According to Dave Meltzer, the original scripted ending of Raw XV was for either The Undertaker or Steve Austin to lay out Vince McMahon and then for Bret Hart to come out and put Vince in the Sharpshooter as the show went off the air. In some markets he was even being advertised as one of the special guests on the show. Obviously, Bret turned down the chance to appear on the show, as did The Rock. Paul Heyman, whilst never officially invited, also let it be known that he did not want to be involved as he felt any sections of the audience that would have popped for him had already been turned off from the product. Out of those guests that did appear, Tammy Sytch seems the most likely to get a regular job. John Laurinaitis has been in touch with her about hosting duties on WWE 24/7. There is still no word on what, if anything, was meant by the Macho Man comment made by Hulk Hogan on the show. Randy Savage remains perhaps the only person that Vince McMahon will refuse to deal with. Meltzer recalled one story in the latest Wrestling Observer about how Michael Hayes once pitched a Savage idea to Vince. Rather than the blithe dismissal Vince used in the past when given ideas for other people in his bad books, like Brock Lesnar or Hogan, Vince just stared into the distance, gathered his thoughts, and said “I do not want to do business with that man.” Diggit.
No Mercy did 263,000 buys, with around 163,000 domestic. That number is away up from the underwhelming 197,000 for last year’s event and makes it the biggest B-level PPV of 2007. The curiousity factor of guaranteeing a new champion after John Cena’s injury was larger than many people thought. However, Cyber Sunday did just 191,000 (about 118,000 domestic) and was the second-lowest PPV of 2007 so far, after One Night Stand. Last year the event was a Raw show that did 228,000 buys.
JBL is said to be strongly considering making a return as a full-time wrestler. Kevin Dunn has already been auditioning potential new colour commentators alongside Michael Cole in recent weeks.
Steve Corino is trying to get a job as an agent with WWE. He has worked some dark matches for them in recent weeks and has Dusty Rhodes speaking up for him to management. However, the agents are generally a tight-knit bunch from a different era, generally with a negative view on the style Corino is most famous for, so it might not actually happen.
Credit: Wrestling Observer Newsletter, 17 December 2007 (subscribe here)
