Bix

I remember speaking to Danielson when he was in APW (so that had to have been 10+ years ago) and he said he'd had 8 or 9 concussions. The number seemed shockingly high, but even if he was exaggerating or wrong, let's cut that in half and think of how much else has likely happened since. Did you do a formal interview posted online? For years I thought it was a Larry Goodman interview for some reason that had the "7 concussions" anecdote but I asked him last year and he's never talked to Danielson.

I just like the image of Ric Flair, not Rick Fliehr, contacting everyone possible and being turned down by Dusty all the way down to the Mulkeys due to being such a massive heel through the years and having to settle for Joe Gomez. Now you made me picture Dusty cutting a promo on him: "Don't you DARE try twelve thteppin' me, makin' amendth like I'm yo' friend, NaitchuhBoyRicFlair! You thave dat for one o' yo' walk-behinderth like Arn Anderthun!"

He was asking for parity with Hogan. Vince ended up not paying him that much, IIRC.

So I guess this means most of the schedule will mostly be old PPVs and DVDs at launch.

Warrior letter transcription. Amazing: --- Vince- Writing this is a different approach in expressing my feelings about the things we discussed the last 2 days under the pressure of TV. knowing that any second someone would be knocking on the door, etc. Every other avenue we tried - via phone, face to face, myself still walking away with unanswered questions. Alwys put off till a later date. Always with the same result - no result. Writing sometimes allows a person to express feelings or say things that don't come in conversations such as we have. Some of the things will once again become repetitive - so what I've heard "in an Essence" at least a million times. I've tried to speak as a friend but sometimes you don't hear. I've spoken as a professional but the direction always gets changed. No you never let me leave with-out a response, but the words you speak never have any definitives. My whole life for the last 5 years has had no room for anthing but definitives (Los Angelese on Thurs, San Diego on Friday, San Francisco Sat. Sacrementon on Sunday, Prime Time on Monday...) but you always have to have the best way of time. Time to say stew things over to work them your way. pg 2 I have been from day 1 different from the others. I have sacrificed myself enough both in my personal life and physical well being. The fairness you say you want everyone to have is unfair to me. I grew in 5 (five) years to become what the "Ultimate Warrior" is today, Always questioning, but nonethless taking him in the direction you wanted him to go ast any particular time. Done what would and has taken other 10-15 years. The points and suggestions you have made over the last 5 years were very well taken. Now I look at other individuals with less than 1/3 the creativity, desire and hunger I had (have) and wonder how you can look and see them as The One. For you as a friend I pray all the things you believe in rise to the surface and present themselves. Then there is the side that says "What the f man?" When I was thought of as The One the topics of conversation were - "Treat the veterans with respect". The veterans you spite are the very ones who will fuck it up for you. No matter I listened. I would go to ring push myself to the brink of a heart attack and you would say "When you go to the corner - SMILE?!?! you spoke of the Ultimate Warrior appeaking to all, old, young, ugly, beautiful, fat, skinny, black, white. pg 3 A character who would show ups and downs emotions and intensities, sensativities and cold-heartedness when it was needed. Like a yo-yo I obliged so I could be The One. Where the hell are this man's ups and downs. - Total jugular-vein popping yelling at all times. Is this the Total Picture, character, or presentation that can be The One? I learned with you to show intensity at this level but also to show just as much intensity with the look of my eyes or with the whisoer of y voice or even better - extreme intensity in total silence. I did all you asked. The the long-term plan changed. At first I was relectant for what I believed were the right reasons - but once again I went with what I knew I could believe in - "Vince has never fucked me" I dealt with what you thought was best no matter what the cost to me. , no matter the countless # of sleepless nights there were to come, no matter the # of times I had to knock on your door with questions I should never have had. For the last 2 1/12 years I should have never had the questions I did. To stand and make a videotaped aploogy for something I neved did made me realize all we have is business. Pg 4 Once again I went without sleep, if ever I do so again it will be because I elect to, not because my wandering mind says to do so. In reaching this conclusion I ask for these things. You say 500,000 for Wrestlemania is unfair, then I say the last 8 1/2 years of not being compensated equally when I meant as much or more to the companywas total bullshit and most definitely unfair. I have sacrificed more than 500,000 more than 1 million dollars, even more in monies that should have been paid to mein receiving equal compensation as Hulk. I paid my goddamn dues long ago. I need not pay anymore. I have given everything and never once was there a knock on my fucking door. Whether to bullshit as a friend or help me thru my times of need or you trusting me to help you thru yours. I ask for these things vince and the answers must come for the next event is upon you. It has been for me the 5 years and for you to tell me you need to ealuate whether or not I'm cost-effective and this takes time us unfair. A show runs at a given time and date - I have always been there, never asking for time to see if I have the rest, food or whatever it takes to make it. Now I ask the same of you. Pg 5 I want (1) $550,000 release from the monies alloted me to purchase my home. This will suffice as my Wrestlemania VII payoff, but let it be noted it is not fair. I meant as much or more to that show as Hulk - I deserve to be paid the same (I know what Hulk will get) (2) 4 days off every other time off period - except Pay Per View only. (3) I want the same pay cut as Hulk gets on all Pay-Per-Views, SNME, FRIDAY PRIMETIME, house shows and proof as such. The same pay cut applies to what Hulk has been paid with relationshio to past events Wrestlemania V, VI, VII i.e when Hulk was top draw. (4) I want numbers and prove of monies don on 1-900-Hulk and likewise same pay cut. (5) Same pay cut on all forms of merchandising. Because I have had to always knock on your door Words alone are not good enough. I understand Doug Sages is on Vacation, call him take his days off away like you do to the boys and myself and have it written. Everytime I had to knock upon your door upon leaving I have always apologized. I no long feel I have any reason to apologize, Therefore I will not. I have tried to speak as a friend, but maybe I don't have the qualitiesyou required to seek me out as a friend. The videotaped apology was the icinig on the cake - you see it as business so whether I like it or not I must do the same. Whatever your decision I can and will live with it Till then I remain home with one who cares -Jim

Handwritten Warrior letter that led to the Vince letter (someone is transcribing it for me so it's more legible): http://bit.ly/1m7OU4d I was thinking the same thing, I didn't know there was a gap of close to a month and a half. They taped 2 weeks of pre-SummerSlam shows and the post-SummerSlam show at the end of July so yeah, if Vince wanted to, he could have just fired Warrior and moved Sid to being Hogan's partner.

Scanned PDF of the full letter: http://bit.ly/1hrRrGc

Found part of the letter after following a Wikipedia citation to lawsuit docs on PACER. WWE submitted part of it as an exhibit, but Warrior said it was incomplete and added the rest as one of his exhibits. This is the portion Warrior added: Grabbed a ton of stuff from that last lawsuit as Warrior and WWE both included a lot of interesting stuff (including what looks like pictures of the HGH boxes that got him fired in '92!) as exhibits that got scanned into PACER. Will sort through it later.

I think it was sort of implied that Gomez was known to be a clean-living guy.

I love the text of the letter that they sent him to get him to work Summerslam 91. I know I saw that sometime in the last 24 hours but I forget where. Whaa?

Death wasn't working stiff enough so she beat the hell out of him first.

They don't have to be a regular team again. WWE storytelling is always better when they remember to make room for something like the "old friend" role and guys can be long term allies without being a team. Think Test and Shane McMahon. Also Kane is a great worker. Great.

I like the theory that Kane's entire turn has been a secret plan to set him up as Bryan's man on the inside. Timing certainly makes sense: Returns to attack the Wyatts, Bryan is screwed out of his "fair" title shot later that night, and the next night on Raw, Kane offers himself to Stephanie "for no apparent reason."

Gross. Hunt. Sherwood & Sherdog.com (banned in 2005-2009; then again in 2010-2012). Reporter from Home and Garden has credentials though. Two weeks later I still can't figure out what a reporter for HGTV actually does.

I thought the same thing. He and Powell were both kvetching on that show about how they were invited on such short notice... Even though everyone knew about the announcement for at least a month. The fact is, no one was really all that "on top" of this deal, aside from Dave having some hints but nothing concrete. Or if you choose to believe WrestleZone actually had the facts. I wonder if Wade or Dave think the fact that the Network is cheaper than their services will have an impact on them at all. Wrestlezone DID actually have all the facts. I'm not sure what you're saying, it's not like they didn't show their hand. I'm saying what Dave said on the Board - that they didn't really have anything different than he did. Not trying to be completely dismissive of them. Dave hadn't reported any of it yet, and when the next WON came out, he sourced it from WrestleZone. He treated it like something he was able to confirm but not report.

I don't think Bix or Chris went either, but I think they were able to cover it. Since it was streamed and what not, it's not like one needed to be there to cover it. Modern world and what not. That's setting side the quality of his coverage, which is a different thing. But honestly, what added benefit was there to fly out from the event to be there in person? I suspect Dave and Bryan only went because it was a fairly easy trip since they're on the west coast. Make your own jokes about Scherer living in Vegas and not going. Mike Johnson was credentialed for the Performance Center opening, so... But yes, from a practical perspective there wasn't much that Dave and Bryan got by being there in person that we didnt get on the stream.

I thought the same thing. He and Powell were both kvetching on that show about how they were invited on such short notice... Even though everyone knew about the announcement for at least a month. The fact is, no one was really all that "on top" of this deal, aside from Dave having some hints but nothing concrete. Or if you choose to believe WrestleZone actually had the facts. I wonder if Wade or Dave think the fact that the Network is cheaper than their services will have an impact on them at all. Wrestlezone DID actually have all the facts. I'm not sure what you're saying, it's not like they didn't show their hand.

This is something I've been saying: launching the network, particularly with including Wrestlemania, seemed like they were risking thumbing their nose at the sugar daddy. That's why I didn't think they'd want to launch before they had the TV rights negotiations wrapped up. But they did, because they figured they had to launch in Road to Wrestlemania mode. Its a gamble but that's how McMahons roll, I guess. My guess, given (i) how much they pay for WWE content and (ii) how many different ways the PPV revenue is split up and Comcast's size that WWE Content is more valuable to their bottom line that WWE PPV. Even more so if they were willing to increase the rates by 50% or more in the new deal. If WWE Content is of value to them, they'll be more than happy to pay for it at a price that can make them money. This is all just business. Also, as Dave pointed out: If there's anything resembling a bidding war, it probably won't matter.

They only blurred footage when they were editing it for a new release. All of the main digital masters have no editing of amything. The only blurred footage on WWE Network will be DVD releases of scratch logo era footage that came out before the settlement that happened around Raw 1,000. Well, unless they're lazy enough to recycle old Classics on Demand versions of some PPVs. Which I doubt since there's no editing on WWE Network and there was heavy editing on Classics early on.

I tweeted Rip Rogers about this match and he confirms it was Buddy telling Martel what to do. I personally thought more highly of Martel's performance than you. I thought he sold really well, and showed good baby face fire. I'm sure it was Buddy telling him to work over his back, and Martel did a great job at that. It was a match that made sense, their seemed to be no wasted movement in it. Most importantly it told a great story. I'm not sure what it says about Martel that he had been working for 7 years at this point.

"TRADITIONAL DISTRIBUTION? YOU'RE FFFFFIIIIIIRRRRRREDDDDDD! HA-HAAAAAAAA!" *Vince rides away on his zombie dinosaur*

I kind of expect it to have the opposite effect, as people will find a way to rip the higher quality stuff off the Network and then it'll filter out to the torrent sites. That's just an observation though because I plan to give them my money for the Network as soon as they'll let me. I don't know if they will stop the pirating, because pirating is just easier sometimes, but I think they will be able to convert free streamers into $10 PPV customers. Granted, the people might download the show after anyway, but it will help a bit in that department. I don't think that pirating is that bad sometimes anyway as I'd rather have people watching my stuff for free than have them not watching it period. The first thing a lot of people are going to be doing is finding ways to rip stuff, if for no reason than their own personal collections. Perfect quality full seasons of Raw and SD would be highly sought after stuff. However, I still don't believe WWE will give everything away like they claim they will. I can totally see them choosing select episodes of Raw and SD, maybe 10 a year or so and rolling with that. Or they will find some way to package the Raw/SD eps in a "best of" manner. They've never released any full seasons to prove to me otherwise. They also can get away with no releasing full seasons of anything. On the overseas releases of footage: I don't have any facts to prove this but it does seem the biggest collectors of genre's of pirated stuff often comes from other countries. American's have pirated puro that the Japanese couldn't even dream of having. The biggest uploaders of wrestling footage do seem to come from the UK too. The fans watching bootleg streams because $45-$55 is too much will probably buy the network. The people who would never have paid for the network at any price...well, why care about them?

Dave in the WWE/DirecTV thread at the F4W board:

The LLT match was a last-minute deal set up because Dundee was leading the crew headed to Chattanooga for GCW Superstars. He and Lawler weren't even feuding. To put over the LLT matches big, they did those big sit-down shows. The one in the studio aired exclusively in Memphis, while the one in Jerry Jarrett's house aired in the other markets like Louisville and Evansville.

Yes, yes, and yes, it is. If you don't already have a supported device, the entry level model (Roku LT) will do the job. Keep an eye on Amazon: Sometimes they discount the Roku LT by $10 to $40.