WWE News from the 11/1 Observer

[Enigma 0]

This is what we've got for Survivor series, which is only two weeks away. JBL defends the WWE title against Booker T, and there is said to at least be some internally who want a title change here. TV was clearly building up some sort of an elimination match with Evolution and a partner (Edge?) vs. Chris Benoit, Chris Jericho, Maven, & Randy Orton and one source did confirm that was in the planning stages. Shelton Benjamin vs. Christian for the IC title was pushed on Raw. I've heard talk of a major gimmick match on the show, and they'd better put some serious stipulations if they've got an elimination match with HHH and Orton, or else this Survivor Series will be a huge disappointment on PPV. The Undertaker vs. Heidenreich in some type of match is a virtual certainty. Kurt Angle, Mark Jindrak, Luther Reigns, and one of the Dudleys face Rey Mysterio, RVD, Eddie Guerrero, & The Big Show in an elimination match. I don't see any way right now they can come close to last year's numbers, since they put Austin's career on the line. It’ll probably Trish Stratus vs. Lita for the women's title.

 

Some interesting notes regarding Taboo Tuesday: For 99% of those involved, the entire show was done on the fly. Nobody knew for sure their stipulations ahead of time, although Ric Flair & Randy Orton and Eric Bischoff & Eugene basically had a very good idea. The production people and even the announcers not only had no clue who was winning the various polls, but no idea of finishes or anything. It was like an episode of Nitro. Some found it exciting, but from people who worked Nitro, it's not something you want to make a habit. The original plan was to have HHH in the ring and announce his opponent. That would have required the match be held earlier in the card, because the tag title match would have had to have followed. So that was changed, and HHH & Michaels were able to have time to work out their match. The women’s Battle Royal, as far as the match went, they could work out, since it was just a vote on what they'd wear. The ones with the toughest deal were the IC title wrestlers. All had to get suited up, even though people like Rodney Mack and Rosey had to know there wasn't a prayer they'd be working. Chris Jericho went out with no idea who he'd be working with until Shelton Benjamin's name was called, and virtually nobody, including Benjamin and Jericho, knew that Vince McMahon had decided to change the title until Vince relayed the info through the ref to both of them as they were ready to start the match. Based on our response level, it doesn't look like the show did well. We got more than for Unforgiven, but below any other recent show. Going up against the Yankees/Red Sox ALCS Game 6 didn't help. I think the concept was good, but the Tuesday night idea was a bad one.

 

Bruce Prichard returned at Raw on 10/25. He was backstage producing pre-taped segments and was also in the agents meeting going over the show. He's at this point not on the writing team. It was Prichard's spot, when he left on sabbatical that Paul Heyman got on the Smackdown writing team. Prichard and John Laurinaitis appeared to be the most unpopular people when it came to talent, at least on the Smackdown side. One thing about Laurinaitis is that he does appear to be far more honest than most if put in that position. I know of examples of when talent would ask him about things, and he'd say things that were direct and without being soft for politics. He told one wrestler outright, and this was wonderful for morale, but the truth, that he didn't see him as someone who could draw. In the recent problems between Ric Flair and Mick Foley, they started when Foley called up Laurinaitis to complain about Flair's statements about him on a U.K. promotional trip because he thought they were wrong for business. Foley asked Laurinaitis if Flair was serious in what he said, or saying it because they had planned to do a program later in the year. I think most in wrestling would have just told Foley that of course, Flair was working the comments, and working the comments in the book, to build a money feud. Instead, and you can judge if this was good or bad, Laurinaitis called Flair, Flair said he was serious, and Laurinaitis told Foley the truth. If Laurinaitis had lied, they'd probably have that match at a major PPV and have some of the best interviews of the year plugging it. So, under the circumstances, you really have to say he told the truth when I've got to think most would have either outright lied, or at least softened it enough to save the program.

 

Vince McMahon wasn't at Raw or Smackdown this week because he was recovering from an undisclosed surgery, and just the fact it was undisclosed has people worried. He is scheduled to return this week. Stephanie McMahon was in charge and the atmosphere was described as chaotic. Vince was involved in the creative process by phone, but it slowed everything down; the scripts weren't finalized until about 7 p.m., which isn't Nitro, but it's unheard of for Raw. The same situation took place before Smackdown in Omaha. David Lagana was on vacation so Paul Heyman was doing even more dealing with wrestlers than usual. There were people noting that when Vince couldn't be there, he didn't send Shane McMahon, but instead, sent HHH to Smackdown to help Stephanie.

 

Carl Sanderson, the Olympic gold medalist, was at the Raw show in Des Moines. I don't believe there is any interest from either side in him doing WWE, as he's far too shy and doesn't like the limelight. Jim Ross mentioned him during the broadcast and several spoke with him backstage. Surprisingly, since Sanderson was sitting front row at the show, he was never shown on camera, even though a lot of the wrestlers, most notably Randy Orton, ended up acknowledging him in front of the crowd after the show went off the air.

 

Shawn Michaels had surgery to repair his meniscus in his left knee on 10/21 in San Antonio and will be out for a few months.

 

Edge missed the Raw shows this weekend, I believe due to his honeymoon, as he was married last week for the second time. He has long since divorced the sister of Val Venis, Alana Morley.

 

The next DVD release that will be heavily pushed is "The Rise and Fall of ECW," which comes out on 11/21. It features a lot of comments from Paul Heyman, who it was said was having problems originally with the project because of the portrayal of ECW. The DVD features some of the most monumental matches in company history, including Raven & Stevie Richards vs. The Pitbulls (this is the match where they broke tons of tables and heat was off the charts), Rey Mysterio vs. Psicosis 2/3 falls (some have said this was the best match in company history), The Sandman vs. Mikey Whipwreck ladder match from 1995, 2 Cold Scorpio vs. Sabu 30:00 draw from 1996 (I was at that match live, and it didn't get over well in the building, and the two had at least one singles match five times as good earlier), Raven vs. Tommy Dreamer from the 1997 Wrestlepalooza PPV), Tazz vs. Bam Bam Bigelow from the 1998 Living Dangerously PPV, and RVD vs. Jerry Lynn from 1999 Hardcore Heaven PPV.

 

Johnny Devine was upset at WWE creative, believing they used the fact he'd been stabbed in a fight and had surgery as the impetus for the John Cena stabbed in the kidney and in danger of losing it storyline on Smackdown with Carlito Caribbean Cool. They did come up with the stabbing only a week or two after it happened to Devine. I can certainly see where he'd think that, because when I heard it, it was one of two things that immediately popped into my head. Timing is awfully coincidental with that one, but being that it was a Puerto Rican wrestler whose last name is Colon lends credence to the Bruiser Brody theory, which more people inside wrestling have suggested to me. It could simply be a coincidence with both.

 

Eddie Guerrero was booked on house shows against Carlito Caribbean Cool, and since it's a title match he actually argued that he should do the job. The company plans were the DQ finish they did in Minneapolis. Right now, a great percentage of the wrestlers have been fans all their lives, and the mentality is the fans deserve winners and losers in matches as much as possible, particularly on the house shows, where nobody gets hurt seriously by doing jobs.

 

Trish Stratus has been having numbness in her hand. In many cases, like Ric Flair, Kurt Angle, Arn Anderson, Chris Benoit, and others, that's the first sign of major neck problems.

 

WWE signed Brian Carlucci, or Brian Danovich, as he was called on Tough Enough, to a developmental deal, off of his gutsy showing at Tough Enough. On the show, John Laurinaitis said the company would pay for his surgery for a torn pectoral and biceps and when he was healthy he'd start at OVW. Danovich made the final 25 at the tryouts. Some attributed the tear to his failure to warm-up properly, but he went right in on 225 on the bench cold, and on his 11th rep, he, on camera, tore his left side of his body up. Nevertheless, and this was gutsy as hell, he, with basically one arm, did the obstacle course the next day, which required climbing walls and pulling things, and finished it, which a lot of credentialed athletes with no injuries passed out or quit on. Danovich was heavily featured on the first episode, with him noting that all the great athletes are trying wrestling coming from other sports, but he's got no sports background because from childhood, all he ever wanted to be was a pro wrestler. It made for great TV clips having him gut his way through the same obstacle course that they showed others quitting on, but it was borderline criminal watching him pull himself up and having him do push-ups on a torn pectoral and watching him scream in pain. Jackie Gayda got a contract partially through going back and training on a torn ACL that needed surgery and working through serious injuries is considered gutsy, and it is, but that's what leads to permanent and chronic injuries, worse injuries, and major pain pill addictions. It's funny that the injury may have been a lucky break for him, because it got him the TV time and the contract. That’s how Matt Morgan got his contract, having to quit out from Tough Enough 2 due to a back injury. It's so strange how fate works. They couldn't pick him for the final eight because he needs surgery. Carlucci came to Les Thatcher's school more than three years ago and did nothing but make enemies due to his cocky attitude. He's apparently had a change of heart of late, but a guy who has been around three years and has made no name for himself on the independent scene isn't what I'd call a fast learner. Bill DeMott knew him from the HWA days and wasn't exactly a fan of his at the time. He was a contender for the final eight had he not been hurt. They showed a football player, who seemed to think he was a real athlete and in great shape, quitting when he gassed out on the obstacle course. To me, Marty Wright was far and away the best guy there from the tape shown. He was the 40-year-old guy, who claimed he was 30, and looked it, but lied and Laurinaitis does not like a liar. So he was cut. Lying is not acceptable in wrestling, unless you get to the superstar level, or you're a promoter. He came off as scary and intimidating just through his look and his talking was great, and his physique blew away everyone else that was 15 years younger than he was. He was said to have been amped up like crazy, because he couldn't sit still the whole time he was there. There were so many ironies when he was talking about setting a good example for kids. It was interesting to see of the five guys pushed, two of them ended up cut. It seemed to me from week one, that, as we noted last week, Daniel Rodimer was the favorite. I can see Mike the Miz getting a lot of votes because a lot of people are going to recognize him from Real World. Daniel Puder was the third of the eight finalists who had a background segment shown. John Minton Jr. did a great promo, and they did a little with him, showing clips of his father, but his lack of a bodybuilder body looked to have killed him. Wes Sims didn't even make TV. I found this way more compelling then the Diva Search. Another person I saw in the background was King Adamo of Zero-One, who would have had by far the most big league experience. He's kind of your 70s stereotypical happy Samoan character at about 5’9’’ and 350 pounds.

 

The Tough Enough guys got their first double-cross, or hazing, at the Smackdown tapings behind the scenes. They were told to go into the dressing room and were told, no matter what happened, they couldn't do anything physical or they'd be gone, but that nothing physical would be done to them. When they got in, they had the wrestlers start screaming at them like they were intruders, and they weren't wrestlers and didn't belong there. The Big Show stood up to scare everyone and kick them out until they pay their dues. Based on what I heard, the tape only showed this and not the rest of the incident. They tried to see what Daniel Rodimer, their favorite, would do impromptu, and he backed down. Show then went to Daniel Puder, who didn't back down, so Show threw him hard into a locker. This was before they went in the ring in Omaha. That's probably why Show told Puder he had a lot of heart when they were in the ring and Puder didn't back down the second time before Show slammed him.

 

There is a very different attitude toward "Tough Enough" this time out. In the previous seasons, there was an emphasis to weed out the weak. This time, they don't want anyone to quit as the whole idea is to draw ratings with one person voted off by the audience every week, although it didn't take more than a day or two before that plan was botched when John Meyer quit. In fact, Al Snow and John “Big” Gaburick begged him to stay, as opposed to what they'd have done in previous years, but ultimately agreed when he said it wasn't for him. He owned his own ad agency and was in his 30s and it was evident on the first day, when he was slow to pick things up, that he had no chance to win. They at first talked about bringing an alternate into Omaha so they'd have eight to start out with, but last word was they would start with seven and not vote the first week. Based on the timetable of when the show is supposed to conclude, if someone quits and they don't put an alternate in, they'd have to avoid a vote for a week. They are doing internet voting instead of phone voting, like they did for the Divas. Mike the Miz is pushing himself on his web site that gets 25,000 visitors per month, so everyone acknowledges his facial recognition from MTV and his web site popularity give him a huge advantage. His MTV stuff on the Real World vs. Road Rules challenge still airs, so aside from him being ahead of everyone in both wrestling and personality, he's got a TV following and a recognition factor than nobody else has. Knowing what the company wants (bigger guys than him), and how they manipulate all voting, it will be very interesting to see how they attempt to counter this. Technically, in their rules, they can change the rules of this contest at their discretion, and they can ignore the voting, although will look foolish doing so. An Observer poll regarding the favorites saw Miz at 55%, compared with 14% for Rodimer, the company favorite, and 11% for Puder, the MMA fighter who looks to be the best athlete. A correction from last week on Nick Mitchell: he didn't get a lot of TV time, but he was another good physique and nice look guy. He's not in his 30s, but actually in his early 20s. The dates we had wrong on him playing Indoor Football were wrong, as he played in the 2004 season with the Beaumont Drillers. All eight competitors were brought to Stamford on 10/23 to start training. Chris Nawrocki and Meyer were having trouble picking up the bumps, and Meyer also got destroyed in like 30 seconds in a wrestling match with Puder, leading to Meyer quitting and after it happened, nobody wanted to wrestle him. Nawrocki came to practice hung over on his second day. Mike the Miz was well ahead of everyone because he's got two years experience, and trained as hard as anyone. He also got drunk the first night when they did a night out when the company swerved the guys by saying they'd pay for everyone's drinks to see who would get irresponsible knowing they had a full day of practice the next day. From what I'm told, he would get drunk a lot on the MTV reality series' he'd been on. Mitchell and Ryan Reeves, among the novices, picked up the wrestling training the quickest. Daniel Rodimer, the favorite, was in the middle of the pack as far as picking things up, but overall doing well. The expectation is anyone who is impressive in picking things up and doesn't win will be offered a developmental deal, since they are looking at stocking multiple small territories with prospects within a year. Wes Sims complained so much about being cut early from not doing well in the drills, that his size worked against him (and in the bench press with his long arms, it's a valid point even though nobody wanted to hear it), and when John Laurinaitis told him he should go to OVW on his own and try out, his reaction was such that he buried himself even deeper.

 

The whole WWE lawsuit to get out of the Jakks and THQ contracts is to put the deals back on the board and take offers from all the major videogame and toy companies.

 

There is an idea of using Matt Morgan as a masked heel. He's not scheduled to be brought up any time soon, but the office asked he get practice with it, which is why he did the deal where he said he was leaving if he lost to Chris Cage. He's coming up under a mask as The Blue Print (his OVW nickname). In OVW, they are going to not hide that it's Morgan, since he's the most over guy in the company and at his size and with his promo ability, putting a mask isn't going to camouflage him. At least the company is getting guys to work with their new gimmicks in training rather than bringing guys up with no warning and putting them in totally new roles as they've done in the past. Barrabas the Prophesizer (not to be confused with the Puerto Rican star of the past), who just started on OVW TV, and was brought to WWE tapings a few weeks back, was already brought up and will use the name Jesus Aguilera, or simply Jesus, as a bodyguard for Carlito Caribbean Cool. He's a Southern California guy whose real name is Aaron Aguilera. He's only wrestled once in OVW (I saw him wrestle a few times years ago since he started in Southern California). He was a developmental prospect years ago, hurt his back, and was cut. His selling and feeding the babyface's comebacks are fine, but he looks green on offense and shows little emotion. But he came to TV a few weeks back, and he's 6’4’’ or 6’5’’, so there you go.

 

As things stand right now, Carmella DeCesare is done, although it wouldn't shock me for her to wind up on Smackdown based on Vince's statement that a few of the Diva Search contestants would likely be "signed by Teddy Long" for that show within the next month.

 

Bobby Heenan, like everyone else, got one of the standard $10,000 contracts for merchandising rights and such as they try and re-market old stars and use them in some capacity with the launch of WWE 24/7. He hadn't signed, but with TNA not having shown any interest in him, inevitably he'll likely be involved in that project.

 

The movie "Doom," which The Rock has the lead role in that he's filming in Prague right now, is scheduled for an August 2005 release.

 

10/18 Smackdown brand house show in Minneapolis drew 4,000, which is good for a house show these days, but Minneapolis is one of those traditional wrestling markets. 10/22 Raw house show in Green Bay drew 2,100. 10/23 Raw show in Madison, WI drew an estimated 1,500. The 10/23 Smackdown show in Ottawa drew an estimated 2,250. 10/24 Raw show in Cedar Rapids also drew an estimated 1,500. 10/24 Smackdown in Montreal drew an estimated 4,000.

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

Triple H and HBK have wrestled each other a billion times, and they still need time to work out their match ?

[Guest LooneyTune]

I don't think this means worked out the entire match, but key spots. Almost everyone does that before a big match, no matter how long they have been leading up to a match or how many times so-and-so wrestled each other.

[King Cucaracha 0]

Triple H and HBK have wrestled each other a billion times, and they still need time to work out their match ?

The circumstances were totally different. They couldn't work the same type of match they usually do spot for spot, because of HBK's knee, so obviously they needed to go over what HBK could take and what he couldn't take...what sort of direction to take the match...how much Shawn would be on the defensive. Stuff like that.

 

No surprise to see the guy who got injured on Tough Enough getting a contract.

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

And two 'ring generals' couldn't, you know, call it in the ring ?

[Guest SoZe]

Well, Michaels DID have a torn up knee, so, there's that.

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

Shouldn't that logically mean Hunter would know to stay away from it beforehand ?

[SuperJerk 0]

Thanks for the recap, S_D. You da man.

[Lil' Bitch 0]

Bruce Prichard returned at Raw on 10/25. He was backstage producing pre-taped segments and was also in the agents meeting going over the show. He's at this point not on the writing team.

 

As things stand right now, Carmella DeCesare is done.

 

This week has barely started and we already have good news. So awesome.

[MARTYEWR 0]

Trish Stratus has been having numbness in her hand. In many cases, like Ric Flair, Kurt Angle, Arn Anderson, Chris Benoit, and others, that's the first sign of major neck problems.

[NYU 0]

Shouldn't that logically mean Hunter would know to stay away from it beforehand ?

Which is odd, because the story of the match turned out to be Hunter actually focusing on Shawn's knee.

 

Knee injuries such as a torn meniscus can be very limiting as to what you can pull off in the ring and what you can't. Despite the fact that Michaels and Hunter have faced each other so many times before, Shawn's knee injury throws a new factor into the match that severely restricts the action going on in the ring. They need to account for Shawn's limitations beforehand, so as to assure that: a) Nothing goes wrong in the ring with a guy that already is one bad back bump away from retirement AND b) They can try to have the best match possible, with the knowledge that Shawn is having trouble with the simplest things - like walking. I see nothing wrong with the two planning out their match ahead of time.

[Guest TigerDriver91]

Trish Stratus has been having numbness in her hand. In many cases, like Ric Flair, Kurt Angle, Arn Anderson, Chris Benoit, and others, that's the first sign of major neck problems.

This really sucks :(