Wrestling Observer Rewinder

December 13, 2004

Paul Heyman has once again been dropped from the WWE creative team. Part of it is the same ol' story: Heyman wanted to push people and had ideas that he was passionate about and the powers-that-be don't like that. The writing team is basically handcuffed and described as "glorified stenographers" for whatever direction Vince McMahon's mood takes him this week and Heyman, as usual, refuses to fall in line. So now he's back to his consultant role (sit at home, watch the shows, send an email giving his thoughts which will be summarily ignored). That's the job Heyman was doing until September, when he was put back on the creative team (against the wishes of Stephanie McMahon) because Bruce Prichard was on leave. Heyman was reluctant to take the job because he expected to butt heads with Stephanie and Brian Gewirtz, but Vince assured him it would be fine. Sure enough, Stephanie usually shot down anything Heyman presented and it hasn't been a productive three months. There's also rumors that Heyman, a Smackdown writer, was caught listening in on the Raw writer's team conference call which may have been what led to his demotion (yeah, I don't think we hear much more about this in 2004, but that's 100% what happened and is kind of a famous story now. Heyman got caught spying on the other show's creative meeting lol).
What's interesting about this is just days ago, Vince approved plans to run a one-shot ECW revival PPV in 2005. No word if that is still happening with Heyman's demotion. The idea has been kicking around for a few months and was first suggested by Rob Van Dam, who brought to Vince's attention how many ECW stars he already had under contract and how many others were available. There's a lot of rumors that this was actually all Heyman's idea, and that he used RVD as his messenger, since Vince is pretty fed up with Heyman's ideas. People within the office have been calling it "Heyman's Crusade" to do an ECW show, as he's made no secret about wanting to do it. Lots of people are said to be for it, Stephanie is thought to be against it, and ALL of this reads like just the most childish high school he-said-she-said gossip. Everybody cliquing up and picking sides like Mean Girls. Dave recalls the "Extreme Smackdown" show they did a few years back when people thought they might do an ECW revival on TV and it ended up just being the typical WWE hardcore match-themed show. If they do an ECW PPV with WWE's writers and WWE's usual production, without Heyman's involvement, that's probably what we're doomed to get. It would only work if it's authentic, and Dave is doubtful that happens under Vince's watch, especially with Heyman once again sitting at home.
TNA's Turning Point PPV is in the books and when all the chips were down, TNA hit a home run. Dave calls it legitimately one of the best PPV shows in wrestling history, headlined by America's Most Wanted vs. XXX in an insane cage match. (4.75 stars, so close!) Dave calls it unquestionably the greatest match in TNA history to this point. It featured one of the most memorable spots Dave has ever seen and hopes to never see again, when Elix Skipper did a walk across the top of the cage to huracanrana Chris Harris off the cage. Yeah, even 20 years later, that spot is bonkers and remains Skipper's biggest claim to fame. The choice to have that match headline the show was a Dusty Rhodes choice, and a wise one. Because the semi-main of Hardy/Styles/Savage vs. Hall/Nash/Jarrett was a disaster. More on that in a minute. Petey Williams vs. Chris Sabin for the X-Division title was also a 4-star banger. DDP vs. Raven was overbooked as hell but still came out really good. Abyss vs. Monty Brown also overdelivered and if rumors of TNA's demise are true, Monty can probably be expecting a call from WWE soon after.
We finally got the Cookie-Gate footage: the show did a lot of WWE-bashing leading up to it. They had some guys dressed as Vince McMahon and Triple H arrive in a limo. It was very reminiscent of the Billionaire Ted stuff. "Vince McDaddy" and his sledgehammer-weidling dopey "son" Triple H. Full of inside jokes like Vince eating raw protein and Triple H being a dumb gym-jock. Stuff like that. This all culminated in them airing the footage that TNA filmed when they ambushed WWE's Royal Rumble commercial shoot at Universal Studios a few weeks back.. Rey Mysterio, who has been friends with Konnan for decades, was acting like best friends with him. Luther Reigns and Rey were really the only people of note who were shown and their faces were blurred to avoid the threatened lawsuit. The footage was amusing just for the guys being funny but there was nothing remotely scandalous here and it was totally overblown.
Randy Savage is washed. TNA knows it and that's why they did a kidnapping angle and kept him out of the match until he did a run-in at the finish (in jacket and long-sleeve shirt). The entirety of his work in the match was throwing a few punches and getting the pin on Jarrett. All of this was booked to lead to a Jarrett vs. Savage match, but they're becoming well aware that Savage isn't going to be able to do that. Or maybe "willing" to do that is the right word, since he once again walked out of the next night's TV tapings. Allegedly, when he found out the plan was for him to do the job to Jarrett, he refused and bounced. Dave is actually on Savage's side here. He made it clear to TNA weeks ago that he wasn't coming in to put over Jarrett and wouldn't do it. They booked him on TV for weeks, had him appear at 2 PPVs including getting the win on this one to set up a title match, all without a contract, and then asked him to do what he already said he wouldn't do. What'd they expect? Anyway, plans are up in the air and they seem to be holding things open in case they get Savage back but as of now, he's out again. (And he would remain out. Ladies and gentlemen, those punches and pin on Jarrett was Randy Savage's last match ever. That's a wrap on the Macho Man.)
Triple H has done some interviews lately and that's always good for some juicy nuggets. He noted that despite his "Blade: Trinity" role and future WWE Films role, he said he will always be a wrestler first and not leave for Hollywood like the Rock. Dave says if Triple H was getting the kind of offers Rock is getting, he'd change his tune on that immediately (yeah, Cena said the same shit until he started seeing what real acting roles pay in comparison to driving all over the country in rental cars throwing your body at the ground). In regards to having creative input, he didn't deny it but confirmed Vince always has the final say. Says he hated the Katie Vick angle, protested it at the time, and still hates when people bring it up today (yeah, in his defense, Bruce Prichard has also confirmed that Triple H really hated it and fought against it, but Vince wouldn't be swayed). In regards to his reputation and people not liking him, he brushed it off. "There’s always gonna be people that don’t have the ability, but think they do, and think they should have your spot. The fact is, if they had the ability, they would be there." He said he doesn't go online and doesn't read the dirtsheets and says if you need to go on the internet to get validation from some 12-year-old online to tell you whether you had a good match or not...those are the people who will never be top guys and that's why. He was directly asked about rumors that Pat Patterson left WWE over disagreement with how much political power Triple H has gained. He responded, "You'd have to ask Pat that," and noted that Patterson was at Thanksgiving dinner recently with the rest of the McMahon family and says they've always gotten along great. But that's not a denial. Finally, he was asked why Bob Holly wasn't fired over the Rene Dupree incident. He called Holly's actions "inexcusable" but said the company had decided to give him "one last chance." So that's where that stands.
Tokyo's court of appeals has rejected the appeal of K-1 founder Kazuyoshi Ishii on tax evasion charges, ensuring that Japan's most powerful promoter is headed to prison after being sentenced to 22 months. Ishii, the public face of K-1 and the guy who basically created the Bob Sapp hype-train, was charged in 2002 on all sorts of tax evasion charges (pocketing nearly $9 million) as well as accusations he had forged Mike Tyson's signature on a contract when he was attempting to negotiate that fight. Ishii admitted to most of the charges, saying he was doing it in the best interest of the business. The judge wasn't hearing that, responding, "We don't care whether K-1 survives or not, we only care that you're a criminal." (This drags on for years and Ishii finally ends up going to prison in 2007. He serves about 1 years before he's released early for good behavior).
Dave runs through the usual ratings stuff. I usually don't cover this unless we have something interesting and this time we do! Lita vs. Trish Stratus main evented Raw last week, with Lita winning the women's title. It turned out to be a fantastic match but it was a risky decision to put it in the main event slot and turns out, that risk did not pay off. Lita vs. Trish was the second-lowest rated segment of the show and was the first Raw main event in months to actually lose viewers. This is why I love doing these Rewinds. Because you learn parts of the story that WWE won't tell you. Twenty years later, we all look back on this in hindsight as a historic match, and yeah it was. But it also tanked the show, and WWE will never acknowledge that part when telling their version of history. Great match, but the idea that it was a tide-turning moment in the evolution of women's wrestling doesn't quite hold up. While we're at it, it also wasn't the first women's match to main event Raw, despite what they've repeatedly claimed.
AAA’s Guerra de Titanes event, featuring the return of Konnan to AAA after 9 years, sold out 18,500 seats a week in advance. The match was announced as Konnan teaming with a surprise American star (Rikishi) against La Parka & Cibernetico. This was a huge event, and lots of Mexican television celebrities were in attendance and shown at ringside and other news outlets covered this as a major event. The big twist was Cibernetico turning heel on La Parka and joining with Konnan and Rikishi, who also turned heel. The idea is to establish Konnan as an outsider heel who will bring in American wrestlers to feud with La Parka, who Antonio Pena is trying to push as AAA's top star. The original idea was to have everyone turn on Konnan, but doing so would have instantly made Konnan the biggest babyface in the company and Pena still doesn't trust him and their relationship is still shaky. So he decided to turn Konnan heel instead, figuring if things go bad, which they inevitably will, it's better to lose your top heel than your top babyface.
Within AAA, there's definitely hesitancy about Konnan coming back. Many wrestlers, who often abide by heel/babyface kayfabe rules in magazine interviews, have gone against that by vocally speaking out against his return. Many who remember Konnan from the early days of AAA felt he was a bully then and still hold grudges. Some of those names, such as Heavy Metal and Latin Lover, completely gave Konnan the cold shoulder backstage. Octagon went even further, doing an interview bringing up Konnan's history of abusing women and beating up fans, fighting with police, and being deported and asked why anyone would want to bring him back. Even Konnan's longtime friend Juventud Guerrera was quoted saying he thinks bringing him back is a bad idea because it will upset so many other wrestlers. Pena finally had to address things with the locker room, saying that he has more reasons than anyone to hate Konnan but this is best for business and if he can work with Konnan, he expects them to as well. He said to those who don't want Konnan there, fine, feel that way if you want. But don't cause issues in the locker room and don't go off-script in the ring because if you do, you're messing with AAA's business and if you're gonna do that, you're free to leave now. Nobody left but the mood was tense.
Anyway, the Konnan return match was an overbooked mess and half the country of Mexico did run-ins. Abismo Negro tried to make the save with a flamethrower and accidentally burned himself, requiring him to be hospitalized. Konnan initially got the largest babyface reaction you've ever seen, but when he turned heel, the crowd went with him and booed him out of the building. Played em' like a fiddle. There was also a multi-man cage match where the last one in would get their head shaved. The loser ended up being....someone who wasn't even in the match, but ended up in the cage. Dave calls it a WCW-like booking move but then says if Vince Russo was doing it, he would have booked it where no one got their head shaved and then ignored it the next day. Dave hopes no one will read that last sentence to Pena in English and give him any ideas.
Lucha Libre legend Jerry Estrada looks to be wrestling's next tragic story. One of Lucha's all-time bumptakers, Estrada is now practically crippled at only 46-years-old. He can barely walk and is in horrible pain due to a destroyed L3 vertebrae and a damaged L5 vertebrae, and is basically confined to a wheelchair. He's needing surgery and was at a CMLL show recently asking to borrow money for the surgery. Some wrestlers are putting together a benefit show for him. Estrada made a lot of money in his career, but spent it just as fast, as he was a notorious partier and has struggled with cocaine and alcohol addictions all while still having banger matches (he's still alive as of this posting and wrestled his last match in 2019).
WWC had to cancel a show because they got into a dispute with Midway Trucks, which is a trucking company that hauls the ring and other equipment to-and-from shows in exchange for advertising or something. Anyway, Midway Trucks got pissed and unloaded all of WWC's equipment in the warehouse parking lot and said "get someone else to haul your shit then." They did find a new truck to pick it all up, but not in time, and thus had to cancel the event.
ROH's latest show featured the no-time-limit rubber match between CM Punk and Samoa Joe, stemming from their two previous 60-minute draws. This time, Joe retained the title, submitting Punk in 31 minutes. Most people expexted a title change or for them to at least do another 60-minute match, so the finish caught people by surprise but it was yet another incredible match. The show also featured the long-hyped Jim Cornette vs. Bobby Heenan debate. This was a whole 15-minute promo segment that led to a tag match with Heenan and Cornette managing different teams. Heenan eventually got the tennis racket and used it on Cornette, who sold it like crazy. Cornette idolizes Heenan and has always wanted to work with him and never had the chance, so this was the first time that arguably the 2 greatest managers of all time were involved in a match together. The crowd loved every second of this and Cornette and Heenan both knocked it out of the park. (The video below has all 3 Punk/Joe matches. Enjoy).
Last week, with the closure of Zero-ONE, it was announced a new company was being formed to replace it named First On Stage. Well, that name proved to immediately be unpopular so they've instead decided on "Zero-1 MAX." Which we're all still just gonna call Zero-ONE anyway (well, technically it changed to "Zero1" instead of "Zero-ONE" but whatever).
After Inoki canceled the match from NJPW's recent Osaka Dome show, the first ever Triple Crown vs. G1 Climax winner match took place in an AJPW ring instead. Toshiaka Kawada retained the title over Hiroyoshi Tenzan and none of this was good. The match was great actually. But the crowd was extremely disappointing (only 5,500) and it demonstrates 2 problems: it proves that AJPW's recent successful show was only because of the one-off return of Misawa and not a sign that things are getting better. And it's a bad sign for NJPW that their fans weren't willing to follow Tenzan to see what he'd do in AJPW, which doesn't say much for him as a draw (which is already how Inoki feels about him anyway). Dave thinks Tenzan should have won but whatever. This set up IWGP champ Kensuke Sasaki challenging Kawada to a champion vs. champion match. The match as advertised is taking place from Furitsu Gym in Osaka and Dave doesn't think the first ever Triple Crown vs. IWGP champion match would happen in such a venue. This leads Dave to suspect Sasaki is losing the IWGP title (probably to Tenzan) before the Kawada match takes place (indeed, that is exactly what happens. We'd have to wait until next year for the first ever IWGP vs. Triple Crown match).
Kenta Kobashi retained the GHC title over The Gladiator (Mike Awesome) on a recent NOAH show. Dave says if you think watching Triple H and Undertaker try to carry Scott Steiner or Heidenreich to watchable matches, then just imagine how bad this was. Gladiator is a washed up shell of his former self and Kobashi isn't a miracle worker with everybody. Minoru Suzuki challenged Kobashi afterwards, and they're also bringing in Genichiro Tenryu to eventually feud with both Kobashi and Misawa in 2005, both of which are dream matches.
Antonio Inoki is reportedly looking to book some sort of "MMA battle royal" at the upcoming NJPW Tokyo Dome show on Jan. 4. Dave doesn't have any details. This sorta ends up happening, but in a worked format of course. Although I kinda love the idea of a legit MMA battle royal. It'd be utter madness.
When reviewing the latest NJPW TV show, Dave notes that Hiroshi Tanahashi has "it" more than any new wrestler that has come along in years. He's a better in-ring performer and has more charisma than, say, Randy Orton (likely his closest counterpart in the U.S.). Dave likens him to a cross between a Tatsumi Fujinami and Keiji Muto in their primes, and NJPW fans are starting to realize it, as his popularity is skyrocketing.
All Japan Women has been struggling for years financially and there's a lot of talk in the Japanese media that the promotion may finally be shutting down for good. The city of Onoda recently filed a lawsuit against AJW for not paying the $3,000 rental fee for the public venue they used for a show recently and the company's promoter responded by admitting that they can't afford to pay it, noting they are almost $3 million in debt. The remaining AJW wrestlers haven't been paid a salary in years, and their money mainly comes from their own merch sales that they push at shows (indeeed, they limp along for a few more months after this before closing doors in April 2005).
Katsuji Nagashima, who for years worked in NJPW front offices, and then left with Riki Choshu to form his failed WJ promotion, is releasing a book that will discuss the behind-the-scenes of both promotions. This is the kinda stuff I would kill to find an English translation of. In fact, lots of Japanese wrestlers have written books that I would love to read but none of them are available in English. I'd even buy Japanese eBook versions of them and run them through a translate app myself if I could, but most of the books don't even have eBook versions available.
Red Light District, the porn company that released the Paris Hilton sex tape, is going to be distributing the upcoming Chyna/Sean Waltman sex tape. The video will be called "1 Night in Chyna." You're welcome.
Jerry Jarrett and Bob Carter met this week in Nashville to discuss the future of TNA. Carter has been close to bailing on the TNA project and Jarrett's meeting was an attempt to get him to change his mind. Jarrett proposed massive budget cuts that would save TNA money and convince the Carters to remain invested. Jarrett also claims to have more than $3 million in ad sales lined up for 2005 but Dave is very skeptical of that claim, noting the history of past promotions trying to budget based on projected ad revenue, only to learn later that ad sales for pro wrestling are famously low. ECW never made even 1/5 of that much in ad sales and they had far stronger syndication and 5x the cable ratings that TNA has. For comparison, WWE is expected to do $40 million in ad sales this year. Throw in the fact that TNA on FSN actually hasn't been doing quite as good as they'd hoped and $3 million in ad sales sounds like pure fantasy to Dave. And even if they did have that, they still need to do 40-50k buys for their monthly PPVs to break even and they aren't doing that either. All that being said, a funny note: DDP is earning more money in TNA than he did in WWE, which is either a sign that TNA is overpaying him or WWE was underpaying him.
Larry Zbyszko hasn't been used by TNA in recent weeks and Dave implies that it's not an accident. Remember a few months ago when Dusty Rhodes and Zbyszko had a promo segment where Zbyszko completely upstaged Dusty and they had a big backstage argument about it after? Well...Dusty is the new booker now. Not good news for Zbyszko.
Dave gives Jeff Jarrett his flowers for his recent match against Monty Brown. It was easily the best match Brown has had in his short career so far and while he deserves some credit, this match was an example of how good Jarrett actually is because this was all him carrying things. It went 13 minutes and Dave thinks it was actually too short. He still thinks Jarrett desperately needs to lose the title and stop making himself the focal point of the company, but otherwise, this was tremendous (minus the dumb ref bump ending). Rhodes is also a fan of Monty Brown and there's talk of putting the title on him sooner than later.
The plan for Jim Mitchell to return as Abyss' manager has been scrapped. The original idea was to dress up Mitchell as a carnival barker with a big top hat and a cane who would then release the chained up "Monster Abyss" from a box for each match. It was kinda seen as too campy, especially when everyone saw Mitchell in the top hat. Mitchell was asking people why he couldn't just manage Abyss as his normal self, but nope. Then Dusty took over as booker and told Mitchell they had nothing for him. Mitchell, who took the day off work from his normal job to come to the taping, and then wasn't paid because they decided not to use him, wasn't pleased.
Dustin Rhodes debuted at the latest TNA tapings and, to nobody's surprise, he appears to be getting a big push. Yeah that tends to happen when your dad is the booker. Dustin was cutting a promo at one point during the show that was going long. The stage director off camera began giving him the signal to wrap it up, but Dustin was ignoring her and kept rambling. She was getting more and more expressive behind the camera, trying to get him to end the promo. Finally, Jeremy Borash had to run out to the stage director and told her, this is the booker's son. If he wants to go long, let him go long.
Regarding the invention of the Canadian Destroyer, it's been noted that Amazing Red did a running version of the move at a 2002 ROH show, so he indeed used it before Petey Williams allegedly invented it.
The UFC recently had serious discussions about booking a Kimbo Slice vs. Sean Gannon fight. Dave notes that both men became internet famous after a bare knuckle MMA fight they had (which was basically just a street fight with some vague rules) went viral online. Dave recaps the history of these guys and the underground DVD market of these underground fights and Kimbo's rise to popularity. The Kimbo/Gannon fight got more online traction in online MMA circles than anything else happening in the MMA world, other than the Kurt Angle/Daniel Puder incident. As a result, UFC started kicking around the idea of booking a rematch under their umbrella. But UFC already has enough trouble with government regulations and trying to get states to legalize their shows. The last thing they need is for one of their political opponents to pull up these old street fight videos and say "this is the kind of stuff that gets you hired by UFC." They desperately want MMA to be seen as a respected sport, like boxing, rather than lawless human cockfighting. UFC was saved by getting regulated in Nevada, which allows them to run hugely successful shows there. The resulting success has done a lot to rebuild UFC's reputation. To risk throwing all that away for a single fight with some internet buzz makes about as much sense as WCW booking Ric Flair vs. Shane Douglas in a feud where all they did was make insider references to years-old dirtsheet drama. Regardless, UFC commentator Joe Rogan is strongly pushing for them to book the fight but he seems to be the only one.
The Rock is planning to wrestle at Wrestlemania 21, assuming WWE can come up with a good storyline for his return. Also, Rock is very clearly talking to Dave around this time. He notes Rock has been filming a movie in Prague, but during his downtime, he's watching old territory wrestling tapes from Memphis, Dallas, and Portland (I think Dave has actually admitted before to sending Rock these tapes). Exact quote from Rock to Dave: "I absolutely love it. The ideas I'm getting from them are amazing. Creativity plus simplicity plus passion equals success. It should be mandatory for the boys to watch. They have no idea how much that would help them. When the babyfaces sold, the people felt it. When the heels got heat, the people believed it." (Anyway, Rock doesn't end up working WM21 or anything else WWE, for several more years).
Eddie Guerrero continues to be just about the only star they have right now that's noticeably drawing. WWE is pulling in significantly more Hispanic fans with Eddie on shows, even in markets like the Carolinas and Georgia. Guerrero is also, by far, the most popular wrestler on either brand right now, despite being saddled in mid-card storylines. Guerrero won't keep selling tickets forever and Dave thinks they need to start treating him like more of a top guy. (Hindsight is 20/20 but in retrospect, I think they made the right decision. Earlier in the year, Eddie seemed to be crumbling under the pressure of being the top guy. Everyone in the company was fretting about his mental health and he was working through every imaginable injury while trying to keep his own demons at bay because he didn't think he could take time off. Not sure he needed any more pressure).
The Armageddon PPV is supposed to feature Daniel Puder vs. Mike The Miz in a shoot boxing match to determine the winner of Tough Enough. Dave hates this. Shoots on wrestling shows usually end badly, but that's not Dave's biggest issue. The problem is shoot fighting is serious business where trained fighters of reasonably equal measure face each other. And even then, people get hurt, sometimes seriously. Daniel Puder vs. Miz is NOT a fair fight. Puder is a trained fighter with amateur boxing experience and years of kickboxing training under the tutelage of world champion fighters. Mike The Miz got beaten up by one of his castmates on "The Real World." (I never watched lol, is this true?). If Mike The Miz gets hurt, WWE is at complete fault. Dave doesn't understand why the Georgia athletic commission doesn't step in, other than they probably just assume it's gonna be fake. But it's not. It's a shoot and there's literally a million dollar contract on the line. Puder has every reason to want to kill the guy on the other side of the ring. It also opens WWE up to a lawsuit if (when) Miz loses, but Dave suspects they'll offer him a developmental deal regardless to try and get ahead of that possibility.
Notes from 12/6 Raw: Triple H's world title was held up due to the clusterfuck finish last week. Maven was good as a cocky heel. They had a limbo competition with some of the divas, including the Diva Search losers like Maria and Candice Michelle. Simon Dean finally wrestled and they actually acted like he'd never wrestled before and this was his first match ever, which not only insults the intelligence of any fans who've been to recent house shows, but also anyone who saw him as Nova in ECW. But whatever. Jericho was GM for the night and ruled that the only way Christian could get an IC title shot is if he dressed in a goofy looking Capt. Charisma superhero costume. In real life, Christian was apparently not thrilled about having to do this, but he made it work and was entertaining. In the tag team match, Triple H laid out Benoit with a hard chairshot, leading Dave to go on a small rant about how these unprotected chairshots to the head have to be stopped. Relax, I'm sure Benoit's fine. They also teased more Triple H and Batista dissension. Finally, the main event was Trish vs. Lita in the best women's match on TV in a long time. Except for one spot where Lita did a dive out of the ring and Dave was terrified that she broke her neck (yeah that spot is horrific). But she shook it off and finished the match and won the title in a great moment. The next morning, she was sore from that scary bump but seemingly suffered no serious injury.
Notes from 12/7 Smackdown tapings: Former WCW wrestler Lodi as well as former ECW wrestler C.W. Anderson both worked dark matches. Daniel Puder and Mike The Miz are confirmed as the final 2 Tough Enough contestants, meaning Miz gets the shoot boxing match against Puder. Miz was putting on a game face but backstage, he was said to look like a lamb being led to slaughter, as he knows he has no chance. They did a bit with Hiroko blaming Torrie Wilson for her husband lusting after her ("who has ever heard of a married pro wrestler sleeping around? I mean, that's completely against the pro wrestling handbook," Dave declares) and it ended with both of them being stripped of their clothes somehow because of course it did.
Amy Weber (of JBL's "cabinet") and the other new women like Christy Hemme, Joy Giovanni and Maria Kanellis are getting a lot of heat in the locker room for all the usual reasons: overpaid, didn't earn their spot, never paid dues, don't understand the business, getting preferential treatment, etc. Dave says the heat should be on management for that, not the women themselves. Weber in particular is feeling it the worst. She was riding with the Basham brothers recently and they apparently dropped her off at the wrong hotel and drove away and left her there as a "rib", and it's been noted that she has been the target of other ribs. Dave doesn't clarify but I'm sure one of these days, we'll get all the details on how Randy Orton and Edge in particular bullied her completely out of the company.
Speaking of Christy Hemme, prior to signing with WWE, she was in an infomercial for a DVD called VIP Lingerie Parties, using the name Sunni. The commercial still airs in parts of the country.
Esquire magazine has a feature on Vince McMahon with him talking about things he's learned. Among them: "Steroids work. When I took steroids back in my 40s, I could feel a tremendous difference. Should they be banned? Yeah." He also said that what he learned from the XFL experience was to be smarter the next time he takes on the NFL. Dave is cackling at some of these answers.
Jerry Lawler turned his real-life attempted robbery into an angle on his Memphis wrestling TV show. Lawler cut a promo standing in front of the famous juke box and said it's embarrassing when your own hometown's police department will plot to break into your home and kill you in the process. Lawler said he was certain the investigation would show that Cory Maclin (the announcer with whom Lawler is feuding) was probably responsible.