WWE news/notes from the Observer - Page 3 - Basketball Forum : Professional and College Basketball Forums

XxIrvingxX · 11-16-2012, 12:26 PM

WWE is just a big mess right now. Cm Punk seems to be the only thing going for them atm (no surprise there). I think the three hour Raw thing needs to end now. I do like how the quality of the wrestling has gotten better but they aren't doing themselves any favors with this. It was a stupid idea from the start and the problems that I predicted would happen have ended up happening. They need to end it now, and pick themselves up from this craphole that they have gotten themselves into.

**Gonzo** · 11-17-2012, 07:28 AM

WWE's been a big mess for a while. It will get better around Wrestlemania, don't worry.

XxIrvingxX · 11-18-2012, 08:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gonzo

WWE's been a big mess for a while. It will get better around Wrestlemania, don't worry.

That's not my issue though. I know it will get better, but then what? WWE caught a break after the last Wrestlemania because of Brock Lesnar so they had something to work with, but what about after this Wrestlemania? They can't keep bringing back old stars from the past and making them have the main event against Cena. They are incredibly short on main eventers right now, and atm it doesn't look like there's a lot that they can choose from who would be successful. WWE's ratings are slowly diminishing, and part of this is due to the fact that the quality of the product is decreasing (although monday night football does have a big effect on the ratings as well).

But hey who knows maybe I'll end up being wrong and they'll end up surprising me. Only time will tell.

**Basel** · 11-18-2012, 08:59 AM

The problem with WWE is it only gets really good from Royal Rumble to Wrestlemania, then dies down a little until we get the big summer angle, which is good for a little bit of time but then they revert back to being a crappy product. It needs to be good all year long.

**Headliner** · 11-23-2012, 11:27 AM

Quote:

A major project for 2013 is going to be the 50th anniversary of WWE. A DVD is already planned and other ideas are being talked about to go along with it. It would really be the anniversary of the championship, which took the name in early 1963 when it was announced on television that Buddy Rogers had won a tournament in Rio de Janeiro to become the new Worldwide Wrestling Federation world champion. This came when Vince McMahon Sr. and those who worked with him in the Northeast withdrew from the NWA over their decision to take the title off Rogers, who they were booking, and put it in Lou Thesz. Rogers was first billed as WWWF champion around May, 1963 on TV, but most remembrances of the title date back to May 17, 1963, when Bruno Sammartino beat Buddy Rogers in 48 seconds in Madison Square Garden and started his near eight-year long reign.

The new TV open which copies TNA with the voiceover telling the story from last week was taken from Impact. Several people on the creative team, mostly writers assistants, are given tapes of TNA, ROH and NXT and give reports on the shows.

Arda Ocal of The Score spoke with Steve Austin, who was very negative about the way the Lawler return was handled. “I believe in pushing the envelope in an aggressive fashion. But when a guy damn near dies at ringside, let it go.” He also noted doing rehab for full reconstruction of his ACL and PCL in July. He said he hadn’t gotten an offer to do WrestleMania but would be willing to entertain one. When asked about why Austin vs. Hogan never took place, he said, “I don’t think I just ever wanted to wrestle the guy, I guess.”

Edge, when asked about women in wrestling, and given he’s with Beth Phoenix, this is exactly what the sentiment is and why so many leave, said, “I don’t think they get a shot and that’s why most leave. No incentive.” When asked if he could have one last match (and he is not going to do that), said he would want it either with Christian or with Austin, and said he’d do a second autobiography if there was interest. He also said that he was booked in Winnipeg on 4/7, so would not be at WrestleMania.

One of the key reasons Miz was switched face is that he’s got two movies out next year they are going to promote around him. The other is that he was starting to get cheered, a lot in some of the European venues on the last tour. He has certain attributes as a face that work with the sing-along catch phrase. He failed as a face early in his career because there was something about him that was naturally unlikeable, but he’s older and most don’t see him as a reality star pretender in wrestling, which, for better or worse, was how he was viewed the first time they tried to make him a face.

Punk, who is allowed to get away with more than most based on his character and standing with the company, was critical of WWE for not promoting his appearance on AMC’s Talking Dead show that airs on 11/25. He wrote, “Shocking that WWE didn’t promote it or get AMC the proper materials in time to announce it.” It was also noted to us by one person within the company how WWE never mentioned once on Raw that Punk would be the Grand Marshal of the Chicago Thanksgiving Day Parade, which is a real big deal in that city and airs on national television on WGN. As it turned out, Punk later tweeted on that subject as well, saying, “Will also be the Grand Marshal in the Chicago turkey day parade. Also not announced or promoted by `my’ company. Shocking. This is what happens when you go over everyone’s head to hustle and acquire your own outside appearances.”

As of right now, the plan is still to go with Mysterio vs. Sin Cara at WrestleMania. They’ve barely got established as a team, and should have had a good run as tag champs before even considering breaking them up. The team is the best way to get Sin Cara over and also allows Mysterio to give a rub since he’s over to get people to care about people like the Prime Time Players and others.

..

**Knick Killer** · 11-23-2012, 09:05 PM

Edge is booked in Winnipeg? I haven't heard anything about it. Whatever's he's doing, I'm there.

Sent from my iPhone using Verticalsports.com Free App

**ChrisWoj** · 11-25-2012, 05:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Basel

The problem with WWE is it only gets really good from Royal Rumble to Wrestlemania, then dies down a little until we get the big summer angle, which is good for a little bit of time but then they revert back to being a crappy product. It needs to be good all year long.

Has TNA managed to pull ratings strong enough to challenge WWE? No? Okay, you're not getting a WWE that's good all year.

**Headliner** · 12-20-2012, 08:23 PM

Quote:

Orton's legitimate injury was a separated shoulder which may have been dislocated. As noted last week, it actually took place at the 12/9 Tribute to the Troops show and they shot an angle at Smackdown as a cover reason. The injury isn't serious, as he's expected back in a week or two and may be back for the final TVs of the year.

There have been a number of changes to the planned Mania card, but not sure what that means. HHH vs. Lesnar is still on the books.

The Punk vs. Ryback title match is official as a TLC match on 1/7 in Tampa on Raw. It’s a TLC match because it had been originally scheduled as a TLC match before Punk had his minor knee surgery.

Jericho was in talks of late about coming back for a short run leading up to Mania. As of right now there is nothing on the table although that could change in the blink of an eye. But the sides are still talking. It comes down to an issue of if he’s willing to commit to a certain period. Last year he committed to six months and ended up doing closer to eight but during those six months he was under a full-time deal. Since he wasn’t long term, he mostly just put people over, which is fine since he’s got enough credibility and mic skills he can do that and remain a star, and he did win just enough that it wasn’t a joke. But he’s got different tours including stuff in February so it wouldn’t be a straight shot and there is the issue over him wanting full control to negotiate any outside deals as opposed to having to get them worked through and approved by WWE.

The Del Rio/Rosa Mendes angle had been dropped with the abruptly planned Del Rio turn.

The word was given to stop promoting the Fandango character and to no longer open Raw with pyro. Not sure if the character is dropped, delayed, or what, just that the edict was to stop promotion of it.

Cesaro is working with torn tendons in his right hand and broken fingers.

There was a lot of concern at TV that the incident in Newtown, CT, in some form could affect the product because there is the belief there will be an anti-violence media backlash, particularly when it comes to shows that draw a kids audience and Vince McMahon told some people he expects to be targeted for the effect wrestling has on children, and to fight back with charity work and pushing the idea it’s family entertainment to put smiles on faces.

Really not sure who Jericho would face if he wrestled at Mania.

**Headliner** · 01-17-2013, 06:20 AM

Loads of news this week.

Quote:

Lesnar was offered a new deal and they want him locked up for another year before planning Mania. The deal he’s offered was believed to be similar terms of the first deal, which is a ton of money, as in several million dollars, for a few major PPV events and the television shows building up those events. He hasn’t signed and probably won’t sign any time soon because that’s just Lesnar and he’s going to negotiate it until the end. There are those internally who were talking about it and being given the impression he’s in the plans past Mania. After SummerSlam and him moving numbers on an otherwise weak show, his being offered a new deal was thought to be a given, because there were stock analysts who changed their feelings on WWE long-term based on the PPV number increases, and at that point, keeping relations with Lesnar and The Rock, who are numbers movers, became a big deal. The thing is, if he’s staying for another year, there would be absolutely no reason for him to lose to HHH unless it’s a loss to set up a split with Heyman and a face turn to build for a program with Punk. I can’t see any other reason for a loss since HHH is already made and isn’t going to move numbers if he does wrestle again next year. Lesnar vs. Undertaker at Mania is a match that should happen before he turns, but it’s been expressed to me that Undertaker is really hurting bad and Lesnar works a very physical style, so they are very leery of ever doing that match.

Eve Torres dropped the Divas title to Kaitlyn on the 1/14 Raw show in Houston and then quit on the air. Torres, 28, was part of the dance team for the Los Angles Clippers during the 2006-07 season when her modeling agency entered her into the WWE Diva Search in 2007, which she won. She started with the company, and eventually was wrestling regularly by 2009. Her leaving had everything to do with her engagement to Rener Gracie on 9/13. She was more and more starting to be the female face of Gracie Jiu Jitsu women’s programs. It was about seven weeks ago when she told the company she would be leaving, and agreed to work out however long they wanted to get the title off her and write off her character. At first people thought she’d drop the title at TLC and that would be it, but they stretched out the program. Since it was stretched out so long, there was talk of her and Kaitlyn blowing off the program in a lumberjills match at the Rumble, but over the last few days the decision was made for her to finish this past week, although most of the wrestlers knew she was leaving for I’d guess two weeks or so.

Foley, 47, was the first name announced for the Hall of Fame. He was also the one most expected to be among the headliners, since the event was in Madison Square Garden and he went to a lot of shows in that arena in the 80s. At press time, nobody else was official but a lot of names have been rumored including Bob Backlund, Kamala and Bruno Sammartino, as well as possibly Jake Roberts if they believe it’s worth the risk. The Sammartino situation at press time hasn’t changed, either the sides make a business deal or they don’t, and when it’s resolved we’ll have more background on it. It’s funny because Kamala has always bad-mouthed Vince McMahon since 1992, but a lot of people don’t realize that the guys who were top stars who talked the worst about McMahon who are still alive, Sammartino, Billy Graham, Verne Gagne, Bret Hart, Piper, Wendi Richter, those are the ones who are asked to get in because of the Vince psychology. But they have to be alive. For instance, Lou Thesz and Paul Boesch (and they’ve been to Houston for Mania in recent years) were not put in because it serves no psychological purpose to have someone not alive who bad mouthed you put in. Besides Sammartino, the other question regards whether they agree to put Lanny and Angelo Poffo in, as an exchange for the family being there and allowing Randy Savage to go in. Lanny and Judy Poffo have both claimed it was Randy’s wishes, and they will not go against his wishes, that the only way he goes in is with his father and brother. Savage had insisted and got his way as far as getting Angelo into the now-meaningless WCW Hall of Fame. His feeling was apparently from seeing the Von Erichs, including Mike and Chris, be put in as a family. As far as deserving and not deserving, once you have Mike & Chris Von Erich, that are no longer any questions regarding qualifications and accomplishments.

The layout for the Rumble show as of a recent timed out script was a Royal Rumble qualifier match on the pre-show, a Divas title match that has not yet been determined earmarked as 10:00 segment (intros, match, post-match all included), Kane & Bryan vs. Sandow & Rhodes for 10:00, Show vs. Del Rio for 20:00, Punk vs. Rock for 30:00 and the Rumble for 70:00 total. At the point of the script, none of the winners were listed nor were the participants in the Rumble finalized. I’m sure they’ll be tweaked but that also indicates that no new matches such as Miz vs. Cesaro or Barrett vs. somebody for the secondary titles are at this point scheduled on the show, meaning they’re all scheduled for the Rumble. Usually when it comes to the outside guest additions, usually wrestlers from the past, the decision isn’t made until the last week and they are called at the last minute. That’s one of the reasons sometimes they get turned down because some of the guys who aren’t in top shape and don’t need the payday don’t want to appear unless they’ve had time to get into a semblance of shape.

Quote:

Flair is booked for both the 1/21 Raw taping in San Jose and 1/22 in Sacramento before he leaves directly to Japan. Right now he’s still working on a per-night deal instead of under contract, which may be related to the lawsuit. It also gives Flair freedom to do whatever he wants outside without having to go through WWE, and take indie dates, other appearances or things like the Japan date. TNA still sends feelers to him. Key people in TNA watched the segment with Miz and thought WWE was humiliating him with the talk of him being broke and having made all that money and having nothing to show for it, and thought maybe he’d be open to come back. Actually, a lot of Flair fans felt like that but Flair felt that’s pro wrestling, it helped get Cesaro over and he considers his life and spending all that money on a good time as a badge of honor as opposed to something sad. The idea of the segment was for Flair to endorse Miz as a new babyface and to have Miz use the figure four as his new finisher. When he found out, Flair joked to Miz, “I hope they let you beat people with it because I never did.”

In last week’s year rundown of the most successful segments on Raw, we missed, of all things, the No. 1 segment, which was the C.M. Punk vs. Vince McMahon match that gained 1,233,000 viewers.

Kidd is out of action due to a torn ACL and a torn meniscus in his right knee as well as a hairline fracture of the tibia suffered at the house show run after Christmas. He said he will be out of action six to eight months as he’ll need major surgery. They had to drain a large amount of blood from the knee on 1/8 and there are those who know him who have estimated six to eight months may be optimistic.

The idea of doing Rey Mysterio vs. Sin Cara at WrestleMania appears to have been dropped. It’s way too early to do that and it does nobody any favors. Mysterio shouldn’t be a heel and Sin Cara’s only shot at getting over right now would be in a tag team with Mysterio for a while and only if he gets over there, then break him back out as a single. Right now as a single, he has no chance.

Lots of talk regarding Ziggler. As things stand, the reason they are already going to the Ziggler/Langston problems is not because they are looking at turning Langston, but turning Ziggler. Vince has been changing his mind back and forth on Ziggler as a face, but it seems it’s more when and not if. A lot of people in the company, particularly the Heyman disciples who listen to his instincts as gospel, think Ziggler will take off huge as a face when the call is made. The fact Ziggler is already super popular in New York influences Vince (yes, I know the joke, the same reaction in Toronto influences Vince to keep TV out of Toronto and have the announcers insult the fans in the city).

Mysterio is expected back relatively soon. There’s a family situation he’s dealing with and HHH gave him permission to be with his family until it’s all taken care of.

**Gonzo** · 01-17-2013, 07:41 AM

That paragraph about the Hall of Fame was hastily written, hardly made sense.

**Gonzo** · 04-12-2013, 06:53 AM

What happened to Headliner? I liked these.

**Knick Killer** · 04-12-2013, 08:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gonzo

What happened to Headliner? I liked these.

Got sick of all the stubborn/lazy people on staff and bailed. Damn shame as he probably could've been a great Admin on this site if they let him run with his ideas.

**Gonzo** · 04-12-2013, 09:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Knick Killer

Got sick of all the stubborn/lazy people on staff and bailed. Damn shame as he probably could've been a great Admin on this site if they let him run with his ideas.

I thought he still liked to talk to us wrestling fans.

**Basel** · 04-12-2013, 10:02 AM

I'll shoot him a PM later at WF and see what's up.

**Knick Killer** · 04-12-2013, 12:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gonzo

I thought he still liked to talk to us wrestling fans.

Not as much as the fans on WF apparently.

11-17-2012, 07:28 AM	#32 (permalink)
Gonzo King George Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Indiana Age: 22 Posts: 11,020 Rep Power: 15819679	Re: WWE news/notes from the Observer WWE's been a big mess for a while. It will get better around Wrestlemania, don't worry. __________________

11-18-2012, 08:59 AM	#34 (permalink)
Basel Legen-wait for it-dary! Legendary! Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Parts Unknown Age: 27 Posts: 68,550 Rep Power: 21474913	Re: WWE news/notes from the Observer The problem with WWE is it only gets really good from Royal Rumble to Wrestlemania, then dies down a little until we get the big summer angle, which is good for a little bit of time but then they revert back to being a crappy product. It needs to be good all year long. __________________ Best there is, best there was, best there ever will be.

11-23-2012, 09:05 PM	#36 (permalink)
Knick Killer -LIFETIME MEMBER- Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada Age: 20 Posts: 9,427 Rep Power: 8494693	Edge is booked in Winnipeg? I haven't heard anything about it. Whatever's he's doing, I'm there. Sent from my iPhone using Verticalsports.com Free App __________________

01-17-2013, 07:41 AM	#40 (permalink)
Gonzo King George Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Indiana Age: 22 Posts: 11,020 Rep Power: 15819679	Re: WWE news/notes from the Observer That paragraph about the Hall of Fame was hastily written, hardly made sense. __________________

04-12-2013, 06:53 AM	#41 (permalink)
Gonzo King George Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: Indiana Age: 22 Posts: 11,020 Rep Power: 15819679	Re: WWE news/notes from the Observer What happened to Headliner? I liked these. __________________

04-12-2013, 10:02 AM	#44 (permalink)
Basel Legen-wait for it-dary! Legendary! Join Date: Mar 2005 Location: Parts Unknown Age: 27 Posts: 68,550 Rep Power: 21474913	I'll shoot him a PM later at WF and see what's up. __________________ Best there is, best there was, best there ever will be.

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