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I was at the Top Cow presentation on Saturday, and was there for the Paul Heyman announcement of his new project with former New Line Cinema exec Jeff Katz, who used to work for WCW in the late 1990s. The presentation was opened up by the legendary Marc Silvestri, who ran down Top Cow's big projects for 2010, and then it was Katz's turn.
I need to say that if you haven't seen the footage from the Wowio Yacht on Friday, go out of your way to see it. Heyman, Samoa Joe, Shane "Hurricane" Helms, Katz, and several others were on a panel, and when Katz started to hype the announcement, Heyman got all sarcastic and started saying "oh yeah, it'll redefine the industry, biggest announcement ever, no one will ever be the same, it's so huge we can't contain it, we're going to make the announcement on a pay per view."
So Katz brings up Heyman, who joked about the people who preceded them, since they would curse, and then apologize. Heyman said "this is a pretty cool f****** idea, and if I offended anyone with my language, I don't apologize for it." That got a lot of laughs.
So, the project is based on the social networking applications "Mafia Wars" and "Farmville," which are super popular on Facebook and other social networking sites. Heyman described the project as
"all fighting and fight-entertainment forms, from MMA to Wrestling to Boxing" and gave a bunch of "what if" scenarios of UFC fighters against pro wrestlers or top big time boxers against wrestlers or MMA fighters. Heyman said the project is scheduled to launch 4th quarter of 2010. Katz said he originally wanted to do a wrestling-only game, but Heyman said he wanted it to be bigger better stronger.
That may have been a tribute to Chris Bell, who was there talking with Heyman, Samoa Joe, and Hurricane Helms. Bell was the writer and director of the documentary "Bigger Stronger Faster."
In the hallway outside the room, they were all very accommodating with autographs and posing with fans. Katz said he has been trying to get this going for almost 2 years. Samoa Joe was joking with a lot of fans about his kidnapping and re-appearance. Heyman said he was "lost as hell" at Comic Con and "woefully ill-informed on the entire culture," but that he was getting a 1st class education on the
entire Comic Con life from Helms.
Katz kept stressing the gaming app would debut on his website, www.geekweek.com by the end of the year.
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