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[Outcast2004]

WWE.com has learned that RAW General Manager Eric Bischoff and SmackDown! General Manager Theodore Long have agreed on a blockbuster 11-person deal that will likely have a big impact on both rosters.

RAW brand gets:

* Mark Jindrak: Former WCW Tag Team Champion
* Rene Dupree: Former WWE Tag Team Champion; former World Tag Team Champion
* Danny Basham: Two-time former WWE Tag Team Champion
* Kenzo Suzuki (with Hiroko): Former WWE Tag Team Champion
* Chavo Guerrero: Five-time former Cruiserweight Champion; two-time former WWE Tag Team Champion


SmackDown! brand gets:

* William Regal: Four-time former WCW Television Champion; three-time former Hardcore Champion; four-time former European Champion; former Intercontinental Champion; four-time former World Tag Team Champion
* Candice: 2004 RAW Diva Search contestant
* Sylvain Grenier: Four-time former World Tag Team Champion
* Simon Dean: Former RAW sponsor
* Steven Richards: Former two-time ECW Tag Team Champion; former 21-time Hardcore Champion

In other news, Marc Lloyd, weekend and pre-ppv announcer was let go today. His desk was cleaned off for him and he was escorted out of the main WWE office.

Like I posted inanother thread, all of the ECW talent save RVD & Tajiri (wont lump in Jericho, he was only in ECW for a very short time) is under the SD banner....

Something fishy there....

 

[BigJonsson]

Linda McMahon said ECW wasnt going to be revived

 

[Ninja Scooter]

trades? Wtf is this? no wonder nobody watches wwe anymore, vince.

 

[bishoptl]

Linda McMahon said ECW wasnt going to be revived

Linda McMahon says a lot of things. Something's up.

 

[Keyser Soze]

Simon Dean needs to debut on SD as NOVA!!

 

[Cerebral Palsy]

Simon Dean needs to debut on SD as NOVA!!

I wish. This Simon Dean shit is painful. I also wish William Regal would go back to The Man's Man gimmick. He was so good back then.

 

[StoOgE]

Something has to be up with ECW. RVD being on Raw is wierd if they are going to do something with ECW, being the whole fuckin show and all.. but the Dudleys not being on TV right now despite being big names makes me think invasion angle at some point.. plus, if you look at WWE.com they had a story up about JBL/Meenie thing, and Heyman talks about it like its a work... throw in rumors of Sabu coming, Styles being under contract, and more hazy rumors about alot of old ECW talent and I think something has to be up.. lets just hope Heyman is booking it.

also, where the hell has Dupree and Suzuki been? I thought they were released quietly or something. And WTF at Chavo on Raw. Why remove one of your most over cruiserweights from the show with cruiserweights?

 

[Outcast2004]

Dupree has been in Velocity hell... hes got black hair now and a dick dasterdly mustache. the kid looks like a total fruit.

Bish is on the same page as I am, something is up. There's rumblings of a lot of ECW performers being contacted and offered jobs.

As for Linda, take anything she says and take it with a HUGE block of salt, because a grain just wont cut it.

If the pay rates and DVD sales are though the roof you're going to see something.

 

[Cerebral Palsy]

How is the ONS dvd btw? I'll gladly buy it if they didn't edit it to hell.

 

[pilonv1]

Hopefully this means pushes for Rob Conway, Danny Basham and the Damaja. Chavo makes no sense and I don't know why Hiroko was involved because she hasn't been on TV in months.

 

[Lyte Edge]

I am baffled at Chavo being moved to RAW. It seemed like he was involved in the "Mexicool" angle that's starting up, too. If anything, they should have moved Tajiri back to SD! and let The Hurricane go with him.

Also odd that they switched Dupree with Grenier. Since Rob Conway broke off of La Resistance, couldn't they have teamed the original two back together?

And about Kenzo, last I read he got sick or something, which is why he hasn't been on TV in a while.

 

[Battlezone]

How is the ONS dvd btw? I'll gladly buy it if they didn't edit it to hell.

No Enter Sandman.

 

[Cerebral Palsy]

No Enter Sandman.

No buy.

 

[Spectral Glider]

I like how they put "former whatever, whatever" champion. At one point there were so many shitty belts changing so many hands that it you really had to try to not be a champion of something.

 

[Brian Fellows]

No buy.

Thats what i said.


As for the trade. I posted this somewhere else so I'll just paste it.

Smackdown got the much better deal here IMO. Regal is the man. Big Stevie is COOL. And breaking up the Bashams is fine with me because in OVW Doug was far supperior to Danny. Hopefully Nova will get to drop the Simon Dean crap. I just wish Smackdown would have gotten Conway instead of Grenier.

 

[mightynine]

* Steven Richards: Former two-time ECW Tag Team Champion; former 21-time Hardcore Champion

Anybody else think Richards should do a gimmick that he deserves respect because he's a former 21-21-21-21-21-21-21-21-21-21-21-21-21-21-21-21-21-21-21-21-21 time Hardcore Champ?

The Chavito trade makes some sense, if they want to focus on Eddie on SD. Gives Chavo some room, and another possible IC contender. But they'll probably just use him as a curtain-jerker on Heat.

 

[Keyser Soze]

Anybody else think Richards should do a gimmick that he deserves respect because he's a former 21-21-21-21-21-21-21-21-21-21-21-21-21-21-21-21-21-21-21-21-21 time Hardcore Champ?

The Chavito trade makes some sense, if they want to focus on Eddie on SD. Gives Chavo some room, and another possible IC contender. But they'll probably just use him as a curtain-jerker on Heat.

As crazy as it sounds I would love Steive in some crazy gimmick like that. In fact I would love him in any (respectable) gimmick and be on TV a bit more

 

[dskillzhtown]

Linda McMahon said ECW wasnt going to be revived

That entire call read like something scripted. It is just a coincidence that all the ECW talent is on one brand? Something is definitely up.

As far as Enter Sandman on the DVD, I am thinking Metallica wanted some heavy coinage for the use on a DVD and WWE didn't have time to negotiate as they wanted to get the DVD out before Hardcore Homecoming comes out to DVD.

I really am puzzled as to Chavo on Raw, though it gives Shelton someone to fued with and maybe it will be better for Eddy if he is off SD.

 

[Raw64life]

Like I said in another thread...

The midnight trading deadline thing is probably so a couple of mid-lower card guys can switch brands. Doesn't look like there will be any major trades.

That entire call read like something scripted. It is just a coincidence that all the ECW talent is on one brand? Something is definitely up.

I was thinking the same thing until they moved RVD to RAW. That pretty much buried the idea of Smackdown ever becoming anything ECW related.

 

[Shinobi]

I was thinking the same thing until they moved RVD to RAW. That pretty much buried the idea of Smackdown ever becoming anything ECW related.

Unless that was done to handicap the ECW plans. Yeah, that sounds silly...till you wonder the nonsense that was done with the invasion angles.

 

[Lyte Edge]

Unless that was done to handicap the ECW plans. Yeah, that sounds silly...till you wonder the nonsense that was done with the invasion angles.

Or they go ahead with an ECW "invasion" and RVD jumps ship. It's happened before.

 

[bjork]

Or maybe the do it without him, since he's been doing all these interviews about how WWE just soils the ECW name?

Put all the people on the show, revive the ECW brand, but make RVD job to Eugene on RAW. That'll learn him.

 

[jobber]

pssssss


the ECW buys are in.....

http://corporate.wwe.com/investors/documents/KeyBusinessDrivers_021.pdf

Spoiler

270,000

 

[Keyser Soze]

^^^

Erm is this good or bad, I don't know how to react....

 

[StoOgE]

^^^

Erm is this good or bad, I don't know how to react....

a Raw PPV does around half that typically, 100K-115K or so. Smackdown PPV's have been doing much worse.. these are also early buy rates, the number will likely climb well over 300K since they were running the show the next week as well and some cable companies take longer to report.

More importantly it put up better than normal numbers without pushing any actual matches, feuds or most people buying the PPV ever having seen a ECW match. They did that off the ECW name and fans love of hardcore matches.. granted it being a one time shot probably helped numbers too.

 

[Mikazuki]

The "ECW style matches" on Raw were crappy too...

 

[pilonv1]

a Raw PPV does around half that typically, 100K-115K or so. Smackdown PPV's have been doing much worse.. these are also early buy rates, the number will likely climb well over 300K since they were running the show the next week as well and some cable companies take longer to report.

Most "B" level shows actually do between 220-270k. New Years Revolution did 380k, which can be credited either to the Elimination Chamber or the start of the Batista turn. Here's a list of revised* numbers this year from Dave Meltzer:

NYR - 370,000
Rumble - 565,000
NWO - 238,000
Mania - 985,000
Backlash - 295,000

* - Early numbers can be 50-100k off. I believe NWOs' early buyrate was closer to 200k, and NYR was under 300k.