Dirt Sheet History: December 2007

Take a trip back to a memorable timeline in sports entertainment with the most important stories reported as fact in the journalistic world of pro wrestling dirt sheets.

Following the timeline of the last Dirt Sheet History looking back at November 2007, we get a glimpse into the top scoops from November of 2007 as we read Dirt Sheet History.

Reminder that you can find all past editions of Dirt Sheet History looking at 2004 through 2007 right here. Now enjoy December 2007.

12/2/2007

* The word going around backstage at last night’s Turning Point pay-per-view was that Scott Hall no-showed the event due to “food poisoning.” There was a tremendous amount of backstage heat on Hall as the company had been promoting the return of The Outsiders for weeks.

Wade Keller is reporting that it is unknown if Kevin Nash was really upset following Samoa Joe’s promo where he was grouped with Scott Hall. Nash was said to be in a pretty good mood leading into the pay-per-view.

12/3/2007

* TNA President Dixie Carter held a meeting today offering everyone in the company their release if they wanted it. Only Senshi (aka Low Ki) took up Carter’s offer. So well, it looks like he’s through with TNA.

12/4/2007

* Management told Samoa Joe to go the ring last night to cut a promo on Scott Hall to take the heat off of the company for a major star no-showing a pay-per-view. They wanted him to put over the guys on the roster and then to introduce Eric Young as his replacement partner. Joe’s promo went about five minutes longer than originally planned not to mention that it incorporated a lot more content, especially aimed at Kevin Nash, than was planned.

During the promo, Joe leaned over the top rope and asked someone off camera if they were mad at him. Apparently, he looked over at TNA President Dixie Carter — who was sitting in the audience — shrugged and said, “Go ahead and fire me, I don’t care.” As you can imagine, Carter was legitimately upset with him “going into business for himself” and taking so long with his promo. Furthermore, Kevin Nash was legitimately upset that Joe turned Scott Hall’s no-show into a rant against him for some reason.

Nash returned to the back right away after the match had concluded. He was waiting for Joe to show up so he could confront him about his comments. When Joe got backstage, Nash confronted him and a heated verbal exchange with some shoving ensued between the two. Joe soon backed down to prevent the situation from escalating.

Joe gave an emotional apology at today’s all-talent meeting as he felt he went overboard with his promo from the night before. He said he hoped his apology would be accepted.

12/5/2007

* WWE would like Carlito to stay with the company after he gave his notice a few weeks ago. However, he is leaning towards leaving in a few weeks.

On the heels of Booker T leaving WWE a few weeks ago, apparently they don’t want another huge WWE name to make the jump to TNA and that’s why they want to keep him around.

Carlito wants to leave the company because he’s upset with how the company has treated him in recent months not to mention that he feels WWE has tried to humiliate him.

12/6/2007

* Chris Jericho‘s feud with Randy Orton looks to be a short one as it should be over soon. He may move on to a “war of words” feud with JBL, culminating in a match at WrestleMania. Some people within WWE are already disappointed with Jericho’s mic work, in-ring work and mild crowd reaction. Jericho was never expected to get a long period of grace, but the tide has turned against him fairly quickly.

12/7/2007

* At the 11/19 Raw show — the night in which Chris Jericho returned — Triple H was joking with a number of the younger wrestlers about how they should be really excited for the next round of house shows.

When asked why, he said that there would be nothing but sellouts now that “the savior” has arrived. He also said something similar to Shawn Michaels, telling him that he should work house shows again because Chris Jericho “was back to save wrestling.” Michaels didn’t really respond to Triple H’s comment as he didn’t laugh about it nor respond to it negatively. Of course, Triple H was being sarcastic with his comments.

He was telling people that Ric Flair‘s return will mean more money than Jericho’s return. Internally, some people believe Triple H’s comparison was counterproductive. It was also noted that he never does this sort of stuff at the arena to co-workers, but Jericho of all people got him to do it. If he does, it’s only with the inner circle of WWE. On the other hand, Stephanie McMahon was giving the impression at television that she is very supportive of Chris Jericho.

12/8/2007

* The ratings are in from last night and TNA Impact soundly defeated ECW in the head-to-head ratings battle.

Last night’s Impact drew a 1.1 cable rating. On a different timeslot, ECW garnered a 0.6 cable rating — a record low for the program.

12/9/2007

* Carlito met with Vince McMahon at this past Monday’s RAW in Charleston, South Carolina where McMahon was able to talk him into remaining with the company. After the meeting, Carlito rescinded his release which he had asked for several weeks earlier.

Despite Carlito being unhappy in the company for several months, WWE decided they did not want to lose him and risk the chance of him ending up in TNA. This could be one of the reasons why Carlito was booked in an Intercontinental Championship ladder match against Jeff Hardy on Monday’s 15 Anniversary RAW show.

12/10/2007

* WWE’s rocky relationship with Bret Hart has taken yet another bad turn. The two sides had been negotiating an agreement for the publishing rights to Bret Hart’s autobiography in the United States. Those negotiations have fallen through and Bret will be shopping the book elsewhere.

According to Dave Meltzer, Bret had a verbal agreement saying that the company would not change one word. When he was given the contract to sign, the terms were completely different than what was previously agreed upon. WWE demanded final say on anything they found objectionable. Bret was told that 400 of the book’s 533 pages would need to be changed, which was a deal breaker.

12/11/2007

* CM Punk revealed what the ‘CM’ in his name stands for at an AIDS event he attended two weeks ago. He told the crowd that it stands for ‘Cookie Master’, a nickname that dates back to childhood, courtesy of his mother. “I was a fat little kid very fond of cookies so my mother called me Cookie Master,” he said.

12/12/2007

* Last night’s 15th Raw Anniversary show scored a huge rating. The final two hours of the show drew a 4.4 rating.

12/13/2007

* There have been several reports from fans claiming that CM Punk was seen drinking a Miller Lite beer at the conclusion of Monday’s RAW. This of course would go against his straight edge gimmick/lifestyle. As it turns out the ECW Champion was actually drinking a Pepsi.

12/14/2007

* We have more details on TNA’s talent meeting that was held before the iMPACT tapings on December 3rd, one day after the Turning Point pay-per-view. Dixie Carter expressed how TNA management was tired of the undercard talent in the company complaining and offered anyone that was unhappy with their position in the company their release.

Samoa Joe apologized for “going too far” in his promo before the Turning Point main event the night before and for getting into it with Kevin Nash. Johnny Devine apologized for a separate incident involving him and another wrestler at a hotel on December 1st.

Senshi and Ron Killings were the only talent to take Dixie Carter up on her offer as they were granted their releases. Dave Meltzer is reporting that while they are the only two wrestlers that requested their release, several other members of the TNA roster have been contacting other promotions looking for work.

12/16/2007

* Dave Kapoor a.k.a. Ranjin Singh, the translator for The Great Khali, was scolded by Stephanie McMahon on Monday night after Raw.

In the final segment on Raw where a bunch of people came out, drank drinks and pretty much broke kayfabe, Stephanie felt Kapoor was having too much fun. The broadcast showed a shot of him smiling and having a good time, just like most everyone else.

After the show, Stephanie called him over and told him that his behavior was highly unprofessional. She also intimated that if he didn’t take “the job of a lifetime” seriously that he could very well be let go by WWE. Stephanie also added that someone on creative shouldn’t be an on-screen character (he’s a member of the creative team). Stephanie said that she went to bat for him in the past, and that he’d he better not screw it up.

12/18/2007

* Speaking of CM Punk, he is featured in a new Albany Times-Union article where he says that he would like a time machine for Christmas.

12/20/2007

* New WWE superstar Kofi Kingston is currently listed as the #4 top searched item on the Yahoo! search engine. Kingston, who has only appeared in “coming soon” video packages so far, is being billed as WWE’s first Jamaican superstar.

12/21/2007

* Tammy “Sunny” Sytch ripped in to fellow former WWE Diva Rena “Sable” Mero yesterday on her MySpace account:

“Normally, I wouldn’t waste my time on a piece of crap like Rena Mero, but so many of you are forwarding me things that she has been writing about me lately, that it needs to be addressed. Firstly, she has been saying that the reason she wasn’t on the 15th anniversary RAW, is because I was on it and told the people at the WWE to not have her on–that I wouldn’t appear if she was there. Well, right off the bat this is total horse crap, because I know for a fact that she was NOTeven asked to be a part of the show. I have a very good friend up there that showed me the list of people invited, and as there were a few invited that were then dis-invited, she was not one of them. She was no where to be found on the list. Period. She has to realize that the wrestling world does not revolve around her and her steroid-ridden husband–who, I hope gets his ass kicked by Frank Mir in February–they have been such a source of trouble in the past for that company, they don’t want anything to do with them. So, to save face, she made up this story about me getting her taken off the show. Now think about it–if I had that much pull in the company, wouldn’t I have a contract by now?? And doesn’t it just make her look stupid placing all that power in my hands?? As far as I’m concerned, she needs to stop worrying about me, and start worrying about how it’s possible that a 40 something woman can actually look 50 something in the face–even after ALL that surgery.”

As it turns out, those comments from Sable turned out to be fake. Sunny then responded:

“Well, now I’m being told that the Rena on myspace is a fake. I don’t know where the posts that she wrote came from, so I don’t know if it was a fake or not. But, in any sense, I still don’t like the pig.”

12/22/2007

* Vince McMahon called into today’s Opie & Anthony radio show as a special Christmas gift to the listeners. McMahon plugged Monday’s Tribute to the Troops show and he was asked who all worked the show. He said Shawn Michaels, Triple H, and Bob Orton before correcting himself and saying Bob’s son without ever mentioning Randy by name.

12/24/2007

* John Cena is said to be making great progress in his rehabilitation. Both Stephanie McMahon and Brian Gewirtz are hoping he can return to action at WrestleMania. Upon his return, Cena will likely resume his feud with Randy Orton. If he does end up appearing at Mania, it will likely be a surprise run-in or advertised guest appearance.

12/26/2007

* Both Rey Mysterio and MVP are pushing WWE officials to sign former WCW wrestler Norman Smiley to a contract, either as a wrestler or an agent.

12/28/2007

* There was some type of incident between Batista and a fan at the Albany, New York show this past Wednesday night. According to the reports that I have read the fan gave Batista a thumbs down which caused The Animal to go off. Edge, Batista’s opponent, remained in character and swore at the fan as well. Batista shook hands with the fan as he left ringside so it was pretty minor.

12/30/2007

* During Ring of Honor’s pay-per-view taping this past Saturday night in New York City, ROH Champion Nigel McGuiness broke his nose, suffered a concussion, and needed 14 internal and external stitches after he smashed his face on the guard rail. While there is talk that he may take some time off, he worked last night’s Final Battle show in New York City, cutting a promo about his match the night before.

12/31/2007

* Both The Rock and “Stone Cold” Steve Austin appeared in movies ranked high up on The Weekend Warrior’s “Terrible 25 of ’07” list on ComingSoon.net. Steve Austin’s movie The Condemned was ranked the third worst movie of 2007. The Southland Tales, a movie starring The Rock that was released in November was deemed the worst movie of 2007. And even though it did quite well at the box office, The Rock’s other movie, The Game Plan, made the list at No. 22.

– Tune back in next time for more Dirt Sheet History as we enter 2008.

Stories are credited from Rajah, PWTorch, PWInsider and The Wrestling Observer. Month name photo art is by Phillip Martin.

Past editions of Dirt Sheet History are found here.