The Midnight News 7.11.01 

Posted By Hyatte on 07.11.01

Numbers, Ryder (Updated), Color men, Hogan, HBK vs Bret, Honky, The Snake, and a guy who fears Africa 

The big news is that one of the Backstreet Boys just entered rehab. Over at MTV, John Norris is acting like Walter Cronkite the day Kennedy was killed.

The BIGGER news is that the "Boy", AJ, is listed as being 23 years old. Have you seen his hairline recently? Try reversing those numbers, chief.

Okay, let's roll

WHO WATCHED THIS CRAP?

The same people as last week., and the week before. Raw tagged in a 4.7 rating on Monday. It started strong and grew in a consistent basis throughout.

I think once they steadily break back into the 5's, they'll stop fretting.

And by the way, Raw is still consistently the number one or two show in the general cable ratings each week. Usually, the second hour does better than the first, but they have never stopped kicking ass overall.... unless The Sopranos are on, of course.

I picked these numbers up from The Observer

RYDER ON THE STORM

Two things concerning Bob Ryder:

1: Yesterday, I pointed out that ecwwrestling.com was renewed and now owned by Joey Styles. Someone pointed out to me that, in his own words, "ecwwrestling.com was NOT renewed - that June 25th date is 'latest update' date - ie the registrar removed their information due to the fact that the domain EXPIRED. See, that's that date in the line RIGHT BELOW the 'last updated' line."

Plus, I learned that Styles and 1wrestling were ALWAYS in charge of the site... or at least owned the domain... or something. So there's nothing to this.

Interesting aside, the URL www.ECW.com does not exist, yet. Were I an investigative sort, I'd go look to see if someone actually does own it. Of course, I'm NOT that sort of person.

2: Yesterday, I posted Bob's comments about how ECW's Creditors must feel seeing ECW's image and product featured on a WWF show. Nothing wrong with that...

BUT... As a reader told me, "Isn't a little misleading and unethical for Ryder to post this comment on the ECW situation without mentioning the fact that HE is a creditor via his travel agency?"

(Update/Correction): Actually, this is my fault... he DID mention that he was a creditor, on the very last line of the article. I originally just pulled his comments about the WWF using the ECW property on air, not looking to bust him on anything.... so the last line seemed irrelevant. So he DID acknowledge his personal attachment.

Sorry about the mini-controversy

FOR THE RECORD

The Observer says that the finalized, deal sealing line-up for the Invasion main event is Austin, Angle, Undertaker, Kane, and Jericho against Booker, DDP, the Dudleys, and a Fifth person not yet named. More than likely, it'll be either Rob Van Dam or Rhyno. The APA will fight Palumbo and O'Haire (show stealer) is also pretty set.... 

... for NOW!!!! 

OH GOD, NOT THIS AGAIN

Scherer screamed LOUDLY that this is only a rumor.... but word has it that the WWF so desperate for a new color man that they have signed Jerry Lawler.... AGAIN. 

I refuse to believe that there is NO ONE they can bring in for the role. Lawler is the only man on the PLANET who can do this? IS THAT WHAT THEY ARE SAYING?

If Lawler DOES come back, and if he brings the Wife with him.... then he will be the GOD of Wrestling.... the man who FINALLY outpissed Vince McMahon.

SNOW JOB

BUT.... Scherer also reported that Al Snow is being tried out for announcing duties. The Observer added that Dean Malenko is also being considered.

OLD SCHOOL FROM AN OLD FOOL

This news made the rounds on Monday, but there was too much on the plate for me to report.

Hulk Hogan did a radio show in Toronto and laid out a rough plan on what he envisions his new wrestling company. The plans call for an old school company with NON of the edgy crap like that bastard McMahon puts on. The Heroes and the Villains will be clear cut and obvious. Hogan said that Jimmy Hart is his partner for this, and guys like Randy Savage, Roddy Piper, and Bill Alfonso may also get involved.

Wow... old school.... heroes and villains... no edge.... didn't Kevin Sullivan and Terry Taylor once tried this format with WCW after seizing it away from Vince Russo? I forgot... how did Nitro do during this period? 

This was all over the place, but I lifted it properly from RF Video

SHAWN ON BRET, BUT NOT IN A GAY WAY

Someone from Slash Wrestling posted a big two part recap of a Shawn Michaels shoot interview from a few years ago. Not sure WHERE he got the video, but I think it was off RF Video. (He didn't credit it)

He is a bad writer, so a good hunk of the text is rather confusing to read.... but I just had to share HBK discussing Bret Hart.

First, on the events leading up to the fight the two men had backstage:

-HBK says that right around the Iron Man match at WM 12, he and Bret had gone from friends to taking shots at each other. HBK said that Bret started it by calling him "gay" in his Calgary newspaper column, so Shawn got revenge with his on-air comment about Bret having "Sunny Days". This all lead to the big fight. The writer transcribed Shawn description word for word:

Shawn: "So, three months later in Hartford, Connecticut finally he comes up to me. 'Shawn?' I say, 'What?' I said 'F**k you.' I said, 'You haven't talked to me for three months. Now that, now that you've decided that it's time for us to talk. Well guess what? I don't want to talk to you.' And I walked away. Now I'm sitting here in my bag, my bag's facing the corner like that and he comes and pushed me from behind. I fall forward a little way and I hit the wall and turn around. He goes, 'You want to talk about my f**king family?' I said, 'What?' 'You want to talk about my f**king family?' And I said, 'Give it a rest.' And he goes for a swing and I go like this [dodges backwards] and it went past me and, uh, and what made it worse was that he went like this [swings his fist] and I sorta went haha and chuckled a little bit because again I've heard these stories. 'I'm gonna kick your f**king ass!' I was like, y'know it won't be the first time. But he does this swing and I just chuckled because I thought it was funny. He goes and double leg dive me, I sorta hook him and we go to this partition, where, uh, the things they have on the interview room to keep all the sound in. We go through that into the shower. So we've both got each other in a front face lock and he's got a hold of me right there. [points to hair] I mean you can still see where he pulled it out. He just grabs that son of a bitch [grabs hair] and that's the fight, by the way, we're just holding each other. Everybody comes in and breaks it up and he just [pulls at hair] takes that hunk out. Ohh [grabs head] I'd rather you punched me. So he goes 'Your f**king with my family!' and I say 'How?' and he goes, 'Your f**king with my family!' and say, 'How?' 'You know, your f**king with my family!" and I say, 'How is that?' 'What's with the 'Sunny Days' comment?' And I said,'What, your blaming me because you f**ked Sunny?' 'You Son of a bitch!' And they held him back and that was the end of it. Uh, excuse me, but that's what I said. This is supposed to be a shoot, right? That is what I said. So then I just went up to Vince and said, 'You know what, you gotta learn how to (unintelligible) in there. You call me when get all this sh*t worked out. You've obviously got him worked into a frenzy, or someone has, so I'll see ya later' So I grabbed PJ and said, 'Would you mind giving me a ride to the hotel?' He said, 'Well, you're supposed to be on tonight' Well, not anymore."

Now we go to where Shawn discusses the Screwjob in Montreal. The writer didn't transcribe anything, but I'll let him do the work here.

- He says that day was a very weird day. You could feel something that day. Bret showed up very late and people were wondering if he was going to show up. Shawn says that after he showed up, they had a long talk. This was after he spoke to Vince while he was wearing a wire for the documentary. Shawn says that they didn't show any of his conversation because they wanted it to look like he was part of the whole scam. He says that the conversation with Bret was very nice. Shawn says that he was very taken back by the things Bret had to say, but he didn't think that was the way things went down on Bret's biography. Shawn points out the part in the biography when Bret was in the limo talking about how "he wasn't comfortable calling me a homo. In fact he was very comfortable. He did it all the time." He says that was Bret acting for the camera and it was a lie. 

-Shawn said that Vince called him and told him that Bret was leaving and asked him if he'd but Bret over. Shawn said no because it was "f**king stupid." He said that if Vince wanted him to do it, he would have, but he didn't think it was smart to put over a guy that was going to WCW. He says then he started to figure out what Vince wanted. Vince wanted Shawn to say no so Vince could tell Bret that he wouldn't do it and they need a finish. So the day of the show Shawn hears a different story. He says that now the match is supposed to be a DQ and Bret is supposed to come out the next night on Raw and relinquish the belt. Shawn says that this was the first time that he was getting the belt without being told that he was getting it. He says that Bret was a heel than DX got so over as heels that they just passed Bret for the top slot. He says that Vince had no intention of putting the belt on Shawn when DX was first formed. So Bret and Shawn work out a match that would end up in a DQ. Shawn says that the Sharpshooter spot in the match was Bret's idea and it was very ironic and symbolic that Bret was beat in his own hold. He says that Bret was going to reverse Shawn's sharpshooter, Shawn would reach the ropes, and Triple H and Chyna would come down and then the Hart Foundation would come down and it would be a big shmozz.

-Shawn says that he knew that he would be in the same position that he always was in. He says most of the time he put himself in that position, but this was the first time he was involuntary put in that position. He says he knew that he would be the scapegoat and that everything would be put on him. Rob asks Shawn if he has talked to Bret since then and he says that he hasn't. Shawn says that he can remember talking to Bret before the match and Bret told him that a lot of the guys told Bret not to let Shawn put him in a submission hold. So Bret was aware of what could happen. He says that a lot of guys were questioning if Bret would even show up on Raw the next night. He says that by this time he was tired of the whole Bret/Shawn thing and he wasn't on anybody's side but his own. So the finish occurred and Shawn was stunned. It's one thing to think about what could happen, but to actually do it is big. Shawn says that he didn't like to be the scapegoat, but he can remember talking to Vince who told him and a room of others that "Whatever happens... if he comes at me to just stay out." He says that's why so many people thought that it was all a work because Vince even knew he was going to get hit. He says that he was standing right there when Bret hit Vince and that Vince took a dive. "He sold it like he sells on TV. It was just brutal" 

There you go... who to believe... who?

BUT, PLUGS

Actually, nothing TO plug. I'm still looking for guest column submissions.

Danny Birdwell FINALLY has two recaps posted. One for
last week's Tough Enough and one for last week's Jakked.

You know.... Danny.... maybe you could have just blown off the week and chilled. Come on, kid.

Oh, and hey... Widro informs me that 411 had the SECOND BEST SINGLE DAY HIT COUNT EVER yesterday! Yes, EVERYONE loves me!

I'm sure just about EVERY site had a huge audience yesterday.... 

TAKE US HOME, HONKY

The Honky Tonk Man has been quiet as of late, so I dug deep into his posting board and pulled this, the very first message he ever sent out:

I am available for wrestling school clinics. I will come to your wrestling school and help in one of your training sessions for two hours. These sessions will consist of match analysis, moves and counter moves, ring psyhcology, how to do interviews that get over, and a general lesson on the way the business really works. Fees are negotiable. 

“ring psyhcology”??

Yes, learn how to hold onto your title for dear life by refusing to job out to Randy Savage.

“ring psyhcology”??

Are we done? Nope.... not until we hear from the always surreal..... Jake Roberts

NOTES FROM THE CRACKHEAD

Jake "the Snake" Roberts was recently arrested for DUI and leaving the scene of the accident. This was news a few weeks ago.

Well, Jake has addressed the issue... 

Fans, I really pulled a dumb stunt in getting myself in a jam this past week. Time will only tell you the truth, if that's what you want. I was charged with D.U.I. and leaving the scene of an accident at least. I'm very upset at myself for allowing and dropping my guard long enough to put myself and others in jeopardy. I will be going to Court in the near future as I have pleaded NOT GUILTY. Judge as you want, that's your choice or wait for the truth......

Now, can you imagine how you might feel bad enough to find yourself or loved one in this type of crap. Well it gets worse, when some irresponsible Reporter not only seems to be somewhat bored with Real news decided that they might as well list name and address of accused. I guess they might have felt all the mail that may and has already started should help in some way or another. Probably wrong, but would like your opinion sent to this brilliant Reporter.

By the way what is "Invasion of Privacy"?

There you go...

"Probably wrong, but would like your opinion sent to this brilliant Reporter."

Whaa? Someone should charge him with W.U.I

Are we done YET? Nope, one more thing....

NICE GOING, GENIUS

Okay, here's the quote.

"Snakes just scare the hell out of me. I'm sort of scared about going there, but the wife is really nervous. I just see myself in a pot of boiling water with all these natives
dancing around me."

The guy who said it is named Mel Lastman.

Lastman made this comment before getting on a plane to Africa to promote his city's Olympic bid.

Who is he? 

Well...

He's the Mayor.

What city is he the Mayor of?

Well.... Mel Lastman is the Mayor of Toronto.

Toronto, Canada.

Friggin' racists Canadians.

This is Hyatte