WON News + Notes, December 25th Issue

[The Decemberists 0]

Armageddon Star Ratings

 

1) Kane vs MVP = *

2) London & Kendrick vs MNM vs Hardyz vs Regal & Taylor = ****1/4

3) Boogeyman vs Miz = DUD

4) Benoit vs Chavo = ***1/4

5) Helms vs Yang = ***

6) Taker vs Kennedy = **1/4

7) Dave & Cena vs Finlay & Booker = *1/4

 

News

 

There's a very good chance Piper wouldn't have found out about his cancer had he not won the tag belts with Flair. It wasn't untill he got hurt and had to be operated on that the cancer was discovered and he was told by his doctor that it could have been another three years before he found out about it and by then it would've been far too late.

 

Simon Inoki's meeting at Stanford on 12/14 was about doing possible talent exchanges between New Japan and WWE. It's not expected to go anywhere as New Japan has no one WWE is interested in. There is talk that Antonio Inoki arranged the meeting to make possible investors think he might be able to being in WWE guys and help him buy back a controling interest in New Japan.

 

Jim Ross asked, for the first time ever, for a week off at the start of the year to attend the University of Oklahoma Fiesta Bowl game. He was refused.

 

The smart money is on Tazz leaving when his contract expires, probably going on to present a radio show in New York. Brad Armstrong was thought of a posibble replacement for him which was why he was at the broadcast table on the 12/19 ECW tapings. That's also why Tazz ate him alive when they were both on air.

 

Amy Zidian, who was playing the part of Jimmy Yang's girlfriend was fired for rubbing the wrong people the wrong way. Firstly she made a comment to Layla El asking if she was bothered that she was getting a push when the girl who won the Diva Search El was part of was "collecting dust". Secondly, she made fun of Kristal Marshall's hair extentions. Thirdly she asked Vickie Guerrero why she was a diva and made a comment about her looks. As you can imagine, there is nothing that will get you universally dispised in the WWE locker room than upsetting Vickie. Vickie responded by saying that as she wasn't pretty enough she better get out of "your" locker room. Zidian honestly didn't have a clue who Vickie was and had no idea why she was on the roster, which is scary in and of itself. She was a second away from being fired for that, but John Laurinaitis went to bat for her and managed to keep her on the payroll. At this point Jimmy Yang refused to have anything to do with Zidian backstage. What did get her fired was when her and Yang were doing a backstage segment that was benig produced by Steph, and Zidian asked Steph who she was to dare give her any advice... Steph told her exactly who she was and Zidian rolled her eyes at her. And that was that. Laurinaitis got a lot of heat for all of this, as he was the one who hired her, put her on TV and then defended her after the Vickie incident.

 

Following on from the Zidian problems there are people shuddering backstage as Laurinaitis and the company want to bring in 20 (twenty) more women to be on the three brands in the next few months. Mike Bucci (Nova/Simon Dean) has started a program in OVW to try and teach the women a bit of wrestling history to avoid another Zidian. Cornette did something similar years back when he was horrified that Linda Miles had no idea who Lou Thesz was.

 

Vince decided when he got back Iraq he didn't want the Hardy Boyz as a tag team. However, thanks to them popping good quarter hour ratings, he keeps telling the writers that they can stay together for 'one more week' so they seem to have an indefinate stay of execution.

 

Ken Doane was given the last name Dykstra as one of Brian Gerwitz's favourite baseball players was Lenny Dykstra. They want him as main event heel, but he's not going to be shot to the top. The mentallity on his is simliar to the one they had for Orton when he was called up. The idea is he'll be a main eventer by 2009.

 

The plan for Vladimir Kozlov is for him to the geeky Russian who thinks he's a babyface but will be a heel, similiar to the orginial gimmick for Kurt Angle. The gimmick is that he's a sambo and MMA champion. The McMahon's have decided he's going to get a main event push, which has caused a lot of concern as he's really bad. So bad that Deep South didn't want him to wrestle on their TV when he was down there.

 

See No Evil did $3.3 million in gross this last week, which gives a total of $7.09 million after two weeks.

 

The Marine is at $18,719,747 domestic, and $19,776,273 when you include overseas.

 

Federline may not be around after 1/1 as he's rumoured to be a contestant on "Celebrity Big Brother" in the UK that starts on 1/3.

 

Stephanie seeing Daniel Rodimer as "the new Diesel" and to that end wants to put him with Edge and Orton. There are already house shows being advertised with DX vs Edge, Orton and Rodimer in 2-on-3 matches.

 

Danny Doring has been released.

 

As things stand the 2007 PPV line up is,

 

1/7 New Years Revolution

1/28 Royal Rumble

2/18 No Way Out

4/1 Wrestlemania

4/29 Backlash

5/20 Judgement Day

6/10 ECW One Night Stand

6/24 Vengence

7/22 Great American Bash

8/26 SummerSlam

9/16 Unforgiven

 

 

Russel Simpson has signed a developmental deal. Simpson, 32, has previously worked in Japan for Hustle.

 

John Laurinaitis sold 1,900 shares of WWE stock for $32,400 on 12/12. He still has 42,472 shares which are worth $713,000. Head of legal Ed Kaufman sold 9,618 shares for $161,600 after being allowed to buy 4,167 at only $9.60 per share, which is well below market price. He currently has 37,719 shares worth about $633,000.

 

The company has spent $1,635,000 on video libraries this year.

 

59.5% on the companies profits come from live events, TV advertising, TV rights and PPV. 37.3% come from merchandising and 3.2% comes from the website. UFC, on the other hand, draws around 90% of their profits from live events, TV advertising, TV rights and PPV.

 

Hogan is likely to pitch Hogan & Vince vs Show & Bischoff for Wrestlemania, with a "will Vince turn on Hogan?" angle.

 

The company now spends $2.2 million on producing each PPV. That means the break even point is 138,104 buys. The lowest recent number they've done is 195,000 for No Mercy, but without international buys they would only just have broken even on that show.

 

WWE Magazine averaged 197,400 paid circulation ove the past quarter which means a profit of around $900,000 for the quarter. The old Raw and Smackdown magazines averaged 141,875 in sales, but did make more profit per sale than the new magazine. So more sales has actually still lead to lower profitabilty.

 

The company averages $12.47 income per DVD, which means $6.02 profit on each disc sold.

[Danville_Wrestling 0]

TWENTY new women to possibly join the roster? This company has completely lost its mind.

 

Thanks for posting these, I really appreciate it!

[CanadianChris 0]

Thanks for posting this, as always.

 

There's a very good chance Piper wouldn't have found out about his cancer had he not won the tag belts with Flair. It wasn't untill he got hurt and had to be operated on that the cancer was discovered and he was told by his doctor that it could have been another three years before he found out about it and by then it would've been far too late.

 

What an incredible stroke of luck. That's great news.

[MillenniumMan831 0]

Thanks a ton for posting this!

[hyperchord24 0]

Thanks for posting.

 

What the hell did they think was going to happen when you put someone who has no idea who these wrestlers are in the same lockerroom? It happens at my work all the time. We have guys that know what they're doing and went to school for 8+ years to get where they are and they have technicians who are lucky to have a high school degree. Now, we can't expect these techs to know everything these guys have gone to school 8 years to learn, can we?

 

There are guys who have won Nobel prizes that everyone who's been to school that works there knows about. Do we act shocked when the techs never heard of them?

[Cheex Incarnate 0]

To be fair to Zidiean, even I have no idea why Vickie Guerrero is part of the roster.

 

 

-cheex

[Human Fly 0]

Thanks for posting these every week, much appreciated.

 

Cornette is a fool if he was actually suprised that new divas and Tough Enough contestants did not know who Lou Thesz was.

[The Amazing Rando 0]

Yeah, not knowing who Lou Thesz is for a casual fan (outside of Austin doing a "Thesz Press") and not knowing who the DAUGHTER OF THE BOSS is that was in tons of angles for 4 to 5 years during and immediately following the boom period is different.

[King Cucaracha 0]

Cornette was probably more appalled at the idea of it, rather than the actual event.

[Spaceman Spiff 0]

Steph told her exactly who she was and Zidian rolled her eyes at her.

Oh, man, that's awesome. That more than makes up for her dissing Vickie.

 

TWENTY new women to possibly join the roster? This company has completely lost its mind.

This is supposedly to be for the "benefit" of the wrestlers, ifyaknowwhatImean.

 

The plan for Vladimir Kozlov is for him to the geeky Russian who thinks he's a babyface but will be a heel, similiar to the orginial gimmick for Kurt Angle. The gimmick is that he's a sambo and MMA champion. The McMahon's have decided he's going to get a main event push, which has caused a lot of concern as he's really bad. So bad that Deep South didn't want him to wrestle on their TV when he was down there.

Any word on what show he'll be on?

[cabbageboy 0]

This stuff is just fabulous reading it. I swear I think anyone whose contract is up in the next year needs to get the hell out while they can, haha.

[Atticus Chaos 0]

This is supposedly to be for the "benefit" of the wrestlers, ifyaknowwhatImean.

 

Do the women themselves know this?

 

I think WWE might be on the recieving end of some lawsuits in the future.

[The Metal Maniac 0]

Stephanie seeing Daniel Rodimer as "the new Diesel" and to that end wants to put him with Edge and Orton.

 

Considering the old Diesel was the worst-drawning champ in the history of the company and almost brought the WWE under, you'd think they'd have second thoughts about pushing a new Diesel.

[The Amazing Rando 0]

maybe she meant 'diesel' as in the gasoline, and he's going to fire up the heavyweight division.

[RepoMan 0]

Hogan is likely to pitch Hogan & Vince vs Show & Bischoff for Wrestlemania, with a "will Vince turn on Hogan?" angle.

I think this angle could be entertaining if the dosn't take up too mutch TV time and run out of steam. Raw has been a lot less entertaining w/o da Bish.

 

 

 

Thanks for writing this stuff out.

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

The plan for Vladimir Kozlov is for him to the geeky Russian who thinks he's a babyface but will be a heel, similiar to the orginial gimmick for Kurt Angle. The gimmick is that he's a sambo and MMA champion. The McMahon's have decided he's going to get a main event push, which has caused a lot of concern as he's really bad. So bad that Deep South didn't want him to wrestle on their TV when he was down there.

Any word on what show he'll be on?

If they want to give him a main event push, then he'll be put on Raw which is the last place he needs to be. At least on Smackdown they can edit Kozlov to where he'll look acceptable.

[strummer 0]

HTQ or any other Observer subscriber can confirm this but apparently during their argument Steph told Zidian that her family owned the company and Amy didn't believe her

[The Amazing Rando 0]

HTQ or any other Observer can confirm this but apparently during their argument Steph told Zidian that her family owned the company and Amy didn't believe her

 

"Vince McMahon? Wasn't he a commentator? What ever happened to him?"

 

Amy is the Kenny Kramer to Maria.

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

HTQ or any other Observer subscriber can confirm this but apparently during their argument Steph told Zidian that her family owned the company and Amy didn't believe her

What happened apparently is that when Stephanie told Zidian who she was that Zidian rolled her eyes either to indicate she didn't believe her or that she (Amy) realized she just put her foot in it.

[Just John 0]

The Amy Zidian bit cracked me up. Rolling her eyes at Steph and telling her not to give her advice is priceless. The comments to Vickie were bitchy, but in all honesty, there's no way she should be on tv anyway. Shameless death exploitation aside, she can't sell, act, or do anything to put over an angle.

 

And more bimbos and muscle heads getting pushed? Sounds like a good 2007 for WWE.

 

The most disturbing item, though, is that DX will apparently still be together for the next few months, even though they were supposed to be dead by now.

[LucharesuFan619 0]

Thanks for posting these.

 

As far as Tazz goes, listen to his latest commentary on ECW.com and he is livid at the rumors of him planning to leave WWE.

[razazteca 0]

TWENTY new women to possibly join the roster? This company has completely lost its mind.

Maybe there is plans to open a "ranch" in the Las Vegas area.

[cabbageboy 0]

I'm taking a wait and see approach to the various women. If this is something possibly useful like adding to the women's division then some of them might be worthwhile. If this is just more aimless eye candy to waste TV time for no good reason, then fuck it.

[teke184 0]

WOW.

 

I knew that the WWE hired some dim-bulbs over the years, but Amy seems to take the cake.

[CanadianChick 0]

I'm taking a wait and see approach to the various women. If this is something possibly useful like adding to the women's division then some of them might be worthwhile. If this is just more aimless eye candy to waste TV time for no good reason, then fuck it.

 

Well, seeing as whatever the dude's name who is in charge of hiring was told to hire like 20 bikini models, you can guess if it's the latter or the former in your possibilities.

[cabbageboy 0]

Eh, wasn't Trish a model too? Most of her old pics are bikini type stuff. If some of them are fitness models with some athleticism then so be it. If they are purely a waste of space, to hell with it.

[Mike wanna be 0]

"Ace, how the hell could you hire such an ignorant moron who doesn't even know the McMahon family! I can't believe you'd do something so stupid! Now go hire 20 more, Shelton needs some lovin."

[Mecca 0]

WOW.

 

I knew that the WWE hired some dim-bulbs over the years, but Amy seems to take the cake.

 

If you got hired into a business you knew absolutely nothing about and then everyone expected you to just know shit and then acted like you were stupid when you didn't would you think that was fair?

 

I find alot of the Zidian stuff to be hilarious personally but this is what you get when you hire people who don't work in the industy. It goes like this, if you want people to just know things and act a certain way hire people who are in the business. If you are going to hire models who have no experience at all the rules have to be different for awhile. Expecting people who never worked in wrestling to just know things about the locker room and the "boys" and act like they've been in the business for years is retarded on the WWE's part.

 

Apparently not every single model they've hired is bad......Victoria Crawford who got hired with Kelly Kelly is down in OVW and is apparently progressing well and shows promise according to alot of people.

[razazteca 0]

"Ace, how the hell could you hire such an ignorant moron who doesn't even know the McMahon family! I can't believe you'd do something so stupid! Now go hire 20 more, Shelton needs some lovin."

But they need to do the annual spring cleaning to make room for these fluff girls and you know that means talent like Shelton who can't cut a promo to save his job will be released soon..."WWE and ____ have parted ways..."

[Ginger Snaps 0]

WOW.

 

I knew that the WWE hired some dim-bulbs over the years, but Amy seems to take the cake.

 

If you got hired into a business you knew absolutely nothing about and then everyone expected you to just know shit and then acted like you were stupid when you didn't would you think that was fair?

 

I find alot of the Zidian stuff to be hilarious personally but this is what you get when you hire people who don't work in the industy. It goes like this, if you want people to just know things and act a certain way hire people who are in the business. If you are going to hire models who have no experience at all the rules have to be different for awhile. Expecting people who never worked in wrestling to just know things about the locker room and the "boys" and act like they've been in the business for years is retarded on the WWE's part.

 

Maybe you're right but it's stupid to still cop an attitude after you are told details about the business / company. She was still a bitch and disrespected Stephanie even after she knew Steph was the bosses' daughter. How dumb can you be?