Partial Source: The Wrestling Observer Newsletter
Robert Gibson will be joining Steve Williams as a part-time trainer for WWE. The general schedule for them is to spend one week per month in either OVW or DSW and teach the students there hands-on. Also, if they do well in their roles, they’ll be under consideration for jobs as road agents if spots open up. Mike Bucci (Simon Dean) pushed for the idea of using veterans who worked in several different places to come to development to teach the younger wrestlers.
On the 12/22 SmackDown, Vladimir Kozlov did a babyface routine by acting like the character Latka from the movie “Taxi” as the naive, lovable, funny immigrant, which was played by the famed wrestling personality/actor Andy Kaufman. The idea is that Kozlov will start off acting like Latka, but either the fans turn on him, or something happens and he snaps, thus turning him heel. Basically, this would be similar to what they did with Eugene. Also, WWE expects Kozlov to be a main event-level heel at some point.
Regarding the story on WWE hiring a bunch of bikini models, John Laurinaitis and the company want to sign and bring up as many as 20 new women for roles on television over the next three months. This has led to them trying to teach the men and women newcomers in Louisville where most (but not all) of the new women live and work, about wrestling history. Mike Bucci (Simon Dean), who is running the program, gave them a list of names to learn.
