The News

2/1/2012

Rumble winners: Bryan, Punk; Sheamus wins the Rumble.

Henry worked through Rumble with a hyperextended knee. No word on his status going forward.

Kharma (Amazing Kong) gave birth on December 31st.

Elimination Chamber: Punk/Kingston/Ziggler/Miz/R-Truth/Jericho from Raw, Bryan/Show/Orton/Barrett/Rhodes/Khali from Smackdown. Cena vs Kane will be Last Man Standing.


1/25/2012

Vengeance has been pulled from the PPV. Having the extra PPV between Summerslam and Survivor Series always forced one show to have just a 2-week leadin, and both shows suffered as a result.

Added to Rumble: Bryan vs Show vs Henry, cage match; Cena vs Kane.

Bourne failed a wellness test for a second time. Not only did that force a sudden tag title change, but it might end his tenure in WWE. Since a third failure would mean a 1 year suspension, and since he's a midcarder, WWE wouldn't want to keep pushing him.


1/4/2012

Rumble so far: Punk vs Ziggler (Ace as ref); Rumble (back to 30 entrants) .

Orton has a herniated disc and will try to return for Rumble.

Road Dogg James, hired as a producer a few weeks back, is doing a good job thusfar.

Taker will return after the Rumble.


1/2/2012

Lesnar has retired from MMA after a loss, and said he was planning to retire soon even if he won. He hasn't denied the possibility of a WWE return.

TNA's last PPV of the year got a meager 8,000 buys. That's about 1 buy per 170-190 Impact viewers.

Orton is out 6 months with a back injury.

Del Rio is out about a month with a groin injury.


12/19/2011

Lashley interview.

Henry has been working through a groin injury. It got so bad he was pulled from weekend house shows, so the title change was likely done to let him leave and heal.

Cena not being on the PPV was a creative decision, with the hope of spreading the spotlight to the rest of the roster.

Morrison has taken the unusual step of pricing himself out of the market, demanding $5000 a night. He wants time off, but obviously is willing to take a big payday if anyone is interested.


12/6/2011

The WWE network starts on April 1st, which is the day of Wrestlemania.

A Benoit movie is in the works, to be based on the book "Ring of Hell".

Angle will compete in an April qualifier tournament for the US olympic wrestling team. He says he's already qualified for the final qualifier tournament in June, I'm assuming based on his past accomplishments.

Maybe I just don't "get" reality TV, but as a wrestling fan I must say I'm saddened by the fact that Smackdown headlined by a title match in a cage got a lower rating than 'Storage Wars', a show about people selling the contents of abandoned storage rental units.


11/25/2011

Morrison is leaving WWE. TNA has interest in him, though it isn't clear how long John's non-compete runs for or whether TNA has spare cash for new signings.

Hell in a Cell did 180k buys; Vengeance just 142k. The short time between B-PPVs never works out and I'm amazed WWE keeps doing it.

Linda Bollea, Hogan's ex, got $30 million in the divorce.

Sin Cara is out 6-9 months after a knee tendon tear.


11/10/2011

Despite a big buildup to Hogan vs Sting and a months-long title shot tournament, TNA's latest Bound for Glory buyrate was down 40% and was probably under 25,000 buys.

CM Punk got his own bus and first class airfare as part of his new contract. Both of those things are reserved for people the company thinks are important.

Bobby Roode was planned to beat Angle on Sunday, but Hogan complained that Roode "isn't ready" and they changed the finish. Hogan even said that IN PUBLIC, and said that James Storm would be a better pick (since Angle is hurt and they need to do a title change). At the Impact taping, Storm beat Angle for the title. What a dumpster fire of a company.


10/12/2011

After much negotiating, WWE has signed Lesnar to a 'Legends' contract. The big thing is using him in video games. I'd also expect a DVD release. UFC is okay with it as long as he isn't in the ring.

Kurt Angle claimed that UFC offered him a fight with Kimbo Slice. Dana White replied that Kurt was offered a spot on The Ultimate Fighter during Kimbo's season, but Kurt didn't pass the medical tests. Good ol' Kurt.

Puropulse.


6/24/2011

More notes on Savage from Meltzer:
-Randy's wife grabbed the wheel and steered the car into a tree because she shouldn't stop the car any other way, and they were headed for oncoming traffic. She almost certainly saved a motorcyclist.
-Early in his career, Randy got in a fight at a restaurant. Police were called, and at one point he was being held in place so that he could be maced. He ducked, and the cop holding him got maced, enabling Randy to grab the cop's club. There was a long stand-off, which only ended when they let loose a police dog and he was bitten into submission. A local promoter was able to cajole and semi-bribe things such that Savage only got probation.
-Randy got into a fight with Hawk in Japan in 1996, and Hawk knocked him out. Three years later, while at a concert, Hawk went to shake his hand and Randy sucker-punched him (which Meltzer says was a common tactic from Savage).


6/18/2011

The spinal stenosis that ruined Steve Austin and Edge's necks is genetic, but for people who don't rattle their spine for a living it normally doesn't kick in until old age.

Meltzer printed a chart showing how many wrestling fans there are in various demographics (in the US). African-Americans are 3 times more likely to be fans than whites, which means they could be 30-40% of the total fanbase. Also, the very poorest households are far more likely to be fans than anyone else, even compared to other below-average households. Thus the low ad revenue per capita. A lot of that has to do with young, single men being a core group, and "young single person" is always by far the poorest group in society.


6/3/2011

Meltzer notes from his bio on Savage:
-He got in a fight with Bill Dundee in the early '80s. Bill went to his car and got a gun. Savage was able to get the gun away and used it to break Dundee's jaw.
-The famous match with Steamboat was originally supposed to be Steamboat vs Bret Hart, but the decision was made to keep the Hart Foundation together and they went with Savage vs Steamboat.
-The overall Wrestlemania 4 & 5 storylines produced several 'peaks' for WWF, including the two highest-rated wrestling shows in US history, the biggest non-stadium gate in US history (WM5), and the biggest pre-Austin buyrate (WM5).
-Randy was incredibly controlling of Elizabeth. During the period where she was off TV (because Randy was managed by Sherri), he didn't want her leaving the house at all. That drove her to getting the divorce.
-Randy's second wife was his childhood sweetheart. They lost touch during his career and reunited after he retired.


Bischoff did a funny tweet where he said that wrestling fans who complain online are just 10% of the audience. The joke is that he said "ratings don't lie" without a trace of irony.


4/6/2011

Meltzer had a great rant about how WWE's fixation on tall/big guys has diluted the fan appeal of size. If you're not 6'10" or up, you're only average sized in WWE, and WWE's decision to rush more wrestlers around 6'3" out of developmental is short-sighted because it hurts other wrestlers that size. More 5'10" wrestlers, of whom there's a near-limitless supply who can work, would let people like Swagger stand out more. It's similar to how in basketball, a 6'6" player is average or can even be on the small side, and certainly isn't a star because of it. But in hockey, anyone that size stands out. Sometimes less is more.


2/20/2011

Meltzer detailed that Court Bauer, who ran MLW and was later on the WWE creative team, came up with the idea of a special high-flyers division to use as a vehicle for Mistico in WWE. Bauer wanted to get top athletes like Milano Collection, Ishimori, Dragon Kid, Jack Evans, etc, such that it would be enough of a different style to really get over (as opposed to having small guys work WWE style). But because he also had Super Porky on the list, Vince fixated on that and turned it into a short-lived comedy midget division. I've said it before and I'll say it again: it's remarkable that someone with so many bad ideas and mindsets could end up as the #1 wrestling promoter of all time by an order of magnitude.

Many 2nd generation wrestlers are handed WWE-created names because if they use their real names and get over they would be more marketable in other promotions. Thus, Joe Hennig becomes "Michael McGillicutty". I'm just going to point to what I wrote for the item above because it applies here just as much.


Archive of news posts on the Benoit tragedy.