WWE News & Notes from the 10/18 Observer

[Enigma 0]

It was a wild week for World Wrestling Entertainment, as it had its biggest house show week in company history, a Hollywood Reporter story broke regarding its attempt to up its rights fees and possibly leave Spike TV, and behind-the-scenes creative problems led to the resignation of the No. 2 man on the creative side from the original expansion period, Pat Patterson.

 

The company's 12-show European tour grossed an estimated $7.4 million, by far the biggest week when it comes to live shows in company history. Even with lackluster business elsewhere, it virtually guarantees a strong quarter. The company played to sellout crowds on nine of the 12 shows, including both Smackdown shows on 10/7 and 10/8 in Belfast, Northern Ireland shows playing to full houses, and grossing about $1.1 million on the two nights. The company topped $1 million for the Raw taping and was expected to come close to that number for the Smackdown tapings in Manchester. They also did nearly $950,000 for a sold out Raw show on 10/8 at Wembley Arena in London. To put this week in perspective, the company took in more money this week at live events than it would have in ten weeks of U.S. shows. While expenses are different, the company revenue was equivalent to a PPV show that did more than 500,000 buys, or roughly, by today's standards, this week was almost like doing two additional PPV shows this quarter. And that's not including the merchandise, which, per person, was far more than domestic levels. Even during the peak of the Rock/Steve Austin era, the company took in more money this past week than it would in roughly five weeks of U.S. shows at a time they were selling out nearly 70% of the live events.

 

The Hollywood Reporter on 10/12 had a front page story, noting WWE's five-year contract with Viacom, for Raw and the other cable shows on Spike TV, expires in September 2005, and the company has opened talks with TBS, USA Network, and FX, which could cause a lot of interesting changes in the wrestling landscape. Spike had the right to match any offer, and even with ratings for the WWE package cut in half from just a few years ago (the "B" shows have declined far more than Raw), the company is attempting to get a raise from $28 million to $40 million per year for its cable package. Five years ago this week, on the USA Network, Raw drew a 6.09 rating and the "B" shows saw Live Wire at 1.5, Superstars at 1.8, and Heat at 3.57, or a total of 12.96 ratings points. For the first week of October this year on Spike TV, the four shows combined did 4.96 ratings points, a total audience decline of 62%

 

Spike makes a convenient scapegoat to outsiders for some of the decline. Within the TV industry, Bonnie Hammer, who still works at USA, is given a lot of credit for the success of Raw, since it was under her watch that it grew from doing low 2's and being near cancellation in late-1996, to being the hottest show on cable television two years later. A lot of people seem to take credit for that period. But the reality is, the week Raw switched from USA to Spike, the rating fell from 5.6 to 5.4 (although part of the 5.4 was a hotshot return of Steve Austin), but the switch also came at a time of the change from Chris Kreski to Stephanie McMahon as head writer after a very successful 2000, and the greater influence of HHH on the booking.

 

For Spike, retaining Raw is a huge deal, because losing the show takes Spike from a network that battles weekly for a top ten position in the prime time cable ratings, to a network that wouldn't crack the top 25, and has no hits on its schedule aside from CSI reruns (and CSI draws a significantly older audience than Spike's avowed goal to become a programming habit for young male viewers, a demo that has dropped double digits on the network over the past year, largely due to wrestling's popularity decline in that demo). USA and TBS both remain at the top of the cable ratings charts even though both lost highly rated wrestling shows years ago. USA is said to be the front runner, as the network never wanted to lose wrestling, to the point it sued to retain the rights, claiming it had matched Viacom's offer. The court decision went against USA because the judge ruled it hadn't completely matched the Viacom offer. It was unable to match Viacom's book deal since Viacom owned Simon & Schuster nor would it guarantee no preemptions of Raw (USA would preempt Raw annually for the highly-rated dog show that once beat Nitro in the ratings in early-2000, and the far lower-rated U.S. Open tennis tournament, both of which had blue chip high-level advertising money that Raw, even with its high ratings, couldn't bring in), and Spike had no such commitments. According to a source in Spike TV when asked about the company having knowledge of negotiations with the outside, it was confirmed they were aware USA wants the package back badly, and it will probably require a price increase to keep it. Spike is interested in keeping it, so the end result will be a raise in rights fees to WWE even though the audience it delivers is barely one-third of what it was when the negotiations took place five years ago with TNN (now Spike).

 

The article quoted an executive familiar with the negotiations saying WWE "is desperate to get out of there," which, not in those words, echoes comments made to me at times in recent years. WWE had to have been unhappy with the Viacom deal, as the lure of television specials on CBS, talked about but never spelled out in the contract, never materialized. In addition, one can use 20/20 hindsight and say Viacom had a hand in screwing up the industry by insisting on enforcing its non-compete clause, and thus not allowing Vince McMahon to buy the WCW brand, and keep it on the Turner Networks as a separate entity. McMahon had argued at the time it was a deal that everyone would win in. In addition, the idea of Heat moving from USA to MTV was a chance to reach a mainstream teenage and young adult audience, but instead, Heat's ratings declined greatly on MTV, partially due to WWE's own format change of the show. Eventually MTV dumped the show, and Spike picked it up, but ratings are down 81% from its USA network peak, although most if not all of that decline has nothing to do with the network the show is on. Additionally, even though ratings were good, MTV wouldn't pick up a fourth season of "Tough Enough." The article also talked about the average viewer of Raw increasing from 27 to 34 years old (actually the increase is far more pronounced, from 24 at the peak of WWF's trouncing of WCW in the Monday Night Wars, to 36.8 for the 10/11 show).

 

A move to FX would block any pie-in-the-sky dreams of TNA getting on the network. When TNA opened to surprisingly good numbers in a terrible time slot on FSN, plus the show looked far better than anyone expected going in from a production standpoint, there was talk of an FX prime time show. But when it was unable to maintain its original audience, it seems far less likely. A TBS move would kill wrestling's other pie-in-the-sky dream, that Ted Turner would start his own wrestling company because Hulk Hogan, Bill Goldberg, Steve Austin, Sting, Randy Savage, Roddy Piper, and Mick Foley are all technically free agents, although few would expect Austin or Foley at this point to work against McMahon, and most figure Hogan would publicly lean toward a start up, but then back out, and use it to get back with WWE (XWF anybody?). However, because FX (high-end dramas) and TBS (comedy) are now themed networks, and wrestling doesn't fit into either networks' proposed direction, the interest doesn't seem as strong, which is why USA is considered the front runner. Spike sources have indicated they think it will end up with only USA and them making serious offers.

 

If Spike were to lose WWE, it could open up another wrestling franchise to a strong time slot in competition. When USA lost the WWF, there were negotiations to get ECW, which lost TNN (now Spike) when the WWF signed on. The deal got as far as Barry Diller, who was running the network. There was some content and advertising issues, as the PTC had made a dent into WWF in 2000 and Diller didn't want those problems, and wrestling in general, while a huge ratings hit at the time, had a very negative connotation in much of the television world. It has a different negative connotation today, but people are willing to bid high on it due to a belief by some in the industry that all they have to do is find a new Rock and everything will rebound to where it was just a few years ago. Ultimately, Diller's feeling at the time was USA, trying to be the No. 1 cable network, didn't want a No. 3 wrestling promotion. Spike, a network nowhere near as successful, would likely not have that attitude. The problem is, there isn't even a real No. 2 promotion. It's one thing to grab a show doing a 0.9 already on a weaker network, and another to grab a promotion doing a 0.2. The possibility would be there because of so many big name free agents that movement would be made to start something, but with the kind of money that group of names would want, and the schedule they'd want to keep, that would seriously persuade people to not try. And still, the most likely scenario is the show stays with Spike, which would only drop out of the bidding war if they got a more high profile package, such as an NFL package they are hoping to negotiate for. However, the NFL package Spike is attempting to get for 2006 would be the cable part of a major CBS bid, so much of the money to get it would come from CBS. .

 

While all this was going on, Pat Patterson, 64, gave notice and told Vince McMahon on 10/5 that he was retiring from the industry, with his last day of work being the Taboo Tuesday PPV. While this is hardly the first time Patterson has said he was leaving the company, only to return, the situation is very much different. His first resignation, forced by McMahon in 1992, came at the height of a homosexual sex scandal involving WWF executive Terry Garvin and head of the ring crew, Mel Phillips. As part of an out-of-court settlement with Tom Cole, who claimed he and other underage boys had been abused while working on the ring crew and that he was fired after turning down Garvin's sexual advances, which had already turned into the biggest media black eye in company history, McMahon promised Cole that Patterson, Garvin, and Phillips would never work for the company again. However, Patterson's name was left out of the settlement, and while it was going on, McMahon claimed Patterson was an innocent victim of circumstances. Those in the company insist Patterson never really left, and the resignation was only for the public, but either way, a few months later, he was officially introduced to everyone as being back. At other points Patterson had talked of retiring to his home in Florida and had even done so. But Patterson has lived his entire life for and around wrestling, and knows little else. He grew up as a huge wrestling fan in Montreal, worked full-time as a wrestler since starting as a teenager, and became one of the greatest workers of the 60s and 70s, before ending his active career and being McMahon's top booking confidante during the 80s. In his other retirements, he got bored playing golf and quickly returned to the only world he'd ever really lived in.

 

In recent months, and moreso in recent weeks, Patterson had become vocal about the direction of the product to everyone. A few weeks back, he confided to long-time friend Nick Bockwinkel that he was ready to quit, so it was not a shock, nor a decision made in haste. Internally, because Patterson was there from a major architect during the big run in the 80s, as Vice President of Talent Relations, filling roles similar to those of both Stephanie McMahon and John Laurinaitis in today's company, this represented something big. Also, Patterson was one of the few people in the company who would vocally disagree with McMahon, because he was one of the few people it was believed McMahon would never fire. He's confided to people that he thinks the company is being run into the ground, and even though he was a big part of a lot of the toilet humor and cartoon aspects that categorized the 80s, he now has been asking "Why are we doing this stupid Hollywood crap?" Another person very close to the situation said, "He's been beyond vocal about HHH, HHH's power over the Raw show, and HHH's burying of opponents... He's said it loud enough to make sure everyone hears." He expressed concern because of the belief HHH, in his role, should be making new stars, and the only person someone could argue he's really tried to make over the past two years was Randy Orton, and to a degree, Chris Benoit. He was heavily involved in the screwing up of Bill Goldberg and got Scott Steiner, who was on fire, off on the wrong foot, by working matches that exposed their weaknesses (although Steiner wasn't going to make it long-term regardless of what HHH did, nor would Goldberg, although they left millions on the table by screwing him up). He buried in meetings an admittedly overrated Rob Van Dam (although fans had not caught on to this yet and Van Dam had enormous potential at the time) when he was on fire. Benoit got the monster push this year largely because HHH needed a new strong opponent after Shawn Michaels ran his course, and Benoit's role on Raw diminished greatly when he wasn't working with HHH, even though he held the title belt. There was never a period, no matter if Benoit or Goldberg held the belt, where the show wasn't booked around HHH, and HHH was then portrayed as bigger than the belt. Even though HHH did do a great job in making Shelton Benjamin earlier this year by putting him over in a great match, the follow-up, were HHH made it seem unimportant, translated to the audience believing it was unimportant, and Benjamin didn't get the elevation from it that was expected. HHH also pulled Edge from Smackdown, with the idea of making him a new opponent, but when Edge didn't get over like expected in his program with Kane, they rushed the Randy Orton face turn, and even though they've done everything to get Orton over, thus far it's been a disappointment. Patterson's concern, when sent on the road to study problems with the Raw product, were that HHH was over, but not enough other people overall were, and blamed it on them not getting adequate exposure to be viewed as stars with the one man dominating. The argument is that for the most part, the McMahon family company has always been built around a singular star, but during most of the history, that singular star can be argued was doing better business. The other side is that while popularity has declined, it's still a far stronger business model overall than at any time except during the 1998-2000 era. One source claimed that McMahon's reaction to Patterson leaving is that he lost his passion for wrestling after the death of long-time life-partner Louie Dondero (for those of you completely in the dark, Patterson is openly gay), but that happened many years ago.

 

There was an incident some time back, when a lot of the controversy over HHH being a detriment first came out internally, that the agents decided to go together to McMahon and express their real viewpoint. However, at the meeting, Stephanie was there, and everyone involved change their tune, realizing whoever said anything would be the one hung out to dry immediately. It's eerily similar to the brokers who would tell Fritz Von Erich about his son's drug problems, and wind up being the ones fired for doing so.

 

Within the company, Patterson is acknowledged as the best finish man in the industry, even by others who are pretty strong in that regard themselves. Still, most of the recent finishes have lacked creativity with the over reliance on ref bumps, which is a key to a lot of Patterson finishes, and the belt shot and face kick out spot. Patterson also not only created, but usually had a strong hand in the layout of the annual Royal Rumble, the company's No. 2 event of the year, a lot of which was taken because the heyday of his wrestling career was in Northern California, working for Roy Shire, who was a genius in both promotion and layout of the annual January Battle Royal, which the Rumble was an offshoot of.

 

Another major star with experience in the spotlight noted when Benoit got the title, that HHH was still portrayed as the star, and his matches were the PPV main events and Benoit would be in the sub-main match, which showed HHH was more important than the belt, categorized it as "bullshit," even though Michaels vs. HHH in a Hell in a Cell drew the company's only good buy rate after Backlash. It's been noted that even though the company considers HHH its biggest star, and the Raw brand has numerous advantages over the Smackdown brand (as noted by getting Edge and Benoit this year as HHH opponents the company did nothing to help Eddie Guerrero when he desperately needed a top foe when Angle and Big Show went down with injuries and Brock Lesnar quit), Raw is also more "popular" with the fan base the company management understands. But there hasn't been much of a difference lately when it comes to business, because Smackdown's ratings are bolstered by its huge Hispanic TV audience, an audience the company has but doesn't really understand, and Smackdown outdraws Raw when the tour hits Hispanic markets.

 

The Smackdown brand may also have its share of backstage fireworks regarding the writing team. David Lagana is the current head writer, with help from Paul Heyman and Dan Madigan (whose most notable claim to fame was getting Vince McMahon to turn Booker T into a voodoo character, before McMahon was talked out of the idea by others a week after it started). There is belief that a newcomer, Sean Conaway, who is a writer's assistant, is being groomed by Stephanie for the head writing spot. A lot has been said about him being Stephanie's "overwhelming" favorite and there is the "Future head writer" nickname already attached to him. Lagana was said to have fallen victim to Brian Gewirtz and Michael Hayes offering suggestions that others feel were detrimental to the show. Heyman's disdain for Gewirtz is well known, and they even had an altercation at one point backstage at the 2003 Royal Rumble that got both Heyman and Gewirtz suspended with pay for a week. A recent example was on 10/7, with the show built around Carlito Caribbean Cool beating John Cena for the U.S. title. Cena was at first scheduled to do a promo where he'd put over how important it was to win the title and how important it was to him, so it increased the value of the belt, since the climax of the show was Carlito's shocking win. However Gewirtz got the interview scripted to where Cena's main thrust wasn't to get over the belt, but tell lame gay jokes aimed at Michael Cole, which didn't get over, even in Boston, before the planned angle. While a lot of the wrestlers want Heyman in the head writer position, the reasons he was taken off remain the reasons it is unlikely he'll ever be given that power again, largely the company heads felt it was difficult to deal with him and at times when they were trying to find him, he wasn't available. Heyman's role of late has been mainly going to bat for his allies, Big Show, Eddie Guerrero, Rob Van Dam, Rey Mysterio, Booker T, and Carlito, and make sure they aren't forgotten.

 

With the Smackdown ratings up of late (even with its lesser star power, on a realistic basis, Smackdown over the past four weeks has beaten Raw by a 3.71 to 3.56 level; although that's more due to seasonal ratings patterns; although Raw getting a new strong lead-in has helped, but not as much as the bite taken by the NFL, which traditionally hurts wrestling far more than the highly rated reality shows, comedies and crime dramas on Thursday) and some aspects of the show improved in recent weeks, Lagana hasn't been feeling as much pressure, but Conaway is very aggressive in wanting to move up and there are predictions it's going to happen soon.

 

Heyman had attempted a month or more back to get a trade made for Kurt Angle to Raw for Benoit. The idea was to get Angle off Smackdown, breaking his political base with Undertaker, and also to start an Angle vs. Michaels program for Wrestlemania, and give Angle all fresh opponents, including, at some point, HHH and Ric Flair. The idea would be to bring Benoit in as a heel and have Heyman do his talking, to climax with Benoit vs. Undertaker at Wrestlemania. That way Undertaker, who has never lost at Mania, but has had mostly terrible matches on the big show (Jimmy Snuka, Jake Roberts, Giant Gonzalez, King Kong Bundy, Kevin Nash, Sid Vicious, Kane twice, Big Bossman, and a handicap match with Show & A-Train made for ten bad matches, as opposed to two good but nowhere near as close to classic matches with HHH and Ric Flair), can have at least the classic match he wants at the big show, which is why he’s working with Angle. But the suggestion was turned down.

================================================================================

==============================

This is where the Taboo Tuesday show stands, as of press time. HHH defends against either Shawn Michaels, Chris Benoit, or Edge (they are pushing Michaels the strongest and burying Edge as a contender by heeling him); La Resistance defends the tag titles against the two who don't face HHH (Benoit & Edge?), Chris Jericho defends the IC title against anyone on the roster (Batista now being pushed), Eugene vs. Eric Bischoff in a stipulation match (hair vs. hair being pushed), Carmella DeCesare vs. Christy Hemme (either an aerobics contest, a lingerie pillow fight, or an evening gown match), a Battle Royal for the women's title with Trish Stratus, Jazz, Gail Kim, Molly, Stacy Keibler, Nidia, and Victoria with all the women either dressing as French maids, Schoolgirls or Nurses), Ric Flair vs. Randy Orton (pushing a cage match), and Kane vs. Gene Snitsky (pushing a pipe as the legal weapon).

 

The National Enquirer ran a story about Steve Austin's countersuit against former girlfriend Brenda Tess Broussard. Austin is asking for $125 million, which probably a way to make Broussard, who as noted here before, is insane, drop her $10 million suit against Austin. Austin's lawsuit claims she never told him about her porn past (rumor has it Austin read it first in the Observer), claims she's really 51 (police reports on her that we've seen list a different age and birthday than her web site does, as she's claimed in the ads on a web site that led to her prostitution bust to be 26, her personal modeling web site had her at 36, police reports say she's 37, and if she's 51, well, she's got the world's greatest surgeon and voice coach), and abused drugs and alcohol. He also charged in the suit she once put a gun in his mouth, has been harassing Jeannie Clarke (Austin’s ex-wife who lives with his children in England) and her kids, that she broke into his house and carved up his furniture and as well as the walls, stole an expensive painting, a rifle, thousands of dollars, and stole his eight different wrestling championship belts. Her lawyer, Bryan Altaian, denied all the claims, saying it's all fantasy, that she's 39 (yet another new age), she was never a porn star (she appeared in some porn movies but was not a star in those movies), and never put a gun in his mouth.

 

The voting for Taboo Tuesday will start right at 10pm Eastern time, or halfway through next week's Raw show. They will also have a Chris Benoit vs. Shawn Michaels vs. Edge main event. The voting will continue throughout the Taboo Tuesday show. The main event, which will be the HHH match, won't have the opponent announced because voting will continue, until right before the start of the match.

 

Mick Foley's children's book "Tales from Wrescal Lane," which is something he wrote years ago to teach children lessons in life using characters like The Rock, Kurt Angle, Shane & Stephanie McMahon, HHH, and others as if they grew up as playmates on a street comes out on 10/26, which means don't be surprised to see him on Raw on 10/25. Using that cast of characters, one could certainly write a very different book of lessons in life as well.

 

Rulon Gardner decided against trying pro wrestling. He told people at the Real Pro Wrestling tapings of his decision, saying he was committed to RPW, but wouldn't say anything negative about WWE. He said Kurt Angle was the person who got the ball rolling on the deal. Gardner talked to a number of people backstage at the Phoenix Smackdown tapings, some who were really encouraging him to try it. Gardner's wife was for him doing it but his mother wasn't, and ultimately he felt he'd fit in better coaching and teaching amateur wrestling, and for him, it was probably the right call.

 

Booker T was pulled from the European tour at the last minute when he showed up hurting in Boston. He was believed to have had at the time a liver issue and went to get an MRI. He was also believed to have possibly suffered a broken rib.

 

Charlie Haas was injured on the 10/8 show in Belfast. They were doing a bikini contest when Heidenreich interrupted it and stopped it. Haas made the save for his fiancé, and was beating on Heidenreich. They started a match and Haas did a dive and blew his knee out, and couldn't continue. They had gone around 30 seconds when this happened. Fit Finlay, who had been introduced earlier (so to a lot of people this looked to be an angle set up), decided impromptu, since the match couldn't continue, that he'd go in there and put Heidenreich over. Finlay was introduced earlier to set up his coming out at the end of the show to clean house on JBL, who was supposed to end the show insulting Northern Ireland. The last word we had was the knee had locked up and there was a chance he'd need surgery, although this belief was it would only have to be scoped, which would mean maybe a month out. They weren't going to know anything for sure until the tour was over and they sent him to a doctor, but the feeling was at press time that he had cartilage damage and couldn't fully extend his knee.

 

The Undertaker's neck was bothering him coming back from Europe after getting whiplash when the ropes broke when he was doing a spot on the 10/10 show in Torino, Italy. Eddie Guerrero's shoulder was messed up from the constant pounding, although neither is expected to miss any time.

 

Some more notes on Tough Enough: The final eight picked from the 10/15 and 10/16 tryouts be announced with tryout clips on the 10/21 Smackdown, with the second part of the competition with fans voting them out starting on 10/28. Al Snow and Bill DeMott will be in charge of judging, likely with input from John “Big” Gaburick and Kevin Dunn. Snow and DeMott will train the survivors during the week, and they'll be brought to the Smackdown tapings every Tuesday for the voting, where fans will vote them off weekly, similar to Diva Search. The finals are scheduled for the 12/16 Smackdown. The contract, as noted before, is not a $1 million first prize, but a four-year contract at $4,808 per week. The $1 million is far from guaranteed. If the person quits, obviously, they stop getting paid. WWE also has the contractual ability to cancel the contract after the first year, so it's not a Mark Henry situation. The company sent out a press release saying that of the 50 people, competitors will include Mike Mizanin (UPW wrestler who has been featured on several MTV reality shows including "Real World"), UFC champions (well, Kenny Sims has never won a UFC match and he's the biggest name), military personnel, national caliber track & field members, and former NFL and Arena League footballers.

 

Shawn Daivari's ring name at this point is planned on being Khosrow Daivari. The name Khosrow came because it's the real middle name of the Iron Sheik.

 

Vince McMahon had a meeting with the production people to go over advertising plans for Wrestlemania. In the meeting, Vince said that Hollywood comes up with a lot of their ideas from WWE. The Mania commercials are going to be outsourced this year and done by a New York firm. He said the theme of Mania advertising would be to show famous movie scenes and somehow insert wrestlers into the scenes. Internally, the feeling was they are spending money using highly paid New York people for stuff that they've always had the company production people handle, with a lot less cost. Anyway, it didn't go over well as you'd expect.

 

Carmella DeCesare and Christy Hemme have been brought to Trax in Stamford with company officials to plan out their entire match ahead of time. Well, that's a hell of a lot smarter than having them wing and it guaranteed stinks out the joint.

 

Funniest line of last week was Kurt Angle on the Fox & Friends morning talk show promoting No Mercy. He was asked if he was going to beat Big Show. His response was, he wasn't sure, because he wouldn't know until Vince McMahon told him the finish the day of the match.

 

Mick Foley did a couple of college speaking engagements this past week. He told wrestling stories, and was also passionate about the current election. He did Q&A's. At one, he was asked who the most overrated world champion ever was, and people started screaming out Ric Flair, because Flair ripped him in his book. His response was that Flair is a lot of things, some good and some bad, but overrated as a wrestler is definitely not one of them. I saw the edited clips of the debate they showed on Experience. Both Foley and JBL acquitted themselves very well, but to me, clearly, Foley was the more prepared of the two and his side won the debate based on what was shown. It was expressed to me how much Vince McMahon has changed to this degree. It's well known that Vince, and most of the front office staff, leans strongly conservative in their beliefs, and they promoted something with full knowledge there was a good chance their political point of view would not win, and did nothing to manipulate it, and even after what can be "the dreaded" editing process, it came across that way.

 

Shawn Michaels has been bothered by a bad knee. In fact, that played into the match in Sheffield where they did a knee injury angle to take him out of the match early, with the idea of basically giving him a night off.

 

Paul London had surgery on 10/7 from the broken nose he got in a Smackdown match with Booker T. That was one of the reasons they did the heavy stretcher job and coughing up blood angle, because they knew he was getting surgery and worked his absence into the storyline.

 

Fox News Network business reporter Merideth Whitney, JBL's fiancé, went with him on the European tour.

 

The communications issues continued. Carlito Caribbean Cool was booked on this past week's OVW taping and it wasn't until just before show time that they got word that not only was he in Europe on the tour, but was also the WWE U.S. champion, and presumably wouldn't be back. I can just imagine what the guys in training think when a guy who didn't get over in developmental was suddenly U.S. champion while guys who do get over aren't even given a thought, although at this point, they probably all simply accept it as part of wrestling.

 

For a comparison with wrestling, the Trinidad vs. Mayorga boxing match did 470,000 buys on PPV.

 

9/27 Raw TV taping in Kansas City drew 6,500. 9/28 Smackdown taping in Wichita drew 4,200.

 

10/3 Raw house show in Binghamton drew 2,700.

[SuperJerk 0]

The communications issues continued. Carlito Caribbean Cool was booked on this past week's OVW taping and it wasn't until just before show time that they got word that not only was he in Europe on the tour, but was also the WWE U.S. champion, and presumably wouldn't be back.

Cornette probably watches "The Apprentice".

[UseTheSledgehammerUh 0]

"Funniest line of last week was Kurt Angle on the Fox & Friends morning talk show promoting No Mercy. He was asked if he was going to beat Big Show. His response was, he wasn't sure, because he wouldn't know until Vince McMahon told him the finish the day of the match."

 

This is pathetic.

[SuperJerk 0]

"Funniest line of last week was Kurt Angle on the Fox & Friends morning talk show promoting No Mercy. He was asked if he was going to beat Big Show. His response was, he wasn't sure, because he wouldn't know until Vince McMahon told him the finish the day of the match."

 

This is pathetic.

Holy shit...I can't beleive I missed that part the first time I read it.

 

 

Damn.

[JoeDirt 0]

There was an incident some time back, when a lot of the controversy over HHH being a detriment first came out internally, that the agents decided to go together to McMahon and express their real viewpoint. However, at the meeting, Stephanie was there, and everyone involved change their tune, realizing whoever said anything would be the one hung out to dry immediately. It's eerily similar to the brokers who would tell Fritz Von Erich about his son's drug problems, and wind up being the ones fired for doing so.

Agent 1: Come on, guys! Let's finally tell Vince what the real problem with RAW is!

 

Agent 2: Yeah!

 

[They walk into Vince's office.]

 

Agent 1: Vince, we have something really important we need to talk to you...oh, hi Stephanie.

 

Steph: Hi.

 

Vince: So what's so important?

 

Agent 1: Oh...nothing...

[Use Your Illusion 0]

Heyman wanted ANGLE VS SHAWN and BENOIT VS UNDERTAKER for WM.

 

I fucking hate Vince McMahon.

[SuperJerk 0]

This week's Observer is gold.

[Kizzo 0]

Interesting Observer this week..

[NoCalMike 0]

well it is nice to see Heyman actually trying to do something fresh, is being turned down left and right, while a new BUTT boy is being groomed by Steph........ugh. And you wonder why I stopped watching.

[Karc 0]

The voting for Taboo Tuesday will start right at 10pm Eastern time, or halfway through next week's Raw show. They will also have a Chris Benoit vs. Shawn Michaels vs. Edge main event. The voting will continue throughout the Taboo Tuesday show. The main event, which will be the HHH match, won't have the opponent announced because voting will continue, until right before the start of the match.

 

Again, if this is true, this is utter stupidity. The main event is obviously Triple H's, which means the tag match will be BEFORE that, which means that we'll know who LOST the vote, and thus know who won the vote BEFORE they patronize us all and save it for the ring entrance.

 

Would it have been so hard to have the fans just pick a tag team? Hurricane/Rosey...wait, that's it. Well, it's no different than any of the other pre-packaged picks WWE has sent out in the last 3 weeks of TV. The Russo-like booking is silly, they are clearly booking the tag match so that Edge turns heel or teases it some more, which only further negates the Tag Titles (which I guess they feel isn't useless enough already).

[Kahran Ramsus 0]

The only way this can work is if the tag match is the lead-in to the main event.

[Guest Loss]

Off-topic, but if I was booking, here's how I'd fix the tag division.

 

1. After Edge's heel turn, reunited Edge and Christian.

2. Tell a long, elaborate story that ends with a Shawn Michaels heel turn, leaving him partnered with HHH.

3. Have Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho start teaming on a regular basis.

 

You basically have main event involvement in the tag titles at that point, and you have a tier system. Edge and Christian are the least established singles wrestlers of the bunch, but they can use the angle that they work better as a tag team than either HHH/HBK or Benoit/Jericho. You create a long, three-way feud out of the equation (without doing ANY triple threat matches) and the tag titles suddenly have meaning again. Those three teams are the top tier, with La Res being moved in and out of the position. Transition the belt to Orton, and if, say, Edge is challenging, run HHH & HBK v Benoit & Jericho on the undercard of the PPV. If HHH is challenging, Benoit & Jericho v Edge & Christian.

 

Every wrestler, unless they're trying to push a character "loner" like Steve Austin, should be a singles wrestler, but have a regular tag team partner as well. Creating a "division" only serves to divide People Who Don't Care and People Who Don't Care Even More. The tag titles should be something the top guys are interested in.

 

If HHH and HBK as a team is too much of a stretch after spending the last 100 years feuding, then let HBK put over Randy Orton for a while on top and use HHH and Batista as a tag team and run the same scenario. If you don't like Orton as champ, put the belt on Benoit and make Jericho and Orton a team. Don't get caught in who's in what positions -- the point I'm trying to make is in the new formula. Put the focus on the belts and blur the lines a little between face and heel -- everyone wants to be the champ, regardless of their alliances, and sometimes you have friends challenging friends and sometimes you have hated enemies fighting over a title.

 

This is pretty drastically different from the way WWE normally approaches booking, but everything is so cliche at this point that they need a new concept pronto. There's no one they can push as the top babyface getting banned from buildings and arrested that's going to turn business around, and there's no angle or star the fans are dying to see. HHH's complete and total demise *may* be something within the current formula that would help business, but even then, it would depend largely on who got to rid the company of him and how it was followed up.

 

They were on the right track having Benoit as champion with Edge as his regular tag team partner, but they forgot about that alliance as soon as they dropped the tag titles, and neither guy is anywhere near the other now in booking.

[Promoter 0]

I agree interesting stuff this week. Angle/HBK and UT/Benoit? HHH being a detriment? Yes, there are sensible people in creative, but they are the ones without the real power to change things.

[Enigma 0]

Off-topic, but if I was booking, here's how I'd fix the tag division.

 

1. After Edge's heel turn, reunited Edge and Christian.

2. Tell a long, elaborate story that ends with a Shawn Michaels heel turn, leaving him partnered with HHH.

3. Have Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho start teaming on a regular basis.

 

You basically have main event involvement in the tag titles at that point, and you have a tier system. Edge and Christian are the least established singles wrestlers of the bunch, but they can use the angle that they work better as a tag team than either HHH/HBK or Benoit/Jericho. You create a long, three-way feud out of the equation (without doing ANY triple threat matches) and the tag titles suddenly have meaning again. Those three teams are the top tier, with La Res being moved in and out of the position. Transition the belt to Orton, and if, say, Edge is challenging, run HHH & HBK v Benoit & Jericho on the undercard of the PPV. If HHH is challenging, Benoit & Jericho v Edge & Christian.

 

Every wrestler, unless they're trying to push a character "loner" like Steve Austin, should be a singles wrestler, but have a regular tag team partner as well. Creating a "division" only serves to divide People Who Don't Care and People Who Don't Care Even More. The tag titles should be something the top guys are interested in.

 

If HHH and HBK as a team is too much of a stretch after spending the last 100 years feuding, then let HBK put over Randy Orton for a while on top and use HHH and Batista as a tag team and run the same scenario. If you don't like Orton as champ, put the belt on Benoit and make Jericho and Orton a team. Don't get caught in who's in what positions -- the point I'm trying to make is in the new formula. Put the focus on the belts and blur the lines a little between face and heel -- everyone wants to be the champ, regardless of their alliances, and sometimes you have friends challenging friends and sometimes you have hated enemies fighting over a title.

 

This is pretty drastically different from the way WWE normally approaches booking, but everything is so cliche at this point that they need a new concept pronto. There's no one they can push as the top babyface getting banned from buildings and arrested that's going to turn business around, and there's no angle or star the fans are dying to see. HHH's complete and total demise *may* be something within the current formula that would help business, but even then, it would depend largely on who got to rid the company of him and how it was followed up.

 

They were on the right track having Benoit as champion with Edge as his regular tag team partner, but they forgot about that alliance as soon as they dropped the tag titles, and neither guy is anywhere near the other now in booking.

Good idea in theory, but I think we all know that if HHH & HBK became the tag champs, their Tag Title matches would main event the PPVs (a la Fully Loaded 98; yeah, sure Austin was the WWF Champ at the time, but this is HHH we're dealing with).

[Lord of The Curry 0]

I've conferred with my business associate at RCI Industries and we agree that Kurt "The Accidental Shooter" Angle is the gimmick that will lead WWE into the year 2005.

[Guest tnamark]

The Miz on Tough Enough? That's cool but I don't think he has the "look" to make it big in wrestling.

[SuperJerk 0]

The Miz on Tough Enough? That's cool but I don't think he has the "look" to make it big in wrestling.

Is that the goofy kid from "Real World Back to New York"?

[Enigma 0]

The Miz on Tough Enough?  That's cool but I don't think he has the "look" to make it big in wrestling.

Is that the goofy kid from "Real World Back to New York"?

Yes.

[bobobrazil1984 0]

There was an incident some time back, when a lot of the controversy over HHH being a detriment first came out internally, that the agents decided to go together to McMahon and express their real viewpoint. However, at the meeting, Stephanie was there, and everyone involved change their tune, realizing whoever said anything would be the one hung out to dry immediately.

 

bahahaahhahaahahahahahaha!

[Mole 0]

The Miz on Tough Enough?  That's cool but I don't think he has the "look" to make it big in wrestling.

Is that the goofy kid from "Real World Back to New York"?

Yes.

Actually, that would be a good thing for WWE.

 

RW/RR challenges, which he has been on 4 of, are a big ratings draw for MTV. It wouldn't hurt WWE if he is one of the top guys and I wouldn't be surprised if he wins it.

 

But he would have to suck to win it, so yeah.

[SuperJerk 0]

The Miz on Tough Enough?  That's cool but I don't think he has the "look" to make it big in wrestling.

Is that the goofy kid from "Real World Back to New York"?

Yes.

Actually, that would be a good thing for WWE.

 

RW/RR challenges, which he has been on 4 of, are a big ratings draw for MTV. It wouldn't hurt WWE if he is one of the top guys and I wouldn't be surprised if he wins it.

I'm not sure if that'll translate into drawing power, since on the "REal World" he was on, he was pretty much portrayed as a dumb rube who constantly got his ass handed to him by Coral and her magnificent breasts.

 

That was the last season of the show I could stand.

[humongous2002 0]

Heyman's role of late has been mainly going to bat for his allies, Big Show, Eddie Guerrero, Rob Van Dam, Rey Mysterio, Booker T, and Carlito, and make sure they aren't forgotten.

 

Here I'm crossing my fingers for a WWE heavyweight title reign.

[Mole 0]

The Miz on Tough Enough?  That's cool but I don't think he has the "look" to make it big in wrestling.

Is that the goofy kid from "Real World Back to New York"?

Yes.

Actually, that would be a good thing for WWE.

 

RW/RR challenges, which he has been on 4 of, are a big ratings draw for MTV. It wouldn't hurt WWE if he is one of the top guys and I wouldn't be surprised if he wins it.

I'm not sure if that'll translate into drawing power, since on the "REal World" he was on, he was pretty much portrayed as a dumb rube who constantly got his ass handed to him by Coral and her magnificent breasts.

 

That was the last season of the show I could stand.

But that 2.6 rating doesn't hurt.

[justcoz 0]

Heyman's role of late has been mainly going to bat for his allies, Big Show, Eddie Guerrero, Rob Van Dam, Rey Mysterio, Booker T,  and and Carlito

 

I don't get exactly where Carlito fits in as a Heyman favorite? He just got there. Unless Heyman is responsible for his character or push, maybe trying to show Vince he can create a star?