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Dwayne Johnson is currently in Surrey, England filming “Fast and Furious 6.” Gina Carano is also in that movie.
At the FCWshow in Tampa on 8/1, Steve Keirn announced that Undertaker’s wife Michelle McCool, 32, was expecting the
couple’s first child. Undertaker was doing an autograph signing at the show. I was a little surprised if only because Undertaker,
now 47, has always been very private about his personal life. It would be his fourth child. He has a son who is 19 from his first
marriage and daughters who are 9 and 7 from his second marriage (to Sara Undertaker, who was involved in storylines more
then a decade ago).
Milena Roucka aka Rosa Mendes was the victim of an alleged assault on 8/5. Roucka, 32, was, according a San Antonio police
report, claimed she had been beaten by her fiancé, former WWE wrestler Steven Andrew Slocum (known by most as Andy
Slocum) , a 7-foot, 310-pound bodybuilder who was briefly the bodyguard for Tyson Kidd in 2010, using the name Jackson
Andrews. What ended up coming out was that Slocum had been living a double life, living in Las Vegas with Roucka and in
Houston with Amber Stovall, who he had been dating since early 2008. According to one person very close to the situation,
Stovall was the real fiancé and Roucka was the other woman he had been breaking up with and getting back together. Stovall
noted that Slocum had never been violent to her. Friends of the couple noted that Slocum if you saw him with Stovall was the
last person you’d ever think would be violent with a woman. Stovall noted that Slocum had never even so much as raised his
voice to her. Stovall had no idea about Roucka and when she found out on 8/7, she broke off the engagement. Apparently
Slocum would tell fiancee No. 1 that he was in Las Vegas working, and he’d live with Roucka. He’d tell Roucka he was going
home for a while to see his family and live with Stovall. Slocum flew Stovall to Las Vegas on 7/7, but wasn’t scheduled to see
her again saying because full-time work until the end of August. He’d mainly see Stovall on weekends when Roucka was
touring with WWE. According to the police report, Roucka claimed the assault took place in the Las Vegas residence that the
two shared. She had flown from Las Vegas that day to San Antonio for Raw the next day and was seen visibly upset, crying in
the woman’s bathroom at the airport, with visible injuries and saying that she needed help. A woman saw her and called police.
The police spoke to her and she said she was the victim of an assault in Las Vegas just prior to flying out, saying her fiancé
was a habitual woman beater and she was afraid he would eventually try to kill her. She claimed he had hit her several times.
The situation is a mess. According to those who know the situation, the two have broken up many times and always got back
together again, but he was trying to break up with her and falling back, as Stovall was in his mind the real one. Slocum and
Roucka had been dating since he was on the main roster, if not earlier, because he wound up with heat really quickly because
when he got to the main roster, she kept telling people how her boyfriend was going to be world champion to the point it drove
some people crazy and it ended up reflecting badly on him. Slocum, who was originally trained by Booker T, was at first
scheduled to get a big push in WWE. But he was brought up way early because he looked like a modern version of Sid Vicious.
But even with more size and a similar physique, he was missing the facials and charisma that made Vicious a big star in the
90s. Plus the standard for a big man working has changed greatly as fans are no longer impressed by the great looking statue
who can’t do anything. He was super green when he was called up, and was given the bodyguard role instead of as a wrestler
since that was done successfully by Kevin Nash two decades earlier. But when he had to do physical stuff, he was too green, it
showed, and was only a few weeks later sent back down to FCW. He was released five months later. In a TMZ story, they stated
that he was fired by WWE because he was missing practices at FCW, which is half of the story. What happened was that a
close family member overdosed on Oxycontin and he flew back home and tried to help him wean him off the drug. When he told
the office, they wanted him back in Florida for practice and he said he wasn’t coming back until he helped his family member
through with the ordeal and at that point he was let go. San Antonio police took her statement and also took photos of her injury
and then transported her to her hotel. Mendes wasn’t used on camera on either Raw or Smackdown when Primo & Epico
wrestled, nor was her not being there or her name even mentioned on Raw. Since being cut by WWE, Slocum had been
working as a high-end bodyguard for well known people in Las Vegas. When the story broke, Slocum disappeared and did not
return any phone calls to Stovall. Stovall closed down all their joint accounts as well as his cell phone account.
JTG (Jayson Paul, 27) pretty much not just got fed up with his situation, which isn’t uncommon for guys getting no push, but
went public with it on twitter. Over the weekend, he started writing, ```Make decisions based on your worth, not your circumstance.” I wish someone told me this two years ago.” He followed with “The camels back just BROKE! I had enough of
this.” Then, while at Raw, “As a pro athlete, I’m tired of me and my locker room brothers being taken advantage of. Fans have no
idea what we go through.” Followed by “Yeah, I said it.” And then, “Nobody wants to speak up. Everybody’s afraid of losing their
job or getting taken off TV.” What led to this appears to have been a number of things, all related to not getting a push and a lot
of undercard frustration that got very strong of late. What started was when talent got paid for an international tour that went
through Central and South America. They’re used to getting paid big on international tours, but the tour wasn’t that successful
and the undercard talent all got $500 per night, which is a lot less than they expected. The grosses for the tour weren’t big, but
at the same time, most of the shows on that tour were sold shows in that WWE itself got a guaranteed payoff of $250,000 per
night from local promoters. The Brazil debut didn’t do all that well compared to debuts in most markets, but WWE sees Brazil
going forward as an important market in the future because of the World Cup and Olympics bringing so much into that
economy. Then came the frustration from WrestleMania. The company encourages everyone to bring their families to Mania for
the whole week. However, the talent has to pay for it. The week in Miami for those with a wife and kids could run up to a lot of
money. One veteran wrestler estimated to us the figure could have easily been significantly more than some of the talent
earned for the week, which led to a lot of frustration. Then the guys at the bottom level only got $2,000 for the week, which
coming at the same time the company was bragging about it being the biggest money producing show in pro wrestling history,
was a surprise and led to a great deal of unhappiness. It should be noted that JTG and almost all the lower ranked guys didn’t
wrestle on the show, as they didn’t do the usual Battle Royal to get everyone on the card, and the bottom guys who weren’t in
the main matches were used to getting the level of payoff for at least being on the show. However, all the wrestlers on the roster
did work during the week at Fan Axxess. This led to talk again about how the company should pay road expenses for talent
given in virtually all forms of entertainment business when someone brings you on the road to work, they pay for the hotel or
give you a per diem, and every sport falls into this category. I also want to make clear the payoff issue for the Latin American tour
was some time back and the Mania payoffs were fairly recent, but whatever was the straw that broke the camel’s back with JTG
is likely more never getting an opportunity. One story went around is that several times when O’Neil & Young were on television
that Cryme Tyme started trending worldwide on twitter. Obviously WWE wouldn’t mention that on TV for a number of reasons,
but with so much emphasis on twitter in the company, there were going to people saying to him that his tag team act is more
over today, even though off TV for years, than the one they are pushing based on some people on twitter who were either telling
jokes or don’t know the difference between he two teams, or who knows what. Much of the talent on the roster is so scared for
their jobs that they aren’t going to do anything. Unless it’s a unified locker room so you don’t risk being fired for taking a stand.
One person told us there was serious union talk after the Mania payoffs but for a ton of reasons, I don’t see wrestlers unionizing
because the top guys aren’t going to join in and the bottom guys aren’t going to risk losing their job without another place to
work for similar money in the business. At least in 1986, when Jesse Ventura was pitching the idea, and even he didn’t get very
far with it, there were plenty of options for the wrestlers and the name stars carried the freight more than the brand name did.
The whole dynamic is different. The only thing positive about timing, and this is something at least some talent discussed, is
the Linda McMahon senate run, as if the wrestlers were in a fight with management over being unionized after the primary and
before the general election, the publicity would hurt McMahon in a strong union state. But at the end of the day, I don’t see the
solidarity and there are far too many guys scared for their jobs to make waves.
Based on television, it appears Kelly is back full-time. As of last week, she was only scheduled for Japan and was still working
on outside projects based on the idea she was not going back. But the commentary talked about her being back, she went over
Torres and it was pushed like a full-time return. Still, at press time we were told she’s working for the next two or three weeks
and then she’ll be doing appearances for the company, but she hasn’t committed to a road schedule.
People who knew A.W. from Florida noted that he said far worse there than the remark on Kobe Bryant, but when you’re in FCW,
nobody sees you and you can get away with anything. In WWE, you’re under the magnifying glass. However, A.W. had been told
that he was “saying nothing” at ringside and they wanted him to be the FCWA.W. whose verbal ability people were so
impressed with.
The WWE Fan Nation Channel on You tube set another record this week with 5,979,075 total worldwide views, putting it in third
place for the week. That’s roughly double what the station was doing only a few weeks ago and a 44% increase over the
previous record set the week before. The record the week before was expected since it was 1,000th Raw week and there was
lots of unique interest in WWE that week. To increase at this level at the same time as the Olympics is very impressive.
The tryout talked about in Los Angeles after SummerSlam will be a combination of local independent wrestlers as well as
athletes from other sports that WWE has recruited.
They are also having one of those independent tryouts where people pay to get evaluated, in Tampa, on 9/28.
Tom LaRuffa, better known as The French Stallion, one of Lance Storm’s trainees on the first season of the Canadian reality TV
show “World of Hurt,” was signed to a developmental deal. La Ruffa works regularly in France for a group called Wrestling Stars
and will be headed soon to FCW.
Abdullah the Butcher did an interview saying that he gave away his WWE Hall of Fame ring and would never wear it. He said as
soon as he got it he gave it to his brother. He said it was an insult they inducted him into the Hall of Fame this late, saying he
had been in the business and drawn money all over the world for 51 years before they put him in, and he should have been put
in 15 years ago or more.
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Even though there were a lot of variables this year and last, when all were added up, WWE’s WrestleMania quarter financially
ended up somewhat similar to the previous one.
For the months of April through June, the company took in $141,648,000 in revenue and finished with a $11,943,000 quarterly
profit. In 2011, for the WrestleMania quarter, the company took in $142,554,000 in revenue and had a $14,267,000 profit. The
decline in profit was surprising given that WrestleMania was the most financially successful event in pro wrestling history, plus
they weren’t producing money-losing movies at the same clip and there was an overall increase in PPV. But the flip side was
added expenses and declines in the merchandise sector and in house shows.
Even though the big Mania show was well known, the numbers beat Wall Street’s estimate and the stock price rose to $8.24 at
press time coming off the announcement.
The profit was once again enough to cover the quarterly dividend, which was $8,985,840, of which about $5.52 million went to
Vince McMahon. However, based on projections made by Chief Financial Officer George Barrios, that is not going to be the
case for the rest of the year.
With the profit being higher than the dividend payout, the company finished the quarter with $170 million in cash and cash
equivalents on its balance sheet with virtually no debt, up from $165 million at the end of March.
The WWE projected that total profits in 2012 would be between five and 15 percent higher than the $24,832,000 profits for the
entire year of 2011. Right now they project a profit at the end of the year of $26 million to $28.5 million, and at the end of June,
the profits were already $27,272,000, so that tells you they expect virtually no profit, and perhaps even tiny losses, over the last
six months, due to the costs involved on starting up the network. Even with the record setting WrestleMania, that would be the
lowest annual profit of the wrestling division since 2002-2003. It’s up for the company as a whole from last year (the weakest
since 2002-2003, the last year the company lost money ) , but wrestling profits will be down because they are projecting to lose
$12 million less this year producing movies.
The total dividend payout for the year is $35,943,336, so that indicates projected profits will not cover the dividend based on the
year as a whole. While they can afford the dividend now, if the network starts out as a loser, the dividend policy would almost
have to change once again.
“We’re essentially flat, which is nothing to write home about,” said Vince McMahon at the 8/2 conference call. We’ve had a
strong PPV performance, a 17% increase which is actually pretty good, somewhat reduced losses from our movie business
and we’re bullish on that in the future. We had a decrease in licensing products because of the absence of a video game, and
have somewhat increased SG&A expenses.
“The key metrics are a little mixed, but encouraging,” he said. “PPV is up 17%. Social media is exploding. Live events remain
flat, as well as television ratings. We just did our 1,001st episode of Raw. That speaks for the staying power of the brand. No
television show like it in prime time has ever come near 1,001 episodes
(that is patently false given a number of shows almost exactly like it have topped 1,000 and two have hit 2,000 ). Adding a third hour is going to give us more exposure and a new audience. In October, we’ll be producing a new TV show on Ion that will give us an audience that we don’t currently have.”
_________________ 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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