WWE/TNA News: The Insecurity of the WWE

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Jack Swagger was arrested approximately 10 miles from the site of last Tuesday's Smackdown tapings and charged with a DUI, speeding and marijuana possession. According to officers, Swagger had performed "several traffic offenses" which led to them pulling him over. He was going 55 in a 45 and the arresting officer, Lt. Craig Petersen, believed that he was under the influence of marijuana, hence the DUI. He was not drinking alcohol nor was any alcohol found in the car. He was taken to the local Sheriff's department and released several hours later. WWE tersely released a statement saying "Mr. Swagger is responsible for his own personal actions," which led people to believe they might lay the hammer down on him. As it turns out, no public action was taken and Swagger's road to a title match with Alberto Del Rio at WrestleMania continues. One source in WWE said what saved him was likely his angle getting tons of play on various conservative radio programs, and in particular Glenn Beck going on the warpath against him and the company. WWE turned it into a storyline where they invited Beck to Raw on Monday, and when he declined the invitation they sent Michael Cole to his studios to try to get an interview. He was kicked out. One person noted that WWE seemed disappointed that Beck didn't bite and that all the fun died down quickly on Monday. The Swagger/Zeb Colter segment continued on Raw with little or no tweaking done, so it appears the story will likely quietly go away. He has a March 12th plea date and faces a $188 speeding fine, $437.25 for possessing a small quantity of marijuana, and $1,300 for the DUI if it's his first offense.
WWE tests its wrestlers for marijuana, but a failure does not count as a Wellness policy strike. Instead, every failure is a $2,500 fine, which many wrestler consider a "pot tax." One person with the company said to their knowledge, Swagger has never actually failed a pot test.

It was noted that while Swagger did get a DUI, firing him would be tough since Cameron not only got her own DUI several months back but lied, tried to bribe a cop, and hid what happened from WWE until they found out on their own. And she was only suspended for two weeks, and is a dancer and not a WrestleMania title match participant in an angle that Vince McMahon is super into. Of course, at some point a precedent needs to be set and the wrestlers need to learn that there is zero tolerance for driving while impaired. Being proactive is better than waiting until something terrible happens and someone innocent is killed.

The big question is how the New York crowd will react to him at Mania.

We were told the idea for the Swagger/Colter angle came from Kevin Eck, a former writer for the Baltimore Sun who left the paper after more than two decades to go to work for WWE. He works in creative and with WWE.com.

Two matches discussed over the weekend for WrestleMania were Mark Henry vs. Chris Jericho and Sheamus vs. Wade Barrett. It should be noted that the belief is that there actually aren't any matches set in stone for the undercard and that plans are changing on a regular basis. Between the time we heard that report and the time we went to press, Sheamus was feuding with both Barrett and Shield on TV. One or both could lead to TV matches and Sheamus could end up with a totally different opponent come WrestleMania.

Orton, at press time, had no match set in stone for Mania but is going to be on the card.

Vince McMahon was furious after Raw. The piledriver is banned and CM Punk and John Cena didn't get permission to do it in their match, and so he flipped his lid backstage. Doubtful either guy will get anything other than perhaps a private fine, but the agent in their match may be in hot water.

Undertaker made a surprise appearance at the house show in Waco, Texas, Saturday night. WWE touted out his entrance and then aired footage of it on Raw. It's certainly unique. Because it aired on Raw, it's pretty much a certainty that he felt fine after the match and is planning to work WrestleMania, likely against Punk. He's also almost certain to return to TV this coming Monday since it is, coincidentally, Old School Raw. Why they decided to get the word out about him working the house show and not making his return a surprise is beyond me. And if the idea is that they want people to know he's coming back, billing him as coming back would have been way more effective in terms of boosting viewership than simply airing footage of his entrance at a house show. It should be noted that if the idea was that the YouTube video on Saturday would go viral and everyone would be tweeting or touting or e-mailing or calling their friends to tell them the news, well, reports we got from the building Monday were that there were zero Undertaker signs and it didn't appear any fans were expecting him to be there.

We are told this coming Monday's Raw will be kind of a throw-away show (aside from the likely Undertaker return) and that the undercard matches will start to take shape in about two weeks. The belief (and they're right) is that WrestleMania is being sold on the WrestleMania name, Rock vs. Cena II for the title, HHH vs. Brock and to a lesser extent Punk vs. Undertaker.

As preposterous as this sounds, it was discussed last week that since Rey Mysterio vs. Sin Cara isn't happening at WrestleMania this year and thus they aren't going to do the deal where they try to set the record for the most people wearing masks in the same place at the same time, instead they might try to set the record for -- wait for it -- "The World's Largest Harlem Shake." Really. Google it.

Raw did a 3.4 rating this week, so the string of strong numbers leading into WrestleMania season continues.

Darren Young of the Prime Time Players is apparently working with a knee injury that was supposed to keep him out of action for several months.
Based on the success of British Boot Camp, TNA is in the very early stages of trying to put together something like an Aussie Boot Camp.

 

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WWE is doing a slow roll-out of the WrestleMania lineup, with the top four matches on the 4/7 show at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ, finalized with no surprises.

John Cena beat C.M. Punk, which sets up The Rock vs. Cena for the WWE title, Punk vs. Undertaker with the WrestleMania streak at stake, Brock Lesnar vs. HHH and Alberto Del Rio vs. Jack Swagger for the world title.

The Lesnar vs. HHH angle was shot on the 2/25 Raw in Dallas at the American Airlines Center. The angle was predictable, but very effective. A Vince McMahon vs. Paul Heyman fight ended when Lesnar came out. HHH then came out to confront Lesnar and McMahon and Heyman both disappeared from view. Lesnar came back from being run twice into the ringpost, leaving him bleeding like crazy (and needing 12 staples in his forehead to close the cut). Then HHH came back from being given an F-5 on the announcers table. The segment ended with HHH hitting Lesnar in the back with a chair and Lesnar leaving. Rather than try to cutesy up the angle, and making it less effective, they did the simple and obvious version.

With five weeks of television left, there is plenty of time to build the undercard matches. But still, the lack of direction underneath is pretty clear. It’s not a big problem, in the sense that most of the tickets are gone, and nothing they do with any of the rest of the characters will make any real difference in how many tickets are sold. PPV orders are going to be based on the Mania name and really the top three matches, no matter what is done with the bulk of the full-time talent.

The biggest thing new when it comes to the Mania build was the apparent confirmation of Undertaker vs. Punk, although no angles have been shot in that direction.

Undertaker showed up unadvertised for the 2/23 Smackdown brand house show in Waco, TX. He worked a tag team match, teaming with Sheamus against Wade Barrett & Damien Sandow.

Undertaker was in twice. He didn’t take any bumps. On the plus side, he was in shape and near the end when he did spots requiring movement, he had very good ring speed. He also did a legdrop with no problem, But when he did his old school rope walk spot, on landing, he grabbed the ropes to steady himself and there were other spots where you could see his hip isn’t 100%, though it likely never will be. It felt like he was easing his way through a test run.

The Waco appearance was acknowledged on Raw, with a clip shown of his music playing and him coming out. There’s no way they would be talking about Undertaker on Raw during Mania season if he hadn’t made the decision to do the show.

It was a big week for Swagger, real name Jacob Hager, 30, who started getting considerable media attention for the ring character. Hager, after the 2/19 Smackdown tapings in Biloxi, MS, had left the Gulf Coast Coliseum. At 11:59 p.m. that night after the show, Hager was arrested about six miles from the arena, in nearby Gulfport, MS, driving a Ford Taurus when he was pulled over for going 55 miles per hour in a 45 zone. A search of the car turned up marijuana.
Hager was arrested on charges of speeding, possession of marijuana and driving under the influence.. He was released and has a court date scheduled for 3/12.
He’s facing a fine of $188 for speeding, $437 for possession of marijuana and $1,300 for a first-time DUI. He also faces the possibility of a 90 day suspension of his license.

Hager was likely saved from punishment because he was in a key angle. The best known comparable example was when Rob Van Dam and Sabu were pulled over and marijuana was found, both were suspended for 30 days. But Vince McMahon loves this gimmick, and Swagger up to this point has not faced anything public. He worked all the house shows over the weekend and is being pushed for WrestleMania.
Attempts to engage Glenn Beck, the noted arch-conservative talk show host who at one point had a show on CNN Headline News, into being involved in the angle got nowhere.

The company got some mainstream press by doing a release stating they had invited Beck to appear on Raw as part of the Swagger/Colter angle. It was notable in the release that WWE made no bones about the motives of the angle. “This storyline was developed to build the Mexican American character Alberto Del Rio into a hero given WWE’s large Latino base, which represents 20 percent of our audience.”
Beck said WWE was stupid doing the angle. A lot of Tea Party people were both upset and confused about it, particularly since Linda McMahon sought their support and now they are doing a TV angle portraying them as out of touch and as heels. Vince loved the Swagger/Colter gimmick and all the publicity they got out of it they considered a positive.

Beck declined the invitation, saying, “Unfortunately, I am currently booked doing anything else.”
WWE then had the two of them cut a video, trying to change the idea Beck said WWE was stupid for doing the angle to wrestling fans are stupid, so they were standing up for their wrestling fan audience.

 

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In a segment some found controversial, others silly, WWE had Wayne Keown, who plays Colter, cut a promo with Swagger. When it was over, he walked off the set, said his name was Wayne Keown, and Swagger’s name was Jake Hager and they are actors playing a role, comparing themselves to characters in NCIS and Glee.

They had Keown do stats about the WWE TV audience and then give a speech about the product (very similar, in fact part of it was almost word-for-word, the speech Vince did in 1997 on Raw when people were critical of the content direction, although the difference is that in 1997, Vince said that they were no longer going to insult the audience by creating outdated good guys vs. bad guys scenarios, as he mocked the terms, while 16 years later the speech talked about how WWE is all about creating good guys and bad guys). He again tried to goad Beck into appearing on their show. Beck has ignored them since that point.

The video was filmed after Hager’s arrest.

The Colter delivery was great, but when WWE gets insecure on these types of things, it usually makes them look bad in the end.

As coincidence would have it, WWE was running Raw in Dallas, and Beck has studios where he films his radio shows out of Arlington, TX. WWE sent Michael Cole and a camera crew to Beck’s studios, where they were kicked out, but got themselves filmed being kicked out.

WWE tried to portray it that Beck chickened out of appearing. The funny part of this is if there was a real wrestling war, if a camera crew from the other promotion, a news outlet or someone else showed up at the WWE’s headquarters wanting to ask Vince McMahon about something, security would likely stop you from filming and take the footage so it couldn’t air.

Raw on 2/25 did another big number, a 3.43 rating and 4.70 million viewers, putting it in third place for the night on cable

The show did some of its strongest numbers with adult males, doing a 3.0, while doing a usual 1.0 rating with women 18-49. The audience was 68.4% male.

The show opened strong with the Vince McMahon segment with Paul Heyman, Brock Lesnar and HHH doing a 3.6 quarter. We only have estimates on the gains and losses. Ryback vs. Dolph Ziggler lost about 285,000 viewers. The C.M. Punk promo and trailer for “The Call” gained about 420,000 viewers which is huge for that time slot. Mark Henry vs. Great Khali lost about 285,000 viewers. The 9 p.m. in-ring with Jack Swagger, Zeb Colter and Alberto Del Rio gained about 285,000 viewers and did a strong 3.7 quarter. Randy Orton vs. Antonio Cesaro lost about 430,000 viewers. R-Truth vs. Cody Rhodes stayed even. Daniel Bryan & Kane vs. Prime Time Players with Bryan blindfolded and Kane having his hand tied behind his back lost another 285,000 viewers. The Shield promo at 10 p.m. with Randy Orton and Sheamus involved gained about 285,000 viewers to a 3.4. Jack Swagger vs. The Miz was the big drop losing 450,000 viewers. The John Cena promo gained 140,000 viewers. And John Cena vs. C.M. Punk gained about 1,002,000 viewers and finished with a 3.9 overrun. That’s a huge success.

Smackdown on 2/22 did a 2.03 rating and 2.89 million viewers. The show was second for the night on cable behind “Gold Rush,” and more than doubled the NBA game on ESPN head-to-head that did 1.32 million viewers.

TNA on 2/21 did a 1.0 rating and 1.35 million viewers. That rating has to be a big disappointment given the entire show was built around Hulk Hogan’s first match on television since his TNA debut three years ago and first match overall since the 2011 Bound for Glory. They spent the entire show pushing it and then did the injury angle at the end of the show to explain him not being in the main event match.

The show did a 0.56 in Males 18-34 and 0.78 in Males 35-49, the latter once again way down from usual levels.

 

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Orton, at press time, had no match set in stone for Mania but is going to be on the card.

 

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Nielsen is looking at updating its ratings, adding homes that have given up cable and use the Internet for their TV, as well as measuring Xbox, Netflix, Amazon and eventually, iPad viewing.

Former 80s star Nikita Koloff, 53, will be part of a Lifetime reality show called “Preacher’s Daughters,” about the daughter of evangelists. The show debuts on the station on 3/12. It follows three teenage girls whose fathers are pastors. One is Kolby Koloff, 16, the youngest of four girls whose parents are divorced. It covers her going back-and-forth between Kannapolis, NC, where her father lives, and Nashville, where her mother, Victoria, is also a preacher who hosts a radio show as well as runs two centers for pregnant teenagers. It notes Nikita was a former pro wrestler who is a traveling evangelist. Nikita Koloff was actually a major star in the 80s, a big main eventer for Jim Crockett Promotions as the green musclehead. In his jacked up days, he was about 275 pounds with freakish shoulders. He was born Scott Simpson in Minneapolis and was a college football teammate at Morehead State with Joe Laurinaitis, and the two became best friends. They were trained by Eddie Sharkey and during the 80s, when the steroided up bodybuilder phase of the business was at its peak, Nikita Koloff was able to walk in as a main eventer. They billed him as a Russian weightlifter who was the nephew of longtime star Ivan Koloff, and had him win matches quickly, partially because he was so green. It worked well, and at the first Great American Bash, Ric Flair vs. Nikita Koloff at the Charlotte baseball stadium sold out with 30,000 fans when Flair was still a babyface. He ended up going down to 219 pounds and that killed the gimmick. He was out of wrestling by the early 90s, getting a Lloyd’s of London permanent disability settlement and followed Tully Blanchard and Ivan Koloff into preaching in the Carolinas.

Les Thatcher, 72, was named as the first inductee into the Mid Atlantic Hall of Heroes. The ceremony will be on 8/1 to 8/4 in Charlotte at the annual Mid Atlantic Wrestling Legends Fanfest at the University Place Hilton. Thatcher has been in almost every role possible in wrestling, from being a wrestler, an announcer, radio show host, worked in the office, run an indie promotion, promoted house shows for major companies, ran a developmental territory, booked, was a photographer, a magazine and program writer and a trainer of both wrestlers and of bodybuilders. He wrestled from 1960 to 1980 and also won five bodybuilding contests. He currently does a radio show on the Observer web site.

Cheerleader Melissa won the Pro Wrestling Revolution women’s title from Dark Angel (Sarita) on 2/23 in San Francisco. PWR is one of the best drawing indies in the country, and the women’s title has been defended on CMLL television as well as CMLL house shows. The group is also running a 5/11 show in Turlock, CA, using Blue Demon Jr. and El Hijo del Santo.



TNAHulk Hogan told some nice fibs when, I guess, he got ticked at Punk for saying Hogan had it easier as champion than he did. In an interview with Fighting Spirit Magazine, Hogan said, “C.M. Punk never had to walk in a dressing room where he wasn’t supposed to be. He never walked into Kansas City, where Harley Race was the champion for 20 years, where Harley had told all of his friends and neighbors that he was the only heavyweight champion, because he was the NWA champion. C.M. Punk never walked into Kemper Arena and had Harley Race put a gun to his head and say, `Get out of my town kid.’ So, does C.M. Punk have it easier than me? When I was flying 300 days a year, doing double-shots and there was no Rock, and no Stone Cold around, but just me for the first 15 years? During the day I was flying from New York and stopping in St. Louis, taking a TV station manager out to lunch, and then in the afternoon, getting to the building early in another town, like Chicago, and cutting a TV deal before wrestling that night. So, no, I don’t think I had it easier than him.” For what it’s worth, the story about Race going to the arena with a gun was told constantly in 1984 or 1985. Race wasn’t NWA champion by then. When Race agreed to go to WWF, Hogan was so leery of a double-cross that instead of doing the Hogan vs. Race program when Race arrived, which was how business was done in those days, they had Race work there for several months before they’d let him in the ring with Hogan.

Hogan also said that if it was up to him, he’d have Bobby Roode as champion. “Dixie runs the company, but if it was up to me, and It had been my decision, Bobby Roode would have been a great champion to have right now. The (UK) tour plus a champion make sense, a tour with no champion doesn’t make sense. I choose my battles. Some people look at the picture differently to how I do.” He did say that if he hadn’t have changed plans and Roode would have won the title as a babyface it would have ruined his career. I don’t know, given the parameters involved, it’s inconceivable to me to have booked Roode vs. Storm, between the build, execution and payoff, to where Storm could have possibly gotten less out of it than what they did. Roode’s booking wasn’t so hot either, but he was able to rise above because of his chemistry with Aries and because inside the ring he had a nice championship run.

Hogan teased the idea of a new reality show, when he wrote on Twitter, “Very grateful for a new reality show where I get to work with family and a few good friends that always wanted to be in show biz.”

Hogan’s restaurant, “Hogan’s Beach,” got unmercifully panned in the Tampa Bay Times. After talking about the huge New Year’s Eve opening, they wrote, “But at this point, the good is a train wreck and the three menus incoherently jumbled.” Another line said, “I strongly suspect that a number of dishes are straight off the back of a Syco truck”

Dixie Carter and Jason Hervey recently met with producers from Activision in Santa Monica. They have interest in producing a new TNA game as they believe TNA would be something they could get into at a relatively low cost.

TNA announced a second WrestleMania weekend show on 4/6 in Atlantic City. They have a 4/5 show in Westbury, NY, and since Hogan is going to be there for an autograph signing in New Jersey that day, he’s also going to make a rare house show appearance that night.

Taryn Terrell served as the ring card girl on the 2/21 Bellator show in Salt Lake City.

 

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Doug Williams is currently the OVW champion. He’s there as one of TNA’s trainers for guys they have based in Louisville like Sam Shaw, Crimson, Alex Silva, Taelor Hendrix and when he’s not in fight training, King Mo.

It seems so dated to have Tara defending the title and beating Velvet Sky on all the house shows up until last weekend. The title change which took place on 1/25 didn’t air until 2/20. According to those in TNA, at none of the shows where that happened, did anyone ask about why they did it, or catcall about how Tara had already lost the title. The feeling is that at least some of the people who have known and nobody really had an explanation as to why in 2013 you’d still do that, but that’s another issue. But either the fans don’t know or don’t care that much.

Ivelisse Velez, who was on the TV show Tough Enough and later signed for WWE developmental, is scheduled to appear on Gut Check, which I believe will be the 2/28 live show from Orlando. The last we heard, Velez, who wrestled as Sofia Cortez in WWE developmental, was scheduled to make her MMA debut the next night in Chicago. One would think if you are going to make your MMA debut that you aren’t going to be doing a pro wrestling match that far away.

WWEMike “The Miz” Mizanin, 32, and longtime girlfriend Maryse Ouellet (Maryse who worked for the company from 2006-2011), 30, were engaged on 2/21.

As of the weekend, there were 4,033 tickets for WrestleMania on the secondary market, which is considerably lower than at the same time last year. I’m surprised, because usually a great number of tickets left is when people expect it to sell out and thus buy tickets as an investment. If anything, being in New York, you would think it selling out and being able to make money on the secondary market would be greater than Atlanta and Miami the past two years. You can’t get a ticket for less than $125 on the secondary market, which is considerably higher than any year to date. To get into the first four rows on the field you’re talking $5,000 and the very few front row seats are going for $18,500 to $23,000.

The movie, “Snitch,” starring Dwayne Johnson, grossed $13,167,607 in its opening weekend, putting it in second place for the weekend behind, “Identity Thief.” The movie got mixed reviews, with 51% positive on Rotten Tomatoes. The reviews that were good praised Johnson, but they were mixed overall, with a lot of comments along the lines of that even Johnson couldn’t save the script. The movie did better than a lot of the recent action movie opens, like Broken City and Parker and beat “Faster,” which he starred in 2010. But it’s below most of his opens.

Donald Trump, 66, was officially announced this week into the WWE Hall of Fame. As noted, the announcement was originally scheduled for last week and I’m not clear why it was delayed. As far as celebrities go, Trump belongs in the Hall of Fame more than most, with the exception of Mike Tyson (in), Cyndi Lauper or Mr. T in the sense he was more than just there, he was actually a major difference maker. Trump paid a site fee to WWE in 1988 and 1989 to host WrestleMania both years. They were two of the worst, arguably the two worst Manias in history because the building ended up being filled with high rollers who didn’t react to the wrestling. His biggest run was the Battle of the Billionaires, where Trump picked Bobby Lashley and Vince picked Umaga, and whose guy lost the match would have to get his head shaved. That WrestleMania, in 2007 from Detroit, drew the largest PPV number in pro wrestling history (1,250,000) and the third largest attendance in company history. He also did a storyline where he purchased Raw from Vince. Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you view it, that angle was dropped quickly. The price of the stock dropped as Wall Street believed Trump was actually in charge of Raw and they had no confidence in him, the stock price dropped, and the angle was quickly dropped. So unlike the Drew Careys who are really jokes to the Hall of Fame, or Pete Rose who provided a few comedy spots that didn’t make a difference, Trump was a difference maker. Having said that, he came across as a real fool politically in the last year. The thing I fear is because Trump is a real-world celebrity and how WWE always treats real world celebrities bigger than their own talent, that this throws an interesting monkey wrench to things. As far as who the main eventer is at the Hall of Fame, it should be Bruno Sammartino, and it was already tough with Trish Stratus, Mick Foley and Bob Backlund regarding who are the “big two” or “big three” who aren’t treated like prelim guys. I’d hate to see the spotlight on Trump as the star ahead of any of those four, since in this case, the fans would be far more into seeing all of them honored ahead of seeing Trump. But I can’t see Trump being a part of it and not being one of the key guys featured. So there is a good chance one or two of them won’t make television because of Trump. Saturday Morning Slam is going to be filming a three-week storyline that starts on 3/2 and ends on 3/16 that will lead to the announcement of the General Manager of Saturday Morning Slam.

John Layfield was away from TV this week and I think next week as well as he’s climbing Mount Aconcagua in Argentina. He already had gotten to about 8,900 feet on 2/26 on the mountain that is 22,837 feet high.


Jericho was on the show AfterBuzz talking about Raw on 2/4 Raw from Atlanta where they did the legit fan voting where Jericho got the match with Punk that was scripted for Orton. They did a fan poll on who they wanted to see, and the writers and Vince had written the show for Orton vs. Punk and Jericho vs. Barrett and Mysterio vs. Bryan even though fans were voting for Orton, Jericho or Mysterio for the match. They had everyone go out and cut a promo and instead of the announcers or the nature of the angle telling you what to do, they did it legit. Jericho then cut the best promo as Orton’s was really blase about it. Jericho said, “I knew I was going to win,” and said the writing team was shocked. “I went to the writers room and said, `All you guys with your flash polls, go fukk yourself, you can suck it.”

The 3/4 Raw is billed as “Old School Raw,” bringing back stars from the past. We had heard that Flair was called to come back, but they change their mind on him every other week. They plugged no names appearing and the only thing from the clips was Gene Okerlund did the voice overs and they showed Flair, Ted DiBiase Sr. and Dusty Rhodes in the clips for the show, and played the original Raw theme music from the 90s. The Rock is scheduled back from Panama for the show, but Lesnar isn’t scheduled.

The first PPV after Mania is Extreme Rules on 5/19 from St. Louis. On the WWE web site and on the Savvis Center web site, they list Cena, Punk and Orton as the big three stars. However, the WWE Facebook listed Rock as being on the show. We were told straight from the horse’s mouth that he’s going to be in Europe doing “Hercules” at that time. Is it possible he could come in for an appearance? I suppose. But when trying to get clarification from WWE, no answers were forthcoming.

Foley returned as the new General Manager of Saturday Morning Slam. He was introduced on the show taped 2/26 in Oklahoma City for a segment that airs on 3/16.

 

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OG Bob with that Hogan co-sign over Nero

legit polls? The usual L for Randal Keith.

 

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Exteme rules in St. Louis huh

Spoiler

CHAMP BY BACKLASH EXTREME RULES
:megalawd: