Kevin.....and he almost didn't make it. He was in Lubbock, Texas when he decided he needed to go to jail. He walked into a gun shop & decided to steal guns. The owner said to Kevin " i love you Kevin" and Kevin stopped. They said a prayer together & Kevin got clean. Kevin was ready to go over the edge.
Steve Austin and Chris Jericho discussed their WWE gimmicks, backstage interviews and more in a recent episode of Steve Austin Show. Highlights are below, per Wrestling Inc: Austin on his issues with backstage segments: “One of my big pet peeves is when the announcer backstage, whether it is male or female, talking to the talent, asks the talent a question, talent gives the answer, if there’s an interrupt, there’s an interrupt, but the talent gives their answer, and it’s an awkward feeling, and then, all-of-a-sudden, it’s back to Michael [Cole] and the guys at the [announce] desk. And the camera stays on the interviewer who got this awkward answer. You want there to be some heat there, and all-of-a-sudden, it’s an awkward reaction to the person that’s a part of the broadcast team. I think whether it’s a male or a female, they should throw it back to the announce team because I don’t think heat, the point, or anything goes anywhere because I’m so focused on that weird look that the interview has on her face!” Jericho on backstage interviewers needing to show more personality: “I think the backstage interviewers now, could they be, and I say this respectfully because they’re just doing what they’re told, could they be more robotic?” Jericho observed, “there’s a lack of energy sometimes to the show when you don’t let people be themselves.” Austin on WWE talent being afraid of losing their jobs: “Everybody’s walking on eggshells these days just because there’s nowhere else to go. Everyone’s just micromanaged to a degree and I’m not indicting the system.” Austin on his run as the Ringmaster: “From when I came in as ‘The Ringmaster’ and I knew it was a suck ass gimmick, right? But I had a wife, and two kids, and a log cabin on 10 acres. s–t, I’ve got to pay my bills or they’re going to take all my s–t from me, so I’ll go up there! I’d already been up to visit Vince twice. I knew they didn’t have anything planned for me and they were just bringing me in as a mechanic. s–t, that’s why I never came!” Austin recalled, “I knew that wasn’t going to work after six months and so, whatever, I started to think about it, drinking beer, whiskey, watching television, and I came up with the ‘Stone Cold’ persona.” Jericho on Vince McMahon helping tweak his Y2J character: “I came up with the Millennium Man with the countdown. Vince’s contributions to it were, it was my idea that the countdown would end at the beginning of RAW. I think it was August 9, 1999. Vince’s idea was that it would end right in the middle of The Rock’s promo, which, classic Vince, come in as high as you can possibly get. His other idea was, he was like, ‘what’s your finish called and what it is?’ I said, ‘well, it’s a Boston Crab and it’s called ‘Y2J Problem’. He goes, ‘no, no, no, that’s not the name of your finish. Your finish isn’t ‘Y2J’, you’re ‘Y2J’ and that was his monicker and for the first year or two, I’m sure [Austin] got this too, it was never ‘Chris’ or ‘Chris Jericho’. It was always ‘Y2J, how are you? Good to see you, Y2J.’ because that was his creation. Even though it was my idea, he took it and that’s what he called me. I’m sure it was the same with ‘Stone Cold’. I’m sure he called [Austin] ‘Stone Cold’ all the time.” Jericho on main eventing Wrestle Kingdom 12: “It was really gratifying and there was this freedom after 17 years of having to have things approved by Vince or agents or whatever. I didn’t have to get anything approved. I could do anything I wanted! What a cool feeling that was!” Jericho on talents being “held back” in WWE: “There’s kind of a misconception in WWE that you get held back. It’s not getting held back, but there [are] certain rules you have to abide by because it’s a corporate company now. There’s no juice allowed and no chair shots and thank goodness for that. There [are] just certain things you can’t do in WWE.” Austin on how his ‘Stone Cold’ gimmick would have worked in the current day: “With the rule system that is in place there now, there were rules back when I was running wild there, right? But you just push the envelope due to whatever the rule structure is. People say, ‘could ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin get over in today’s WWE?’ Hell yeah, I could. Same rules, same guy.”
Braun Strowman recently appeared on Busted Open Radio and here are a few highlights... On the one thing he would change if he was able to do so: “The one thing, if I could go back and do it all over, just at the beginning, being a little bit smarter with protecting myself and my brand, you know being a big man and not letting people talk me into dumb things that I shouldn’t be doing. Injuries happen, and one injury in particular was really close to ending my career, I ruptured a disc and it cut into my side nerve and it paralyzed my left leg. The folks with WWE, they take such great care of us with injuries, and making sure we’re running at peak performance. I went to Pittsburgh with one of the head neurosurgeons in the country, and they got in there and I had to be pushed through the airport to the plane and into the hospital in a wheelchair. My leg was 100% paralyzed, I couldn’t use it. I went in and had surgery, and an hour and a half after I came out of anesthesia I got up and walked to my recovery room. The man upstairs has looked out for me throughout these times with stuff like that, and with veterans like Mark [Henry] and Big Showand the big men that have paved the road for where I’m going now. Taking me under their wing and teaching me a lot of the things to do, and the things not to do; I couldn’t have been put in a better position with everything. I’ve just… I feel like I’ve hit the wrestling lottery.” On continuing to better himself in WWE: “I’m not going to lie, inside my body I was doing the same thing [after Mark Henry says he was giggling and laughing]. It was hard to keep it straight for that part because of the bass deal, the strings breaking on it was an accident. I just had to play it up to the whole deal, and that’s what I love about our boss. Vince, his mind and the whole creativity it’s… I’ve never seen anything like it. We’ve continued and continued to over the last year of all the different, crazy stunts that we’ve done, I think to myself ‘what are we going to do to, how am I going to top that?’ And it never fails where he thinks of something and it just hits a home runwith the crowd every time, and if it’s just my being lucky and me being in the right place at the right time, I don’t know what it is. I’m enjoying the process, it’s awesome. It’s a fairy tale to me, this has happened so fast; July will be five years that I’ve been with the company. August will be three years that I’ve actually been wrestling, so it’s just still surreal to me.”
WWE is set to increase the length of their “B-show” PPVs once all the PPV events go dual-branded. Dave Meltzer recently spoke about this on Wrestling Observer Radio (via sportskeeda.com), here are the highlights… “While again not official, within WWE the belief was that, because of having to fit the top stars of both brands, that the former B shows will be increased an hour with two match pre-shows and four hour PPV shows. They will have both shows specifically pushing the same PPV every month and all the top stars would be on it. The negative is a lot of the middle and lower card acts won’t be on PPV as much, if at all. And if they’re not on the PPV, they’ll be focused on less on television. One of the benefits of the brand split, which, when it comes to ratings has been a success since Smackdown is more popular and Raw’s massive slide has decreased, is that more wrestlers are being featured each week as stars. Since they have to fill hours of television, you’ll probably get more stipulation matches on the television shows that would have been on PPV with mid-level guys.It also makes having separate champions in each brand feeling even sillier since the key title bouts will be on shows with the other brand’s title also defended. You’ll have two women’s title matches and two tag title matches on most shows, along with two world title and two secondary singles titles and a cruiserweight title (which is likely to almost never be on the main PPV shows). There will be title matches relegated to the pre-show, hurting their significance. There will be fewer places for non-championship matches, and to get the top stars on the show, likely more multiple-person matches. Also, there will likely be more matches on the shows meaning less time or more rushed matches. So there’s good with the bad. The biggest complaint on WWE PPV shows has been the length of the big shows, and now every show will be five hours long.”
I was wrong. Jeff Jarrett is going to the HOF I said for years Vince would never do it. I guess age has softened him. From the wwe.com write up: Jarrett continued to compete around the world and also began to promote shows that gave future WWE Superstars like AJ Styles, Bobby Roode and Eric Young their first major exposure.
Ultimate Warrior made it into the HoF, so nothing really surprises me anymore. JJ made his current pipeline of talent to misuse and being a completely fucking boring performer helped Vince put his biggest rival out of business (wcw).
Warrior at least was a flash in the pan main-eventer with a look, style and legacy that, in hindsight, can be propped up and made glittering through the WWE Hype Machine. JJ is just a weirdly-dressed redneck midcarder who, despite more than a few titles, had few if any memorable feuds, great moments, or exciting matches, and has sucked at every main-event run he's had, 90% of which came with himself as the booker. The only time JJ ever drew any kind of a reaction from me was the profound sadness I felt at watching him weep over Owen. He's a not worse Hall of Fame candidate than Koko B. Ware, but he's maybe as bad.
Never doubted it, Vince loves money more than he hates anyone in another 2 months we’ll get the invetiable Jeff Jarrett network special and DVD
I guess my point is there's no money in it. How many people are dying to see a Jeff Jarrett Network Special, considering all the things they won't show?
None of us in this thread but there are probably some people out there that are. There has to be some money in it otherwise Vince wouldn’t do it is all I’m saying
Spoiler: Odds Here are the early betting odds for Sunday’s Elimination Chamber matches via Bet Wrestling. Roman Reigns is the favorite in the Men’s Elimination Chamber match since he has long been expected to face Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania. Braun Strowman has the next best odds while the Miz has the longest odds. Alexa Bliss is the favorite in the Women’s Elimination Chamber match, with Sasha Banks having the next best odds. Men’s Elimination Chamber Roman Reigns -670 Braun Strowman +200 Seth Rollins +600 Finn Balor +1500 John Cena +1500 Elias +2500 The Miz +3300 Women’s Elimination Chamber Alexa Bliss -295 Sasha Banks +150 Bayley +550 Sonya Deville +550 Mickie James +1700 Mandy Rose +3300