News on Kizarny, DVD Sales & Ratings Records

News

A few notes on Nick Cvjetkovich, a.k.a. Kizarny, and how he got his WWE gimmick. He met with Vince McMahon and was asked about his background, which is a standard question posed by Vince and has in the past led to such gimmicks as Big Bossman, Paul Bearer and The Godfather based on real-life experiences. Vince met with him and other developmental workers at Unforgiven, then green-lighted a series of vignettes based on his carnival background. He was already working as Carnival Freak Sinn Bowdee in Florida Championship Wrestling, so it was basically just a name-change. He used to wear snakes on his tights as a tribute to Jake Roberts, who he travelled with on the indies and considers a mentor, but the design may well be changed for WWE TV.

The top-selling WWE DVDs this year are WrestleMania 24 (328,000 units shipped), Triple H (246,000), Steve Austin (236,000) and The Rock (211,000). The WrestleMania number, lower than the past few years, is somewhat disappointing given the involvement of Ric Flair and Dwayne Johnson in the Hall of Fame.

The Undertaker vs Big Show cage match on the 5th December episode of Smackdown was the highest-rated quarter hour in My Network TV history, with a 2.6 rating.

Credit: Wrestling Observer Newsletter, 17 December 2008 (subscribe here)