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ISSUE 3368
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Mark R
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Oct 22, 2009 19:53 PDT
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+++ SHAD GHASPARD UPDATE. Of course at the Smackdown taping Shad was
not in the 4-5 match (originally booked to be 5-5 but he said he was
sick and could not perform) and JTG did the part that Shad was booked to
do. A lot of people within the company thought it was odd that he
pulled out of the match and suggested perhaps he wasn't sick but did not
want to what he was asked to do. Shad has since posted an explanation on
his web page that suggests he was told to go see the WWE doctor and the
doctor gave him medicine that caused him to become disorientated and
that was why he pulled out of the match at the request of WWE officials.
Obviously it would be incredibly dumb of Shad to post this on his web
page if it wasn't the real reason why he did not perform because it
would get back to WWE and WWE would not be to thrilled about him
misleading the public. Whatever the case may be he apologized for
letting the fans, the company, his peers and himself down by not working
the match sick. I think everyone is going to sweep this one under the
rug - well outside of the news pages that have no real news to talk
about.
+++ JR UPDATE. Jim Ross will miss the Bragging Rights PPV this Sunday
and that means that all of the matches are going to be called by Michael
Cole. At least that is what one has to assume. I think Todd Grisham is
still on his Honeymoon and won't be at the PPV either. That means the
only others available for fill in duty are Josh Matthews and Matt
Striker and I don't see how they would fit in to the theme of the PPV
itself since they are ECW and not affiliated with RAW or Smackdown. I
suppose they could work it that some type of a deal was struck between
Tiffany and Teddy Long to net the use of one of those two on the show if
they wanted them to do it. But I personally think they will just run
with Lawler & Cole calling the action and if that is the case I just
hope they don't make it a one sided burial for the Smackdown brand with
the announcers only putting over their brands talent.
+++ KEVIN NASH OUTBURST AT TNA TAPING. Chris Daniels suffered what
appearned to be a potential life threatening/changing injury during a
match at the recent TNA taping and rather then stop the match and make
certain that Daniels life was stabelized the decision on the fly was
made to follow through with the planned sequences and do the finish. In
the back as this was happening, Kevin Nash was flipping out. He was
screaming at yelling at anyone within ears reach about how it was the
wrong decision to continue the match and the match should have been
stopped to make sure that Daniels wasn't seriously injured. I have to
side on Nash's behalf in this one because neck injuries are serious
business and while yes Steve Austin did continue his match against Owen
Hart when he suffered a neck injury, that was mainly not a company
decision and the finish happened moments after the spot that went bad.
I think a lot more has been learned about stingers and neck issues and
head trauma since that Austin spot and think things may be different if
it happened all over again today. At least I'd like to think so. Should
TNA have stopped the match? That is a tough call to make but the company
should favor the side that protects the talent first and the product
second. So I would have to agree with Nash in this instance and say
that if a serious neck injury happens in WWE or TNA then the action
should be stopped and the talent should be cared after. NBA, NFL, MLB
and even MMA wouldn't continue the action if one of the performers had
seriously injured their neck and went limp in the ring all of a sudden
during an unplanned spot. And pro wrestling shouldn't either.
+++ BOOKER T UPDATE. Booker T was informed by TNA that their offer,
which he turned down by the way, had been taken off the table and he is
no longer wanted by the company. This also means that his wife
(Sharmell) is officially gone from TNA as well. Booker has told people
close to him that he is going to take a short break from pro wrestling
and then plans on returning to WWE. I would think there would be some
interest in using him on behalf of WWE since he has always been a
reliable talker and performer. If he is lucky he could even return in
time for WrestelMania. Booker is looking for a deal on his terms so
there is always the offshoot chance that WWE low balls him an offer and
the sides can't come to an agreement. Booker has mentioned that he
doesn't need to work in wrestling any longer and can simply sit back and
devote all his time to his wrestling school instead. But I'd think the
two sides could come to some type of an agreement and the one thing that
Vince McMahon has to understand about bringing in Booker is that he has
a lot of talent that follow him from promotion to promotion, includingt
former World champions that currently work with TNA (Bobby Lashley -
Lashley did an interview with IGN.COM recently and when asked who he
wanted to work with in the ring he said Booker T, which probably
infuriated TNA management since it was known at the time of the
interview that Booker was done with the company. Lashley went to TNA
largely through a deal that was arranged by Booker and no one else.
Booker also has talent in his school that were willing to eventually go
to TNA at his request and obviously now that is likely out the window as
well).
+++ GOLDBERGN UPDATE. Goldberg is scheduled to be in New York over the
next few days to do PR work for his gig on The Celebrity Apprentice
airing on NBC (Donald Trumps show). Also since other WWE performers are
slated to be on the show as well and it is an NBC Universal platform it
only makes logical sense to think that if Goldberg is serious about
working one more high profile match that the door is now wide open for
Goldberg to make comments to the WWE talent on CA to get the word back
to VKM. And NBC Universal catching wind of Goldberg's intent might
force WWE's hand in to signing him at all costs to make sure that they
can cross promote CA and WWE on CA. It is an interesting dynamic to
think that after all of these years that Goldberg may still have a
drawing card left to play and could still yet become a major draw for
WWE if they protected him and used him correctly for one big money match
at WM in Phoenix, Arizona. Now who does Bill work against at that show?
The only obvious selection to me is Undertaker.
+++ SHANE MCMAHON UPDATE. Everyone that worked close with Shane McMahon
has told an interesting story about him and his work ethic and how he
treats people. When it pertains to running a business and a division he
is considered the smartest in the entire McMahon family because he can
talk his way in to getting good deals for his side while making the
other side feel content and is subtle and savvy about how he conducts
business, unlike Vince who is anything but that. Shane is also the only
of the McMahon's that knows anything about the advances in technology
(internet, cell phones, etc) as it pertains to the business world and
most of what WWE has begun to do in that respect was because of Shane.
This doesn't doom WWE to become a dinosaur because they will hire
someone that has that knowledge, it just is to say that Shane has that
advantage over his family. Everyone that worked under Shane loved him
and raved about him and how he treated them with honor and respect and
didn't just simply look for 'yes' people to surround himself with (both
of which Stephanie & Vince have been known to do). In the end it was
also told that the only negative about Shane was that he wasn't inclined
at all to be involved with creative because he wasn't very good at it
and most of his ideas were bad ideas and not just bad ideas that were
called bad by Stephanie or Vince but were actually bad ideas. When it
comes to investing in to business his ideas would have been GOLD if they
were actually done as promised. For instance he wanted to buy WCW and
run it himself separate from WWE and that was the original plan that VKM
killed. Shane wanted to buy UFC when the asking price was within WWE's
reach and VKM decided that it was a bad idea and UFC wasn't going to be
much anyways in the end (I bet Vince thinks that now right)? He pushed
for his father to purchase ECW and hand it over to him so he could
direct it as a new brand that was only housed on the internet using the
old ECW Extreme style and he wanted to manage the division. The
original idea was to do just that and even put Jim Ross on that show as
the lead announcer but in the end that idea was nixed as well by Vince.
There were a lot of ideas that Shane suggested businesswise that made
little sense at the time but looking back if they had been implemented
by WWE then things would be a lot better now then they are and they
would have grown ten or twenty fold because of those ideas.
One thought is that Shane watching Dana White take UFC to where it is
currently at, knowing with his fathers production values and production
team and television exposure it could have been mucb bigger then it
currently is and he could have been the one taken credit for it, well
that probably eats at him. Some think Shane knows that he can do the
same with a new wrestling empire and even a new MMA genre if he puts his
money behind it and now all he is looking to do is make his own mark by
showing his father and the entire world that he can do it. If Shane was
going to get in to the MMA business then the creative aspects of that
business wouldn't matter since it is not storyline driven and all he
would have to do is create promotional revenue streams that could
compete with UFC. But if he was looking to get in to the pro wrestling
business then the obvious first strike he would make is by bringing
onboard somone like Paul Heyman, Jim Cornette or Gabe Sapolsky to handle
the creative aspects while he directs the business model. Shane might
think he can evolve a promotion totally through word of mouth and using
the internet and it would cost a fraction of what his father and TNA
currently spend to manipulate the market place. Time will tell if this
saga is a storyline or if it reality. But the interesting thing about
all of this is that Vince McMahon did the same thing to his own father
and basically bought his father out and changed his fathers entire
business model to suit his own visions and since Shane had no chance of
acquiring any part of the WWE empire he may have realized the only way
he can do what his father did is to do it on his own. But I still would
not be surprised if ECW didn't wind up being its own separate entity
controlled by Shane McMahon and having nothing to do with the other two
halves of WWE.
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