WON News + Notes. November 15th Issue

[The Decemberists 0]

JR is working without a contract. Vince still wants to replace him but, like this time last year, has no idea who he wants to replace him with. Coach was deemed a failure and is better in the executive assistant role and as long as Styles is doing ECW it seems unlikely they'll want him jumping over to Raw again.

 

Big Show's back problems have got much worse recently and he's going to be leaving the company, at least temporarilly, in a few weeks or so. He was taken off the European Tour, and the Elminiation Chamber match may well end up being his last, although he's committed to the company untill "early December".

 

They have decided against Cena vs Umaga at the Survivor Series after all, and instead will go with Cena & Kane & Sabu & Van Dam & Lashley vs Show & Test & MVP & Umaga & Finlay.

 

If you're wondering what the WWE thinks is it's competiton, the only shows that they keep track of rating for are Impact and Ultimate Fighter.

 

All the major 2007 PPV's are based on historical anniversaries. Obviously Wrestlemania is the 20th anniversay of WMIII in Detroit and the 10th anniversary in Montreal for the Survivor Series, but also the Royal Rumble will be held in San Antonio for the 10th anniversary of Shawn Michaels beating Sid for the title infront of 60,525 (48,000 paid). And SummerSlam is the 10th anniversary of the same show at the Continental Arena where Bret Hart beat Undertaker with HBK as the special guest referee and where Owen Hart broke Steve Austin's neck.

 

Brooke Hogan's album is now officially a flop as it fell to 72 on the charts, selling 13,756 copies. A 54% drop off. K-Fed's album did even worse though, selling 6,485 units in its first week of release, propelling him to 151 on the chart.

 

Mysterio had his surgery on 11/8. His left knee was cleaned up and he had his ACL repaired. It was not as complicated as thought and the whole op was done inside 90 minutes. There is an outside chance he'll be back for Mania, but May is more of a possibility.

 

Claudio Castagnoli signed his contract and should be starting around 1/1. That gives ROH about six weeks for a tag title change.

 

Maria was interviewed in the Winnipeg Sun. She confirmed she's still with CM Punk and said that Playboy had been after her since she was 19 (she's 25 now) but she has refused to do it so far as her sister is still in high school.

 

The writing team went to OVW last week to check up on how it was all going. Unsurprisingly they reported back that it was basically falling apart. The difference between how the develpmental system was when it was ran by JR and Tom Pritchard and OVW by Cornette and now is scary and considering how much they rely on developmentals to get their talent you'd have thought they'd put much more effort in to getting it right.

[Obi Chris Kenobi 0]

Thanks for typing these up again, thought the JR Contract rumour had been rebuffed by JR himself? Or is that him trying to keep in the good books?

 

Shame about Show, he's really came into his own in ECW the last few months, probably cos he's been given a character that's lasted more then 2 weeks.

[reign 0]

I know that this is crazy talk but I would really love to see JR go to TNA and replace that screaming tv sales man...and thanks for typing all this up again...I know nay-sayers will just say that we should know this stuff already but it's still fun to read and comment on....

[EdwardKnoxII 0]

Brooke Hogan's album is now officially a flop as it fell to 72 on the charts, selling 13,756 copies

 

Wonder if there's going to be a Hogan Knows Best were Brooke is crying about that.

[World's Worst Man 0]

I know that this is crazy talk but I would really love to see JR go to TNA and replace that screaming tv sales man...and thanks for typing all this up again...I know nay-sayers will just say that we should know this stuff already but it's still fun to read and comment on....

 

Agreed, JR is a much better screaming TV sales man.

[Guest netslob]

I know that this is crazy talk but I would really love to see JR go to TNA and replace that screaming tv sales man...

 

 

what'd Tenay ever do to you?

[Corey_Lazarus 0]

Psst! They're talking Don West.

 

I hope JR stays the fuck away from West. Don West is my new God.

[snuffbox 0]

MICKEY MANTLE ROOKIE CARD!!!

[Hawk 34 0]

I want Styles and West in a shilling contest.

 

Rookie Cards Vs Gold Coins.

[Just John 0]

It's too bad they're not continually looking to replace Lawler. I think a JR/Booker announce team would be pure gold.

[Hawk 34 0]

It's too bad they're not continually looking to replace Lawler. I think a JR/Booker announce team would be pure gold.

 

When Lawler isn't bogged down by his need to play up his old man "character", he can be fairly effective. Ross is still good for the big main event type match where he goes back into that 1989 mode but those events are so far apart and he grows more and more senile by the day.

 

It's like John Madden. A legend that will always be adored but even with the brief glimpses of lingering greatness, it's not worth it for the obvious deterioration.

 

Also, I don't buy that nobody in the back is capable of working at the table. Remember when they rotated random wrestlers like Perfect, Owen and others? They should do that again. You got over a hundred "producers" out there and you're telling me that none of them can talk?

 

You got Hayes back there. That's all he can do! Hendrix/JBL would be great and you can shift Cole over to Raw to replace Ross.

[razazteca 0]

It does not matter who they find as replacements since the real problem is the person in the back at the gorilla position telling them stupid shit to say.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

I remember at least one episode of Monday Night RAW back when JR was out where Hayes teamed with Michael Cole, and I thought Hayes did a pretty good job.

 

I really do think, even putting aside their declining announce skills, the Lawler/Ross team is past its time. Maybe they could send Lawler to Smackdown to team with Cole, and put JBL with JR just to mix things up a bit. JR and Lawler have both seemed a lot better being paired with other people before. I think mixing up the two announce teams would do everyone some good.

[justcoz 0]

Put JR with Stone Cold on Raw. Let Lawler go to TNA or give him a weekly King's Court type segment. Release JBL. Put Booker T with Michael Cole.

[Hawk 34 0]

Put JR with Stone Cold on Raw. Let Lawler go to TNA or give him a weekly King's Court type segment. Release JBL. Put Booker T with Michael Cole.

 

You want to have a 2 hour blowjob along with a guy who has no ability to call a match, release the best heel commentator since the good days of Lawler and probably the closest you will ever get to Ventura again and slap one of their very few capable main eventers on that show behind the desk when he still has another year or two left in him. You must work for TNA.

[justcoz 0]

Put JR with Stone Cold on Raw. Let Lawler go to TNA or give him a weekly King's Court type segment. Release JBL. Put Booker T with Michael Cole.

 

You want to have a 2 hour blowjob along with a guy who has no ability to call a match, release the best heel commentator since the good days of Lawler and probably the closest you will ever get to Ventura again and slap one of their very few capable main eventers on that show behind the desk when he still has another year or two left in him. You must work for TNA.

 

No I want the hottest star during Raw's heyday to be on the show each week so people would be like, "oh, Stone Cold is an announcer now", and maybe keep the channel on to listen. To have a presence on the show and the current product that isn't limited to creative having him come out and stun someone a couple times a year. Have Stone Cold put into situations where he has to play off of guest commentators from Cryme Time, Johnny Nitro, Carlito, etc. Do you remember him guest commentating back in the day? It's worth an experiment. He'd be funny and he obviously knows the industry and he wouldn't be "calling the match". That is JR's job. He's the color commentator.

 

The problem with the broadcast team on Raw right now, contrary to what Steph, Vince and Kevin Dunn think, isn't Jim Ross' age or physical appearance. It's the fact that the team of him and Lawler are tired. So you mix things up a bit - no different than when you went from Gorilla/Jesse to Gorilla/Heenan or from Vince/Jesse to Vince/Piper. And I don't know about you but listening to JR and Lawler these days is very much like a two hour blowjob. They've been working together minus the Lawler walkout/Heyman era for how long?

 

JBL sucks. Jesse Ventura didn't have out of date references and spend two hours putting himself over. Where are you getting the he's the next Ventura thing from? And Booker, regardless of his role in the company right now, was talking about retiring and wanting to get into broadcasting two years ago. He's not a young guy.

[MarvinisaLunatic 0]

Is JBL still leaving? That puts them in a hole too because thats 2 spots to fill. Hes made SD much more watchable in replace of Taz who sucks over on ECW just the same.

 

The bring out a wrestler each week to do the show would only lead to "wrestler who they're feuding with attacks them" every week so screw that idea, although Cryme Tyme doing commentary the other night was awesome, and Booker T doing commentary was good too.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

"Stone Cold Steve Austin" would be a terrible announcer. It would be amusing for one episode, and then get insanely annoying. If he reverted to just plain old "Steve Austin" and kept the sloganism and beer chugging crap to a minimum, I think he'd probably be decent. However, especially teaming with "Good Ol' J.R.", that would never happen.

[luke-o 0]

JBL sucks

 

You're clearly wrong.

 

JBL has been the only reson to watch smackdown besides Jimmy and Vito.

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

Is JBL still leaving?

No, and it's unlikely he was going to leave in the first place.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

JBL is gold on the mic. I don't care what anyone says.

[Papacita 0]

Only way I could see Austin working as an announcer is if he was allowed to play heel, which you know wouldn't happen.

[Fökai 0]

Thanks for typing these up again, thought the JR Contract rumour had been rebuffed by JR himself? Or is that him trying to keep in the good books?

 

Alvarez said that he is working on a short-term contract (likely week-to-week) after his contract ran out last month.

[Gary Floyd 0]

I say bring in either Stevie Ray or Dusty Rhodes as announcers. Sure, Rhodes isn't really a good announcer, but he sure wouldn't be boring.

[NoCalMike 0]

Any ECW-brand notes in the WON?

[justcoz 0]

JBL sucks

 

You're clearly wrong.

 

JBL has been the only reson to watch smackdown besides Jimmy and Vito.

 

I think I jumped into the JBL criticism just to defend my suggestion of putting Booker T in his role because I actually think Booker is the next Jesse more so than JBL. I usually enjoy JBL on the mic and enjoy him on Smackdown so I shouldn't have said that he sucks. Maybe I feel that he is too much of a personality for that role. He distracts me more than anything. He almost takes over the show for the most part. For whatever reason I wouldn't necessarily have that concern with Austin. I think he and Ross would be so glad to have a commentating team and spend Monday nights together that there would be an effort between the two to make it work. Maybe Austin would be terrible but there are worst experiments. It's not like his presence would turn viewers away even if he does suck. If he sucks put someone else in there after a few months. Do the obligatory Austin leaves the announce chair and stuns someone so he's suspended angle.

[Enigma 0]

They should switch things up and put JBL on Raw and Lawler on Smackdown. JBL has been spectacular as a color commentator and would help out Raw big time.

[Mecca 0]

Oddly I know several people that refuse to watch Smackdown now because of JBL. I tell them how much better Smackdown is than Raw and I get "I'll never watch that show till JBL isn't announcing" So I ask them why they dislike him and I get....

 

"He's really fucking annoying all he does is yell and aggravate me, he makes the same fucking jokes about Cole being gay every week it's old"

 

Or they just flat out hate JBL and have for years distain that he got a mainevent push and basically won't associate with listening to him for 2 hours.

[UZI Suicide 0]

JBL is decent but I think people have been so starved for a good heel announcer that he's being made out to be a lot better than he really is.

 

He gets in some good one liners every now and then, but he gets on my nerves whenever there's a foreign guy wrestling (I can't even think of how many there are on SD! this late at night, but I know it happens whenever Sylvan wrestles) he goes into his "DURRRRR SCREW THIS DAMN FRENCHIE FUCK EVERYONE THAT ISNT AMERICAN USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA USA" shtick.

[King Cucaracha 0]

JBL has done more to put over London and Kendrick, the Tag Team Champions of the brand, since he got the announcing job than the entire company has before and since combined. That's what's good about JBL.

 

He's similiar to Ventura because he's clearly a 'heel' commentator, but doesn't do the cliched 'every heel is god, every face sucks' role that heel commentators seem to fall into. He acknowledges when the Kendricks and the Lashleys and even the Matt Hardys do something right. He puts over the people creative can't be arsed to, like Noble and Kash or The Teacher's Pets. And yeah, he plays favourites with the Boogeymans and the Vitos and the Mizes, but Ventura did that too. And they brought up Ventura's history sometimes like they do JBLs, it's just JBLs history was more recent than when Ventura was in the chair.

 

Everyone who complains that JBL is too concerned with putting himself over is out of their minds. Especially those who then say 'Oh, Booker's great on commentary', when his entire shtick on commentary is to talk over everyone and play it for comedy effect at every turn (which is fine and dandy for one match every few weeks as a heel worker, but as a regular commentator wouldn't cut it).