Terry's Peeps wrote:
GQ: You've known CM Punk for a long time. On the indies, you used to call yourself "Best in the World," and he's adapted that as his catchphrase. Did he clear it with you beforehand? Daniel Bryan: No, he didn't [laughs]. Literally, we haven't talked about it at all.
GQ: You're not annoyed about it? Daniel Bryan: No, not at all. Chris Jericho had done something similar after I had done it. The only thing that I find really funny is that the "Best in the World" font on the back of his T-shirt is almost identical to the "Best in the World" on the back of my Ring of Honor shirts. It's just funny.
That's not cool
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Another DB article from Grantland
http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/778 ... -night-raw----
Raw on 4/9 did a 3.10 rating and 4.29 million viewers. The show was third for the night on cable. The show did a 2.4 in Males 12-17, 2.7 in Males 18-49, 1.0 in Girls 12-17 and 1.1 in Women 18-49 with a 69.3% male skew. It was down 21% from the 5.46 million viewers of the week after Mania show last year, and last year there was no bombshell along the lines of the Brock Lesnar return on the night after Mania show.
In the segment-by-segment, Brodus Clay & Santino Marella vs. Dolph Ziggler & Jack Swagger lost 99,000 viewers. Backstage with Laurinaitis with Miz an Cena, Marella looking for the Three Stooges and R-Truth vs. Cody Rhodes gained 255,000 viewers. Lord Tensai vs. Yoshi Tatsu lost 415,000 viewers. The mic work between C.M. Punk and Chris Jericho in the top of the hour segment gained 379,000 viewers to a 3.19. Punk vs. Henry and the post-match with Jericho pouring beer all over Punk, as well as the quick Del Rio vs. Ryder match lost 169,000 viewers. The Three Stooges in-ring segment lost 240,000 viewers and was the low point of the show at 2.90. The Brock Lesnar interview gained 423,000 viewers. And the Cena vs. Otunga match with Lesnar run-in gained 301,000 viewers, which is a very weak overrun number, finishing at 3.42.
TNA Impact on 4/5 did a 1.12 rating and 1.48 million viewers, finishing 37th for the night on cable. The leading sports competition was NBA on TNT which did 2.15 million viewers. The show did a 0.9 in both Males 18-34 and Males 35-49. So it’s up with younger adult males and down with older adult males.
In the segment-by-segment, the big star segment with Kurt Angle vs. Jeff Hardy which gained 211,000 viewers. A Bully Ray interview and angle where he laid out Austin Aries lost 159,000 viewers. A women’s match with Velvet Sky vs. Winter vs. Mickie James vs. Madison Rayne vs. Angelina Love vs. Tara gained 132,000 viewers. Eric Young’s bachelor party gained 26,000 viewers. A.J. Styles vs. James Storm lost 25,000 viewers. The return of the Motor City Machine Guns vs. Mexican America, plus the Hulk Hogan/Eric Bischoff in-ring gained 92,000 viewers and did a show-high 1.22 quarter. The main event with Bobby Roode vs. Mr. Anderson and all the post-match lost 213,000 viewers and finished at a 1.06.
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This is some good news. Dennis Stamp, 66, was told by his doctors this past week that chemotherapy is doing well and his cancer is in remission. Actually he’s told people that he’s free and clear after three months of extensive chemotherapy.
Scott Hall, 53, was arrested once again on 4/6 and charged with domestic violence, although the case may not move forward, because girlfriend Lisa Howell has refused to press charges. Police were called at about 5 p.m. that day to Hall’s home in Chuluota, FL about a domestic disturbance. When they arrived, Howell told them that Hall had been drinking for days and the two had gotten into an argument. She got in her car and tried to leave, and alleged that Hall, in a blind rage, grabbed her by the throat and tried to pull her out of the car. The Seminole County police report stated that officers confronted Hall. The report said Hall appeared to be heavily intoxicated and had an unknown white secretion flowing from both sides of his mouth. Hall denied any violence toward Howell. However, officers noticed bruising on Howell as well as red marks around her neck, consistent with her story, and arrested Hall. When Hall arrived at the police station, they refused to book him due to concern with how intoxicated he was, and instead took him to a hospital. Several hours later, at about 9 p.m. that night, he was brought back from the hospital to jail where he was booked. He was released the next day on $500 bond.
Nigel McGuinness’ one-month fund raiser on kickstarter.com ended up being a success. He needed to raise $32,000 minimum to do a documentary on his career and its ups, downs and the health issues that led to it ending. The period ended on 4/8 with 1,072 different people donating a total of $48,972, so the documentary will be made and he’ll be able to afford more than he first expected.
Ultimate Warrior, 52, suffered a torn biceps in training and is likely to need surgery to re-attach it.
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Maven Huffman, 35, who was arrested last week for going to multiple doctors for the same ailment and thus getting multiple prescriptions totaling more than 1,000 pain killers, has consented to go into WWE-sponsored rehab. His lawyer, James Flynn, said that Maven is not admitting to any criminal wrongdoing, but intends to cooperate with law enforcement officials. “Maven would also like his supporters to know that he is humbled by the outpouring of support he has received over the past week and he sincerely apologizes to any of his family members, friends and fans who have had to read the press surrounding recent events,” said his lawyer.
Shaver Hansen, 24, the son of Stan Hansen, was released this past week by baseball’s Seattle Mariners farm system. Hansen, who had been a college baseball star at Baylor University, where he was the team’s MVP in 2008, had spent three seasons not advancing past Class A ball in the minor leagues, and had averaged .232.
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They’ve announced with ROH/CHIKARA combined shows on 4/28 in Chicago, that the afternoon show which is the CHIKARA show will feature Eddie Kingston vs. Kevin Steen for the CHIKARA Grand championship, while the ROH show has Mark & Jay Briscoe defending the ROH tag titles against Hallowicked & Jigsaw, plus a Lucha rules (no tagging necessary) match with Fire Ant & Soldier Ant & Green Ant vs. Jay Lethal & Adam Cole & T.J. Perkins.
Early reports indicate U.S. numbers for WrestleMania were up from last year. The prelim number is 636,000 in the U.S. (Although one source has it as high as 700,000), which would not include Canada. Last years’s domestic was 679,000, but that also includes Canada and Puerto Rico). Keep in mind again this is a first week estimate and thus it could vary greatly, and WWE won’t be releasing a number until the end of May most likely. I would expect international to be down from last year because WWE has had major declines internationally on PPV over the past year (mostly due to the fall in Mexico and Italy, which are your strong Rey Mysterio markets). But it should be the biggest revenue producing event in pro wrestling history. The show did 15,000 buys last year in Germany, and did 9,000 this year, which coincides with international PPV declining almost everywhere. The number was fine with cable but DirecTV homes were a disappointment. The best markets in the U.S. (Only place we have feedback from at this point) were Miami (Rock’s home town/home city of show, is to be expected), Philadelphia, San Antonio, New York, Minneapolis (Lesnar’s home market although I can’t believe there was enough pub out where this is more than just coincidence), Atlanta, Charlotte, Columbus, OH and Boston (Cena’s home market).
Nicole and Stephanie (Brie) Garcia, both 28, known as the Bella Twins, appear to be leaving in a few weeks. Their contracts expire on 4/30 and as of right now, they have not signed a new contract nor are expected to. Sean Jacoby of American Icon Autographs is booking them for shows after the contract expires. Word got out on 4/9 when an autograph show set for 5/19 at Frank & Sons’s Collectibles at the City of Industry, CA, listed “Brianna and Nicole, formerly the Bella Twins in WWE” as appearing. In addition, we were also told that a convention in the Northeast was going to feature the Twins, and it is one that WWE forbids talent to attend, but they were unable to officially release the information yet. The Twins grew up as very good soccer players in Scottsdale, AZ, starring at the youth level and in high school. They both became models doing a lot of work in places that were looking for twins. When WWE was going through modeling agencies looking for contestants for the 2006 Diva Search, they were sent, but failed to make the top ten. However, John Laurinaitis signed them in June, 2007, and they were brought to the main roster in August, 2008. Little was being done with them until Vince McMahon directly chastised the writing staff on why they weren’t doing more with them, and they started getting more television time at that point. It was strange that Nikki pinned Phoenix on the Smackdown show on 4/6 when they were both unsigned and scheduled to leave, but the writing team was likely not aware of the contractual situation. On the 4/10 live Smackdown they dropped that direction and just jobbed them out.
Regarding the cost of having Dwayne Johnson at Survivor Series and was it worth it financially to WWE, the answer was, at least if you were judging for the night alone, probably not. The WWE doesn’t break down profit and loss by show, but for the fourth quarter, the increase in Survivor Series numbers led to revenue increasing on PPV for the last three shows of the year (Vengeance, Survivor Series and TLC) from $13.8 million to $14.6 million. That‘s an increase during a period where Vengeance and TLC were each down 16,000 from the prior year–if we figure Survivor Series would have dropped incrementally a little more because it’s a bigger show, say 20-25,000 based on the fact most shows drop year-to-year and they had nothing for the show if Rock wasn’t there, and instead it was up 27,000. So Johnson wrestling realistically added in the range of 50,000 buys to the show, or just under $1 million just in PPV revenue. There is also some added merchandise and other revenue. The house show in Madison Square Garden probably was selling out either way. It’s possible they would have charged slightly lower tickets because they knew his wrestling would make it a hotter ticket but even then we’re probably talking $100,000ish. However, the expenses in producing those three shows, which would include both the increase in advertising for Johnson’s appearance and his payoff, increased from $5.4 million last year to $8.2 million. That’s not to say Johnson was paid $2.8 million (he wasn’t), or even that entire $2.8 million difference was only money spent on Survivor Series, although most of it would have been. But the total extra money spent on that show would probably be not far from that number. There has been no show specific breakdown released but there were people internally saying Survivor Series was the first actual money losing PPV they’ve done, because of all the expenses. But going through the numbers, that is likely misinterpretation in the sense that they lost money on the deal of having Johnson in, not that the entire show was in the red. But for sure the profit margin on the show if they didn’t actually lose money would have been lower than even the shows that bomb, because of the added expense. If we figure $5 million in costs for this year’s show, that would be 265,000 worldwide buys as break even, and the show’s latest estimate was 281,000, so it’s more like a very modest profit. A show like Vengeance that totally tanked still did high-six figures in profits because WWE has cut way back in spending and advertising on the shows they don’t expect to do well. As far as value of ratings increases, you could argue there was some of that as well, but when the contract with USA is for a fixed amount, it’s only value would be in renegotiation that the company would have a microscopically higher average over a period of time based on the appearances and whatever boost they gave and what that is worth in the value of a new contract. And when that time comes, nobody cares one bit about ratings years ago. The only ratings that really matter financially to WWE are the ratings in the final year of the contract, because when negotiations come up, in the TV industry, nobody looks back two years at ratings. Johnson’s appearances as a wrestler as far as doing matches should be limited to WrestleMania and possibly SummerSlam or Royal Rumble.
This one surprised me. On the 4/9 Raw, there were no “Yes” chants and no “Daniel Bryan” chants as least loud enough to be heard on the show. There were tons of “Yes” signs in the crowd, although we were told a lot of them were planted as assistants were told to make lots of “Yes” signs for Raw, and then creative decided not to put him on the show. Interestingly, both Bryan and Sheamus, who both got the exact opposite reaction they were expecting last week, were kept off Raw except for being faces in the crowd during the Cena/Lesnar pull-apart. There were those in WWE who felt all the chants were the hardcore fans and European fans and once Mania weekend was over, and they were back to the regular WWE audience, it would be back to normal. That ended up being the case, as on Smackdown, Sheamus was cheered close to as much as before. Bryan got a heel reaction. There were light “Yes” chants and quite a few signs (not sure the percentage of those planted vs. those brought by fans) but no more than you’d expect from a hardcore favorite. The crowds were completely different from last week.
Besides Lesnar vs. Cena, it appears Extreme Rules on 4/29 in Chicago will have Jericho vs. Punk, Orton vs. Kane (originally scheduled as a cage match) and probably some kind of Rhodes vs. Show gimmick match. Officially the only match is Sheamus vs. Bryan 2/3 falls, and that was likely a change since last week it was all geared toward moving Bryan down and moving Del Rio into the spot, and then Del Rio won the match to earn the spot, yet Bryan was given the shot. So that would indicate a plan change based on crowd reaction. Nothing else right now is being strongly teased.
It’s obviously clear from Smackdown this week that WWE couldn’t make a deal with Syfy to take Legends House, so it looks like they’ve got a fully shot show that they’re going to have to hold until around November or whenever the network starts.
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If you’re looking for more strange goings on regarding WWE and developmental, WWE called Bright House (the network that carries FCW that they canceled a few weeks back saying they were pulling out of Florida and moving everything to Stamford, then denied it when we reported it), and asked if they could continue airing the shows in the same time slot for the time being. WWE gave them the impression this is only a short-term thing but didn’t outright say it. No new deal has been signed and the feeling is that right now they have no idea what they are doing, and that the story getting out the way it did forced a panic change of plans. They did three weeks of taping on 4/5 and do have future tapings scheduled at the FCW gym every three weeks for the next two months, although that can change in an instant. Keep in mind that they were not paying for the time slot, and for a wrestling show when it comes to local television, that is rare nowadays, and Bright House was happy with the ratings the show delivered. Another key thing is that there are no reports that the person in programming who made the call and said it was because they were pulling out of Florida for Stamford was not fired. It’s either one of two things. WWE programming that made the call and told Bright House either had a miscommunication within the company, told them a story that wasn’t true (yet the talk of hiring Taylor for Stamford indicates there was at least some truth to something), but how would he avoid the ax given how the scenario played out publicly, or the story of them pulling out was true, and thus he couldn’t be fired for saying it, only that they never expected it would get out before Mania and now, because it got out, they are stuck with not being able to make the move, or at least not for a long enough period until it wouldn’t leave the company looking bad to everyone they’ve told that they aren’t making the move. The end result is still the idea of an expanded facility, but setting up such a thing, finding a place, hiring new specialized coaches (with the idea of including the kind of a specialized coaching staff including trainers who specifically would tailor eating and lifting/workout programs for improving both the look, athletic ability and for injury prevention, again, the idea is to have a facility similar to the kind of system for Division I major sports or a high-level MMA camp) is not something that is going to happen overnight. The talent doesn’t know anything and has been given the impressions they aren’t leaving Florida, but nobody is really giving any straight answers. There are rumors they would be moving the tapings out of Tampa to Orlando, as has been talked about, and taping in HD, but Orlando is still an area covered by Bright House and wouldn’t explain WWE’s actions and not making anything past a short-term commitment. Everyone there is asking questions and getting no answers. The only thing is that major changes are expected to be made in the developmental program under HHH.
Husky Harris is now seconded by Eli Cottonwood, who is still around. Jake Carter (Jesse White, Vader’s son) & Corey Graves (Sterling James Keenan) are heel tag champs managed by Abraham Washington. Seth Rollins pinned Kassius Ohno with a curb stomp to keep the FCW title. Jim Ross was there again and announced one show, which featured a 30:00 Iron man match for the Jack Brisco 15 title with Richie Steamboat beating Antonio Cesaro 3-2, hitting a superkick for the pin at 29:55 to decide it.
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The Vancouver Sun ran a story about Dwayne Johnson being cut by the Calgary Stampeders in 1995 after he brought it up on his 4/2 Raw interview. Apparently some commentators in the Canadian Football League were offended by his remarks. The line was, “In 1995, The Rock was cut from the Canadian Football League. Do you have any idea how much you’ve gotta suck to get cut from the Canadian Football League?” The story noted that Johnson is actually a Canadian citizen, since Canada recognizes first generation born children of Canadians, and Rocky Johnson was born in Amherst, Nova Scotia and was trained in boxing and wrestling in Toronto. When Dwayne was born and Rocky and his family were living in Hayward, CA, Rocky was always billed on television as being from Detroit, yet at the house shows in San Jose, he would be billed from Halifax. Wally Buono was the coach of the Calgary Stampeders in 1995, and he remembers things differently, but only a little. “He was okay as a football player. His agent phoned me from Miami because he had a wrestling opportunity and asked me to do him a favor by cutting him. I knew he was from a wrestling family. Let’s put it this way. I didn’t have any problem letting him go.”
The trial of William Balfour, the man accused of killing Jennifer Hudson’s mother and other members of her family has just started. Otunga had been working with Hudson on the trial. Hudson had said one of the reasons they haven’t set a date for a wedding is because all the stress of the trial, they wanted to get past it first. Otunga is likely going to have to be in Europe and miss the trial, but if he’s not in Europe this week, that would be the reason.
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For what it’s worth, and this will tell the timing of decision-making, in the WrestleMania program, in the Team Johnny vs. Team Teddy match, Christian was listed in the spot of McIntyre, so the program had to have gone to press before the Monday before the show given that’s when the change was made, and that Christian not being able to go was something they found out late. Del Rio was pulled from the match in the last two weeks and replaced with Miz, but Miz was in the program. The reason Del Rio was pulled was not injury related, but because Vince was planning on going with the Sheamus vs. Del Rio program and moving Bryan down (nobody expected the reaction that happened based on doing the 18 second match) and felt putting Del Rio in a T-shirt match at Mania would hurt him. Honestly, had he scored the winning pin and Laurinaitis then made him top contender, he’d probably go in with slightly more oomph than he did, not that in the big picture it really makes any difference.
WWE stock closed at $8.22 per share at press time, at its lowest level in a decade.
A bad storm in South Texas ruined a barn at the Broken Skull Ranch owned by Austin near Tilden, TX. Winds blew the top off the barn and left it with significant damage and left him with considerable expense in fixing it.
An interesting quote from Fit Finlay on Sheamus and McIntyre. “I know Sheamus and Drew McIntyre quite well, and the one downside for me is that they are quite heavily influenced by the American style of wrestling and the American way of life which is quite easy to get caught up in.” Regarding his release, “I brought a little bit of disgrace to the company and if I was on the board (of directors), I would have made the decision to sack me as well. It is what it is and I have to just sit back and suffer the consequences, and that’s fine.” Finlay is currently working with Tajiri in Japan on Tajiri’s new promotion.
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Konnan and Court Bauer did an interview on Bauer’s MLW web site regarding Michaels and his hatred of losing. Bauer talked about all the issues with Hogan and Michaels because both were fighting over who would win the match and Hogan had creative control in his contract so Vince, who almost always backed up Michaels, had no choice but to back Hogan. So Michaels turned it into a cartoon match. While the story may be told differently now, at the time, Hogan wasn’t going to lose to Michaels, even if there was a return, which led to Michaels turning the match into a cartoon and then doing an interview the next day on Raw where he all but said he lost because he was told and it was all fake, being completely unprofessional. However, Vince never punished him for it, while anyone else doing the same thing would have been fired on the spot. That also led to the end of that Hogan tenure in the company, both over the interview and Hogan being mad about his pay for the match. Konnan said, “Shawn told this to Rey Mysterio once and I couldn’t believe it and I told Rey Mysterio, `Please don’t follow that advice.’ He said Shawn once told him, `Do you like doing jobs?’ Mysterio responded, `I don’t mind.’ Michaels then said, `I don’t. I don’t like doing jobs and you shouldn’t either.’ I was thinking to myself, that’s the worst advice you can give to a young guy. You never know when a wrestler is going to go to Vince when nobody is listening and say I’d rather not do this. I don’t want to put these guys over.” The Michaels vs. Mysterio story, the way I remember it, was that it took place in 2005 when Michaels agreed to put Mysterio over clean on a tribute show for Eddy Guerrero, since Mysterio was one of Eddy’s best friends and the night was about giving Eddy’s friends wins to make both them and the fans feel good (JBL put over Chavo Guerrero clean on that show). Michaels had no problem losing, but told Mysterio, that everyone in wrestling tells you it doesn’t matter if you win or lose, but that’s the biggest lie in all of wrestling. He told him he would only lose to certain people at a certain level, and by beating him, he considers Mysterio now in that elite level, and that at that level you should protect who you lose to, and it should only be to people of that level.
Raw house show main events for May are scheduled now as Punk vs. Jericho for the title and Cena vs. Ziggler, which is weird because of how Ziggler is being booked on television.
JTG was apparently mad they took him out of his jeans and put him in trunks. A fan who must have either been at the Raw in D.C. or heard they gave him a new outfit tweeted him and he made a remark about how it was a creative decision that he didn’t like. I’d say so much for his push, but when you’re at his level, you’ll make more money being punished then the sit at home for months at a time deal he’s on.
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