WWE News & Notes from the 8/2 Observer

[Enigma 0]

In a surprise, on its day of release, the Chris Benoit DVD “Hard Knocks: The Chris Benoit Story” set had sold out in many stores. It was No. 13 among all titles on the Deep Discount DVD best sellers list and No. 10 among all titles on amazon.ca (the Canadian branch) and No. 53 in the U.S. While not the early rush the Ric Flair DVD initially had, it's well above DVD's for far bigger stars like Steve Austin, The Rock, Kurt Angle, Brock Lesnar, and Shawn Michaels coming out of the chute. This may say that the DVD market is based on guys who have a track record of great matches, as aside from Flair, the biggest individual wrestler DVD was for Michaels. Eddie Guerrero’s is coming out this year, and among people who at least have reps for great matches, that leaves perhaps Bret Hart as the strongest candidate, although there are many obstacles there.

 

Due to Eddie Guerrero's hamstring injury, he was out this past weekend and may be out until around SummerSlam, or at least not used on house shows to allow him to heal. At the house shows starting this coming weekend, Kurt Angle will be back, and he'll work with John Cena, which pulls Cena out of scheduled four-ways.

 

In one of the statements of the bizarre Joanie Laurer interview on the 7/22 Howard Stern show, she said that she and Sean Waltman had broken up because HHH had gotten him his job back in WWE as long as he went into rehab. I guess she broke up with him over going back as she said, “I had this boyfriend who is going back to WWE, and I told him to take a hike. I just realize I’ve been a chump for him for a couple of years.” Funny thing is I expect them to get back together. Waltman had talked with HHH back in February at the No Way Out PPV. I don’t believe he has a job waiting for him simply by going through rehab, but HHH can get him in since he's either the first or second most powerful person in the company, and since HHH and Vince McMahon paid for the rehab personally, I think it's a pretty good sign they expect him back. My own thoughts when it comes to situations like this, is the company should tell the person in question to work on the independent scene and monitor their track record. Eddie Guerrero had a great track record when he went on the independent scene, and turned down the wrestlers when they wanted him to party with them. Others, like Scott Hall, were hired, even though his track record on the independents and New Japan was terrible, and guess what? His stint in WWE was a three-month disaster. Waltman should be told to work independents for a few months. If his work is good and reports are good, you at least have a foundation to give him a chance. Making him a deal because he went through rehab without him proving himself is asking for trouble, and there are a lot of friends of Waltman that believe the worst thing for him is to be in the business. Laurer's appearance was bizarre, and before she even came on, Gary Dell’abate told Stern that she was acting kind of odd, and she, early in the interview, told Stern he was acting weird. She had a hand injury which she first said was from working out at home and busting it on the corner of a table. I’ve never done that one before. She brought up HHH marrying Vince McMahon's daughter, said the people in WWE were immoral and unethical, and kept calling HHH, "Triple Ass." She said she hadn’t gotten a royalty check from them for some time. She said Triple Ass looks like he's all gassed up and he needs to go to rehab or something. It was brutal. She noted WWE has threatened to sue her for using the name Chynna Doll and marketing a likeness similar to her WWE character, because they claim ownership of the Chyna name and gimmick. She mentioned she had been arrested when her boyfriend (never mentioned Waltman specifically) told the cops she had hit him. Dell’abate read about a different arrest (when Waltman had his problems). She mentioned she was put in jail for four days after her arrest. She said Antonio Inoki always treated her like a queen. Stern told her she should stop dating wrestlers and suggested she try dating chicks. She also brought up she has a home video of her and Sean having sex and is thinking of releasing it, but Sean may not want it released. She must be bad off for that. Chaunce Hayden called into the show, said he had seen the tape and said it was pretty hot, and suggested Laurer become a stripper. It got even worse from there. She said she's had a bad couple of years but things are turning around. She sang. Brooke Hogan is a million times better at singing.

 

Sean Waltman responded after haring about this, posting on his message board from the Talbott Recovery Campus in Atlanta. He said he still loves her more than anything, but thought it was wrong of her to say he was in rehab on Howard Stern. He said he was hurt after hearing her comments, but only wants to make her happy. He said he has no problem with the sex tape being released (that just comes off so bad).

 

Pushing The Lope Entertainment of Santa Monica, along with John Piermarini and Frank Murgia are filing claiming to be failing a lawsuit against WWE, saying they came up with the Diva Search idea. The group claimed they came up with the idea, and they and Trish Stratus presented it to Kevin Dunn. Dunn then brought the idea to Vince McMahon and Jim Ross. Piermarini said he met with Dunn on 12/8, along with Stratus. Dunn said he loved the idea and it was very original (so original that UPN was already doing a similar TV show at the time). The complete idea for a show was presented to Dunn on 1 /7, who told them Vince McMahon was very impressed with the idea, but didn’t want to commit to it until after Wrestlemania. The group never heard anything from WWE again until hearing on 5/24 that WWE was doing the idea.

 

Hulk Hogan did an interview with Alex Marvez on our web site, mainly to push his daughter's career. He said that if Brooke doesn’t make it as a singer, she wants to be a woman wrestler, and he said he wants to manage her. Funny, because on the VH-1 special, she specifically and adamantly says she doesn’t want to wrestle even after, also on the special, her father talks about getting her into wrestling if her singing career doesn’t take off. He claimed he could have gone to Wrestlemania XX and Gerald Brisco kept calling him about it, but was still mad about his payoff for XIX ($250,000, although that was as much as anyone on the show got, and the buy rate was disappointing), saying he made more for Wrestlemania I, and he didn’t want to come back for that kind of money. There may be something to that, because we'd heard a similar story a few weeks before the show, said off the record from those close to Hogan although WWE denied any interest, but Ric Flair, who is very close to the key people in the company on "Off the Record" did say it was a shame Hogan wasn’t at WM 20 because he was the big star of the early Manias, and intimated the reason was Hogan priced himself too high. Hogan said even though the payoff for WM18 was good (Hogan vs. The Rock, which was the second biggest show at the time, now third biggest, in history), he and Rock should have gotten double what they did. He said he didn’t go to TNA because even though they told him Russo wasn’t with the company, he really still was (a convenient excuse because Russo was involved from day one, then told to leave because Hogan was coming in, and really did leave until the Hogan deal fell through). He got hip replacement surgery (the surgery will be airing on the 7/29 VH-1 special) even though the doctors said he didn’t need it (although at some point he would) and said he's fine now. On the special, they showed him telling his kids his hip hurts, he's not going to retire from wrestling, so he got surgery to be feeling better for when he comes back. Even though he doesn’t need to do much to get over, with an artificial knee and hip that is God's way of nicely asking you to retire from wrestling. Hogan said he can do everything in the ring that he used to do, being that he never did much. He said if he cut his head, Hulked up, and dropped the leg, that's all he needs, and he can do it all now. But he said if Vince McMahon wants to be beating him, he doesn’t want to go back. "But if he wants a scenario where the people see a 50-year-old man use the power of Hulkamania to slip by, he can make a lot of money."

 

Mick Foley's knee damage was more extensive than originally thought, including needing a PCI replacement and having a torn meniscus. He's supposed to be on crutches for a few weeks but was off them within days (and walking around at the Democratic Convention this week), largely to keep up with his young kids, but that doesn't speed up the healing process. His baseball novel is tentatively scheduled for a September 2005 release. Vince McMahon talked with him about writing another wrestling book, and he's considered doing a novel based on a crazy foreign tour he did early in his career, but that's mainly just a thought.

 

WWE Films will start production in September on a $15 million budget feature film called "The Marine," which will be a vehicle for John Cena. Cena would play an injured Marine who returns to find his girlfriend had been kidnapped. The movie would start filming in mid-September. If it goes through, Cena would be taking a short hiatus from wrestling during the filming.

 

Regarding company developmental expansion per last week, at this point it appears the first new territorial expansion would likely be the Northeast, based out of the Trax building in Stamford that they have leased and where the wrestlers trained for the first two seasons of Tough Enough. Tampa and Atlanta have been discussed as noted, but neither is official, and if it does happen, it would likely be months to a year away, although plans are to expand.

 

The 7/23 OVW show at Six Flags in Louisville drew 1,500 fans to see John Cena face Matt Morgan, even with threatening weather, which was considered a major success.

 

Speaking of John Cena, on 7/24, he was in Cleveland for the National Sports Collectors Convention, along with heavy hitters like Jim Brown, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Pete Rose, Johnny Bench, John Elway, Joe Namath, Lawrence Taylor, Reggie Jackson, Whitey Ford, and Dan Marino. Cena had completed his signing session and was browsing the memorabilia dealers and came upon some game used NFL helmets. He went nuts. He started grabbing helmet after helmet, and started asking fans which helmets he should get. After about ten minutes, he settled on 32 helmets for a price of $7,200. On his way out, he saw a fan that was a quadriplegic in a wheelchair and on a ventilator. Cena and the boy talked for a few minutes and the boy must have said something about how cool it would be to get a Ken Griffey, Jr. signed bat. Cena, with a big smile on his face, peeled off three $100 bills (price was $295), gave them to the boy to buy the bat and told him to keep the change. When the boy said to him, "You're the man," Cena came back and said, "No, you're the real man." This wasn't a publicity stunt and there were no cameras there and you won’t be seeing it on TV and you wouldn't be hearing about it except a couple of my friends were right there when it happened, so that’s a testament to just what kind of person Cena is.

 

After the success of the Ric Flair DVD, WWE is now in the process of doing a history of the Four Horsemen DVD.

 

The 10/3 No Mercy PPV has been moved from the MCI Center in Washington, DC to the Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, NJ. It also has been confirmed to now be a SmackDown PPV.

 

There is disappointment in how Mark Jindrak and Rene Dupree are developing. It appears from how they used him at the house show that Tyson Tomko may fit into that category, but I haven't heard it expressed. Jindrak has been around for four years and they just don’t think his wrestling and charisma and progressing fast enough. Dupree, on the other hand, is criticized for taking too many shortcuts at house shows.

 

Bruno Sammartino was at the Pittsburgh Raw because they wanted him at a wrestling show for a documentary being done independent of WWE of his life. A lot of the wrestlers went up to him. He saw Ric Flair and wanted to confront him about the book but Flair skedaddled.

 

After doing the program at all the house shows where Steven Richards dressed in drag and helped Victoria to win, on a match taped for the 8/1 Heat, Molly Holly & Jazz beat Victoria & Nidia when a non-drag Richards distracted Victoria and set up her getting pinned.

 

The Canadian Broadcast Standard's Council stated that TSN had breached its agreement in its airings of Raw. Because of some of the content problems of the past, TSN was told to place a warning before the start of the show and when they come back from commercials stating: "Warning. The following program contains material that may offend some viewers. Viewer discretion is advised." TSN had been posting this message, but not having anyone read it aloud. The council said since they weren't reading the message aloud, they weren't properly warning visually impaired viewers. TSN had to announce several times on the 7/26 show it had breached its agreement during last week's show, and on 7/26, the warnings were both written on the screen as well as verbally read.

 

I had figured the first Raw and Smackdown tapings in Manchester, England in October would be immediate sellouts, even in the large building. As it turns out, floor seats for both events are still available. During the October European tour, the Raw crew runs 10/6 in Helsinki; 10/7 in Sheffield, England; 10/8 in London; 10/9 in Frankfort, Germany; 10/10 in Cardiff, Wales; and the 10/11 Raw in Manchester. The Smackdown crew starts 10/7 and 10/8 in Belfast, Ireland; 10/9 in Florence, Italy; 10/10 in Turin, Italy; 10/11 in Nottingham; and 10/12 for the tapings in Manchester.

 

Actual paid for the 7/12 Raw in Manchester was 7,500 and for the 7/13 Smackdown in Providence was 5,500.

 

7/24 Raw in Erie drew 2,500 and $78,000. 7/25 Smackdown house show in Roanoke drew 2,000 and $70,000. 7/25 Raw house show in Wheeling drew 1,600 and $50,000. 7/26 Raw TV taping in Pittsburgh drew 8,000. 7/26 Smackdown house show in Huntington, WV drew 2,300 and $80,000.

[Lord of The Curry 0]

So TSN needs to read the warnings out loud so that blind people can(t) see the violent product?

 

That's an awesome story about Cena. Respect.

[algrim 0]

Typical Hogan. He's fortunate enough to get the biggest paycut this side of HHH, and he still bitches about it. It's not like he's wrestling *** matches. F'n prima donna.

[Guest Real F'n Show]

After the success of the Ric Flair DVD, WWE is now in the process of doing a history of the Four Horsemen DVD.

[King Cucaracha 0]

Nice to Cena's a genuine class-act. I guess we can expect to see the helmets on screen soon too...

[Guest TigerDriver91]

Awesome. I would love to have a Four Horsemen DVD set.

[ChrisMWaters 0]

Awesome. I would love to have a Four Horsemen DVD set.

Me too, as long as it's about the ORIGINAL Horsemen.

 

None of the nobodies mentioned (Steve "Mongo" McMichaels, for example.)

[DerangedHermit 0]

She also brought up she has a home video of her and Sean having sex and is thinking of releasing it

 

AAAAAAAAAAAH! OH GOD NO!

[Guest TheZsaszHorsemen]

Awesome. I would love to have a Four Horsemen DVD set.

Me too, as long as it's about the ORIGINAL Horsemen.

 

None of the nobodies mentioned (Steve "Mongo" McMichaels, for example.)

Nah, the Flair/Anderson/Windham/Blanchard group was superior to the Flair/Arn/Tully/Ole originals. Plus, what's the point of doing a DVD without going over the evolution of the group through the years?

[Guest Brian]

I like Dave's idea of putting X-Pac on the indies as a trial run.

 

And I have so much respect for Cena right now.

[geniusMoment 0]

So, I guess that guys list of what was on the Hart dvd is bullshit then.

[Gert T 0]

Awesome. I would love to have a Four Horsemen DVD set.

Me too, as long as it's about the ORIGINAL Horsemen.

 

None of the nobodies mentioned (Steve "Mongo" McMichaels, for example.)

Nah, if you've seen the Benoit DVD, Arn only had about 30 seconds to bitch about the Horsemen coming back for a huge pop, even though others said they were "old news". Arn will get plenty of time ot do it in a Horsemen DVD.

 

I really wonder though if they'll mention the 1993 version that had a four month run.

[Enigma 0]

You mean that version of the 4 Horsemen that had only 3 members?

 

And did you ever notice during that entire run, not withstanding the uniting, Ric Flair never once had any interaction with Paul Roma at all?

[haVoc 0]

What did Flair say about Bruno in his book?

[BHK 0]

After the success of the Ric Flair DVD, WWE is now in the process of doing a history of the Four Horsemen DVD.

If this means Wargames on DVD, sweeeeeeeeeet.

[UseTheSledgehammerUh 0]

As long as it isn't War Games '97...aka "The Death of the Horsemen Legacy Forever"

[DCMaximo 0]

Man, I'm far from being a Cena fan in regards to his ring work, but all respect due to the man for that. Seems like the guy is a genuine class act.

[Vyce 0]

I'm loving the fact that the Benoit DVD is doing so well.

 

And the Cena story is fantastic. It makes me have a great deal more respect for the guy. It's too bad he's so damn limited in the ring, otherwise I'd probably have a new favorite Smackdown star.

[natey2k4 0]

I think more or less what he meant by no Mongo, was that on the DVD Extras (hopefully 10+ matches) That we dont have to sit through a Mongo match.

 

I've love to see the old War Games match

2 Flair Matches

2 Tully Matches

1 Anderson Match

 

then 1-2 matches with the 2nd version (w/ Windam)

 

1-2 matches with the Horsemn w/ Lex

 

then A Benoit/Malenko tag match or something from the horsemen in 1998ish.

 

 

 

 

Anyone else gonna want an Evolution DVD after they break up? There's not much backstory.. but they could have each guy chip their thoughts on how they got into the business and then what they thought of each match. The EXTRAS (matches) would kick total ass.

[UseTheSledgehammerUh 0]

That segment with Arn from the Benoit DVD isn't original. It's the same segment that appeared on Flair's DVD, which in itself isn't original. It was a small piece they did with Arn which originally aired on WWE Confidential.

[iliketurtles 0]

What a class act John Cena is.

[TheOriginalOrangeGoblin 0]

Really nice story bout Cena. .

[SinToxic 0]

Yeah the Cena story really choked me ...

[Guest bigm350]

Great gesture by Cena. That's cool.

[JustJoe2k5 0]

Maybe we'll finally get Chris Benoit and Dean Malenko vs. Perry Saturn and Raven from Spring Stampede '99 on DVD.

[Eclipse 0]

I just came back from the house show in NJ.

 

 

GM Long announced the PPV, No Mercy, will be indeed in NJ, October 3.

 

Cena fought a returning Angle. It was a welcoming pop, and then of course, the you suck chants. Angle looked solid in the ring.

 

 

 

What a great guy Cena is, doing that for the kid...

[Guest TonyJaymzV1]

hmm...maybe I should get myself a wheelchair, next time im at a wwe event.....

 

in all seriousness, thats a pretty cool move on Cena's part, especially since its not just "signing an autograph" or whatever, he's actually shelling out his own money in a selfless act. Spiffy.

[Celtic Guardian 0]

The 10/3 No Mercy PPV has been moved from the MCI Center in Washington, DC to the Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, NJ. It also has been confirmed to now be a SmackDown PPV.

 

Considering the final Smackdown broadcast before No Mercy is going to be pre-empted in D.C. by an Orioles game, moving the PPV to New Jersey is probably for the best.

[Guest TheZsaszHorsemen]

The 7/23 OVW show at Six Flags in Louisville drew 1,500 fans to see John Cena face Matt Morgan, even with threatening weather, which was considered a major success.

 

Is there any way of telling whether John Cena is a consistant house show draw? Because he's pretty good with rastings according to Da meltz, and commerically there's really no reason he can't be Champ. Hell, he even had a good match with Dupree on PPV when some people on this board (Curry, I'm looking at you) swore up and down that it would "expose" him.

 

Looks to be doing okay to me.

[Guest TonyJaymzV1]

Cena is the perfect face. he can sell his ass off, get the fans into his match, makes his opponents look like threats, and is capable enough to have at the very least decent matches with most anyone. I liked his match w/ Dupree, hell, I though his match vs. Big Show at Mania was a good match, for what it was.

 

Cena for Champ in '05 says I.

 

JBL vs. Cena would be entertaining...not a workrate match, but entertaining