VINCE MCMAHON BUTTHURT

[Boondocks Kernoodle]

Apparently Vince is very upset over the Celebrity Wrestling show. He thinks it exposes the business and, well, you know that weird thing he has about Hogan. On the new Observer Radio show tonight, Dave reported that Vince was freaking out on the plane yesterday (during the flight from Stamford to Boston. Yes, he took a plane from Connecticut to Massachusetts) and saying that no one involved with the show would ever work with WWE again. Bischoff has a new blog up in which he describes Vince's hurt feelings as well as hilariously inflates his show's popularity.

 

So, “Big Bad Billionaire” Vince and his high power lawyer wants BHE TV LLC to cease and desist from using “Brutus The Barber Beefcake” within our show “Hulk Hogan’s Celebrity Championship Wrestling” on CMT (for the story go to: http://www.tmz.com/2008/11/23/wwe-wants-to...ake-off-brutus/

 

I won’t go in to the legal aspects of the case, but suffice to say that we received the letter from Vince’s lawyer in early November and responded accordingly (and continue to use Brutus The Barber Beefcake).

 

Prior to receiving the letter, I got a call from Brian Knobs who informed me that Vince’s surrogate Johnny Ace called Brian, who hasn’t worked for WWE in a decade, and threatened him not to go near any WWE talent or events as no one who is associated with CCW will ever work for WWE again. Then I found out that Jimmy Hart, one of the hardest working and loyal people I have ever met, was told he was no longer going to be used for WWE promotions because of his association with CCW, even though he asked for and received permission to do our show! As we subsequently learned, Vince went ballistic after viewing an episode of CCW and ordered Johnny to make the calls.

 

The truth is, I don’t blame Vince for going ballistic.

 

If I were Vince, I wouldn’t want 5+ million wrestling fans watching a fresh concept and entertaining product either. Especially with the product he is currently producing. And based on the response we have been getting to this weeks Hard Core episode with special guest Bill Goldberg, Vince may be blowing gaskets as I type (if you missed it check your schedules for replays of this weeks CCW on CMT)

 

According to Brian, Johnny told him that Vince was furious that CCW “exposed” the business. If that statement weren’t so transparent it would almost be funny. Even the most die-hard WWE loyalist knows that Vince has exposed the business more than anyone in history whenever it suits his financial self-interest (see avoiding regulation and taxation by athletic commissions) or lame creative decisions (Hornswoggle).

 

For Vince McMahon to attempt to bully and intimidate Brian Knobs, Jimmy Hart, or Brutus is pathetic. These men have every right to pay their bills and feed their families. Vince McMahon didn’t invent the wrestling business, he has just exploited it more than anyone in history and I respect him for that. But that doesn’t mean the wrestling industry is his own personal domain. His recent actions are simply his way of trying to maintain his monopoly like grip on the business and is reacting to what he thinks is a threat.

 

For all of you fans who have been supporting CCW, I want to thank you. The emails and suggestions for what you would like to see in season 2 are much appreciated. If you would like to share your thoughts on CCW with other fans go to the message board at: http://www.cmtpress.com/programs/details.c...ogramID=1000064

 

And from Hulk, Jason, me and all the team at CCW we wish you a Happy Thanksgiving!

[S.L.L.]

You know, I was wondering how he was able to get away with that. I guess I have my answer.

[Bix]

I just feel really bad for Jimmy Hart.

[Boondocks Kernoodle]

Amazing that Jimmy is so well-liked that he was able to pretty much work for WWE and TNA concurrently, but he goes on "Tough Enough with 80s B-listers" and all of a sudden he's on Vince's shitlist forever?

 

Side note: Am I the only one who thinks TNA should try to work a cross-promotional deal with the Celebrity Wrestling show where the winner would wrestle a few matches? It would actually provide a tangible goal for the winner of the show (and let's face it, most of these people don't have much else to do, so TNA could probably afford them) but more importantly, it would finally get them Hogan. (One would think that in his current situation he can't afford to be so picky with the "they're too low-rent for me" stuff, plus Universal Studios is less embarrassing than the Nashville Fairgrounds.) I hope Bonaduce wins, because that dude cuts wrestling promos in real life, too, or at least in his reality show ("If there are men in my wife's room wearing less than a turtleneck, I WILL SHAKE YOUR FOUNDATION. I WILL SHAKE THE FUCKING RAFTERS. NOBODY WILL EVER BE THE SAME") and

and he kinda has a voice like the Sandman.

[Sean Liska]

There's something warm and nostalgic about seeing Bischoff take pot shots at Vince. Love the line about Ace being Vince's surrogate. It's like old times.

[Boondocks Kernoodle]

BONUS BISCH CONTENT: Here he is totally SONNING one of his favorite targets:

 

Our goal was not to compete with other wrestling programs, but to give wrestling and non-wrestling fans alike an appreciation for the art-form of professional wrestling. While WWE is trying hard to distance themselves from the roots of professional wrestling by going so far as to forbid the use of the term "professional wrestler", and instead forcing announcers to refer to professional wrestlers as "entertainers", we are proud to bring people from the entertainment business to a show that gives them a chance, even for a moment, to pay respect to the business by showing the world just how tough it is. That said:

 

I was wondering how long it would take.

 

Before a certain wrestling tabloid writer (you know, the one who uses a washed up party favor turned "fun sponge", turned stripper, turned internet porn host, turned content provider to his website) decided to peddle his “inside knowledge” of everything from our business plans for CCW to a breakdown of “what the ratings mean” (and he's pawned himself off as an expert on MMA on Yahoo. WTF?)

 

Now before you fans that consume, digest, and excrete this parasite’s website/tabloid brand of bullshit as gospel, and jump on the “Eric just hates him because (fill in the blank here)” bandwagon, let's look at some facts.

 

I know. The truth hurts and facts can be painful.

 

Suck it up.

 

Here is some ratings and information that was distributed early on Tuesday from CMT:

 

 

“Saturday night's second episode premiere of Hulk Hogan's Celebrity Championship Wrestling

Was up +77% from its lead-in, and up +28% from 4Q08 QTD Prime.

Similar to the series premiere, the second premiere was particularly

strong with men, up +367% from

its lead-in, and up +75% from M18-49.

Through Saturday and Sunday, the second episode of Hulk was watched by

6.5 million total viewers, 3.7 million of which were in the key P18-49

demo.

All told since Hulk hit the schedule, the first two episodes have been

seen by 15.0 million total viewers, 8.3 million of which were in the key

P18-49 demo.

Catch a brand new episode of Hulk Hogan's Celebrity Championship Wrestling this Saturday, November 1 at 8PM ET/PT on CMT.”

 

 

Ouch! That had to hurt.

 

I mean actual ratings information from the network itself? A real insight to “what the ratings mean” from the network that analyzed them from their perspective?

 

And to really give this fraud of a writer a skull-cracking migraine: the fact that based on REAL numbers and not his headline grabbing “expert opinion,” CCW was one of, if not THE most watched wrestling shows on cable for the broadcast week!

[Guest LShunter]

The only part of that which I think is stupid is taking a shot at Hornswoggle.

[CodySave]

Does Vince totally ignore the fact that WWE's first few seasons of Tough Enough which aired on MTV were basically the same concept as CCW, just without celebrities? For christ's sake - one episode featured Maven, Chris Nowinski, Nidia, Josh Mathews, etc. each doing moonsaults off the top rope onto a crash pad like it was a basic wrestling move.

[Death From Above]

Yeah. You don't even need the Tough Enough example, even though it's right there. The concept of a wrestling promoter that changed the idea of a basic gimmick in the business (at least in his own version of the universe) from "Virgil Runnels plays an exaggerated version of himself named Dusty Rhodes, Terry Funk plays a slightly crazier version of a guy named Terry Funk" etc. into "Let's hire Glen Jacobs and cast him in a role as a walking dead person's long lost brother who was left to die in a fire when they were both children and is now back with supernatural powers" and 10 000 other examples of similar gobldegook, and is now pissed off about people "exposing the business", is pretty awesome.

 

I mean there's always been a degree of gobldeygook in wrestling gimmicks, especially with "foreign" wrestlers. Kamala is the ooga booga man from the African jungle, etc. But WWF/E under Vince has never even tried to keep gimmicks grounded in believability. Not that I'm saying that everyone believed Kamala really was some ooga booga tribesman from somewhere in Africa, and I'm not here to discuss the merits of whether promoting that is good, bad, or unimportant in the big picture, but even an old school "outlandish" gimmick like Kamala is pretty tame compared to exploding yourself in a limosuine, having matches where the goal is to bury the other person alive, zombie wrestlers with long lost demented brothers, Cactus Jack showing up and suddenly being "disfigured" with a claw hand for no reason with a random new name and look (because wrestling outside of the WWF/E universe doesn't happen in Vince's mind so whatever gimmick you spent years working on dies with rare exceptions like Flair) etc. The changing gimmicks point wouldn't have been so exposing 30 years ago in the territory days and pre-national television or pre-internet, but after the era of national TV started you'd have to be lost not to notice that it's a credibility killer, if wrestling needed any more by that point. And let's not even discuss the "invisible camera" that allows us to peer into "backstage happenings" as if we're somehow supposed to not view that as business exposing.

 

I mean Vince is great at making money, obviously, but he never really grasped pro wrestling in terms of "exposing the business" which is what makes all that profit all the more amazing.

 

Bischoff makes some valid points but as always it's lost in the shuffle of Bischoff being incapable of speaking without sounding like a message board troll.

[kjh]

Meh, if I had a dollar for every time Vince said I will never use that mother****er again in the heat of the moment and later changed his mind or burst a gasket about something stupid, I'd have made a nice sum of money by this point. I'm sure Hogan and Jimmy Hart will be back at some point. The others maybe not, but never rarely holds in the wrestling business.

[Loss]

I don't know that exposing the business -- at least in Vince's mind -- means the same thing it would have meant in the past. The new work isn't in the ring, it's in the documentaries, and in establishing the bottom line on just about everyone in wrestling history. If someone who is not with WWE comes across as likable or talented on a show not promoted by WWE, and WWE has released a DVD or something smearing that person, it exposes their work. I don't think Vince is upset about the possible exposure of wrestling being fake. I think he's far more upset about WWE's version of history and their opinions on people who have worked for them being exposed as not being unquestionably correct. If Vince was worried about anyone exposing that wrestling is fake, there are about 12 million things he does in WWE that he would no longer do.

 

As a side note, I've been expecting WWE to get all righteously indignant about AIG doing $400,000 corporate retreats after being bailed out by the government, and about all the falling companies on Wall Street and fat cat CEOs. It still might happen. But I hope the Massachusetts-to-Connecticut private jet flight is remembered if it starts up.

[Bob Morris]

Loss is pretty much correct... Vince wants Bischoff's project to get the "WWE Seal of Approval" or he's pissed off about it. Just like with Beyond the Mat... regardless of what one thinks of the quality of the actual product, Vince's pet peeve with it is that he doesn't get to put his stamp on it and mold it the way he wants it to come off.

 

Bischoff's comments regarding Meltzer aren't without merit, but the way he presents them makes him look petty. He'd be better off explaining that reality shows on cable TV are meant to fill niches that the cable networks think can be filled. They've done celebrity rodeo, Surreal Life, The Pick Up Artist and a whole host of other reality shows that would never draw the ratings Raw currently draws, but are just there to for those people who may have a fleeting interest in such stuff.

[Boondocks Kernoodle]

From Dave's update today:

 

--THQ and Jakks Pacific announced today that the cover of the new WWE Legends of Wrestlemania videogame that comes out in March will have Andre the Giant, Hulk Hogan, Steve Austin, The Rock, Bobby Heenan and Jimmy Hart.

Oops, someone hit the blacklist a little too late! With four months left however, there's still time to replace the Hulk with Steve Keirn, and Jimmy with WWE Concierge Harvey Whippleman.

[Bob Morris]

From Dave's update today:

 

--THQ and Jakks Pacific announced today that the cover of the new WWE Legends of Wrestlemania videogame that comes out in March will have Andre the Giant, Hulk Hogan, Steve Austin, The Rock, Bobby Heenan and Jimmy Hart.

Oops, someone hit the blacklist a little too late! With four months left however, there's still time to replace the Hulk with Steve Keirn, and Jimmy with WWE Concierge Harvey Whippleman.

 

I think the Legends games work a bit differently in terms of how wrestlers get featured in them... since some of the wrestlers who get featured aren't signed to a WWE Legends contract, they likely have to be contracted individually, although presumably with WWE's blessing.

 

I'd doubt, though, that THQ and Jakks would cave in to WWE removing Hogan from the cover, as they'd argue he is too big of a name toexclude.

 

I could be wrong about this, though, so if somebody has correct information, feel free to provide it.