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**Knick Killer** · 09-19-2012, 05:14 PM

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Originally Posted by XxIrvingxX

Good god Christian. Man just can't stay healthy .

No kidding. It's a shame cause he's one of my favorites(if not favorite).

**Headliner** · 10-03-2012, 03:05 PM

Last week's double issue. This week's issue should be out tonight so I'll post that eventually.

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Some more background of the situation regarding Cena getting mad at WWE.com. Apparently at the TV tapings when Cena was getting surgery, Vince McMahon told the agents, writers and everyone, including WWE.com, that Cena would only be out of action for two weeks with the arthroscopic elbow surgery. He told the web site to do three stories on it to maximize hits and to call Dr. James Andrews but report on it as if he was going to be out two weeks. This may have been after the original story that listed him being out six weeks, since the story first was six weeks, then two, then six to eight. Cena got out of surgery, saw that it was listed he was going to be out for only two weeks, which he knew wasn’t the case because there was more damage to his right elbow than originally thought, and blew up at the web site. With Cena having issues with his back, hip, elbow and neck and being such a workhorse for all these years, and now being 35, there has been talk for months about who is the next guy. Some, sensing Vince now 67, have said that the next guy after Cena may be Vince’s last ever hand-picked top guy. While Cena is not going to be replaced on top until his body breaks down or the public tires of him (and booing him isn’t tiring of him if he’s still the biggest draw, which he clearly is aside from guest appearances by once or twice a year guys like Lesnar, Undertaker or Rock), there is the feeling you have to think about the future as Vince has never gone with anyone older than 40 as his top guy because the feeling is he cuts bait early and moves on. He did tell both the traveling and non-traveling writing staff and the Raw and Smackdown crews that the emphasis now is on angles and stories for Sheamus. The idea is that Punk is a heel and isn’t going to be the guy, plus in their minds of what “the guy” is supposed to look like, Punk doesn’t fit. I heard it questioned because of the feeling by many that Sheamus is a very viable star, and No. 3 babyface, but the character he plays wouldn’t be right as the face of the company. HHH is behind him, sensing he’s big enough and dedicated enough as well as loyal enough. The other knock is that Sheamus himself is almost 35, and if they are grooming the next guy for Cena’s spot, they should be looking at someone who is 25. But the way WWE developmental turns out the clones, almost everyone is solid at the basics and almost nobody comes in as a break-out level guy. It’s not like 1996 when Dwayne Johnson showed up at 24 and many of the major decision makers all figured that by the time he would be 27, he’d be the guy leading the company (before anyone figured out how big Austin was going to get).

Edge will be undergoing another neck operation on 11/8 and won’t be able to do much of anything for four months. It’s possible that has something to do with Phoenix giving notice since after surgery he’s going to need a lot of help.

We’ve been told a few times in the last week that as surprising as this is, Madison Square Garden is considered a possibility as the host for WrestleMania XXX in 2014. The two things against it are only having about 18,000 seats when the demand will likely be there for 60,000 or more, and going two straight years in the same market. The flip side is the history, with Mania I, X and XX all at the Garden.

TNA

There are talks going on to create a Hogan’s Restaurant in the Tampa area as the backdrop for a reality show. The idea of the show is that Hulk Hogan is now in the restaurant business. The restaurant Crabby Bill’s Beach Club in Tampa that was purchased by Ben Mallah, a business partner of Hogan’s a few months ago would be the show’s backdrop. The partner is the same partner who helped put together the Hulk Hogan merchandise beachfront shop in Clearwater Beach.

Good thing Edge got out when he did. I can't imagine what shape his neck would be in if he was still wrestling. Could of possibly been paralyzed.

**Headliner** · 10-03-2012, 03:50 PM

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- With WrestleMania 29 discussions happening within WWE, there is now talk of doing Randy Orton vs. Sheamus for the World Heavyweight Title next year.

Officials are actually trying harder than usual to keep WrestleMania plans for Brock Lesnar, The Rock, John Cena, CM Punk, Triple H and The Undertaker quiet because the idea is they will build the Royal Rumble up into a big show where a lot of different angles will begin or at least everything will fall into place then.

As noted, Rey Mysterio vs. Sin Cara is a likely match. We also noted that Ryback vs. The Undertaker has been discussed a Streak vs. Streak build. Apparently this is a Vince McMahon idea. Other possible opponents for The Undertaker include Brock Lesnar and Triple H. This is unlikely but Punk vs. Taker was at least suggested internally.

There's no way Taker's facing Triple H again, or Ryback. If he's not facing Brock or Cena, then he doesn't need to be at Mania.

XxIrvingxX · 10-03-2012, 04:52 PM

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Originally Posted by Headliner

Last week's double issue. This week's issue should be out tonight so I'll post that eventually.

Good thing Edge got out when he did. I can't imagine what shape his neck would be in if he was still wrestling. Could of possibly been paralyzed.

WWE needs to stop looking at the big guys and start focusing on the people the WWE wants to see. The problem is that they don't know how to do that. The business has changed so drastically as has the majority of the fan base that now there's too many divided opinions among WWE's fan base. They need to somehow find that one guy that everyone is happy with being the top guy. That's almost impossible in this day and age.

**Knick Killer** · 10-03-2012, 05:57 PM

I don't see anyone on NXT becoming the next "guy" in the company. WWE better hope Cena doesn't retire anytime soon.

Also Ryback vs. Undertaker in a Streak vs. Streak match would be really cool but there's no way Ryback could stay undefeated all the way to Wrestlemania especially if he's going to feud with Punk.

XxIrvingxX · 10-05-2012, 07:22 PM

I don't care if Ryback stayed undefeated till Wrestlemania, Ryback vs Undertaker is a complete waste of a match, no matter what way you look at it. Ryback isn't a bonafied big name, which are the only kinds of people Taker should be facing at Wrestlemania these days.

**BlueBaron** · 10-06-2012, 09:40 AM

They need to get Colt Cabana. A Cabana/Punk feud would be epic.

**Headliner** · 10-06-2012, 11:21 AM

Ryback facing Taker would be bad for Ryback. The fans would turn on him. Not to mention you can't go backwards with high profile matches in regards to Taker. He's basically main-evented (even if he didn't go last) the last six Mania's with high profile matches against big names. Brock, Cena and even Rock are the only guys that can face him at this point. Everyone else would be disappointment.

News from this week from the Observer:

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Shawn Daivari, 28, got some TMZ pub this past week due to an incident that took place on 9/27. Daivari was on public transportation headed to the Minneapolis airport. There was a passenger in his care that became violent, started shouting racial slurs and people and was saying he was going to kill people. Multiple people reportedly pressed the emergency button for help. Daivari, watching, waited and nobody came. Daivari said to TMZ.com, “I wasn’t going to wait any longer to see if a cop showed up.” Daivari said he went after the guy, took him down, got behind him, and choked him out. Then when the train came to a stop, he threw out him out the door. A witness said that the guy pissed all over himself as he was being choked out.

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TNA

Scott Rechsteiner, 50, filed a countersuit against TNA on 9/10 in Nashville charging a breach of contract. Steiner claimed that TNA never provided him accounting of royalties statements on merchandise and that the company had failed to pay him all his royalties. TNA had sued Rechsteiner in June after he had gone crazy on the Internet ripping the company, Hulk Hogan and especially Eric Bischoff. Rechsteiner claimed in his defense of the lawsuit that he never agreed not to disparage the company, nor did he believe what he said constituted a breach of contract, noting that when he said all the things he said, he was no longer under contract. He asked for TNA’s suit against him to be thrown out.

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WWE

In addition to Sheamus, as mentioned last week, the other guy they are looking at to be a top guy is Barrett.

Right now for Hell in a Cell, the basic plan is Punk vs. Cena and Sheamus vs. Show in the title matches for Hell in a Cell, plus Kane & Bryan defending the tag titles against Rhodes & Sandow (who were scheduled to win the No. 1 contenders tournament), plus Mysterio & Sin Cara vs. O’Neil & Young. There was a plan in the tag tourney for Mysterio & Sin Cara to lose to Rhodes & Sandow in the finals due to getting screwed by O’Neil & Young. Another match it looks like they are doing is Orton vs. Del Rio.

Not sure what happened, but there were talks with WWE and Jericho about a new contract while he was away touring with Fozzy about a new deal. The talks just fell through. This time it was WWE that made the decision to pass on negotiations. The deal was for him to do limited dates, during down time from touring or other entertainment things. I think he wanted control of his outside activities as well. Essentially something similar to Mick Foley except with Foley, even though they use him sparingly, when they ask him to come, he’ll always come. In the Jericho situation, he’d have tours or other entertainment stuff and during those periods he would be unavailable. He was looking at maybe 40 or 50 dates a year and would work full-time for cycles. For example, this month, he could have come back, worked a regular house show scheduled, and been on TV building up to the PPV. In the end, it appears it was the control issue, in the sense he would let them know a few months in advance what period he’s available and do his own thing at other times. They wanted a deal where wrestling would be his priority and there was the control issue regarding outside projects, although they’ve worked through that in the past. Come Mania season, who knows what will happen but he was open for a return this month and they passed. Kind of surprising with the depth issue and also the issue of trying to elevate new talent and he’s willingly lose in that right way to help give those guys credibility since when he came back this last time and it was temporary, he lost almost all the time. But he only wants a part-time deal, working a regular schedule in between other gigs as well as helping developmental.

MVP (Hassan Assad, 38), is considering returning. He left on his own. He wasn’t getting any push when he left, and was a big fan of New Japan Pro Wrestling in the 90s Three Musketeer era so wanted to work there as a regular before he got too old. There was always the thought of coming back at some point.

Regarding the WWE women, the feeling is there were two kinds of women that come in. There are those who are models who see WWE as a television stepping stone to being noticed and using the notoriety, and those who come in to be wrestlers, with Phoenix and Natalya being the prime example. Those close to the situation say it’s harder on the ones who come to be wrestlers because they take it seriously and it’s easy to get frustrated because there is no rewarding being good in the ring, and you get almost no TV time to show if you can do matches. The others are willing to do their few years, hope it leads to a break, and get out or they get you out when you start getting offers and want to make your own decisions.

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WWE Raw rating 15 year low

There was a lot of talk, and we pretty much last week had predicted that Raw would likely sink to a 15-year low on 10/1. There were a number of factors involved. The key one was a Chicago Bears vs. Dallas Cowboys (12.28 rating; 16.62 million viewers, up from an 11.95 rating and 16.17 million viewers the prior week) featuring two teams with strong national followings at a time when football is doing more of a number on Raw on Monday than most years. The three-hour experiment appeared to be a failure from the start, but it’s been far worse than imaginable. Two other factors were that John Cena, the company’s biggest draw, was not on the show, although that was not advertised ahead of time. But whatever bump the Cena segment would have wasn’t there. But the negative is nothing was advertised for the show.

The 9/24 show did the second lowest rating and lowest actual audience (since there is the slow erosion in people with cable) for a non-holiday episode of Raw in nearly 15 years. That show still had Cena, and also had the hook of Jerry Lawler’s first appearance on the show, even though he wasn’t live in the arena, since his near fatal heart attack. But it got killed by a strong NFL game.

This week, the NFL game was stronger. Raw was weaker. The weight of the three hour shows continue to hurt the company. The depth of star power to the public is not there due to it being something of a rebuilding period in attempting to make new stars. And that’s a necessary evil. There are also segments that have worked for the live audience, in particular all the Kane & Daniel Bryan stuff, that have been huge turn-offs to the television audience.

The result was a 2.54 rating and 3.50 million viewers. That’s down 279,000 viewers from the previous week’s 15-year non-holiday low, set the week before with 3.78 million viewers. As far as ratings go, you have to go back to October 27, 1997, when the NFL had a 1997 Super Bowl rematch with the Green Bay Packers vs. New England Patriots, and Nitro head-to-head did 4.32 rating for a show headlined by Ric Flair vs. Randy Savage and Hulk Hogan vs. Diamond Dallas Page. Raw that night did a 2.29 rating for a show with Bret Hart vs. Ken Shamrock and the Legion of Doom vs. Savio Vega & Miguel Perez.

**Headliner** · 10-06-2012, 11:24 AM

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Brock Lesnar's PPV worth

So what was the value of Brock Lesnar to WWE after the SummerSlam numbers came in? Was he worth his big contract for a few dates?

What SummerSlam showed is he likely still moved numbers to a good degree. And in the big picture, he’s a success, but it’s not as cut and dried.

We’ll use last year’s number as a base, which may not be fair for a number of reasons. The first is that almost every WWE PPV is up from last year, for whatever reason one wishes to attribute it to. Either the WWE is getting better at convincing a slightly smaller television audience to order shows, or presenting more attractive shows, or the generally strong shows have helped, less competition in the marketplace, and probably a combination of everything.

So going with last year’s number as the base may be giving Lesnar too much credit. Or you can look at this year’s SummerSlam lineup and then take Lesnar off the card, which would have made the lineup weaker than last year, so maybe it would all balance out.

If we go with the idea that WWE gets $21 per PPV buy in North America and $13 outside (not exact but not far off), the 84,000 increase in North America (180,000 to 264,000 this year) was worth $1,764,000. However, the 45,000 decrease international (131,000 to 86,000) comes at a cost of about $585,000. So as compared to last year, the company took in about $1,179,000 more on the show.

Extreme Rules was up about $828,000 in revenue from the prior year. That was domestic growth from 108,000 to 154,000, and international growth from 108,000 to 109,000.

It was to be expected the first show would be his most valuable which was the argument against putting it on a “B” show where you aren’t going to get as many casual buys. Whether Lesnar vs. John Cena would have more marquee value in 2012 than Lesnar vs. HHH is hard to say. Lesnar vs. Cena was kind of a dream match. Lesnar vs. HHH had more of a long-term build instead of being rushed out there. So it was bigger star vs. bigger angle.

The international weakness of SummerSlam was not expected. Domestic should be moved more given Lesnar is a far bigger star in the United States and Canada due to UFC, than he is overseas where UFC doesn’t have the same level of television exposure and popularity. But the significant decline is hard to explain.

There’s also the value of HHH being on the show, but at this point Lesnar’s match value (not his value because there is an opponent who is the other half of both matches) would be about $2,007,000. If Lesnar is doing three PPVs and his contract was for $3 million, then they are ahead of the game so far. But I don’t know about Lesnar leaving a company where he made $3 million per fight for $3 million for a year. If the rumored $5 million figure is accurate, then pro rata, they are behind a little.

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**Headliner** · 10-19-2012, 11:42 AM

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Creative is in the expected quandary over the Punk vs. Ryback finish. Besides the obvious, that it’s a Hell in a Cell so they can’t do a DQ finish, don’t want to beat Ryback, don’t want to change the title before Royal Rumble, they also don’t want to end the show with a screwjob. They also don’t want to end the show with Sheamus vs. Show. Anyway, one or more things that they don’t want to do they are going to be forced to do. One idea fans are bouncing around is Lesnar interference which would lead to Ryback losing, and then going to Lesnar vs. Ryback at Mania. There are a lot of aspects to that. First, that would mean HHH wouldn’t get his revenge. Second, Lesnar is still actually drawing significant and would that be the case if he loses to Ryback? Also, there is the expense of Lesnar on another PPV above what he is contracted for. It’s not like these are things that can’t be overcome, but not only does it screw up HHH’s program, but there is a very significant economic expense to consider.

Regarding the situation with C.M. Punk and the fan, named Charles Schmidt, Schmidt declined to press charges for the incident, so the Sacramento police dropped the case. Schmidt had no visible bruising, although did say that his knee hurt later. He did talk about considering getting a lawyer. Based on WWE taking the blame for their security not being in place, my guess is that if Schmidt wanted to pursue it, WWE would quickly settle with him. The building security was mad about the incident blaming WWE, because they said if WWE had told them they were looking at having a wrestler jump into the crowd at that time and they were ready, none of this would have happened.

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TNA is attempting to get Scott Rechsteiner's (Scott Steiner) lawsuit against the company thrown out on a technicality. Rechsteiner countersued TNA after they had first filed suit against him, claiming he had violated his contract by his negative comments over the company, Dixie Carter, Hogan and Eric Bischoff on twitter, and that he had continued to do so after been told not to and threatened with a suit. Rechsteiner claimed to have not been paid royalties as per his contract nor given accurate accounting of merchandise and DVD sales that he was to get royalties from. TNA responded saying that in his contract, if a talent has an issue with royalties on merchandise sales, they must go to the company with that problem and the company has 30 days to rectify it. TNA claimed that Rechsteiner never went to the company in the first place to start that 30 days. A judge will rule on this motion on 10/26.

You can take this story any way you'd like to. The Austin Aries interview at the end of Impact was completely different than the scripted version. It was supposed to be a heel turn and he was supposed to give Jeff Hardy a low blow and a brainbuster. The question is whether they are going back to the old WCW days and working the boys. My reaction, an assumption I was told was way off base, is that somebody in power wanted to do a copy of C.M. Punk, which in fact, it was. The question was whether Aries went into business for himself or they were trying to work everyone in the company by pretending Aries went into business for himself. I always lean toward working the boys because of Eric Bischoff's M.O. Aries came out with this piece of paper which he claimed was a script, and talked about how all the things he's been saying on his promos, and his being a nice guy to fans, well, those are all the things he was scripted to do but he's no longer following the script. That stuff can only be done effectively once because it's pathetic when people don't buy it. Everyone knows they got worked by Punk, which was cool. There is nothing worse than watching pro wrestling for two hours and then being told when the show ends that everything you watched was scripted bullshit.

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The latest in the Hulk Hogan/Bubba the Love Sponge deal was Bubba going on the offensive on Howard Stern on 10/17.

Bubba started by telling Stern that he was only kidding when he offered his wife Heather to sleep with him, saying he just considered it an ongoing joke and never thought Stern would take him up on it. Regarding setting up Hogan sleeping with Heather, he said Hogan was going through a divorce at the time and he was just trying to help him through it. For a time line, if this tape was from 2006, and there are a number of people skeptical of that date, Hogan’s divorce was in 2009. It’s not that their marriage wasn’t on the rocks, but they were regularly doing the happy family reality show in 2006.

Bubba said he couldn’t get into the situation and just said he wasn’t proud of it. He said the reason he’s mad at Hogan is that all three parties knew the score and they knew what they were doing. When asked if Hogan knew he was being taped, Bubba only said Hogan had lived with him for three months and knew what was going on. It should be noted that Bubba on his radio show often would claim that he’s got his whole house being taped, and one regular listener noted that any listener would know that so it’s hard to believe Hogan, not just on the show all the time, but always in the house, wouldn’t know it.

Bubba said that he had defended Hogan for years and Hogan turned on him, and that he didn’t expect Hogan would name him in the lawsuit after he defended him for all those years. Bubba said he would like to help Hogan find out who leaked the tape. He said he has never seen the tape, and he doesn’t know who has it. He said he’s gotten a cease and desist on talking about it.

Bubba said he and Hogan talked before he went on the show and Hogan told him he had switched gears and the friendship is off. He said Hogan was just covering himself and he’s not going to take it. Bubba said it was Hogan who turned on him, and the real victim here is Heather. He also said he hasn’t had any contact with Heather during this situation. Bubba said if he was the one leaking it, he’d have edited himself out of the tape so he wouldn’t look so stupid. When Stern asked Bubba if it could have been Hogan who released the tape, he just said he didn’t want to speculate.

When it was brought up about Bubba saying to Heather that they could retire if they wanted to with this tape, he said if he had released the tape, obviously he would have cut that part out so he wouldn’t look so stupid. Stern then said he wanted to bring Hogan and Bubba both on the show and hook both up to a lie detector test. Bubba agreed to do that and Bubba said that he thinks he and Hogan should be working together here to find out how the tape got released. Bubba blamed David Houston, Hogan’s attorney, saying he’s the one getting Hogan all riled up in this case. Stern noted that this is going to cost Bubba a lot of money just in legal fees in defending himself. He said if Hogan had just shut up about it and they worked together, everything could have been kept quiet and it’s Hogan who is making this worse.

He said people had warned him about Hogan and he had seen examples of this from Hogan but since he was a friend, he put up with it. Stern said he thinks he could talk to Hogan and get him to drop the lawsuit. Stern believed Bubba on whether Hogan knew he was being taped, noting that everyone knows they are being taped in Bubba’s house which is why Stern said he never wanted to go there. He said he taped things stemming back to a custody case with his son from years earlier. Bubba did say most of the rooms in his house aren’t taped, saying the bathrooms and guest rooms aren’t.

It was brought up the story of Bubba bringing the tapes to work and someone at work who is now mad at Bubba getting a copy and releasing it. Bubba said that isn’t true at all and that he’s never even seen the tape himself and again pointed out if he was bringing a tape to show people, wouldn’t he have cut out the parts that made him look like a complete laughing stock. When asked about sharing his wife, Bubba said he had no explanation for it.

Bubba said he told Hogan he would stop talking bad about him if Hogan would drop the lawsuit against himself and Heather. Hogan told him he wasn’t going to do that. Bubba said he thinks there may be other tapes out there that make him look bad, but he didn’t think there were other tapes of Hogan with Heather, saying it may be the one tape cut up to multiple tapes. He said there was a girl in Cape Kennedy in 1999 who claimed she was sexually assaulted and Bubba claimed Hogan had to pay her a lot of money to go away. He said this whole thing has made him look so bad he’s thinking of changing his professional name from Bubba the Love Sponge to Bubba Clem, and that he’s been on the verge of a breakdown over this. He said no way would he have released the tape for a big payoff, and again defended his ex-wife, saying she’s a mother and didn’t sign up or any of this, and she had moved on with her life. He said his attorneys have reached out to hers.

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**Knick Killer** · 10-21-2012, 09:58 AM

I literally have no idea what they are planning on doing in the Ryback vs. Punk match. Lesnar helping Punk out would be pretty cool though.

**Gonzo** · 10-21-2012, 11:25 AM

They could have Ryback suplex Punk and have his shoulders on the mat when he's pinning Punk.

FSH · 10-22-2012, 08:14 AM

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- Ryback vs. CM Punk at last night’s RAW live event in Hartford, Connecticut had been advertised to be a Last Man Standing Match but was not. Ryback ended up winning via DQ when Paul Heyman ran in to break up a pin. After the bell, Ryback could barely get Heyman up for his Shellshocked finisher so he just slammed him instead. Punk then made the save but Ryback laid him out to end the show.

lol

**Headliner** · 11-02-2012, 09:26 AM

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Hulk Hogan and Bubba the Love Sponge settled their lawsuit on 10/29 in a sealed settlement that included Bubba having to apologize to Hogan twice on the radio, admitting Hogan didn’t know he was being taped when having sex with his then-wife Heather, and apologize for what he said about Hogan, Hogan’s daughter’s talent and anything else about his family other than Linda. Hogan’s lawsuit against Heather, now Heather Cole, will continue, as will his suit against Gawker.com. Both Hogan and Bubba signed a confidentiality clause regarding the settlement. Bubba stated, “After further investigation, I am now convinced that Hulk Hogan was unaware of the presence of the recording device in my bedroom. I am convinced he had no knowledge that he was being taped. Additionally, I am certain that he had no role in the release of the video. It is my belief that Terry is not involved, and has not ever been involved, in trying to release the video, or exploit it, or otherwise gain from the video’s release in any way. Regrettably, when Hulk filed the lawsuit against me, I instinctively went on the offensive. The things that I said about him and his children were not true. I was wrong and I am deeply sorry for my reaction, and for the additional pain it cause Hulk and his children on top of the pain that they already were feeling from having learned that Terry was taped without his knowledge, and the public release of the video. I am committed to helping Hulk and his attorneys find whoever is responsible for the release of the tape and holding them accountable to the fullest extent of the law.” Hard to know what this means although given that Heather Cole likely doesn’t have a lot of money, and Hulk’s legal bills are going to be high, he’s got to think she either was involved or has knowledge he thinks she has that he’s trying to pressure out of her. Bubba had been strongly defensive of his ex-wife until settling with Hogan.

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According to Dana White, Lesnar called him last week and told him that he’s not coming back to UFC after his WWE contract expires in April. There had always been speculation he might come back, just because of the potential money in the right fight, but really I never once expected there was much of a chance of it happening. It’s the effects of the Diverticulitis that honestly ended his career more than age or anything else. I figured that Lesnar kept the UFC thing in his back pocket just to use as negotiating leverage for when this WWE deal comes up. If Lesnar would have told White this last week, it tells me that’s related to the SummerSlam buy rate and his positioning at Mania (the advertising has Cena, Rock and Lesnar listed equally as the big three stars) means he figures he doesn’t need to use leverage when it comes to getting offered a second contract if he was to want it.

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With the departure of the Bella Twins, Kelly Kelly, Phoenix and Raquel Diaz in developmental, the WWE is low on women and seeking newcomers. With no Diva Search this year, they’ve sent out casting calls to modeling agencies looking for women between the ages of 18-30, looking for those who have charisma, beautiful faces and great bodies, and they want bikini shots to judge on. It’s funny because if you look at your best percentage chances of actually doing something, it’s either those who come from the fitness world (Tara, Stratus, Torrie Wilson, Miss Tessmacher), professional dancing (Naomi, Layla, Eve Torres), lifelong fans (Lita, Mickie James, Natalya) or legit sports backgrounds (Michelle McCool, Phoenix, ODB, Gail Kim, Bella Twins). There haven’t been many straight models, based on percentage recruited, that have made it and stuck around.

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Scott Steiner and Robert Gibson were backstage at the PPV show in Atlanta. Steiner would likely be interested in something since he’s just doing indies, but he’s now 50, plus at his age, it would be very hard for him to keep his physique on a WWE regimen. I can’t even see him going full-time, but a guy like him could be used for a few weeks of TV or a PPV cycle just as something new, but that’s not how they operate. Gibson I doubt would have any aspirations at this stage of his life to be a WWE wrestler and the last we’d heard had done well in outside business since leaving wrestling, which is why you don’t see him with Ricky Morton together often on indies in smaller Carolinas markets, where they still may mean something.

And the WWE network is going to be subscription based. McMahon didn't say anything else about it at his quarterly conference call. That thing has potential to be a giant failure.

**Knick Killer** · 11-03-2012, 10:31 AM

Scott Steiner? No thanks.

10-03-2012, 05:57 PM	#20 (permalink)
Knick Killer -LIFETIME MEMBER- Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada Age: 20 Posts: 9,439 Rep Power: 8494693	Re: WWE news/notes from the Observer I don't see anyone on NXT becoming the next "guy" in the company. WWE better hope Cena doesn't retire anytime soon. Also Ryback vs. Undertaker in a Streak vs. Streak match would be really cool but there's no way Ryback could stay undefeated all the way to Wrestlemania especially if he's going to feud with Punk. __________________

10-06-2012, 09:40 AM	#22 (permalink)
BlueBaron Reloaded Join Date: May 2003 Posts: 9,818 Rep Power: 8869104	Re: WWE news/notes from the Observer They need to get Colt Cabana. A Cabana/Punk feud would be epic. __________________

10-21-2012, 09:58 AM	#26 (permalink)
Knick Killer -LIFETIME MEMBER- Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada Age: 20 Posts: 9,439 Rep Power: 8494693	Re: WWE news/notes from the Observer I literally have no idea what they are planning on doing in the Ryback vs. Punk match. Lesnar helping Punk out would be pretty cool though. __________________

10-21-2012, 11:25 AM	#27 (permalink)
Gonzo King George Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Indiana Age: 22 Posts: 11,033 Rep Power: 15819679	Re: WWE news/notes from the Observer They could have Ryback suplex Punk and have his shoulders on the mat when he's pinning Punk. __________________

11-03-2012, 10:31 AM	#30 (permalink)
Knick Killer -LIFETIME MEMBER- Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada Age: 20 Posts: 9,439 Rep Power: 8494693	Re: WWE news/notes from the Observer Scott Steiner? No thanks. __________________

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