Post by andrew8798 on Nov 7, 2007 10:49:05 GMT -5
We'll have more on the death of Fabulous Moolah, 84, next week, as well as a story on WWE's latest financial report
Both Harry Smith and Chris Masters were suspended this week. Harry got a 30-day first-time suspension and Masters got a second strike 60-day. When the Signature Pharmacy suspensions went down in September the company announced that as of November 1st they were going to make all Wellness failures public. At the time, Congress was compiling witness lists and talking to various people about who should be called to testify, and the rumor was that hearings would be taking place in mid to late September.
Vince McMahon was dead serious about everything at the time, calling another meeting and telling people to get off drugs and telling the creative team that he was going to enforce the three-strike rule to the letter. Of course, it was only about a month later that McMahon and HHH both came down to the ring for Raw matches looking nearly as big as ever, and after a few weeks the usual shrinking wrestlers suddenly stopped shrinking and started growing again. By October, Congressional talk had really died down, and while they were still contacting wrestlers and asking them if they had any information about the problems in wrestling, it was clear from reading the letters that they were in absolutely no hurry to get anything done.
The prevailing belief is that before they started talking to people they thought this was just pro-wrestling, and cleaning up a drug problem would be easy. After talking to people, however, it became clear that this was a major issue with no easy answer. Plus, it seemed that they wanted people to tell them that Vince McMahon had flat-out told them to get on steroids, which of course he never has (and, of late, has insisted the exact opposite). We're in November and Congress shuts down for the rest of the year in about two weeks, so nothing is happening in 2007, and I have little hope of anything happening in 2008.
It should also be noted that in September, when WWE did the suspensions and announced the changes effective November 1, most in the mainstream media were snowed and looked at this as a positive and proactive step by WWE. The reality is that the suspensions came over two weeks after WWE got the list of names, and based on who was suspended and what their role had been on TV, it was very clear that the only reason WWE acted was because they learned the names were going to come out publicly and decided to give the impression they were being proactive. I am pretty confident that had Sports Illustrated and other outlets never gotten hold of the names, WWE would have never suspended the guys.
Regarding the November 1st deadline, my feeling has been since day one that we'd only see lower and mid-level guys suspended, and no top stars. Vince, as noted, insisted that the three-strike rule would be enforced to the letter no matter who it was, but even as he was saying that there were major questions about how Randy Orton hadn't hit a third strike yet.
To this day, nobody has a really good answer, except that perhaps in the world of WWE, if you get sent to rehab it does not count as a strike. I cannot confirm this, but it does appear to be the case based upon Masters' latest suspension, because according to someone who would be in a position to know, there was, and I quote, NO f***ING WAY that this was only Masters' second strike. The reality of failures is that there are still so many loopholes in the Wellness policy that you really have to be a total moron to fail, and thus the top stars, who have the money and the "best" doctors and such, aren't going to fail anytime soon. Failures at this point appear to be guys who maybe had a moment of weakness shortly before a test (perhaps a Jeff Hardy), young guys who maybe wouldn't know any better yet (I'm giving Harry the benefit of the doubt here), and morons (Masters, especially since he's just now coming off a 30-day suspension from September).
It is interesting that in noting the failures, WWE is only announcing that they failed, not outright saying what it is that they had in their system. For Masters, given his track record, it would appear to be steroids, but we don't know for sure. For Harry, the Fight Network is reporting that he failed for Winstrol. In an interview in 2003, he told Slam Wrestling!, "I've never taken steroids, I don't plan to. I loved my Dad, and yes he made mistakes, but I have learned from them. I won't go down that path." This was four years ago. I don't know what happened, but I do know that Harry always had a reputation for being super clean, and never even drank until he got into wrestling and in some ways it was sort of expected. The fact that his father died in part due to long-term steroid abuse, and the fact that Harry was so close to Chris Benoit had people shaking their heads all week.
Regarding rumors that Harry failed a test in September and they held the suspension off until November so it could look like they were serious, I'm told by people close to the situation that this is likely not the case. Debuting him with a win over Carlito and then putting him into the mix the week after with Jeff Hardy and Kennedy when the plan all along was to suspend him on November 1 just makes absolutely no sense. Plus, he's an unknown with a lot of upside and it would be even dumber than their usual MO to sacrifice him like this, particularly when Masters, because he's been around, is a perfectly fine sacrifice. Also, when Vince spoke to the creative team immediately afterwards he basically said that when Harry came back he wouldn't be punished, but he also wouldn't be pushed hard yet. It's similar to RVD in that he'll be a lame duck for a few months when he returns. This also suggests Vince was caught off guard by the suspension.
Brooke of Extreme Expose was dropped. A sad day. She had a ton of heat with different girls and even had a confrontation with Melina at Raw over furry boots. Seriously. It was a GIMMICK INFRINGEMENT argument, since Melina wears the boots and I guess Brooke was trying to wear them as well. As stupid as this sounds, Vince was actually upset that Brooke was ignorant about the issue and "not protective of Melina's gimmick". Like Melina is the only girl on Earth to wear furry boots.
There is a belief which I cannot confirm that Melina went to Vince and complained, and he made the call to axe Brooke. Johnny Ace was one of her big supporters and fought hard for her to stay, but was overruled. I wouldn't be surprised if Eve from the Diva Search ended up getting her spot. When Brooke was first hired the idea was for her to be one of the Funkette dancers when Flash Funk re-debuted. Ace paid for her to take dance lessons and develop a routine. Of course, Funk never redebuted and thus there weren't any Funkettes. Ace always pushed hard for her to debut on all three of the brands, which became a running joke because she wasn't a good promo, couldn't work, and didn't seem to have any good instincts about being a performer.
WWE sold 46,000 tickets to Mania on the first day tickets went on sale this past weekend. They're already calling it the biggest-grossing event in the history of the Citrus Bowl. Still a ton of tickets left, but it'll definitely sell out.
Lionsgate signed a $20 million deal with USA Network and Sci-Fi for broadcast TV rights to a number of films, including 3:10 to Yuma, Saw II and Good Luck Chuck (after they make their runs on Showtime, HBO, etc.). Condemned was also in the deal, so at some point it'll play on USA.
credit:F4W Newsletter
Both Harry Smith and Chris Masters were suspended this week. Harry got a 30-day first-time suspension and Masters got a second strike 60-day. When the Signature Pharmacy suspensions went down in September the company announced that as of November 1st they were going to make all Wellness failures public. At the time, Congress was compiling witness lists and talking to various people about who should be called to testify, and the rumor was that hearings would be taking place in mid to late September.
Vince McMahon was dead serious about everything at the time, calling another meeting and telling people to get off drugs and telling the creative team that he was going to enforce the three-strike rule to the letter. Of course, it was only about a month later that McMahon and HHH both came down to the ring for Raw matches looking nearly as big as ever, and after a few weeks the usual shrinking wrestlers suddenly stopped shrinking and started growing again. By October, Congressional talk had really died down, and while they were still contacting wrestlers and asking them if they had any information about the problems in wrestling, it was clear from reading the letters that they were in absolutely no hurry to get anything done.
The prevailing belief is that before they started talking to people they thought this was just pro-wrestling, and cleaning up a drug problem would be easy. After talking to people, however, it became clear that this was a major issue with no easy answer. Plus, it seemed that they wanted people to tell them that Vince McMahon had flat-out told them to get on steroids, which of course he never has (and, of late, has insisted the exact opposite). We're in November and Congress shuts down for the rest of the year in about two weeks, so nothing is happening in 2007, and I have little hope of anything happening in 2008.
It should also be noted that in September, when WWE did the suspensions and announced the changes effective November 1, most in the mainstream media were snowed and looked at this as a positive and proactive step by WWE. The reality is that the suspensions came over two weeks after WWE got the list of names, and based on who was suspended and what their role had been on TV, it was very clear that the only reason WWE acted was because they learned the names were going to come out publicly and decided to give the impression they were being proactive. I am pretty confident that had Sports Illustrated and other outlets never gotten hold of the names, WWE would have never suspended the guys.
Regarding the November 1st deadline, my feeling has been since day one that we'd only see lower and mid-level guys suspended, and no top stars. Vince, as noted, insisted that the three-strike rule would be enforced to the letter no matter who it was, but even as he was saying that there were major questions about how Randy Orton hadn't hit a third strike yet.
To this day, nobody has a really good answer, except that perhaps in the world of WWE, if you get sent to rehab it does not count as a strike. I cannot confirm this, but it does appear to be the case based upon Masters' latest suspension, because according to someone who would be in a position to know, there was, and I quote, NO f***ING WAY that this was only Masters' second strike. The reality of failures is that there are still so many loopholes in the Wellness policy that you really have to be a total moron to fail, and thus the top stars, who have the money and the "best" doctors and such, aren't going to fail anytime soon. Failures at this point appear to be guys who maybe had a moment of weakness shortly before a test (perhaps a Jeff Hardy), young guys who maybe wouldn't know any better yet (I'm giving Harry the benefit of the doubt here), and morons (Masters, especially since he's just now coming off a 30-day suspension from September).
It is interesting that in noting the failures, WWE is only announcing that they failed, not outright saying what it is that they had in their system. For Masters, given his track record, it would appear to be steroids, but we don't know for sure. For Harry, the Fight Network is reporting that he failed for Winstrol. In an interview in 2003, he told Slam Wrestling!, "I've never taken steroids, I don't plan to. I loved my Dad, and yes he made mistakes, but I have learned from them. I won't go down that path." This was four years ago. I don't know what happened, but I do know that Harry always had a reputation for being super clean, and never even drank until he got into wrestling and in some ways it was sort of expected. The fact that his father died in part due to long-term steroid abuse, and the fact that Harry was so close to Chris Benoit had people shaking their heads all week.
Regarding rumors that Harry failed a test in September and they held the suspension off until November so it could look like they were serious, I'm told by people close to the situation that this is likely not the case. Debuting him with a win over Carlito and then putting him into the mix the week after with Jeff Hardy and Kennedy when the plan all along was to suspend him on November 1 just makes absolutely no sense. Plus, he's an unknown with a lot of upside and it would be even dumber than their usual MO to sacrifice him like this, particularly when Masters, because he's been around, is a perfectly fine sacrifice. Also, when Vince spoke to the creative team immediately afterwards he basically said that when Harry came back he wouldn't be punished, but he also wouldn't be pushed hard yet. It's similar to RVD in that he'll be a lame duck for a few months when he returns. This also suggests Vince was caught off guard by the suspension.
Brooke of Extreme Expose was dropped. A sad day. She had a ton of heat with different girls and even had a confrontation with Melina at Raw over furry boots. Seriously. It was a GIMMICK INFRINGEMENT argument, since Melina wears the boots and I guess Brooke was trying to wear them as well. As stupid as this sounds, Vince was actually upset that Brooke was ignorant about the issue and "not protective of Melina's gimmick". Like Melina is the only girl on Earth to wear furry boots.
There is a belief which I cannot confirm that Melina went to Vince and complained, and he made the call to axe Brooke. Johnny Ace was one of her big supporters and fought hard for her to stay, but was overruled. I wouldn't be surprised if Eve from the Diva Search ended up getting her spot. When Brooke was first hired the idea was for her to be one of the Funkette dancers when Flash Funk re-debuted. Ace paid for her to take dance lessons and develop a routine. Of course, Funk never redebuted and thus there weren't any Funkettes. Ace always pushed hard for her to debut on all three of the brands, which became a running joke because she wasn't a good promo, couldn't work, and didn't seem to have any good instincts about being a performer.
WWE sold 46,000 tickets to Mania on the first day tickets went on sale this past weekend. They're already calling it the biggest-grossing event in the history of the Citrus Bowl. Still a ton of tickets left, but it'll definitely sell out.
Lionsgate signed a $20 million deal with USA Network and Sci-Fi for broadcast TV rights to a number of films, including 3:10 to Yuma, Saw II and Good Luck Chuck (after they make their runs on Showtime, HBO, etc.). Condemned was also in the deal, so at some point it'll play on USA.
credit:F4W Newsletter
If in fact it did happen
