Post by andrew8798 on Feb 14, 2007 16:51:26 GMT -5
We’ll have more next week when we recap the TV, but a few brief notes from the Smackdown/ECW tapings. Long story short, what a difference it is watching this stuff live as opposed to TV. Hardy should be happy working dark matches the rest of his life because the crowd reacted to him like this was a WrestleMania main event. Punk looked totally average, though he was working with Mike Knox, and the two things of note were that a) when people say the CM Punk chants aren’t whole buildings chanting but rather a small group of very loud people chanting, I don’t know if it’s like that everywhere but it sure was like that in Seattle. He still got more chants than TNA, which I think had 4 fans in all of Seattle. Also, b) there was the beginning of what may snowball into a larger Punk backlash as there were some boos for him and “CM Sucks” signs. Palumbo looked totally fine, better than a lot of guys in ECW. Speaking of, Sandman is so ungodly horrible but he’s a living caricature of a cartoon Sandman, and I’ve never been more amused watching a guy stand on the apron. Fit vs. Boogeyman was better than last week and mini Boogey live got one of the biggest pops of the night. It really worked well live.
Cena was BY FAR the most popular guy on the show, probably followed by Undertaker. Fans were WAY more into Taker than Big Dave. Finlay and his midget’s facials at the end were awesome. Deuce is frikkin horrible but everyone knew that. It was way more fun watching JBL and Cole than it was watching some of the show. They’re hilarious, especially JBL, who is always JBL even when the cameras aren’t on him. Cena is also ungodly bad live, and Batista is the worst of all. Both botched several spots, but thankfully they can be edited out. Lashley is still really green but was carried well by Holly, who looks like he can’t move.
Shawn Michaels, who also moves like a 60-year-old man when the cameras aren’t on him, is like the best worker who ever lived this week. Watching him in the ring with Cena, Kennedy and MVP was like, well, watching those three in the ring with Shawn Michaels. He was a one-man show, and as much as Kennedy has improved on TV and Cena has been carried by some good guys, when Cena made the comeback on the two heels it was a total expose; everyone in the wrong spot, guys bonking into each other and out of position, etc. THE BEST THING on the show, and I don’t know if it’ll even air, is after Shawn and Cena won (Shawn’s superkick on Kennedy missed by a mile, by the way), they were celebrating and such and Shawn was just PERFECT. I don’t even know how to explain it. It was the way he was looking at him, and also how every step he took was somehow in a position where he could throw a superkick, but it was SO subtle that I don’t think some people would even notice it. And of course, no superkick, but what he was doing here was such that when he finally throws that superkick, it’ll be the greatest thing ever. I was just in awe of this man.
Edge and Orton are good as well, but Shawn was on a different level from everyone all night. Funniest thing on the show was Ashley coming out and starting her promo before her music stopped playing and before the crowd stopped their big initial pop, so you could hear the first several words that came out of her mouth, and then the next few words were how she went to college and got a degree in communications.
Hogan was on Bubba the Love Sponge as usual last week, largely to talk the death of Anna Nicole Smith. He said he hung out with her at the last UFC show and she was wobbling all over the place and incoherent when she checked in. Bubba said the Internet was in an uproar over the rumors that he might go to TNA. Hogan is always about to go somewhere this time of year. He admitted to have never talked with Dixie Carter, but said his lawyer might have. He said he got in trouble for putting Ann Russo on the air in the Hall of Fame debacle a few weeks back (I should note that he still thinks this is Vince’s secretary, and she’s actually John Lauranitis’, which actually makes the story funnier), and later said, “I apparently don’t work there anymore.”
Basically, after that whole deal went down Vince was IRATE and determined that he was NEVER going to work with Hogan again. Later, he softened his stance when he heard that Hogan had been drunk at the time. But then this week, for whatever reason (and the reason is that he’s Vince McMahon), he changed his mind again and said he was DONE with Hogan, Hogan would NOT be at WrestleMania, etc., etc. All Hogan merchandise went on clearance that day. With Big Show not coming back anytime in the near future, the plan (well, one of them) was Shane McMahon vs. Hogan with Vince and Donald Trump in respective corners. To me, I don’t care what Vince McMahon says today, the idea of Hulk Hogan not being at the 20th anniversary of WrestleMania III is inconceivable. I expect in the end he’ll be there, but as of today, no dice (with one source insisting he was totally done and not coming back anytime soon). Hogan also said he got heat for the fans chanting “HOGAN!” at the UFC show.
Well, that’s what happened, but I’m not sure how that is Hogan’s fault. He said VH-1 made him an offer to start a promotion. That’s another thing that magically happens every January/February, folks start asking Hogan to start a promotion. It’s amazing timing, what with WrestleMania being around the corner and all. Hogan said he thought the biggest angle in wresting could be Hulk Hogan vs. Vince Russo. I hope he doesn’t really think that or he has finally lost his mind. Bubba said the combination of Hogan, TNA and VH-1 would be UNSTOPPABLE.
Test is off the house shows after finally failing a Wellness test. There had been people wondering how the hell he’d been passing ever since he came back to TV. The new idea is to only pull them from house shows in an attempt to keep failures quiet. This one wasn’t being kept quiet for a number of reasons. What’s funny is that if you watch WWE nowadays, it’s pretty goddamn hard to fail a Wellness test.
Test’s ex-girlfriend Stacy Kiebler debuted on What About Brian this past week on ABC.
Some notes from Smackdown last week. The deal with Jillian Hall doing the airhead singing gimmick is, in fact, a shot at Hulk Hogan. Vince thinks Jillian looks just like Brooke, although others totally don’t see it (I do, believe it or not). It’s funny because I was watching the show Friday night and Jillian came in doing this shitty signing and the very first thing I thought, “Jesus Christ they’re spoofing Brooke Hogan!” So I checked and sure enough, that’s the deal. It’s kind of scary how many things lately I have had in common with Vince McMahon. I’ve always figured that in the end I’m losing my mind, but I was hoping it would happen a little further down the road.
The deal with the Boogey and Finlay feud is that they want Finlay to try to teach him how to work. They tried this with both Lashley and Batista, and thanks to Big Dave Finlay is batting .500 in the training department. By adding Boogey to the mix his average will soon drop to a .333, and I’m not placing any of that blame on him.
Notes from the Raw show taped Monday night to air this Thursday. They did the big Trump/Vince angle, which culminated in the two agreeing to a deal for WrestleMania where they will each choose a wrestler, and the billionaire who backs the losing wrestler get his head SHAVED. When this was shown on the big screen in Seattle during the Smackdown tapings, people actually GASPED when they heard that stip. Well, this show isn’t beating Chuck vs. Tito, but Vince is determined to give it his best shot because that is a HUGE stipulation. I mean, seriously, I NEVER thought in a million years that we’d ever see a match where Vince McMahon ended up bald afterwards, but we’re going to get it. It’s funny, because when thinking of stips for Vince vs. Trump I NEVER thought of that, and now that it’s announced I have no idea how I didn’t think of it. Trump’s hair has been a cultural phenomenon forever, and I remember being a CHILD and hearing about Vince McMahon’s hair. This is, no joke, one of the biggest stips in Mania history, and as crazy as Vince has been since the death of the XFL, he’s on a tear of genius in 2007. I’d bet dollars to donuts that Trump’s representative will be Lashley, and I’ve got no idea who Vince is going to choose but I’m terrified that it’ll be Great Khali.
There had been talk for awhile of doing Lashley vs. Khali for the ECW Title prior to Khali being moved to Raw. Vince has made it up in his mind that if ECW goes down in a blaze of — well, if ECW putters out at the end of this year, at the very least it will have been a vehicle to make Lashley into a giant star. And with Hogan out of the picture, it makes sense that another giant muscular guy, Lashley, would take his role 20 years later and slam the giant Khali in the main event of WrestleMania (and yes, I think there is at least a possibility this match will go on last). They did another deal with Carlito and Flair where Carlito cut another promo on him and Carlito shot back claiming he wasn’t lazy and would prove it in a match tonight.
Said to be a great promo by Carlito. So of course Flair beat him using the ropes. They teased a heel turn with Carlito, but he ended up just shaking hands and walking out. They announced that Dusty Rhodes would be the main event of the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony this year.
They were in Portland, so they brought out Roddy Piper to make the announcement, but it was SPOILED by Umaga, who came out and gave them both the thumb. Piper looked like he’d put on some weight, which given the fact he’s fighting cancer is probably a good thing. Main event was an eight-man interpromotional tag match that ended with Shawn pinning Orton with the superkick. They may be building towards Orton & Edge vs. MVP & Mr. Kennedy at WrestleMania.
CMLL is considering moving their big El Homenaje a Dos Leyendas PPV to March 23rd, the same night that WWE will be in El Palacio de Los Deportes (which would mean the chances of Mistico, Perro Aguayo Jr. or Shocker working the WWE shows would be exactly zero). The main event for the WWE show the night before has Batista & Benoit & Kane vs. Booker & Kennedy & MVP (will they do a trios match with three falls?). And you wonder why CMLL isn’t worried about the competition. Semi-main is Lashley vs. RVD for the WWE Title.
WWE is putting out a Royal Rumble Anthology consisting of 20 DVDs covering all 20 past events dating back to 1988. It retails for $269 but you can probably get it cheaper on amazon.com.
Saturday Night’s Main Event returns to NBC on March 10th. The show will be taped the prior Monday during the Raw tapings. That should tell you what kind of priority this show has after the first two bombed in the ratings. It’ll be a three-brand show where they’ll shoot the final big angles for WrestleMania.
Vince changed his mind again and is breaking up the Hardyz and MNM (this is seriously about the sixth time he’s changed his mind in the last three months), so the four-way ladder match is scrapped and won’t be taking place at WrestleMania. Replacing it at No Mercy THIS SUNDAY will be London & Kendrick vs. the Greasers for the Tag Titles.
Marine was number one in video rentals this week, making $6.32 million, and number two in video sales behind Open Season (which was number two in rentals). Really.
JBL in his blog said he planned on running for office in Texas, but hadn’t decided whether to run for senator or governor. He said it’s either six or twelve years away.
credit: F4W newsletter
Cena was BY FAR the most popular guy on the show, probably followed by Undertaker. Fans were WAY more into Taker than Big Dave. Finlay and his midget’s facials at the end were awesome. Deuce is frikkin horrible but everyone knew that. It was way more fun watching JBL and Cole than it was watching some of the show. They’re hilarious, especially JBL, who is always JBL even when the cameras aren’t on him. Cena is also ungodly bad live, and Batista is the worst of all. Both botched several spots, but thankfully they can be edited out. Lashley is still really green but was carried well by Holly, who looks like he can’t move.
Shawn Michaels, who also moves like a 60-year-old man when the cameras aren’t on him, is like the best worker who ever lived this week. Watching him in the ring with Cena, Kennedy and MVP was like, well, watching those three in the ring with Shawn Michaels. He was a one-man show, and as much as Kennedy has improved on TV and Cena has been carried by some good guys, when Cena made the comeback on the two heels it was a total expose; everyone in the wrong spot, guys bonking into each other and out of position, etc. THE BEST THING on the show, and I don’t know if it’ll even air, is after Shawn and Cena won (Shawn’s superkick on Kennedy missed by a mile, by the way), they were celebrating and such and Shawn was just PERFECT. I don’t even know how to explain it. It was the way he was looking at him, and also how every step he took was somehow in a position where he could throw a superkick, but it was SO subtle that I don’t think some people would even notice it. And of course, no superkick, but what he was doing here was such that when he finally throws that superkick, it’ll be the greatest thing ever. I was just in awe of this man.
Edge and Orton are good as well, but Shawn was on a different level from everyone all night. Funniest thing on the show was Ashley coming out and starting her promo before her music stopped playing and before the crowd stopped their big initial pop, so you could hear the first several words that came out of her mouth, and then the next few words were how she went to college and got a degree in communications.
Hogan was on Bubba the Love Sponge as usual last week, largely to talk the death of Anna Nicole Smith. He said he hung out with her at the last UFC show and she was wobbling all over the place and incoherent when she checked in. Bubba said the Internet was in an uproar over the rumors that he might go to TNA. Hogan is always about to go somewhere this time of year. He admitted to have never talked with Dixie Carter, but said his lawyer might have. He said he got in trouble for putting Ann Russo on the air in the Hall of Fame debacle a few weeks back (I should note that he still thinks this is Vince’s secretary, and she’s actually John Lauranitis’, which actually makes the story funnier), and later said, “I apparently don’t work there anymore.”
Basically, after that whole deal went down Vince was IRATE and determined that he was NEVER going to work with Hogan again. Later, he softened his stance when he heard that Hogan had been drunk at the time. But then this week, for whatever reason (and the reason is that he’s Vince McMahon), he changed his mind again and said he was DONE with Hogan, Hogan would NOT be at WrestleMania, etc., etc. All Hogan merchandise went on clearance that day. With Big Show not coming back anytime in the near future, the plan (well, one of them) was Shane McMahon vs. Hogan with Vince and Donald Trump in respective corners. To me, I don’t care what Vince McMahon says today, the idea of Hulk Hogan not being at the 20th anniversary of WrestleMania III is inconceivable. I expect in the end he’ll be there, but as of today, no dice (with one source insisting he was totally done and not coming back anytime soon). Hogan also said he got heat for the fans chanting “HOGAN!” at the UFC show.
Well, that’s what happened, but I’m not sure how that is Hogan’s fault. He said VH-1 made him an offer to start a promotion. That’s another thing that magically happens every January/February, folks start asking Hogan to start a promotion. It’s amazing timing, what with WrestleMania being around the corner and all. Hogan said he thought the biggest angle in wresting could be Hulk Hogan vs. Vince Russo. I hope he doesn’t really think that or he has finally lost his mind. Bubba said the combination of Hogan, TNA and VH-1 would be UNSTOPPABLE.
Test is off the house shows after finally failing a Wellness test. There had been people wondering how the hell he’d been passing ever since he came back to TV. The new idea is to only pull them from house shows in an attempt to keep failures quiet. This one wasn’t being kept quiet for a number of reasons. What’s funny is that if you watch WWE nowadays, it’s pretty goddamn hard to fail a Wellness test.
Test’s ex-girlfriend Stacy Kiebler debuted on What About Brian this past week on ABC.
Some notes from Smackdown last week. The deal with Jillian Hall doing the airhead singing gimmick is, in fact, a shot at Hulk Hogan. Vince thinks Jillian looks just like Brooke, although others totally don’t see it (I do, believe it or not). It’s funny because I was watching the show Friday night and Jillian came in doing this shitty signing and the very first thing I thought, “Jesus Christ they’re spoofing Brooke Hogan!” So I checked and sure enough, that’s the deal. It’s kind of scary how many things lately I have had in common with Vince McMahon. I’ve always figured that in the end I’m losing my mind, but I was hoping it would happen a little further down the road.
The deal with the Boogey and Finlay feud is that they want Finlay to try to teach him how to work. They tried this with both Lashley and Batista, and thanks to Big Dave Finlay is batting .500 in the training department. By adding Boogey to the mix his average will soon drop to a .333, and I’m not placing any of that blame on him.
Notes from the Raw show taped Monday night to air this Thursday. They did the big Trump/Vince angle, which culminated in the two agreeing to a deal for WrestleMania where they will each choose a wrestler, and the billionaire who backs the losing wrestler get his head SHAVED. When this was shown on the big screen in Seattle during the Smackdown tapings, people actually GASPED when they heard that stip. Well, this show isn’t beating Chuck vs. Tito, but Vince is determined to give it his best shot because that is a HUGE stipulation. I mean, seriously, I NEVER thought in a million years that we’d ever see a match where Vince McMahon ended up bald afterwards, but we’re going to get it. It’s funny, because when thinking of stips for Vince vs. Trump I NEVER thought of that, and now that it’s announced I have no idea how I didn’t think of it. Trump’s hair has been a cultural phenomenon forever, and I remember being a CHILD and hearing about Vince McMahon’s hair. This is, no joke, one of the biggest stips in Mania history, and as crazy as Vince has been since the death of the XFL, he’s on a tear of genius in 2007. I’d bet dollars to donuts that Trump’s representative will be Lashley, and I’ve got no idea who Vince is going to choose but I’m terrified that it’ll be Great Khali.
There had been talk for awhile of doing Lashley vs. Khali for the ECW Title prior to Khali being moved to Raw. Vince has made it up in his mind that if ECW goes down in a blaze of — well, if ECW putters out at the end of this year, at the very least it will have been a vehicle to make Lashley into a giant star. And with Hogan out of the picture, it makes sense that another giant muscular guy, Lashley, would take his role 20 years later and slam the giant Khali in the main event of WrestleMania (and yes, I think there is at least a possibility this match will go on last). They did another deal with Carlito and Flair where Carlito cut another promo on him and Carlito shot back claiming he wasn’t lazy and would prove it in a match tonight.
Said to be a great promo by Carlito. So of course Flair beat him using the ropes. They teased a heel turn with Carlito, but he ended up just shaking hands and walking out. They announced that Dusty Rhodes would be the main event of the WWE Hall of Fame ceremony this year.
They were in Portland, so they brought out Roddy Piper to make the announcement, but it was SPOILED by Umaga, who came out and gave them both the thumb. Piper looked like he’d put on some weight, which given the fact he’s fighting cancer is probably a good thing. Main event was an eight-man interpromotional tag match that ended with Shawn pinning Orton with the superkick. They may be building towards Orton & Edge vs. MVP & Mr. Kennedy at WrestleMania.
CMLL is considering moving their big El Homenaje a Dos Leyendas PPV to March 23rd, the same night that WWE will be in El Palacio de Los Deportes (which would mean the chances of Mistico, Perro Aguayo Jr. or Shocker working the WWE shows would be exactly zero). The main event for the WWE show the night before has Batista & Benoit & Kane vs. Booker & Kennedy & MVP (will they do a trios match with three falls?). And you wonder why CMLL isn’t worried about the competition. Semi-main is Lashley vs. RVD for the WWE Title.
WWE is putting out a Royal Rumble Anthology consisting of 20 DVDs covering all 20 past events dating back to 1988. It retails for $269 but you can probably get it cheaper on amazon.com.
Saturday Night’s Main Event returns to NBC on March 10th. The show will be taped the prior Monday during the Raw tapings. That should tell you what kind of priority this show has after the first two bombed in the ratings. It’ll be a three-brand show where they’ll shoot the final big angles for WrestleMania.
Vince changed his mind again and is breaking up the Hardyz and MNM (this is seriously about the sixth time he’s changed his mind in the last three months), so the four-way ladder match is scrapped and won’t be taking place at WrestleMania. Replacing it at No Mercy THIS SUNDAY will be London & Kendrick vs. the Greasers for the Tag Titles.
Marine was number one in video rentals this week, making $6.32 million, and number two in video sales behind Open Season (which was number two in rentals). Really.
JBL in his blog said he planned on running for office in Texas, but hadn’t decided whether to run for senator or governor. He said it’s either six or twelve years away.
credit: F4W newsletter
i don't care, his radio shows are awesome
