Post by andrew8798 on Oct 17, 2013 15:46:48 GMT -5
Likely in response to the low rating on the 10/7 episode of Raw, Vince McMahon had it out with the producers and redid the 10/14 television show and the 10/27 Hell in a Cell PPV.
The key changes involved plans for the Hell in a Cell show on 10/27 in Miami. The planned C.M. Punk vs. Ryback singles match was changed to Punk vs. Ryback & Paul Heyman in a Hell in a Cell match. Just the week earlier, McMahon had said that he only wanted one Hell in a Cell match on the card, so as to not water down the gimmick as in years past, which was the reason John Cena vs. Alberto Del Rio wouldn’t be in the cell. But he did a total about face in adding a second one, to the previously announced WWE title match with Daniel Bryan vs. Randy Orton.
The other change is the Seth Rollins & Roman Reigns title defense against Goldust & Cody Rhodes was moved to Raw on 10/14, with the title changing hands. Apparently Vince was mad that only heels had titles. The PPV match at this point is scheduled as a three-way, also involving the Usos. At press time this match had not been announced, nor had the straight tag team title match, so it’s always subject to later change.
That leaves the top four matches confirmed, with Daniel Bryan vs. Randy Orton for the WWE title with Shawn Michaels as referee inside the Hell in a Cell cage, and Alberto Del Rio vs. John Cena for the world title.
It’s obvious they are building a Big Show vs. HHH match, but that may be held off until Survivor Series in Boston.
The key changes involved plans for the Hell in a Cell show on 10/27 in Miami. The planned C.M. Punk vs. Ryback singles match was changed to Punk vs. Ryback & Paul Heyman in a Hell in a Cell match. Just the week earlier, McMahon had said that he only wanted one Hell in a Cell match on the card, so as to not water down the gimmick as in years past, which was the reason John Cena vs. Alberto Del Rio wouldn’t be in the cell. But he did a total about face in adding a second one, to the previously announced WWE title match with Daniel Bryan vs. Randy Orton.
The other change is the Seth Rollins & Roman Reigns title defense against Goldust & Cody Rhodes was moved to Raw on 10/14, with the title changing hands. Apparently Vince was mad that only heels had titles. The PPV match at this point is scheduled as a three-way, also involving the Usos. At press time this match had not been announced, nor had the straight tag team title match, so it’s always subject to later change.
That leaves the top four matches confirmed, with Daniel Bryan vs. Randy Orton for the WWE title with Shawn Michaels as referee inside the Hell in a Cell cage, and Alberto Del Rio vs. John Cena for the world title.
It’s obvious they are building a Big Show vs. HHH match, but that may be held off until Survivor Series in Boston.
The farm formerly owned by Andre the Giant will be auctioned off on 11/2. When Andre passed away in 1993, his will gave the farm to Frenchy and Jackie Bernard, who had lived there with him during his last few years, taking care of the 47-acre ranch in Ellerbe NC. Frenchy just passed away on 9/16 at the age of 77. The ranch includes a 3,500 square foot three story home at the foothills of the Uwharrie Mountains and isn’t far from Pinehurst, NC, where Vince and Linda McMahon grew up. There are six bedrooms, as well as a barbecue building and a workshop.
Regarding Cena’s situation, the official company word is that the recovery period given for Cena’s injury was that for a someone who is a typical person, although I don’t know that typical people are tearing triceps very often. “Cena’s athletic condition, coupled with his dedication to recovering with twice-a-day physical therapy sessions as well as resistance training has allowed him to return much sooner than anticipated.” From this point, all of his advertised area appearances in Europe and the U.K. are shows that he is scheduled to wrestle on. The idea that Cena could come back in two months because he’s a finely trained athlete even though the doctors said four to six months belies the fact that torn triceps are not rare in pro wrestling and it seemed to take everyone else closer to six months.
There was a lot of unhappiness from fan reaction regarding the 10/8 tapings in Columbus, OH, for Smackdown. Show quality is subjective, and they had a lower talent pool than usual since half the crew had to leave the night before for the Abu Dhabi tour. Still, the company ignored that and advertised every major star to appear. Even with advertising every major star, they only drew 4,000 fans. Worse, of the names advertised to appear before hand, most weren’t there. Those advertised were Orton vs. Bryan (for the dark match), plus HHH, Show, The Shield, A.J., Ziggler, Langston, Del Rio and The Wyatt Family. Of those names, Orton, Bryan, Show, Shield, Langston and Ziggler were all en route to Abu Dhabi. It’s one thing for them to advertise A.J. and her not be there due to a concussion, or even if there’s a family emergency or a car accident or flight issues or something beyond control of the promotion. It’s another to advertise people on your roster that you’ve booked somewhere to be somewhere else. HHH was even there and could have stuck his head out and done something dark if they didn’t want him on TV. But they evidently had so little regard for their consumers they didn’t even do that. They can get away with it because commissions for the most part don’t regulate wrestling anymore (can you imagine a boxing promoter or an MMA promoter doing something similar? There used to be states with strong commissions where if you did that, fans could get refunds, which forced promoters to not false advertise. That’s one of the few negatives of wrestling dropping regulation is the idea they aren’t accountable for these things. Even if they piss off the customers who paid for tickets, the feeling is it’ll be a year before they come back, so people will forget about it.
A leaked memo from a few years ago stated a few things. Vince has said that nobody going forward can use the phrase “Granddaddy of them all” for WrestleMania. He feels it makes WrestleMania feel old and dated. Also, nobody is allowed to use the phrase “choke” for a submission move. Undertaker’s Hell’s Gate has also been named the “Triangle Submission hold” even though it’s a gogoplata, which is not a triangle although it looks sort of similar. Kevin Dunn stated announcers can no longer use the phrase “title changes hands.” Vince has banned the use of terms “Five star match” and “Match of the Year.” It’s funny, because when Arn Anderson does agent reports, he loves to use the “five star match” phrase for a match that tears down the house. As part of the memo banning those terms he also wanted all announcers to “stop reading the dirt sheets” with the idea it influences what they say. Funny, when they book for inside fans. Stephanie McMahon sent a memo for announcers to never use the phrase “the referee didn’t see it” when a heel is doing something behind the referees back. She wrote that it makes it seem like the announcers are treating the fans like they are in grade school. She would prefer “the referee’s vision was impaired” or “the referee’s vision was blocked.” Also, never use the word “hatred” or “hate” when describing a feud. Also, the announcers should never say a talent doesn’t care about winning a match. Also, when somebody is bleeding, never make references to it or use the word blood.
Regarding the situation with Michael Hayes, the WWE’s official word is that he is taking a leave of absence for personal reasons. Even though that was released, Hayes has claimed to others that he’s working from home, which is why he hasn’t been around for several weeks. There were stories going around about Hayes’ drinking with Mendes and that’s what led to his being sent home. I had heard those rumors more than a week ago, but am skeptical on any story that the two were drinking together for this reason. Mendes had her own issues and if that story was true, she would not be on television now and probably either be sent to rehab or no longer be with the company. Others have said, and this is at least plausible, that he just offered her a drink. But it was more than just that one incident that got him in trouble since he was supposed to have a zero tolerance on the road when it came to alcohol. Mendes had been sent to rehab when she was sent home after a European tour and if there was any kind of relapse, she’d either have to go back or be gone, and no way she’d be on television.
HHH has sent the directive to refocus on tag teams. The plan as he laid it out was to first get some teams ready in NXT to bring to the main roster, as well as take some talented guys on the main roster who they recognize are underutilized (for example, Tyson Kidd & Justin Gabriel was an example put out of guys they’d maybe try and use as a tag team because they are talented and underutilized and they won’t do anything with them as singles) and try and get them going as a tag team.
In asking around regarding stories about who they are signing and such what it is and isn’t true. There is no hard and fast rule, but there is the belief that they have enough “small guys” and the problem with business is there are already too many and not enough “big guys.” Unless someone is really good, they are not going to sign small guys. They also don’t want to sign ROH guys right now, although this doesn’t mean Eddie Edwards & Davey Richards (who fit into both categories) are dead in the water, because they aren’t. They actually fit into the potential tag team category. They did not get e-mails the last week saying the company decided to pass on them like almost everyone else at the tryout camp they were at got. But as a general rule, if they weren’t as talented as they are, and didn’t have key guys pushing for them who saw them in ROH, they would be. The general rule HHH has is that he wants to be training guys either from scratch, or getting younger guys with the right look and size, with all the money they’ve spent on developmental, and get them before they make names on the indie scene. Even though their doctrine today would mean Punk and Bryan, two of their three current most over stars, would have a hard time getting in the door. The feeling is the guys who work indies and travel and have somewhat of a name have bad habits, and if they are at the higher level, if they sign them and even if they agree to take the pay cut to WWE entry level, that they won’t be happy over the long haul, It was also said they don’t want guys who know they can get fired and go back and be successful without WWE. They want guys with the impression that their careers in wrestling depend on making it in WWE.
Colt Cabana, according to an interview he did with Steve Austin, is finally getting the announcing tryout in Orlando that has been talked about for months. Cabana did a great job as comedic sidekick announcer Scotty Goldman years ago in developmental, but that was when there was a lot less emphasis on it and probably nobody saw it. He was then cut.
Tickets for the Hell in a Cell show in Miami were not selling at near a sellout pace.
Cena won’t be appearing live on television until the 10/28 Raw. They want his first appearance back to be on the PPV as opposed to putting him on the go-home show for Raw to build his PPV match.
Cena will be on both Raw and Smackdown TV’s between Hell in a Cell and Survivor Series. After that point, he’ll be on the road doing house shows, and only be working Raw tapings.
Colt Cabana, according to an interview he did with Steve Austin, is finally getting the announcing tryout in Orlando that has been talked about for months. Cabana did a great job as comedic sidekick announcer Scotty Goldman years ago in developmental, but that was when there was a lot less emphasis on it and probably nobody saw it. He was then cut.
Tickets for the Hell in a Cell show in Miami were not selling at near a sellout pace.
Cena won’t be appearing live on television until the 10/28 Raw. They want his first appearance back to be on the PPV as opposed to putting him on the go-home show for Raw to build his PPV match.
Cena will be on both Raw and Smackdown TV’s between Hell in a Cell and Survivor Series. After that point, he’ll be on the road doing house shows, and only be working Raw tapings.
-WON