Don't forget Harley Race tried to get Benoit to stop doing the diving headbutt because of the toll it took on him.

From the latest WON:

 

Lance Cade (Lance McNaught, 30) was cut again. He was signed in late October. Cade did an interview with PWInsider.com and said he was contacted by Michael Hayes in August and told he would have a spot as a top heel on Smackdown and given a feud with Undertaker. He was told Vince was against it because Vince was mad about an incident on his last run, not the problem on the airplane with pain pills that got him fired, but an incident on his last run where he got in trouble when Vince thought he wasn’t taking his role seriously and was yelled at. He lost his cool at being yelled at and left the building. Michaels got mad at him because Cade left without thanking him for the match they had that night. That may have been when Michaels put him over on television in a tag match, because the next week, before he was fired (he was fired over an incident where he passed out on the airplane from taking too many pain pills), they had Michaels totally destroy him with chair shot after chair shot that looked like punishment. Anyway, the Undertaker feud was nixed and he was sent to FCW. He said in mid-December, John Laurinaitis told him they were going to bring him to the main roster, possibly for ECW, but he was having problems going through pain killer withdrawal, and it was keeping him awake. He said that led to getting hooked on sleeping pills, so he called the office and asked to be put into rehab. He went into and completed his rehab. He said in early March, Michaels told him he was done and would never be used as a top guy. He complained it was contradictory to fire him because he asked to get help for a sleeping pill problem and that his injuries that led to his pill problems stemmed from working in WWE. He was upset saying that most guys let their problems worsen for fear of losing their spot, but he tried to help himself, and was fired for it.

That really should be copied and pasted about a million times the next time WWE brags about offering rehab to all employees.

That really should be copied and pasted about a million times the next time WWE brags about offering rehab to all employees.

 

Or everytime Lance Storm boycotts TNA.

 

 

 

The Dustin Rhodes biography certainly sounds interesting on paper. Doesnt it?

Or everytime Lance Storm boycotts TNA.

Hmm, maybe I jumped the gun a bit with my "Lance Storm needs to realize that TNA's reckless stupidity is no match for WWE's shady callous nature" blog post on Cageside Seats.

Michaels told him he was done and would never be used as a top guy

Michaels? How is Michaels in position tell him this?

There was a lot that didn't make sense about Cade's interview.

Michaels told him he was done and would never be used as a top guy

Michaels? How is Michaels in position tell him this?

 

 

As the guy who trained him for the biz, WWE probably felt he should deliver the news. Or maybe Shawn offered, who knows.

Yeah Cade's not always been the best employee over the years so I take his words with a grain of salt.

Hmm, you'd think Dave would know whether this story was on the up and up or not. It does fit with how WWE works backstage. Remember the Ken Anderson firing. Remember the story about Vader being told he'd be fired if he ever worked so stiff again in early 1996 by a top star (can't recall whether this was Shawn or Taker).

Cornette told a story of Vader working with Shawn and of course getting stiff with him. Then Shawn grabs a headlock and talks to Vader's ear. Next thing you know, Vader goes to Cornette, supposedly crying, saying Shawn told him he was gonna get him fired.

There also was talk of Taker saying something similar to Vader before their first match. Which I happened to see live:

 

WWF @ San Bernardino, CA - Orange Pavilion - April 1, 1996 (3,000; sell out)

The Undertaker pinned Vader with a chokeslam

 

It was a Raw taping the night after Mania. That was a dark match, though the cameras were clearly rolling (red light city). And it was typical Vince/WWF bullshit of forcing Vader to clean job almost instantly after coming into the promotion to "prove" himself, and also to have it in the can if he was a pain in the ass and they needed to make him look bad.

 

Don't know if Dave ever printed the item at the time that Taker told Leon not to work stiff or he would have Vince fire him. But Dave did tell us the next time we hooked up for a show.

 

John

There is an interesting Paul Heyman interview on Sherdog starting just before the 2 hour mark:

http://www.sherdog.com/radio/Marathon-Paul...ve-Meltzer-1435

 

I didnt know John McCain went after ECW confusing it with MMA for a spell in 1997.

 

There is rambling Don Frye interview and a very good Dave Meltzer interview covering the usual ground he covers when taking about the links between MMA and Pro Wrestling.

So, TNA now has three hours on Monday nights with a special 'TNA Reaction' show taking the first hour starting THIS MONDAY. The name is like running the WrestleMania Revenge Tour in February.

 

The synopsis makes it sound like a psuedo-reality show with worked shoot interviews with characters talking about themselves and their feuds. I know this was something Bischoff and Hogan had talked about implementing into the product, but you'd think they would choose to actually, well, implement it into the product that their fans watch instead of giving it its own little separate one-hour ghetto with no advance hype.

Gary Cubeta launched the next stage of his masterplan on http://57gold.com/ with now a mix of gold shilling, a new shoot with JrJackson challenging Dave Meltzer to a debate as well as talkng about sleeping with Nitro Girls and right wing podcasts.

 

Odd

So, TNA now has three hours on Monday nights with a special 'TNA Reaction' show taking the first hour starting THIS MONDAY. The name is like running the WrestleMania Revenge Tour in February.

 

The synopsis makes it sound like a psuedo-reality show with worked shoot interviews with characters talking about themselves and their feuds. I know this was something Bischoff and Hogan had talked about implementing into the product, but you'd think they would choose to actually, well, implement it into the product that their fans watch instead of giving it its own little separate one-hour ghetto with no advance hype.

Is this anything like what Kevin Nash tried to do to Nitro in 1999 where the first hour was simply promos and video packages?

 

Along the same lines, what did the paying fans in the arena see during those times? Were they expected to watch video screens for an hour or so?

Nash did that once just to make the point that they could put anything they wanted in the first hour and it would have zero effect on the ratings. The ratings didn't really dip that much that week, but it was still stupid.

 

That said, a more focused pre-show with pre-taped interviews getting over key angles and showing clips of things (kinda like a PPV pre-show) is not a bad idea, because I think it forces explanation and continuity. The Nitro thing was just random vignettes mixed in with video packages and no explanation of what was going on. But a pre-show is like a built in accountability for whoever is booking. That said, I'm not sure it's enough for TNA.

Call me old-fashioned but they could try to explain angles during the actual live program.

Here's something random: I was watching the first Impact yesterday on TNA's video vault service, and they showed a clip from the first PPV -- Toby Keith got involved in the match, and he ended up giving Jarrett a vertical suplex.

 

Now, I know most of the work was probably done by JJ, but Keith still had to hoist him up, hold him there without stumbling (which lots of pro wrestlers struggle to do properly), and then throw him over. YMMV about Keith's music or politics, but that was a damned good wrestling move for a non-worker to throw.

Of course, but I think something like that is a better use of a third hour than putting out another hour of matches and interviews all week.

 

I should also mention that I really miss "Let us take you back to last week" in my wrestling.

If there's one thing pro wrestling should take from MMA it's how to structure a card. Most MMA cards focus on one big fight with a few contenders on the undercard and one or two smaller feuds mixed in. Today's pro wrestling cards try to throw everything at you in two hours, try to get everyone over in the shortest amount of time possible, and there's too much to keep up with. No one seems important because the main eventers are way over-exposed.

 

Forgive me if that sounded too Meltzer-ish.

If there's one thing pro wrestling should take from MMA it's how to structure a card. Most MMA cards focus on one big fight with a few contenders on the undercard and one or two smaller feuds mixed in. Today's pro wrestling cards try to throw everything at you in two hours, try to get everyone over in the shortest amount of time possible, and there's too much to keep up with. No one seems important because the main eventers are way over-exposed.

 

Forgive me if that sounded too Meltzer-ish.

MMA pretty much has to do it because Dana's big stars can only fight 2-4 times a year; physically, it's just not advisable at that level to do more. So you sprinkle each show with a big fight or two, and then you almost always have a marquee matchup for each show -- and they are always different. I like it in concept for rasslin.

 

Of course, I wonder how that would work. Historically, when guys are in a program, they work on several PPVs in a row - think Cena/Orton last year or Eddy/JBL 2004 or just about any feud in the PPV era. I think the real issue is too much exposure on free tv. I don't need to buy the PPV if I can see Edge and Jericho go all out for 20 minutes on SD.

 

You and I know that isn't true, as the best guys tend to up their game on PPV. But it's easy to see why the typical fan might feel that way. It's just not special if we see it on TV every week (Christian and Regal had arguable better matches on ECW and SS than they had on PPV, for example, and they certainly had more matches). Let the lower and midcarders work week in and week out - superstars to me proves it's an entertaining model. Bring back the Wimpie for the big stars, and let them build their feuds with promos and interviews and the occasional match. Look at what it did for Batista and Cena, for example.

I like doing main eventer versus midcarder as TV main event.

So was Silva "good pro wrestling" or "bad pro wrestling" at UFC 112?

 

Or when it's bad, does the similarity to pro wrestling get ignored?

 

John

I posted on Twitter that Anderson Silva yesterday was Roy Jones Jr. in his prime. Fighting and beating tomato cans his way and if everyone wants him to lose so bad, put someone in against him that can do the job. Silva is a ridiculous good fighter and can do what he wants in the Octagon until he meets his Antonio Tarver. Silva playing tennis in the morning of a big fight proves that he knew he could win.

So was Silva "good pro wrestling" or "bad pro wrestling" at UFC 112?

 

Or when it's bad, does the similarity to pro wrestling get ignored?

 

John

Silva tried to heel turn to set up a program with GSP but it worked too well.

 

Silva lost overness as a result.

 

Im looking forward to Larry Matysik coming on F4Daily to explain how Sam Muchnick solved a similar problem in the 1970s with the Bruiser.