Yes. It is back. There’s a lot to be said, and a lot more to expect. News & Analysis has returned, and I hope that all of our readers will once again show me love and appreciation. You guys have always been great in the past. There’s a new format for this section, but instead of talking about it, I’m just going to go ahead and start the report. It will not feel different at first, and it will take time for it to set in while I try out different things. No worries, as time goes on, you’ll catch up…
WEDNESDAY NEWS UPDATE
The big news today is that WWE has finally decided to take action when it comes to the creative end of things within the company. It’s been recognized internally for a while now that the creative team has been struggling, as a combination of the small amount of people involved and the poor writing has resulted in bad future planning. WWE is planning to change the situation by bringing in a “manager” of sorts that will look over the creative teams and be the man who will work as a conduit between the writers and the ultimate decision maker in Vince McMahon. That person will also be given the hard task of looking at the “big picture” by focusing on long-term storylines, and working with the creative team to improve the situation. Since this is quite an important role, it is expected for that “manager” or “editor” to be someone who understands the business well. The only name I can think of is Paul Heyman, but that’s just me. At any rate, interviews have already begun, according to sources. WWE is also looking to hire a few more writers to their small team. Word has it that they will be looking for experienced people who know what they’re doing.
RAW scored a very good 4.2 rating (6.8 share) this past Monday night on SpikeTV, coming off of hours 4.0 and 4.4. That’s the highest number the show has done in a while. There’s a lot to be drawn out of this. WWE will probably decide that storylines such as Matt/Lita/Kane are drawing ratings for them, and they will pursue more of that in the future. Another point to make is, imagine what this number would have been if they had advertised Rock’s appearance in advance. Now is the time for them to pull in the ratings, but only good writing and wrestling will do it.
Speaking of RAW, there seems to be a bit of a confusion as to who the person in drag was that helped Victoria after her math with Trish this past Monday night. It was indeed Steven Richards in drag. It seems like the company has decided to once again pair Victoria and Stevie together. We never really got an explanation as to why they broke up in the first place.
In other RAW notes, Chris Jericho did end up getting his bell rung during the tag match against Orton and Batista. He was feeling shakey backstage, but was later on in the program said to be OK. He left the arena with Edge. Also, Shane McMahon was at the show, which has been happening less as of late due to the recent birth of his child.
WWE has removed Scott Steiner’s bio from the RAW Superstars page over at WWE.com. For those of you unaware of Steiner’s situation, he won’t be coming back to the company and is pretty much done with them.
WWE announced today that they have officially sold out their SummerSlam PPV this August in Toronto. As usual, it is expected that more tickets are released once the set up of the arena is done and the company finds out how many additional seats that will give them.
The company did post its quarter revenues the other day for the quarter that included the big WrestleMania XX gain. Total revenues were reported to be at $126.7 million dollars compared to $105.9 million for the same quarter last year. I think it’s fair to say that WrestleMania XX did a lot for the company.
In other news that came from Linda McMahon’s conference call on Tuesday, WWE will be taping an edition of RAW and one of SmackDown in the UK for the first time ever in October (tentatively scheduled at the time for October 11 and 12). And in what has been a move long in the making, UK viewers will have to start paying for PPV events beginning in 2005. Yes, if you didn’t know, most PPVs have been broadcasted for free in the UK for the past decade.
Several known names were working dark matches at this week’s TV. David Heath worked on RAW under his real name. You might remember him as Gangrel from WWF TV. He was simply visiting with old friends backstage, when he was asked to work a match, and he agreed. He also worked a tag match on SmackDown against the Bashams, with Dennis Knight (Mideon) as his partner. Knight has been lobbying to get a job with the company for a while now. Another wrestler who worked both shows in try-out dark matches, also trying to get a deal with the company, was former WCW superstar Norman Smiley.
In what should be considered a tremendous deal, WWE.com is offering the Great American Bash PPV Webcast this Sunday for $34.95. Of course, this is higher than the usual price, but the deal is worth it as they’re offering the following extras with your purchase:
– Ric Flair vs. Lex Luger, Great American Bash 1988 – First ever Bash
– Bret Hart vs. Bam Bam Bigelow, King of the Ring, 1993 – Finals
– The ENTIRE 1995 Great American Bash, with Ric Flair vs. Randy Savage as the main event
– Hulk Hogan/Bret Hart vs. Roddy Piper/Randy Savage, Great American Bash 1998
– Undertaker vs. Mankind, King of the Ring 1998 (The storied Hell in a Cell)
– Goldberg vs. Konnan, Great American Bash, 1998 – Goldberg was 99-0 at this point
– Chris Jericho vs. Dean Malenko, Great American Bash 1998 – a great match
– And a special interview with Ric Flair
For more information visit wwe.com/ppv.
Dawn Marie and John Cena will be appearing on WWE Byte This! tomorrow (Thursday) at 4 PM ET.
In other “Appearances” news, Bill Goldberg is expected to be on FOX Sports Net’s Best Damn Sports Show Period tonight. Check your local listings for more information.
It should be mentioned that looking back in history, today, June 23, is quite a day for WWE. On this date in 1996, Steve Austin defeated Jake “the Snake” Roberts in the final match of the King of the Ring tournament, and began a new era in the business, and coined one of the biggest catch phrases in wrestling on the way — making fun of Roberts’ gimmick (“born again”), Austin said during his coronation “You talk about John 3:16, well Austin 3:16 says I just whooped your ass!” The rest was history. In another historical note, the same King of the Ring tournament (as well as PPV) held its last edition on this date in 2002, when Brock Lesnar was successful in the final match where he defeated Rob Van Dam.
IGN.com conducted an interview with Dusty Rhodes, where he talked about the upcoming Legends of Wrestling game among other topics. I found the first line of the article funny — “When I think Dusty Rhodes, I think blood.” Well, so do I. Anyway, you can check out the interview here.
On some OVW news, they’ve asked Nova (Mike Bucci) to work some extra duties in training the talent, and also work closer with Jim Cornette as far as booking goes. That move is mostly due to the absence of Nick Dinsmore (Eugene), who’s now full time with WWE. In another tidbit, WWE Champion Eddie Guerrero will be with OVW for their Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom show on July 9. He’s teaming with Mac Johnson and Seth Skyfire in a six man tag against the Jersey Shore Crew. Guerrero is also scheduled for a signing session with fans before the show.
On the NWA-TNA front of things, the company is set to air their Second Anniversary show tonight on PPV. There’s been a lot of noise as to who will face AJ Styles for the X-Division Championship. It has been revealed, and confirmed by the official site of the challenger, that it will be no other than Jeff Hardy. This is a one-time deal he has with TNA, and he’s not expected to be on Impact or any other TNA program for the time being. I think that’s a great move by TNA.
The following comes from Brian Stull, host of “The Stranglehold” wrestling radio show, and has been reprinted from PWInsider.com. I think it’s worth reading:
In what was meant to be a a phone call checking on his condition, Kid Kash shared that while he has indeed suffered a broken fibula, if this was ECW he would be more than willing to wrestle through the pain.
Kash stated his frustration with TNA comes from only a select group of wrestlers being allowed to have merchandise such as T-shirts and videos, delays on receiving royalties on what promotional items have been made, and the basic salaries paid to the wrestlers.
The big payouts to Lex Luger-types, the independent booking fee, and backstage politics were also mentioned by Kash–who has previously asked for his release from TNA, which may be willing to grant it with a 90-day non-compete provision.
A perceived favoritism to certain wrestlers (Raven, AMW, Styles) combined with things such as water no longer being provided to drink in the locker room, has affected the morale of other wrestlers in TNA–who feel they have no real alternative until WWE knocks at the door.
And that will do it for this edition of News & Analysis. It feels good to be back. I hope you enjoyed the news. There will be more changes to the format soon. In a final note, I’d like to thank Joanna for the wonderful graphics she’s been providing us with. They really helped freshen things up in the period of recreation at the site. She’s also done that in the past, and always quite well if I may add. If you want to drop her a line, you can just e-mail me and I’ll send her the message. Thanks Jo for the pictures as well as the support when the site was getting back up.
