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WRESTLING GLOBE NEWSLETTER
Tuesday, September 25, 2007 – Issue #6

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Wrestling Globe delivers all the latest non-tabloid pro wrestling news and analysis direct to your mailbox.
It’s read by industry power players, many top wrestlers and thousands of fans from all around the world.

To subscribe email: [email protected]

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STRAIGHT FROM THE MAT – GLOBAL NEWSWIRE
<> 9/24 Raw TV results from Milwaukee: Bob Holly (recently returned from the injured list) over Code Rhodes, Ron Simmons over Santino Marella, Vince McMahon & Carlito over Triple H in the cage match, Brian Kendrick & Paul London over Lance Cade &Trevor Murdoch via DQ after the Highlanders ran in, Shelton Benjamin & Beth Phoenix over Jeff Hardy &Candice Michelle, and John Cena over Coach in a tables match.

<> Smackdown/ECW tapes tonight in Indianapolis with Undertaker vs. Mark Henry and Tommy Dreamer vs. Kevin Thorn vs. Elijah Burke. We’re looking to hear from any readers attending the show.

<> We received a number of emails on this. Did anyone catch the subliminal Matrix-like message that ran following the Jonathan Coachman press conference last night on Raw. I watched it back a couple of times and the message appears to be “SAVE_US.222”. I want to throw it out to you guys. What do you think it was? Perhaps a teaser for the return of Chris Jericho? The bad TV alarm? Watch the video here http://tinyurl.com/23thud and let us know your thoughts at [email protected]

<> Entertainment Tonight Canada tonight is doing a two-part (part one already aired last night) segment on pro wrestling and the Chris Benoit killings. If any of our readers in Canada catch the show please let us know your thoughts. The special will apparently show some chilling messages that Benoit sent out before his death.

<> Randy Orton missed TV last night because he got married this past weekend in St. Louis.

<> For those paying attention Lyndy Frieson was eliminated from the 2007 Diva Search last night. Wouldn’t it be more entertaining if we just put those women on an island like in The Condemned and let them kill each other until we have a winner?

<> The WWE has appointed Ty Bailey to replace Mike “Simon Dean” Bucci in the talent relations division. He will be the liaison (“stooge”) between the front office and the developmental programs. Bailey had previously worked for the company in operations for the failed XFL experiment. He is also the son of Joe Bailey, the CEO of the Miami Dolphins.

<> Dave Batista has a book coming out on 10/16 titled “Unleashed”. The book is ghost written by Jeremy Roberts who did Eric Bischoff’s book.
Should be an interesting read, and you wont believe the preview:
http://tinyurl.com/33nrnf

<> The Charlotte Observer at http://tinyurl.com/2pbzqc has a story on Ric Flair and his new business venture Ric Flair Finance.

<> Shelly Martinez, who had worked briefly in ECW as Ariel, will be appearing in Fox’ latest reality show The Search For The Next Elvira.
The show airs 10/13 on Fox Reality.

<> Billy Kidman, David Young, CW Anderson and Dave “Gangrel” Heath were among those backstage visiting at the TNA tapings last night. We will have more news on those tapings tomorrow…

<> Kidman worked a show last weekend for the WWE’s developmental territory Florida Championship Wrestling, against Harry Smith (Davey Boy Smith’s son) with Lacey Von Erich as his valet. Lacey is Kerry Von Erich’s 21-year-old daughter who has the “Diva look” as well as the distinction of being third generation.

<> The WWE has put back the release of it’s Triumph and Tragedy of World Class DVD until 12/11. The DVD covers the life and times of the Von Erich family and WCCW: http://tinyurl.com/2scnys

<> CBS’ 48 Hours has been interviewing former WWE wrestlers recently for a future story they are doing on young deaths in wrestling.

<> WG YouTube Video of the day — The Road Warriors bench press challenge — http://tinyurl.com/2oxgkx

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WHY WWE DEVELOPMENTAL HAS FAILED
by Karl Stern of www.karlstern.com
WWE developmental has, in some shape or form, been in use for over a decade now. The most predominate of the developmental groups belongs to Danny Davis in Ohio Valley Wrestling. Yet in the last decade, WWE developmental has failed to turn out more than a handful of major stars and none of them have been mega-star level.

While many of WWE’s current roster has, at some point in time, been to developmental, just who in the main event ranks owes the majority of their training to WWE development? You could argue John Cena though he has never reached Rock or Steve Austin level of popularity. Still, we’ll count him as one. Brock Lesnar was a true product of WWE development having been recruited out of the NCAA to come to pro wrestling. While Lesnar was a main event star and headlined a Wrestlemania, the time he spent in pro wrestling was a blip on the radar. Still, we will count him as number two. Beyond that who in the main events owes their training to WWE developmental?

Great Kahli, while no poster child for any development program, was a long time wrestler in Mexico and Japan as Giant Singh and has been wrestling for close to ten years. Triple H came from Killer Kowalski’s wrestling school, spent time on the independent scene then in WCW before coming to WWE (then WWF) as a lower card act before politicking and fighting his way up to the main events. All the major mega-star acts of the last ten years owe their training to the old territorial system, not developmental. Steve Austin and The Undertaker got their starts in the Texas end of the USWA, Memphis, and early WCW. The Rock worked Memphis (though it was, at times during his stay, a WWE developmental area) and was a third generation wrestler who owes more to the training done by his family than to WWE.

What developmental has churned out is a stream of also-rans and mid-carders. The list reads like a where-are-they-now: Doug and Danny Bashem, Rob Conway, Nick Dinsmore, Rene DuPree, and the list goes on and on. Now this shouldn’t be so much a knock on them, but instead on the cookie-cutter WWE style and look.

What the territories gave us was variety. Not everyone looked like Hulk Hogan or Superstar Graham. There were a lot of look-a-likes but there were also different body types and styles. What is sad is that if things had always been the WWE developmental way then people like Dusty Rhodes, The Assassin, Tommy Rich, and even people like Ricky Steamboat
(style-wise) would never had made it to the main event levels. Everyone does not, and should not, look the same or wrestle the same.

The biggest fatal flaw in the whole system, however, is the way it plays out in the arena. All the development talent work against each other instead of with the veterans. Yes, they have the veterans there to train them but not in front of the crowd in an actual match. When Danny Davis was coming up he went from territory to territory working against the older stars. When Davis started out he was a lower card wrestler who worked in Stampede and later Memphis. In fact, The Nightmares (Davis and Ken Wayne) were a jobber level team called The Galaxians before they became The Nightmares. When they arrived in Southeastern wrestling they worked for years with older wrestlers before Davis broke out as a singles star in the promotion.

Same thing goes for trainers like Dr. Tom Prichard and Steve Keirn. They both spent years traveling through the territories before they became top tier performers. At the Police department as a Sergeant I train the newcomers. Why would I send a rookie to ride with another rookie and then later tell them what they did wrong? Does it not make more sense to ride with them and teach them as we go? Yet the WWE developmental system does exactly that.

Perhaps the development system shouldn’t just be for upcoming performers but for outgoing ones as well. The ones who become stale. Instead of curtly wishing them the best in their future endeavors at WWE.com why not send them to OVW or Florida to perform on their shows against the younger wrestlers? Why not have a stale performer like Kane or a veteran like Dean Malenko as champion of the area with the up and comers chasing them? Why not have Arn Anderson as an active manager and mouthpiece on the shows while the person he is with learns from him?

Instead, year after year, we get more cookie cutter wrestlers with cookie cutter gimmicks. And when they arrive in WWE no wonder they don’t stand out… because they don’t.

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