02-01-2003, 02:05 AM
- There are some rumors that John Laurinaitis may be next in line to get Jim Ross' position as Head of Talent Relations. Vince McMahon has talked to JR lately about slowing down and rumors of Ross retiring by the end of the year have once again re-emerged. Laurinaitis is currently the top agent on Smackdown!.
- Kevin Nash made a pitch to get himself into the Royal Rumble as a surprise entrant or in a run-in scenario, but WWE brass decided to keep him out. Nash is targetting a return for Wrestlemania 19 and is down to 297lbs from his previous weight of 327lbs and he intends to stay below 300 while wrestling.
- Lex Luger has told friends that despite having heat with the company, he feels that Vince McMahon will give him a call to come back to WWE soon, mainly because of his size and because Vince loves "surprises" and they are running out of logical candidates for said surprises.
- Vince McMahon met with Bill Goldberg and his agent Barry Bloom on January 8 in a hotel room and although no deal was reached, the two sides moved closer towards an agreement with Goldberg now actually considering more than a two-match deal. They discussed storylines involving him with Rock, Steve Austin, Kurt Angle and Undertaker but Triple H's name was left out due to bad relationship between the two stemming from an incident a few years ago.
- After the initial meeting, WWE requested ten dates per month from Goldberg, but that may have been as a negotiating ploy as to ultimately settle somewhere in between. WWE has also tried convincing Goldberg for a long-term deal but he's still leaning towards a shorter deal and is being backed up by the Rock who feels such an agreement would be best.
- Though 40,000 tickets have been sold for Wrestlemania 19, expect WWE to release about 10,000 more over the next two months which would bring the total to about 50,000 putting the event behind Houston's Wrestlemania X-7.
- Vince McMahon was said to be very unimpressed by the Triple H-Scott Steiner angle a couple of weeks ago during the bench pressing contest. Those backstage said he was overreacting to a point that nobody has seen before.
- There is even more news coming out about the Rock planning to take more time off from the WWE. Of course, it was announced last night at Smackdown that the Rock will face Hogan at February's No Way Out PPV. Initially the Rock had commited to work Wrestlemania and Backlash, but as things stand now, it looks like he'll be appearing at No Way Out and Wrestlemania instead. It is now expected that the Rock will be working on a project over the summer, thus making him more scarce from WWE television that originally planned.
- The general consensus of Nathan Jones is that he is somewhat of a primadonna and does not appreciate the huge push that he is getting. In addition, he does not respect his fellow wrestlers as much as he should. Some also feel that Jones has not yet begun to pay his dues, and his ring work is down right awful.
- Mick Foley was invited to attend the Raw X show two weeks ago but declined due to the fact that WWE wanted him there for 10 to 12 hours on the day of the show to rehearse. He also wanted his first appearance back on WWE TV to be more significant but as of this writing, there are no plans to bring him back in any capacity.
- As many expected, there was some strong opposition to Vince McMahon bringing back Hulk Hogan, mainly after the falling out they had last year. However, Hogan was very interested in coming back for one final Wrestlemania payoff and it's quite evident that WWE is pulling out all the stops to make that event a grand spectacular.
- Kevin Nash made a pitch to get himself into the Royal Rumble as a surprise entrant or in a run-in scenario, but WWE brass decided to keep him out. Nash is targetting a return for Wrestlemania 19 and is down to 297lbs from his previous weight of 327lbs and he intends to stay below 300 while wrestling.
- Lex Luger has told friends that despite having heat with the company, he feels that Vince McMahon will give him a call to come back to WWE soon, mainly because of his size and because Vince loves "surprises" and they are running out of logical candidates for said surprises.
- Vince McMahon met with Bill Goldberg and his agent Barry Bloom on January 8 in a hotel room and although no deal was reached, the two sides moved closer towards an agreement with Goldberg now actually considering more than a two-match deal. They discussed storylines involving him with Rock, Steve Austin, Kurt Angle and Undertaker but Triple H's name was left out due to bad relationship between the two stemming from an incident a few years ago.
- After the initial meeting, WWE requested ten dates per month from Goldberg, but that may have been as a negotiating ploy as to ultimately settle somewhere in between. WWE has also tried convincing Goldberg for a long-term deal but he's still leaning towards a shorter deal and is being backed up by the Rock who feels such an agreement would be best.
- Though 40,000 tickets have been sold for Wrestlemania 19, expect WWE to release about 10,000 more over the next two months which would bring the total to about 50,000 putting the event behind Houston's Wrestlemania X-7.
- Vince McMahon was said to be very unimpressed by the Triple H-Scott Steiner angle a couple of weeks ago during the bench pressing contest. Those backstage said he was overreacting to a point that nobody has seen before.
- There is even more news coming out about the Rock planning to take more time off from the WWE. Of course, it was announced last night at Smackdown that the Rock will face Hogan at February's No Way Out PPV. Initially the Rock had commited to work Wrestlemania and Backlash, but as things stand now, it looks like he'll be appearing at No Way Out and Wrestlemania instead. It is now expected that the Rock will be working on a project over the summer, thus making him more scarce from WWE television that originally planned.
- The general consensus of Nathan Jones is that he is somewhat of a primadonna and does not appreciate the huge push that he is getting. In addition, he does not respect his fellow wrestlers as much as he should. Some also feel that Jones has not yet begun to pay his dues, and his ring work is down right awful.
- Mick Foley was invited to attend the Raw X show two weeks ago but declined due to the fact that WWE wanted him there for 10 to 12 hours on the day of the show to rehearse. He also wanted his first appearance back on WWE TV to be more significant but as of this writing, there are no plans to bring him back in any capacity.
- As many expected, there was some strong opposition to Vince McMahon bringing back Hulk Hogan, mainly after the falling out they had last year. However, Hogan was very interested in coming back for one final Wrestlemania payoff and it's quite evident that WWE is pulling out all the stops to make that event a grand spectacular.