Heyman Blasts WWE; Smith & Sammartino Updates

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Paul Heyman has criticised WWE for the Jeff Hardy hospital angle they ran at Survivor Series. In his latest column for The Sun he claims that it only served to reinforce wrestling’s image “as low brow, bottom feeding entertainment.” He recalls a time when Vince McMahon complained to him about how WWE was struggling to attract major, reputable sponsors for their TV show exactly because of stunts like this. “The worst part about it is the storyline would have been just as successful with just some safeguards in place to ensure WWE comes across as ‘mainstream’. Instead, World Wrestling Entertainment looked just like the billion dollar evolution of the old carnival rasslin’ circuit.”

Bruno Sammartino’s book, An Autobiography of Wrestling’s Living Legend, is to be re-released next month. It was originally published in July 1990 and Sammartino has been working with Sal Corrente on new material for this latest edition. A documentary on Sammartino’s life is also in the works and should be out in 2009.

D.H. Smith is interviewed here by the Miami Herald about how WWE sent him back to developmental. He says that the extra training time has benefitted him and made him more mature. He is also rather critical of his fellow new-generation WWE wrestlers, saying “This may sound kind of brash, but I think that I’m better than all of them. Joe Hennig is good. Ted DiBiase Jr. has certainly worked hard enough to get to his position, but they aren’t from the dungeon.”