Backstage news from Raw and SD

[strummer 0]

From Scherer at PWI:

 

The word we are getting is that the segment with the Rock appearing on Raw tonight was known in advance by WWE. It just was not promoted by the company. I have no idea why they didn't take advantage of his appearance.

 

Steve Austin was backstage at Raw tonight and seen talking with Vince McMahon. Austin lives in the Los Angeles now and Anaheim is close by. It's not known at this point if Austin was just visiting or if there was more to his being at the show, but he has remained in contact with McMahon since leaving the company earlier this year.

 

Sean "X Pac" Waltman was also backstage at the show. Method Man was also there.

 

Rene Dupree has some heat with management right now on the Smackdown brand. He was fined recently for doing his dance at the shows after being told not to do it because it gets a face reaction and, since he is a heel, that isn't what they want out from him. He also has heat for the work in some of his matches of late as it has been seen as not being good in the eyes of the agents. Since he is the heel, he is expected to carry his bouts and thus gets the heat when they aren't good. Some people have told me that because he is so young, he isn't overly diplomatic and that gets him heat with some in management, like some of the agents, as well.

 

Speaking of agents, a number of wrestlers have told me that Arn Anderson is the preferred guy to have in charge of your match since he has a very good grasp on how to help the workers. As for Dean Malenko, he doesn't get as glowing reports since some people still remember that he had given Rhyno instructions the night at Nassau County Coliseum when Vince McMahon watched Rhyno's match with Tajiri, hated it and went out in front of the crowd and embarrassed them on the mike. A number of wrestlers I have spoken to felt that Malenko let the guys hang when he could have told Vince he had given them input into their match.

 

Rey Mysterio, Johnny Stamboli and Mark Jindrak were fined for being late to the 8/22 house show in Bakersfield, CA.

 

Also at the Bakersfield show, John Heidenreich had a major tantrum at the end of his match with Scotty 2 Hotty. Something happened at the end of the bout (I think Jon blew a few spots) and he went nuts on the way to the back, swearing and screaming. Once he went through the curtain, he did a little bit of rearranging of the backstage area and management was not happy with his behavior. A number of wrestlers that I talked to about it said the guy just went nuts and they wondered if he was cut out to be in the business, especially in a semi-prominent position. WWE loves his fire and intensity, even though everyone knows he's green as grass in the ring, but incidents like this will not get him over with management, no way no how.

[Guest Staravenger]

Austin, X-Pac, AND Method Man in the same place? Thats gotta be bad luck. I guess the weed joke was a shot at X-Pac by The Rock...or maybe it was directed towards Method Man.

[Lil' Bitch 0]

Rene Dupree has some heat with management right now on the Smackdown brand. He was fined recently for doing his dance at the shows after being told not to do it because it gets a face reaction and, since he is a heel, that isn't what they want out from him.

 

Oh, fuck off management, people pay to see the dance!

 

Also at the Bakersfield show, John Heidenreich had a major tantrum at the end of his match with Scotty 2 Hotty. Something happened at the end of the bout (I think Jon blew a few spots) and he went nuts on the way to the back, swearing and screaming. Once he went through the curtain, he did a little bit of rearranging of the backstage area and management was not happy with his behavior. A number of wrestlers that I talked to about it said the guy just went nuts and they wondered if he was cut out to be in the business, especially in a semi-prominent position. WWE loves his fire and intensity, even though everyone knows he's green as grass in the ring, but incidents like this will not get him over with management, no way no how.

 

And John will do everyone a favor by keeping it up.

[Guest Staravenger]

For some reason I thought that said John Layfield. I was like "WTF?" and realized I fucked up reading it. I guess Heidenreich doesn't know how to keep his emotions under wraps.

[Lt. Al Giardello 0]

What the fuck is this shit...

 

No more Dupree dance? Fuck you WWE Mangement.

[Highland 0]

What is Dupree without the dance~!?

[Guest netslob]

WHAT~! there eliminating the OUTRAGEOUS FRENCH DANCE~!?!? are they MAD~?!?!?

[Guest DeathBecomesYou]

The dance is one of the few things that make Smackdown reasonable.

[Use Your Illusion 0]

You know, one visit to this board would've told Heidenreich he wasn't ready.

 

Much embarrassment could of been saved.

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

I really hope Austin comes back so we can have another non-wrestler to bury any mid-carder that dares to get over.

[Mecha Mummy 0]

Rene Dupree has some heat with management right now on the Smackdown brand. He was fined recently for doing his dance at the shows after being told not to do it because it gets a face reaction and, since he is a heel, that isn't what they want out from him.

 

Bah. They're house shows. Let him do the goddamn dance.

[haVoc 0]

A number of wrestlers that I talked to about it said the guy just went nuts and they wondered if he was cut out to be in the business, especially in a semi-prominent position.

 

I guess all those pro athletes who throw fits on the sidelines and in the dug outs and locker rooms aren't cut out for their profession either? Musicians throwing fits after screwing up on stage or in the studio? Actors after screwing up a scene?

 

How dare they get overly emotional!

[Guest MikeSC]

Can we remember that this is Scherer "reporting". Is he right on anything?

-=Mike

[Guest JoeyStyles]

You know, one visit to this board would've told Heidenreich he wasn't ready.

 

Much embarrassment could of been saved.

It's the WWE and they always want to prove the Smark fans wrong.

[The Mandarin 0]

Rene Dupree has some heat with management right now on the Smackdown brand. He was fined recently for doing his dance at the shows after being told not to do it because it gets a face reaction and, since he is a heel, that isn't what they want out from him. He also has heat for the work in some of his matches of late as it has been seen as not being good in the eyes of the agents. Since he is the heel, he is expected to carry his bouts and thus gets the heat when they aren't good. Some people have told me that because he is so young, he isn't overly diplomatic and that gets him heat with some in management, like some of the agents, as well.

 

What?! Rene vs. RVD on the pre-Summerslam Heat match was a lot better than I expected and was better than many matches on the card. Plus, the French Tickler is just hysterical and would do huge if they ever decided to switch him to being a face. They can't get rid of it.

[EdwardKnoxII 0]

Off-Air Notes From RAW

 

Report of what we did and didn't see on TV

Doors were ready to open at 3:45 which was a bit surprising (for the West Coast shows, the call time here is 5:30), but the Arrowhead Pond personnel decided it'd be funny to tease letting us in from 3:45 until 4:45, so there they stood ready to open, but not actually doing it.

 

They've touched up the "Desire" video with Kid Rock's song. It now has Randy Orton instead of Brock Lesnar, when they show shots of the champions. Also, Trish Stratus kissing Christian at WrestleMania, and Kane unmasking (just to name a few out of the many) have been added to the package.

 

WWE was handing WrestleMania 21 cards to everyone. You can pre-order tickets before they go on sale by going to http://www.wrestlemania.com/presale.html. I'm not sure if that piece of news has been made public or not.

 

Heat/Dark Matches:

 

For whatever reason, Todd Grisham took over for Coach as play-by-play. I thought they'd do an injury angle with Coach on RAW, but I don't think the Rock beating would count at all. Al Snow got a good pop.

 

Rodney Mack w/ Jazz defeated Maven, after a roll-up that looked ugly since they were in the corner of the ring, and were both tangled into the ropes.

 

Chris Benoit (you read that right) defeated Tyson Tomko w/ Trish Stratus via submission, after six German suplexes, and a crossface.

 

Chuck Palumbo defeated a Jobber who was dubbed from "Anaheim, CA."

 

Lillian Garcia was looking very hot. She did a tremendous job with the anthem, as usual.

 

A lot of people (and I mean a lot) came in late, but by the end of hour one, the Arrowhead Pond was pretty full.

 

Method Man is in attendance, and the "Wu Tang" chants began here.

 

Coach came out and jumped perfectly on the second rope of each corner to "salute" the crowd. He was great at his gimmick. He got very good heat.

 

About 50% of the crowd knew The Rock would be appearing on RAW. Those who had come very early (like myself), saw him arrive and salute the fans, and others found out from those who were there. The building went insane when his music hit.

 

La Resistance just laid there and left to the back once the segment was over, while Rock came back after leaving the ring with Rhyno and Tajiri, to salute the crowd (and Meth), then left again.

 

The Evolution segment was horrible, since nobody really was able to hear what they were saying. There was a large chorus of boos towards Triple H when he first popped on the screen.

 

Edge and Jericho didn't really get over with the fans in my section, but the rest of the arena seemed to be into it. Jericho cut a promo during the second commercial break... well, sort of. To fill time, he got on the mic and he cut his "never, ever again" line while telling "Edgeword" that he'll get an ass beating. NOBODY knew why Edge was disqualified until the repeat was shown on the Titantron. That had to be a horrible finish. Because of the confusion, Edge got a pop.

 

The people who booed Triple H, and dis him on the Internet week after week on the mark sites, brought the house down when his music hit with a chorus of cheers.

 

In the middle of Edge vs. Jericho, several security guards in my section (I was in a seat next to the stairway) were setting up for something. Obviously a run-in, or a "run-out" was to be done and we later found out it was for...

 

Orton walked out through the crowd and I believe I made it on TV there, since I was a foot away from him. He looks tremendous in person, but much shorter than he looks on TV! His acting skills are ones to praise, as he didn't even care there was people touching him and screaming at him while he was holding that belt.

 

Eugene quickly stole the spotlight during the commercial break before the Regal/Flair match. He walked around the ring area, saluted friends, did TONS of comedy spots with Regal, walked out to J.R. and Lawler, tried on J.R.'s hat, then Lawler's crown, walked back to the ring with Regal, got a sign that was cut in the form of a Pac Man, and chased Regal with it until Regal submitted to it. It was absolutely hilarious. He then hugged the referee, tapped Lillian, and hugged/saluted some members of the audience.

 

The HBK commercial spot got a huge chorus of boos, as everyone thought he'd be returning tonight. However, the pop at first was huge too, because we thought he was indeed in attendance.

 

The whole process of changing the ring for the wedding began. They moved very quick, and did a fantastic job timing-wise. This was all happening while shots of the arena, the backstage Lita segment, SmackDown Rebound, and Diva Search voting segment aired.

 

I saw this on TV, and I don't know if it was the Pond's bad sound issues, or WWE editing something LIVE (so doubtful, it's impossible), but Kane got a HUGE laugh when he was shown backstage in his tux, walking down for the wedding. The video package they aired (which had no audio from the arena, of course) got big laughs as well. People actually seemed to enjoy the wedding at some parts, until the "What?" chants started.

 

The Midgets and the one actor WWE has hired who did a good job, came in before Kane.

 

That "Wall" (I guess that's what you'd call it) of fire that Matt and Lita had in front of them, was being started while Matt jumped Kane. You could see a tiny flame coming out of the stage. At first we thought, something was on fire, until the tiny flames exploded.

 

Nothing of importance happened after the show went off the air. They wheeled Matt Hardy out on a stretcher, and Lillian thanked us for coming.

 

Overall, good show if you saw it Live, but probably horrible for most at home, since most of what went down wasn't exactly good if you stop to think about it and ignore the fact you were there in person. The Rock is amazing, and he truly does seem to enjoy himself every time he does WWE.

 

Eddie

TheBalrogsLair.com

 

Credit: PWInsider.com

 

 

 

More Live Notes From RAW

 

More on what happened after the show went off the air

Reader Michael LeBlanc posted the following report of what happened on RAW:

 

I was at Raw in Anaheim tonight and thought I would share some brief notes. I sat about nine rows back from the guard rail on the side opposite the TitanTron. I believe Method Man was a celebrity guest, and sat in the front row about thirty feet to my left. The building looked to be approximately 95% sold out, with only the entire upper section on the hard camera side tarped off.

 

The Heat matches saw Rodney Mack (with Jazz) defeat Maven in a pretty decent match. Chuck Palumbo defeated a local Anaheim worker in your typical squash match, and Benoit defeated Tyson Tomko (with Trish). This last match featured the finish of Benoit getting six consecutive belly-to-back suplexes (after previously giving him three more) followed by the Crossface.

 

They air-gunned out Unforgiven t-shirts after the Palumbo match, Lillian sang the National Anthem in her usual great voice, then Raw began!

 

Nothing particularly interesting happened during the commercial breaks, except Jericho insulted and called out Edge during the second break during their match. The ref gave Edge to the count of ten to get back to the ring (or forfeit the belt), and he made it by about five.

 

Eugene goofed off more both in the ring and on the outside with fans during that break, and also went back to the broadcast table and hugged JR and King, and even took King's crown and wore it!

 

There was a fan sitting directly behind me that was insulting Flair and Regal all throughout their match. Some of it was funny, but after the first two minutes it got to be very disrespectful (in my opinion).

 

The crowd chanted both "Boring" and "What" during the wedding, which kind of sums up their attitude towards this angle.

 

After Raw went off the air, they showed Matt getting medical aid on the TitanTron.

 

Credit: Michael LeBlanc/Buck Woodward, PWInsider.com

[EdwardKnoxII 0]

Various WWE Tidbits

 

Which baseball player wants to pull an Anti-Lesnar and go to WWE?

In a funny note from the Bakersfield show on Sunday, a lot of the guys were laughing at Teddy Long. The Smackdown General Manager did a promo and when he went for the cheap hometown pop, he said the wrong name of the town.

 

Major League Baseball's website has an article online where Cincinnati Reds' 1B Sean Casey said that his dream career would be "a WWF wrestler." He added, "I've always liked wrestling. I don't think I could do it because I think the pounding they take would be a little bit too much, but if I could guarantee I wouldn't get hurt or anything, I'd be a pro wrestler." To read the article, click here.

http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/news/mlb...field&fext=.jsp

 

The Associated Press ran an article yesterday covering WWE's latest Tough Enough contest. It said that the contest will start in October and run through December.

 

Credit: Dave Scherer, PWInsider.com

[Hogan Made Wrestling 0]

Various WWE Tidbits

 

Which baseball player wants to pull an Anti-Lesnar and go to WWE?

In a funny note from the Bakersfield show on Sunday, a lot of the guys were laughing at Teddy Long. The Smackdown General Manager did a promo and when he went for the cheap hometown pop, he said the wrong name of the town.

 

Major League Baseball's website has an article online where Cincinnati Reds' 1B Sean Casey said that his dream career would be "a WWF wrestler." He added, "I've always liked wrestling. I don't think I could do it because I think the pounding they take would be a little bit too much, but if I could guarantee I wouldn't get hurt or anything, I'd be a pro wrestler." To read the article, click here.

http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/news/mlb...field&fext=.jsp

 

The Associated Press ran an article yesterday covering WWE's latest Tough Enough contest. It said that the contest will start in October and run through December.

 

Credit: Dave Scherer, PWInsider.com

Sean Casey can team up with Pete Rose to fight Kane at Wrestlemania.

[Enigma 0]

Austin, X-Pac, AND Method Man in the same place? Thats gotta be bad luck. I guess the weed joke was a shot at X-Pac by The Rock...or maybe it was directed towards Method Man.

I don't think Rock is that insensitive to make fun of someone's drug problem while they are in rehab.

 

But then again, that company constantly put Scott Hall around alcohol on television during 2002. So who knows.

[Youth N Asia 0]

Without Dupree dancing he's completly useless to me

[CanadianChick 0]

"Also, Trish Stratus kissing Christian at WrestleMania (was added to the Desire Video)"

 

My Sacrifice indeed.

 

Anyways, unless Dupree is out popping his opponents because of the Dance, he should be able to do it. If it's just he dance getting a pop, and not him getting it, I don't see the big deal.

[EdwardKnoxII 0]

Injury Updates On Angle, Guerrero, Dudley

 

How are they feeling?

Kurt Angle is said to be feeling okay since his return to action from neck pain. He is changing his style to take fewer bumps and to have his matches be more grounded and emphasize storytelling. Everyone in the company realizes that Angle's neck just can't take the rigors of the consistent pounding style that he has worked in the past and that he has to change the way he approaches his matches if he wants to prolong his career. This was evident from his match with Eddie Guerrero at Summerslam.

 

Speaking of Guerrero, his hamstring is said to be feeling better too. He worked some long matches over the weekend with Angle and did not feel any pain.

 

D-Von Dudley was having issues with elevated blood pressure at the house shows this weekend. He has had problems with his blood pressure in the past.

 

Credit: Dave Scherer, PWInsider.com

[Lt. Al Giardello 0]

I honestly don't see the problem with Dupree's dance.

 

It may get pops, but it doesn't mean the fans are cheering for him.

 

I remember when Booker T was apart of the Alliance, and whenever he did the Spinaroonie, it got a huge reaction from the crowd, but he was still over as a heel.

[Guest Staravenger]

When the highspot of your match is doing a goofy dance, its time to be repackaged...but the dance must stay!