WWE General Discussion - October 2007

[chuck415 0]

Eh, I like my Badstreet USA shirt better.

Who was the actor that was photographed in a Badstreet shirt a few years back? I remember the pic but the name escapes me now.

[geniusMoment 0]

Eh, I like my Badstreet USA shirt better.

Who was the actor that was photographed in a Badstreet shirt a few years back? I remember the pic but the name escapes me now.

Larry King

[Mecca 0]

http://pwtorch.com/artman2/publish/WWE_New...cle_23206.shtml

 

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that the Georgia Athletic and Entertainment commission may close a loophole that has allowed WWE to be exempt from state regulation.

 

 

Chris Benoit [artist Neal Obermeyer © PWTorch]

Cary Itchter, a board member on the commission, is also an attorney who represents the father of deceased Chris Benoit.

 

"I'm going to fight like a dog to make sure that exemption is pulled from the law," he said Tuesday. "I want to make sure we have a way to protect folks in Georgia from the shenanigans of the WWE. When you look at all the health issues of professional wrestlers and how many of them have died, it's clear they've been abused."

 

If state lawmakers do rescind the exception for WWE, WWE performers would be subject to drug testing and other regulations just as other performers do from other sports who perform in Georgia.

 

WWE attorney Jerry McDevitt said: "Gee, surprise, surprise. Wonder why he's doing that?"

 

The exemption for WWE applied because of a statute that went into effect in July 2005 that excluded groups with assets of more than $25 million. Current director of the GAEC says he knows of no other group exempted.

 

 

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

That sounds like a very professional reply by Mr. McDivett.

 

"I want to make sure we have a way to protect folks in Georgia from the shenanigans of the WWE" also amuses me. Probably because of the word "shenanigans".

[Spaceman Spiff 0]

Eh, I like my Badstreet USA shirt better.

Who was the actor that was photographed in a Badstreet shirt a few years back? I remember the pic but the name escapes me now.

John Krasinski.

[chuck415 0]

Eh, I like my Badstreet USA shirt better.

Who was the actor that was photographed in a Badstreet shirt a few years back? I remember the pic but the name escapes me now.

John Krasinski.

Thanks.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

[HollywoodSpikeJenkins 0]

JIM!

[JimmyHendricks 0]

 

Saw this while looking for Bret's book. Looks interesting, although we've talked about it to death (no pun intended, seriously).

[Mike wanna be 0]

Why is there a body just jammed into the O?

[Hawk 34 0]

Symbolism, I suppose.

[The Buzz 0]

http://highspots.com/product.asp?id=17744

 

There is another Benoit book I saw earlier in the year. I figured it'd atleast take a year before someone wrote a book, but I suppose two in one year will come out.

[Hawk 34 0]

I await the movies that'll come out next summer. Who plays Benoit?

[HollywoodSpikeJenkins 0]

Ben Affleck.

[Scroby 0]

Everyone keeps harping on how they supposedly thought they were gonna be on different brands. However, in a recent interview I read with them (can't find the link right now, but it's out there somewhere) they never even mentioned that as a reason for quitting. They basically said once they got called up they realized firsthand just how crazy the travel schedule was, and for that and some other unnamed reasons they decided they wanted no part of it.

 

So in other words........"my boyfriend doesn't like that I'm going to get a big push while he sits in development waiting for his release"

 

It sure sounds like they were high on her and just about ready to release him either way.

Noooooo, they realized that they didn't want to work the travel schdule, so they left. Is it really that hard to figure that out?

[Man Who Sold The World 0]

With Kevin Spacey as Vince McMahon

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and Colin Ferrell as CM Punk.

[Vern Gagne 0]

Bret is supposed to be brutally honest in the book. He owns up to cheating on his original wife a lot while on the road.

 

On a side-note, Bret's wife's 3-year transformation from beautiful woman to obese ogre is scary. They show her in the crowd a lot during Survivor Series '94 and she is this hot, skinny blonde thing. 3 years later at Survivor Series '97, she's turned into a filthy, overweight ogre. It's scary.

 

 

Ten years is a long time.

 

www.juliehart.ca/personal.html

[Hawk 34 0]

With Kevin Spacey as Vince McMahon

 

and Colin Ferrell as CM Punk.

 

Nah. Punk would be played by Sawyer from Lost.

[LivingLegendGaryColeman 0]

Bret is supposed to be brutally honest in the book. He owns up to cheating on his original wife a lot while on the road.

 

On a side-note, Bret's wife's 3-year transformation from beautiful woman to obese ogre is scary. They show her in the crowd a lot during Survivor Series '94 and she is this hot, skinny blonde thing. 3 years later at Survivor Series '97, she's turned into a filthy, overweight ogre. It's scary.

 

 

Ten years is a long time.

 

www.juliehart.ca/personal.html

 

I love how in the little snippets about the family it talks about one daughter being a paralegal and the kids in high school and then for Dallas it says that he enjoys internet poker and is on a beer league hockey team with a name that had to be censored. I can't tell if her comment that he has come a long way from writing WWE magazines articles as a child is supposed to be a comment on his current high ambitions.

[HollywoodSpikeJenkins 0]

Wow, Dallas is my age? I completely forgot about that kid.

[Hawk 34 0]

Dallas is the one that went to Lance's school for a week and got kicked out, right? The daughters aren't that unattractive and Julie doesn't look as bad as she did in the Shadows movie.

[HollywoodSpikeJenkins 0]

I remember hearing he was trying to break into the business. Not sure what happened.

[Scroby 0]

Dallas didn't get kicked out. He went to Storm's school for a little while, felt pro wrestling wasn't for him and left.

[Enigma 0]

Kristal Marshall's bio has been removed from the Smackdown and Divas pages.

[goldengreek 0]

WWE continues to dismantle the ECW brand

By Anna Elizabeth Anderson

Oct 17, 2007

 

In a move that continues to defy business sense, World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) took several steps in the past few days that continue its pattern of dismantling the resurrected ECW brand. First, WWE's website posted a storyline-driven article stating that ECW General Manager Armando Estrada and Smackdown GM Vickie Guerrero were having meetings that would see performers from both brands compete on both ECW on Sci Fi and Friday Night Smackdown. Since Smackdown and ECW already tour together, and both shows are taped on Tuesday, this is just the next step in WWE's swallowing of the ECW brand name.

 

At the UK tapings for ECW, CM Punk revealed Kane to be his mystery partner against Big Daddy V, John Morrison, and The Miz; while Smackdown's Hillbillies appeared and defeated Elijah Burke and Nunzio in a tag team match.

 

It was then reported by WrestlingNewsDesk.Com that entire episodes of the ECW program that air Tuesday nights on Sci Fi would be streamed on the WWE/ECW website, a bad sign especially in light of WWE's contract with Sci Fi to air the ECW program coming up for renewal at the end of the year.

 

A former member member of Senior Management said recently, "ECW was the stuff of urban legend. It had a rabid fan base, created more memorable moments in the 1990s on their budget than WCW did with hundreds of millions of dollars, discovered more talent and created more memorable characters than anyone in history except WWE, and when it came back after 4 1/2 years, we charged 400 dollars per seat ringside for The Hammerstein Ballroom and sold it out. Not to mention a pretty impressive pay per view buyrate. Amazing how WWE puts their machine behind it and can't duplicate what was done with passion, creativity, a great fan base, and dedicated workers."

 

The brand, which achieved worldwide cult status under the guru-like leadership of Paul Heyman, has been reduced to a WWE Tuesday night time killer, compared by one WWE creative team member, who for obvious reasons asked to remain anonymous, to "the waning days of WCW Thunder ..... at least last year, when it was struggling to find an identity between Vince, Stephanie, and Kevin Dunn's vision and the polar opposite vision of Paul Heyman, the show had some momentum as Big Show had heat, and characters were being established. Now, everyone knows this is just like Heat or Velocity."

For those who never saw the original product, ECW was a groundbreaking promotion that forced the stale WWE (then WWF) and Eric Bischoff-lead WCW to take notice and change the way wrestling in North America is presented. Paul Heyman's completely different vision for professional wrestling became the state of the art booking and character development, so much so that he was named one of the Top 100 Marketers in the world by Advertising Age magazine in 2000. Despite the fact the company was already in free-fall due to the loss of the TNN (now Spike) network, Heyman's ability to create a worldwide audience with so few resources could not be overstated.

 

In 2004, WWE released The Rise And Fall of ECW DVD, which became a worldwide phenomenon. It was only the 2nd DVD in WWE history to surpass 100,000 units sold, and is to this day the number two best selling wrestling or sports entertainment DVD worldwide, which well over 300,000 units sold.

 

The success of the DVD lead to WWE resurrecting the brand, the first time in history that has ever happened, for the June 12, 2005 ECW ONE NIGHT STAND pay per view. One of the best-received pay per views in history, the event was a smash success, selling $400 ringside seats to the sold-out Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City, and amassing over 350,000 pay per view buys. The show, which was written by Heyman, was a shocker to many backstage, as Vince allowed Heyman to produce not only the show with the agents but also announcers Joey Styles and Mick Foley. It was also the night of Heyman's now-famous shoot (inside, "truthful") comment to JBL, "the only reason you were WWE Champion for a year is because HHH didn't want to work Tuesdays!"

 

ECW was brought back again as a stand-alone brand in 2006, debuting on Sci Fi after the 2nd Annual ECW One Night Stand, which saw one of the most heated WWE Title Matches of all time as Rob Van Dam beat John Cena for the WWE Championship. But immediately, WWE started changing the formula, and reports were that Paul Heyman and Vince McMahon clashed over the re-branding of ECW. Heyman was made the Lead Writer, and even turned heel on Van Dam, aligning himself (and reuniting) with The Big Show, who was crowned ECW World Champion in a riotous victory over RVD on July 4th in Philadelphia.

 

But behind the scenes, McMahon continued to change things up without notice, and according to several sources, Heyman didn't want to just be like all the other agents and writers and duck for cover when Vince started one of his "Mr.McMahon-like" tirades. "Everyone was shocked the way Paul would stand up for what he believed in, and most of all he believed in himself," stated a writer who admits he avoids conflict with Vince because "I just want my check and don't care if that means just swallowing a lot of crap to do it."

 

On December 3rd, Heyman and McMahon clashed heavily over the December To Dismember pay per view, and it all came to a head the next day in North Charleston, South Carolina, when Heyman and McMahon had what was described by someone who was in the building as "a very hot meeting." Heyman went home, and then reportedly didn't accept WWE's offer to continue working behind the scenes in developmental. Sometime in the past few months, either Heyman's contract expired, he quit, or he and WWE quietly agreed to a parting of the ways.

 

Heyman is reportedly working on screenplays, and enjoying life away from the limelight at home with his two children. A report in New York's eclectic GOTHAMIST stated Heyman was working on a major Hi-Def digital deal with Mitchell Stuart of HQ Productions and Clear Channel's "Stripped Online: Raw and Real" music series.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

That post looks awful familiar.

[cabbageboy 0]

Just wondering but who is Anna Elizabeth Anderson?

[AntiLeaf33 0]

WWE.com has a match with Harry Smith and Carlito on the front page. Harry comes down to his dad's music, and gets on the mic and said that he was dedicating the match to the memory of his father.

[Just call me Dan 0]

I'm curious as to people's opinion of HHH's new shirt. Pretty different, looks good to me.

[TheFranchise 0]

WWE.com has a match with Harry Smith and Carlito on the front page. Harry comes down to his dad's music, and gets on the mic and said that he was dedicating the match to the memory of his father.

Yeah I watched it.

 

Surprised they announced him as coming from Calgary.

 

Also, it seemed rather tacky the way he announced he was Bulldog's son.