One of my favorite nights during my tenure on the creative team was Sept. 10, 2002, which was the day we taped that year's SmackDown "season premiere" (it's weird that a show that has no off-season would have a season premiere, isn't it?).
That show featured the infamous Billy & Chuck commitment ceremony, the concept of which was my idea, and which turned into a huge success for the company in terms of ratings and mainstream coverage.
After the jump, some tidbits on what you DIDN'T see that night -- two superstars we discussed making cameos but didn't, the finish we should have done, and three gigantic matches we suggested before the wedding came to be ...
As you may remember, the Godfather made a cameo during the commitment ceremony itself. But two people we reached out to for the same purpose were scratched -- they decided against Honky Tonk Man after he leaked the fact that he'd been contacted to the Internet, and they decided against Road Dogg because he wanted too much money.
And as for the finish? We blew that one too. No, not the Bischoff stuff -- I thought that was fantastic (I believe the "Scooby Doo" reveal thing was Vince and Bruce Prichard's idea) -- I'm talking about how they got there.
Think about it -- all anyone was talking about all week was the kiss. Will they? Won't they? If this really was all a publicity stunt, and they were expecting it to end with some grand interference, as was the psychology during the latter part of the segment, why would they freak out about saying a few words? Logic would dictate that if Rico wanted to humiliate them, he would make them follow through with everything, and they wouldn't have freaked out until the kiss! THEN they start panicking and start questioning what was going on.
But I didn't think of that until much later, so I can't really fault the finish we did do.
As for the wedding itself, I'll go into detail in a future post about how exactly it came about, but before we decided to go with an "event" as our hook for the show, we on the SmackDown creative team (mostly myself, Paul Heyman and David Lagana) were thinking more along the lines of a huge match to lead the way.
Here are the three main ones we pitched:
1. An eight-man TLC Match to crown the first-ever SmackDown Tag Champs, but with a twist -- rather than four tag teams involved, it would have been eight singles competitors, with the first two to get the titles crowned as champs, regardless of whether they were friends or enemies. My pitch was for Matt Hardy and Rey Mysterio to win.
2. A tag match pitting Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman against Undertaker and Jesse "The Body" Ventura (the show was in Minneapolis). Jesse was a huge supporter of Brock's, and we would have booked it to where Taker would have done all the work, culminating in a chokeslam or tombstone on Heyman, at which point Taker would have tagged in Jesse to pin Heyman for the 1-2-3.
3. A War Games match pitting Taker, Edge, Mysterio and Rikishi against Brock, Angle, Benoit and Guerrero. As I knew from reading fan comments and e-mails from the better part of the past two years, fans loved the War Games concept and were calling for the match to be done.
When we pitched the War Games match, however, a valid concern was brought up -- we were just a year removed from 9-11, and the U.S. could have gone to war at any time (which wound up happening the following March). How would it have looked for us to be promoting a War Games match if war were to break out, say, the day before? (Probably as bad as having an Arab terrorist character the day of London terror bombings, I'd say).
The War Games match was scrapped then, although we did bring it up again going into Survivor Series as a possible main event. But given the same concerns about going to war, an alternative was created, a little thing called the Elimination Chamber.
Comments (18)
why didn' t billy and chuck stay together and keep some kind of decent heat and push after this thing? I remember within weeks they were jobbing out and being split up...
Hi Jake,
We actually did have big plans to capitalize with Billy and Chuck after the angle played out, but Billy was injured at a house show, and wound up being out of action until the 2003 Royal Rumble, which threw a wrench into everything.
This blog is a fascinating look at the behind the scenes stuff. Thanks so much for doing it. You've got a regular reader!
This blog is awesome, I always wanted an inside look at the wacky world of WWE. The other thing I remember about this angle was the GLAAD organization giving Stephanie a gravy boat as a "wedding gift" and then being REALLY pissed off at how it turned out.
This blog is great, I've always wanted a look inside the "mind" of the WWE. The one thing I remember about this angle was when the GLAAD organization gave Stephanie a gravy boat as a "wedding present" and then were REALLY pissed off at what happened.
I agree with the above...this blog is fabulous and incredibly interesting. I don't watch WWF anymore (I lost my last bit of interest when Eddie Guerrero died), but this is just awesome stuff to read.
I'm more interested in Jesse Ventura being a huge supporter of Brick Lesnar? What did Jesse say about Brock to lead you to believe he was behind him? Why didn't the match take place? What did you think of Brock?
No offense, but I find that explanation for no War Games rather lackluster. If their concern was the freaking name of the thing and not the concept, then just change the name! The Eliminaton Chamber is a rather poor substitue I might add. I would've assumed the reason was with Vince's(psychotic)aversion to things he didn't create or losing ticket sales from the extra room the second ring would take up...although I'm sure the insane PPV buyrate would more than make up for that.
Does the WWE own the rights to everything ECW? Cause they did those and called them Ultimate Jeopardy.
As for the ring room, I say modify the concept. One Ring, Hell in a Cell. The eight man version of the Wargames match should be able to fit in that.
I think the Billy and Chuck wedding went off perfectly, as just about any outcome had me cringing for its long-term implications. the Bischoff reveal was dirty and unprecedented, and Stephanie squash were about as reprehensible as it could get. Well played. I miss Rico, and thought his pre-facepaint character was pretty awesome. Complete mindgames, then a kick to the face. Rico seemed to have lots of fun with it, too.
Regarding WarGames, I've not been clamboring too much for it to be brought into the WWE. When I was a kid, I'd rent NWA tapes from Blockbuster. I thought the WarGames matches were good, but in reverse: All the drama occurs in the first seven entries (the faces always being even or one man down), but the match can't end, so it's wasted drama. Then, once the sides are even, it becomes a sudden-death cluster stretched over twice the real estate of a normal match. I know that one of the WG matches I saw was the one where Sid KO'd Pillman, and that had to be wrapped quickly, but they all seem so jumbled up without knowing where to look.
Contrast that to the current WWE specials: Elimination Chamber, survivor Series, and Royal Rumble. All of them work under the premise that they start with everyone, and work their way down to a one-on-one faceoff. TLC/MiTB matches aren't designed that way but get booked that way, and both of those have a single focus point: the object suspended in the center of the ring.
My other issue with WarGames is the seats/revenue lost by having two rings, and the "emptiness" of the twin ring setup in all other matches. Creative wrestlers have incorporated the twin rings, but still, the use has not been defined. Can a wrestler score a fall in the ring other than the one he started in? Can wrestlers get counted out in the other ring?
I'm not a WWE homer, per se. But I found WarGames to be a clusterfumble, especially when filming eight guys in two rings through chain-link with the prospect of the match ending at any time.
Great blog; did you go to Hudde JHS?
Great Blog, any advice on getting ones foot in the door with WWE Creative?
There really needs to be a TV series, like for HBO or Showtime, centered on the behind the scenes workings of the wrestling business. A cross between 30 Rock and The Larry Sanders Show. Pitch this! Cast this! I'm sure there are a ton of interesting stories.
I do have one question? Could you elaborate some more about Paul Heyman's role on creative and tensions between him, Vince, Steph and others on creative? Is he overrated on the Internet or could he have seriously helped WWE and had a larger role creatively? Also, why do they not have competing creative teams - trying to capture a competition between the two brands - I assumed it's just because Raw is seen as the bigger show and they don't want them to be equals?
That was actually more than one question at the end of my last post. My apologies. Anyway thanks for the great blog! It's a different insight on behind the scenes of WWE that other wrestling sites can't provide.
So if the idea of the War Games match was to be brought back on SmackDown, why was the Elimination Chamber replacement used on a RAW PPV? I love the idea of the tag title TLC match. If only WWE would incorporate this now, it would bring some interest back to the tag team division, even if it sounds a lot like a MITB match. Have you considered going back to WWE? Maybe it's not too late and you can still save the company from it's terrible fall into darkness. Love the blog. Please keep them coming.
First off, Seth, these blogs are fantastic. It's so interesting to hear all the ideas that never came to be.
Which leads me to my next comment in saying that the 8-man TLC woulda been killer! I was at this show in Minneapolis and I absolutely loved it by the way. The commitment ceremony couldn't have been done better. Plus the Angle/Mysterio SSlam rematch was really good.
Anyways, keep up all the great stories, man. Can't wait to see what else you got.
PLEASE...for the love of God, keep doing these blogs. They are absolutely fascinating to read. Thanks for your candor.
GREAT blog. I love the inside view of things of why things happened and didn't happen. So you worked during Heyman's run as the lead writer of Smackdown, when Smackdown had Brock exclusively plus the Smackdown Six? That must have been a very exciting time, especially since it was the only time Smackdown kicked Raw's ass. I bet Brian Gerwitz hated all your guts.