new autobiography that they would promote. Bruno, like Hart, is said to be concerned at how it would look after all the years of being so negative toward Vince and hating the company and the business, to take a job with them. Sammartino at the meeting expressed how strongly against steroid use he still was, and he made it clear he wanted nothing to do with Vince personally, and was very negative about Hogan ever coming back. McDevitt and Ross did everything to placate Sammartino. McDevitt, Hogan’s former personal attorney, apparently even told Sammartino that Hogan was just a lucky guy who was in the right place with the right look with the right marketing behind him. Without the timing and push, nobody would have made it. And with the timing and push, many could have short-term success, and there isn't one enduring legend of this business who became one without having a special ability to connect with the audience. The company must be somewhat confident they will make a deal, since Linda mentioned his name, and also because they put Sammartino in a TV commercial for the Great American Bash PPV.

 

The only matches announced thus far for Vengeance on 7/11 in Hartford is the same as the house shows, Chris Benoit vs. HHH for the World title, Randy Orton vs. Edge for the IC title, and Chris Jericho vs. Batista. The only other thing even hinted thus far would be Kane vs. Matt Hardy.

 

Rob Van Dam signed a short-term contract extension while all the final issues in his long-term deal were being worked out. The contract has basically been agreed to, and Van Dam has publicly said it's all but finalized.

 

Office morale was hardly up after the strong earnings report. The company's strong profitability was partially through cutting back more than $21 million in administrative expenses and another $30 million in other expenses from last year. All departments were hit with major cutbacks, forcing fewer people to work more hours. And so much of the profit went directly to Vince's pocket through the dividends (another $3.24 million this quarter) and to pay off his private jet, although that is a company plane that transports all the major executives.

 

Writer Dominick Pagliaro officially quit this past week, although it was a mutual thing as the company is looking at making changes. He said he had a job lined up with MTV, but there were people who wanted him out because of the feeling he knew nothing about wrestling. He'd been around for more than a year and was very close to Stephanie Levesque, and it was thought his job was protected. One company source felt that because Stephanie personally hired him off the production staff after his parents were in a horrible auto accident, she always protected him, and also, he was almost like another assistant to her. Personally, I don't see how someone could write pro wrestling without having been a fan for several years, yet at the same time, most childhood fans want it to be like their childhood. That doesn't work either.

 

Eric Bischoff is missing Raw this coming week because he's trying to sell and put together a new reality show called "777" that his production company, Bischoff-Hervey (yes, Jason Hervey) Entertainment are partnering with Scott Sternberg and Rick Hilton (Hervey is friends with the parents of Paris Hilton) on. The premise is they would take seven multi-millionaires, who would all put up $1 million in Las Vegas, compete in a bunch of different gambling encounters and the winner would get the $7 million pot. They are trying this week to sell it to a network. Bischoff, Hervey, and Rick Hilton have already sold a show to NBC called "The Good Life," which would be a reality show starring Kathy Hilton, who is Paris' mother. They are also looking for their seven multi-millionaires, who would risk $1 million as a way to become celebrities on network prime time.

 

At Raw, when they aired the Great American Bash PPV highlights on the Smackdown rebound, the crowd booed. We're told it also appeared like most fans had no idea of the results, which is a double whammy because it meant they didn't buy the show, but didn't even care enough to attend it as Norfolk is not a far drive from Richmond. The worst reaction was to the footage of the Taker vs. Dudleys and Paul Bearer angle, as well as JBL winning, although the latter was designed to get a negative reaction.

 

Ultimo Dragon is still scheduled to return in the fall as was the original arrangement. I could easily see this falling through just because the company won't push him and he's got business interests in Japan.

 

Rodney Mack is expected to be booked on some house shows over the next few weeks to check on his progress.

 

The first two overseas tapings, on 10/10 and 10/11, will both be from the Manchester Evening News Arena in England, where WWE recently did a $1 million live gate.

 

Even though he has continued to talk about it in many interviews, there was never a $1.5 million offer by WWE to Rulon Gardner. Coming off the Olympics in 2000, Gerald Brisco spoke with Gardner about joining the WWF. Gardner wanted to continue until the 2004 Olympics. His agent did propose the idea of him doing one PPV match, for huge money, and the WWF passed, but Gardner never actually turned down an offer of any dollar figure, let alone a seven figure offer.

 

The agents continue to do some double-crossing of sorts. On the 6/20 Fort Myers house show, Val Venis got in the ring for a match with Tyson Tomko. Instead, Chuck Palumbo was sent to the ring and was told he was going over, and they had to work the entire match out on the fly. The reason this is being done is to get guys used to working old-style without planned spots.

 

Matt Hardy aggravated his bad knee this past week.

 

Trish Stratus has been bothered with a strained lower back.

 

WWE recently had an interview with a well respected soap opera writer about joining the writing team for a supposed $200,000 per year role doing among other things, keeping storyline continuity. It was the role that movie writer Paul Guay (a lifelong wrestling fan who wrote the Jim Carrey movie "Liar, Liar") held for some time before quitting. The key to this was the writer was not only never a wrestling fan, but had no knowledge whatsoever of the product.

 

They've revamped the line-ups for the Japan tour. What is interesting is they are keeping Kenzo Suzuki off the tour, I guess feeling the stereotypical Japanese with a geisha girl would be bad taste. No Booker T as well. 7/16 at Budokan Hall is JBL vs. Eddie Guerrero, Undertaker vs. Dudleys, John Cena vs. Rene Dupree vs. RVD, Rey Mysterio vs. Chavo Guerrero, Charlie Haas vs. Luther Reigns, Billy Gunn vs. Mordecai, Torrie Wilson vs. Dawn Marie with Sable as ring announcer, Spike Dudley & Funaki vs. FBI, and Billy Kidman vs. Mark Jindrak. Next night in the same building is JBL vs. Guerrero vs. Undertaker for the title, Cena vs. Dupree for U.S. title, Dudleys vs. RVD & Mysterio for tag titles, Spike vs. Chavo, Kidman vs. Mordecai, Haas vs. Jindrak, Gunn vs. Johnny Stamboli and Funaki & Wilson vs. Nunzio & Dawn.

 

ESPN.com ran a front page article on 6/28 on Brock Lesnar. It had a quote from Scott Studwell, the personnel director of the Minnesota Vikings, the team he most wanted to play for, who came across negative about him. "As much as you'd like to take a shot on a guy like him because of his athletic history, do you do it at the expense of cutting another player? Probably not. At the expense of taking reps away from a promising young player? Probably not. With Brock, it's like you're starting from scratch." Studwell said Lesnar's chances of making it were less than 50%. Lesnar said he saw older wrestlers, Ric Flair and The Undertaker, and saw how much they missed their families, and didn't want to wind up like them, plus he didn't like the direction his character was going (code for not wanting to job to Undertaker again) and said he couldn't get any straight answers out of Vince McMahon. He said he blew up and quit after the South Africa tour. "I think Vince thought I'd change my mind and come back," he said. "But it wasn't going to happen." The article said the feeling was Lesnar would have to spend two years on the practice squad and play NFL Europe to learn the game, and by then he's 28 and they're wondering if he'd be past his prime. The story made Lesnar come off like an asshole, as he talked about wanting to fight, and that he'd get into fights every day if it wouldn't cost him money. It's funny because I spoke with him years ago about doing MMA and he said he wanted no part of fighting, that he was a wrestler. At the time, he also said being a pro wrestler was the greatest job in the world. He also talked about how much he hated homosexuals which is not going to get him good publicity.

 

Melissa Coates, who is on the "Extreme Dodge Ball" show on the Game Show Network that we mentioned, has not given up pro wrestling. She's still training and wrestling for OVW. She is not under a WWE contract.

 

Christian is now out of action until August at the earliest with his back problems. Friends of his say. He's pretty down about it because he felt the injury came at the worst time possible for his career, since his pairing with Trish Stratus looked to have the most potential of anything he's done in a long time and he was in the middle of perhaps his biggest push since joining in 1998.

 

Chris Jericho is being honored by both the province of Manitoba and city of Winnipeg on 7/5, before the Raw TV taping. Manitoba premier Gary Doe and city mayor Sam Katz were going to honor him in separate ceremonies. According to the local newspaper story written by former wrestling personality Don Callis, Jericho had recently spoken up against the WWE's decision to announce him from New York instead of Winnipeg. Too bad the city of New York didn't give him the same treatment when he worked there this past week, nor has Atlanta given Benoit the hero's welcome that Edmonton did. That should be some food for thought for Vince, but at this point, because it was his decision personally, and he gets defensive often about decisions getting criticized, this may be a hard one to overturn.

 

Test, who was only in his second tour since coming back from a neck injury, was injured on 6/26 in Madison Square Garden. He worked as a second the next night in Salisbury, but didn't take any bumps.

 

Announcer Rue DeBona was fired, as the decision was made not to renew her contract. She was told by Jen Good last week while her direct supervisors, John “Big” Gaburick and Kevin Dunn were in Chicago doing the Diva Search. She was one of those hires questioned from the start, as they brought her in after an extensive interviewing process to be a wrestling announcer, even though she had no product knowledge, because she was very pretty and had a good singing voice (I'm serious). It was clear she had no product knowledge while on the air, and it was clear in recent months they'd given up on her as I never saw her. In some of the pre-PPV show stuff she had been doing, they put Ivory in the spot as the dressed up pretty girl, because Ivory could talk about the product and sound like she knew what she was talking about. DeBona had become tight with broadcast partner Josh "Matthews" Lomberger, who was said to be the most upset of all.

 

There has been a feeling at house shows that there is too much Eugene, so they are going to limit his segments and shorten up his matches.

 

6/14 Raw TV shoot in Dayton drew 8,000 and 6/15 Smackdown TV shoot in Chicago drew 6,600.

 

6/20 Raw in Fort Myers drew 2,600 and $89,000. 6/25 Raw in Buffalo drew an estimated 3,000. 6/26 Raw in Madison Square Garden drew 8,624 paying $353,145. 6/27 Raw in Salisbury, MD, drew 2,200. 6/28 Raw TV shoot in Richmond drew an estimated 5,000. 6/28 Smackdown in Winston-Salem drew an estimated 2,000. 6/29 Smackdown TV taping in Fayetteville drew an estimated 3,700.

[SuperJerk 0]

WWE recently had an interview with a well respected soap opera writer about joining the writing team for a supposed $200,000 per year role doing among other things, keeping storyline continuity. It was the role that movie writer Paul Guay (a lifelong wrestling fan who wrote the Jim Carrey movie "Liar, Liar") held for some time before quitting. The key to this was the writer was not only never a wrestling fan, but had no knowledge whatsoever of the product.

 

Okay, everyone...

 

 

Ready...

 

Set...

 

Complain!

[Guest TigerDriver91]

WWE recently had an interview with a well respected soap opera writer about joining the writing team for a supposed $200,000 per year role doing among other things, keeping storyline continuity. It was the role that movie writer Paul Guay (a lifelong wrestling fan who wrote the Jim Carrey movie "Liar, Liar") held for some time before quitting. The key to this was the writer was not only never a wrestling fan, but had no knowledge whatsoever of the product.

WWE

 

That is all I have to say about that decision.

[Placebo Effect 0]

DeBona had become tight with broadcast partner Josh "Matthews" Lomberger, who was said to be the most upset of all.

AKA, Matthews isn't going to be getting laid after the Afterburn voiceovers anymore.

 

And there's nothing that wrong with the continuity guy not being a wrestling fan, pending that they have him sit down and watch the past six months or so of TV. The WWE will never try to keep constant continuity, as anything other than major mistakes from before that period likely won't get through.

[Vyce 0]

You know, I do wonder if Josh got some of Rue.

 

I honestly wouldn't be surprised if he did.

[Guest combat_rock]

What, I thought Josh was doing Bill DeMott

[Guest TigerDriver91]

Meh. Rue was fugly anyway...

[CanadianChick 0]

I still don't really get not being allowed to be a wrestling fan. Even if the said writer does have some bias towards some wrestlers, their ideas could always get tweaked or vetoed.

[teke184 0]

The legitimate reason I could see for a non-fan who knows nothing about the current storylines becoming the continuity person has to do with bringing in new fans.

 

If someone who knows nothing comes in and can't make any sense of the storylines after watching six months of tape, then the company is going to have a tough time bringing in new fans because their logic is obviously jumping around too much.

 

 

I mean, if one of us came in, we'd be able to remember the backstory between Benoit and Eddy Guerrero that's been referred to on-screen but not really explained for the people who don't know. We'd also know about The Clique whenever Shawn and Triple H go on a trip down Memory Lane, although the continuity person and 99.99% of the audience would go "What the fuck are they talking about?"

[Hektik 0]

The Bruno Sammartino issue is the one of biggest problems with the WWE. In the last couple of years the WWE has used their propaganda to convince their fans on who are "legends" and who are not. In WWE land, Shawn Michaels and Jimmy Snuka are "legends." Snuka will get a huge pop whenever he makes an apperance because the WWE has kept his name fresh in the fans minds. Bruno Sammartino carried the WWE through the 60s and 70s. If he came out for a surprise apperance their would be no reaction. The fans in the arena would look at each other with a confused blank stare. As time goes on the same will happen to Bret and any other wrestler who ends up on Vince's shit list.

[MarvinisaLunatic 0]

Test, who was only in his second tour since coming back from a neck injury, was injured on 6/26 in Madison Square Garden. He worked as a second the next night in Salisbury, but didn't take any bumps.

 

But..he did slap Garrison Cade on the ass 3 times and rub his shoulders for like 20 seconds..

 

6/27 Raw in Salisbury, MD, drew 2,200

 

I figured as much. WCW got a little over 4,000 in the same arena with the Thunder set when they did a Thunder Taping at the end of 1999. I doubt they could fit the Smackdown set in the place, but 4,000 people is about what they get for the Smackdown Tapings...

[Guest Choken One]

How is that going to happen to bret?

 

They blow him all the time these days...pimp the orgins of the Sharpshooter and have been VERY VERY VERY friendly with bret.

 

If bret comes out, he'll get a pop that'll make Hogan in toronto look tame.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

However, another-side to the "non-fan" is that they probably don't take wrestling seriously. So that means they'll overlook some things because "it's wrestling, not rocket science". There are some important patterns that arise in wrestling that one would need to know in that position, as-well-as cliches and "time-tested" (cough) formulas. How product knowledge in _any_ job isn't important is beyond me.

[Guest JMA]

According to the local newspaper story written by former wrestling personality Don Callis, Jericho had recently spoken up against the WWE's decision to announce him from New York instead of Winnipeg. Too bad the city of New York didn't give him the same treatment when he worked there this past week, nor has Atlanta given Benoit the hero's welcome that Edmonton did. That should be some food for thought for Vince, but at this point, because it was his decision personally, and he gets defensive often about decisions getting criticized, this may be a hard one to overturn.

Good for Jericho. He certainly isn't afraid to stand up for what he believes in.

[Hektik 0]

How is that going to happen to bret?

 

They blow him all the time these days...pimp the orgins of the Sharpshooter and have been VERY VERY VERY friendly with bret.

 

If bret comes out, he'll get a pop that'll make Hogan in toronto look tame.

But Bret has only been out of the spotlight for 4 years. Vince is playing nice in 2004 because there is buisness to be done. If Bret doesn't play ball then you will hear less and less of him on WWE TV. Remember, Vince burried Bret from late 1997 to 2003. If I was a new fan who came along in 2001, I would think Bret Hart was a greedy little Canadian who was the real reason WCW died. I mean, thats what Confidential would have taught me.

[Guest Loss]

Jericho is very afraid to stand up for what he believes in or he would have told HHH to go to hell a long time ago.

 

As far as the non-fan thing, despite what they say publicly, it's looked down on to be to much of a fan internally, because you get a rep as a mark. It's like a few months ago when Michael Cole got heat for actually preparing for a broadcast, and management thought that was a tad too markish.

[haVoc 0]

Never thought I'd say this, but everyone should be more like Cole. Maybe SD would be better then!?

[Guest Choken One]

How exactly did he he prepare that came off as markish?

 

Did he like talk to the workers about their plans and what they wanted to do like a REAL broadcaster does?

 

Or did he actually write down who everyone was and Vince went "they are jobbers, who cares about their names".

 

or did he neglect to mention the High School Football team that Stamboli played for?

[SuperJerk 0]

Meh. Rue was fugly anyway...

Rue was one of the best looking women to ever work for the WWE.

[AndrewTS 0]

"DeBona had become tight with broadcast partner Josh 'Matthews' Lomberger, who was said to be the most upset of all."

 

They thought they needed to give Josh one of the most WASPy fake last names imaginable? Why?

 

Bah, Lilian > Rue. I don't care that she's gone. What did they actually expect to do with her anyway?

[dpac 0]

"Ultimo Dragon is still scheduled to return in the fall as was the original arrangement. I could easily see this falling through just because the company won't push him and he's got business interests in Japan."

 

 

I thought Dragon was done in WWE, anyone know more about this??

[AndrewTS 0]

"Ultimo Dragon is still scheduled to return in the fall as was the original arrangement. I could easily see this falling through just because the company won't push him and he's got business interests in Japan."

 

 

I thought Dragon was done in WWE, anyone know more about this??

He's still under contract. WWE let him work dates in Japan since they're not going to be using him.

 

Eric Bischoff is missing Raw this coming week because he's trying to sell and put together a new reality show called "777" that his production company, Bischoff-Hervey (yes, Jason Hervey) Entertainment are partnering with Scott Sternberg and Rick Hilton (Hervey is friends with the parents of Paris Hilton) on. The premise is they would take seven multi-millionaires, who would all put up $1 million in Las Vegas, compete in a bunch of different gambling encounters and the winner would get the $7 million pot. They are trying this week to sell it to a network. Bischoff, Hervey, and Rick Hilton have already sold a show to NBC called "The Good Life," which would be a reality show starring Kathy Hilton, who is Paris' mother. They are also looking for their seven multi-millionaires, who would risk $1 million as a way to become celebrities on network prime time.

 

Things like this make me hate America.

[Star Ocean 3 0]

Replies like that make me hate people.

[cynicalprofit 0]

There has been a feeling at house shows that there is too much Eugene, so they are going to limit his segments and shorten up his matches.

Wait he's the most over guy they have and they're cutting his time......I could understand if he was hurting, but come the fuck on.....if this was Austin it wouldn't even have been considered.

 

God Nick Dinsmore is by far now the smartest man in wrestling. He doesn't have to use a risky style and get hurt, he's massively over, and he's got a good shelf life on his gimmick. He's the new Hulk Hogan if he keeps playing his cards right. I'm waiting for the burying and funeral cause HHH is that evil.

[Guest Fook]

God Nick Dinsmore is by far now the smartest man in wrestling. He doesn't have to use a risky style and get hurt, he's massively over, and he's got a good shelf life on his gimmick. He's the new Hulk Hogan if he keeps playing his cards right. I'm waiting for the burying and funeral cause HHH is that evil.

If they keep featuring him in every other segment on Raw, his gimmick will be as stale as six month old bread within no time.

 

Moderation is the key, not oversaturation.

[Guest JerichosHi-Lite]

Jericho vs. Batista sounds good, especially after the intense, long-running feud they've had

 

/sarcasm

 

So who's gonna lead this match?

[Guest Staravenger]

I'm glad WWE finally got rid of someone worthless, in this case, Rue (and of course Jacqueline last week as well). I hope for Ultimo to come back. At least he was always having entertaining (but short) matches on Velocity.

[Guest JerichosHi-Lite]

I'm glad WWE finally got rid of someone worthless, in this case, Rue (and of course Jacqueline last week as well). I hope for Ultimo to come back. At least he was always having entertaining (but short) matches on Velocity.

I thought Jacqueline was still employed as a "trainer"

[razazteca 0]

There has been a feeling at house shows that there is too much Eugene, so they are going to limit his segments and shorten up his matches.

The lockerroom fears that he will get over and steal their "spot"? Heaven forbid a wrestler getting over on his own talent and in such a short period of time too. Too bad he is not a hoss or he would be the champion by now.

[thuganomics 0]

The Bruno thing makes me REALLY happy. It's good that WWE is finally coming around to honoring one of the most legendary wrestlers in the history of this sport, not to mention the man who kept WWWF afloat for 20 years.