WWE News And Notes From 12/6 Observer

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

The plane crash involving NBC Sports chief Dick Ebersol on 11/28, which killed his 14-year old son Teddy, and left him in serious condition, makes one realise that few people’s influence on the modern history of this business have been as underplayed as Ebersol’s.

 

Ebersol, and wife Susan St. James (a famous actress in her day, whose lone pro wrestling appearance was doing color commentary on Wrestlemania II), who was not on the charter jet that crashed near Montrose, CO, were social friends of Vince and Linda McMahon in the 80’s. This led to two major business deals with almost totally opposite results. The first, “Saturday Night’s Main Event”, starting in 1985, brought pro wrestling to more viewers than anything in the history of the industry. The second, the short lived XFL, saw the two reach a deal that put NBC and WWF in partnership for the formation of a football league that lasted just one season, and was a debacle of monumental proportions. The league drew some of the lowest prime time ratings in the history of major network television, and lost approximately $120 million. It also led to the beginning of a slide in the popularity of WWF as a wrestling company, which continues today.

 

St. James and the rest of the family were in the process of flying home to Connecticut on an 18-seat private jet from Los Angeles, where they watched the USC-Notre Dame football game. Their son, Charlie, who was on the flight, attends Notre Dame. Another son, Willie, who was not on the trip, attends USC. The plane landed in Montrose, CO, to let St. James off, while Ebersol, and the other sons, a pilot, co-pilot and flight attendant, flew first to South Bend, to drop off Charlie, and then were planning on going to Connecticut. The plan crashed and burned on takeoff after a snowstorm, although it was only lightly snowing at the time of the crash. A witness said the plane exploded while taking off.

 

After two WWF television specials on MTV, one in 1984 and another in 1985 which shot the angle that led to the first Wrestlemania both based around Cyndi Lauper as a wrestling manager, drew two of the biggest ratings in the history of that network, Ebersol, one of the original architects of Saturday Night Live in the 70’s, and Executive Producer of the show at the time, put together a deal with McMahon. At the time, Saturday Night Live would do three live shows and one taped show each month. Ebersol, feeling wrestling was a hot pop culture thing to jump onto, envisioned a wrestling special in the repeat time slot. It never really wound up a monthly thing. There were six such specials in 1986; it’s first full year, and five in 1987. In all, NBC broadcast 29 specials in that time slot between May 11, 1985, and its final airing on April 27, 1991.

 

The show, a combination of comedic sketches with wrestlers, and wrestling matches, ended up a winning formula for both sides. The debut show came on the heels of the first Wrestlemania, which may have been the most publicised of all the Manias due to Lauper and Mr T. The show was taped on May 10, 1985, from the Nassau Coliseum, featuring an appearance by Mr T, and a main event where Hulk Hogan pinned Bob Orton. It drew an 8.8 rating, better than Saturday Night averaged in the same time slot.

 

All of the SNME specials were taped, sometimes as much as five weeks earlier. Unlike with Raw and Smackdown today, SNME usually featured matches that were non-program matches, ie bouts that didn’t duplicate what was being presented at house shows (which were considered far more important in those days), or PPV. Hogan would usually face someone who was considered not that the level of a main event heel, like Orton, Don Muraco, Hercules Hernandez and Nikolai Volkoff on the first two shows, someone who was a headliner but not who he was working a program with (like Terry Funk), or people like Paul Orndorff or Big Bossman, who he had huge programs with, but the blow-off matches at every arena had already taken place before the TV match aired.

 

Ebersol got credit for putting together a new concept show that drew ratings. McMahon got the credibility and exposure of his stars appearing before far more fans that watched his syndicated and cable shows at the time. It was important because he was expanding into new markets where WWF didn’t have a history in, and because the usual top rated cable wrestling show during the period, the TBS shows from Atlanta, were controlled by rival Jim Crockett. Even though Crockett’s show outrated McMahon’s on cable as often as not, a large percentage of people who knew McMahon’s stars, including most of the media at the time, didn’t even know Crockett’s top stars. Others who did considered them second rate, since they weren’t on NBC. Among all the coups McMahon made in taking over wrestling in the late 80’s. the affiliation with Ebersol was one of the biggest.

 

The show was a bona fide sensation when Hogan v Funk on January 14th 1986, drew a 10.4 rating, at the time the second largest rating in history of television in the 11:30pm Saturday night time slot. It was the beginning of a string of shows that topped the 9.0 mark. The March 1, 1986 show, taped in Phoenix, as a lead-in to that year’s Mania saw Mr T do a mock boxing match with Orton, and drew a 10.0 rating. The peak was leading up to Wrestlemania III, when a show two weeks before the big show, on March 14, 1987 from the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit (taped three weeks earlier), headlined by a Battle Royal that featured Hogan and Andre, drew an 11.6 rating, which to this day remains the highest rating any show in that time slot as ever done. A January 27, 1990 special, building up the Hogan v Ultimate Warrior match, featuring Hogan and Warrior in a tag match against Mr Perfect and The Genius (Lanny Poffo), nearly equalled that mark, with an 11.1 rating.

 

The success of those specials led to five prime time live main event specials on Friday nights that Ebersol and McMahon co-produced. The biggest was the first, on February 5, 1988, with the first nationally pushed Hogan v Andre rematch since Wrestlemania III. McMahon had secretly hired Crockett referee Earl Hebner, whose twin brother Dave had worked for him for a few years. Earl played the heel Hebner brother who counted Hogan’s shoulder down for three, even though Hogan had clearly kicked out, resulting in Andre getting the title. It ended a four-plus year run of Hogan as champion, and was monumental since much of the audience watching, having been brought into wrestling by WWF’s expansion, had never seen Hogan lose, and many had never seen anyone but Hogan with the title. Andre then gave the title to Ted DiBiase (actually, Andre screwed up his live speech, saying he was giving the tag team title to DiBiase), which was the main angle to set up a tournament for vacant title for Mania that year. The 15.2 rating for the show and 33 million viewers are both US all-time records for pro wrestling, and it’s very doubtful either number will ever be approached again.

 

Ratings fell off slightly in 1990 for the specials, which were down to quarterly. The death knell came when a February 1, 1991, live Friday night main event special, headlined by Hogan and Tugboat (Fred Ottman) v Earthquake (John Tenta) and Dino Bravo, largely built around Hogan going to military bases and exploiting the ongoing Gulf War leading to a match with Sgt Slaughter, drew a 6.7 rating, a number considered horrible at the time, for a prime time network show. Ebersol, by this point, had been promoted to head of NBC Sports. NBC lost interest in wrestling, which was about to nosedive in popularity, although the final show under the contract, which aired on April 27, 1991, featuring Hogan in a Battle Royal, drew a respectable 7.7. After the network dropped WWE, FOX picked it up and even drew a good 8.2 rating for an early 1992 special with Hogan and Sid Justice v Ric Flair and Undertaker, but with the company swimming upstream of controversy and with its popularity down, plus Hogan taking a leave of absence, the final Saturday Night’s Main Event on Fox drew a 6.1 rating on October 27, 1992, with Warrior and Randy Savage v DiBiase and IRS in a tag title match as the main event.

 

Not nearly as well known is that Ebersol was also responsible for my first major media break. In 1989, while Ebersol and McMahon were partners in their TV venture, Frank Deford was starting up a national daily sports newspaper, known simply as The National. It was owned by Emilio Azcarriga, one of the richest men in Mexico, a culture which, like Japan and many other countries, had several successful national all-sports papers. Trying to do something different, Deford made the decision to do a weekly pro wrestling column, which ended up being, based on what he would say in many interviews, the most popular column in the paper. Still, it was heavily criticized that in those days that a major newspaper would cover pro wrestling, an Deford was blasted by many, including, notably, Howard Cosell, for the decision. Deford was also social friends with Ebersol, who he knew was involved in wrestling, and asked him if he had any recommendations as to who should do the pro wrestling column he envisioned. For reasons nobody has ever explained, being that McMahon at the time used to call me “Public Enemy No 1,” his business partner (who secretly subscribed to The Observer for years using his secretary’s name) and friend told Deford there was only one person he should even consider, and said my name. The newspaper folded, piling up nearly XFL level losses, in the summer of 1991.

 

The second high-profile affiliation between McMahon and Ebersol was in 2001, for the XFL. When McMahon came up with the idea a year earlier to compete with the NFL, producing a spring football league, the idea was scoffed at. Ebersol, who had made the decision to give up the rights to the NFL due to the fact that rights fees had gotten too high and it was a money loser (yet at the same time a huge prestige builder, as FOX overspent for NFL rights, and largely made its network a success because of the prestige and spin-off factor), called McMahon up and wanted to go in as partners on the venture. Although after the failure, some tried to spin this as a negative, it was anything but. If the XFL had opened with UPN and TNN, the other networks it got to sign on, nobody would have cared after the first week. With NBC, they at least got people to care, even if by the midpoint of the season, the venture had turned into a laughing stock.

 

Before the league started, the WWF’s popularity was sky high. While they were a few months past their peak, few except the most ardent of fans recognized the slight dips as anything more than a small bump in the road. McMahon was at the time considered the great sports promoter of our time, with a Midas touch by many. Even though every attempts to start a new league over the past decades was a terrible failure, McMahon, who clearly had no long-term plan or idea what he was getting into, was lauded as having the secret to drawing teenagers, an audience most sports were losing. Ebersol gave him Saturday night prime time, which due to a number of reasons, had turned into the worst night of the week for television. The first week of the XFL was a huge ratings success, drawing a 9.49 rating. But ratings nosedived in week two, and by the fourth week, there was little question this was a failure of monumental proportions. It only lasted one season, and the company, and most say McMahon, have never fully recovered from the blow.

 

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Regarding the Bob Holly situation, the full details one the thing is when Rene Dupree was driving Holly’s rental car, and got the ticket, he never informed Holly there was a ticket, and Holly didn’t find out until he got a bench warrant where he had to fly into the city to clear things up. He was fined for punching Dupree’s eye, but not fired. As noted, there were wrestlers who went to bat for him, saying Dupree had it coming since Dupree was immature backstage. Aside from the fine, the punishment of putting Chris Masters over in a dark match at a TV taping was a total joke, when it’s considered punishment. The fine, reportedly $10,000, is pretty significant, if it is the real figure. Dupree lost face in the locker room, even it may have been a set-up situation and it was a suckerpunch deal, because of the fact he ran away. Holly in some circles is a hero in the Smackdown locker room, which speaks volumes of what people thought of Dupree, as he and Grenier are not well liked at all. The reaction we’ve heard is that after the fact, Dupree has been acting pretty much the same. There is a reality to young guys who achieve stardom quickly and make a lot of money that it, more often than not, goes to their head because they often aren’t grounded enough to handle it. Dupree should have been the exception, since he’s been around the business and working since he was around 14 or 15, but wasn’t. Still, it was time to cut the chord on Holly, although business politics are such as when Undertaker stands up for you, firing someone who did something popular with a lot of the wrestlers is a tough political move. Holly is no more valuable than the wrestlers who were let go, none of whom had his track record. In fact, in New Japan, when Akira Maeda did something similar, and he was 100 times the star Holly is, he was fired (well, he was told he had to tour Mexico to keep his job, which at the stage of his career and with his mindset, ended up meaning he was fired). When a guy’s rep for putting younger guys over gets to the point it’s almost a joke about a car wreck waiting to happen when he’s in with the new young heels who have to get over because they are being groomed for top spots, and we, before the matches, laugh about them (his house show program with Heidenreich and his PPV match with Mordecai come to mind) because we know he’s going to screw up the younger guys by not making them look strong, and it happens, and continues to happen, and nothing is done, and then this happens. I just don’t see a purpose in him being there. Mordecai lost his job over looking so bad in a PPV match with Holly, and Holly was the veteran whose job it should have been to get Mordecai over for Undertaker. Not that Mordecai deserved the push, but when you know something is going to screw up as soon as it’s booked, you know why and how, it happens like clockwork, and the young guy in over his head is let go instead of the veteran who is supposed to put him over strong and doesn’t, is something to think about. Interestingly, Holly and Dupree worked together the next night after the incident on the 11/22 house show in Elmira NY, with no problem.

 

At this point, Armageddon on 12/12 in Atlanta has JBL v Undertaker v Booker v Guerrero for the WWE Title, Cena v Jesus for the US Title in a streetfight, Suzuki and Dupree v RVD and Mysterio for the tag titles, the two finalists from Tough Enough in a boxing match, Jackie v Dawn Marie (I’m guessing with Haas as ref), and they’d need at least a couple of more matches which at this point they aren’t even hinting at. Maybe Show v Reigns and Jindrak and a cruiserweight title bout

 

At press time, “The Rise And Fall Of ECW” fell from No1 last week to No4 on the best selling sports DVD listings on Amazon.com (No267 overall). The next highest prow wrestling titles were Monday Night Wars at No55 and Wrestlemania XX at No64. Ric Flair’s “To Be The Man” was No19 on the best selling sports books, while Adam Copeland On Edge was No31 and Tributes II was No54

 

Carlito had arthroscopic surgery on his left shoulder this past week in Puerto Rico and will be out two to four months. He was told he could have gone without surgery, but in doing so, would have risked needing reconstructive surgery, with another injury, which is a year and half on the shelf

 

New Year’s Revolution isn’t the only PPV that will air on free TV in the UK. Six of the scheduled 14 events next year will air on free TV on Sky One, with the other eight airing as PPV events on Sky Box Office

 

Sky in the UK announced its new schedule starting in 2005 headlined by, for the fist time ever, live coverage of Raw every Monday night at 2am, with a Wednesday night at 9pm replay. Smackdown will air on Fridays at 9:30pm and Saturdays at 10am and 11pm. Experience airs on Sundays at 11am, Velocity at Noon and 10pm, Heat at 1pm and 11pm, plus tons of replays of all those shows

 

TSN’s Off The Record is interviewing HHH on 12/7. HHH was coming to Toronto on 12/1 to do it. It was scheduled as Orton, but some politics went down. OTR has had many newsworthy interviews with top wrestling personalities. Bret Hart is on 12/13, but that will be part of a panel discussion. I don’t anticipate HHH being asked about Hart, as there are current issues with the product that should fill the show

 

Some Raw notes from 11/29:

 

It was a very good Battle Royal, as they told a few stories. Batista clotheslined Flair over the top. Batista later insincerely said it was an accident. The company realises how wild people went the previous week with Batista, so one would assume there is a long-term (please, long-term) idea to turn him. Eugene eliminated Maven which led to a Maven turn. Fans booed a lot when Benjamin was eliminated by Edge, so Benjamin is starting to catch on. Final four were Batista, Jericho, Benoit and Edge. Batista threw out Jericho. Batista and Benoit were in the ropes and Edge tried to eliminate both, but Benoit managed to roll back in and Batista was out. Benoit and Edge then fought, ending on the apron, and both jumped off the apron, landing at about the same time (technically, Edge landed first by a millisecond). They had the refs arguing over who won the match, which went 18:31, leading to the next controversy. Orton, under pressure, went to Vince. Vince explained that Orton was GM and had full power and needed to make a decision. Of course this made no sense when Vince overruled Orton’s decision earlier then the company apparently decided what they advertised wasn’t the best idea. Edge wanted the shot and Orton said he’d get back to him later.

 

They decided to turn Maven based on the fact at all the house shows when he worked with Edge, they couldn’t get the fans to cheer him. Well, I guess it was the only move, but what turned Maven was the booking in his match with HHH. If he’s going to feud with Eugene, it’s a prelim feud, but Maven wasn’t even on the radar a month ago so it’s an improvement for him. If they were really serious about the tease of him in Evolution, he’ll the Paul Roma of Evolution.

 

Flair was mad at Big Dave for eliminating him from the Battle Royal, saying they were there to win together, and then go into the main event and lay down for HHH. Flair said he’d have done it and Dave had this look on his face and Flair said, you would have laid down, wouldn’t you ? Dave didn’t answer. They are doing everything right that they screwed up in the Orton deal here.

 

Main event saw the title held up with HHH v Benoit v Edge in 14:23 in a ***3/4 match. This was an excellent match with great heat. Benoit did a tope on both of them early. Benoit used the sharpshooter on Edge but HHH saved. He got HHH in the crossface, but Flair and Batista came out and Batista pulled Benoit out of the ring and KO’d him with a clothesline. Orton came out as HHH and Flair were booted out. Batista seemed happy to be booted out. Benoit used a German suplex and sharpshooter on Edge but HHH saved. HHH attacked Orton. Benoit did three more German suplexes on Edge and went to the top for the diving headbutt, but HHH shoved him off after a ref bump. HHH got the chair, but Orton hit the ring and stopped him from using it. Orton hit HHH with the chair, sending him over the guardrail. Benoit put the crossface on Edge. Edge wouldn’t tap. Benoit rolled onto his back. I couldn’t believe they were doing the Sasaki-Fujita finish, since that was the worst finish of all time. Actually, I think they were doing the Newton-Hughes finish that inspired Angle-Undertaker (tape before pin question) combined with Angle-Puder (the guy with the submission is on his back and is pinned before the tap). So the ref counted three on Benoit and Edge tapped. Mike Chioda said Edge won the title and Earl Hebner said Benoit won. In reality, this time in slow-mo, no question Edge won since Edge’s first tap was slightly after the count went down by Chioda for the three, and technically you have to tap three times before it’s a submission. Edge’s nose looked like it had exploded with blood everywhere, perhaps from an errant elbow. All three worked really hard in this one. So the belt is held up pending next week in Charlotte. Overall very good show aside from the lingerie deal

 

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Regarding Tough Enough, the pressure is getting to people because there is $1 million at stake, and everyone figures Puder is the favorite (in our last poll, taken after the TV special, he got a whopping 83% of the vote; but a look at numerous web sites shows the final results hundreds of times for different people championed by different web sites, so in many ways the voting aspect has made this a really screwed up popularity contest). Both Mizanin and Reeves were complaining last week about he got to go last, and that him doing the best against the Bashams was because they were blown up by fighting everyone else first. Mizanin calling Puder a brown-noser had to do with the night before the sex test deal, when Puder saw Moolah and Mae Young on the plane, he was very nice to them. At the time, nobody was told they were going to have anything to do with Tough Enough, but it didn’t take a genius to figure it out, either. Mizanin has also told people his strategy was to go after Puder personally, figuring him as the toughest competition, but after this week, when that looked to have backfired as the live crowds booed him. He responded by yelling “boo me” at the crowd like a spoiled child. Reeves nearly cost himself being cut on the spot (except they won’t cut, although coincidentally or not, he was said to have received the fewest votes just days late and was then cut) by posting on the rajah.com website a negative post on Puder saying he’s done well only because he’s had luck on his side. “He just doing this to market himself for ultimate fighting and he makes it, he will not last. He was never even in the UFC and has only had one real fight, his other three were nothing. I respect him as an athlete, but I love wrestling too much to let this guy win this thing. You don’t have to vote for me, but please do not vote for that prick Puder. He won the sex test because he kissed both Mae and Moolah’s asses for two days straight when we have been told not to do that type of shit”. Regarding Puder beating him in arm wrestling deal, even though he had about 50 pounds on him, “He got very lucky again.” Within a day, Reeves realised how badly he screwed up and asked them to take his post down. Apparently Reeves’ hated for Puder got real bad because Puder had said his name, when asked on the WWE website, who was the next to be cut. Reeves had bad mouthed Puder on the special, although we’re not sure what he said, but his post on the website said for people to watch the special as he was going to expose Puder for what he is. Whatever he said wound up being edited off the show. This only furthered some feelings Vince wants Puder to win when all of Reeves’ and Mizanin’s comments were edited off the show. Usually, McMahon loves to exploit controversy (see Diva Search) and in this one they seemed on the special to avoid it completely. Mizanin on his website continued to knock Puder, first claiming he was lucky and the only reason he came closest to getting the flags two weeks ago was because the Bashams were blown up. Reeves ended up getting heat with the office because he apparently caused a scene at a health food store in Stamford that many in the company frequent. Puder had put one of his posters to vote for him up at the store. Reeves and Rodimer came into the store, tore down the poster, and caused enough of a scene that the owner called the office. Rodimer ended up being cut a few days later. The owner complained to the company, which told Reeves he would have to go to the store and apologise, and also bring a bunch of WWE merchandise to the store to make up for the company being apologetic about what happened. Reeves then challenged Puder to an arm wrestling match, which wasn’t taped, and they made some sort of bet on it, with Reeves saying the only reason Puder won was because he (Reeves) had the harder first round match (no question he did). Reeves beat him, too, which actually only made things worse, because in his own mind he had his evidence that Puder winning all the contests was just luck. There was a feeling that the comments of both on the special only came off like major sour grapes and would have actually hurt them. There was a little heat on both, as Mizanin was trying to play bad guy wrestler stalling in the arm wrestling and spitting on his hand to show Puder up, but Puder responded after locking up, by pretending to struggle, then laughing in Mizanin’s face and putting him down like it was nothing, and Mizanin did get on the TV special out that Reeves wanted Puder out and that he was mad at Puder for laughing at him, although he clearly stated that he was trying to unnerve (and more accurately, upstage) Puder doing the heel stalling arm wrestling gig before the lock up. Reeves, as noted last week, was telling people he was going to call Puder out on TV if he wasn’t cut, but then broke two ribs in training. In the Tough Enough contests the past two weeks, there was enough interest that there was backstage betting, even among some very important people in the company, on the outcome of the arm wrestling contest. Others complained that people in the company who won’t give anyone the time of day are being nice to Puder, and he’s the only one Vince seems to recognize is even around. The fact Rodimer was cut seems to be a sure sign the yare going by the real voting, even though by the written rules of the of the contest, they don’t have to. Based on what we’ve been told, when it comes to the wrestling itself in the gym, Mizanin is ahead of everyone, largely due to his two plus years of working indie shows in the Southwest. After that, among the rest, all of whom are novices, it was Puder, Rodimer, Reeves and Smith (who actually had the second most training going in, as he had been affiliated with UPW for months, while Puder, Rodimer and Reeves had zero pro wrestling training before being picked), in that order

 

WWE is losing its TV in Israel, as the Hot Action channel carrying the shows has said they’re not interested in renewing the deal. WWE had failed months back to reach a deal in Israel for PPV events. They nearly reached a deal with SummerSlam, which was advertised as airing, but pulled at the last minute. WWE wanted to charge a higher price than Israeli cable companies thought was viable, as they wanted more than double the price of the most expensive PPV events on Israeli TV

 

The Charlotte Observer had an article on Flair going to the Middle East. Flair said, “It was the most rewarding thing I’ve ever been involved in. Not one negative person…I was really amazed at how overwhelmingly positive they guys and gals are over there.” Flair and the rest of the WWE crew (Stratus, Lita, Hurricane, Venis and Benoit) went to Qatar in the Persian Gulf and Djibouti in Eastern Africa. There was one scare, particularly to Flair, who has been in more than his fair share of airplane scares, including a famous 1975 small plane crash, when flying from Djibouti on a five-and-a-half hour flight, the plane lost an engine. One soldier who earned a bravery medal on the front lines gave his medal to Flair. The trip was referred to by those as a trip from hell, but I don’t think anyone wants to publicly say that. Between the plane problem, and that fact all the wresters stayed in tents together with just a sheet separating them, and problems with the office person who accompanied them that several were about ready to kill when it was over made it more negative than anyone can let on

 

Tomko is having trouble with fluid in his elbows. He can’t buy a break

 

Comments from guys who went through the destruction of WCW and this period have gotten more pro-WCW of late, not by everyone, but from at least a few. The reaction was at least when WCW was going down, and everyone knew it was, prelim guys were free to at least have good matches, whereas now they’re miserable and can’t have good matches either because everything is so structured.

 

Mooneyham also interviewed Mysterio. Rey was still mad at Bischoff having him unmask in WCW. “He didn’t care. It was an ego trip, and it was all about Hogan, Hogan, Hogan.” He said he lost his mask because he was making so much money, but he’d questioned if he’d trained his whole life just to see his career go nowhere. He noted he’s pulled back on his style, both because of injuries and because the company has asked him to, but “there’s times when I just want to go out there and do what I used to do,” and mentioned wanting to have the same kind of matches he had eight years ago with Psicosis. He said he thinks the cruiserweight division has a lot more potential than what is being done with it. He said he doesn’t think wrestlers see Smackdown as the “B” brand. He said, about people being cut, that some of them were handed the ball and weren’t ready, and some don’t have the same passion for wrestling that he has. He said he doesn’t want to retire for at least five years, but if he had his way, in three to five years, he’d like to have a modified schedule so he can spend more time with his kids

 

When Gerald Brisco was asked over the weekend at the Mid Atlantic convention (and I was told the best Q&A of the weekend was the Brisco Brothers) about the Butterbean-Bart Gunn and Puder-Angle situations, he said, “In the case of Butterbean, we were shocked, but in the case of Angle, not that many people know Kurt had no feeling in his arms that night, had already wrestled, and has the neck of a 65-year-old man, but that’s what happens when you take that chance and another star is born.” No feeling in his arms ? Like he would be put in a shoot situation like that ? Please. And another star is born ? They did everything to make sure that didn’t happen, even at the same time they are wanting it to happen. And while he did wrestle, how can one even compare his 20 second match where he destroyed a guy with all the stuff the other guys had to do to be softened up before Angle came out

 

It appears the next major European tour will be 4/20 to 4/26, with Raw and Smackdown tapings on 4/25 and 4/26

 

The last listed MSG line-up for the Smackdown house show in 12/5 (which has a chance to be the lowest attended show at MSG in many years) is JBL v Booker v Guerrero for the WWE Title, Angle v Show (probably turning into Show v Jindrak and Reigns to protect Angle’s injury), Undertaker v Heidenreich and if Undertaker wins he gets five minutes with Heyman, Suzuki and Dupree v RVD and Mysterio for the tag titles, Spike defends the cruiserweight belt against Kidman, Moore and Nunzio, Chavo v Jesus, Holly and Haas v Reigns and Jindrak, and Jackie v Dawn Marie

 

HHH appears 12/16 on Conan O’Brien

 

The actual crowd for the 11/6 show at Arena Monterrey for the Raw crew was 7,707 paid and $272,886. There have been some good crowds as of late as the Raw house show on 11/7 in Hidalgo, TX, was a legit sellout (6,500 seats), which makes Hidalgo the company’s best US market with three sellouts in a row, doing so for both Raw and Smackdown brands

 

From last weekend the 11/19 Raw show at Cobo Arena in Detroit drew 3,300. The 11/20 Raw show in Kingston, Ontario drew 2,500, which wasn’t an official sellout, but was less than 100 tickets shy. The 11/20 show at the DC Amory actually drew 1,400

 

The estimates for this weekend were 11/26 in Hershey for Raw at 2,000 and 11/27 in Philadelphia for Raw at 4,200 (actual number) and $160,000. We didn’t get an estimate for the 11/28 Raw in Bethlehem. The 11/28 Smackdown brand show in North Charleston, SC, drew about 3,000. The 11/29 Smackdown house show in Raleigh drew about 2,200

[MikeJordan23 0]

Yeah that NFL went quick didn't it. Thanks for posting this.

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

Yeah that NFL went quick didn't it. Thanks for posting this.

If you'd like to try typing out the Observer with no mistakes, feel free to take over.

[MikeJordan23 0]

Yeah that NFL went quick didn't it. Thanks for posting this.

If you'd like to try typing out the Observer with no mistakes, feel free to take over.

I'm just being an asshole, don't take offense. I appreciate you typing the Observe Newsletter a lot. Thanks.

[Lord of The Curry 0]

Flair's probably given that soliders medal to HHH by now.

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

Yeah that NFL went quick didn't it. Thanks for posting this.

If you'd like to try typing out the Observer with no mistakes, feel free to take over.

I'm just being an asshole, don't take offense. I appreciate you typing the Observe Newsletter a lot. Thanks.

Be an asshole to someone who doesn't take the time to type out something like this, that they don't have to, thanks.

[MikeJordan23 0]

These Tough Enough guys really do hate Puder.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

They completely buried Puder on Smackdown last night. So I can't imagine Vince has any interest in the guy.

[Lord of The Curry 0]

It's jealousy because they know that if Puder wins he has a built-in angle with the company, which increases the likelihood of him making tv right off the bat. If Justice or Miz won they'd probably be shipped off to OVW. Puder might too, but his options are wider especially if he's the only one Vince cares about.

[JoeDirt 0]

Thanks HTQ.

[Guest Dazed]

MikeJordan23 will be back in a week. Don't be dicks okay thanks.

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

It's good to know my first impression of Reeves was dead on. Namely that he's a whiney little bitch and I'm glad they cut him.

[benoit4hor 0]

So thats why the keep Bob Holly, the boys in the back like him. I guess if you can send Bob out to beat up the rookies, without doing it yourself, yeah why not. I think for punishment though they should have jobbed him out to Matt Capotelli on Smackdown!

[Guest Salacious Crumb]

I kind of think Dupree deserved it now that the whole story is known.

[JoeDirt 0]

Maven as the Paul Roma of Evolution made me laugh.

 

Tough Enough stuff is kind of ridiculous, but when it's for a million dollars I guess that's what happens.

[benoit4hor 0]

I still don't quite understand how if Dupree got the ticket, how Bob would get issued a bench warrant? So the rental car is in his name, that doesn't mean the cop would write the ticket to Holly. I don't understand.

[Vyce 0]

So thats why the keep Bob Holly, the boys in the back like him. I guess if you can send Bob out to beat up the rookies, without doing it yourself, yeah why not. I think for punishment though they should have jobbed him out to Matt Capotelli on Smackdown!

My personal dream is for Bob to lose his mind one day and try and pull something with Puder.

 

Because I'd pay to see Puder fuck him up good.

[Spaceman Spiff 0]

I still don't quite understand how if Dupree got the ticket, how Bob would get issued a bench warrant? So the rental car is in his name, that doesn't mean the cop would write the ticket to Holly. I don't understand.

What probably happened was that since Dupree threw out the ticket, the rental car company was notified (since they are the legal owners) of the outstanding ticket. The rental company then gave up Holly's name, since his name was on the rental agreement.

[strummer 0]

great stuff HTQ, reading that brought back memories of how much I loved SNME in the 80s. The first episode to the episode right before WM 3 is the peak of the Hogan Era and my favorite era ever in wrestling.

[Guest LooneyTune]

So does Rey have heat with Hogan because of the mask thing? Sounded like he was pissed with the comment that WCW was all about Hogan, although it could've been just 100% towards Bischoff.

 

I'm surprised that WWE booked SD @ MSG on a sunday, because usually I tend to watch no matter what when WWE does TV tapings there, and the fact they haven't done a MSG w/ the SD show on T.V. since June of last year when Ultimo debuted, and Piper & Hogan made their final appearences...as of now.

[geniusMoment 0]

This is what I dislike about Meltzer, he takes stories that the general wrestling fan doesn't give a fuck about, Ebersol, and makes them front page stories. But, thanks for taking the time to do this.

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

This is what I dislike about Meltzer, he takes stories that the general wrestling fan doesn't give a fuck about, Ebersol, and makes them front page stories.

God forbid he tries to educate wrestling fans on the modern history of wrestling and the people who influenced it.

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

This is what I dislike about Meltzer, he takes stories that the general wrestling fan doesn't give a fuck about, Ebersol, and makes them front page stories. But, thanks for taking the time to do this.

And he's not really writing to a "general wrestling fan" audience. He writes to a smart audience that is actually interesting in knowing the history and inner workings of the business. I find his history pieces to be about ten times more interesting than *anything* going on in the business today.

[Guest LooneyTune]

If it weren't for him, we wouldn't have had SNME, which was the biggest show for WWF at the time. Some historic stuff happend on the Main Events, like the Twin Referees thing, the Mega Powers exploding, Sgt. Slaughter winning a match with a NOOGIE, and much more.

[{''({o..o})''} 0]

Is the observer really marketed towards general wrestling fans anyway?

 

EDIT: nevermind

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

Just for the record, the top story in this weeks Observer was Zero One shutting down.

[geniusMoment 0]

Just for the record, the top story in this weeks Observer was Zero One shutting down.

Another reason I do not subscribe to the Observer, I do not give a fuck about international wrestling.

[cabbageboy 0]

"The final Saturday Night’s Main Event on Fox drew a 6.1 rating on October 27, 1992, with Warrior and Randy Savage v DiBiase and IRS in a tag title match as the main event."

 

This is actually inaccurate info. Know why? I WENT to the big TV taping that happened right after this Sat. Night taping. The taping date is correct, since I went on Oct. 28. I remember being shocked at the time because they announced Michaels as the New IC champ, whereas nobody in the arena knew because his match with Bulldog hadn't been on TV yet (it was just the previous night). That match and the show didn't air until almost mid November, if you can imagine that. In fact I saw a Bulldog IC title defense on Prime Time Wrestling AFTER I knew he'd already lost the belt!

 

If you are wondering how I remember this with such vividness, it's because I was a huge Bulldog fan and that match made me hate Shawn to this very day.

[The Czech Republic 0]

This is what I dislike about Meltzer, he takes stories that the general wrestling fan doesn't give a fuck about, Ebersol, and makes them front page stories. But, thanks for taking the time to do this.

Would you like a copy of Pro Wrestling Illustrated instead? I heard Evolution kicked a puppy.

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

Just for the record, the top story in this weeks Observer was Zero One shutting down.

Another reason I do not subscribe to the Observer, I do not give a fuck about international wrestling.

Then subscribe to the Torch. You'd love them, as they totally ignore anything that didn't happen in America.