WWE News (Page 23)

• Rob Van Dam has posted the following message on his official website, regarding criticism of the new ECW brand:

"If anyone's been missing ECW TV lately, that's your loss. If you were a fan of the old ECW, and didn't want to put this new idea over, change your mind. We all had to make some adjustments and ECW has been developing and right now it's something I'm damn proud to be a part of."

• This past Friday’s edition of Smackdown ended up doing a 2.3 cable rating with a 4.1 share. It's one of the best scores for the show in weeks.

• Monday’s edition of WWE RAW did a 3.7 cable rating with a 5.0 share. This is down from the previous week’s 3.8 for the Family Reunion season premiere. The first hour of the show did a 3.6 and the second did a 3.7.

• WWE has revealed the site for next year’s Great American Bash pay-per-view. The event will be held at the Verizon Center in Washington, D.C. on July 22nd, 2007.

Bubba the Love Sponge is a well-known radio personality and good friend of Hulk Hogan.

He recently talked about pro wrestling on his show and didn't speak too favorably about certain WWE angles:

- He said John Cena's movie The Marine did really poorly and feels "super bad" for him. He then played the audio of the Cena vs. K-Fed from RAW and said he felt bad for him all over again. He ripped on WWE for trying to get a rub off of Kevin Federline.

- He bashed the quality of the writers in WWE, telling Vince McMahon to get off his medication and "get some writers in this bitch." He said he'd rather watch UFC or crickets f---ing. He concluded, "I'm done with WWE."

The Wrestling Post's take: Seems like an odd, unwarranted rant. The K-Fed angle was harmless and funny. Who doesn't hate Kevin Federline?!?

It's not as though bringing in a celebrity here and there is anything new for the WWE. The company got a great rub off Mike Tyson when he was involved with a Stone Cold Steve Austin storyline and no one had a problem with that.

Cyber Sunday is two and a half weeks away, but fans can vote now for stipulations on the two biggest matches.

This includes the "Champion of Champions" match with WWE Champion John Cena, WWE World Heavyweight Champion King Booker and ECW Champion Big Show.

Head to WWE.com and choose which belt will be on the line.

Also added to the card is DX vs. Edge & Randy Orton. Fans can vote for who will work the match as the special guest referee: Eric Bischoff, Jonathan Coachman or Vince McMahon.

Insiders from the WWE have released early PPV buyrate figures this year's Unforgiven. The show, which was headlined by Edge vs. John Cena in a TLC Match for the WWE Title and DX vs. The McMahons & Big Show in a Hell in a Cell, drew 285,000 purchases.

That number is up from last year's early 225,000 buys, which later turned out to be 260,000 buys in total.

With the release of the final number, the show could easily approach 200,000 buys domestically. As of now, Unforgiven is the second most purchased single brand WWE PPV of 2006, slightly ahead of ECW One Night Stand II.

It's just behind Smackdown's Great American Bash PPV that reported a total of 330,000 buys.

Here's good news for John Cena fans: the superstar probably won't be leaving the ring for the big screen any time soon.

Here's bad news for the WWE: The Marine tanked at the box office over the weekend.

The movie came in a disappointing sixth place, pulling in just $7 million. The week of promotion, including appearances by Cena on shows such as Howard Stern and Conan O'Brien scarcely paid off.

In other WWE movie news, the first release by WWE films, See No Evil, staring Kane, should be released on DVD on November 28th, 2006.

A recent article in Street & Smith’s Sports Business Journal compared the WWE compared with other giants of the sports-entertainment business.

“While the ‘on-field’ comparisons between professional wrestling and sports properties are few and far between, what binds them is one simple goal: attracting and entertaining fans.

WWE events have long topped weekly cable ratings, pay-per-view bouts post enviable subscription numbers, and the DVD titles regularly top the charts in the sports category.”

According to the article, the WWE is never a company to rest on its laurels and is now making a strong push into digital media, the international market, even the film industry. Already a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange (WWE), the corporation posted revenue of $400 million in 2006.

Recently, WWE has collaborated with major Hollywood players like Lionsgate and 20th Century Fox. See No Evil, starring Superstar Kane, grossed $15 million at domestic box offices and The Marine, starring John Cena exploded on to screens nationwide on October 13th.

The article adds one more difference that helps WWE to stand out from the pack:

“Vince McMahon is the only chairman of a major sports and entertainment group that allows his employees to smack, berate and body slam him, all in the name of revenue growth.”

Can't argue with that. But it's just nice to see professional wrestling receive positive attention in the press for a change.

Francine has been given her release from the WWE. Here's the company's official statement:

"WWE has come to terms on the release of ECW Diva Francine Fournier as of today, Oct. 12. We wish Francine the best in all future endeavors."

When Trinity returned to the company following an injury, it reportedly sealed Francine's fate with WWE.

• A lot of people backstage at last night’s ECW/SmackDown tapings were said to be embarrassed about the Extreme Strip Poker segment. The reactions were based on having to sink to such low (i.e. naked) depths in order to attract viewers.

• WWE has released the promotional poster for ECW’s December to Dismember pay-per-view. It features the Sandman’s arm sticking out of a chimney, holding a Singapore Cane, as well as the WrestleMania 23 logo.

nWo? More like nW-NO!

Despite WWE rumors of a return of the nWo - to feud with DX - to a WWE ring, it now appears as though such talk was premature.

How come? Because Kevin Nash has signed a new deal with TNA wrestling. He is scheduled to make a “major announcement” at Monday’s iMPACT tapings concerning the Bound for Glory pay-per-view.

If Vince McMahon was truly thinking of brining back this old faction, you'd have to imagine it would have been Nash, Scott Hall and Hulk Hogan. Therefore, such an angle appears to be dead.