I'm just joking about it but they really could have booked that match differently and still adhered to Bret's limitations.

Vince McMahon seeking to get UFC banned in key European countries

Vince McMahon seeking to get UFC banned in key European countries

It's rather sad that Dave was sitting on this. We pay good $$$ for the WON to get this shit, and Yahoo pays him good $$$ to get this shit. What justification could there be for sitting on something like this?

 

John

This is one such case, as German sportscaster and keeper of savage WWE secrets Oliver Copp,

Which of course begs the question of how the hell does Oliver know this shit.

Which of course begs the question of how the hell does Oliver know this shit.

German UFC broadcaster with tons of connections?

Vincent K took my baby away.

 

Oliver has tonnes of connections with WWE and UFC. He is credited with bring UFC to Germany, he negotiated the TV deal and the arena in Cologne if Im not mistaken. He is a writer for the German Fighting Spirit magazine, German commentator for UFC etc. He seemed to know Shane McMahon quite well also I remember him saying he was involved in bringing WWE magazine to Germany.

 

Any of you guys traded tapes with him back in the day?

What justification could there be for sitting on something like this?

Obviously someone didn't want him to blab about it publicly. I'd usually blame Dave being sworn to secrecy by Dana White, but it sounds more like something WWE would have liked kept under the carpet. This is nothing new, Dave's sat on other major stories (IIRC, the most obvious example being UFC's Machiavellian attempts to control their fighters like refusing to give their agents/managers backstage passes any longer, pressuring them to sign lifetime rights to their name and likeness to use in video games, etc) and as soon as they broke had exclusive details that nobody else had.

Bix look at what you inspired:

 

I knew Oliver did announcing for UFC now and obviously has connections there, but I didn't know about the rest (though I did know he did some announcing for DSF). Back in the days when TNM was relatively high-profile I don't remember Oliver giving any indication that he had any presence in the business other than making a text-based wrestling simulator for MS-DOS.

So how does Oliver know so much dirt about wrestling?

 

John

Apparently he worked for WWE as a commentator and in international marketing, too.

Apparently he worked for WWE as a commentator and in international marketing, too.

He commentated for WCW, SMW among others too. He accompanied Bret Hart during a PR tour of Germany last year for his book.

 

He is/was also a TV executive in Dubai.

 

We should write a book about him.

You know, it's very telling when considering the "does Dave even still care about the WON" debate that in the endless blurb that starts the daily update there hasn't been a back issue worthy of mention since the Kowalski bio from September 2008.

Bix: might be time to change the subject line in the first post. This seems to be more than just WC.

 

John

A mod/admin needs to do that. You can't edit subjects here after posting.

 

Meanwhile, the WWE/UFC story wasn't in the WON. Which...umm...really?

I can tell you for a fact that the UFC is taking a hard line with people reporting things they have requested no one speak of. There is not much being written by an accredited source that even approaches controversial.

A mod/admin needs to do that. You can't edit subjects here after posting.

 

Meanwhile, the WWE/UFC story wasn't in the WON. Which...umm...really?

Done.

Yeah, but he and UFC Employee Oliver Copp are the sources here via semi-public message board postings, and this story does garner them sympathy.

I can tell you for a fact that the UFC is taking a hard line with people reporting things they have requested no one speak of. There is not much being written by an accredited source that even approaches controversial.

Pretty fucking ridiculous. "Journalism" is fantastic these days.

 

John

You overestimate the power of Vince McMahon over here. Klitschko fights are on network tv and get high ratings, the boxing industry has a lot more power. And comparing the anti-UFC camp with the once from the mid-90s there is pretty much no difference as far as I could see, just conservative politicians and boxing promoters trying to get MMA banned.

 

UFC had to air their shows after 11PM. Once they aired it at 10PM. Insta-ban. Same thing happened with WWF 15 years ago.

I bet Wilfried Sauerland has a ton of power with the networks in Germany and yeah I can see him being the main push behind a UFC ban.

Dave Meltzer on Cornette's email to Terry Taylor:

 

Take Cornette and Russo out of the situation and replace them with Mir and Lesnar, Liddell and Ortiz, Penn and St. Pierre. Mir said far worse, although he didn't invoke religion, and he, until Carwin knocked him out, was in a position to actually go through on his threat, whereas Cornette most likely never would.

 

You guys have no experience when it comes to threatening legal letters. In the 90s, I would get those things all the time. 90% of the time it's bullshit, you ignore them and nothing happens. 5% there is some validity to the letter, you rectify the problem and it's over. 5% of the time it's murky, you tell the lawyer you want to discuss it, he doesn't call you back not wanting to waste time, and it goes away. I stopped getting them ten years ago because they are written to make you panic, and I figured in the end if you do the right thing in each specific instance, they aren't going to go any farther.

 

So far, 0% of the time, anything transpires. This will be that 0%, past possibly Russo getting a restraining order against him.

 

And Cornette really made a mistake. His big mistake was not writing the letter, although he shouldn't have, nor sending to Terry Taylor, although he shoudln't have, but in thinking going public with the story he would come out looking good. But in the end, that's as far as this goes unless he follows up and reiterates things, or actually does something to follow through.

The bolded part probably deserves to be in the ridiculous quotes from WO.com columnists thread. Dave also doesn't seem to get part of the reason why he doesn't get legal letters anymore - everyone's accepted that he's part of the business and he isn't going to go away. Why waste your time and money sending legal letters to him?

Dave Meltzer on Cornette's email to Terry Taylor:

 

Take Cornette and Russo out of the situation and replace them with Mir and Lesnar, Liddell and Ortiz, Penn and St. Pierre. Mir said far worse, although he didn't invoke religion, and he, until Carwin knocked him out, was in a position to actually go through on his threat, whereas Cornette most likely never would.

.

 

Wow, that's a terrible comparison.

What were the legal letters Meltzer used to get pertaining to? I'm assumed Meltzer *didn't* threaten any physical harm, let alone death, to anyone in particular, or gave any indirect impression of that, either.