Rob Van Dam, Sandman and Sabu were acting like they were ‘personas non grata’ and wanted to be anywhere else but there at the 2/20 Smackdown/ECW tapings. Backstage the ECW cast seems to be looked down upon. Matt Striker in particular has significant heat with JBL and was hiding his bags in the dressing room for local extras to keep so that nothing would be done to them. Sabu and Sandman also changed with the extra to avoid the heat. There is also lots of heat on Kelly Kelly due to her complete lack of knowledge about wrestling. She knows nothing about the business and people are complaining about why people like that are with the company, although the people doing the hiring seem to be escaping the blame. None of the other women seem to like Kelly, while most of the guys give her no respect. Joey Mercury is said to be particularly mean about her.
At the same tapings there was a lot of apprehension about the beatdown on Rey Mysterio as they were expecting far more heat than the segment received. Umaga was even scared going out as they were afraid people might riot. Instead they got the ‘not this again’ apathy heat as they always humiliate Mysterio in San Diego. Last year he lost to Khali there in under three minutes.
C.M. Punk has even more heat on him now. At a house show a couple of weeks ago, when he was told he would lose his match, he asked the agent talking to him if he had any heat with anybody or was in the doghouse like people have said he was. The agent said he had no heat on him, then went and told others about the conversation, saying Punk was complaining about doing the job, which only added to the heat people did already have with him. Punk seems to have no easy way out of this situation. If he jobs and doesn’t react about it like Carlito, Shelton Benjamin or RVD then people will say he has no passion for the business and put him down. If he reacts about it then he gains a reputation for having an ego. Still, his merchandise continues to sell well.
Credit: Wrestling Observer newsletter (click here for subscription information)
