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| Top story was about Bret Hart agreeing to be in the Hall of Fame. Meltzer said Bret has mainly been talking to Kevin Dunn about the deal. Bret feels this will be his way of saying a final farewell in public to WWE and all his fans. He DOES NOT want to be at WM 22 the next day. He is writing a book that he wants to get done quickly and he is said to only be up to his life from 1999. After the Hall of Fame show, he wants to leave and either go back to Itlay or home to Calgary. Meltzer assumes they will pressure him to come to WM 22 and if he gets there they will try to push him to get involved with whatever is planned for HBK/Vince McMahon. Bret has been talking to people from TNA like Scott D'Amore, Borash, and Double J. All along Jarrett said in his gut he wouldn't do anything with them despite the others in creative and management hoping he would. Meltzer said when Jarrett got word that the announcement from Raw was made at the taping about him in for the Hall, he told people "I told you so". Meltzer said WWE may try and make Hart sign a legends contract but Bret is name enough where he could refuse. But if he signs it, it would no doubt stop him from appearing on TNA TV. He said at the moment a second Bret DVD is planned as well as a photo type coffee table book. The issue talked a lot about the heat Vince and WWE is getting in the locker room and even in creative for the Eddie angle. Meltzer shared letters from people that wrote in to Dan Whaler's who contributes to the Observer website. One was from a memeber of the creative team that obviously wanted their name withheld. He said that Orton's comments about being in hell was pulled from the script but Steph McMahon wanted it put back in and it was approved by Vince. The person said they all felt sick about it and they knew how bad it was going to go over especially in the locker room. This person said that there is no arguing with Vince because his excuse with something like this is always "Look at the big picture." Vince and Steph think this stuff will be a great way to get heel heat on Randy Orton. This person ended with strong words saying " A lot of guys are simply fed up with the McMahon way, and Vince is going to get that message when it comes to contract renewal time." Andrew "Test" Martin wrote in and said WWE keeps getting lower not only with the crowds and payoffs, but in taste. He said he was concerned on how Eddie's kids would be treated by friends and "cruel" kids at school who hear all this stuff on TV. He also felt bad for Eddie's wife having to hear it as she stood by him. In more "Vince is Evil" news, in the TNA segment there were interview notes from Jackie Gayda. She feels that she was fired for refusing to pose for Playboy. She said Stacy and her were offered to pose a few years ago and they both turned it down. That issue ended up being turned into Torrie Wilson and Sable together. Then in typical WWE revenge booking fashion, there was an angle where Stacy and Jackie had a feud with Torrie and Sable saying they were jealous of them that they got to pose instead. In TNA news, 186 people voted TNA Against All Odds a "Thumbs Up". There were 0 "thumbs down", and one in the middle. Meltzer gave Christian/JJ ***1/4, Joe/Daniels/AJ ****1/4, and Team 3D vs. Team Canada ***1/4 |
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| Meltzer reported that at Eddie's funeral, everyone was kissing Vince's ass. He is still so powerful that everyone is fearful of him and they try to suck up at all times."Superstar" Billy Graham spoke and told Eddie's wife (about Vince) "this man is a marketing genius".He brought up royalities from his book and DVD to try and comfort her that she'd be taken care of with any Eddie deals. Hector Guerrero was in tears and told Vince "My family is so sorry for any bad publicity this may have brought to your family." When Mando was asked about the angle by people he said "That's just how the business operates. I have no problem with it at all." A Hogan note. He still can't believe how HBK bashed him the night after SummerSlam. He said they were supposed to have a rematch either the night after SummerSlam or at the Rumble but that was dropped. Hogan couldn't believe that they were almost willing to give the rematch away for free the next night. Right now he is focusing on his TV show and he's still hoping for a record deal for Brooke. Christian has the ball and TNA is going to give him every chance with it and they will do what they can for him. There is no set date as to when he will drop it so no mention at this point as to who he would drop it too. Meltzer said based on that, he could have a two month run, or it could be a year. Christian was tired of the road in WWE and by going to TNA he felt it would give him a chance to rest his body up. It seems to be a trend these days, but he is another from the pro wrestling world that hopes to make it in acting. He also saw there was nothing more WWE was going to do with him as far as titles so part of the deal sealer with TNA was that he would get the belt and be in main events. Meltzer notes the trouble is they kept bringing attention to him being a mid-carder in WWE. Now he's NWA World Champ which makes him and the company look second rate to those that will remember seeing him getting squashed over and over by WWE's then World Champ Batista. Sting is expected to return at the TNA March ppv in some sort of a run in/save. |
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| Tommy Dreamer told CM Punk that he could work ROH's date last Sat. with the conditions of he couldn't be advertised, he couldn't job, he couldn't wrestle or be involved with anyone from TNA, and it could only be a one time thing. From there Dreamer left to do an indie date in England. He didn't tell anyone else in WWE that he gave Punk permission including Johnny Ace. Meltzer said the situation "exploded" at Raw on Monday. Vince and Steph went up to Ace and gave him a bunch of heat asking him why he let a member of WWE appear on a show with "so many TNA stars". Even though a lot of the wrestlers by this time knew that Punk did the ROH show (as well as it being on the net), Meltzer said Ace was "blindsided" by the McMahon's appoarch. All the heat then went to Punk and he told them Dreamer approved of it, so then Dreamer got the final heat. Meltzer said from day one guys like HHH, HBK, Hayes, and even Arn Anderson have been all over Punk about his work rate. Anderson goes along with HHH and says that Punk "copies" a lot of popular moves from Japan. Meltzer also added that Punk's relationship with Maria "doesn't help matters". He didn't go into detail and I'm really curious as to what he meant. Possible big news in TNA is that Goldberg seems really interested in maybe doing a few dates down the line. He said he wants to prove himself before retiring from wrestling because his WM match with Brock isn't how he wants to end it. Also Meltzer says he is interested in helping TNA grow a bit because he hates Vince McMahon so much that he won't even say his name. (That's pretty bad and adds to everything else about McMahon in this issue.) No one really knows what WWE's meeting with Simon Inoki was about but it probably had a lot to do with Brock's situation. Meltzer said at one point WWE was even thinking about going as far as suing New Japan to stop Brock around the world. However that has cooled and they would have a hardtime doing it since NJPW is Tokyo based. They put Simon's picture up on WWE.com in order to mess with TNA since they had a working agreement with NJPW. So it's clear with this and the ROH show that WWE is growing concerned about TNA. There won't be Taboo Tuesday this year because of low buy rate but the same style of event will be on Sunday Nov. 5 and they are calling it "Cyber Sunday". (I can just see the WWE ads for that one with that kind of title. A tease of a guy getting turned on in front of his computer and it cuts to him watching matches or something) |
| QUOTE (jamiegeist @ Feb 21 2006, 01:21 AM) |
| Yeah, what the fuck. They guy barely did a Heat match or two before the show went down a few months ago. Why all the hatred? I don't even know much about him, but the little I've seen of his OVW stuff looks great, especially his OUT of ring stuff. He looks great, talks great, carries himself well. Why the fuck is he getting buried. Out of all this though, I love the fact that Vince is paranoid about TNA. Just makes me happy. |
| QUOTE (whitemilesdavis @ Feb 21 2006, 11:54 AM) |
| Something has always bothered me about CM Punk's work, and I'm finally able to put a finger on it. It's akin to trying to run before you crawl. I see it in guitarists quite often. You'll see a guy who can do all the fast solo stuff, but when he jsut needs to lay back and support the song, it falls apart. Other indy guys who fit that category are Super Dragon and Chris Hero. In comparison, look at how Danielson and Joe look in the ring. It's a whole other world. |
| QUOTE (whitemilesdavis @ Feb 21 2006, 12:07 PM) |
| Exactly, and for what it's worth, he's shown the ability to work a great match regardless. It's just that some of those things seem so...forced. |
| QUOTE (whitemilesdavis @ Feb 21 2006, 12:17 PM) |
| Yeah, but I don't think they'll ever do much with Punk. Joe would have seemed to fit their agenda so much better. |