WWE General Discussion - January 2008

[Mike wanna be 0]

Isn't WWE in HD like porn in HD? Sounds good on paper until you actually see it up close. As one poster noted above, there are some things you don't want to see in hi-def.

 

I love that the only real sell for the switchover so far has been 'Snitsky will be even more disgusting'. WWE, always giving fans what they want.

 

What's the odds on the Kiss My Ass Club being resurrected next week, just because?

 

I would have to think that Vince is warped enough to think we're going to like seeing the pimples on his ass.

Kiss my ass club, I guess no.

Kiss my High Definition ass (high definition JR!) club, almost a lock.

[Enigma 0]

What's the over/under for air-time Snitsky gets next week on the HD debut? I say 25 minutes, with 15 of them being extreme close-ups.

[Thanks for the Fish 0]

Derick Neikirk and Chet the Jet have both been suspended under the Wellness Plan. Other reports have Neikirk released already. Chet was moved from OVW to FCW and told to cut his hair because wwe supposedly had something ready for him. He also changed his ring name to Mariuz Jablanski, though is called "Chet" on the FCW website.

 

The "push the envelope" characters wwe is going to toy with is a "Cruel Intentions" rip-off where Paul Burchill and Katie Lea will be booked as brother and sister, though have rather overt sexual tension between them. It's going to be tried in OVW first, to see if they can pull it off though. I wonder if somebody got this idea from the twins that married each other over in the UK, or Vince finally got around to seeing Cruel Intentions and thinks it's cutting edge (I mean he had no idea Pirate Paul Burchill was supposed to be Pirates of the Carribbean Jack Sparrow as opposed to Jean Pierre Lafitte and thus didn't get the gimmick). I believe in CI, the the invilved brother and sister were half-siblings...

[Thanks for the Fish 0]

Regarding the move to HD, the wrestlers are worried both because the fakeness of wrestling could be covered up by the lower quality production - that will not be the case anymore. I wonder if wrestlers will start working stiffer next week. Also the age of the older wrestlers was also hidden with the softer focus, which will not be the case anymore.

 

The belief is that the wwe would have rather stayed in the "old" non-HD format, however it was something they couldn't fight.

[Hawk 34 0]

Everyone's worried about Snitsky, but for me, Shawn and Kennedy's dripping tan juice should be the primary concern.

[Thanks for the Fish 0]

I think the tan in a bottle overkill is a result of the switch to HD - "If you can't tone it - tan it!". I wonder if they'll have free botox injections backstage over the next few weeks and months. However then you couldn't emote properly to sell the drama in your matches. Jig scars from blading over the years will be crystal clear as well - Maybe the wwe will decide to go Lucha and everybody will sport a mask.

[MarvinisaLunatic 0]

theyll probably use filters to keep from having a perfectly sharp picture.

[DrVenkman PhD 0]

We're still lacking SD spoilers, but WWE.com mentions the main event is Punk/Rey vs Edge/Chavo along with Finlay/Khali. Flair will be in the "Players Lounge".

[Diamonddust 0]

I don't think Birmingham is internet friendly. I'm probably remembering wrong, but it seems to me the last smart ass "so does know one in <city> have computers?" was about somewhere in Alabama.

 

It was in my backyard, and I didn't go... so I guess you can blame it on me.

[RepoMan 0]

I don't know where else to put this, but for those that care MyNetwork is showing Secerts of Pro Wresling Revealed @ 9 EST.

[Spaceman Spiff 0]

Everyone's worried about Snitsky, but for me, Shawn and Kennedy's dripping tan juice should be the primary concern.

Ric. Flair. He's looking really haggard now, but HD? Yikes.

 

I have Comcast - I definitely know I have CW HD, but I don't think I have USA (I haven't checked).

 

And upon further review, I don't have USA HD.

[Enigma 0]

Oh well, I'm sure there will be torrents for the HD feed.

[Mecca 0]

Big Show has either re-signed or is very close to re-signing with WWE and should be heading back in probably by the end of the month. He may be a surprise entrant in the Royal Rumble but the latest I heard was that he probably wasn't going to debut somewhere where he'd come across as just one of 30 guys, even if he tossed a lot of dudes before being eliminated. Plans changed regularly, though. Show won the ECW Title in July of 2006 for his final run with the company. He actually got the belt because RVD and Sabu were busted for drugs while Van Dam held both the WWE and ECW Titles, so they had to get the belts off him post-haste. Show was the top star in ECW for the rest of the year and it was probably the best usage of him in his entire career.

 

He lost the belt to Bobby Lashley at the Elimination Chamber show at that year's December to Dismember PPV (which was also Paul Heyman's swan song), then lost a rematch the following Tuesday on the TV show. At that point WWE.com claimed he was taking time off to heal a bunch of injuries. He had been offered a lucrative five-year renewal at the time but turned it down, saying his body just couldn't handle the abuse anymore. He told some people that he was done forever, but it's tough to retire in this business. He did one match with Hulk Hogan on April 27, 2007 in Memphis, TN. Hogan, bitter that he was left out of WrestleMania XXIII (obviously he wanted to do a Hogan vs. Show match there to play off his legendary match with Andre the Giant twenty years earlier), decided he was going to show Vince McMahon a thing or two and become a huge draw on his own.

 

Unfortunately, the show drew just over 2,000, and it was such that they filmed it for Hogan Knows Best in such a way to try to make the place seemed packed, and it still never made air. Because he couldn't be billed as Big Show, they called him Paul "The Great" Wight. In his time off he'd started training in boxing. The stories were that he was trying to go pro, but he surely realized that starting out in boxing in the mid-30s was a recipe for failure. So as it turns out he largely trained just to get in shape, and he's apparently down around the 440 mark now, at least 100 pounds less than his peak weight. He looked really good in the Memphis match, so hopefully he can keep his weight at this level through this next run.

 

Speaking of Big Show, Hogan and Memphis, Cory Maclin, who has promoted in Memphis forever, filed suit against WWE this week. Basically, the Hogan vs. Show match we talked about earlier was supposed to be Hogan vs. Lawler, but after everything had been agreed to Lawler ended up no-showing the press conference where they were going to announce the match. This was how Big Show got the call to step in as replacement. Lawler, who had built up the Hogan match forever on television, claimed that his contract with WWE would not allow him to appear on VH-1 (they were taping the show, as noted, for Hogan Knows Best) since VH-1 and NBC/Universal (which owns USA Network) were rivals.

 

Maclin is claiming that WWE pressured Lawler not to appear and then pressured their other wrestlers into not working for Maclin's promotion, which ultimately resulted in them losing their television show which was filmed every week in Sam's Town Casino. McMahon's actions, he claims, violated section two of the federal Sherman Anti-Trust Act.

 

It is strange that for nearly the entire time Lawler was promoting the match nobody in WWE bothered to say anything. According to an article in the Memphis Commercial Appeal, the lawsuit alleges that Vince and WWE "took these actions because of a long-running feud with Hogan and in an effort to continue its extensive market control of the wrestling market by not allowing Maclin, a competing promoter, to have a successful and popular promotion." The suit seeks "punitive damages and all additional damages allowed" but does not list a dollar amount. This is going to be a tough case for Maclin unless he has it in writing from WWE that they were going to provide talent for the Sam's Town shows and reneged on the offer. Plus, the reason the show is on hiatus right now is because the TV station is being sold and the new owners aren't sure they want pro-wrestling on it, at least in the old traditional time slot.

 

 

WWE Films is about to start shooting another project, 12 Rounds starring John Cena. Shooting begins at the end of the month in New Orleans. Not sure how this is working with the writer's strike. Technically, if the script needs a re-write they can't do anything about it. This may not be an issue with WWE Films given some of the previous fare. It will be directed by Renny Harlin, who was the man behind Cliffhanger and Die Hard 2. From reading the synopsis, it's basically The Marine in New Orleans, with Cena's girlfriend getting kidnapped and he has to save her. It will not be going to theatres, sadly, but straight to DVD.

 

This story is great. Dave Batista was driving home from a wrestling show in Canton on January 5th and was pulled over on Interstate 77. The officer came up to his car and Dave noticed that he had no badge, no gun, none of the usual policing accoutrements, and he was wearing camouflage pants. So he drove off. He called the police and they had no idea who this man was. He has not been apprehended. He apparently had a red flashing light that he'd attached to the top of his car.

 

Mr. Kennedy was married this weekend.

 

Mae Young on James Guttman's radio show said she had been promised a match with Aurora Rose Lavesque, Hunter and Stephanie's daughter, on her 100th birthday. Aurora will be 17 at the time. Set your calendars for May 12, 2022.

 

Roadkill apparently suffered a stinger in a match with Matt Sydal last week in OVW. He'll be fine. Sydal is the current OVW Champion.

 

WWE got some good news this week as Raw will not be pre-empted on February 11th for the annual Westminster Dog Show as they have been every year since the beginning of their run in the early 90s. The Dog Show does crapty ratings, but because it's a Dog Show and not pro-wrestling the ad rates are through the roof and USA still makes more money with the dogs that night than the wrestlers. Over the last few years the live Raw was moved to Sci-Fi and the replay aired on USA after the dogs. This year, though, the dogs are being moved to CNBC.

 

March 31st Raw, the night after WrestleMania, takes place at the Amway Arena in Orlando. Tickets went on sale January 12th

 

credit:F4W Newsletter

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

You missed this part out:

 

We have heard from more and more people this week stating that WWE drug testing is hardly being taken seriously at all anymore. There are some guys returning in the next month or so who will be returning just as big as ever, even though they lost a lot of weight during their time off.

[Vern Gagne 0]

Guys are just going to use things that can't be picked up on any test.

 

I had no idea Big Show weighed 540 pounds at his peak.

 

With the writers strike, it's kind of suprsing they don't have the Dog Show on NBC.

[Enigma 0]

Big Show was 420 when he debuted in WCW in 1995 as a 21-year-old. I can't wait to see him in shape again.

 

Hopefully this isn't another fake out story, like Jim Ross' constant updates about how Big Show was losing tons of weight in OVW, then he returned at Royal Rumble '01 fatter than ever.

[Scroby 0]

I've taken the time to edit down Mecca's post because we've already been talking about most of stuff he posted about. Here's a edited verison.

 

-Big Show has either re-signed or is very close to re-signing with WWE and should be heading back in probably by the end of the month. He may be a surprise entrant in the Royal Rumble but the latest I heard was that he probably wasn't going to debut somewhere where he'd come across as just one of 30 guys, even if he tossed a lot of dudes before being eliminated. Plans changed regularly, though. He's apparently down around the 440 mark now, at least 100 pounds less than his peak weight. He looked really good in the Memphis match, so hopefully he can keep his weight at this level through this next run.

 

-Speaking of Big Show, Hogan and Memphis, Cory Maclin, who has promoted in Memphis forever, filed suit against WWE this week. Basically, the Hogan vs. Show match we talked about earlier was supposed to be Hogan vs. Lawler, but after everything had been agreed to Lawler ended up no-showing the press conference where they were going to announce the match. This was how Big Show got the call to step in as replacement. Lawler, who had built up the Hogan match forever on television, claimed that his contract with WWE would not allow him to appear on VH-1 (they were taping the show, as noted, for Hogan Knows Best) since VH-1 and NBC/Universal (which owns USA Network) were rivals.

 

Maclin is claiming that WWE pressured Lawler not to appear and then pressured their other wrestlers into not working for Maclin's promotion, which ultimately resulted in them losing their television show which was filmed every week in Sam's Town Casino. McMahon's actions, he claims, violated section two of the federal Sherman Anti-Trust Act.

 

It is strange that for nearly the entire time Lawler was promoting the match nobody in WWE bothered to say anything. According to an article in the Memphis Commercial Appeal, the lawsuit alleges that Vince and WWE "took these actions because of a long-running feud with Hogan and in an effort to continue its extensive market control of the wrestling market by not allowing Maclin, a competing promoter, to have a successful and popular promotion." The suit seeks "punitive damages and all additional damages allowed" but does not list a dollar amount. This is going to be a tough case for Maclin unless he has it in writing from WWE that they were going to provide talent for the Sam's Town shows and reneged on the offer. Plus, the reason the show is on hiatus right now is because the TV station is being sold and the new owners aren't sure they want pro-wrestling on it, at least in the old traditional time slot.

 

-Mr. Kennedy was married this weekend.

 

-Roadkill apparently suffered a stinger in a match with Matt Sydal last week in OVW. He'll be fine. Sydal is the current OVW Champion.

 

-WWE got some good news this week as Raw will not be pre-empted on February 11th for the annual Westminster Dog Show as they have been every year since the beginning of their run in the early 90s. The Dog Show does crapty ratings, but because it's a Dog Show and not pro-wrestling the ad rates are through the roof and USA still makes more money with the dogs that night than the wrestlers. Over the last few years the live Raw was moved to Sci-Fi and the replay aired on USA after the dogs. This year, though, the dogs are being moved to CNBC.

 

-March 31st Raw, the night after WrestleMania, takes place at the Amway Arena in Orlando. Tickets went on sale January 12th

 

-We have heard from more and more people this week stating that WWE drug testing is hardly being taken seriously at all anymore. There are some guys returning in the next month or so who will be returning just as big as ever, even though they lost a lot of weight during their time off.

 

credit:F4W Newsletter

 

Enjoy.

[Enigma 0]

I don't understand why people get a wedgie if some stuff is getting reposted if it's being transcribed from a newsletter. Also there are cases, like the Batista/fake cop story, where the OMG THIS WAS ALREADY SAID bit actually had more information than was available before. I just don't think it's something to get bent out of shape about to the point where you someone has to go back and actually remove stuff. Are those 15-30 seconds taken to read stuff you already knew really that valuable? I bet more time is spent editing this down than it would be to just read it or skip it.

[UZI Suicide 0]

Yeah, that was a pretty fucking gay thing to do.

 

Anyway, can't say I'm excited to see Big Show return. I've never liked him.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

Wanted to come back to this real quick.

 

Mae Young on James Guttman's radio show said she had been promised a match with Aurora Rose Lavesque, Hunter and Stephanie's daughter, on her 100th birthday. Aurora will be 17 at the time. Set your calendars for May 12, 2022.

 

Can you imagine being a seven year old girl, knowing there's a crazy 90 year old woman who wants to fight you in ten years?

[haws bah gawd 0]

Big Show really found his niche doing the Extreme Rules matches during his last run with the company. He always came out looking like a monster, and a dominant champion in those matches. His ER match against Kane from July 2006 is a personal favorite of mine, and one of the best matches of either man's careers. I would like to see him have another run in ECW, but I'm sure he'll probably just end up back on RAW.

 

Concerning his weight loss though, does anyone know what he was weighing during his initial feud with Brock Lesnar in 2002? Watching the DVD of Survivor Series 2002, Show is still a pretty big guy, but he seemed much smaller in the belly area than he had for a while. If Big Show has gotten down to his 1999-early 2000 weight, it will be pretty impressive. He was at least slim enough in 1999 where he could wear the Heavyweight Title around his waist.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

I always thought people ragged on Big Show about his weight a bit two much...yeah, I know he was fairly svelte in his younger days, but the guy is like 7 feet tall...as the injuries accumulate, it's probably fairly hard to stay trim.

[Jingus 0]

Can you imagine being a seven year old girl, knowing there's a crazy 90 year old woman who wants to fight you in ten years?

Sort of like the storyline where Lady Shiva told Batgirl that they would fight one year later. (With the added pressure being that Shiva was almost certainly going to kill the overmatched Batgirl.)

 

Big Show really found his niche doing the Extreme Rules matches during his last run with the company. He always came out looking like a monster, and a dominant champion in those matches. His ER match against Kane from July 2006 is a personal favorite of mine, and one of the best matches of either man's careers.

I agree, Show did shockingly good in ECW. He had a really good match with Kane, which I thought was impossible, since the two of them have some kind of bizarre anti-chemistry where they usually end up having the absolute worst, most boring matches either guy ever has.

 

As to the people bitching about the weight? Come on. Show has the same condition as Andre did, and is the same age now as Andre was when he died. Yet Big Show always looked much more in shape than Andre ever did. Hell, he's a 500 pound guy with an abnormal growth condition and multiple chronic injuries, who was (relatively) bumping his ass off all last year, constantly getting knocked off the apron through a table and shit like that. It's not like he can just hop on the treadmill and burn off the weight like a normal guy.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

Andre died at 46, Big Show is just 35 yet.

[Jingus 0]

::wikipedia check::

 

Yeah, you're right. Weird. Why was I thinking Andre died at 36 instead? Still, the point stands, Big Show looks and moves infinitely better than Andre did at the same age.

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

Big Show doesn't have the same condition as Andre either. He had corrective surgery to alleviate the condition many years ago.

[Jingus 0]

Dammit, stop shooting down my conjecture with your facts!

 

Okay, POINT STILL STANDS: a 7'1" guy, with a congenital glandular disorder which raged unchecked for at least a couple decades, has a natural tendency towards being pudgy, spending his life on the road eating whatever unhealthy food that was available late at night after the shows were over, plagued with numerous injuries, maybe having used various standard wrestling drugs, too large to perform typical cardiovascular workouts, now entering into middle age. That guy is not going to be slender or svelte.

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

Well that I can agree with. It's a similar situation to Shaquille O'Neal, who has detailed in the past how difficult it is to remain in shape at such a large size.

[fazzle 0]

Wanted to come back to this real quick.

 

Mae Young on James Guttman's radio show said she had been promised a match with Aurora Rose Lavesque, Hunter and Stephanie's daughter, on her 100th birthday. Aurora will be 17 at the time. Set your calendars for May 12, 2022.

 

Can you imagine being a seven year old girl, knowing there's a crazy 90 year old woman who wants to fight you in ten years?

 

No. Hell, I can barely even imagine being in a weird time warp where the year 2022 is in just ten years.

 

[Cheech Tremendous 0]

Wanted to come back to this real quick.

 

Mae Young on James Guttman's radio show said she had been promised a match with Aurora Rose Lavesque, Hunter and Stephanie's daughter, on her 100th birthday. Aurora will be 17 at the time. Set your calendars for May 12, 2022.

 

Can you imagine being a seven year old girl, knowing there's a crazy 90 year old woman who wants to fight you in ten years?

 

No. Hell, I can barely even imagine being in a weird time warp where the year 2022 is in just ten years.

 

 

Mae will be 90 in 2012 and Aurora will be 7. That is ten years from 2022.