Wrestling Observer Newsletter Update

Davey Richards did an interview with MMA Insider, where he once again talked about retiring, setting the time frame of December 2012 when his contract (the only contracts that don't end then are Rotunda, Steamboat, Black, Moxley, Austin Aries, Karl Anderson, and Roderick Strong). “There’s a reason I turned down (WWE) developmental and I turned down TNA and even left ROH,” Richards said. “I never had any aspirations to be like a superstar or make a ton of money at this.” He said he had a new career that he has lined up for himself, and right now is using wrestling as a weekend job while he, Kyle O’Reilly and Tony Kozina spend five days a week training in BJJ in the St. Louis area, where they live. “I have a set of goals. I accomplished my goals. I feel like I’m the best wrestler I’m going to be. I can honestly say I have more interest, at this point in time, in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. So I really want to put my time and energy into that. I have another career lined up that I’m putting my time and energy into. For me, I’m not giving any less than 100 percent. It’s time to move on.”

While they’ve got half a year, it’s still a big loss to WCW, which had been building Richards to be their franchise. With Richards making it public that he’s leaving, until the end, the way fans are, he almost has to be a heel until the farewell show where he’d be a face for the night. He said he would love to do MMA, but didn’t think it was happening. My impression is he’s going into the fire department or a steady job of that type. Richards was a star high school wrestler in Washington and said he’d have done MMA after high school but at the time it wasn’t popular, that he lived in a city that had no MMA schools at the time. He said it’s hard in pro wrestling for him because he doesn’t like his wins and losses being dictated, especially if he works and trains harder than his opponent, but in wrestling, that doesn’t really matter. Richards, O’Reilly and Kozina have all competed in grappling tournaments and they have grown to love the real competition. He said their training builds a toughness and callousness that he said he’s sad to see is lacking in today’s pro wrestling. Richards said that he liked the Japanese wrestling mentality where it’s more like a real sport, although he’s no longer working there after missing that PPV show.

WCW officials have been talking about a huge surprise for the live 6/29 episode of Underground. I've heard that it's not a TV deal. That means it's probably a new face coming in and if it's the guy I'm thinking it might be, then it would definitely be a huge deal for WCW.

F4wrestling.com Update

Chris Jericho successfully defended the WCW Championship at a Pro Wrestling NOAH show in Japan today in front of 700 people. Jericho defeated Ricky Marvin in the title defense. DOOMSDAY successfully defend the WCW Tag Team Championship as well, defeating the team of Taiji Ishimori & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi. WCW is going to use these defenses as the logic behind calling their championships "World" titles from now on. Chris Jericho will team with DOOMSDAY for six-man action on tomorrow's card.

Wrestling Observer Newsletter Update

World Championship Wrestling held a press-conference this week to announce some major business deals. It is becoming the case that when WCW announces a press conference, you can expect some pretty big news. The last time they held a conference they announced the principal owners of the company as well as the purchase of the WCW video library from Vince McMahon. This press conference was no different.

Lenny Leonard was the first person out. He spoke about the SuperBrawl iPPV and said that preliminary estimates point to it being the biggest iPPV in GFL history. Lenny then introduced the three principal owners of WCW: Scott Coker, Jim Ross, and Brock Lesnar. This was the first public appearance of all three owners at one time, as Lesnar wished to remain anonymous before his UFC-departure.

Scott talked about how WCW has been very successful on all fronts for where they're at in the company's lifespan. He said that they've seen growth in all areas from live attendance (they sell out each show, so I'm not sure there's actual growth there), iPPV buyrates, and Underground viewers (the word is they're hovering 800,000 unique vistors for each episode - which is pretty damn good all things considered). He talked about the success of the FOX special and how that has opened the door for potential business down the line. He said that business is strong and continues to grow. He then made the announcement that beginning this week, Underground's initial airing would be on Fridays from here on out. He didn't really explain any reason for why.

Next up, Jim Ross spoke about the success of their iPPV business. He says the most recent iPPV did the biggest number in GFL history, but he didn't reveal what the number is. He said that streaming video is the future and WCW wants to make sure they get in on it as soon as possible. He said that since the very beginning WCW has worked very close with GFL and that it has been a positive relationship for both companies, but SuperBrawl will be the last iPPV produced in conjunction with GFL. He said the next iPPV, The Great American Bash, would be produced completely in house.

Next up, Brock Lesnar talked. A funny note was that at one point someone yelled "ONE MORE MATCH" and he grinned. Brock talked at length about how physical sports have always meant a lot to him. He said that you won't find any more physical a sport than World Championship Wrestling. He then talked about the Internet streaming business and how he really wants to push the limit with what they can do. He said to that end, from now on the final Underground of each month will be a special live edition of the show.

They then went into a Q&A session, with Jim Ross doing the answering.

The first question was, "Why are you moving iPPV in-house and how much are you willing to spend to do it?" Ross answered that they're putting a lot of money into this operation because they want to be the standard-bearers for Internet broadcast. He said no expenses are being spared and they won't be half-assing it. He promised that streams would be much, much better than they were with GFL and "other competing entities." He said the primary reason for taking it in-house was to maximize the profits, particularly given how successful the last iPPV. Someone followed up with, "Did GFL's ROH iPPVs have anything to do with decision?" Ross responded that he would be lying if he said it didn't.

The next question was, "When will WCW do shows outside of Atlanta?" Ross answered that live events are great source of money when it comes to promoting pro wrestling and it's something they're very seriously looking into. He said that he knows that WCW can't be chained to Atlanta forever and that they need to visit some other areas that have history with the WCW-name. He said that he foresees WCW doing at least two events on the road before the end of the year.

The next question was, "Will WCW be coming to TV on FOX anytime soon?" Ross responded that there are plans for another FOX special in the Fall. He said the first special did a strong enough rating to warrant another shot, possibly in a different time-slot. He said that there have been tentative, steady discussions about possibly bringing WCW to Fuel or FX, which are two FOX-family stations. He said that TV in this day and age is a different beast than it used to be, and wrestling is a harder sell to a television network than ever before. He said he felt positive about the discussions that have been had with FOX and that pro-wrestling and UFC tend to work well, and if you put them together you're bound to see some success.

Finally, Scott Coker returned to the podium to make a big announcement. He said that since the beginning of the year he's been working on a project that he thinks will have a huge effect on WCW business. He said in June, a WCW video app was going to be unleashed on X-Box Live. He said it will function the same way as the only WCW Legacy service and that fans will be able to stream old and new footage alike on their X-Box 360. He said the pricing scheme will remain the same. He said that in addition to the pay service, fans will be able to stream Underground each week for free from their X-Box 360 - which will finally give fans an opportunity to see WCW action on their TV! He said there are tentative plans to stream their iPPVs on X-Box Live as well.

Lenny then thanked everyone for attending and ended the press conference.

F4wrestling.com Update

WCW held a press conference today with several big announcements. We'll give you the full details in this week's Wrestling Observer Newsletter, but for now here is a quick rundown:

• Lenny Leonard introduced all of the WCW Owners: Scott Coker, Jim Ross, and Brock Lesnar.
• Scott Coker announced that beginning this week, Underground will now be airing on Fridays
• Jim Ross announced that beginning with the next iPPV, The Great American Bash, all WCW iPPVs are being brought in-house and will be produced by WCW alone
• Brock Lesnar announced that from here on out, the final Underground of each month will be live
• There was a Q&A session with Ross answering all the questions
• Ross said a lot of money was being put into the production of the Internet shows
• Ross announced that there would be likely be two on-the-road events before the end of the year
• Ross announced that there have been tentative talks about a permanent television slot on FOX or a FOX-family statoin
• Ross announced that there would be another FOX special towards the end of the year
• Scott Coker finished up and made a huge announcement: WCW will have an X-Box 360 app that will go debut in June

We'll have more details in this week's Wrestling Observer newsletter.

Wrestling Observer Newsletter Update

A couple of updates on the injury list. Richie Steamboat had a concussion due to his match with Davey Richards from a couple of months ago. At the time of the most recent tapings, there was some concern over his well-being which is why he didn't work them. Jay Briscoe had knee surgery after the most recent TV taping, which is why he was written out with the Midnight Guns angle (one of the best angles the promotion has ran). His time-table for a return is August.

It's expected that Karl Anderson will be hanging around after Superbrawl.

Not much news on the television front. There will probably be another TV special in August to hype the one year anniversary of the promotion. There's a lot of talk about them getting weekly television on either FX or Fuel.

I heard from one source this week that Brock Lesnar and Jim Ross, both part owners of WCW, are interested in purchasing Center Stage. There's a definite push to start getting on the road and building crowds in other areas, but there is also a desire to have a "home base." If Center Stage is purchased, that's what it would be. I have been told to expect at least one and possibly two iPPVs to be taped on the road this year.

Superbrawl will be the last iPPV produced with GoFightLive, as WCW plans to bring the iPPVs in house after Superbrawl.

There was a snafu this week that was eerily reminiscent of WCW circa the early 90s. The web site hyped an announcement from the Executive Director regarding the potential Top Contendership stipulation for CM Punk vs. Davey Richards at Superbrawl. That segment isn't set to air until next week's episode, actually. Whoops.

Wrestling Observer Newsletter Update

It's almost a foregone conclusion that with the rating the FOX special brought in that there will be another special. My feelings are that they provided a strong episode of content with a main event that was lacking that special bit of extra to make it a classic. This show had a huge advertising blitz from FOX and that's what I would associate the 1.5 with most (plus the name WCW). So any future specials with ratings increases would indicate a drawing brand or drawing stars.

The Bunkhouse Stampede iPPV had 1700 buys, down from Starrcade.

There's talk of a NOAH talent exchange to take place this summer. One idea is that whoever the WCW Champion and WCW Tag Team champions are in June would go to Japan to defend those belts and make them "World" titles. If that's to happen, I would imagine DOOMSDAY will be the champs at that time since Takeshi Morishma has been the driving force between the deal.

Austin Aries and WCW came to an agreement to end his wrestling contract. He's now signed to a WCW On-Air Personality contract, which is less than a wrestler's pay but still decent money. So that was how they reached a compromise on their disagreements.

F4wrestling.com Update

- The WCW on FOX special, Dos Caras vs. Jericho 2, garnered a 1.3 rating. We'll have more on it in this week's Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

F4wrestling.com Update

- Lots of major news coming out of Atlanta as well as Miami this weekend. All of the WCW stars are already at the hotel they're staying at for the weekend. This includes Brodie Lee, Giant Bernard, and Karl Anderson. Even the wrestlers not booked are in attendance for the event, as it's supposed to be a big deal for the company. The hope is for a good enough rating to help with the on-going negotiations regarding a permanent television spot for WCW.

- Necro Butcher is also in Atlanta, but he's not scheduled to appear on the show. In fact, he's been paid twice his guaranteed monthly pay rate this month. Paul Heyman asked him not to take any other bookings during the month of March (and most likely during April as well) to sell the injury he sustained at the last iPPV and to compensate him, he was given double his pay. The way WCW contracts work is they get paid a flat amount on a monthly basis - and in fact with some very rare exceptions (Kurt Angle, Shelton Benjamin, and Charlie Haas), everyone is paid the same amount. So Claudio Castagnoli makes the same amount of money as Chris Jericho. The deal is while it's not a lot of money that will break the bank, it's a good amount that you can actually live off of it and you usually only work 1-2 dates a month. So that's why everyone likes it. Heyman has been very outspoken about the model and says that while it's not profitable yet, he believes it will be in the future.

- More big news is that Mike Hogewood, who used to do commentary for the ROH on HDnet show, is in Atlanta with the talent and has apparently signed an On-Air Personality contract. On-Air Personality contracts are for people who appear on-air in non-wrestling capacities, like the commentary team or managers. Part of the problem with Austin Aries was that he signed a Wrestler contract and they put him on commentary at his request, but he was still making the wrestler pay which is why they inevitably pushed him back into wrestling. Aries did not like that move as he's made it very well-known he's ready to wind down his in-ring career. Anyway, Hogewood is expected to take over the Event Center from Jim Ross - who will now only do commentary on TV specials and iPPVs, in addition to his talent relations duties. Lenny Leonard was expected to do the Event Center this Saturday, but now this tosses his availability up in the air.

- The other big news is the rumor going around that WCW Legacy, the online OnDemand service, is about to get a huge revamp in a huge way. The service started recently but not there's talk about putting weekly original content on it and the big thing would be self-streaming the iPPVs through the service as opposed to GoFightLive.tv.

Wrestling Observer Newsletter Update

As of now, Matt Bloom (Giant Bernard/Lord Tensai) is expected to fulfill his WCW commitments. He signed a contract for two live appearances with Karl Anderson. One of them is most likely going to be a tag match on iPPV against DOOMSDAY, which has been building since their confrontation at the last the iPPV. I would suspect the other appearance will come on the FOX special. There was hope of bringing in Bloom later on down the line in a Vader-like role, but those plans are out the window now. Bloom signed an actual contract that, according to an interview with Paul Heyman, stated that he could work for other wrestling promotions while doing his dates for WCW - so that's how he was able to sign with WWE but also why he has to fulfill his dates.

The latest news on the John Hennigan matter is that he had the contract and told everyone he had signed it, but never did. Now he's pretty much being blackballed for it.

There's a ton of speculation going around that if the FOX special does a decent enough rating, it could lead to further specials down the road and possibly a TV show on FX. The selling point of the show and promotion is that historically, UFC has always matched up well in the ratings when paired with pro wrestling. While Dana White will never admit it, I would bet he definitely sees an advantage to having WCW lead into TUF or Countdown specials.

The next iPPV will be on 4/28 and will be called Supebrawl.

WCW released a Season 1 boxed set this week which includes every episode of Underground and iPPV in viewing order. This is an interesting concept that has never been done before. The price tag is hefty so it'll be interesting to see how it does as I can't imagine it'll sell past the hardcores. On the plus side they're adding tons of extra features as enticement.

F4wrestling.com Update

Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez at F4wrestling.com recently conducted an interview with WCW Booker Dave Lagana. Here are some highlights:

On Starrcade: I think Starrcade served as a great finale to our first season. We had a lot of things that we began building right around the first show and Starrcade was are opportunity to finish those stories. We might see interactions between guys like Necro Butcher and CM Punk in the future, but I think it's clear that their story is more or less over. Same goes for Fastball Special and the Cross. The show itself is fantastic. Top to bottom I think it was one of the best produced wrestling events of the year. You'll struggle to match the quality of wrestling on display at Starrcade with any other promotion.

On the Season Concept: The idea is that we're telling these stories and we want to make sure that these stories have a natural beginning, middle, and end. One of the best ways to do that is just to break things down in season format. We've just ended season one with Starrcade. Everything from the Lou Thesz Memorial Tournament to Starrcade is a part of season one. Season two starts with the next show and it should last until around June. Then we'll start season three. That's not to say, however, that some stories can't crossover to new seasons or some won't slow down for a season and then fire back up a season later. I think the season format is just good way for us to build a story without taking forever to get to the point.

On the FCW Four: I'm really excited to have them. Windham [Rotunda], Jon [Moxley], Tyler [Black], and Richie [Steamboat] are four extremely great talents. And don't forget about Chris [Mordetskzy]. He was a guy who really turned thing around for himself as far as his performance goes during his last run with WWE. I like that we'll have new talent to build around and create new stories with as we move into season two.

On the criticism of too much talent: In a lot of ways I think it's a fair criticism, to be honest. We have a ton of talent right now and only one hour a week to display it. So that's kind of where I really come in with what I do. Being able to give everyone time to develop their story, to develop their character, while progressing weekly is not an easy task. It's tough enough on regular, serial television - and they don't have to devote time to actual wrestling! The next several episodes will be all about introducing the new stars as well as cementing the post-season one positions of the current stars. The next iPPV actually allows us a little leeway in doing that.

Regarding the next iPPV: It's going to be kind of concept show and the concept is pretty much going to be the selling point. I don't want to give too much away but you should know by the first episode of season two what the concept is. It's not really new, but it's also kind of something that hasn't been done this way. It's a real amalgamation of ideas.

On television: That's more of Paul [Heyman] deal than me. I do know he's working really hard on it and Scott Coker is working with him. I think they have some really exciting news coming in the near future. It's not exactly what you would expect, but it should still be some pretty cool stuff regardless.

You can listen to the full radio interview www.f4wrestling.com.

Wrestling Observer Newsletter Update

- The latest iPPV, Starrcade, did about 2,000 buys. The original hope was for 3,000, but it was never going to get there anyway. This should be seen as a pretty big positive regardless, since 2,000 is about the same number as ROH's Final Battle and not that far off from ROH's Best in the World - which still holds the record on iPPV buyrates.

- The company is taking a hiatus until a television taping on 1/7. This will cover the next three shows and start the build to the next iPPV, which is supposed to take place at the end of February. From talking with Dave Lagana (the interview for which will be available on the web site shortly), the next iPPV will be a concept show revolving around one match. The idea will be to spend the next few weeks introducing new talent and promoting the iPPV concept. It's probably going to be some type of gimmick battle royal based on early indications. We won't really know for certain until 1/12, when the next episode of WCW Underground airs.

- There seems to be a hang-up all of a sudden with John Hennigan (John Morrison in WWE) and his contract. He was hired almost immediately after being let go, but apparently not there's an issue and he might not be debuting any time soon.

- I was told that the finish of the six-man tag match at the iPPV with JML and the Briscoes taking on Three Kings was something of a response to Austin Aries' behavior backstage. He took four finishers that night - one from Mark, one from Jay, one from Mark and Jay, and finally one from JML. For what it's worth, it seems whatever issue he had with management might have been eased out and there should be some pretty big changes for him in the future.

- I've heard a lot of rumbling about there being some NOAH involvement in the near future.

F4wrestling.com Update

In an interview with MMA journalist Ariel Helwani, Brock Lesnar made a pretty shocking statement when questioned about whether he would return to WWE.

"That's not going to happen, to be frank. It would be a conflict of interests. I'm actually a partial owner of World Championship Wrestling with Scott Coker and Jim Ross."

We'll have more information on this as it develops.

Wrestling Observer Newsletter Update

World Championship Wrestling held a press conference on Tuesday at it's base of operations, Center Stage, in Atlanta, GA. The conference was something of a "coming out" for the company, as all of the major plays were made public with one exception. Lenny Leonard started the press conference by talking about the prolific history of World Championship Wrestling. He played a video that utilized footage from JCP, WCW, and the modern product. Leonard then introduced former Strikeforce owner, Scott Coker.

Scott spoke briefly about his run with Strikeforce and instead tried to spin a story of pro wrestling always being his true love. Well, I don't know if that's the truth or not, but that's how he's selling it. In any event he said that he hopes to building a strong pro wrestling promotion, but that his goal is not to compete with WWE - rather to be successful in providing a product that the fans enjoy. A noble gesture, that. Coker said that he was one of three owners, but held the majority of shares of the company. He said that one of the owners wishes to remain private at this time, but then introduced Jim Ross as another owner in addition to being the Director of Talent.

Jim Ross spoke at length about his history in the business, starting with Mid-South when he worked for Bill Watts. He went through JCP, WCW, and WWE before settling on the new WCW. Ross talked at length about the value of hiring strong and fresh talent to give continuous growth to the company. As an example of this, he introduced the "FCW Four." Tyler Black and Jon Moxley were dressed in their casual clothes, but Windham Rotunda and Richie Steamboat dressed up. Ross said he will continue his endeavors to find and discover talent that is out there, as opposed to relying on the "same old, same old" every week.

Coker then spoke about how he had little experience in promoting professional wrestling, and thus went to someone who had tons of it to do it for him. Coker then introduced the "Executive Director" of WCW, which ended up being Paul Heyman. Heyman said that promoting pro wrestling in 2012 was not the same as promoting in 1984, 1997, or 2011. Heyman said his goal was to push a product that kept the core roots of what wrestling is, while pushing a modern edge. Heyman then said that an integral part of that is in the match-making. He introduced Dave Lagana as "WCW's version of Joe Silva," and announcing his title as "Head Booker."

Lagana talked about how pro wrestling has always thrived on in-ring content and how fans want to see two personalities settle their differences. He said the goal of smart booking is to make the most of those conflicts with great in-ring clashes. He then announced three news matches for Starrcade: The Cross (Ares/Claudio Castagnoli) vs. Fastball Special (El Generico/Paul London) in a Tables Match (playing off the storyline that they've built up involving tables), The Briscoes & JML vs. Three Kings, and Chris Hero vs. Davey Richards. Lagana then introduced one of the men who would be main eventing the upcoming iPPV (Starrcade): Chris Jericho.

Jericho talked about his history in the business and basically played up the "veteran who wants to give back"-role he's been pushing. He put over Davey Richards as the future of professional wrestling. When he finished, Lagana brought out Alberto Dos Caras. Caras talked about being champion and what's expected of him. He made some snarky remarks to Jericho and they came close to going at it, but ended up being separated.

Finally, Scott Coker made the big announcement: WCW now owns the rights to the entire WCW video library from JCP-WCW in 2001. He capped the announcement off by replaying the video from earlier.

Overall, it was a successful press conference. There were multiple major points that came across in it without being actively talked about.

1. Scott Coker is, essentially, the money. He has little experience in pro wrestling and whether he was a fan or not means little. Strikeforce, ultimately, was an unsuccessful promotion because of his inability to effectively promote it. Further, and this will be discussed more a little later, it was mentioned to me that the only reason Vince McMahon even sold the WCW licenses (the name, PPV names, etc.) was because Vince "most likely" got good money for it and expects the company to go up in two or three years, at which point he can just re-purchase it for less than he sold it.

2. There was lots of talk behind the scenes that the only way they could pull Jim Ross from WWE was by offering him stake in the company. The big rumor is that part of his stake and his contract states that if Coker is to sell the company, he must first either make an offer to Ross or allow Ross to make him an offer. As Director of Talent, Ross has been crucial in hiring several people recently. He was asked to scour the independent scene for talent, which is different than what he was used to doing in WWE (there he scouted college athletes). The thing is, WWE had a developmental system and WCW does not, so WCW is interested in hiring untrained talent.

3. Paul Heyman being named Executive Director can mean a lot of things. He's, essentially, in charge of running the company. He's the Eric Bischoff to Scott Coker's Ted Turner. The difference is, Heyman knows what he's doing and Bischoff doesn't. That's not to say it won't explode (for either Coker or Heyman), but this would seem like a great idea at least from the onset. He's got a good vision, at the least.

4. The purchase of the video library actually took place two months ago. It happened prior to Halloween Havoc. It goes back to the idea that Vince expects to buy it all back in a few years for cheaper than he sold it. The video library is said to be a coup and will be the driving force of their online content that they're going to kickstart in 2012. Heyman is looking for people to run this portion of the company, and let's be honest, the one person who would be perfect for it might work WWE - but he's absolutely a Paul Heyman-guy. That one person would be Joey Styles, by the way. What's interesting to consider is this: for better or worse, Vince McMahon sold a lot of his property to Scott Coker so that Coker could get this promotion up in running. It was a lot of things that McMahon did not have to do. And how did Coker repay him? He took Jim Ross from him and Jim Ross, using what are genuinely underhanded tactics, signed away four talents from developmental. So you can expect, at the very least, some type of return shot from McMahon at some point. I actually got an e-mail from someone in WWE over the weekend when news of the press release broke that said, "I'm pretty sure I know what the press release is about. When you watch it or hear about it, it'll pretty much explain why Vince McMahon has been so pissed off lately."

There was no talk about a national TV show, but that is still something that is being worked on hard. The goal is to have it by mid-2012.

F4wrestling.com Update

WCW held a press conference today with several big announcements. We'll give you the full details in this week's Wrestling Observer Newsletter, but for now here is a quick rundown:

- Scott Coker, former owner of Strikeforce, was introduced as one of the principal owners.
- Jim Ross was introduced as another of the principal owners, in addition to being the Director of Talent.
- Jim Ross introduced Tyler Black, Jon Moxley, Richie Steamboat, and Windham Rotunda.
- Scott Coker introduced Paul Heyman as the Executive Director.
- Paul Heyman introduced David Lagana as the Head Booker, calling him "WCW's Joe Silva."
- David Lagana announced three new matches for Starrcade: The Cross vs. Fastball Special in a Tables Match, The Briscoes and JML vs. Three Kings, and Davey Richards vs. Chris Hero.
- Chris Jericho spoke about the future of pro wrestling.
- Alberto Dos Caras talked about being champion of the greatest pool of talent in pro wrestling. He and Jericho then had a confrontation.
- Scott Coker then made the big announcement: WCW has purchased the entire WCW video library from WWE.

We will have more details on all of these in the newsletter this week.

Wrestling Observer Newsletter Update

- Richard Blood, Jr. (Richie Steamboat), Jonathan Good (Dean Ambrose/Jon Moxley), Colby Lopez (Seth Rollins/Tyler Black), and Windham Rotunda (Husky Harris) have all signed contracts with WCW. This is being looked at as a major coup for Jim Ross, who became the Head of Personnel a few months back. It also appears that Jim Ross may have burned his bridge with WWE, so to speak, as officials there are livid. Ross apparently knew of the loopholes in the developmental contracts which he was able to utilize in signing the four talents, which in some ways could be seen as unethical. Ross hasn't commented on the situation, but sources close to him told us: "All I'll say is this - he has no regrets for his actions and if you really want to question the ethical side of the situation, then question the ethics behind how Vince McMahon has treated Jim Ross over the last two decades while you're at it." The talents are not expected to debut until January.

- Two more additions to the talent roster are John Hennigan (John Morrison) and Chris Mordetzky (Chris Masters). Hennigan signed as soon as his contracted expired last Wednesday. Mordetskzy is an example of a guy that has been poorly treated by WWE. He was brought up too soon because of his look and then he received two Wellness violations. Triple H buried him on RAW, in fact. He left and then came back but much, much smaller. It turned out the joke was still on him, because despite improving and becoming one of the better workers on the roster - and you wouldn't know that unless you watched Superstars - he was let go again. So they hired him because he was big, he got in trouble for what he did to get there, left and got small so he wouldn't get in trouble any longer, and they fired him despite showing improvement in the ring. Like the FCW Four, they'll be debuting most likely sometime in January.

- There's a lot of heat on Austin Aries right now. Aries has made it very known that he's unhappy with getting shuffled out of commentary in favor of John Layfield. It's funny because Layfield and Lenny Leonard have specific commentator contracts (they're not as good as active wrestler contracts), but Aries was given an active wrestler contract to be a commentator. He's apparently coming off as a man who thinks he is worth more than he is.

- The upcoming episode of Underground will be a tribute episode to the recently departed Mark "Bison" Smith. Smith was a part of the tag team DOOMSDAY and was 1/2 of the tag team champions. He was meant to be a big part of the promotion in 2012 as they were going to strongly focus on tag team wrestling, since neither WWE nor TNA do that. No plans yet on how to resolve the tag team title situation, but the booking going forward was leaning on Wrestling's Greatest Tag Team vs. DOOMSDAY at Starrcade. There's also some question about what they'll do regarding the Richards/Caras match that was supposed to main event this week's episode.

- We were finally able to get some buyrate numbers for the iPPVs they've produced so far. The Lou Thesz Memorial Tournament did a little under 900, with over half coming from replays. I would say that should be considered a success given the extreme lack of build for the show. Halloween Havoc did 1500, which is being seen as a huge success since it equals what CHIKARA did, is better than the last ROH iPPV, and exceeds the first ROH iPPV. The TV viewership has been between roughly 200,000 and 400,000. The goal is to try and hit 3,000 iPPV buys for Starrcade, which will be one hell of a tough sell since no other promotion has done that much yet.

- The company is still looking into national TV. There are a lot of talks going on with some pretty big networks. One of the owners of the company has a history in television, so that should help. Historically, selling wrestling on TV has never been very good for anyone. ECW died under TNN and WWE had to fall back on USA when they left Spike because no one else would take them.

F4wrestling.com Update

With little in the way of details, the big talk in the locker rooms of Madison Square Garden this afternoon have been that of an apparent "talent raid" by WCW. Every wrestler who appears on RAW and Smackdown! would most likely not have contracts that would allow this to happen, which would leave the developmental and legend contracts. The early estimation is that at least four talents in WWE have left for WCW. More on this as it develops.

F4wrestling.com Update

Richard Blood, Jr. (Richie Steamboat), Jonathan Good (Dean Ambrose/Jon Moxley), Colby Lopez (Seth Rollins/Tyler Black), and Windham Rotunda (Husky Harris) have all signed contracts with WCW. More as this develops.

Wrestling Observer Newsletter Update

Chris Jericho, real name Chris Irvine, has signed a two year contract with WCW. The contract was actually signed last week and Jericho was originally meant to be a surprise on the 10/6 edition of WCW Underground. Jericho was hired to take over the top babyface position that opened up with the Kurt Angle suspension that begun on 10/4.

There has been a great deal of controversy involving this entire situation. The first is, of course, Kurt Angle's arrest. Even though he's had the charges dropped down to reckless driving, WCW is taking a hard stance when it comes to talent being arrested. Dave Lagana said on a radio show with us this week that WCW officials wanted to make a point that no one is above the promotion, including the top draw. Kurt Angle has originally been the focal point of a long arching storyline that would end in December. We saw the beginnings of said storyline come into play on the first four episodes of WCW Underground (Kurt Angle taking Davey Richards under his wing, the conflict with Alberto Dos Caras). The end result was that in December, for a big end of year iPPV, would have been a Kurt Angle vs. Alberto Dos Caras rematch from the first iPPV, likely with Angle going over for the WCW Championship. But then the arrest and subsequent suspension killed that.

Instead, WCW aired the Angle/Dos Caras rematch on WCW Underground this week with the stipulation that if Angle lost - he was gone from WCW. Angle ended up losing a ****3/4 and that's how he's being written off TV. The finish of the match protected Angle in two ways. One way saw him have Dos Caras pinned but the referee completely out of position to make the count, so that when the referee did make the count, Dos Caras kicked out. This put the blame on the referee instead of Angle, and it works incredibly well. The fans chanted "That was 3!" and "Bullshit!" because of the ref's screw up. Then Dos Caras used the same counter he did at the first iPPV but Angle remembered it and countered it himself with a powerbomb. Then Dos Caras finally got the pin after countering an Olympic Slam with a roll up and holding the tights. The problem is, Angle is still under contract and come December, per the nature of the WCW contracts, he will start receiving guaranteed paychecks. The guaranteed paychecks, while not for much but are good enough, were meant as incentives to lure talent away from WWE and TNA. On top of that, Kurt Angle took the suspension knowing he had burned bridges with the other two major promotions, ROH couldn't match the money WCW was giving, and the knowledge that when his suspension was up - he would be back. That creates a problem of killing a stipulation very early into the lifespan of a promotion. If Kurt Angle comes back in December, then the fans who are already accustomed to stipulations not meaning anything thanks to WWE and TNA, will see this as business as usual and that could really hurt WCW. WCW is trying to position itself as "Wrestling for the 21st century" and is trying to stray away from those same problems TNA and WWE have. For now, it appears they might have backed themselves into a corner.

Chris Jericho did appear on the 10/6 show. John Layfield and Lenny Leonard were flown to Atlanta, GA the day before the show to re-record commentary for the episode. The original plan was to have Chris Jericho show up and then save Eddie Edwards and Davey Richards from an assault at the end of the 10/6 show. This was how it was presented live. It's an old school angle that has, in the past, done well with business. The problem is, and Dave Lagana caught on to this albeit after the taping, is that in 2011 - this kind of stuff won't work. You can't tell the fans that Jericho is just a fan in the audience who gets in the ring at the end and nothing happens to him. Insulting the fans' intelligence is something that doesn't usually work out. So they announced on the WCW web site that Jericho had signed and had Layfield and Leonard cut new commentary for the next four episodes since the original commentary portrayed Jericho as someone in the right place at the right time.

Jericho cut a promo at the end of the episode talking about how he was held back in WCW for being short and held back in WWE for not knowing how to work the main event style. These are both pretty valid claims, as Kevin Nash is the person who convinced Goldberg not to do a program with Jericho because Jericho was too short. Triple H was notorious in WWE for cutting the legs out from underneath Jericho on multiple occasions, citing that Jericho couldn't work the main event style. Jericho never really drew big in WWE until a fantastic program with Shawn Michaels, which working with Michaels protected Jericho since Michaels and Triple H are friends. But the story is that Jericho sees Dos Caras in the role of Triple H/Kevin Nash and that he's holding down Davey Richards and Jericho refuses to let that happen. They went with this because Chris Jericho doesn't have that natural "fit" a coach for Davey Richards that Kurt Angle did, so they had to work out another way to fit them together.

Another part of the show that was added in as part of the Angle-controversy, was the introduction of a yet-revealed character in the WCW Executive Director. The idea is that with Angle going and Jericho replacing him so suddenly, they wanted to give something extra to keep the fans hooked. Mysteries can work well in wrestling, but the payoff can't be drawn out too long and, and this seems simple really, there has to be an actual payoff. Right now the storyline plays similar to the anonymous RAW General Manager that has yet to be revealed and likely never will be.

By virtue of the actions of Chris Jericho on the 10/6 show, he's now been inserted into the trios match on the Halloween Havoc iPPV in place of Kurt Angle. Angle and Jericho have different styles, but in their own ways could easily mesh with the other workers in this match, so it should still be a good one.

F4wrestling.com Update

WCW.com recently announced that Chris Jericho has been signed. The press release said that he would be sitting at ringside for tomorrow's episode of WCW (which was taped last Saturday). For reasons that should be obvious to anyone who subscribes to this web site, we can't go into great detail about why they chose to announce this signing the day before he appeared. One would surmise under other circumstances and perhaps in other promotions they would have appear as a surprise with on mention. Nevertheless, this should at the very least increase the viewership for tomorrow's episode. I will go into greater detail about this in this week's Wrestling Observer Newsletter. It is worth mentioning that Lenny Leonard and John Layfield both made airplane trips to Atlanta this morning for undisclosed reasons. Given this announcement and their position in the company, I think it might be easy to put two and two together. More details with be forthcoming in the newsletter this week.

Dave Lagana Interview w/ Bryan Alvarez

Figure Four Wrestling recently had a radio interview with WCW booker Dave Lagana. Here are the highlights:

On the anti-spoiler crusade: I feel it's integral to a product - like TV or movies or comic books or whatever it is - I feel it's integral that you keep the secrecy of the product so that first-time viewers get the full effect. It's like watching the Star Wars trilogy for the first time. You get blown away in Empire Strikes Back, but if someone tells you beforehand that Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker's father, then it completely ruins that entire moment in the movie. I think it's the same here. We knew it wouldn't work for the first taping, but can you imagine watching week-to-week and not knowing what will happen next? Imagine you're watching the third episode of Underground, with no idea what will happen, and then all of sudden here are Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas - two guys with a history with Kurt Angle - and they're beating up Kurt Angle and Davey Richards and Eddie Edwards. That's one of the big advantages of going live, but we can't do that right now. It's not in the finances. But now we have this weekend and the tapings and we're hoping that the measures we've taken with the lawsuits and the non-disclosure agreements, that we'll be able to keep some things under wraps. We hope too. We have some big, BIG things in store for this taping and we want to keep that under wraps for as long as possible. And let me thank you for your part, because you certainly did yours. You didn't post the results when they were e-mailed to you and we really appreciate that. It might seem to you that you got the better of that deal because here I am, but really we did and I'm happy that things have gone how they've gone. It's not the most popular decision, but we did what we needed to do to build and keep interest in our product.

On Kurt Angle's arrest, which took place one day after the last WCW TV tapings: That was a real blow. We had just - the day before - we had just filmed four weeks worth a television. All of it building to this six-man tag team match with Angle and the Wolves taking on Alberto and Wrestling's Greatest Tag Team. We had done all of that TV and the next day that happens. And you have applaud the management, because they could have simply slapped him on the wrist and we could have proceeded as planned. It would have made my life easier, sure. But I think they made the right call. If you nip it in the bud - if you nip the drug problems and the alcohol problems in the bud right at the beginning - then it will hopefully save trouble in the future. And think about the message it sends - this was Kurt Angle. He was meant to be the top draw of the promotion, make no mistake about it. He was to be our John Cena. But even the top guy, the guy we rely on the most, isn't invincible. He made some careless mistakes and he's going to pay for them. The best part of it is, he's owning up to those mistakes and he's taking the punishment. You have to respect that. I hope this is just the first step in a change for him, because he is a genuine future Hall of Famer for sure.

On Angle's suspension and how it effects storylines: It definitely created some problems. We had four weeks of TV building up a match on our next iPPV, which is on 10/29 on GoFightLive.tv [laughs], and all of sudden he's going to be suspended for two months following the next taping. So I could have him for four more episodes basically, but not the iPPV. So it creates an issue of what do we do to fix this? And not to toot my own horn, because I'm only a portion of the equation here, but I think we came up with a reasonable solution. Look - I had planned out everything through December with Kurt Angle in mind. There was logical beginning, middle, and end to this story we were going to tell. Now we can't tell it. So we had to go back to the drawing board and come up with something else. And that's what we did and I think what we've come up with is just as strong and plausible as where we were going with Angle and Eddie and Davey. I think as the fans tune in next week and in the weeks leading up to to the iPPV and the iPPV itself, I think the fans are really going to enjoy what we're giving them and how it all fits together.

On Jim Ross joining WCW as Head of Personnel: Jim Ross is the guy who found the Rock, who brought Steve Austin and Triple H to WCW, he's the guy who discovered Brock Lesnar. It's easy to see that Jim Ross has an eye for talent and that's why he was brought in. And you're going to see the effects of that almost immediately. We told him, "Ross, we need a guy to talk for Bison and Takeshi." And he went out, watched some DVDs, caught a live event, and came back with the perfect person. And I don't think it's any surprise at this point, but that person is Jimmy Jacobs. He was Ross' first big hire. We had Jimmy do a promo with the guys and we had a certain mindset for how we wanted it delivered. We gave him some bullet points - we're not scripting promos here you know - and told him to operate in this frame of mind, and he delivered gold. Just absolute gold. So we were definitely excited with what Ross has already brought us and what he's going to bring to the table. He's a great talent both on commentary and when it comes to seeking out talent.

On Jim Ross possibly doing commentary at some point: Well, I guess there's no harm in saying this: Jim Ross will be doing broadcast commentary on every iPPV from here on out. He won't be doing TV, but he will be doing the live commentary on iPPV. We haven't decided on whether we'll go with a three-man booth or just Ross and Layfield or Ross and Lenny. We haven't gotten there yet. But yeah, Ross will definitely be doing some commentary for us. And what a great idea that is. The man is the best of all time on commentary, bar none. He'll sit there and list all these guys he thinks are better than him, but when it comes to calling matches, Jim Ross is in a league of his own. He'll call the 10/29 iPPV.

For the full radio interview, visit f4wrestling.com.