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Chair
Shots
8-16-02
Smackdown Run Down
If anyone can get Lesnar over as a monster with the fans,
it's Paul Heyman. Heyman delivered an awesome promo last night
to open Raw. He really put over the fact that Lesnar had killed
Hulk-a-Mania and that The Rock was next. The WWE writer on
both shows have done a nice job of making Rock vs. Lesnar
at SummerSlam feel like a must see match. It's no quite the
Andre vs. Hogan hype I would have gone for but it's still
a very watch able main event at this point. SummerSlam all
around is looking good.
Fresh from attacking his brother on Monday, Matt Hardy
has joined the Smackdown crew. Not sure why he's calling
himself Matt Hardy version 1.0 since this is the second
time he's been given a chance to be a singles star but whatever
floats your boat.
When Tough Enough 1 was over and Maven and Nidia were
announced as the winners, I never would have thought that
Nidia would be half as entertaining as she is now. Excelent
promos, good character work and solid in ring work. Her
and Jamie Noble continue to shine…as do her breasts.
Funaki as a backstage interviewer is the best idea I've
seen all year. Since his wrestling talent is wasted on the
WWE B-level shows, why not have him replace boring guys
like Michael Cole and Mark Loyd? There is a comedy gold
mine there waiting to be tapped.
Speaking of dull interviews, how predictable with the
Rock comedy bit last night with mark Loyd bending over?
The Rock's personality and charisma can only improve a skit
so much. The writers need to give him something better to
work with.
I guess the honeymoon is over between D-Von and Bautista.
What does it say about Kurt Angle and the writers when
I enjoyed Kurt backstage rant against Mysterio far more
than I enjoyed his Mark Henry match? I'm really looking
forward to their PPV match but it seems like they are just
booking Kurt in filler matches until then. Maybe Mark Henry
should win a few matches before issuing challenges to one
of the top guys in the business.
Another interesting and fresh idea was Eric Bischoff's
Subway commercial. I never would have had the idea to do
that in a million years. Excellent concept.
Another enjoyable episode of Smackdown that was entertaining
and really sold Next week's SummerSlam. What more can you
ask? Austin Arrested If you missed the special update on
Wednesday, Steve Austin voluntarily turned himself into
police for charges of domestic violence. All of this stems
from an incident that occurred on June 15th at 4am when
Debra called police and told them that Austin had hit her.
When officers responded they noted seeing "a large noticeable
welt" on the right side of her face - just below her eye.
Until now, she has not pressed charges. Austin was booked,
fingerprinted and posted a $5000 bond. A court date has
not been set.
All of this happened around the same time that Steve went
AWOL from WWE shows. Seems to me like reality got a little
out of control for Steve and everything snow balled into
the eventual hitting of his wife. Voluntarily turning himself
into police does show that he's thinking a little more clearly
now and maybe the worst if over for him. Or he could go
to prison and have to try and stunner his way out of shower
rape. Who knows?
Ratings
Good news in the TV rating department for the WWE this week.
This week's edition of Raw scored a 3.9 cable rating. The
number is up from last week's 3.7. The final rating for
Smackdown was 3.5, which is up from last week's record low
2.7 rating (keep in mind that the 2.7 was because the show
was preempted in NY & LA.) Previous week were 3.2 and 3.3
so the 3.5 can be considered an improvement.
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Maven
Update
Tough Enough 1 champ and WWE star Maven will be out another
two months due to newly discovered torn ligaments in his
leg. Maven broke his right fibula and right ankle and tore
ligaments in that ankle during his match with Christian
on the May 28 taping of SmackDown! in Calgary, Alberta.
Maven finished the match and was told by doctors later that
he had only (only, geez) broken his leg and would be back
in the ring in 4-6 weeks. Weeks later a different set of
doctors informed Maven that he'd also broken his ankle.
And now, after and MRI, Maven has learned that he also has
torn ligaments in his leg. This just pisses me off. We're
never going to find out what happened between Maven, Torrie
and Tajiri!
Stern at SummerSlam?
Howard Stern stated on his radio show this week that he
had been involved in talks with Vince McMahon about appearing
at Summerslam, however, a deal was not reached. He mentioned
that he is interested in being behind an alternative wrestling
promotion and could do that in the future. Stern said Vince
was a nice guy and didn't discount the possibility of working
with them at another time. I would have thought that guys
like Stuttering John and Hank the Angry Dwarf would have
been more at home in the WWE than Howard.
Bitter
Much?
Former WCW star Mike Sanders, who was recently released
from his WWE developmental contract, blames WWE politics
on his dismissal. Sanders believes he was caught in the
middle of a power struggle between Kevin Nash and Paul Heyman.
Sanders, who is good friends with Nash, was apparently not
liked by Heyman. Sanders was also trying out to be Raw commentator
when Heyman was doing that job, and he believes that Heyman
worked against him. Sanders has a 90 day non-compete clause,
after which he is expected to sign with NWA:TNA.
That's
it for today. Join me again on Turesday. entary.
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