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^NP. Enjoy.
Slow news week.
The future of the CHIKARA promotion is definitely in question. They had an iPPV from the Trocadero in Philadelphia on 6/2, and there were all kinds of rumors before the show that it would be the last one, claiming for reasons having to do with a divorce of owner Mike Spillane (Mike Quackenbush) that he had opened a second promotion, “Wrestling is Fun,” and basically CHIKARA would continue with a new name under the new banner. During the week, the rumors were enough that those in CHIKARA denied them. After the show, they’ve continued to deny there’s anything to them and it was all the conclusion of a long formulated angle. The main event on 6/2 was Grand champion Eddie Kingston vs. Icarus. In the middle of the match, Condor Security and Wink Vavasseur, the Director of Fun, showed up and told security to take everything down. Kingston, Icarus and ref Bryce Remsburg were removed from the ring, and they took apart the set and the iPPV feed ended with a black screen. The fans were then all kicked out of the arena. All the future dates for the promotion have been canceled. It was noted that even though dates were announced through November, that no tickets had ever been put on sale for any future shows. They had been working a storyline for a long time building to this, with the idea the promotion had been sold to an outside group that had become a heel group that had screwed with the matchmaking. All the wrestlers had to sign non-disclosure agreements regarding anything they had been told. The going theory is still that there won’t be another CHIKARA show, but that the concept and wrestlers will be around in some form under another name.
Stephanie Bellars Frankenstein (yes, her husband’s name is Doyle Wolfgang von Frankenstein), who used the name Gorgeous George in WCW in the 90s as the girlfriend of Randy Savage, now 37, issued a cry for help on 6/3. She wrote on Twitter late that night, “If I can’t get a car and drive to find a job this week, I am going to end it. I can’t take it anymore. My life has too many problems. I am nothing but a burden on people. I wish God would get me out of here.” She had worked for years as a touring stripper after breaking up with Savage and being out of WCW, and her brief run in ECW after that.
Bobby Eaton survived the worst once again. He is stable. He got out of the hospital and was able to go home. He’s going to have to return sometime next week and have a pacemaker put in his heart.
Tommy Dreamer was robbed of his $1,300 payoff after working on 6/1 for Traditional Championship Wrestling in Meridian, MS, for their TV tapings in the main event against their champion, Lance Hoyt. He was flying Delta and told that because of space limitations, he had to check his carry-on bag. When he got his bag, somebody had gone through it, and not just taken his cash but other things as well. Michael Tarver, who was on the same flight, said the zippers of his bag were undone so somebody had gone through his things. Another wrestler who flew from the taping, the giant Florida wrestler Titan, said he had $17 taken from his bag as well as a pack of gum and a shot of Five Hour Energy.
(Michael Tarver? I didn't know he still rassled. Re-sign that man immediately!
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This past Sunday was the 10th anniversary of the death of wrestling Hall of Famer Fred Blassie, at the age of 85. So here’s a funny Blassie story that also has to do with Doug Herzog, the President of the MTV Network Groups, which includes overseeing Spike. Back in 1977, a teenage Doug Herzog and Jeff Bukantz were camp counselors at Camp Scatico in Elizaville, NY. Bukantz is a friend of mine dating back a long time (believed to be the only human being in the front row when Bruno Sammartino lost his title to Ivan Koloff in 1971 and also when Tim Sylvia lost his title to Randy Couture in 2007) who was a world class fencer, former U.S. national team coach and an announcer at the last Olympics (where he did manage to get in a few pro wrestling references during the national TV coverage). The big event each year at the end of camp saw campers sing a few songs. So the 11/12 year olds Bukantz was in charge of, instead of singing Billy Joel, Elton John or The Eagles, like everyone else, were taught the words to sing “Pencil Neck Geek,” a 1960s song sung by Blassie that was a big cult hit when Blassie was WWA world champion. That became legendary in camp and they won the prize. All of the 11 and 12 year olds, now 31 and 32, were brought back together in 1997 for a U.S. fencing team fund raiser to send the team to the Maccabiah Games in Israel. So they did a wrestling show and Bukantz, under a mask, wrestled the Iron Sheik. Blassie was hired for the show, and for likely the last time publicly, sang the song. A few years later, Doug Herzog was at the WWE offices to negotiate the TV deal with Vince McMahon (when Spike got them from USA) and, in the board room, on the wall, was the plaque Blassie was given for appearing there and he saw it.
Jimmy Pasta's guy, Dick Beyer, The Destroyer, 82, is opening up a Park Golf course in his native Akron, OH called “Destroyer Park Golf.” The course opens this month. Park Golf is a Japanese sport, similar to golf, except the entire 9-hole course is 500 yards and no hole can be longer than 100 yards. His course will be the first in the U.S. He started playing the game more than a decade ago in Japan.
One of pro wrestling’s all-time great tag teams, Rick & Scott Steiner, now 52 and 50, worked together as a tag team on 5/31 for Preston City Wrestling in the U.K. They won the promotion’s tag team titles. I believe this was the first time the two had teamed up in five years, since Rick was released by TNA.
ROH
Adam Cole signed a new contract, which should end rumors of him heading to WWE, at least for a while. There are a number of ROH contracts coming due over the next few months and I’m sure those who would have the opportunity to get a WWE developmental gig, in most cases, would do so.
Sinclair Broadcasting reached a $115.35 million deal to purchase six stations owned by Titan Television Broadcast Group, which would give them affiliates in Fresno, Omaha and Sioux City. Eventually you should expect ROH TV in those markets.
The company officially announced another iPPV and TV taping combination on 9/20, a Friday night PPV and a Saturday TV taping in Philadelphia at the Pennsylvania National Guard Armory, billed as “Death Before Dishonor” weekend. The experiment here is to see whether, in doing the double shots, that having the TV taping on a Saturday night will draw better than the Saturday night/Sunday afternoon double-shots had done. The question is whether, people being creatures of habit, going Friday on iPPV will hurt in that regard more than TV on Saturday will help, although in both cases I don’t think the difference would be all that significant
They are also doing an experimental show on 7/11 outside Chicago in Merrionete Park, IL at 115 Bourbon Street, a bar that has run wrestling with some local promotions. It’s billed as “A Night of Hoopla” hosted by Truth Martini. All ages are welcome but parental guidance is strongly advised. No matches have been announced but it’s more a bar show with wrestling and it’s supposed to be very different from the usual presentation.
TNA
As reported here months ago, Bound for Glory will be 10/20 in San Diego, at San Diego State University.
Todd Keneley was told at Slammiversary that he was being taken off the announcing team. Keneley, whose background included NWA Hollywood Wrestling (now Championship Wrestling from Hollywood), Hulk Hogan’s Celebrity Championship Wrestling (where he would have worked with Hogan and Eric Bischoff), had been with the company since October. It started with the idea of two separate announcing teams on Impact, similar to what Bischoff did with Nitro. Keneley & Jeremy Borash did the first hour, handing off to Mike Tenay & Taz as “the veteran announcing team” in the second hour, which came across really awkward. That lasted only a few shows until Borash, who stood out more than Keneley, was the one dropped and they did a three-man team. The dynamic between Taz and Keneley was at times uncomfortable, because their interaction at times veered past the point of simply face announcer against heel announcer. Keneley was working on a per-show agreement. This wasn’t a cost-cutting measure but just the feeling that they have different plans for announcing going forward and Keneley wasn’t part of those plans.
TNA has released Doug Williams, who had been working for them in Louisville as a trainer. Williams noted today that he feels bad because it would have been an honor to have been able to work with Quinton Jackson, who TNA signed and was going to train for wrestling.
Alex Silva's name has been removed from the company's web site, which indicates he's also been released.
WWE
People on the writing team have to be nervous, particularly the head writers, Dave Kapoor (Raw) and Ed Koskey (Smackdown) when WWE over the past few days sent out that they have job openings for a new lead writer on Raw and a new lead writer on Smackdown. That goes along with looking for a new Vice President of Creative, with the recent firing of Adam Rudman. With Erik Pankowski, they posted looking for a replacement the moment he’d been let go, meaning they must have told people to get it ready a day or two early. The lead writer is responsible for building the TV scripts and developing long-term storylines (that will be changed every week) as well as creating character back stories for all the new characters. The job is to work with the Vice President of Creative Writing, overseeing the creative process as it relates to scripts and storylines, ensuring multiple ideas are presented for each story, and building the final draft. They want five plus years experience with script writing, as well as TV production experience, a deep working knowledge of WWE storylines and characters, motivational skills, as well as a deep understanding of pop culture, trends, and topical news as it relates to television. Writing for either reality TV, sitcoms or character-based nonfiction is required as well as understanding the WWE audience demographic and psychology. Other jobs they are looking for include a new digital writer who will work under the Vice President of Creative when it comes to creating web site content and understanding how to use the web site and social media to continue storylines. They are also supposed to pitch ideas to both the head writers as well as to the WWE executive management. They are also looking for a Vice President for television, whose job will be to maintain business relationships with those in the TV industry, selling the shows to cable and broadcast networks and putting together content ideas for the WWE Network. That’s going to be a key job because with the Smackdown contract coming due, WWE is looking to jack up the rights fees and negotiate with multiple suitors for Smackdown, as well as Raw, and hopefully get the kind of increase UFC got (when UFC signed with FOX in late 2011, they nearly tripled the money they were getting from Spike) and others sports programming has been getting of late. They are also looking for a Vice President of Strategic Planning for the International marketplace, a Vice President of Content Media Distribution for the International marketplace, a Vice President of Integrated Sales and another Social Media Analyst.
This was not a fun week to be on the writing team. They had their usual show written and ready to be presented on Friday. Then, with the Miami Heat vs. Indiana Pacers game, they ended up having to work on a rewrite, I guess feeling the show wasn’t what they needed given the competition. Then, on Monday, Vince told the writing team they were redoing the show again. The show was actually being rewritten as it was going on.
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Largely as a reaction to the Memorial Day rating, which is I guess the entire motivating factor since Vince’s two personal key benchmarks week-to-week are ratings and house show business and the latter is fine (although the Canadian business was weak over Memorial Day), Vince & Stephanie were brought back as heels. The end result of this right now, which could change tomorrow, is Vince, Stephanie and HHH as the lead heels. There have been hints of a Punk turn with the idea it’s Heyman who agreed to his match with Jericho and Heyman who signed the contract without him being there. My feeling is Punk is an awesome heel, that Punk & Heyman should screw Lesnar out of a win over Undertaker or Rock at Mania (the story actually works better with Undertaker because Punk is jealous Lesnar is about to do what he couldn’t do), leading to a Lesnar vs. Punk run. But as noted before, Lesnar vs. Punk is an obvious direction but the wind is blowing toward Punk as the face. It looks like, if Orton goes heel, which has been the plan since late last year, that on the road, Team Orton may become Team Punk and Cena and Punk become the two house show headliners as faces. The feeling is they need a major face to lead each touring brand, and one of the reasons Orton hasn’t turned yet is because they didn’t think either Sheamus or Del Rio had gotten over enough to be that face, even though both at times were planned for the spot.
When HHH did the injury angle the night after Extreme Rules, the idea was to do a deal where Stephanie and Vince were against him coming back and he would insist on coming back, but it was supposed to be later in the game. One source said it was a SummerSlam angle. HHH vs. Axel, which TV would lead you to believe is happening on the coming PPV (I haven’t been told that by anyone), was definitely not scheduled for Payback even a week ago, but the show being rewritten had to do with the realization they were going against a major NBA game. There are two arguments how to handle that. One is not do a hotshot this week because you’ve got a limited upside and wait for the night you originally planned it. The other is to avoid a low rating now at all costs, which is the decision that was made.
Vince now wants the arena booking department to look at the 2014 NBA playoff schedule when it ends up being released and see what Mondays are possible game sixes and sevens in the late rounds. The idea is to try and book Raw on those nights in cities like Philadelphia, Madison Square Garden, The Izod Center, Chicago, Montreal, Toronto or other markets with the idea they get the jump by starting at 8 p.m., and that fans will see the hot crowd and the hot open (which is why they put The Shield match on early and had Vince & Stephanie in the opening segment) with the feeling they would be less likely to tune out when the game starts.
Ziggler was cleared on 6/3 after his concussion, so he is likely to be added to the 6/16 Payback show in Chicago, against Del Rio for the title. The only official matches at this point are Cena vs. Ryback in the Three Stages of Hell match for the WWE title, Jericho vs. Punk and the IC title with Barrett vs. Miz vs. Fandango. Kaitlyn vs. A.J. for the Divas title has a good chance, and Sheamus vs. Sandow looks to be a direction. One would think Orton, Bryan
(getting a big win) and The Shield should be added as major matches. With Cena vs. Ryback doing three matches, the card would be expected to have less other matches than usual. They are building the Usos up for a tag title match against Reigns & Rollins that will either be on TV or this show, and based on the ending of Smackdown, Orton vs. Bryan could happen, where one would expect Bryan to go over since he’s scheduled for a title match. But even suppositions these days can jinx planned endings.
The reason Fandango had his start and stop originally is that the idea for the character was taken from the Patrick Swayze character in “Dirty Dancing.” It was Vince McMahon’s idea, but then Vince nixed it, thinking it wouldn’t fit with the current sponsors. Later, McMahon brought him back with the idea of being a Ballroom dancer with the “Dancing with the Stars” type persona. Curtis Hussey who plays the character (Jonathan is his middle name, which is where Johnny Curtis came from), said he figured he had two choices, either completely embrace the character, or go back to the Eastern Wrestling Alliance in Maine making $50 a match and working at Applebee’s (a previous job before he signed with WWE). It was noted that his theme was taken from the “I Dream of Jeannie” theme from the 60s. It was funny because I saw someone mention how Paul Heyman was humming the theme from “I Dream of Jeannie” in the elevator when they did that skit where they destroyed HHH’s office (it was the Fandango theme), and then realized they are pretty much the same thing. He said he first got interested in wrestling being a fan of the cruiserweight division in WCW, like Dean Malenko, Jericho, Mysterio, Guerrero and Juventud Guerrera. He also noted how Dwayne Johnson spent time with him and told about how he had to totally embrace the character, or else it’s not going to work and people will see through it.
WWE actually had a reference to Hector Garza’s passing away on the Raw show on 5/27. Ricardo Rodriguez snuck it into his Alberto Del Rio ring introduction with almost nobody knowing it since it was in Spanish.
For those who think the company doesn’t see Bryan as a main eventer, right now the penciled in main event for Money in the Bank on 7/14 in Philadelphia is Cena vs. Bryan, with Bryan not being a heel, as the title match. As you should be aware, everything is subject to change. It’s pretty much a sure thing Bryan will be cheered in that match, given the city, and they are fully aware of that. The impression is they won’t try and make him a heel but that’s certainly something that can change. I sense the goal for the next two months is try to make Cena a “legend” by beating Rock, surviving Ryback and then having a match of the year with Bryan.
Bret Hart apologized for making the joke about Pat Patterson on the 5/27 Raw in Calgary when Patterson kneeled in front of him to say he was the best Canadian wrestler ever and Hart said he gets nervous when Patterson is on his knees in front of him. “I sincerely apologize to anyone that was in any way offended by my in-ring joke to Pat Patterson on Monday especially to Pat, who I hold in the highest regard. I was only trying to take some of the edge off an emotionally challenging moment and I failed. The comment does not in any way reflect my feelings toward the gay and lesbian community.” In his case, that joke was so innocuous and even then obviously he got enough heat from it to where he had to respond quickly.
It’s funny how that segment, which was better than anything on Raw that night and better than anything on Raw most nights, didn’t air on Raw. And it’s not like in a three hour show they are so strapped for time given we had the 35th running of the Del Rio vs. Langston series and a women’s tag match that nobody could have possibly cared about and all the backstage stuff that wasn’t particularly good. Even Khali singing to Natalya, which was entertaining, was also something you’d forget 30 seconds later. This was one of those segments which years later everyone would have talked about as one of the better things on Raw, and because it’s not what they usually do, they didn’t put it on the air. The funny thing is, had it been scheduled for TV, it wouldn’t have been as good, because nobody scripted it. Every now and then you should be able to put guys like Pat Patterson, Vince McMahon, Michaels and Jericho on TV and just say, “Go out there for two minutes and say something nice about Bret Hart” and trust that it’ll make for good television. It really hit home when TNA essentially surprised Kurt Angle and how well it came off on television to have a real moment, even though it was largely unscripted.
Hart is talking about writing a second book. This would be about the life of his brother Owen. Bret Hart also is pushing for Owen Hart to be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.
In Japan, among the wrestlers, Keiji Muto and Tetsuya Naito have the insider reputation as the best at putting together a match. In WWE, Edge used to be considered one of the best by his peers. Of the current group, Jericho and Punk have the rep and Bryan is getting it. I used to think Bryan was fantastic at match layout in his ROH days. Bryan’s work with Reigns on Smackdown was really impressive and the fact he always has good matches against everyone, even Ryback, speaks volumes. Undertaker has the rep as well because he’s Undertaker. Cena’s rep is that he asks the right questions, totally understands what is needed, but lets the heels do a lot of it and lets Arn Anderson, who is his agent, come up with a lot of his stuff. Of the newer guys, Ambrose is starting to develop a good rep. HHH, Mysterio and Michaels also have good reps in this regard.
“Fast & Furious 6" with Dwayne Johnson as one of the lead stars remained No. 1 this past weekend at $35,164,440, although that was a second week drop of 64%, which from an industry standpoint is not considered good. Of all the major movies out there, it was the largest drop, but it’s also coming off a monster first week. After the weekend, the movie had done $171,003,955 in North America, and another $310 million outside of North America, for a $481 million gross.
Glenn Jacobs (Kane) will be speaking at a Campaign for Liberty meeting on 6/13 in Nashville against Internet sales tax, a subject he’s spoken about and written about a lot of late. It will take place in the back room of Logan’s Steakhouse, and is free and open to the public. Although Jacobs has said he is not running for office, in a press release for his speech, they wrote that Jacobs was rumored to be open to consider challenging Senator Lamar Alexander in the primary.
The WWE will be doing a camp very soon bringing in about 15 or so amateur wrestlers that Gerald Brisco had scouted. Canyon Ceman has been scouting in Colorado Springs looking at Olympic athletes. Brisco has been going to the major amateur meets. Jim Ross has opened a relationship with the National Football League Players Association and had a meeting with the NFLPA last week. Ross gave a speech to the union, because one of the things they do is help get players after their careers are over, new jobs. Because so many ex-footballers have been successful in pro wrestling historically, the idea is for the union to know that WWE is looking for guys who have that level of athletic ability that want to be pro wrestlers.
Regarding the already filmed TV show “Legends House,” there were reports that it was going to be on television of late and then George Barrios denied that at the last press call. The actual story is the original idea for the show was for the network when the network was going to debut the night of WrestleMania 28. When that wasn’t going to happen, it was planned for a station but it ended up being turned down. Of late, they were shopping it around again because of the feeling it was becoming dated and there is no start date in site for the network. But nobody wanted it, so now it’s back to being network exclusive.
Orton, in praising Axel, said he felt Axel had more pressure on him than he did because he felt Curt Hennig was better known than his own father. Regarding his being called Michael McGillicutty, Orton said, “That was just career suicide. But he made it through that. And I think anyone who can make it though having a name like McGillicutty for however many years he had it is a survivor.” I do think Axel is going to be an interesting test for a number of reasons. The first is, can WWE take a guy they buried for years and then make him a main eventer that people buy. Without Heyman, it would have been extremely difficult, although not impossible. With him, the odds are a lot better. Still, the last time I recall them doing this was R-Truth’s heel turn. He was very entertaining as a heel, drew a terrible PPV number against Cena and a very disappointing one in a match with Rock (granted, the whole premise of that match was flawed) and was soon in the middle, and then back face and has been in the same spot he was before the push ever since. The issue wasn’t that R-Truth failed, in as much as he wasn’t going to succeed in the snap of fingers. To make it work, it will take major patience. There’s no guarantee, but historically, WWE hasn’t had a lot of patience. Where this situation is different, is it’s HHH’s hand-picked project and after he’s had the failures with Kharma and Sin Cara, I think they will give Hennig every chance in the world rather than pull the plug in two months if it’s not an instant hit.
Swagger was off TV and house shows this week due to a hand injury, apparently a bad cut that required surgery. He is expected back on television at the end of the month, but if he’s in the ring, he’ll have to be careful. The official word is he can return with restrictions on how he’s used at the end of the month, and he’ll have full clearance in late August. Colter was shown on the app this week on his own cutting a promo, but was not used on TV.
Kingston had elbow surgery on 5/30. It was notable that on Raw this week they mentioned once in commentary, and once in a Ryback interview, about how Kingston had surgery on Thursday for injuries suffered when Ryback put him through the tables. Cole actually mentioned he had a pre-existing injury he was working through but now required surgery, while Ryback took full credit for taking him out and him needing surgery. What’s notable is that the injury didn’t even air until the Smackdown show the next day. Kingston had bone chips removed from the elbow. After surgery, the doctor’s orders were for him not to return until the end of July.
ROH’s Prince Nana was given an in-ring tryout before the show at the Raw tapings in Hartford. He had done some enhancement work a decade ago for WWE.
_________________ 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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that makes me very sad.
