Welcome, welcome, to a special edition of The Botterm Dollar. The reason this column is being published on Thursday instead of our normal Friday slot is because I’ve got a bunch of exclusives on Kurt Angle’s TNA contract and the plans they have for him long-term, and we wanted to get the news up before anyone else did. I’ve got a lot of exclusive information directly from a TNA source on the Kurt Angle signing, including details about his contract, so I’ll keep this intro short and sweet and to the point.
I’ve had some emails asking why I don’t include more opinion in my weekly columns. The truth is that while I could do more opinion-based stuff, there’s already enough guys here at InsidePulse doing it, and they’re doing it very well. I feel like I’ve carved a niche here by just bringing you the news in a journalistic format, and my source at TNA has enabled me to break stories and go into more detail than others around the web. I’ll be doing more opinion stuff at The Wrestling Blog once we get it fixed and running properly, so there’s really no need to clutter up this report with my own thoughts and opinions. Occasionally, I’ll drop something in if I feel it’s truly needed, but for the most part I just want to give you the news and let others handle the commentary.
Before we get started, let’s take a look at some of the highlights from around Inside Pulse today!
— Nick Pomazak takes a look at the Terrell Owens situation in addition to a look back at the NFL’s week three. TO is a lot more troubled than anyone realizes, and a lot of it’s due to his childhood. My fantasy football team is a lot more troubled than anyone could have realized, and it’s mostly because Tiki Barber just isn’t producing like he should be.
— Hatton’s back with the best IP podcast available, the RabbleCast. He’s on the 18th episode, which is about 17 more than I did back when I tried to start my ill-fated podcast last year.
— Murtz tells you why Lost on DVD is the absolute best television on DVD out these days. Lost was my favorite show of the past few years, but that was before I discovered Veronica Mars. My life will never be the same, and Lost will be taking a backseat to Veronica and her league of awesomeness.
— And finally, McCullar inducts another movie into the IP 50 Club, and this time it’s Dr. Strangelove. That is my least favorite Kubrick film, but you still gotta respect what it is.
Let’s get down to business.
TOP STORY: EXCLUSIVE DETAILS ON KURT ANGLE’S TNA CONTRACT
The Kurt Angle story continues to be the hottest story in pro wrestling of at least the past three years, so we’re going to lead off with it for the fourth week in a row.
I have a source at a pretty high level of Total Nonstop Action, and I spoke with him Monday morning after the announcement the previous evening that Kurt Angle had signed a deal with the company. We covered many topics surrounding Angle and the short-term and long-term future of the company, and here’s what I can tell you.
Angle’s TNA contract is long-term, and the company wants to keep him far beyond his competitive wrestling years. I was specifically told that this is not a Sting deal, where they pay Angle a lot of money for one year of work. Angle is now the highest-paid guy on TNA’s roster, but that was to be expected.
In return for having the former WWE star appear on TNA television early, the company is paying Angle a lump sum equivalent to nearly one-third of what his WWE non-compete clause would have paid him, which is roughly in the range of $150,000. This was not a dealbreaker in the least, but Angle felt he needed some monetary compensation for appearing early and voiding the rest of his contract. The speculated total of Angle’s contract is roughly $650,000, which makes him the highest-paid guy on the TNA roster, which is acceptable because he instantly brings credibility to a company that desperately has been searching for a well-known star to help take them over the top.
Money was not the driving issue in negotiations. Angle legitimately feels slighted and insulted by Vince McMahon, whom he felt wrongfully discarded him after he dedicated so much of his life to performing at a high level for the company. He wants to help TNA defeat WWE in television ratings and to help them become a legitimate #1 pro wrestling brand. His TNA contract is exclusive when it comes to wrestling promotions (except for Ring of Honor, where Angle has stated he’d like to work a match with Bryan Danielson), but it is not exclusive for MMA. Angle still wants to do a UFC match in 2007, and it will likely be against Daniel Puder.
Kurt and his wife Karen were going through some rough spots in their marriage, but the marital difficulties came about because Angle was constantly on the road and Karen hated the small amount of time she actually got to spend with her husband. Now that he’ll be working limited dates per month, he’ll have a lot more time to spend at home. The belief is that with the limited number of dates he’ll be working a month (probably 1 TV match and 1 big PPV match on a monthly basis), he’ll be able to allow his body to heal much better than when he was wrestling six days per week, night in and night out.
The accepted story is that Angle was fired from his WWE job because he not only had severe drug and physical issues, but he also was breaking down mentally. This may not entirely be the truth, at least from Angle’s perspective. My source also tells me that TNA will be releasing an interview with Angle where he will clarify a lot on what’s been written about him, so we can expect that sometime in the next two weeks.
On his blog, Jim Ross stated that he’s not sure how long Angle will stay in TNA, but thinks that the lighter schedule and lesser in-ring demands of TNA could be something that helps him out, as opposed to mixed martial arts or UFC. Ross wished Angle well in his new venture, which might be a proof positive that WWE is glad Angle is in TNA instead of getting his head bashed in against Daniel Puder or Brock Lesnar in UFC.
WWE NOTEBOOK
— Boogeyman (Marty Wright) was fired for a number of reasons, most importantly being the fact that everyone in the company that dealt with him believed he was either legit crazy or working a crazy-man gimmick of Brian Pillman proportions. He also had a Dane Cook-ish affection for lying about anything and everything. Seriously. It even got to the point where people realized he was lying about stuff that made no sense to lie about, and then would keep telling outlandish lies to cover his old stories when he got busted. He was also a physical freak for being over 40 years old, but once the Wellness Policy went into effect he was doomed, not to mention the fact that he was injury-prone. There are rumors that he punched the guy in the face who had the unfortunate job of firing him, and there could be a lawsuit resulting from that assault. Not sure if there’s any truth to it, but we’ll hear more about it soon enough.
— David “Kid Kash” Cash was fired from the company on Wednesday due to a bad attitude. He had failed a drug test, but that wasn’t a factor in his dismissal. The feeling backstage was that he had no desire to work with agents and change his in-ring style to a WWE style, and pretty much acted like he was above everyone else in the Smackdown locker room. He had a few supporters, such as JBL, but they weren’t enough to undo all the bad karma he created for himself. Jamie Noble shouldn’t be affected by Kash’s firing, however, as he’s good friends with JBL, a guy that can push for him
— Vince McMahon is said to be terrified of UFC’s incredible surge in popularity and is booking programs on the fly to try and combat the popular UFC programs on Spike. UFC is doing an Octagon Girl Search (much like the Diva contest) next Monday night, and Vince panicked and booked Edge vs. Cena in a cage match for the title. The next week, of course, is the Strip Poker event on ECW that’s booked to combat Ortiz vs. Shamrock. Everybody in the world BUT Vince McMahon knows that the UFC event will blow away ECW, but at least Vince has some competition (in his own mind) again. He tends to book a lot more creatively when someone his threatening his position as King of Sports Entertainment. There’s also talk that they’ll be promoting a huge match on Raw that will take place on that same ECW show.
— There has been no confirmation that WrestleMania 24 will be held in Las Vegas. I know there’s been some talk of it within the company, and given how hot UFC has become in that city it would only make sense for Vince to want to go there and steal their thunder.
— Eric Bischoff is not being considered in any future plans, and his appearances on television are solely to plug his upcoming WWE Books release. For what it’s worth, I’ve heard that the book actually is somewhat uncensored and will do a lot more McMahon bashing than we originally figured would be allowed.
— JBL had given notice that he was leaving the company in October to focus on his Wall Street job, but the company offered him the use of the private WWE jet to travel to the shows, so he signed a new deal. He wants to be able to come back to wrestle big matches occasionally on shows such as WrestleMania every year or so, and it’s believed that is part of his new contract.
— Vince made the great decision to combat the Tito Ortiz/Ken Shamrock fight on October 10th with an “Extreme Strip Poker” segment featuring most of the WWE Divas. Why even bother? Ortiz/Shamrock 3 is going to do gigantic ratings and will likely triple anything WWE put on it that slot. They could do a Raw/Smackdown/ECW supershow with special appearances by The Rock, Steve Austin and Bret Hart and it’d still get obliterated by this fight. For what it’s worth, Hevia points out to me that UFC’s tv slot was changed from 9pm ET to 8pm ET, so they won’t even be facing the strip poker game and Vince blew the angle on nothing.
— Scorpio was re-signed largely due to Booker campaigning for the company to bring him in. He’s also built up quite the reputation for himself in Japan for Mitsuhara Misawa’s NOAH promotion, so the feeling within WWE is that he might be able to make a great impact on Smackdown, which is where he’s likely headed.
— There were a lot of questions surrounding the Regal/Finlay beat down on John Cena from Raw this week, but they were told to do whatever possible to get heat on the Booker angle so that the Smackdown match comes off well this week. They beat the holy hell out of Cena using moves that aren’t always seen these days, and it worked.
— Rey Mysterio joined Degeneration X for one night only on the recent Mexico tour. They did a “Three Amigos” act, complete with sombreros and silly dancing. It’s been said that Michaels and Triple H were insanely over, only trailing Rey Mysterio in fan reaction. There’s been some talk of holding television in Mexico in 2007, in which case I’d expect them to do this angle again.
— There are no plans to release the Highlanders, but creative has no idea what to do with them at this point.
— Edge bought a Mephisto mask and tried to attend the Tuesday Arena Coliseo show without being noticed. Of course, he’s tall, ripped and has long blonde hair, so his disguise didn’t last all that long. He was hounded for autographs and ended up leaving.
— Henry Godwin was resigned as a favor to Triple H. Godwin had a pretty rough go of it the past few years, losing both his father and his 14-year-old son within the span of two months a few years ago. He had a broken neck after a botched Doomsday Device in the 90’s, but says is ready to get in the ring and perform at a high level. House show reports are saying that he’s only ready to get in the ring and stink up the arena at a high level.
TNA NOTEBOOK
— Despite what you may have heard, Ring Of Honor booker Gape Sapolsky was never considered for the head booker position. While Sapolsky does have his supporters within the company and his name has been brought up on several occasions by Jeremy Borash and others as a potential candidate for the writing team, he doesn’t even register on Dixie Carter’s radar when it comes to hiring new creative talent. Jeff Jarrett is aware of Ring of Honor’s independent circuit success and the reputation Sapolsky has built as a credible booker, but the shake-up of the writing team was either going to include Russo or it was going to stay the same. Jim Cornette wasn’t even considered as a replacement, and he’s known as one of the best booking minds in the business. He’s also under contract to the company, but Carter was adamant that she’d either bring in Russo or keep things the way they were. Cornette has not quit the company as of press time, but he’s highly upset about Russo being involved in the company and there’s a feeling that he’ll be gone soon.
— Dixie Carter’s fixation with Vince Russo stems from the outstanding resume he sends out to wrestling promotions. When you’re a wrestling company trying to make headway into becoming a bonafide national promotion, then Russo’s resume would indeed look pretty impressive, considering that he was at least partly responsible for the WWE’s biggest boom period of all time. It’s been said many times over that all Russo needs is someone like Vince McMahon to filter out his bad ideas, and Dutch Mantell and Jeff Jarrett are going to be the ones acting as that filter for Russo in TNA. For what it’s worth, sources within TNA have all claimed that the Vince Russo now working for TNA is a far different man than the one who booked WWE and WCW in the 90’s, and most believe that his conversion to Christianity truly has changed his outlook on his writing. The belief is that Russo wants to get away from the Crash TV style he implemented with such success in WWE and with no success in WCW; he’s made it clear that he wants to build long-term programs for Samoa Joe and Kurt Angle, which is one “dream match” TNA now has the ability to put on. Contrary to what’s been reported elsewhere, Russo did not have anything to do with the laxative and blow-up doll gimmicks at No Surrender, and in fact those angles were created by the X-Division guys involved in the matches. Russo was in attendance at the show and talked to a bunch of different guys, taking notes and getting a feel for how things are going at the moment. They are planning on keeping the general storylines established by the old team through Bound For Glory, but Russo will have a hand in shaping some of those storylines into programs that will continue after TNA’s hallmark PPV.
Sources for this report include Bryan Alvarez’s Figure Four Weekly Newsletter. For $6.95 a month, you get access to the weekly newsletter, plus excellent audio shows featuring Bryan, his buddy Vince, and others. It’s worth every penny. My own sources are also used.
