Wednesday, August 12, 2009

RAW Ratings Go Down Again

After dropping to a 3.55 rating for last week's Jeremy Piven-hosted edition of RAW, the flagship WWE series rebounded this week.

Hosted by Sgt. Slaughter, who was not positioned as an attraction in the vein of Shaquille O'Neal and Piven, this week's show did a 3.8 rating, off hours of 3.6 and 4.0, according to PWTorch.com

Because quarter hours are not yet available, one cannot be precise in determining what on the show--particularly in the second hour--attracted the solid audience. It would presumably not be incorrect, however, to attribute the strong second hour to combined interest in the Shawn Michaels/Triple H storyline and the John Cena vs. Chris Jericho main event.

This week's 3.8 is WWE's third-highest rating since implementing the guest host gimmick. A PWTorch.com report on RAW viewership since the gimmick's debut interestingly reveals that aside from Shaquille O'Neal, whose edition of RAW scored the highest rating, the celebrity hosts have produced the worst-performing episodes of the program.

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Monday, August 10, 2009

J.R. Teases a SummerSlam Surprise

In his latest blog on WWE.com, Jim Ross says he has a big surprise in store for SummerSlam.

“Summerslam is so big this year that I’m heading to L.A. on Friday just so I don’t miss any thing. Lots of really cool fan activities are being planned from what I hear,” Ross said. “Plus, I will have a MAJOR surprise for some folks at Summerslam. Gosh, I love surprises.”

- It’s been said that WWE officials are leaning more towards having celebrities guest host future editions of Monday Night RAW rather than former wrestlers. Exceptions include Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and “Stone Cold” Steve Austin.

While Sgt.Slaughter will be hosting next week’s show, it likely had more to do with it not being easy to get a big name celebrity to fly out to Calgary and the possible GI Joe tie-in. Also, WWE approached Dusty Rhodes about appearing as a guest host when the idea initially came up, but it appears he has been placed on the back burner in favor of celebrities.

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Friday, February 20, 2009

Slaughter Contacted for Storyline vs Jericho

World Wrestling Entertainment contacted recently released employee Sgt. Slaughter to check up on his availability for a possible upcoming on-air appearance. A well-placed source said that the idea is to bring Sgt. Slaughter into the ongoing Chris Jericho storyline involving the WWE legends, reports ProWrestling.net.

Nothing has been confirmed on if WWE has anything planned for Sgt. Slaughter, however they have contacted him as well as other WWE Hall of Fame members to take part in the Chris Jericho storyline.

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Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Slaughter and Simmons the Latest Two WWE Releases

From: PWInsider.com

WWE has cut two more individuals.

Sgt. Slaughter, who has been working as a producer for WWE for the past several years, has been released from the company.

Ron Simmons has also been released. He has made sporadic appearances on television for his "Damn!" gimmick and done some promotional work for the company in the last year or so. This is the second time in which Simmons has been released from WWE, the other time taking place in March 2004.

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Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Top 10 One-Hit Wonders in WrestleMania History



Time for yet another WrestleMania list, and while we covered the biggies, this one is again going to be fun, as it's our list of "one Hit Wonders" at WrestleMania. Some maybe wrestlers, others may be matches or gimmicks that simply didn't last. Whatever the case, I think you'll find this list a lot of fun as we run through the "Top 10 One-Hit Wonders of WrestleMania."

1. Having WrestleMania II Held in 3 Different Venues - This is an idea that I am sure if you ask Vince McMahon about today he wishes he would have ignored. Having the biggest event of the year in three different cities on the same night (only time Mania was held on a Monday as well), was not only tough, it was weird with three different announcing crews, as well as just the whole feel of the show seemed off. It also left a lot of fans feeling the same way, as the event was overall not attended as well as other Mania's.

2. SD Jones - Ah yes, Special Delivery Jones, as he was known, lasted a whopping 9 seconds (really was 23 seconds, but we'll go with the WWE's version) against King Kong Bundy in the first WrestleMania. Poor SD basically wasn't heard from again till he inducted Tony Atlas into the WWE Hall of Fame some 21 years later in Rosemont.

3. WrestleMania IV's 14-Man Championship Tourney - The entire WrestleMania IV event really cricled around the 14-man tournment that was on the show to determine a new WWF Champion. The focus was on Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant, who kicked off the second round with a bye, and after they were both DQ'ed, the event lost a lot of luster, as everyone knew it would come down to Ted Dibiase and Randy Savage. Overall, too long of an event and the tourney itself was pretty lackluster.

4. George Wells - Another one hit wonder, Wells took on Jake "The Snake" Roberts early in WM II from Uniondale NY. Wells, who really never was much more than a jobber in the WWF, lasted 3:15 before the dreaded DDT and a visit from Jake's snake - Dameon.

5. Men on a Mission - The large team of Mabel and Mo made their only WM outing at Mania X in NYC, taking on The Quebecers for the tag belts, and while they actually won via countout, there were yet another team in the mix that never really deserved their due on such a big show.

6. Giant Gonzalez - Ugh, this large "wrestler" seemed to be nothing more than a past version of The Great Khali, as he lumbered around in a match vs The Undertaker in WM IX in Las Vegas. Gonzalez also had one of the worst outfits in Mania history, a body suit that had airbrushed muscles and hair attached to it. Thankfully, we only had to see him at one Mania before he was gone.

7. Bart Gunn - Good old Bart Gunn had one of the more memorable one-hit moments in Mania history, as he was hit hard - once - by pro boxer Butterbean, and knocked out cold during a real boxing match at Mania 15 in Philly. The "Brawl for All" was as real as it could get, and he lasted all of :35 seconds before falling to one of Butterbeans powerful punches that sent him into la-la land.

8. Skinner - Otherwise known as Steve Keirn, Skinner was a outback type character that was known more for his chew than his in-ring skills. He took on Owen Hart, as the Blue Blazer, in WrestleMania VIII, and lasted a whopping 1:11 after spitting tobacco at Hart, then finding himself getting rolled up for a quick pin moments later. Let's just say another character that never got over.

9. The ECW Originals (Tommy Dreamer, Sabu, The Sandman and Rob Van Dam) - Yes, hard to believe less than a year later, all but one of these men are gone from the WWE. Even harder to believe it's actually Dreamer, who was the least pushed out of the bunch. You knew the writing was pretty much on the wall for these four, and while Dreamer is still around, for the most part, their involvement in Mania 23 was nothing more than a throw away in a match vs the equally as bad New Breed.

10. Sgt. Slaughter - The poor Sarge gets the last notch on our list, as he was by far the worst in a main event role, being the stepping stone for another Hulk Hogan title regin during his match with him at WM VII in Los Angeles. The storyline of him embracing Iraq during the Gulf War never got over in the least, and by the time he and Hogan went at it, Sarge was so far out of his prime it wasn't even funny.

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