There is a lot of discontent backstage over the sustained lack of long-term planning by the booking committee. Things are basically planned on a week-to-week basis now and the return of Stephanie McMahon has only further slowed the booking process as she gets caught up. People were particularly unhappy with the way Survivor Series was handled, e.g. doing nothing to promote the ECW PPV, the Cena/Umaga feud, etc. According to Dave Meltzer, one WWE source said “The creative process here is at an all-time high in frustration. I can’t imagine that the shows, the creative, the people involved and the players won’t undergo some major shake-ups through Mania.”
Lita was upset at the way her final match was handled, as previously reported. Real name Amy Dumas, Lita decided to leave back in the summer of 2005 after news about her private relationships with Matt Hardy and Edge became public knowledge. She was never happy about it being used as part of the TV show and the hate mail and public harassment took their toll too. She was, however, happy at the send-off the wrestlers gave her.
The bit in the Team DX vs. Team Rated RKO match involving Shawn Michaels not knowing who Mike Knox was came from Michaels genuinely not knowing anything about Knox. Michaels doesn’t watch ECW and, when the Survivor Series card was being put together a few weeks ago, he asked “Who is Mike Knox?” It became a running gag for Triple H and Vince McMahon and they eventually worked it into the match.
During the same match Jerry Lawler kept asking Jim Ross if he could remember another clean sweep ever happening during Survivor Series. Although the result of the match was known well in advance, Ross appeared not to know of any clean sweeps but that there probably had been some. There have actually been four and, bizarrely, Lawler was involved in two of them in 1994 and 1995.
There has been talk of moving Matt Hardy to Raw to team with Jeff on a regular basis.
The Shiek is going to be inducted into the Hall of Fame next year. WWE wants Sabu to induct him but he might not be with the company by that point. He is in the dog house for falling asleep on a production crate backstage at the 11/20 show due to being in rough shape. His friends say is depressed about WWE not letting him be his own character, feeling that without the character he is nothing. He was also concerned that adding Davari and Khali to ECW meant they didn’t want him to play an Arabian character anymore. Contrary to other reports his quick loss to Umaga a couple of weeks ago was not a punishment, merely protecting Umaga whilst making sure that Raw appeared superior to ECW. Sabu got more heat on 11/21 when they filmed promos for December to Dismember and struggled to get him through one. In the end Paul Heyman had to talk to him and work him through the promo one line at a time.
Joey Mercury will stay on the ECW roster as a singles worker after the PPV, while Nitro and Melina return to Raw.
New Year’s Revolution on 1/7 is scheduled to be headlined by Cena vs. Umaga for the title and DX vs. Edge/Orton in a gimmick match. Armageddon will be headlined by Booker/Finlay vs. Batista/Cena.
John Cena is going to be featured in People magazine’s 100 Sexiest Men of the Year list coming out this month. Apparently the article puts over his ‘sexy eyes.’
Ric Flair is going to be taking time off to focus on his divorce case. He has already paid his ex-wife Beth $450,000 in cash, plus $20,000 per month in alimony. The stress of this and the news of his good friend Roddy Piper having cancer have really gotten to Flair, who was in tears for no storyline purpose after his recent match on Raw.
WWE has hired Brian Friedmand and Nick Florez, two choreographers, to set up new individualistic ring entrances for the Divas. They have previously worked with Britney Spears and Beyonce Knowles.
Credit: Wrestling Observer newsletter (click here for subscription information)
