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^ That's terrible, terrible news..
The Extreme Rising promotion that runs 6/29 in Corona, NY, and 6/30 in Philadelphia, sent out a release saying that theywould
not be using Raven on the next shows, apparently in response to rumors that theywere. Regarding Sabu, they said that at their
urging, Sabu went into a rehab center on the West Coast in May. They said Sabu was very apologetic and is in regular contact
with both Shane Douglas and CodyMichaels, who are running the show. They said he asked for another chance after an
apparent overdose that hospitalized him the afternoon before the first show. They said if he completes the program and if his
doctor okays it, they are open to using him in the future. They said he is not scheduled for the next set of shows, but it is
possible he could be added.
Paul Guay, who wrote the movie “Liar, Liar,” is currentlyworking on the screenplay for the Bruno Sammartino movie and told us
that the movie will be completely different from anywrestling movie there has ever been.
Julie Hart, the ex-wife of Bret Hart, best known for her appearance in the movie “Wrestling with Shadows,” has signed a deal for
an autobiography, tentatively titled “Hart Strings.” She had been working on-and-off on the book for at least a decade, long
before Bret’s book came out.
A new member of the Wild Samoan wrestling family is Tamiko Fatu, the son of Rikishi, who lives in San Bruno, CA and is 18 or
19 years old and looks just like his father facially. He’s been training at Rikishi’s wrestling school in Simi Valley, CA.
The new ECWPress book called “Shooters: the Toughest Men in Professional Wrestling,” byMMAwriter Jonathan Snowden
has just been released. It goes back to Gotch-Hackenschmidt, through the 20s and the Lou Thesz/Gagne/Hodge era, Billy
Robinson, through Japan to Inoki-Ali, the formation of the UWF, UWFI, Pancrase, Brock Lesnar and more.
Lisa Moretti (Ivory) did an interview on the RingBelles web site. Regarding coaching Tough Enough, she said she was against
Linda Miles winning season two. She said she always brought it up when theywould sit down and decide who got cut. She
said she thought Miles had great charisma, but she had an ego problem. She even said that she (Moretti) would shoot herself
in the foot so she would have an injury, that’s how bad she wouldn’t want to share a locker room with Miles. Miles was a starter
on the Rutgers basketball team, which was a strong program. She did not do well in OVW, to say the least, but still got brought
up and there were times when the agents would want her to come early for more training since theywere using her as a
manager (Shaniqua) but ultimatelywanted her wrestling. And she’d no-show the training. She ended up not lasting very long.
She also said she was asked out on a date byRicky Steamboat at Cauliflower Alley in Las Vegas in March, but there was a
reunion of the GLOWgirls at the same time and they asked her out for lunch, so she stood up Steamboat to hang out with the
girls. She said after she was thinking, “Oh man, did In just blow it?” She called StacyCarter, one of the women on the roster in
the late 90s, “a poison.” She said that she used her Jerry Lawler card to get in, then snuck her way into an angle as China’s
Mini Me. And then she even got the women’s title. Moretti didn’t finish the story, as when Carter was fired, Lawler quit the
company in support of his wife. The company kept wanting Lawler back, and every time a deal was almost made, Lawler would
bring up Carter and when they said theywanted him and not her, Lawler would turn down the offers. She ended up leaving him,
which is what opened the door to his returning.
Former WWF announcer Sean Mooneywas hired as the weekend co-anchor at KVOA, the NBC affiliate in Tucson. He had been
working running his own production company in Tucson and had worked with Fox Sports Arizona after leaving the Northeast. He
had worked as an anchorman in New York and Boston after leaving WWF.
Regarding Ricky Steamboat’s speech at Cauliflower Alley, when he said how Verne Gagne got him hooked up with Stampede
Wrestling after his run in Florida was over, and he was told by a referee in Stampede Wrestling not to come up because he’d be
driving 3,000 miles to get there and nobodywas making anymoney, Ross Hart said that makes no sense. He said there’s no
way Steamboat would have been in contact with Stampede referees, because they used local people in each town they ran and
those local people didn’t even have contact with any of the wrestlers outside of the territory.
Davey Richards, 29, did an interview with Inside Wrestling where he said he was going to retire sometime in 2013. He said
something would have to go verywrong in his life if he was still wrestling in 2014. It’s notable because I can’t ever recall anyone
who worked as hard as he did and was as good as he is ever retiring so young. Granted, the time he came along in didn’t allow
him to make huge money at it (although in other eras his height would have worked against him but he’d have had a solid well
paying gig in Japan from the mid-80s until a decade ago, and actually did have at least a gig there now that just fell apart). It is
generally figured he’s done in Japan after he no-showed the 5/3 PPV show and a jr. tag team title defense, and they found out
he was doing indies that weekend in the U.S., and then pulled from the Top of the Super Junior tournament. But that’s going to
be a big loss to ROH since Richards has been pushed as the company’s top guy until the return of Kevin Steen.
The other McMahon no longer in the company, Shane, got publicity. YOU, the company he is the CEO of that is attempting to
introduce PPV to China, is now listed on the NASDAQ exchange. They even rang the bell at the start of trading this past week.
McMahon has reached deals with several Hollywood studios to bring PPVmovies, and obviously leading to PPV sports, to
China. But it’s not going to be easy.We’ve spoken to Americans who have worked in business in China, including Mark
Fischer, who headed NBA operations in that country and now works for UFC, and he didn’t believe PPVwould work in China
because people are used to seeing everything free. Other I know familiar with that market say that while the market looks
awesome because of the sheer number of people, it is so hard to do business there and get money out. McMahon’s company
lost $4.8 million over the last quarter, and things must be tough financially since McMahon on 5/10 loaned the company $3
million. Still, movie studios are scared because the movie business was down 5.4% in U.S. attendance and they are looking for
ways to recoup that money overseas. The idea is that as China gets a working middle class with disposable income, they’ll be
willing to pay a few bucks for movie PPVs and eventuallymore than a few bucks for sports. Others have noted the burgeoning
working class in China is more a media myth than reality, and that most of the country is still very poor. The problem is pirated
movies are easily accessible in China for almost nothing. If this venture works, the upside is gigantic.
Paul Levesque (HHH) is now listed as the Executive Vice President of Talent Relations. instead of Laurinaitis. It’s a change
formalizing what has been the case for a while, since Laurinaitis has worked under Levesque, and Levesque has hired new
people like Canyon Cemen, the former Stanford volleyball star, and Jane Geddes, who worked in the office with the LPGA and
was a former star golfer. Geddes is Vice President of Talent Relations and is doing a lot of the work Laurinaitis had been doing.
Cemen is running Talent Development and reporting to HHH. Laurinaitis has little or nothing to do with that department, and it
was Laurinaitis who put together the FCWprogram. Laurinaitis has had many of his duties of late reduced and the expectation
is his job will be changed in some form down the line as Levesque puts his own hires in key positions. He’s still booking the
house shows, although the writers are more involved in that as there is a movement to make the house shows more like the
television shows. He’s also doing talent payroll but spending more time going on the road as talent.
Del Rio is out of action due to what was described as a severe concussion suffered on the 6/5 Smackdown tapings when
Sheamus threw him into the WWE insignia on the stage.
---
When it comes to developmental, there is a lot of concern about what is happening since Tom Prichard was let go with no
explanation to those there. Those in FCWwere told that developmental is changing, for the better, with a different structure, and
a different schedule. The idea is verymuch to structure the entire developmental process and talent relations like WWE is a
major sports company, which is ironic since this is all HHH’s department, and Vince runs away from the sports comparisons.
They are also looking at trying to open up a relationship with the U.S. Olympic committee, to where they’ll have an “in” for
prospective Olympic athletes who either don’t quite make the team, or better yet those who do well but are in sports where there
are no professional leagues. The feeling is they’d be interested in the wrestlers, of course, as well as possible weight men,
whether they be shot putters, discus throwers or Olympic lifters. Historically, there aren’t a lot of shot putters I can recall who
became wrestling stars, with Jim Neidhart and Ken Patera, who were national place winners coming to mind. I can’t recall a
world class discus guy, although both Fritz & Kerry Von Erich were stars in the discus at the college level. A number of
weightlifters over the years have done well in wrestling, Patera having the most success of the Olympic level guys.
This past week they brought in 23 to 25 athletes, some independent wrestlers with several years experience, but mostly
successful college wrestlers, most of who were graduating this year, recruited byGerald Brisco. The wrestlers, who in some
cases still have class time left to graduate, were told if they are signed that the companywould value them more if they
continued and finished their studies this year or finished their degree work as opposed to quitting and starting in
developmental right away. They did a lot of focus on basics like running the ropes and flat back bumps and did lots of agility drill
and cardio training to see their coordination, conditioning and drive, who mentallywasn’t going to quit and who stood out in the
pack. Bill DeMott and Regal were running the camp and evaluations were being done by Terry Taylor, DustyRhodes, Steve
Keirn, Norman Smiley, Jim Ross, Brisco, Ricky Steamboat and JoeyMercury. From there, the ones who got the best
evaluations are likely to be signed byCanyon Cemen.
There is at least talk of doing similar style tryouts in foreign countries, such as the U.K. and Australia.
The best talent in FCW(Dean Ambrose, Seth Rollins, Kassius Ohno, Antonio Cesaro) as far as being ready and being good in
the ring mostly came from the indie scene. But there is a belief that the indie scene is not producing enough talent with WWE
potential. That belief and obviouslyHHH putting together his management team, instead of using ex-wrestlers or people in the
business, but using people who were top notch athletes in other sports who went on to have management experience in
sports, tells you his direction. It’s a mentality that a lot have questioned. A number of people have asked how can Canyon
Cemen, who may be intelligent, professional and a top level legit athlete, but has never worked in the industry, be able to
evaluate talent and make talent decisions. And the feel for understanding wrestling is something that takes years, and even
with years, most people, even intelligent, have a hard time grasping it, particularly since what Vince wants constantly changes
and what the company needs and what gets over with the public also changes. They are going with the idea that getting top
level athletes and teaching them to be wrestlers will develop the kind of marquee guys that can be superstars, and if you look at
the biggest money stars historically in the business, in a high percentage of cases that would be correct. Even guys like Austin
and Rock, while not NFL caliber football players, were top level athletes suited for the business. It’s a harder process because
the success rate will be lower if you get guys starting from scratch. The argument is thatWWE can offer a decent pay to start for
guys coming out of college in a tough job market, with the potential to earn huge money. The wrestlers, unlike top level college
football players who have NFL aspirations, don’t have a sport alternative other than UFC, and UFC is not for everyone. But the
indie guys love the business and understand the business and a good looking college wrestler with a good body, even if they
grew up a fan, they are starting at such a lower level of understanding the crazyworld. Plus, the current product mix and lifestyle
is such that a lot of guys doing well today do not have “the look” and are more guys who grew up loving and being obsessed
with wrestling and wouldn’t let the detractors and naysayers get in their way, got experience the hard way, learned the business
from others and made it because they could outwork, outperform and outtalk guys with genetic and athletic advantages that
didn’t have the knowledge of a lifetime following the game and the same obsession to make it.While DeMott had been around
with the company since Tough Enough ended, there were a lot of surprises he became head trainer only because he was let
go from the position years ago due to complaints about him being too rough. DeMott’s feelings at the time was the guys weren’t
in good enough shape and the complaints theywere doing tons of cardio but not enough in the ring, and that only a small
percentage of the active roster at the time could have survived what DeMott was putting them through. Then again, at first, when
his name was on Tough Enough some were surprised for the same reason. The reports we’ve gotten is DeMott has tweaked
his coaching style a bit and learned a lot since his last tenure. I just figured for Tough Enough theywanted that big bad ass
intimidating coach as a TV personality and DeMott was very good at it on the old Tough Enough.
---------
Punk publicly on Twitter took issue with the 6/4 Raw, which was built around Cena vs. Cole with the idea they’d get Cole in his
underwear and humiliate him for ratings even though it wasn’t building future programs or the PPV. As noted, it was a reaction
to the bad rating the week before. You never know what will work, but historically the segments with “outsiders” doing matches
like Cole and Jim Ross have done well in the ratings, but this time it didn’t happen, although their segment did beat Punk’s
match with Kane. It was also in a better time slot to draw a quarter. Punk wrote, “You a wrestling fan or a ratings fan? I’ll take
coss over seg telling a good story over covering a non-wrestler with condiments any day.” The problem is coming off a show
that does bad ratings, Vince’s decisions are going to be ratings oriented primarily. The thing is, the minute I saw the direction of
the show around Cena vs. Cole, I understood what it was about, but also disagreed. There are times to adjust due to a bad
direction, and that rating was bad, but it was also a night with a lot of competition. But doing a Cena vs. Cole hotshot TV show
that doesn’t build anything in theorywould help the rating for the one show, but built nothing. It’s building something that’s the
answer. It really felt like WCWdecision making on the way down, and that’s the stuff you should learn not to do.
R-Truth is out of action with a broken foot. In storyline on Raw, they brought him out for an interview on 6/11 and Show knocked
him out. The decision seemed to be it was more important for Show to destroy Kingston, going for revenge later in the show, in
a match to build the PPV then do something to take the tag titles off them. Given the current value of the tag titles, it was the right
call for the week.
_________________ Drop In wrote: I'm picturing a 12 year old Bob Loblaw bitching out a Randy Savage Wrestling Buddy for botching his finisher. Also envisioning Bob Loblaw getting bitched at for lighting the living room table on fire for said finisher.
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