WM 29 Weekend News: Rock wants Brock, Fandango fever, Punk appreciates Rock

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While we don't have numbers yet, WrestleMania 29 from the MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J., on Sunday, April 7, 2013 will almost certainly go down in history as the highest-grossing professional wrestling event in the history of planet Earth. The company claimed 80,676 fans and a gate of $12.3 million. This would, as coincidence would have it, break the UFC all-time gate record of $12.075 million set for UFC 129. Final numbers should be in within a few weeks.


The event, headlined by Rock vs. John Cena for the WWE Title, wasn't the best WrestleMania of all time from an in-ring standpoint, and really the only really great match on the show was Undertaker beating CM Punk to keep the streak alive. I loved the show itself live even if I've been to a million better wrestling shows. The WrestleMania live experience is something that cannot be explained to someone who has never been to a show before. There are positives and negatives, a big negative for me personally being that my view was completely obstructed by a giant support beam holding up their set. The reason for the pillars was that WWE created a very elaborate recreation of New York, which was pretty funny at a show in New Jersey, that featured a 67-foot Statue of Liberty (nearly exactly half the size of the original) which weighed, seriously, 17,500 pounds. Obviously four strong pillars were needed to support this. It was a similar problem last year when some fans had their view obstructed by giant palm trees holding up the set. Many who talked to customer relations in the building were moved to better seats, and it is an issue nobody will have to worry about next year since the building is indoor and thus you can hang things from the ceiling, meaning no pillars or palm trees needed. Like usual I watched most all of the show on the big screens anyway. Also, it was kind of cold, but I bundled up and due to where I was sitting (middle of the bowl), I never got cold. There were people up high who got very cold. The positives, such as being at such a gigantic event surrounded by the most hardcore wrestling fans in the world, and the grandiose spectacle of it all, particularly during a match like Taker vs. Punk, made it more than worth the trip.


As a show, taking out the live experience, it was a thumbs in the middle. They were super pressed for time (God knows why on a four-hour show) and they cut segment after segment, many interviews and even the full eight-person tag featuring Cody Rhodes & Damian Sandow & Bellas vs. Tons of Funk & Naomi & Cameron (which ended up on Raw, though it was also cut from the Raw on Hulu feed, much to everyone's dismay). They didn't air one backstage segment, and in fact they had celebrities who were scheduled to appear in those segments that ended up bumped from the show.


The main event, with Cena beating Rock to regain the WWE Title, was decent. It was better than last year in the sense that they played off last year's big spots and it told a good story for those of us who were there live for both matches. But it was slow early and the fans weren't much into it until near the end, plus it was hampered by Rock suffering serious abdominal injuries halfway through. He tore his abs off the bone, his adductor muscle, and suffered a hernia, all of which required him to fly home on Monday and miss out on a scheduled Raw segment where Brock Lesnar would lay him out to set up a match at WrestleMania next year. Rock will not be getting surgery, nor will he be cancelling his upcoming Hercules film project. Basically, he has no time to get the injury fixed and thus will suffer with what must be intense pain. Whether he'll ever wrestle again is to be determined. Obviously, based on the planned Raw scenario and what actually happened, the company was planning for, at the least, another John Cena match (Rock was announced as number-one contender even though he probably can't wrestle for a long, long time), and the Mania match with Brock. But given this injury, which is going to make filming Hercules absolute misery, he may come to the realization that wrestling, particularly against a big physically powerful guy like Brock Lesnar, may not be in his best interests going forward even if personally he'd like to continue wrestling a limited scheduled for at least the next few years. He's going to rehab and wait for everything to scar over, at which point he'll likely get surgery if a time frame opens up where he can afford to take time off to do it.


Lesnar, as expected, lost to Triple H. Lesnar was knocked batty seconds into the match from a flying knee and was out on his feet for about five minutes, which led to HHH audibly calling spots and trying to guide him through the match. Hunter also suffered an arm injury during the match when his arm got caught underneath a table that broke, but he didn't suffer any broken bones or any serious damage, only a deep tissue muscle bruise. So yes, Lesnar was scheduled to destroy the Rock to set up a match at Mania next year the night after doing a clean job to HHH. But the way the story was written, it seemed there was no chance they'd consider having HHH lose and retire in storyline.


In another baffling booking decision, Ryback lost clean to Mark Henry the night before he was set up to be John Cena's challenger for the WWE title at Extreme Rules. Seriously. The original plan was for Henry to lose, and then late last week the betting lines (yes, there are places that take bets on worked wrestling matches), went crazy in the other direction, and when I asked someone in WWE I was told that, in fact, it now appeared that Henry was going over. The idea was that since Ryback was turning heel, it didn't matter if Henry beat him because when you go heel that's a character reset. I absolutely would not have booked him to lose that match, particularly since he still laid out and beat up Henry afterwards. But that's what they did, and that's the next match on the docket.


By far the highlight of the show was the Punk vs. Undertaker match. I thought the match would be fine but nothing special. I was wrong. Undertaker was a megastar on this show, and even though it was the one match on the show where, realistically, there was zero chance they were changing the finish, the fans still got into it more than anything else on the show by far. The story of some poor fool trying so hard to break Undertaker's streak, trying anything from enlisting a friend's help to clonking the dude with the urn supposedly containing Paul Bearer's ashes, yet failing in the end, is the best storyline in WWE, and has led to Undertaker, a guy who wrestles like once a year, having the best and most heated match on the show year after year. You want to talk about streaks? Granted, star-ratings are subjective, but based on my own personal ratings, Undertaker has had the best match on the show in 2007 with Batista (this actually was tied for first place with the main event of John Cena vs. Shawn Michaels), 2008 with Edge, 2009 with Shawn Michaels, 2010 with Shawn Michaels, 2011 with HHH, 2012 with HHH and now 2013 with John Cena. And my guess would be, based on the characters involved, that there is a strong chance both streaks will continue in 2014 if the match I expect, Taker vs. John Cena, is put together. It's amazing how willing the fans are to play along with this storyline despite the fact that I think deep down every single one of them knows nobody is ever breaking the streak. It is the very epitome of fans allowing for suspension of disbelief, and the streak is, without question, the single most valuable "title" in WWE today and for the foreseeable future.

 

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The rest of the show saw Miz beat Wade Barrett for the IC Title in the opener, which set up him losing the same title to the same guy on Raw the next night (Miz is leaving to film a movie so I think he's gone for a bit); Shield beat Sheamus & Randy Orton & Big Show when Orton stole a tag (and subsequently a WrestleMania moment) from Big Show, which led, after Shield won, to Show beating up both of his partners (no Randy Orton turn again); Team Hell No beat Dolph Ziggler & Big E Langston to set up Ziggler's title win the next night on Raw; Fandango beat Chris Jericho in a match where Fandango looked OK but not great, and it came off more like Jericho carrying a guy rather than a new guy making a name for himself with a great performance; and Alberto Del Rio beat Jack Swagger clean to retain the World Title, a sign that the company lost faith in the Swagger storyline since he really didn't get over at all like they thought he would.


Not sure if Dolph Ziggler is turning babyface, but he was portrayed as a babyface in commentary on Raw Monday and there had been discussions in the recent past of turning him. Also, and this doesn't necessarily have anything to do with anything because the WWE.com crew and the WWE writing team don't necessarily communicate much, but the web crew put up a deal called the AJ Diaries on the website, and we were told that there was no way anyone could look at those articles and not come out of it loving her.


Fandango situation on Raw was something else. A bunch of fans from the UK and Ireland got the singing started and it caught on to the point that people were singing it throughout the show, after the show, in trains and in the parking lot, and even honking the song on their horns as they left. Both Vince McMahon and Kevin Dunn thought it was the best thing ever, and so at the end of the show after Raw ended they had John Cena talk about the Fandango love and then production hit Fandango's music as the crowd filed out. Unfortunately for Fandango fans, there was none of this excitement at the Tuesday Smackdown tapings in Boston, and one person who was there said he came off on the show as any other midcarder. It should be noted that at Axxess, his dancer was Summer Rae, a beautiful blonde from developmental. She was only accompanying him that one day, so I don't know if it was just a one-time thing, a chance for her to make an appearance, or if it was a tryout and they figured, hot girl, can't dance.


At press time, Fandango's theme is number 11 on the UK iTunes charts. There was a movement among wrestling fans after WrestleMania to get it to number one. It's unlikely to happen due to another movement which has attempted (successfully at press time) to get "Ding Dong the Witch is Dead" to number one in reference to the recent passing of Margaret Thatcher.


It's acknowledged within the company that the post-Mania Raw, since so many super hardcores stay in town to attend after WrestleMania, is now one of the big events of the WWE year. There is talk that next year they'll hold both WrestleMania AND Raw in the SuperDome, which sounds crazy, and try to build up that Raw as a can't-miss supershow.


The TNA show with appearances by Sting and Hulk Hogan on Friday night about 40 minutes from all the WrestleCon festivities got good reviews. Only thing of note was that Samoa Joe broke his nose during his match and had to be sent to the doctor. The show did a bit over 2,000 fans, less than their debut peak and more than the last time they went there.


An absolute ton of footage was shot over the weekend for the proposed WWE Network, upcoming DVDs, etc.


Among the names at the Hall of Fame this year were RVD, who is not under a TNA deal (one person said they felt RVD hadn't re-signed strictly so he could attend this Hall of Fame ceremony), MVP, X-Pac (sitting gingerly), Trina Michaels, Tommy Dreamer and a bunch of local talent.


The show itself was excellent live, arguably the most fun I've ever had at the Hall of Fame, and keep in mind I went to the one where Ric Flair got inducted. Mick Foley's induction by Terry Funk kicked off the show. Funk is so awesome that he should induct everyone forever. Foley talked for nearly an hour doing a big-time rendition of his comedy act that he takes around the world. He noted this was a tough class to follow next year, mentioning that both Bob Backlund and Bruno Sammartino were going in. They had a combined 6,000 days as champion, those two alone, and in his career he'd held the title a total of 47 days. They showed Jimmy Snuka in the crowd as Foley talked about Snuka's cage match with Don Muraco that got Foley's entire career started. He told some stories, including a note that in his book he talked about a wonderful romantic kiss that, in fact, had never really happened. He told some Dominic DeNucci stories, put over Damian Sandow, and talked about how when Jim Ross said he was smiling after the Undertaker nearly accidentally killed him at Hell in the Cell, what he was actually doing was trying to push his tongue through a hole in his lip because in the moment he thought it would look awesome on TV. He gave a big plug to Undertaker, begged him to please never start tweeting, paid tribute to Paul Bearer, and said his one regret was that he'd never beaten Chris Jericho. Jericho responded by getting up on the stage and lying down. Foley took off his jacket, backed up, then ran and dropped an elbow to a gigantic pop. CM Punk ran up on stage as referee and counted the pin in the best moment of the show. He made sure to hold up the dreaded red X afterwards. The segment ended with Santa coming out, since Foley had noted that he was sad Santa wasn't there, and awarding Foley a flannel Santa outfit. Steph came out and introduced Trish Stratus. It was fine. Trish appeared nervous as she always does when speaking publicly, but warmed up a bit near the end. She is the youngest-ever Hall of Fame inductee and noted the last time she was in this building she was having her final ever match on Raw. She had a scroll with a list of people she wanted to thank that was about 30 feet long. Among the names the camera zoomed in on were Kurt Angle and D-Lo Brown. She put over her trainer, Ron Hutchinson, who was there, plus Lita, also there, Gail Kim, and her mom. She noted when she first retired, part of the reason was because her mom was fighting cancer, a fight she won. She put over her husband, Ron, who got booed. She warned the fans not to piss her off, said she loved him, and noted she had a baby on the way. So the fans chanted "RON RON RON!" Stevie Ray came out and introduced Booker T. Stevie did a really good job talking about how Booker used to follow him everywhere as a kid, and finally followed him into pro-wrestling. Booker told a very truncated version of his career, memories from starting out, then the WCW years where he ended up as both the World and US Champions as the place went out of business, and noted that on the last day there, despite everyone being so sad, he was confident his next stop was WWE. This was good. Stevie Ray, the big brother, then commanded him to do a spinerooni before he left, which he did. Maria Menounos was next to induct Backlund. God bless her, she really tried, and she really is a gigantic Bob Backlund fan. But she went on way too long, and when she started rattling off a list of Bob Backlund achievements that sounded like a Chuck Norris comedy page on the Internet, they turned on her. She was actually really sad about it later in the night. Bob finally came out and his idea was to be BATshyt CRAZY BOB. He was totally out of his mind, screaming like a wildman about how we must never give up, coming off as a cross between Tony Robbins and some maniacal pro-wrestling heel manager. He was screaming at Cena to take his advice and never give up, then started trying to get an amateur wrestling buddy of his a job. Finally, both Vince McMahon and HHH had to come out and almost literally drag him off the stage. Depending on your mindset, either the best or worst Hall of Fame moment ever. Vince McMahon, with his dyed hair making him look shockingly like Ronald Reagan, came out to introduce Donald Trump. Thankfully it was short. Trump did a speech and was booed vociferously, claiming that he and Vince had set a record in 2008 (true) and that Vince had been trying for years to break it, failed every year, and was going to fail again this year. Nice. He said the WWE Hall of Fame was honestly his proudest moment ever (as if), and said he loved everyone, even those who didn't love him. Then he was cheered. Finally, a very funny Arnold Schwarzenegger came out to introduce the main event, Bruno Sammartino. Arnold was great, opening up by saying the place was sold out and asking where all those fans were when his film opened last January. This led us to Bruno. If you're reading this you're probably a website subscriber and have heard Bruno on our radio show. If you haven't heard him, for the love of God, search for the shows and listen post-haste. He told the same stories he's told a million times, but everyone was captivated by him for the 20 minutes or so that he was out there. Bruno is the nicest and humblest man ever, a man who cannot talk about his own life without saying that everything that happened was due to either a) luck or b) the fans.

 

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He takes no credit for anything, and seriously, he blamed his good fortune on sheer luck so many times it was almost funny. The best part was that when you talk to Bruno on the phone he can go for hours, but 20 minutes in he said he'd taken too much of our time, which of course was preposterous, and wrapped it up. Literally everyone in the building would have listened to him until 3 a.m. if he'd wanted to. Overall, an awesome night. There were some funny chants and catcalls, and maybe I'm just used to raucous crowds, but I really thought the audience did their best to be respectful and only lost their temper at one point, and tried to keep things lighthearted with the chants. Overall, a pretty much must-see event when it comes out on the WrestleMania Blu-ray.


What can be arguably called the biggest week in the history of pro wrestling in the United States finished up with a record setting WrestleMania, one of the craziest Raws in history, and one promotion after another piggy backing off the show into setting their own business records.


For all the negativity that pro wrestling can often breed, if you are a fan at any level, it would be hard not to find a number of things about the week that wouldn’t be either great or memorable.


WrestleMania coming to the New York market, with one of the biggest shows in history, arguably the biggest Hall of Fame in history, led to more tourists coming from all over the world than for any week ever. New York was overrun by wrestling fans, with every major promotion and every major star in town and the most successful wrestling convention of its kind.


Many shows were great. Ironically, WrestleMania itself wasn’t one of them, in a lot of people’s eyes.


WrestleMania 29, on 4/7 at MetLife Stadium, was one of the most unique shows ever, because it was viewed differently by different people. As a pure spectacle, there was a legitimate sold out audience with the pyro, the impressive stage with the various scenes representing New York.


But there were all kinds of problems and issues. The response we got varied greatly. From those in the stadium, it seemed to depend upon where they were sitting. There were hot spots where fans were going crazy and everything was over. There were spots were nothing was over except the standout match on the show, Undertaker vs. C.M. Punk. There were people who blamed the weather, saying it was too cold and that’s why nobody responded. There were others who said it wasn’t cold and that had absolutely nothing to do with it. Some said the sound of the live crowd disappeared into the sky. Others said there was no sound and the audience was dead. Others said it was loud and the television didn’t pick it up. Bryan Alvarez, there live, noted this unique fact, saying that the higher up you were, the colder it got. In many places it wasn’t that bad. In others, it was very cold and in those places, the crowd was dead for most of the show. There were a lot of issues with obstructed view seating, which seemed like a major problem.


We got tons of e-mails as the posts setting up the canopy over the ring blocked views for apparently thousands of fans. There were “We can’t see” chants early in the show, although in such a big stadium, you really couldn’t hear them. Some people who complained were relocated to where they could see better. This problem was very significant for a lot of people on the floor who had paid hundreds of dollars for tickets. One person who contacted us, who came from Europe for the first time and said he’d never come back, said he couldn’t see anything in the middle of the ring, that it took 75 minutes of complaining before he was moved and that the fans who were moved to new seats he was sitting with were pretty mad, noting many left before the main event. It was also noted that many didn’t complain, feeling they were stuck because the stadium was sold out and figured there were no other seats. Some noticed that people were being moved to a formerly tarped off area behind the hard camera and started complaining. There were people in the sections obstructed, and we got multiple reports of this from different places, talking about suing WWE. One lawyer noted to us they thought WWE should get ahead of the game and issue a statement, but it ended up not being any kind of a media story and I’m not sure if any reporters but me even asked WWE about it.


We were also told that the people who were moved were so rude to the arena staff that it was also uncomfortable, blaming the building and being abusive to the people trying to help them get a new seat, being aggressive and swearing.


Others may not have complained but left upset, having paid hundreds of dollars for obstructed view seats. Others said nothing could be done about it because it was a sold out building. But there were tons of people upset because these were high dollar seats. It didn’t turn into a P.R. issue, as nobody mainstream picked up on it like Super Bowl issues. WWE did say that when people complained they moved them.


From what we were told, people who did complain and asked to be moved were put in a long line, which caused them to miss matches and many got moved, others got tired of standing in line and went back to their seats. One reader said he had since contacted fan services about the problem, and while wasn’t offered a partial refund, was given free premium tickets to the next three events in his area and was okay with that.


There were also problems with fake Stubhub tickets, as there were people who bought secondary market tickets, went to the building, and were told their tickets were fake (this has become a real problem at all sports events). Stubhub guarantees refunds if the ticket is fake.


Besides the issue with obstructed view seating, there were other technical issues with WrestleMania, the biggest being difficulty of a lot of people to order it. We received a number of e-mails from all over the country, and from subscribers from several different companies saying they were unable to order the show. WWE officials told us they were aware of one minor issue, and weren’t sure what the problem was, but didn’t believe it was widespread nor would have any significant bearing on viewership.


However, there were major issues with those ordering the PPV on the Internet through the WWE web site. The feed went down for two hours. At that point, people who had ordered were able to see the show from start to finish on a two hour delay. Some who did said there was bleeding over of the audio from the post-game show while they were watching the main matches. We did get significantly more complaints regarding those ordering it on the Internet as compared to the complaints about being unable to order the television. In addition, many people couldn’t access the post-game show.


The app also crashed during the show. There were plans on the show to do as they do for Raw, and push people toward going to the app, but those were changed and the announcers were told not to mention it because of the crash. Also, because the app crashed, people who tried to order the PPV through the app couldn’t do so.

WWE officials said there were digital PPV issues for people with desktop and personal computers, but issues didn’t affect people ordering on Xbox, Samsung, mobile or tablet users. We got one report from someone who disputed that, saying he ordered through Samsung and it didn’t work. They noted that they sent out messages to all who had ordered when the stream was fixed. Everyone at that point, from a little after 9 p.m. Eastern, could watch the show from the beginning and said most of those watched it on a delay.


If there was a consensus view, it was that for a WrestleMania, it was overall below par, certainly from a PPV standpoint. It was not a bad show. Every wrestler was out there working to their best ability and only one match, Mark Henry vs. Ryback, I’d call not good.


Only one match was great. There were a lot of talented wrestlers who had their times cut, and in one case, their match cut, partially so the big three matches would have time to tell their stories, but partially also because of things like PSA’s, which are really better served on television shows than PPVs. There were a lot of injuries coming out of the top three rematches. When it came to the top three matches, Cena came in hurt but didn’t appear to get hurt worse, and Undertaker was fine, but everyone else got hurt at one point or another. There were tons of ideas for backstage vignettes and other videos cut. The crowd did hurt the show from a television standpoint, being so cold for many of the matches. It was part of the issue of going to an outdoor show in a cold weather climate. It’s probably not the best idea on one hand, but running the show in the New York market was clearly the best thing for the company.

 

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A lot happened. John Cena beat The Rock to win the WWE title in a match where Cena came in with a broken thumb and battling food poisoning. Rock during the match tore an abdominal muscle, tore his adductor (a muscle in the hip) and suffered a hernia. The initial injury took place when he took the first Attitude Adjustment. He continued to wrestle and it’s his belief the muscle continued to tear from his pelvis as they went to the big moves and near falls, and by the time the match was over, both his abdominal and adductor muscle had torn completely off the pelvis.


The match, as far as layout, went exactly as planned. Nobody was aware that night that Rock was injured. A lot of the wrestlers were surprised the next day because he wasn’t acting hurt at all after the match.


The story of the match consisted of them kicking out of each others’ finishers over and over, and building on crossing up spots from their match the previous year. The match was very good, but the crowd wasn’t nearly as hot for it as it was the year before. Ultimately, the build up for the first match was better. The crowd hated Cena, and wanted Rock to win. They did pop for the finish when Cena won, but that often happens when people see a major title change.


The months leading up to the show indicated a lot of changes in the business. There is a feeling of not wanting pro wrestling to be predictable. The problem is, from a traditional standpoint, when pro wrestling is at its most successful, it is mostly predictable with a few swerves, not many, thrown in. This show was built on three major matches. The Rock-Cena storyline in theory should have ended with Rock putting Cena over. Cena is the full-timer who has to carry the company. They kept the title off Cena for more than a year to make his chase that much more important. In the end, Rock should lose, and endorse Cena. It only made sense. The problem was, and this was really clear two years ago that whenever Rock shook Cena’s hand, people hated it. The one thing that was a positive is the people expected the title change and while they booed, it wasn’t an ugly reaction.


The original plan for Raw was for Rock to do a promo, and at the end, get laid out by Lesnar, which would have set up one of the main events for next year’s show. According to those in the company, Rock was the one who came up with the angle. But after Mania, Rock rushed back to Miami after the show to see his personal orthopaedic doctor to check the severity of his injuries and consult on what to do next, given the “Hercules” movie was set to start filming in May. It was described as a panic late Monday afternoon, as Vince McMahon led the team in having to redo the entire show.


What we do know is that his schedule is getting even busier, even with no wrestling dates planned, over the next several weeks. He has to do promotion work over the next several weeks for both the new “Fast and Furious Six” and “Pain and Gain.” Then he starts shooting the new “Hercules” movie in Budapest, Hungary, and that will take several months.


Because of that, he basically told his orthopedic surgeon when options were given to him that surgery right now isn’t an option, because it would lay him up and force a delay in “Hercules.” It’s a tricky situation because he has to look like Hercules, so the timing of the injuries, which have to greatly limit his training, couldn’t be worse. There is the chance that after filming the movie, he’ll get the surgery, which would lay him up for months.


What that means for wrestling is that obviously he’s not going to be around for a while, but he wasn’t planning on being anyway. I wouldn’t have expected him back until next year’s WrestleMania season. As far as even that goes, the jury is out. He did five matches on this comeback and he suffered a partially torn hamstring in the first Cena match, and these more serious injuries this time. He does love wrestling, and you can see it when he’s cutting promos on Raw, because it’s been a big part of his life and he has great reverence for it. He also loves being a part of seeing the popularity of the business go up, and wrestling is clearly more “cool” right now when compared to the fall and the change is far more than just the usual seasonal shift.


There are still a few potential matches, one with Lesnar, another with Undertaker, that he could do at Mania that would be a big thing. On the surface, the options seem limited after that, but he only needs one option and there’s a year for another star to rise. On Raw, Booker T brought up the idea of Rock being entitled to his rematch and that wouldn’t have been a scripted line if they didn’t want it in people’s head. I don’t think that’s a good idea for next year’s Mania, nor that it’s even considered since the plan clearly is Lesnar, if he’s going to come back. If it was at SummerSlam (which is probably doubtful with the injuries) or Royal Rumble, I don’t think the rematch negativity that was there in at least some circles would be there. And again, until we see the PPV numbers, we don’t know if there’s any validity to the rematch complaints. How many times have we seen people complain about UFC main events and then those shows end up doing remarkably well? There are a number of factors in play. Among them, WWE summer business, how Mania does, how well he heals up, what his schedule is like, age, having the physique he wants to have for movies is conducive to long, physical, pro wrestling matches and willingness to accept injuries as part of doing a few matches or one match a year. Who knows if what he thinks today will be what he’s thinking, or what Vince McMahon will be thinking, at the end of the year when the Mania plans are being made. I think it’s obvious the movie studios won’t be wanting him to do wrestling going forward because of the injury risk, but I don’t know if they were thrilled about it going in. He was advised for years to stay away from wrestling while he built his name, but his mentality several years back, when he had established himself in Hollywood, was to go back. There are strong arguments from his perspective on both sides.


Lesnar was pulled from the Raw show when word came that Rock wasn’t going to be there, because it’s now the start of a new contract and he has very limited television dates in his deal over the next year. They didn’t want to waste one of them without something major, and with everything in question, they had no big alternate on a few hour notice. Lesnar was knocked out by a knee early in the HHH match and really didn’t recover for about five minutes. It wasn’t obvious in the match but HHH had to lead him through for a few minutes until he got his wits back. The match was very physical. HHH’s arm was in a bad position during one of Lesnar’s slams of him on the ring steps. He thought he broke his arm, but didn’t call to go home and they finished up everything planned. He had X-rays that showed bone bruising but no break. He also had second degree burns on his arms and torso from the dry ice machine stuff getting all over him just before his ring entrance. Shawn Michaels, at ringside, took a shot from Lesnar and he was bleeding badly from the nose. It was believed he had a broken nose, but the next day, he said his nose wasn’t broken.


Also pulled from Raw was C.M. Punk. Punk suffered both an elbow injury, and worsened a knee injury, both from a spot where he came off the top rope with an elbow onto Undertaker who was on the Spanish announcing table. The table didn’t break, and apparently his leg smashed into the side of the table on landing. His elbow swelled up immediately, but that injury nobody was taking about after the show. His knee was bothering him going into the match and it worsened. He was getting an MRI this week to find out the damage. Punk wasn’t pulled due to the injury. He was originally scripted to do a promo, and was backstage at the show. When the show was re-written, the decision was made not to have him on because of the belief that audience would cheer him so much and that wasn’t what WWE wanted. So they had Paul Heyman, who was cheered heavily, only do a backstage promo (so the cheers wouldn’t be as noticeable) and he said how Punk would be talking, but not until next week’s show. The idea was to build something for the next week.


On the world title front, Dolph Ziggler cashed in the Money in the Bank briefcase on Raw instead of the PPV. It was a huge moment with the live crowd going crazy. In many ways, because people “wanted” that special moment at Mania, were chanting for Ziggler all through the Del Rio vs. Swagger title match and were mad they didn’t get him coming out, it made the reaction even stronger when he did the cash in on Raw.
It was really an awesome spot. Ziggler’s win was put over by Michael Cole like it was a babyface win. Dating back to his program with John Cena, it was clear Ziggler was going to end up as a babyface at some point. But on Smackdown the next night, he was still a heel, making the point that he won the title in spite of the crowd, not because of them, and wrestled Chris Jericho in the Smackdown main event.


In many ways, Raw the next night came off as more entertaining. It was the same audience, the most hardcore of the hardcore fans. Even when they were seemingly protesting, they were having a good time. But on Smackdown the next night it became clear that what happened on Raw, may have had to stay at Raw.


Raw was all about the crowd. It was very reminiscent of the ECW Arena, except it was 13,000 people instead of 1,000. The crowd, very European in make-up, acted like a soccer crowd with constant chants and singing. The thing that everyone got into was singing Fandango’s music. It took place all through the third hour of the show. The company went with it, and after the show, played his music again. In leaving the building, people were in a celebratory mood, still singing his song. Cars were honking their horns to the song. At the train station people were singing the song.


It appeared when the show was over, that Fandango’s song was going to be this year’s version of the “Yes,” chant, which is still strong a year later. And maybe it will be. But in Boston, it was the opposite reaction. Fandango got the “You can’t wrestle” treatment, and was viewed as the same heel he was a week earlier by most of the fans there.


The Boston TV crowd usually boos Cena, even thought it’s his home town. But this was a more kid-oriented crowd, and he was cheered like crazy.


So after the show was over, and the dark match ended, Cena followed up with everyone’s fun and try to make people sing Fandango’s theme. He tried and tried, he hummed it, and this is the lead babyface in a crowd that he was over in. Some bought into it but the reaction we were told is that most didn’t care. He brought Fandango to the ring and the crowd booed him, but he was clearly playing heel. Fandango said how Boston didn’t deserve him, and Cena called him Fan Douchebag, and laid him out. He took a choke slam from Kane and then a choke slam from Bryan, and all the faces left the ring. He was selling the beating and did the “My name is Fandango” deal while selling. They ended the show playing his music. There were people singing along. How many probably depends on where you were in the building, because I had people who were at Raw who said it died and almost nobody did and others who said it was substantial. The general reaction seemed to have been a few tried to start the singing, but most didn’t pick up on it.

 

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The reaction from Raw is that it was Europeans, in particular Brits, who were in huge numbers at Raw, and the singing and chants is reminiscent of soccer games. Lots of the rest of the crowd went along with hit.


There was a campaign going on after TV in the U.K. to get Fandango’s theme song to No. 1. It reached as high as No. 11 at press time and the hope was to keep it there through the weekend, so it gets mainstream play on the weekend radio top 40 rundown shows.


This is not unprecedented when it comes to WWE in the U.K. In the early 90s, when WWF was really hot coming off the SummerSlam show at Wembley Stadium, Simon Cowell, before he became a celebrity in the U.S., produced the WWF song “Slam Jam” that reached No. 4 in 1992. In 1993, the “WrestleMania” song reached No. 14, and also in 1993, a song called “USA” recorded by Jim Duggan reached No. 71. Duggan made frequent appearances in those days on the BBC kids show “Going Live” that helped with that.


Whether this is a short-term fad, and it almost surely is, the timing couldn’t be better since undoubtedly Fandango will be the reacted to like a gigantic star again on the 4/22 Raw from London. But after that, it’s anybody’s guess.


Aside from the WWE and world title change this past week, the only other title change was the IC title, where The Miz won the title from Wade Barrett at WrestleMania, only to lose it back to Barrett the next night on Raw. Miz is filming a made-for-TV movie for ABC Family called “Christmas Bounty” shortly. Given that it’s the IC title, which is anything but a money belt, it really doesn’t matter what they do with it. The match was moved to the pre-game show of Mania, and cut to four minutes. I have no idea why, with a 60 minute pre-game show, you only have one match, let alone cut it to four minutes.


In addition, the advertised Brodus Clay & Tensai (now called Sweet T) & Cameron & Naomi vs. Cody Rhodes & Damien Sandow & Bella Twins match was taken off WrestleMania due to time constraints. All were unhappy but it was said Rhodes was in particular. The match would have likely ended up as a buffer in the middle of the main matches, so it would have been in a death position to get any reaction. They ended up having the match on Raw, but even there they barely got two minutes.


They are taking a long break between PPV shows, with the next not being until 5/19, Extreme Rules, from St. Louis. Right now, the main event on that show is scheduled as John Cena vs. Ryback for the WWE title, as Ryback turned on Cena during Raw. He was cheered like crazy for doing so, and it was hardly booked like a big shock. After Cena had beaten Mark Henry via count out, Henry laid him out. Ryback came in for the save, and with the audience watching, they all were expecting the Ryback turn and went wild. Ryback had flattened out as a face greatly, and perhaps it was inevitable. The chant was way over, but as a heel, part of the process would be to ditch leading fans in chants. He’s the most limited guy in the ring of anyone pushed, but it’s a new match-up on top.


As far as the post-Mania programs go, Henry is scheduled to be programmed with Sheamus. This was on the original Mania lineup before they changed the undercard. Kane & Daniel Bryan appear to be on a collision course with The Shield, also a match that at one point was earmarked for Mania. Antonio Cesaro appears to be starting a program with Kofi Kingston over the U.S. title. Dolph Ziggler looks to first be programmed with Alberto Del Rio, which may be a tough one because people like Ziggler so much and Del Rio didn’t get where they wanted him to be as a face, but it’s very important to have him as a face for the Hispanic market. There’s also been a tease of Ziggler vs. Jack Swagger, which would make Ziggler a face.


Randy Orton, Big Show and Sheamus are still programmed with each other. WrestleMania ended with Show turning on his partners, but his promos and the fan reaction to him has been more as a face because the story has been to make fans feel empathy for him. But nothing has been done strongly to make Orton and Sheamus as heels, even though all the little hints of an Orton turn are there. Plus, Sheamus is being moved out of this program to work with Henry, as a backstage angle where Henry laid out Sheamus was shot in Boston on 4/9 and will likely air on this weekend’s Smackdown how.


Monday’s Raw crowd isn’t a good barometer as to Orton and Sheamus, but as much as they may have helped the show, they made Orton and Sheamus come across like guys the fan base was rejecting when you’ve got two of the top full-timers in a match that hasn’t been done in a long time and having chants of “End this match.” Plus, you had the poll, with no outside influence of telling people what to do, the fans live cheered Orton more than Sheamus when both asked for the match with Show, and the people at home voted 77% for Orton, and with the Henry program, it doesn’t appear Orton turning on Sheamus is in the cards.


The obvious wildcard among the top guys is Punk. His injury situation is in question. But Punk and Cena are by leaps and bounds the two biggest stars at this point.


They debuted both a pre-and post-game show with a desk and analysts similar to what UFC does on Fuel cards and after all major shows. Jim Ross and Dusty Rhodes were on it, which begged the question of why Ross was there and not at all part of the broadcast, even if it was just for one of the three main events.


Due to so much going on this week, we are going to do our Hall of Fame coverage article this coming week. During the ceremony, Trish Stratus announced that she was pregnant and due in September.


WRESTLING WITH ALL-TIME RECORDS: WHERE WRESTLEMANIA 29 STANDS


TOTAL LIVE ATTENDANCE


The announced crowd of 80,676 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ, would be the second largest announced figure in company history, trailing the WrestleMania III mythological record of 93,173.


They didn’t announce a company record or a building record, since the building record for MetLife Stadium was 93,000 and even with mark-up there was no way they could claim that figure, even though they did float a 90,000 number on the web site before the show and several media stories in previewing it had that number.


It appears the big thing now is to announce a figure that would be more than the Super Bowl. This coming season’s Super Bowl takes place in February at MetLife Stadium.


The crowd number was an interesting story all week. The front office types were using the figure 70,000 people would be attending, which was the number reported at the company’s own press conference during the week and was the real number. However, on the company web site, the same day as the press conference, they were talking a 90,000 number, which I figured was the entertainment number. Both numbers appeared in various media stories leading up to the show. The place had been sold out for a month, so it’s not like numbers were going to change after the last few days. We don’t have an official number, and may never get one this year, but a representative of Met Life Stadium said it was approximately 72,000, making it the fifth largest crowd legitimately in company history.


Even the day of the show, there were different people on the broadcast floating different numbers, meaning signals were crossed internally on what to announce. On the pre-game show, the figure they used was about 87,000, and the rule of thumb with WWE is to then later in the show announce a number slightly higher than the number used during the broadcast. However, when the show started, just minutes later, Michael Cole said they were there before “almost 80,000 fans.”


The publicly announced attendance mark was just before the Cena vs. Rock main event. They gave a number and moved on, as opposed to making claims about the number breaking records as they’ve done almost every year.


The legitimate record is 78,927 fans on August 31, 1992, at Wembley Stadium in London for that year’s SummerSlam (announced at 80,355), headlined by Bret Hart vs. Davey Boy Smith for the IC title and Ultimate Warrior vs. Randy Savage. WrestleMania III was a little over 78,000 on March 29, 1987, at the Pontiac Silverdome, headlined by Hulk Hogan vs. Andre the Giant. No. 3 came at WrestleMania 23 on April 1, 2007, at Ford Field in Detroit, with the Battle of the “Billionaires” hair with Vince McMahon and Donald Trump and the Bobby Lashley vs. Umaga match with Steve Austin as referee. That real number was 74,687 (announced 80,103), and this show was expected to be in the same range as that. It’s possible this show could have beaten that one.


No. 4 is the 74,635 number for WrestleMania 24, on March 30, 2008, at the Florida Citrus Bowl in Orlando, headlined by Big Show vs Floyd Mayweather Jr. and the Ric Flair vs. Shawn Michaels retirement match.

 

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But it would be unfair to rank that show above this one. That show had 11,500 tickets given away to fill the building. This year’s show had very limited giveaways, as there was no need for them, given it sold out a month ahead of time.


No. 5 going into this week was 68,237 for the March 17, 2002, WrestleMania at Skydome headlined by Hulk Hogan vs. The Rock and that number was topped this time out.


LIVE GATE


The company announced a figure of $12.3 million, which blows away all existing pro wrestling records. Unlike the attendance figures, the live gate is based on real numbers from ticket sales.


The only record the company claimed coming out of the show was the “entertainment” gate record for MetLife Stadium, which notably eliminates sports events from comparisons. The Super Bowl early next year will probably do around four times the number due to higher ticket prices. The “entertainment” record in the stadium was a July 20, 2011, concert by U2 that did $8.9 million. The company also claimed it was the fourth year in a row that WrestleMania broke the venue’s all-time “entertainment” gate record. Since concerts don’t charge as high ticket prices as high-end sports, WrestleMania should beat non-sports gate marks just about everywhere they play.


But the number is figured differently from boxing or MMA, in the sense that WWE Mania figures included the service charges tacked onto the ticket price. For example, last year they announced an $8.9 million figure, but later it came out the real figure the way all other sports would tabulate the number was $8.2 million. When WWE does its normal house show gates, they don’t include the service charge on the tickets. As it was explained to me, the service charge money is something the consumer pays for the tickets, so they are using that for Mania.


Using the price of the tickets and not including service charges, the way everyone else in sports and concerts do it, the gate was $11 million when the stadium was sold out weeks away. That number would likely be a little higher based on any late sales after production moved in and some seats were added, but it wouldn’t change much. If you figure the same 8% increase when you include the service charges that last year’s show had, the comparable gate as everyone else would consider it, would come out at $11.3 million. It could be slightly higher or slightly lower, but probably not by much.


It’s at a different level than any pro wrestling event in history, beating last year’s record by somewhere in the neighborhood of 37 percent.


It’s just shy of the $12,075,000 U.S. for the UFC 129 show on April 30, 2011, in Toronto’s Rogers Center (although with the change in Canadian dollars to U.S. dollars, if that figure in Canadian money was figured today, the numbers would be very close). When it comes to combat sports, with the exception of UFC 129, the only other events that come in that range are the biggest of the boxing matches. But even so, there are only about ten boxing gates that beat this one ever in Las Vegas, where most of the biggest gates take place because of the ability to charge high ticket prices. There have been a few others outside Las Vegas, but not many. For MMA, it blew away any number except the Rogers Centre show.


UPDATED ALL-TIME WRESTLING/MMA TOP 25 IN NORTH AMERICA (based on verified figures)


1. $12,075,000 - 4/30/11 UFC 129 Toronto (GSP vs. Jake Shields)


2. $11,300,000 est, - 4/7/13 Mania 29 East Rutherford, NJ (The Rock vs. John Cena)


3. $8,223,000 est. - 4/1/12 Mania 28 Miami (The Rock vs. John Cena)


4. $7,211,673 - 4/5/09 Mania 25 Houston (Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels)


5. $6,976,305 - 7/7/12 UFC148 Las Vegas (Anderson Silva vs. Sonnen)*


6. $6,268,391 - 4/3/11 Mania 27 Atlanta (Rock’s return/Cena vs. Miz)


7. $5,854,590 - 3/30/08 Mania 24 Orlando (Mayweather vs. Show)


8. $5,529,172 - 3/28/10 Mania 26 Phoenix (Undertaker vs. Michaels)


9. $5,441,290 - 7/11/09 UFC 100 Las Vegas (Lesnar vs. Mir)*


10. $5,397,300 - 12/30/06 UFC 66 Las Vegas (Liddell vs. Ortiz)


11. $5,380,000 - 4/7/07 Mania 23 Detroit (Trump’s hair vs. Vince’s hair)


12. $5,086,352 - 4/19/08 UFC 83 Montreal (GSP vs. Matt Serra)


13. $5,060,352 - 12/19/07 UFC 79 Las Vegas (Liddell vs Wanderlei Silva)


14. $4,887,300 - 4/18/09UFC 97 Montreal (Liddell vs. Shogun Rua)


15. $4,815,625 - 11/18/08 UFC 91 Las Vegas (Lesnar vs. Couture)


16. $4,621,389 - 12/11/10 UFC 124 Montreal (GSP vs. Josh Koscheck)


17. $4,304,740 - 5/26/97 UFC 71 Las Vegas (Liddell vs. Quinton Jackson)


18. $4,290,020 - 1/31/09 UFC 94 Las Vegas (GSP vs. B.J. Penn)


19. $4,095,235 - 6/12/10 UFC 115 Vancouver (Liddell vs. Rich Franklin)


20. $4,053,990 - 7/3/10 UFC 116 Las Vegas (Lesnar vs. Shane Carwin)


21. $4,010,000 - 7/21/12 UFC 149 Calgary (Barao vs. Faber)**


22. $3,951,125 - 6/29/10 UFC 114 Las Vegas (Evans vs. Quinton Jackson)


23. $3,926,800 - 10/29/12 UFC 137 Las Vegas (Penn vs. Nick Diaz)***


24. $3,864,033 - 3/27/02 Mania 18 Toronto (Rock vs. John Cena)


25. $3,791,000 - 12/10/11 UFC 140 Toronto (Jon Jones vs. Machida


*Includes on or near site closed-circuit numbers


**All tickets were sold out on the first day they were put on sale. Jose Aldo vs. Erik Koch was the advertised main event at that time.


***All tickets were sold out well ahead of time for a GSP vs. Carlos Condit match, but GSP pulled out after tearing his ACL.


WAS IT THE BIGGEST MONEY SHOW OF ALL-TIME?


Between the record live gate and the increase in PPV price, it’s almost a lock.


Between live gate and PPV revenue, last year’s show did $36.2 million in total revenue.


That would mean it would need $24.9 million in PPV revenue this year to top last year. With the higher PPV price, even not figuring more people would order in HD than last year, which one would expect, it would need to deliver 988,000 worldwide buys to break last year’s record. It would be a shock not to beat that number by a wide margin.


Company officials were predicting 1.3 million buys publicly and if they get it, not only do they set the total buys record, but the total gross of $44.3 million blows away everything in the history of this business.


At press time, the only figure available is that the company said PPV orders on the Internet were up 33% from last year. If that’s even remotely equivalent to what happens with regular PPV orders, then this will far exceed anything they’ve ever done. My gut tells me the increase won’t be at that level because over the past year, people have gotten far more comfortable ordering PPV events on the Internet, but with the price increase, even the slightest increase over last year’s number is a major success.


This is where the big money deals paid to both Brock Lesnar and Dwayne Johnson would pay off. They both have boosted numbers on every show they’ve been on, but based on 2011 Survivor Series and 2012 SummerSlam profit numbers, not enough for the added expenses of the show. The profit margin for this year’s Royal Rumble and Elimination Chamber as compared with last year should be released in early May.


However, if Mania does anywhere near company projections, their overall deals would both pay for themselves and then some, a situation where everyone wins. Also, PPV’s overall increase has led Wall Street analysts to believe the company in undergoing a growth period. This helps the stock price, which helps when it comes to the network. Ratings the last few months have been up. Live attendance is also up, even more than the usual first quarter increases that happen every year.


There are so many factors in play it’s hard to isolate them. House shows are doing stronger than in a long time, which says the overall popularity of the brand is up, because the house shows are being carried by Cena, C.M. Punk, Randy Orton (on the Smackdown side, which has also been up of late), without the attractions that were in four of the six key spots at Mania. The Monday tapings have been doing frequent sellouts. It’s not just Rock, and it’s certainly not Lesnar, because they’ve done well and sold out on shows Rock wasn’t on. But on the shows he’s been on, the local advertising in most markets was based around him.


At the end of the day, wrestling is strongest when it’s cool. Rock’s return is a major factor in wrestling being cool, just like Lesnar was a major factor in UFC being cool. It’s not that they need it. They are hardly single-handedly responsible. And both groups can survive and thrive without them. If this show doesn’t do well, and there were people who felt the build of the matches themselves wasn’t strong enough to do record numbers, others who thought the price increase would drive people to streaming illegally, then from a pure PPV revenue standpoint, you can go back and question things

 

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WWE SHOWS THAT HAVE TOPPED 1 MILLION BUYS


1. 1.250M - 4/1/07 - WrestleMania 23 (Lashley w/Trump vs. Umaga w/Vince)


2. 1.219M - 4/1/12 - WrestleMania 28 (Rock vs. Cena)


3. 1.124M - 4/3/11 - WrestleMania 27 (Cena vs. Miz/Rock ref)


4. 1.090M - 4/3/05 - WrestleMania 21 (HHH vs. Batista)


5. 1.041M - 8/30/08 - WrestleMania 24 (Mayweather vs. Show)


6. 1.040M - 4/1/01 - WrestleMania 17 (Rock vs. Austin)


7. 1.020M - 3/14/04 - WrestleMania 20 (HHH vs. Benoit vs. Michaels)


The Charlotte Observer ran an extensive piece on the death of Reid Fleihr this past week.


The police report at the time of the death stated he was incapacitated due to drugs, although no specific drugs were listed. His cause of death is pending, awaiting toxicology reports, which could take weeks or even months.


The story, quoting his mother, Beth Fliehr, was along the same lines of everything we had heard, that everyone’s worst fear was him returning to Charlotte from Japan. He was only scheduled home for a brief stay, and was talking about moving to Charleston, SC, with his girlfriend, Whitney Burton, while he would continue his wrestling career in Japan. He was scheduled to return to Japan in late April.


Burton had spent the last two weeks of Reid’s last tour with him in Japan.


The story talked about him being under pressure as an amateur wrestler, because of who his father was. At many meets, when people knew, he was always the marked man because every kid wanted the bragging rights of saying he beat Ric Flair’s son.


Reid was born Richard Reid Flair II on February 26, 1988, just one day after his father’s 39th birthday. Ric was wrestling Sting in Cincinnati that night. Reid was named after Ric’s father, a prominent Minneapolis ob/gyn, Richard Reid Fliehr. Ric, born in Memphis and adopted as an infant, his parents’ only child, was Richard Morgan Fliehr.


Reid was a sophomore at Providence High. Ric, watched both Reid and Ashley’s games when he was around, as by the time they were in high school, he wasn’t doing a full-time schedule in the WWE. He would also come to the school and lead pep rallies.


The story noted a lot of Reid’s troubles. There was a 2004 arrest where Reid was charged with assaulting his mother. The police report said Reid had pushed her and she fell down and broke her right arm. Beth was of the impression years later that the arrest would be expunged from his record and was furious years later when it came back up in media stories. In the story, she characterized the incident as a total accident, claiming one of her high heels got caught, and she tripped, and Reid was just trying to keep her from falling. She said she never pressed charges. The case was dismissed.


In 2005, at the North Carlina Western regionals, when he lost, and his opponent after the match did a Ric Flair strut, and shouted “Whoo,” at him, Reid went after him, and they had a pull-apart. Both schools were fined $1,000 and Reid was charges with misdemeanor assault. The charges were dismissed.


There was a 2006 arrest for possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia that was dismissed.


Reid’s lawyer, when asked about so many charges going away, denied being Ric Flair’s son had anything to do with it. Still, at the funeral, Ric specifically mentioned a Charlotte police officer and thanked him “for getting (Reid) out of trouble every time you did.”


The story noted that both Reid and Ashley had food delivered to school for their lunches, and when Reid was wrestling at Providence High, he had a personal trainer, who only worked with him. He was also personally coached in wrestling by T.J. Jaworsky, one of the best wrestlers in the U.S. during the 90s. Jaworsky was a three-time NCAA champion at the University of North Carolina, and in 1995, was the first ever winner of the Hodge Trophy. But he himself ran into trouble in 2005 when he was arrested for cocaine possession and fired as head coach at Davidson College.


Reid was very popular in school, although he had his wild side and had issues with temper and drugs. Reid had a childhood friend, Landon Beck, who developed Tourette’s Syndrome. Reid always made sure Landon was included in social activities and made it clear around school that nobody is to mess with him or tease him.


Beth claimed she wanted him away from Charlotte, because of all the publicity regarding his parents divorce. It was Ric who chose to send him to Blair Academy, a private school known for having arguably the best, if not certainly one of the two or three best, high school wrestling programs in the country, producing numerous national champions.


Reid made the starting lineup, but had troubles at school that Ric had to help him out of. He didn’t win a state title, nor did he get Division I offers. He went to the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga as a walk-on, but left school after one semester, and then began training for pro wrestling.


While Ric always publicly talked about how Reid, with his personality and athletic ability, would be a superstar in pro wrestling, others noted that there was frustration. It was noted that Ricky Steamboat’s son, Richie, had progressed faster and those close to the situation said it was because he trained harder.


But the real problem was that Reid’s drug issues got worse. Eric Adamz, a wrestling training partner in Charlotte and one of his best friends, in a video, characterized problems as something he had between the ages of 21 and 23.


Because of who his father was, some of the incidents made local media. Just before he turned 21, he was found passed out at the wheel of a Porsche at a stop sign and rushed to the hospital. I believe he was with one of his best friends at the time. The friend passed away.


The police report said he had overdosed. He also pleaded guilty twice that year to driving while impaired. He was ordered to attend rehab both times, the second of which was the more publicized issue where he was found in possession of heroin, a terribly addicting drug, which showed how bad his problems were.


The drug issues kept both WWE and ROH from hiring him. He was ready to start in WWE developmental when the promotion, for obvious reasons, got cold feet. With ROH, one of the main reasons Ric had his brief run with the company, was because of the idea they would hire Reid and give him a chance at being a top star. After the heroin charge came out, ROH decided they couldn’t hire him, which resulted in Ric losing interest, and eventually walking out on the promotion even though he had dates left that he had been paid for, a dispute that ended up in court.


He had two more overdoses reported to police in 2011. In January of that year, paramedics came to where he and his father were living and he was hospitalized, with police finding a needle and a spoon.


In September of that year, he overdosed on alcohol and prescription medication, was treated at the hospital, and then released.


It was after either the first or second scare that Ric sent him to one of the most expensive rehab centers in the country, at a cost estimated at between $80,000 to more than $100,000.


He had been dating Whitney Burton since 2009. She claimed she tried to keep him away from bad people and bad situations. She would have to drive him around since he didn’t have a license. He was working as a personal trainer at a local gym, while training to be a pro wrestler, and working weekend dates for local promotions.


She had gotten a job in Charleston and he was looking at gyms in the city, wanting to open up his personal training business.


“I saw the best and worst of Reid,” Burton told the newspaper. “Obviously he had some struggles. I just felt like he needed a lot of support, and so I tried to stick it out with him, even when things were tough for him.”


I spoke to Reid a few days after he arrived in Japan. Probably 70 percent of my conversations in the last 20 years with Ric Flair saw Reid brought up by one of us. As you can imagine, they ran the gamut from being proud of his sports accomplishments and how much he loved to be around him, to the frustrations with his issues undermining his life. Ric is well known as a drinker, but the path Reid went down with the hard drugs was one Ric couldn’t relate to or understand, and it left him frustrated for years. I didn’t personally know Reid, but he was very polite, totally recognized the unique opportunity he was given and seemed motivated.


We mostly talked wrestling and I tried to warn him about Japan fever, which I’d usually get about ten days into a trip, where, no matter how much fun the trip is, you just want to go home. I told him it may happen to him, but this was his career golden opportunity. He was going to be trained by smooth veteran workers, going to get to wrestle several nights a week with a lot better people than he was going to work with on the indie scene. Plus, there is something to be said for starting in Japan as a young guy, because if he worked hard and they liked him, it doesn’t matter what level he is now, those fans are very understanding of guys starting out and working to get better.


His last match was on 3/17 at Sumo Hall in Tokyo. He worked in the second match, teaming with Kenso (former WWE wrestler Kenzo Suzuki) against veterans Masa Fuchi & Osamu Nishimura. Technically, he had improved. At this point, when it comes to look, he didn’t stand out, but in Japan, they really wouldn’t want a prelim foreigner to do so. He tried to copy his father’s animated selling as his calling card. There was some resemblance to a 1973 Ric Flair in the AWA, although he was much lighter and in much better condition. It was an okay short match, with Reid going for the figure four leglock, and Fuchi turning it into an inside cradle for the pin.


Beth Fliehr said that Reid didn’t want to leave Japan, saying he was worried about old temptations and he had grown to love it there. He was scheduled to return to Japan in late April.


She had studied addiction when speaking to drug rehab people, who told her the worst thing you could do was come home, because there are all the issues that lead to the bad habits coming back. Privately, Ric was also worried, knowing that Reid had friends in town who were a bad influence that he never extricated himself from.


Adamz said that Reid had three great loves in his life, his girlfriend, his family and pro wrestling.


He got occasional appearances with higher end indies because of being Ric Flair’s son, but last year, most of his wrestling was local, usually before less than 100 fans for a group called Xtreme World Wrestling.


At the same time, All Japan Pro Wrestling was trying for months to get Ric to do a match for them on a big show. Ric wanted more for the match, believed to be in the $25,000 range, than they felt they could afford so the first attempt fell through.


When Nobuo Shiraishi secretly took ownership of All Japan, but before it was recently announced publicly, they now had the money and as part of the deal to get Ric, Ric had negotiated a deal for his son, where he’d be brought in as a trainee. When Ric was unable to wrestle due to a blood clot in his leg for the 1/26 show in Tokyo, Reid stepped in and Ric seconded he and Keiji Muto in a match against Tatsumi Fujinami & Seiya Sanada.


He and Burton arrived back on the evening of 3/24. He spent the next two days training in the ring. Burton said that he had told her he wanted to focus on getting through this month before he was scheduled to return to Japan. He was staying with his mother until 3/27, and then was scheduled to leave with his father, who had gotten out of the hospital. He told Adamz he wanted to take Thursday off training to spend time with his father, before they left for weekend house shows for Big Time Wrestling, and would then go to New Jersey for WrestleMania. But he told him he wanted to train daily until he went back to Japan, and was showing the local wrestlers different things he had learned in Japan.

Reid was staying at the Residence Inn, where Ric has been living of late. They went out to dinner at Del Frisco’s and they talked until 1:35 a.m. or so, when Ric went to bed, with them scheduled to leave the next morning for a show in Hagerstown, MD. He presumed Reid was then going to bed, but evidently he went out or trouble came in the adjacent room Ric had set up for him at the Residence Inn.


Ric spoke for 10 minutes at Reid’s funeral. He questioned himself whether he pushed Reid and Ashley too hard in sports. He told a story about how, as a gift, he bought his son a Dodge Magnum for successfully completing rehab the first time, only to get a phone call late that night from Ashley, that Reid had just been arrested for having 19 beers in the car.


“I can honestly say I blamed myself the first couple days, but after talking with people, I think he’s in a better place and he’s at peace. Because this had gone on a long time, and something happened that we didn’t have control over. But he’s a wonderful guy. I was so proud of him.”


Ric went to New Jersey for WrestleMania, more for therapy than anything else. He didn’t make any of his scheduled appearances, nor should he have. The feeling was that he would rather be around his friends in wrestling at that point in time, but didn’t do anything in front of fans, such as attend the Hall of Fame ceremony. He went home on 4/9. From all accounts, he was taking it very hard. There’s no way he couldn’t have, as his devotion to all of his kids was something well known by his friends.


It was only few weeks ago when Flair filmed an interview for RF Video. During the interview, the death of Bruiser Brody, who was one of Flair’s all-time favorite opponents, was brought up. Flair never worked for WWC, where he drew some huge crowds over the years, after Brody was stabbed to death by Jose Gonzalez (Invader I) in 1988. When bringing it up, Flair talked about how Gonzalez’s baby died in a swimming pool two days before he stabbed Brody. That’s not actually true, as it was several months earlier but it did happen. But Flair, in telling the story, said, “I’d go crazy, too, if my kid died.

 

[nomoreneveragain]

Skip Raw tomorrow and watch the London Raw next week

 

[Kings County]

rocky put his body on the line

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvTNyKIGXiI[/ame]

 

[thaKEAF]

I didn't see the beginning of RAW this past week..did they really name Rock as #1 contender or was it a BS report I read?

 

[R=G]

Mick Foley wrote a blog entry after Reid’s death, and a story that he’s hinted at but never fully said is the reason they ended up having that feud in WWE years ago as well as in TNA. Foley and Flair had a lot of personal issues, including Flair punching Foley once. Flair made fun of Foley’s working ability and later, when Vince McMahon wanted to turn their real life dislike into an angle, Foley refused.


As it turned out, the two were on a plan from The Philippines to Los Angeles sitting together. Foley noted he sat there and saw Flair call all four of his children, one by one, to tell them how much he loved them. Foley then said he was very touched by hearing the calls, and Flair told him that he does this every day, “just because you never know.”


One of the things that happened was WWE officials showed up at WrestleCon with a legal order to confiscate all bootleg material. They did so. Those who had the material confiscated had information collected on them. A hearing was set up on 4/16 in Newark to where people who had materials confiscated were able to plead their case and have them returned. Given that most of the vendors were likely from out of the area, they likely wouldn’t show up. And if they were selling bootleg merchandise, it’s not like they would be able to get it back unless they could prove it wasn’t. It should be noted that all vendors had to sign an agreement to be able to sell things that specified they would not sell any bootleg merchandise from any company, and it specifically mentioned WWE. That’s both to keep the organizers, Highspots.com, out of any potential problems but also to warn people ahead of time. The convention organizers either had an idea this would happen or at least knew the possibility existed, and it was people who were essentially given the warning head of time who got busted.


Scott Hall underwent hip replacement surgery over the past few days using the money sent in by fans via a fund raising web site. Even though the yoga that DDP is pushing is low impact, Hall was evidently in so much pain that he needed a hip replacement just to start doing it.


A historical note regarding last week’s issue and the Don Carson story, from U.K. historian John Lister. We reported that the August 30, 1971, match from the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles, headlined by John Tolos vs. Don Carson Gladiator Death match on August 30, 1971, was believed to be the first closed-circuit pro wrestling card in history. It was the first ever in North America, but as best we can tell, the first one in history of June 8, 1966, with a double main event of Mick McManus vs. Ricki Starr and Jackie Pallo vs. Pancho Zapata at Royal Albert Hall in London. Billed as “The Supreme Wrestling Spectacular,” it sold out the Hall (which at the time held 8,000, now it holds closer to 5,000), and was broadcast into 11 movie theaters around England.


Serena Deeb returned at the 4/6 Shimmer show after being out more than one year due to issues with concussions. She worked a trios match. In the main event of that show, Cheerleader Melissa beat Saraya Knight (Paige’s mother) in a cage match to win the Shimmer title. Melissa did a super Frankensteiner off the cage.


Batista is back to his 280 pound or so self. He had dropped weight to try MMA. Since doing his first fight, there has been no talk of a second one. I think it was more something on his bucket list of sorts and he’s now 44. He has apparently closed his gym in Tampa. He had said he would reopen it in January, but didn’t.


There was an incident at the 4/5 Pro Wrestling Superstars show in Metuchen, NJ where Sabu hit the ring just as the John Morrison vs. Jushin Liger main event started. Apparently Sabu did this on his own and the promotion, Morrison and Liger had no idea it was happening. One of their employees overhead Eric Simms, the agent who booked Sabu for an autograph signing (but not to wrestle), telling Sabu that his run-in was added to the show, so Simms, and not Sabu, got the heat for it. When the promotion figured out Simms was responsible, Pat Buck hit Simms and Kevin Matthews physically threw him out of backstage. PWS did 1,000 fans on the 4/4 show and we didn’t get a crowd number for the second night other than that show had the bigger names like Bret Hart, Lita, Superstar Graham (billed as his final East Coast appearance), Iron Sheik, Kevin Sullivan and others doing autographs and it was a Friday night so was expected to do better. They did an angle over the weekend where the Iron Sheik turned on Nikolai Volkoff. As far as the name wrestlers went, the 4/4 show saw John Morrison beat Pope D’Angelo Dinero in a match said to be boring, The Rock & Roll Express beat Mark & Jay Briscoe which is just weird in 2013 to book that result in the Northeast. I think it would be weird to book that in the Carolinas but Rock & Rolls were never a big deal in the Northeast and the Briscoes work in New Jersey all the time. I’m sure the idea was Rock & Rolls were back for the second show the next night while the Briscoes weren’t, but still. Jushin Liger won the three-way main event over Davey Richards and Tony Nese which was reported as really good. Second night the main stuff was Morrison pinning Liger with Starship pain, New Jack’s claimed retirement match against Necro Butcher and they had Tommy Dreamer (losing to Pat Buck), Rock & Roll Express and Big Van Vader (who also worked as commissioner) were on the show.


Sean Waltman did an interview on DirecTV 101 with Artie Lange on 4/5. He said Hulk Hogan came up with the”Pac” nickname Six pack of course, which became “Syxx Pac.” He said he tore his a$$hole because the metal in the turnbuckle was exposed when he went to do a missed bronco buster. He said that he also messed up his sciatic nerve. He said he spent three days in the hospital and it was the worst injury of his career, even worse then when Lex Luger broke his neck and he went back to work two weeks later because he didn’t want to blow a pay raise. He said right now after the injury two weeks ago that he’s on time released Oxycontin, but said that he stopped doing drugs and smoking two years ago. He admitted attempting suicide. Years ago, when Juventud Guerrera told that story, he wanted to kill Juventud, and in fact, took a crap in Juventud’s bag, which Juventud thought Konnan did, which led to Juventud wanting to start a fight, and Jack Evans beat the holy shyt out of Juventud in the dressing room. He said his girlfriend (Alicia Webb) was beating him up and broke a picture of his kids, and then he snapped and punched her. Then he tried to kill himself by hanging himself in his hotel room, but she saved him. He said they are still good friends. He said his relationship with Chyna was a train wreck. He said he would do whatever she would ask, including nearly killing a guy who Chyna told him tried to date rape her. He said he has seen Chyna do two reps on the bench with 365 and said she is a brilliant musician.


Rick Bassman reached his $50,000 goal for funding of his autobiography. He literally came right down to the wire on it and said he’s not going to go up a mountain to shut himself off while he finishes on the book.


TNA


Rob Van Dam was on Voice of Wrestling and said he would be returning to TV very soon with either TNA or WWE. Given he was at the Hall of Fame ceremony that may indicate what that means, although we were told that MVP and RVD were both there because they are both good friends with Booker T. “I do have plans to return very soon and wrestle on TV, and it won’t be with any (independent) promotions. I will be wrestling with either TNA or WWE very soon.” What we do know is he’s got an offer on the table from TNA, but he was at the WWE Hall of Fame and given his age, he may mentally think this is his last chance for a big money run. He did an interview on the WWE web site and when asked about coming back, said, “There’s always a chance.” In TNA, while he can have a job there and it’s less stressful, the schedule isn’t nearly as bad and he can make a good living, he’s probably not going to be in one of the top featured spots and for the most part, he sure hasn’t appeared to have been all that motivated working mostly lower on the cards. It’s unlikely he would be after the initial honeymoon in WWE where fans will be all over him as a superstar returning. But the work is harder, the demands are harder, but the money for him would probably be a lot better. He’s also noticeably slowed down in the last year, but sometimes a new environment breeds new incentive. But he was never a classic psychological worker or a great promo, but an amazing athlete, and his best style isn’t really a good fit with WWE style. But he is a name that people do like and was always one of those guys who was always over more than his push when in WWE.


The latest in the Hogan mythology, as he said when promoting his Hogan & Friends segment on 4/5 in New York, while on WFAN’s Boomer and Carton radio show (Carton is the same Craig Carton who hosted MMA Uncensored on Spike last year), is he played in the 1966 Little League World Series in Williamsport, PA. He claimed he was the star pitcher, but they pitched him so often that his arm was tired in the semifinals of the World Series and he gave up a grand slam home run that knocked his team out of the playoffs. Of course, none of this is true, and there was no team from Florida, let alone Tampa, that ever made the Little League World Series in Williamsport during the several years Hogan would have been eligible. Hogan also said he, Bruno Sammartino, Andre the Giant and Steve Austin were the biggest wrestling stars in history.


Hogan did his Hogan & Friends show on 4/5 at the Beacon Theater in New York. He did an angle early at the house show in Westbury, and then went into Manhattan for a 10 p.m. show which he did with Eric Bischoff and Dave Penzer. There were maybe 1,000 people or less in the 3,000-seat theater. The advance wasn’t good. Most tickets were $30 but they had $300 tickets for meet and greet. The tickets were substantially discounted, including the $30s, the week before the show and Hogan did local media to promote it. As you can imagine those who were there were super Hogan fans. There wasn’t a lot new to it, and quite a lot of questions from fans regarding WWE. Hogan and Bischoff both said they thought a Cena heel turn would be good under the right circumstances. He mostly said good things about Vince McMahon. Actually said nothing bad about him at all, saying Vince the man would give you the shirt off his back but Vince the businessman was all about business. He also heavily put over Punk. He said the only thing in his career he regrets is not having a match with Austin when Austin was at his peak. He said he misses not being in WWE and not being at WrestleMania but is happy in TNA.


The company has inked a one-year corporate sponsorship from Candlewood Suites as the official hotel of the promotion.


Upcoming new TV tapings are 6/20 in Peoria, 6/29 in Las Vegas (7/4 is a Thursday and this would be for 7/4 and 7/11 so they are taping both shows during that cycle), 7/18 in Louisville, 8/1 in Wichita Falls, 8/15 in Norfolk and 8/29 in Cleveland


Chris Sabin is set to return in a few weeks.


TNA is having issues trying to register the names TNA and Impact in Europe. A company called Aritzia owns a trademark for TNA for a clothing line. If Aritzia is successful, TNA would not be allowed TNA for clothing or television in Europe. Impact has been opposed by Datalogic Automation.


It was noted to us regarding Ivelisse Velez, who does have the look and cut a strong promo in her Gut Check, that she was not cut by WWE based on looks, ability or even marketability, but on attitude, which was noted to us at the time she was cut. Whether fair or not, there was the feeling that she had attitude issues when things didn’t go her way. Others saw it as the idea she wasn’t afraid to stand up for herself, which isn’t necessarily the best quality in a dominance game business, at least until you become a big star. She was also briefly in AAA, really with the Perros Del Mal group, so actually the idea there was for a similar role idea TNA has for her as the Aces and 8s girl. They were negative on her as well, saying she had an attitude, although in that case it was said she was always talking about going to TNA or into MMA and the feeling was if those are her goals, then why invest in her?


Stephanie McMahon announced the new facility for developmental in Orlando will be opening up in June. It’s modeled after a college football or pro football training facility, with a ton of different rings set up plus a gym on location, with a similar type of coaching staff. It will be called the WWE Performance Center.


WWE will have a construction toy line working with The Bridge.


Stephanie McMahon also announced Rock as the cover person on WWE 2K14. Originally this was supposed to be a major reveal sometime down the line and there were people unhappy she ruined those plans. 2K Sports who were new to working with WWE were freaking out because this kind of thing wouldn’t happen with any other company but others who know about WWE just chalked it up as they are different from everyone else and get used to it.

 

[R=G]

The whole social media thing has been divisive. Nobody can publicly say anything because Vince has advisers who tell them it’s the wave of the future and the stats they roll out with all the tens and hundreds of millions of this and that sound impressive and how they are beating the NFL and NBA. Stephanie this week said that in one year, social media will completely transform the company, which had people shaking their heads because the last year has been such a strong push and while right now, business is up, we are only a few months removed, with all the same social media pushes, of business being soft and ratings at generational lows, until the big stars, who are now gone again, came back for Mania. There is the feeling they push social media so much that it gets in the way of traditionally what you do put out as a television product, and that it comes off forced and not organic. My feeling is there was a time when it was totally annoying, but they’ve toned down. As a fan I don’t find it annoying anymore. The polls are cool. Sometimes they are a waste of time if they ask questions that they’ve led people on how to vote. And on Monday’s Raw, I have no idea what the idea was regarding having a poll to decide a match and then ignoring the outcome of the poll. If I was an advertiser, I wouldn’t be thrilled at them pushing during Raw to go to an app rather than pay attention to the commercial message on the screen. But that’s the charm of working with WWE in the sense the McMahons are unpredictable and when they get a whim, they do it.


The idea was to get Dwayne Johnson on Raw for the big announcement, even though it’s been announced. There is no date planned. That would indicate expectations people had for at least one more TV appearance in the next few months. With the injury and his tight schedule, there is no estimate when that would be. All of this has been very stressful on that side. Johnson’s people have told the Take Two people that the injury wasn’t that serious in the sense it will keep him from promoting the game since he’s scheduled to be the public face of the game for this year.


Stephanie was also trying to push the idea of WrestleMania as being on par or bigger then the Super Bowl in pre-show media. “It’s always been our intention to blow the Super Bowl away,” she said. “Of course it would be our goal to blow away the attendance record, to blow away revenue, to drive more revenue for the city than the Super Bowl.” She should talk like that because any time you are mentioned in the same breath with the Super Bowl, it makes your flagship event come across as that much bigger. I do find it funny those in the media buying the comparison or making reference to attendance figures in the same building. Aside from the fact the Mania released numbers are usually worked, in many cases heavily, if you are just looking at attendance numbers, there are a number of major colleges who every home game outdraw WrestleMania, and it doesn’t make every Saturday home game in Ann Arbor a bigger event. Whether the Super Bowl puts more people in a building or doesn’t, you can’t use live attendance as a comparison. The Super Bowl is going to have as many people as they can fit because the demand is far greater than the capacity every year. This year, that was the case for WrestleMania as they could have sold at least a few thousand more tickets than they did. But most years of late, WrestleMania hasn’t sold out. Legitimately, the Super Bowl had more people in Houston, Miami, Atlanta and Glendale than Mania because of the stage set up. However, in Detroit, the real Super Bowl number in 2006 was 68,206 and the real WrestleMania number in 2007 was 74,687.

Not that this is going to have any significant affect on Raw numbers, because I don’t think it will, but the new Fox Sports 1 channel has signed with Golden Boy Promotions to do Monday night fights 24 weeks a year. FS 1 is paying $100,000 rights fees, so these would be lower level boxing matches. It’s notable that FS 1 is not going to put boxing and UFC together.


Hornswoggle won this year’s annual video game tournament, beating Big E Langston in the finals.


Literally tons of stuff was being shot over the week with the wrestlers brought in, for both future WWE network broadcasts and for a number of upcoming DVD releases.


After making peace with Bruno Sammartino and Bret Hart in recent years, WWE even came to terms with Martha Hart, the widow of Owen Hart. At least in a legal sense. WWE settled out of court with Hart on her lawsuit against the company. Hart had wanted WWE to no longer mention Owen Hart, nor show his matches, nor sell them via videotape, and was also looking for royalties for Hart matches released on DVD that she was never informed about. There was no way she could win a case that revolved around WWE not having the rights to air footage that they owned of their own events (or for that matter, the Stampede Wrestling tapes that Ross Hart sold to WWE years ago which have Owen’s first few years in wrestling). However, the one charge that she very well could have at least had an argument on was back royalties. WWE had not paid her any royalties because she had sent a letter shortly after Owen Hart’s death, when she sued the company for negligence (which was also settled out of court) that she didn’t want any money from them for anything. After litigation was over, she never sent a letter rescinding her not wanting them to send any future money, so they never sent her the royalties. She was completely apart from wrestling. She hated it, never paid attention to it, and had no idea they were marketing anything with Owen. Then she found out and sued the company in both Canada and the U.S., more attempting to block release of the Hart Anthology DVD because that was when she found out. Then she found out there were a lot of DVDs released with Owen Hart. At the time she filed the suit, the royalties for Owen Hart over the years would have come to something in the neighborhood of $80,000 to $100,000. The nature of the settlement, announced jointly by Hart, Vince McMahon and Linda McMahon, was kept confidential.


In an AP article on Rock and WrestleMania, Cena said: “I always knew he loved the business. He loves it so much now that he really is the busiest person in the history of the WWE. He’s everywhere at once. He can do everything and still compete as WWE champion. Rock noted that he picked Cena to wrestle because he felt he was his best possible opponent, going so far as to say nobody else even came close. “He’s been the No. 1 guy in the company for many years now, and has managed to maintain a genuine, optimistic love for the business Often times, inherently, what the business creates is pessimism over time, and unhappiness. John has been able to stay above that, not get lost in the garbage, and not get lost in the noise.” Cena said, “I wish we had one guy with 10 percent of his (Rock’s) vision and his aspiration. When he gets a small opportunity, he kicks the damn door down and owns the house. Often times here, we have superstars that remind me of a hamster on the treadmill and those are the guys that usually complain. I don’t take too kindly to them. I’m fortunate Rock’s here and I’m glad he’s here. He can show up whenever he wants.” Johnson said that he hasn’t decided if he’ll wrestle next year in New Orleans, although the writer of the article was skeptical, saying WWE would be foolish to never book a Rock vs. Brock match.


HHH, in an interview with WPXI in Pittsburgh, said that when he approached Vince McMahon about wanting to get Sammartino for this year’s Hall of Fame, that Vince told him, “If you want to waste your time, go ahead.” He said after his first conversation with Sammartino, his reaction was, “Maybe Vince was right. It was clear there were a lot of issues.” What won Sammartino over is HHH didn’t argue with him about his complaints, just saying, “I’m not denying any of it. All I can do is tell you where we are today and where we are moving.” The article also made mention of Dr. Joseph Maroon, who has claimed WWE is cleaner than baseball (honestly, that is not responsible to say, because both sports have equal loopholes in testing including GH, and there is still more of a premium on having a good physique in wrestling as opposed to being a good player which is still most valuable in baseball since they don’t play in their underwear).


Sammartino on 4/5 got the key to the city of Jersey City, NJ. During the 60s, Sammartino regularly wrestled at the Jersey Armory in the city and he did two stadium shows at Roosevelt Stadium. That was when they figured doing Shea or Yankee Stadium to be too expensive (or maybe they couldn’t even get in), but they had matches they thought were too big for Madison Square Garden. On October 4, 1963, they were going to do the Sammartino vs. Buddy Rogers rematch, as they never did a rematch after Sammartino won the title. So they booked the stadium and something happened and Rogers ended up canceling. So it ended up with Sammartino against Gorilla Monsoon, who had just been introduced with that name (he’d been wrestling as Gino Marella until that point in time), and they did 18,000 fans at the stadium, which as it turned out, MSG could have held, and MSG was the better location because a rematch just 17 days later drew 19,000 at the Garden. But they’d have drawn tons more for Rogers most likely. They did a second show on June 26, 1964, with Sammartino vs. Fred Blassie, figuring Blassie was such a big draw since all the magazines had him as WWA world champion (he had lost the title by that time to dikk the Bruiser but the magazines were a few months out of date). Blassie wasn’t called world champion per se, but they did call him Pacific Coast champion and it was made out to the fans like it was the big title unification, but Jersey City wasn’t as good a place to draw as they did 17,000. It’s funny you give a figure like that in a city the size of Jersey City in the early 60s, when the population was so much lower, and act like it’s anything but great, but they eventually learned putting the rare “giant match” at Roosevelt Stadium instead of Madison Square Garden didn’t work, because the same match in MSG would draw more. Once again, two weeks later they did the rematch in Madison Square Garden and sold out, and three weeks after that, a third meeting also sold out. At that point they realized that if they had a big match, it was just better to run MSG than a stadium and didn’t do another area stadium show until 1972 with the Sammartino vs. Pedro Morales match at Shea Stadium, which drew 22,508, a few thousand more than they’d fit in MSG, but that crowd was blamed on miserable weather which hurt the walk up, and they did almost set the all-time North American gate record with that match. They later booked Shea Stadium shows in 1976 and 1980 that were more successful, each doing more than 30,000 fans.


People were remarking how great Jake Roberts looked when he came to town with DDP. He was described as completely lucid, looked in good shape for his age and was only limping slightly. Even those who had kept up on the news with him and had seen him in other places said that he looked so much better than even a month ago. DDP was getting a lot of credit. If he saves Jake’s life, he should.


Bryan did an interview with the Washington Post where he said that he doesn’t consider himself a great wrestler anymore. When asked about his current role, he said, “I don’t consider it wrestling. I’ve done wrestling everywhere. And just by being a good wrestler you can become popular, but not here. It’s more important to be entertaining than it is to be a great wrestler. It’s fascinating to me. Some things just stick. Why it happens, I have no idea.”

 

[R=G]

Regarding wrestling itself, he said, “One of the things that people don’t understand, even people here, people within the company, to me, wrestling is art. It’s a form of performance art. And there’s so much that goes into it that other people aren’t seeing.”


The amount of money WWE donated to Brian Stann’s “Hire Heroes USA” charity that he is CEO of was $100,000. There hasn’t been much talked about since the original donation and a video narrated by Stann that aired on TV. The idea told to me was that on strategic dates throughout the year, perhaps like at Memorial Day, WWE will push it on television again.


Punk on losing to Rock in an interview with the Busted Open radio show : “I wasn’t really champion for 434 days. It’s not like I really won it. We’re all adults here. We all know that pro wrestling is predetermined. My only gripe, and it’s always interesting because I do so many of these interviews and my answers always change and of course, people will just print like, `Punk’s mad that Rock s part time.’ Whatever. This is a business. The bottom line is dollars, But I can’t help it that I have so much old school ingrained in me that the champ works every show. So it’s 2013 and the business has completely changed and I was just vocal about there not being a champ on 2-3 months worth of house shows. I think the title is an attraction. Title fights should end the card. I just have a different philosophy on things. It’s great that Rock is back. Anybody in the locker room that says it doesn’t piss them off that he works however many days a year he works when we’re working 300 days a year, is saying something ridiculous, they’re kidding themselves. They’re scared to say it. I appreciate Rock and everything he does. He puts more eyes on the product, that’s awesome. Maybe at the Royal Rumble and Elimination Chamber, more people saw C.M. Punk for the first time. That’s cool But to me, the champ has a responsibility to the locker room. You’ve got to toe the line when you’re the champ. He’s not on every show. I’m not piss and vinegar, crying about it. It’s just a complete different opinion.”


Regarding his two matches with Rock: “I wasn’t happy with those matches. Were they the best they possibly could have been? Yeah, I think so. But I never like anything I do. I also don’t watch anything I do. I know when I do stuff that’s good and I know when I do stuff that’s bad and I just kind of leave it at that. I don’t know if it was built up to be this huge showdown, and I don’t know if it just fell short. I personally, I don’t think they were bad, but maybe something a little bit missing. Maybe I’d change my mind if I actually bothered to go back and watch but I just can’t bring myself to do it.” He was asked the question about what the angle would have been for Undertaker vs. Punk had Paul Bearer not died. That’s a frequent question we get, and the answer is, nobody really knows since they didn’t have one in place and were kind of just going week-to-week. He said, “I don’t know. I think a lot of people think it wouldn’t have been anything, but it’s the Undertaker at WrestleMania. It’s the streak. It’s the biggest thing in the WWE. It’s bigger than a title match. I’m confident we would have been okay.” Regarding the storyline that the winner of the four-way match would get Undertaker, he said, “I told them that was a stupid idea. I could have called him out. There’s different ways. It felt really weird to me and I didn’t like it.” He noted that Undertaker was never a dream match for him, unlike so many who have said wrestling Undertaker at WrestleMania would be their dream match. He said his dream match is Austin. He also mentioned he’d love to wrestle Harley Race or Pat Patterson in their prime. Regarding a match with Austin, he said, “I’m not saying anything is ever going to happen. Steve’s in a great place and he’s happy and for all intents and purposes, he shouldn’t wrestle again.” Austin never says no, and for this year, it was not considered because if Austin was to wrestle, it wouldn’t be on a show that already had Rock in the main event plus Lesnar. I’ve talked this subject with a number of people who know Austin closely and they really believe that with all his injuries (many of which haven’t come out), his pride, and the fact it’s now been ten years, that they really don’t think he’ll ever wrestle again, but they also recognize the idea of building a WrestleMania around his return, and he does praise Punk as the guy he could do something with, that if/when Rock doesn’t do a show, perhaps then he’d consider it.


This is how Dwayne Johnson explained his return in a New York Daily News article. “For years I was trying to think of when would be the best possible time to go back. And then about three years ago, I felt in my heart and in my gut it was the right opportunity to go back. I felt like I had reached a point in my career when I could go back to the WWE and help elevate it in any way that I could, and bring value to the bottom line. I had a great conversation with Vince. We met,. It took hours to figure out a good strategy to span the course of three years, spanning three WrestleManias, culminating with this one.” The idea from the start was that Rock would get the title one last time and pass it to Cena, pretty much as it ended up going, with the endorsement at the end. I think the one thing nobody counted on was that the fan base didn’t want to see the happy ending and endorsement between the two, because the fan base Rock had really didn’t like Cena and nothing Rock said and nothing the company does can seem to change that.


Updated box office numbers saw G.I. Joe at No. 2 this past weekend with $20,875,389 which was right at second week expectations. As of two weeks, it was at $86,438,449 domestic and was at $231.6 million worldwide. The Call was No. 9 in its fourth week at $3,500,248 (really strong showing) and is now at $45,481,341. They are already talking about doing The Call 2 sequel. Spring Breakers is No. 11 at $1,172,022 and is at $12,616,704 after for weeks. Snitch was No. 23 at $226,209 and is at $41,784,331 after seven weeks. Dead Man Down was No. 48 at $50,549 and its five week total is $10,828,678.


Shane McMahon, his wife and kids were all at Mania. Someone sitting by them said they seemed like they had a good time, and nobody was bothering them. Donald Trump and his family were a row up from Shane, arrived an hour into the show, then had to leave for his ceremony spot, but he was shaking hands and taking photos with people while nobody approached Shane.


Upcoming WWE releases are “No One Lives,” a horror film with Clay, out 5/10 at the theaters; 12 Rounds Two starring Orton is a DVD release in June. Those are the only movies they are releasing on DVD or theaters until 2014. They have “Leprechaun: Origins” (Hornswoggle) and the Scooby Doo Goes to WrestleMania, both scheduled for release in conjunction with next year’s Mania.


Maria Kanellis did a radio interview and was telling other wrestlers over the weekend that she was going back to WWE. Mike Bennett, her fiancé, had been off ROH and was brought back only because the spot opened when Charlie Haas left the company. He came back and his body was noticeably different, which could have been an injury preventing him from training or it could be getting ready for WWE. Bennett did not tell anyone in ROH that he was leaving and is booked going forward. Kanellis did not work the ROH tapings, while Bennett did, but ROH officials said Kanellis is booked on the next iPPV in Toronto. She was given the offer to come back, since WWE wanted to bring back several of the women since the roster is down. Maryse at the WrestleCon didn’t say anything definitive but wasn’t ruling anything out. Kelly Kelly, who now has dark hair, was giving the impression she was enjoying being off the road and is still with Sheldon Souray of the Anaheim Ducks of the NHL, who is a year into a three-year contract at $3.7 million per year so money apparently isn’t as strong a motivating factor to her as it may be to others. She had opened up talks and she, Maryse and Kanellis were all offered a multiple person Divas match at Mania. Kelly asked for a higher guarantee to come back than offered and also wanted the rights to use the Kelly Kelly name on outside projects and that’s where things ended, as the company decided to go in another direction for Mania. The heat with some of the women and Kanellis is because Kanellis did a radio show and made references to Kelly being with different guys on the roster. Kelly had called Maria Menounos and asked if she could put a lid on Kanellis because Kanellis had talked about saying more personal things about her on the air. Menounos and Kanellis had worked together on a podcast that would air Monday nights after Raw. Menounos was the one who put the show together. The Bellas also had heat with her over the belief she was insinuating similar things with key people.


Mysterio was at Fan Axxess. He is supposed to be back around June after rehabbing his knee, but the feeling is that he’s winding down his run with the company.


Jericho, originally booked through Mania, looks like he’s staying longer. He is booked on the Raw taping on 4/22 in London but that’s the only European date he’s working since he’s on tour with Fozzy for a few weeks in Europe. Mick Foley is also on a long European tour, but will do the Saturday Morning Slam tapings but miss a few Smackdown tapings.


They have gotten away from advertising house shows as “Raw” or “Smackdown” brand, as there really isn’t a major distinction when it comes to who airs on television. The last few weeks even though the shows have been just as before, with one tour that used to be called Raw with Cena and the other with the world champion, Show, Orton and the guys considered Smackdown, the web site didn’t distinguish them. The idea going forward, once the ads already cut run their course, is that they will just advertise WWE Live for all the shows. It’s probably a good idea because, up until the last two months, they had issues with how the Smackdown branded shows were drawing

Kingston was on the 4th and Pain radio show (hosted by Washington Redskins defensive end Adam Carriker) in Washington, DC, and said he’s always being mistaken for Robert Griffin III. He joked that he’s not quite as fast as RG3, but that he is the fastest wrestler in WWE.


Honky Tonk Man posted that he had signed a new contract which includes a legends deal.


There was a new belt on display at Axxess that was said to be an NXT Divas title belt, so they may be introducing that one soon.


Undertaker’s 4/23 match in London at the Smackdown tapings is being advertised as a trios match with Orton & Sheamus against The Shield.


Raw lineups on the European tour are now built around Cena vs. Punk vs. Ryback for the title and Kane vs. Langston.


After Mania, Jim Ross spent a few days in Stamford working on the upcoming Mid South DVD project. As far of the collection WWE purchased, there was a ton of arena footage that Joel Watts had shot. Some of the footage aired on Power Pro Wrestling, which was the “B” show in the 80s, and some was just shot and never made television. There was no announcing on those matches so nearly 30 years later, Ross was doing the voiceovers of the matches they were going to use. Ross would likely have been, along with Bill Watts, key people in the documentary DVD since Ross was Watts’ right hand man for years there.


WWE didn’t win any of the Shorty social media awards that they were nominated for (from last week’s issue) in the ceremony that took place on 4/8.

 

[R=G]

I didn't see the beginning of RAW this past week..did they really name Rock as [URL=http://www.the-coli.com/usertag.php?do=list&action=hash&hash=1]#1 [/URL] contender or was it a BS report I read?

He wasn't named the #1 contender. They said he was the #1 contender. They'll likely cancel all of that out though and just run the Ryback program. Rock has too much media and careful day to day management of his injuries to do any of that shyt.

 

[ML29]

I didn't see the beginning of RAW this past week..did they really name Rock as [URL=http://www.the-coli.com/usertag.php?do=list&action=hash&hash=1]#1 [/URL] contender or was it a BS report I read?

nah Booker just mentioned that Rock is entitled to a rematch cuz Cena defeated him for the title. thus is the rightful #1 contender but Rock can't wrestle (cause he's injured not because he's out of shape/old) so it really doesn't matter.