Comments which don't warrant a thread

[dh86 0]

Cena-Umaga? WOTY candidate?

[Kizzo 0]

He can't spin this one.....there was no basketball tournament to go against this time. NBC only competition last night was Unbreakable and Cops.

[slimm44 0]

WWE have postponed their tour in Israel due to the bombings.

[2GOLD 0]

im glad SNME did a shitty 2.65 rating...the only thing that would wake Vince up to his crappy product is people not watching

 

The only thing that might wake him up is real competition. This will just disappoint Vince, but he'll find some way to spin it.

 

"People don't "get it". If they don't get it, I don't want them watching! Go on, GET LOST!"

or

"Edge with the title isn't working, get it back to Cena so we can have ratings."

or

"We needed more fart jokes damn it! I told you!"

 

You gotta be thinking NBC is going to move Saturday Night Main Event to a afternoon slot after this. It's got to be looking like a failed experiment to them with the way things are going. And they were already hurt by Vince with the XFL.

[Kizzo 0]

I think it would perform better in the afternoon. A 2pm/1pm central time slot would work perfectly. Maybe even 3:00 PM.

 

Just rename the show to "WWE's MAIN EVENT"

[Twisted Intestine 0]

Anyone know what shows aired on NBC before and after SNME and what kind of ratings they got? If SNME did no worse than those shows, I don't see why it should even matter.

[CBright7831 0]

Unbreakable

Fuck.

 

I've never seen this movie.

[spman 0]

Not that I'm complaining or anything, but what do you think was the point of taking the belt off Lashly in such an underwhelming way on Friday, instead of at the PPV? Was it done to try and build interest for the Bash? Maybe Lashly has backstage heat on him for some reason?

[USC Wuz Robbed! 0]

I thought they only had a deal for two SNMEs?

[Atticus Chaos 0]

Dave Sherer has reported that a meeting took place before Tuesday's edition of ECW on the Sci-Fi Channel between Vince McMahon, Kevin Dunn and Paul Heyman. Citing disappointment with the reaction at ECW Arena in which fans chanted "This show sucks", low ticket sales (particularly for the July 4'th show in Philadelphia) and a 15% drop off in ratings from week one to week two, Vince McMahon made the decision to put an end to the "ECW Style", including a break from all old ECW characters to be re-written and re-cast in the WWE style. The idea is to turn ECW into a third brand of WWE, with a roster and storylines more in line with that of Raw and Smackdown.

 

Paul Heyman's control of the ECW brand has been reduced to the capacity of "advisor", while Tommy Dreamer has been completely removed from the creative process, and will act only as an on-air character. Heyman had written a script for last night's show, but it was all but thrown out when Vince McMahon disapproved of it's content and had the WWE creative team re-write the show from the ground up. Paul Heyman was also relieved of his backstage duties, as WWE brass took over and ran the show as they ran Smackdown later that night.

 

 

 

It is expected that the staff of ECW referees will be given their release as the company moves away from the ECW image and incorporates the brand into the WWE fold. ECW ring announcer Stephen D'angelous has already been terminated by Vince McMahon.

 

Mike Johnson adds in his report that beginning with last night's broadcast, the ECW roster will not be flown in for television tapings, but instead will only call for the appearance of those scheduled to work that particular show.

 

The general opinion backstage is that when ECW finishes it's 12 week scheduled run on the Sci-Fi channel, it may be reduced to an internet program for WWE.com, or done away with altogether.

 

 

 

 

Cancelling ECW after its 12 week run? That's crazy, it's ratings have been great and Im sure sci fi will want to renew it.

[randomguy 0]

This whole situation is hilarious.

 

It started off as a reasonable idea - produce an alternative brand to capture the audience not happy with WWE.

 

But they were immediately gunshy and booked it like a WWE show from day 1. And as the general audience seems unhappy instead of seeing that they are unhappy with it being WWE, they see the solution as making it MORE WWE.

 

Giving the audience what they want - is it really that hard a concept?

[Scroby 0]

Dave Sherer has reported that a meeting took place before Tuesday's edition of ECW on the Sci-Fi Channel between Vince McMahon, Kevin Dunn and Paul Heyman. Citing disappointment with the reaction at ECW Arena in which fans chanted "This show sucks", low ticket sales (particularly for the July 4'th show in Philadelphia) and a 15% drop off in ratings from week one to week two, Vince McMahon made the decision to put an end to the "ECW Style", including a break from all old ECW characters to be re-written and re-cast in the WWE style. The idea is to turn ECW into a third brand of WWE, with a roster and storylines more in line with that of Raw and Smackdown.

 

Paul Heyman's control of the ECW brand has been reduced to the capacity of "advisor", while Tommy Dreamer has been completely removed from the creative process, and will act only as an on-air character. Heyman had written a script for last night's show, but it was all but thrown out when Vince McMahon disapproved of it's content and had the WWE creative team re-write the show from the ground up. Paul Heyman was also relieved of his backstage duties, as WWE brass took over and ran the show as they ran Smackdown later that night.

 

 

 

It is expected that the staff of ECW referees will be given their release as the company moves away from the ECW image and incorporates the brand into the WWE fold. ECW ring announcer Stephen D'angelous has already been terminated by Vince McMahon.

 

Mike Johnson adds in his report that beginning with last night's broadcast, the ECW roster will not be flown in for television tapings, but instead will only call for the appearance of those scheduled to work that particular show.

 

The general opinion backstage is that when ECW finishes it's 12 week scheduled run on the Sci-Fi channel, it may be reduced to an internet program for WWE.com, or done away with altogether.

 

 

 

 

Cancelling ECW after its 12 week run? That's crazy, it's ratings have been great and Im sure sci fi will want to renew it.

ECW won't be cancelled after its 12 week run. The ratings have been great and the fact everything all of a sudden is going to be re-written is completely insane. There's nothing thats been produced that should be re-written. The only angles that have been done is Heyman being the cult leader and Tommy Dreamer going against Heyman. A lot of that doesn't make sense and a lot of that is old news. We knew that the ECW ref's were not going to be used and that WWE ref's would be, we knew Stephen D'angelous was not going to be used after the first show, a lot of that is old news.

[MarvinisaLunatic 0]

I want ECW canceled after 12 weeks just so I can say I went to one of the last ECW shows. The house show on August 14th Im going to is the last one before the 12th ECW taping.

 

That being said..my guess is that ECW on Sci Fi is just a place holder for the inevitability that Smackdown gets canceled on CW and they need a network to carry Smackdown until they can get a better deal somewhere else.

[RedJed 0]

Dave Sherer has reported that a meeting took place before Tuesday's edition of ECW on the Sci-Fi Channel between Vince McMahon, Kevin Dunn and Paul Heyman. Citing disappointment with the reaction at ECW Arena in which fans chanted "This show sucks", low ticket sales (particularly for the July 4'th show in Philadelphia) and a 15% drop off in ratings from week one to week two, Vince McMahon made the decision to put an end to the "ECW Style", including a break from all old ECW characters to be re-written and re-cast in the WWE style. The idea is to turn ECW into a third brand of WWE, with a roster and storylines more in line with that of Raw and Smackdown.

 

Paul Heyman's control of the ECW brand has been reduced to the capacity of "advisor", while Tommy Dreamer has been completely removed from the creative process, and will act only as an on-air character. Heyman had written a script for last night's show, but it was all but thrown out when Vince McMahon disapproved of it's content and had the WWE creative team re-write the show from the ground up. Paul Heyman was also relieved of his backstage duties, as WWE brass took over and ran the show as they ran Smackdown later that night.

 

The general opinion backstage is that when ECW finishes it's 12 week scheduled run on the Sci-Fi channel, it may be reduced to an internet program for WWE.com, or done away with altogether.

 

Ok well lets break this down here....

 

Fans chanted "This show sucks" because it was primarily booked by Vince and was not "traditional ECW" in any sense.....1st chance to see the reality of it....

 

Low ticket sales was because they did the same thing, but less intense, at the ECW Arena and the fans ALSO shitted on that....2nd chance for the company to see the reality of it....

 

Dropoff in rating from week one to week two because, well, week one, which Vince and Dunn had their fingers ALL OVER SUCKED ASS. What do you fucking expect......3rd chance for the company to see the reality of it....

 

So the reality that was supposed to be learned by the company was that their attempts to "make ECW theirs in the unique vision they can only produce" FAILED. Logic would dictate that is because the people that are tuning in 1) want a true alternative and NOT what the WWE normally does, 2) current WWE fans who never saw ECW before are looking to see what ECW was all about back in the day (which requires them to treat the tradition of the brand with RESPECT), and thought they might get a taste of it, and 3) the oldschool ECW fans WANTED something close to a similar product than it was before. WWE tried to fight these three points as much as they could, the fans spoke vocally about not liking what they saw by the ratings drop, among other things and yet.....

 

INSTEAD the company is now going MORE towards their "vision" which will only further drop the rating. Its completely and utterly illogical. They had to chance to CLEAR AS DAY see why the experiment wasnt working, which is because THEY ARE TRYING TO RE-ESTABLISH A COMPANY THAT THEY HARDLY EVER WATCHED, MUCH LESS WERE A FAN OF. NOBODY WANTS TO SEE ANOTHER WWE STYLE BRAND - if it was working that well for the other two, the ratings would be skyrocketing. The point is the typical wrestling fan NEEDS a true alternative because nothing right now is drawing. Plus they have the guy ON PAID ROSTER who was the mind of ECW for the most part, and YOU DONT LET HIM WRITE THE PRODUCT THAT PUT HIM ON THE MAP, MUCH LESS REMAIN IN ANY CREATIVE CAPACITY ON??!! I mean he didnt even so much as get a chance other than the first ONS, which drew them tons of $$$, but yet even though it PROVED that the nostalgia DRAWS for ECW, you fight against it immediately?

 

This makes the Alliance fuckup look like an afterthought.

[Enigma 0]

I want ECW canceled after 12 weeks just so I can say I went to one of the last ECW shows. The house show on August 14th Im going to is the last one before the 12th ECW taping.

I don't know how you did your math, but the August 15th ECW on Sci-Fi will only be the 10th taping.

[Danville_Wrestling 0]

That being said..my guess is that ECW on Sci Fi is just a place holder for the inevitability that Smackdown gets canceled on CW and they need a network to carry Smackdown until they can get a better deal somewhere else.

 

I actually thought about this randomly yesterday. I don't necessarily believe it because its too conspiratorial but you never know with WWE.

 

You know wrestling is bad right now when the BEST programming I get to see every week comes out of OVW. This past week they had a great main event in CM Punk vs. Seth Skyfire (it was a good Skyfire-Brent Albright match last week), Cody Runnels is being developed well as a talent, Maria appears every so often, they have hilarious video promos/packages, and Armando Alejandro Estrada does better work there than he does on RAW. Maybe OVW is helped by the fact that the matches last over five minutes without much commercial interruption and the booking of GREG FREAKIN' GAGNE actually makes some sense.

 

I feel like its a chore to watch RAW and Smackdown! (when I go to college) right now. Hell, I can barely make it through the first 45 minutes anymore and people can say all they want about Vince Russo but when he was writing this stuff the show FLEW by, you were captivated for nearly the entire show, and you couldn't wait for next week. Now I dread the next week to see how much more of Vince's ass or the balding DX I'm going to have to put up with.

 

ECW is more tolerable since its only an hour but we still have worthless stuff like the Kelly Kelly stripteases. ECW really needs to learn from TNA and even OVW how to book a one hour show.

 

I also try to get into TNA but something about Jeff Jarrett doesn't scream main event player to me so that keeps me away even though I do like a lot of the other stuff they have going on. I'm not too thrilled with that six sided ring either but I know it makes them unique.

 

Overall, I just DO NOT for the life of me understand WWE management right now. The company is like a sinking ship and does not listen to their fans and is incapable of coming up with new ideas other than nostalgia crap. For all the "pull" HHH has backstage you have to know that even he knows the company is falling apart. Hell, even Randy Orton comes out and says the bad things going on in management right now.

 

One last thing, I REALLY hope Paul Heyman gets in McMahon's face right before his contract expires so he can actually go somewhere where he's appreciated. WWE has just used him to make a mockery of what was once his and I feel bad for him.

[spman 0]

http://shopzone.wwe.com/product_detail.asp...ductId=01-08068

 

 

Everyone order five of these. Now.

[The Niggardly King 0]

im glad SNME did a shitty 2.65 rating...the only thing that would wake Vince up to his crappy product is people not watching

 

The only thing that might wake him up is real competition. This will just disappoint Vince, but he'll find some way to spin it.

 

"People don't "get it". If they don't get it, I don't want them watching! Go on, GET LOST!"

or

"Edge with the title isn't working, get it back to Cena so we can have ratings."

or

"We needed more fart jokes damn it! I told you!"

 

Nah, I think he'll blame RVD since the Main Event was supposed to be the Triple Threat for the WWE title.

[The Niggardly King 0]

Not that I'm complaining or anything, but what do you think was the point of taking the belt off Lashly in such an underwhelming way on Friday, instead of at the PPV? Was it done to try and build interest for the Bash? Maybe Lashly has backstage heat on him for some reason?

 

The nervous fan in me thinks that Lashley failed a drug test or something like that. The realist in me knows it's only to make the match not seem like a handicap match. It also might be like a small "thank you" to Finlay.

[pochorenella 0]

http://shopzone.wwe.com/product_detail.asp...ductId=01-08068

 

 

Everyone order five of these. Now.

 

I think that's actually a cool-looking shirt.

[Lil' Bitch 0]

^ I thought his catchphrase was I LOVE TA FIGHT ?!! WTF?

[RepoMan 0]

I liked the Finaly shirts that looked like knock off Guiness shirts, but I still plan on buying that.

[Hawk 34 0]

Figures that WWE would choose the shitty and embarassing shirt. They just love carton sendups of their characters. It worked with South Park in 1998. It's 2006, WWE.

[ChrisMWaters 0]

Bob Orton, Sr. passes away

By Louie Dee

July 16, 2006

 

Bob Orton, Sr., the patriarch of the famous Orton wrestling family, passed away on Sunday night. Orton, Sr. was the father of WWE Hall of Famer Cowboy Bob Orton and former WWE star Barry “O” Orton, as well as the grandfather of current RAW Superstar Randy Orton.

 

According to Randy, his grandfather passed away as the result of a series of heart attacks. “He had a heart attack at home, and they took him to the hospital where he has another more severe heart attack,” he told WWE.com. “He had an eight hour surgery that gave him a 20 percent chance to survive; he did, but about 10 hours after the surgery he passed away.”

 

A native of Kansas City, Orton began his career in 1951, and his biggest success came in the Florida and Central States territories. He held several regional NWA Championships in both territories, including a reign as Florida Tag Team Champions with son Cowboy Bob. Known as “The Big O,” Orton also competed in the AWA, where he held the Midwest Heavyweight and Tag Team Championships, as well as Stu Hart’s Stampede Wrestling promotion in Calgary.

 

In fact, Orton’s career spanned nearly a half-century, as he didn’t officially retire from the wrestling business until 2000. And even into his 70s, Orton was influential in helping his grandson transition into the business.

 

 

“He always told me to keep my mouth shut and my ears open,” Randy said. “Dad always said it too, but I heard it from grandpa first. He had a lot of fun old stories that were real interesting; it’s a shame he's gone. As I was growing up I knew how important he was for my father, and he was just as important for me.”

 

Randy also shared one distinct memory of his grandfather with WWE.com.

 

“I remember when my dad went into the Hall of Fame, he was there as I inducted dad. I mentioned him, and he was right up front in his wheelchair so I was able to make some eye contact with him. It was a great moment.”

 

While Randy is saddened at the passing of his grandfather, he was able to get a lift from one of his fellow RAW Superstars.

 

“Last night I was eating dinner with Charlie Haas, and he knew I was upset about grandpa passing,” Randy said. “He said ‘don’t worry, Russ (Haas, Charlie’s brother) is showing him the ropes up in Heaven right now.’ That put a smile on my face.”

 

Unfortunately, Orton’s passing came just days shy of his 77th birthday, which would have been on July 21.

[UseTheSledgehammerUh 0]

Batista issued an open challenge for the Bash.

[Conspiracy_Victim 0]

WWE have postponed their tour in Israel due to the bombings.

 

*makes inappropriate "Big Show as champ" and "Great Khali" bomb jokes here*

[Lt. Al Giardello 0]

Am I the only one who marked when Umaga beat Cena?

[Black Lushus 0]

I like Umaga...my guess is he's the one that answers Batista's open challenge.

[Jobber of the Week 0]

Maybe Cena will answer Batista's challenge. Hyuck hyuck hyuck.

[Lil' Bitch 0]

How do I go about e-mailing Meltzer a question?