Post by Head Booker on Jan 4, 2007 19:38:43 GMT -6
Credit goes to thesmartmarks forums for typing this up:
WWE officials have either finalised or are putting the finishing touches on a deal that should get them, temporarily, back in the US mainstream. The Vince promo of 1/1, which mentioned Donald Trump and Rosie O'Donnell and telling Rob Conway "You're fired!" was scripted to be the start of a big angle. The only details available at the moment are that it will lead to a Vince McMahon vs Donald Trump 'Battle of the Billionaires' angle leading up to, most likely a match at the Royal Rumble with Trump and Vince in the corners of two wrestlers. This would be great to get two wrestlers some mainstream publicity as whoever Trump picks to be his wrestler will get a major rub and it's great for Vince from an ego stand point as he'll get mentioned in the same breath as Trump in all the stories. Surprisingly, this idea wasn't one that WWE came up with, but rather they were asked to do it by NBC Universal who were looking for some publicity stunts to 'heat up' Trump to help ratings for the next season of 'The Apprentice'. The McMahon vs. Trump progam is scheduled to be heavily promoted by NBC with the idea being that will lead to increased ratings for Raw. The pay off for the angle is likely to be either at the Rumble or a Raw shortly afterwards.
K-Fed is getting plenty of internal praise for his attitude backstage. Unlike many outsiders they bring in, he eats with the wrestlers and hangs out in the locker room and was asking for advice from the boys over what he could do with his angle.
Heyman is still under contract and still on the payroll. He's at home working on non-wrestling projects and WWE have kept him to stop him from going to TNA and to give time for fences to be mended.
David Lagana was pushing hard for Masters to join ECW and get a major heel push. It's 50/50 over this happening though, as Brian Gerwitz wants to keep him on Raw, as he sees Masters as a guy they can use to put people over without devaluing him as he's seen as a jobber anyway.
There will no Assy McGee vs Vince McMahon's Ass lawsuit. WWE and Cartoon Network have worked out a deal where WWE.com can continue the cartoon.
Jay Leno mentioned K-Fed beating Cena on Tuesday night, saying "Usually when Federline is on top of someone for ten seconds, they end up pregnant".
It's not 100% confirmed, but Conway is likely to be moved to Smackdown and reform La Resistance with Sylvan.
The story behind HBK's promo on Raw this week was that he was attacking TNA's James Gang (when he spoke of people who used to be big stars and are now curtain jerking somewhere else) and also Bret Hart and Kurt Angle (when he talked about those who called themselves 'the best in-ring performers in the world'). Michaels legitimatly feels that he is the best in-ring performer of modern times and genuinely resents others who claim they are.
The DX vs Rated RKO match at the PPV will be a Tag Title Match after all. This is the first time in long while when main events have had a match of the tag titles.
The following comments were heard from fans under the age of 25 prior to the 1/2 Smackdown tapings, "Isn't TNA another brand of WWE?'; 'ECW needs tag team titles'; 'What channel is CW on?' and 'This show will be airing on Spike TV tonight'.
George Murdoch who debuted on the 12/26 Smackdown house show is 6'8 and 375lbs. No guessing as to why he was called up to the main roster without even being on Deep South TV then. He only started training in August. He got recuited when some wrestlers spotted him working as a bouncer in LA and Dreamer said that with his size he should enrole in UPW but Murdoch said he wasn't interested. Dreamer took his phone number and Laurinitis rang him soon after and signed him immediatly.
The front runner for the location of Wrestlemania in 2008 is Orlando. It was orginially planned to be in Las Vegas.
Claudio Castagnoli was fired due to visa issues. He was in the States on a tourist visa rather than a working visa. WWE signed him before checking this out. The blame for that has gone on Mike Bucci (Simon Dean). When Laurinitis found out, he cancelled the contract as it would cost several thousand dollars to sort out a working visa and he didn't feel Castagnoli was worth the extra investment. Having said that, ROH booker Gabe Sapolsky, who has used Castagnoli for a long period of time, says that he has a Green Card so none of that should have been a problem.
Kenny Bolin, 46, the OVW color commentator was hospitalised over the weekend due to congestive heart failure, which sounds a lot worse than it is. Brolin, who weighs about 425 to 450 had put on about 150lbs over the last seven years without any change of eating habits and his childhood best friend Jim Cornette had made him go to a doctor who had given him Lisx (diuretics) to take as he was retaining a lot of water. Apparantly he wasn't too good about taking them. Bolin's been told that he has to start taking this pills and needs to change his diet. It wasn't that he was eating a lot, but what he was eating was very unhealthy. In what sounds like a sitcom angle Jim Cornette is going to teach him how to shop for healthy food.
Danny Basham is currently in a commissioner-type role in OVW as he recovers from injury.
The the 12/26 house show they confiscating a ton of signs at the door. On the banned list now is anything lewd, anything TNA related, anything anti-babyface and anything plugging a website. When Teddy Long came out later on in the show and said they were having a best sign contest that didn't really get him over with a lot of fans there.
In the new WWE magazine JBL is asked about his least favourite match and he picks the infamous mixed tag with Trish, Chris Nowinski, Jackie and himself, saying that it was "the worst I've ever been associated with, I was so embarrassed, I wanted to quit the business."
As a birthday present for Jason Roberts (Tony Chimmel's understudy on Smackdown) they had Big Dick Johnson molest him at a house show.
Live event attendences have started to improve, which is normally the first sign of a business turn around. Not including the traditionally huge post-Christmas week shows (they drew 20,411 fans for the 12/28 show in East Rutherford, NJ), the last two months of house shows and TV tapings have been averaging 6,600 paid. To beat that two month average you'd have to go back to March/April of 2002.
The 12/18 Raw did 4.85 million viewers, although if you ignore the opening hour it did 5.29 million in it's regular time slot.
The 12/22 Smackdown did a 2.87 rating. The major market ratings were... 3.0 in New York (3.4 for Matt Hardy vs Nitro), 3.2 in LA (3.8 for UT & Kane vs Booker & Finlay), 3.9 in Chicago (4.3 for UT & Kane vs Booker & Finlay), 2.4 in Philadelphia (2.9 for Batista vs Sylvan), 2.0 in San Fran (2.4 for JBL promo and Diva promo/match), 3.2 in Detroit (3.5 for Hardy vs Nitro and UT & Kane vs Booker & Finlay), 4.4 in Atlanta (4.7 for Hardy vs Nitro and JBL promo and Diva match) and 4.0 in Houston (5.2 for UT & Kane vs Booker & Finlay). The show did a 2.61 in English speaking household and a 5.1 in Spanish language households. Segment-by-segment rating - Benoit vs Chavo gained 126,000; the Mercury promo followed by the Hardy/Nitro match added 407,000 viewers; The JBL promo and Divaz match added 112,000; UT & Kane vs Booker & Finlay gained 112,000 which isn't all that great for a lengthy main event.
The Christmas night 'Tribute to the Troops' show did a 2.75 rating (2.75 first hour; 2.74 second hour). It was the second highest watched show on cable that night behind the NFL which did a 7.85.
The 12/26 ECW 'Best of 2006' show did a 1.36. Although the lowest rating ECW has had, it still held up better than was expected.
The 12/29 Smackdown 'Best of 2006' show did a 2.5 rating with 3.82 million viewers which was better than expected and thanks to most network programming was reruns. Smackdown finished in last place, behind FOX airing 'The Rundown', the 2003 movie starring The Rock, which did a 3.1 rating and 4.84 million viewers.
credit: Wrestling Observer Newsletter
WWE officials have either finalised or are putting the finishing touches on a deal that should get them, temporarily, back in the US mainstream. The Vince promo of 1/1, which mentioned Donald Trump and Rosie O'Donnell and telling Rob Conway "You're fired!" was scripted to be the start of a big angle. The only details available at the moment are that it will lead to a Vince McMahon vs Donald Trump 'Battle of the Billionaires' angle leading up to, most likely a match at the Royal Rumble with Trump and Vince in the corners of two wrestlers. This would be great to get two wrestlers some mainstream publicity as whoever Trump picks to be his wrestler will get a major rub and it's great for Vince from an ego stand point as he'll get mentioned in the same breath as Trump in all the stories. Surprisingly, this idea wasn't one that WWE came up with, but rather they were asked to do it by NBC Universal who were looking for some publicity stunts to 'heat up' Trump to help ratings for the next season of 'The Apprentice'. The McMahon vs. Trump progam is scheduled to be heavily promoted by NBC with the idea being that will lead to increased ratings for Raw. The pay off for the angle is likely to be either at the Rumble or a Raw shortly afterwards.
K-Fed is getting plenty of internal praise for his attitude backstage. Unlike many outsiders they bring in, he eats with the wrestlers and hangs out in the locker room and was asking for advice from the boys over what he could do with his angle.
Heyman is still under contract and still on the payroll. He's at home working on non-wrestling projects and WWE have kept him to stop him from going to TNA and to give time for fences to be mended.
David Lagana was pushing hard for Masters to join ECW and get a major heel push. It's 50/50 over this happening though, as Brian Gerwitz wants to keep him on Raw, as he sees Masters as a guy they can use to put people over without devaluing him as he's seen as a jobber anyway.
There will no Assy McGee vs Vince McMahon's Ass lawsuit. WWE and Cartoon Network have worked out a deal where WWE.com can continue the cartoon.
Jay Leno mentioned K-Fed beating Cena on Tuesday night, saying "Usually when Federline is on top of someone for ten seconds, they end up pregnant".
It's not 100% confirmed, but Conway is likely to be moved to Smackdown and reform La Resistance with Sylvan.
The story behind HBK's promo on Raw this week was that he was attacking TNA's James Gang (when he spoke of people who used to be big stars and are now curtain jerking somewhere else) and also Bret Hart and Kurt Angle (when he talked about those who called themselves 'the best in-ring performers in the world'). Michaels legitimatly feels that he is the best in-ring performer of modern times and genuinely resents others who claim they are.
The DX vs Rated RKO match at the PPV will be a Tag Title Match after all. This is the first time in long while when main events have had a match of the tag titles.
The following comments were heard from fans under the age of 25 prior to the 1/2 Smackdown tapings, "Isn't TNA another brand of WWE?'; 'ECW needs tag team titles'; 'What channel is CW on?' and 'This show will be airing on Spike TV tonight'.
George Murdoch who debuted on the 12/26 Smackdown house show is 6'8 and 375lbs. No guessing as to why he was called up to the main roster without even being on Deep South TV then. He only started training in August. He got recuited when some wrestlers spotted him working as a bouncer in LA and Dreamer said that with his size he should enrole in UPW but Murdoch said he wasn't interested. Dreamer took his phone number and Laurinitis rang him soon after and signed him immediatly.
The front runner for the location of Wrestlemania in 2008 is Orlando. It was orginially planned to be in Las Vegas.
Claudio Castagnoli was fired due to visa issues. He was in the States on a tourist visa rather than a working visa. WWE signed him before checking this out. The blame for that has gone on Mike Bucci (Simon Dean). When Laurinitis found out, he cancelled the contract as it would cost several thousand dollars to sort out a working visa and he didn't feel Castagnoli was worth the extra investment. Having said that, ROH booker Gabe Sapolsky, who has used Castagnoli for a long period of time, says that he has a Green Card so none of that should have been a problem.
Kenny Bolin, 46, the OVW color commentator was hospitalised over the weekend due to congestive heart failure, which sounds a lot worse than it is. Brolin, who weighs about 425 to 450 had put on about 150lbs over the last seven years without any change of eating habits and his childhood best friend Jim Cornette had made him go to a doctor who had given him Lisx (diuretics) to take as he was retaining a lot of water. Apparantly he wasn't too good about taking them. Bolin's been told that he has to start taking this pills and needs to change his diet. It wasn't that he was eating a lot, but what he was eating was very unhealthy. In what sounds like a sitcom angle Jim Cornette is going to teach him how to shop for healthy food.
Danny Basham is currently in a commissioner-type role in OVW as he recovers from injury.
The the 12/26 house show they confiscating a ton of signs at the door. On the banned list now is anything lewd, anything TNA related, anything anti-babyface and anything plugging a website. When Teddy Long came out later on in the show and said they were having a best sign contest that didn't really get him over with a lot of fans there.
In the new WWE magazine JBL is asked about his least favourite match and he picks the infamous mixed tag with Trish, Chris Nowinski, Jackie and himself, saying that it was "the worst I've ever been associated with, I was so embarrassed, I wanted to quit the business."
As a birthday present for Jason Roberts (Tony Chimmel's understudy on Smackdown) they had Big Dick Johnson molest him at a house show.
Live event attendences have started to improve, which is normally the first sign of a business turn around. Not including the traditionally huge post-Christmas week shows (they drew 20,411 fans for the 12/28 show in East Rutherford, NJ), the last two months of house shows and TV tapings have been averaging 6,600 paid. To beat that two month average you'd have to go back to March/April of 2002.
The 12/18 Raw did 4.85 million viewers, although if you ignore the opening hour it did 5.29 million in it's regular time slot.
The 12/22 Smackdown did a 2.87 rating. The major market ratings were... 3.0 in New York (3.4 for Matt Hardy vs Nitro), 3.2 in LA (3.8 for UT & Kane vs Booker & Finlay), 3.9 in Chicago (4.3 for UT & Kane vs Booker & Finlay), 2.4 in Philadelphia (2.9 for Batista vs Sylvan), 2.0 in San Fran (2.4 for JBL promo and Diva promo/match), 3.2 in Detroit (3.5 for Hardy vs Nitro and UT & Kane vs Booker & Finlay), 4.4 in Atlanta (4.7 for Hardy vs Nitro and JBL promo and Diva match) and 4.0 in Houston (5.2 for UT & Kane vs Booker & Finlay). The show did a 2.61 in English speaking household and a 5.1 in Spanish language households. Segment-by-segment rating - Benoit vs Chavo gained 126,000; the Mercury promo followed by the Hardy/Nitro match added 407,000 viewers; The JBL promo and Divaz match added 112,000; UT & Kane vs Booker & Finlay gained 112,000 which isn't all that great for a lengthy main event.
The Christmas night 'Tribute to the Troops' show did a 2.75 rating (2.75 first hour; 2.74 second hour). It was the second highest watched show on cable that night behind the NFL which did a 7.85.
The 12/26 ECW 'Best of 2006' show did a 1.36. Although the lowest rating ECW has had, it still held up better than was expected.
The 12/29 Smackdown 'Best of 2006' show did a 2.5 rating with 3.82 million viewers which was better than expected and thanks to most network programming was reruns. Smackdown finished in last place, behind FOX airing 'The Rundown', the 2003 movie starring The Rock, which did a 3.1 rating and 4.84 million viewers.
credit: Wrestling Observer Newsletter
Big Dick Johnson came from the crowd inches from me. Had I seen him coming I would have tripped him.
