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| Cena may be headlining against Rob Van Dam at the ECW PPV this summer as part of a plan to turn him full-fledged heel soon after. Originally, the widespread believe in WWE was that Triple H would want to headline the ECW PPV as a heel against ECW's own RVD in a title defense. However, because Hunter may be turned babyface, they don't want to put Hunter in a position to be booed badly by an ECW crowd since it could be too fresh in people's minds when they try to turn him. Instead, the thought is Cena would get booed by nearly 100 percent, if not 100 percent, of the ECW crowd whether he enters as an "official" babyface or heel, and that could be used as a further impetus for his eventual change in attitude to full-fledged heel. A dark horse candidate is Edge, who could win the title at Backlash and headline against RVD at the ECW PPV. The explanation that fans cheering for Hunter are "fans of tradition" was something Vince McMahon and the creative team came up with in an attempt to "own" the boos Cena was getting rather than have viewers come up with their own explanation - such as "Cena sucks" or Cena isn't accepted as a main eventer. Triple H's father had open heart surgery a few weeks back. Friends say Triple H used to be more critical of booking, but now has softened his stance and seems more a part of the program. "It's a pressure cooker and it takes it's toll on anyone, especially when you add a baby to the equation," says one source. "But when he steps away from the stress, he's the same guy he was ten years ago." Stephanie plans to bring their baby on the road in their custom bus as soon as possible so she doesn't miss much time at all from her duties as Head of Creative. Mick Foley and Terry Funk have both agreed to wrestle on the second ECW reunion PPV this summer for WWE. Funk has spoken out negatively about WWE in recent years. Foley appeared on last year's ECW PPV, but didn't wrestle. Here's the story according to several sources in the know, close to both Austin and Hogan. Hogan badly wants a match against Austin, but Austin has been resistant to the idea for several reasons, including those listed above (risk to health, he's saved his money and doesn't need the headache, he doesn't like or trust Hogan). Vince McMahon offered Austin a seven-figure guaranteed payday to wrestle Hogan at WrestleMania, and Hogan has a deal in place where he automatically gets the highest payoff of anyone at WrestleMania. He'd have to waive that if McMahon needed to offer Austin obscene money to get him to agree to the match Hogan wants. Austin turned down the formal offer months ago. The idea for Rob Van Dam to win the Money in the Bank match and use that to set up the ECW PPV main event was Paul Heyman's. Vince McMahon liked it and agreed to it, knowing it would give the PPV a natural main event that it otherwise didn't have. Randy Orton, say key sources, was suspended for unprofessional conduct behind the scenes at WrestleMania. On the biggest show of the year, with so many dignitaries present, his violation of WWE policy (not dress code, but something more serious) was considered egregiously disrespectful, thus the 60 day suspension. He also joked about being fined often for his backstage conduct at the WrestleMania press conference, so this is not a first offense. Orton had used the "C" word to insult women behind the scenes before, which prompted fines. Regarding this latest incident, one WWE source says, "He's lucky he didn't get fired. He has a lot of growing up to do. It was just stupid - disrespectful to the boys and the company." Orton is already unpopular in the locker room, especially among veterans who see so much potential in him, but also see him as having major maturity issues. Says one source: "Undertaker despises him, and Ric Flair, Kurt Angle, Chris Benoit, and even Triple H have grown tired of his act. They barely tolerate him." Some wrestlers have a laid back attitude toward partying, but Orton's disrespectful treatment of women is what has turned many against him. The stunt at WrestleMania was also seen as stepping over the line.Orton was originally scheduled to face Triple H at WrestleMania 21 in the main event, not Batista, but the slot was taken away from him due to his backstage conduct and overall attitude. Bret Hart hung out at the bar after the Hall of Fame banquet. There were some who believed he'd just appear on camera, then leave promptly, but because he was treated well and felt comfortable with the circumstances, he decided to hob-nob with old pals for a while. Bret and Austin were seen chatting for a long time. He did leave Chicago before WrestleMania, though. Vickie Guerrero was said to appear happy at WrestleMania weekend hearing one story after another of how much affection Eddie Guerrero's colleagues had for him. WWE has continued to send Vickie the money that Guerrero was due on his contract each pay period along with merchandise bonuses. Coach is going to have more college sports duties in upcoming seasons, which could take him away from WWE more often than in the past. Coach is said to be much more excited about those duties than his wrestling lately. He and Styles have not clicked off air... Stacy was not asked to be at WrestleMania, nor did she offer. She is under contract through July, and isn't expected to seek a renewal as she explores options elsewhere in show business stemming from her fame gained from ABC's "Dancing with the Stars" series. The feeling within WWE was that putting her on the card just for the sake of her star value would take time away from someone they could invest in long-term and realistically wouldn't affect the buyrate.Val Venis is scheduled for elbow surgery this week. He is expected to miss about two months of in-ring time. Mr. Ken Kennedy should be back on Smackdown later this month and ready to return to the ring in May. Harry Smith, the 6-5 son of the late Davey Boy Smith (British Bulldog), was signed to a WWE contract recently. He isn't scheduled to join WWE full time until he fulfills a few overseas commitments first. Smith is seem as a potential top talent, with similar physical qualities and athletic gifts as The Rock and Randy Orton, and with a great passion for wrestling. Kurt Angle will be given a few weekends off in coming months to give his body some extra rest, but he isn't scheduled to miss any Smackdowns or PPVs. Angle is not the type to ask for time off, so people with his best interests in mind are pushing for WWE to insist on it. Angle's gotten his personal life back in better order this year as he is back together with his wife after a period of separation and there is talk of expanding their family. Rey Mysterio was given the WWE Title in part because he will give Smackdown something fresh on top that it hasn't had. Management believes Rey will draw at house shows as champion, so don't expect him to lose the title right away and become merely a short-term or transitional champion. Undertaker is still said to be hot at John Laurenaitis for not notifying him that Bob Orton had tested positive for hepatitis before Bob was scheduled to blade in the ring in an angle with him. Taker has since tested negative, but Laurenaitis shouldn't have let it happen in the first place. There are at least two WWE personalities who appear on camera who have hepatitis and aren't written into any physical angles for fear that even a bloody nose or inadvertent cut could lead to a transmission to someone else in the ring. The name of Jamal's new character, Umaga, may be based on a famously ferocious rugby player in the UK's All Blacks team, named Tana Umaga. He was the captain of his team until recent retirement. Early in his career, he got in trouble for head-butting a woman in a pub, or so the story goes. He also was vilified in the U.K. for destroying British captain Brian O'Briscoll with what was called an illegal spear tackle. Despite some suggestions within WWE, Vince McMahon is not budging on offering any kind of settlement with Lesnar to try to get him back. It's gotten personal, and McMahon appears unwilling to even consider backing down at this point. Chris Benoit is contractually locked up with WWE long-term and tells friends now that he is a "lifer." He has been told an agent or trainer job awaits him when his in-ring days are over or cut back to just occasional special appearances. Shane McMahon's wife gave birth to their second child last week... The Survivor Series will take place in Philadelphia, Pa. on Nov. 26. Undertaker and Kurt Angle love wrestling each other and have great chemistry off-camera, which is why their matches earlier this year were particular strong. Jim Ross remains in charge of WWE payroll and is paid as a full-time employee. At this point, though, Styles has been told Ross will only be used for Saturday Night's Main Events and some bigger PPVs (perhaps Summerslam and WrestleMania). WWE has scheduled two Supershow (Raw and Smackdown) tapings for July 7 in Philadelphia, Pa. and July 31 in East Rutherford, N.J. at Continental Airlines Arena. The April 3 Raw drew a 4.1 rating, disappointing the day after WrestleMania, but more understandable since it went head-to-head with the NCAA tournament finals. |
| QUOTE (Scrooge McSuck @ Apr 9 2006, 02:30 PM) |
| Lots of interesting news. I was rather shocked that RVD Got the nod for a push, then realized Vince only did it because he can possibly squeeze more money out of it. |
| QUOTE (jamiegeist @ Apr 9 2006, 10:42 PM) |
| They're just getting downright mean now. Wanting to send Cena into the ECW Ballroom. Hell, I'd order it. |
| QUOTE (dynamite kido @ Apr 10 2006, 10:43 AM) | ||
Except for the fact that they'll have RVD lose and cause a riot. I'd order it too. |