Post by Brett Hart on Jun 28, 2006 22:30:05 GMT 10
Dave didn’t think they played up the history of the WWE Title enough to make the Van Dam title win as significant as it could have been.
Pointed out the aspect of a Raw star pretty much winning the belt for Van Dam wasn’t played up and on Raw nobody even sold the idea that the WWE belt going to ECW was much of a deal.
Van Dam’s reign is likely transitional, between Cena and Edge, with Van Dam versus Edge headlining Vengeance.
The finish to Van Dam vs. Cena was an idea of Michael Hayes, after Vince wanted people to come up with a finish where Van Dam won but Cena was protected. Hayes idea was also to keep Raw as the premier brand, Vince also said that Cena is the future of the company and is to be protected in booking the same way as Austin or Hogan were when they were carrying the promotion.
Dave thinks it would have been better for Angle to interfere instead of Edge to set up a Van Dam vs. Angle match down the line and also because it could have been used as part of the long-term build to the match.
The most important thing is to establish ECW and to put Van Dam at a higher level than he’s been at so far which has not been done yet
The first ECW TV show was said to be heavily influenced by Vince and his vision of what ECW was, with Heyman and others trying to get changes made but with “little success”
The creative on ECW right now is Heyman submits scripts to Vince at the end of the week. Then, the other writers will have their input on the script before the final product goes to air, with the Raw writers having more input due to the Raw/ECW angle tie-ins. Officially, Heyman is the lead writer and there are no other official writers. NBC wants Raw/ECW Monday-to-Tuesday angles to keep some of the Raw audience for ratings. Dreamer has no creative part in ECW, and is just talent relations and a wrestler. At one point, Dreamer was just going to do the PPV and go back to his office role, but the feeling was Dreamer was needed at first for authenticity.
Stephanie McMahon is Heyman’s official supervisor.
One Night Stand:
Overall, Dave thinks the show was mediocre from an in-ring perspective. However, the crowd was what made the show better. Dave speculates that the crowd seemed very ROH-esque with the chants they were doing and their overall behaviour (Àéäå áå! Íå ìîæå äà áúäå! Âñè÷êèòå òåçè íåùà ãè äóìàì îò åäíà ñåäìèöà íàñàì )
Tazz vs. Jerry Lawler: No Rating. There was a lot of unhappiness with both Tazz and Lawler going into this match. Tazz didn’t want to wrestle and refused to do an actual match. Lawler was pissed off about that, and felt that, with Tazz not wanting to wrestle, and not going to wrestle ever again, that he should win via screwjob. Tazz balked, and Lawler wound up agreeing to lose, but he refused to tap out. Lawler insisted on the choke being used so he could use the storyline of choking being illegal in wrestling, presumably to save face. Dave said that since MMA became popular, the only people who think chokes are illegal are wrestlers still living in the 80s.
Kurt Angle vs. Randy Orton: ***. Said the crowd were initially hesitant to cheer Angle. Dave remarked the crowd was similar to when he saw Goldberg vs. HHH at house shows; the fans went nuts when Goldberg was on offense, but when HHH was on offense there was no heat, because the fans weren’t condition to the ‘new’ Goldberg and turned on the match and started booing Goldberg when he would sell. With this match, the crowd were hot when Angle was on offense but when he wasn’t they got quiet or chanted something.
The FBI vs. Super Crazy and Tajiri: **1/4. Felt the match was good until the end when it began to fall apart.
Rey Mysterio vs. Sabu: ***1/4. Dave pointed out that after spending weeks saying how Mysterio got his break in ECW, Tazz and Styles were now saying Rey was in there for a cup of coffee. Dave said that early on Sabu looked like he was forgetting the spots. Dave was shocked at the finish as he figured it was a tease to lead to them restarting the match saying they don’t do this sort of thing in ECW but the match ended and neither man showed up again.
Edge, Mick Foley and Lita vs. Tommy Dreamer, Terry Funk and Beulah: No Rating. Dave thinks they didn’t want to beat Dreamer as he just lost on Wednesday, and that they, for some reason, didn’t want to beat Funk, even though Funk would have wanted to lose. That is why Lita & Beulah were included in the match and Beulah was the one to be pinned. Dave called it a “blood and weapons-fest of catastrophic proportions”. Said the weapons shots started tame but that it built up from there. Dave didn’t rate the match because he felt the wrestling and such didn’t look good, but they went above and beyond to give the fans the kind of spectacle they wanted to see.
Balls Mahoney vs. Masato Tanaka: *1/4. Called the match a disappointment, because you book Tanaka either to have a great match or do the crazy chair shot stuff. Dave thinks a lot of veterans figured that Tanaka getting up from the chair shots would make them look bad when they sold the one chair shot. Dave agrees with that, but it made the Tanaka match completely different from last year when he and Awesome had their match which put the show over the top.
Rob Van Dam vs. John Cena: ***1/4. Said Cena isn’t much of a wrestler but he’s a great talker and shows tremendous poise in the ring. Dave commented that a lot of guys would have broken under the fan reaction but Cena took it in his stride. Said the crowd was super hot for this one.
More on Animal getting fired: after feeling Dave Lagana, the Smackdown head writer (at the time) was blowing him off, Animal went straight to Vince, which is considered a breach of protocol and was a reason used to let him go. Dave said they had no plans for him, that his nostalgia run lasted longer than first thought, but that he was dead in the water after turning him heel and dropping the Road Warrior look.
Masato Tanaka is not coming in full-time for ECW, but Heyman is working to get him in between tours for Zero-One MAX
Lillian Garcia got huge heat for screaming so loudly and more when she was injured when it turned out she only had a sprained wrist. She didn’t help herself the next night in Toledo when ring announcing at a house show, when she opened up by telling her fans she was ok.
TNA
Early indications are the Best of Samoa Joe's DVD is one of the fastest selling TNA DVD releases ever. In it's first week it sold more copies then both the Raven and Jeff Hardy TNA DVDs.
The "Women of Spike" TV special will be on July 27th at 9PM. Christie Hemme and Gail Kim are involved but not Tracy Brooks. It will be a behind the scenes look at the hottest babes on all Spike's TV shows.
There is talk in TNA of bringing Goldberg in to face Samoa Joe. It would have to be at least a few months away, as Goldberg is set to star in a remake of a film called "Half Past Dead". Shooting begins in July.
Jon Bolen the TNA Gut Check winner from a few years is close to signing with the WWE.
Pointed out the aspect of a Raw star pretty much winning the belt for Van Dam wasn’t played up and on Raw nobody even sold the idea that the WWE belt going to ECW was much of a deal.
Van Dam’s reign is likely transitional, between Cena and Edge, with Van Dam versus Edge headlining Vengeance.
The finish to Van Dam vs. Cena was an idea of Michael Hayes, after Vince wanted people to come up with a finish where Van Dam won but Cena was protected. Hayes idea was also to keep Raw as the premier brand, Vince also said that Cena is the future of the company and is to be protected in booking the same way as Austin or Hogan were when they were carrying the promotion.
Dave thinks it would have been better for Angle to interfere instead of Edge to set up a Van Dam vs. Angle match down the line and also because it could have been used as part of the long-term build to the match.
The most important thing is to establish ECW and to put Van Dam at a higher level than he’s been at so far which has not been done yet
The first ECW TV show was said to be heavily influenced by Vince and his vision of what ECW was, with Heyman and others trying to get changes made but with “little success”
The creative on ECW right now is Heyman submits scripts to Vince at the end of the week. Then, the other writers will have their input on the script before the final product goes to air, with the Raw writers having more input due to the Raw/ECW angle tie-ins. Officially, Heyman is the lead writer and there are no other official writers. NBC wants Raw/ECW Monday-to-Tuesday angles to keep some of the Raw audience for ratings. Dreamer has no creative part in ECW, and is just talent relations and a wrestler. At one point, Dreamer was just going to do the PPV and go back to his office role, but the feeling was Dreamer was needed at first for authenticity.
Stephanie McMahon is Heyman’s official supervisor.
One Night Stand:
Overall, Dave thinks the show was mediocre from an in-ring perspective. However, the crowd was what made the show better. Dave speculates that the crowd seemed very ROH-esque with the chants they were doing and their overall behaviour (Àéäå áå! Íå ìîæå äà áúäå! Âñè÷êèòå òåçè íåùà ãè äóìàì îò åäíà ñåäìèöà íàñàì )
Tazz vs. Jerry Lawler: No Rating. There was a lot of unhappiness with both Tazz and Lawler going into this match. Tazz didn’t want to wrestle and refused to do an actual match. Lawler was pissed off about that, and felt that, with Tazz not wanting to wrestle, and not going to wrestle ever again, that he should win via screwjob. Tazz balked, and Lawler wound up agreeing to lose, but he refused to tap out. Lawler insisted on the choke being used so he could use the storyline of choking being illegal in wrestling, presumably to save face. Dave said that since MMA became popular, the only people who think chokes are illegal are wrestlers still living in the 80s.
Kurt Angle vs. Randy Orton: ***. Said the crowd were initially hesitant to cheer Angle. Dave remarked the crowd was similar to when he saw Goldberg vs. HHH at house shows; the fans went nuts when Goldberg was on offense, but when HHH was on offense there was no heat, because the fans weren’t condition to the ‘new’ Goldberg and turned on the match and started booing Goldberg when he would sell. With this match, the crowd were hot when Angle was on offense but when he wasn’t they got quiet or chanted something.
The FBI vs. Super Crazy and Tajiri: **1/4. Felt the match was good until the end when it began to fall apart.
Rey Mysterio vs. Sabu: ***1/4. Dave pointed out that after spending weeks saying how Mysterio got his break in ECW, Tazz and Styles were now saying Rey was in there for a cup of coffee. Dave said that early on Sabu looked like he was forgetting the spots. Dave was shocked at the finish as he figured it was a tease to lead to them restarting the match saying they don’t do this sort of thing in ECW but the match ended and neither man showed up again.
Edge, Mick Foley and Lita vs. Tommy Dreamer, Terry Funk and Beulah: No Rating. Dave thinks they didn’t want to beat Dreamer as he just lost on Wednesday, and that they, for some reason, didn’t want to beat Funk, even though Funk would have wanted to lose. That is why Lita & Beulah were included in the match and Beulah was the one to be pinned. Dave called it a “blood and weapons-fest of catastrophic proportions”. Said the weapons shots started tame but that it built up from there. Dave didn’t rate the match because he felt the wrestling and such didn’t look good, but they went above and beyond to give the fans the kind of spectacle they wanted to see.
Balls Mahoney vs. Masato Tanaka: *1/4. Called the match a disappointment, because you book Tanaka either to have a great match or do the crazy chair shot stuff. Dave thinks a lot of veterans figured that Tanaka getting up from the chair shots would make them look bad when they sold the one chair shot. Dave agrees with that, but it made the Tanaka match completely different from last year when he and Awesome had their match which put the show over the top.
Rob Van Dam vs. John Cena: ***1/4. Said Cena isn’t much of a wrestler but he’s a great talker and shows tremendous poise in the ring. Dave commented that a lot of guys would have broken under the fan reaction but Cena took it in his stride. Said the crowd was super hot for this one.
More on Animal getting fired: after feeling Dave Lagana, the Smackdown head writer (at the time) was blowing him off, Animal went straight to Vince, which is considered a breach of protocol and was a reason used to let him go. Dave said they had no plans for him, that his nostalgia run lasted longer than first thought, but that he was dead in the water after turning him heel and dropping the Road Warrior look.
Masato Tanaka is not coming in full-time for ECW, but Heyman is working to get him in between tours for Zero-One MAX
Lillian Garcia got huge heat for screaming so loudly and more when she was injured when it turned out she only had a sprained wrist. She didn’t help herself the next night in Toledo when ring announcing at a house show, when she opened up by telling her fans she was ok.
TNA
Early indications are the Best of Samoa Joe's DVD is one of the fastest selling TNA DVD releases ever. In it's first week it sold more copies then both the Raven and Jeff Hardy TNA DVDs.
The "Women of Spike" TV special will be on July 27th at 9PM. Christie Hemme and Gail Kim are involved but not Tracy Brooks. It will be a behind the scenes look at the hottest babes on all Spike's TV shows.
There is talk in TNA of bringing Goldberg in to face Samoa Joe. It would have to be at least a few months away, as Goldberg is set to star in a remake of a film called "Half Past Dead". Shooting begins in July.
Jon Bolen the TNA Gut Check winner from a few years is close to signing with the WWE.
Sorce: Wrestling observers
And don't forget to hate Matt! ;D
