The 5 News Week Look-Back: Shane McMahon Was Going To Become WWE Champion!?, Percy Watson's Life After NXT.

Hello, my fellow wrestling fans and welcome to the 5 News Week where I usually report on the 5 major or minor news of the week but I'm not doing that here if you can't tell from the graphic I made (you're welcome, by the way). 

But Rather, all throughout December, I'm going to look back at some of the news that came out in 2019. We're a few days away from Christmas so enjoy yourselves and drink responsibly. Without further ado, here are the 5 News Week Look Back. 

How's Road Dogg Doing In NXT As Part Of The Writing Team? 

The Do double G is a guy that I'm surprised is still on social media. Not only he had to deal with people on Twitter about the creative decisions being made on the blue brand (I was one of those people) but as well as the boss' creative changes and I'm not talking about Sasha Banks (obviously like who am I mentioning? Kevin Dunn?). 

According to PWInsider and Mike Johnson, Brian "Road Dogg" James reached a "breaking point" on the Smackdown after Wrestlemania 35 episode when Vinnie Mac himself changes scripts and told WWE that he's stepping down as lead writer for Smackdown a day later. 

Since then, James has joined the NXT creative team almost a month after the story broke out and according to a conference call back in September, Triple H stated about Road Dogg's role quote (shout out to WrestlingInc): 

"That's been core and part of that core is having guys like [Road Dogg] and Shawn Michaels down there. I can't say enough of us being able to work together with the writing team and with William Regal, Matt Bloom and Sara Amato."

Later that month, Road Dogg spoke with Bill Apter at the Legends Of The Ring Pro Wrestling Fanfest about him as a member of the creative team in NXT and he said (from Sesccops) that Dogg… 

"brought up how producing live television every week is a stressful situation, which made him move down to NXT to work with younger talent but is thrown back into the frying pan now that NXT is live every Wednesday on USA Network."

I guess he's doing pretty good for himself working with his fellow hall of fame friends in Triple H and Shawn Michaels. 

Percy Watson's Life After NXT. 

As much as I would love to give you an extended update like the Road Dogg story, I couldn't find any update regarding his life after the black and gold brand other than the fact that the reports mentioned that he left WWE to pursue acting. 

That acting part is true as he appeared on FX's Atlanta as a cop and 20th Century Fox's The Hate U Give also playing an officer (good movie, by the way) but that was before he left WWE. However, his recent role once again was on the small screen on Adult Swim's Your Pretty Face Is Going to Hell playing you guessed, a cop (this dude must be really good at playing a cop. He better have his own spin-off show). 

The role he played in that movie was actually decent so as a movie fan, I wanna see him in more movies/TV shows. 

Shane McMahon Was Going To Become WWE Champion!? 

Remember that rumour? So, everybody (including myself) hate that character mainly because how he was basically 1999 heel Shane McMahon but in 2019 with a greyer hair but that story fueled the fire.

According to a WrestleVotes tweet that was misinterpreted thanks to the sites, one of Votes' sources speculated I repeat SPECULATED that Shane McMahon could be WWE Champion. This tweet was posted after the parody account of slice wrestling tweeted a sarcastic report. 

This story was a great example of bad journalism from most of the wrestling websites out there. Next thing you know, WrestleVotes will tweet out about beaches and the sites will run headlines like "Bash At Beach Happening In An Actual Beach?" or "A Reboot Of WCW's Beach Blast 1993 Skit Is In The Works?" 

What Was The Original Name For WWE Backstage!? 

WWE Backstage is a program I actually enjoy and both Renee Young and Booker T along with Captain Charisma, Paige and occasionally CM Punk, makes this show that much better if I'm being honest (also, Ryan Satin is a good host. Shout out to the guy). 

But WWE Backstage wasn't the original name for the show. Rumour has it that the trademarked name "After The Bell" was for this FS1 show but we now know that it is for Corey Graves' podcast that only has a fan and that's Corey Graves himself. In other words, I just wasted your time so my bad. 

Eric Bischoff On Not Being A Fan Of A 3 Hour Nitro Show. 

Eric Bischoff has not only been on the creative side of WCW but as well as WWE for all of 5 seconds (the seconds were so fast that Barry Allen had to slow down for a bit). Speaking on his 83 Weeks podcast back in August, he talked about how that decision came to be (from 411Mania): 

“No, it wasn’t [done to get the jump on Raw],” “It was really an economy of scale kind of a decision. It costs a certain amount of money to produce a two-hour show. And our ratings were great, things were rockin’ and rollin’. We definitely had the attention of the audience. And it became a financial decision from TNT, not from me. I didn’t want to do a three-hour show, for God’s sake. It’s hard enough doing a two-hour show.” 

Given that Bischoff's buddy, Dave Meltzer (sarcasm of course) said in a Wrestling Observer Radio that Smackdown would've earned $50 million dollars if they gave the show an extra hour, I don't blame TNT for making that decision. 

However, WCW's quality of television has certainly decreased in the coming and final years of that promotion and the third hour was one of the reasons in my opinion. 

Guys, thank you so much for checking out this series. Whether you discovered it from this post or you have been enjoying this since my first 5 News Week back in October of last year. Here's to more 5 News week in 2020 and hopefully beyond.

What do you think about the news I just reported and follow me on the tweets @omartheplayaguy. Anyways, stay safe smarks