For now, it appears that the "Late Late Show" is intent on remaining every bit as unwatchable as Leno... I saw about five minutes of Drew Carey hosting, and was reminded why he thinks he's way more funny than I do in that span; and then I watched most of the show last week when the Datsuns were on (a rock band receiving my HIGHEST endorsement), and DL Houghley stumbled through hosting duties.  Maybe not their fault; maybe "guest hosts" and "full time writing staffs" just don't mesh well.  But still...  it's too bad my dream scheme didn't pan out; maybe now the best I can hope for is that Stewart takes over a show from Kilborn and for a SECOND time, drastically improves it in the process.

Well, folks, it was either Late Night Maneuverings or Me Bitching About The Phone Company...  did I choose wisely?  Here's some wrestling stuff:

• With the untimely death of the Big Bossman last week, OO got it's schedule turned around a little bit. In the end, it basically amounted to me moving myself to Thursday to do the OO Tribute to Ray Traylor, and moving Jeb Lund back a day to handle the Friday headline spot (with a column that proved that Erin Anderson's not the only one around here who can make me wonder if my Inner Dialogue has been tapped)... so since the net effect is that it's been two days long than usual since I've done any real news, we'll try to get caught up on that, and maybe towards the end, here, we'll do the Traditional RAW Recap.
   
  And since I've mentioned it: since my hastily-prepared career retrospective, it's been confirmed that Ray Traylor was, in fact, 42 years old, and the cause of death has been announced as a massive heart attack. Also: services for Traylor have already been held, and he was laid to rest on Saturday morning in his hometown of Dallas, GA.
   
  For my part, the main point I wanted to get across in my tribute/obit thing last week is the idea that any fans out there who only started watching in the Attitude Era might have a faulty perception of what the Big Bossman brought to a wrestling ring. If you divide up his career into thirds, Traylor's success in that first third (rising up the ranks as "Big Bubba Rogers" and catching the eye of Vince McMahon to become the Big Bossman for a VERY impactful 5-year run) is really remarkable and unique in the wrestling business. It's success that was never matched in his second third (the WCW days) or the final third (his WWF return), which is too bad.
   
  Still, I bring it up because at least a few readers pointed out (correctly) that I might have inadvertently made Bossman's final major WWF feud sound even worse than it was. And sure enough, I condensed and jumbled the timeline a bit on the Bossman/Big Show feud.  A lot of the stuff with "Big Show's Father" actually took place BEFORE Show won the WWF Title, when Show and Bossman were simply doing a mid-card feud; so some *did* remember the crap fondly, as it was comic relief, NOT a main event feud, when it got started.  In fact, the Show/Bossman feud lasted longer BEFORE Show won the belt than after, as Bossman was only in the picture for about 4 weeks (long enough to be the sacrificial lamb at the following PPV).  I'd still have to call a spade a spade and say the entire storyline was horrible, but I'll correct myself and say that "Hey, at least it wasn't CONCEIVED OF as a world title level story."  That part came later (and by accident, as the WWF had never intended to give the title to Show until Steve Austin went down with his neck injury).
   
  I think I did OK on most of the other facts/reminisces in the Bossman Tribute, though.  If you haven't, give it a look, and pay homage to a man who probably had more to do with the success of the late 80s Hogan Era WWF than you probably suspected!
   
  
• Over the weekend, WrestleMania 21 tickets went on sale, and were gone within one minute, according to a WWE press release, anyway.  I think a bit of hyperbole might be involved, as I believe there are little loopholes that allow them to come up with that figure, but it takes nothing away from the fact that for the whateverth year in a row, Mania tickets went on sale and disappeared in the same day.
   
  The preceding day's internet pre-sale was also a rapid sell-out, with (according to one pissy e-mail) nothing but scattered single-tickets available within 10 minutes after the pre-sale start time.
   
  With the rapid snatching-up of tickets, WWE moved quickly and announced that they were adding a Second Night at the Staples Center.  For the first time that I can remember, WWE will hold WrestleMania and the next night's RAW in the same building.  WrestleMania 18 and the next night's RAW both took place in Seattle, but at different buildings, and I think that's the closest we've ever come to having this happen before (not just in WM history, but in WWE's entire PPV history)...
   
  Tickets for the April 4, 2005, edition of RAW are ALSO on sale, so anyone looking to make a weekend out of it (or salty south Californians looking for a consolation prize) can pick those up through TicketBastard now.
   
  
• Well, although *I* have certainly heard nothing about it from my cable company, WWE apparently thinks it's launching it's "24/7" Video On Demand service starting this weekend.  New promotional materials have programming schedules for October listed, even though the last I heard, WWE still hadn't worked out a full, national distribution plan with cable systems.
   
  And like I said, it's the sort of thing that I'd think you'd want to promote pretty heavily at its launch, and sending out mailers to people who have ordered wrestling PPVs in the recent past would be a no-brainer. And Time Warner has done no such thing with me, so I can only assume I do NOT have the option of subscribing to "WWE 24/7" starting with my next bill.
   
  Which is too bad, because looking at the way they've set up the schedule, well... once I do get the chance, I might give this deal at least a one-month look-see.  If you remember my long-form rambling about this a month or two ago, you know that I had very specific ideas regarding the scope and organization of programming on a WWE-operated video-on-demand channel. And not to sound like a know-it-all (although I do), but WWE has done JUST BARELY enough to make me think they might have a worthwhile little operation on their hands.
   
  One of my main theses when I talked about this was the variety and organization of programming, and on THIS front, at least, it looks like WWE got it right.  They have about 8 distinct niches (a Hall of Fame niche focused on one legend, a PPV niche, an ECW niche, a Monday Night War niche, a DVD/Fanatix Series niche, a Prime Time Wrestling/TNT niche, an MSG House Show niche, and a miscellaneous AWA/SMW/monthly theme catch-all niche), which might not be exactly how I'd have broken it down, but which do a nice job making sure that pretty much anybody who has been a wrestling fan at any point in the last 25 years will find something they want to see here.
   
  So that part was good.
   
  But I continue to have misgivings about the depth and breadth of the available content. Here, my main thesis was predicated on a simple factor: I'm not an idiot, I've spent over a year getting familiar with exactly what Video On Demand is capable of.  Because of their new package deals, I'm not exactly sure what the price is, but I have HBO and Cinemax on Demand, and both provide upwards of 100 hours of programming at any given time, and it's not more than $10 a month (and with that fee, I also get the 7-8 HBO and Cinemax regular non-demand channels, too, for times when I LIKE being held to a rigid schedule).  I love having these channels, I think they are well worth the money because even if I only watch 5 out of 100 hours of choices on HBO's on demand service, I get to watch them WHEN I WANT, and I'm getting not just 20 hours of premium content per month, I'm getting a shitload of convenience, and I'm getting it for less than $10.
   
  Which brings me to WWE 24/7's rather underwhelming program schedule. Rather than HBO's "100 hours of on demand content, with 20 hours swapped out every week, making for about 200 hours of total unique content you can choose from in a month" strategy, WWE seems pretty well locked down to its original vision: 20 hours of available on-demand content at any given time.  And at least on their October schedule, they are only swapping out about 4-5 hours per week; now maybe this is an intentional move to keep things slow until they have wider distribution, but for now, that means that in an entire month, you'll get (at most) maybe 35-40 hours of different choices on WWE 24/7.
   
  Now, you might be saying, "But Rick, I know you have a hard-on for your HBO and your 200 hours for $10 a month, but really 40 hours for $10 a month isn't bad either."  And no, it's  not bad, really.  But keep in mind: that's 40 hours of CHOICES.  And looking at the schedule, I'm only gonna bother with MAYBE half the stuff (and some of it maybe only when I get home and I'm drunk and bored at 4am on a Saturday night and don't want to watch "School of Rock" for the 23rd time).  I mean, maybe I'm just a bad wrestling fan (I'm sure some of you TNA-ites out there would agree), but just because it's wrestling doesn't mean I'm compelled to watch it.  And "Best of the 1970s AWA"?  Craptacular old WWF Home Video releases from the mid-90s featuring the Undertaker and Paul Bearer?  These are things you couldn't PAY ME to watch.
   
  So you have 20 hours of options at any given time, and maybe 10 of them are worth getting excited about, and by and large, they are the SAME 10 that you'll have to be excited about next week.  Suddenly, the price tag seems a little steep compared to the value you can get with other On Demand packages.  I mean, for a few bucks in gas, I can drive to my mom's and liberate my Big Ass Box Of VHS from whatever closet it's in, and I can run my own OOld School WWF On Demand series for FREE whenever I want with more like 500 hours of footage to choose from.  It's telling that I've been able to live my life for the past 6 years without them (although I do still have most of my Monday Night War Era/ECW tapes here)...  and I'm suspicious of whether or not WWE will be able to convince me to pay $10 for a service that SEEMS like a limp and overly-watered-down version of what I, myself, have already decided I don't care about. 
   
  Anyway, I know I started out with a complimentary sort of "Hey, I'd check it out," and actually I probably would... but after really looking close and applying my Big Brain to this issue, I'm not so sure that I'd stick around for long.  I mean, $10 a month won't make me or break me, but at some point, I'm a stickler on "value" and out of principle, I'm NOT gonna pay WWE the same amount I pay HBO in exchange for one-fifth the level of service.  
   
  I'll also add this: 100% TOTALLY FOR FREE I get channels like "Comedy Central On Demand" and "Biography On Demand" and "BBCTV On Demand" and "Food Channel On Demand" and "Music Videos On Demand" and "CNN On Demand."  Now granted, these are not necessarily loaded with my favorite shows, but it's nice to know that if I'm ever in the mood for a couple episodes of "Win Ben Stein's Money" or "Essence of Emeril" or "A&E Biography," I have those channels available.  Each one has about 20 hours of crap to choose from at any given time.  Twenty hours, just like WWE's gonna be serving up.  EXCEPT THEY'RE DOING IT FOR FREE!
   
  I hope you can see how this isn't me being a Bad Wrestling Fan so much as it is being a Wise Consumer Who Won't Stand for Paying a Premium Price for a Bottom-of-the-Barrel Mousetrap.
   
  Anyway, I once again assert that I have value to the wrestling business that goes above and beyond exercising veto power over crappy creative teams. I could kick some serious ass in the board room, too!  Give *me* 24/7, and I promise I'd turn it into your wettest of dreams...
   
  But perhaps I'm deluded.  Still, WWE's current vision of 24/7 really wouldn't tantalize me enough to wake up with a decent case of morning wood... and you can get the full October line-up and more details by clicking here.
   
  
• Speaking of WWE business-y/technology concepts that I ranted about months ago...  one of them was using internet voting to create a genuinely immersive, interactive experience for viewers on Monday nights.  Now, I realize that WWE has since announced an "interactive" PPV (Taboo Tuesday), but that's not exactly what I was talking about; I meant something that had immediacy, not something that you voted on and then it mattered 3 weeks later on PPV.
   
  And I also realize that I got some annoyed e-mails from people on the west coast who didn't like my geo-centrism. Because I picked RAW since it was live, and thus, fans could vote on stuff, see real-time results, and actually influence the show, but YOU would get screwed, cuz you get RAW on a 3 hour delay. But guess what?  Turns out, I was AGAIN onto something... so I guess maybe the east coast IS the best coast!  Not even WWE cares about the Pacific Time Zone!
   
  What am I talking about?  Well, in addition to the Taboo Tuesday PPV, WWE is looking to incorporate interactive elements into all RAW telecasts starting the following week, capitalizing on the VERY SAME THING I MENTIONED back when I was advocating these improvements (that fans are increasingly watching RAW AND are online at the same time, and that WWE should be trying to marry the two media; and that on top of that, if they actually do a cool job with it, it will bring back jerks like me who are DVR Time Shifting on Monday nights, instead of watching in real time like I would for most sporting events).  This will NOT, from the sound of things, be more dumbass one-dimensional polls like they did for a few weeks this past winter.  This will be a real attempt to bring the fans into the show and get their real time feedback and opinions.  It starts on October 25, I gather.  And the west coast?  You probably get screwed on this.
   
  At some point, I really am gonna want to start collecting royalties, WWE... seeing all my New Media ideas showing up in reality while the creative direction of the company continues to flounder because you refuse to ALSO borrow from my Fantasy Booking....  it's enough to drive The Rick batty....
   
  
• I'm not sure exactly how it happened so quickly without any publicity... maybe it's because the WWE promotional effort was focused on the Diva Search?
   
  But anyway: last week at some point, Stacy Keibler apparently on the 2004 Maxim Hair Color for Toolboxes Babe of the Year Contest.  I don't know how she won, I don't know who she beat, I didn't even really know the contest was out of the first round...
   
  But for the first time in the contest's long and prestigious history (of 4 years), somebody other than Trish Stratus has won "Babe of the Year."  Chalk it up to the heel turn, probably... and also to WWE seemingly stacking the brackets against her.  I mean, I don't recall vividly, but didn't I make some snide remark a month or so back about how it sure seemed like Stacy was being given a free pass into the finals?
   
  Yeah, I know, I could go back and look myself.  Or I could quit hitting the bottle and hold onto those memory cells.  But trust me, the Babe of the Year contest?  Not worth the trouble to do either....
   
  Stacy Keibler is YOUR Babe of the Year, people.  And [cue dramatic music] JUST in the nick of time for her sudden push as a wrestler where she's SURE to cross paths yet again with the dethroned-Babe, but still-enthroned-champion Trish Stratus. My, how convenient....
   
  
• Continuing our "catch-up" theme... I'd also like to go back and say a few quick things about SmackDown! last week.
   
  Because again, I think that despite being taped, despite me knowing what's coming from Spoilers, SD! once again had a show that just FELT a little bigger, a little hotter, and a little more fun than RAW. That's not easy to do, but SD! has found its groove, and is emphasizing its strengths and masking its weaknesses well.
   
  Key weakness: JBL as champ and Taker as top contender in an extraordinarily flaccid little storyline that came out of nowhere 2 months ago and which seemingly continues on for no other reason than because neither guy has anything better to do. And yet, last Thursday, both men were a strength of the show, just because of the presentation.
   
  Here's what I mean: JBL The Character has evolved into a fun, smarmy heel with just enough chickenshit in him that he's been able to evade his ultimate demise.  JBL The Wrestler is still pretty much not to be taken seriously, and is instant death in anything resembling a main event.  On Thursday night, JBL sat in a limo, being a Character; the Wrestler was nowhere to be seen, and that, my friends, is how you book the SD! Champion.  And Taker? Well, that's a no brainer: whatever you want to say about him, *I* still say he's a fun bad-ass brawler when he's used right (and squashing two disposable retreads from 1999? that's being used right!).
   
  It doesn't really do anything to make me care that they are having a WWE Title match this weekend on PPV. And yeah, that CONTINUES to be something I don't like about EITHER brand right now (the poor storytelling on top), but as a way to kill 10 minutes on a Thursday?  Hey, JBL and Taker both brought something to the table because whoever's putting the show together REALIZES the problem that exists and just nestled them in there on the mid-card, masking the weakness and even turning it into a strength.  Well played.
   
  In the main event spot, in lieu of the championship storyline? Kurt Angle amassing a new faction. A new "Team Angle" maybe...  Mark Jindrak is in, Luther Reigns was already there.  I say they need one more, and I say that doing a storyline in which Kurt Angle beats some sense into Charlie Haas and gets him to turn heel and split from Rico is pretty much where you need to go.
   
  And in addition to forming a new faction, Angle also shaved Big Show's head.  Totally out of left field, and yet, also really nicely woven into the show (per Angle's "You didn't ask me about MY memories, so I'll have to go out there and GIVE YOU a memory" promo)... it's that off-balance, not-quite-what-you-expect-but-it-still-makes-sense vibe that I love.  It's the exact opposite of what I'm left feeling by RAW most weeks (when it makes sense, it's predictable and what I expect; and when they throw me a curve, and I can't even BEGIN to fathom their thinking/logic).
   
  The guest interviews were a nice touch, but were ultimately underwhelming...  I thought it was a really cool night for Paul London, as he went from sending Billy Kidman running away like a bitch to giving Booker T all he could handle; again, a segment that didn't go down the way anyone would have anticipated, but by the end, it just felt RIGHT; I hope they build on this for London....  but admittedly, the less said about the women's tag match, the better.  I'm serious: I'm not sure if Moolah and Mae's schtick was ever really THAT funny, but assuming it was, those days are passed.  Now, it's bordering on Uncomfortable To Watch...
   
  Still a fun show, though.
   
  
• For all the "fifth anniversary" and "season premiere" and "Austin/Hogan" talk, SD! didn't really gain any ground, ratings-wise.  They scored a 3.2 broadcast rating, which is exactly the same as the week before.
   
  However: SD! last week was pre-empted in Los Angeles.  Because of the size of that market, you could legitimately make the case that WWE lost two-tenths of a ratings point as a result.  Which would still not be gangbuster ratings, but which would have been the bump up WWE was looking for what with the Stunt Casting and all.
   
  
• Snitskymania IS running wild?  Gene Snitsky worked all three RAW house shows this weekend, getting squashed by Kane around the horn.  Not a bad weekend's worth of work for a throw-away jobber brought in for one little angle.
   
  From the sound of things, Snitsky prefaced the matches with essentially the same (i.e. "not very good") promo he did on Monday, and then Kane came out and beat him senseless for 2 minutes before pinning him with a chokeslam.  At all three shows, Kane was said to get the biggest babyface pop of anyone on the cards, which I think is REALLY telling and has some intriguing implications for RAW's near-term future.
   
  I can only assume that once they do the Kane/Snitsky match on TV the same response will be forthcoming... perhaps even a stronger one, assuming that Snitsky is finished off with something a bit more dramatic than a mere chokeslam...
   
  FYI: I said 2 weeks ago that Snitsky was just some dude brought in out of nowhere, and I based that on the grounds that I know he's not done anything for OVW and I'd never heard the name "Snitsky" before in my life.  Cuz I WOULD have remembered it.  I was right that he's just some dude trained by Samoan Afa's school, and that he's wrestled only sporadically and mostly for Afa's WXW...  but now I got some guy telling me Snitsky actually WAS signed to a WWE developmental deal a while back, just NOT assigned right away to OVW (though I gather that in the last month or so, he HAS showed up there as "Mean" Gene Mondo; but you kids know me, I'm slow up on the uptake when it comes to indie stuff, so that's why I didn't realize it).  So I'm not sure what to think, now.... Snitsky's new backstory does raise big questions as to exactly what his FUTURE hold for him.  I mean, if he's really a developmental guy, maybe he doesn't just get sacrificed to Kane in some big highspot/angle?
  
  All I know is this: I'll keep digging deep and reporting these nuggets of information to you as long as I get to keep saying the name of the man, the myth, the legend: The Snitsky.
   
  
• Also of note from RAW house shows: a new character debuted, named Mohammed Hassan.  He did the full-on Islam thing with the prayer rug and the denouncing America, and also had an unnamed, turban-wearing manager.  He faced Maven and got DQ'ed when his manager interfered.  On two of the three shows, Sgt. Slaughter ran out to make the jingoistic save.
   
  Based on physical descriptions and on my understanding of the developmental depth chart, I'm guessing this is full-blooded American Mark Magnus doing the Hassan gimmick (he's just swarthy enough to pull it off), but I'd bet a body part that his manager is Iran-born Shawn Daivari.  Why have an American playing the role of a middle easterner when you have a real one on the developmental roster (Daivari is actually a fully trained and very skilled wrestler)?  Simple, cuz Daivari is a cruiserweight (and not a very big one at that), while Magnus is a big, beefy heavyweight.  So that's why I'm betting the manager is Daivari, anyway...  because he's just a little guy.
   
  We'll see.  As with Eugene and Simon Dean, expect WWE management to get a scouting report on how the gimmick went over (by all accounts, it generated exactly the cheap heat you'd expect) and start hyping Hassan on TV before too long.
   
  
• Not on the road last weekend (or the weekend before, either, I don't think), nor on TV the last week or two... Billy Gunn.  Gunn's absence was actually QUITE noticeable in a match/angle they did on Velocity this week, or so the Cubs Fan tells it (Gunn's partner Bob Holly had to go it alone against essentially a two-on-one situation).
   
  Gunn has been given time off to deal with "personal issues," as apparently, Gunn's work and mindset lately had been deemed inadequate by management.  No idea on an ETR (estimated time of return), but from the angle they did on Velocity, I'd say if somebody new steps in as Holly's tag partner, I wouldn't be holding my breath for the return of Billy Gunn...   
   
  
• And I guess I close with the as-promised RAW preview... 
  
  At the top level, I morosely await the next play in the Evolution/Randy Orton/Chris Benoit/Shelton Benjamin story. I talked about everything that was wrong with the way things played out last week, already.  Tonight, they could start down the road to fixing them (by acknowledging last week's missteps and trying to add Genuine Drama to the issue of who should be #1 Contender instead of just shoving Randy Orton out there at inappropriate times to sway weak-minded fans into voting for him), or they could just keep doing the same crap (Randy Orton is superman, and if Benoit and Benjamin raise a stink, they are portrayed as whiny bitches; and if they don't raise a stink, they are completely out of the title picture).
   
  Obviously, I have my cynical reasons for believing WWE wants nothing except for HHH/Orton #2 at Taboo Tuesday. I may think this is wrong for a hundred different reasons, but I'm resigned to it. The only question is how fast Chris Benoit has to remember he's partners with William Regal and that two weeks ago, they were feuding with the tag champs...
   
  A notch below: the IC Title picture is WAY more interesting to me, as Shawn Michaels and Chris Jericho are always going to be fun to watch as rivals and opponents, and having Christian in there to be the shit-stirring heel is a perfect role for him, as well.  Don't know what the next PPV match will be, necessarily, but THAT'S THE POINT!  Here, you have an actual storyline being told in such a way that fans with different opinions could conceivably vote for a couple different options. And that's without Edge even being around just now.  Good stuff at the secondary level.  Tonight, my understanding is that it's HBK/Jericho vs. Christian/Tomko in a rematch from two weeks ago, so more goodness may be forthcoming (to add to the ambiguity -- and to further a particular element of a long-ranging fantasy booking scheme I've got -- I'd love to see some sort of tension/miscommunication arise tonight between Jericho and Michaels).
   
  You'll also have the next act in the Kane/Snitsky Dramedy.  Notice how quickly and easily I go from "Kane-slash-Lita" to "Kane-slash-Snitsky" there?  Feels so good!  With any luck, Lita still needs a week or two to recover, so that once again they can do this storyline with her doing the bare minimum of "acting" (which was a nice part of how they laid things out last week).  Snitsky will be at RAW, and possibly even getting a match (since now I guess the hope is that they can milk this till Taboo Tuesday before Kane gets HIS shot at Snitsky)... but if Kane's in the building, I gotta imagine that they'll cross paths.  Violently.  And as happened on the house shows this weekend, folks'll be loving Kane for it.  Could be fun.
   
  And I think I've just set a personal best for "Snitskys in a Single Column"!
   
  You also have some Diva-related stuff that'll go down tonight.  Trish Stratus (hopefully assisted by Molly, Gail, and Jazz, as she was for her Baby Shower) is throwing a Victory Party for Diva Search Christy.  I can only hope that it devolves into some endearingly diabolical hazing by Trish and the rest.  The baby shower was good fun, anyway, so I think they just need to keep it simple and go for the same vibe here.  Also: Stacy was on the winning team and Trish was on the losing team in a tag match last week, and now Stacy is the Babe of the Year and Trish is not.  I trust you all can do the math on this one without me holding your hand: although it comes at the expense of Molly (who now stands to NOT get her due revenge on Stacy), I expect Stacy's little push and BotY win are going to land her a title feud with Trish, so look for more to develop there tonight, as well.  Probably bring it all together into one segment and have Stacy try to "rescue" Christy from her own party, or something... I dunno....
   
  And then the only other item of import: I'm thinking we'll probably get a Hurricane/Rosey vs. Tajiri/Rhyno match tonight.  It'd certainly make sense, and it'd certainly be the next logical step in teasing the HurriTurn.  That could be good stuff.
   
  So check out RAW tonight, or come on back to OO tomorrow for the Finest RAW Recap In All The Land!  I'll see you then...