WON News + Notes (December 11 Issue)

[The Decemberists 0]

Heyman + ECW

 

1) Hardy Boyz vs MNM = ***1/4

2) Balls vs Striker = 1/2*

3) Terkay + Berke vs FBI = *1/4

4) Daivari vs Dreamer = DUD

5) Thorn + Ariel vs Knox + Kelly = -*

6) Elimination Chamber = **1/2

 

There's four pages on Heyman and ECW and I'm not bloody typing it all, but you should get a general idea.

 

Before the ECW PPV Heyman and Vince had a meeting and verbally agreed that they should sever ties immediatly and Heyman would be fired. However, the next day Steph told staff that due to a conflict between her dad and Heyman they needed to replace Paul as head writer of ECW but they were going to find another job for him to do in the company. No one is really quite sure if Heyman is still employed at this point, but it should all be cleared up when Vince gets back from Iraq. Heyman was under the impression he had been fired on 12/4 but on 12/5 he thought that would still be employed but not as either talent or a writer.

 

Both sides blamed each other for the PPV. As Heyman came out for his pre-Main Event promo he was fully aware that the show had bombed and something major could result from it (like getting fired), but Vince felt it had been a decent show untill he became aware of the feedback the next day. At that point he blamed Heyman for getting the script in late and not giving him enough time to fix everything and the idea's that didn't work were Heyma's. Heyman though argued that the things that failed were changes that had been made to his script. Clearly though much of the creative was Heyman just as clearly some of the booking of the Chamber match wasn't.

 

Those within WWE cite several different things that lead up to the decision to send Heyman home. Firstly there was a feeling that the pressure of the new ECW was getting to him. Secondly he was blamed for Lashley's poor crowd reactions since he had pushed so hard for him to jump to ECW. Another story is that talent in ECW would go to Heyman with ideas and he would get back to them and say Vince didn't like it. But when the talent went to Vince he had no idea what they were talking about. Heyman also stood up to Vince about McMahon's idea of turning Van Dam heel after his suspension which didn't put him on Vince's good side. The arguement about Lashley not being over as a super babyface though doesn't really hold up though, as Heyman's plan was to turn Lashley heel with Paul as manager to re-create the Hayman-Lesnar deal from 2002, and build towards Lashley vs Van Dam or Punk at Wrestlemania. Vince was strongly against this as he sees Lashley as a potential superhero babyface. But on the day of the PPV Lashley was still telling people he was expecting to turn heel on that weeks TV.

 

The reason Sabu was not in the Chamber match was not because he's about to fired (although he's still in the doghouse) but because they belived that of the four babyfaces in the match (Sabu, Punk, Van Dam, Lashley) Lashley would be the least popular, which isn't ideal when he's going to be winning the belt at the end. Sabu being taken out was confirmed a couple of days before the PPV, but replacing him with Holly wasn't decided on untill the day of the show. That also influenced the finish of Lashley and Show being the last two in the Chamber as there would be no one there more popular than Lashley and try and make sure his victory wasn't a disappointment.

 

Heyman was also blamed for the show ending early, but that sort of thing goes through so many people that's very unfair.

 

There are lots of different stories coming from WWE about what Heyman's original plans for the Chamber match were. However, everyone is saying that Show had agreed to tap out to CM Punk's Anaconda Vice to get Punk over strong even though he wasn't going to win the title. There are then differing reports of when this would have been done. Some are saying Heyman's plan was for Punk and Show to open the Chamber and have Show tap after 4:00, which would give a minute for Show to leave and get a 'Thank You Show' chant or whatever from his hometown crowd as well as getting Punk over. Although Show was more than happy with that idea, Vince turned it down flat. Another version is that Show would eliminate Van Dam before tapping to Punk. Punk would then have been pinned by Test, would in turn would have been pinned by Lashley for the finish. This was rejected by Vince as it was felt it would be more helpfull to Lashley for him to pin both Test and Show.

 

If he is fired, it's highly unlikely he'll go to TNA as they are not going to want to disrupt the power structure there and Russo won't be sacked untill his terrible booking drasticly affects the Impact ratings.

 

The PPV drew 3,600 paid (4,800 total) which included a huge walk-up thanks to two days of Van Dam being in the market pushing the show. You'd have to go back to the Great Amercian Bash 1991 to find a live crowd more unhappy with the direction of the product they were paying for.

 

David Lagana is probably going to be the new ECW head writer.

 

It's hard to say who is responsible for the failure of ECW (2.79 rating to a 1.53 rating don't forget). Although Heyman was restricted from pushing Van Dam as the top guy, the pushes of Holly, Test and Mike Knox were his ideas and none of them got over as top talent with the crowd. Knox, a definatle Heyman project, ended up worse in ECW than he had been in Deep South. Punk, Heyman's other big project, as he's the only sucess the brand has had in making any new stars. They stylistic changes to make the product more WWE-like with the DQs etc were not his ideas. It's hard to pin point who made the call for the production changes (although all would have been confirmed by Kevin Dunn) but the darkening of the arena was a bad mood as to modern fans it made the product come across as cheap.

 

Although the WWE had pushed the idea of doing ECW live every week it had fallen back on doing taped shows, and due to the ECW audience being more internet friendly taped shows had tended to do about 15% worse in the ratings than the live shows. Another major difference in the inital succes and now is that they now longer do Monday-to-Tuesday booking were the ECW mian event angle would be built up on Raw the night before. The most fans ECW was a distant 'C' show that was promoted more strongly than Velocity. It's audience consisted on the hardcores somehow clinging to the idea that their old ECW still existed and the significant number of WWE fans who will watch anything do to with the company.

 

 

Financial Report

 

For the quarter than ended on 10/27 the company grossed $96,236,000 and posted an after-tax profit of $10,396,000. Last year in the same quarter they grossed $88,933,000 but made a profit of $11,702,000. In the last quarter they grossed $93,267,000 and made a $11,302,000 profit.

 

The profits didn't cover the $17,174,160 paid out in dividends, including the $12 million paid out to Vince. Also not included was about $4 million more in production costs over the quarter for 'The Condemned', the first of three movie deals signed for Steve Austin. They have spent about $18 million on this so far, compared to the $23 million for 'The Marine'. At this point the company has spent a total of $52,827,000 on its three movies, and aren't expecting any income on these untill 2007.

 

Because of these factors the company has $252 million on its balance sheet as opposed to $267 million at thet same time three months ago.

 

PPV was a mixed bag in the last quarter. SummerSlam did 528,000 buys wordwide, Unforgiven is listed at 290,000 and No Mercy at 195,000.

 

In terms of the core US and Canadian markets for those three shows compared to last year the company has gone from an estimated 702,000 buys all together to 700,000 buys this year, at a higher average price, which has to be looked at as a success.

 

House show gross revenue was $17.6 million for the quater on 101 live events which breaks down as 63 Raw and Smackdown US and Canada shows, 27 ECW shows, and 11 international shows. Last quater was $15.9 million on 86 events, which was 75 Raw and SD shows, 8 ECW shows and 3 international shows.

 

The 90 US House shows averaged 4,000 paid attendance and $144,000 per show. Keep in mind the WWE includes PPV event house show gates.

 

Even though there were more live events merchandise sales dropped from $4.7 million from 86 events last quarter to $4.2 million from 101 events this quarter. And last quarter didn't have the foreign shows to boost the average. Average spending at a house show is $11.2 a head.

 

Televison rights fees were $21.8 million for the quarter, down from $22.2 million the previous quarter.

 

TV ad revenues were $1.5 million, up from $1.1 million.

 

DVD sales remained at $14.5 million for the quarter. The biggest seller was the Hulk Hogan Anthology which sold 200,000 units.

 

Licensing was up from $5.6 million last quarter to $7.3 million. Smackdown vs Raw wasn't released untill after the end of the quarter, so there should be a huge increase here in the next report.

 

Magazine revenue went up from $3.1 million to $3.4 million.

 

Internet ad revenue was up from $2.1 million to $2.7 million.

 

WWEShop orders online went up from $3.3 million to $3.6 million.

 

 

TV Ratings

 

Raw on 12/4 did a 3.7 rating.

 

Smackdown on 12/1 did a 2.8 rating with 4.71 million viewers. The show did a 3.2 in New York (3.9 for Dave vs Finlay vs Booke), 3.2 in LA (3.5 for Guerreros interview), 4.2 in Chicago (4.8 for opening promo), 2.5 in Philadelphia (2.9 for Taker vs MVP), 2.2 in San Francisco (2.8 for Taker vs MVP), 1.3 in Boston (1.6 for Dave vs Finlay vs Booker), 3.5 in Dallas (4.0 for Dave vs Finlay vs Booker), 1.8 in DC (1.9 for Benoit vs Guerrero and Dave vs Finlay vs Booker), 2.9 in Detroit (3.4 for Taker vs MVP), 3.7 in Atlanta (4.2 for Taker vs MVP) and 4.5 in Houston (5.5 for Dave vs Finlay vs Booker).

Segment gains and losses

MNM vs London + Kendrick - 239,000

Dave vs Finlay vs Booker + 590,000

Chavo + Vickie promo - 84,000

Benoit vs Chavo - 211,000

Layla vs Marshall - 109,000

Taker vs MVP + 449,000

 

 

General

 

Piper's cancer was caught early so it's not as bad as it could be. If you want to send Piper a get well card the address is

 

Roddy Piper

18645 Southwest Farmington Rd.

PMB 12 Aloha

OR 87007

 

 

The company is planning a relaunch of its website over the next few weeks. According to an article in TV Week they are going to change the focus from promoting the brand to being an entertainment site. They are planning online made-for-broadband TV shows ranging from 90 second to 20 minutes in length, such as the 'McMahon's Ass' cartoon and well as putting up matches up for PPV buys. Tom Barecca who runs 24/7 and is in charge of buying tape libraries will be running it.

 

Everyone is now pretty much against buying Pride. Even Shane, who is a MMA fan now has a negative feeling to the idea. The WWE though does recognise the value of the Pride tape library and would be interested in some of the fighters. Basically they want the heavyweights who have 'the look' and also those they feel are marketable characters, such as Bob Sapp, Tank Abbott (!) and Butterbean. They don't believe that the lightweight fighters will draw and although they'd use them they'd never give them a chance to be anything other than what they'd allow pro wrestlers of that size to be. The only person in the company though with any MMA knowledge though is Shane, but even he is a big casual fan who thinks he's an expert as he feels he's a tough guy and likes to talk to Taker backstage about MMA. Shane even used to tell Ken Shamrock when he was in WWE about how he'd be able to do well in UFC as he's tough and won a few fights as a kid.

 

The 11/8 to 11/15 European tour was the company's most successfull overseas junket in history, grossing $8,000,000 for 16 shows, including topping $1,000,000 for both shows in Manchester, England.

 

As well as a bad back and knees, Big Show has been working on a hernia that needs surgery and he knows he needs to drop 100lbs. His contract expires in February but the odds are good he'll work Mania. Since he and Hogan are friends they are planning to negotiate a package deal with Vince for the match. If he gets a Hogan-like deal, like Mick Foley got, he'd work the major PPV's of the year he'd do it, but he has no interest in going on the road full time. If WWE don't give him the deal he wants there's also the outside chance of going to TNA to take advange of their light schedule.

 

Van Dam though has expressed firm interest in working indies and TNA when his contract expires in a few months. As things stand he is not expected to sign a new contract, but things can change. He feels he's never get any chances do to will in the company after the refusal to go to Iraq again and the drugs bust.

 

There were some long-term booking discusions that went all the way to SummerSlam 2007. The company has given up on Austin working WM this year although they are expecting him to be part of the show. Hogan vs Show is still pencilled in and will be confirmed one way or the other in February. There are no definate plans, but Cena is probably going to go into Mania as champion and the two favourites to get the challenger role are... HHH and Randy Orton.

 

Flair could well return on the 12/18 Raw. His divorce proceedings are due to end on 12/15. If not he will be on Raw on 1/1.

 

'The Marine' is now at $18,605,662 domestic and $1,054,324 overseas.

 

The WWE mentally of signing people who look great and then teaching them to work is now official company policy instead of just being what they do. They feel that likes of Edge and the Hardy's who'd drive 700 miles and sleep in their car while getting bookings for no money are a dying breed so there's no point looking for people out there who can work and have a decent look. Under Jim Ross the idea was to try and get people with real athletic backgrounds as they would have a good look and the mental toughness to surive on the road, but that's no longer the case so the odds on them getting another Angle, Lesnar or even Lashley are slim. Laurinaitis is now looking for good looking guys or bikini models. The prototype they're looking at is Cena who was signed in this manner, although Cena was actually a fan growing up thanks to his dad, and was a Division III college lineman.

 

Michelle McCool is now out of hospital.

 

A DVD called 'The Rock's Greatest Matches' is due to be released in June.

 

If the new Rocky movie does any business at all Flair and Hogan will be pitching like mad for one more title run.

 

Hulk Hogan did an interview in Australia this past week and was asked if a wrestler ever refused to lose a match. Out of the 1000s of examples of this happening, this is what he replied with

 

Well, Bret Hart was supposed to lose to Shawn Michaels at, I think, um, Wrestlemania whatever the hell it was, 16 or 17 I don't know. All the fans were yelling "Bret screwd Bret". Bret told Vince McMahon I'm not losing to Shawn Michaels in Canada, and they went out there, and Shawn Michaels pulled a fast one on Bret Hart and held him down and pinned him. Bret couldn't do anything about it and the so called 'Excellence of Execution' that was supposed to be the greatest wrestler of all, little teeny Shawn Michaels held him down and embarrassed him. Bret Hart was being a horse's ass and wouldn't lose the match but Shawn pinned him anyway...

 

Rebecca DiPietro (ECW woman who's dating Big Dave) and Maryse Ouelett (French-Canadian Diva Search woman who's some cameos on SD) will be in December's Playboy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Say thank you!

[CanadianChris 0]

Thank you!

 

Hulk Hogan did an interview in Australia this past week and was asked if a wrestler ever refused to lose a match. Out of the 1000s of examples of this happening, this is what he replied with

 

Well, Bret Hart was supposed to lose to Shawn Michaels at, I think, um, Wrestlemania whatever the hell it was, 16 or 17 I don't know. All the fans were yelling "Bret screwd Bret". Bret told Vince McMahon I'm not losing to Shawn Michaels in Canada, and they went out there, and Shawn Michaels pulled a fast one on Bret Hart and held him down and pinned him. Bret couldn't do anything about it and the so called 'Excellence of Execution' that was supposed to be the greatest wrestler of all, little teeny Shawn Michaels held him down and embarrassed him. Bret Hart was being a horse's ass and wouldn't lose the match but Shawn pinned him anyway...

Wow, Hogan really does live in his own little world, doesn't he?

[TheFranchise 0]

Thank you!

 

Hulk Hogan did an interview in Australia this past week and was asked if a wrestler ever refused to lose a match. Out of the 1000s of examples of this happening, this is what he replied with

 

Well, Bret Hart was supposed to lose to Shawn Michaels at, I think, um, Wrestlemania whatever the hell it was, 16 or 17 I don't know. All the fans were yelling "Bret screwd Bret". Bret told Vince McMahon I'm not losing to Shawn Michaels in Canada, and they went out there, and Shawn Michaels pulled a fast one on Bret Hart and held him down and pinned him. Bret couldn't do anything about it and the so called 'Excellence of Execution' that was supposed to be the greatest wrestler of all, little teeny Shawn Michaels held him down and embarrassed him. Bret Hart was being a horse's ass and wouldn't lose the match but Shawn pinned him anyway...

Wow, Hogan really does live in his own little world, doesn't he?

What the hell is he talking about?

 

& even if it was accurate, aren't Hart and Michaels fairly the same size?

[dubq 0]

Everyone is now pretty much against buying Pride. Even Shane, who is a MMA fan now has a negative feeling to the idea. The WWE though does recognise the value of the Pride tape library and would be interested in some of the fighters. Basically they want the heavyweights who have 'the look' and also those they feel are marketable characters, such as Bob Sapp, Tank Abbott (!) and Butterbean. They don't believe that the lightweight fighters will draw and although they'd use them they'd never give them a chance to be anything other than what they'd allow pro wrestlers of that size to be.

 

Which says to me that they really must not watch that much MMA after all...

 

Also, bikini models? Seriously, what the fuck... how does this company stay in business? I'm just dying for the day that McMahon goes bankrupt because he's such a fucking idiot.

[Thanks for the Fish 0]

Punk tapping Big Show would have saved the PPV and possibly Heyman's job and to takeit a step further might have saved ECW (which I assume will not last past the tv deal expiration). More than the shitty undercard, the PPV ending early or the lack of announced matched on the card or Sabu's removal it was Punk's treatment that made people shit all over the card.

 

I wouldn't have put Punk over Big Show in four minutes though, I would have had RVD out with him - to keep Show strong and make it at least 7-8 minutes before Show would tap out. Then you could have had RVD and Punk go at it for a bit before Lashley entered - let the faces beat the crap out of each other, maybe have Punk eliminated, then have fresh Test and fresh Holly beat on the tired faces the rest of the match. Have RVD eliminated by the savage elbow off the top of the pod and then Holly and Test could double team Lashley the rest of the match until it was down to Test and Lashley.

 

This would have also worked in setting up the Lashley-Big Show match on Sci-Fi as Big Show could call Lashley a paper champion and that "To be the man you have to beat the man" sorta deal.

[Downhome 0]

The WWE mentally of signing people who look great and then teaching them to work is now official company policy instead of just being what they do. They feel that likes of Edge and the Hardy's who'd drive 700 miles and sleep in their car while getting bookings for no money are a dying breed so there's no point looking for people out there who can work and have a decent look. Under Jim Ross the idea was to try and get people with real athletic backgrounds as they would have a good look and the mental toughness to surive on the road, but that's no longer the case so the odds on them getting another Angle, Lesnar or even Lashley are slim. Laurinaitis is now looking for good looking guys or bikini models. The prototype they're looking at is Cena who was signed in this manner, although Cena was actually a fan growing up thanks to his dad, and was a Division III college lineman.

 

Bloody mother fucking hell.

 

Flair could well return on the 12/18 Raw. His divorce proceedings are due to end on 12/15. If not he will be on Raw on 1/1.

 

OMG!!!

 

It'll be great to have Flair return. The 18th or the 1st can't come soon enough!

[Black Lushus 0]

wow, Butterbean's still around???

[TheFranchise 0]

The WWE mentally of signing people who look great and then teaching them to work is now official company policy instead of just being what they do. They feel that likes of Edge and the Hardy's who'd drive 700 miles and sleep in their car while getting bookings for no money are a dying breed so there's no point looking for people out there who can work and have a decent look. Under Jim Ross the idea was to try and get people with real athletic backgrounds as they would have a good look and the mental toughness to surive on the road, but that's no longer the case so the odds on them getting another Angle, Lesnar or even Lashley are slim. Laurinaitis is now looking for good looking guys or bikini models. The prototype they're looking at is Cena who was signed in this manner, although Cena was actually a fan growing up thanks to his dad, and was a Division III college lineman.

 

Bloody mother fucking hell.

 

Flair could well return on the 12/18 Raw. His divorce proceedings are due to end on 12/15. If not he will be on Raw on 1/1.

OMG!!!

 

It'll be great to have Flair return. The 18th or the 1st can't come soon enough!

Did he not return last night..?

[TheFranchise 0]

wow, Butterbean's still around???

He's got a good WrestleMania record hasn't he?

[Black Lushus 0]

his KO on Bart Gunn is certainly a favorite visual of mine.

[pochorenella 0]

Thanks for the recap.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

Thanks for posting that info. It's much appreciated.

 

That said, the stuff about WWE hiring bikini models isn't really surprising or new. It's pretty much clear WWE has a set direction they want to go in, and while most of the people on this board don't like it, it's not like we can get them to change their minds...which is why I hope TNA gets off their "sports entertainment" track they've been taking with Russo and gets things going as a real wrestling company again, so we can actually have an alternative to the product that's saturating the market.

[Black Lushus 0]

I'm more worried about that note from the last thread about choreographers being hired to create individual ring entrances for the "divas"

[Dobbs 3K 0]

I'm more worried about that note from the last thread about choreographers being hired to create individual ring entrances for the "divas"

 

Eh, I don't care about that...honestly, anything they can do to differentiate "Big Boob Girl A" from "Big Boob Girl B" is probably a good thing at this point.

[EdwardKnoxII 0]

his KO on Bart Gunn is certainly a favorite visual of mine.

 

And I bet it was for JR to.

[MillenniumMan831 0]

Thank you very much for posting this.

[NoCalMike 0]

If RVD ended up in TNA, then TNA would need to do everything possible to get a two hour time slot. Their roster is already too big for a one hour show, and with RVD in the mix, I think they would, dare I say, be top-heavy in ME guys.

 

Also, I find blaming Heyman for ECW is pretty lame. I mean even if Heyman was making ALL the decisions, he is still working within the confines of what Vince McMahon's vision is for WWECW. In otherwords, even if Heyman was the guy who decided who was going to win/lose the matches and how the matches would be worked, he is still having to work within Vince's approval. I am willing to bet that if Heyman truly had control of WWECW, there would have been a completely different card for the PPV.

 

EDIT: oops, my bad. Thanks for posting!

[LucharesuFan619 0]

Thanks very much Decembrists!

[CanadianChris 0]

Also, I find blaming Heyman for ECW is pretty lame. I mean even if Heyman was making ALL the decisions, he is still working within the confines of what Vince McMahon's vision is for WWECW. In otherwords, even if Heyman was the guy who decided who was going to win/lose the matches and how the matches would be worked, he is still having to work within Vince's approval. I am willing to bet that if Heyman truly had control of WWECW, there would have been a completely different card for the PPV.

Of course there would have been, and it is stupid to blame an underling for the screwups of upper management. Unfortunately, Vince isn't self-aware or humble enough to ever blame himself for his own (obvious) failings. He thinks he's a visionary, and if the fans are booing, they're too stupid to know what they really want. I'll bet he seriously thinks the crowd loves to see every new instalment of the Kiss My Ass Club.

[mfn 0]

Thanks for the post. It really depresses me to see how shitty wrestling has gotten in the last 5 years.

[Guest samoapunk]

Thanks!

[Dips 0]

Thanks for the info.

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

Just to clarify something, the meeting where Heyman and Vince agreed to break ties took place before the Raw taping on 12/4 and it was the next day that Stephanie then said Heyman was simply being removed as the lead writer for ECW and would be given another role within the company.

[Jaxxson Mayhem 0]

Thanks for typing all this up!

[Broward83 0]

thanks for the info man

[imajackoff? 0]

it baffles me that a company that has done nothing but serve shit for the last 4+ yrs can still finish that far in the black for one quarter.

[Atticus Chaos 0]

Thanks for posting.

[cabbageboy 0]

First off, why does anyone have a problem with Heyman being fired/demoted/reassigned? Look, this new ECW is a fiasco so someone had to fall on his sword here. Heyman is the logical choice.

 

RVD in TNA is an insanely awesome proposition. I mentioned it earlier but consider that he could work in the title division vs. Angle, Joe, Rhino, Abyss, Christian, etc. RVD could also go to the X Division and face Styles, Daniels, Senshi, Sabin, and so on. If Sabu ends up released as well, imagine the two tagging again and facing LAX, Team 3D, etc.

 

Seriously Rob, do the right thing. Get the fuck out.

[The Decemberists 0]

Just to clarify something, the meeting where Heyman and Vince agreed to break ties took place before the Raw taping on 12/4 and it was the next day that Stephanie then said Heyman was simply being removed as the lead writer for ECW and would be given another role within the company.

 

After typing 2,884 words, I'm somewhat surprised I only mis-typed one thing.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

I think RVD will definitely jump to TNA. It's clear WWE has no further plans to use him seriously, and guys like Angle and Christian are doing fine in TNA. It just makes sense.