WWE News and Notes from 11/22 Observer

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

The Survivor Series, traditionally one of the company’s “big four” events of the year, only accentuated all of the reasons WWE is continuing to lose popularity. Unlike last year, where the show started the build for several matches that culminated at Wrestlemania, this year’s show ended with nothing interesting having been developed. The final scene of Randy Orton once again in triumph, having beaten HHH when they were the last two, was the obvious ending and the only ending they could have done, given the idea of a HHH vs. Orton Wrestlemania main event. But people are hardly beating down the doors to see that match, and there is no other potential match they would be. The problems talked about continued, with almost all the belts remaining on heels, meaning an unpleasant series of results to the most loyal fans who buy the house shows and PPV shows. Not that Booker T is the answer to anyone’s prayers, but his match with JBL was a conceptual disaster. It was the same ref bump, outside interference, belt shot heel title win that they’ve been doing to death for the past year and people are long since tired of. The company continues to mistake the groaning when the refs go down and the booing when the heel gets his hand raised for heat that it will sell tickets and get people interested in the product. They continue to not recognize that belts mean nothing, unless they are on people fans consider superior performers. The singular brand PPV concept needs to be examined (as well as the entire TV presentation), they need to cut down on the number of PPV shows, and they need to move talent from one side to the other. Every day this isn’t done is another day of the snowball going down the hill. As we saw with WCW, there comes a point when the momentum of despair has destroyed the company.

 

Survivor Series was the latest in a string of average shows that one could easily miss without thinking they’d missed something of importance. PPV is the company’s most profitable arm, and they are watering it down. PPPV can’t afford to be average, because people are spending $34.95 for it at a time when wrestling is no longer an in thing. But there are no easy matches, because all of the big matches have been done.

 

Unlike a few months back when these thoughts could be dismissed as simply being pessimistic, we are long past that point. The show on 11/14 at the Gund Arena in Cleveland drew 7,500 fans, with word around town that free tickets weren’t hard to come by. The Survivor Series historically has sold out 13 of its 17 previous incarnations. It was the fourth time the show had been in Cleveland, the unofficial home and its 1987 birthplace, and never was the paid attendance any less than double of what likely was for this show .Our early estimates indicate buys will be well above the record lows of No Mercy or Taboo Tuesday, but will be the lowest buy rate by far of a “big four” show in history, as your responses were down 20% from last year.

 

The public continues to speak and the company continues to go in the wrong direction, and makes excuses for what is simply bad creative and an inability to create new stars.

 

The show had its inherent handicaps, particularly in the Smackdown Survivor Series match, with the heel team consisting of Carlito, who couldn’t wrestle due to his shoulder injury, and Kurt Angle, who is limited due to a variety of injuries. This left only Luther Reigns and Mark Jindrak, both of whom are green. Still, the booking where the face team had the numerical advantage and the ending was so weak left a lot of the top stars talents wasted. Undertaker vs. John Heidenreich, on the other hand, was another example of booking that nobody could figure out. Why those two were booked to do a long match, when they’d be hard pressed to do an entertaining short match, is an answerable question. Between that and a Smackdown title match that nobody cared about, and much of Smackdown being taken up with “Tough Enough”, limiting the time to developing angles, makes the Armageddon PPV in 12/12 in Atlanta look to have no direction. One should come out of a PPV and “want” to see a certain match, which should be the next PPV main event. What is that match ?

 

The Raw was by the books and saved the show. Shelton Benjamin was probably the only guy who elevated himself, as he came across as a superior athlete, and his match with Christian was the best thing on the card. Lita vs. Trish Stratus seemed to add heat to their feud, even though some would question not doing an advertised match that people paid money to see. The eight-man main event had a story it needed to accomplish, and did exactly what it should have. It also saved what had been up to that point a well below average show.

 

A. Le Resistance beat Hurricane and Rosey in 4:59 of the Heat match. Crowd was hot for this, which is scary, because it means it wasn’t a cold crowd, but a cold show that made the last few bouts flat. Hurricane got a few near falls before colliding with Rosey by accident. As the ref checked on Rosey, La Resistance did the au revoir on Hurricane and Conway scored the pin. The Hurricane heel turn angle has seemingly been forgotten, Better than most Heat matches.

 

1. Spike Dudley retained the Cruiserweight title in a four-way over Chavo Guerrero, Billy Kidman, and Rey Mysterio in 9:03. Strong opener, but could have been longer, particularly considering the time allotments later in the show. The Dudley’s weren’t there, with them claiming they were injured in the TV angle with Big Show. Spike has a new Snitsky beard (which is also the Mondo beard). They did it with all four men in the ring, tornado style, instead of tagging. A big move was Mysterio doing a hurracanrana off the top with Kidman on the apron and both flew off to the floor. Guerrero threw Mysterio over the top (for some reason they are friends, with no storyline to explain it since they had the big feud earlier in the year), and he landed on Spike with an Aguayo/Thesz press to the floor. Guerrero did a pescado on both. Spike followed with a pescado, but everyone scattered and he crashed on the floor. Kidman and Chavo did simultaneous superkicks on Spike. Kidman went up for the shooting star, but Chavo kicked Kidman off the ropes to the floor. Mysterio blocked a Dudley dog, and then hit a 619. Mysterio went for a springboard finisher on Spike, but Kidman blocked it. Guerrero did a Gori special bomb on Spike, but Kidman came over the top rope with a legdrop on Guerrero’s back, and Spike got the pin while Kidman and Mysterio took a bump over the top together. ***1/4

 

There was a backstage confrontation with Heidenreich and Gene “The Shitsky” where they stood nose to nose and grunted, until they realised their man love for each other as Snitsky liked poetry and Heidenreich liked killing babies. Very weird. This wasn’t planned to go anywhere, but was what the company believed to be a “brilliant” interpromotional moment. It was strange, to say the least

 

2. Shelton Benjamin pinned Christian in 13:23 to retain the IC Title. The match was clearly to highlight Benjamin’s athletic ability, and Christian played his role perfectly. Benjamin did a springboard Buff blockbuster looking deal. He landed on his feet on a monkey flip. Christian came back, knocking Benjamin off the apron into the barricades. He used a swinging reverse DDT for a near fall. Benjamin missed a Stinger splash into the corner and Christian did a high angle implant DDT for a near fall. Benjamin survived lots of interference by Tyson Tomko. He did a spin kick on Tomko, followed by Christian going for the Unprettier, but Benjamin reversed it into a t-bone for the pin. The show was off to a good start. ***1/2

 

The second interpromotional moment involved Edge and Kurt Angle. Angle didn’t like how he was portrayed in a story in Edge’s book and started running down Edge. What is hilarious about this is fans thought it was building up Edge vs. Angle, when that wasn’t the plan. In face, Edge played total face, which contradicts his character completely, in the skit. Brian Gewirtz loves writing comedy sketches for both Edge and Angle, and that was what this was about. As Angle was leaving, Eugene saw him. Eugene had big hands and acted like he was in awe of Angle, and then started chanting, “you suck” at him.

 

3. Eddie Guerrero, Big Show, Rob Van Dam and John Cena beat Kurt Angle, Luther Reigns, Mark Jindrak and Carlito in 12:26. With Carlito injured, they booked around it by having Cena come out an immediately go after Jesus and Carlito. Carlito mainly ran while Cena pounded on Jesus backstage. They ended up in the parking lot with Carlito and Jesus eventually jumping into a car and driving off. This was funny because they went for the car next to the one they were supposed to jump into. Another funny thing is Cena, who was supposed to have been stabbed, theoretically by Jesus, had no bandage or any scarring. Guerrero even brought it up, and Cena said he had a good doctor. This left the faces with a 4-on-3 edge. Van Dam used a frog splash on Jindrak, but Angle pinned him in 8:45 with a schoolboy using the ropes. Guerrero then pinned Jindrak in 9:10 also using the ropes. Show pinned Reigns with a chokeslam in 10:20. This left Angle against Show, Guerrero and Cena. He tried to walk out, but Van Dam blocked him in the entrance ramp. He walked backwards until doing a comedy spot where he bumped into Show. Show had white tape all over his boot to sell damage from the ankle lock on TV on Smackdown, but never limped once. Angle got no offence in, and was bounced around, with Cena doing the FU and Guerrero following up with a frog splash until Show pinned Angle. The eight-man wound up wasting the talents of talented people involved in this match. *3/4

 

Maven was doing an interview where Coach was saying that he didn’t think Maven belonged in a main event. That was far too close to home, because that’s what everyone watching was thinking. Snitsky came out and threw Maven into some metal deals and Maven juiced. Fit Finlay and Steve Keirn helped Maven out. Later, Eric Bischoff said Maven “may not” be able to complete in the main event, and if so, the faces couldn’t get another partner. “May not” translated into the obvious run-in at some point during the match.

 

4. Undertaker pinned John Heidenreich in 15:58 after a chokeslam and tombstone. This was entirely too long when you had one guy who isn’t any good at selling against a guy who doesn’t want to sell because of his gimmick. This was a coma inducing match that killed the crowd. At one point, Heidenreich crotched Undertaker on the post, and he recovered very quickly, which made it stupid later in the show when they used the low blow spot in the main event and it was sold big. The story was supposed to be that Undertaker was freaked out by how much punishment Heidenreich took before losing, and he sold surprise on his face. *

 

5. Trish Stratus beat Lita to keep the woman’s title in 1:24. Lita came out and attacked her and threw her under one of the tables. Lita threw a few hard chair shots to the table. Stratus was able to use make up blood to give the impression of a bloody nose, which they sold as broken. Stratus freaked out over he looks being destroyed. Lita had already been DQ’d for the chair shots. It would have been stupid for Stratus to win at this point, so I guess they decided not to have a match and keep the program going. ½*

 

6. JBL pinned Booker T in 14:43 to retain the WWE Title. Crowd was dead for this match. Orlando Jordan kept interfering. At one point Booker made a comeback with a superkick on Jordan after a book end on JBL into the steps. He did the ax kick on Jordan and a missile dropkick in the ring on JBL. Booker then missed the old Harlem Hangover, which Tazz said was a move he’d never seen before, Well, I guess he must have missed all those years of Harlem heat when that was Booker’s finishing move. Jordan tripped Booker and JBL did a DDT. Then came the tired cliché that the people just groaned at. There was a ref bump, Jordan ran in and attacked Booker, bringing out Josh Matthews, in a suit-and-tie, for the save. JBL destroyed Matthews. Booker used a side kick and an ax kick but no ref. Charles Robinson ran in but before he could count three Jordan pulled Robinson out of the ring. The finish saw Booker use the book end on Jordan, but that gave JBL a chance to use the belt shot on Booker for the pin. *1/2

 

7. Randy Orton, Maven, Chris Benoit and Chris Jericho beat HHH, Gene Snitsky, Batista and Edge in 24:31. The stips here were that the winning team would get to have four straight weeks where one member of the team would become the guy in charge of Raw. It was 4-on-3 at the start as Maven didn’t come out. This main event will end up being a trivia contest for the PPV that Maven and Snitsky were both in the main event of. All I can say about the early part of the match is watching Snitsky sell was some of the most unintentional humor of the year. Even funnier is, he was doing so in a PPV main event. Even funnier, is he’s been wrestling for seven years and is still this bad. Benoit worked most of the first fall since he was the first guy out. He German suplexed Snitsky and Batista, and then gave HHH three German suplexes. He did a diving headbutt onto both Edge and HHH as they were both laid out. He put the sharpshooter on HHH but he was saved. He put a crossface on Edge but HHH was the legal man and gave Benoit a pedigree and pinned him in 7:24. HHH and Snitsky argued to start the second fall. Then Batista and Snitsky, the two alumni of Afa’s Wild Samoan Wrestling School in Allentown, went nose-to-nose. Jericho got HHH in the walls, but Batista saved. He went to Lionsault Batista, but Ric Flair, who is supposed to stay off his feet, tripped him. Flair was kicked out of ringside. Orton hit Batista with a belt shot and Jericho pinned Batista in 10:39 after an enzugiri. Batista KO’d Jericho with a clothesline before leaving. Maven ran in with his head all bandaged and went after Snitsky. He was way too enthusiastic, as he legit busted Snitsky’s eye and broke his orbital bone, so Snitsky will be out of action a few weeks. Snitsky was all bloody with a deep cut above the eye which would have got any boxing match stopped and needed several stitches to close the cut. Snitsky came back with a chair shot to Maven’s head to get disqualified at 16:05. I can’t believe after all the repeated concussions, plus Angle needing neck surgery after a chair to the head, that they still do unprotected chair shots to the head when the back makes almost the same noise and is a million times safer. HHH then pinned Maven in 16:50. Edge pinned Jericho with a spear in 19:04 leaving HHH and Edge both against Orton. HHH used a spinebuster. However, Edge went to spear Orton, who moved, and speared HHH. Orton then gave a stunned Edge the RKO for the pin at 22:59. Match ended with HHH hitting a low blow, and then setting up the pedigree. Orton escaped and hit the RKO and pinned HHH to take the match. Good match, but no better, and in many cases worse, than the usual Raw six-man tag TV main event. ***1/4

 

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Armageddon on 12/12 in Atlanta will be headlined by JBL v Guerrero v Undertaker v Booker T for the WWE Title, plus Suzuki and Dupree v RVD and Mysterio for the tag titles…The feeling right now is that Flair is a few weeks away from returning to wrestling…Carlito does need surgery and will be getting it this week. He dropped the US Title to Cena at the 11/16 tapings in Dayton clean with the FU. Cena was then attacked and stretchered out by Jesus. The two would have started out together in UPW and I even saw them against each other when Cena had a WWE dark match before being sent to OVW. Both were signed by WWE at about the same time, but Jesus was dropped after suffering a back injury years back…Austin did an interview with Alex Marvez on 11/15, talking about how much fun he had doing the movie “Longest Yard”. “As far as wrestling, I say especially with the way things are today, never say never. My main focus is to continue to work in this type of industry (acting).” He said if he were to wrestle, he wouldn’t put limitations on himself with what he can do, as he said in the movie he could move around fine and do stunts. He said he wants roles where he can play someone similar to his wrestling character. He said he watches Raw 75% of the time, but because of his schedule, has a hard time keeping up with Smackdown. “I just think that right now there’s a lot of opportunity for guys to step up. Will they step up remains to be seen. I don’t want to get too critical on the product because everyone knows I’m pretty opinionated when it comes to that. I am entitled to my opinion like everyone is. Being the position I am, I know how to draw money and what you need to say and this and that. I’m a pretty darn good coach as far as the product goes. I’m just going to say there’s a lot of opportunities for guys to step up, take the football and run with it. Vince has handed the ball to lots of guys. You’ve got to be the S.O.B to break from the pack and be willing to go out and make the most of that opportunity. Vince is giving the opportunity and shoving some guys, but if you can’t handle that, nothing will happen for them. You need to be hungry and kick, scratch, and claw to the top”…Austin and Vince have been talking of late, and most figure he’ll be involved in some form leading up to Mania…At meetings before TV this past week, the wrestlers were told there will be no more cuts at the present time. Three days later, Linda Miles was cut. I guess someone must have asked Vince and Laurinatis why she was still under contract while they were slicing the women’s division. I guess the rationale is that since she wasn’t on the main roster, and the speech was given to the main roster, they were telling the truth…Yoshihiro Asai (formerly Ultimo Dragon) and WWE agreed when he came to TV that he would start back in January…It is official that Smackdown will be taping a Christmas week show in Iraq again this year. Flair, Benoit, Stratus, Lita, Hurricane and Venis will be visiting military bases representing Raw in the Middle East from 11/16 to 11/20 through Armed Forces Entertainment for the Raw brand…Stratus will also be on the cover of the December issue of Oxygen magazine, while HHH has a major interview in the January issue of Penthouse

 

Partial Raw report:

 

Batista was mad at HHH for offering Maven a spot since he doesn’t like Maven. HHH said the whole dressing room wants him to lose so that’s why he offered Maven a spot. Batista twice said, “Well, I’ve been thinking”, and twice HHH said, “Nothing good can come of you thinking”, then played it off like a joke when Batista didn’t laugh. If they had done this for six months with Orton, they wouldn’t be in such a deep hole right now.

 

And speaking of psychologically disturbed, we have HHH v Maven. The funny thing is the entire show they were teasing strongly that Maven was going to join Evolution. They even had Jim Ross push that he thought he was going to join, and Lawler pushed it even harder. They did an internet poll, and 64% said they thought Maven wasn’t going to join Evolution. I didn’t know what was funnier; that they used the real number even though it screwed up their angle (Ross had to cover by saying he was surprised at the response), or that they’ve done the same basic swerve angle so many times that two-thirds of the audience doesn’t buy anything they say. Either way, they need to think about how they do business a lot. Then came the match. Maven decided to ho for the title. So, of course, we have the underdog babyface, screwed at every opportunity due to outside interference, totally outwrestling the heel to the point the heel is shown to not even be in his league, still surviving through the finishing moves from the other cheating and interfering heels, and even coming back to win at the end. It was the old Bill Watts booking of JYD, except HHH was booked as the babyface, even though he was supposed to be the heel. I will say this, as much of a total joke this sounds like it was, and from a booking standpoint it was, it actually worked because the crowd was starting to believe HHH would get screwed and they’d see a title change, and Ross was selling like we could see a change to the point it became plausible. The crowd not turning on Maven and announcing saved what was the unintentionally booked to be the funniest main event of the year. The negatives were, in the spotlight, Maven looked bad as a worker. His offence sucked, and there were outright botched spots to the degree you never see in WWE main events, or, usually, even in Raw matches that don’t involve Giant Gene, Pennsylvania’s greatest athlete. Worse, Maven was booked to look incompetent, which just kills you as a face. When it was fair, HHH was handling him easily. Worse, with Flair and Big Dave booted out, it was Maven, with Benoit and Jericho (and later Orton) all interfering, all against HHH. Behind the refs back, Benoit rammed HHH into the steps, but in the ring, HHH made his comeback and had Maven in the pedigree. Benoit distracted the ref and Jericho hit a Lionsault on HHH, but HHH kicked out. HHH came back and hit the pedigree, but Jericho put Maven’s foot on the ropes. I was in hysterics at this point. The ref threw Jericho out. As he was getting rid of Jericho, Benoit used a German suplex and diving headbutt on HHH. HHH kicked out again. So he’s now survived the finishing moves of his contenders for over the next two weeks. Edge came out and went for a spear, although you couldn’t tell if he was aiming for Maven or HHH, but nailed ref Chad Patton. Benoit and Jericho then beat on HHH and Edge until Big Dave and Flair came back out for the save. Orton nailed HHH with a belt shot. OF course, he kicked out again. This was Nash booking level selfishness. Snitsky then came out and clotheslined Orton right in the nose, and it was feared at press time Orton had a broken nose (it was busted up noticeably on TV). While all this was happening, HHH pinned Maven after a pedigree in 12:18. You couldn’t have made your faces look more incompetent, made a face you’ve started to push look more like a pussy, and make the heel champ look like a babyface more if you tried, and there is no doubt for either selfish or perverse reasons, that had to be the goal. But it was a very exciting match.

 

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There have now been at least six class action lawsuits by companies representing shareholders of Jakks Pacific against Jakks Pacific for failing to disclose the legal action they were aware of as a possibility and that the WWE was attempting to get out of its licence by accusing the head people in the company of illegally obtaining the license. The suit claims by withholding information from the stockholders for the months they were aware of what was going on, they didn’t give them important information they knew of which led to a major stock price drop. On 11/16, Jakks Pacific announced a new licensing agreement with WWE to develop video games for TV. Jakks made the deal over the summer and it has nothing to do with the current lawsuit. WWE was clearly upset about the release, which served to temporarily increase the Jakks Pacific stock price as it gave the impression things must not be too bad in relations with WWE. WWE then sent out a release of its own, noting the deal in question was signed n July, when WWE was still gathering facts related to the lawsuit. . “We do not know why JAKKS chose to issue a press release on the subject today, and we can state that JAKKS did not seek current authority from Ms. Goldsmith (Michelle Goldsmith of WWE management who was quoted in the Jakks release) to include a quote from here in the release. In July, when the (deal) was originally signed, Ms. Goldsmith did not approve the quote, but it no longer remains the view of Ms. Goldsmith or the management of WWE”. Jakks, a few hours later, issued yet another press release, claiming the WWE had approved of the press release earlier in the day within the past week. Jakks also announced on the same day, again to give the impression relations couldn’t be so bad between the companies, that it is working with WWE on a Hillbilly Jim action figure with the proceeds going to Make-A-Wish. This was strategic, because if WWE says no on this venture, it looks like they are screwing with Make-A-Wish.

 

Regarding Karam Gaber, the 2004 Olympic Greco-Roman gold medallist at 211.5 pounds, who has the physique, power and agility like nobody’s business and looked like the best pro wrestling prospect athletically I’ve ever seen, and who was regarded at the Olympics as the greatest wrestler in the world today, was asked by reader Craig Minaker if he had made a decision regarding going to WWE, who expressed tremendous interest in him coming out of the games, and has had interest in him for at least two years: “I’ve been thinking a lot about this question and still haven’t come up with an answer either way. Sometimes, I lean towards WWE and sometimes I think maybe it would be better to say amateur for a bit longer. The Egyptian people would really like me to continue to represent the country. I need to discuss it with my brother who lives in New York”.

 

The St Paul Pioneer Press this past week reported that the Vikings were considering adding Lesnar to their practice squad at some point over the next few weeks

 

Josh Mallard, the football player who quit in the Tough Enough trials was in the Miami Dolphins camp during the pre-season as a defensive lineman, but ended up being cut from there before sending in his Tough Enough video.

 

Apparently, the problems with Stratus’ hand weren’t that serious since she’s been working full-time. Keibler had a minor rib injury but not serious enough to keep her out of action, but serious enough that people were told to stay away from them.

 

Bischoff was quoted in an article in the University of Texas school newspaper promoting the Raw show as saying the problem with Raw is there isn’t enough reality, anticipation or surprises. He said surprises shouldn’t be so frequent as to dull their meaning, but often enough that views know they can happen at any time. He claimed wrestling would come back because, “Somewhere along the line, something’s going to happen. It’ll either be a strategic shift, a creative shift, or it will be a character that will shift the way people perceive the business. It’s just timing and intuition.

 

Angle and Reigns were in a car rental accident a few weeks back, but were not injured.

 

A correction from a few weeks back: Raven was using the straightjacket gimmick on TNA for many weeks before WWE introduced it for Heidenreich. The house show usage of it is said to be a joke. He comes out with it on, let’s a referee take it off of him, does his match, then leaves to the back. He’s so dangerous he needs a straightjacket, but after his match he’s fine ?

 

The Angle-Puder thing got even funnier with yet another change on the WWE website. In the website wrap-up of week three, which we reported on last week with Angle having a slightly tougher but still easier win over Puder, now all references to it having even taken place were eliminated. The new wrap-up reads: “After being put through some physical rigors by Al Snow in the garage before Smackdown, the Seven Tough Enough finalists had a squat thrust competition, with the winner, Chris Nawrocki, getting a match with Kurt Angle.” The original booking plan was for Angle to actually tear up and stretch all seven guys. It would have worked if it was just the other six. The only mainstream stuff that has come out of this was in Don Callis’ Winnipeg Sun column, where he called it the most interesting thing to happen on a WWE TV show in months. Callis noted Angle was caught in the Kimura, and then the ref made the count even though Puder’s shoulder was up. Callis also questioned the company not capitalizing on what it had, saying there was much less potential in the Bart Gunn-Steve Williams thing (which WWE did do a weak angle out of) and said the incident taught two lesson: First, don’t let top talent shoot on national television, as anything can happen, and second, just because you didn’t think of something, that doesn’t make it any less of a great angle.

 

For more of the Lita “Kiss Of Death” stuff that Stratus talked about on Raw, Kenny Wallace, who did the Stacker 2 commercials with her, after doing the commercials got a full-time berth in the Winston Cup series, but tanked immediately, and wound up back in the Busch Series, and ranks below Hermie Sadler on the NASCAR radar.

 

This has not been confirmed, but I’ve been told that Marty Wright who was the 40-year old guy who got booted off Tough Enough for lying about his age (and he looked to be final three material for sure) was signed to a developmental deal and is in OVW. That’s a relief. For a while there I thought you couldn’t lie if you wanted to be in wrestling, and it scared me that the next Hogan would come along and not get the opportunity. I hope he does well, because he seemed to have major league charisma. WWE doesn’t have a good record with 40-year old trainees who outshine everyone in camp. The last one they had, they gave him the worst gimmick possible, he got over any at all the house shows even with no push because he worked so hard, so they fired him. After all, he was too old.

 

This week’s Todd Grisham gaffe in the Guerrero DVD is when Grisham talks about how Guerrero won the title at Wrestlemania when he actually won it at No Way Out. Grisham also had no idea what ECW or New Japan were on the video. It’s bad enough he didn’t know that, but far worse that nobody corrected him and had him revoice the DVD.

 

Here are some notes on the $10,000 contracts the WWE has been sending to retired wrestlers regarding merchandising them coming off the 24/7 channel. The contracts are five year, with a sixth option year. During the period of the contract, WWE owns the worldwide rights to everything, both past and present that has anything to do with the pro wrestling business. They own both the ring name and the performers real name, nickname, likeness, personality, signature (for autograph signings) costumes, gimmicks, trademark gestures, or anything else they’ve ever done. It would give WWE the right to go after people who are selling nostalgia videos (people who already have put products out probably still can, but nobody new will be able to use the guys under contract). They also have the right to create new names or gimmicks for the old wrestlers of they see fit, and market them, and would own that, of course. They would own all rights if the wrestler wants to write a book, or to be published anywhere. The WWE has the right, if they don’t want the deal with the wrestler, or if the 24/7 idea flops, to terminate the contract with 90-day notice. The $10,000 is an advance, and it counted against the merchandise sales, so it isn’t until someone is to earn $10,000 in their percentage of their royalties (which can range from 5% to 25% of the net figure WWE would take in from those items royalties are being paid on; 50% on a book minus photo costs and costs of paying the ghostwriter), that they would start getting royalty checks. One lawyer who saw this said anyone who would sign this is foolish. I’d be shocked if many big names sign in at that price because of all the rights they’d give away, particularly those who can make money doing autograph signings because big stars can make that back in a few pops. However, for those who are long since retired (or families of those who are deceases) they have no other way to make money off of the fame of their family member, so at this point fro their prerogative, a $10,000 check is found money.

 

Heenan has been talked about regarding an announcing role when they do the hard launch for the deal in a few months.

[Enigma 0]

Awesome!

 

Thanks for taking over. I feel as if I have passed the torch...

 

...but thankfully not the Torch ; )

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

This week’s Todd Grisham gaffe in the Guerrero DVD is when Grisham talks about how Guerrero won the title at Wrestlemania when he actually won it at No Way Out. Grisham also had no idea what ECW or New Japan were on the video. It’s bad enough he didn’t know that, but far worse that nobody corrected him and had him revoice the DVD.

 

This is right up there with Vince having no clue about Ultimo Dragon's wrestling style despite owning all his U.S. work on tape.

 

It should be a fireable offense to be that ignorant about pro wrestling in a wrestling company.

[Guest fanofcoils]

I think Vince likes it more if you know more about the current WWE than if you know more about everything.

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

He doesn't give a crap. He'd rather you'd have written for some C-rate soap opera than even know a thing about the WWF.

[Stephen 0]

wow @ Survivor Series drawing only 7.500

[Guest Evolution]

A correction from a few weeks back: Raven was using the straightjacket gimmick on TNA for many weeks before WWE introduced it for Heidenreich. The house show usage of it is said to be a joke. He comes out with it on, let’s a referee take it off of him, does his match, then leaves to the back. He’s so dangerous he needs a straightjacket, but after his match he’s fine ?

They should definitely get local indy workers to act as a staff to subdue Heidenreich after his matches and get the straightjacket on him. It'd make him look a lot more dangerous, especially if he does the mean heel beatdown to face jobbers.

[NoCalMike 0]

Wow this report really destroyed WWE. Amazing. I do pretty much agree with everything said, especially the stupid promo between Snitsky and Heidenreich , because I thought that kind of stuff went out in the late 80's.

[The Amazing Rando 0]

Especially the stupid promo between Snitsky and Heidenreich , because I thought that kind of stuff went out in the late 80's.

Hogan: I like your poetry.

 

Savage: I like what you do to babies.

 

 

 

Yeah. I'd watch that.

[Guest Anglesault]

. Brian Gewirtz loves writing comedy sketches for both Edge and Angle, and that was what this was about.

And hey, neither guy has done anything even remotely funny since 2001. I mean not one skit they've done in the last three years has been funny.

 

The eight-man wound up wasting the talents of talented people involved in this match. *3/4

 

You know, I think someone on this board

 

<-----------

 

called this as soon as the match was announced.

 

"OLD SKEWL" Survivor Series matches are just a waste of everyone's time. Retire them.

[The Mandarin 0]

The last one they had, they gave him the worst gimmick possible, he got over any at all the house shows even with no push because he worked so hard, so they fired him. After all, he was too old.

 

Hmmm, I wonder who.

 

Rico.

[Guest HeadDropMark]

Thank you for posting that, much appreciated!

[JoeDirt 0]

Thanks a ton, HTQ!

[Guest TroughOfMantaur]

Thanks for taking up the cause, HTQ, and thanks again for your efforts, S D.

[humongous2002 0]

Angle and Reigns were in a car rental accident a few weeks back, but were not injured.

 

Maybe Reigns was biting too hard.

[MillenniumMan831 0]

Just wanted to add my appreciation.

[Guest Pariah]

This week’s Todd Grisham gaffe in the Guerrero DVD is when Grisham talks about how Guerrero won the title at Wrestlemania when he actually won it at No Way Out. Grisham also had no idea what ECW or New Japan were on the video. It’s bad enough he didn’t know that, but far worse that nobody corrected him and had him revoice the DVD.

 

This is right up there with Vince having no clue about Ultimo Dragon's wrestling style despite owning all his U.S. work on tape.

 

It should be a fireable offense to be that ignorant about pro wrestling in a wrestling company.

To be fair to Grisham he is supposed to be asking question like 'What was ECW all about?' or 'What does NJPW stand for?' because he is an interviewer and a lot of the WWE fans may not actually know these things, therefore he is helping them fill in the blanks by getting the person whose DVD it is to tell the audience. Its not as if he himself is to blame for reading out questions that help others.

[MillenniumMan831 0]

The JUHSHIN Lyger comment killed off Grisham as anyone w/ any wrestling knowledge. But he is a supposed expert on Sports Entertainment.

[Guest Pariah]

What was the comment?

[Precious Roy 0]

Something about Lyger reminding him of a young Leif Cassidy....

[MillenniumMan831 0]

On the Benoit dvd, he pronounced Lyger's name JUH-shin Lyger instead of JEW-shin Lyger and had to be corrected by Benoit.

[Precious Roy 0]

Why is Todd Pettingill doing commentary on DVD's? Don't they have a single PBP guy who isn't completely retarded?

 

And sorry, it was a younger, less extreme Shannon Moore....

[Guest Pariah]

So he is a moron for mispronouncing a difficult Japanese name? OH NO, SHOCK HORROR, HANG HIM FROM THE GALLOWS~!

 

And he was trying to tie stuff in with the current WWE product so people who don't know who Lyger is have some basis to work from, even if it is an inaccurate one, he is doing what an interview is supposed to do. Get an unknown product over to an uneducated fan base by relating it to things they do know or getting the person whose DVD it is to explain things.

[MillenniumMan831 0]

Don't hang him, just find someone who has expertise in wrestling to commentate wrestling matches. Not a difficult concept.

[Guest Anglesault]

On the Benoit dvd, he pronounced Lyger's name JUH-shin Lyger instead of JEW-shin Lyger and had to be corrected by Benoit.

::gasp::

[MillenniumMan831 0]

So, everything's cool if he promotes next week's Heat Main Event as Chris BenOYT vs. Steven Richards?

[Guest Anglesault]

You're acting like he called him Justin.

 

What he said is like saying Ben-weh (as opposed to Ben-wah)

 

 

 

Wait a minute

 

Benoit is on Heat AGAIN?

[AndrewTS 0]

So he is a moron for mispronouncing a difficult Japanese name? OH NO, SHOCK HORROR, HANG HIM FROM THE GALLOWS~!

Yeah, "Jyushin" is so damn hard to pronounce correctly.

 

And he was trying to tie stuff in with the current WWE product so people who don't know who Lyger is have some basis to work from, even if it is an inaccurate one, he is doing what an interview is supposed to do.

 

I'm sure more WWF/E fans have heard of Lief Cassidy than Lyger.

[algrim 0]

It didn't surprise me that Survivor Series had a very low buyrate, considering how shitty the product has been as of late. This only emphasizes that they need to get rid of stupid things like ref bumps, comedy skits and the excessive drama. Also, the booking needs to change. Look how crappy the Smackdown matches were (with the exception of the CW match).

 

 

Thanks for posting the Meltzer newsletter, HTQ.

[Copper Feel 0]

With Carlito injured, they booked around it by having Cena come out an immediately go after Jesus and Carlito.

jesus? who the hell is he refering to?