Well, this is fascinating ... if it's true.
That's the big problem in the pro wrestling business; you just never know when you're being worked or if something is legitimate. Such is the case with this little bit of news that is floating around.
Over at Scott's Blog of Doom, Scott Keith was contacted by someone who was apparently cruising the threads on a World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) board at GameFaqs.com. A poster there is claiming to have worked as an assistant for the WWE writing team late last year and because of that, he's got a ton of valuable insights into behind-the-scenes goings on.
Allegedly.
Again, there's no way to verify if this information is correct, so take it with the usual grain of salt. The person who contacted Keith did say that the board this was posted on is generally inaccessible to most in an effort to avoid trolls. So this could be legit.
After the jump, read a bullet point breakdown of what was revealed.
- The poster claimed his duties were to take notes on each show and update documents to make sure the writers were able to keep everything in order. There was apparently a document that showed the last six episodes of either Raw or Smackdown and the last five times something in particular was done (such as a belt being used as a weapon).
- John Cena has been known to go off script on occasion and do his promos on the fly. CM Punk has done the same, as well as Dolph Ziggler, who was reprimanded for it. The poster also confirms the show is rewritten a million times in the lead up to each Raw.
- As had been known already, John Cena, Randy Orton and CM Punk are the three guys with the most pull backstage who have say in their storylines. The poster revealed that Cena felt he shouldn't lose clean after Survivor Series in the lead up to WrestleMania 28 and his match against The Rock and that's what happened.
- Chris Jericho returned under the conditions that he would work with Punk and put him over at WrestleMania. He also came up with the light up jacket but he paid for it.
- Daniel Bryan didn't want to work a program with AJ due to how bad his last girlfriend storyline went with Gail Kim and he constantly complained about it. Ultimately, he didn't have a choice and it all worked out well in the end.
- Vince McMahon goes through phases where random folks get pushes just because it pops into his head one day. Days later, he could care nothing about it, like the Divas and tag team division.
- The anonymous Raw General Manager was going to be revealed at one point with both Vince McMahon and JBL as prime candidates. McMahon reportedly killed the story altogether and the only thing he would agree to was to reveal in a "throwaway line backstage" that it was John Laurinaitis all along.
- The poster tells a story about CM Punk being a douche backstage at Survivor Series when he was asked to be quiet so Miz and R-Truth could cut a pre-match promo and he flipped them off. The poster did say it could have been a rib but Punk came off like a douche.
- Kane was supposed to come back and feud with Mark Henry but he didn't want that so he went to Raw to feud with John Cena instead.
- The Natalya Neidhart farting gimmick is basically a rib on her and we would be surprised at all the stuff that makes television that isn't anything more than a rib on someone.
- Everyone hated Daniel Bryan as a babyface because he failed miserably at cutting babyface promos. The decision was made to turn him heel but to do a slow burn and they also came up with small notes that really made the character like his celebrating every win like it was the biggest of his life.
- The issues with Kevin Nash were because he couldn't get medically cleared but on top of that, they recognized he couldn't work and his promos were terrible. They flirted with tying up loose ends with Punk but ultimately just got him out of there.
- The Royal Rumble winner was always supposed to be Sheamus, as determined months and months before the actual match. The poster does say there were times when they thought Chris Jericho should win but ultimately decided Sheamus needed the Rumble win more than Jericho and Jericho could get to his match with Punk with just as much heat without winning the Rumble.
- The Rumble was 30 men this year because the roster was too thin to do 40 like last year.
- Sheamus is being built to be the next John Cena, which is to say, they think he can be a top babyface for a long time who can do everything Cena does. That means all the Make-A-Wish stuff, moving all the merchandise, doing talk show appearances and all the other things Cena does that people tend to forget about when the topic of his turning heel comes up.
- Speaking of Cena turning heel, the poster claims Cena LOVES the idea and once Sheamus establishes himself on the level of Cena as a babyface, it might actually happen.
- The PG rating isn't the big roadblock in terms of chair shots or blood or things like that. It's more about concussion awareness and how sports fans are now viewing such things.
- The poster says the writers are a lot like fans on the Internet; they want entertaining, deep and meaningful storylines but they are always at the mercy of Vince McMahon and that sometimes leads to mid-card guys getting left off shows altogether or getting stuck in a sort of purgatory where they never move up because they just get passed up in all the rewrites.
I strongly recommend going over to Scott's Blog of Doom to read the entire, far more detailed post. These are cliff notes but the full post is well worth your time.
And remember that this is difficult to verify, though much of the information seems credible with a lot of it being things we already knew/assumed/thought anyway.
Thoughts on all this, Cagesiders?