June Wrasslin |OT| MADNESS
- Thread starter Mr. Sam
- Start date
- Status
Rafa=FedKilla
Banned
Striker said:
Those guys should be there but they won't, Smackdown like Raw now is all about having one face and the rest being fodder for Orton
XiaNaphryz
LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
Posted yet? Saints Row 3 footage.
Mr. Enigma
Member
XiaNaphryz said:Posted yet? Saints Row 3 footage.
I used to work at a promotion with a guy who used to be a WWE developmental dude. He does motion capture for THQ for the WWE games. He said that THQ called him to do motion capture for Saints Row 3. I could see why as soon as I saw the Tornado DDT in one of the earlier videos.
Professor Beef
Banned
She was with Santino and Beth Phoenix, then was Zack Ryder's girlfriend, and now...she's just there.dream said:
AdawgDaFAB
Member
Rosa is the one who used to jump rope every week on SD.
British Monsoon
Member
Net_Wrecker said:
Yeah, same here - ever since they announced Jay Lethal would return, but those title matches definitely seal the deal. All 3 should be excellent, the tag title match I'm guessing will be especially insane. Also, I'm hoping we get some significant continuation of the Homicide/Embassy feud (Low Ki? Not getting my hopes up though) and the redemption storyline with Corino & Jacobs - both two stories that I wasn't initially bothered about, but ROH have done a great job with the promos and hype for both these storylines.
Mr. Enigma
Member
Hilarious that no one knows who Rosa Mendes. She's been in WWE since 2008. :lol
Perspicacity
Banned
Yup, especially likely given that they remixed his song again:Mr. Sam said:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-IKoSUTP5w&feature=channel_video_title
dream
Member
OKAY
The aftermath of the stroke involving Nobukazu Hirai led to a situation that forced Keiji Muto to resign as president of All Japan Pro Wrestling.
Muto, 48, announced he was leaving his post as president, but would continue his career as a wrestler (at this stage Muto works a very limited schedule due to his knee problems), and would still have an office position as one of the companys Board of Directors. Another member of the Board, Masayuki Uchida, who is not a wrestler was announced as the new president by Muto in a 6/7 press conference.
Ill take responsibility for this accident, said Muto, referring to Hirais stroke.
Other Japanese sources have noted the situation with Hirai is a lot worse than is being said publicly. Despite reports to the contrary, both printed and by Uchida, Hirai has not been responsive since his brain surgery on 5/29 in Kobe after both a dressing room fight with Yoshikazu Taru, as well as going to the ring and doing a match with Kenso (Kenzo Suzuki).
Before Mutos resignation, the company announced that three wrestlers, Minoru Tanaka (Minoru), Masayuki Kono (Kono) and Mazada have all been put on indefinite suspension by the promotion because they were in the dressing room watching the fight and did nothing to break it up. The report is that it was referee Kohei Wada who broke up the fight.
The reports are that Taru felt that Hirai was setting a bad example in the ring and as a veteran, wasnt behaving like a veteran should when it came to setting an example for the younger talent. In hindsight, people have noted trouble had been brewing between the two from the previous week on tour and that Hirai showed up to the 5/29 show in Kobe in bad shape.
This led to an argument and then the fight. Kaz Hayashi, the companys assistant booker and another board member, has been interviewing every wrestler in the dressing room who was there.
The feeling is while Hirai was not the most popular wrestler in the company, nothing like this should have ever happened, and there are obvious questions, like if he was beaten up in the dressing room, why did he go out and have a match. And then theres the question regarding the chair shot a week earlier, since Japan is still behind the United States, but like everyone, become more aware of the concussion issue, and he took a nasty chair shot to the head and didnt miss any matches. Japan and Mexico, because theres no Chris Nowinski and New York Times reporting, are aware, but its not like stiff shots to the head arent still part of wrestling there. It is also still not clear whether or not the punches to the head that Hirai received from Taru in the fight resulted in his stroke later in the evening. Still, there are all kinds of fears of lawsuits from the family of Hirai toward the company, which probably plays into the resignation of Muto.
Muto came under strong fire by the Japanese press for, as company president, not making one public comment about the incident when it happened. The feeling is Muto, as the face of the company, should have held an immediate press conference after what happened. On the morning of 6/7, we were told that he was being heavily criticized for being irresponsible in how he handled the incident and now its too late and whatever company official comment they will make is lame at this point. A few hours later, after these thoughts were being echoed publicly, Muto did announce a press conference and his resignation as president.
Going into the companys biggest show in a long time, on 6/19 at Sumo Hall, both the jr. title match with Minoru vs. Kai and the World tag team title match with Joe Doering & Kono vs. Kenso & Great Muta (Muto) are out. Officially, both the titles have been declared vacant.
They also announced that on the 6/12 show at Korakuen Hall, that Taiyo Kea & Takao Omori would face Akebono & Ryota Hama, with the winning team facing Muta & Kenso for the vacant world tag team titles on 6/19. Kai will now face the winner of a ladder match on 6/12 with Hayashi, Shuji Kondo, Hiroshi Yamato and Bushi, for the vacant jr. title. Tajiri also appears on the show in a trios match teaming with Muta & Kenso vs. Masakatsu Funaki & Minoru Suzuki & Kai.
Because of being shorthanded when it comes to the number of wrestlers appearing on the shows in recent days, the promotion has added Battle Royals to the house shows.
According to brother Lanny Poffo, the death of Randy Savage was due to heart problems.
Poffo in an interview on 6/7 on the Bright House Network in Tampa labeled the death as due to ventricular fibrillation, a type of diseased heart that can lead to a sudden heart attack. It was not made clear if that was the final verdict of the county medical examiner, who was going to do a number of tests of both internal organs and for drugs before releasing a cause of death.
Randy Mario Poffo, 58, received a full page in Sports Illustrated, a few paragraphs that Time magazine asked Vince McMahon to write and he was honored at a number of sporting events, including by at least two major league baseball teams, the New York Yankees and the Washington Nationals.
In 2007, Time did little if any coverage of the Chris Benoit story believing it was beneath it to cover something related to pro wrestling.
According to his mother Judy, when Lanny told her about the honor at Yankees Stadium, she said, Thank goodness, he finally made it to the majors.: While Savages name was made as one of the biggest stars in pro wrestling history, many who knew him still believe he would have rather been a major league baseball player.
I really believe, even after he became so big in wrestling, Randy would have traded it all to have made the big leagues, said Doug Flynn in the Lexington Herald-Leader, a teammate of his with the 1974 Tampa Tarpons, who moved up to the Cincinnati Reds the next season, and played on the World Series winning teams with Savages hero, Johnny Bench, in 1975 and 1976. Flynn went on to have an 11-year-major league career, with the New York Mets, Montreal Expos, Texas Rangers and Detroit Tigers. In 1981, Savage even worked a wrestling angle with Flynn.
Randy loved baseball, said Flynn, who said he and his wife, Olga, both broke down in tears when they heard the news.
Judy Poffo, Randys mother, told Ch. 10 news in Tampa that Randy had told her that this past year, as the he and wife Lynn (Barbara Lynn Boyd, his girlfriend from his baseball days in the early 70s) who he reconnected with a few years ago, had just celebrated their first anniversary, was the best year of his life. Lanny, however, said that Randy had gone into a deep depression last year when their father, Angelo, passed away.
Lanny Poffo categorized Randys wife as a hero, saying that his brothers foot was on the accelerator of the Jeep Wrangler when he had the fatal heart attack and she grabbed the wheel, sending the jeep into a tree to serve out of he way of a motorcyclist coming in the other direction that they would have hit head-on because he had veered across the median onto the other side of the road.
There is at least one medical journal that showed a link between long-term heavy usage of anabolic steroids with ventricular fibrillation, but that would not necessarily make it the cause, or rule it out as the cause in this case.
A private funeral was held at his home, with his ashes spread next to his favorite tree, intermixed with those of his pet dog. He had requested this before his death. He also made it clear that he didnt want Pomp and Circumstance, the song most widely associated with him, playing at his funeral. The song was his entrance music during most of his career as a national, starting in 1985. But he later felt guilty for using it, thinking he had stolen it from Gorgeous George, who used the same song as his entrance music, believed to be the first wrestler to have entrance music, more than 35 years before Savages heyday. For whatever reason, Randy ended up with an affinity for the name. Randy had purchased the rights to the Gorgeous George name in the 90s from independent wrestler Robbie Kellum (who, as part of the deal, got a job in WCW as The Maestro). Originally, Lanny was going to use the name, but he instead gave it to his then-girlfriend, Stephanie Bellars. At the time of his fathers death, Savage told Lanny that giving Bellars that name was one of the biggest regrets of his life. Bellars, for her part, after the breakup, did interviews saying said she was upset over Randy suggesting the two do a three-way with her 17-year-old sister. She also told people after the break-up that her two years with Randy were the worst years of her life.
Lanny Poffo appeared on the radio with Hillbilly Jim after the funeral and talked about how horrible it was for his mother, now 84, to witness the funeral of her oldest son. He said the ceremony was beautiful and it created closure. He said Randys wife said that Randy stated he did not want his remains in an urn and that he wanted his family there to sprinkle the ashes immediately. Randy said that he didnt want to be in an urn because he didnt want people seeing the urn and getting sad and moping around, saying life is too precious for any moments of negativity. Lanny noted that Randy was in tremendous pain, with his body breaking down and he was aging prematurely, likely due to the various abuses he did to it with his hard style during his wrestling career, noting he was suffering from neck problems (from doing the movie Spider-Man, knee problems (which for the most part ended his career) and back problems.
Lanny also noted an incident when David Sammartino felt that his fathers falling out with Vince McMahon ruined his career. Lanny said he told David that was stupid. Lanny said if Davids father wasnt Bruno Sammartino and if his brother wasnt Randy Savage, neither of them wouldnt have even had jobs carrying jackets back to the dressing room.
But to most, Randy was a tough person to know. After the August 2007 death of Brian Adams, it isnt believed he was in contact with anyone in wrestling aside from his brother. He never did conventions, and while he was never welcomed back to WWE, there would have been numerous opportunities for him, whether in TNA or elsewhere, had he had any interest.
Whatever the issues were between Randy and Vince McMahon, it was something Vince McMahon found out after 1999. When Savages first contract with WCW expired in 1996, he was in talks with both sides, and renewed with WCW because they gave the best offer. The same thing happened in 1999, when his second deal with WCW expired. At that point, Savage was asking for a multi-million dollar per year contract, figuring that if Hulk Hogan, Bret Hart, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall and Sting were earning more than seven figures guaranteed, that he should be in the same category. Neither WCW nor WWF would meet his demands, and for the most part he left WCW in 1999 after a match with Dennis Rodman on the August Road Wild PPV show. At that point there was a house show run with Savage & Sid Vicious vs. Hulk Hogan & Sting, but Savage, who had already worked more than the allotted maximum number of dates for 1999 on his contract even though it was only August, was able to legally leave before his contract was up. This actually led to some Hogan vs. Bret Hart house show matches in California.
He came back for two appearances in 2000, once he got paid a huge amount of money to work a house show as an emergency replacement when so many headliners were injured. Weeks later, he showed up out of nowhere in a Battle Royal on Thunder where he attacked members of the New Blood, a WCW heel group at the time.
After 2001, Vince McMahon would not even entertain any ideas regarding Savage, whether it be television appearances or angles, the Hall of Fame, or merchandise ideas. Eventually, after the idea being tabled nearly every year, McMahon did agree to do a DVD in 2009. Macho Madness, which had no documentary, no involvement of Savage, and was just a series of matches, but still won the Observers DVD of the year award that year. He did not block THQ and Mattels ideas to merchandise Savage in the WWE All-Stars video game this year, and in a nostalgia action figure line, but it was in both cases, his business partners ideas, not his. Savage didnt say much publicly, but did say on a number of occasions he would like to be in the WWE Hall of Fame.
Whatever the true reason was, the only thing for sure is the attempts by those to give other explanations held no water. Roddy Piper saying it was because Savage slapped Vince makes no sense because there is no way a story like that could have ever stayed under wraps, plus Vince would hardly hold a grudge over that, and the two never met after 2001 and McMahon and WWF at two points were in talks of bringing him back. The story that he was so heartbroken about how Savage left without giving notice also makes no sense given he had the best sendoff of any wrestler who left the promotion of that era, was negotiated with after the fact, and that every major name who he believed had wronged him in business at one point or another he brought back, even those he swore he never would, such as Hulk Hogan, on multiple occasions.
In the 6/6 issue of Time, Vinces article consisted of two paragraphs. Whether this was written by him or by the P.R. department, it was notable because he used the word wrestling and sports, or at least gave the okay for those words to be used:
Its important in sports and its important in entertainment to stand out. Randy knew that. Right away, he wanted to leave his mark, and to do that he was aware he had to make himself different from everyone else. One way he did this was concentrating on his outfits, those brightly colored costumes with foot-long fringe that became his trademark. He brought to wrestling a unique look and style.
Randy, who died in a car crash May 20 at age 58, was one of the building blocks of what is now WWE (previously known as the World Wrestling Federation). He had a very unusual voiceremember his `Snap into a Slim Jim. Oh yeah! commercials?, and was extremely charismatic. Perception is very important in this business, and he also had a very high opinion of himself, something he needed in a locker room full of performers who had been around for a while and had big personalities and followingslike Hulk Hogan. Today, Randy is remembered as one of the wrestlings all-time greats. No question about ithe certainly was.
Over the past decade, there were a few teases of him coming back, but he only did one more match, working about ten seconds in a trios match on a TNA PPV show before quitting prior to a scheduled title match PPV run with Jeff Jarrett. He had been in talks with Jerry Jarrett to be one of the major stars when TNA started in 2002, only to change his mind about returning at the last minute. He was also booked and advertised for a tour of Australia in 2002 for Andrew McManus, which included a tape delayed PPV to North America. Once again, Savage pulled out at the last minute.
There was a lot of publicity in Lexington, where Savage lived in the ICW years, working in a small family promotion that was the bridge between him being a skinny, but strong in-ring performer, and becoming one of the most muscular and best all-around talents in the industry, even though he was largely a secret to most fans.
Raw on 6/6 did a 3.21 rating and 4.96 million viewers. The number has to be considered disappointing since there was no NBA game against it, had a stronger than usual lead-in with a higher rated Tough Enough, and Steve Austin and Vince McMahon were both on the show, with Austin refereeing in the main event.
In the segment-by-segment, the opening segment with Vince & Austin and the Tough Enough winners, followed by R-Truth and Miz coming out for a promo did a 3.89 quarter and was the highest rated segment on the show.
John Cena coming out for his interview and the end of the first segment interview, plus Santino Marella vs. Michael McGillicutty lost 609,000 viewers. Not to blame anyone in specific, but after the first segment, there was a race to turn off that show like no show in history. Kelly Kelly & Beth Phoenix vs. Bella Twins followed by losing 758,000 viewers. Rey Mysterio vs. C.M. Punk gained 250,000 viewers to a 3.17, which is weak for the top of the hour. The Alberto Del Rio & Ricardo Rodriguez mocking of Big Show, plus Kofi Kingston vs. Zack Ryder lost 5,000 viewers. Booker T vs. Jack Swagger lost 100,000 viewers. The Cena & Alex Riley vs. Miz & R-Truth, with Steve Austin as ref match, gained 555,000 viewers to a 3.46 overrun.
Impact on 6/2 did a 1.09 rating and 1.45 million viewers. The drop was hardly a surprise given the Dallas vs. Miami game that went head-to-head had 15.2 million viewers. The show did a 0.70 in Males 18-34 and 0.96 in Males 35-49, so the drop was strongest from usual in the 35-49 group. It did win its time slot in Males 18-49.
In the segment-by-segment, Eric Bischoffs calling Beer Money to the ring and Alex Shelly coming out to become James Storms interim partner gained 13,000 viewers. Matt Hardy vs. Crimson and Mr. Anderson working with Eric Young lost 13,000 viewers. Angelina Love vs. Miss Tessmacher lost 120,000 viewers to a show low 0.97 rating. Mr. Anderson as Sting vs. Eric Young as Fake Muta gained 226,000 viewers for the biggest rise. Kazarian vs. Brian Kendrick gained 93,000 viewers and did the shows high rating at 1.21. Jeff Jarrett & Scott Steiner vs. Kurt Angle & Matt Morgan lost 133,000 viewers. And the final segment which was Hogan and Bischoff in the ring with the reveal that Mick Foley was fired gained 25,000 viewers and did a 1.13 final quarter.
The aftermath of the stroke involving Nobukazu Hirai led to a situation that forced Keiji Muto to resign as president of All Japan Pro Wrestling.
Muto, 48, announced he was leaving his post as president, but would continue his career as a wrestler (at this stage Muto works a very limited schedule due to his knee problems), and would still have an office position as one of the companys Board of Directors. Another member of the Board, Masayuki Uchida, who is not a wrestler was announced as the new president by Muto in a 6/7 press conference.
Ill take responsibility for this accident, said Muto, referring to Hirais stroke.
Other Japanese sources have noted the situation with Hirai is a lot worse than is being said publicly. Despite reports to the contrary, both printed and by Uchida, Hirai has not been responsive since his brain surgery on 5/29 in Kobe after both a dressing room fight with Yoshikazu Taru, as well as going to the ring and doing a match with Kenso (Kenzo Suzuki).
Before Mutos resignation, the company announced that three wrestlers, Minoru Tanaka (Minoru), Masayuki Kono (Kono) and Mazada have all been put on indefinite suspension by the promotion because they were in the dressing room watching the fight and did nothing to break it up. The report is that it was referee Kohei Wada who broke up the fight.
The reports are that Taru felt that Hirai was setting a bad example in the ring and as a veteran, wasnt behaving like a veteran should when it came to setting an example for the younger talent. In hindsight, people have noted trouble had been brewing between the two from the previous week on tour and that Hirai showed up to the 5/29 show in Kobe in bad shape.
This led to an argument and then the fight. Kaz Hayashi, the companys assistant booker and another board member, has been interviewing every wrestler in the dressing room who was there.
The feeling is while Hirai was not the most popular wrestler in the company, nothing like this should have ever happened, and there are obvious questions, like if he was beaten up in the dressing room, why did he go out and have a match. And then theres the question regarding the chair shot a week earlier, since Japan is still behind the United States, but like everyone, become more aware of the concussion issue, and he took a nasty chair shot to the head and didnt miss any matches. Japan and Mexico, because theres no Chris Nowinski and New York Times reporting, are aware, but its not like stiff shots to the head arent still part of wrestling there. It is also still not clear whether or not the punches to the head that Hirai received from Taru in the fight resulted in his stroke later in the evening. Still, there are all kinds of fears of lawsuits from the family of Hirai toward the company, which probably plays into the resignation of Muto.
Muto came under strong fire by the Japanese press for, as company president, not making one public comment about the incident when it happened. The feeling is Muto, as the face of the company, should have held an immediate press conference after what happened. On the morning of 6/7, we were told that he was being heavily criticized for being irresponsible in how he handled the incident and now its too late and whatever company official comment they will make is lame at this point. A few hours later, after these thoughts were being echoed publicly, Muto did announce a press conference and his resignation as president.
Going into the companys biggest show in a long time, on 6/19 at Sumo Hall, both the jr. title match with Minoru vs. Kai and the World tag team title match with Joe Doering & Kono vs. Kenso & Great Muta (Muto) are out. Officially, both the titles have been declared vacant.
They also announced that on the 6/12 show at Korakuen Hall, that Taiyo Kea & Takao Omori would face Akebono & Ryota Hama, with the winning team facing Muta & Kenso for the vacant world tag team titles on 6/19. Kai will now face the winner of a ladder match on 6/12 with Hayashi, Shuji Kondo, Hiroshi Yamato and Bushi, for the vacant jr. title. Tajiri also appears on the show in a trios match teaming with Muta & Kenso vs. Masakatsu Funaki & Minoru Suzuki & Kai.
Because of being shorthanded when it comes to the number of wrestlers appearing on the shows in recent days, the promotion has added Battle Royals to the house shows.
According to brother Lanny Poffo, the death of Randy Savage was due to heart problems.
Poffo in an interview on 6/7 on the Bright House Network in Tampa labeled the death as due to ventricular fibrillation, a type of diseased heart that can lead to a sudden heart attack. It was not made clear if that was the final verdict of the county medical examiner, who was going to do a number of tests of both internal organs and for drugs before releasing a cause of death.
Randy Mario Poffo, 58, received a full page in Sports Illustrated, a few paragraphs that Time magazine asked Vince McMahon to write and he was honored at a number of sporting events, including by at least two major league baseball teams, the New York Yankees and the Washington Nationals.
In 2007, Time did little if any coverage of the Chris Benoit story believing it was beneath it to cover something related to pro wrestling.
According to his mother Judy, when Lanny told her about the honor at Yankees Stadium, she said, Thank goodness, he finally made it to the majors.: While Savages name was made as one of the biggest stars in pro wrestling history, many who knew him still believe he would have rather been a major league baseball player.
I really believe, even after he became so big in wrestling, Randy would have traded it all to have made the big leagues, said Doug Flynn in the Lexington Herald-Leader, a teammate of his with the 1974 Tampa Tarpons, who moved up to the Cincinnati Reds the next season, and played on the World Series winning teams with Savages hero, Johnny Bench, in 1975 and 1976. Flynn went on to have an 11-year-major league career, with the New York Mets, Montreal Expos, Texas Rangers and Detroit Tigers. In 1981, Savage even worked a wrestling angle with Flynn.
Randy loved baseball, said Flynn, who said he and his wife, Olga, both broke down in tears when they heard the news.
Judy Poffo, Randys mother, told Ch. 10 news in Tampa that Randy had told her that this past year, as the he and wife Lynn (Barbara Lynn Boyd, his girlfriend from his baseball days in the early 70s) who he reconnected with a few years ago, had just celebrated their first anniversary, was the best year of his life. Lanny, however, said that Randy had gone into a deep depression last year when their father, Angelo, passed away.
Lanny Poffo categorized Randys wife as a hero, saying that his brothers foot was on the accelerator of the Jeep Wrangler when he had the fatal heart attack and she grabbed the wheel, sending the jeep into a tree to serve out of he way of a motorcyclist coming in the other direction that they would have hit head-on because he had veered across the median onto the other side of the road.
There is at least one medical journal that showed a link between long-term heavy usage of anabolic steroids with ventricular fibrillation, but that would not necessarily make it the cause, or rule it out as the cause in this case.
A private funeral was held at his home, with his ashes spread next to his favorite tree, intermixed with those of his pet dog. He had requested this before his death. He also made it clear that he didnt want Pomp and Circumstance, the song most widely associated with him, playing at his funeral. The song was his entrance music during most of his career as a national, starting in 1985. But he later felt guilty for using it, thinking he had stolen it from Gorgeous George, who used the same song as his entrance music, believed to be the first wrestler to have entrance music, more than 35 years before Savages heyday. For whatever reason, Randy ended up with an affinity for the name. Randy had purchased the rights to the Gorgeous George name in the 90s from independent wrestler Robbie Kellum (who, as part of the deal, got a job in WCW as The Maestro). Originally, Lanny was going to use the name, but he instead gave it to his then-girlfriend, Stephanie Bellars. At the time of his fathers death, Savage told Lanny that giving Bellars that name was one of the biggest regrets of his life. Bellars, for her part, after the breakup, did interviews saying said she was upset over Randy suggesting the two do a three-way with her 17-year-old sister. She also told people after the break-up that her two years with Randy were the worst years of her life.
Lanny Poffo appeared on the radio with Hillbilly Jim after the funeral and talked about how horrible it was for his mother, now 84, to witness the funeral of her oldest son. He said the ceremony was beautiful and it created closure. He said Randys wife said that Randy stated he did not want his remains in an urn and that he wanted his family there to sprinkle the ashes immediately. Randy said that he didnt want to be in an urn because he didnt want people seeing the urn and getting sad and moping around, saying life is too precious for any moments of negativity. Lanny noted that Randy was in tremendous pain, with his body breaking down and he was aging prematurely, likely due to the various abuses he did to it with his hard style during his wrestling career, noting he was suffering from neck problems (from doing the movie Spider-Man, knee problems (which for the most part ended his career) and back problems.
Lanny also noted an incident when David Sammartino felt that his fathers falling out with Vince McMahon ruined his career. Lanny said he told David that was stupid. Lanny said if Davids father wasnt Bruno Sammartino and if his brother wasnt Randy Savage, neither of them wouldnt have even had jobs carrying jackets back to the dressing room.
But to most, Randy was a tough person to know. After the August 2007 death of Brian Adams, it isnt believed he was in contact with anyone in wrestling aside from his brother. He never did conventions, and while he was never welcomed back to WWE, there would have been numerous opportunities for him, whether in TNA or elsewhere, had he had any interest.
Whatever the issues were between Randy and Vince McMahon, it was something Vince McMahon found out after 1999. When Savages first contract with WCW expired in 1996, he was in talks with both sides, and renewed with WCW because they gave the best offer. The same thing happened in 1999, when his second deal with WCW expired. At that point, Savage was asking for a multi-million dollar per year contract, figuring that if Hulk Hogan, Bret Hart, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall and Sting were earning more than seven figures guaranteed, that he should be in the same category. Neither WCW nor WWF would meet his demands, and for the most part he left WCW in 1999 after a match with Dennis Rodman on the August Road Wild PPV show. At that point there was a house show run with Savage & Sid Vicious vs. Hulk Hogan & Sting, but Savage, who had already worked more than the allotted maximum number of dates for 1999 on his contract even though it was only August, was able to legally leave before his contract was up. This actually led to some Hogan vs. Bret Hart house show matches in California.
He came back for two appearances in 2000, once he got paid a huge amount of money to work a house show as an emergency replacement when so many headliners were injured. Weeks later, he showed up out of nowhere in a Battle Royal on Thunder where he attacked members of the New Blood, a WCW heel group at the time.
After 2001, Vince McMahon would not even entertain any ideas regarding Savage, whether it be television appearances or angles, the Hall of Fame, or merchandise ideas. Eventually, after the idea being tabled nearly every year, McMahon did agree to do a DVD in 2009. Macho Madness, which had no documentary, no involvement of Savage, and was just a series of matches, but still won the Observers DVD of the year award that year. He did not block THQ and Mattels ideas to merchandise Savage in the WWE All-Stars video game this year, and in a nostalgia action figure line, but it was in both cases, his business partners ideas, not his. Savage didnt say much publicly, but did say on a number of occasions he would like to be in the WWE Hall of Fame.
Whatever the true reason was, the only thing for sure is the attempts by those to give other explanations held no water. Roddy Piper saying it was because Savage slapped Vince makes no sense because there is no way a story like that could have ever stayed under wraps, plus Vince would hardly hold a grudge over that, and the two never met after 2001 and McMahon and WWF at two points were in talks of bringing him back. The story that he was so heartbroken about how Savage left without giving notice also makes no sense given he had the best sendoff of any wrestler who left the promotion of that era, was negotiated with after the fact, and that every major name who he believed had wronged him in business at one point or another he brought back, even those he swore he never would, such as Hulk Hogan, on multiple occasions.
In the 6/6 issue of Time, Vinces article consisted of two paragraphs. Whether this was written by him or by the P.R. department, it was notable because he used the word wrestling and sports, or at least gave the okay for those words to be used:
Its important in sports and its important in entertainment to stand out. Randy knew that. Right away, he wanted to leave his mark, and to do that he was aware he had to make himself different from everyone else. One way he did this was concentrating on his outfits, those brightly colored costumes with foot-long fringe that became his trademark. He brought to wrestling a unique look and style.
Randy, who died in a car crash May 20 at age 58, was one of the building blocks of what is now WWE (previously known as the World Wrestling Federation). He had a very unusual voiceremember his `Snap into a Slim Jim. Oh yeah! commercials?, and was extremely charismatic. Perception is very important in this business, and he also had a very high opinion of himself, something he needed in a locker room full of performers who had been around for a while and had big personalities and followingslike Hulk Hogan. Today, Randy is remembered as one of the wrestlings all-time greats. No question about ithe certainly was.
Over the past decade, there were a few teases of him coming back, but he only did one more match, working about ten seconds in a trios match on a TNA PPV show before quitting prior to a scheduled title match PPV run with Jeff Jarrett. He had been in talks with Jerry Jarrett to be one of the major stars when TNA started in 2002, only to change his mind about returning at the last minute. He was also booked and advertised for a tour of Australia in 2002 for Andrew McManus, which included a tape delayed PPV to North America. Once again, Savage pulled out at the last minute.
There was a lot of publicity in Lexington, where Savage lived in the ICW years, working in a small family promotion that was the bridge between him being a skinny, but strong in-ring performer, and becoming one of the most muscular and best all-around talents in the industry, even though he was largely a secret to most fans.
Raw on 6/6 did a 3.21 rating and 4.96 million viewers. The number has to be considered disappointing since there was no NBA game against it, had a stronger than usual lead-in with a higher rated Tough Enough, and Steve Austin and Vince McMahon were both on the show, with Austin refereeing in the main event.
In the segment-by-segment, the opening segment with Vince & Austin and the Tough Enough winners, followed by R-Truth and Miz coming out for a promo did a 3.89 quarter and was the highest rated segment on the show.
John Cena coming out for his interview and the end of the first segment interview, plus Santino Marella vs. Michael McGillicutty lost 609,000 viewers. Not to blame anyone in specific, but after the first segment, there was a race to turn off that show like no show in history. Kelly Kelly & Beth Phoenix vs. Bella Twins followed by losing 758,000 viewers. Rey Mysterio vs. C.M. Punk gained 250,000 viewers to a 3.17, which is weak for the top of the hour. The Alberto Del Rio & Ricardo Rodriguez mocking of Big Show, plus Kofi Kingston vs. Zack Ryder lost 5,000 viewers. Booker T vs. Jack Swagger lost 100,000 viewers. The Cena & Alex Riley vs. Miz & R-Truth, with Steve Austin as ref match, gained 555,000 viewers to a 3.46 overrun.
Impact on 6/2 did a 1.09 rating and 1.45 million viewers. The drop was hardly a surprise given the Dallas vs. Miami game that went head-to-head had 15.2 million viewers. The show did a 0.70 in Males 18-34 and 0.96 in Males 35-49, so the drop was strongest from usual in the 35-49 group. It did win its time slot in Males 18-49.
In the segment-by-segment, Eric Bischoffs calling Beer Money to the ring and Alex Shelly coming out to become James Storms interim partner gained 13,000 viewers. Matt Hardy vs. Crimson and Mr. Anderson working with Eric Young lost 13,000 viewers. Angelina Love vs. Miss Tessmacher lost 120,000 viewers to a show low 0.97 rating. Mr. Anderson as Sting vs. Eric Young as Fake Muta gained 226,000 viewers for the biggest rise. Kazarian vs. Brian Kendrick gained 93,000 viewers and did the shows high rating at 1.21. Jeff Jarrett & Scott Steiner vs. Kurt Angle & Matt Morgan lost 133,000 viewers. And the final segment which was Hogan and Bischoff in the ring with the reveal that Mick Foley was fired gained 25,000 viewers and did a 1.13 final quarter.
dream
Member
Adam Pearces career inside the ring may also be over. He said his neck is 100% but he has nerve damage from the same fall where he sprained his neck. He said at one point he was unable to feel a large part of his upper chest, shoulder and arm, but a lot of it has come back to the point he usually doesnt notice any problems and feels normal most of the time. He said hes fine in every-day situations. He said he expects that his doctors will tell him returning as an active wrestler is a bad idea, but he also wants to leave on his own terms and when hes done he can look back and say that hes done all he could do. He said on 6/24 he would announce if he would return or retire. For what its worth, Pearce is being advertised for the main event on the annual NWA show at the Ohio State Fair Coliseum on 7/31, facing The Sheik for Sheiks NWA title.
Steve Karels first taping of the Urban Wrestling Federation, the promotion using major hip hop stars in conjunction with wrestling matches, took place on 6/3 at the Hammerstein Ballroom in Manhattan. It only drew 300 fans, and much of that papered, for a series of PPV tapings for one hour shows that start on regular PPV on 6/26. The rap stars taped promos all over the city. They also did some filming of brawls in a night club where they used fire and tons of weapons while the members of each team watched, another brawl taped in a back alley. Wrestlers were told not to wear usual wrestling wear but wearing more contemporary street wear. The performers were told of a second taping in October in Miami. As noted, it was like BETs Iron Ring, only more violent as you have far more leeway in what you can do on a pro wrestling show than an MMA show. Billy Blue, Big Block, Uncle Murda and Brisco were among the rappers appearing. They had a tournament for the UWF title which came down to a four-way with Homicide (who the crowd saw as the biggest star), Ricky Reyes, Bestia (Damian 666's son Bestia 666 from Tijuana) and Rasche Brown. The crowd hated when Homicide was eliminated. It came down to Reyes vs. Brown with Brown winning via spear. Brown was from Big Blocks team and the team was in the ring smoking cigars after the match. The crowd was described as neither hot nor quiet. Reyes, the SATs and former WWE wrestler Ricky Ortiz were the ones who got the best reactions. The promotion spent a ton of money, with people staying at one of the nicest hotels in the city and all the talent had limo service. We were told the talent was given six month non-compete contracts, which means Homicide wont be working in ROH or Dragon Gate USA any longer.
Scott Hall appeared at a show on 6/4 in Sanford, FL, unadvertised. He needed help getting into the ring but in speaking, he was in tons better shape than in his last public appearance which was that ill-fated Fall River, MA, iPPV show. His friends note that Hall is doing a lot better than a month ago when they were fearing answering the phone thinking it would be that call."
The 12th annual Gathering of the Juggalos promoted by Insane Clown Posse takes place 8/11 to 8/14 at Cave-In-Rock, IL. This includes concerts with all kinds of name bands and performers like Busta Rhymes, ICP, Czibit, Vanilla Ice, Saliva, MC Hammer, Twiztid. One of the themes this year is the Legends of Wrestling, with a main event of Terry Funk (who will be 67 at that time) vs. Roddy Piper (who is 57). Funk and Piper have only wrestled once before in a singles match, in 1983 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. Also booked for the weekend include Jerry Lawler, Ricky Morton, Robert Gibson, Honky Tonk Man, Bob Orton Jr., Koko Ware, Tammy Sytch, Jim Duggan, Chyna, X-Pac, Mick Foley, Scott Hall, Raven, Booker T, Viscera and Tank Abbott.
Mick Foley looks to be done with the promotion unless there is a surprising reconciliation. Thats where the storyline of him being fired as the Network liaison to TNA came in. The story as it played out on television made absolutely no sense, they spend months building up Foley coming in to turn things around, and then after hes revealed, hes not there the next week, makes a speech the week after once again pushing that wrestling matters, and then is fired the week after that. Foley had asked TNA to be released early from his contract based on creative differences over the direction of the company. TNA has verbally have agreed to do so but at press time the release wasnt official. Hes not going to talk about it at least until being released, and it wouldnt surprise me if TNA insisted that he doesnt talk about it in exchange for taking the early release. Those on the TNA side indicated that feelings were mutual by this point. Foleys contract expires in September and he had hinted some time back that he didnt think he would renew it and had openly talked about returning to WWE. He was back tweeting this week about how Alex Riley is his favorite new character in wrestling. He also wrote regarding his departure, I pushed hard for changes I felt would benefit Impact Wrestling. I can understand how some would interpret that as difficult to work with. Before returning, Foley had given a lot of thought in what he thought were issues that could be improved with the company and wanted to present ideas, which I sensed was his last-ditch effort to mentally be into the product. The problem with Foley, if this is a problem, is that he can never be truly happy being part of the just cash the check mentality if the company hes with isnt doing well. Actually, there are many in the company who have a hard time with that mentality, but its become the prevalent one because any other mentality in TNA and youll end up driving yourself crazy. Ive really sensed a deal where people who were always thinking wrestling that work here pretty much shut it off and dont even think about it between tours or tapings.
Foley said that if he was asked, he would go into the WWE Hall of Fame. He said that in 2003, they were talking about inducting him but for whatever reason, it didnt happen. He said he used to go back-and-forth on whether he would want to go in, but said when WWE plugged his book on the air, that was the game changer in his mind. Foley, who has studied up on concussions due to his own issues, considering what he made his career on, said he believes unprotected chair shots to the head shouldnt be part of wrestling. There is no way that people should take an unprotected chair shot. Honestly, there is room in a match for a guy to get a hit and get his hands up and he should be fine. Its just not good, and I think that the WWE has shown that you dont need those chair shots. It was overused. It was an easy pop, guaranteed reaction and they have shown that when you use it sparingly, as in The Undertaker-HHH match at WrestleMania, that a chair really means something. I dont think you will see guys do stuff that is quite as wild, but I always felt that with head injuries, repetitive trauma of moves in the ring, and not necessarily moves outside the ring, were more to blame."
According to those at RAINN, Mick Foley got 700 individuals total to contribute $120,491.89 in his fund raising campaign in April and May. Both TNA and WWE contributed $10,000 each.
Right now there area lot of creative issues as the Hulk Hogan/Eric Bischoff contingent is openly complaining about the writing of Vince Russo, but Russo is pretty much locked in place because Dixie Carter feels a loyalty to him. And theres also Jeff Jarrett, who is frustrated with Russo after years of being the guy defending him.
With Foley gone, it looks like they are going back to Sting as the point man and Hogan and Bischoff are back in control like the last two months of television was just a dream. The entire name change and rebranding campaign and advertising campaign based on Wrestling Matters yielded no results given that the key thing about the show since the campaign started is that the wrestling doesnt matter.
The idea right now is to elevate Gunner, Bobby Roode and Crimson to top positions. That explained why Gunner got to pin Sting on the show that airs on 6/8, even though Sting is world champion and defending against Mr. Anderson. It doesnt explain why Anderson lost on the 6/1 show to Eric Young as The Not So Great Muta before his title shot on PPV. Well, other than it proves the match results are unpredictable. Geez, you can just draw high card or roll dice and choose winners and losers if you dont want to make any sense and youll give nobody momentum and build nothing. You wont make any money, but youll be unpredictable. Roode is the most ready of the three but in a sense, since hes been around for so long in the middle, there is concern hell be the hardest to elevate. People are high on Crimson because hes got size, good intensity and hes not that bad given his level of experience. But thus far, its not like the crowd has taken to him as something special.
Chyna claimed to TMZ that she was told TNA wasnt interested in using her again due to the porn tape with her that was being released. The original story was for one TV and one PPV match. She claimed she was told that if her new X rated sex tape comes out, that she would never be allowed to work for the promotion. She has also said shes looking for a multi-tape deal from Vivid Video to continue doing porn. I would definitely like to do more. It gives me motivation again. I want to be better and happier than ever. Thats the point, right?
Cena is said to be beaten up far worse than is being let on, with persistent neck and hip issues as well as elbow problems.
There has been talk of taking the WWE Magazine to a strictly digital format to save money. The print edition has been right at break-even for the past few years, with constant price increases the only thing keeping it from losing money as sales have been consistently falling.
Regarding the proposed WWE television station, the word is that the ideas of what to do with the station are constantly changing and nobody knows what Vince McMahons vision for it is. Its said that its not getting the commitment from the cable industry they had hoped for and there is talk of pushing more in the direction of a channel that would have things available on Xbox and Roku.
Regarding the name change of the video game to WWE 12, another reason it was done is because the game has undergone significant software changes this year. Having a singular person cover (Orton) is also a new approach. Orton is expected to be heavily involved in marketing the game.
While everyone is expecting a complete revamping of the developmental system, nobody seems to have a clue what changes will be made. There are those who are saying the current system is not giving the company a return for their money. A lot of people expect Kevin Nash and Sean Waltman to be involved in whatever revamping goes on because HHH trusts them to give him straight answers on talent. I dont know about Nashs eye for talent. I just recall over the years him being one of those guys who would use the lines like turning heads at the airport or that one about how guys on top should be guys who guys think are cool and women want to fuck (such as burying making Mick Foley in 1999 with that one, even though Foley ended up being a far bigger star and draw than 99% of the guys who fit into the supposed category of what a champion should be) and given the nature of people who get over in this business, the shallow mind set to talent analysis may be cool in the locker room but isnt always the best way to evaluate talent. Whenever you have narrow views on who can make it, studying history, youre going to miss far too many people who have ended up being very successful. Nash is the one who came up with the term Vanilla Midgets for Eddy Guerrero and Chris Benoit, which a lot of people chuckled at, but it was not building new guys for the top that started the decline to oblivion of WCW.
Miz was injured at the 6/5 house show in Charlottesville, VA, in a match with Riley, but still worked Raw the next day and didnt look bad. The word from those on the road was that he had suffered a broken nose. What we do know is that he was bleeding like crazy from the nose. On TV, his nose didnt look broken nor did he have the puffiness and black eyes associated with a broken nose, so it may have been something where they thought it was broken and it wasnt, or that they did a great job of resetting the nose and make-up (that was the story going around the next day). I think they need to avoid spots in matches where Riley nails Miz in the head because on Raw the next day, it was the second day he was too obvious about wanting no part of it. This is not a criticism of Miz, but the spot on the Over the Limit PPV where Riley hit him with a belt shot which led to Cenas comeback, Miz turned his head not to take the shot. And then on Raw, he was supposed to get hit with the briefcase and it looked bad because he backed away and the briefcase came nowhere near him. Now, he is just getting over a concussion in early April and even though cleared, hes probably smart for not wanting to take anything to the head. Plus on Raw, he was coming off taking something in his match and being hurt. After all weve learned in the last few years, the old-school mentality of taking it when it comes to head shots, particularly coming off a concussion, has to be thrown out the window. But when you do a spot and its going to look bad because of it, they should probably come up with a different way rather than something to the head to get to where they want to go.
The reason they are opening an office in India is very interesting. The company is heavily targeting Indians (as in those from India, not Native Americans) and Latinos for the future. While there is a feeling that due to the economy in India, that they may never tour there, or rarely tour there, the idea is that Indians will be coming over to the U.S. in greater numbers over the next decade and be a stronger part of the middle class. The idea is if they get wrestling big on television there, with stars aimed at that demo, when those people come to the U.S., culturally they wont be familiar with much but they will have familiarity with WWE. Thats one of the reasons theyve moved Khali from being a minor character to trying to get him and Mahal to be a serious tag team and eventually be babyfaces at some point. They are also looking at getting more talent from India for that reason. Its the same mentality as why Lucha Libre in the past had drawn well in parts of the U.S., and the feeling since WWE has replaced Lucha Libre in the culture in Mexico, that people who come in from Mexico will be more likely to be stronger fans. There is also an interesting push to get into Brazil, because of the feeling with the Olympics, that Brazil is an emerging economy. What makes Brazil such a unique market is that unlike with so many markets where UFC follows WWE, this is a market familiar with MMA, and the question becomes can WWE follow a market already entrenched in UFC, particularly when that country already has its stars like Anderson Silva and Vitor Belfort culturally.
With Striker scheduled to move back to managing, Booker T has taken his spot as an announcer on Superstars.
Steve Karels first taping of the Urban Wrestling Federation, the promotion using major hip hop stars in conjunction with wrestling matches, took place on 6/3 at the Hammerstein Ballroom in Manhattan. It only drew 300 fans, and much of that papered, for a series of PPV tapings for one hour shows that start on regular PPV on 6/26. The rap stars taped promos all over the city. They also did some filming of brawls in a night club where they used fire and tons of weapons while the members of each team watched, another brawl taped in a back alley. Wrestlers were told not to wear usual wrestling wear but wearing more contemporary street wear. The performers were told of a second taping in October in Miami. As noted, it was like BETs Iron Ring, only more violent as you have far more leeway in what you can do on a pro wrestling show than an MMA show. Billy Blue, Big Block, Uncle Murda and Brisco were among the rappers appearing. They had a tournament for the UWF title which came down to a four-way with Homicide (who the crowd saw as the biggest star), Ricky Reyes, Bestia (Damian 666's son Bestia 666 from Tijuana) and Rasche Brown. The crowd hated when Homicide was eliminated. It came down to Reyes vs. Brown with Brown winning via spear. Brown was from Big Blocks team and the team was in the ring smoking cigars after the match. The crowd was described as neither hot nor quiet. Reyes, the SATs and former WWE wrestler Ricky Ortiz were the ones who got the best reactions. The promotion spent a ton of money, with people staying at one of the nicest hotels in the city and all the talent had limo service. We were told the talent was given six month non-compete contracts, which means Homicide wont be working in ROH or Dragon Gate USA any longer.
Scott Hall appeared at a show on 6/4 in Sanford, FL, unadvertised. He needed help getting into the ring but in speaking, he was in tons better shape than in his last public appearance which was that ill-fated Fall River, MA, iPPV show. His friends note that Hall is doing a lot better than a month ago when they were fearing answering the phone thinking it would be that call."
The 12th annual Gathering of the Juggalos promoted by Insane Clown Posse takes place 8/11 to 8/14 at Cave-In-Rock, IL. This includes concerts with all kinds of name bands and performers like Busta Rhymes, ICP, Czibit, Vanilla Ice, Saliva, MC Hammer, Twiztid. One of the themes this year is the Legends of Wrestling, with a main event of Terry Funk (who will be 67 at that time) vs. Roddy Piper (who is 57). Funk and Piper have only wrestled once before in a singles match, in 1983 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. Also booked for the weekend include Jerry Lawler, Ricky Morton, Robert Gibson, Honky Tonk Man, Bob Orton Jr., Koko Ware, Tammy Sytch, Jim Duggan, Chyna, X-Pac, Mick Foley, Scott Hall, Raven, Booker T, Viscera and Tank Abbott.
Mick Foley looks to be done with the promotion unless there is a surprising reconciliation. Thats where the storyline of him being fired as the Network liaison to TNA came in. The story as it played out on television made absolutely no sense, they spend months building up Foley coming in to turn things around, and then after hes revealed, hes not there the next week, makes a speech the week after once again pushing that wrestling matters, and then is fired the week after that. Foley had asked TNA to be released early from his contract based on creative differences over the direction of the company. TNA has verbally have agreed to do so but at press time the release wasnt official. Hes not going to talk about it at least until being released, and it wouldnt surprise me if TNA insisted that he doesnt talk about it in exchange for taking the early release. Those on the TNA side indicated that feelings were mutual by this point. Foleys contract expires in September and he had hinted some time back that he didnt think he would renew it and had openly talked about returning to WWE. He was back tweeting this week about how Alex Riley is his favorite new character in wrestling. He also wrote regarding his departure, I pushed hard for changes I felt would benefit Impact Wrestling. I can understand how some would interpret that as difficult to work with. Before returning, Foley had given a lot of thought in what he thought were issues that could be improved with the company and wanted to present ideas, which I sensed was his last-ditch effort to mentally be into the product. The problem with Foley, if this is a problem, is that he can never be truly happy being part of the just cash the check mentality if the company hes with isnt doing well. Actually, there are many in the company who have a hard time with that mentality, but its become the prevalent one because any other mentality in TNA and youll end up driving yourself crazy. Ive really sensed a deal where people who were always thinking wrestling that work here pretty much shut it off and dont even think about it between tours or tapings.
Foley said that if he was asked, he would go into the WWE Hall of Fame. He said that in 2003, they were talking about inducting him but for whatever reason, it didnt happen. He said he used to go back-and-forth on whether he would want to go in, but said when WWE plugged his book on the air, that was the game changer in his mind. Foley, who has studied up on concussions due to his own issues, considering what he made his career on, said he believes unprotected chair shots to the head shouldnt be part of wrestling. There is no way that people should take an unprotected chair shot. Honestly, there is room in a match for a guy to get a hit and get his hands up and he should be fine. Its just not good, and I think that the WWE has shown that you dont need those chair shots. It was overused. It was an easy pop, guaranteed reaction and they have shown that when you use it sparingly, as in The Undertaker-HHH match at WrestleMania, that a chair really means something. I dont think you will see guys do stuff that is quite as wild, but I always felt that with head injuries, repetitive trauma of moves in the ring, and not necessarily moves outside the ring, were more to blame."
According to those at RAINN, Mick Foley got 700 individuals total to contribute $120,491.89 in his fund raising campaign in April and May. Both TNA and WWE contributed $10,000 each.
Right now there area lot of creative issues as the Hulk Hogan/Eric Bischoff contingent is openly complaining about the writing of Vince Russo, but Russo is pretty much locked in place because Dixie Carter feels a loyalty to him. And theres also Jeff Jarrett, who is frustrated with Russo after years of being the guy defending him.
With Foley gone, it looks like they are going back to Sting as the point man and Hogan and Bischoff are back in control like the last two months of television was just a dream. The entire name change and rebranding campaign and advertising campaign based on Wrestling Matters yielded no results given that the key thing about the show since the campaign started is that the wrestling doesnt matter.
The idea right now is to elevate Gunner, Bobby Roode and Crimson to top positions. That explained why Gunner got to pin Sting on the show that airs on 6/8, even though Sting is world champion and defending against Mr. Anderson. It doesnt explain why Anderson lost on the 6/1 show to Eric Young as The Not So Great Muta before his title shot on PPV. Well, other than it proves the match results are unpredictable. Geez, you can just draw high card or roll dice and choose winners and losers if you dont want to make any sense and youll give nobody momentum and build nothing. You wont make any money, but youll be unpredictable. Roode is the most ready of the three but in a sense, since hes been around for so long in the middle, there is concern hell be the hardest to elevate. People are high on Crimson because hes got size, good intensity and hes not that bad given his level of experience. But thus far, its not like the crowd has taken to him as something special.
Chyna claimed to TMZ that she was told TNA wasnt interested in using her again due to the porn tape with her that was being released. The original story was for one TV and one PPV match. She claimed she was told that if her new X rated sex tape comes out, that she would never be allowed to work for the promotion. She has also said shes looking for a multi-tape deal from Vivid Video to continue doing porn. I would definitely like to do more. It gives me motivation again. I want to be better and happier than ever. Thats the point, right?
Cena is said to be beaten up far worse than is being let on, with persistent neck and hip issues as well as elbow problems.
There has been talk of taking the WWE Magazine to a strictly digital format to save money. The print edition has been right at break-even for the past few years, with constant price increases the only thing keeping it from losing money as sales have been consistently falling.
Regarding the proposed WWE television station, the word is that the ideas of what to do with the station are constantly changing and nobody knows what Vince McMahons vision for it is. Its said that its not getting the commitment from the cable industry they had hoped for and there is talk of pushing more in the direction of a channel that would have things available on Xbox and Roku.
Regarding the name change of the video game to WWE 12, another reason it was done is because the game has undergone significant software changes this year. Having a singular person cover (Orton) is also a new approach. Orton is expected to be heavily involved in marketing the game.
While everyone is expecting a complete revamping of the developmental system, nobody seems to have a clue what changes will be made. There are those who are saying the current system is not giving the company a return for their money. A lot of people expect Kevin Nash and Sean Waltman to be involved in whatever revamping goes on because HHH trusts them to give him straight answers on talent. I dont know about Nashs eye for talent. I just recall over the years him being one of those guys who would use the lines like turning heads at the airport or that one about how guys on top should be guys who guys think are cool and women want to fuck (such as burying making Mick Foley in 1999 with that one, even though Foley ended up being a far bigger star and draw than 99% of the guys who fit into the supposed category of what a champion should be) and given the nature of people who get over in this business, the shallow mind set to talent analysis may be cool in the locker room but isnt always the best way to evaluate talent. Whenever you have narrow views on who can make it, studying history, youre going to miss far too many people who have ended up being very successful. Nash is the one who came up with the term Vanilla Midgets for Eddy Guerrero and Chris Benoit, which a lot of people chuckled at, but it was not building new guys for the top that started the decline to oblivion of WCW.
Miz was injured at the 6/5 house show in Charlottesville, VA, in a match with Riley, but still worked Raw the next day and didnt look bad. The word from those on the road was that he had suffered a broken nose. What we do know is that he was bleeding like crazy from the nose. On TV, his nose didnt look broken nor did he have the puffiness and black eyes associated with a broken nose, so it may have been something where they thought it was broken and it wasnt, or that they did a great job of resetting the nose and make-up (that was the story going around the next day). I think they need to avoid spots in matches where Riley nails Miz in the head because on Raw the next day, it was the second day he was too obvious about wanting no part of it. This is not a criticism of Miz, but the spot on the Over the Limit PPV where Riley hit him with a belt shot which led to Cenas comeback, Miz turned his head not to take the shot. And then on Raw, he was supposed to get hit with the briefcase and it looked bad because he backed away and the briefcase came nowhere near him. Now, he is just getting over a concussion in early April and even though cleared, hes probably smart for not wanting to take anything to the head. Plus on Raw, he was coming off taking something in his match and being hurt. After all weve learned in the last few years, the old-school mentality of taking it when it comes to head shots, particularly coming off a concussion, has to be thrown out the window. But when you do a spot and its going to look bad because of it, they should probably come up with a different way rather than something to the head to get to where they want to go.
The reason they are opening an office in India is very interesting. The company is heavily targeting Indians (as in those from India, not Native Americans) and Latinos for the future. While there is a feeling that due to the economy in India, that they may never tour there, or rarely tour there, the idea is that Indians will be coming over to the U.S. in greater numbers over the next decade and be a stronger part of the middle class. The idea is if they get wrestling big on television there, with stars aimed at that demo, when those people come to the U.S., culturally they wont be familiar with much but they will have familiarity with WWE. Thats one of the reasons theyve moved Khali from being a minor character to trying to get him and Mahal to be a serious tag team and eventually be babyfaces at some point. They are also looking at getting more talent from India for that reason. Its the same mentality as why Lucha Libre in the past had drawn well in parts of the U.S., and the feeling since WWE has replaced Lucha Libre in the culture in Mexico, that people who come in from Mexico will be more likely to be stronger fans. There is also an interesting push to get into Brazil, because of the feeling with the Olympics, that Brazil is an emerging economy. What makes Brazil such a unique market is that unlike with so many markets where UFC follows WWE, this is a market familiar with MMA, and the question becomes can WWE follow a market already entrenched in UFC, particularly when that country already has its stars like Anderson Silva and Vitor Belfort culturally.
With Striker scheduled to move back to managing, Booker T has taken his spot as an announcer on Superstars.
British Monsoon
Member
dream said:
Fuck, that sucks. Homicide's run on the indies since returning from TNA has been pretty lacklustre, but he just started getting involved in some good storylines in both ROH and DGUSA. Hopefully he'll still be allowed to work ROH's iPPV to finish off his feud, but I doubt it.
dream said:
Ah man, that's harsh. Pearce has never been the flashiest wrestler, but he could tell a great story in the ring, I'll definitely miss the Scrap Daddy.
Well, here's certainly a reason why the year-long buildup to Cena vs. Rock can be considered a risk. It also serves as further evidence that the WWE really needs to start building up some more faces in the case that a guy like Cena goes out with an injury.
Interesting that Jarrett is finally starting to turn against Russo.
Status quo with Dixie though. :|
Roode definitely deserves a shot. Way too soon for the other two guys though.
Thanks once again, dream.
XiaNaphryz
LATIN, MATRIPEDICABUS, DO YOU SPEAK IT
Jay Sosa said:
BoboBrazil
Member
Will be interesting to see what happens with TNA if Russo is finally fired. Bischoff was doing pretty good with WCW before he came in. Hopefully they all gang together to get him out. Gunner and Crimson both haven't shown me anything impressive yet. Crimson is supposed to be getting this Goldberg streak and be a badass, but he looks kind of lanky. He's tall and agile, but he needs some more muscle mass. Robert Roode I can see as a main eventer if they give him a serious push.
Arrowgigantic
Member
I'm not 100% sure, but I think I made that. That's how old it is, I can't remember if I made it or not.zychi said:
might be old, but first time i've seen it.
BoboBrazil
Member
dream said:
I wonder if she likes it when he swerves her and puts his dick in her ass instead of her pussy and then doesn't do a decent buildup and cums 30 seconds later?
cartoon_soldier
Member
XiaNaphryz said:
If any WWE guy manages to pull this off he will be an instant star.
Professor Beef
Banned
Don't forget the run-in.BoboBrazil said:
Pristine_Condition
Member
Thank You dream!
Always!
Fuckin-A, ROH is doing a great job lately. This is one of my favorite things a wrestling promotion has done in a looooong time:
Homicide Lawsuit (pdf)
Awesome. ROH really cares about the shit they throw out there.
I love how they even redacted stuff in the documents, but if you look closely, you can totally make out what's under the marker.
BTW, has anyone called the number for RD Evans' Law Office Yet? I'm wondering what happens if you do...
Always!
Fuckin-A, ROH is doing a great job lately. This is one of my favorite things a wrestling promotion has done in a looooong time:
Homicide Lawsuit (pdf)
Awesome. ROH really cares about the shit they throw out there.
I love how they even redacted stuff in the documents, but if you look closely, you can totally make out what's under the marker.
BTW, has anyone called the number for RD Evans' Law Office Yet? I'm wondering what happens if you do...
British Monsoon
Member
Yeah, that was awesome, good to see a promotion paying attention to the little details that can enhance a feud out of the ring - I loved the bit about the 88mph chair shot 
Let's just hope Homicide is around for the iPPV to see the feud to conclusion, although if he isn't the legal case gives them an excuse for writing him out.
Let's just hope Homicide is around for the iPPV to see the feud to conclusion, although if he isn't the legal case gives them an excuse for writing him out.
AdawgDaFAB
Member
AnEternalEnigma said:
It is easy to see why no one really knows her. She has been with them since 2006 but never really did much. 06-08 she was in OVW/FCW under her real name of Milena Roucka. Late 08 she debuted in WWE as Rosa but hasn't been part of anything too memorable. She never showed much of any talent in the ring and character wise all she ever did was be Beth Phoenix's #1 fan, Zack Ryder's girlfriend and try to get in shape to join laycool via the rope jump gimmick on SD.
one for the classics
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tq6HkY5JnBc&feature=related
ahhh i miss that era
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tq6HkY5JnBc&feature=related
ahhh i miss that era
BoboBrazil
Member
tri_willy said:
I remember loving that so much when I saw it. The big problem nowadays from then is 1. They script promos. and 2. They have to stay PG. Unfortunately they won't get to that point again unless some real competition comes at them and they have to do whatever it takes to stay alive.
and another to the record
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfcpUcYcio8
holy shit cole looks different then
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfcpUcYcio8
holy shit cole looks different then
spindashing
Banned
Booker T's is still the best. I actually wanted to use that as my avatar at one point in time.RBH said:
Lex Luger's scares the shit out of me. Dan Spivy's too.
Didn't know Becky Bayless was arrested, nor did I know Wade Barrett's real name before, haha.
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