Scotts Wrestling World

1) Brock Lesnar starts negotiating with WWE: That was a headline you thought you would never see. Yeah, Brock already was in the WWE and even held the WWE Title but under the circumstances surrounding Brock Lesnar’s exit and what had gone down since he left, you would never think in a million years that you would see that headline. For those of you that don’t know, I will give you the rundown on why you would think that you would ever see that headline. Back in 2004, WWE was heading towards Wrestlemania 20. Lesnar was to square off against Goldberg in what should have been a dream match. About a week before WMXX, news got leaked out that Lesnar had given his notice to Vince McMahon and that Lesanar was leaving the WWE to pursue a career in the NFL. Brock went to WMXX and got booed louder than ever and lost to Goldberg. After that Lesnar made the team of the Minnesota Vikings but got cut at the end of the preseason. About 6-8 months later, it was released that Brock Lesnar was suing the WWE to get out from under the no compete clause that he signed when he left. A couple of months later, Lesnar was said to be negotiating with the WWE about a possible return to the promotion. It got as far as the WWE offering Lesnar a contract. Under his lawyer’s advisement, Lesnar sent the contract back to the WWE and the lawsuit was back up and running again. I believe that the lawsuit has been settled and Brock is working over in Japan and as a matter of fact, won the IWGP heavyweight title a couple of months back.

2) ECW makes a return: In the beginning of 2001, ECW teetered on bankrupty and went out of business. The last that anyone saw of ECW was when in 2001, they joined forces with WCW and formed an alliance to take out WWE but they were foiled. Nobody heard of ECW again for a couple of years. In late 2004, rumors started circulating that WWE executives were discussing the possibility of ECW being brought back as a potential third brand. In December 2004, WWE released a DVD called “The Rise and Fall of ECW.” Reports show that the DVD did really well but didn’t expect to hear much more about ECW. Then in mid May, commercials started promoting a show called “ECW: One Night Stand.” For weeks, there were promos done by Eric Bischoff that ECW was dead and that he was going to lead a crusade to the show and kill ECW once and for all. Eric did everything he could to destroy ECW’s ppv but the fans still chanted with pride ECW! ECW! ECW! Eric was going to do a funeral for ECW and I was lucky enough to be at that Raw show and the only way to feel the electricity in the air at that show when Heyman came out and said that Eric started a fire that would never go out, you had to be there live. Rumors were circulating though that the show was going to be a big watered down ECW. I am glad to say that it didn’t turn out that way as it was a real look back into the old days of ECW. We all know that it is not going to start up again but there are rumors that WWE will do 1 ppv a year as a tribute to ECW. If they don’t, then watching that ppv was a good way to say goodbye to 1 of the most innovative promotions in history. I know that I will never forget ECW as I still hear those chants. ECW! ECW! ECW!

3) WWE moves to USA: WWE went under some major changes this year and the most major one was its move from Spike tv to the USA network. WWE was in negotiations with Spike tv for a new contract with the network but Spike tv pulled out of the negotiations and their reason was that WWE was not generating enough add revenue. So WWE had a major problem as their old contract ran out in just 2 months. So WWE was at the mercy at any of these networks. They landed back on USA where Raw first started. On October 3rd, it went head to head with the UFC and Spike tv and won. Many people said that when WWE was going to be at the mercy of everyone, it would be a sign that WWE was dying. But ever since it came back to USA, it has been doing pretty well and I don’t think it is showing signs of dying.

4) Jim Ross gets fired: Back in October, WWE executives wanted to get Jim Ross off of television because he was not hip and not young enough to be on tv. WWE went to Mike Goldberg of the UFC and offered him as so he says, 500,00 dollars per year in a 3 year deal adding up to 1.5 million dollars. The werid thing to is that they decide to g after him right when the UFC start going against them. Well, Mike turned down the offer and they put the Coach in J.R.’s spot. Now, you have the best announcer under contract to you and nobody seems to be bombarding the WWE offices to get rid of this guy but they do and they put the Coach of all people in his spot. At Taboo Tuesday though, Joey Styles came in as the new play by play announcer because with J.R. out of the picture, you had 2 color announcers and you can’t have that. You have to have a play by play guy in there somewhere and for a couple of weeks, they didn’t. Joey is okay but he is no J.R.. I do believe he is still under contract to WWE and may not physically be ready to go yet because he had colon surgery, but if it comes time and he is not put back on tv, that should tell you somewhat of what the future will look like for the WWE.

5) TNA comes to Spike tv: This one is the most significant beacsue for the first time in a couple years, WWE had some competition. I find it kind of werid that when Spike tv pulled out of talks with the WWE, that they went and signed TNA to a tv deal. Spike pulled out of talks with the WWE because WWE was not generating enough add revenue for the network but after you take them off, you sign a not so established promotion to a deal. Now because fo this, people are expecting big things from TNA and TNA better start working. When they got kicked off of FSN earlier this year, they had ppvs coming up and no tv show. They stayed alive by running shows off of their site but you could tell that if they didn’t get a deal soon, they would die. So you could say that they were on life support. They have come back though an I must say that it is a work in progress but so far, they are doing fine.

Predictions For 2006: In 2005, we saw WWE crown Batista and John Cena as the new flag bearers of the WWE. In 2006, they will crown Mr. Kennedy from smackdown and Edge from Raw as the new flag bearers of the WWE and give them their big push. It could be Randy Orton but they gave him the World belt before and it wasn’t that great. 2006 is a make or break year for TNA because if their ratings and numbers don’t get better, you can for sure say that TNA will not make it or is not in WWE’s league. In conclusion, I see a few major stars going to TNA. The stars are Goldberg, Brock Lesnar, Paul Heyman, The Rock, and quite possibly Jim Ross and Stone Cold Steve Austin.

What a year this has been and this is my final post for the year but beginning next year, we are going to add pictures and new banners to this site to make it more interesting. Have a safe New Year and I will be posting again in 2006.