Support NeoGAF

[Zee-Row]

Is it true that Jay Lethal got cut from TNA? I loved the guy, i actually met him in person at a Lowes in Tampa and he was cool as hell. i hope he goes to WWE so he can get the spotlight that he deserves.

 

[Kusagari]

Wow... Lethal was quite possibly the most over guy in TNA when feuding with Flair. Can't believe they squandered him so much afterward and then cut him. Then again these are the same guys who have ruined Pope, a guy who should be main eventing right now not in this horrible Samoa Joe feud, so I shouldn't be surprised.

 

[Net_Wrecker]

Why the hell is the cage still on the ring on Impact? What was the point of Lockdown if it's still here?

 

[ZombieSupaStar]

http://kevinnash.tumblr.com/post/4798817459/remember-wrestlers-are-people-just-like-you

That shit reads like an obituary.

That's sad, I'll be surprised if Hall is around 5 years from now. I really wish he'd made shawns HOF speech.

 

[somedevil]

Is it true that Jay Lethal got cut from TNA? I loved the guy, i actually met him in person at a Lowes in Tampa and he was cool as hell. i hope he goes to WWE so he can get the spotlight that he deserves.

Seems to be true. Besides they got to give more time to gunner, murphy and Rob terry :/

 

[BoboBrazil]

That Robbie E feud killed Jay Lethal. After his feud with Flair he was poised to be a new main eventer. TNA pretty much fucks every good wrestler over though. I hope he does get a chance to go to WWE, but he is just too small for them. If they hire him and ever bring him up he would be a jobber.

 

[spindashing]

The whole show ... Effin!

 

[cartoon_soldier]

Why the hell is the cage still on the ring on Impact? What was the point of Lockdown if it's still here?

Its the Impactodown

 

[Professor Beef]

The whole show ... Effin!

Five Star Show Splash!

 

[somedevil]

These shoot interviews are more hilarious then serious.

 

[spindashing]

SHE'S A KIIILLLERRRR QUEEEEEEEEEEEENNNN

Sarita cot damn

Edit: holy shit @ Madison staring at Tara

 

[The Frankman]

Jay Lethal and Sonjay Dutt need to be signed by the WWE.

 

[antonz]

That's sad, I'll be surprised if Hall is around 5 years from now. I really wish he'd made shawns HOF speech.

Something tells me its gotten to a point he will be lucky to make the rest of the year.

 

[StealthGoblin]

Why am I watching TNA? I'm losing my mind.

 

[dream]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IpxPsCy-dw

massive heel heat!

Something tells me its gotten to a point he will be lucky to make the rest of the year.

I think his wife is saying it will be miraculous if Hall survives the week.

 

[Professor Beef]

Pretty good metaphor in the ring right now.

 

[somedevil]

RVD just kicked out abyss front two teeth.

 

[dream]

I'm sorry Lunchbox.

line breaks for the dude that requested them

Not content to sit on a pat hand, Vince McMahon is going back to the gambling table that throughout his adult life has made him, and at times broken him, for what could be his final major act.

At 65, McMahon has never wanted to be a guy whose tombstone read, “Here lies the greatest wrestling promoter that ever lived.” He is, but the fact people think of him as that for some reason bothers him. He spent years trying to act like he was in competition with Ted Turner, even though Turner probably spent a few minutes per year even thinking about wrestling. He’s picked his fights and won big and lost big. So now, he wants to lose the term “wrestling,” the only industry that he ever had any true success in. Some who defend him say it’s because wrestling has a negative connotation in society. And it does. But why would that be? Because for most of the last 27 years, whenever the general public thought of wrestling, it was the product overseen by McMahon that they thought of. Whatever perception wrestling may or may not have had in another lifetime, and that varied greatly based on who was putting it on, has been reshaped on a national basis to whatever people think of the product McMahon has created.

So in his next act, World Wrestling Entertainment is now WWE, and the core product, the one that used to be called wrestling, and still is by everyone except those who work directly for him. It has been called sports entertainment by him since 1985. It’s a term that has still, in its third decade, never caught on with anyone except those paid by him to alter their natural speaking patterns. And now he’s amending that to just “entertainment.”
“I think every brand has to re-create itself,” he said to the Los Angeles Times. “I want everyone to look at us in a vastly different way than they have.”

Just as 26 years of calling it sports entertainment has yielded almost no results, the next attempt is to go on a spending spree to acquire companies involved in similar business models, brands that can be put on television, put on tour and merchandised.
Without tipping their hand at what in specific they are looking at, McMahon said, “To me, it is anything that is out there. We can take on a ton of debt.”

The latter is in stark contrast to the McMahon way of doing business these last few decades. McMahon never wanted business partners. He used to say when asked about it, “We don’t play well with others.” He took on NBC as a 50% partner in the XFL, a disaster that led to the franchise folding after one season. NBC pulled out, and his other television partners wanted nothing to do with it, even as he was insisting he still could have made it work.

The company may have been operating in debt prior to the first WrestleMania, given that many bills were late in being paid. But that was a gamble that paid off, and it wasn’t until the mid-90s when the company had major financial issues. During that era, right before the boom that took the company to its greatest heights, the company did take out some loans to keep going. But once it raised the price of its secondary PPV shows, they were back in black. And then, once the company went public, the selling of a minority of stock to the public left them with hundreds of millions in cash on hand. It has not been good for the original investors. After the first day WWE went public, the stock was at $42 a share. Now it is at $11.13, not an all-time low, but at the lower end of the usual up-and-down swings.
The recent drop is because the investing public is not confident of the latest planned move. And perhaps even more, is facing the reality that with the move, the company’s huge dividend of 36 cents a share per quarter (a whopping 12.8% return per year based on the current price) will have to be slashed if they use their cash on hand for purchases or to use debt. It was the cash on hand that has been used to fund the dividend because company profits could not sustain it.

Pro wrestling in the U.S. has been a declining business for a decade. Its saving grace has been a huge shift in the entertainment economy. Pro wrestling has always been aimed at being relatively inexpensive entertainment as compared with most sporting events. But as costs for all events held in major arenas have skyrocketed, the $10 to $12 average ticket price of the 80s and early 90s has been able to be increased to $30 to $40 for most shows, and more than $60 for major events. That’s still a bargain compared to the NFL, NBA, NHL or Baseball. When they come to town, they push the low ticket price, whether it be $15 or $20, and promote themselves as the best bargain in entertainment. In addition, the fragmenting of television, and wrestling’s ability to draw a reliable audience, not one that could sustain on a network, but one that is very valuable on cable, has led to escalating television rights fees. The introduction of sports specific stations looking for programming–sports–the very term McMahon in the U.S. wants to run from is the genre that keeps him afloat in much of the rest of the world, and willing to pay for a sports-like product that resonates better on television than all but major sports, has allowed them to make money from television. Once a loss-leader, now television pays the bills as some of the traditional core metrics have declined.

But with diverse revenue streams, even when wrestling isn’t connecting with the public like it once was, making a profit in the wrestling business is the easiest it has ever been. But that’s not enough.

Both WWE and TNA are doing national rebranding campaigns, and most likely, WWE will do the better job of the two. WWE will be using the slogan, “Bigger, Badder, Better,”
They also officially announced HHH heading up the developmental program, something that has been in the works for months. They pushed the idea the signing of Sin Cara was his first move, which is why Sin Cara was rushed onto the main roster and given the push coming in. Gerald Brisco’s new role is to scout college wrestlers. For the most part, the college wrestlers who came to WWE were those who took the initiative themselves as opposed to being recruited, although the company did specifically recruit Kurt Angle, Brock Lesnar and Bobby Lashley, as well as Muhammed Lawal (King Mo), who ended up doing MMA instead but has talked about coming to WWE after his MMA career is over.
McMahon’s financial failures outside of wrestling are almost as legendary as his financial successes within in. Starting with the Evil Knievel snake river canyon jump, the biggest closed-circuit fiasco in history, which forced him into personal bankruptcy, failing as a music concert promoter, a boxing promoter, a movie producer the first time (Shane Productions), music companies (twice), an attempt to turn bodybuilding into a PPV entity, marketing bodybuilding supplements, a Times Square restaurant, his wife’s senate run and best known of all, a football league.

The WWE internally talked like this in the late 90s in particular. Wrestling caught on fire and McMahon believed he had the secret of attraction the hard-to-reach 18-34 male demo to television, which wrestling was doing huge with at the time.

During that period the WWE made attempts to purchase, among other things, the Harlem Globetrotters, the Pro Bull Riding tour and the Canadian Football League. None materialized, although being rebuffed by the Canadian league owners was part of the reason for forming the XFL, with the idea they would offer higher contracts and thus raid the CFL of the second-tier of players that weren’t good enough at the time to make NFL rosters, and take their market after turning him down. That didn’t work out so well. Before selling to UFC, the Pride Fighting Championships attempted to sell to McMahon, but McMahon wasn’t interested. At times McMahon had enough interest in starting an MMA group that he had hired people on the periphery to get the ball rolling, with the idea of building around Bob Sapp, who would be pushed as a pro wrestling attraction and an MMA star. McMahon at the time had his wrestling vision for MMA, wanting to build around big guys with the right look. But Sapp was under contract to K-1, and McMahon eventually lost interest.

McMahon said he’s learned from his mistakes, saying that when it comes to acquisitions, they will stick to the entertainment business.

In a move that in some form is believed to be related, former Connecticut Governor and Senator Lowell Weicker has left his position on the WWE Board of Directors after 12 years. Weicker said it was a mutual decision and gave no reason for it, only to say it had nothing to do with the fact he supported Chris Dodd in the U.S. Senate race over Linda McMahon. Weicker’s resignation means three of the ten members of the board have resigned in the past six months, along with the leaving of Chief Operating Officer Donna Goldsmith. An article in the Greenwich Times indicated a change in the board may have to do with the company’s new goals.

“You may have read we are implementing a new business model, so the company feels that it is a good time to identify new directors to provide a fresh perspective to the company,” said WWE spokesman Robert Zimmerman regarding the changes.
In recent years, the company has once again started a movie division, which has yet to produce either a hit or a movie critically acclaimed, although the division for its history is still slightly in the black due to strong DVD sales of some of its initial offerings. But it lost money this past year. And part of its initial goal has already been dropped, the idea that putting wrestling talent in lead roles of movies would make them movie stars, and thus, more marketable and more larger-than-life.

It is possible, at least arguable, that you can say being the lead in a WWE movie made John Cena a bigger star. I don’t believe it’s the case, but you can’t prove it either way. But Steve Austin was so successful in furthering his character in a movie that the deal for a series of movies is still, years later, waiting for the second offering. Kane, Big Show and HHH got no bump out of being featured as leads in movies. And I dare say the young guys that movies were supposed to make into new headliners, the no-longer existing Mr. Kennedy and barely-existing Ted DiBiase, did zero.

The latest strategy is to do cheap movies, avoid the theaters (except for almost non-existent one weekend opens), and build around real actors while getting a name wrestler in the mix, while using their television show to promote that a star wrestler is in the DVD release. Thus far, that strategy has operated in the red, although they believe it will be profitable.

Part of the expansion is the new television network, which has been talked about for some time. If the plan is to use their endless hours of footage and do some cheaply produced talk shows they can do okay. If they get into trying to produce original programming, then it gets trickier.

He talked about producing live events and television shows, sending their television team and outsourcing them.

“No one does television production better than we do,” he said. “It’s damn near the Olympics. We know more about live event touring than anyone in the United States.”
That’s an overstatement, since McMahon has never been able to put together a television production anywhere close to the level of HBO’s sports presentations.

Jay Kaplan, the portfolio manager of Royce & Associates, which owns 9% of the company, making the fund the No. 2 shareholder behind Vince McMahon, still feels this is a wrestling company.

“I think that the most important thing right now is the return of the health of the core business,” he said. “One of the markets big concerns is they are losing market share to real fighting.”

Whether this is a fair appraisal of the situation, many have reacted to this move as an admission that pro wrestling is not a long-term growth industry and that after more than a decade, the company has been unable to produce the level of mainstream star that has historically carried the promotion, such as a Bruno Sammartino, Hulk Hogan, Steve Austin or The Rock. Part of it is guys like that just don’t come around very often. The scripted nature of the promos and lack of connection with the public at any kind of a deep level would make it impossible for a Sammartino-like character to exist in modern wrestling, plus a character like that is only created when you build for years around that person. With Hogan it’s the same thing, plus seeing a big juiced up guy with blond hair like a Hogan or Superstar Graham with limited in-ring would be difficult to get over to the modern audience. Austin was pure luck, a very good worker who could portray a character that clicked at the time and they got completely behind. And Rock had a unique interview ability, look and charisma. It should be noted that since 2001, when interviews became scripted, they have yet to create that person. They have created money draws in Batista and John Cena, but with the exception of Batista in 2005 when he was chasing the title, the watering down of the title and making results of matches and the title itself meaningless has taken away one of the prime goals. It should also be noted that by over-angling, the hot shotting of the past that created the legendary confrontations no longer means anything. Basically, by eliminating the key building blocks, they’ve made it far more difficult, maybe impossible, to create the standout star that takes it to a new level like the aforementioned people did in the past and others had done on a regional basis, and works in other sports such as in golf and basketball.

That’s not a death-knell to the business by any means, but the idea pro wrestling could be the fifth most popular sport in the country as it was at many points in the past may be something out of their reach. And in doing so, to become a growth stock, it has to become more of a conglomerate. In doing so, the risks become higher. Buying companies within an entertainment framework that they believe they know as opposed to properties in businesses they don’t know mitigates the risk. But again, there is no proven track record in entertainment. They have yet to produce one critically acclaimed movie in multiple tries. They have yet to show any success in the entertainment world at anything that wasn’t an offshoot of an already popular pro wrestling business that has its roots nationally dating back a century.

This will not be the time to keep the stock when it comes to a short-term strategy. Wall Street has seemingly decided this isn’t a good move, and the price will take another hit when the dividend is cut, which will have to happen if they are going to spend money on acquisitions. Over the long term, the stock price will be dependent upon whether they can acquire companies and make money with them, as well as if they can show growth in their existing wrestling property.

A company press release hinted at the dividend changing. Since February 2008, the company has had a dual dividend. It was $1.44 per share per year to all stockholders except the McMahons. It was 96 cents per year for the McMahons, based on a three-year waiver of the increased dividend for other shareholders. That figure still left them with about $45 million in dividend earnings per year, taxed at 15% instead of the 35% or so if the money came in salary would be taxed. However, the waiver the McMahons took on the separate dividend has expired and at this time they’ve given no indication they will accept a dual dividend. The dual dividend meant about $20.8 million each quarter. No longer having that waived would mean the company would be paying out $26.3 million in quarterly dividends, roughly double the average profits. Even without spending money on new acquisitions, that figure would no longer be feasible. The McMahon share would jump to nearly $68 million per year.

The 2010 annual report even hinted as such, saying, “We cannot assure our stockholders that dividends will be paid in the figure, or that, if paid, dividends will be at the same amount or with the same frequency as in the past. Any reduction in our dividend payments could have a negative effect on our stock price. Over the last three calender years, the company’s cumulative dividend payment totaled $247.3 million and its cash from operating activities less net purchases of property plant and equipment totaled $152.2 million.”
In other words, they are spelling out ahead of time that they’ve overpaid dividends the last three years by a great margin.

Some of the people seeing this new direction, including those who have worked for the company in the past, see this as an exit strategy, of making a lot of acquisitions of entertainment content, including having a television station, as a way to sell to one of the major media conglomerates. Vince said, “I don’t see that happening.”

Others can see it as something that has been part of the Vince McMahon mind set from his attempted forays into boxing and the movies more than 20 years ago. McMahon does not want to be what people perceive him to be, and unless he can be successful outside wrestling, that perception will never change.

Due to the retirement of Edge, leaving Smackdown badly in need of a top babyface, Vince McMahon made the call to do the draft early.

The draft had been scheduled for a three-hour Raw in June. Between that abrupt change, and the about face on R-Truth and John Morrison, and once again with Raw being constantly rewritten, no long-term momentum is being built.

The 5/1 Extreme Rules PPV switched from a main event of The Miz vs. John Cena vs. R-Truth, to having Morrison replace R-Truth in the three way, which is now a cage match for the WWE title. The other matches official are Christian vs. Alberto Del Rio in a ladder match for the World title, Jerry Lawler & Jim Ross vs. Jack Swagger & Michael Cole and Randy Orton vs. C.M. Punk in a last man standing match.

As a general rule, you can tell people who are switching because they’ve started to lose (like an Bourne or Bryan to Smackdown) , but because this came up at the last minute, I don’t think normal rules apply here because there’s no long-term planning. Plus, they only have a two-hour show instead of the usual three, and it’s coming at a time when Smackdown wrestlers have been on Raw almost every week, as opposed to keeping them separate so switches will mean more. In theory, one would see the idea of Orton or Morrison to Smackdown as the big move.

Del Rio was originally scheduled to switch to Raw in the draft, as Cena vs. Del Rio was scheduled for the SummerSlam main event. Of course the identities of who gets moved will change constantly over the week. One idea has Del Rio as World champ going to Raw, and Miz as WWE champ, going to Smackdown.

There is a precedent here, as in 2004, when Brock Lesnar left, they moved back the draft by several months.

Virtually the entire midcard with guys like Cody Rhodes, Nexus, Corre, Jack Swagger, Drew McIntyre, R-Truth and others are strong candidates to be moved. Most would benefit in theory, but often guy who move from Smackdown to Raw, get two weeks of a push like somebody’s fortunes had changed, but then they end up in the same spot as they’ve been in. As a general rule, if the IC champion is moved (Wade Barrett), to even things out, the U.S. champion (Sheamus) would also be moved.

Nothing is official regarding the new rebranding campaign. It is probably two to three months away and the plan is to change the look of the show, perhaps with a new set. Whether the TNA name will be dropped or not is something under consideration but not yet decided upon. But even if the name isn’t dropped, they are going to focus the new marketing on the term “Impact” as opposed to TNA. There is again talk once the new campaign starts to start taping more television outside or Orlando. Apparently Spike is willing to help out on the costs, because the costs have been the only reason they aren’t already doing it. It looks better than 50% that when the branding campaign starts, they will start taping Impact regularly on the road which was the original plan. I don’t know if it will be what the plan was, which was they would tape in Orlando two or three days after every PPV, and then the next taping would be a few weeks later on a Friday night where they would tape on the road doing two shows in one night to save costs like they did in Fayetteville. Spike was encouraged because the show in Fayetteville looked better and the ratings were higher, and the ratings momentum did not stay when they returned to Orlando. There were a lot of reasons for the ratings that didn’t have to do with Orlando vs. Fayetteville, including the Angle-Jarrett storyline was newer and they were building several weeks toward the Fayetteville show with the court case storyline and a loaded show.

Regarding Desmond Wolfe, nothing has changed. Hulk Hogan, when asked, said that the ball was in his court. We’ve heard the opposite. A few months back he was scheduled to return to reform his team with Magnus, but plans changed and Doug Williams was given the sport and the stuff with him that was at the tapings was all edited off the show. Wolfe has actually had a few planned start dates that have ended up not materializing. Right now he’s been working in the local community theater scene in Central Florida as well as working on writing projects. He was scheduled to go to the tapings this week with hopes that they may start him back up.

Serena Deeb of the former Straight Edge Society got a tryout at the TV tapings this week.
Maven Huffman, the first Tough Enough winner, was also at the tapings.

Mick Foley twittered being disappointed that he was only able to get 200 different donations for RAINN even after a TMZ mention. He noted that a good percentage of those came from people who weren’t even wrestling fans. That did lead to a number of fans donating. He said that when he goes to the U.K., that for anyone who donates $5,000 in the U.K., he will go to their house and spend at least two hours there when he goes to the country on his next tour. He also said he wants to go to the 5/2 Raw show and would ask Dixie Carter if he could attend, given it’s the Rock’s 39th birthday.

Hulk Hogan will be the first non-MMA guy on HDNet The Voice vs. television show, where Michael Schiavello, the crazy Australian announcer who gets in tons of pro wrestling references in every MMA broadcast, interviews major names. The show that airs on 5/20, which has already been taped, has Schiavello interviewing Hogan in the now barren mansion in Bellaire that Hogan is still trying to sell for $12 million. I can just imagine this show, since Schiavello talked about they’ll get insight into WrestleMania III and Andre the Giant. Schiavello, in honor of Hogan, has bleached his beard and shaved his head to look like Superstar Billy Graham.

 

[dream]

Sky challenged Love to come out. Love came out, looking like she lost five more pounds since last week’s show, which was actually taped the day before. This was really scary, because she looks 85 pounds, and 60 pounds of that is silicon. Seriously, there are a lot of women in wrestling who end up with eating disorders because of the nature of how you’re supposed to look a way that very few can while being healthy. But this woman is 20 pounds lighter than that. The one thing about wrestling women is because TV adds weight, the ones who look big are actually very normal for fit women. The ones who look normal when you see them are really thin. The ones who look thin on TV look anorexic in person. And Angelina, who looks anorexic on TV, I shudder to think where she’s headed.

Based on all WWE U.S. television programming, the largest percentage of viewers right now, 28.7% is above the age of 50. The split right now is also 25.0% is 35-49, 21.8% is 18-34 and 24.5% is 2-17. So the mentality that pro wrestling is something only kids watch is a gigantic misconception. The two most popular merchandise sellers right now, Cena and Mysterio, are clearly kids-based characters. But in aiming specifically to that age group, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy. There shouldn’t be anything inherent about today’s pro wrestling that adults will watch but not spend money on it. I think there is something to the idea that there are tons of wrestling fans of all ages and they will watch it on television because they have for years. It still comes across on TV like it’s big-time. But the element of building angles and matches is no longer that good. Adults, who hae watched for a lifetime know it, but for kids, there is no comparison point.

They have also hired Emmy Award winning writer Tom Casiello as a new member of the creative team. Casiello has no wrestling background, and comes in with zero product knowledge. However he won two Daytime Emmy Awards for best writing in 2001 and 2002 when he was Breakdown Writer for the soap opera “As the World Turns.” He was also nominated in 2006 for Best Writing when he was Associate Head Writer on the soap “One Live to Live.” Before taking this job, he had been a writer for “The Young and the Restless” the past two years. His passion is comic books. He was offered the job on 4/15 and starts this week. He doesn’t have a background as far as being a wrestling fan, and wrestling is a unique animal (to say the least) in that soap opera elements are certainly involved (and long-term building consistent stories would be welcome but the system in play doesn’t allow for them), but you also have to be able to use the rivalries to draw money, and unless you have a wrestling background or were a fan who understood what it was that made things succeed and fail, that’s a foreign world. As it turns out, Casiello and I have a mutual acquaintance who described him as a super smart guy. During the writers strike, he became a big part of the Internet soap opera fan community.

Ziggler’s reaction to his haircut and new hair color, which was, in fact, forced on him: “I feel like Bender from Futurama, when they chopped off his antenna.”

Michaels is looking at getting into acting. He’s got an agent looking to get him into movies, television, endorsements, advertising and licensing as well as speaking engagements, branding campaigns, corporate events and public appearances. Basically he’s looking at doing much of the same stuff that Ric Flair was doing every weekend when he first left the company.

Superstar Billy Graham’s latest is that he has asked to be taken out of the WWE Hall of Fame in protest for them inducting Abdullah the Butcher, because Butcher never worked for WWE and made his reputation as a slice-and-dice wrestler. When Graham first broke into the business as Wayne Coleman in 1969 in Calgary, he was very green as a worker, so they had him do an arm wrestling gimmick where he’d arm wrestle fans at the shows in shoot matches. But his main role, because he could talk even then was as Abdullah’s manager. “I am demanding that this company remove my name from their index of Hall of Fame wrestlers. It is a shameless organization to induct a bloodthirsty animal such as Abdullah the Butcher into their worthless and embarrassing Hall of Fame and I want the name of Superstar Billy Graham to be no part of it. The WWE and their Hall of Fame is disgustingly embarrassing and I want out.” Graham also recently cut two video promos on Jericho, because in two parts of Jericho’s book, he was critical of Graham. The first was his claiming Graham tried to give him a time limit on what he could say at Eddy Guerrero’s funeral in 2005 and Jericho joked that the funeral was booked like an episode of Raw. Graham, who presided over the funeral, told him he had to go short to make sure Vince McMahon had as much time as he wanted. Jericho joked that he was going to talk as long as he wanted. The other was when Jericho talked about the media after the Benoit murders and said “Soon every has-been, never-was and wanna-be wrestler looking for some sort of face time was put on national TV as an authority on the business. Touted as `experts,’ these charlatans were encouraged to give their inside opinions on things they knew nothing about. I watched them come out of the woodwork, the majority of them more concerned with putting themselves over than discussing what had really happened.” Jericho then listed the names of Marc Mero, Brian Christopher, Ultimate Warrior, Chyna, Graham, Jacques Rougeau and Debra Marshall, “each one of them more inane and irrelevant than the last.” Graham went off on Jericho, saying he showed no respect, but it degenerated into a 70s or 80s style wrestling promo talking about Jericho’s carcass rotting in hell for telling lies and talking about how in some countries when you lie they cut off your tongue. He said if he saw Jericho he would beat the hell out of him for the “lies” he wrote in his book. This long interview included him showing photos of himself with Arnold Schwarzenegger (back in the days the two were training partners at the original Gold’s Gym when they both lived in Santa Monica) and Mil Mascaras (from Graham’s WWWF title run). This also included Graham running down Vince McMahon for, at the funeral, being critical of him for going long. This actually did happen, Vince was doing what in wrestling parlance would be called ribbing on the square, saying it in a comedic veneer but he did make fun of Graham’s long speech at the funeral. I don’t remember it being as biting as Graham described it, but him being up there, he easily could have taken it that way. It was more said to get a laugh. I know there were people who thought it wasn’t the time or place to say it. There were hundreds of people there and nobody else said a word. I don’t think one person other than Vince would have, and anyone else who did would have been viewed as very disrespectful. But it also wasn’t like it was something that really anyone was talking about when it was over. I think after maybe one person to me brought it up, if even that. Graham’s eulogy was very long. It did feel out of place when Vince said it, even though I also doubt Vince wasn’t the only person thinking it at that moment. Vince did try and present it a line for a little joke, and not a biting criticism, but did so in a way where you couldn’t not take it as criticism which is why it felt weird. And as I said, anyone but Vince saying it, it would have been taken really bad. Make no mistake, because of how the Guerrero family acted in particular, there was a feeling there that Vince was somehow more important than anyone else there. He was the only guy who could have said anything like that and gotten away with it. It was one line and I don’t mean to overplay it, because I’m guessing most there don’t even remember it. At the time, Graham was very upset and was ready to go on a Vince tirade about a week later, after it all sunk in. But he was talked out of it by his wife, since he was under contract to WWE and felt it was not worth losing his job over losing his cool. He also was critical of Vince for not canceling a show in Europe to allow all the wrestlers to attend the funeral. That was an issue at the time, and quite frankly, when the funeral was over, that was talked about by a number of people who were there, and the idea John Laurinaitis was recruiting talent and talking business before and after the funeral (Charlie Haas, who at the time was working Japan, was talked with about coming back and I think there were others). That was stuff people were rolling their eyes about. Originally, none of the WWE wrestlers except those who were out with injuries or those not being booked on the road were going to be able to attend because Guerrero died just before a two-week European tour started and the funeral was held during the tour. What happened was Chris Benoit and Rey Mysterio in particular were refusing to miss the funeral even if they got disciplined over it. At that point Vince really had no choice because you could just imagine how it would come out publicly if Vince had disciplined Benoit and Mysterio for not going to Europe because they refused to miss Guerrero’s funeral. So to avoid that, the office allowed Chavo Guerrero, Benoit, Mysterio, Dean Malenko and there may be someone I’m forgetting but it would only be one or two others, to miss the early part of the European tour and attend the funeral. Jericho was there because he at the time was not under contract. There were actually far more people from TNA there, a company he never worked for, than WWE. Vince wouldn’t let others go (Graham mentioned Dave Batista, who legitimately was close to Guerrero and wanted to attend and wasn’t allowed) because of the tour. What made that kind of bad was the office saying it would be impossible to change the tour to allow the guys to go. On a subsequent tour, they actually moved some shows around at the last minute. They wanted Smackdown guys at a Raw taping and wouldn’t have had enough top guys to run a quality Smackdown show. So the moved the show back a few days to an afternoon show. At that point, it really hit, because they had one of those last minute changes in plans and could move a show on literally no notice. But they couldn’t do so on several days notice because of Guerrero’s funeral, which most of the crew wanted to attend. Anyway, I don’t know what or how Graham said whatever Jericho said he said to him as I never heard that story until reading it in the book. Jericho has said others, including Vince, can back up his story while Graham called him a liar. Jericho also remarked that he couldn’t understand why Graham gave the speech at the funeral because he wasn’t that close to Eddie. I do remember doing an interview with Guerrero where he talked about being close to Graham having to do with religion. At the end of the day, and I’m sure she wouldn’t be happy that all these people ended up at each others throats over it, but it was a call Vickie made. I just recall Jericho gave a very nice speech that day. I don’t remember it being short and it didn’t feel rushed. But in his book he said he was going as long as he wanted to anyway. The funny part is on the same interview, when Graham was saying he was relevant to talk on the Benoit subject, noting he considered himself an expert on steroids because he had used them for decades (and a lot of the media at the time was taking the simplistic approach that Benoit killing his wife and son was somehow related to steroids) and Graham stated it wasn’t, and cited how Linda McMahon called him and thanked him for going on the shows and defending the company.

Joe “Animal” Laurinaitis said that he’s been asked to be part of the next season of NXT. He was told it would be five retired Hall of Famers coaching five newcomers. He noted that like everything in WWE, he knows it can be changed. He said that he was in FCW recently and was coaching Mason Ryan on how to get over like a big man.

Flair at WrestleMania said that he would have never come out of retirement if Michaels hadn’t given him the okay. “There’s no way I would have stepped back into the ring had I not had Shawn’s blessing. I respect him that much. But I called him before I went back. He said, `Hey, go out there and have a good time.’” When Flair was asked by friend Mike Mooneyham if he’d like to see Michaels come back, he said, “No. I hope he’s the one guy who retires and never comes back. He doesn’t need the money. He’s been wise with his money. His dad helped him invest his money over the years. I don’t even think he misses the business in that way. I think he’s so in love with his wife and his kids, and he’s so happy. Besides that, he’s had so many injuries, so why would he want to put his body through any more? He’s been through back surgery and knee surgery numerous times.” .

There's also a bunch of shit about Ireland nobody cares about.

 

[Azuran]

New creative write stuff

Man, they were really serious about the whole soap opera thing. I can't wait for the love triangle.

Ziggler quote

Just another reason why Ziggler is awesome.

 

[Net_Wrecker]

STEINER PROMO ALERT!!

 

[Professor Beef]

"I'D KILL MYSELF, THEN HANG MYSELF"

 

[Plywood]

Can't believe they would force Ziggler to become Evan Bourne 2.0.

 

[The Culture Vulture]

Just heard about Jay Lethal getting cut. What the hell....such a great worker.

 

[jobber]

ANDERSON STUNNER

*breaking glass*

 

[Bowser]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usevEWYs7X8
people used to cheer during RAW

I always cringe when I see Jericho put on the Walls to Trips towards the end...I can't imagine how that must have felt.

 

[Zhengi]

Jay Lethal and Sonjay Dutt need to be signed by the WWE.

I always thought Sonjay Dutt was a pretty damn good wrestler. WWE needs to do this. Then have them feud with Sin Cara and other guys that can work that style.

 

[Worthintendo]

I always thought Sonjay Dutt was a pretty damn good wrestler. WWE needs to do this. Then have them feud with Sin Cara and other guys that can work that style.

Thats an amazing idea, maybe they could like get all of the smaller sized guys, you know like Daniel Bryan, Evan Bourne, Tyson Kidd, Primo, Yoshi Tatsu, Justin Gaberiel, maybe hire a few more international stars from Mexico and Japan and then build a whole division around them. They could call them, I dunno Cruiserweights or something like that, have a belt for them to feud over. It would be great, you could have these awesome high flying quick matches, it would be a great showcase for the smaller talent.

Hmmm, wait this is the WWE we are talking about, probably wouldn't be a good idea, knowing the WWE they would do something stupid like having Hornswoggle win the Title in the division and then we'll never hear from it again.

 

[MightyHealthy]

Ziggler’s reaction to his haircut and new hair color, which was, in fact, forced on him: “I feel like Bender from Futurama, when they chopped off his antenna.”

Just another reason why Ziggler is awesome.

haha c/s

 

[Dr. Kitty Muffins]

All of Flair's pet projects get cut after awhile. I don't think many he has taken under his wing have survived long.

Well you could argue that Evolution turned out well but that was more of a Triple H thing.

 

[The Frankman]

I always thought Sonjay Dutt was a pretty damn good wrestler. WWE needs to do this. Then have them feud with Sin Cara and other guys that can work that style.

I always thought Sonjay Dutt was a pretty damn good wrestler. WWE needs to do this. Then have them feud with Sin Cara and other guys that can work that style.
Thats an amazing idea, maybe they could like get all of the smaller sized guys, you know like Daniel Bryan, Evan Bourne, Tyson Kidd, Primo, Yoshi Tatsu, Justin Gaberiel, maybe hire a few more international stars from Mexico and Japan and then build a whole division around them. They could call them, I dunno Cruiserweights or something like that, have a belt for them to feud over. It would be great, you could have these awesome high flying quick matches, it would be a great showcase for the smaller talent.

Hmmm, wait this is the WWE we are talking about, probably wouldn't be a good idea, knowing the WWE they would do something stupid like having Hornswoggle win the Title in the division and then we'll never hear from it again.

Imagine a division starting out with Santino/Dutt/Lethal/Sin Cara/Bourne/Kidd/Bryan/Primo/Gabriel/Yoshi/Rey Mysterio...

I said wow.

 

[Striker]

I'll stop watching RAW the day they feed Alberto Del Rio to Cena.

Frankman,
You expect too much out of the current WWE system. Half of those will become jobbers and some will appear only in joke segments.

 

[The Frankman]

Why? What has John Bradshaw Del Layfield shown outside of his ability to talk/wink/facial expressions? He's an ok wrestler but is it so surprising to see him lose to one of the top guys on RAW? You act like it'll be a squash.

 

[Striker]

Why? What has John Bradshaw Del Layfield shown outside of his ability to talk/wink/facial expressions? He's an ok wrestler but is it so surprising to see him lose to one of the top guys on RAW? You act like it'll be a squash.

I can ask you the same thing for guys like Orton and Cena. And neither guy has the ring ability or mic work ADR has.

All I'm saying is, it would be the same old shit. Same paths for each guy. They put Cena up in this corner, and always finds a way to overcome the odds. They've fed so many guys to him since '06 I've lost count. From Batista, Umaga, Great Khali, Jericho, Orton, HHH, Miz, Barrett, Sheamus, Big Show, Edge, JBL, etc. - almost ever feud has virtually gone the same sans a few guys. Should I be surprised Del Rio's going to just join the list instead of somebody *gasp* getting put over? They should've done this for Miz but booked him like shit since winning it.

 

[Net_Wrecker]

I can ask you the same thing for guys like Orton and Cena. And neither guy has the ring ability or mic work ADR has.

All I'm saying is, it would be the same old shit. Same paths for each guy. They put Cena up in this corner, and always finds a way to overcome the odds. They've fed so many guys to him since '06 I've lost count. From Batista, Umaga, Great Khali, Jericho, Orton, HHH, Miz, Barrett, Sheamus, Big Show, Edge, JBL, etc. - almost ever feud has virtually gone the same sans a few guys. Should I be surprised Del Rio's going to just join the list instead of somebody *gasp* getting put over? They should've done this for Miz but booked him like shit since winning it.

Not happening.

The WWE is so stuck in the old school roots of the face coming out on top, and the hero overcoming the odds that it's like they have no concept of letting a heel get over legitimately, even if he ultimately loses the feud. We've had so many examples of the crowd turning on vanilla faces, and start cheering badass heels that you think they would get the message by now, but Cena keeps doing the same ol' shit week in, week out.

They've lost the art of telling a compelling story with highs and lows over the course of 6+ months, so now almost every feud we see is over after 2 PPVs, or boring after a month. They have no idea how to use the majority of the roster, give up on pushes if the slightest thing goes wrong or once anyone with some pull politically gets bored, don't give guys mic time that should have some, give others mic time that should have a manager or minimal mic time, book all midcard champs weak, book all heels as cheaters (taking the easy way out since they then don't need a true gimmick), book any smalls guys as jobbers, etc. etc. etc.

*Goes back to Gears 3 beta to release steam*

 

[DyslexicAlucard]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IpxPsCy-dw

massive heel heat!



I think his wife is saying it will be miraculous if Hall survives the week.

Jesus, that host thinks he's the funniest person on the planet. I got brutal douche-chills from that whole segment, and his sycophantic guests certainly didn't help.

I hate agreeing with people like him on some topics, because I feel like I shouldn't agree with someone like that about anything.

 

[Black Republican]

can anyone remind the last time the wwe title stayed on smackdown for a while?

would be nice to see the wwe title on smackdown and the world title (ADR as champ) on Raw

 

[Dork Knight]

I'm surprised no one commented on Vince's latest batshit insane ideas in the Observer report a few posts back.

Seriously: What the hell? Instead of fixing the problems with his CORE business, he's trying to branch off and do other shit. Which, of course, is ridiculous considering is track record with anything OTHER THAN wrestling is crap.

In a way, I kinda hope he fails, because I think that's the only way the WWE is going to get better. That, or Vince's death. Paul London would laugh at that.

Speaking of Paul London...ouch:

 

[NameGenerated]

Jesus, that host thinks he's the funniest person on the planet. I got brutal douche-chills from that whole segment, and his sycophantic guests certainly didn't help.

I hate agreeing with people like him on some topics, because I feel like I shouldn't agree with someone like that about anything.

Red Eye is a comedy show.

 

[Linkhero1]

He's just a sexy Kurt.
He'll make your ankle hurt.

Seeeexyy Kurrttt

 

[siddx]

I'm surprised no one commented on Vince's latest batshit insane ideas in the Observer report a few posts back.

Seriously: What the hell? Instead of fixing the problems with his CORE business, he's trying to branch off and do other shit. Which, of course, is ridiculous considering is track record with anything OTHER THAN wrestling is crap.

In a way, I kinda hope he fails, because I think that's the only way the WWE is going to get better. That, or Vince's death. Paul London would laugh at that.

I thought I had posted a response last night but I must have closed the tab or something without hitting reply.
I may be wrong in this but the more I read about Vince, the more it strikes me that he has been lucky enough to have smart and creative people around him with big ideas. He hasn't come up with anything himself that didn't end up failing. All the big ones, Wrestlemania, Attitude Era, Austin, Hogan, and so on and so on. Things that made the company bigger, better, and more money, had nothing to do with him beyond the fact he got to say "yes or no" to them.
Maybe I am selling the guy short, maybe I am completely wrong about this, but I can help but feel like he is just a manipulative little shit who leeches off of others while trying to interject his batshit crazy ideas.

 

[Parallax]

Imagine a division starting out with Santino/Dutt/Lethal/Sin Cara/Bourne/Kidd/Bryan/Primo/Gabriel/Yoshi/Rey Mysterio...

I said wow.

i suggested something similar. apparently there shouldnt be a separate weight class for the the smaller guys to get over, they should just compete again large burly guys and cripple their movesets in the process, like what bourne and bryan are currently doing

 

[Plywood]

I'm surprised no one commented on Vince's latest batshit insane ideas in the Observer report a few posts back.
Seriously: What the hell? Instead of fixing the problems with his CORE business, he's trying to branch off and do other shit. Which, of course, is ridiculous considering is track record with anything OTHER THAN wrestling is crap.

What's there left to be said? All we can hope is that Vince doesn't bury the most known world wide wrestling action soap opera brand. The sooner he's out and Triple H takes his spot, the better. Besides, there are more important things to worry about, like Zigglers hair being ruined.

 

[Zhengi]

I'm surprised no one commented on Vince's latest batshit insane ideas in the Observer report a few posts back.

Seriously: What the hell? Instead of fixing the problems with his CORE business, he's trying to branch off and do other shit. Which, of course, is ridiculous considering is track record with anything OTHER THAN wrestling is crap.

In a way, I kinda hope he fails, because I think that's the only way the WWE is going to get better. That, or Vince's death. Paul London would laugh at that.

Speaking of Paul London...ouch:

Not much to say about that except I agree with the report that the CORRE business should be the main focus and that it should be improved. I really thought the section providing numbers as to what the age group watched the WWE was very telling. They are appealing to kids, which is completely fine, to grow their business, but they are also alienating a big group of their fans in going after them.

They really need to fix the problems that are afflicting their revenues and that is not going to happen unless they realize that there are fundamental problems with the product presented in the ring. Sadly, I have to agree with you that the WWE has to either fail miserably or have Vince give up control of the company to go in the right direction.

 

[DMczaf]

 

[Kyoufu]

What's there left to be said? All we can hope is that Vince doesn't bury the most known world wide wrestling action soap opera brand. The sooner he's out and Triple H takes his spot, the better. Besides, there are more important things to worry about, like Zigglers hair being ruined.

Too bad Triple H has to deal with Stephanie. I bet she'll want to push the company towards "Entertainment" also. :/

edit: any smackdown spoilers or is it not on this week?

 

[Plywood]

Too bad Triple H has to deal with Stephanie. I bet she'll want to push the company towards "Entertainment" also. :/

edit: any smackdown spoilers or is it not on this week?

I'm not sure, someone posted a while back both Trips and Steph had wanted to push Evan Bourne and had been fighting with Vince for a while over it but Vince didn't want to because he wasn't "big enough." I think she might not be as crazy as her father and still recognizes the company as a wrestling company.

 

[spindashing]

I'm not sure, someone posted a while back both Trips and Steph had wanted to push Evan Bourne and had been fighting with Vince for a while over it but Vince didn't want to because he wasn't "big enough." I think she might not be as crazy as her father and still recognizes the company as a wrestling company.

*Raises hand.*

Whenever Vince leaves the company, not trying to sound messed up, we're in for a treat as far as quality TV goes.*

*I do not mean the abolishing of the PG rating. I recall when there was no PG rating on WWE, Vince was actually aiming to push an incest storyline within the McMahons; he wanted to come out as the father of Stephanie's child...

 

[Moofers]

So I watched TNA Impact in its entirety. Quick refresher: I'm the guy who hasn't watched pro-wrasslin' in almost 10 years. Loved the 80's stuff as a kid, loved the "attitude" era/wcw vs. nwo stuff of the 90's in my late teens, then dropped it when Mick Foley retired for the first time around 2000 or so.

I enjoyed it. I mean it really hasn't changed much, but I like that. I realize the legends are starting to get up there in their years, but I still like seeing them. And another thing: I enjoyed the bit with Kurt Angle dumping horse shit all over Jarret and his wife. Dude, they were wearing all white outfits. It was perfect. And Jarret is such an effective heel. He's really good. I guess the bit wasn't popular on this board, but it made me laugh because it was so classic. Sure, they stole the beans thing from Seinfeld, but who cares.

The one thing I would change: The show needs a Jerry Lawler. The commentators are nuetral and nothing really special. The "coronation" ceremony needed a Lawler-type to remark about how beautiful Karen Jarret looked, brag up how lucky Jeff Jarret is, etc. The heels need a biased commentator in their corner.

I'll be tuning in next week (or taping it again, probably) and looking forward to it.

 

[bjork]

I still want WWE TV to have a reboot that takes it out of the tired "evil boss" thing and long promos. They should end Vince's run by having a storyline where he gets dementia and starts calling wrestlers by the wrong names, mistaking them for stars of the 80s or something, and he demands they make the show how he remembers it. Then he is removed, HHH/Steph can come and do whatever they'll do content-wise, but the format won't be built for drawn out entrances and dudes just standing there yammering for like 20% of the show at a time.