Batista's Status, Stars Offered Jobs, Tons Of Backstage News Inside
In a recent radio interview, Rick Martel said that WWE recently offered him a job as a road agent. He turned down the job offer, the reason being that he didn't want to go back on the road and be away from home.
The real name of Cryme Tyme's JTG is Devon Driscoll. He is 21 years old and from Brooklyn, NY. He was just signed to a WWE developmental contract a few weeks ago, as he was in Ohio Valley Wrestling on his own for a few weeks. On the other hand, his tag team partner Shad Gaspard was in OVW since 2003. Also, they became a tag team due to Paul Heyman, as he put them together while he was the OVW booker earlier in the year.
Internally, several WWE people believe that Batista's "star" is starting to fade. It has been said that Batista hasn't been himself since his return to Smackdown. He is slower on his feet, not to mention more tentative and less confident. The reason Mr. Kennedy got the U.S. Title from Finlay is because they were worried that Batista was losing steam. WWE felt as though that Finlay is best used to help get someone over, and now he will feud with Batista in an attempt to help get him back on track to carry the brand. Right now, the company stance is that Batista's fade just proves how great Triple H is, because he got Batista over. Also, the company is now moving towards a Kennedy vs. Lashley U.S. title program.
Tough Enough 1 wrestler Greg Matthews was one of the 30-40 wrestlers who tried out at the WWE tryout held at Afa the Samoan's wrestling school in Allentown, PA two weeks ago. Matthews left Tough Enough 1 after suffering a broken back, but he has wrestled on the indy scene since then. Nobody was offered a contract on the spot at the WWE tryouts, although some people may be offered developmental deals in a few weeks. In a local news report, John Laurinaitis speculated that WXW might become an official WWE developmental territory like OVW and DSW.
One Deep South Wrestling wrestler, who's name hasn't been disclosed, is considering quitting the promotion due to head trainer Bill DeMott's supposedly abusive ways. The wrestler in question wrote a letter to John Laurinaitis to complain about how abusive DeMott is in practice. Laurinaitis then told the wrestler that he would come down to DSW to talk to everyone about it. However, when Laurinaitis arrived, he did an about face and told anyone who didn't like how things were run in DSW to quit. The DeMott situation was actually handled a few months ago when it was mandated that all training sessions get taped and then the tapes would be sent to the WWE office. The office would then decide if DeMott was doing his job in a suitable manner. The fact that he's still there shows that the company is behind him.