Sorry for missing the past few weeks. Most of you know that I’m in the United States Army, and I’ve had a lot of duties the past month that required me to fly around the country a lot. I’m back this week with mostly wrestling news and not a lot of opinion or extras, but there’s a lot of good wrestling stuff here, so I’m sure you can forgive me for skimping on the filler.
A slight format change for me this week; I’m going to start leading with the top story of the week and expanding on that more than I do in the promotional Notebook sections. I feel compelled to do this, especially this week with the Angle situation, because certain stories just deserve more than a few sentences.
Let’s jump right into the thick of things.
>>> THE TOP STORY <<< The dismissal of Kurt Angle from World Wrestling Entertainment will definitely be remembered as the biggest story in pro wrestling for 2006, and it’ll be ranked up there pretty highly with a lot of UFC events when it comes to the overall sports entertainment industry and how we remember this year from a historical perspective. WWE.com broke the story Friday afternoon, claiming that the company had come to terms on a release with the former Olympic gold medalist. “Due to personal issues, Kurt Angle has been granted an early release from his contract. WWE looks forward to establishing a new relationship with Kurt in the near future.”  WWE.com. The story instantly took over the WWE.com, with a fairy tale of sorts being told through interviews with much of the company’s talent and office workers. They started off with an interview with Angle himself. “My body is so beat up and run down, I can’t even think straight,” Angle said. “I need my body to reheal and rehab, I have done this for too long without a break. I haven’t been able to really enjoy my life. I haven’t seen my family, I’ve had problems with medication – I’m just fried physically and mentally.” Kurt’s manager, Dave Hawk, said that Angle is in a ton of pain and uses prescription pills to deal with the pain, and that he’d come to the conclusion that he couldn’t get into the ring without the aid of narcotics. The truth of the matter is that Kurt Angle and WWE did not come to a mutual release that would allow Angle to go to rehab and get better and then return to WWE with open arms whenever he’s clean again. The story told on WWE.com was carefully crafted to save face for both the company and Angle, done so because Angle has been a dedicated performer for the promotion and that very dedication has a lot to do with why he’s in the shape he’s in today. What really happened between Kurt Angle and World Wrestling Entertainment is far more surprising, and far more logical to understand if you know Angle’s history in amateur wrestling and in the pro ranks. We know that Angle failed two drug tests, and although it hasn’t been made public and may never be, it’s widely believed that there was likely a third failed drug test, triggering the events of late last week. WWE does try to help these guys out whenever they can, and it’s believed that they were going to offer him the same route they’d given William Regal and others over the years, by paying to send him to rehab until he was completely sober and then bringing him back when he’d completely cleaned up his life. Dave Hawk and Kurt Angle met with WWE officials last Friday morning, and Angle was told that he needed to get help for his prescription painkiller addictions. They told him to go to rehab and then return to the company once he was clean, which is something they’ve done for tons of other men throughout the years. Angle, despite the story that was weaved on WWE.com and in the press releases, does not believe he has an issue with painkillers, and so he flat-out refused to go to rehab or seek any kind of help whatsoever. Vince McMahon then fired him. It was not a release, nor a mutual agreement. Angle refused to get treatment for his illness, so Vince was left with the only real option the company had at that point, which was to fire him. Whether it was to send a message or to protect the interests of the company or Angle himself, the end result is that Angle was released from his job. His no-compete clause remains in effect and will expire near the end of November. Kurt Angle is not going to rehab, and he’s not going home to let his body heal up. He’ll probably go rest for three months or so, because at that point his no compete clause expires and WWE officials expect him to sign a contract with TNA. In fact, WWE officials actually encourage him to go to TNA, because he’ll be working a much more limited scheduled, and the lack of house show tours will allow him to greatly rest up between shows. He’ll make $500,000 or so per year to wrestle 5 times per month, and WWE sources believe that he can get his pain levels back down to a manageable level by working for the smaller promotion. There are also those in WWE that believe that Vince McMahon actually WANTS Angle to go and work for TNA, because he’s apparently realized in this very late mid-life crisis he’s currently enduring that he’s a much better businessman and much more creatively inclined when he actually has competition to try and defeat. By signing Angle and perhaps Bill Goldberg, TNA would earn themselves a bigger place on the map and could perhaps instantly jump to that two-hour timeslot they so desire. My TNA source tells me that they’re a bit hesitant to sign Kurt, but that it’s already being discussed internally. They realize that if they bring in the incredibly damaged Angle, they’re going to need built-in safeties in his contract to help him avoid getting to the point he was at near the end of his WWE run. If TNA does eventually tour, Kurt Angle will likely not be on a majority of those house shows and instead will stick to the television shows and pay per view events. Since he’ll instantly be the biggest star in the company, they will be able to market him as a special attraction much the way WWE does with Undertaker, thereby giving him more time to heal, reduce his addictive need for painkillers, and perhaps extend his career (and his life) by many years. Some have speculated that Angle will go to Japan, but that’s not even a remote possibility at this point. In order to make big money in Japan, you have to do shoots and fight with Pride or K1, and Angle will do neither of those. There’s a small chance that New Japan or another of the big three major promotions will overpay for his services, but sources close to the situation say they don’t see it happening because the rigors of a months-long Japanese tour will kill him even faster than the WWE schedule was. In all likelihood, we’ll see Kurt Angle make his TNA debut sometime around November 27, a few weeks after his WWE no-compete clause expires. >>> WWE Notebook <<< — There haven’t been any announcements about Raw casualties of the Wellness Policy, and that’s because everyone on the brand passed with flying colors. No, I’m not joking. There’s been a few tests in the last few weeks, and nobody failed. Lance Storm tossed out a theory on Figure Four Daily with Bryan Alvarez that actually made a lot of sense. The Smackdown guys got tested first and quite a few of them came up hot for “elevated liver enzymes”, which has become a new insider term for “elevated testosterone levels” and “doing massive amounts of steroids”. Bobby Lashley was re-tested a week after failing and was back to normal, so in essence the Raw guys had a two week grace period to get off of whatever they were doing and prepare for the test. As a result, nobody failed, and all of the ECW guys passed as well. Word from within the company is that everyone has stopped doing whatever they were doing, with the exception of marijauna, but the company doesn’t test for that anyway. — Carlito hates being on Raw and is extremely frustrated with his current position. He feels like he was well on his way to becoming a main eventer, but now he’s stuck doing romance storylines and acting like a total doofus. He’s unmotivated by the fact that they aren’t trying to use his strengths, and some WWE officials have actually gone as far as to tell him to act like The Rock in order to get over. — Vince McMahon wore a shirt at Summerslam because he’s not working out as hard as he used to for health reasons. He’s still ungodly and freakishly ripped for a 61 year old man (or for a man of any age, really), but he was self-conscious about the change in his physique and was worried about not looking good, so he wore the shirt. Vince McMahon at 61 years old looks better than 95% of his roster, so he shouldn’t be worried about looking bad in front of fans. After all, he could look like Stu Hart used to in the old Stampede days when he’d team with Bret wearing classic wrestler trunks and no shirt, looking like an extremely pale, hairy pear stuffed into a pair of dancing pants. — The company will bring back The Great Khali, most likely as a babyface, but he needs double knee surgery and so he’ll be out for quite some time. I’m still hoping they pull the trigger on him joining DX. They had planned on having him be the backup for DX during the McMahon match at Summerslam, but didn’t do the angle because he can barely move and needed knee surgery badly. I cannot think of anything better than hearing The Great Khali cut promos with DX and saying suck it; it would never, ever get old. — Starting in September and October, ECW will have a new taping schedule. They’ll tape two shows in a single week, one before Raw and one before Smackdown, and then take the next week off. The company believes this will allow them to have special attractions appear on ECW from both Raw and Smackdown without having to make special flights or miss house show dates. A perfect example would be this past week, when the Big Show actually did work an ECW house show, chartered a plane, and flew to Raw to take part in the main event angle. There are no plans for any more stand-alone tapings any time soon. — The ECW contract with Sci-Fi was extended. It was scheduled to be a 13-week run, but the ratings blew away anything NBC expected for the show, so it was renewed easily. NBC is also giving them a replay of the ECW show, most likely late at night on the weekend, but that hasn’t been determined yet. — There were plans for another Hammerstein Ballroom show, but they were squashed by Vince McMahon because of the harsh reactions to the show held there earlier this month. — Candice Michelle is in the new issue of Soak Magazine. Yes, it’s a magazine about girls getting soaked in water. The magazine comes with special 3D glasses so you can see Candace’s curves in 3D. — There is a Brian Pillman DVD anthology set in the works, and it will be released sometime in the fall. I’ve seen the match list, and it’s got just about everything a Pillman fan could hope for. God bless WWE and their awesome DVD department; I just watched the McMahon DVD, and these things keep getting better and better. — Former puroresu star Hayabuse was backstage at the Smackdown tapings last week. Hayabusa’s the guy who was a gigantic star in Japan until he broke his neck during a lionsault attempt in October 2001 was paralyzed. He’s regained most of the movement in his arms and legs and walks around with a cane. >>> TNA Notebook <<< — Talks with Monty Brown have completely stalled out. Brown is determined to go to WWE, even though there hasn’t been a lot of interest from them thus far. The catching point with Brown and WWE is that they will want him to sign a developmental deal, and there’s no way he’s going to work Ohio Valley Wrestling. Most within TNA believe he’ll either eventually sign a deal with WWE or just go back to his personal training business, where he makes six figures training fat suburbanite cougars. If you don’t know what a cougar is, then Google is your friend. — The company is sending Ron Killings, Abyss, Jeff Jarrett, AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, Scott Steiner, Traci Brooks and Christy Hemme to AAA for the September 17 Verano de Escandalo show. Brooks and Hemme already have a match signed and will face Estrellita and Tiffany. — The Best Of The X-Division Volume 2 DVD set comes out in October. It’s four hours, and we have no word if Kevin Nash is on the cover or if he’s featured at all. Let’s hope so. – The feeling in the company is that the X-Division has lost any luster or prestige it might have had, and that it’s just another cruiserweight division at this point. There’s been talk that Samoa Joe might have actually been bad for the decision, because while he was a great champion that had great matches, when he lost there was no one that could really compare to him, so they just started putting the belt on little guys. >>> MMA Notebook <<< — The buyrates for Shamrock/Ortiz 2 is coming in at 775,000 buys, making it the biggest buyrate in sports entertainment this year and easily destroys the WrestleMania North American buyrate. Matt Hughes vs. Royce Gracie did 600,000 buys, and this past weekend’s show featuring Liddell and Sobral will end up somewhere in the 500,000 range, which demolishes Summerslam. All this to say that UFC is pretty much killing WWE where it counts right now, and that’s pay per view events. Internally, the company is predicting 1.2 million buys for the expected Liddell/Ortiz fight in December, which will easily blow away anything WWE does now or will do at any point in the future. — In case you’ve been living under a rock and haven’t heard, Dana White announced that Shamrock/Ortiz 3 will take place on free TV, on the Ultimate Fighter season finale. That show could end up doing a 5 or greater if hyped correctly, making it the biggest and most-watched MMA match in history. — Georges St. Pierre officially pulled out of his September UFC match with Matt Hughes earlier this week, citing a groin injury. Dana White immediately offered the title shot to BJ Penn and he accepted, so that’s the main event. Penn defeated Hughes in early 2004 with a rear-naked choke to capture the UFC Welterweight Title. Penn then signed to fight for K-1, and Dana White flipped his lid. Dana didn’t want his champion to lose in another promotion, despite the rule changes that K-1 implements, and basically stripped him of the belt and fired him. Of course, Penn won the K-1 fight anyway, so it could have been good press for Dana and UFC in general, but I udnerstand where he’s coming from. Hughes went on to become one of the most dominant welterweight fighters of all time, and he’ll defend that belt against Penn. While most hardcore fans want to see St. Pierre fight Hughes because he has a realistic chance of beating him, Penn/Hughes is actually a bigger marquee matchup and will probably draw a lot more buys on PPV. — Two different sources have reported that Chuck Liddell was out late drinking all week leading up to the Sobral fight, but it apparently doesn’t affect the Chuck Monster. That man might just be the scariest individual in the galaxy. Not counting Eric S., of course.
