• On This Day In Pro Wrestling History (February 15, 2008) – Old School NWA Veteran Passed Away
On this day in 2008, we lost Old School Wrestling Veteran Johnny Weaver (Real name: Kenneth Eugene Weaver) at the age of 72 due to natural causes.
Weaver wrestled for several NWA territories during the 60s, 70s & 80s, like Championship Wrestling from Florida & Jim Crockett Promotions.
The last time we saw him, he was in Dusty Rhodes’ corner at NWA Starrcade 1987 to support “The American Dream” in the match against Lex Luger.
† REST IN PEACE JOHNNY WEAVER
November 17, 1935 – February 15, 2008
• FOX Officials Worried About SmackDown
FOX Officials are not happy with the viewership SmackDown is drawing on Friday nights, according to Tom Colohue.
WWE recently having Goldberg and Hulk Hogan appear in segments on SmackDown was done to please the FOX officials.
Below is what Colohue reported:
“A large part of why Eric Bischoff left was according to contacts in FOX, rather than contacts in WWE, let me make that clear, he simply wasn’t keeping promises that he had made.
To my knowledge, the expectations when it came to ratings was like 2.8 to 3 Million. That’s what they were thinking. That’s what they were looking at. That’s what their projections were. It has not reached that level. It has, in fact, been extremely close at 2.4 or 2.5 [million] and not only that, the opinion of the show isn’t particularly strong when it comes to the viewership.
A lot of people view NXT more highly, a lot of people view RAW more highly once Paul Heyman came in. So they are not getting what they paid for.
It’s not the flagship, some of that comes down to the fact that Edge returned for RAW. So you have the big moment like that, and it’s stuff like where are you expecting the next legend to appear…the next Undertaker appearance, the next Triple H appearance.
There is a bit of appeasement going on with Goldberg, with Cena and of course, with the Universal Championship moving over, which at the time, felt like the more important championship because of links to Brock Lesnar.
But they were given Lesnar, Lesnar was taken away. There are a number of people at FOX who have concerns about the ratings at the moment.”
WATCH: Former WWE Diva Brooke Adams Exposes Her Buns:
