Comments which don't warrant a thread

[mfn 0]

Is anyone else actually kind of excited for the Hardy vs. Nitro IC Title ladder match?

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

Is anyone else actually kind of excited for the Hardy vs. Nitro IC Title ladder match?

Maybe Jeff and Johnny.

 

On Raw, did they mention at all that Umaga pinned Cena earlier in the year?

[mfn 0]

Is anyone else actually kind of excited for the Hardy vs. Nitro IC Title ladder match?

Maybe Jeff and Johnny.

 

On Raw, did they mention at all that Umaga pinned Cena earlier in the year?

Not that I heard.

[haVoc 0]

WWE.com has learned that WWE officials and members of the group PRIDE have a meeting scheduled later this morning at WWE global headquarters in Stamford, Conn. The meeting will focus on the possibility of the two groups doing some form of business together in the future.

 

World Wrestling Entertainment is a multimedia conglomerate with presence in films, music, and sports-entertainment around the world. Known for its unique brand of competition, PRIDE is a major championship mixed martial arts organization based in Japan.

 

Check back with WWE.com for updates on WWE and the PRIDE organization.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

Weird. Not sure what they'd really do together. It seems like PRIDE is the antithesis of WWE, really.

[canadafour 0]

What ever Happened to Eric Angle, Kurt Angle's Brother. I know he wrestled some house shows and was on TV a couple of times, what ever happened to him?

[Lei Tong 0]

Weird. Not sure what they'd really do together. It seems like PRIDE is the antithesis of WWE, really.

 

Actually, PRIDE/DSE has had relatively strong ties to pro wrestling throughout its history. Of course, I'd like them to have nothing to do with each other, as pro-wrestling and WWE specifically is the antithesis of what I feel MMA should be.

[mfn 0]

Wasn't Angle in talks with PRIDE?

 

If that's the case, I wouldn't put it passed McMahon to do a deal with PRIDE to possibly keep Angle from doing it.

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

WWE.com has learned that WWE officials and members of the group PRIDE have a meeting scheduled later this morning at WWE global headquarters in Stamford, Conn. The meeting will focus on the possibility of the two groups doing some form of business together in the future.

 

World Wrestling Entertainment is a multimedia conglomerate with presence in films, music, and sports-entertainment around the world. Known for its unique brand of competition, PRIDE is a major championship mixed martial arts organization based in Japan.

 

Check back with WWE.com for updates on WWE and the PRIDE organization.

 

--The biggest news of the day is that officials from the Pride Fighting Championships are meeting with officials from WWE about a business relationship. I've been aware of interest from both sides for about a month, at least from the time the WWE/Bob Sapp negotiations started. Part of the Sapp proposal involved the sides working together in promoting Sapp as both a pro wrestling superstar and MMA superstar. However, Sapp was planned by WWE to start on 10/29, and that day has come and gone and he hasn't signed a contract due to all the expected problems and his planned storyline was given to someone else. Regarding certain speculations:

 

*There is no way there will be a joint show in the U.S. of Pride fights and WWE matches on the same bill. No athletic commission will allow it, and neither side would probably want it because the mix doesn't work. It didn't work in Japan, and it will not work even more in the U.S.

 

*For Pride to work with WWE, due to the credibility issue, shows desperation on their part, which has been evident since losing television and trying to target the more difficult to crack U.S. market.

 

*The only viable things that can come out of this are:

 

A) WWE gets an ownership interest in Pride, and then gets them a time slot on the USA Network, perhaps at 11 p.m. on Mondays, since that was the time slot that put UFC on the map in the first place. Keep in mind of the brass in WWE, virtually all are completely clueless about MMA. Shane McMahon is a fan but his knowledge of MMA is very limited. Paul Heyman has a strong business level knowledge since he had looked into starting an MMA promotion at one point. After that, aside from a few lower level people who are big fans, you've got nothing. Vince McMahon understood more about bodybuilding, and as much if not more about football, as he knows about MMA (which is nothing whatsoever). However, if he's got an ownership interest, he'll call the shots. And he has big-time level experience in making characters and producing television that nobody has. But when he tried that in bodybuilding, his characters were so cartoonish that it was a disaster. His "character making" is not the kind of character making that has worked in the past in a real sport situation.

 

B) The two sides agree to cross promote someone with the idea of giving a guy a few wins in Pride making him "more legit" for pro wrestling and pro wrestling making him famous for Pride so he can draw on PPV--basically the idea every MMA promotion in the world was looking at as to why Kurt Angle was in such huge demand. But that's a big risk. Whenever WWE has messed with reality--whether it be Brawl for All--letting outside entities do documentaries on the real world of WWE, or even the 2004 Tough Enough, it has wound up from a company standpoint in disaster every time out. I can't imagine this happening, but who could have imagined Brawl for All until it happened? And Vince McMahon isn't always very good when it comes to learning lessons from mistakes.

 

The point is, they can fix matches in Japan because there is no commission, but they can't in the U.S. because it's simply not worth risking the penalties. McMahon's company is publicly traded and fixing fights would risk a billion dollar company for relatively little upside. Also, with the exception of Bobby Lashley, there is nobody in WWE today that could be cross-promoted, and even in safe fights, there are never any guarantees without fixing things. WWE never had interest in Kevin Randleman when he was younger, and his Pride career is on the downswing. Phil Baroni has a pro wrestler personality but would have to learn from scratch. There is no way to predict how he would do in-ring. Randleman with proper training has an athletic base to be incredible in the ring.

 

C) What they have in common is this. UFC. People are very tight-lipped about what this is about, other than these are two organizations with one common enemy and common goal, which is keeping UFC from getting any stronger than it already is. Pride can't compete with UFC in the U.S. without television. We've heard nothing about the October buy rate, and if it was good, we'd have probably heard. WWE is losing to UFC on PPV in the U.S., sometimes by a four-to-one or five-to-one basis in the U.S. That wouldn't be such a big deal, except it is often brought up in the media, and that's a perception that causes WWE doesn't like of them being portrayed the old business from the past being surpassed by the new business. You could really tell with the reaction when that was printed in Newsweek.

 

This could easily go nowhere. It's hard enough dealing with WWE in business if you are dealing from strength. Pride is dealing from weakness, and thus, WWE pretty much can name their demands. They don't have any need to do business with Pride.

 

WrestlingObserver.com

 

Of the three options given, the most likely is some sort of working agreement that sees them working together against a common enemy, the UFC. No matter what happens between the two, I don't see it lasting long if it even ever gets off the ground.

[The Amazing Rando 0]

Who got his planned storyline? Lashley?

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

Who got his planned storyline? Lashley?

Yes.

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

From WWE.com:

 

WWE Hall of Famer “Rowdy” Roddy Piper has been hospitalized in Oregon for surgery after being sent home from WWE’s tour of the United Kingdom. Piper’s original diagnosis was kidney stones, however, sources close to the situation say the former World Tag Team Champion’s surgery may be a result of disc problems.

 

Due to Piper's injury, he will not participate at Survivor Series; Ric Flair's team will now include a Legend to be named.

[Hawk 34 0]

It might be a long, long shot but considering the location of the pay-per-view, they should try to get Terry Funk to replace Piper. I know Funk is working a very limited schedule (like one a year) but I think he could be talked into doing a squash with Flair, Rhodes and Slaughter.

 

It'd most likely be Duggan, however.

[ChrisMWaters 0]

SHould be interesting to see who they put there, IMO.

[MarvinisaLunatic 0]

Hmm.

 

Itd be funny if..they start out with 4 legends wondering who the 5th is and then Hogan walks down to the ring.

 

ha.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

It will be Triple H and he will pin all of the Squad himself.

 

Also, since it seems SmackDown no longer warrants a thread, the way the Helms/Hardy match opened (with Helms doing a 'snap' missile dropkick while posing on the ropes) was awesome.

[Spaceman Spiff 0]

Yeah, that was pretty cool.

 

Another SD point - looks like they were starting to plant the seeds for some dissension between London & Kendrick. I don't think I'm too happy with that possible storyline.

[Thanks for the Fish 0]

I noticed that hint of dissention as well - typical wwe MO though. They use the tag titles to build up singles wrestlers. Expect Regal and Taylor to win the titles and then Spanky and London will break up and feud.

[Hawk 34 0]

Taylor will be out for awhile. What worries me is that they'll make London the heel when Spanky's gold as a heel.

 

Spanky and Ashley turning on London would work best in the dissension route.

[Thanks for the Fish 0]

I think Taylor will be back sooner than you may expect. I mean they were talking up Taylor and Regal as a team tonight during Regal vs London. I remember 8 weeks being his downtime, how many weeks has it been?

[Enigma 0]

Isn't this the second straight year Piper was scheduled for a match at Survivor Series?

 

I seem to remember him having a match with Bob Orton scheduled for the 2005 show, but he broke his hand or something.

[Guest Hotbutter Spoontoaster]

I think Taylor will be back sooner than you may expect. I mean they were talking up Taylor and Regal as a team tonight during Regal vs London. I remember 8 weeks being his downtime, how many weeks has it been?

It's been 4 weeks, but he'll likely be out for 12-16 weeks. He turns 50 next May.

[Timmy8271 0]

I think Taylor will be back sooner than you may expect. I mean they were talking up Taylor and Regal as a team tonight during Regal vs London. I remember 8 weeks being his downtime, how many weeks has it been?

It's been 4 weeks, but he'll likely be out for 12-16 weeks. He turns 50 next May.

 

How Old is Finlay? He's got to be near 50.

[Guest Hotbutter Spoontoaster]

48.00

[Thanks for the Fish 0]

Why was the commentators even mentioning Taylor and Regal being the No.1 contender for the tag titles if Taylor is three months away? Either they had nothing else to talk about or Regal is going to get another partner in the interim, maybe with Taylor managing the team or something.

[DangerousDamon 0]

The Kendrick-London dissension just reeks of the Rockers break up.

[Karnage 0]

Is anyone having trouble with WWE.com? Whenever I click a link, it keeps redirecting over and over and I just see gray.

[Guest Overworked]

The Kendrick-London dissension just reeks of the Rockers break up.

 

 

London can't seem to keep any partner happy, Kendrick, Kidman..

[Scroby 0]

The Kendrick-London dissension just reeks of the Rockers break up.

The Rockers didn't break up over a woman.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

Is anyone having trouble with WWE.com? Whenever I click a link, it keeps redirecting over and over and I just see gray.

 

Yo.