WWE News and Notes from 11/29 Observer

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In a very confusing quarter to analyse, World Wrestling Entertainment’s profits were down, but in a ballsy move to say the least, the board of directors voted to double the dividends of the shareholders.

 

The company profits for the August through October quarter was $4,449,000, although that includes a one-time bonus figure of $1,444,000 for getting rid of the Times Square lease on the WWE New York property to the Hard Rock Café. It also gets the company away from about $3 million per year in costs of what was the remainder of a 20-year lease. Those numbers also explain why CEO Phil Livingstone at the company’s 11/23 investors conference said they were popping the corks of bubbly when that deal went through.

 

However, the company, in a few weeks, will be paying out $8,226,360 in dividends for the quarter to stockholders, of which $5.624.560 will go to the major stockholder, Vince McMahon. The company goal had been to about 40% of the company’s profits back to shareholders because they have so much cash on hand, but this dividend was nearly double the profit, causing a balance sheet loss. The new 12 cents per share dividend, doubling their prior six cents, means McMahon will be earning $22,898,240 annually just from his dividends, not including CEO salary and talent salary.

 

In addition, there is another $7,831,000 in costs for the quarter not reflected in the profit/loss statement in expenses this quarter for the production of two movies in Australia, both of which will have the principal photography done by Mid-December. The company is not putting those costs on current books (although they are reflected in company balance sheets) until next fall, when the two movies are released in theaters and revenue is derived from them. She noted they have purchased two more scripts, so after the HHH movie, “La Jornada” now scheduled for February filming, they also have one other movie vehicle for an undisclosed piece of talent. She said they were looking at doing two to four movies per year. With wrestling in interest in the state it is, and no truly over characters, this may be the worst time possible to embark on making movies using wrestlers in the lead roles. In addition, this quarter had four PPV events, as compared to the usual three, as well as the ultra-successful European tour, which was the single greatest house show week of business in company history, doing just about $7.4 million in business in one week. However, the company’s schedule is such that the idea is there will be one such “power point week” every quarter going forward, where they will send Raw and Smackdown overseas for a week for heavily promoted tours.

 

In all, the company grossed $83,857,000 this quarter, a drop of 11.2% from the same period last year. However that period was unusually successful, and also included $5.9 million from a lawsuit settlement by Lewmar Inc., which manufactured the harness that released early and killed Owen Hart in 1999. WWE had itself paid $7 million of the $18 million settlement to the Hart family in an out of court settlement years earlier. The actual pro wrestling profit for the quarter was $3,005,000. This was well under most estimates, because much of Wall Street didn’t realise just how poorly the domestic house show business and PPV business had fallen to. This compares to the prior quarter (May through July), which had $81,551,000 in revenue and a $7,646,000 profit.

 

Unlike at many of the recent investors conference, there was no attempt to spin the results as a positive, nor was much said about the future. Linda McMahon said the company is not satisfied with its quarterly results, and they are not up to company expectations. A simple look would break down into the increase in international business not offsetting the decline in North America, even with the added PPV. International business is now 22% of total business, and 28% of merchandising and licensing business.

 

One of the major conceptual changes, which wasn’t detailed, is in the manner of touring. Kurt Schneider (Executive Vice President of Marketing) has been put in charge of live events, in something of a shocking move since Ed Cohen had been in the position for decades. The move is of such major significance internally that literally nobody will say a word about it. Schneider’s idea is to book cities on more of a regular schedule. For example, the week long Raw and Smackdown tours, culminating in a TV taping, would take place in the UK every six months, and be a regular April and October tradition, like the Kentucky Derby, held on the same weekend every year in Louisville. There is an attempt to do similar things in both other overseas markets, as well as the US, so, in, say San Francisco, they would have house shows and TV tapings in a staggered schedule, with the same amount of time between shows, and on the same weeks each year, with the idea of getting sponsors wh would know far in advance when the events are and have more lead time to plan accordingly.

 

Linda McMahon noted profits were down because North American live event business and PPV business were below par. PPV, the most significant source of company profits, now has SummerSlam figured at 387,000 buys, Unforgiven at 243,000, No Mercy at 193,000 and Taboo Tuesday at 174,000. McMahon tried to say Taboo Tuesday was a success because of four million votes for the various match stipulations (a misleading figure as there were probably at most 500,000 different voters voting for eight different match stipulations, and it wasn’t difficult to delete cookies and vote multiple times, and there were people who spent all day doing such a thing). She blamed the low buy-rate on the Yankees-Red Sox playoff game, and gave the impression the gimmick would be tried again. At this point, there is no Taboo Tuesday like event scheduled on the 2005 calendar, and if there is, two bits of advice would be to hold the show on a Sunday, and to announce the main event ahead of time and just have people vote on the stip. McMahon, with no prodding, did say at the end of the fiscal year (the end of April) the company would re-evaluate whether the 14 PPV’s per year were too many and make a decision on where they could scale back to 12, as we recommended a few weeks back.

 

McMahon also talked more about the company’s 24/7 project, which it is now advertising heavily on television. The station has been launched on a trial basis in Pennsylvania, and the results are not anything that has been bragged about. At this point they have 21 systems who have agreed to sign up, but want the number significantly higher before a heavily publicised launch. On TV, Jim Ross told fans to call their systems about 24/7, a sign that they aren’t getting the clearances they want. She expected a few deals to close shortly, and an announcement to be forthcoming. This would also result in an increase in merchandising, through memorabilia and video games, of nostalgic wrestling characters. She also praised the current Tough Enough competition, crediting it for the increase in Smackdown ratings, saying the first 15-20 minutes of the show (the physical Tough Enough segments) in recent weeks have been the best opening quarters the show has done in more than one year. She mentioned the ECW DVD release, but did not bring up how successful it was. She also noted that the lower than promised ratings to advertisers has resulted in make-good ads, thus lowering the ad revenue for the quarter. She noted that the total cost for the Diva Search and Tough Enough for the quarter was $3 million, a figure which, after the end of the next quarter, would be a cost not on future books. There is also a future savings going forward by getting out of Times Square lease. Another positive is the added income of having all the PPV shows airing as PPV’s in the UK, as opposed to free TV specials. They are also cutting back on expenses for television production, with her specifying eliminating some lighting grids which saves the expense of also bringing two trucks on the road and to house shows. They are also planning on increasing the number of overseas events to 50 in about a year, which correspondingly will result in a decrease in domestic shows, which she claimed would increase the demand (I’m not sure that will be accurate, as the only thing that will increase demand is a stronger product).

 

Total house show revenues were $20.1 million for the quarter on 83 events ($242,170 average), 68 domestic and 15 overseas. This is up from $17.9 on 89 events ($201,120) the prior quarter, 79 domestic and 10 overseas. Of course, the entire difference and then some is based on the European tour. Domestic events, including PPV’s, averaged 3,800 paid per show and $163,000. Because there were more PPV events and fewer actual domestic non-TV house shows, the 3,800 per show average, the same as the prior quarter, being the same as last quarter, is realistically a negative. However, because a higher percentage of the domestic shows therefore were PPV or TV events, the average ticket price sold to a WWE North American show increased from $37 to $43, thus increasing the average domestic gate from $140,600. Of the $20.1 million in house show revenue for the quarter, it breaks down to $11.1 million domestic and $10 million overseas (where the average event drew 9,500 paying $665,000). PPV revenue is down 16% from this period a year ago, but slightly up from the prior quarter (largely because SummerSlam was figured into this quarter’s books, and the prior quarter had no majors).

 

TV ad revenue was $9.8 million, down from $10.6 million the prior quarter. TV rights fees were $18.4 million, down from $19.8 million.

 

Merchandise was $3.9 million, with it noted there was a decline in shopzone and catalog business. Publishing revenue was $2.9 million. Home video revenue was $4.5 million, down from $5.7 million the prior quarter, but there were no huge releases in the quarter. Licensing increased from $3.3 million to $4.0 million this quarter, with increases in toy sales and international licensing from the strong European push.

 

From the prior quarter, Raw ratings dropped from 3.7 to 3.5 on average. Some of that can be credited to September and October opposing football and the usual drop from Summer to Fall the show always experiences. However, this year they got a boost from the CSI lead-in, which, until last week, totally changed the ratings pattern and the first hour of Raw a statistically significant amount of older vipers that propped the sagging ratings. Smackdown stayed steady quarter-to-quarter at a 3.1 average, but there was a clear sign this coming quarter, minus, the usual lowest rated night of the year for Thanksgiving, that Smackdown numbers are turning around.

 

When the presentation of the conference ended, they went for questions. There were only two questions., and it was abruptly ended, in this uncomfortable fashion, almost like the ending of the 1997 Survivor Series where they rushed to get off the air. It was later learned that Roger Schaffer if Molsen Capital Management, who had asked legitimate tough questions regarding the product and creative when things started their downward slide, was told by the hosting service that he was specifically blocked from being on the call.

 

Total company assets are $329,935,000, down from $343,061,000 at this point three months ago, largely due to the movie expenses and the big dividend payout. Cash on hand is $266,461,000, down from about $275, million three months ago.

 

WWE stock fell from $13.40 to $11.91 the day the company released the quarter results.

 

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The release of “The Rise and Fall of ECW,” which sold out at many video stores immediately has made the unique promotion of something o the talk of wrestling this past week.

 

I haven’t seen the DVD (because it sold out everywhere in this area, but I should have a copy by next week), and even though I’ve had many letters and even more phone calls from people who have been explaining it to me, I’m going to wait to comment. I will say that two wrestlers who were integral parts of the success of the company said they felt it was very historically accurate, something they wouldn’t say about the Monday Night Wars tape. Other close friends of mine ranged from saying it was the best DVD ever released, to very different viewpoints. Most felt Eric Bischoff was the big heel in the piece, but one friend of mine, who hates Bischoff, said he was the only person who had an honest perspective on the whole tape, so I’m guessing there will be a lot to say.

 

JR Benson, a long-time subscriber, and wrestling manager involved in promotions far more extreme than ECW, who was inspired clearly by the promotion, wrote me a long letter on the tape, so this is the first review.

 

“I loved the DVD. It was much better than I ever would have expected a documentary by the McMahon’s on the topic of ECW to be. It far exceeded the Monday Night Wars DVD, which I find odd. Being such a huge ECW fan back in the day, if I had to choose, I am glad the ECW story dug deeper and spent more time. But there is so much more to the Monday Night Wars, from every perspective, it really surprises me to see the story of ECW get so much more time and attention to detail.

 

It was amazing to hear Vince McMahon and Eric Bischoff talking ECW. Back in the 90’s, we all would have loved that. We also would have never dreamed it was possible. Bischoff comes off as the same prick he always did. Unfortunately, a lot of his points were right on, and summed up the reality of ECW’s problems. McMahon was as revisionist as ever. Sure, he did a lot of things for ECW. But his point of view that he thought ECW was good for the business was pure B.S.

 

Vince was getting his handed to him by WCW. Before he realised the key was making his own show compelling and watchable, he thought ECW could be of assistance to him in a fight that he was getting his ass kicked in. But now comes to us as the benevolent Vince McMahon who really wanted to see ECW make it. In that way, even though I didn’t like what I was hearing out of Bischoff, he came off far more honest than McMahon.

 

Paul Heyman’s love and enthusiasm for the product really came through on this DVD. His ability to translate that when discussing the storylines and characters is the most valuable took of his obviously very effective brain washing abilities. His analysis of the business becoming inflated like the dot coms in the late 90’s and the inevitable fallout was totally right on. His hatred for Bischoff sure does live on as well.

 

I always remembered the ECW product being literal cutting edge genius from mid ’94 through mid ’97. Barely Legal was the peak, and in my mind, ECW was never the same again. It was still the show that gave you more action than the big two, the dream was still there, but classic ECW was the period of 94 to Barely Legal in early ’97. The DVD seemed to indicate the same thing. They went very in-depth into characters and storylines from the 94 to 97 era. Most everything after Barely Legal was business orientated and concerning the fight to stay alive. This, the first 70% of the DVD was an exhilarating trip down memory lane. Then the final 30% was a very depressing slap of reality. But that was the ECW story and it was told very well.

 

Most of my complaints would be nitpicking, but I do feel that it was absurd that New Jack was almost completely omitted from the piece. I mean, Hat Guy in the front row got as many mentions. Sure, they showed some of his insane balcony dives, and did mention his name, but considering the amount of time given to other core ECW top guys, I think that New Jack was a glaring omission. Like him or not, New Jack was as much part of the extreme formula to the hardcore fans as Sandman, Dreamer, Taz, Sabu and Raven.

 

I noticed they avoided any of ECW’s famous barbed wire matches or barbed wire moments. I thought at least the Funk-Sabu deal where they had to be cut out of the barbed wire would see the light of day. They also completely avoided the Ian-Axl Rotten feud. Granted, it was a short amount of time in one year of the promotions history, so I wouldn’t expect more than a minute or so to go to it. But it was part of the winning equation in 1995, and for better or worse, the birth in this country of the slice and dice death match wrestling. I would have given them a minute of highlights on the documentary and put one of their gorefests on disc two as an extra match. All of this would make one think they were trying to downplay how violent ECW was, but they did a nice piece on the Dudley’s flaming table. That is far worse than any of the barbed wire moments, though not nearly as graphic as any of the Ian-Axl stuff would have been.

 

I was glad Sabu was not downplayed. Sabu can’t get enough credit in my opinion. I do wish they had made a little more clear how innovative his style was. They could have gotten the point across that even though tables had been broken before (with their library, a nice shot of Harley Race headbutting through a table would have fit) but Sabu was the one who innovated the table breaking spots in this country. I would also have liked to have seen a tad bit more Public Enemy, and this would have been the perfect way to do it. Show how Ted Petty started to steal Sabu’s gimmick, and how the table spots started pushing the envelope more and more. This portion could have ended with the Brian Lee-Tommy Dreamer table stacking insanity peaking with the scaffold bump. They did show these bumps eventually, but I think that this would have made a great two-minute piece that would have accomplished a lot.

 

I also thought they could have spent a littler more time tracing the lineage of the ECW Championship. This was where it was obvious it was not Heyman’s project, because he always made sure to recap the ECW championship lineage whenever there was a title change. They had to show Shane Douglas throwing down the NWA title and making the Extreme championship. Thank god that was all we got of Shane. Such an overrated wrestlers and personality and his time as champion in later years is definitely something that I want to forget. But I think they could have focused on what a major change of direction it was to go from the pure wrestler as champion, Douglas, to the gimmick brawler as champion, Sandman, and how it worked. Mikey Whipwreck got a nice little piece, but has achieving the belt would have been nice to know about, and they definitely should have point out how Raven was the one to perfect the world title reign. The crowd pops for near falls on Raven when he had the belt should be the goal for any champion. I would have rather seen any of this examined than relive the Mike Awesome-Taz fiasco, and just how ridiculous the decision making was by everyone in that era, Bischoff, Heyman and McMahon. But again, the Sabu-Funk barbed wire title change was as far as I would want to into that. Once Douglas had the strap again, the ECW title really stopped meaning much. I will always remember Shane Douglas as Dean Douglas, the guy who got too much mic time everywhere, the guy who came close to dragging ECW down, and then did kill XPW. Shane sucks.

 

It was good to see Sandman and Raven get the credit they deserve, even though they don’t work for the company and you can be sure McMahon has no respect for either. You couldn’t ignore those characters, their main angles or what they did for ECW. The Tyler angle and the pregnancy/lesbian angle still make me smile to this day. It was great to finally see the Sandman crucifixion, Raven’s apology and Kurt Angle talking about. Way too much was made of that back then by the way. I know Raven to this day thinks it was absurd to send him out there and to apologise, and I agree. The Raven character would have been thrilled to know he offended the fans religious beliefs. An apology could gave killed his character if he wasn’t so good at it. So that pissed Kurt Angle off, but Undertaker doing a much more high profile crucifixion of Steve Austin on cable tv was ok. Oh, I forgot; that wasn’t a cross it was a symbol. Ok.

 

They did a great job of getting across the rabid nature of the ECW fans, and who that demographic was. But Eric Bischoff did just as good a job of establishing how limited that base was. They also did a good job of getting across what a bare bones operation it was, with top name wrestlers answering phones and shipping off merchandise themselves.

 

As it traced ECW going down, it was just depressing. For the people who cared about ECW, it’s been years since the death and those feelings were buried. This was a nice trip down nostalgia lane. Then it brought back the death of ECW in a way that made it worse watching this than when it actually happened. Now everyone is speculating on an extreme resurrection. With the DVD flying off the shelves nationwide, selling out in store after store as the WWE DVD’s sit and collect dust, with the ECW guys going on Byte This with an attitude, and everyone hoping that something will be borne out of all this. The ECW chants that McMahon will be hearing for months on end now at the arenas will have them thinking. But after seeing the depressing downfall all over again, do we want to relive that disappointment all over again ? It could be done to some degree of success. WWE could air a new ECW show on the 24/7 deal, without networks worrying about how networks feel about the product, or messing with any of their existing shows. But would the McMahon’s take a hands off approach and let Heyman run the thing ? Does Heyman still have it in him to produce something of that awesome cutting edge quality again ? At the start, they would need all the familiar ECW guys. But they would also need to scour the Indies for new blood, the type McMahon ignore, but could thrive under Heyman in the old ECW. There are a lot of them out there. It’s sad to say, because it was just a few years ago, but many of those core ECW stars can still perform at their old level ? Most are shells of their former selves. I would go so far as to say only Raven and RVD are still in good as, or better, physical shapes than they were then. Sabu may never work again. New Jack is too real to be ever employed by the McMahon’s. You can always talk Terry Funk into a shot or two, and he’ll probably still deliver. But it can’t be based on nostalgia. The first shows you need Sandman, Funk, Dreamer, etc. But for it to succeed, you need new guys taking those top positions. That is what Heyman was strongest at, at least before 1998. Making the new guys into top line stars. Look around the Indies; the talent is there. Guys who wouldn’t have a prayer getting over on WWE, but if Heyman’s 95/96 atmosphere existed, and their strengths were played up and weaknesses disguised, with fans who just want a lot of action, fun storylines and some bloodshed and violence. Yes, it could be done again. But after relieving it all on this DCD, I won’t get my hopes up. It would be too depressing all over again.”

 

The success of the tape brings up the question of a revival of the ECW brand under WWE auspices. If so, it would be the second attempt, after a forgettable period where ECW and WCW bandied together in a terribly rushed and incredibly botched 2001 storyline, only to be squashed at every turn by WWE. Paul Heyman was involved in that version, and did a few memorable interviews, but he was secondary to the new ECW owner, Stephanie McMahon, the very idea of which destroyed the gimmick from the onset. I hated that angle with a passion, even though it did lead to a few weeks of good TV ratings before it was ruined. I had always thought that the WWF v WCW angle could go about 18 months, but it was booked so one-sided that within weeks, ECW was added. I thought that an ECW faction when that angle was losing steam would have been a great revitalization, but ECW immediately sided with WCW sped 18 months of storylines into a two hour taping in Atlanta. Ultimately, little came out of it other than Rob Van Dam coming in, portrayed as a heel, but getting a huge babyface reaction. But that’s ancient history.

 

The two ideas, one of which is feasible to a degree, and the other of which isn’t are to have an ECW faction that feuds with WWE, or create a separate ECW brand. I’ll deal with the latter, because it’s one that simply isn’t feasible. WWE no longer has enough marketable talent for two brands. Adding a third would be nuts. You couldn’t book house shows because they’d all be money losers, and the company doesn’t want to keep talent under contract that isn’t wrestling. Booking a separate TV shoot for the Heat or Velocity timeslot wouldn’t be cost effective. Using the ECW name for the show on Thursday instead of WWE Smackdown just isn’t going to happen. Plus, you could never live up to the legacy of ECW in the current environment on UPN. In addition, the stunts that made ECW famous would result in far too many injuries. What would an ECW TV show at 11pm show ? A weekly RVD and Rey Mysterio v Dudley’s match ? Breaking tables in every match, the very thing WWE has been trying to get fans expectations away from ? It would be sadder than any Roller Derby remake, and just as unsuccessful. Most of what made ECW the alternative are the exact things WWE are trying to get away from. And who would be involved ? Sure, Paul Heyman can still produce wrestling, but what roster would you have ? Virtually all the ex-ECW stars are paying the physical price for their year in the spotlight. Of the few who haven’t, you’d have a roster lie CW Anderson, Steve Corino (who is booking Zero-One, although that company is falling apart), Justin Credible, Mike Awesome (who would be hard to get since he has a regular gig in NOAH), Chris Candido, Blue Meanie, Super Crazy (one of the real victims of the company folding as he was a huge success in ECW and nobody touched him afterwards because of WWE’s negativity towards all things Lucha), Juventud Guerrera, Too Cold Scorpio (under contract to NOAH). Gary Wolfe, EZ Money, Julio Dinero, Balls Mahoney, Chris Chetti, Francine, Jazz and Danny Doring (who looked terrible when TNA tried to push him). Most either don’t fit into the WWE mindset of wrestling today, or like Scorpio and Guerrera, hey are acknowledged talents that the company has no interest in for their track records.

 

WWE wrestlers with an ECW background are Nova (whose new gimmick is so unlike ECW and is never remembered as a major character because he looks so different from those days), Nunzio, Al Snow, Taz, Rhyno, Tajiri, Dawn Marie, Tommy Dreamer, Steven Richards, Dudley’s, RVD and Mysterio. Even though Chris Benoit and Eddie Guerrero got their first major US breaks, they are far too valuable to be moved off prime time and Lita was in ECW, but few remember it and she never drank the kool-aid as she made clear in her book. Jerry Lynn, Simon Diamond, Johnny Swinger, Raven, Kid Kash and Shane Douglas are under contract to TNA, and the rest are beyond gone physically, including major ECW faces like Sabu, Sandman and New Jack. I do believe a one-time ECW reunion PPV show may draw for nostalgia purposes, and since WWE owns the name, they’re the only ones who could it. Continental Championship Wrestling and Memphis Championship Wrestling seem to prove that on a local basis, but in both cases, it’s only through having infrequent shows. Also, both of these groups were a lot bigger part of their respective communities than ECW ever was, even though ECW’s fan base was every bit, if not more passionate, and far more national.

 

As far as an ECW faction led by Heyman on Smackdown, for instance, it couldn’t be any less compelling than what is going on. I’d try it, but there are the same issues that killed it in 2001. First, to make it work, ECW would have to constantly beat WWE to get the feud going. We’ve through that one before. Second, WWE is stale and the legend of ECW is fresh and sympathetic. How long would the McMahon’s and Kevin Dunn go with a program where their intellectual property and brand is the one being booed ? There would be enough people who wouldn’t want it to succeed to make it difficult to succeed. Worse, the ECW audience is older and I guess, like the WCW audience, a large percentage of them have moved on in life. Surely, the people who got tuned into wrestling by ECW aren’t watching this WWE product, and would hardly come back for the long haul for a watered down version of it that always gets outsmarted by HHH or JBL. The chants at the matches would be big because it represents something cool, like seeing any nostalgic wrestling star who always gets over on their return. But none of that helps build long term or future business. But as far as trying it, there are plenty of reason I could give to it not succeeding, but would it be any less successful than the current product ?

 

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An incident involving Bob Holly and Rene Dupree at the 11/20 Smackdown house show in Syracuse, NY, should result in a suspension or termination of Holly’s career with the company, but it seems like that won’t be the end result.

 

The description of the incident is that during a Dupree and Kenzo Suzuki tag title match under Hardcore rules with Holly and Charlie Haas, with no apparent provocation, midway through the match, Holly smashed Dupree with a ridiculously hard chair shot to the heard, which left the chair dented. Dented chair shots, while not a regular thing in WWE, which is more safety conscious than most companies, are also not that unusual in pro wrestling. Dupree was laying in a fetal position next to the ring with Holly hitting him time after time with legitimately all out punches. When Holly got up off Dupree, Dupree’s left eye was immediately badly swollen shut. Dupree went to get his title belt and walked off, while at the same time Suzuki pinned Haas to win the match. The timing of this seemed to indicate either it was one of those internal punishment deals that everyone but the victim were aware of ahead of time. Holly then me after Dupree again, and Dupree ran to the dressing room, with Holly chasing him, Neither Suzuki or Haas left. Agent Fit Finlay came out and started talking with security about what happened. There were also reports of Holly going after Dupree a second time backstage.

 

The only back story we’ve heard is that it was not a surprise somebody did something to Dupree. He had a lot of heat in the locker room and lot of the veterans have talked with him, to no avail. In regards to Holly, who as been used as an enforcer at times by the company, this apparently stemmed from problems with Dupree. Dupree is only 20, which means he can’t rent a car in a lot of places a business where renting cars is part of the job. At some point he used Holly’s rental car and got some sort of a ticket. Holly was forced to fly back to the city in question to take care of the ticket because a bench warrant was issued because he never responded to the ticket. It’s unclear if he never responded because Dupree never told him about it. Supposedly, Dupree had an attitude of “mistakes happen” and wasn’t nearly as apologetic over the situation as Holly would have hoped for. There were also other small incidents brewing, combined with the fact Holly can be an asshole, and that’s what happened.

 

There was no official company reaction at press time. There appears to be a plausible deniability thing going, in that they are going with the idea that even though it’s clear it was premeditated attack, and the situation as described is similar to the type of thing where everyone is in on it but the victim (to make sure the tag partner doesn’t get excited and start helping him), it’s being treated like one of those accidental potato shots that happen all the time in wrestling, such as what Maven did to Gene Snitsky at Survivor Series. Undertaker, who is Smackdown’s unofficial leader, went to bat defending Holly and in some circle there was an attitude that Holly was just taking care of company business. Dupree is largely disliked in the locker room, and there is a feeling he had screwed up so many times and this was his punishment. All this makes perfect sense within the mentality that a lot of wrestling has had forever, which is another example of how, internally, there is a lot really screwed up and outdated about the mores of this business. However, at the 11/23 Smackdown tapings, Holly worked a dark match, and had to put over developmental wrestlers Chris Masters (Chris Mordetzsky, who is expected to be called up to one of the main rosters within weeks). Dupree, with his eye looking a total mess, worked a Smackdown match losing to Rey Mysterio.

 

While Holly injured Carly Colon (Carlito) on 11/7 at a house show in Fort Meyers, FL, where Colon suffered a shoulder separation, that was a ring accident. Holly is seemingly best known for an incident on “Tough Enough III” with Matt Cappotelli, where he stomped the hell out of Cappotelli’s leaving him with a swollen and black eye, while working as Cappotelli’s guest coach in a match situation. It was a very controversial incident, and one that a lot of wrestlers in the company have publicly broken ranks and said was bullshit, but it was hardly 100% consensus among wrestlers that Holly was in the ring, with the belief that it teaches newcomers to respect the business. What happened to Cappotelli was child’s play compared with what Japanese women wrestlers, let alone the male wrestlers, have had to go through in earning their stripes in training class. In recent years, Holly himself suffered two major injuries in the ring, a broken forearm from an errant moonsault by Kurt Angle, and a broken neck from a suplex from Brock Lesnar. There was sympathy for him in the former, since Angle and Holly were having a great series of matches that were revitalizing Holly’s usually dormant career. In the latter, Holly was being uncooperative with Lesnar, with the feeling he resented Lesnar’s quick push to the top, and Lesnar simply overpowered him on the move that Holly was trying to make him look bad on, and in the process, landed badly on his neck. He needed neck fusion surgery and was out of action for more than one year.

 

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The ECW DVD is selling amazingly well. It’s sold out in almost every store in San Jose, and we’ve heard similar things in many other cities including New York, Chicago and Boston. It’s the No 1 DVD in the sports category on Amazon.com. Other DVD’s in the top 100 from wrestling or MMA as of this week are: No Mercy (42), Wrestlemania (55), Flair (58), Survivor Series (62, based on advanced orders), Monday Night Wars (70), Taboo Tuesday (77, based on advance orders), Hulk Still Rules (80), Randy Couture v Vitor Belfort (86, based on advance orders), SummerSlam (88), Foley’s Greatest Hits (89) and Ken Shamrock v Kimo (96, which two weeks ago was No 1 on the Billboard chart)

 

The New Year’s Revolution show in San Juan on 1/9 is a guaranteed live success. Lines started forming for tickets at 4.30am on 11/19 for the sale the next day. Approximately 10,000 tickets were sold the first day for the new Coliseum (the number was about 11,300 sold at press time). Which holds 18,000. It should be noted that tickets were far more expensive than either WWC or IWA ($40 is bottom, and those groups usually have the top ticket price at $15). Many in Puerto Rico pointed to the fact that WWE’s TV penetration in Puerto Rico was very limited (until two weeks ago when Smackdown started airing) , and high ticket prices combined with the fact that Puerto Rico fans are like Mexican fans in that 90% of sales are walk-up, feeling that there would be a lot of nervousness. It was felt the show might do well, but they’d be scared because the advance wouldn’t be what they were expecting. As it turned out, the opposite happened and most expect it to sell out well in advance, and have a super heated atmosphere live. In face, after just two weeks on the air, San Juan has replaced Memphis as the company’s top TV market, doing a 10.5 rating and 32 share in 11/7, and clearly there is no p[lace else in North America they could do that level of business for anything short of a Wrestlemania. Of course, not having run in Puerto Rico since 1985 is a large part of the reason. The WWE’s Smackdown TV deal on WAPA-TV is said to be only for two months, largely to have a local show to promote the PPV. At this point, there isn’t anything definitive about keeping the show after the PPV, but I’d be shocked to see them drop it with those kinds of numbers. Those in Puerto Rico say there is a plan for WWE to return in April with Carly as the big star.

 

On the other hand, the 12/5 Armageddon show in Atlanta only has 2,000 tickets sold as of the weekend. They are likely going to have to paper like crazy, tarp like crazy and they had already figured it wouldn’t do big business, so they only had it set up for 9,000 seats. Legitimately, they probably won’t do more than 3,500 paid.

 

For Armageddon, it is official that Cena defends the US title against Invader I, I mean Jesus. Hey, at least they didn’t make it too obvious by calling him Jose.

 

From those internally, and just watching TV would lead you to the same conclusion, Stephanie and HHH have more power than ever before. All the honest opinions from the outside are being squashed. Stephanie hired Tom Chehak two weeks ago as managing editor of the writing team and has the system in an uproar. Apparently his job is to implement a new writing system, given his background with so many TV shows. Others say, with his total lack of understanding of wrestling, he’s the worst person possible to try and change the system. Whether this has anything to do with him, I don’t know, but it can’t be denied the past two weeks of Raw were better put together from a self-contained storyline standpoint than any shows in a while. But the end result has been to make all the babyfaces both impotent and out of their league mentally when it comes to the top heel group, and we’ve seen historically what happens when you have no babyfaces.

 

While not officially announced at press time, it is believed the new TV schedule for the UK starting on 1/3 will see Raw airing live (2am to 4am late Monday nights/Tuesday morning) for the first time in history. There will also be a Wednesday night 8.30pm prime time replay as well as an 11pm Thursday reply. Smackdown will be moved to Friday nights at 9.30pm, followed by Bottom Line, with several weekend repeats.

 

In the UK, what may be the only US PPV show next year as a free TV special will the New Years Revolution show, which airs live on Sky Sports 1 at 1am.

 

Ricky Steamboat was at TV both in Buffalo and Rochester. Both sides have agreed to a three-week tryout. If both he and WWE are happy with the results at that time, they’ll attempt to work out a financial deal. If he does work full-time, it would be every weekend, so he’d be out of ROH, however, he would be allowed some weekends off to work with Harley Race and Les Thatcher on seminars and wrestling camps. He’s getting a three-week tryout as an agent. Those who worked with him in ROH in that role couldn’t praise him enough when it comes to his ability to see the smallest detail in a match that makes a difference and to teach younger wrestlers. In that sense, he was compared with Jim Cornette and Paul Heyman from those who have worked with both. Steamboat and the company have had their negative history, including lawsuits and bad blood over the final time he left. Steamboat has a lot of non-wrestling business things going on, and taking this job, because of the travel, would mean he’d likely have to give that up. The other thing of having him in under contract is with the 24/7 thing rolled out, he can be used for PR and merchandising as one of the featured guys, since there are very few wrestlers that would have a comparable amount of excellent matches in the company’s film library.

 

Dwayne “Rock” Johnson was sued by his former manage, Marty Adelstein, who claimed Johnson was going to pay him 7.5% of the money from his upcoming “Spy Hunter” film. In the suit, Adelstein said Johnson already had made $5 million from the movie during the production phase and he hasn’t gotten his cut. Representatives of Johnson have not commented on the suit.

 

The movie Blade: Trinity, which features HHH, opens on 12/8

 

The new WWE entrance music CD was expected to open at around No 32 on the charts with roughly 45,000 first week sales. According to industry analysts, that is not good, as WWE CD’s usually open strong, and drop fast. However, it may have stronger legs just because it’s Holiday season, and in the music industry, Thanksgiving is traditionally a huge week and it stays strong through Christmas.

 

Some Raw notes:

 

This was the second straight entertaining self-contained show. It even more comically built up HHH as the babyface and killed the credibility of all the babyfaces. They also, for the second time in eight weeks, did a swerve Evolution tease. Like with the last one, the fans really wanted the turn, and got slapped in the face. I thought it was so well done that maybe it overcame those problems.

 

The show opened with a WWE parody of the MNF open, with Benjamin as Terrel Owens and Stratus as Nicolette Sheridan. Vince was totally hysterical her, particularly pointing out to Benjamin that “You’re an African American male.” He made fun of the silliness of the uproar, and even comically after Benjamin left, he went to make out with a supposedly naked Stratus, but they couldn’t kiss because of her nose guard gimmick getting in the way. The negative on this is WWE alerted every media outlet they could to try and get pub for this, and got zilch. Usually WWE parodies are awful and this certainly wasn’t. But it was another slap in the face of just how off the radar the company is today, when they did this largely for attention, and nobody paid them any attention.

 

As funny as I thought three weeks of HHH running through all the babyfaces would be after losing Survivor Series, this has been everything I expected and a lot more. Welcome to WCW, featuring the No Limits Soldiers v Curt Hennig feud.

 

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

 

It was Vince’s decision to introduce all the Diva Search runners-up on TV at the same show, as opposed to building them up one at a time so they have a chance to make an impact.

 

The Mohammed Hassan pieces were edited off UK TV until 11/15. Even though Hassan acted more like a terrorist in that piece, it was the first one where they didn’t bring up his religious heritage. The British TV code doesn’t allow unfair portrayal of religious groups.

 

Orton didn’t suffer a broken nose from the Snitsky clothesline as first feared, and he didn’t even show visible marks of the shot when he went back on the road a few days later.

 

Lawler signed a five-year contract extension.

[Guest HeadDropMark]

Thanks HTQ...YOU ARE THE MAN!!!

[Prophet of Mike Zagurski 0]

Does anyone know what was wrong with this report:

 

Lawler signed a five-year contract extension.

 

(Even with a cane and walker, he still be shouting puppies. They should have canned him.)

 

On the other hand, the 12/5 Armageddon show in Atlanta only has 2,000 tickets sold as of the weekend. They are likely going to have to paper like crazy, tarp like crazy and they had already figured it wouldn’t do big business, so they only had it set up for 9,000 seats. Legitimately, they probably won’t do more than 3,500 paid.

 

(I remember playing EWR and getting numbers like these. I went bankrupt. This is not good at all.)

 

OH and ECW DVD is good, very good.

[B. Brian Brunzell 0]

See, if you were to bring back ECW, 2,000 tickets sold would be a *GOOD* night. Bad, bad news.

[Guest LooneyTune]

JBL = Worst Drawing Champion since Diesel.

 

That's pretty sad to be remembered for. 2,000 tickets...for a PPV in 2 weeks. 2,000!!! Jesus Christ, this is like a TNA ratio, except WWE isn't a bush league company! A one time only ECW PPV though would kick all sorts of ass.

[Zetterberg is God 0]

On the other hand, the 12/5 Armageddon show in Atlanta only has 2,000 tickets sold as of the weekend. They are likely going to have to paper like crazy, tarp like crazy and they had already figured it wouldn’t do big business, so they only had it set up for 9,000 seats. Legitimately, they probably won’t do more than 3,500 paid

That's not good at all. Even if they continue to make money by going to new markets for PPV's and television (Puerto Rico comes to mind), the attendance in North America is becoming a problem.

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

Funny that the company is losing profits because Vince is pocketing too much money.

[Guest Fook]

The WWE’s Smackdown TV deal on WAPA-TV is said to be only for two months, largely to have a local show to promote the PPV.

 

Isn't New Year's Revolution a Raw-only show?

 

Those Puerto Ricans are going to be disappointed when Carlito doesn't show.

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

Why, they weren't paying to see the guy when he was there.

[Fro 0]

I think an ECW reunion show (on PPV and/or DVD), with the ex-ECW guys from WWE (plus Foley) and the non-TNA indy guys (Funk, Sandman, etc) would be the best way to go as far as making money off ECW. Wouldn't mind seeing some ROH guys on it either (i.e., the people ECW would have booked had they stayed in business).

 

The big question is whether it should be at Viking Hall or not.

[CanadianChris 0]

WhoawhoawhoawhoaWHOA...

 

She noted they have purchased two more scripts, so after the HHH movie, “La Jornada” now scheduled for February filming, they also have one other movie vehicle for an undisclosed piece of talent.

How the hell are they supposed to build to HHH vs. Orton at WrestleMania if HHH is off filming a movie? At least Hogan always knew to wait until after Mania to film a movie.

[Mole 0]

Dupree is only 20

Woah, I am older than Dupree?

 

I had no idea he was that young.

[AndrewTS 0]

WhoawhoawhoawhoaWHOA...

 

She noted they have purchased two more scripts, so after the HHH movie, “La Jornada” now scheduled for February filming, they also have one other movie vehicle for an undisclosed piece of talent.

How the hell are they supposed to build to HHH vs. Orton at WrestleMania if HHH is off filming a movie? At least Hogan always knew to wait until after Mania to film a movie.

Knowing the sort of piece of crap the movie will be, and the low budget, it shouldn't take long.

 

If Corman was able to film a good bit of his movies in less than a week, maybe they'd only need a month for that one.

[JoeDirt 0]

Thanks HTQ. I'll buy you a beer if I ever meet you.

[Mole 0]

WhoawhoawhoawhoaWHOA...

 

She noted they have purchased two more scripts, so after the HHH movie, “La Jornada” now scheduled for February filming, they also have one other movie vehicle for an undisclosed piece of talent.

How the hell are they supposed to build to HHH vs. Orton at WrestleMania if HHH is off filming a movie? At least Hogan always knew to wait until after Mania to film a movie.

Knowing the sort of piece of crap the movie will be, and the low budget, it shouldn't take long.

 

If Corman was able to film a good bit of his movies in less than a week, maybe they'd only need a month for that one.

Nonono.

 

Triple-H is so over, he doesn't even need to be there for his match with Orton.

[Guest Fook_Theta]

Screw North America(which is really just a few cities, the Midwest, South, and North East), and start running atleast 1/4 to half the shows over seas. Not only are the fans in the foreign countries rabid, but legit heat/popping can be done much more easily. The only way I can figure out North America audience coming back without going the foreign route, would be some cross between Japanese and RoH wrestling. Both of which are going against the grain of WWE's "work safe" policy.

 

Cut back the PPVs and/or run more foreign tours is the only way I see business getting back up into a steady climb. Foreign tours run their risks of lawsuits, but legit/believeable heat is something definitely missing from 90% of the storylines.

[Spaceman Spiff 0]

Foreign tours do well because of their scarcity. Increasing the number of shows they do overseas will only serve to weaken those shows, not to mention the increased travel costs and American fans feeling that they're being ignored.

[JoeDirt 0]

Foreign tours do well because of their scarcity. Increasing the number of shows they do overseas will only serve to weaken those shows, not to mention the increased travel costs.

Exactly. And I doubt the talent wants to do half their shows in Europe and Japan.

[Prophet of Mike Zagurski 0]

Screw North America(which is really just a few cities, the Midwest, South, and North East), and start running atleast 1/4 to half the shows over seas. Not only are the fans in the foreign countries rabid, but legit heat/popping can be done much more easily. The only way I can figure out North America audience coming back without going the foreign route, would be some cross between Japanese and RoH wrestling. Both of which are going against the grain of WWE's "work safe" policy.

 

Cut back the PPVs and/or run more foreign tours is the only way I see business getting back up into a steady climb. Foreign tours run their risks of lawsuits, but legit/believeable heat is something definitely missing from 90% of the storylines.

"cough" I live in the West and went to the last Raw in Anaheim "cough"

[Guest Phenom]

Dupree is only 20

Woah, I am older than Dupree?

 

I had no idea he was that young.

Yes. He was born December 15, 1983.

 

Link to Article

[Kahran Ramsus 0]

Dupree is only 20

Woah, I am older than Dupree?

 

I had no idea he was that young.

I'm the same age as Orton.

[slimm44 0]

Yeah Dupree is a week older than me. Funny how the report says the MNF Parody got no attention when on wwe.com there is a link to an article in New York Times about it. If it meant TV/ESPN coverage then they are correct but come on, stupider stuff has gone on ESPN, WWE-related

[Guest MikeSC]

One thing I don't get from the article --- the love for Barely Legal. Sorry, but the show was crap with the ONLY truly good match not involving a single ECW performer. How that was the apex of ECW, rather than one of the most disappointing shows in recent history is lost on me.

-=Mike

[Guest Anglesault]

On the other hand, the 12/5 Armageddon show in Atlanta only has 2,000 tickets sold as of the weekend. They are likely going to have to paper like crazy, tarp like crazy and they had already figured it wouldn’t do big business, so they only had it set up for 9,000 seats. Legitimately, they probably won’t do more than 3,500 paid

That's not good at all.

How could a show with a mishmosh Main event, Angle vs. a Nobody and Big Show vs. Luther not sell out?

 

Are they even TRYING?

 

Did they think, when they did this fourway, that it just might cripple the card?

[AnonymousBroccoli 0]

Thanks for the post, Quad.

[Guest TigerDriver91]

Damn. Rene Dupree is only 20 years old? That really makes me feel old now.

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

One thing I don't get from the article --- the love for Barely Legal. Sorry, but the show was crap with the ONLY truly good match not involving a single ECW performer. How that was the apex of ECW, rather than one of the most disappointing shows in recent history is lost on me.

-=Mike

Check the old school folder to see how Meltz overrated everything on that show. He gave the Raven/Funk debacle ***1/4 stars or something like that.

[Lord of The Curry 0]

Barely Legal showed me one simple, glaring fact: Lance Storm cannot swing a chair to save his life.

[Guest The Shadow Behind You]

You know, Eddy Vs Kurt I Quit match really looks more and more appealing now after seeing THIS is the Armageddon card

 

Fatal Four Way

Angle/Jobber

TBS/Reigns

Jesus/Cena

RVD/Mysterio Vs Dupree/Kenzo

 

and likely Spike/Moore. and two more bleh matches.

 

JBL/Booker in a FCA Match

Angle/Eddy I QUIT Match

Spike/London CW title match

and One night U.S Title Tournament (Haas, RVD, Holly, TBS, Reigns, Jesus, Kidman and Chavo)

 

THAT should have been the card. JBL goes over again or Booker gets the fluke transistion reign. Angle/Eddy finally get a blowoff and maybe finally have that great match we've been eagerly waiting for. london getting a singles title and a US Title tournament that'd hopefully finally given Haas or RVD something to do.

 

No...they went with the absolute crap route.

[Lord of The Curry 0]

Eddy and Angle had a great match at SummerSlam.