WON News + Notes - November 13th

[The Decemberists 0]

Monty Brown was officially offered a deal. Interally it was said that Brown had all but signed and Johnny Ace has been telling people to start making plans for him.

 

A K-1 official on Japanese radio said that Bob Sapp had signed with WWE and woudl be in ECW, but Dave has been told negotiations have cooled off and Sapp may want to talk to TNA.

 

It appears Lashley may get the roled planned for Sapp in ECW. Lashley is tight with Hayman and Paul has convinced both Bobby and Vince that he should make the jump. There is skepticism from people internally because Lashley is going to be pushed as ECW's top star but the feeling is that he's not ready for that sort of position, even on the C show, and won't be able to draw. It wouln't be a surprised if Lashley was the final entrant in the Extreme Elimination Chamber and goes on to win the belt.

 

Washington pollsters and political advisers have found the Democrats are more likely to be wrestling fans than Republicans. It's funny because pro-wrestling angles almost always based on pushing a more conservative mind-set in the babyfaces. While there are always exceptions, most wrestlers and promoters over history have tending to be Republicans.

 

The Marine did $1,037,524 this past weekend so at press time it had totalled $17,017,379 and will probably close at just over £18,000,000. The movie has done just $332,082 overseas.

 

The Brooke Hogan album looks to officially be a one-week novelty record. By week two it had fallen out of the top 50, which means less than 16,000 units sold.

 

Bischoff is scheduled to be a part-time performer from now on.

 

The CW Network overall has faced some very rough times. Ratings for almost all of the shows are way down. The only shows that haven't fallen greatly are Smackdown, Next Top Model, Veronica Mars (which is a low rated show, but stays on air due to being popular with critics) and One Tree Hill. Smackdown, now doing better than this time last year, is loved at the Network.

 

Hulk Hogan has said they will be honoring Andre the Giant at WM this year, which makes perfect sense.

 

Hogan Knows Best on 10/22 was the 10th highest rated cable show of the week in the 18-34 demographic. It had 1,068,000 viewers in that demo. Raw the same week had 1,186,000, TNA had roughly 400,000 and Ultimate Fighter had about 650,000.

 

Mysterio is having knee surgery on 11/8 and could be out till May at the earliest. He's been working for a year on a torn ACL and torn patella tendon in his left knee. The orginial idea was for him to work throught to Wrestlemania, but then the decision was made right after the Royal Rumble to nix the planned Orton vs Angle title match where Randy would win the title and go instead with the three way with Rey winning the belt. He was then only going to hold the belt for a very short time (which they didn't tell him about) and drop it to JBL. However as JBL's back was much worse than first thought he ended up holding it much longer than planned.

 

In the preview for the new Smackdown vs Raw game on IGN they wrote "One of the biggest feuds building in WWE right now is the battle between DX and Edge/Orton. That's why we threw the four wrestlers in the ring together in WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2007 and let them have at it in a TLC match. Can the young stars get the win, or does the videogame try to bury them just like in real life?"

 

Vito dieted down to 209lb for his Playgirl shoot.

 

Keith Walker has signed a devolpmental deal. He's a big powerhouse guy (unsurprisingly) who has toured for Pro Wrestling NOAH in the past.

 

Lashley was interviewed in The Sun UK newspaper where he got mad at Batista for calling the No Mercy a 'transitional' event and calling Smackdown the B show. In Dave's opinion though Lashley's negative words on Batista were created by the interviewer looking for a story. Lashley said he was tougher than Brock Lesnar and would beat him in a shoot. Lashley says he rejected a soilder gimmick when he was called up as he didn't think his promo skills were good enough for that sort of role. When asked who the best guy in the business was the first name out of his mouth was.... HHH. After that he also mentioned Booker, Benoit, JBL, Michaels, Orton, Benjamin and Angle. He called Samoa Joe "unbelievable". He credited Booker and Benoit for helping him out the most, and said his best friends backstage were Orton, Benjamin, Kennedy and Helms. He said JBL really hates the Miz. Who would have ever guessed? He blamed his elevated liver enzymes on him not fasting for 10 hours before the the test as he was supposed to(!?). Lashley also said that Batista was still living off his former association with HHH and Flair and doesn't have it anymore and that eventally the fans will catch on to it.

 

Jerry Lawler's mother, Hazel, successfully came through dangerous surgery to open up her carotid artery after suffering a stroke.

 

Debbie Killion, who was probably the best Amercian woman wrestler to ever work full time in Japan when she competed as Debbie Malenko, has applied to Laurinatis for a job. She's now 35 though so probably shouldn't hold her breath.

 

The 12/26 ECW show will be a Best of 2006 show.

 

Claudio Castagnoli, TJ Wilson and Nattie Neidhart have been offered deals and have either signed or expected to.

 

 

The writers have been put under pressure from Vince to make Raw more 'edgy' due to the success of Smackdown recently.

 

Dave says holding off the K-Fed/Cena 'match' till 1/1 is actually great planning as it gives them plenty of time to build up the match on Access Hollywood type shows and then have the ending be an introduction of a surprise celebrity character to build up for a Wrestlemania angle. With K-Fed and Brittney getting divorced (and reports are that he knew about this before he showed up in the WWE) he's going to be huge news for the next couple of months and that should help matters even more. However, 1/1 might be just too far off for him to mean as much as he could.

[Dips 0]

Have the end of the Cena-K Fed feud lead to an introduction of a surprise celebrity character to build up for a Wrestlemania angle? A new celeb is coming in?

 

Thanks for typing these out.

[Black Lushus 0]

LOLZ! Lashley knows which bread to butter!

[Guest Coffey]

Lashley said he was tougher than Brock Lesnar and would beat him in a shoot.

Lashley is wrong.

[cabbageboy 0]

Lashley has one major problem if he goes to ECW and gets the title as a top face: He's not going to be anywhere near as over as RVD. But man after reading his interview there is there anyone who isn't burying Batista these days?

[MillenniumMan831 0]

They should make Batista a deacon again. That's the ticket.

[dh86 0]

Lashley said he was tougher than Brock Lesnar and would beat him in a shoot.

Lashley is wrong.

based on?

[Just John 0]

Nice to see SD doing well in the numbers despite the awful timeslot. I guess when you put out almost a year's worth of quality shows, people will catch on. Vince encouraging the writers to make Raw more edgy cannot end well.

[Scroby 0]

If Lashley goes to ECW and gets the belt put on him and he's a face, what major heel do they have to help put him over? Their biggest heel is Big Show but he's the only one, who else would be used to help put Lashley over.....I sware if we get a Test vs Lashley title feud.

[The Decemberists 0]

It's going to have to be Test if Big Show goes through with his current plan to retire after Mania.... Test vs Lashley for two/three months. It's a scary thought.

[Insanity 0]

The writers have been put under pressure from Vince to make Raw more 'edgy' due to the success of Smackdown recently.

 

I don't understand, has Smackdown been more edgy lately? Are they trying to outperform it? What?

 

And thanks a ton for posting these.

[BruiserKC 0]

Crazy thought in my head...what if they pulled a massive swerve on us on January 1? Let's face it...Cena's pretty much hated and no matter what they've done to make him a fan fave it's not working. What if on 1/1 Cena swerves and teams up with K-fed? Perhaps have K-fed as his manager.

[Thanks for the Fish 0]

Cena w K-Fed vs The Rock at Wm23 - Vince McMahon's wet dream.

[The Niggardly King 0]

Cena's pretty much hated and no matter what they've done to make him a fan fave it's not working.

 

Huh?

[Kahran Ramsus 0]

The writers have been put under pressure from Vince to make Raw more 'edgy' due to the success of Smackdown recently.

 

I don't understand, has Smackdown been more edgy lately? Are they trying to outperform it? What?

 

And thanks a ton for posting these.

 

I'm trying to figure out why Vince is wanting to compete with his own show.

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

Raw is his favorite son and Smackdown is the bastard child.

[Guest netslob]

but...but..he owns both shows...and SD is on network tv...which means more peole have access to it...hell, a bum can pull a 9-inch black-and-white Zenith out of dumpster and watch it...why would he willfully handicap his own show? doesn't make any sense.

[Black Lushus 0]

Cena's pretty much hated and no matter what they've done to make him a fan fave it's not working.

 

Huh?

 

"Huh?" is right...Cena's certainly not getting the same negative reactions he received during the first half of the year...

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

but...but..he owns both shows...and SD is on network tv...which means more peole have access to it...hell, a bum can pull a 9-inch black-and-white Zenith out of dumpster and watch it...why would he willfully handicap his own show? doesn't make any sense.

He owned WCW and still felt the need to bury it six-feet under when he could have made tons of money with a properly run Invasion angle. A lot of what Vince does makes no sense.

[Guest netslob]

true...but...but...it's just so fuckin' stupid!

[LJSexay 0]

I think it's all meant to breed more competition between the two writing teams. Something has to be said for a show that has had so many people go injured or gone, and STILL has gains in the ratings. For themost part, the writing on Smackdown (at least match-wise) has been great all year long.

 

On the other side.. how many Raw matches have recieved acclaim this year compared to SD?

[The Niggardly King 0]

Smackdown, even with the depleted roster, just has a fun show. It also has someone who can make what was intended to be nothing more than a lower card feud, seem like a huge deal, and that's JBL.

 

I'm surprised RAW doesn't lose ratings with how the booking has been for these last few weeks... I know you can go back a while, but these last few weeks have been really bad.

[Obi Chris Kenobi 0]

Thank you for typing these up, always an interesting read.

 

TJ Wilson and Nattie Niedhart in WWE, along with Harry Smith? New Hart Foundation? Gimp apperanes by Bret Hart as 'Manager'?

[Scroby 0]

Smackdown, even with the depleted roster, just has a fun show. It also has someone who can make what was intended to be nothing more than a lower card feud, seem like a huge deal, and that's JBL.

 

I'm surprised RAW doesn't lose ratings with how the booking has been for these last few weeks... I know you can go back a while, but these last few weeks have been really bad.

I also think it has something to do with how the shows are geared.

 

Raw, while it does have wrestling, is mainly about the entertainment aspect of the WWE. Using a lot of silly and dramatic storylines to put over this show.

 

Smackdown on the other hand, while it does have the entertainment that Vince really likes to use, the wrestling is more put over on Smackdown than the entertainment aspect is. ECW is becoming that way as well.

 

I think fans are getting tired of the silly wrestling angles and the backstage soap opeara drama that Raw mainly puts over and are wanting to watch wrestling instead of the silly wrestling angles.

 

Why Vince wants Raw to be better than both Smackdown and ECW is beyond me and I think its holding Smackdown or ECW back from being great shows to watch.

[Hawk 34 0]

Crazy thought in my head...what if they pulled a massive swerve on us on January 1? Let's face it...Cena's pretty much hated and no matter what they've done to make him a fan fave it's not working. What if on 1/1 Cena swerves and teams up with K-fed? Perhaps have K-fed as his manager.

 

Aside from DX, Cena gets the most favorable reactions. Unlike DX, Cena actually keeps and draws in the ratings. Cena is clearly the top face in the company and to say otherwise is ignoring the facts.

 

People are afraid to admit this but Edge completely made Cena the big over face where Triple H, Bischoff, Jericho and Angle failed in their efforts.

[Enigma 0]

John Cena turning heel right now would probably do more damage than the Austin heel turn did.

[Kahran Ramsus 0]

Crazy thought in my head...what if they pulled a massive swerve on us on January 1? Let's face it...Cena's pretty much hated and no matter what they've done to make him a fan fave it's not working. What if on 1/1 Cena swerves and teams up with K-fed? Perhaps have K-fed as his manager.

 

Aside from DX, Cena gets the most favorable reactions. Unlike DX, Cena actually keeps and draws in the ratings. Cena is clearly the top face in the company and to say otherwise is ignoring the facts.

 

People are afraid to admit this but Edge completely made Cena the big over face where Triple H, Bischoff, Jericho and Angle failed in their efforts.

 

Cena is in a much better position now than a year ago, and yes, Edge is a large part of that.

[Thanks for the Fish 0]

Vince said in an interview that he likes the stiff, hard hitting wrestling. That really doesn't exist on Raw. I think that's more of what he is talking about, it's also more serious and based around the titles. Raw is seemingly always looking for the joke.

[Hawk 34 0]

Vince said in an interview that he likes the stiff, hard hitting wrestling. That really doesn't exist on Raw. I think that's more of what he is talking about, it's also more serious and based around the titles. Raw is seemingly always looking for the joke.

 

Vince wants more KMA skits, and other "shocking" stuff. That's what he wants, not stiff wrestling. Vince hates that the wrestling brand is doing better then the SE brand.

[strummer 0]

Vince likes hard hitting stiff wrestling? LOL