Strummer

Has anyone else noticed that Benoit is pandering to the crowd and mugging for the camera (in the ring and in backstage stuff) more and more recently? I think I started noticing it last summer (during the Jordan program) but I think it's clear now. I don't know if he is doing this on his own or the office told him to do so, but it's evident IMO.

Kevin Kelly has echoed the same sentiments about Finkel. During the boom in the late 90s, due to the increased audience, Vince became paranoid about Finkel's look and wanted to replace him with a pretty girl with a good voice. Welcome Lillian Garcia.

Taken from DVDVR: Re: No Way Out: -Changes were made at the PPV about how to handle the Guerrero-Mysterio-Orton storyline. Vickie Guerrero was supposed to be given a script for her segments, but at the day of the show Bruce Pritchard nixed it and just told Vickie to act natural and say what she thinks would be appropriate within the storyline. -Boogeyman tried using his OVW gimmick of taking big steps before hitting his finisher with the crowd chanting B-O-O-G-E-Y-M-A-N along with each step, but it wasn't explained on TV, so no one chanted it and as Boogey realized this, he stopped doing it and just hit his finisher. Re: Johnny Grunge: -One of the more morbid jokes among wrestlers that was going around prior to Grunge's death, was with all the recent deaths in wrestling, the fact that Johnny was alive proved that it was the 'roids and not the lifestyle that killed you. -Fans in '94 WON voting placed Public Enemy slightly behind Misawa & Kobashi and Guerrero & Art Barr in tag geam of the year category -Johnny was 400 pounds at the time of Hardcore Homecoming, but recently started losing weight as he became worried about his health, and specifically talked about how no one will take care of his two kids if he dies. Re: Dave's stab at humor -Meltzer attempted to do a parody of Cheney shooting a guy by doing a segment where he pretends Ace shot Finkel in the face, with the common thread being that both men are VPs, and how McMahon would handle the crisis vs. Dubya. This went on for half a page and was brutally unfunny and fantastically fucktarded. Re: New Japan woes -Brock vs. Akebono is the potential future main event program, although some believe they should tag as a monster team first. The two guys recently worked against each other in the main event tag team match at Sumo Hall that didn't draw well. Brock no sold Riki Choshu (Ake's tag partner) to a big pop, and then Ake no sold Lesnar's offense to a bigger pop. But, the show per Dave was considered a disappointment. Re: TNA -Jackie Gayda will doing a story where due to the explosive contents of the tape that she wants hidden, she will become the servant of JJ's faction with Gail Kim treating her like a crap, with Gayda eventually turning on them for a pop. -Raven is being held off from TV not due to storyline reasons, but due to complaining about TNA, with management trying to make examples out of people recently and trying to enforce zero-tolerance policy. -Sean Waltman was not booked due to appearing with MTV's promotion in LA -Morgan and Modest did not look good in their debut and there is no interest in bringing them in for a second time -Dutch Mantell nixes the idea bringing any talent from Puerto Rico that works for IWA, since Dutch is an ally of WWC. This causes glitches when TNA bookers try to get talent from IWA, only to have Dutch and JJ kill the deal at the last second -Samoa Joe is trying to get a deal where he would get paid a set salary per week, not a per show fee. -Jeff Hardy is not fired, or fined, but is not being used because he no showed several PPVs and tapings WWE: -Vince thinks the late '70s to mid '80s was the most creative time for him in the business and due to fond memories is trying to get wrestlers he worked with during that time into the Hall of Fame: -Blackjack Mulligan -Tony Atlas -Blackjack Lanza -AWA guys to help promote DVDs and because 'Mania is in Chicago. -Supposedly, only wrestlers that no longer work are supposed to elligible for Hall of Fame. Although Orton, Hogan, and Piper are obvious exceptions to this. This is why there is some internal debate on whether or not to let Animal be inducted this year. Flair will probably be inducted next year, along with Dusty. -The dialogue from the Mickie James "Single White Female" skit on RAW was taken directly from police depositions Vince, witnesses and alleged victim made about the groping charge at the tanning salon. -Jim Ross was doing promotional work for WWE in OK for house shows and was asked several times why is he working for WWE when he is supposed to be fired. The company is now looking for a storyline to un-fire Ross to give him kayfabe explanations for these situations -In OVW, the tag team of Snuka's son and the guy that looks like Andrew Dice Clay (not really, but that is the reason he is being booked) which was called The Throwbacks, then Super Guys, will now be called Untouchables. (Tom's Note: They are still not funny) -Everyone involved with Dancing with Stars is telling Stacy that wrestling is beneath her and she should not go back to WWE -The Mexican promoter in charge of booking buildings and etc. for WWE in Mexico paid a flat fee to have WWE come in, paying them in advance and keeping all the revenue the shows actually generate. So the size of the houses WWE draws down there does not affect their bottom line.

Greg Helms re-signed with WWE today

PWI: Names also being bandied about for induction this year include Arn Anderson, Tony Atlas, and Sherri Martel. If inducted, Martel would the second female WWE Hall of Famer, behind The Fabulous Moolah."

couple more notes NYR got 300,000 buys HHH vs Flair recent RAW match lost 100,000 viewers ? Takers return vs Henry gained 500,000 viewers ? Cena+Maria vs Edge+Lita gained 600,000 SNME will be headlined by Cena v Edge and Angle v Undertaker Stacy Keibler's contract expires very soon Roster cuts are coming up

I'm assuming he means that the company likes Maria and doesn't want Punk to fill her head with his old school "wrasslin'" approach to the business. They want to teach her the "WWE way"

I've really been rolling my eyes at all the "Hulk Hogan doesn't "deserve" a 4 disc DVD set" talk that has been all over the net recently.

from DVDVR Bret has mainly been talking to Kevin Dunn about the HOF ceremony. Meltzer thinks it's a way for Bret to say goodbye to his fans. They are going to beg him to work the PPV but Dave doesn't believe Bret will bite. Lots of heat on Vince and Steph for the Eddie angle. The creative team was against it but Steph insisted they go that direction. Vince approved. Vince's reply when someone question's him is "Look at the big picture". Morale is at an all time low and it's going to be interesting when contract renewals come up. Jarrett believed that Bret was never going to work for TNA and thought he would go back to Vince. When the HOF announcement was made he said "I told you so" In an interview Jackie Gayda said she was fired because she turned down Playboy in 2004. Her and Stacy were asked to pose together but both turned it down. The issue went to Sable and Torrie instead. As revenge, Vince booked the storyline where Jackie and Stacy were jealous of Torrie and Sable. I'm assuming more later

It's obvious Stacy desperately wants to get out of the wrestling because deep down she knows she will have to pose for Playboy to get a huge promotional push and she's unwilling to do so. She and Torrie moved to LA in 2003 to try and get acting gigs. I think the show will open up doors but I doubt it will be anything but fluff T and A roles like she has had in the past (mud wrestling in Bubble Boy, Lingerie model in Big Mama's House 2)

Lots of repeat matches from the Hulk Rules DVD (How many VHS and DVD releases has Sheik vs Hogan been on?!!) but I will be getting this ASAP.

Per wwe.com

Bob Orton Jr. has been released

Apparently there will be two women's matches at WM, one with Trish and Mickie and then a T and A match with Candice, Torrie, Stacy, etc.

I was just watching the 1990 Royal Rumble and the show is probably more important from a historical perspective than most people think. It was a sign that the intitial 80s "Rock and Wrestling" boom was coming to an end. The crowd was completely dead the entire night and only awoke when Hogan (and to a lesser extent Warrior) came out. The midcarders hardly got any reaction at all from the Miami crowd. The entire roster had been sacrificed to get Hogan over and now Hogan was pretty much the only wrestler that was significantly over. You knew the boom was close to being over because people were now only coming to the shows to see Hogan and not to see the entire WWF formula like in the 80s. Hogan's job to Warrior a few months later was a final nail in the coffin.

I was wondering why they were delaying the GM angle. It will be interesting if Vince will get behind Dusty as I could see him having a big problem with giving someone with Dusty's look a permanent television character.

that's true but why didn't the ratings rise to this level the past 3 years? 2004 and 2005 had great build up for the main event Mania programs, and this year there has hardly been any build for the show at all and yet ratings are at a 4 year high. I think it has to be something else.

Okay, RAW did another 4.5 rating this week. I think we can say that a trend is starting and something is causing this new ratings increase. Meltzer theorized the increase was due to Ric Flair being in Main Events but last week he was only in one 30 second backstage vignette and this week he had a 10 minute match with Hunter around the 10:00 hour and both shows still did a 4.5. My guess would be new blood on top with Edge and giving Cena's character a slight tweak with a meaner, no nonsense streak. Any ideas?

Trish's date on RAW was played by Ray Gordy. He's hit the roids bigtime Edit: it also could have been Cliff Compton from OVW or just a model

apparently the worker who will be playing the Castro gimmick (Osama) is a great talker but lousy in the ring.

from the LAW: *Saturday night at the "Blood, Sweat and Ears" show in Sudbury, Chris Kanyon announced to the audience that he felt he was let go by the WWE because he was gay and he didn't want to hide it any longer and claimed to be the only openly gay wrestler.

The company saw Jericho as what Vince McMahon likes to call a "mechanic". A good worker that you can easily shift your top guys into programs with to make them look good. That's what they called Steve Austin when they signed him in 96. A good worker who they thought didn't have main event charisma but could make your top guys look like world beaters. Same deal with Dibiase and Hennig in the 80s and 90s.

According to Meltzer on WOL, originally all the wrestlers in the back were told not to mention Eddy on air or allude to him in any manner out of respect. However, Vince kept hearing the Eddy chants from the crowd and just couldn't help himself and decided to use Eddy's name in storylines to get heat.

The company put Jericho with Kane so Kane could teach him how to work the WWF style. Kane was loved by the company (and other top guys) because his offense looked credible and lethal but in actuality it didn't hurt at all. Jericho supposedly had the opposite problem where his offense looked soft but hurt tremendously. The feud was a huge flop that killed both wrestler's heat. Although as a result of the program Jericho and Kane became great friends and Jericho even requested his last match before jumping to SD in the draft be with Kane. Plus, there were rumors that Vince really didn't know Jericho from WCW and when he first met him was already soured on him because of his size. Jericho as a result started wearing lifts in his boots which made for some clumsy blown spots in his matches. Jericho also injured X-Pac in the build up to WM 17 and was relagated to opening match status instead of having a major match on the show. During his title reign Vince openly called him the worst champion in history. He was paired with Stephanie to give him the rub to be over enough to main event Wrestlemania. The idea was Stephanie was going to save Wrestlemania. Jericho requested a storyline where he would have an affair with Stephanie to save heat but HHH shot it down immediately. It came down to Vince just not being able to get behind someone who he considered "too small" and the fact that Hunter saw him as a threat to his spot. The ironic thing is that HHH probably never had to worry because Vince would have never given Jericho a mega push anyway because of his size.

A couple of gems from the thread: He didn't have that great of charisma Yeah, he was better than his WWF version, but busting out one or two "cool" moves he doesn't do in the US doesn't make him a good worker. Only a bit less worse than you thought he was. Hogan doesn't make the list.