Post by andrew8798 on Jan 2, 2014 19:22:06 GMT -5
In very sad news, Mae Young, 90, is under hospice care. Anyone who has had a friend of family member under hospice care knows what that means and it isn’t good. It usually means there are people who just help you live out the rest of your life in as little pain as possible when the doctors have nothing left they can do for you. It doesn’t necessarily mean that, and there are notable exceptions, but my experience with friends and people in wrestling, it has meant that in every situation. Young had been in the hospital and was released on 12/30. As of press time, Young’s condition was described as stable. She can and is speaking, but her voice sounds weak and tired. Young was asked by WWE to appear on the 1/6 Raw show in Baltimore when they first found out about the seriousness of her condition.
Eddie Edwards & Davey Richards won’t be back at the next NXT tapings and aren’t going to be offered a contract. The basic gist of the situation was that HHH didn’t want to sign them after the tryout camp because of their size. The feeling is they are loaded with guys who aren’t big who can go so the mentality is that they are looking for guys who can headline WrestleMania in five or ten years out of these camps. A lot of people went to bat for both of them, feeling they should get a deal and several pushed that they should go directly to the main roster. So HHH agreed to give them a several month tryout period. The problem with that at first is that WWE also didn’t want them on anyone else’s TV past the commitments they already had with ROH until the end of the year. But after the first taping, HHH made the decision not to sign them.
Regarding the value of Raw to the USA Network, going into the final week of the TV season, USA was averaging 2.7 million viewers in prime time, which would put it at No. 1 for the year, ahead of Disney (2.4 million), ESPN (2.1 million), The History Channel (2.1 million) and TNT (2.1 million). TBS (2.0 million), A&E (1.8 million), FX (1.4 million) and AMC (1.4 million). If you take Raw away from USA in 2013, the station would average 2.45 million viewers, so they would still be No. 1. Also, Disney, because it’s a kids station and not ad supported in the same way, they aren’t considered competition and USA’s goal is to beat the other stations.
Ultimate Warrior is expected to have an involvement in WrestleMania in some form, probably the Hall of Fame.
Ultimate Warrior is expected to have an involvement in WrestleMania in some form, probably the Hall of Fame.
Some new things for developmental talent is they are having classes and seminars and treating it like it’s almost like going to college. The idea is they are trying to teach talent to not screw up like people from the past had done and have skills for post-wrestling because the reality is there are only so many jobs and most aren’t going to make it. They are modeling things like the NFL does with its talent. They are going to have talent classes in marketing themselves, programs in teaching how to manage finances (that is drill guys to save during their career and not spend like crazy and wind up broke when their career is over), college tuition reimbursement programs, media training and language courses. They have formed a partnership with Money Management International when it comes to financial planning for the future. They will have classes that teach budgeting, debt control, choosing a tax professional (because talent is independent contractors, they want to emphasize for everyone to pay taxes because a ton of talent over the years has gotten nailed for not paying taxes) as well as helping them choose people to be financial planners and to help them with taxes. They are also working with Kevin Sullivan Communications to teach talent media training (ie avoiding twitter stupidity). This is one that UFC needs to teach its talent because so many of them are weak at marketing themselves and getting themselves over in the media. Sullivan is not the former wrestler but the former White House Communications Director under George W. Bush. They will also be given seminars in injury prevention and living a healthy lifestyle. They are also going to copy the NFL in having a program in helping talent to prepare for life after wrestling.
-WON