Prelimary buyrate information for Survivor Series puts the show at doing 325,000 buys with 200,000 in North America. That’s down from 383,000 with 234,000 domestic in 2006, even with the Hell in the Cell main event.
Stevie Richards has been out of action for so long due to having an operation on his vocal chords, a problem stemming back to an injury he suffered in a match with Terry Funk with 1997. By last year he was having trouble breathing and wound up having five operations at a hospital in Harvard. His voice has apparently made a full recovery but there’s no word on when he’ll be able to return to the ring yet.
Vince McMahon recently purchased a penthouse apartment at Trump Parc in Stamford, CT, for just over $4 million.
Michael Hayes and Pat Patterson held a meeting on 02 January to book the Royal Rumble match. Hayes met with Vince the next day, with a list of all 30 entrants, the order of entrance, the order of elimination and the high spots, which was approved by Vince.
The WWE.com birthday wishes for Jim Ross listed his age as 63 but he is in fact 56. It was a deliberate mistake, since Vince, 62 years old, enjoys pulling such pranks on JR.
Vince McMahon has cancelled the Randy Savage and Sting DVDs that were listed for a 2008 release. They were on a list of releases distributed to outlets by Kevin Dunn’s TV department, included because Vince at one point told people they didn’t have enough major name DVDs on the horizon. Savage and Sting were the obvious exceptions so they were listed but of course Vince wants nothing to do with the former and the latter is contracted to TNA.
Victor Ceron has signed a WWE developmental deal. Also known as Kafu, he has worked a number of dates for the IWA as a Bruiser Brody style wrestler. He also speaks Spanish and Portuguese, which is a major plus for him as WWE wants as many Spanish speaking wrestlers as possible for their push into the South American market.
Credit: Wrestling Observer Newsletter, 14 January 2008 (subscribe here)
