General Pro Wrestling News and Discussion Thread Part Deux!

[Mr Silver]

It's a shame about Chief Jay Strongbow - one of the early legends of the WWE (then known as the WWWF)

The big news making the rounds today is the rumoured contract that Brock Lesnar is going to recieve. Apparently, Brock will recieve $5 million to work a minimum of 2 dates per month for a year! If this is true, it would be the most lucrative contract ever offered by WWE to a non-celebrity (obviously Brock is famous, but he's a trained professional wrestler and not just somebody coming in to have an exhibition match - a'la Floyd Mayweather).

[Chaos Descending]

Do you think that "Hands of Stone" Ronnie Garvin really has a shot against Ric Flair for the NWA World Title? Personally I'm not too sold on this feud.

Oh wait, what year is it again? I was having flashbacks!

[Admiral_Young]

@Admrial M someone posted the details about Brock's contract on the last page I think the only thing not mentioned in the article posted was the dollar amount which does not surprise me one bit. I'm actually curious about the contract that Dwayne signed. I'm assuming that it a "special" contract like the one Shawn Micahels currently has.

[Mr Silver]

As far as Rock's contract goes, it's probably similar to Lesnar's in layout - but without the massive downside. It's been said that the downside Lesnar is recieving, is due to his drawing power in UFC and previous drawing history in WWE.

The Rock is probably on a contract that allows leniency for his film career, but with the stipulation that he makes his agreed upon appearances. It might be that WWE wants Rock to work Extreme Rules in a non-wrestling role, so they meet to organise or make alternative arrangements and an agreement is made if Rock's schedule permits it - Rock must then fulfill that agreement by appearing in the agreed role.

As for financial terms, I expect Rock is paid a generous sum for every PPV appearance (he could have easily made $1 million or over, just for Wrestlemania XVIII) and WWE pays for his transportation, accomodation, etc. I don't know whether he would have a downside, but it's a safe bet that he takes around the same amount of money that the likes of John Cena make.

Lesnar's contract is a big deal because he'll recieve a substanial amount of money from merchandise sales and PPV bonuses. $5 million for a minimum of 24 appearances? I'd say he's looking at double that when you add everything else into the equation!

I can imagine that Vince and Co. have begged Dwayne Johnson to do the Marine 3...

[Admiral_Young]

One could say Brock's contract is the Next Big Thing!!! Sorry, couldn't help myself.

[Mr Silver]

You should be ashamed of yourself for that one!

The current main events for Wrestlemania XXIX are rumoured to be:

WWE Championship: Brock Lesnar vs. The Rock
John Cena vs. The Undertaker
CM Punk vs Steve Austin

They'll have a hard act to follow at the 30th anniversary if this is the card! What could possible top this?

[scnj]

Admiral_Young wrote:

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One could say Brock's contract is the Next Big Thing!!! Sorry, couldn't help myself.

"Here comes my pay"

I'm so sorry.

[Admiral_Young]

I have said this for a while now...I'm pretty convinced that Mark is going to retire this year. Rumours were swirling around the weekend that he and Michelle are expecting their first child. Nothing confirmed of course. I've read about the Rock Vs Lesnar match. Stone Cold Vs Punk would be cool, since they already kind of have had encounters with each other you could build a match around. But as Admiral M reminded me regarding Austin's physical condition when I suggested the Austin/Lesnar match...it is all about if Steve can go or not.

The possibilities I think are pretty awesome given Lesnar's return now and who or what he wants to go with. I think we are gonna see MAYBE Undertaker/Lesnar this year sometime if Undertaker returns after the program with Cena. This planning a year ahead stuff though, I don't know if it is a good idea. Cena/Rock I guess was well received but I don't think it was the huge block buster match WWE was hoping it would be, or many fans were. That being said Rock did look good and proved he could get himself in shape. The physical film roles he has been playing lately have to have helped as well.

I look forward to A-Train & CM Punk feud.

[edit] AWESOME!!! End of an ERA! http://www.wwe.com/videos/wwe-supers...n-era-26012861

[Mr Silver]

Q: What does Dolph Ziggler have in common with Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Buddy Rogers, Randy Orton and The Rock?

A: They all hold the distinction of becoming a world champion without actually winning the title in a match.

Buddy Rogers: Innagural WWWF Champion - supposedly won a tournament in Rio Di Janeiro, but in actual fact he was simply made champion as a result of his popularity.

Shawn Michaels: See Montreal Screwjob, where Vince McMahon stopped the match without there being an actual pinfall or submission or any kind of finish - Hart was simply stripped of the WWF Championship and it was given to Michaels who was then recognised as champion.

The Rock: Was given the vacant WWF Championship after Vince McMahon once again stopped a match without an actual finish of any kind, in a nod to the previous year's screwjob.

Triple H: Was simply presented with the World Heavyweight Championship and recognised as first champion.

Randy Orton: Was awarded the vacant WWE Championship following John Cena (his scheduled opponent and WWE Champion) being injured and unable to perform.

Dolph Ziggler: The World Heavyweight Championship was stripped from Edge and presented to Dolph Ziggler because Edge had used the Spear (which was banned) in a prior match.

[Chaos Descending]

Admiral M wrote:

---

Buddy Rogers: Innagural WWWF Champion - supposedly won a tournament in Rio Di Janeiro, but in actual fact he was simply made champion as a result of his popularity.

Well, not exactly. He was the reigning NWA World Champion who lost to Lou Thesz in a single-fall match (common now, but in those days a best two-of-three falls decision was common). Since the WWWF controlled the rights to Buddy Rogers and didn't like that "their guy" had to drop the belt to someone who wasn't "their guy", the WWWF split from the NWA and recognized him as champion based on the idea that his loss to Lou Thesz wasn't "legit". Then of course they came up with the bogus Rio De Janeiro tournament.

Trivia: The WWE Intercontinental Championship was simply the old WWWF North American Heavyweight Championship re-named, but it also was justified in a fictional sense. The claim is that the IC title was created by a unification match between the WWWF North American champion and a (fictitious) "South American Champion", which also supposedly took place in Rio De Janeiro.

[Mr Silver]

Chaos Descending wrote:

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Well, not exactly. He was the reigning NWA World Champion who lost to Lou Thesz in a single-fall match (common now, but in those days a best two-of-three falls decision was common). Since the WWWF controlled the rights to Buddy Rogers and didn't like that "their guy" had to drop the belt to someone who wasn't "their guy", the WWWF split from the NWA and recognized him as champion based on the idea that his loss to Lou Thesz wasn't "legit". Then of course they came up with the bogus Rio De Janeiro tournament.

Ah, but there have always been rumours that Vince McMahon Sr. and Toots Mondt had planned to leave the NWA anyway (I suppose this is fueled by McMahon Jr's national expansion in the 1980's that pissed the territorials off, although the AWA were also doing the same, to a lesser scale. Still, even though McMahon Jr. went against the elder McMahon's wishes and invaded the territories, there are some who doubt this and believe all sorts) - given that they seldom allowed Rogers to wrestle outside of their territory (Northeast USA at that time) and as you mentioned - Rogers was their guy.

Funnily enough, McMahon Sr. was involved with the NWA again in the 1970's, only this time they wouldn't book the NWA championship or champion - NWA at the same time didn't recognise the WWWF Championship as a world title.

In hindsight, McMahon and Co. were extremely lucky to have such a talent as the great Bruno Sammartino in their promotion who reached the level of Rogers' success (and beyond) as the succeeding champion. In fact, Sammartino was such a big draw that they brought him back for a three and a half year title reign in the 1970's.

Antonio Inoki is technically a former WWE Champion, although WWE doesn't recognise this for whatever reason, although it could be down to the fact that the change occured in Japan and would be too confusing for the fans back in the US (add to that some politics and business decisions) where Backlund (the previous champion) was the company's biggest draw and therefore WWE recognises Backlund's reign as being constant all the way from 1978 - 1983.

The way I see it though, the WWWF created a new championship with no previous lineage and awarded the title to Buddy Rogers because he was the biggest draw in their promotion and to the Northeast fans (WWWF's territory), he was the "world champion".

Trivia: The WWE Intercontinental Championship was simply the old WWWF North American Heavyweight Championship re-named.

I did not know this! Cheers for posting!

[Admiral_Young]

Sometimes we learn new things from trivia! I did know that about the IC Title...did anyone else collect the wrestling almanacs? The same company does Boxing ones and I think MMA/UFC ones now. I stopped collecting them a few years ago when the internet made their yearly events section irrelevant.

[Mr Silver]

"Almanacs" - So North American! In the UK we know them as annuals, but I've always liked the term almanac because it reminds me of BTTF2.

I do still have the special edition Wrestlemania 17 "almanac" somewhere, although it's not in the best of condition. That was pretty cool though because it did a feature on every Wrestlemania prior to 17 - which they were billing as X7 and there were several interviews with the likes of Howard Finkel.

[Mr Silver]

So everybody, since we're classing Wrestlemania XXVII to Wrestlemania XXVIII as a season of sorts - let's have your picks in the following categories (doesn't have to be WWE) along with my picks:


Best Male Wrestler: CM Punk
Best Female Wrestler: Gail Kim (as soon as she returned to TNA she was back to form)
Best Tag Team: Giant Bernard and Karl Anderson
Face Of The Year: Zack Ryder
Heel Of The Year: John Laurinaitis

Comeback Of The Year: The Rock (naturally)
Most Improved: Bobby Roode
Commentator Of The Year: Michael Cole (he's not actually that bad when he's not spouting lines fed from the Gorilla position)
Non-Wrestling Personality: John Laurinaitis

Best Storyline: Once In a Lifetime (Cena vs. Rock)
Best Talker: The Rock
Match Of The Year: CM Punk vs. John Cena (Money In The Bank 2011)
Event Of The Year: Money In The Bank 2011
Best Promotion: WWE (TNA was very close, given it's tremendous improvement in recent months along with sharp decline in WWE - until Brock came back!)

Biggest Missed Opportunity: The Conspiracy angle
Biggest Demotion: Alex Riley
Worst Wrestler: Michael Cole
Worst Match: Sheamus vs. Daniel Bryan (Wrestlemania XXVIII)
Worst Promotional Tactic: WWE's obsession with social networking