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CALDWELL'S BLOG: Vince McMahon's WWE history, News outlet recommends WWE stock dump, Worst Beat Down Ever on Impact (w/VIDEO) Sep 11, 2009 - 12:20:45 PM
-- WWE is releasing a new special edition magazine called the "Untold History of WWE" on Tuesday featuring several pages of quotes from chairman Vince McMahon. The quote already making headlines is his commentary on Chris Benoit, saying they can't ignore history, but they don't want to promote him.
I plan on grabbing the magazine early this weekend and running a few features on McMahon's commentary on several key events in WWE's history. So, be sure to check back this weekend for continuing coverage of the McMahon Quotes before Sunday's Breaking Point PPV coverage. And, if you're on the road traveling or out and about, be sure to take us with you on your phone via the Torch App. It's available for free in the iTunes store.
-- On Wednesday afternoon, the Motley Fool financial news outlet ran a story telling investors to "throw away" WWE stock. The key points of emphasis were the declining buys for WrestleMania from 2007 to 2009 and the first-half of 2009 financials being way down compared to the first-half of 2008.
I held off on running a story, as I wanted to see how the WWE stock price would react to a well-known financial news outlet presenting an argument to dump the stock.
There was heavy trading around 10:50 a.m. EST on Wednesday, but that was before the story ran. It appears there was a major sell-off from an individual or a group of individuals based on the volume of shares being bought and sold spiking to 20,000 at that time.
The stock price merely fluctuated the rest of the day, then increased on Thursday to its peak for the week of $14.61 per share. The price has dropped off to $14.00 today on heavy volume, but the market is down overall today.
Bottom line is the story didn't appear to make much difference in WWE's stock.
One of the subplot arguments in the Motley Fool article was that more people are turning to MMA from pro wrestling. Naturally, Jake Rossen from sherdog.com ran a story on ESPN taking another round of unsolicited shots at WWE and pro wrestling. The act is getting really old.
-- Last night's TNA Impact closed with Homicide turning on Hernandez to officially end LAX on TNA TV. The seeds had been planted for a while leading to the back-stab, then Homicide landed a chair on Hernandez to finally pull the trigger...and everything went wrong from there.
As soon as Homicide hit the chair shot... there was silence. The wrong silence. It wasn't a shock silence, but an apathetic, eye-rolling silence from the audience that clearly did not want to see it and they knew it was coming.
Mike Tenay and Taz had one shot at the right reaction verbally and they didn't get it. It's one of those things where you know the right verbal reaction when you hear it, and this wasn't it. It was like they were watching a mid-card development unfold when they were thinking about the TV main event an hour later in the show.
Then, all kinds of unintentional comedy ensued from a World Elite group that lacks credibility. Commence the Worst Beat Down Ever with Mistake #1: you don't pick up someone when executing a beat down. First thing British Invasion did was gingerly pick up Hernandez as if they didn't want to hurt him... and then they shot him off to the ropes. Why? You're doing a beat down, not a mid-card tag match.
After nailing a clothesline off the ropes, British Invasion proceeds to Mistake #2: They picked him up again. And they proceeded to execute the softest, most overly-complicated double-team maneuver ever conceived to delicately slam Hernandez to the ground. It's worth a reminder this is a beat down taking place after one of TNA's top tag teams in company history just broke up.
Mistake #3: The mid-card heels started executing finishing moves. Yes, very light finishing moves during a beat down. Bashir executed a soft DDT and Kiyoshi comically went up top to deliver a soft diving headbutt. Mistake #4: Rob Terry was involved in this. I don't know what it is about his character that just makes me want to laugh.
The beat down will (thankfully) be quickly forgotten and they'll move on to the feud between Homicide & World Elite vs. Hernandez, but what an inauspicious beginning to the feud. I wasn't sure whether to laugh or cry at the "security footage" of Rhino having sudden IED rage "attacking" Bobby Lashley in the gym, but this one is definitely worth a few laughs.
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