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1The World Wrestling Federation has officially changed its corporate name from Titan Sports, Inc. to World Wrestling Federation Entertainment, Inc. and announced on 8/3 that it has filed papers to be going public.
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3Bears & Stearns, Credit Suisse, First Boston, Meryl Lynch & Company and Whit Capital Corporation will be underwriting the initial stock offering, and the date it becomes effective is still pending. The initial offering will be for $172.5 million in Class A common shares of company stock to be traded on the NASDAQ exchange as "WWFE." The filing is the first of a multi-step process before the company can be traded. There is no specific timetable between the beginning of filing and trading, but the Securities & Exchange Commission decrees that during the process, there has to be a quiet period so the WWF can't release anything but the most basic information as it pertains to the filing.
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5Initial reports of the company going public were released in late May, but with the death of Owen Hart just days later, the subsequent highly publicized lawsuits outstanding and other negative publicity, little was talked about this after that point. Over the past two weeks, the Rena Mero lawsuit was settled out of court and the Kansas City Police ended their criminal investigation into the death of Hart without filing charges. The $172.5 million, based on previously published accounts, would represent approximately 20% in a company publicly valued at approximately $862.5 million. The latter figure would represent an approximation of the profit margin in the company last year multiplied by 17, which would mean over the past fiscal year. In the period from May 1, 1998 through April 30, 1999, according to the papers filed, Titan Sports, Inc. grossed $251.5 million and the actual profit was approximately $56 million. This would indicate approximately 12 percent of company revenue went to pay talent, figures that are unusually low for most upper echelon touring sports or entertainment franchises. The total gross and profit represent gigantic increases from the period from May 1, 1997 through April 30, 1998, when the company grossed $126.2 million and ended the year with an $8.5 million profit, which up until this year was the most profitable year in the history of the company even though they had a few years in the 80s that actually grossed more revenue. Its last money losing fiscal year was 1995-96 when the company lost $4.4 million, with much of the original business turnaround tied to an increase in house show business with the ascent of Steve Austin and a huge increase in PPV revenue from changing the formula from five big shows and seven minor shows (which didn't do nearly as well even with a lower price tag) to 12 major shows, with the price increasing to $29.95 per monthly event and the popularity increasing at the same time as the buys increased greatly even with the price of secondary shows doubling over a few year period. The huge income increase of the past year is largely due to a major increasing in licensing and in television advertising revenue to go along with increases in the traditional money making aspects of a wrestling corporation.
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7Company stock at this point is owned 100% by Vince McMahon. Currently McMahon's salary as CEO of the corporation is $250,000, but will be raised to $1 million as a base salary and another $1 million as a performance bonus after the company goes public. Linda McMahon, a President of the company, has a $190,000 salary which will be raised to $750,000 base salary and another $750,000 performance bonus when the company goes public.
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9The money raised in the offering will be used as capital to continue current wrestling business and help start new business ventures, some of which are already past the planning stages. The WWF plans to expand far beyond pro wrestling, into numerous other businesses which include theme restaurants, perhaps theme hotels and a record label. There has even been talk of potential expansion into other sports related industries. The basic theme appears to be to cross-market toward the 12-to-34 year old male age group which the WWF brand name is strongest with.
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13The Kansas City Police Department's criminal investigation into the death of Owen Hart was completed without any charges being filed.
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15According to a story carried nationally by the Associated Press, Jackson County prosecutor Robert Beaird said on 7/30 that there was no basis for an involuntarily manslaughter charge against the rigging coordinator.
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17"Such a charge requires that there be a substantial and unjustifiable risk of death, that the risk was disregarded and that the disregard was a gross deviation from what a reasonable person would do under the circumstances," he said.
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19"Criminal and civil matters are two separate issues," said Pamela Fischer of Calgary, part of the legal team that filed a suit representing members of the Hart Family against Titan Sports for wrongful death. "They are two different proceedings and I don't think it will have any impact on our case."
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21The WWF on its web site claimed the decision "further supports the World Wrestling Federation's belief as to the truly accidental nature of Owen Hart's death. Hart's accident was one of those extremely unfortunate tragedies that sometimes occur despite the best of precautions."
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23The World Wrestling Federation will be cancelling its Superastros television show and disbanding its division in approximately one month.
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25The final Superastros tapings will be taking place this coming week at two of the three sets of tapings in Detroit, Chicago and Milwaukee on 8/8 to 8/10 respectively. The cancellation was largely based on the addition of the Smack Down show to the workload, and the fact Superastros had been a money losing division.
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27Univision had been paying Titan Sports approximately $17,000 per week for the tapings, which didn't even pay for the talent budget to the wrestlers under contract let alone production costs. Vince McMahon had attempted to renegotiate the deal months back, to get the show increased to one hour and in exchange, get the compensation increased to $50,000 per week but was turned down. The Superastros show was talked about months before it started as a potential high priority due to the belief in the impending power of the Latino market which has caused many business to diversify and market directly toward. But long before it ever debuted, things changed and it was positioned in a manner that indicated no strong commitment, and came across too much like a WCW Saturday Night show except with all ethnic workers. There were simple week-to-week angles such as run-ins leading to matches the next week, but no long-term storylines or any real character development and the star making machine didn't work here. The angles that were used were often silly, like sight gags Max Mini having a crush on host Maria Felipe (whose photos have been moved from the Superastros web site to the main web site which may indicate an attempt to keep her and use her for a mainstream character) or cheerleading for Giant Silva. The shows ratings looked good on paper for a wrestling show, but Univision does such strong numbers in the Latino market that the numbers were actually less than what the network had been doing in the time slot in most markets. In some markets, Chicago in particular, the show was a tremendous success early, but it never clicked in Los Angeles, with its expectations of what Lucha Libre is rather than being impressed by an American C team show featuring some famous Lucha names. The up side for Univision is that the show drew younger Latinos than the network traditionally draws and generally loses to English language stations. The writing had been on the wall for some time when WWF didn't renew the contract of Armando Fernandez (Tarzan Boy in EMLL), who was originally to be groomed as the top star in the promotion. In addition, they had stopped bringing in El Hijo del Santo and Negro Casas to the tapings in recent months. Since the tapings were done as part of regular WWF tapings and there was no promotion of the characters to the English audience or any crossover promotion whatsoever to attempt to digest the angles for non-Latino fans, the fans for the most part didn't get into the matches live or know any of the characters. The workrate was at times good but the style clash between the Puerto Rican and Mexican contingents which makes for great heat at Arena Mexico due to nationalistic pride or xenophobia, even if the matches meant aren't great lucha, meant nothing in St. Louis. Overall, the necessary ingredient of a good wrestling promotion, the emotion in the product, really wasn't there.
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29Although it's a different culture and thus not viewed the same way, Univision is actually when it comes to drawing power, is one of the highest rated networks in the country and ahead of UPN in viewership. But the UPN deal has much more of an up side to it, as the network is almost banking its future on WWF being able to bring viewers not only to its Thursday night show but make those viewers routinely sample UPN programming.
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31With the dropping of the division, Juan Rivera (Savio Vega), who has been working as an announcer and referee on the show since he still doesn't have medical clearance to return to the ring, won't be having his contract renewed. He's expected to work Puerto Rico for Victor Quinones' new promotion in the office and eventually in the ring as well. Quinones, who has several years left on his contract as a foreign liaison for the WWF, will be retained and his new IWA Puerto Rico office is expected to be used as something of a farm system for WWF developmental talent, similar to Memphis. The plan right now is to also let go all the other wrestlers under contract working this division such as the six minis (Max Mini, Nova and Torito in particular provided some spectacular moments but as is the case with minis they are best as a novelty and it's hard to do programs with them), Jose Estrada Jr., Jesus (El Merenguero) Castillo, Apolo Dantes and Pantera.
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33Miguel Perez, Taka Michinoku, Sho Funaki and Papi Chulo are expected to be retained by the WWF and minor roles. Perez, although not strong on natural charisma, is a very good worker who can do a lot of different styles. He will probably work as a regular for Quinones in Puerto Rico but be flown in as a utility type player for television tapings. Michinoku & Funaki are a long-time tag team that can be used in opening match road programs and potentially hot television matches against the likes of the Hardy Boyz, The Brood and eventually Too Much. Papi Chulo & Funaki had a spectacular television match on Heat which aired on 8/1 against the Hardy Boyz. They also are expected to work as regulars if and when the Puerto Rico territory gets going but Taka & Funaki may also be used as opening match wrestlers on certain WWF house show tours.
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37The WWF is also in the process of making three more roster additions, ECW's tag team of the Dudley Boyz and Stevie Richards.
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39While none had signed contracts at press time, the Dudleys reached a verbal agreement during the week with Jim Ross and started an angle that would lead to their finishing up with ECW. Richards, who has been working independently for the past several months, had been talked with and considered for a spot in WWF, including considered as part of DX, for some time but the major hold-up had been the condition of his once broken neck. Richards, real name Mike Manna, was examined this past week and received medical clearance which is expected to pave the way for his signing.
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41It has been said that Vince Russo has been interested in using the Dudleys for several months and there were preliminary discussions at that time, but the discussions grew into what could be called serious contract discussions over the past month. The WWF had been keeping Paul Heyman informed of the negotiations and tried to work out their leaving in an amicable manner, which no doubt explains the surprise tag title switch at the 7/18 PPV show in Dayton, OH where the Dudleys lost to Spike Dudley & Balls Mahoney. In addition, a rematch with the same result aired on the ECW television show this past week, which was taped over last weekend in New Orleans. However, in the show, in which voiceovers and final production take place early in the week, the commentary after the match by Joey Styles was intended to keep the Dudleys strong, indicating Heyman at least early in the week was of the impression he'd have the team for at least a few weeks longer. Preliminary indications are that an angle shot on 7/31 at the ECW Arena, which resulted in them being turned babyface including a worked argument with Heyman, would end with a final angle on 8/26 in Queens, NY that may air on the third TNN show, which would be their last night with the promotion. The Dudleys had been earning $600 apiece per show with ECW, and did go to Heyman after getting the WWF offer to see if he could give them a raise and stay and didn't offer a raise, which is said to have surprised them, and suggested they take the offer.
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43Joel Gertner, who they did a split-up angle with at the ECW Arena on 7/31, is not part of the deal, and will remain with ECW, possibly as a color commentator for the TNN show. It's not clear what will happen to Lou D'Angeli, who played Sign Guy Dudley.
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45There has been a lot of discussion since the deal became public knowledge in mid-week as to whether the Dudleys would become another Public Enemy. A few years back, through Heyman's careful booking, many people, including many in the decision making process in both major companies saw Public Enemy as ECW's key act and a major league addition. Both WWF and WCW were after them, with WCW making the bigger offer. But without being protected in bloody gimmick matches against great workers and with a lot of objects being used, Public Enemy was exposed, and eventually hardly ever used and their contracts were allowed to expire. WWF even tried with them, but that was short lived, before WCW took them back because the company was simply looking to add bodies for a meaningless hardcore division that eats bodies up. The Dudleys in WWF are something of a question. Buh Buh can work the mic. Whether he'll have to change his interview style, or if WWF is bringing him in specifically because his interview style delivers the seething fan hatred kind of heat that the WWF lacks being under the entertainment umbrella and they are looking for controversy is unknown, but it was hinted to me to be the former. In the ring, the Dudleys are not at this point the level of workers as most of those in the WWF's tag team division, but they have the willingness to take great punishment and do stunts. Buh Buh's best work is usually with Spike Dudley (Matt Hyson), where he can play a big bully character who gets the little guy over by knowing how and when to sell for him. But in ECW, Buh Buh can play big bully because the wrestlers are much smaller. In WWF, even in the tag division filled with deceptively tall wrestlers like Edge and Bradshaw, Buh Buh will be a fairly short in comparison chubby guy in a land of many giants.
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47The Dudleys with their six ECW tag team title wins, had been in the ring the main focus of the tag team division in ECW, but it was also clear their spot as the top heel tag team was going to be taken by Justin Credible & Lance Storm. The feud between the two had been hinted at for weeks on television, and is barely getting touched. Buh Buh Ray, real name Mark Lomonica, doubled as being one of ECW's major house show promoters and most recently caused a lot of controversy for his lengthy interview on the most recent PPV show prior to losing the title which no doubt put shock waves into every television executive watching the product with not only obscenities but racial remarks. Paul Heyman categorized the departure as saying that he hated to lose D-Von (Devon Hughes), but that the team wasn't going to break up and he had no choice but to lose Buh Buh.
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51According to an article in the 7/29 Calgary Sun, New York State Senator Guy Velella has opened an investigation into the pro wrestling industry with the possibility of attempting to enact legislation to make it a restricted adult event.
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53The article quoted John Banville, the senator's legislative director as saying a Senate task force would be launched early this month and if they can determine a connection between wrestling and violence, a bill will be introduced. Banville said the senator decided it was time to investigate pro wrestling, citing the death of Owen Hart as being a big part of that decision. Members of the Hart family were asked to testify in the hearing but declined, citing the ongoing lawsuit of Martha Hart, her two children and Owen's parents Stu and Helen against Titan Sports.
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55There was a historical precedent to a degree for restricting attendance to pro wrestling events in New York. After the infamous 1957 riot at Madison Square Garden stemming from a match with Dr. Jerry Graham & Dick the Bruiser vs. Antonino Rocca & Edouard Carpentier which resulted in some fan injuries, wrestling was nearly banned in New York state and a compromise was worked out where the State Athletic Commission banned children under 14 from attending events in Madison Square Garden (no such ban was enacted in other arenas), a ban which continued well into the 70s, which actually makes many of the attendance marks during the title reigns of both Bruno Sammartino and Pedro Morales that much more impressive since kids weren't allowed at the shows and during the Morales era, MSG was a guaranteed sellout.
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57In 1985, New York State Senator Abraham Bernstein presided over hearings, which were comical in nature, to investigate pro wrestling because of the claims of rule breaking and poor sportsmanship in the matches. Nothing ever came of that.
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59Nor can much come of this. It simply isn't going to happen because a law would have to be complicated and an outright ban, which would garner a ton of publicity, would still never pass due to the economic power and political clout with WCW being part of the Time Warner family of the industry today. First off, inherently, whether pro wrestling is in any form bad for children is very much a debatable point. The death of the three-year-old child in Dallas that has been publicized to death notwithstanding, there doesn't appear to be an epidemic of wrestling related injuries. If there was a study done where injuries to kids imitating what they see on wrestling were greater than injuries on playgrounds playing baseball or football, it would at least be a subject to look into.
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61All companies are different and all versions of what pro wrestling exactly is slightly differ. Would it be fair to ban children from attending, say, indie events that are at a high school that are toned down and just have wrestling without any dirty language, sexual antics, foreign objects or blood to be banned from children attending as a form of entertainment because other companies include all of those in their show? And how would you define the terms to separate the few that don't with the multitude who do? Because one wrestling company, ECW for instance, has Buh Buh Ray Dudley do an obscenity laced and race baiting crowd monologue to raise heat using terms and language that many would find offensive to children or even adults, should that be used to create legislation for an entire industry? Most wrestling companies today have a heavy sexual edge to their presentation, some obviously more than others.
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63Certainly most of the questioning and publicity would be at the WWF, but the truth is their house shows, aside from "suck it" and "show your puppies" chants that often come from the audience. We've all heard far worse language chanted, particularly at bad officiating calls, at sports events on every level. There are valid questions that probably need to be asked about aspects of the WWF product on television, more earlier in the year than today but still today, given the audience that is watching and quite possibly the ECW product depending upon what form it takes on a Friday night at 8 p.m. Eastern and 6 p.m. Mountain Time (depending upon the demographics it draws) and WCW isn't immune from questions either.
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65There really aren't any aspects of a live WWF performance that are more risque than many entertainment events that children aren't banned from attending, such as R rated movies. A live performance can be argued comes across more real and graphic than the same thing on a movie screen, particularly to kids. I couldn't argue that there are aspects of an ECW live performance that are totally irresponsible when performed in front of children under a certain age.
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67The most questionable items, at least as they pertain to WWF, occur on the Raw television show, and banning children from attending live matches without changes in both the content and demographics of the television show, might garner some political headlines but would accomplish little. I believe that ECW as it currently exists, and it could change over the next two months, should voluntarily institute a ban of children attending matches as a marketing ploy and because some of the things they do at shows at shows is hardly child-friendly entertainment. It would give them more freedom to have a wilder show and might be good as a publicity tool to once again separate them from their more popular competitors. There was a discussion a few months back between Joey Styles and Phil Mushnick when Mushnick was giving a speech where Styles tried to differentiate ECW from WWF on the guise that ECW does what it does, but it doesn't market to children. Mushnick brought up the idea of a self instituted ban on children attending if that were the case. Unfortunately, that attempt at differentiation and the argument about not marketing to children by ECW has since fallen apart due to marketing action figures that are being sold at childrens toy stores. There are already video stores that won't allow children to rent WWF videos.
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69There are valid arguments and prominent tapes of antics on television from all three major groups that would open up the industry to questions. And it is true that its potential effect on possible children watching was one of the strongest arguments of opponents of UFC (emotionally, not logically being that those same forces didn't go after pro wrestling, boxing and kickboxing all of which are more visually violent and appear more dangerous to children) that were successful in destroying that industry. Ultimately, the popularity is good for a few headlines, just as it was in 1985. And just like in 1985, if anything does happen, the odds are still good that it would wind up a silly charade with nothing beneficial accomplished.
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73The main story regarding the 8/2 ratings are that the biggest Monday night grudge match was not involving Steve Austin, Rock, Goldberg or Hogan, but was between golfers David Duvall and Tiger Woods in a made-for-TV prime time showdown on ABC.
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75Probably related to the Monday Night Golf, which on paper wouldn't figure to hurt wrestling due to the differences in audience and demographics, wrestling viewership dropped substantially from the norm. In addition, the quarter hour breakdowns ebb and flow didn't necessarily come when the biggest stars were on the tube. The Duvall vs. Woods showdown, which went head-to-head with all three hours of Monday night wrestling, did a 6.91 rating and a 12.47 share which is nothing special as a rating for prime time network programming but is considered a strong enough showing in prime time anyway because of golf's favorable demographic profile to advertisers.
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77Raw dropped from a near record 7.11 last week down to a 5.86, a loss of nearly 1.5 million viewers. But Nitro didn't pick up any of the slack, as it also lost approximately 450,000 viewers as compared with last week in the head-to-head two hours, meaning the total wrestling audience in one week fell from approximately 11.7 million to approximately 9.8 million.
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79Raw's 5.86 was composed of a 5.80 first hour and a 5.92 second hour and the show as a whole did a 9.4 share. Nitro did a 3.04 rating (3.61 first hour; 2.35 second hour; 3.16 third hour) and a 5.0 share. Nitro's second full hour was the lowest rated hour for a Nitro broadcast in recent memory. Over the head-to-head two hours and four minutes, Raw still more than doubled Nitro doing a 5.85 rating to Nitro's 2.77.
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81Raw's star quarter hour was a 6.70 for a combination of the conclusion of the in-ring interview confrontation with Rock, Mr. Ass and Chyna, and the IC title change with D-Lo Brown beating Jeff Jarrett. Even more significantly, and more surprising, is the next quarter hour, featuring an Austin interview and angle where he was jumped by Undertaker and Big Show fell to a 5.58. WCW did pick up the majority of that audience turn-around, going from a 2.55 for the finish of Saturn vs. Hennig and beginning of Page vs. Benoit to a 3.35 for the finish of Page vs. Benoit and the beginning of the Rodman-Savage angle, which carried over into the next quarter where it did a 3.28, which included Vampiro vs. Eddie Guerrero, which still lost by two points at 5.28 for Bossman vs. Viscera and Test vs. Rodney. In the main event battle, it's hard to exactly ascertain it for a number of reasons. The final quarter hour which saw Hogan come out for commentary and the first few minutes of Sting & Goldberg vs. Vicious & Rick Steiner drew only a 2.92 rating as compared to a 6.04 for Test vs. Rodney and Blackman vs. Venis, numbers that have to rank as a terrible embarrassment for WCW, which spent the show billing a double main of the tag match plus a Hogan vs. Nash title match, then at the last minute when Hogan came out giving word that Nash had chickened out and there would be no title match that had been pushed for most of the show. However, in the over-run, WCW's tag main event improved all the way to a 4.04, while WWF's Austin vs. Undertaker non-match with all the run-ins did two minutes longer unopposed at 6.16 so it's real number would be probably in the high fives. Raw doubled Nitro overall in five of eight quarters.
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83Nitro's second hour was a total disaster, as they broke the Megadeth rating record by doing 1.98 and 2.07 quarters for Douglas & Malenko vs. Flynn & Morrus.
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85The other weekend numbers for the WWF saw Livewire do a 1.9, Superstars did a 1.7 and Heat did a 4.13. Shawn Michaels' appearance on Pac Blue meant zero for the ratings even without a pro wrestling PPV event as competition as the show did the same 2.2 it averages, and the same 2.2 that G vs. E and La Femme Nikita did.
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87WCW Saturday Night on 7/31 did a 1.7 rating, which is up from last week but still below what all afternoon (movies Ladybugs and Stand By Me and the Braves vs. Phillies) and evening programming on the station did. The taped Thunder on 7/29 did a 2.78 rating, which is in line with what the show has been doing of late.
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89In a rare example of WWF and WCW wrestlers appearing on the same bill, a benefit show for WCW referee Brian Hildebrand on 7/30 in Rostraver, PA raised about $30,000 to help pay his escalating medical bills from stomach cancer. The show, put together by Shane Douglas and Dr. Mark Keenan (area indie wrestler Cody Michaels) featured probably as loaded a line-up of big names as on any indie show, which is a testament to how well liked Hildebrand is among his peers, drawing about 1,500 fans. Among those who worked on the show include Hildebrand's original wrestling trainer, Domenic DeNucci, who wrestled at I believe the age of around 65 against area local Lord Zoltan (who I believe actually took Hildebrand to his first wrestling show), a three-way dance with Eddie Guerrero over Billy Kidman and Shark Boy, Public Enemy over the Southern indie team of Death & Destruction (Roger Anderson & Beau James), Cody Michaels, with help of babyface manager Jim Cornette, beating Hugh Morrus, who was managed by Allan Barrie, what started off as a singles match with D-Lo Brown vs. Al Snow with Mick Foley as referee, wound up as a double count out and re-started as a three-way with Foley putting the socko claw on both guys and Hildebrand running into the ring to count the pin, followed by Chris Jericho beating Terry Taylor with the Lion tamer, followed by Taylor giving Jericho a low blow after the match and telling him, "Welcome to the WWF," and finishing with Douglas & Chris Benoit & Dean Malenko over Chris Candido & Tracy Smothers & Tim Horner. Told it was a good show, with several of the wrestlers including Douglas, Foley, Jericho and Bruno Sammartino doing tribute interviews regarding Hildebrand. It was way over 100 degrees with ridiculous humidity inside the building, so the wrestlers deserve even extra credit for not only donating their time and in many cases asking for a day off just in showing up, but even more for putting out a good effort across the board. Most of those who appeared were personal friends of Hildebrand, either from his days in the area working as a manager, or from his days working as lead referee in Smoky Mountain Wrestling and more recently with WCW. There was a backstage confrontation between WCW hotline/internet reporter/entertainer and local radio host Mark Madden with Sammartino which saw Sammartino get in Madden's face and cut a promo on him. There have been bitter feelings between the two for years stemming from an article Madden wrote (actually in this publication) quoting Bruno's estranged son David as saying one of Bruno's younger twins who was an outstanding track athlete in college had used steroids, something Bruno, who is very outspoken and anti-steroids, vehemently denied and since that time the situation has only gotten worse. Reports by the next day greatly exaggerated what happened as there was nothing physical, nor was Sammartino ever restrained by anyone from attacking Madden. If it had been in another place, it may have been a different story. Sammartino, who turns 64 this fall, continues to train very hard as he physically looks like a very well-conditioned man of 20 years younger. There were also problems the night before the show regarding similar long-time hard feelings between Madden and Cornette, but things were straightened out and Cornette basically agreed to avoid Madden and not spoil the show for Hildebrand, who is friend with both. I'm convinced that Hildebrand is the toughest man in the wrestling business, because with all he's been through now battling cancer twice, he never complains about his own bad luck and gives little if any indication of the pain he's undoubtedly having to go through. A lot of praise should go to Douglas and Keenan for all the work they went through to put it together and to WWF and WCW which both paid the trans for the talent to appear and didn't let politics get much in the way (the original main event of Douglas vs. Jericho was nixed for political reasons)
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91 Jesse Ventura is scheduled for the live Raw on 8/9 in Chicago which should garner a ton of mainstream publicity and controversy. It may not help set a Raw ratings record, but it will garner a higher viewership among those in politics than any Raw episode in history. WWF wanted Ventura to do the last two Raws before the PPV (the other being the show taped the next night in Milwaukee) but Ventura kept saying publicly that he wouldn't let doing wrestling get in the way of his work schedule. While it is possible Ventura could work until 5 p.m. and fly in to Chicago for the live show which doesn't begin at 9 p.m., thus not missing a work day and keeping his word, WWF does want him in earlier than that to go over whatever the angle is they want him to do. They've been running clips of Ventura on every show from the press conference, but haven't pushed his participation nearly as hard on commentary as you'd think, probably figuring the media will do that for them and it's only important to do so in the last week and the time now is better spent on trying to get HHH to the level he needs to be to headline such a show. Speaking of Ventura, in a correction from last week, we wrote that the St. Paul Pioneer Press wrote a negative editorial on his participation which was quoted on "Meet the Press," but it was actually written in the 7/21 Minneapolis Star-Tribune. The editorial basically was critical of Ventura doing the show because it's hard to explain to kids why the Governor would be involved in a show and basically said he was mocking the notion that a public official is a public servant obliged to forsake his personal hankerings for the public good. They were strongest on the money issue, in particular keeping the money from the show because it was his celebrityhood as a public official that earned it. Ventura had been defending himself saying the Mayor of St. Paul (Norm Coleman, who Ventura beat in the Governor election) was working as a talk show host, but Coleman came back saying that all the money he earned as a talk show host would go to charity. The editorial's finish stated, regarding Ventura making money on the show, "That's a mistake. In fact, it's a downright sin. It overlooks the First Commandment of Public Service: Thou shalt not exploit elected office for personal gain. And when a washed-up wrestler stands to make a million bucks because he's gained fame as a gadfly governor, he's exploiting his job. That's more than just unseemly. It's unethical. Ventura can make a spectacle of himself any day he chooses. But he ought to give away every extra penny he makes in the process." I'm still not sure how exploiting office by doing a WWF show is any different than exploiting office and writing a bio as he and many others have done, or why working in wrestling inherently is any worse then making money merchandising his likeness unless one points to specific things in the current product that make it different or more unseemly
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93The only matches definite for SummerSlam are Austin vs. HHH for the title, X-Pac & Kane vs. Undertaker & Big Show and Rock vs. Mr. Ass. On Raw this week they were building toward Shane McMahon vs. Test which looks to be close to a sure thing and D-Lo Brown vs. Jarrett for the IC title which I'm told is less than a sure thing. Chris Jericho is expected to work the show, perhaps against Road Dogg, after his debut on 8/9 in Chicago as the Millennium man type deal
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95Big Show is being put with Undertaker as a tag team to advance his learning and understanding and maybe have some dedication rub off on him, similar to a decade ago how they put Lex Luger in the Four Horseman hoping some of Ric Flair's attributes would rub off on him. It didn't work then and it's up to Paul Wight if it works this time. Wight's legit bodyweight is in the 440 range and they want him down to 400. He peaked at around 505 with WCW
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97Steve Austin missed the matches this weekend due to a badly bruised shin that was bloodied up. On television they portrayed it as a knee injury when Austin was given a low blow by Chyna and fell off the ropes. Actually it happened after television on 7/27 in Columbus, OH when he continued the brawl with HHH and they tried to do a spot where they would go through the table but the table didn't break and Austin's shin was cut up and bruised badly. They X-rayed it and showed no break. At first he wasn't expected back until SummerSlam, but the word at press time is he was expected back on 8/6 at the MCI Center in Washington, DC. With Rock being given off the 7/29 show in Baltimore and Austin missing it, they called in Mick Foley to work the six-man main event. Reports were he clearly wasn't ready to be back in the ring and probably won't be wrestling until after SummerSlam. Since Rock was scheduled back on 7/30, Foley didn't wrestle the rest of the week although Foley did show up and do an interview on 7/31 at the Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, NJ. They offered refunds at all the shows Austin wasn't at and had signs posted outside the buildings
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99The plan is that Vince McMahon won't be back on television for the foreseeable future. With the expansion of the corporation, I was told that he wouldn't even be at all television tapings from this point forward
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101Ken Shamrock's contract expires in late February. WWF will allow him to fight before that date and would like to potentially co-promote a UFC fight if he were to appear on it
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103Kurt Angle's debut is being delayed until October or November because they don't want him exposed nationally before he's ready
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105Erin O'Grady is expected to be brought in to work some sort of an angle with Bob Holly
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107We don't have official numbers for the Fully Loaded PPV other than very early estimates of 385,000 to 400,000 buys
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109The reason Kane looks so much lighter is because he's dropped about 40 pounds, from 320 legit to 280. His work has improved a lot with the loss of the weight
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111Mark Henry's TV angle is pretty much a shoot as he isn't going to be given any role until he gets down to 350 from 400. Henry had brought up wanting to train for the 2000 Olympics in weightlifting but the WWF told him they wanted him as a wrestler and not to sponsor him for the Olympics. They had him tested and he had 31% body fat (an average sedentary male is about 17% and people in very good shape hover around 10%, somebody like Eddie Guerrero these days may be around 6%)
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113While the Vince McMahon interview on the 7/26 Raw did a 7.7 quarter, in the minute-by-minute ratings it actually peaked at a 9.0
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115The only thing we know of the last girl from the crowd that Ivory beat up on the 7/26 Raw is it was a Les Thatcher trainee
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117Russ McCullough, Stefan Gamlin and Rico Cosantino who are under developmental deals will all be sent to Louisville to work for Jim Cornette and Dan Briley's Ohio Valley Championship Wrestling
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119Vince Russo is writing a pilot for a television series that the WWF would be involved with about behind the scenes at a wrestling company. He'll still write WWF television as well. Ed Ferrera's deal to stay with the company, besides a raise, involved less travel as he only goes on the road one weekend per month rather than every week as
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121everyone else will be doing starting in three weeks when Smack Down starts and Raw goes live every Monday. They have put out ads in trade publications looking for additional writers and have interviewed a writer who worked with Conan O'Brien from the start
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123Shows over the past week saw the Raw taping on 7/27 in Columbus, OH draw a sellout 13,628 paying $371,842, 7/28 in Huntington WV drew a sellout 7,194 paying $160,535, 7/29 in Baltimore drew 10,560 paying $238,531, 7/30 in Providence, RI drew 9,400 paying $264,361 and 7/31 at the Continental Airlines Arena in East Rutherford, NJ drew a sellout 18,300 paying $430,310. Merchandise was about $368,000 for the week and about $6.23 per hea
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125. Road Dogg will be releasing a rock CD aimed at kids
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127Hard Copy did a feature on McMahon this past week
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129MTV will be doing a WWF week on 8/14
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131Austin will be presenting an award on the Teen Choice Awards which air on 8/12
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133Mideon is already adopting a lot of Jake Roberts mannerisms
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135Hardy Boyz had an awesome television match this weekend on Heat against Sho Funaki & Papi Chulo. It was probably the best WWF TV match in a long time and even with a team fans are just getting with against two guys they don't care about, the fans recognized it and it got over huge
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137It appears Al Snow is phasing out The Head as his mascot in favor of the Taco Bell dog
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139There is a decent chance that when Debra and Jarrett are broken up that Jarrett will be phased down
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141Shane McMahon's lengthy interview on Raw appeared to be all the things Vince wanted to say about himself but that he wanted somebody else to say for him. It was hilarious. He invented wrestling. He invented entertainment. He created every wrestling star in history. He created PPV. He created WCW. It was almost as bad as Hogan claiming all Vince did was use Hogan's ideas and how Hogan created playing to the crowd between moves
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143Even though there is virtually no talent in Rodney & Pete Gas, Rodney did take a great eating from Test on Raw for his 3:00 match
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145Mankind and Lou Ferrigno will be appearing on the USA Network G vs. E show shortly
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147Caryn Mower, who was part of the casting call for new women when WWF was looking into doing an all-womens television show, was signed to a developmental contract and is training with Lisa Moretti (Ivory) as a future opponent. Mower is a professional movie stunt woman by trade who is said to have a really good look
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149Sylvester Terkey, who debuted as UFO's Big Van Vader, was offered both a developmental deal with WWF and a long-term deal with New Japan
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151WWF has expressed at least some recent interest in former UFC star Oleg Taktarov who is one of the leads in a DeNiro movie "15 minutes" which comes out in December
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153On the "Off the Record" segment on 7/28 with Vince & Linda McMahon, Linda noted that some guys start to believe too much in their own persona. Michael Landsberg brought up Bret Hart and Sunny and Vince agreed that both had and then brought up Sable and McMahon responded affirmatively but then said he wasn't allowed to say anything bad about Sable. Linda noted that she never gets involved in the creative aspect of the product. When Landsberg asked if there's a double standard and brought up the different role Stephanie McMahon plays as compared to every other woman on the show and in particular Debra, Vince said it's because she's not built like Debra (then again, neither was Debra before all the surgeries). Vince then said you never can tell, at which point Linda jumped in apparently none too happy her daughter could be presented in that kind of role and said at that point she would get involved in the creative process.