Austin-Angle finishes, Dramatic near falls, Heat on WCW refs, more Submitted by Calvin Martin on Sunday, August 26, 2001 at 3:18 AM EST
As previously reported, Rey Mysterio Jr. and Juventud Guererra were backstage at the Aug. 7 Smackdown tapings in Los Angeles, California. Mysterio had scheduled a meeting with Jim Ross and brought Guererra along with him. Guererra was welcomed into the meeting with Ross and agent Johnny Ace. Ross advised Mysterio to continue collecting the remainder of his guaranteed money from AOL Time Warner until his contract expires in January. Ross made it sound like both wrestlers will be considered for employment around that time, but offered no guarantees.
Rock is no longer upset with Juventud Guererra for imitating him on WCW television. Rock and Juvi actually met at an airport several months ago and engaged in a friendly conversation.
There were a number of finishes considered for the Austin-Angle match at SummerSlam, and spirited debate about which finish to go with, but they all involved Austin ending up retaining the title. Pat Patterson talked Vince McMahon into going with the finish they used. Paul Heyman pushed for a blood stoppage finish due to heavy bleeding by Angle. Vince may disagree with Paul sometimes not because his ideas are bad, but just to keep Paul's power in check right now.
There was some heat on Nick Patrick for underacting during his call of the Austin-Angle finish, but it's one of those can't win situations since he has been talked to about his overacting in previous weeks.
Booker's leg was feeling good enough at SummerSlam that it wasn't a factor in how the match was booked.
WWF management had a big discussion about making near falls more dramatic late in matches by making them intentionally less dramatic late in matches. Road agents are supposed to encourage wrestlers to kick out right away early in the match so later in the match two counts are more dramatic. Edge and Lance Storm noticably employed that practice in their SummerSlam match.
WCW referee Billy Silverman has heat on him for violating one of those pesky unwritten WWF locker room rules. He has been upgrading his flights to first class, which is a no-no even if you want to spend the money unless you're a top guy. It looks bad when even Kurt Angle doesn't feel he's at the stature yet in terms of years of service to sit first class all the time, yet WCW referee Silverman is doing it. Undertaker, Triple H, Steve Austin, and Rock are first class regulars. X-Fac is also due to years of service and respect among management, as opposed to having main even status. Big Show has first class tickets as part of his WWF contract, although that's more due to his size than any other factor.
Heyman and Ross often get into verbal spats backstage and clearly don't like each other, but overall they handle the tension professionally.
Credit: The Pro Wrestling Torch Newsletter. Subscription information available at ProWrestlingTorch.com
