INSIDE THE RING NEWSLETTER
Edition 43
By Trevor Hunnicutt and Eddie T.
Breaking News – Triple H Injures Neck
by Eddie T.
Mike Johnson of PWInsider.com reported today that Triple H has injured his neck following the Monday Night RAW tapings this week. The incident was quite scary, as later on in the night it caused Triple H to collapse backstage. It originally happened during the handicap match against Hurricane and Rosey, when Rosey did the big leg drop, but a bump Triple H took in the closing segment of the show (interview with Batista) reaggrivated the injury causing him to collapse backstage. There’s no update as of how severe the injury is, but things are not looking good for The Game. Stephanie McMahon, who was supposed to be visiting OVW today (more on that below) cancelled last minute. The Billion Dollar Princess didn’t even attend the SmackDown tapings on Tuesday night, so that should tell you how serious the injury was. Stay tuned to TheBalrogsLair.com and Inside the Ring Newsletter, as we continue to update you on what could be a major news story here!
Here is the post by Mike Johnson over at PWInsider.com:
Triple H injured his neck at the Raw taping this past Monday with the injury being so bad that at one point, he collapsed backstage.
According to several sources, the initial injury occurred during Triple H’s handicap match against Hurricane and Rosey when Rosey legdropped H and landed on his neck and head. At one point, it was thought Triple H may have had suffered a concussion as well, but we don’t have the concussion confirmed at this time.
After the handicap match, H spent a lot of time backstage icing down his neck and keeping a towel around it. He went back out for the show closing angle with Jim Ross and WWE World champion Batista and reaggravated the neck injury while taking a bump during the segment, as he collapsed upon arrival backstage at the gorilla position after the angle.
It is believed that Triple H’s injury was the reason why the scheduled dark match main event (Shawn Michaels and Batista vs. Ric Flair and Triple H) was canceled. John Borchardt, who attended the Raw taping, sent word on Tuesday morning that Earl Hebner ran down from the back and yelled to ring announcer Lillian Garcia that there was no tag match.
It also appears Triple H’s neck injury may have prevented Stepanie McMahon from traveling to Louisville, Kentucky with other members of WWE management and the creative team today to scout WWE’s developmental talent in Ohio Valley Wrestling. The scouting went on for about four hours during this afternoon’s training session, with the writers heading home prior to tonight’s OVW TV taping.
This Week’s Ratings
by Eddie T.
To follow up on last issue’s ratings report, here are the full WWE and UFC rating reports fromt he past few days. They are quite interesting.
This week’s edition of Monday Night RAW did a 4.1 rating (6 share), off of hours of 4.0 and 4.1. This is a solid score, but one can’t help but wonder what will the number be like next week, seeing as the show wasn’t good last night.
Experience did a 0.8 (2.3 share), while Heat did a 0.9 (1.6 share), which is rather high for both shows.
Of course, UFC was the big story in the ratings in the past few days. As reported earlier, the finale of The Ultimate Fighter on SpikeTV scored a 1.9 rating (now said to be at a 3.5 share). The replay of the special, following RAW on Monday night, did a 1.2 cable rating (3.4 share). Both scores are very good, with the Saturday one being very good news for both SpikeTV and UFC. There was no Monday RAW to lead UFC in, which makes a 1.9 score for a 2 and a half hour show on Saturday night tremendous. So good, that SpikeTV actually sent out a press release today, bragging about it.
In an interesting comparison, the two episodes of CSI before RAW did a 1.8 and a 2.3 respectively.
Why Hardy, Molly, and Others Were Let Go by WWE
by Eddie T.
There’s been a lot of discussion online as to why the recent WWE cuts took place, especially when it comes to Matt Hardy‘s case, so I wanted to clear up the reasons behind the events of the past few days.
The Matt Hardy release was indeed related to the Edge/Lita situation. However, to say that Hardy was released simply because the company felt there’s going to be too much tension backstage now that Lita is with someone else (and cheated on Matt) is not right. The reason Hardy was let go was mainly due to the fact that he was the one to make noise about the situation (indirectly). It is believed that he got a lot of heat on him when a close associate of his contacted Internet websites about the situation. That’s a big no-no in WWE, seeing as management hates it when their talent spreads rumors and news to the Internet. Although Hardy didn’t do it himself, the company was aware that information leaked through him. When it was obvious that they couldn’t go on the way things were, WWE figured that Edge was more important to them than Hardy was, and the rest is history. A few of you may note here that it is not WWE’s business to barge into the personal relationships of its employees, and you would be absolutely right. However, when tension arises backstage and it creates for an unhealthy environment to work in, they would definitely step in. Also, it should be noted that there’s more to Hardy’s release than just the Lita-Edge situation. Word has it that his release was also partially due to underlying heat with Talent Relations head John Laurinatis, dating back to 2001. That was the year Ace came from WCW to the WWE, and many of the WWF (back then) stars at the time felt unhappy with someone coming over from WCW and telling them what to do since they felt as the superior product (WWF) should have more say in what goes on. Obviously, Laurinatis gained power through the years and ended up taking Jim Ross’s job of head of Talent Relations, which backfired on Hardy, who was one of the people that were vocal against Ace. Reports say that Hardy has been “burned out” by everything that he’s gone through in the past several months (and his posts on the board over at his website reflect that), and getting released will help him move on for the time being. The boys in the back feel that it was mistake to let go of him, as he’s known for being a well liked guy, who works very hard. Hardy can’t work for any other wrestling organization in the next 90 days, after which he’s free to do so. I’m guessing TNA is already on it.
When it comes to Molly Holly, it was actually her decision to leave the company, as she requested her own release. Sources say she did so on Monday in a 15 minute conversation with Johnny Ace. She had asked for a push as a face before requesting her release, but the answer was that WWE didn’t feel she fits the role well and couldn’t do that for her. Also, word’s been going around that Molly has been questioning as of late, whether or not she is interested in staying in pro wrestling or leaving it altogether, so you can see how all of this affects her release.
Jesus was let go because WWE felt that his injuries would not allow him to once again work a full-time WWE schedule. His physical conditioning will simply not return to 100%, which can only tell you how severe the injury was.
As far as OVW worker Will Jones goes, the word on him is that he wasn’t improving as fast as WWE management felt he should be, and he didn’t have enough support (Eric Angle everybody?) to push for him to be kept under any developmental deal.
WWE News & Notes
by Eddie T.
Vince McMahon’s amazing recovery from the freak injury he suffered at the Royal Rumble PPV continues. Vince tore both his quad muscles in a freaky fall at the PPV. At any rate, not only has he been back to TV tapings for a couple of weeks now, but he was said to be very energetic and animated during this week’s RAW taping. To recover so quick from such a tough injury at his age is absolutely miraculous. We wish Vince a full recovery even sooner!
Stephanie McMahon and other members of WWE management were supposed to go to the OVW territory today to check out the talent’s development. Stephanie endend up canceling her appearance there, but John Laurinaitis, Ted DiBiase, Ed Koskey, David Lagana and Brian Gewirtz all went. They will be watching the OVW matches, as well as everyone cutting a promo. It should be interesting.
WWE’s support of the troops continues. They have signed a deal with the Armed Force Networks to air RAW and SmackDown only 24 hours after the actual shows air. Up until now, the shows have aired with a month delay. Definitely good news for the troops, or at least those there who care about WWE. You can read more HERE, but be aware that the link was down a minute ago for some odd reason.
This is not exactly a newsworthy item, but I found it both hilarious and scary at the same time. I won’t even discuss it – Just simply click on the link below to check out the cover of the newest “The Source” hip hop magazine out there. Apparently “WWF” lives… TheSource.com
MMA News & Notes
by Eddie T.
The following is the card for this Saturday’s highly-anticipated UFC 52 PPV. The main event, as most of you probably know by now, is what some are calling the most anticipated rematch in the history of UFC, as Randy Couture goes one-on-one with Chuck Liddell and hopes to defend his Light Heavyweight Championship belt:
*George St. Pierre vs. Jason Miller
*Matt Lindland vs. Travis Lutter
*Matt Hughes vs. Frank Trigg for the welterweight title
*Renato Babalu Sobral vs. Travis Wiuff (if there’s enough time)
*Randy Couture vs. Chuck Liddell for the light heavyweight title
Dave Meltzer is reporting that these are the planned dark matches for the event:
*John Mash vs. Mike Van Arsdale
*Joe Riggs vs. Ivan Salaverry
*Joe Doerkson vs. Patrick Cote
UFC President, Dana White, claims that a $3 million gate will be made off the PPV, which is still said to be a ridiculous number. Although it’s clear that there will be a lot of money made off of this show, the number is farfetched. UFC does a lot of last minute walk-up business, so it’ll depend on how well that goes. There’s still a little less than 1,000 tickets left for the event on Saturday. It should be a good fight.
According to MGM Grand, Couture is -220 and Liddell is +170, and Hughes is -200 and Trigg is +160 in the lines up. Only those two matches are on there.
Benji “Razor” Radach is once again forced to rest and stay away from any fights due to an injury. This one being more severe, as apparently he found out that he has a bulging disc in his neck that will require surgery. That takes him out of action for an year. We wish him a speedy recovery.
David Terrel is still in Brazil and according to several websites, he’s very close to signing with Brazilian Top Team, which came as a surprise to his former coach – Cesar Gracie.
This Day In History
I don’t like copying and pasting someone else’s work, but on this special occassion, I felt that Buck Woodward did a great job of summarizing what was one of the most interesting days in pro wrestling history. On April 13, 2000…
In an incredible story, WWF’s Tazz defeated WCW’s Mike Awesome for the ECW World Heavyweight Title in Indianapolis, Indiana.
At the end of a Tommy Dreamer vs. Tajiri match, the whole locker room had emptied into the ring, then brawled to the back. At this point, Mike Awesome and Judge Jeff Jones entered the ring through the crowd. They were greeted with chants of “You sold out” and “RVD.” Jones got on the mic and commented that since everyone in ECW had just “kicked each other’s asses”, there was no one left to face Awesome. He then said that no wrestler in any promotion could take out Mike Awesome. The EKG beeps that open Tazz’ WWF music hit, and the whole building turned to the entranceway with open mouths and looks of “no way” across their faces. As the guitar riff came in, Tazz walked out to a thunderous ovation. The match started, and lasted only three minutes, as the referee was knocked out, and Awesome went for a chair. Tommy Dreamer then hit the ring and DDT’d Awesome (which was storyline payback for Awesome trying to collect a bounty on him). Awesome slowly got up, and Tazz applied the Tazzmission for the win. Awesome went back out through the crowd, and Tazz took the mic and explained that he came back because when he left he did business “the right way” and that he just showed Awesome the right way by making him tap out. Tommy Dreamer then raised his hand, and Tazz then did his old tag line “I’m Taz, the ECW World Heavyweight Champion. Beat me if you can, survive if I let you.”
So how did this all come about? Well, on Wednesday, April 12th, Paul Heyman knew that Awesome would drop the title on Thursday, as per the agreement with WCW, but had to decide who to give it to. He had the idea about Tazz, and contacted the WWF, who agreed (and probably loved the idea of a WWF wrestler defeating WCW’s newest star on television) and it went to Tazz, who agreed to do the match. It was kept quiet, and had someone in the ECW locker room not called out with the info when Tazz arrived at the building, no one would have known until the match began. Still, the story leaked out too late for the crowd in Indianapolis to find out, and the match came off as a huge surprise.
At the actual event, Mike Awesome never came to the back. He stayed at his hotel with WCW security chief Doug Dillenger and several cops until the match was to begin. He showed up at the building 15 minutes before the match, went in, lost, and went back out through the crowd and left. All contact between Awesome and ECW for the purposes of this match was done over cell phones. Awesome was noticeably nervous during the match, and his hands were shaking. However, it was made clear between the parties that no one was going to “try anything”. Tazz was told not to “shoot” on Awesome or try to hurt him, unless he was in a situation where he had to defend himself.
Contact Us:
Eddie T. — Levski11 at aol.com
Trevor Hunnicutt — THunnicutt at aol.com
