foley 31,000

WWF: There is expected to be an announcement regarding the television situation imminently. Based on what we believe to be the case based on numerous reports, the much-talked about CBS deal has likely been agreed to in principle by both sides. Officially, WWF has to give USA network the right to match the offer. We are under the impression that USA has already been given the offer to match, and had not at least as of a few days ago officially given WWF an answer on whether or not to match it, but it has been believed for some time that USA wouldn't be matching the offer

Preliminary estimates are that Wrestlemania did approximately 875,000 buys, which would be a 2.35 buy rate. Based on those numbers, it would be the largest non-boxing PPV as far as orders are concerned in history. The old record was last year's Wrestlemania at 800,000 buys. It should be noted that at this point in time last year they were also estimating 875,000 and the real number turned out slightly lower. We don't have any percentage breakdown as to who ordered the $49.95 as opposed to the $34.95 package, so it's impossible to estimate revenue accurately, but if we go by the assumption that 40% ordered the 12-hour package, which I believe to be a very conservative estimate it would make Titan's take just off the PPV of the event be more than $15 million. Wrestlemania in Australia was the second biggest PPV event in history, trailing only the Mike Tyson vs. Francis Botha fight. PPV is in its infancy in the country, so that only means 24,000 orders at $19.95 Australian and many of the big boxing matches, because they had a higher price tag, did gross more money

Steve Austin started filming the final two episodes of the season on "Nash Bridges" on 4/5

The 4/30 Backlash PPV is expected to be headlined by an HHH vs. Rock title match

Raw on 4/10 from the NCR Center in Fort Lauderdale, FL drew a sellout 13,859 paying $395,128. The show was fine, but had the feeling of being uneventful. The show opened with Rock doing an interview. Vince came out and ordered a cage match as the main event, without saying who Rock would face in it. It was a lengthy interview with Vince saying he was the one who made Rock, that Rock would have been a star without him but not a superstar and then said he could have made him Doink the Clown, the Gobbledy Gooker or Bastion Booger. The crowd was quiet because I doubt many of the fans in attendance had a clue about the Gobbledy Gooker (a failed mascot like gimmick about ten years ago for Hector Guerrero) and considering most current wrestling fans go back to 1997, few probably knew Bastion Booger either and many don't even know Doink. Over the past week, they came up with a reason why Vince turned on Rock at Mania. Because Rock never said "thank you" for all Vince did for him. Vince did a great interview but this was going way too long as a monologue as Rock didn't even get to interplay with him. Finally HHH, Shane and Stephanie came out to make the segment even longer. As Rock was distracted, Vince tried to hit him from behind with a chair, but Rock again grabbed the chair and gave Vince a really easy chair shot to the back, which is a lot better than a really hard chair shot to the head. Christian & Edge retained the tag titles over X-Pac & Road Dogg. Good TV match. Dogg hit Christian with the belt and X-Pac pinned him, but ref Earl Hebner came out and told Mike Kiota what happened, and they re-started the match and quickly Edge speared X-Pac for the pin in 3:06. They did a show long angle involving Terri being nice to Kat and offering her a free make-over. Of course she ended up spiking Kat's drink and writing all over her face and giving her the ugliest haircut (she was actually wearing a wig that they cut) possible. Angle pinned Godfather in 2:02 with the Olympic slam. Angle came out proclaiming the virtues of abstinence and using condoms. He claimed he was celibate and that's why he won an Olympic gold medal. This reminds me of the joke Kevin Lawler said when Angle worked in Memphis as a babyface. He said that Angle was just like the boy next door who married the girl next door. Of course, he grew up next door to a strip club. Benoit & Malenko & Saturn beat Rikishi & Scotty 2 Hotty & Tazz in 3:49 when Scotty had the cloverleaf on Malenko and Saturn hit Scotty and Malenko scored the pin. Helmsley kept the WWF title beating Michinoku in 5:53 of what was booked as a somewhat competitive match and actually was a hell of a TV match. What is hilarious is that HHH was clearly wearing lifts in his boots (a good percentage of WWF guys do) for this match when there was no reason to, and that Michinoku, who is just about the shortest guy in the promotion and from the looks of things badly needed to, wasn't. The Acolytes chased Shane away from ringside. At one point Funaki interfered and kicked HHH into the Acolytes, who pounded on him. Funaki & Taka then both blew the execution of top rope moves, Funaki not hitting a missile dropkick well and Taka hitting the moonsault block all wrong for a near fall that people actually popped big for. Vince and Shane came back out along with Bossman and Buchanan to beat up the Acolytes. HHH then won in the middle with the pedigree. HHH, Vince and Shane all stomped on the Acolytes after the match. Backstage T&A pounded on the Dudleys because Buh Buh tried to attack Trish Stratus last week. Hardys beat Test & Albert in 3:08 when Matt did the twist of fate and Jeff did the swanton on Albert. Dudleys ran out and gave Test the 3-D. Buh Buh was then distracted by Stratus, and practically drooling over her, allowing Albert to use a neck hanging tree slam on him through a table. It was a great argument for the celibacy that Angle was preaching moments earlier. They debuted this absolutely hilarious Big Show commercial for Chef Boyardee Ravioli. It was basically making fun of his size. Who would have ever thought Paul Wight would become a superstar because of his comedic talents? Show then came out dressed like Val Venis, doing the gimmick about as horribly as it could be done, and was DQ'd against Venis in 2:28 for choking him. It was a really weak finish even for Raw. Guerrero beat Jericho again to keep the European title in 5:18. Good match, but far from the best these two could do. Jericho got the walls on when Chyna distracted Jericho to save. After a really lame looking ref bump spot, Guerrero tried to use the belt but Jericho forearmed the belt into his face. He did the quebrada, but Chyna came in with a low blow and a DDT and put Guerrero on top for the pin. Main event was Rock vs. Bossman & Buchanan in a cage match. Even though it was the main event and lasted only 6:58, which is short for a Raw main event, it seemed too long. Fans were into Rock's comebacks and all, but didn't take seriously him getting pounded by two guys that nobody sees as in his league. After the match HHH got into the cage and rammed Rock into the cage. Rock bladed. HHH used Knux and a pedigree and Rock was bleeding all over the place to the point there were huge stains on the mat. Finally the Acolytes made the save and the show ended with Rock almost in a pool of his own blood

Results from the 4/11 tapings in Tampa. In dark matches, Scott Vick beat Stevie Richards and Scoot Andrews beat Mike Sullivan (the two worked well together). For Heat, Malenko beat 2 Hotty in a lightheavyweight title match with a roll-up. Benoit kept the IC title beating Bob Holly with a german suplex. Venis NC Godfather when both attacked Angle when he came to ringside. Angle degraded one of the ho's by calling her a tramp. Let's see, on the degradation food chain, isn't prostitute slightly lower than tramp? At the beginning of the match, Godfather said he wasn't going to let Venis have one of the ho's because he knew he'd tear her up with his big Valboski. Test DDQ D-Von Dudley with both partners and Stratus at ringside. The Dudleys got a huge face pop. They tried to nail Stratus again but she was saved. Does anyone see the long-term of her dumping T&A for the Dudleys? Michinoku beat Essa Rios. For Smackdown, Rikishi beat Guerrero via DQ in a European title match when Chyna gave him a low blow. Rikishi took a spin bump off the clothesline, obviously not for Guerrero but for Chyna and Chyna also hit him with a flower pot for a near fall. Rikishi did the banzai on Chyna after the match. They did the long interview where HHH, Stephanie and Shane ran down Rock. Rock came out and announced the main event as Rock & Acolytes vs. Bossman & Buchanan & HHH. Snow & Blackman went to a retirement home. Maybe they were there to scout wrestlers trying to make a comeback. Hardys beat Benoit & Malenko. They announced Christian & Edge defending against Show & Angle. Saturn beat Crash Holly to win the hardcore title clean. Then Tazz ran out and pinned Saturn right away to regain the title. Then Crash pinned Tazz and got the belt back again. Tazz and Saturn wound up brawling. Those poor people who actually keep track of title histories must be loving this. Christian & Edge beat Show & Angle. Angle had to cut his promo twice because he messed up the first time. Show came out to bagpipes doing a spoof of both Roddy Piper and Fat Bastard from Austin Powers II. Show beat up Angle after Angle slapped Show for lifting up his kilt. Buh Buh Ray Dudley beat Albert using the 3-D. Trish then pulled out a table, but wouldn't you know it, Buh Buh put Albert through it. Jericho told Stephanie and Tori they looked almost as good as Godfather's ho's. Stephanie than ordered Jericho in a handicap match against X-Pac & Dogg. Blackman got mad at the retired people for not laughing at his jokes and pulled out in nunchakus. Dogg & X-Pac beat Jericho when Jericho had the Walls on Tori, but X-Pac got the X-factor on him for the pin. Shane put Earl Hebner on probation for constantly screwing up. Acolytes & Rock beat HHH & Bossman & Buchanan via DQ. Hebner shoved Shane out of the ring. DX brawled with Acolytes leaving HHH with Rock. Rock put Shane through a table with the rock bottom. Rock gave Shane a people's elbow after TV went off the air

WWF Sr VP of Marketing Jim Byrne spoke on 4/4 at the University of Texas. He gave several figures on attendance, web hits, etc. that were accurate. Actually, since WWFE went on the stock market, their public information about revenues has gotten a lot more realistic than the usual triple and quadruple reality figures from the old days. Byrne said the WWF was going to start its own independent record label called Raw Records, which would also sign non-WWF recording talent. I can see them already attempting to market Lillian Garcia as a singer, since average talent and a great package is what they are experts at marketing. He claimed they are moving their merchandising away from toys, claiming they are a holdover from the 80s era, which I guess is based on the criticism of presenting what they admit is adult entertainment while still marketing it to the youngest of children. He said the WWF is developing an action adventure show starring Steve Austin to try and pitch the networks. He was asked about the Owen Hart lawsuit and said that the WWF has offered to take care of Martha Hart and her children for the rest of their lives but she is being ill-advised by her legal counsel and said it could drag on for years. He admitted explaining to the outside world the Mae Young angles has been hard. He claimed the company has never gotten a negative phone call or letter regarding the Godfather character and said the only people who react negatively to it are the media. He got more and more hostile as he spoke about the media. He said they are working on marketing and maintaining their audience of female teens. When asked about Vince Russo, he said he wished him the best and pointed out since he left, WWF has gone up and WCW has gone down and said that perhaps Vince McMahon was protecting Russo from himself by shooting down so many of his outlandish, ridiculous ideas. He really got animated when asked about "Beyond the Mat," with the new story being a claim that Blaustein personally arranged for Mick Foley's family to be at ringside (actually they were supposed to be at ringside because they were originally to be part of the finish for that match). He claimed he told Blaustein at the Royal Rumble that he couldn't film the show but he did so anyway and claimed he went to Vince McMahon at that point to pull the plug on the entire movie unless McMahon could take full control of it and said they would never allow anything like that again. When asked if Foley was really retired, he said that there has to be more for him than the finish at Wrestlemania. He said there would be betting on the XFL in Las Vegas (the next day it came out in the Detroit News that it is unlikely that will be the case) and said, and you'll love this, Vince would be furious if he found out some sport he was watching was rigged. Hopefully Vince hasn't watched much boxing of late

On the injury front, Grand Master Sexay had floating cartilage in his knee wind up in his bursa sac which resulted in major knee swelling over the past few weeks. The injury actually occurred on 3/22 in Champaign, IL and he had to have the knee drained a few times and had to heavily pad it to work through Wrestlemania. He's undergone arthroscopic knee surgery since the big show but it was considered minor surgery and he should be back perhaps as early as the 4/30 PPV show. At Wrestlemania, as a rib, Saturn pulled his beanie off and his extensions, which are sewn into the beanie, came off with them which caused him to do some pouting backstage. Brian Lawler is ribbed more than most because of the feeling that he thinks he's a much bigger star than anyone else thinks he is, and even when he was booked as a jobber, walked around like he was cocky

Kane broke a small bone in his hand before Wrestlemania but wanted to work the show as well and they did the angle the next night. He isn't expected to be out of action very long, but will be wrestling for some time with a cast on his hand which will limit his gripping ability

Foley didn't suffer any serious injuries at Mania

Jeff Hardy suffered a bruised heel in the ladder match and was very sore all over his body after the match was over and the next day. He was a lot better by San Jose, but still wasn't put in a match on that show

Undertaker has started to lift weights and is expected back in the ring in six to eight weeks. There is an unofficial target date of King of the Ring for his wrestling return, although he may be doing an angle to set that up in May

Rock isn't expected to miss any PPV shows during the filming of "Mummy 2.

In the hardcore Battle Royal, the way the match was supposed to end was that with seconds remaining, Bob Holly was supposed to break the candy jar over Crash's head and cover him for the pin. At the count of two, the time was supposed to run out. What happened is that Bob was slightly early in breaking the jar and making the cover. Crash, who had no way of seeing the time, didn't kick out, since he wasn't supposed to. Ref Tim White counted 1-2 and was bringing down the hand for three waiting for the bell that didn't come. He actually never hit the mat for three as Tazz' body blocked him, or White used that as his impromptu reason. Crash never kicked out so Ross announced to try and make sense out of the situation of White stopping the count that Crash had rolled his shoulder, which clearly he hadn't. So while it didn't end perfectly, they seemingly managed to cover it well enough. There have been a lot more screwed up finishes that still went through with the planned result. The problem was that backstage, for whatever reason, they thought White hit the mat for the third count before the bell rang and for that reason felt for credibility that Bob had to be announced as the winner. Even though everyone assumed Crash won the match and the announcers were even calling it, both the announcers and Howard Finkel were given word from the back that the finish was changed from watching the monitors and that Bob had won. Then when they went to the replays to show the finish that they thought was screwed up and that White never hit the mat for the three, it just made it that much worse

Current plan, which can always change, is for Undertaker to be brought back as Kane's tag team partner with both being managed by Paul Bearer

The Aggression CD dropped to No. 12 in its second week selling 77,893 units, down 28% from its open. WWF the Music Volume Four in its 22nd week on the charts was at No. 192 with 7,190 units sold

There is talk of putting Scott Vick & Val Venis together as a tag team

The Dupp Brothers may be put on television shortly

The woman who turned on Godfather and went with Big Show in San Jose is actually Show's real-life fiance. At the time the idea was for it just to be a one-time thing and not introduce her as a regular character

To clear up rumors, Hunter Hearst Helmsley and Chyna have broken up. She confirmed this in a Dallas newspaper by saying she isn't seeing anyone. Part of the reason may have been that she wants to live in California because there has been interest in her for acting parts and she felt the need to be located close by and he just bought an expensive home in New Hampshire

The Team Extreme that appeared on the San Jose taping against the Ballard Brothers were two Southern California wrestlers from Rick Bassman's school, one of which was Justin McCulley, who has experience in shootfighting

If you noticed, Eddy Guerrero named his low rider car "Love Machine" after long-time tag partner Art Barr

Brock Lesnar of the University of Minnesota, who the WWF has expressed interest in, captured the NCAA heavyweight championship in St. Louis a few weeks back (winning his championship match 3-2 in double overtime). At the tournament when he was asked about his future and said he was definitely not going to play football and said pro wrestling was a good possibility. Lesnar was recommended to us about two years ago (at the time his nickname was "The Rock,") as someone with a great pro wrestling look and great athletic ability (actually the same person who told me about him told me in 1981 after the NCAA tournament about a guy with great pro wrestling potential named Steve "Dr Death" Williams). You can never predict how a great amateur will do as a pro because they are so entirely different worlds and a lot depends on the drive of the athlete to leave his ego at the door and entirely change his way of thinking, but there are many great amateurs and everyone knows the top names on the list that have gone on to become legendary pros. Lesnar said he wasn't going to compete this month at the U.S. freestyle nationals because at the end of the season he was burned out. Lesnar scored three pins his five tournament wins

In the New York Daily News on 4/10 gossip column, they talked about a celebrity auction at a private school in Encino, CA. Clothes autographed by Muhammad Ali went for $2,500. A limo ride with John Travolta to his next movie premiere went for $3,000. A dinner with Foley ended up going for $31,000

The Canadian Football League is looking to make a pact with the XFL, obviously in an attempt to keep the XFL, which is going to have a higher salary structure, from raiding the league of its best players. CFL President Jeff Giles said that he spoke with Carl DeMarco, the President of WWF Canada, about it, and DeMarco didn't give him an answer. CFL commissioner John Tory was quoted on CTB SportsNet.com as saying, "I don't for a minute underestimate the resources and the talents of Vince McMahon and the people in his organization. I believe it would be a very good idea to get involved with them and I know our board would be eager to talk with them. What was on the table (that the CFL turned down which led to the formation of this league) was the outright sale of the league an the outright loss of our rules and we weren't interested in that. They wanted complete control of the league and our board felt that was giving up too much. DeMarco, last week, in the Toronto Sun, said, regarding the CFL, "Those idiots missed the boat. The CFL dropped the ball. The WWF could have been the CFL's white knight. Seven out of eight teams lose money and surveys show the fans don't care--they really dropped the ball. Everyone mocked the WWF and Vince McMahon and he just proved everybody wrong." In this football venture, McMahon very well may prove everybody wrong, but at this point in time to say he already has is premature to say the least. In what TV people the past few days were pointing out as a bad sign, NBC put the NBA in prime time on 4/8 with the Lakers vs. Spurs which only drew a 2.7 rating, about half of what NBC averages with regular programming. The Wall Street Journal ran an article this past week saying how advertisers are very skeptical about the prospects for the XFL to be competitive in network prime time ratings. The funny thing within the advertising community is that they think the XFL WILL draw the WWF audience and not the NFL audience, which they don't consider good. At this point, according to WSJ was that "one of the fears potential XFL advertisers appear to have is how closely will the XFL be associated with the WWF and the much younger, less affluent audience professional wrestling attracts.

On the New York Times best seller list for this weekend, Rock's book is No. 3 and Mick Foley's book is No. 10

Lots of stories going around regarding what appears to be the quiet demise of WWF New York, the restaurant/merchandise store on Times Square. The WWF is no longer pushing the place on the web site or on television, and reports are the Continued on page 10.