The Story On The Cuts

[Enigma 0]

NOTE: My WON subscription has expired and I don't have the $90 to put down for more issues right now, so this will be the one of the last posts I will make about WON-related stories until I get a new subscription. If you enjoyed them and have the money, support Meltzer and get a subscription. The stuff I post is probably 20% of the actual newsletter, so there's lots of great stuff that doesn't make it here.

 

The ax fell this week on ten WWE under-card wrestlers, with rumors of a few more on the way.

 

Andrew Martin (Test), Matt Bloom (A-Train), Monty Sopp (Billy Gunn), Nidia Guenard, Carli Begnaud (Jazz), Rodney Begnaud (Rodney Mack), Gail Kim, Jon Hugger (Johnny Stamboli), Rico Costantino, Desmond Thompson (Lamont), and Chuck Palumbo were on the list that decimated the women's division and the Heat roster in particular.

 

We've been told the cuts are not so much financial as that none of the wrestlers on the list were over, nor were they going to get over. The roster is stale, and this is a way to open the doors for new, fresh talent. A few of the wrestlers, most likely Gunn and Test, because they have been around for so long and got contracts during the boom period, probably had significant downside guarantees in the $200,000 range. But I'd suspect, based on new contracts, most on the list were getting less than $ 100,000 downside. Since most were not going on the road full-time (which at this point mostly means $500 per night unless it's an overseas tour, doing anywhere from five-to-sixteen nights per month), they likely would be earning high five to very low six figures.

 

However, others have said the cuts were largely due to the under performance of the recent PPV shows, the company's leading revenue source, plus the realization that house show numbers are not going to increase. In order to maintain profitability at the house shows, it appears they are going to book fewer people on the shows, with less four-way tags and more singles matches. They had already cut way back on taking the top developmental talent on the road, which is a learning experience of working in front of crowds of at least a few thousand every night who don't know who you are as opposed to one hundred people close to the situation who practically know you in Louisville. From this week's tapings, it appears the decimated Heat show will use contracted wrestlers against local jobbers, instead of other contracted wrestlers.

 

The women cuts come as no surprise since Vince McMahon had already talked of hiring some of the cut divas from the Diva Search. However, the cutting of women wrestlers for non-wrestlers shows the company doesn't believe in the women's division, which is now limited to an endless cycle of Trish Stratus and Molly Holly as heels and Victoria and Lita as babyfaces, with Stacy Keibler thrown in, and most likely, frequent turns to freshen things up that will ultimately kill most of them over the long haul. It was only a few months ago when the women's match on Monday night was often stealing the show, but due to the repetitive nature and lack of depth, it was bound to get stale.

 

The cutting of Kim, 28, was the second-most criticized both in and out of the company (firing Test, because he still had nine months of rehab left after neck surgery was the most controversial), both because she works hard in the ring, does lots of unique submission moves, and is very pretty. Her downfall is that she is "cold" in front of the camera as a heel, and was criticized for lacking personality. Ironically, when she first came to WWE as an unknown working house shows, she got over as a babyface strong with her personality. The feeling was with her high¬flying moves, cuteness, submissions, and perfect gymnastics like body, she was totally miscast as a heel and as a garden variety slut when she could have had a unique personality among the women. It was also a surprise since the San Francisco Chronicle had just one week done a major feature on her as one of the country's five most famous women athletes of Korean heritage.

 

The cutting of Kim also exposed just how little time was put into the decision. The idea it was a thought out process was exposed when Kim was put in an angle on the 11/2 Raw show, where she helped Stratus in a beat down of Lita. She was given a new ring outfit, with a more conservative top, but working in an ultra short skirt instead of the jeans pants, with the idea of it being more conducive to do panty shots instead of boob shots. That alone is a sad statement considering it is clear how hard she's worked learning new moves and studying Toryumon tapes, an extra mile virtually none of the locker room has gone. She was cut two days later, exposing any thought process on these cuts was less than two days as if they had considered cutting her, they would have never done an angle with her two days earlier on Raw. Worse, there is no way any rational human can explain cutting Kim and not cutting Linda Miles, who likely has a higher contract (the Tough Enough deals for winners came with staggered annual raises each year built in) and isn't even being used in developmental. (Note from S_D: This was obviously written before Miles was announced as bring fired.)

 

Test, 29, did have heat over personal life issues and hadn't been highly regarded internally for a long time. Because of his size and look, Japan does have interest in him, but the problem is this comes at a time when there are few spots open to foreigners that pay anything. I could see TNA going for him, but he'll come with the tag “WWE reject” and he doesn't work the style of most of the promotion, and even though he has size, his star power can't hang with the useless in-ring workers the company is collecting.

 

A-Train, 32, was a good worker for his size, but lacked charisma, and his size couldn't be his gimmick in a company that already had too many big men. Like with Test, many attempts to push him had failed. He was well liked generally, but after the switch from Smackdown to Raw that was supposed to revitalize him, he was instead buried and never used. He only appeared on RAW once since the trade, being defeated easily by Chris Jericho. His issues with Japan are the same as Test's.

 

Gunn, 41, has had his run. He's been repackaged a million times with the same non-result. He has name recognition, but is beyond stale, and not a good worker. I can see TNA taking him with the idea of reviving the New Age Outlaws, although reports he had signed a contract are not true. I wouldn't recommend it, though. He's also at a point, between his age, training methods, and years in the ring, where his body is going to continue to break down due to injuries on a regular basis.

 

Nidia, 25, was really good in her role as Jamie Noble's girlfriend, but her career fell apart as they needlessly broke the act up and had no idea where to go with either after the feud. As a wrestler, she tries. She's short, and with her overdone boob job, it makes her look fat, particularly next to mostly thin women. She also becomes the first Tough Enough winner to be fired.

Jazz, 30, was the unique woman performer in that she looked athletic, heavily muscled, and was not in any way traditionally sexy. Her character was portrayed as the bad-ass among the women, but it's been clear for months it wasn't a character they had any plans for. She never fit into their idea of a woman wrestler even though she had a good feud with Stratus at one point.

 

The sad part about Rodney is you have both husband and wife being fired from their jobs on the same day. At 32, he wasn't young. The only time he showed charisma was in OVW when he was doing a complete replica of his childhood idol, JYD. They weren't doing anything with him and he'd been around long enough that there was little chance he was going to ever mean much. He was brought in to basically be a cheaper version of D-Lo Brown, whom when he was fired, Rodney came in and stepped right into the angle he was in the middle of.

 

Stamboli, 27, quite frankly is a miracle he lasted as long as he did without facing the ax. He had nothing going for him except a physique. He survived the cuts of much of the ex-WCW talent that was trained at the Power Plant that WWE thought had been poorly trained (ironic now with the decision to go with Jody Hamilton as a new trainer for a Georgia territory), who were better workers or had more personality like Sean O'Haire and Rick Cornell (Reno). The only question is timing. The FBI gimmick got over shockingly huge on the recent European tour, even though it's never been seriously pushed. But it just goes to prove the axiom that it doesn't matter if you get over big at house shows, because in WWE in most cases they've already decided your slot and good work in the slot rarely brings you to the next slot as much as improving your body does. If you're looking for similarities in talent losing enthusiasm like WWE, this is it.

 

That actually relates more to Costantino. Rico, given an embarrassing gimmick from day one, made the most of every bad situation he was put in. He almost always got over beyond his level at house shows. But he became the odd man out. The gimmick of the gay guy having this hot chick that he's obviously doing nothing with, and this straight man having the hots for her on the side, was ruined when they created an angle out of the real life engagement of Charlie Haas and Jackie Gayda. Between that, and being 43, he was the highest profile wrestler cut. His age had always worked against him from his first day in WWE camp. Ironically, he was one of the fastest to improve in OVW, where he was a bigger star and more over in that promotion that virtually everyone, including Brock Lesnar, who were brought in to WWE and given all the chances.

 

Palumbo, 33, also shows how little long-term is thought about, since he had just debuted his new "Custom Chucky P” character. Palumbo was tall and muscular, as well as good looking, basically everything they like. He was coordinated, and decent enough athletically. But he never improved and had a rep for being someone who didn't pay attention in the ring. For a guy who looks like him to not make it in WWE, particularly since he appeared to have future superstar written all over him four years ago, shows a real lack of something. He had a lot of heat in the Smackdown locker room for non-wrestling related issues (not drugs), and was buried when he was switched to RAW.

[JoeDirt 0]

Thanks for all your times posting, S.D.

[Use Your Illusion 0]

Thanks for continuously supplying us with the Observer, SD.

[Guest fanofcoils]

Nothing on Lamont?

[Vanhalen 0]

Someone callll my momma

[Guest LooneyTune]

Who the hell was Lamont again? I'm still a little upset to see Rodney Mack and A-Train go. I'm not a big fan of most hosses/people with very little talent, but I saw promise in both of them, and thought they would get over without WWE cutting their legs from under them mid-push.

 

Thats really reffering more to A-Trian who would get pushed...and shafted to Velocity a week or two later. Mack simply was given 1 "push" for a month or two before being jobbed to the Hurricane and being murdered by Goldberg in 20 seconds.

[ChrisMWaters 0]

Who the hell was Lamont again?

Butler to APA for about a week or two, then friend to Earnest "The Cat" Miller, actually making it on the Royal Rumble PPV and having his wig removed before being tossed out of the ring...and he wasn't even a participant in the match!

[Spaceman Spiff 0]

re: Stamboli/FBI

 

The FBI could have gotten over had they continued to do the backstage comedy bits w/ Stamboli & Nunzio. They started to get over as faces on Velocity for a couple months, but they were never given a chance on SD to get any momentum going. Plus, when they did make SD, they'd flip-flop from heel to face depending on who they were facing. FBI could have made a pretty good opening act team.

 

He had nothing going for him except a physique.

He had a goofy kind of charisma going for him (witness the stuff w/ Nunzio), and was pretty athletic (I've seen him jump to the top turnbuckle after getting a few running steps).

 

And thanks for posting these S_D

[EdwardKnoxII 0]

The FBI could have gotten over had they continued to do the backstage comedy bits w/ Stamboli & Nunzio. They started to get over as faces on Velocity for a couple months, but they were never given a chance on SD to get any momentum going. Plus, when they did make SD, they'd flip-flop from heel to face depending on who they were facing. FBI could have made a pretty good opening act team.

And always jobbing to the Undertaker for 3 months didn't help them either. I don't remember them ever getting the upperhand on UT in the "feud".

[algrim 0]

Thanks for all the informative posts, SD.

[Guest Gary Busey]

I liked Palumbo, Kim and the Bull.

 

Thanks for spending all of the time posting these notes. For weeks I would look forward to it. It's been really appreciated.

[MillenniumMan831 0]

Thanks for all the informative posts, SD.

No doubt there, much appreciation!

[Enigma 0]

The best was when Stamboli press-slammed Rikishi over his head and held him there for about 3 seconds. I was in awe of that.

[bob_barron 0]

I just liked Johnny the Bull for that angle in 2000 where Terry Funk was training him to be more hardcore and then Bull went and ruptured his pelvis.

 

That was awesome

[Lil' Bitch 0]

THis is so depressing.

[AndrewTS 0]

Damn, now who is going to steal the Observer for us?! Thanks though, man.

 

Her downfall is that she is "cold" in front of the camera as a heel, and was criticized for lacking personality. Ironically, when she first came to WWE as an unknown working house shows, she got over as a babyface strong with her personality. The feeling was with her high¬flying moves, cuteness, submissions, and perfect gymnastics like body, she was totally miscast as a heel and as a garden variety slut when she could have had a unique personality among the women.

 

The problem was, she botched too many of those moves to really work in the role, which Meltz seems to forget...

 

It was also a surprise since the San Francisco Chronicle had just one week done a major feature on her as one of the country's five most famous women athletes of Korean heritage.

 

Can any one even name one more, though?

 

The cutting of Kim also exposed just how little time was put into the decision. The idea it was a thought out process was exposed when Kim was put in an angle on the 11/2 Raw show, where she helped Stratus in a beat down of Lita. She was given a new ring outfit, with a more conservative top, but working in an ultra short skirt instead of the jeans pants, with the idea of it being more conducive to do panty shots instead of boob shots. That alone is a sad statement considering it is clear how hard she's worked learning new moves and studying Toryumon tapes, an extra mile virtually none of the locker room has gone.

 

None of that surprises me. Although, really, they've known forever to use Stacy like that. What took so long?

 

A-Train, 32, was a good worker for his size, but lacked charisma, and his size couldn't be his gimmick in a company that already had too many big men.

 

Most of those other "big men" can't sell a move to save their lives, can't bump like him, and don't have a decent amount of moves they won't botch. Tomko and Heidenreich still have jobs but A-Train is cut? I don't even like him all that much and it seems idiotic.

 

Nidia, 25, was really good in her role as Jamie Noble's girlfriend, but her career fell apart as they needlessly broke the act up and had no idea where to go with either after the feud. As a wrestler, she tries. She's short, and with her overdone boob job, it makes her look fat, particularly next to mostly thin women. She also becomes the first Tough Enough winner to be fired.

 

The best he could say about her wrestling: she tries!

 

She sucked, and I don't know what the hell WWE was trying to do with her. The whole "trade" nonsense to Raw was so incredibly stupid I don't know what they were thinking, since she wasn't cut out to actually wrestle singles matches.

 

Jazz, 30, was the unique woman performer in that she looked athletic, heavily muscled, and was not in any way traditionally sexy. Her character was portrayed as the bad-ass among the women, but it's been clear for months it wasn't a character they had any plans for. She never fit into their idea of a woman wrestler even though she had a good feud with Stratus at one point.

 

My theory--too prone to injuries. She's been injured 3 times so far for long periods, hasn't she?

 

Stamboli, 27, quite frankly is a miracle he lasted as long as he did without facing the ax. He had nothing going for him except a physique. He survived the cuts of much of the ex-WCW talent that was trained at the Power Plant that WWE thought had been poorly trained (ironic now with the decision to go with Jody Hamilton as a new trainer for a Georgia territory), who were better workers or had more personality like Sean O'Haire and Rick Cornell (Reno). The only question is timing. The FBI gimmick got over shockingly huge on the recent European tour, even though it's never been seriously pushed. But it just goes to prove the axiom that it doesn't matter if you get over big at house shows, because in WWE in most cases they've already decided your slot and good work in the slot rarely brings you to the next slot as much as improving your body does. If you're looking for similarities in talent losing enthusiasm like WWE, this is it.

 

Come on, Taker made him famous! Lots of times!

 

That actually relates more to Costantino. Rico, given an embarrassing gimmick from day one, made the most of every bad situation he was put in. He almost always got over beyond his level at house shows. But he became the odd man out. The gimmick of the gay guy having this hot chick that he's obviously doing nothing with, and this straight man having the hots for her on the side, was ruined when they created an angle out of the real life engagement of Charlie Haas and Jackie Gayda. Between that, and being 43, he was the highest profile wrestler cut. His age had always worked against him from his first day in WWE camp. Ironically, he was one of the fastest to improve in OVW, where he was a bigger star and more over in that promotion that virtually everyone, including Brock Lesnar, who were brought in to WWE and given all the chances.

 

WWE Logic. Well, it's not like some one over 40 would ever draw, or anything...

 

Palumbo, 33, also shows how little long-term is thought about, since he had just debuted his new "Custom Chucky P” character. Palumbo was tall and muscular, as well as good looking, basically everything they like. He was coordinated, and decent enough athletically. But he never improved and had a rep for being someone who didn't pay attention in the ring. For a guy who looks like him to not make it in WWE, particularly since he appeared to have future superstar written all over him four years ago, shows a real lack of something. He had a lot of heat in the Smackdown locker room for non-wrestling related issues (not drugs), and was buried when he was switched to RAW.

 

Eh, Palumbo was, to me, basically a young Billy Gunn, but uglier. It's not a huge loss, but he could have been put to far better use.

[The Czech Republic 0]

It was also a surprise since the San Francisco Chronicle had just one week done a major feature on her ass one of the country's five most famous

I added a letter and made it funny.

[Guest LooneyTune]

You should've added a comma after the "s" because it just sounds really bad without it.

[The Czech Republic 0]

Okay, your majesty.

[Spaceman Spiff 0]

I just liked Johnny the Bull for that angle in 2000 where Terry Funk was training him to be more hardcore and then Bull went and ruptured his pelvis.

 

That was awesome

Actually, he broke his pelvis during a match w/ Funk. He was actually able to finish the match, but you could tell he was in a ton of pain.

[CanadianChick 0]

I actually didn't think Nidia was too bad. She was improving very quickly.

 

It does upset me that WWE is going back to T&A. What happened? They were doing fine a year ago.

[The Czech Republic 0]

haha but silly canadain chick t&a just got fired! test and albert that is!

 

lol

[Guest BrokenWings]

He had a lot of heat in the Smackdown locker room for non-wrestling related issues (not drugs), and was buried when he was switched to RAW.

 

Any idea what this may have been?

[Spaceman Spiff 0]

Probably issues w/ Holly, JBL, Taker for stuff like not shaking Droz's hand (Taker) or "WCW guy taking my spot" (JBL, Holly).