Gary Will has compiled a very informative list of professional wrestlers who have passed away. People often ask about whether there an epidemic of wrestlers dying young.
So, there are about 1324 wrestlers listed there. Only 1085 have at least a year of death listed and only 854 of those have an age listed. I don't know when every person started their wrestling career, but let's just pretend they debuted when they were 18 years old. (Now granted, that puts a guy like Mike Awesome as debuting in 1983 when in reality it was several years later in 1989.)
So, by decade using this idea of a start date here are the counts:
[u]debut year[/u]
1860s -- 2
1870s -- 9
1880s -- 2
1890s -- 11
1900s -- 28
1910s -- 55
1920s -- 110
1930s -- 161
1940s -- 166
1950s -- 108
1960s -- 65
1970s -- 65
1980s -- 51
1990s -- 18
2000s -- 3
If you want to argue that most wrestlers weren't really into their career until they were about 25 (age David Von Erich died at), the list moves a bit further:
[u]decade when they were 25[/u]
1860s 1
1870s 2
1880s 8
1890s 2
1900s 19
1910s 27
1920s 67
1930s 142
1940s 156
1950s 162
1960s 82
1970s 68
1980s 63
1990s 50
2000s 5
Not perfectly scientific, but some basic analysis. Of the last five groups they divide as follows:
debuted in 1960s : 31%
debuted in 1970s : 25%
debuted in 1980s : 24%
debuted in 1990s : 19%
debuted in 2000s : 2%
Now, let's take into account average age of death for each decade:
(again I'm listing the decade of when they were 25)
1860s: 41.0 years old
1870s: 73.0 years old
1880s: 64.5 years old
1890s: 81.0 years old
1900s: 66.5 years old
1910s: 69.9 years old
1920s: 64.9 years old
1930s: 72.5 years old
1940s: 70.0 years old
1950s: 65.4 years old
1960s: 54.6 years old
1970s: 45.4 years old
1980s: 37.2 years old
1990s: 31.4 years old
2000s: 23.8 (for anyone who was less than 25 years old, I adjusted their debut date back to when they were 18)
Now, this list seems to be mostly US & Canadian wrestlers with some Mexican & Japanese personalities.
Now, it's not exactly fair to just compare 68 deaths from 70s personalities vs 50 deaths from 90s personalities because there has been more time for aging to occur. As of twenty years ago, how many people from the 70s had died and what was the average age?
As of the end of 1987... (by debut decade)
1930s: 73 deaths, avg age 61.5
1940s: 52 deaths, avg age 54.2
1950s: 28 deaths, avg age 46.9
1960s: 23 deaths, avg age 39.7
1970s: 13 deaths, avg age 32.0
1980s: 8 deaths, avg age 28.0
So, the average age of death from stars of 1990s as of now is 31.4 years old. However, there have been 50 deaths. This compares to only 13 deaths from stars of the 1970s (measured 7 years into the following decade) but at an average age of 32 years old.
Indeed.
Thursday, March 08, 2007
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
RAW March 5, 2007 BLOG by Ray Rhodes
Indeed Wrestling Weekly: RAW Blog 3/6/07 by Ray Rhodes
RAW kicks off with Cena and HBK talking backstage. Good promo exploiting the tension, with HBK saying he doesn't want or need Cena's help. The promo, at least locally, strangely cuts off and goes to commercial. When we come back, HBK is walking down the ramp. Not sure if that was a mistake or what.
It's HBK against Orton to kick off in a sweet hot opener. HBK's body is showing it's age but give the man credit, he still brings it like no one else. Good match but after Michaels takes a hard drop to the outside, the MID MATCH COMMERCIAL BREAK hits and ruins any momentum. We're back and HBK hits his patented comeback and after a series of traded reversals, a ref knock, and an attempted belt shot, Michaels gets the roll up victory. Good finish here, building on the Edge-Orton split as well. Orton gives HBK the RKO on a chair (which looked like it hurt HBK's knee just as much) but before they can continue to assault, Cena makes the save.
They show a graphic for the upcoming Guest Referee selection with the bald black shadow figure. My girlfriend remarks that if rumors are correct, the shadow actually looks like the mystery man (Austin).
Jeff Hardy gets a rematch with Umaga and since we're still in Phase One of "Let's forget Umaga lost to Cena twice and get him back on track as a monster" the outcome is already signed, sealed, and delivered. Hardy gets a few more shots in here, but can't sustain the pressure for too long. Eventually, Hardy succumbs to Umaga's Two Minutes of PAIN also known as his Signature Move Bonanza. While I get the idea of Umaga killing one of the most over face to make him more of a monster, I can't help but think he deserves better then to be eventually squashed out. He has, after all, lost some of the GUT he came back with.
Flair and Carlito have a little exchange, setting up the final Money in the Bank Qualifier. With Flair pretty much a non-factor last year with the mid-match injury angle, I hope if one of these guys has to make it, it's Carlito.
The MasterLock Challenge with....Hacksaw Jim Duggan. Is Hacksaw seriously on the roster? This has to be the most odd pity job in the company now that Animal was released. The Masterpiece wins, and one wonders if the writers actually watch week-to-week. Is Masters a goof or is he the real deal? I liked when they were breaking the hold and he was finding a technicality for saying it wasn't officially broken. Now I guess he's back to being the real deal but honestly, does anyone buy it anymore?
McMahon, Bishoff, Foley, The Phenoix Gorilla, Shane McMahon and Stone Cold Steve Austin have a Classic Raw Segment which really, makes no sense but it was entertaining and channeled some of the glory days of RAW. It's good to see Austin back and McMahon's faces were priceless.
Mickie James takes on Melina in a Falls Count Anywhere match for the Women's Title.
Hardcore Women's matches are always a hoot, remember Ivory and Ninja Tory from a few years back? Fun match which takes it backstage and into the women's lockerroom. Camera man gets taken out and we go to commericial. We come back and the women are making their way back to the ring. For a second time in a match with Melina, Mickie winds up falling on her head, this time going for a top-rope hurricanrana. That's a little thing IWW likes to call OUCH! Melina wins and Ashley, who was the guest announcer, gets into a little thing with Melina, taking the spot Mickie's more than earned. If there is one thing Christy Hemme and Ashley have taught the Divas: Pose for Playboy, Get a Wrestlemania Push. Nothing like selling out your self worth for a Wrestlemania pay day, right?
I talked with Zip on the last IWW podcast about Ashley briefly but man, she has the body of a 12 year old boy with ginormous fake breasts. Eat something! And what a pretentious entrance with the playboy cover coming down. She's so not-over Playboy has to put Chyna, Torrie, and others in the same issue. Showing the playboy bunnies on her Bazooms at No Way Out should have been a Diva Mark Out Moment...instead it was turned into another wasted moment.
Carlito and Flair wrestle for awhile until The Great Khali comes down and interrupts the match, eventually killing and eating both men, Torrie, and Chloe. He then takes a dump on the Announcer's table which looks like the pile of poop from Jurassic Park. He then utters what translator's eventually distinguish as, "I want Kane". Some of this is true, and one wonders–if Khali wanted Kane so bad why wouldn't he just you know, show up at Smackdown where KANE IS?! LIKE HE DID LAST WEEK?!
Orton tells Edge he doesn't have his back. Interesting!
Nick Bockwinkel joins Mr. Perfect, Jerry Lawler, and Dusty Rhodes in this year's Hall of Fame. Next IWW show I hope to go over this year's choices and debate with Zip on if he thinks they are good or bad choices.
Edge takes on Cena....sort of. Instead, Edge has MNM come down and in a strange promo talks about how he's colorblind and he's from Canada so Johnny Nitro gets to fight Cena. I'm honestly not sure what he was saying but RAW totally broke down at this point. Edge's promo and MNM's involvement made no sense and all it did was set up HBK's "will I, won't I" moment. Mercury and Edge beat on Cena, HBK starts to make the save but doesn't. As Edge leaves and Mercury and Nitro continue the beating, HBK still stalls. Eventually, he makes the save and walks away.
Final Thoughts: As Wrestlemania gets closer I think we're going to see less and less clean matches and lot's of interference and BS so it's going to be hard to judge on match quality. Entertainment wise, RAW moved along briskly and it was good to see a lot of old faces. The Women's match was fun and the hot opener was main event quality. I'll give it 4 out of 5 Viscera Heads, which marks a solid B, but mostly due to it's entertainment value and Wrestlemania build-up and not on it's matches.
RAW kicks off with Cena and HBK talking backstage. Good promo exploiting the tension, with HBK saying he doesn't want or need Cena's help. The promo, at least locally, strangely cuts off and goes to commercial. When we come back, HBK is walking down the ramp. Not sure if that was a mistake or what.
It's HBK against Orton to kick off in a sweet hot opener. HBK's body is showing it's age but give the man credit, he still brings it like no one else. Good match but after Michaels takes a hard drop to the outside, the MID MATCH COMMERCIAL BREAK hits and ruins any momentum. We're back and HBK hits his patented comeback and after a series of traded reversals, a ref knock, and an attempted belt shot, Michaels gets the roll up victory. Good finish here, building on the Edge-Orton split as well. Orton gives HBK the RKO on a chair (which looked like it hurt HBK's knee just as much) but before they can continue to assault, Cena makes the save.
They show a graphic for the upcoming Guest Referee selection with the bald black shadow figure. My girlfriend remarks that if rumors are correct, the shadow actually looks like the mystery man (Austin).
Jeff Hardy gets a rematch with Umaga and since we're still in Phase One of "Let's forget Umaga lost to Cena twice and get him back on track as a monster" the outcome is already signed, sealed, and delivered. Hardy gets a few more shots in here, but can't sustain the pressure for too long. Eventually, Hardy succumbs to Umaga's Two Minutes of PAIN also known as his Signature Move Bonanza. While I get the idea of Umaga killing one of the most over face to make him more of a monster, I can't help but think he deserves better then to be eventually squashed out. He has, after all, lost some of the GUT he came back with.
Flair and Carlito have a little exchange, setting up the final Money in the Bank Qualifier. With Flair pretty much a non-factor last year with the mid-match injury angle, I hope if one of these guys has to make it, it's Carlito.
The MasterLock Challenge with....Hacksaw Jim Duggan. Is Hacksaw seriously on the roster? This has to be the most odd pity job in the company now that Animal was released. The Masterpiece wins, and one wonders if the writers actually watch week-to-week. Is Masters a goof or is he the real deal? I liked when they were breaking the hold and he was finding a technicality for saying it wasn't officially broken. Now I guess he's back to being the real deal but honestly, does anyone buy it anymore?
McMahon, Bishoff, Foley, The Phenoix Gorilla, Shane McMahon and Stone Cold Steve Austin have a Classic Raw Segment which really, makes no sense but it was entertaining and channeled some of the glory days of RAW. It's good to see Austin back and McMahon's faces were priceless.
Mickie James takes on Melina in a Falls Count Anywhere match for the Women's Title.
Hardcore Women's matches are always a hoot, remember Ivory and Ninja Tory from a few years back? Fun match which takes it backstage and into the women's lockerroom. Camera man gets taken out and we go to commericial. We come back and the women are making their way back to the ring. For a second time in a match with Melina, Mickie winds up falling on her head, this time going for a top-rope hurricanrana. That's a little thing IWW likes to call OUCH! Melina wins and Ashley, who was the guest announcer, gets into a little thing with Melina, taking the spot Mickie's more than earned. If there is one thing Christy Hemme and Ashley have taught the Divas: Pose for Playboy, Get a Wrestlemania Push. Nothing like selling out your self worth for a Wrestlemania pay day, right?
I talked with Zip on the last IWW podcast about Ashley briefly but man, she has the body of a 12 year old boy with ginormous fake breasts. Eat something! And what a pretentious entrance with the playboy cover coming down. She's so not-over Playboy has to put Chyna, Torrie, and others in the same issue. Showing the playboy bunnies on her Bazooms at No Way Out should have been a Diva Mark Out Moment...instead it was turned into another wasted moment.
Carlito and Flair wrestle for awhile until The Great Khali comes down and interrupts the match, eventually killing and eating both men, Torrie, and Chloe. He then takes a dump on the Announcer's table which looks like the pile of poop from Jurassic Park. He then utters what translator's eventually distinguish as, "I want Kane". Some of this is true, and one wonders–if Khali wanted Kane so bad why wouldn't he just you know, show up at Smackdown where KANE IS?! LIKE HE DID LAST WEEK?!
Orton tells Edge he doesn't have his back. Interesting!
Nick Bockwinkel joins Mr. Perfect, Jerry Lawler, and Dusty Rhodes in this year's Hall of Fame. Next IWW show I hope to go over this year's choices and debate with Zip on if he thinks they are good or bad choices.
Edge takes on Cena....sort of. Instead, Edge has MNM come down and in a strange promo talks about how he's colorblind and he's from Canada so Johnny Nitro gets to fight Cena. I'm honestly not sure what he was saying but RAW totally broke down at this point. Edge's promo and MNM's involvement made no sense and all it did was set up HBK's "will I, won't I" moment. Mercury and Edge beat on Cena, HBK starts to make the save but doesn't. As Edge leaves and Mercury and Nitro continue the beating, HBK still stalls. Eventually, he makes the save and walks away.
Final Thoughts: As Wrestlemania gets closer I think we're going to see less and less clean matches and lot's of interference and BS so it's going to be hard to judge on match quality. Entertainment wise, RAW moved along briskly and it was good to see a lot of old faces. The Women's match was fun and the hot opener was main event quality. I'll give it 4 out of 5 Viscera Heads, which marks a solid B, but mostly due to it's entertainment value and Wrestlemania build-up and not on it's matches.
Friday, March 02, 2007
New IWW episode - with DEBUT OF IWW TRIVIA CONTEST! (win great prizes)
1 HOUR MP3 LINK
Ray Rhodes & Zip Whittle spend an hour covering the new & notes from around North America including:
* WWE Developmental (bunch of 2nd generation guys&girls coming in)
* Current Wrestlemania Card
* WWE & TNA firings
* No Way Out review
* TNA state in this world
* Chavo's lunch habits
* Possible stips for Khali/Kane
* WSX collapse?
* DVD news
* and random banter!
It was fun. We also debuted "THE GREAT IWW TRIVIA CHALLENGE." Listen for the question and then email your answer to: iwwtrivia@gmail.com to enter our big contest! ROCK. Prizes include a replica John Cena spinner belt! (Remember, we're only a month away from WM23 on April 1, 2007 in Detroit!)
Ray Rhodes & Zip Whittle spend an hour covering the new & notes from around North America including:
* WWE Developmental (bunch of 2nd generation guys&girls coming in)
* Current Wrestlemania Card
* WWE & TNA firings
* No Way Out review
* TNA state in this world
* Chavo's lunch habits
* Possible stips for Khali/Kane
* WSX collapse?
* DVD news
* and random banter!
It was fun. We also debuted "THE GREAT IWW TRIVIA CHALLENGE." Listen for the question and then email your answer to: iwwtrivia@gmail.com to enter our big contest! ROCK. Prizes include a replica John Cena spinner belt! (Remember, we're only a month away from WM23 on April 1, 2007 in Detroit!)
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
IWW ECW Report for 2/27/07 by RAY RHODES
Another IWW exclusive ECW report with your man of the hour.... RAY RHODES!
Money in the Bank qualifiers and we have Kennedy against Sabu. Kennedy, the WWE's new golden boy comes in and knocks off Sabu. I'm so glad we have Kennedy and Booker T in this match and not Shelton Benjamin and Sabu. Ray Rhodes sarcasm alert! Not a terrible match but with Sabu getting the majority of the offense it was only a matter of time before he does the JOB. Again here, Kennedy shows that going to Wrestlemania is a big deal but I can't help but wonder if maybe, just maybe, Sabu has paid enough penance to get out of the perennial dog house. I guess not.
Balls Mahoney takes on Striker but only for a few moments before SNITSKY comes in and lays out Balls, giving him a DQ win. One only knows why they bothered to give him a win since SNITSKY boots Striker as well. SNITSKY is perhaps the most vile man ever created by the hand of God. If you connect the dots of his body acne, you would surely draw the face of the Devil himself. On the bright side, Test and his Big Boot are now gone from the WWE so SNITSKY's boot reigns supreme.
Kevin Thorne and Marcus Cor Von takes on RVD and Tommy Dreamer with a bunch of people at ringside. If you've been paying attention, you've already guessed the outcome. The "New Breed" pick up the win. Originally, I was a fan of this angle since I thought it would be an opportunity for the New Breed guys to get some much needed experience and a good way to keep the Originals on TV. But typically, it's just another way to bury the originals even more. If you bury a bunch of guys and then have some other guys beat them, you aren't doing anyone a service. Ho-Hum. Still and all, RVD and Dreamer still show up to work, it's a paycheck, and they're toughing it out. I give them credit.
Now, I don't know this for a fact and it's something Zip would have to check on but I would imagine ratings for ECW starting going down around the same time RVD and Sabu both were de-pushed, Extreme Rules matches became all but extinct and then again when the Big Show left. This is when ECW became truly a dumping ground for green and uninspiring wrestlers. Don't get me wrong, I'm not the biggest fan of the old ECW and I wouldn't want it back. But I liked this new ECW, when it combined some of the old, some of the new, and a 4-4 and half star main event each week. Now it's become ham n' egger city and that's no one's fault but McMahons. We've been getting a more clear view on what his vision for ECW is, and it doesn't look good for anyone, fan of the old ECW or not.
Steven Richards makes his yearly match proving he still has a job. CM Punk defeats him using Knee-Based Offense which is sweeping the indy scene. We're back to Punk squash matches on his road to Wrestlemania. My guess for next week? Little Guido.
Extreme Expose leads me to turn the channel to Law and Order. Olivia looks like she had her nose smashed with a frying pan. Back to ECW just in time for the CAGE MATCH.
I like how they make it seem like 5 minutes is such a short time but the majority of RAW and ECW matches are 5 minutes and under. However, I think they've found a way to make Lashley watchable–5 minute time limits. Run with it. Seriously though, Holly gets his ass handed to him again and if the rumors of elbow surgery are legit, this would be the excuse. In case Lashley forgot which elbow, he made sure to hit both of them a bunch with the chair. As ECW went off the air we get a outstanding WWE classic moment with Lashley throwing himself at a section of the cage and having it break and fall on Umaga sending both men sprawling to death. What I don't understand is why Lashley is so angry at Umaga. I realize they're both representing important people and Wrestlemania is a big deal. But really, what is in it for Lashley? They should have had a promo with Trump promising Lashley a comical sack full of golden doubloons or something. While I like the intensity, I'm just don't buy their hatred for each other rests solely on a haircut that neither man is involved in.
Final Thoughts: 5 matches in an hour, none of them had any time to get anything going. Best match would be the opener just because watching Sabu jump around entertains me. And he successfully used the leg takedown on Kennedy as the opening move. Main event was effective with a lasting memory. The rest of the show was trying to build up talent: SNITSKY as a monster, the New Breed as legitimate, and CM Punk back on a push. I know I've been complaining a lot lately but I just don't agree with Wrestlemania booking and some of these angles. I'll give this show 3 and half Chuck Palumbo heads, which in my book is a solid C Plus. Wait, SNITSKY BOOTS bump this up to 4 Palumbo heads...which squeaks out a very low B.
Money in the Bank qualifiers and we have Kennedy against Sabu. Kennedy, the WWE's new golden boy comes in and knocks off Sabu. I'm so glad we have Kennedy and Booker T in this match and not Shelton Benjamin and Sabu. Ray Rhodes sarcasm alert! Not a terrible match but with Sabu getting the majority of the offense it was only a matter of time before he does the JOB. Again here, Kennedy shows that going to Wrestlemania is a big deal but I can't help but wonder if maybe, just maybe, Sabu has paid enough penance to get out of the perennial dog house. I guess not.
Balls Mahoney takes on Striker but only for a few moments before SNITSKY comes in and lays out Balls, giving him a DQ win. One only knows why they bothered to give him a win since SNITSKY boots Striker as well. SNITSKY is perhaps the most vile man ever created by the hand of God. If you connect the dots of his body acne, you would surely draw the face of the Devil himself. On the bright side, Test and his Big Boot are now gone from the WWE so SNITSKY's boot reigns supreme.
Kevin Thorne and Marcus Cor Von takes on RVD and Tommy Dreamer with a bunch of people at ringside. If you've been paying attention, you've already guessed the outcome. The "New Breed" pick up the win. Originally, I was a fan of this angle since I thought it would be an opportunity for the New Breed guys to get some much needed experience and a good way to keep the Originals on TV. But typically, it's just another way to bury the originals even more. If you bury a bunch of guys and then have some other guys beat them, you aren't doing anyone a service. Ho-Hum. Still and all, RVD and Dreamer still show up to work, it's a paycheck, and they're toughing it out. I give them credit.
Now, I don't know this for a fact and it's something Zip would have to check on but I would imagine ratings for ECW starting going down around the same time RVD and Sabu both were de-pushed, Extreme Rules matches became all but extinct and then again when the Big Show left. This is when ECW became truly a dumping ground for green and uninspiring wrestlers. Don't get me wrong, I'm not the biggest fan of the old ECW and I wouldn't want it back. But I liked this new ECW, when it combined some of the old, some of the new, and a 4-4 and half star main event each week. Now it's become ham n' egger city and that's no one's fault but McMahons. We've been getting a more clear view on what his vision for ECW is, and it doesn't look good for anyone, fan of the old ECW or not.
Steven Richards makes his yearly match proving he still has a job. CM Punk defeats him using Knee-Based Offense which is sweeping the indy scene. We're back to Punk squash matches on his road to Wrestlemania. My guess for next week? Little Guido.
Extreme Expose leads me to turn the channel to Law and Order. Olivia looks like she had her nose smashed with a frying pan. Back to ECW just in time for the CAGE MATCH.
I like how they make it seem like 5 minutes is such a short time but the majority of RAW and ECW matches are 5 minutes and under. However, I think they've found a way to make Lashley watchable–5 minute time limits. Run with it. Seriously though, Holly gets his ass handed to him again and if the rumors of elbow surgery are legit, this would be the excuse. In case Lashley forgot which elbow, he made sure to hit both of them a bunch with the chair. As ECW went off the air we get a outstanding WWE classic moment with Lashley throwing himself at a section of the cage and having it break and fall on Umaga sending both men sprawling to death. What I don't understand is why Lashley is so angry at Umaga. I realize they're both representing important people and Wrestlemania is a big deal. But really, what is in it for Lashley? They should have had a promo with Trump promising Lashley a comical sack full of golden doubloons or something. While I like the intensity, I'm just don't buy their hatred for each other rests solely on a haircut that neither man is involved in.
Final Thoughts: 5 matches in an hour, none of them had any time to get anything going. Best match would be the opener just because watching Sabu jump around entertains me. And he successfully used the leg takedown on Kennedy as the opening move. Main event was effective with a lasting memory. The rest of the show was trying to build up talent: SNITSKY as a monster, the New Breed as legitimate, and CM Punk back on a push. I know I've been complaining a lot lately but I just don't agree with Wrestlemania booking and some of these angles. I'll give this show 3 and half Chuck Palumbo heads, which in my book is a solid C Plus. Wait, SNITSKY BOOTS bump this up to 4 Palumbo heads...which squeaks out a very low B.
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
RAW REPORT (2/26/07) by RAY RHODES
A SPECIAL IWW TREAT~! EXCLUSIVE FOR INDEED WRESTLING WEEKLY by HOST RAY RHODES
Tonight starts off with Cena and HBK firing up the crowd before their TAG TEAM TITLE DEFENSE. I sincerely hope the tag titles get from HBK/Cena to Rated RKO to Cryme Tyme, or the Highlanders, or WGTT or Cade/Murdoch, or even Flair and Carlito before Wrestlemania but I'm not holding my breath. It's truly beyond me why the tag titles are not in the tag title division right now as we zoom towards Wrestlemania. I'm sure they could have done the same storyline without them.
Edge and Orton on the Titantron (is it still called the Titantron?)and they don't want to fight just yet. Edge says, "Roll that beautiful bean footage", or at least, he probably wanted to. Excellent little montage of HBK's ruthless turns on his partners and friends which is a nice touch to set the two a bit ill at ease. Good set-up here for later in the night.
Shelton takes on Jeff Hardy for a spot in the Money in the Bank ladder match at Wrestlemania. If you're in the know, you know that we already have CM Punk, King Booker, and Edge. I feel Edge is being wasted here! Decent match between the two of the most sloppiest workers (though talented!)and Shelton crashes and burns on a Springboard attempt. I wouldn't be overly surprised if that was PLANNED. Hardy picks up the win and earns his slot in Spotfest 2007. Keeping Benjamin out of this match is like having an Inferno match without Kane, it just isn't the same.
McMahon goes over his haircut ideas for the Donald. Not quite sure how having a haircut would produce MORE HAIR rather than less but whatever. We get it already, thanks.
Melina, who is turning into a capable wrestler, and Maria, who is well, trying, have a decent RAW women's bout but a thought occurred to me earlier in the week–the WWE must actually encourage and demand women to use hair-based offense in their matches. Hair-biels, Hair pulls, hair slams must be ordered upon these women and it's shame, it really undercuts them and they deserve better. Not that I don't think a good hair-biel or two has a place, because they do. Melina picks up the roll-up after blocking a Maria Bronco Buster. Strange how old homo-erotic men's moves are now the signature moves of the women (Maria=Bronco Buster, Torrie=Stinkface).
Vince brings out Umaga and does a speech running down the Donald before Trump appears on the Titantron from what looked to be a virtual reality set of his boardroom. Am I the only one who thought that it didn't look real? He touts his representative as being an animal and in one pick instantly makes the single most disappointing match in Wrestlemania History: ECW Champion Bobby Lashley v I-C Champ Umaga. So, you take two of your champions and put them in one match, where the titles are meaningless. So, you take a guy who has had a string of hideous matches and give him a huge spot. So, you try to pretend Umaga wasn't watered down after being Cena's cannon fodder. If Cena could beat him in singles, and in a Last Man Standing, Lashley should have no problem here. So, McMahon is now the underdog in this match. I'm baffled and disappointed by the whole thing. The brawl was something that RAW has needed badly but I just can't get into this match.
Next up, Masters attempts to give Khali the MasterLock Challenge but cannot get his arms wrapped around him and is visibly frustrated. Out comes KANE to fell the great beast, but not before wrapping a chair around Masters' skull and chokeslamming him. Thanks for showing up for work, Chris. I know I'm being a Negative Nancy here but this would have been the perfect match for Trump-Vince. Vince brings out a Monster, Trump brings out someone who is still an underdog but has a legitimate shot at winning. Now it seems we're going to have two train wreck matches., although I am a MARK for Khali. I love him.
Remember not so long ago when the Brand Split meant something? I don't mind the occasional jump but they've spent so much time and energy trying to make the split mean something and they're always talking about Raw contracts, and Smackdown contracts. Having Khali and Kane just show up to different shows should be something the GM of both brands should be pissed about–in theory. I just don't get it.
Jerry Lawler enters the Hall of Fame. Perhaps this is their way of saying, "It's time to hang it up?" Maybe he has cancer or something. Not my first, third, or any choice for this year.
Carlito takes on Kenny Dystra in mid-card mambo securely in the Viscera Slot of match before the main event. Good angle between Flair and Carlito, Flair is being used correctly by helping get the younger guys over one way or the other. He's already done so much for Kenny, now he's helping Carlito get to the next level. Good stuff here.
Tag Team titles are on the line and well, Edge walks out leaving Orton for the dreaded Superkick-FU combo. Won't Edge feel silly after Orton shows him the FOOTAGE. The Superkick teases each week are tremendous and I'm not sure which would be better: waiting until Wrestlemania or kicking his face off a week prior. Personally, I think Cena turning on HBK first would be more intriguing.
Final Thoughts: The Wrestlemania build up is fun, and even though I'm griping an awful lot, I think they're doing a great job making the Title Matches seem really important and having underlying tension build. I just don't agree with a lot of the undercard matches already and I'm quite perplexed as to why they're working on this Edge-Orton split when Edge is already locked in the Money in the Bank match. Seems like a waste. I'm anxious to see if the Tag Division gets their belts back and to see if Smackdown can produce a couple interesting matches before it's too late to get any interesting hype going. I might not agree with the booking but Raw produced several solid matches and good build-up for Wrestlemania so on a scale of Funaki's, I give it 4 Funaki's out of 5, which is about a B grade for me. Special guest Referee in an already clogged up Battle of the Billionaires Match next week, the Internet already knows who it is.
Tonight starts off with Cena and HBK firing up the crowd before their TAG TEAM TITLE DEFENSE. I sincerely hope the tag titles get from HBK/Cena to Rated RKO to Cryme Tyme, or the Highlanders, or WGTT or Cade/Murdoch, or even Flair and Carlito before Wrestlemania but I'm not holding my breath. It's truly beyond me why the tag titles are not in the tag title division right now as we zoom towards Wrestlemania. I'm sure they could have done the same storyline without them.
Edge and Orton on the Titantron (is it still called the Titantron?)and they don't want to fight just yet. Edge says, "Roll that beautiful bean footage", or at least, he probably wanted to. Excellent little montage of HBK's ruthless turns on his partners and friends which is a nice touch to set the two a bit ill at ease. Good set-up here for later in the night.
Shelton takes on Jeff Hardy for a spot in the Money in the Bank ladder match at Wrestlemania. If you're in the know, you know that we already have CM Punk, King Booker, and Edge. I feel Edge is being wasted here! Decent match between the two of the most sloppiest workers (though talented!)and Shelton crashes and burns on a Springboard attempt. I wouldn't be overly surprised if that was PLANNED. Hardy picks up the win and earns his slot in Spotfest 2007. Keeping Benjamin out of this match is like having an Inferno match without Kane, it just isn't the same.
McMahon goes over his haircut ideas for the Donald. Not quite sure how having a haircut would produce MORE HAIR rather than less but whatever. We get it already, thanks.
Melina, who is turning into a capable wrestler, and Maria, who is well, trying, have a decent RAW women's bout but a thought occurred to me earlier in the week–the WWE must actually encourage and demand women to use hair-based offense in their matches. Hair-biels, Hair pulls, hair slams must be ordered upon these women and it's shame, it really undercuts them and they deserve better. Not that I don't think a good hair-biel or two has a place, because they do. Melina picks up the roll-up after blocking a Maria Bronco Buster. Strange how old homo-erotic men's moves are now the signature moves of the women (Maria=Bronco Buster, Torrie=Stinkface).
Vince brings out Umaga and does a speech running down the Donald before Trump appears on the Titantron from what looked to be a virtual reality set of his boardroom. Am I the only one who thought that it didn't look real? He touts his representative as being an animal and in one pick instantly makes the single most disappointing match in Wrestlemania History: ECW Champion Bobby Lashley v I-C Champ Umaga. So, you take two of your champions and put them in one match, where the titles are meaningless. So, you take a guy who has had a string of hideous matches and give him a huge spot. So, you try to pretend Umaga wasn't watered down after being Cena's cannon fodder. If Cena could beat him in singles, and in a Last Man Standing, Lashley should have no problem here. So, McMahon is now the underdog in this match. I'm baffled and disappointed by the whole thing. The brawl was something that RAW has needed badly but I just can't get into this match.
Next up, Masters attempts to give Khali the MasterLock Challenge but cannot get his arms wrapped around him and is visibly frustrated. Out comes KANE to fell the great beast, but not before wrapping a chair around Masters' skull and chokeslamming him. Thanks for showing up for work, Chris. I know I'm being a Negative Nancy here but this would have been the perfect match for Trump-Vince. Vince brings out a Monster, Trump brings out someone who is still an underdog but has a legitimate shot at winning. Now it seems we're going to have two train wreck matches., although I am a MARK for Khali. I love him.
Remember not so long ago when the Brand Split meant something? I don't mind the occasional jump but they've spent so much time and energy trying to make the split mean something and they're always talking about Raw contracts, and Smackdown contracts. Having Khali and Kane just show up to different shows should be something the GM of both brands should be pissed about–in theory. I just don't get it.
Jerry Lawler enters the Hall of Fame. Perhaps this is their way of saying, "It's time to hang it up?" Maybe he has cancer or something. Not my first, third, or any choice for this year.
Carlito takes on Kenny Dystra in mid-card mambo securely in the Viscera Slot of match before the main event. Good angle between Flair and Carlito, Flair is being used correctly by helping get the younger guys over one way or the other. He's already done so much for Kenny, now he's helping Carlito get to the next level. Good stuff here.
Tag Team titles are on the line and well, Edge walks out leaving Orton for the dreaded Superkick-FU combo. Won't Edge feel silly after Orton shows him the FOOTAGE. The Superkick teases each week are tremendous and I'm not sure which would be better: waiting until Wrestlemania or kicking his face off a week prior. Personally, I think Cena turning on HBK first would be more intriguing.
Final Thoughts: The Wrestlemania build up is fun, and even though I'm griping an awful lot, I think they're doing a great job making the Title Matches seem really important and having underlying tension build. I just don't agree with a lot of the undercard matches already and I'm quite perplexed as to why they're working on this Edge-Orton split when Edge is already locked in the Money in the Bank match. Seems like a waste. I'm anxious to see if the Tag Division gets their belts back and to see if Smackdown can produce a couple interesting matches before it's too late to get any interesting hype going. I might not agree with the booking but Raw produced several solid matches and good build-up for Wrestlemania so on a scale of Funaki's, I give it 4 Funaki's out of 5, which is about a B grade for me. Special guest Referee in an already clogged up Battle of the Billionaires Match next week, the Internet already knows who it is.
Monday, February 19, 2007
WWE Buyrates
| New Yrs Rev | Royal Rumble | No Way Out | Wrestlemania | Backlash | Judgment Day | Bad Blood | ECW ONS | KOTR | ||||||||||
| 2001 | 625 | 590 | 1040 | 375 | 405 | 445 | ||||||||||||
| 2002 | 670 | 575 | 840 | 400 | 373 | 320 | ||||||||||||
| 2003 | 585 | 450 | 560 | 345 | 315 | 385 | ||||||||||||
| 2004 | 500 | 265 | 885 | 295 | 235 | 290 | ||||||||||||
| 2005 | 275 | 575 | 240 | 980 | 320 | 260 | 340 | |||||||||||
| 2006 | 300 | 550 | 220 | 930 | 220 | 252 | 304 | |||||||||||
| RAW | Combined | Smackdown | Combined | RAW | SM | RAW | ECW | Combined | ||||||||||
| Jan | Jan | Feb | March/April | April | May | June | June | June | ||||||||||
| HITC | Elimination | RAW | ECW | Smackdown | ||||||||||||||
| Vengeance | Invasion | Summerslam | Unforgiven | No Mercy | Cyber/Taboo | Surv Series | Armageddon | D2D | ||||||||||
| 2001 | 315 | 775 | 565 | 350 | 325 | 450 | ||||||||||||
| 2002 | 375 | 520 | 300 | 300 | 340 | 335 | ||||||||||||
| 2003 | 365 | 465 | 360 | 275 | 450 | 240 | ||||||||||||
| 2004 | 240 | 415 | 239 | 183 | 174 | 325 | 230 | |||||||||||
| 2005 | 420 | 650 | 250 | 230 | 250 | 400 | 320 | |||||||||||
| 2006 | 337 | 541 | 307 | 197 | 228 | 383 | 239 | 90 | ||||||||||
| RAW/SM | Combined | Combined | RAW/SM | Smackdown | RAW/Comb | Combined | RAW/SM | ECW | ||||||||||
| June/July | July | August | Sept | October | Nov | Nov | Dec | Dec |
Friday, February 16, 2007
Looking at WWE's latest PPV numbers...
The question: did increasing the cost of PPVs to $39.99 from $34.99 hurt WWE?
Let's look at all the PPV results they announced this quarter vs last quarter. I'm looking at domestic buys @ domestic prices. So that's 63% of the buys for 2005 at $34.99 and 61% of the buys for 2006 at $39.99.
# of buys decreased (2005 vs 2006)
JUDGMENT DAY: 266 -> 252; $5.9m -> $6.1m (+$284k)
ECW ONS: 333 -> 304; $7.3m -> $7.4m (+$75k)
VENGEANCE: 429 -> 337; $9.5m -> $8.2m (-$1.2m)
GAB: 279 -> 232; $6.2m -> $5.7m (-$491k)
SUMMERSLAM: 634 -> 541; $14m -> $13.2m (-$779k)
NO MERCY: 224 -> 197; $4.9m -> $4.8m (-$132k)
ARMAGEDDON: 280 -> 239; $6.2m -> $5.8m (-$342k)
overall for decreased buy PPVs: -$2.6m
# of buys increased (2005 vs 2006)
UNFORGIVEN: 240 -> 307; $5.3m -> $7.5m (+$2.2m)
CYBER/TABOO: 207 -> 228; $4.6m -> $5.6m (+$1m)
SURVIVOR SERIES: 375 -> 383; $8.3m -> $9.3m (+$1m)
overall for increased buy PPVs: +$4.3m
[b]total change in domestic PPV revenue for these ten PPVs in the 8 month period from 2005 to 2006: +$1.65m[/b]
2005 domestic revenue of these PPVs total: $72.0m
2006 domestic revenue of these PPVs total: $73.7m
There were two other PPVs listed: Backlash (no 2006 buyrate listed) & ECW December to Dismember (no 2005 comparison.)
Looking at the Key Performance Indicators, it looks like:
Backlash 2005: 308k buys = 194k domestic buys = $6.8m domestic revenue.
Backlash 2006: ~240k buys = 146k domestic buys = $5.9m domestic revenue.
ECW D2D: ~$2.2m in domestic revenue.
Again, there this doesn't mean WWE made $72m last year on these PPVs. They only get a cut of the total domestic revenue. I was under the impression it was about $15 of the $40 domestic price. Let's check the numbers...
The report said they made $53.4m for this period for PPVs. 61% of the buys were domestic so let's take 61% of that revenue, so $32.57m domestic revenue. The total for 2007 was 3287 PPVs buys (or 3110 if you don't include prior events). 3287 x $39.99 x 61% = $80.182m. ($75.865m if you're discounting the Prior event buys.)
So, $32.57/$80.182 = 41%. ($32.57/$75.865m = 43%.)
41% of a $39.99 price (i.e. what WWE gets for a domestic buy) is $16.25.
(43% of a $39.99 price is $17.17).
So, my fifteen dollar estimate seems pretty close. Also, that means the ECW PPV gave WWE about $16.25 x 90k buys x 61% = $892k. I think it costs at least a $1m to run a PPV so they definately didn't make money on that one domestically!
Now, my figures have 2006 being better than 2005 while the actual PPV revenues were $53.4m (2006, 8 month period) vs $54.5m (2005, 8 month period). Why the difference? Because they didn't include any 2006 Backlash PPV revenue in their numbers this year. Essentially, those numbers compare 2005 Backlash vs 2006 ECW D2D, which obviously is going to favor 2005 numbers. As I show above, if you compare the PPV buys on a per-PPV basis, overall, the 2006 numbers are superior.
What we're seeing here:
* Summerslam was bound to go down. Hogan/HBK was a HUGE success in 2005 so 2006 numbers were going to be weaker. The price increase really offset the difference so it was probably a very good move and really took advantage of the fact that core WWE audience buys the major PPVs (RR, Surv Series, Summerslam, Wrestlemania).
* Unforgiven had a huge improvement over last year. (CENA/EDGE TLC, 2006) vs (ANGLE/CENA, 2005).
* Moving the "CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE" PPV (taboo tuesday) to the traditional day, Sunday, vastly improved the buys & profit.
* ECW ONS and Judgment Day actually made more money with less buys this year!
* There were two PPVs with Hell in the Cell stipulations in 2005: RAW's Vengeance and Smackdown's Armaggedon. HITC is one of the stipulations that has shown to still increase buys quite a bit. It was natural that straight matches (DX/Spirit Squad) and (Batista/Cena vs Booker/Finlay) would not be as strong the next year.
In the end, there are two PPVs where buys were down and generated less revenue than last year.
SMACKDOWN GREAT AMERICAN BASH (Booker/Mysterio, 2006) vs (JBL/Batista, 2005)
SMACKDOWN NO MERCY (LASHLEY/BATISTA/FINLAY/BOOKER, 2006) vs (Batista/Eddy, 2005)
So, it looks like Smackdown branded PPV shows without a strong gimmick stipulation (i.e. Hell in the Cell) were probably hurt by the price increase & decreased interest in Smackdown. However, on the whole, it doesn't look like the price increase negatively affected business at all!
Let's look at all the PPV results they announced this quarter vs last quarter. I'm looking at domestic buys @ domestic prices. So that's 63% of the buys for 2005 at $34.99 and 61% of the buys for 2006 at $39.99.
# of buys decreased (2005 vs 2006)
JUDGMENT DAY: 266 -> 252; $5.9m -> $6.1m (+$284k)
ECW ONS: 333 -> 304; $7.3m -> $7.4m (+$75k)
VENGEANCE: 429 -> 337; $9.5m -> $8.2m (-$1.2m)
GAB: 279 -> 232; $6.2m -> $5.7m (-$491k)
SUMMERSLAM: 634 -> 541; $14m -> $13.2m (-$779k)
NO MERCY: 224 -> 197; $4.9m -> $4.8m (-$132k)
ARMAGEDDON: 280 -> 239; $6.2m -> $5.8m (-$342k)
overall for decreased buy PPVs: -$2.6m
# of buys increased (2005 vs 2006)
UNFORGIVEN: 240 -> 307; $5.3m -> $7.5m (+$2.2m)
CYBER/TABOO: 207 -> 228; $4.6m -> $5.6m (+$1m)
SURVIVOR SERIES: 375 -> 383; $8.3m -> $9.3m (+$1m)
overall for increased buy PPVs: +$4.3m
[b]total change in domestic PPV revenue for these ten PPVs in the 8 month period from 2005 to 2006: +$1.65m[/b]
2005 domestic revenue of these PPVs total: $72.0m
2006 domestic revenue of these PPVs total: $73.7m
There were two other PPVs listed: Backlash (no 2006 buyrate listed) & ECW December to Dismember (no 2005 comparison.)
Looking at the Key Performance Indicators, it looks like:
Backlash 2005: 308k buys = 194k domestic buys = $6.8m domestic revenue.
Backlash 2006: ~240k buys = 146k domestic buys = $5.9m domestic revenue.
ECW D2D: ~$2.2m in domestic revenue.
Again, there this doesn't mean WWE made $72m last year on these PPVs. They only get a cut of the total domestic revenue. I was under the impression it was about $15 of the $40 domestic price. Let's check the numbers...
The report said they made $53.4m for this period for PPVs. 61% of the buys were domestic so let's take 61% of that revenue, so $32.57m domestic revenue. The total for 2007 was 3287 PPVs buys (or 3110 if you don't include prior events). 3287 x $39.99 x 61% = $80.182m. ($75.865m if you're discounting the Prior event buys.)
So, $32.57/$80.182 = 41%. ($32.57/$75.865m = 43%.)
41% of a $39.99 price (i.e. what WWE gets for a domestic buy) is $16.25.
(43% of a $39.99 price is $17.17).
So, my fifteen dollar estimate seems pretty close. Also, that means the ECW PPV gave WWE about $16.25 x 90k buys x 61% = $892k. I think it costs at least a $1m to run a PPV so they definately didn't make money on that one domestically!
Now, my figures have 2006 being better than 2005 while the actual PPV revenues were $53.4m (2006, 8 month period) vs $54.5m (2005, 8 month period). Why the difference? Because they didn't include any 2006 Backlash PPV revenue in their numbers this year. Essentially, those numbers compare 2005 Backlash vs 2006 ECW D2D, which obviously is going to favor 2005 numbers. As I show above, if you compare the PPV buys on a per-PPV basis, overall, the 2006 numbers are superior.
What we're seeing here:
* Summerslam was bound to go down. Hogan/HBK was a HUGE success in 2005 so 2006 numbers were going to be weaker. The price increase really offset the difference so it was probably a very good move and really took advantage of the fact that core WWE audience buys the major PPVs (RR, Surv Series, Summerslam, Wrestlemania).
* Unforgiven had a huge improvement over last year. (CENA/EDGE TLC, 2006) vs (ANGLE/CENA, 2005).
* Moving the "CHOOSE YOUR OWN ADVENTURE" PPV (taboo tuesday) to the traditional day, Sunday, vastly improved the buys & profit.
* ECW ONS and Judgment Day actually made more money with less buys this year!
* There were two PPVs with Hell in the Cell stipulations in 2005: RAW's Vengeance and Smackdown's Armaggedon. HITC is one of the stipulations that has shown to still increase buys quite a bit. It was natural that straight matches (DX/Spirit Squad) and (Batista/Cena vs Booker/Finlay) would not be as strong the next year.
In the end, there are two PPVs where buys were down and generated less revenue than last year.
SMACKDOWN GREAT AMERICAN BASH (Booker/Mysterio, 2006) vs (JBL/Batista, 2005)
SMACKDOWN NO MERCY (LASHLEY/BATISTA/FINLAY/BOOKER, 2006) vs (Batista/Eddy, 2005)
So, it looks like Smackdown branded PPV shows without a strong gimmick stipulation (i.e. Hell in the Cell) were probably hurt by the price increase & decreased interest in Smackdown. However, on the whole, it doesn't look like the price increase negatively affected business at all!
Thursday, February 08, 2007
Best WWE matches for 2006
TOP WWE SINGLES PERFORMERS FOR 2006
EDGE (RAW)
9/17/06 John Cena vs Edge (Tables, Ladders, and Chairs) ****1/4
4/30/06 John Cena vs Triple H vs Edge ****1/4
1/16/06 Edge vs Ric Flair (Tables, Ladders and Chairs) ****
4/2/06 Mick Foley vs Edge (Hardcore) ****
8/20/06 Edge vs John Cena (Title Can Change Hands on DQ) ***3/4
Great matches against Cena, Flair & Foley.
CHRIS BENOIT (SMACKDOWN)
11/24/06 Chris Benoit vs Finlay ****1/4
5/21/06 Chris Benoit vs Finlay ****
1/27/06 Chris Benoit vs Randy Orton (No Holds Barred) ***3/4
1/13/06 Chris Benoit vs Randy Orton ***3/4
10/9/06 Chris Benoit vs William Regal ***3/4
Great matches against Finlay, Orton & Regal.
JOHN CENA (RAW)
9/17/06 John Cena vs Edge (Tables, Ladders, and Chairs) ****1/4
4/30/06 John Cena vs Triple H vs Edge ****1/4
10/2/06 John Cena vs Edge (Cage) ***3/4
4/2/06 John Cena vs Triple H ***3/4
8/20/06 Edge vs John Cena (Title Can Change Hands on DQ) ***3/4
Great matches against Edge & HHH.
FINLAY (SMACKDOWN)
11/24/06 Chris Benoit vs Finlay ****1/4
5/21/06 Chris Benoit vs Finlay ****
4/2/06 Rob Van Dam vs Shelton Benjamin vs Matt Hardy vs Finlay vs Bobby Lashley vs Ric Flair (Ladder) ****
3/24/06 Rey Mysterio vs Finlay ***1/2
10/9/06 King Booker vs Batista vs Bobby Lashley vs Finlay ***1/2
Great matches against Benoit, good Ladder performance & other Smackdown stars.
RVD (RAW & ECW)
4/2/06 Rob Van Dam vs Shelton Benjamin vs Matt Hardy vs Finlay vs Bobby Lashley vs Ric Flair (Ladder) ****
4/30/06 Rob Van Dam vs Shelton Benjamin ***3/4
9/26/06 Rob Van Dam vs Hardcore Holly ***3/4
10/3/06 Rob Van Dam vs Test ***3/4
6/25/06 Rob Van Dam vs Edge ***1/2
Great matches against Benjamin, Test, Edge & Hardcore Holly.
RIC FLAIR (RAW)
4/2/06 Rob Van Dam vs Shelton Benjamin vs Matt Hardy vs Finlay vs Bobby Lashley vs Ric Flair (Ladder) ****
1/16/06 Edge vs Ric Flair (Tables, Ladders and Chairs) ****
8/20/06 Ric Flair vs Mick Foley (I Quit) ***1/2
TOP WWE TAG TEAMS FOR 2006
Paul London & Brian Kendrick - SMACKDOWN
12/17/06 Paul London/Brian Kendrick vs Joey Mercury/Johnny Nitro vs Jeff Hardy/Matt Hardy vs Dave Taylor/William Regal (Ladder) ****1/4
10/9/06 Paul London/Brian Kendrick vs Idol Stevens/KC James ***1/2
5/21/06 Joey Mercury/Johnny Nitro vs Paul London/Brian Kendrick ***1/2
MNM (Nitro & Mercury) – SMACKDOWN/
12/17/06 Paul London/Brian Kendrick vs Joey Mercury/Johnny Nitro vs Jeff Hardy/Matt Hardy vs Dave Taylor/William Regal (Ladder) ****1/4
5/21/06 Joey Mercury/Johnny Nitro vs Paul London/Brian Kendrick ***1/2
2/3/06 Johnny Nitro/Joey Mercury vs Super Crazy/Psicosis ***1/4
HARDYZ (Jeff Hardy & Matt Hardy) – SMACKDOWN/RAW/ECW
12/17/06 Paul London/Brian Kendrick vs Joey Mercury/Johnny Nitro vs Jeff Hardy/Matt Hardy vs Dave Taylor/William Regal (Ladder) ****1/4
12/3/06 Matt Hardy/Jeff Hardy vs Johnny Nitro/Joey Mercury ***1/4
12/4/06 Matt Hardy/Jeff Hardy/Shawn Michaels/Triple H vs Randy Orton/Edge/Joey Mercury/Johnny Nitro ***
DX (Shawn Michaels & Triple H) - RAW
9/17/06 Shawn Michaels/Triple H vs Vince McMahon/Shane McMahon/Big Show (Hell in a Cell) ***1/4
8/20/06 Shawn Michaels/Triple H vs Vince McMahon/Shane McMahon ***1/4
12/11/06 Ric Flair/Triple H/Shawn Michaels vs Randy Orton/Edge/Kenny ***1/4
FINLAY/REGAL/TAYLOR - SMACKDOWN
12/17/06 Paul London/Brian Kendrick vs Joey Mercury/Johnny Nitro vs Jeff Hardy/Matt Hardy vs Dave Taylor/William Regal (Ladder) ****1/4
6/16/06 Finlay/William Regal vs Matt Hardy/Gunner Scott ***1/4
5/19/06 Chris Benoit/Gunner Scott vs Finlay/Booker T ***1/4
TOP WWE MATCHES FOR 2006
1/16/06 Edge vs Ric Flair (Tables, Ladders and Chairs) ****
2/19/06 Kurt Angle vs Undertaker **** (won #10 for WO MOTY)
4/2/06 Mick Foley vs Edge (Hardcore) **** (WO MOTY HONORABLE MENTION)
4/2/06 Rob Van Dam vs Shelton Benjamin vs Matt Hardy vs Finlay vs Bobby Lashley vs Ric Flair (Ladder) ****
4/30/06 John Cena vs Triple H vs Edge ****1/4
5/21/06 Chris Benoit vs Finlay **** (won #7 for WO MOTY)
6/2/06 Rey Mysterio vs Kurt Angle ****1/4
9/17/06 Trish Stratus vs Lita
9/17/06 John Cena vs Edge (Tables, Ladders, and Chairs) ****1/4 (WO MOTY HONORABLE)
11/24/06 Chris Benoit vs Finlay ****1/4
12/17/06 Paul London/Brian Kendrick vs Joey Mercury/Johnny Nitro vs Jeff Hardy/Matt Hardy vs Dave Taylor/William Regal (Ladder) ****1/4
1/16/06 RAW: EDGE/FLAIR (TLC), ANGLE/HBK
2/19/06 SMACK PPV (NO WAY OUT): ANGLE/UT, BOOKER/BENOIT, ORTON/MYSTERIO
4/2/06 WM 22: LADDER; FOLEY/EDGE; CENA/HHH; HBK/VINCE; Rey/Angle/Orton
4/30/06 RAW PPV (BACKLASH): CENA/HHH/EDGE; RVD/SHELTON; HBK/MCMAHON; CARLITO/MASTERS
5/21/06 SMACKDOWN PPV (JUDGMENT DAY): FINLAY/BENOIT; MNM VS L-K; REY VS JBL
6/2/06 SMACKDOWN: (REY/ANGLE)
9/17/06 RAW PPV (UNFORGIVEN): TRISH/LITA, CENA/EDGE (TLC); DX/MCMAHON (HITC)
9/26/06 ECW: RVD vs HARDCORE HOLLY
10/3/06 ECW: RVD vs TEST
11/24/06 SMACKDOWN: FINLAY/BENOIT
12/17/06 SMACKDOWN PPV (ARMAGGEDDON): TAG LADDER; HELMS/YANG; Benoit/Chavo
EDGE (RAW)
9/17/06 John Cena vs Edge (Tables, Ladders, and Chairs) ****1/4
4/30/06 John Cena vs Triple H vs Edge ****1/4
1/16/06 Edge vs Ric Flair (Tables, Ladders and Chairs) ****
4/2/06 Mick Foley vs Edge (Hardcore) ****
8/20/06 Edge vs John Cena (Title Can Change Hands on DQ) ***3/4
Great matches against Cena, Flair & Foley.
CHRIS BENOIT (SMACKDOWN)
11/24/06 Chris Benoit vs Finlay ****1/4
5/21/06 Chris Benoit vs Finlay ****
1/27/06 Chris Benoit vs Randy Orton (No Holds Barred) ***3/4
1/13/06 Chris Benoit vs Randy Orton ***3/4
10/9/06 Chris Benoit vs William Regal ***3/4
Great matches against Finlay, Orton & Regal.
JOHN CENA (RAW)
9/17/06 John Cena vs Edge (Tables, Ladders, and Chairs) ****1/4
4/30/06 John Cena vs Triple H vs Edge ****1/4
10/2/06 John Cena vs Edge (Cage) ***3/4
4/2/06 John Cena vs Triple H ***3/4
8/20/06 Edge vs John Cena (Title Can Change Hands on DQ) ***3/4
Great matches against Edge & HHH.
FINLAY (SMACKDOWN)
11/24/06 Chris Benoit vs Finlay ****1/4
5/21/06 Chris Benoit vs Finlay ****
4/2/06 Rob Van Dam vs Shelton Benjamin vs Matt Hardy vs Finlay vs Bobby Lashley vs Ric Flair (Ladder) ****
3/24/06 Rey Mysterio vs Finlay ***1/2
10/9/06 King Booker vs Batista vs Bobby Lashley vs Finlay ***1/2
Great matches against Benoit, good Ladder performance & other Smackdown stars.
RVD (RAW & ECW)
4/2/06 Rob Van Dam vs Shelton Benjamin vs Matt Hardy vs Finlay vs Bobby Lashley vs Ric Flair (Ladder) ****
4/30/06 Rob Van Dam vs Shelton Benjamin ***3/4
9/26/06 Rob Van Dam vs Hardcore Holly ***3/4
10/3/06 Rob Van Dam vs Test ***3/4
6/25/06 Rob Van Dam vs Edge ***1/2
Great matches against Benjamin, Test, Edge & Hardcore Holly.
RIC FLAIR (RAW)
4/2/06 Rob Van Dam vs Shelton Benjamin vs Matt Hardy vs Finlay vs Bobby Lashley vs Ric Flair (Ladder) ****
1/16/06 Edge vs Ric Flair (Tables, Ladders and Chairs) ****
8/20/06 Ric Flair vs Mick Foley (I Quit) ***1/2
TOP WWE TAG TEAMS FOR 2006
Paul London & Brian Kendrick - SMACKDOWN
12/17/06 Paul London/Brian Kendrick vs Joey Mercury/Johnny Nitro vs Jeff Hardy/Matt Hardy vs Dave Taylor/William Regal (Ladder) ****1/4
10/9/06 Paul London/Brian Kendrick vs Idol Stevens/KC James ***1/2
5/21/06 Joey Mercury/Johnny Nitro vs Paul London/Brian Kendrick ***1/2
MNM (Nitro & Mercury) – SMACKDOWN/
12/17/06 Paul London/Brian Kendrick vs Joey Mercury/Johnny Nitro vs Jeff Hardy/Matt Hardy vs Dave Taylor/William Regal (Ladder) ****1/4
5/21/06 Joey Mercury/Johnny Nitro vs Paul London/Brian Kendrick ***1/2
2/3/06 Johnny Nitro/Joey Mercury vs Super Crazy/Psicosis ***1/4
HARDYZ (Jeff Hardy & Matt Hardy) – SMACKDOWN/RAW/ECW
12/17/06 Paul London/Brian Kendrick vs Joey Mercury/Johnny Nitro vs Jeff Hardy/Matt Hardy vs Dave Taylor/William Regal (Ladder) ****1/4
12/3/06 Matt Hardy/Jeff Hardy vs Johnny Nitro/Joey Mercury ***1/4
12/4/06 Matt Hardy/Jeff Hardy/Shawn Michaels/Triple H vs Randy Orton/Edge/Joey Mercury/Johnny Nitro ***
DX (Shawn Michaels & Triple H) - RAW
9/17/06 Shawn Michaels/Triple H vs Vince McMahon/Shane McMahon/Big Show (Hell in a Cell) ***1/4
8/20/06 Shawn Michaels/Triple H vs Vince McMahon/Shane McMahon ***1/4
12/11/06 Ric Flair/Triple H/Shawn Michaels vs Randy Orton/Edge/Kenny ***1/4
FINLAY/REGAL/TAYLOR - SMACKDOWN
12/17/06 Paul London/Brian Kendrick vs Joey Mercury/Johnny Nitro vs Jeff Hardy/Matt Hardy vs Dave Taylor/William Regal (Ladder) ****1/4
6/16/06 Finlay/William Regal vs Matt Hardy/Gunner Scott ***1/4
5/19/06 Chris Benoit/Gunner Scott vs Finlay/Booker T ***1/4
TOP WWE MATCHES FOR 2006
1/16/06 Edge vs Ric Flair (Tables, Ladders and Chairs) ****
2/19/06 Kurt Angle vs Undertaker **** (won #10 for WO MOTY)
4/2/06 Mick Foley vs Edge (Hardcore) **** (WO MOTY HONORABLE MENTION)
4/2/06 Rob Van Dam vs Shelton Benjamin vs Matt Hardy vs Finlay vs Bobby Lashley vs Ric Flair (Ladder) ****
4/30/06 John Cena vs Triple H vs Edge ****1/4
5/21/06 Chris Benoit vs Finlay **** (won #7 for WO MOTY)
6/2/06 Rey Mysterio vs Kurt Angle ****1/4
9/17/06 Trish Stratus vs Lita
9/17/06 John Cena vs Edge (Tables, Ladders, and Chairs) ****1/4 (WO MOTY HONORABLE)
11/24/06 Chris Benoit vs Finlay ****1/4
12/17/06 Paul London/Brian Kendrick vs Joey Mercury/Johnny Nitro vs Jeff Hardy/Matt Hardy vs Dave Taylor/William Regal (Ladder) ****1/4
1/16/06 RAW: EDGE/FLAIR (TLC), ANGLE/HBK
2/19/06 SMACK PPV (NO WAY OUT): ANGLE/UT, BOOKER/BENOIT, ORTON/MYSTERIO
4/2/06 WM 22: LADDER; FOLEY/EDGE; CENA/HHH; HBK/VINCE; Rey/Angle/Orton
4/30/06 RAW PPV (BACKLASH): CENA/HHH/EDGE; RVD/SHELTON; HBK/MCMAHON; CARLITO/MASTERS
5/21/06 SMACKDOWN PPV (JUDGMENT DAY): FINLAY/BENOIT; MNM VS L-K; REY VS JBL
6/2/06 SMACKDOWN: (REY/ANGLE)
9/17/06 RAW PPV (UNFORGIVEN): TRISH/LITA, CENA/EDGE (TLC); DX/MCMAHON (HITC)
9/26/06 ECW: RVD vs HARDCORE HOLLY
10/3/06 ECW: RVD vs TEST
11/24/06 SMACKDOWN: FINLAY/BENOIT
12/17/06 SMACKDOWN PPV (ARMAGGEDDON): TAG LADDER; HELMS/YANG; Benoit/Chavo
Monday, January 08, 2007
Royal Rumble Review!
TOP FIVE ROYAL RUMBLE MATCHES (NON-RUMBLE)
#5: Shawn Michaels vs. Marty Jeannette (1993 – Sacramento, CA)
#4: Chris Jericho vs. The Rock (2002 – Atlanta, GA)
#3: Diesel vs. Bret Hart (1995 – Tampa, FL)
#2: Triple H vs. Cactus Jack [STREET FIGHT] (2000 – MSG NY)
#1: Chris Jericho vs. Chris Benoit [LADDER] (2001 – New Orleans, LA)
HONORABLE MENTIONS:
1/22/95 Bob Holly/123 Kid vs Bam Bam Bigelow/Tatanka
1/24/99 Rock vs Mankind (I Quit)
1/21/01 Kurt Angle vs Triple H
1/19/03 Kurt Angle vs Chris Benoit
1/18/98 Shawn Michaels vs Undertaker (Casket)
1/18/98 Max Mini/Nova/Mosaic vs Battalion/Torito/Tarantula
1/19/92 Owen Hart/Jim Neidhart vs Pat Tanaka/Kato
1/24/93 Bret Hart vs Razor Ramon
1/22/95 Razor Ramon vs Jeff Jarrett
1/23/00 Matt Hardy/Jeff Hardy vs Bubba Ray Dudley/D-Von Dudley (Tables)
1/30/05 HHH vs Randy Orton
1/30/05 Shawn Michaels vs Edge
1/24/88 Jumping Bomb Angels vs Glamour Girls (2/3 falls)
1/24/93 Rick Steiner/Scott Steiner vs Beau Beverly/Blake Beverly
1/25/04 Triple H vs Shawn Michaels (Last Man Standing)
TEN BEST ROYAL RUMBLES:
1992: Ric Flair wins it all! (ALBANY)
2004: Chris Benoit is going to Wrestlemania! (PHILLY)
1988: Jim Duggan defeats 20 other men to begin a WWF tradition! (SAN JOSE)
1995: Shawn Michaels goes on to face Diesel in April! (TAMPA)
2002: Longest rumble on record at nearly 70 minutes, HHH’s quad wins the Royal Rumble! (ATLANTA)
2006: Rey Mysterio sets the modern endurance record at 62 minutes winning the rumble! (MIAMI)
2001: MENG’s surprise DEBUT did not win; Steve Austin beat Kane! (NEW ORLEANS)
2003: Brock Lesnar (#29) beat Big Show to qualify then #30 Undertaker to win the Rumble! (BOSTON)
1990: Hulk Hogan won to set the stage for the huge showdown with the Ultimate Warrior! (ORLANDO)
1997: Steve Austin wins and goes to WM for a bloody battle with Bret Hart! (SAN ANTONIO)
#5: Shawn Michaels vs. Marty Jeannette (1993 – Sacramento, CA)
#4: Chris Jericho vs. The Rock (2002 – Atlanta, GA)
#3: Diesel vs. Bret Hart (1995 – Tampa, FL)
#2: Triple H vs. Cactus Jack [STREET FIGHT] (2000 – MSG NY)
#1: Chris Jericho vs. Chris Benoit [LADDER] (2001 – New Orleans, LA)
HONORABLE MENTIONS:
1/22/95 Bob Holly/123 Kid vs Bam Bam Bigelow/Tatanka
1/24/99 Rock vs Mankind (I Quit)
1/21/01 Kurt Angle vs Triple H
1/19/03 Kurt Angle vs Chris Benoit
1/18/98 Shawn Michaels vs Undertaker (Casket)
1/18/98 Max Mini/Nova/Mosaic vs Battalion/Torito/Tarantula
1/19/92 Owen Hart/Jim Neidhart vs Pat Tanaka/Kato
1/24/93 Bret Hart vs Razor Ramon
1/22/95 Razor Ramon vs Jeff Jarrett
1/23/00 Matt Hardy/Jeff Hardy vs Bubba Ray Dudley/D-Von Dudley (Tables)
1/30/05 HHH vs Randy Orton
1/30/05 Shawn Michaels vs Edge
1/24/88 Jumping Bomb Angels vs Glamour Girls (2/3 falls)
1/24/93 Rick Steiner/Scott Steiner vs Beau Beverly/Blake Beverly
1/25/04 Triple H vs Shawn Michaels (Last Man Standing)
TEN BEST ROYAL RUMBLES:
1992: Ric Flair wins it all! (ALBANY)
2004: Chris Benoit is going to Wrestlemania! (PHILLY)
1988: Jim Duggan defeats 20 other men to begin a WWF tradition! (SAN JOSE)
1995: Shawn Michaels goes on to face Diesel in April! (TAMPA)
2002: Longest rumble on record at nearly 70 minutes, HHH’s quad wins the Royal Rumble! (ATLANTA)
2006: Rey Mysterio sets the modern endurance record at 62 minutes winning the rumble! (MIAMI)
2001: MENG’s surprise DEBUT did not win; Steve Austin beat Kane! (NEW ORLEANS)
2003: Brock Lesnar (#29) beat Big Show to qualify then #30 Undertaker to win the Rumble! (BOSTON)
1990: Hulk Hogan won to set the stage for the huge showdown with the Ultimate Warrior! (ORLANDO)
1997: Steve Austin wins and goes to WM for a bloody battle with Bret Hart! (SAN ANTONIO)
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Powerslam Top 50
Powerslam Magazine is from the UK and has been producing a "Top 50" wrestlers list for a decade. Their period of observation is between Dec 1 and Nov 30.
2006
1. Edge
2. Bryan Danielson
3. KENTA
4. Samoa Joe
5. Naomichi Marufuji
6. AJ Styles
7. Takeshi Morishima
8. Christopher Daniels
9. Yugi Nagata
10. Rey Mysterio
11. CIMA
12. Low Ki
13. Homicide
14. Shiji Kondo
15. Kurt Angle
16. Takarshi Sagiura
17. Satoshi Kojima
18. Hiroshi Tanahashi
19. Chris Benoit
20. Randy Orton
21. Austin Aries
22. Rob Van Dam
23. Shawn Michaels
24. Nigel McGuinness
25. Finlay
26. Katsuhiko Nakajima
27. Kenta Kobashi
28. Koji Kanemoto
29. Kensuke Sasaki
30. Roderick Strong
31. Jun Akiyama
32. Davey Richards
33. Jay Briscoe
34. Chris Sabin
35. Mark Briscoe
36. Triple H
37. Booker T
38. Petey Williams
39. Abyss
40. Rhino
41. Brian Kendrick
42. Hiroyoshi Tenzan
43. Paul London
44. CM Punk
45. The Undertaker
46. Matt Sydal
47. Matt Hardy
48. Johnny Nitro
49. Gregory Helms
50. Pac
2005
1. AJ Styles
2. Shawn Michaels
3. Samoa Joe
4. Kenta Kobashi
5. Kurt Angle
6. Kenta
7. Christopher Daniels
8. Naomichi Marufuji
9. Eddie Guerrero
10.Kensuke Sasaki
11.Chris Benoit
12. Rey Mysterio
13.Satoshi Kojima
14. Edge
15. Jamie Knoble
16. Triple H
17. Toshiaki Kawada
18. Austin Aries
19. Chris Jericho
20. Jun Akiyama
21. Yoshinobu Kanemaru
22. Koji Kanemoto
23. CM Punk
24. Chris Harris
25. Suwa
26. Bryan Danielson
27.Hiroshi Tananashi
28. James Storm
29. Roderick Strong
30. Chris Sabin
31 Shelton Benjamin
32. Doug Williams
33. Alex Shelly
34. Christian
35. Low Ki
36. Petey Williams
37. Hiroyshi Tenzan
38. Milano Collection A.T
39. Takashi Suguira
40.Randy Orton
41. Eric Young
42. Jay Lethal
43. Matt Hardy
44. Homicide
45. Nigel Mcguiness
46. Jeff Jarret
47. Abyss
48. Booker T
49. Batista
50. Sabu
2004
1. Chris Benoit
2. Kenta Kobashi
3. AJ Styles
4. Samoa Joe
5. Shawn Michaels
6. Randy Orton
7. KENTA
8. Jushin Liger
9. Kensuke Sasaki
10. Eddie Guererro
11. Hiroshi Tanahashi
12. Low Ki
13. Naomichi Marufuji
14. CM Punk
15. Triple H
16. Rey Mysterio
17. Hiroyoshi Tenzan
18. Kurt Angle
19. Chris Daniels
20. Doug Williams
21. Yuji Nagata
22. Bryan Danielson
23. Yoshihiro Takayama
24. Yoshinobu Kanemaru
25. Shinsuke Nakamura
26. Toshiaki Kawada
27. Mitsuharu Misawa
28. Koji Kanemoto
29. Christian
30. Jun Akiyama
31. Homicide
32. Mick Foley
33. Edge
34. Shelton Benjamin
35. Minoru Tanaka
36. Chris Jericho
37. Susuma Yokosuka
38. Chris Sabin
39. Chavo Guerrero
40. Paul London
41. Chris Hero
42. Alex Shane
43. Petey Williams
44. James Tighe
45. Tajiri
46. Jonny Storm
47. Jeff Jarrett.
48. Undertaker
49. Colt Cabana
50. Paul Burchill
2003
1. Kenta Kobashi
2. Kurt Angle
3. Eddie Guerrero
4. Yugi Nagata
5. Brock Lesnar
6. KENTA
7. AJ Styles
8. Jun Akiyama
9. Chris Benoit
10. Naomichi Marufuji
11. Paul London
12. Koji Kanemoto
13. Shawn Michaels
14. Rey Mysterio Jr.
15. Hiroyoshi Tenzan
16. Christopher Daniels
17. Shinjiro Ohtani
18. Jushin Liger
19. Low Ki
20. Yoshihiro Tajiri
21. Yoshihiro Takayama
22. Rob Van Dam
23. Juventud Guerrera
24. Samoa Joe
25. Chris Jericho
26. Christian
27. Toshiaki Kawada
28. Shelton Benjamin
29. Doug Williams
30. Satoshi Kojima
31. Charlie Haas
32. The Undertaker
33. Jerry Lynn
34. Booker T
35. CIMA
36. Bryan Danielson
37. Raven
38. Chris Sabin
39. Randy Orton
40. Chris Harris
41. Johnny Storm
42. Yossino
43. CM Punk
44. Chavo Guerrero Jr.
45. Jeff Jarrett
46. Matt Hardy
47. Jay Briscoe
48. John Cena
49. Bill Goldberg
50. James Tighe
2002
1: Kurt Angle
2: Yuji Nagata
3: Low Ki
4: Eddie Guerrero
5: Satoshi Kojima
6: Jerry Lynn
7: Keiji Muto
8: RVD
9: Edge
10: Genichiro Tenryu
11: A.J. Styles
12: Jun Akiyama
13: The Rock
14: Chris Benoit
15: American Dragon
16: Yoshinobu Kanemaru
17: Christopher Daniels
18: Koji Kanemoto
19: Rey Mysterio Jr.
20: HHH
21: Doug Williams
22: Hiroyoshi Tenzan
23: Chris Jericho
24: Shinjiro Ohtani
25: Minoru Tanaka
26: Yoshihiro Takayama
27: Bokker T
28: Manabu Nakanishi
29: Jushin Lyger
30: Jamie Noble
31: Mat Hardy
32: Mitsharu Misawa
33: Jodie Fleisch
34: Jeff Hardy
35: Steve Austin
36: Chavo Guerrero
37: Brock Lesnar
38: Jonny Storm
39: Christian
40: Masahiro Chono
41: Spanky
42: Masato Tanaka
43: Tajiri
44: Kenta Kobashi
45: Magnum Tokyo
46: Undertaker
47: Trent Acid
48: Dragon Kid
49: Red
50: Lance Storm
2001
1. Steve Austin
2. Keiji Muto
3. Kurt Angle
4. Rob Van Dam
5. Yugi Nagata
6. The Rock
7. Minour Tanaka
8. Jun Akiyama
9. Triple H
10. Chris Jericho
11. Satoshi Kojima
12. Booker T
13. Chris Benoit
14. Jeff Hardy
15. Hiroyoshi Tenzan
16. Edge
17. Toshiaki Kawada
18. Genichiro Tenryu
19. Buh Buh Ray Dudley
20. Rhyno
21. Tatsuhito Takaiwa
22. Matt Hardy
23. Christian
24. D-Von Dudley
25. Yoshihiro Tajiri
26. Shinjiro Ohtani
27. Kensuke Sasaki
28. Jushin Liger
29. Shinya Hashimoto
30. Mitsuharu Misawa
31. Test
32. Taiyo Kea
33. Kanyon
34. El Samurai
35. Shane Helms
36. Doug Williams
37. Christopher Daniels
38. Bryan Danielson
39. Scott Steiner
40. William Regal
41. Johnny Storm
42. Vader
43. Alex Shane
44. Lance Storm
45. EZ Money
46. Kaz Hayashi
47. Billy Kidman
48. Low Ki
49. Kane
50. Sean Waltman
2000
1 HHH
2 Chris Beniot
3 The Rock
4 Yoshihiro Tajiri
5 Kenta Kobashi
6 Chris Jericho
7 Jeff Hardy
8 Shinjiro Ohtani
9 Rob Van Dam
10 Jun Akiyama
11 Kid Kash
12 Minoru Tanaka
13 Kurt Angle
14 Justin Credible
15 Toshiaki Kawada
16 Edge
17 Mike Awesome
18 Guido Maritato
19 Tatsuhito Takaiwa
20 Scott Steiner
21 Matt Hardy
22 Mitsuharu Misawa
23 Jeff Jarrett
24 Christian
25 Jerry Lynn
26 Lance Storm
27 X-Pac
28 Booker T
29 Kensuke Sasaki
30 Buh Buh Ray Dudley
31 Vader
32 DDP
33 Super Crazy
34 Koji Kanemoto
35 Dean Malenko
36 Rhino
37 Eddie Guerrero
38 Masato Tanaka
39 Jushin Liger
40 Genichiro Tenryu
41 Scotty Too Hotty
42 D-Von Dudley
43 Mick Foley
44 Keiji Muto
45 Kanyon
46 Grandmaster Sexay
47 Terry Funk
48 Val Venis
49 Steve Corino
50 Crash Holly
1999
1. Chris Benoit
2. Keiji Muto
3. Kenta Kobashi
4. The Rock
5. Steve Austin
6. Jerry lynn
7. Yugi Nagata
8. Shinjiro Ohtani
9. Rey Mysterio Jr.
10. Koji Kanemoto
11. Billy Kidman
12. Mitsuharu Misawa
13. Triple H
14. Diamond Dallas Page
15. Justin Credible
16. Jushin Liger
17. Juventud Guerrera
18. Jun Akiyama
19. Super Crazy
20. Mick Foley
21. Yoshihiro Tajiri
22. Jeff Hardy
23. Tatsuhito Takaiwa
24. Sabu
25. Satoshi Kojima
26. Vader
27. Christian
28. Toshiaki Kawada
29. Dean Malenko
30. Raven
31. Yoshinari Ogawa
32. Edge
33. Lance Storm
34. The Great Sasuke
35. Rob Van Dam
36. Bill Goldberg
37. Matt Hardy
38. Bam Bam Bigelow
39. Masato Tanaka
40. Jeff Jarrett
41. Sean Waltman
42. D-Lo Brown
43. Tazz
44. Perry Saturn
45. Bret Hart
46. Shane McMahon
47. Mike Awesome
48. Eddie Guerrero
49. Test
50. Hardcore Holly
1998
1. Steve Austin
2. Koji Kanemoto
3. Mick Foley
4. Chris Benoit
5. Jun Akiyama
6. Shinjiro Ohtani
7. Chris Jericho
8. Ken Shamrock
9. Jushin Liger
10. Billy Kidman
11. Kenta Kobashi
12. Jerry Lynn
13. The Rock
14. Diamond Dallas Page
15. Raven
16. Mitsuharu Misawa
17. Shinya Hashimoto
18. Satoshi Kojima
19. Juventud Guerrera
20. Masato Tanaka
21. El Samurai
22. Bam Bam Bigelow
23. Owen Hart
24. Booker T
25. Tatsuhito Takaiwa
26. Triple H
27. Dean Malenko
28. Toshiaki Kawada
29. Sean Waltman
30. Rob Van Dam
31. Ultimo Dragon
32. Eddie Guerrero
33. Justin Credible
34. Bret Hart
35. Lance Storm
36. Chavo Guerrero Jr.
37. Genichiro Tenryu
38. Terry Funk
39. Rey Mysterio Jr.
40. The Undertaker
41. Disco Inferno
42. D-Lo Brown
43. Sting
44. Chris Candido
45. Billy Gunn
46. Saturn
47. The Great Sasuke
48. Kanyon
49. The Road Dogg
50. Sabu
1997
1) Bret Hart
2) Jushin Liger
3) Shawn Michaels
4) Shijiro Ohtani
5) Eddie Guerrero
6) Ultimo Dragon
7) The Undertaker
8) Steve Austin
9) Mitsuharu Misawa
10) Diamond Dallas Page
11) El Samurai
12) Dean Malenko
13) Rey Misterio Jr.
14) Kenta Kobashi
15) Toshiaki Kawada
16) Shinya Hashimoto
17) Randy Savage
18) Chris Benoit
19) Koji Kanemoto
20) Sabu
21) Ken Shamrock
22) Mankind
23) Akira Taue
24) Davey Boy Smith
25) Curt Hennig
26) Owen Hart
27) Jun Akiyama
28) Kensuke Sasaki
29) Vader
30) Shane Douglas
31) Hiroyoshi Tenzan
32) Jeff Jarrett
33) Syxx
34) Taka Michinoku
35) Keiji Muto
36) The Great Sasuke
37) Taz
38) Booker T
39) Scott Steiner
40) Bam Bam Bigelow
41) Chris Candido
42) Masa Chono
43) Hunter Hearst-Helmsley
44) Marcus Bagwell
45) Chris Jericho
46) Rocky Maivia
47) Rob Van Dam
48) Brian Christopher
49) D-Von Dudley
50) Scott Hall
1996
1. Shawn Michaels
2. Kenta Kobashi
3. Dean Malenko
4. Sabu
5. Mick Foley
6. Rey Mysterio Jr.
7. The Great Sasuke
8. Mitsuharu Misawa
9. Steve Austin
10. Jushin Liger
11. Akira Taue
12. Shinya Hashimoto
13. Steve Williams
14. Chris Benoit
15. Bret Hart
16. Ultimo Dragon
17. Nobuhiko Takada
18. Toshiaki Kawada
19. Too Cold Scorpio
20. Shinjiro Ohtani
21. Davey Boy Smith
22. Perry Saturn
23. Shane Douglas
24. Jun Akiyama
25. Chris Jericho
26. Eddie Guerrero
27. Keiji Muto
28. Marc Mero/Johnny B. Badd
29. Owen Hart
30. Mikey Whipwreck
31. Johnny Ace
32. Triple H
33. Steven Regal
34. Psicosis
35. Pit Bull Two
36. Diamond Dallas Page
37. Kevin Nash
38. Shiro Koshinaka
39. John Kronus
40. Rob Van Dam
41. Raven
42. Dustin Rhodes
43. Tazz
44. Stevie Richards
45. Scott Hall
46. Riki Choshu
47. Booker T
48. Vader
49. Ric Flair
50. The Sandman
1995
1. Mitsuharu Misawa
2. Chris Benoit
3. Shawn Michaels
4. Eddie Guerrero
5. Toshiaki Kawada
6. Bret Hart
7. Sabu
8. Kenta Kobashi
9. Keiji Muto
10. Ken Shamrock
11. Jushin Liger
12. Koji Kanemoto
13. Too Cold Scorpio
14. Dean Malenko
15. Ginsei Shinzaki
16. Nobuhiko Takada
17. Rey Mysterio Jr.
18. Akira Taue
19. Marty Jannetty
20. Mick Foley
21. Johnny Ace
22. Vader
23. Sean Waltman
24. Mikey Whipwreck
25. Alex Wright
26. Davey Boy Smith
27. Psicosis
28. Brian Pillman
29. Owen Hart
30. Rocko Rock
31. Al Snow
32. The Great Sasuke
33. Raven
34. Terry Funk
35. Triple H
36. Ultimo Dragon
37. Scott Hall
38. Johnny B. Badd
39. Arn Anderson
40. Steve Austin
41. Ric Flair
42. Chris Candido
43. Bam Bam Bigelow
44. Hayabusa
45. Scott Steiner
46. The Sandman
47. The Head Hunter(s)
48. Kevin Nash
49. Shane Douglas
50. La Parka
1994
1. Shawn Michaels
2. Chris Benoit
3. Toshiaki Kawada
4. Mitsuharu Misawa
5. Jushin Liger
6. Bret Hart
7. Steve Williams
8. Sabu
9. Nobuhiko Takada
10. Vader
11. Steve Austin
12. Kenta Kobashi
13. Too Cold Scorpio
14. Art Barr
15. Hiroshi Hase
16. Sean Waltman
17. Shane Douglas
18. Terry Funk
19. The Great Sasuke
20. Keiji Muto
21. Eddie Guerrero
22. Owen Hart
23. Mick Foley
24. Stan Hansen
25. Brian Pillman
26. Jimmy Del Ray
27. Tracey Smothers
28. Dan Kroffat
29. Ultimo Dragon
30. Sting
31. Rey Mysterio Jr.
32. Tom Prichard
33. Ginsei Shinzaki
34. Psicosis
35. Bam Bam Bigelow
36. Ricky Steamboat
37. Scott Steiner
38. Kevin Nash
39. Chris Candido
40. Arn Anderson
41. Super Delfin
42. Heavy Metal
43. The Patriot
44. Billy Gunn
45. Dustin Rhodes
46. Scott Hall
47. Rocko Rock
48. Mike Awesome
49. Hulk Hogan
50. Steven Regal
Thanks to Crippler for his help collecting this data!
2006
1. Edge
2. Bryan Danielson
3. KENTA
4. Samoa Joe
5. Naomichi Marufuji
6. AJ Styles
7. Takeshi Morishima
8. Christopher Daniels
9. Yugi Nagata
10. Rey Mysterio
11. CIMA
12. Low Ki
13. Homicide
14. Shiji Kondo
15. Kurt Angle
16. Takarshi Sagiura
17. Satoshi Kojima
18. Hiroshi Tanahashi
19. Chris Benoit
20. Randy Orton
21. Austin Aries
22. Rob Van Dam
23. Shawn Michaels
24. Nigel McGuinness
25. Finlay
26. Katsuhiko Nakajima
27. Kenta Kobashi
28. Koji Kanemoto
29. Kensuke Sasaki
30. Roderick Strong
31. Jun Akiyama
32. Davey Richards
33. Jay Briscoe
34. Chris Sabin
35. Mark Briscoe
36. Triple H
37. Booker T
38. Petey Williams
39. Abyss
40. Rhino
41. Brian Kendrick
42. Hiroyoshi Tenzan
43. Paul London
44. CM Punk
45. The Undertaker
46. Matt Sydal
47. Matt Hardy
48. Johnny Nitro
49. Gregory Helms
50. Pac
2005
1. AJ Styles
2. Shawn Michaels
3. Samoa Joe
4. Kenta Kobashi
5. Kurt Angle
6. Kenta
7. Christopher Daniels
8. Naomichi Marufuji
9. Eddie Guerrero
10.Kensuke Sasaki
11.Chris Benoit
12. Rey Mysterio
13.Satoshi Kojima
14. Edge
15. Jamie Knoble
16. Triple H
17. Toshiaki Kawada
18. Austin Aries
19. Chris Jericho
20. Jun Akiyama
21. Yoshinobu Kanemaru
22. Koji Kanemoto
23. CM Punk
24. Chris Harris
25. Suwa
26. Bryan Danielson
27.Hiroshi Tananashi
28. James Storm
29. Roderick Strong
30. Chris Sabin
31 Shelton Benjamin
32. Doug Williams
33. Alex Shelly
34. Christian
35. Low Ki
36. Petey Williams
37. Hiroyshi Tenzan
38. Milano Collection A.T
39. Takashi Suguira
40.Randy Orton
41. Eric Young
42. Jay Lethal
43. Matt Hardy
44. Homicide
45. Nigel Mcguiness
46. Jeff Jarret
47. Abyss
48. Booker T
49. Batista
50. Sabu
2004
1. Chris Benoit
2. Kenta Kobashi
3. AJ Styles
4. Samoa Joe
5. Shawn Michaels
6. Randy Orton
7. KENTA
8. Jushin Liger
9. Kensuke Sasaki
10. Eddie Guererro
11. Hiroshi Tanahashi
12. Low Ki
13. Naomichi Marufuji
14. CM Punk
15. Triple H
16. Rey Mysterio
17. Hiroyoshi Tenzan
18. Kurt Angle
19. Chris Daniels
20. Doug Williams
21. Yuji Nagata
22. Bryan Danielson
23. Yoshihiro Takayama
24. Yoshinobu Kanemaru
25. Shinsuke Nakamura
26. Toshiaki Kawada
27. Mitsuharu Misawa
28. Koji Kanemoto
29. Christian
30. Jun Akiyama
31. Homicide
32. Mick Foley
33. Edge
34. Shelton Benjamin
35. Minoru Tanaka
36. Chris Jericho
37. Susuma Yokosuka
38. Chris Sabin
39. Chavo Guerrero
40. Paul London
41. Chris Hero
42. Alex Shane
43. Petey Williams
44. James Tighe
45. Tajiri
46. Jonny Storm
47. Jeff Jarrett.
48. Undertaker
49. Colt Cabana
50. Paul Burchill
2003
1. Kenta Kobashi
2. Kurt Angle
3. Eddie Guerrero
4. Yugi Nagata
5. Brock Lesnar
6. KENTA
7. AJ Styles
8. Jun Akiyama
9. Chris Benoit
10. Naomichi Marufuji
11. Paul London
12. Koji Kanemoto
13. Shawn Michaels
14. Rey Mysterio Jr.
15. Hiroyoshi Tenzan
16. Christopher Daniels
17. Shinjiro Ohtani
18. Jushin Liger
19. Low Ki
20. Yoshihiro Tajiri
21. Yoshihiro Takayama
22. Rob Van Dam
23. Juventud Guerrera
24. Samoa Joe
25. Chris Jericho
26. Christian
27. Toshiaki Kawada
28. Shelton Benjamin
29. Doug Williams
30. Satoshi Kojima
31. Charlie Haas
32. The Undertaker
33. Jerry Lynn
34. Booker T
35. CIMA
36. Bryan Danielson
37. Raven
38. Chris Sabin
39. Randy Orton
40. Chris Harris
41. Johnny Storm
42. Yossino
43. CM Punk
44. Chavo Guerrero Jr.
45. Jeff Jarrett
46. Matt Hardy
47. Jay Briscoe
48. John Cena
49. Bill Goldberg
50. James Tighe
2002
1: Kurt Angle
2: Yuji Nagata
3: Low Ki
4: Eddie Guerrero
5: Satoshi Kojima
6: Jerry Lynn
7: Keiji Muto
8: RVD
9: Edge
10: Genichiro Tenryu
11: A.J. Styles
12: Jun Akiyama
13: The Rock
14: Chris Benoit
15: American Dragon
16: Yoshinobu Kanemaru
17: Christopher Daniels
18: Koji Kanemoto
19: Rey Mysterio Jr.
20: HHH
21: Doug Williams
22: Hiroyoshi Tenzan
23: Chris Jericho
24: Shinjiro Ohtani
25: Minoru Tanaka
26: Yoshihiro Takayama
27: Bokker T
28: Manabu Nakanishi
29: Jushin Lyger
30: Jamie Noble
31: Mat Hardy
32: Mitsharu Misawa
33: Jodie Fleisch
34: Jeff Hardy
35: Steve Austin
36: Chavo Guerrero
37: Brock Lesnar
38: Jonny Storm
39: Christian
40: Masahiro Chono
41: Spanky
42: Masato Tanaka
43: Tajiri
44: Kenta Kobashi
45: Magnum Tokyo
46: Undertaker
47: Trent Acid
48: Dragon Kid
49: Red
50: Lance Storm
2001
1. Steve Austin
2. Keiji Muto
3. Kurt Angle
4. Rob Van Dam
5. Yugi Nagata
6. The Rock
7. Minour Tanaka
8. Jun Akiyama
9. Triple H
10. Chris Jericho
11. Satoshi Kojima
12. Booker T
13. Chris Benoit
14. Jeff Hardy
15. Hiroyoshi Tenzan
16. Edge
17. Toshiaki Kawada
18. Genichiro Tenryu
19. Buh Buh Ray Dudley
20. Rhyno
21. Tatsuhito Takaiwa
22. Matt Hardy
23. Christian
24. D-Von Dudley
25. Yoshihiro Tajiri
26. Shinjiro Ohtani
27. Kensuke Sasaki
28. Jushin Liger
29. Shinya Hashimoto
30. Mitsuharu Misawa
31. Test
32. Taiyo Kea
33. Kanyon
34. El Samurai
35. Shane Helms
36. Doug Williams
37. Christopher Daniels
38. Bryan Danielson
39. Scott Steiner
40. William Regal
41. Johnny Storm
42. Vader
43. Alex Shane
44. Lance Storm
45. EZ Money
46. Kaz Hayashi
47. Billy Kidman
48. Low Ki
49. Kane
50. Sean Waltman
2000
1 HHH
2 Chris Beniot
3 The Rock
4 Yoshihiro Tajiri
5 Kenta Kobashi
6 Chris Jericho
7 Jeff Hardy
8 Shinjiro Ohtani
9 Rob Van Dam
10 Jun Akiyama
11 Kid Kash
12 Minoru Tanaka
13 Kurt Angle
14 Justin Credible
15 Toshiaki Kawada
16 Edge
17 Mike Awesome
18 Guido Maritato
19 Tatsuhito Takaiwa
20 Scott Steiner
21 Matt Hardy
22 Mitsuharu Misawa
23 Jeff Jarrett
24 Christian
25 Jerry Lynn
26 Lance Storm
27 X-Pac
28 Booker T
29 Kensuke Sasaki
30 Buh Buh Ray Dudley
31 Vader
32 DDP
33 Super Crazy
34 Koji Kanemoto
35 Dean Malenko
36 Rhino
37 Eddie Guerrero
38 Masato Tanaka
39 Jushin Liger
40 Genichiro Tenryu
41 Scotty Too Hotty
42 D-Von Dudley
43 Mick Foley
44 Keiji Muto
45 Kanyon
46 Grandmaster Sexay
47 Terry Funk
48 Val Venis
49 Steve Corino
50 Crash Holly
1999
1. Chris Benoit
2. Keiji Muto
3. Kenta Kobashi
4. The Rock
5. Steve Austin
6. Jerry lynn
7. Yugi Nagata
8. Shinjiro Ohtani
9. Rey Mysterio Jr.
10. Koji Kanemoto
11. Billy Kidman
12. Mitsuharu Misawa
13. Triple H
14. Diamond Dallas Page
15. Justin Credible
16. Jushin Liger
17. Juventud Guerrera
18. Jun Akiyama
19. Super Crazy
20. Mick Foley
21. Yoshihiro Tajiri
22. Jeff Hardy
23. Tatsuhito Takaiwa
24. Sabu
25. Satoshi Kojima
26. Vader
27. Christian
28. Toshiaki Kawada
29. Dean Malenko
30. Raven
31. Yoshinari Ogawa
32. Edge
33. Lance Storm
34. The Great Sasuke
35. Rob Van Dam
36. Bill Goldberg
37. Matt Hardy
38. Bam Bam Bigelow
39. Masato Tanaka
40. Jeff Jarrett
41. Sean Waltman
42. D-Lo Brown
43. Tazz
44. Perry Saturn
45. Bret Hart
46. Shane McMahon
47. Mike Awesome
48. Eddie Guerrero
49. Test
50. Hardcore Holly
1998
1. Steve Austin
2. Koji Kanemoto
3. Mick Foley
4. Chris Benoit
5. Jun Akiyama
6. Shinjiro Ohtani
7. Chris Jericho
8. Ken Shamrock
9. Jushin Liger
10. Billy Kidman
11. Kenta Kobashi
12. Jerry Lynn
13. The Rock
14. Diamond Dallas Page
15. Raven
16. Mitsuharu Misawa
17. Shinya Hashimoto
18. Satoshi Kojima
19. Juventud Guerrera
20. Masato Tanaka
21. El Samurai
22. Bam Bam Bigelow
23. Owen Hart
24. Booker T
25. Tatsuhito Takaiwa
26. Triple H
27. Dean Malenko
28. Toshiaki Kawada
29. Sean Waltman
30. Rob Van Dam
31. Ultimo Dragon
32. Eddie Guerrero
33. Justin Credible
34. Bret Hart
35. Lance Storm
36. Chavo Guerrero Jr.
37. Genichiro Tenryu
38. Terry Funk
39. Rey Mysterio Jr.
40. The Undertaker
41. Disco Inferno
42. D-Lo Brown
43. Sting
44. Chris Candido
45. Billy Gunn
46. Saturn
47. The Great Sasuke
48. Kanyon
49. The Road Dogg
50. Sabu
1997
1) Bret Hart
2) Jushin Liger
3) Shawn Michaels
4) Shijiro Ohtani
5) Eddie Guerrero
6) Ultimo Dragon
7) The Undertaker
8) Steve Austin
9) Mitsuharu Misawa
10) Diamond Dallas Page
11) El Samurai
12) Dean Malenko
13) Rey Misterio Jr.
14) Kenta Kobashi
15) Toshiaki Kawada
16) Shinya Hashimoto
17) Randy Savage
18) Chris Benoit
19) Koji Kanemoto
20) Sabu
21) Ken Shamrock
22) Mankind
23) Akira Taue
24) Davey Boy Smith
25) Curt Hennig
26) Owen Hart
27) Jun Akiyama
28) Kensuke Sasaki
29) Vader
30) Shane Douglas
31) Hiroyoshi Tenzan
32) Jeff Jarrett
33) Syxx
34) Taka Michinoku
35) Keiji Muto
36) The Great Sasuke
37) Taz
38) Booker T
39) Scott Steiner
40) Bam Bam Bigelow
41) Chris Candido
42) Masa Chono
43) Hunter Hearst-Helmsley
44) Marcus Bagwell
45) Chris Jericho
46) Rocky Maivia
47) Rob Van Dam
48) Brian Christopher
49) D-Von Dudley
50) Scott Hall
1996
1. Shawn Michaels
2. Kenta Kobashi
3. Dean Malenko
4. Sabu
5. Mick Foley
6. Rey Mysterio Jr.
7. The Great Sasuke
8. Mitsuharu Misawa
9. Steve Austin
10. Jushin Liger
11. Akira Taue
12. Shinya Hashimoto
13. Steve Williams
14. Chris Benoit
15. Bret Hart
16. Ultimo Dragon
17. Nobuhiko Takada
18. Toshiaki Kawada
19. Too Cold Scorpio
20. Shinjiro Ohtani
21. Davey Boy Smith
22. Perry Saturn
23. Shane Douglas
24. Jun Akiyama
25. Chris Jericho
26. Eddie Guerrero
27. Keiji Muto
28. Marc Mero/Johnny B. Badd
29. Owen Hart
30. Mikey Whipwreck
31. Johnny Ace
32. Triple H
33. Steven Regal
34. Psicosis
35. Pit Bull Two
36. Diamond Dallas Page
37. Kevin Nash
38. Shiro Koshinaka
39. John Kronus
40. Rob Van Dam
41. Raven
42. Dustin Rhodes
43. Tazz
44. Stevie Richards
45. Scott Hall
46. Riki Choshu
47. Booker T
48. Vader
49. Ric Flair
50. The Sandman
1995
1. Mitsuharu Misawa
2. Chris Benoit
3. Shawn Michaels
4. Eddie Guerrero
5. Toshiaki Kawada
6. Bret Hart
7. Sabu
8. Kenta Kobashi
9. Keiji Muto
10. Ken Shamrock
11. Jushin Liger
12. Koji Kanemoto
13. Too Cold Scorpio
14. Dean Malenko
15. Ginsei Shinzaki
16. Nobuhiko Takada
17. Rey Mysterio Jr.
18. Akira Taue
19. Marty Jannetty
20. Mick Foley
21. Johnny Ace
22. Vader
23. Sean Waltman
24. Mikey Whipwreck
25. Alex Wright
26. Davey Boy Smith
27. Psicosis
28. Brian Pillman
29. Owen Hart
30. Rocko Rock
31. Al Snow
32. The Great Sasuke
33. Raven
34. Terry Funk
35. Triple H
36. Ultimo Dragon
37. Scott Hall
38. Johnny B. Badd
39. Arn Anderson
40. Steve Austin
41. Ric Flair
42. Chris Candido
43. Bam Bam Bigelow
44. Hayabusa
45. Scott Steiner
46. The Sandman
47. The Head Hunter(s)
48. Kevin Nash
49. Shane Douglas
50. La Parka
1994
1. Shawn Michaels
2. Chris Benoit
3. Toshiaki Kawada
4. Mitsuharu Misawa
5. Jushin Liger
6. Bret Hart
7. Steve Williams
8. Sabu
9. Nobuhiko Takada
10. Vader
11. Steve Austin
12. Kenta Kobashi
13. Too Cold Scorpio
14. Art Barr
15. Hiroshi Hase
16. Sean Waltman
17. Shane Douglas
18. Terry Funk
19. The Great Sasuke
20. Keiji Muto
21. Eddie Guerrero
22. Owen Hart
23. Mick Foley
24. Stan Hansen
25. Brian Pillman
26. Jimmy Del Ray
27. Tracey Smothers
28. Dan Kroffat
29. Ultimo Dragon
30. Sting
31. Rey Mysterio Jr.
32. Tom Prichard
33. Ginsei Shinzaki
34. Psicosis
35. Bam Bam Bigelow
36. Ricky Steamboat
37. Scott Steiner
38. Kevin Nash
39. Chris Candido
40. Arn Anderson
41. Super Delfin
42. Heavy Metal
43. The Patriot
44. Billy Gunn
45. Dustin Rhodes
46. Scott Hall
47. Rocko Rock
48. Mike Awesome
49. Hulk Hogan
50. Steven Regal
Thanks to Crippler for his help collecting this data!
Friday, December 15, 2006
Adaptation in Wrestling
Q: Explain how species adapt to changing environments to enhance
survival and reproductive success, including changes in structure,
behavior, or physiology and give examples.
By Zip Whittle
Throughout history organisms have adapted to their changing
environments in order to enhance their survival and reproductive
success. Successful transformations have involved bringing sexual
partners closer to a creature's natural habitat, finding adaptive
advantages within ecological limitations and developing the use
colorful marks in order to confuse and disorient your enemies. These
behavioral and structural alterations have been implemented both
through biological evolution and organic realization.
For most of the 20th Century, the halls of smoky-filled arenas were
filled with professional wrestlers each limited in their ability to
seek appropriate mating partners. Often, wrestlers would be forced to
take turns with rats and stunt grannies in order to fulfill their
carnal urges. However, in the 1980s an adaptation displayed by
promoters uncovered a new way to satisfy the wrestler's insatiable
sexual cravings. Instead of traveling town to town searching for
lustful encounters, the promoters would simply bring along a female
valet. For instance, World Class Championship Wrestling hired Missy
Hyatt in 1985 for the purposes of satisfying the wrestler's wanton
carnal hankerings when confused young ring boys simply would not do.
Some scientists speculated that this adaptation could not be further
improved. However, nature continues to amaze and prevail. In 2004,
the world was stunned to learn that within the nesting environment of
Vincacious McMahonicus a new species, DIVASEARCH DIMWITICUS, had been
discovered! Research into this whole new genus had already led to
breakthroughs in many fields including luggage/fecal matter cleaning
innovations as well as explaining the rise of back injuries among
blonds in Kentucky (the so-called Billard-Rogers conundrum).
Millions of years ago, many giant dinosaurs ruled the Earth. Yet,
after the Xenu coordinated the asteroid strike on the planet, it was
the smaller, more agile creatures which survived to the next age.
While the towering Tyrannosaurus Rex struggled to find enough food to
eat and eventually became extinct, fossil records demonstrate that the
smaller, cleverer Velociraptor survived much longer. While brain size
(especially in ratio to body mass) could have played a role in the
positive adaptations which benefited the Raptors, there were other
behavioral differences which benefited the one species of terrible
thunder lizard far greater than the other. While both faced with the
same changing planetscape and similar predators, the Velociraptor was
better adapted to the new environment. Similarly, the modern saga of
the "Big Man" in professional wrestling has always pitted natural
enemies: Behemoths vs. Gravity. Compare "Psycho" Sid Euly to Nathan
"Wacky Spinkick" Jones. Neither rain nor snow nor squeegees nor
softball season nor prison could fully stop either lumbering beast.
However, the powerful ability of being "absolutely batshit crazy" has
preserved Jones in relative good health while Euly career ended
following a horrific bone breakage from lack of sufficient calcium in
his weekly steroids. Again, we see that within creatures of the same
size, mental capacity will play an important role.
In nature, the use of color has always had an interesting correlation
to both speed and craziness. In the beginning there was the Destroyer
(DESTROYER EXECO), and it was good. While the speed was slow, the
sanity was normal. But lo, as time rolled on, the mask evolved.
Masks added colors, horns, levers and eventually when combined Paso
devaluation these entire species evolved. This new class was quicker
but far more insane with notable examples such as such Nicho Psicosis
(WATERPISTOLIO INSANACO). This remarkable evolution has come so far
that in some remote locations, like Australia, the creatures are known
to remove all their clothes (including the distinctive masks) and
operate in the broad daylight (see Juvi Guerrera -NAKEDONE INSANACO).
A parasite is a life form that has evolutionally adapted the
phylogenetically ability to feed off another living organism's
resources in a non-symbiotic fashion. A prime example would be the
Brock Lesnar (species: CARNIVORA SOUTHDAKOTIUS) and Rena "Sable" Mero
(MILFANIOUS HAGGARDFACIOUS). With each successive ridiculous chest
tattoo, the female indvidiaul borrows further into the checkbook of
the male. After a series of several years and several pounds of drug
medication, the creatures become completely inseparable. This
adaptation can also be seen in other places in the animal kingdom such
as K-Fed/Brittany and Helter Skelter/Indy Wrestling.
As you can clearly see, species adapt to changing environments to
enhance survival and reproductive success.
survival and reproductive success, including changes in structure,
behavior, or physiology and give examples.
By Zip Whittle
Throughout history organisms have adapted to their changing
environments in order to enhance their survival and reproductive
success. Successful transformations have involved bringing sexual
partners closer to a creature's natural habitat, finding adaptive
advantages within ecological limitations and developing the use
colorful marks in order to confuse and disorient your enemies. These
behavioral and structural alterations have been implemented both
through biological evolution and organic realization.
For most of the 20th Century, the halls of smoky-filled arenas were
filled with professional wrestlers each limited in their ability to
seek appropriate mating partners. Often, wrestlers would be forced to
take turns with rats and stunt grannies in order to fulfill their
carnal urges. However, in the 1980s an adaptation displayed by
promoters uncovered a new way to satisfy the wrestler's insatiable
sexual cravings. Instead of traveling town to town searching for
lustful encounters, the promoters would simply bring along a female
valet. For instance, World Class Championship Wrestling hired Missy
Hyatt in 1985 for the purposes of satisfying the wrestler's wanton
carnal hankerings when confused young ring boys simply would not do.
Some scientists speculated that this adaptation could not be further
improved. However, nature continues to amaze and prevail. In 2004,
the world was stunned to learn that within the nesting environment of
Vincacious McMahonicus a new species, DIVASEARCH DIMWITICUS, had been
discovered! Research into this whole new genus had already led to
breakthroughs in many fields including luggage/fecal matter cleaning
innovations as well as explaining the rise of back injuries among
blonds in Kentucky (the so-called Billard-Rogers conundrum).
Millions of years ago, many giant dinosaurs ruled the Earth. Yet,
after the Xenu coordinated the asteroid strike on the planet, it was
the smaller, more agile creatures which survived to the next age.
While the towering Tyrannosaurus Rex struggled to find enough food to
eat and eventually became extinct, fossil records demonstrate that the
smaller, cleverer Velociraptor survived much longer. While brain size
(especially in ratio to body mass) could have played a role in the
positive adaptations which benefited the Raptors, there were other
behavioral differences which benefited the one species of terrible
thunder lizard far greater than the other. While both faced with the
same changing planetscape and similar predators, the Velociraptor was
better adapted to the new environment. Similarly, the modern saga of
the "Big Man" in professional wrestling has always pitted natural
enemies: Behemoths vs. Gravity. Compare "Psycho" Sid Euly to Nathan
"Wacky Spinkick" Jones. Neither rain nor snow nor squeegees nor
softball season nor prison could fully stop either lumbering beast.
However, the powerful ability of being "absolutely batshit crazy" has
preserved Jones in relative good health while Euly career ended
following a horrific bone breakage from lack of sufficient calcium in
his weekly steroids. Again, we see that within creatures of the same
size, mental capacity will play an important role.
In nature, the use of color has always had an interesting correlation
to both speed and craziness. In the beginning there was the Destroyer
(DESTROYER EXECO), and it was good. While the speed was slow, the
sanity was normal. But lo, as time rolled on, the mask evolved.
Masks added colors, horns, levers and eventually when combined Paso
devaluation these entire species evolved. This new class was quicker
but far more insane with notable examples such as such Nicho Psicosis
(WATERPISTOLIO INSANACO). This remarkable evolution has come so far
that in some remote locations, like Australia, the creatures are known
to remove all their clothes (including the distinctive masks) and
operate in the broad daylight (see Juvi Guerrera -NAKEDONE INSANACO).
A parasite is a life form that has evolutionally adapted the
phylogenetically ability to feed off another living organism's
resources in a non-symbiotic fashion. A prime example would be the
Brock Lesnar (species: CARNIVORA SOUTHDAKOTIUS) and Rena "Sable" Mero
(MILFANIOUS HAGGARDFACIOUS). With each successive ridiculous chest
tattoo, the female indvidiaul borrows further into the checkbook of
the male. After a series of several years and several pounds of drug
medication, the creatures become completely inseparable. This
adaptation can also be seen in other places in the animal kingdom such
as K-Fed/Brittany and Helter Skelter/Indy Wrestling.
As you can clearly see, species adapt to changing environments to
enhance survival and reproductive success.
Thursday, December 14, 2006
WWE QTRLY FINANCIALS (report by Zip Whittle)
Highlights of the WWE fiscal quarter lasting 7/29/06 until 10/27/06 (released 12/5/06)
Pay-Per-View REVENUE
2Q 2006 = $18.6m in PPV revenue vs 2Q 2005 = $18.8m in PPV revenue.
“International buys comprised approx. 36% of total buys this quarter vs 40% total buys prior year quarter.”
Remember: PPVs cost $5 more domestically in 2006 vs 2005.
Summerslam 06 – 528k buys (Hogan/Orton, Edge/Cena, DX vs McMahons, Flair/Foley, Batista/Booker)
Summerslam 05 – 534k buys (Hogan/HBK, Batista/JBL, Cena/Jericho, Orton/UT, Rey/Eddy Ladder)
SS06 = $13.5m (338k buys domestic) / SS05 = $11.2m (320k buys domestic) +$2.3m/17.5k buys.
Unforgiven 06 – 290k buys (Cena/Edge TLC, Trish/Lita Retirement, DX/McMahons/BS HIAC)
Unforgiven 05 – 225k buys (Cena/Angle, HBK/Masters, Hardy/Edge Cage, Flair/Carlito)
UF06 = $7.4m (186k buys domestic) / UF05 = $4.7m (135k buys domestic) +$2.7m/50k buys.
No Mercy 06 – 195k buys (Booker/Lashley/Batista/Finlay, Benoit/Regal, Rey/Chavo FallsCountAnywhere, MVP debut, Kennedy/UT, Hardy/Helms)
No Mercy 05 – 219k buys (Batista/Eddy, Ortons/UT Casket, JBL/Rey, Benoit/Christian/OJ/Booker)
NM06 = $5.0m (125k buys domestic) / NM05 = $4.6m (131k buys domestic) +$0.4m/-6.6k buys.
ECW is tanking the attendance average.
NA attendance average: 4000 (w/ ECW), 5200 (w/o ECW). ECW averages 1200 ($25 ticket).
Last year NA attendance: 4300.
ECW TV is generating about $1.4m in TV rights this quarter. The live events generated about $800k.
Venue Merchandise totaled $4.2m (vs last year’s $3m). Per head, that’s $11.20/fan at live event.
Hulk Hogan 3-disc DVD sold about 200k units. VKM, History of WWE Championship #s not quoted.
Magazine revenue is slightly up ($3.4m vs $3.1m) – recognizes the new WWE magazine which replaced RAW/Smackdown magazines.
WWE CONFERENCE CALL Q&A HIGHLIGHTS
There was the usual babble about nitpicking this margin or that, some questions about their new Genius distribution deal and clarification of "other income". Here were the short highlights:
• International buys PPV this quarter was about 36% compared to 40% last year over this same time frame. They explained it as "cooling in the international market, particularly Italy where previously the product had been very hot." (Again, they never frame it as domestic buyrates falling, only international segment growing!).
• Did they think NA attendance could continue to grow? In short, yes. It's gone up 7 consecutive quarters and is now averaging 5200/live event (excluding ECW). Linda noted their peak was something like 9500, so they believed they could continue to grow. (If you leave ECW's attendance average in, then there is actually a drop this quarter compared to last year's time. So, this is probably another reason they want to not include the ECW empty venues.)
• They are shipping over a million units of "See No Evil" and expect to sell around a million copies.
• The "sell-through rate" (I presume this is sent-to-store:people-actually-buying it) dropped a bit this quarter compared to last year at the same time. In particular, last year's Undertaker DVD was very successful with a sell-through rate of about 80%.
The two most interesting topics covered were: (1) brand management, (2) thoughts on IFL going public
Bob Jenkins – Schafer Capital Management
QUESTION: Brand Management: Why not have them as three separate & distinct brands, ran by three different people, set up their own budgets and keep them independent; no mingling of wrestlers except in special occasions? Because right now it seems like all three brands seems homogenized into just one entity – no difference between the three and gives the viewer no reason to check out any other brand over one?
Linda McMahon: Clearly, our entire goal was have these three brands to have them as stand-alone brands. However, the decision we made when we first separated the RAW & Smackdown brands was to provide us with opportunity to reach different audiences on Cable and on Broadcast. Also, to give us and different touring teams so we could increase our international live events. All of which we have done.
We've spent the last four to five years in the brand separation. And now We've found that you can still create more rivalaries sometimes by crossing over the brands, no different than if you have a different
league competing with another. So, part of the cross-over effect has been the increasing of that competitive factor.
We also look as ECW is a developmental brand. It also gives us an opportunity to launch newer talent through there. I think we're accomplishing the goals that we set out when we first started:
* Give us the opportunity to create more stars by having the two brands and now adding ECW.
* Providing the opportunity for greater international growth
* More licensing products off the two brands, and now the three brands with ECW. And ECW is growing slowly.
Your question really is "why not make them even more distinct?" I think we have created even more distinct brands and since they are now created distinctly we have the opportunity to cross-promote and have some of the talent migrate back and forth across the different brands. So that we can increase the storylines and continue to grow all the brands in our total business.
Thoughts on IFL going public. (Jefferies & Company, Inc. - Robert Routh)
Linda McMahon: IFL and UFC are "good competitors in the marketplace for sporting programs. Good demo reach for them. And clearly a growing sport. We're taking a look at too and even announced last week that we had the folks from Pride in to meet with us. We having an opportunity to look at the developmental of that particular business as well." (WWE likes to pretend Pride is #1 in the World as a way of slighting UFC. They actually had an offer to buy UFC back in the SEG days with Shane McMahon interested in running it but obviously that wasn’t persued.)
The last interesting thing was in response to a question by James Clement from Sidotti & Company, LLC. He asked about whether the decrease in "prior event buys" in the PPV category meant that they were getting closer estimates from the providers. WWE responded that while "international business means that reporting timeline is slower. On balance going forward, don't expect big adjustments that we've seen in the past. Initial forecasts are better than previously reported."
Pay-Per-View REVENUE
2Q 2006 = $18.6m in PPV revenue vs 2Q 2005 = $18.8m in PPV revenue.
“International buys comprised approx. 36% of total buys this quarter vs 40% total buys prior year quarter.”
Remember: PPVs cost $5 more domestically in 2006 vs 2005.
Summerslam 06 – 528k buys (Hogan/Orton, Edge/Cena, DX vs McMahons, Flair/Foley, Batista/Booker)
Summerslam 05 – 534k buys (Hogan/HBK, Batista/JBL, Cena/Jericho, Orton/UT, Rey/Eddy Ladder)
SS06 = $13.5m (338k buys domestic) / SS05 = $11.2m (320k buys domestic) +$2.3m/17.5k buys.
Unforgiven 06 – 290k buys (Cena/Edge TLC, Trish/Lita Retirement, DX/McMahons/BS HIAC)
Unforgiven 05 – 225k buys (Cena/Angle, HBK/Masters, Hardy/Edge Cage, Flair/Carlito)
UF06 = $7.4m (186k buys domestic) / UF05 = $4.7m (135k buys domestic) +$2.7m/50k buys.
No Mercy 06 – 195k buys (Booker/Lashley/Batista/Finlay, Benoit/Regal, Rey/Chavo FallsCountAnywhere, MVP debut, Kennedy/UT, Hardy/Helms)
No Mercy 05 – 219k buys (Batista/Eddy, Ortons/UT Casket, JBL/Rey, Benoit/Christian/OJ/Booker)
NM06 = $5.0m (125k buys domestic) / NM05 = $4.6m (131k buys domestic) +$0.4m/-6.6k buys.
ECW is tanking the attendance average.
NA attendance average: 4000 (w/ ECW), 5200 (w/o ECW). ECW averages 1200 ($25 ticket).
Last year NA attendance: 4300.
ECW TV is generating about $1.4m in TV rights this quarter. The live events generated about $800k.
Venue Merchandise totaled $4.2m (vs last year’s $3m). Per head, that’s $11.20/fan at live event.
Hulk Hogan 3-disc DVD sold about 200k units. VKM, History of WWE Championship #s not quoted.
Magazine revenue is slightly up ($3.4m vs $3.1m) – recognizes the new WWE magazine which replaced RAW/Smackdown magazines.
WWE CONFERENCE CALL Q&A HIGHLIGHTS
There was the usual babble about nitpicking this margin or that, some questions about their new Genius distribution deal and clarification of "other income". Here were the short highlights:
• International buys PPV this quarter was about 36% compared to 40% last year over this same time frame. They explained it as "cooling in the international market, particularly Italy where previously the product had been very hot." (Again, they never frame it as domestic buyrates falling, only international segment growing!).
• Did they think NA attendance could continue to grow? In short, yes. It's gone up 7 consecutive quarters and is now averaging 5200/live event (excluding ECW). Linda noted their peak was something like 9500, so they believed they could continue to grow. (If you leave ECW's attendance average in, then there is actually a drop this quarter compared to last year's time. So, this is probably another reason they want to not include the ECW empty venues.)
• They are shipping over a million units of "See No Evil" and expect to sell around a million copies.
• The "sell-through rate" (I presume this is sent-to-store:people-actually-buying it) dropped a bit this quarter compared to last year at the same time. In particular, last year's Undertaker DVD was very successful with a sell-through rate of about 80%.
The two most interesting topics covered were: (1) brand management, (2) thoughts on IFL going public
Bob Jenkins – Schafer Capital Management
QUESTION: Brand Management: Why not have them as three separate & distinct brands, ran by three different people, set up their own budgets and keep them independent; no mingling of wrestlers except in special occasions? Because right now it seems like all three brands seems homogenized into just one entity – no difference between the three and gives the viewer no reason to check out any other brand over one?
Linda McMahon: Clearly, our entire goal was have these three brands to have them as stand-alone brands. However, the decision we made when we first separated the RAW & Smackdown brands was to provide us with opportunity to reach different audiences on Cable and on Broadcast. Also, to give us and different touring teams so we could increase our international live events. All of which we have done.
We've spent the last four to five years in the brand separation. And now We've found that you can still create more rivalaries sometimes by crossing over the brands, no different than if you have a different
league competing with another. So, part of the cross-over effect has been the increasing of that competitive factor.
We also look as ECW is a developmental brand. It also gives us an opportunity to launch newer talent through there. I think we're accomplishing the goals that we set out when we first started:
* Give us the opportunity to create more stars by having the two brands and now adding ECW.
* Providing the opportunity for greater international growth
* More licensing products off the two brands, and now the three brands with ECW. And ECW is growing slowly.
Your question really is "why not make them even more distinct?" I think we have created even more distinct brands and since they are now created distinctly we have the opportunity to cross-promote and have some of the talent migrate back and forth across the different brands. So that we can increase the storylines and continue to grow all the brands in our total business.
Thoughts on IFL going public. (Jefferies & Company, Inc. - Robert Routh)
Linda McMahon: IFL and UFC are "good competitors in the marketplace for sporting programs. Good demo reach for them. And clearly a growing sport. We're taking a look at too and even announced last week that we had the folks from Pride in to meet with us. We having an opportunity to look at the developmental of that particular business as well." (WWE likes to pretend Pride is #1 in the World as a way of slighting UFC. They actually had an offer to buy UFC back in the SEG days with Shane McMahon interested in running it but obviously that wasn’t persued.)
The last interesting thing was in response to a question by James Clement from Sidotti & Company, LLC. He asked about whether the decrease in "prior event buys" in the PPV category meant that they were getting closer estimates from the providers. WWE responded that while "international business means that reporting timeline is slower. On balance going forward, don't expect big adjustments that we've seen in the past. Initial forecasts are better than previously reported."
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
IWW notes 12/3/06
Roddy Piper –
Lymphoma Cancer
Age 52
Left the UK Tour from great pain & mass in his back
Drank seven red bulls at a Fan Fest shortly before his recent surgery
Jim Ross –
Contract Expired 10/29
Signed One-Year Contract Extension
Dave Taylor – Returning to TV despite a torn meniscus
Wrestlemania in Detroit (rumors) – Batista vs Undertaker (TITLE VS STREAK)
Hardy Boyz –
Unknown how long they’ll stay together
They were very hot on RAW & ECW
Helped draw RAW 3.8 (3.6 / 3.9)
Helped draw ECW 1.8 (up from 1.6 avg)
ECW PPV (THIS SUNDAY) –
Hardyz vs MNM
Bob Holly vs Sandman
RVD vs Big Show vs Sabu vs CM Punk vs Test vs Lashley
(EXTREME ELIMINATION CHAMBER)
Candace – Broke her nose while wrestling Victoria on RAW. Same town where Victoria broke Beth Phoenix’s jaw! Also where Charlie Haas knocked Lillian Garcia off the apron.
Ric Flair –
He might have some time off to deal with his divorce with Beth but overall isn’t expected to be leaving the company anytime soon. Who knows what he’s going do? Some speculate that 2007 will be his last year, but honestly they’ve been saying that for almost two decades.
Rey Mysterio –
Contract with WWE until Spring 2007
Unlikely to jump to TNA
Rumored to have a low downside guarantee like <$100k
Chris Benoit – Just resigned a long-term contract and unlikely to go anywhere
Monty Brown – Signed with WWE
Trish Stratus –
Shooting new reality show with Erik Estrada, Latoya Jackson, Wee Man (Jackass), and Jack Osbourne (Ozzy’s Son) working the streets of Muncie, IN as “legit police officers”.
WWE is going after E-Feds
Indy Wrestler Nick Berk (maybe from OVW?) was the guy pretending to be Kramer on the CT skit.
“We Want Angle” chants in Philly at RAW on Monday Night.
UFC is either in the final stages of purchasing or has already purchased the Lemoore, CA-based World Extreme Cagefighting promotion. Why?
Tim Sylvia wanted to fight Fedor when he heard that Chuck might fight Liddell a few months ago. In other news, Luke Cuomo is challenging the Sun to a no-holds barred match.
TNA on Thanksgiving Quarter hour ratings were 0.87, 0.85, 0.85 and 0.88. Could be a lot worse!
See No Evil DVD has been released. Again, why was this not ready in time for Halloween?
The Marine (10/13 release) DVD/UMD is rumored to be released in 1/30/07. There will be both PG-13 and UNRATED versions. If there is any nudity on the unrated version, the person will probably still be on fire. IMDB has the movie grossing $18.3m thus far versus the $15-$20m budget including advertising.
TNA’s Houseshow in Mexico at Monterray drew about 4200 fans (in a 18k building). They said they’d return in May 2007 for a “Champions Cup”. All wrestlers were TNA though some AAA appeared:
* AMW beat Naturals in a match with a Powder finish.
* Ron Killings beat Robert Rude.
Jeff Jarrett & Konnan (with AAA’s Cibernetico, Javier Gonzalez, Joaquin Roldan) did promos.
* AJ Styles beat Eric Young & Petey Williams in a three-way.
* LAX (Konnan & Senshi) beat Kip James & BG James.
* Christian beat Rhino in a Monster’s Ball match that involved crowd brawling.
* Angle beating Abyss. Abyss was said to look so bad that he made Angle look bad.
No TNA merchandise was available for purchasing and Fans were not happy about that.
TNA Conference Call: don’t expect Warrior or Goldberg anytime soon. Called the Dupp Cup the worst thing TNA ever did. (That’s worse than midgets in garbage cans doing unmentionable things?)
Meltzer suggested that TNA Genesis was looking at their best buyrate ever, probably 50-60k based on feedback. It’s always difficult to predict purely on internet feedback but I’d expect this is true because:
a) Joe/Angle was a big deal match that people hadn’t seen before. This was Kurt Angle’s first appearance on TNA PPV. This was a match that appealed to new/casual fans. Even Biff Chedderhead (Biff from Tampa) made the effort to attend the PPV which he’s never bothered to do anytime in the past.
b) TNA’s audience is very much on the internet, much more than WWE’s audience. This means that internet feedback is a much better representation of who was buying the PPVs. In WWE, the “internet” audience represents a smaller percentage and therefore their feedback levels aren’t necessarily as indiciative of the audience as a whole.
c) We’re dealing with a much smaller buyrate numbers. Consider this - A weak WWE PPV will do over a 150,000 buys. When WWE presented the first ECW: ONS, there was an enormous outpouring of feedback to wrestling sites leading many people to speculate that this PPV would do BIG FOUR (RR, SS, SurvSeries, WM) #s. In the end, it posted remarkable but not incredible numbers. However, the estimating process for a WWE PPV involves a much bigger multiplier.
“Samoa Joe beat Forrest Griffin of UFC last week. Seriously. It was in a charity video game tournament, though. Joe earned $6,000 for the Autism Society of America and Forrest won $4,000 for the USO.”
Director’s Cut of “Heroes of World Class” will be released next month at rightherepictures.com
WSX (MTV promotion) is scheduled to debut at the end of January 2007.
Michelle McCool was hospitalized for about a week over Thanksgiving due to an enlarged kidney and electrolyte imbalance.
IFL announced today that they are now a publicly traded company.
Lymphoma Cancer
Age 52
Left the UK Tour from great pain & mass in his back
Drank seven red bulls at a Fan Fest shortly before his recent surgery
Jim Ross –
Contract Expired 10/29
Signed One-Year Contract Extension
Dave Taylor – Returning to TV despite a torn meniscus
Wrestlemania in Detroit (rumors) – Batista vs Undertaker (TITLE VS STREAK)
Hardy Boyz –
Unknown how long they’ll stay together
They were very hot on RAW & ECW
Helped draw RAW 3.8 (3.6 / 3.9)
Helped draw ECW 1.8 (up from 1.6 avg)
ECW PPV (THIS SUNDAY) –
Hardyz vs MNM
Bob Holly vs Sandman
RVD vs Big Show vs Sabu vs CM Punk vs Test vs Lashley
(EXTREME ELIMINATION CHAMBER)
Candace – Broke her nose while wrestling Victoria on RAW. Same town where Victoria broke Beth Phoenix’s jaw! Also where Charlie Haas knocked Lillian Garcia off the apron.
Ric Flair –
He might have some time off to deal with his divorce with Beth but overall isn’t expected to be leaving the company anytime soon. Who knows what he’s going do? Some speculate that 2007 will be his last year, but honestly they’ve been saying that for almost two decades.
Rey Mysterio –
Contract with WWE until Spring 2007
Unlikely to jump to TNA
Rumored to have a low downside guarantee like <$100k
Chris Benoit – Just resigned a long-term contract and unlikely to go anywhere
Monty Brown – Signed with WWE
Trish Stratus –
Shooting new reality show with Erik Estrada, Latoya Jackson, Wee Man (Jackass), and Jack Osbourne (Ozzy’s Son) working the streets of Muncie, IN as “legit police officers”.
WWE is going after E-Feds
Indy Wrestler Nick Berk (maybe from OVW?) was the guy pretending to be Kramer on the CT skit.
“We Want Angle” chants in Philly at RAW on Monday Night.
UFC is either in the final stages of purchasing or has already purchased the Lemoore, CA-based World Extreme Cagefighting promotion. Why?
Tim Sylvia wanted to fight Fedor when he heard that Chuck might fight Liddell a few months ago. In other news, Luke Cuomo is challenging the Sun to a no-holds barred match.
TNA on Thanksgiving Quarter hour ratings were 0.87, 0.85, 0.85 and 0.88. Could be a lot worse!
See No Evil DVD has been released. Again, why was this not ready in time for Halloween?
The Marine (10/13 release) DVD/UMD is rumored to be released in 1/30/07. There will be both PG-13 and UNRATED versions. If there is any nudity on the unrated version, the person will probably still be on fire. IMDB has the movie grossing $18.3m thus far versus the $15-$20m budget including advertising.
TNA’s Houseshow in Mexico at Monterray drew about 4200 fans (in a 18k building). They said they’d return in May 2007 for a “Champions Cup”. All wrestlers were TNA though some AAA appeared:
* AMW beat Naturals in a match with a Powder finish.
* Ron Killings beat Robert Rude.
Jeff Jarrett & Konnan (with AAA’s Cibernetico, Javier Gonzalez, Joaquin Roldan) did promos.
* AJ Styles beat Eric Young & Petey Williams in a three-way.
* LAX (Konnan & Senshi) beat Kip James & BG James.
* Christian beat Rhino in a Monster’s Ball match that involved crowd brawling.
* Angle beating Abyss. Abyss was said to look so bad that he made Angle look bad.
No TNA merchandise was available for purchasing and Fans were not happy about that.
TNA Conference Call: don’t expect Warrior or Goldberg anytime soon. Called the Dupp Cup the worst thing TNA ever did. (That’s worse than midgets in garbage cans doing unmentionable things?)
Meltzer suggested that TNA Genesis was looking at their best buyrate ever, probably 50-60k based on feedback. It’s always difficult to predict purely on internet feedback but I’d expect this is true because:
a) Joe/Angle was a big deal match that people hadn’t seen before. This was Kurt Angle’s first appearance on TNA PPV. This was a match that appealed to new/casual fans. Even Biff Chedderhead (Biff from Tampa) made the effort to attend the PPV which he’s never bothered to do anytime in the past.
b) TNA’s audience is very much on the internet, much more than WWE’s audience. This means that internet feedback is a much better representation of who was buying the PPVs. In WWE, the “internet” audience represents a smaller percentage and therefore their feedback levels aren’t necessarily as indiciative of the audience as a whole.
c) We’re dealing with a much smaller buyrate numbers. Consider this - A weak WWE PPV will do over a 150,000 buys. When WWE presented the first ECW: ONS, there was an enormous outpouring of feedback to wrestling sites leading many people to speculate that this PPV would do BIG FOUR (RR, SS, SurvSeries, WM) #s. In the end, it posted remarkable but not incredible numbers. However, the estimating process for a WWE PPV involves a much bigger multiplier.
“Samoa Joe beat Forrest Griffin of UFC last week. Seriously. It was in a charity video game tournament, though. Joe earned $6,000 for the Autism Society of America and Forrest won $4,000 for the USO.”
Director’s Cut of “Heroes of World Class” will be released next month at rightherepictures.com
WSX (MTV promotion) is scheduled to debut at the end of January 2007.
Michelle McCool was hospitalized for about a week over Thanksgiving due to an enlarged kidney and electrolyte imbalance.
IFL announced today that they are now a publicly traded company.
IWW covers latest WWE Conference Call Q&A (12/5/06)
, I just listened to this quarter's Q&A for the WWE Conference Call.
There was the usual babble about nitpicking this margin or that, some
questions about their new Genius distribution deal and clarification
of "other income". Here were the short highlights:
• International buys PPV this quarter was about 36% compared to 40%
last year over this same time frame. They explained it as "cooling in
the international market, particularly Italy where previously the
product had been very hot." (Again, they never frame it as domestic
buyrates falling, only international segment growing!).
• Did they think NA attendance could continue to grow? In short, yes.
It's gone up 7 consecutive quarters and is now averaging 5200/live
event (excluding ECW). Linda noted their peak was something like 9500,
so they believed they could continue to grow. (If you leave ECW's
attendance average in, then there is actually a drop this quarter
compared to last year's time. So, this is probably another reason they
want to not include the ECW empty venues.)
• They are shipping over a million units of "See No Evil" and expect
to sell around a million copies.
• The "sell-through rate" (I presume this is
sent-to-store:people-actually-buying it) dropped a bit this quarter
compared to last year at the same time. In particular, last year's
Undertaker DVD was very successful with a sell-through rate of about
80%.
The two most interesting topics covered were:
(1) whether the three separate brands should be managed independently
and (2) IFL going public. I tried to write down Linda's answers as
closely as possible.
Bob Jenkins – Schafer Capital Management
QUESTION: Brand Management:
Why not have them as three separate & distinct brands, ran by three
different people, set up their own budgets and keep them independent;
no mingling of wrestlers except in special occasions?
Because right now it seems like all three brands seems homogenized
into just one entity – no difference between the three and gives the
viewer no reason to check out any other brand over one?
Linda McMahon: Clearly, our entire goal was have these three brands to
have them as stand-alone brands. However, the decision we made when we
first separated the RAW & Smackdown brands was to provide us with
opportunity to reach different audiences on Cable and on Broadcast.
Also, to give us and different touring teams so we could increase our
international live events. All of which we have done.
We've spent the last four to five years in the brand separation. And
now We've found that you can still create more rivalaries sometimes by
crossing over the brands, no different than if you have a different
league competing with another. So, part of the cross-over effect has
been the increasing of that competitive factor.
We also look as ECW is a developmental brand. It also gives us an
opportunity to launch newer talent through there. I think we're
accomplishing the goals that we set out when we first started:
* Give us the opportunity to create more stars by having the two
brands and now adding ECW.
* Providing the opportunity for greater international growth
* More licensing products off the two brands, and now the three brands
with ECW. And ECW is growing slowly.
Your question really is "why not make them even more distinct?" I
think we have created even more distinct brands and since they are now
created distinctly we have the opportunity to cross-promote and have
some of the talent migrate back and forth across the different brands.
So that we can increase the storylines and continue to grow all the
brands in our total business.
(endquote)
Thoughts on IFL going public. (Jefferies & Company, Inc. - Robert Routh)
Linda McMahon: IFL and UFC are "good competitors in the marketplace
for sporting programs. Good demo reach for them. And clearly a growing
sport. We're taking a look at too and even announced last week that we
had the folks from Pride in to meet with us. We having an opportunity
to look at the developmental of that particular business as well."
(endquote)
The last interesting thing was in response to a question by James
Clement from Sidotti & Company, LLC. He asked about whether the
decrease in "prior event buys" in the PPV category meant that they
were getting closer estimates from the providers. WWE responsed that
while "international business means that reporting timeline is slower.
On balance going forward, don't expect big adjustments that we've
seen in the past. Initial forecasts are better than previously
reported."
There was the usual babble about nitpicking this margin or that, some
questions about their new Genius distribution deal and clarification
of "other income". Here were the short highlights:
• International buys PPV this quarter was about 36% compared to 40%
last year over this same time frame. They explained it as "cooling in
the international market, particularly Italy where previously the
product had been very hot." (Again, they never frame it as domestic
buyrates falling, only international segment growing!).
• Did they think NA attendance could continue to grow? In short, yes.
It's gone up 7 consecutive quarters and is now averaging 5200/live
event (excluding ECW). Linda noted their peak was something like 9500,
so they believed they could continue to grow. (If you leave ECW's
attendance average in, then there is actually a drop this quarter
compared to last year's time. So, this is probably another reason they
want to not include the ECW empty venues.)
• They are shipping over a million units of "See No Evil" and expect
to sell around a million copies.
• The "sell-through rate" (I presume this is
sent-to-store:people-actually-buying it) dropped a bit this quarter
compared to last year at the same time. In particular, last year's
Undertaker DVD was very successful with a sell-through rate of about
80%.
The two most interesting topics covered were:
(1) whether the three separate brands should be managed independently
and (2) IFL going public. I tried to write down Linda's answers as
closely as possible.
Bob Jenkins – Schafer Capital Management
QUESTION: Brand Management:
Why not have them as three separate & distinct brands, ran by three
different people, set up their own budgets and keep them independent;
no mingling of wrestlers except in special occasions?
Because right now it seems like all three brands seems homogenized
into just one entity – no difference between the three and gives the
viewer no reason to check out any other brand over one?
Linda McMahon: Clearly, our entire goal was have these three brands to
have them as stand-alone brands. However, the decision we made when we
first separated the RAW & Smackdown brands was to provide us with
opportunity to reach different audiences on Cable and on Broadcast.
Also, to give us and different touring teams so we could increase our
international live events. All of which we have done.
We've spent the last four to five years in the brand separation. And
now We've found that you can still create more rivalaries sometimes by
crossing over the brands, no different than if you have a different
league competing with another. So, part of the cross-over effect has
been the increasing of that competitive factor.
We also look as ECW is a developmental brand. It also gives us an
opportunity to launch newer talent through there. I think we're
accomplishing the goals that we set out when we first started:
* Give us the opportunity to create more stars by having the two
brands and now adding ECW.
* Providing the opportunity for greater international growth
* More licensing products off the two brands, and now the three brands
with ECW. And ECW is growing slowly.
Your question really is "why not make them even more distinct?" I
think we have created even more distinct brands and since they are now
created distinctly we have the opportunity to cross-promote and have
some of the talent migrate back and forth across the different brands.
So that we can increase the storylines and continue to grow all the
brands in our total business.
(endquote)
Thoughts on IFL going public. (Jefferies & Company, Inc. - Robert Routh)
Linda McMahon: IFL and UFC are "good competitors in the marketplace
for sporting programs. Good demo reach for them. And clearly a growing
sport. We're taking a look at too and even announced last week that we
had the folks from Pride in to meet with us. We having an opportunity
to look at the developmental of that particular business as well."
(endquote)
The last interesting thing was in response to a question by James
Clement from Sidotti & Company, LLC. He asked about whether the
decrease in "prior event buys" in the PPV category meant that they
were getting closer estimates from the providers. WWE responsed that
while "international business means that reporting timeline is slower.
On balance going forward, don't expect big adjustments that we've
seen in the past. Initial forecasts are better than previously
reported."
Monday, October 16, 2006
IWW returns with WRITER DAN BROWN~!
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
* 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 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
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