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WWE Weekly Update

WWE Weekly Update #1

Welcome to the first edition of the Weekly WWE News Update! This week I’ve got lots of news about the upcoming ECW PPV, the draft, and many more stories…


ECW PPV “One Night Stand” News


WWE has begun a poster campaign in Manhattan to hype 6/12’s ECW PPV. The posters feature classic ECW images with the caption, “You wouldn’t understand.” Among the images found on the advertisements:


– Spike Dudley flying into a crowd.
– Lance Storm pulling Francine off Dawn Marie.
– A bloody Tommy Dreamer handcuffed to the ropes.
– Terry Funk wrapped in barbed wire.
– Terry Funk branding Cactus Jack with a flaming iron.


What’s interesting is that WWE opted to feature Terry Funk, even though he publicly insulted WWE’s reunion and opted to work exclusively for Shane Douglas’ show.


It was rumored that Terry Funk may be appearing at the ECW One Night Stand PPV due to his prominence in the recent promotional posters; however sources have squashed the rumor and say he will absolutely not be appearing, by his own choice. The original plan was to have a tag-team match with Funk-Dreamer vs. The Dudley Boyz.


Dave Meltzer’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter is reporting that Mick Foley is indeed committed to appear at the ECW One Night Stand PPV on June 12th. He will not be wrestling on the show, but he will be appearing, probably for an in ring promo, which could be a classic. In regards to Terry Funk working the show, it is being reported that he turned down $10,000 to appear at the event.


The Sandman video highlight reel that aired on RAW last night has now been added on the ECW subsite on WWE.com. There is also an ECW trivia game.


Reports from New York readers indicate that the ECW Magazine has been available to buy for 7-8 days now, but Tuesday was the actual release date for the magazine.


An official ECW One Night Stand program is also being released by WWE.


Local advertising for the ECW PPV in New York city at the Hammerstein Ballroom is now pushing the meet and greet which is scheduled from 4-5 PM on the day of the show.


Kid Kash is the newest name to be added to the list of people appearing at the ECW One Night Stand PPV. He has been listed on WWE.com as one of the recent additions, and there is also a short promo video featuring the Sandman.


Right now, Joey Styles’ and WWE are still in discussions about a possible appearance at the ECW PPV, but that’s all that is known at the moment.


PWInsider.com cites WWE sources who are expressing much frustration over the ECW PPV. What was originally viewed as a heavily-anticipated show has lost quite a bit of luster amongst those backstage, with some even ‘dreading’ the PPV.


The original idea was for the PPV to be a legitimate “ECW-style” show full of input from Tommy Dreamer and Paul Heyman. However, when the show failed to sellout in the first week of ticket availability (many blame the $400 price tag), WWE made the call to include some WWE workers and step back from the pure-ECW format. When that didn’t increase buzz, WWE was forced to drop some of the ticket prices and include wrestlers from both WWE rosters in “invasion” storylines.


Much of the show will now be in the hands of the WWE creative team, which has not recently impressed those in the industry. As the PPV approaches, the show that was supposed to be a throwback to the ECW days is becoming more and more like a traditional WWE PPV.


Trouble Brewing Between + John Cena Backstage


Sources report that a quiet rivalry between Triple H and John Cena has developed over the past several months. HHH has reportedly given the impression that he doesn’t view Cena as a good leader, nor does he feel Cena is dedicated to his role as WWE Champion. HHH has a history of attacking those who feels are not taking the job seriously, and it seems Cena aligns with such wrestlers.


John Cena, on the other hand, simply doesn’t like HHH. While the two can coexist in the same room, the heat is said to be undeniable.


Although plans can change, there is belief that the heat between Cena and Triple H will prevent the two from ending up on the same roster after the draft. Most are of the impression that Cena will only properly develop as a true star if he’s not forced to share a locker-room and television program with HHH.


WWE + TNA Battling Over New Workers?


According to Live Audio Wrestling, WWE and TNA could be inches away from a big battle over three top independent wrestlers, well-known for their work in Ring of Honor.


Johnny Ace, WWE’s Vice President of Talent Relations, reportedly received a memo instructing him to begin courting CM Punk, Samoa Joe and Bryan Danielson with WWE contracts. The memo was triggered when WWE became aware of TNA’s attempts to sign the wrestlers.


While all three have respect in wrestling circles, the likelihood of deals actually being extended is not known. In fact, one of the deciding factors in Bryan Danielson’s decision to temporarily leave pro wrestling was a lack of interest from WWE. Nonetheless, it should be interesting to see where, if anywhere, this story heads.


New Vice President of Partnership Marketing


STAMFORD, Conn.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–June 1, 2005–World Wrestling Entertainment(R), Inc. has hired industry veteran Michael McNeil as Vice President of Partnership Marketing to develop strategic partnerships and new sponsorship opportunities for WWE(R)’s various media platforms, including syndicated television programming, events, tours, WWE’s VOD service, websites, consumer products and other sponsorable WWE business initiatives.


“In his nearly 20 years of extensive experience, Michael has developed a wealth of contacts and knowledge about building partnerships and alliances with major sports retailers, mass merchandisers, and other businesses,” said Kurt Schneider, Executive Vice President, Marketing. “Michael’s hiring signals the start of WWE’s outreach to form strategic partnerships with nationally and internationally recognized businesses to get the WWE brand seen by more people and to gain greater brand recognition around the world.”


Prior to WWE, McNeil served as Director of Development for New York City’s Olympic organization, NYC2012. He was responsible for managing NYC2012’s fundraising program. In his position, McNeil’s efforts were focused on instituting and executing NYC2012’s solicitation strategy and donor outreach.


Before joining NYC2012, McNeil served as Director of Business Development for PSP Sports, where he was responsible for increasing the overall revenue generated by the Marketing and Promotions group, working with such clients as Kingworld and NBA-GMG. Prior to PSP, McNeil was Director of Urban Accounts for Scholastic, Inc., where he cultivated strategic relationships with national education organizations building Scholastic’s brand presence in urban markets. McNeil has also held several positions with the NBA, during which as Director, National Accounts and Sales Development, he managed $90 million of sales to key accounts with retailers such as J.C. Penney, Sears and The Sports Authority and also secured, as Senior Director, New Business Development, new sponsors including Hershey’s, Foot Locker/Lady Foot Locker, and American Airlines/USAB.


McNeil has also worked at partnership development for Sports Illustrated, New York Daily News, United Way of New York City and United Way of Tri-State.


Edge Speaks!


Edge talked publicly for the first time ever about his affair with Lita earlier this month. He was part of a 40-minute journalist roundtable with Cena, Stacy Keibler, Victoria, and others at the Electronics Entertainment Expo in California on 5/19. Edge said its tough maintaining family relationships on the road. He said his mom is the most important person in the world to him and he maybe gets to see her every two or three months. He hangs out with his friends he grew up with once every year if he’s lucky. He said the situation with Lita was awkward for both of them. The storyline with Kane spawned out of real-life and there were never any plans for it to happen. He said Vince paid attention to the crowd reactions and asked them to go with it: “We could give it 50% and it just wouldn’t work. So we said, okay, we’ve got to take this and run with it. We’ve been put in this position now and we might as well go with it.” Edge claimed that he still talks to Matt Hardy about two times a week. Regarding the Internet coverage of his personal life: “I think a lot of people have a lot of time on their hands. That was my first thought about it. It’s interesting that my life seems to be so interesting to other people. I’ve accepted being the Angelina Jolie of the locker room.”


Draft Lottery Update


In regards to the upcoming draft lottery, it is being reported that the creative team are keeping their ideas very close to their chest. A number of workers have not been told if they are switching shows or not at this point, and will likely not be told until the day that they will make the shift. This keeps chances of news leaking about the draft and who is going where to a minimum.


Many insiders believe WWE needs to send a few big RAW names over to SmackDown! in the upcoming Draft Lottery. Even though SD actually receives more weekly viewers than RAW, the feeling is that it doesn’t represent “must see” television. With SD moving to Friday nights, the belief is that WWE needs to give fans a reason to carry over to the far less desirable viewing period.


Of course, there are those believe WWE might instead send over “rising stars” with the intent to give them big pushes on SmackDown. Even though that makes sense in theory, there is a lot of pessimism over such an idea, since the draft has created very few true stars.


Bits + Bobs


In a candid interview with Live Audio Wrestling, Cena expressed initial frustration over UPN’s call to move SmackDown! to Friday nights. However, he noted that the source of his anger was not the move itself (he sees some potential on Friday nights), but the fact that UPN didn’t give WWE any notice about the plans.


Although a Boston Globe gossip column claimed Triple H and Stephanie would miss a WWE house show to attend a U2 concert, they did not end up attending. Triple H worked last week’s house show in Vancouver, making a concert appearance in Boston impossible.


In Monday’s Calgary Sun column, Chris Jericho is interviewed by TJ Madigan where he talks about the rigors of being on the road constantly.


There’s nothing glamorous about the trips you have to make or the miles you put on over the years. There’s a lot of waiting around and a lot of travel. Then throw in the injuries and the crap food you have to eat at Waffle House while you’re on the road and, in the end, it’s not quite as glamorous as you think.”


For those interested, Shelton Benjamin worked as a heel against Christian in their Intercontinental Title match at a house show last Sunday. Benjamin had to grab a handful of tights to score the victory over Captain Charisma.


During the post-match for the main-event at last night’s show in Victoria, a skinny teenage fan hit the ring and was shoved by Triple H. The fan entered the ring as Batista was interacting with the crowd after his victory over Triple H and Ric Flair, and was shoved against the ropes by Triple H and took a nasty whiplash. The kid was then speared through the ropes by the referee and nabbed by security who cuffed him. After a short struggle, a woman officer snatched him by the throat and dragged him away. After all this, Triple H worked the crowd and challenged people in the crowd to come into the ring.


According to Calgary fans, the advertising for Monday’s RAW touted a Batista vs. HHH/Flair dark match; it never actually took place. This would, however, not be the first instance of WWE failing to deliver on a scheduled post-show encounter.


Over the weekend at the SD-Brand house shows, Rey Mysterio appears to have suffered a sprained ankle. Rey didn’t wrestle last night on SD as a precaution, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he was kept off some house shows for the time being until his ankle is better. Mysterio is scheduled to wrestle Psychosis on the ECW’s “One Night Stand” PPV, so obviously the WWE will not want Rey to aggravate his injury any further before the event.


Shawn Michaels has been out of action for a few weeks now due to a knee injury. It is not anything specific, but one of those instances where the superstar already has a bad knee and the wear and tear of being on the road so much and wrestling every night catches up to them. Michaels will be undergoing physical therapy soon to help rehab his knee, and should be back in the ring soon.


Some fans are wondering why “The Nature Boy” Ric Flair wasn’t on Raw last Monday night. Well, Flair was in attendance at the show, but left before Raw actually started. There are some conflicting reports as to why he left. One source says that it was due to personal reasons, while another source says that Flair wasn’t needed for the show.


Even though word of Brian Gerwirtz’s planned hiatus broke several weeks ago, he has reportedly not yet left his position. Gerwirtz has opted to put the break on hold and has been resuming his position with the creative team. The expectation is that he will finally embark on his hiatus in a few weeks.


Eddie Guerrero experienced some travel issues and was unable to attend this week’s WWE SmackDown. Because Rey Mysterio is injured, creative told Guerrero not to worry about his absence and will continue their feud via a recap package on tonight’s show.


PWInsider.com is reporting that JBL’s promo was heavily edited before airing on SmackDown last night. The promo at the live event was much longer, and went further into bashing Paul Heyman and his finance management. The promo was apparently written by Brian Gerwirtz, who has never gotten along with Heyman in the past. JBL was also quick to bash the likes of Lance Storm and the Blue Meanie in the promo, two people he does not have good relationships with.


With many thanks to my sources: LiveAudioWrestling.com, Edmonton Sun, WWE.com, PWInsider.com, BetweenTheRopes Radio and WrestlingObserver.com


Please email me any feedback to: [Bianca@Wrestling101.com]


Bianca Perry