BLAH

• Jim Ross had some fairly significant injury news in the Ross Report this past week that nobody else had reported yet. At least not that I saw. Bob Holly had to have neck fusion surgery and will be out a year. First a broken arm from Angle, now a broken neck from Brock. What is with these former amateur superstars and their hatred for Bob Holly?
  
  Also having some surgery was legend in the making Randy Orton, who will be out 3-4 months with a torn shoulder. That's pretty bad luck but he's a blue chipper. He will rise above this.
  
  
• There was a story coming out of the "Daily Star" in England that Lennox Lewis might face Brock at an upcoming PPV. It doesn't seem like this is actually true, but the part of it I liked was damn near everyone going "well the story is... they HAVE had talks and..." okay wait a minute. You've known that Vince was having talks with the heavyweight champeen of the world... but that never got mentioned UNTIL it was said first by one of those UK tabloids that 5 days a week has a cover picture of Britney Spears nipping in a tanktop? No. No. I will not have it.
  
  
• WWE won their court case with Nicole Bass. Hey, do you know how people will insinuate that the Brooklyn Brawler is gay? Did you know that one of the trial jurors gave an interview and mentioned Brawler's wife being in the courtroom? How about that.
  
  
• In more law type news WWE put out an earnings update thingy that said, mainly due to a $6 million loss stemming from a lawsuit with the William Morris Agency, they'd have a loss of $3 million this quarter. I wasn't up on this WMA business, so being the investigative journalist that I am I contacted my top secret legal sources and was able to get the scoop.
  
  In October 2000 the WWF filed a suit against WMA, saying that in 1997 they signed a contract for William Morris to help extend the contract the WWF had with the USA Network. But the suit alleged that they were strongarmed into a contract that gave WMA a cut of WWF revenues, and that WMA didn't help with the USA negotiations. Jerry McDevitt was quoted as saying "William Morris wants their clients to work for them, instead of them working for their clients."
  
  So now, according to the press release, they spent $6 million to buy out their WMA contract and the case is now settled.

There's a PPV on Sunday! No Mercy, it's called! Here's the card as we know it today:


• Brock Lesnar vs. The Undertaker - Hell in the Cell for WWE championship
• Triple H vs. Kane - World Heavyweight Championship & Intercontinental title match
• Chris Jericho & Christian vs. Booker T & Goldust - World Tag Team title match
• Finals of the WWE Tag Team title tournament
• Trish Stratus vs. Victoria - WWE Women's title match
• Rob Van Dam vs. Ric Flair
  
  
The latest issue of the Pro Wrestling Torch named Angle vs. Benoit as a match, which would certainly seem likely if they lose to the Guerreros on Smackdown. That would then set up a likely final of Eddie & Chavo against Rey & Edge.

Here's EVEN MORE news!

• Bubba Dudley had all the signs of a serious concussion backstage after the TLC match on Raw. He was overheard telling people that he had no idea where he was. Wrestlers were unsure when exactly he got hurt, but one said it must have been late in the match since Bubba hit all his spots and was everywhere he was supposed to be.
  
  
• Blue Meanie did an interview and ripped on Bradshaw for hazing him about his weight while they worked together. He went as far as saying Bradshaw "made my life miserable". Meanie and Jasmine are out whoring the 3PW indy group.
  
  
• Mike Awesome's probably headed to Japan, but there's talk of him doing TNA in between tours. Mike's pals say he came back 3 months earlier than his doctor suggested and now he's cut. WWE sources say not only was he limited in the ring, the fact that he and Heyman aren't the best of pals sure didn't help him any.
  
  
• When Terry Taylor came back some wrestlers joked that "Red Rooster" shouldn't have been his 80's gimmick... he should have been "Tactless Terry", as he's known for rubbing people the wrong way and putting his foot in his mouth.
  
  
• Despite suggestions from fans (I guess) that Justin Credible should be moved to Smackdown where Heyman can write for him, people say Paul doesn't talk up Justin the way he does other ECWers like Bubba and Dreamer.
  
  
• According to WWE buzz, of all the reasons behind Austin's walkout, the one that rarely gets mentioned is that Austin was apparently worried that Brock wouldn't cooperate during their match in order to make Austin look bad.
  
  
• When Shane attends events, which is still usually just the PPV and the following TV, he's often spending his time "putting out fires" rather than having an official role. Not actual fires.
  
  
• Raw's ratings aren't what they used to be, but it's still doing great for TNN. Slamball drew an average of .6 and was considered a success due to the rating being a 500% jump over previous teen demos. Oblivious does a .8 rating in it's usual Sunday timeslot, a 20% jump over what TNN had there before. Crank Yankers on Comedy Central was a success at 1.1. Some cable series are doing numbers closer to Raw, like Monk, the Dead Zone, and the Shield. But say the Shield does a 3.2 average rating, yet it costs $1.3 million per episode to make. That's far more than what it takes to do Raw.
  
  And even though the HLA type stuff was considered "controversial" for wrestling, it isn't compared to the rest of cable TV. There's comments from the president of USA Network about how the line moves every day, and network people saying if something can get ratings then it's a good thing regardless of moral opinion. One media analyst pointed out that "people aren't going to sit through The Shield every week hoping for some nudity," which could also be reflective on why HLA didn't cause a jump.
  
  
• Magic Johnson did an interview and recalled the good old days when Kevin Nash could actually move. They played high school basketball in Michigan.
  
  
• Ross Forman, formerly of WCW magazine, did an interview and discussed Nash's rehab. He also said Lex Luger has stayed in great shape and he'd be surprised if Lex doesn't end up in WWE by the end of the year.
  
  
• Development sources say that there were WWE officials in favor of cutting Randy Orton over a year ago because they didn't think he had anything to offer. Similarly it took Jim Cornette over 9 months to come up with a regular TV role for Nidia.
  
  
• Even friends of Tough Enough Josh are shocked over how big his head has gotten since the show ended and now that he's gotten a WWE job.
  
  
• Originally they were going to hire an actor to play Torrie Wilson's dad for her storyline, but Torrie suggested using her actual dad and so they did. Her parents are divorced, so Al won't be cheating on his wife when he's banging Dawn Marie.
  
  
• Little Guido impressed just about everyone during his dark matches and is expected to be hired for the cruiserweight division. A lot of people have been surprised that it took Guido this long to get in, since he's tight with Heyman.
  
  
• In a correction from last week, there's 21 Tough Enough semi-finalists and not 25.

• New investors may boost their budget and marketing. The Jarretts aren't commenting but sources say they're selling the controlling interest in TNA to investors. The confusion in the early weeks, spending lots on the shows based on the phony buyrate numbers, led to them running out of money.
  
  Health South, an early investor, pulled out and they had all sorts of pressure on them to finish 13 shows so that they wouldn't lose all the money. The new investors or their reps have been at the last few PPV's looking over the operation of the show and where expenses came from. The new investors, who many think are associated with Sawyer Brown, are apparently taking over the marketing end of the company. That will allow the Jarretts to focus completely on the wrestling aspect.
  
  It's not clear whether the deal is done yet or if it's just a matter of crossing the i's and dotting the t's. The Jarretts have been relaxed the past few weeks, which people are taking as a good sign that they're not stressed about money anymore.
  
  
• Scott Hall has missed the last two weeks of shows. He only gave a few hours notice the first time, saying he had issues with his kids that needed addressing. He told them he'd be available to do a live phone interview during the show if they wanted, but when they called he didn't answer. TNA said they totally understand his situation. The second week Hall gave them a few days notice first.
  
  
• The promo Russo originally wrote for the opening of the show on 10/2 had a lot more "racist aspects" than what made it to air. A lot of the promo had to be rewritten anyway because it was going to involve Scott Hall, but the racial stuff was toned down considerably once Jerry and the wrestlers involved saw it. Truth is said to be resigned about the racist storyline even though he's not a big fan of it. He doesn't think he has the seniority to speak up against it.
  
  Lots of people were disgusted that TNA officials tried saying with a straight face that the attack on Truth by a guy dressed in white wasn't supposed to have KKK undertones. The defense they gave for the angle was "Just wait until it plays out before judging it," like it's okay to insinuate a KKK beating if the masked guy ends up being black too. TNA's only out seems to be if Truth hired the guy to attack him to further his claims of racism.
  
  
• In Hassman and Sabal's counter-suits against JSE, they're making accusations of slander, libel, and breech of contract. Bob Ryder and Jeremy Borash are specifically mentioned in the suit, but aren't named as defendants. Phase 3 Media is looking for $56,000 in damages as part of their lawsuit, which people predict will be settled out of court.
  
  
• Low-Ki has been scheduled on some Japanese tours. TNA plans to work around his schedule. There's talk that David Young and AJ Styles will be working similar tours.
  
  
• Ashley Hudson impressed TNA officials so much during a dark match that he was given a spot on the show the next week as Ron Harris' tag partner. Hudson is a long time Memphis wrestler and worked with a lot of WWE development guys when there was a WWE thing in Memphis.
  
  
• X-Pac was late to the 10/2 PPV. He was expecting Scott Hall to arrive at their hotel and wake him up, but of course Hall ended up not being at the show.
  
  
• Defenders of Don Harris say he's a genuinely good guy who doesn't express racist views. He wore the Nazi shirt because of the SS logo's use as a biker rebellion symbol without considering the implications of what the symbol means to white supremacists.
  
  
• Sources say the idea of an XWF "invasion" has been brought up, but among the problems preventing that from happening are that more than one XWF official doesn't like Russo.
  
  NEWS FROM AROUND THE GLOBE:
  
  
• David Arquette was on Letterman and joked about having been WCW champion. Dave called it "ridiculous".
  
  
• XPW ran it's second show at ECW Arena. XPW Champion and head booker Shane Douglas beat Chris Candido in the main event.
  
  
• The NWA is having a 54th anniversary show on October 26th. Ken Shamrock faces AJ Styles on the show, in what is likely Ken's last wrestling appearance before his UFC fight with Tito Ortiz.
  
  
• Several former ECW wrestlers were contacted about working the XPW shows in Philly.
  
  
• The XPW/ROH war is heating up. Boogaloo, part of Ring of Honor's Natural Born Sinners team, no-showed an ROH show without notice and appeared at XPW's show later that night as part of a masked team. XPW made an offer to Boogaloo's partner Homicide, but he decided to stay in ROH and will get a singles push as a result. XPW also approached Da Hit Squad, who rejected XPW's plans of having them play hip-hop characters.
  
  
• The storyline in Puerto Rico is now that the XWF has purchased 50% of the WWC. XWF matches air in nWo fashion during WWC TV. WWC is doing a live 2 hour show on network TV in November to promote their show the next night.

Big ups to James Kalyn who grabbed this shot of the Edge & Christian reunion at Sunday's show in Calgary.

Bye bye.

BLAH