Yes, the far more famous than that other guy, Carmen Electra's NWWL creative Director & lead writer - DAN BROWN joins IWW to talk all about:
* how he got involved with NWWL
* what has changed show to show
* their model (and models) for growth
* possible tours
* injuries & training with the girls
* working with Jimmy Hart
* backstage and documentary footage
* possible media deals including 30-min shows on TV?
* how to get involved
* opportunities besides wrestling for new people
* the background on the project, who is funding it and when will new content be up!
much more!
It's a very interesting hour and sure to generate some vivid emails. Take a listen and write in with your thoughts to indeedwrestling@gmail.com
IWW interviews DAN BROWN
Monday, October 16, 2006
Monday, October 09, 2006
IWW: BOBBY SHIELDS~! (and the notes from last show)
Bobby Shields on IWW
Covering all the insanity that is HARLEY RACE'S WLW CAMP - NOAH & WWE reps in the house!
Find out more about BOBBY SHIELDS over at his website.
SOME NOTES FROM THE LAST NEWS & NOTES SHOW:
SMACKDOWN
* GREENFIELD LEAVES SMACKDOWN WRITING TEAM *
Head Writer Alex Greenfield left Smackdown. One of his movies got
green-lit in Hollywood and he needed/wanted to be out there working on
that project and couldn't continue to write for WWE.
July 2005: Joined WWE writing. (Hollywood experience)
June 2006: Head Smackdown Writer after Dave Lagana was moved to ECW.
"Midnight Movie" – produced by Jacques Thelemaque, who struck a deal
with production financing entity Bigfoot Partners to produce 2-4
independent films per year under $1 mil working with emerging
filmmakers under the banner, FA Productions.
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117921378?categoryId=13&cs=1 (April 19, 2005)
Interesting, here is an article from a year ago in Variety which
mentions movies that Greenfield has worked on. (He had just left his
job as a "lit. manager".)
• scripting remake of "She Creature" for Lou Arkoff
• co-writing "Midnight Movie" with Sean Hood
• writing "Wilson" with co-producer Mike Eitelman
Sounds like he had a lot of projects in the works when he got involved
with WWE. Not too surprising that a year later he'd be leaving them
for Hollywood.
* MICHAEL HAYES BECOMES HEAD SMACKDOWN WRITER *
Michael Hayes returns to the helm of Smackdown. Years ago in the
Heyman Smackdown era, Hayes clashed with Paul and eventually was moved
to the RAW side of things. He has been working on creative for many
years dating back to before the Brand Split.
SURPRISE? Well, many thought Dusty Rhodes was destined to be the next
writer. It's unknown whether this is a permanent deal or just until
they find their next Hollywood-wannabe. What's also unknown is what
this means for Rhodes' future.
* HELMS AND HARDY SET SMACKDOWN RECORD *
Matt Hardy & Gregory Shane Helms, friends who started wrestling
together in OMEGA, will meet this Sunday on PPV. WWE has been pushing
Helms as "the longest reigning cruiserweight champion in history".
He'll soon have another title to add to his mantle: Lowest Rated
Smackdown Segment in History.
The 9/15 Smackdown match between Helms & Hardy has set the bar at 0.8
– about 1¼ million viewers. (Keep that figure in mind when we talk
about TNA Ratings). It should be noted that this is while Smackdown
was being extensively pre-empted by UPN and nearly 50% of the country
didn't see the show in it's normal timeslot on Friday night.
TNA on 9/14 had 817,000 viewers. They did an 0.88 last week for 1
million viewers.
ECW on 9/12 had 2.14 million viewers. ECW has dropped into the mid
1.7-1.8 range lately.
However, most recent episode with Cena appearing did a 2.5 on fast
nationals which meant it beat Fox for 4th place on Friday night.
LAYLA has been put on Smackdown. Dave's comment "should indicate what
they think of her winning."
WHERE ARE THEY NOW? FORMER WWE PERSONALITIES…
"Trish Stratus claimed she was asked to pose by PB within six months
of her being in wrestling, and then at least once a year every year
after. She was asked now that her career looks to be over would she
pose, and she said she wouldn't. She was married this weekend."
Story about Stacy Carter, (The Kat, Jerry Lawler's wife): She held
talks about doing PB, but after she was fired PB didn't want to
endanger their relationship with WWF so they cancelled the talks. Not
to worry though, she not only received ownership of Jerry Lawler's FL
Condo, but an additional cash settlement due to Lawler's remarks in
his autobiography (which violated terms that prohibited him from
making "disparaging remarks".)
Speaking of PB, viewers of their prank series "Totally Busted" might
recognize one of the cast: "Matt 'Horshu' Weisz", better known as
Luther Reigns.
Ken Shamrock is about to draw the largest rating for a MMA fight in
North America with his cable-TV rematch with Ortiz on 10/10 on
SpikeTV. Ever wonder the connection between Frank & Ken Shamrock?
SHAMROCK CLAN
Frank Shamrock - Frank Jaurez
Ken Shamrock - Ken Wayne Kilpatrick
(You'll see him as Wayne Shamrock on early Pancrase & wrestling tapes).
They were both adopted by Bob Shamrock, who ran a home for troubled
youths in Northern California.
Dustin Runnels went AWOL a few weeks ago when he no-showed three
events in the Northeast. He basically missed his flights and becoming
increasingly difficult to contact. Not a good situation.
Likewise, Sean Waltman is rumored to be acting in a bad way after
leaving a wrestling show in NJ with "some known drug dealers". He
supposedly never even went to his hotel room that evening.
NEW IWW FEDERATION: RFBW (Recently Fired by WWE)
Kid Kash (Smackdown) – attitude problems; failed a test recently? In
TNA had a bad rep. His final match (teaming with Jamie Noble) aired
on Smackdown last week after he'd already been released.
Justin Credible (ECW) – he no-showed ECW and disappeared; they waited
two weeks to fire him and finally just did it via Fax. Wife is
pregnant.
Boogeyman (Smackdown/OVW) – lots of issues. Said to be difficult to
deal with and acting crazy. His return to OVW was not going well
despite him already being advertised for Smackdown (remember his
prominent role in the Summerslam commercial?)
KANYON? Latest is WWE has no interest in using him. "Then again,
they just hired Marty…"
Kevin Nash & Billy Kidman were both backstage at TNA Impact last week.
Kidman has been lobbying for a job pretty much since his WWE release
in July 2006; his last match was a dark match under a mask. (He's
only 32 so he'll have at least eight years until WWE is going to want
him back, I guess.)
Rochester NY's own Joanie "Chyna" Laurer resurfaced on Larry King Live
a few weeks back to discuss Anna-Nicole's son's death. They (the two
women) were in the movie "Illegal Aliens" together.
THE SKINNY ON DEVELOPMENTAL
Greg Gagne was fired back on 9/11 after about five months with WWE in
developmental.
He was "out of touch" and "behind the times". He pushed Cody Rennels
(Dusty's son) heavily using the same ideas that were done back when he
debuted as Verne Gagne's son in AWA in late 1972.
Story from Deep South: "it was taking them all week to undo one day of
Gagne's teaching."
Simon Dean (Mike Bucci) has taken over developmental and is working
out of Stamford.
Kenny Omega (OVW) went home to Winnipeg after asking to leave on 9/8.
Ryan Reeves is off suspension. He is said to be "even bigger"– like
Lashley/Batista huge.
Kevin Matthews and Danny Giamundo (Danny Inferno) have been released from OVW.
A SIX CHICKENS MEOW = MEXICO WHACKINESS~!
9/20 Palacio de los Deportes (18,301 fans) MEXICO CITY
AAA has been bringing in lots of TNA wrestlers
"They had talked over a spot where Abyss was going to throw Lider, who
fancies himself as being Mexico's Mick Foley, into tons of thumb
tacks. But being AAA, there is always one communication problem and
nobody bought the thumb thacks. They ended up with some fluorescent
light tubes and Abyss threw Lider through those."
TNA shot an angle on the Mexico tour where Konnan, Homicide and about
ten AAA guys (including JUVI and SUPER CALO) beat down AJ Styles.
RXLL: Vampiro's federation is already NO MORE~! He went to Japan and
the promoter (Pepe Villa) basically took the money and paid old debts
instead of paying the talent and the TV station. So much for
Vampiro's INTERNATIONAL WRESTLING AGREEMENTS with Italy Nu Wrestling
Evolution, All-Japan (he'd supposedly just struck a deal with Samurai
TV to air his show!) and unnamed Calgary promotion to come from the
ashes of Matrats. Vampiro is allegedly going to restart with some of
the original crew: Sean Waltman, Slash Venom, Ricky Banderas, Kaos,
Aaron Aguilera, Extreme Tiger (luchadore from Tijuana that has won two
hair matches and is being heavily hyped). I don't know Ron Killings'
status (or Teddy Hart's?) since Killings seemed to get in trouble with
AAA (and TNA) for working the last show and he basically promised to
not go back. Sounds like Raven, All Japan Talent (Nosawa, who has
worked in Mexico/US extensively was on his last main event) will be
coming in. Vampiro claims he'll be opening a school (which should be
interesting coming from a Canadian who openly admits he never learned
to take a flat back bump until he went to WCW and promptly got nearly
paralyzed from an Awesomebomb from that 70s guy Mike 'The Gladiator'
Awesome.)
REY MYSTERIO IN TIJUANA HALL OF FAME. That is all.
* RING OF HONOR – ROH *
ROH Tapes are popular with younger wrestlers in Mexico.
(AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, Low Ki, Homicide)
"Deals were at the beginning of the year for KENTA to pick up win
after win against ROH stars using the Go 2 Sleep as his finish.
It was all booked to build for the spot where he'd use the move on
Danielson, but Danielson would kick out, and come back to win cleanly
with the cattle mutilation.
A monkey wrench was nearly thrown into those plans when Danielson's
shoulder and chest were tore up and he really shouldn't be wrestling,
but he did anyway."
In an interview, Danielson acknowledged a strong interest in joining
the Peace Corps and said he'd actually applied last year but was
rejected due to his lack of college education. He claimed he was
taking classes online to help him out and still wanted to pursue the
goal.
Sammartino's appearance in ROH drew a legitimate turnaway crowd of 1200.
Prince Nana (Nana Bandoh, who claims to be the nephew of King Otumfuo
Osei Tutu, Ashanti King) has quit working with ROH. He wanted to do
more wrestling since he lost weight and didn't see much more
opportunity for him in Ring of Honor. An angle with Nana interrupting
Sammartino was nixed at the last show; overall people thought was the
right decision but one imagines that Nana wasn't thrilled at losing
that chance.
They've already begun working towards the big angle of Morishima vs
Samoa Joe for next year's big show. The crowd doesn't know Morishima
much yet but he's a terrificly talented big man (like 300 lbs) who
NOAH is very high on. Morishima doesn't even have a working visa yet
for wrestling in the US.
The GHC title defense was another interesting situation. It appears
that ROH knew about the title defense in advance but obviously
couldn't advertise it until the switch occurred. In fact, it's very
possible NOAH was counting on the publicity from the GHC title change
(9/9) to promote Marufuji in New York (9/13). It appears that Jim
Cornette must have known because of a video update that ROH posted
using him but which was clearly taped prior (9/1) to the title change.
The working relationship between ROH and NOAH is strong. They've
definitely got more out of that than say New Japan/TNA!
The Dragon Gate wrestlers will return next year for Wrestlemania
Weekend. They have recently started on a deal with the dying New
Japan to work together (which some are against since DG workers are
much smaller than NJ guys). However, it seems like NOAH has no
problem with ROH using these DG guys despite the obviously feud
between New Japan and NOAH.
ROH DVDs to Check Out
• 1st ROH Card: American Dragon vs LowKi vs Christopher Daniels (TC &
ZW live at the show!)
• CM Punk vs Samoa Joe Series
• CZW vs ROH: Cage of Death
• Supercard of Honor (Dragon Gate 6-man)
PPV
* SUMMERSLAM BUYRATE DOES WELL *
8/20 Boston - Summerslam – earned 538,000 buys.
Coming off last year's Hogan v. Michaels supermatch it obviously was
going to be lower, so this was considered a extremely good news. Big
draws were Edge/Cena, DX vs McMahons and especially Hogan/Orton and
Flair/Foley. Domestically, the numbers were poor (as always) around
320k buys. WWE is definitely being kept afloat with strong
international interest.
SUMMERSLAM BUY HISTORY
1998: Austin/UT = 700k buys
1999: Austin/HHH/Foley (Ventura ref) = 600k
2000: Rock/HHH/Angle = 550k
2001: Rock/Booker T, Austin/Angle = 565k
2002: Brock/Rock, HHH/Michaels = 520k
2003: Elimination Chamber (Goldberg, Jericho, Orton, Nash, Michaels),
Angle/Lesnar = 465k
2004: Benoit/Orton, JBL/UT, HHH/Eugene = 415k (328k domestic)
2005: Michaels/Hogan = 636k (407k domestic final)
2006: Summerslam 2006 = 538k (320k buys domestic)
2006 probably earned around $18.3 million gross. Summerslam 1998
earned over $21million.
Those tracking UFC: Liddell vs Babalu had around 500k buys (almost all
North America)
ECW PPV
--ECW's December to Dismember PPV on 12/3 in Augusta, GA at the
Richmond County Civic Center has tickets going on sale on 10/21. At
this point tickets are only listed at $20, which is incredibly
inexpensive. I can't believe they won't have higher prices for
ringside. (thanks to Michael Carpenter)
Speaking of ECW on the Sci-Fi channel, they've renewed Eureka, "which
beats out ECW as the highest rated show on the network and serves as
its lead-in."
TNA NEWS
Booking shakeup means Mike Tenay, Scott D'Amore and Jeremy Borash were
taken off the committee. Now it's just Jeff Jarrett, Dutch Mantell
and VINCE RUSSO leading the charge. Terry Taylor was really pushing
for Russo's return.
Obviously, this caused some conflict with Jim Cornette, who abhors
Russo. The deal allegedly is that Cornette won't let him be in the
same room as him, speak with him and especially not take direction
from him. For the time being that's the situation, but one has to
imagine there is going to be another powderkeg.
Vince Russo's departure last time was preceded by TNA negotiating with
Hulk Hogan (who was most likely just creating leverage with WWE).
Hogan had a precondition that he would not work with Russo.
The fallout: Scott D'Amore is getting a new TV production role. Mike
Tenay is still announcing. Jeremy Borash is still playing the
interview/announcer geek deal.
Both Lex Luger & Buff Bagwell started appearing on TNA TV. Unknown if
they are here to stay.
Samoa Joe did an interview with IGN speaking about how a TNA videogame
was vital. (Perhaps, but ECW definitely didn't save itself with their
releases in the late 90s. However, alternatively, more copies of Raw
vs Smackdown version whatever were sold last year than all of the Home
Video releases COMBINED. Now, keep in mind WWE only earns a fraction
of the sales – like between 2 and 5 percent on licensing, so it's not
like that would turn TNA from being in the red to shooting money out
their eyeballs.)
TNA Bound for Glory - Sunday, October 22, 2006 - Detroit, MI
1. NWA World Title vs. Career - special ringside enforcer Kurt Angle:
Jeff Jarrett vs. Sting
2. NWA Tag Team Titles - Six Sides Of Steel: LAX (Homicide y
Hernandez) vs. Christopher Daniels & AJ Styles
3. X Division Title: Senshi vs. Chris Sabin
4. Detroit "8 Mile Street fight": Rhino vs. Christian Cage
5. Monsters Ball: Samoa Joe vs. Abyss vs. Raven vs. Brother Runt
Also: The return of Team 3D (as noted on Borash's update)
Scott Steiner was not cool with TNA's system of handling outside
bookings (they pay the wrestlers a quarterly fee) and is in dispute
with them over that.
KURT ANGLE
Kurt Angle signed with TNA and debuted on their last PPV in the form
of a pre-taped segment.
His contract does allow him to compete in MMA though most think it's a
bad idea to try and do both at the same time even with TNA's reduced
schedule.
If Kurt Angle's no-compete had lasted until Feb, he'd have been owed
about $500k from WWE. However, it's unclear whether with his release
he was given a more unconvential one. He rumored to be at around
$650k/yr with TNA plus whatever else he decides to do on top (indy
shows, etc.)
He has been advertised as WRESTLING at TNA's show in Mexico, though
that seems to be more the local promoter (working on what he was told)
versus what can really be expected at the show.
Bill Behrens' fed in Modesto, CA advertised they had Kurt Angle coming
in for 10/13 show for a short period of time. That has since be
removed and he won't make an appearance – maybe at a later show.
Behrens' lost a lot of favor with TNA after the New Japan deal went to
hell.
Angle was brought to Nashville (9/20) and they filmed a secret
vignette for the PPV debut in a local warehouse. They even went as
far as bringing in a different TV crew, hiring indy workers to set up
the ring (but not knowing who used it) and filming at MIDNIGHT. Angle
was not in Orlando for the PPV for fear that someone would see him!
OTHER CONTRACT NEWS
BoDog (the Costa Rica fighting organization by Calvin Ayre) airs on
the "Men's Channel" (seems like one guy in Nebraska gets this!).
They've been trying to get a deal with Don Frye, Kurt Angle and Brock
Lesnar.
Rick Bassman (UPW owner: Victoria, Cena, Heidenreich, the Miz, Melina,
Ryan Sakoda, Chris Masters; an unofficial developmental territory for
WWE) is trying to put together a TANK ABBOT vs BUTTERBEAN PPV. Send
him money now folks~!
Frank Shamrock has claimed to sign a multimillion dollar contract with
THE WORLD FIGHTER CHAMPIONSHIPS. Cesar Gracie ist he group's booker.
Bas Rutten and Stephen Quadros have been reunited on IFL TV as announcers.
Apparently all WWE announcers sign their contracts at the same time!
Tazz's contract up at the end of the year. He's playing hardball and
citing radio opportunities in an attempt to get more money. He wants
a raise; hard to say if they'd give it to him.
Also, Jim Ross' contact is up soon. It's unknown if he'll resign.
It's tough to say as there are plenty of arguments for and against his
continued involvement. He's strictly doing announcing now – no talent
relations or creative. Longterm it's unknown what the plan is, though
I suspect he'll be on a week-to-week deal soon.
Similarly, JBL nearly left Smackdown this month as he has started a
new job with an Investment bank. He basically agreed to come back and
work a week-to-week d
RECENT HIRES TO WWE
Charles Skaggs (2 Cold Scorpio, 41) – three-year deal, friends with Booker T.
Mark Canterbury (Henry Godwinn, 42) – hired as favor to HHH &
Undertaker; been though (he lost his son). He's expected to be on
Smackdown.
Brad James (Brad Armstrong, 45) – hired to teach young guys; will work
on ECW house shows.
Frederick Martin Oakes (Marty Jannetty , 47) – VKM decision. He's
believed to hold the record for most firings from the WWE.
Mike Rotunda (IRS, 48) – recently hired as road agent.
Five guys over forty!
Rodney Begnaud (Rodney Mack, 33) – few month tryout; he'll be on ECW.
(no long term deal yet) – wife Jazz appeared on 6/7/06 "WWE vs ECW"
show. Since unseen!
--Rodney Mack and Eric Perez debuted for ECW last night in Loveland, CO.
WWE INJURIES
KNEE SURGERY: Michaels, Mysterio, Khali. Also bad knees? BIG SHOW~!
(He got the weekend off. I believe he's also having back issues.)
Damaja (aka Danny Hollie/Danny Basham) tore his biceps at house show.
Currently, the other security guard under the mask (with Doug Basham)
is Derrick Neikirk. His story is that his tag partner (Ryan O'Reilly)
were doing ECW houseshows until O'Reilly failed a drug test and got
himself suspended. Hollie won't be able to return until April!
Mickie James hurt her neck after her RAW match and the 'rana to the skull.
Your Eyes may have almost melted when "Big Dick Johnson" appeared on
your screen at RAW this past week. Who is that? Writer Chris
DeJoseph; the fat male stripper.
Hardcore Holly got 24 stitches in his back from the brutal table slice
in the RVD match from ECW last week. Seeing him tough it out (recall
when he broke his arm during a match on Smackdown a few years ago?)
seems to set the stage to turn him babyface.
I heard both Vince and Shane McMahon did stay overnight in the
hospital following the Hell in the Cell match with DX.
WWE MONEY FIGURES
WWE spent $1.53m between May and July buying new tape libraries. Some
think it's World Class & Stampede tapes.
"See No Evil" cost $10.9m to produce. They should end up with profit
after DVD sales but not after it's initial release. Still don't
understand why they aren't releasing the DVD until NOVEMBER since once
expects HALLOWEEN is prime time for Horror movies.
The Marine, aka WWE MARINE PRESENTS MONDAY MARINE NIGHT MARINE RAW
MARINE cost $23m to produce so they need a ton of money to make a hit
on this one ($30m range). It will be interesting to watch; the
premiere was held on Tuesday (10/3) at a Marine base in California.
Average house show was $58k in merchandise sales. Costs about $145k
to run a show and they earned about $185.5k per show (including PPVs).
Who spends more on production WWE or UFC? WWE spends about $1.65
million per PPV which appears to be more than UFC. However, UFC will
often offer main eventers a significant portion of the gross which
means compared to WWE's 15% spent on payroll, UFC is actually probably
paying guys a lot more – or at least a few guys a lot more. The
breakeven point for PPVs is 109,000 buys domestically. That means
they won't be going under anytime too soon!
ECW taping is cheaper to produce: (about $200k vs $500k for RAW/Smackdown)
ECW got about $233k/show to produce ECW but also an additional $133k
for the show internationally. So, that's about $66k profit + live
gate.
Big Show + Angle + RVD was $43k/week. Rest of ECW earn between $500 to $1500.
WWE will settle the damages they owe the World Wildlife Foundation on 12/5.
HERE AND THERE:
MENG IS GREAT.
Dean Malenko had a brief cameo on 9/15 Smackdown TV with Dominick.
There has been a push to have Steve Austin & Hulk Hogan appear on the
three-hour "Family Reunion", USA SEASON PREMIERE show on Monday.
Hogan is far more likely than Austin.
Speaking of Hogan, he's teasing that WM XXIII in Detroit would be a
final match ever. I doubt that. Likely matchup are either
Hogan/Austin (unlikely) and Hogan/Big Show (with BS playing Andre's
role since it's been twenty years since WM3).
Dallas Hart (Bret Hart's son) will be starting at Lance Storm's
training school in January.
--Ted Petty Invitational from (9/30) in Midlothian, IL: (thanks to
Dominick Valenti and Keith Lipinski)
El Generico b M Dogg 20,
Low Ki b Davey Richards,
Low Ki b Generico,
Claudio Castagnoli b Mike Quackenbush,
Arik Cannon b Hallowickid,
Cannon b Castagnoli,
Chris Hero b Trik Davis,
Roderick Strong b Delirious,
Strong b Hero,
Low Ki won three-way over Cannon and Strong in 35:00 to win the Ted
Petty Invitational
American Kickboxer & Tarek the Great NC Iron Saints,
Eddie Kingston & Joker & Ricochet b Iron Saints,
North Star Express won six-way gauntlet match,
Josh Abercromie b Tyler Black in a loser leaves town match,
Chuck Taylor b Toby Klein to win IWA Mid South title,
Lucha Masks & more!! http://www.nuclearjackalope.com/
SURVIVOR SERIES PPV
Event Description: It's three times the action as teams from RAW,
SmackDown and ECW compete against each other for the first time ever
in WWE Survivor Series. Don't miss the excitement as John Cena, Shawn
Michaels, Triple H, King Booker, Batista, Bobby Lashley, Rob Van Dam,
Sabu and Big Show form a legion of WWE Superstars at Survivor Series,
Sunday, November 26th at 8pm ET/5pm PT, live and only on Pay-Per-View.
A World Wrestling Entertainment Production. Go to wwe.com for more
details.
(Fatal Four-Way Match)
World Heavyweight Champion King Booker vs. Bobby Lashley vs. Batista vs. Finlay
(United States Champion) Mr. Kennedy vs. Undertaker
[I expect a DQ – feud to continue until next PPV.]
Rey Mysterio vs. Chavo Guerrero (Falls Count Anywhere Match)
MVP makes his debut
Cruiserweight Champion Gregory Helms vs. Matt Hardy ??? no idea ???)
WWE Tag Team Champions London & Kendrick vs. KC James & Idol Stevens
?? no idea ???)
Dark Match:
*Kendrick/London d. The Gymini
ECW, Oct. 10, 2006:
*No backstage segments were shown. If Diva Strip Poker happened, it
was backstage, and it wasn't shown to the live crowd.
1 - CM Punk d. Rene Dupree (clean)
2 - Tommy Dreamer d. Kevin Thorne w/ Ariel (clean)
3 - Sabu, RVD & The Sandman d. The Big Show, Test & Matt Striker -
RVD, Sabu & Sandman
Covering all the insanity that is HARLEY RACE'S WLW CAMP - NOAH & WWE reps in the house!
Find out more about BOBBY SHIELDS over at his website.
SOME NOTES FROM THE LAST NEWS & NOTES SHOW:
SMACKDOWN
* GREENFIELD LEAVES SMACKDOWN WRITING TEAM *
Head Writer Alex Greenfield left Smackdown. One of his movies got
green-lit in Hollywood and he needed/wanted to be out there working on
that project and couldn't continue to write for WWE.
July 2005: Joined WWE writing. (Hollywood experience)
June 2006: Head Smackdown Writer after Dave Lagana was moved to ECW.
"Midnight Movie" – produced by Jacques Thelemaque, who struck a deal
with production financing entity Bigfoot Partners to produce 2-4
independent films per year under $1 mil working with emerging
filmmakers under the banner, FA Productions.
http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117921378?categoryId=13&cs=1 (April 19, 2005)
Interesting, here is an article from a year ago in Variety which
mentions movies that Greenfield has worked on. (He had just left his
job as a "lit. manager".)
• scripting remake of "She Creature" for Lou Arkoff
• co-writing "Midnight Movie" with Sean Hood
• writing "Wilson" with co-producer Mike Eitelman
Sounds like he had a lot of projects in the works when he got involved
with WWE. Not too surprising that a year later he'd be leaving them
for Hollywood.
* MICHAEL HAYES BECOMES HEAD SMACKDOWN WRITER *
Michael Hayes returns to the helm of Smackdown. Years ago in the
Heyman Smackdown era, Hayes clashed with Paul and eventually was moved
to the RAW side of things. He has been working on creative for many
years dating back to before the Brand Split.
SURPRISE? Well, many thought Dusty Rhodes was destined to be the next
writer. It's unknown whether this is a permanent deal or just until
they find their next Hollywood-wannabe. What's also unknown is what
this means for Rhodes' future.
* HELMS AND HARDY SET SMACKDOWN RECORD *
Matt Hardy & Gregory Shane Helms, friends who started wrestling
together in OMEGA, will meet this Sunday on PPV. WWE has been pushing
Helms as "the longest reigning cruiserweight champion in history".
He'll soon have another title to add to his mantle: Lowest Rated
Smackdown Segment in History.
The 9/15 Smackdown match between Helms & Hardy has set the bar at 0.8
– about 1¼ million viewers. (Keep that figure in mind when we talk
about TNA Ratings). It should be noted that this is while Smackdown
was being extensively pre-empted by UPN and nearly 50% of the country
didn't see the show in it's normal timeslot on Friday night.
TNA on 9/14 had 817,000 viewers. They did an 0.88 last week for 1
million viewers.
ECW on 9/12 had 2.14 million viewers. ECW has dropped into the mid
1.7-1.8 range lately.
However, most recent episode with Cena appearing did a 2.5 on fast
nationals which meant it beat Fox for 4th place on Friday night.
LAYLA has been put on Smackdown. Dave's comment "should indicate what
they think of her winning."
WHERE ARE THEY NOW? FORMER WWE PERSONALITIES…
"Trish Stratus claimed she was asked to pose by PB within six months
of her being in wrestling, and then at least once a year every year
after. She was asked now that her career looks to be over would she
pose, and she said she wouldn't. She was married this weekend."
Story about Stacy Carter, (The Kat, Jerry Lawler's wife): She held
talks about doing PB, but after she was fired PB didn't want to
endanger their relationship with WWF so they cancelled the talks. Not
to worry though, she not only received ownership of Jerry Lawler's FL
Condo, but an additional cash settlement due to Lawler's remarks in
his autobiography (which violated terms that prohibited him from
making "disparaging remarks".)
Speaking of PB, viewers of their prank series "Totally Busted" might
recognize one of the cast: "Matt 'Horshu' Weisz", better known as
Luther Reigns.
Ken Shamrock is about to draw the largest rating for a MMA fight in
North America with his cable-TV rematch with Ortiz on 10/10 on
SpikeTV. Ever wonder the connection between Frank & Ken Shamrock?
SHAMROCK CLAN
Frank Shamrock - Frank Jaurez
Ken Shamrock - Ken Wayne Kilpatrick
(You'll see him as Wayne Shamrock on early Pancrase & wrestling tapes).
They were both adopted by Bob Shamrock, who ran a home for troubled
youths in Northern California.
Dustin Runnels went AWOL a few weeks ago when he no-showed three
events in the Northeast. He basically missed his flights and becoming
increasingly difficult to contact. Not a good situation.
Likewise, Sean Waltman is rumored to be acting in a bad way after
leaving a wrestling show in NJ with "some known drug dealers". He
supposedly never even went to his hotel room that evening.
NEW IWW FEDERATION: RFBW (Recently Fired by WWE)
Kid Kash (Smackdown) – attitude problems; failed a test recently? In
TNA had a bad rep. His final match (teaming with Jamie Noble) aired
on Smackdown last week after he'd already been released.
Justin Credible (ECW) – he no-showed ECW and disappeared; they waited
two weeks to fire him and finally just did it via Fax. Wife is
pregnant.
Boogeyman (Smackdown/OVW) – lots of issues. Said to be difficult to
deal with and acting crazy. His return to OVW was not going well
despite him already being advertised for Smackdown (remember his
prominent role in the Summerslam commercial?)
KANYON? Latest is WWE has no interest in using him. "Then again,
they just hired Marty…"
Kevin Nash & Billy Kidman were both backstage at TNA Impact last week.
Kidman has been lobbying for a job pretty much since his WWE release
in July 2006; his last match was a dark match under a mask. (He's
only 32 so he'll have at least eight years until WWE is going to want
him back, I guess.)
Rochester NY's own Joanie "Chyna" Laurer resurfaced on Larry King Live
a few weeks back to discuss Anna-Nicole's son's death. They (the two
women) were in the movie "Illegal Aliens" together.
THE SKINNY ON DEVELOPMENTAL
Greg Gagne was fired back on 9/11 after about five months with WWE in
developmental.
He was "out of touch" and "behind the times". He pushed Cody Rennels
(Dusty's son) heavily using the same ideas that were done back when he
debuted as Verne Gagne's son in AWA in late 1972.
Story from Deep South: "it was taking them all week to undo one day of
Gagne's teaching."
Simon Dean (Mike Bucci) has taken over developmental and is working
out of Stamford.
Kenny Omega (OVW) went home to Winnipeg after asking to leave on 9/8.
Ryan Reeves is off suspension. He is said to be "even bigger"– like
Lashley/Batista huge.
Kevin Matthews and Danny Giamundo (Danny Inferno) have been released from OVW.
A SIX CHICKENS MEOW = MEXICO WHACKINESS~!
9/20 Palacio de los Deportes (18,301 fans) MEXICO CITY
AAA has been bringing in lots of TNA wrestlers
"They had talked over a spot where Abyss was going to throw Lider, who
fancies himself as being Mexico's Mick Foley, into tons of thumb
tacks. But being AAA, there is always one communication problem and
nobody bought the thumb thacks. They ended up with some fluorescent
light tubes and Abyss threw Lider through those."
TNA shot an angle on the Mexico tour where Konnan, Homicide and about
ten AAA guys (including JUVI and SUPER CALO) beat down AJ Styles.
RXLL: Vampiro's federation is already NO MORE~! He went to Japan and
the promoter (Pepe Villa) basically took the money and paid old debts
instead of paying the talent and the TV station. So much for
Vampiro's INTERNATIONAL WRESTLING AGREEMENTS with Italy Nu Wrestling
Evolution, All-Japan (he'd supposedly just struck a deal with Samurai
TV to air his show!) and unnamed Calgary promotion to come from the
ashes of Matrats. Vampiro is allegedly going to restart with some of
the original crew: Sean Waltman, Slash Venom, Ricky Banderas, Kaos,
Aaron Aguilera, Extreme Tiger (luchadore from Tijuana that has won two
hair matches and is being heavily hyped). I don't know Ron Killings'
status (or Teddy Hart's?) since Killings seemed to get in trouble with
AAA (and TNA) for working the last show and he basically promised to
not go back. Sounds like Raven, All Japan Talent (Nosawa, who has
worked in Mexico/US extensively was on his last main event) will be
coming in. Vampiro claims he'll be opening a school (which should be
interesting coming from a Canadian who openly admits he never learned
to take a flat back bump until he went to WCW and promptly got nearly
paralyzed from an Awesomebomb from that 70s guy Mike 'The Gladiator'
Awesome.)
REY MYSTERIO IN TIJUANA HALL OF FAME. That is all.
* RING OF HONOR – ROH *
ROH Tapes are popular with younger wrestlers in Mexico.
(AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, Low Ki, Homicide)
"Deals were at the beginning of the year for KENTA to pick up win
after win against ROH stars using the Go 2 Sleep as his finish.
It was all booked to build for the spot where he'd use the move on
Danielson, but Danielson would kick out, and come back to win cleanly
with the cattle mutilation.
A monkey wrench was nearly thrown into those plans when Danielson's
shoulder and chest were tore up and he really shouldn't be wrestling,
but he did anyway."
In an interview, Danielson acknowledged a strong interest in joining
the Peace Corps and said he'd actually applied last year but was
rejected due to his lack of college education. He claimed he was
taking classes online to help him out and still wanted to pursue the
goal.
Sammartino's appearance in ROH drew a legitimate turnaway crowd of 1200.
Prince Nana (Nana Bandoh, who claims to be the nephew of King Otumfuo
Osei Tutu, Ashanti King) has quit working with ROH. He wanted to do
more wrestling since he lost weight and didn't see much more
opportunity for him in Ring of Honor. An angle with Nana interrupting
Sammartino was nixed at the last show; overall people thought was the
right decision but one imagines that Nana wasn't thrilled at losing
that chance.
They've already begun working towards the big angle of Morishima vs
Samoa Joe for next year's big show. The crowd doesn't know Morishima
much yet but he's a terrificly talented big man (like 300 lbs) who
NOAH is very high on. Morishima doesn't even have a working visa yet
for wrestling in the US.
The GHC title defense was another interesting situation. It appears
that ROH knew about the title defense in advance but obviously
couldn't advertise it until the switch occurred. In fact, it's very
possible NOAH was counting on the publicity from the GHC title change
(9/9) to promote Marufuji in New York (9/13). It appears that Jim
Cornette must have known because of a video update that ROH posted
using him but which was clearly taped prior (9/1) to the title change.
The working relationship between ROH and NOAH is strong. They've
definitely got more out of that than say New Japan/TNA!
The Dragon Gate wrestlers will return next year for Wrestlemania
Weekend. They have recently started on a deal with the dying New
Japan to work together (which some are against since DG workers are
much smaller than NJ guys). However, it seems like NOAH has no
problem with ROH using these DG guys despite the obviously feud
between New Japan and NOAH.
ROH DVDs to Check Out
• 1st ROH Card: American Dragon vs LowKi vs Christopher Daniels (TC &
ZW live at the show!)
• CM Punk vs Samoa Joe Series
• CZW vs ROH: Cage of Death
• Supercard of Honor (Dragon Gate 6-man)
PPV
* SUMMERSLAM BUYRATE DOES WELL *
8/20 Boston - Summerslam – earned 538,000 buys.
Coming off last year's Hogan v. Michaels supermatch it obviously was
going to be lower, so this was considered a extremely good news. Big
draws were Edge/Cena, DX vs McMahons and especially Hogan/Orton and
Flair/Foley. Domestically, the numbers were poor (as always) around
320k buys. WWE is definitely being kept afloat with strong
international interest.
SUMMERSLAM BUY HISTORY
1998: Austin/UT = 700k buys
1999: Austin/HHH/Foley (Ventura ref) = 600k
2000: Rock/HHH/Angle = 550k
2001: Rock/Booker T, Austin/Angle = 565k
2002: Brock/Rock, HHH/Michaels = 520k
2003: Elimination Chamber (Goldberg, Jericho, Orton, Nash, Michaels),
Angle/Lesnar = 465k
2004: Benoit/Orton, JBL/UT, HHH/Eugene = 415k (328k domestic)
2005: Michaels/Hogan = 636k (407k domestic final)
2006: Summerslam 2006 = 538k (320k buys domestic)
2006 probably earned around $18.3 million gross. Summerslam 1998
earned over $21million.
Those tracking UFC: Liddell vs Babalu had around 500k buys (almost all
North America)
ECW PPV
--ECW's December to Dismember PPV on 12/3 in Augusta, GA at the
Richmond County Civic Center has tickets going on sale on 10/21. At
this point tickets are only listed at $20, which is incredibly
inexpensive. I can't believe they won't have higher prices for
ringside. (thanks to Michael Carpenter)
Speaking of ECW on the Sci-Fi channel, they've renewed Eureka, "which
beats out ECW as the highest rated show on the network and serves as
its lead-in."
TNA NEWS
Booking shakeup means Mike Tenay, Scott D'Amore and Jeremy Borash were
taken off the committee. Now it's just Jeff Jarrett, Dutch Mantell
and VINCE RUSSO leading the charge. Terry Taylor was really pushing
for Russo's return.
Obviously, this caused some conflict with Jim Cornette, who abhors
Russo. The deal allegedly is that Cornette won't let him be in the
same room as him, speak with him and especially not take direction
from him. For the time being that's the situation, but one has to
imagine there is going to be another powderkeg.
Vince Russo's departure last time was preceded by TNA negotiating with
Hulk Hogan (who was most likely just creating leverage with WWE).
Hogan had a precondition that he would not work with Russo.
The fallout: Scott D'Amore is getting a new TV production role. Mike
Tenay is still announcing. Jeremy Borash is still playing the
interview/announcer geek deal.
Both Lex Luger & Buff Bagwell started appearing on TNA TV. Unknown if
they are here to stay.
Samoa Joe did an interview with IGN speaking about how a TNA videogame
was vital. (Perhaps, but ECW definitely didn't save itself with their
releases in the late 90s. However, alternatively, more copies of Raw
vs Smackdown version whatever were sold last year than all of the Home
Video releases COMBINED. Now, keep in mind WWE only earns a fraction
of the sales – like between 2 and 5 percent on licensing, so it's not
like that would turn TNA from being in the red to shooting money out
their eyeballs.)
TNA Bound for Glory - Sunday, October 22, 2006 - Detroit, MI
1. NWA World Title vs. Career - special ringside enforcer Kurt Angle:
Jeff Jarrett vs. Sting
2. NWA Tag Team Titles - Six Sides Of Steel: LAX (Homicide y
Hernandez) vs. Christopher Daniels & AJ Styles
3. X Division Title: Senshi vs. Chris Sabin
4. Detroit "8 Mile Street fight": Rhino vs. Christian Cage
5. Monsters Ball: Samoa Joe vs. Abyss vs. Raven vs. Brother Runt
Also: The return of Team 3D (as noted on Borash's update)
Scott Steiner was not cool with TNA's system of handling outside
bookings (they pay the wrestlers a quarterly fee) and is in dispute
with them over that.
KURT ANGLE
Kurt Angle signed with TNA and debuted on their last PPV in the form
of a pre-taped segment.
His contract does allow him to compete in MMA though most think it's a
bad idea to try and do both at the same time even with TNA's reduced
schedule.
If Kurt Angle's no-compete had lasted until Feb, he'd have been owed
about $500k from WWE. However, it's unclear whether with his release
he was given a more unconvential one. He rumored to be at around
$650k/yr with TNA plus whatever else he decides to do on top (indy
shows, etc.)
He has been advertised as WRESTLING at TNA's show in Mexico, though
that seems to be more the local promoter (working on what he was told)
versus what can really be expected at the show.
Bill Behrens' fed in Modesto, CA advertised they had Kurt Angle coming
in for 10/13 show for a short period of time. That has since be
removed and he won't make an appearance – maybe at a later show.
Behrens' lost a lot of favor with TNA after the New Japan deal went to
hell.
Angle was brought to Nashville (9/20) and they filmed a secret
vignette for the PPV debut in a local warehouse. They even went as
far as bringing in a different TV crew, hiring indy workers to set up
the ring (but not knowing who used it) and filming at MIDNIGHT. Angle
was not in Orlando for the PPV for fear that someone would see him!
OTHER CONTRACT NEWS
BoDog (the Costa Rica fighting organization by Calvin Ayre) airs on
the "Men's Channel" (seems like one guy in Nebraska gets this!).
They've been trying to get a deal with Don Frye, Kurt Angle and Brock
Lesnar.
Rick Bassman (UPW owner: Victoria, Cena, Heidenreich, the Miz, Melina,
Ryan Sakoda, Chris Masters; an unofficial developmental territory for
WWE) is trying to put together a TANK ABBOT vs BUTTERBEAN PPV. Send
him money now folks~!
Frank Shamrock has claimed to sign a multimillion dollar contract with
THE WORLD FIGHTER CHAMPIONSHIPS. Cesar Gracie ist he group's booker.
Bas Rutten and Stephen Quadros have been reunited on IFL TV as announcers.
Apparently all WWE announcers sign their contracts at the same time!
Tazz's contract up at the end of the year. He's playing hardball and
citing radio opportunities in an attempt to get more money. He wants
a raise; hard to say if they'd give it to him.
Also, Jim Ross' contact is up soon. It's unknown if he'll resign.
It's tough to say as there are plenty of arguments for and against his
continued involvement. He's strictly doing announcing now – no talent
relations or creative. Longterm it's unknown what the plan is, though
I suspect he'll be on a week-to-week deal soon.
Similarly, JBL nearly left Smackdown this month as he has started a
new job with an Investment bank. He basically agreed to come back and
work a week-to-week d
RECENT HIRES TO WWE
Charles Skaggs (2 Cold Scorpio, 41) – three-year deal, friends with Booker T.
Mark Canterbury (Henry Godwinn, 42) – hired as favor to HHH &
Undertaker; been though (he lost his son). He's expected to be on
Smackdown.
Brad James (Brad Armstrong, 45) – hired to teach young guys; will work
on ECW house shows.
Frederick Martin Oakes (Marty Jannetty , 47) – VKM decision. He's
believed to hold the record for most firings from the WWE.
Mike Rotunda (IRS, 48) – recently hired as road agent.
Five guys over forty!
Rodney Begnaud (Rodney Mack, 33) – few month tryout; he'll be on ECW.
(no long term deal yet) – wife Jazz appeared on 6/7/06 "WWE vs ECW"
show. Since unseen!
--Rodney Mack and Eric Perez debuted for ECW last night in Loveland, CO.
WWE INJURIES
KNEE SURGERY: Michaels, Mysterio, Khali. Also bad knees? BIG SHOW~!
(He got the weekend off. I believe he's also having back issues.)
Damaja (aka Danny Hollie/Danny Basham) tore his biceps at house show.
Currently, the other security guard under the mask (with Doug Basham)
is Derrick Neikirk. His story is that his tag partner (Ryan O'Reilly)
were doing ECW houseshows until O'Reilly failed a drug test and got
himself suspended. Hollie won't be able to return until April!
Mickie James hurt her neck after her RAW match and the 'rana to the skull.
Your Eyes may have almost melted when "Big Dick Johnson" appeared on
your screen at RAW this past week. Who is that? Writer Chris
DeJoseph; the fat male stripper.
Hardcore Holly got 24 stitches in his back from the brutal table slice
in the RVD match from ECW last week. Seeing him tough it out (recall
when he broke his arm during a match on Smackdown a few years ago?)
seems to set the stage to turn him babyface.
I heard both Vince and Shane McMahon did stay overnight in the
hospital following the Hell in the Cell match with DX.
WWE MONEY FIGURES
WWE spent $1.53m between May and July buying new tape libraries. Some
think it's World Class & Stampede tapes.
"See No Evil" cost $10.9m to produce. They should end up with profit
after DVD sales but not after it's initial release. Still don't
understand why they aren't releasing the DVD until NOVEMBER since once
expects HALLOWEEN is prime time for Horror movies.
The Marine, aka WWE MARINE PRESENTS MONDAY MARINE NIGHT MARINE RAW
MARINE cost $23m to produce so they need a ton of money to make a hit
on this one ($30m range). It will be interesting to watch; the
premiere was held on Tuesday (10/3) at a Marine base in California.
Average house show was $58k in merchandise sales. Costs about $145k
to run a show and they earned about $185.5k per show (including PPVs).
Who spends more on production WWE or UFC? WWE spends about $1.65
million per PPV which appears to be more than UFC. However, UFC will
often offer main eventers a significant portion of the gross which
means compared to WWE's 15% spent on payroll, UFC is actually probably
paying guys a lot more – or at least a few guys a lot more. The
breakeven point for PPVs is 109,000 buys domestically. That means
they won't be going under anytime too soon!
ECW taping is cheaper to produce: (about $200k vs $500k for RAW/Smackdown)
ECW got about $233k/show to produce ECW but also an additional $133k
for the show internationally. So, that's about $66k profit + live
gate.
Big Show + Angle + RVD was $43k/week. Rest of ECW earn between $500 to $1500.
WWE will settle the damages they owe the World Wildlife Foundation on 12/5.
HERE AND THERE:
MENG IS GREAT.
Dean Malenko had a brief cameo on 9/15 Smackdown TV with Dominick.
There has been a push to have Steve Austin & Hulk Hogan appear on the
three-hour "Family Reunion", USA SEASON PREMIERE show on Monday.
Hogan is far more likely than Austin.
Speaking of Hogan, he's teasing that WM XXIII in Detroit would be a
final match ever. I doubt that. Likely matchup are either
Hogan/Austin (unlikely) and Hogan/Big Show (with BS playing Andre's
role since it's been twenty years since WM3).
Dallas Hart (Bret Hart's son) will be starting at Lance Storm's
training school in January.
--Ted Petty Invitational from (9/30) in Midlothian, IL: (thanks to
Dominick Valenti and Keith Lipinski)
El Generico b M Dogg 20,
Low Ki b Davey Richards,
Low Ki b Generico,
Claudio Castagnoli b Mike Quackenbush,
Arik Cannon b Hallowickid,
Cannon b Castagnoli,
Chris Hero b Trik Davis,
Roderick Strong b Delirious,
Strong b Hero,
Low Ki won three-way over Cannon and Strong in 35:00 to win the Ted
Petty Invitational
American Kickboxer & Tarek the Great NC Iron Saints,
Eddie Kingston & Joker & Ricochet b Iron Saints,
North Star Express won six-way gauntlet match,
Josh Abercromie b Tyler Black in a loser leaves town match,
Chuck Taylor b Toby Klein to win IWA Mid South title,
Lucha Masks & more!! http://www.nuclearjackalope.com/
SURVIVOR SERIES PPV
Event Description: It's three times the action as teams from RAW,
SmackDown and ECW compete against each other for the first time ever
in WWE Survivor Series. Don't miss the excitement as John Cena, Shawn
Michaels, Triple H, King Booker, Batista, Bobby Lashley, Rob Van Dam,
Sabu and Big Show form a legion of WWE Superstars at Survivor Series,
Sunday, November 26th at 8pm ET/5pm PT, live and only on Pay-Per-View.
A World Wrestling Entertainment Production. Go to wwe.com for more
details.
(Fatal Four-Way Match)
World Heavyweight Champion King Booker vs. Bobby Lashley vs. Batista vs. Finlay
(United States Champion) Mr. Kennedy vs. Undertaker
[I expect a DQ – feud to continue until next PPV.]
Rey Mysterio vs. Chavo Guerrero (Falls Count Anywhere Match)
MVP makes his debut
Cruiserweight Champion Gregory Helms vs. Matt Hardy ??? no idea ???)
WWE Tag Team Champions London & Kendrick vs. KC James & Idol Stevens
?? no idea ???)
Dark Match:
*Kendrick/London d. The Gymini
ECW, Oct. 10, 2006:
*No backstage segments were shown. If Diva Strip Poker happened, it
was backstage, and it wasn't shown to the live crowd.
1 - CM Punk d. Rene Dupree (clean)
2 - Tommy Dreamer d. Kevin Thorne w/ Ariel (clean)
3 - Sabu, RVD & The Sandman d. The Big Show, Test & Matt Striker -
RVD, Sabu & Sandman
Friday, October 06, 2006
IWW: RETURNS~!!!
It's twelve pages of news crammed into under fifty minutes. We cover:
* what former WWE star is on the playboy channel!
* what happens when you forget to get a good babysitter for your mexico indy fed (VAMPIRO/RXXL fiasco!)
* what's going on this sunday at the PPV
* what is ROH's next big angle and who did they bring to the US that didn't even have a WORKING VISA?
* why three announcers: one of EACH WWE BRAND might/almost left this year
* TNA news with lots of Kurt Angle coverage (including the story of the vignette, money and fighting)
* discussion of TNA's first PPV outside of Orlando in a long time
* what MMA fed should sponser IWW
* what is the best video on youtube
* what is the coolest lucha mask site on the internet
* how are the shamrock "brothers" (frank/ken) related
and much, much, much more!!
45 min (mp3) with Zip Whittle
* what former WWE star is on the playboy channel!
* what happens when you forget to get a good babysitter for your mexico indy fed (VAMPIRO/RXXL fiasco!)
* what's going on this sunday at the PPV
* what is ROH's next big angle and who did they bring to the US that didn't even have a WORKING VISA?
* why three announcers: one of EACH WWE BRAND might/almost left this year
* TNA news with lots of Kurt Angle coverage (including the story of the vignette, money and fighting)
* discussion of TNA's first PPV outside of Orlando in a long time
* what MMA fed should sponser IWW
* what is the best video on youtube
* what is the coolest lucha mask site on the internet
* how are the shamrock "brothers" (frank/ken) related
and much, much, much more!!
45 min (mp3) with Zip Whittle
Sunday, October 01, 2006
Justin's recap of ROH 9/16
From Justin on Myspace - one of the best wrestling reporters around!!
here's is one fan's thoughts of the 9/16 ROH debut at the Manhattan center
the crowd was very hot for the show. I'm bad at guessing crowd size but i would say they easily had over 1,000 people there. they had 4 sections around the ring that went 7 rows deep that were packed, a general admission section that had around 100 seats in it that were filled and balcony seating that went 4 rows deep that was also jammed.
before the show started there was a brief altercation involving the green lantern fan. i can't say for certain what happened but he was getting yelled at by a lady, security got involved and everyone in the arena chanted "fuck green lantern" for a minute. good times.
the show started with Davey Richards against Jack Evans. solid opening match. Evans hit his usual crazy high spots, Davey was hard hitting winning with a submission(i believe the move is called "stretch muffler")
next up the ring was surrounded by NOAH and ROH wrestlers as they honored Bruno Sammartino. the crowd was very appreciative of Bruno chanting "thank you Bruno", and "welcome back" making a reference to him having his best matches in new york at Madison Square Garden. the crowd was very silent when he spoke. he said that he does not approve of wrestling today(no shock there) however he was very impressed with Ring Of Honor and feels they are bringing wrestling back. ROH has Bruno's stamp of approval(note: this is a big deal considering Bruno's son doesn't have it).
as the wrestlers were walking back stage Samoa Joe and NOAH's Morishima started fighting and had to be broken up. with Kobashi out it looks like they're setting up a future Joe vs Morishima match (duh)
the second match was Delirious vs Adam Pearce. Pearce wins with help from Shane Hagadorn. the best spot of the match was delirious hitting 50 lariats in the corner on Pearce, taking 3 seconds to catch his breath, then hitting 10 more. chant of the night was for delirious during the match with the crowd chanting "bah bah bah bah clap clap clapclapclap".
next was a tree way between Jimmy Jacobs w/Lacey against Christopher Daniels and Colt Cabana. the back story of the match was Jimmy discovered Colt and Lacey having sex and was very distraught since he loves Lacey. however Lacey ordered Jimmy to team with Colt during the match and take out Daniels. a few comedy spots with Colt looking up Lacey's skirt and "stumbling" and grabbing Lacey's chest to keep himself up. the finish of the jabobs/cabana/daniles 3 way was a low blow from jacobs to cabana for the pin. after the match Lacey was furious with Jimmy for disobeying her and he left the ring dejected.
Jim Cornette came to the ring with the Briscoe brothers and cut an anti- new york promo. he felt that he was a minority in new york being a white middle aged man. he also said that homicide would get an ROH world title shot at the next show in Manhattan if him and Joe win the match.
next up was homicide and Samoa Joe vs the Briscoe brothers. the crowd went crazy for homicide and was firmly behind the "hometown hero" solid match, plenty of stiff shots from Joe and the Briscoes. match ended with homicide hitting jay Briscoe with the "cop killa" for the victory. Cornette returned to ring side saying that he's gonna make homicide's life a "living hell" the rest of the year.
intermission time. the line to meet Bruno Sammartino was huge also NOAH was selling shirts at the show with the proceeds going to Kobashi as he recovers from kidney cancer. a big seller at the merch table was the "hero's of world class/von erich documentary" dvd. when i went to purchase it, it was sold out. another big seller was shows featuring C.M. Punk.
the second half featured only title matches.
the first was the kings of wrestling(Chris Hero and Claudio Castagnoli) against champs Austin Aries and Roderick Strong. the kings came out to "we are the champions" and made their way through the crowd. the match was very good featuring great tandem moves from both teams. it looked like Aries was going to hit his 450 splash when Castagnoli hit Aries in the ribs with his briefcase( I.R.S anyone?). Aries tried making a "superman comeback" but the kings hit the KRS-1 on Aries for the victory becoming (in the Howard Finkle voice) NEW ROH world tag team champions. the crowd was very hot for the match. the fans had a "battle chant going" with one side chanting "kings of wrestling" and the other side chanting "shut the fuck up". this lasted after the match and went on for awhile. also this means that Chris Hero is now a part of the ROH roster.
Chris hero tangent: this guy has incredible heat. the fans that don't like him absolutely hate him. the fans that like him will chant till their red in the face for him. personally i think this is a cool move. behind homicide no one else got a bigger reaction at the show and if your paying your (to borrow a Jim Ross quote) hard earned money to boo the man how can it not be a great idea on ROH's part to bring him in.
the second title match was GHC Heavyweight Champion Marufuji against Nigel McGuinnes. this was a big deal because this is the first time the GHC title has been defended in the united states. this was the surprise match of the night. Marufuji hit some insane spots including a shiranui on McGuinnes to the floor. halfway through the match the fans chanted "this is awesome". McGuinnes hit his spots including "tower of london" but Marufuji won the match after going corner 2 corner(a van terminator without the chair) followed with a super shiranui from the top rope. the match was excellent and after it the fans again chanted "that was awesome".
for what it's worth Nigel Mcguinnes has been the best independent wrestler this past year. he's had classics with Bryana Danielson and had a great run with the ROH pure title. he reminds me of cowboy Bob Orton(i may be the only guy) in that he makes really complicated moves and holds look so easy to execute(which has been said of Orton).
the main event of the evening was KENTA against ROH world champion Bryan Danielson. the crowd was behind Danielson strongly because he was wrestling the match with a separated shoulder. the match had a very "big fight" atmosphere to it. while i was waiting to get in the arena i was asking people who they thought was going to win and it was 50-50. people were sure KENTA was going to win or were sure Danielson was. tons of submissions from both KENTA and Danielson and plenty of near falls. Kenta hit "go to sleep" and the crowd erupted when Danielson put his foot on the rope at 2. Danileson won the match with cattle mutilation and is still your ROH world heavyweight champion.
the show went from 8:00 to about 11:30/11:40. the show felt just right time wise, the intermission helped. also stacking the second half with three title matches didn't hurt either. the best match of the night in my opinion was Marufuji and McGuinnes however Kenta and Danielson was also excellent. the only reason I'm picking Marafugi and McGuinnes was because it really surprised me and everyone in the building with how great it was. as for worst match there really wasn't a bad match on the card. if i have to say it would probably be Delirious and Pearce however it served it purpose and I would have no problem watching it again. .
the two biggest reactions went to homicide and the kings of wrestling.
overall i thought this was an excellent show. ROH hyped it to be their biggest show ever and they didn't disappoint. the Manhattan center made for a great venue and the crowd was very hot from start to finish. the only bad note was the security at the Manhattan center was gawd-awful. they were real ass-bags and from what i hear were taking away streamers from the fans. despite that the show was excellent and i recommend the purchase when it comes out on DVD.
Justin
here's is one fan's thoughts of the 9/16 ROH debut at the Manhattan center
the crowd was very hot for the show. I'm bad at guessing crowd size but i would say they easily had over 1,000 people there. they had 4 sections around the ring that went 7 rows deep that were packed, a general admission section that had around 100 seats in it that were filled and balcony seating that went 4 rows deep that was also jammed.
before the show started there was a brief altercation involving the green lantern fan. i can't say for certain what happened but he was getting yelled at by a lady, security got involved and everyone in the arena chanted "fuck green lantern" for a minute. good times.
the show started with Davey Richards against Jack Evans. solid opening match. Evans hit his usual crazy high spots, Davey was hard hitting winning with a submission(i believe the move is called "stretch muffler")
next up the ring was surrounded by NOAH and ROH wrestlers as they honored Bruno Sammartino. the crowd was very appreciative of Bruno chanting "thank you Bruno", and "welcome back" making a reference to him having his best matches in new york at Madison Square Garden. the crowd was very silent when he spoke. he said that he does not approve of wrestling today(no shock there) however he was very impressed with Ring Of Honor and feels they are bringing wrestling back. ROH has Bruno's stamp of approval(note: this is a big deal considering Bruno's son doesn't have it).
as the wrestlers were walking back stage Samoa Joe and NOAH's Morishima started fighting and had to be broken up. with Kobashi out it looks like they're setting up a future Joe vs Morishima match (duh)
the second match was Delirious vs Adam Pearce. Pearce wins with help from Shane Hagadorn. the best spot of the match was delirious hitting 50 lariats in the corner on Pearce, taking 3 seconds to catch his breath, then hitting 10 more. chant of the night was for delirious during the match with the crowd chanting "bah bah bah bah clap clap clapclapclap".
next was a tree way between Jimmy Jacobs w/Lacey against Christopher Daniels and Colt Cabana. the back story of the match was Jimmy discovered Colt and Lacey having sex and was very distraught since he loves Lacey. however Lacey ordered Jimmy to team with Colt during the match and take out Daniels. a few comedy spots with Colt looking up Lacey's skirt and "stumbling" and grabbing Lacey's chest to keep himself up. the finish of the jabobs/cabana/daniles 3 way was a low blow from jacobs to cabana for the pin. after the match Lacey was furious with Jimmy for disobeying her and he left the ring dejected.
Jim Cornette came to the ring with the Briscoe brothers and cut an anti- new york promo. he felt that he was a minority in new york being a white middle aged man. he also said that homicide would get an ROH world title shot at the next show in Manhattan if him and Joe win the match.
next up was homicide and Samoa Joe vs the Briscoe brothers. the crowd went crazy for homicide and was firmly behind the "hometown hero" solid match, plenty of stiff shots from Joe and the Briscoes. match ended with homicide hitting jay Briscoe with the "cop killa" for the victory. Cornette returned to ring side saying that he's gonna make homicide's life a "living hell" the rest of the year.
intermission time. the line to meet Bruno Sammartino was huge also NOAH was selling shirts at the show with the proceeds going to Kobashi as he recovers from kidney cancer. a big seller at the merch table was the "hero's of world class/von erich documentary" dvd. when i went to purchase it, it was sold out. another big seller was shows featuring C.M. Punk.
the second half featured only title matches.
the first was the kings of wrestling(Chris Hero and Claudio Castagnoli) against champs Austin Aries and Roderick Strong. the kings came out to "we are the champions" and made their way through the crowd. the match was very good featuring great tandem moves from both teams. it looked like Aries was going to hit his 450 splash when Castagnoli hit Aries in the ribs with his briefcase( I.R.S anyone?). Aries tried making a "superman comeback" but the kings hit the KRS-1 on Aries for the victory becoming (in the Howard Finkle voice) NEW ROH world tag team champions. the crowd was very hot for the match. the fans had a "battle chant going" with one side chanting "kings of wrestling" and the other side chanting "shut the fuck up". this lasted after the match and went on for awhile. also this means that Chris Hero is now a part of the ROH roster.
Chris hero tangent: this guy has incredible heat. the fans that don't like him absolutely hate him. the fans that like him will chant till their red in the face for him. personally i think this is a cool move. behind homicide no one else got a bigger reaction at the show and if your paying your (to borrow a Jim Ross quote) hard earned money to boo the man how can it not be a great idea on ROH's part to bring him in.
the second title match was GHC Heavyweight Champion Marufuji against Nigel McGuinnes. this was a big deal because this is the first time the GHC title has been defended in the united states. this was the surprise match of the night. Marufuji hit some insane spots including a shiranui on McGuinnes to the floor. halfway through the match the fans chanted "this is awesome". McGuinnes hit his spots including "tower of london" but Marufuji won the match after going corner 2 corner(a van terminator without the chair) followed with a super shiranui from the top rope. the match was excellent and after it the fans again chanted "that was awesome".
for what it's worth Nigel Mcguinnes has been the best independent wrestler this past year. he's had classics with Bryana Danielson and had a great run with the ROH pure title. he reminds me of cowboy Bob Orton(i may be the only guy) in that he makes really complicated moves and holds look so easy to execute(which has been said of Orton).
the main event of the evening was KENTA against ROH world champion Bryan Danielson. the crowd was behind Danielson strongly because he was wrestling the match with a separated shoulder. the match had a very "big fight" atmosphere to it. while i was waiting to get in the arena i was asking people who they thought was going to win and it was 50-50. people were sure KENTA was going to win or were sure Danielson was. tons of submissions from both KENTA and Danielson and plenty of near falls. Kenta hit "go to sleep" and the crowd erupted when Danielson put his foot on the rope at 2. Danileson won the match with cattle mutilation and is still your ROH world heavyweight champion.
the show went from 8:00 to about 11:30/11:40. the show felt just right time wise, the intermission helped. also stacking the second half with three title matches didn't hurt either. the best match of the night in my opinion was Marufuji and McGuinnes however Kenta and Danielson was also excellent. the only reason I'm picking Marafugi and McGuinnes was because it really surprised me and everyone in the building with how great it was. as for worst match there really wasn't a bad match on the card. if i have to say it would probably be Delirious and Pearce however it served it purpose and I would have no problem watching it again. .
the two biggest reactions went to homicide and the kings of wrestling.
overall i thought this was an excellent show. ROH hyped it to be their biggest show ever and they didn't disappoint. the Manhattan center made for a great venue and the crowd was very hot from start to finish. the only bad note was the security at the Manhattan center was gawd-awful. they were real ass-bags and from what i hear were taking away streamers from the fans. despite that the show was excellent and i recommend the purchase when it comes out on DVD.
Justin
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