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[Plywood]

7. Thiago Tavares (20-4-1) beat Spencer Fisher (25-8) at 2:51 of the second round. Tavares got two takedowns as well as got Fisher’s back late in the first round. Tavares was bleeding from under the right eye in the first round. Crowd was real hot for the Brazil vs. USA match-up. In the second round, Tavares’ corner told him to stop kicking. So he came out and threw two high kicks. Tavares powered Fisher to the ground and was landing a lot of punches. After about 25 unanswered punches, it was stopped.

8. Stanislav Nedkov (12-0) beat Luiz Cane (12-4, 1 no contest) in 4:13. Nedkov is only the second Bulgarian ever to compete in UFC, and a two-time national freestyle champion. The crowd again started singing in unison here. Nedkov, who was a lot smaller, couldn’t get the takedown. Cane, the Brazilian, was landing punches while Nedkov couldn’t get him down. He appeared to have busted Nedkov’s nose, but suddenly Nedkov landed a left hook to the jaw and Cane was hurt. He tried to dance away, but Nedkov just overwhelmed him with punches, put him down and landed 18 straight hard lefts to the head and ref Mario Yamasaki stopped it. The crowd went quiet at that point.

9. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (33-6-1, 1 no contest) knocked out Brendan Schaub (9-1) in 3:09. Schaub was booed like crazy and Nogueira was, by far, the most popular fighter on the card. Still, Schaub loved Brazil and had both an American and Brazilian flag on his gi when it came out. Crowd was just going crazy here. They were in a clinch and traded short punches to the jaw. Schaub landed a hard right and kicked Nogueira in the knee. Schaub started landing punches but then Nogueira came back with a hard left and right, followed by a left that landed perfectly, which put Schaub down and out. This was apparently the biggest reaction to a finish in UFC history. Even not well mic’d, you could see the drinks flying everywhere in celebration and the crowd literally dancing and jumping up and down. Just a crazy scene.

10. Edson Barboza (9-0) beat Ross Pearson (14-5) on a split decision on scores of 29-28, 28-29 and 29-28. Very close fight. Pearson was moving forward early and putting Barboza on his heels, which he wasn’t used to. Both landed both punches and kicks in the first round, with no takedowns and Pearson did land more. In the second, Barboza scored the only knockdown with an overhand right. Pearson tried a takedown but couldn’t get it. Pearson started coming back. Each landed, with Barboza with body kicks and a spin kick. Pearson again couldn’t get a takedown. Barboza took the round with a knockdown so I had it even going into the third. Pearson with a left to the jaw and Barboza back with a spin kick. Barboza with a body kick and a left by Pearson. Pearson with a knee. Pearson had a nasty hematoma on the left side of the head, and again tried and couldn’t get takedowns. Spin kick by Barboza but Pearson moved enough to avoid most of it. Pearson with several punches, but Barboza right back with a punch that busted Pearson’s hematoma open. Pearson landed more punches late in the round and hit a knee. It was probably the swelling and busting open the hematoma that won Barboza the fight. From a pure technical fighting standard it was the best thing on the show.

11. Mauricio Shogun Rua (20-5) beat Forrest Griffin (18-7) in 1:53. This was a rematch of a 2007 fight that Griffin won, that turned Griffin’s career around. Griffin mentally wasn’t here for the fight. His wife was nine days from giving birth and while he was in Brazil, seemed to figure out it was a mistake to be there. They traded, but Rua’s punches were a lot harder. Griffin just didn’t move like himself. Rua landed a hard right and Griffin took a delayed fall. Shogun landed four punches on the ground and seven really hard hammer firsts and Griffin was out by the fourth or fifth one. As soon as the fight was over, Griffin’s wife texted him saying that it was about time, so he rushed home as she apparently went into labor. But he wasn’t aware of it until maybe 20 or 30 minutes after the fight was over. Rua looked sharp, but it’s going to be hard for him to get a title shot if Jon Jones remains champion because he didn’t even look competitive against Jones in the title loss.

12. Anderson Silva (31-4) beat Yushin Okami (27-6) at 2:04 of the second round to retain the middleweight title. Neither would touch gloves. Okami came into the cage with this face like he wasn’t confident. Silva looked much bigger which is funny since Okami is pushed like he’s this super strong powerhouse. Okami came out and missed punches. He got a clinch and threw punches. Silva landed a jab and was dancing but Okami got another clinch. Okami landed a lot of punches from the clinch, and then they tried knees. Okami tried a takedown and didn’t get it, Silva threw a knee while they were in the clinch which made Okami back off. Silva landed a right and followed with a high kick that hurt Okami. But the second round, Silva came out fast, putting on a show with his speed and movement. He then put his hands down and dared Okami to punch. Okami threw the punch and Silva came right back and knocked him down with a right jab. Silva backed off, letting Okami up. He kept his hands low again. Okami paused, not wanting to throw, but when he saw an opening, fired a left, and Silva put him down with another right to the jaw and finished him with punches on the ground.

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Wrestling in Japan may be at near its lowest level of popularity to the mainstream in its history, but 8/28 showed that with the right promotion and attraction, there are still a lot of people who will attend shows even without major television promotion, as what was reported as more than 28,000 fans came out to see two head-to-head shows in Tokyo.

A joint show, with All Japan, New Japan and Pro Wrestling NOAH all working together for a show to raise money for victims of the earthquake and tsunami sold out Budokan Hall to the tune of 17,000 fans, selling out well in advance. The crowd was hot and into everything, in a show that didn’t feature one singles match. The biggest thing on the show was Kenta Kobashi & Keiji Muto as a tag team, , ending with double moonsaults as Kobashi pinned Takashi Iizuka while Muto did the same thing to Toru Yano.

It was a nostalgia crowd, because there were huge reactions to wrestlers from another era, the biggest surprises being Super Strong Machine and Masa Fuchi. Fuchi in particular had his name chanted when he came out for the Battle Royal.

The show was considered a major success. It was even covered on the NTV nightly newscast, with a few minutes covering all three major companies working together although one of the reasons it got the coverage was because of it being an earthquake victims benefit show.

Before the main event started, all the wrestlers from the three promotions came to the ring and Tanahashi was given the role of being the big modern star, and he said the three groups would be doing a second earthquake benefit show on 2/19 in Sendai, which was the major city that got hit the worst from the earthquakes.

Not far away, at Sumo Hall in Tokyo, Antonio Inoki’s IGF show did a sellout announced at 11,600 fans. Live reports from both shows noted the sellouts were legit. This show also had a hot crowd, and a very different audience feel. Inoki’s gimmick of using the kind of guys that would be stars in the 70s (including some that actually were stars in the 70s like Abdullah the Butcher, Mil Mascaras and Tiger Jeet Singh–Butcher and Singh appeared but didn’t wrestle ), freak show guys and real fighters who aren’t necessary smooth workers, usually isn’t a big deal. This show did not draw your usual wrestling crowd, but non fans and a casual audience that came to see names from the past in Japan like Jerome LeBanner, Mascaras and Peter Aerts. The quality of matches was said to be what you’d expect given the lineup, but the live crowd was entertained seeing Mascaras vs. Tatsumi Fujinami, the return to pro wrestling of Naoya Ogawa as well as the K-1 legends back in Japan. Inoki had promoted the show heavily in Fukushima, which is about 180 miles from Tokyo, and they had 1,000 people come from that city which was one of the places hit by the earthquake.

While looking at these numbers would give an impression that things are starting to turn around in Japan, those who are there says you do get the impression when attending these big shows because the fans who came are really into it that things are the case, but the Japanese economy for pro wrestling right now is really bad and there is no sign of a turnaround. Because of the weakness in the Japanese economy, the sponsor money (which has always been a big part of their business long before it was in the U.S.) isn’t there, there isn’t the Yakuza finance money of spot shows as in the past and pro wrestling used to have mainstream appeal, with the two stars well known celebrities, which is not the case today. Both All Japan and Pro Wrestling NOAH are in very bad shape financially right now, although New Japan is on solid footing.

At Budokan Hall, the show opened with the three champions, Tanahashi, Suwama and Shiozaki, as well as NOAH Vice President Naomichi Marufuji (out with an injury) coming out and thanking the fans for coming.

1. The opener had the theme of some of the best high flyers, as Kota Ibushi (DDT) & Bushi (All Japan) & Hiroshi Yamato (All Japan) & Taiji Ishimori (NOAH) beat Tiger Mask (New Japan) & Kaz Hayashi (All Japan) & Shuji Kondo (All Japan) & Ricky Marvin (NOAH) in 10:05 when Ishimori pinned Marvin after a 450 splash. Fast paced well worked match.

2. The second match theme was the rising stars, as Tetsuya Naito (New Japan) & Seiya Sanada (All Japan) & Shuhei Taniguchi (NOAH) beat Yujiro Takahashi (New Japan) & Manabu Soya (All Japan) & Mohammed Yone (NOAH) in 11:10 when Sanada pinned Takahashi after a moonsault. This had Naito vs. Takahashi, which is a New Japan feud, with Sanada & Soya, a regular All Japan tag team combination, were on opposite sides.

3. Togi Makabe (New Japan) & Akitoshi Saito (NOAH) beat Hirooki Goto (New Japan) & Taiyo Kea (All Japan) in 9:54 when Makabe pinned Kea after the King Kong kneedrop.

4. In another junior heavyweight match, Prince Devitt (New Japan) & Ryusuke Taguchi (New Japan) & Kotaro Suzuki (NOAH) & Katsuhiko Nakajima (NOAH through the Kensuke Office) & Kai (All Japan) beat Yoshinobu Kanemaru (NOAH) & KENTA (NOAH) & Genba Hirayanagi (NOAH) & Koji Kanemoto (New Japan) & Minoru (All Japan) in 15:07 when Kai pinned Hirayanagi after a splash. The winning team consisted of Devitt & Taguchi, the current IWGP jr. tag champs, Suzuki, the GHC jr. champ, and Kai, the All Japan jr. champion. They went against KENTA & Kanemaru, the GHC jr. tag champs, with Hiryanagai, the third guy on their regular team, and Kanemoto & Minoru, who were the best tag team in the world many years back, and teamed up for the first time in years. Also a very good match, with interesting sequences with Devitt & Taguchi vs. KENTA & Kanemaru as well as Nakajima vs. Kanemoto.

5. In a reunion match of sorts, Jushin Liger (New Japan) & Masakatsu Funaki (All Japan) & Takuma Sano (NOAH) beat Minoru Suzuki (free agent) & Taichi (New Japan) & Atsushi Aoki (NOAH) in 12:47 when Funaki beat Aoki with a chicken wing facelock submission. Liger, Funaki & Sano all started together in the New Japan dojo.

6. Kentaro Shiga won a 23 man Battle Royal for The Destroyer Cup. The Destroyer (Dick Beyer, now 81) came to the ring with son Kurt Beyer (who wrestled for All Japan in the 90s). He was not moving very well, but that shouldn’t be a surprise given his long career in wrestling and working a physical style. He needed the guard rails and ropes for support. They opened up the ropes so he could get into the ring and there was a sad moment because he tried to get in and couldn’t bend over enough. Then they spread open the middle and top rope and he was able to get in. He did a promo before the match started and he can still deliver, in Japanese to boot, and the crowd gave him a big reaction. Shiga won in 11:54, pinning Gedo (New Japan) in a symbolic gesture. Shiga is a free agent, who worked for years with NOAH, and is from Sendai. Others in the match were Hideo Saito (New Japan), Tomohiro Ishii (New Japan), Takaaki Watanabe (New Japan), Super Strong Machine (New Japan), Jun Nishikawa (Kensuke Office), Satoshi Kajiwara (Kensuke Office), Kento Miyahara (Kensuke Office), Lee Che Gyong (All Japan), Sho Soya (All Japan), Soshun (All Japan), Yasufumi Nakanoe (All Japan), Mazada (All Japan), Masa Fuchi (All Japan), Rene Dupree (All Japan), Joe Doering (All Japan), Zack Sabre Jr. (NOAH), Masao Inoue (NOAH), Yoshinari Ogawa (NOAH) and Akira Taue (NOAH).

7. The fat team against the early 90s New Japan class match saw Akebono (All Japan) & Ryota Hama (All Japan) & Takeshi Morishima (NOAH) & Yutaka Yoshie (free agent) over Hiroyoshi Tenzan (New Japan) & Yuji Nagata (New Japan) & Osamu Nishimura (All Japan) & Wataru Inoue (New Japan). The ending came at 11:20 when Morishima pinned Nishimura after a back suplex. Morishima carried the bout.

8. Jun Akiyama (NOAH) & Kensuke Sasaki (Kensuke Office) beat the return of Team No Fear of Yoshihiro Takayama (NOAH) & Takao Omori (All Japan) in 15:44 when Sasaki pinned Omori after the Hokuto bomb.

9. In the match that got the most reaction, Kenta Kobashi (NOAH) & Keiji Muto (All Japan), two of the greatest wrestlers in Japanese history and for an historical standpoint, clearly the two biggest stars on this show, beat Takashi Iizuka & Toru Yano (New Japan heels) in 14:58. Kobashi & Muto came out first, which was weird, but that was because the heels went to attack them from behind during their ring entrance. Iizuka tried to cut Kobashi’s hair. Muto did a moonsault on Iizuka and then he told Kobashi to do the same. Kobashi slowly climbed the ropes and did a moonsault on Iizuka for the pin.

10. Hiroshi Tanahashi (New Japan’s IWGP heavyweight champion) & Suwama (All Japan Triple Crown champion) & Go Shiozaki (NOAH’s GHC heavyweight champion) beat Takashi Sugiura (NOAH) & Kenso (All Japan) & Shinsuke Nakamura (New Japan). Finish came in 22:50 when Tanahashi pinned Kenso with the high fly flow. This was said to be the best match on the show. Tanahashi & Kenso started their careers together in New Japan. Because Kenso, who went by his real name of Kenzo Suzuki, was a member of the national team in rugby and the bigger guy, he got more of a push starting out, but Tanahashi was the better wrestler and showed more charisma, so he was the one who ended up as arguably the biggest new generation superstar. From the start, Sugiura and Nakamura had problems with Kenso. Kenso was about to get pinned, but Nakamura made the save. Then Kenso attacked Nakamura, and then hit Sugiura. Everyone turned on Kenso. Nakamura gave Kenso the bom a ye and then Sugiura gave him the Olympic slam. Suwama then gave him a German suplex, followed by Shiozaki giving him a lariat. Suwama then gave Kenso a last ride power bomb before Tanahashi came off the top with his frog splash for the pin.

The show ended with a rock band and dancers came out while the wrestlers were in the ring and the crowd was chanting “Pro Wrestling is awesome.”

 

[Plywood]

From the Inoki show:

1. Daijiro Matsui (a former Pride fighter who was also a pro wrestler) went to a 10:00 draw with Akira Jo.

2. In a kickboxing match, Hidekazu Kimura beat Masashi via unanimous decision.

3. Taka Kunou beat Baru Harnin 2:51 via armbar.

4. Kendo Ka Shin (Tokimitsu Ishizawa, a former national champion wrestler who was given a submission specialist gimmick in pro wrestling, and then moved on to Pride where he couldn’t submit anyone) beat Black Tiger (Tatsuhito Takaiwa, a former New Japan star) in 6:50 with a flying armbar.

5. Bobby Lashley went to a double count out with Eric Hammer in 5:45. They went back and forth working a realistic style before brawling outside the ring.

6. Mil Mascaras drew Tatsumi Fujinami as 1979 wanted its legendary match back. This was the second 10:00 draw these two have done. The match was slow, but they each got their trademark spots in and that’s what the people wanted to see.

7. Masahiro Chono beat Yuichiro Nagashima in 12:58. Nagashima was a K-1 Max star as the cross-dressing kickboxer who knocked out Shinya Aoki in a New Year’s Eve match. Nagashima used the same flying knee he knocked out Aoki with. Well, not the same, but the working version. Nagashima even used the Octopus submission. Chono piledrove him on the floor. He also got a two count on Chono with a moonsault. Chono used a piledriver, some kekka kicks (the former Yakuza kick) and finished by submission to the STF.

8. Naoya Ogawa beat Atsushi Sawada in 12:45 with an arm triangle or side choke. Ogawa retired a few years back. This was pushed as teacher vs. student and there had been a number of angles where Sawada was demanding this match. Ogawa really destroyed him at the end with an STO and the side choke.

9. Ray Sefo beat Montanha Silva via DQ in 3:40. Silva is probably about 6-10 or so and depending on how his frequently changing physique looks, can range from about 295 to 330. Silva, who was a pro wrestler in Brazil that they taught to be a kickboxer, landed a dropkick. Sefo was another popular K-1 fighter known for his ability to take a shot and his knockout power, and last we heard was completely broke in Las Vegas because K-1 owed him $700,000 for matches he’s already done. Silva even suplexed Sefo. They had a pull-apart that ended when Silva hit the referee for the DQ. Seemed built up for a rematch.

10. Hideki Suzuki, a newcomer they are looking at pushing, pinned Harry Smith in 4:47 after a double arm suplex. Suzuki is a student of Billy Robinson from the old UWF Snake Pit gym in Tokyo that Robinson worked at before moving to Little Rock a few years ago. So the idea here was that this was a battle of two students of Robinson. He was described as a tall, good looking guy who, along with Akira Joe and current Pancrase star Manabu Inoue, were Robinson’s best students in Japan. It should be noted that Yuko Miyato, who put together the gym and hired Robinson as the trainer, is now one of the office people in Inoki’s promotion.

11. Peter Aerts beat Shinichi Suzukawa via TKO in 11:01. Aerts was one of the K-1 legends and is well known culturally for nearly two decades of being on highly rated nationally televised fights. Suzukawa was a star in sumo and turned to pro wrestling after the sumo association fired him for smoking marijuana. Suzukawa would keep taking Aerts down, but between takedowns, Aerts would be killing him standing. Aerts got a knockdown with a kick to the body. Aerts knocked him down again with a kick until Suzukawa went down from a low kick and the ref stopped.

12. Jerome LeBanner retained the IGF world heavyweight title beating Kazuyuki Fujita in 4:57. This was supposed to be the finals of the tournament to crown their first world champion. LeBanner was to face Josh Barnett, but Barnett pulled out of the match because it was two weeks before his Strikeforce fight and breaking camp for several days in Japan probably wouldn’t be the smartest idea. Fujita was a national champion wrestler who New Japan signed, and he was still at the prelim stage when, because of his credentials, Inoki tried to use as his protege in Pride. He had some success, beating Mark Kerr and Ken Shamrock when that still meant a lot, but his wrestling wasn’t really top caliber and his only other attribute as a fighter was his ability to take punishment, and that’s only going to last you so long before it catches up with you. But he was pushed as a wrestler with New Japan when he came back. LeBanner was another of the big stars of the K-1 era, a 6-4, 265 pound knockout artist. Fujita used some spears to take LeBanner down. LeBanner threw him out of the ring and beat him up outside. The match ended when they were back in the ring. Fujita went for another spear, but LeBanner nailed him with a knee and got the pin.

They then announced a return date on 9/3 in Nagoya, with LeBanner vs. Montanha Silva in a non-title match, Nagashima vs. Munenori Sawa, Fujinami vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara, plus Harry Smith, Peter Aerts, Shinichi Suzukawa, Bobby Lashley and Eric Hammer, and the debut of former WWE wrestler Vladimir Kozlov, who will use the name Alexander Koslov.

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Ric Flair

The plight of Ric Flair was the subject of an extensive story this past week by Shane Ryan of Bill Simmons’ grantland.com web site.

The story was a laundry list of Flair issues that have become public record in Mecklenberg County, in North Carolina, where Flair has lived since 1974. The issues include loans he didn’t pay back that ended up resulting in lawsuits, IRS troubles, being bilked by friends for money, problems in his marriages and living beyond his means, which resulted in making a comparison to Flair and the Randy the Ram character in the movie “The Wrestler.”

Of course that’s a ridiculous comparison, given Flair isn’t living in poverty or working behind the counter at a deli hoping people don’t recognize him. Flair has largely lived the life he has wanted, as the guy who once delivered newspapers to Mad Dog Vachon, idolized Ray Stevens and would drive Superstar Billy Graham’s car and pick him up from the airport in Graham’s AWA heyday ended up being one of the legends in wrestling.

But like the vast majority of wrestling legends, from Lou Thesz to Buddy Rogers to Argentina Rocca from the 50s, and his idols like Stevens, Graham and Wahoo McDaniel in the 70s and even Hulk Hogan (who lost everything he earned between a nasty divorce and a lawsuit settlement after his son drove a car and got into an accident that nearly killed his son’s best friend) and the guy who taught him wrestling, Verne Gagne (who is in his 80s, his memory gone, and with nothing to show for all the years of being a local wrestling icon and successful promoter). Flair lived big and ended up with little financially to show for it, trusting the wrong people with his money, and living the gimmick. The records also show a list of creditors amassed over the last 15 years that ended up going to court against him.

It showed the dichotomy of a guy who for decades spent money on friends and women like it was going out of style, and to an extent, still does, as the situation with TNA on the European tour, or at nearly every Orlando taping when he goes out for drinks and is always buying, shows. But on the flip side, he’s deeply in debt, with huge alimony payments, tax debts and loans to repay. But he still lives like he’s Ric Flair. To friends, he seems to indicate he doesn’t have a care in the world. Those who have talked with him since the story came out noted it didn’t seem to effect him. Part of it is that Flair lived, did and does everything that a sports or entertainment legend from the 70s would do. It’s no longer 1979 and he’s not the main meal ticket for a thriving Jim Crockett Promotions. He’s hardly going to care about an Internet story because he doesn’t even turn on a computer. If it was in the local newspaper, maybe. On the local TV news or on the sports talk shows, where all the hosts know him on a first name basis and have him on all the time as a guest talking about modern major sports, which he is a huge fan of, and the old days of wrestling. In Charlotte, when it comes to adults, at least those who listen to local sports talk radio, pro wrestling ended for some in 1988, and for others, maybe in 2001 when the boom period ended and WCW died. But it’s seemingly not relevant today. At least not when Flair is on the air, the phone lines are lit up, and people can’t wait to ask questions about Blackjack Mulligan, Ricky Steamboat, Dusty Rhodes and Magnum T.A., and terms like Evolution, WrestleMania and Shawn Michaels never come up, at least from the callers. Flair used to tell me that it amazed him when he’d do the shows or see people, how they had such vivid memories of another era, and nobody would ask much about anything after the era of Charlotte being a local wrestling hotbed with regular live events ended.

And even then, when it comes to bad publicity, in his world, nobody ever brings it up. They just want autographs and photos taken with him, and to hear him personally go “Whooo!” When much of the detail in this story as it related to the breakup of his second marriage was in his hometown paper, which shocked him that the paper in the town where he was according to many, still its leading celebrity at the time, would publish, yeah, he was mad. But even then he got over it pretty quickly. Although enough has come out that he realized that the political career that state republicans had talked with him about, potentially running for Governor, was not going to happen. He was warned by Jesse Ventura, who had far less lifetime baggage, that it was a nasty world and too much could come out.

When last year, his current wife, Jacqueline Beams, was arrested for punching him several times in the face while her alarmed daughter called police on her own mother, he lost an endorsement deal with one major sports franchise that used a video of him screaming “Whooo” when they scored. Constantly working on endorsements, and in that world, always one step away from that big deal that will leave him financially set for life (the elusive deal that all kinds of celebrities are close to and few actually get), he was told most of the people he did business with, NASCAR, Coca-Cola and Wal-Mart, for public speaking or personal appearances, were sticking by him. But he was warned to stay out of trouble because major companies don’t really like people endorsing their product to have a lot of negative baggage.

At the same time, with wrestlers, celebrities in general, whatever they do, whether it’s owing money, telling their jailed son that the guy who nearly died in an accident with his son driving had bad karma from being a bad person, beating multiple girlfriends, constant drug arrests, rape convictions and everything short of murder are often forgiven by an adoring fan base.

Flair wouldn’t talk publicly about the story. Melinda Morris Zanoni, his agent, released a strange statement: “While the information gleaned from courthouse records may be credible, Mr. Fliehr is currently evaluating his legal options with respect to falsehoods in the story, specifically the untrue statement that he suffers from alcoholic cardiomyopathy. Our client understands that these allegations are part of the territory when you are not only famous, but a living legend. Ric Flair is a sports entertainer, which has been a lifelong passion that he still enjoys delivering to his fans today, along with his work outside of the ring with various charitable causes. We will be sure to advise Mr. Fliehr against running for County Treasurer and instead to continue entertaining his millions of fans all over the world as he has been doing for the past 35 years.”

Flair also has a lottery deal in place in North Carolina, and several other states he’s had talks with based on the success of the commercials.

The story of alcoholic cardiomyopathy comes from Flair’s own autobiography and was talked about here when the book came out. Flair was diagnosed with heart issues in late 2002 and was out of action for about five months, returning in March, 2003. In Flair’s autobiography, written in 2004, he said that he feared it was from steroid use, but his doctor told him it was alcohol related. In a conversation we had in 2002 when the diagnosis came out, he described it to me as his doctor saying it was both steroid related and alcohol related, but he dismissed the steroid aspect because while he had done steroids during his career, he was never as heavy a user as a lot of the guys, but he was a heavy partier and had drank more than most. After taking medication, he was cleared to wrestle in 2003 and as far as I know, there have been no heart issues since, at least of a significant enough level that have ever caused him to miss work.

Clearly, he still drinks. But in a description of him, it talks about his working for “Total Nonstop Action, a second-tier outfit where he’s still compelled to perform despite suffering from alcohol cardiomyopathy, and where almost everything he earns goes toward old debts; lawyers, ex-wives, the IRS, former business partners and anyone else who made the mistake of lending him money.”

As far as in a court of law, there’s no way a suit is going anywhere. He mentions the alcoholic cardiomyopathy in his own autobiography. But the article made it sound like he’s suffering from it, has a bad heart, and is risking his health wrestling. Whether, at 62, he should be wrestling in the ring, is certainly an issue worthy of discussion. As best I can tell, there was more concern regarding his not having surgery for a torn rotator cuff than any heart issues, with Flair scheduled for surgery, then backing out because he didn’t want to be out of action for six or more months. But he was cleared to perform by his doctors 8 ½ years ago and was subject to regular heart monitoring in WWE from that period on, and more extensively as the years went on. But he wrestles rarely these days, but does have a match with Sting scheduled in a few weeks.

The story notes how there are thousands of pages on Richard Fliehr in the Mecklenberg County courthouse, citing stories like him passing out after attacking son Reid after Reid broke his drunken mother’s arm by pushing her out an elevator. A lot of the information was reported on when the incidents happen. A lot, regarding the number of loans taken out to people with no involvement in wrestling had never been reported. And when put all together it makes a sadder story that the various stories reported at the time they happened.

Flair grew up with adopted parents who were products of the depression. Even though his father was a well known and respected OB/gyn, “Doc Fliehr,” his parents were always uptight about money. While he loved his parents, who have both passed way, he never wanted to live like them, and there was no happy medium. He would joke about going to St. Louis for the weekend, making $5,000 for a main event, and spending $10,000 before he got home.

The story went back-and-forth between his owing money to a number of creditors, and both he and his second wife, Beth, being bilked in business deals by close friends. Taken individually, a lot can be explained, but the sheer volume of them, and the idea that these only represented people who had taken him or his family to court, tells a much deeper story.

In a few cases, the story was weak, such as in failure to provide a true context of some incidents, but there was enough there that picking it apart based on not knowing the story behind the 1991 NWA title belt story and some of his issues within wrestling or not giving the time line over the heart issue. And it is germane that someone with a previous heart condition was left without life insurance after two marriages after being bilked in a series of policies, and now, still performing at 62, has to find a policy while still in a dangerous world where dying young is so frequent.

In the 1991 lawsuit over the physical NWA world heavyweight title belt, the story brought up that WCW sued Flair over leaving with the belt. Flair had possession of the belt after paying a $25,000 deposit to become champion. When Jim Herd, who ran WCW, fired him in 1991, he failed to pay him back his deposit. They just made a new championship belt and moved on. But Flair sent the belt to Vince McMahon, who had Bobby Heenan hold it up on television to build to Flair’s arrival, and Flair wore it on WWF television when he showed up later that year. WCW sued WWF, and while Flair was listed as a plaintiff, the suit was between promotions. Flair was named in the suit but he really wasn’t involved in it. WCW won the suit and it was ruled Flair could not wear the belt on WWF television, but even then, WCW never paid him back for it, and he used the belt as collateral for loans years later.

McMahon then decided to have a replica belt made for Flair to wear on his television, but that led to a second case where WCW prevailed again, so Flair began wearing one of McMahon’s tag team title belts which would be digitized out on television, making you think he was still wearing the belt even though the court ruled he couldn’t, which was pretty clever. The explanation on TV was that Jack Tunney ruled since it was not a belt recognized by WWF, it could not air on television, but Flair was still wearing it. The digitization of the belt allowed them to continue to portray him as “the real world champion” until he won the WWF title in early 1992 at the Royal Rumble, while allowing them to skirt the ruling in the court case.

The story noted in 1990 he owed the IRS $62,000 in back taxes from the 80s, which he paid. In that era, it was not unusual for wrestlers to not file taxes, and then end up owing tons of money and interest. Even today, with some of the biggest name boxers and actors and other entertainers who made far more money than any wrestles have ever made, tax trouble is not unusual, which is why so many fighters who had made huge money continued when they no longer should have. It’s almost like the cycle of life, with each generation there is more money, yet the same end result for so many.

They listed a speeding ticket for going 95 MPH, but in those days in the territory there was an unwritten rule that wrestlers would speed, get pulled over, sign some autographs, maybe give some free tickets. It didn’t work with every officer as there were wrestlers in the territory who had to face charges, but it had been a somewhat accepted practice dating back to long before Flair moved to Charlotte.

They talked about a court case involving a stalker, DeeAnn Siden, who would follow him from 1990-98, claimed an affair, claimed she had a daughter from Flair. It was never established in the story if the claim was legitimate. This was years ago and one would think it has been settled if he was, or even if not, it should have been said, particularly since the woman in question making the claim was an established nut case. Siden was also arrested years later for stalking Kurt Angle all over the country and threatening to kill Karen Angle.

His first lawsuit involving unpaid bills appeared to be 1996, when his Gold’s Gym in Hickory, NC, started having financial problems, and a company that sold equipment to his gym sued for $66,000 in unpaid bills. Flair owned a series of Gold’s Gyms, including one that was destroyed in a flood in the Cayman Islands. The gyms in the long run did not do well and some were closed and some were sold. A Charlotte painter got a $1,500 judgment against him when his wife wouldn’t pay them for painting the house. It brought up Flair’s being sued, and his countersuit, against WCW after he and Eric Bischoff had issues when Flair had entered his son Reid in a national wrestling tournament, said he would have to miss a TV shoot over it and it turned into a pissing contest when Bischoff insisted he come and he didn’t. That ended up being settled months later.

By 2000, his money owed grew deeper, both in not paying bills, and his wife being tricked in the financial matters he left her in charge of, leaving them deeper in debt.

The plane flight from hell in 2002, when, with alcohol being served on a charter flight, was discussed. One of the allegations in a 2004 lawsuit talked about Flair coming out, wearing one of his wrestling robes and exposing himself, which the two flight attendants claimed he grabbed each of their hands and placed it on his penis and one claimed a sexual assault. The entire flight was a mess, and included JBL knocking out Michael Hayes, Sean Waltman cutting off Hayes’ pony tail, wrestlers telling the stewardesses to dispense with syringes they had brought and didn’t want to go through customs with, Curt Hennig and Brock Lesnar fighting after Hennig continually taunted him, Dustin Runnels singing to ex-wife Terri, seats being destroyed with tobacco spit on it, Scott Hall allegedly telling one flight attendant he wanted to lick her pussy and the other to suck his dick. WWE settled the case with the women out of court, and alcohol was banned on WWE charter flights.

Flair eventually owned $874,000 in back taxes. There were more incidents of people taking him to court regarding loans not being paid, although Flair did settle with all of them during this period, but as time went on, after two more divorces and having to pay significant alimony payments, he would borrow from people to both pay his bills, while continuing to live something at least close to the Ric Flair lifestyle.

Flair and second wife Beth had a nasty divorce that went public in the local newspaper, although the two ended up back on good terms years later, after he broke up with third wife Tiffany. The case involved name calling on both sides, allegations of physical abuse and everything you get in a nasty divorce case. It came out they spent huge amounts on clothes and restaurants, as well as gifts for friends, more than $750,000 in jewelry, were bilked out of seven figures by supposed friends, and owed $1.15 million in taxes.


Reid had issues with drugs, which included at one point Flair paying nearly $100,000 to a rehab center after a number of scary incidents, including an arrest for tar heroin. He borrowed significant money from Vince McMahon during his WWE run due to IRS debts. Combraco Industries, which helped him with money to open his gyms, filed suit and Flair put everything he had of value as collateral, but even though there was a court case involving them, they remained very good friends. Numerous pro athletes within years of their careers ending wind up declaring bankruptcy to get out of debt they can’t repay. But he’s likely to be waiting for that big deal he’s constantly told is on the verge of happening, and his troubles will be over, biding time. But those deals come to him all the time, but you know the saying, when something sounds too good to be true, usually it’s because it’s not true.

 

[dream]

Holy shit, the poor bastard is posting all of it and manually formatting each paragraph for you guys.

 

[Net_Wrecker]

Here's the Punk-Helmsley Promo in case anyone wants to challenge themselves with a brain teaser. I'll warn you though, it's difficult to watch.

-Man, those yokels in the back squirming around when they see themselves on TV, lol.

Dawg, I swear I'm trying. I really am but...but...

...that damn promo was so all over the place and overlong. I tap. They win. Watching that promo is like being Inception'd. Angles within angles within motivations.


And thank you Plywood for being crazy and formatting all that stuff.

 

[Plywood]

That was just the beginning of loans being taken out in recent years. On the flip side, a family friend who kept switching life insurance jobs, with each switch, would sell them a new policy. They’d dump the old policy, and he ended up spending $270,000 on premiums and in the end, had no life insurance in 2005. The friend also convinced his wife to buy annuities for $1.24 million during the course of their marriage, but his annuities ended up going to the IRS for back taxes. He also spent $460,000 in commercial real estate projects that ended up losing him more money. Flair sued both, settled out of court, but the settlement money went to the money he owed Beth and to his lawyers. He lost money in his short-lived Ric Flair Finance company that the state of North Carolina shut down claiming the business model wasn’t legal. By the time he was divorced from third wife Tiffany, he was $1.7 million in debt. He still spent $14,000 on Christmas gifts for friends and bought his wife $200,000 in jewelry that year as well as a Porsche.

He currently earns a $5,000 per week base salary from TNA, and gets paid more based on appearances. But because of his high cost per event, they have used him less and less in recent months. He’s had his troubles with the company, an incident in England where they wouldn’t give him an advance (and as it turned out, his claim that they owed him money was correct since they were almost six months behind in royalty payments to him at the time of the incident). The most recent incident was when he refused to go in front of the crowd at a show in Brooklyn that had been advertised around him and was one of the company’s biggest events of the year. He stated he didn’t know he was going to and thought he was there for autograph signings, which he gladly did, and then got into an argument with agent D-Lo Brown, who was running the show. Last year between the state of North Carolina and the government, he owed $673,000 in back taxes, but in the same year, purchased a new Corvette and a new Camaro. ROH won a judgment against him for $40,000 when he left the company and didn’t appear on dates previously contracted and that he had been paid in advance for. Highspots and Flair reached a settlement agreement on a $66,000 loan that hadn’t been repaid, and then when Flair didn’t pay per terms of the settlement, a contempt citation came out which threatened him with jail time if he didn’t live up to the agreement. In the end Flair paid $35,000 and agreed to sign a number of autographs, clearing the debt.

Flair was convinced to appear regularly on ROH television to be the face of its company, against the wishes of WWE (he was not under contract to them at the time but they still expressed their unhappiness he was doing so), apparently believing Mark Cuban was going to do big things with the company and it would be a place where his son Reid could start out and be pushed as a star. Reid had a heroin arrest during this period and ROH didn’t want to use him. Cuban did not buy ROH. Still, one would think it would have been simpler to just fulfill the dates agreed to and call it a day.

Others companies negotiated with him about starting up, built around him, offering him big money to be the face of their company, one in the U.S. and another overseas, but nothing ever materialized, and he ended up with Hogan and Bischoff on an Australia tour which was to be the start of a major international promotion, but ended up as a financial flop and never went anywhere from there. He followed them into TNA. There were serious talks about a movie on his life, but he pulled out of talks over not coming to a financial agreement. There are always promises. Vince McMahon told him when he retired that when he brought him back, based on the retirement (and McMahon was clear he didn’t want him wrestling again), he would be a bigger star than ever before. But no great ideas materialized past him coming back and selling for heels they were trying to push, and do a fight here and there in the ring that couldn’t lead to a match because this was the one retirement stipulation McMahon didn’t want to violate. Ever since leaving WWE to book himself independently in 2008, there have been people making big money offers to him for a variety of prospective projects, but in most cases, like with a lot of projects of these types, people talk like a deal is all but done and the money is there, but in the end, there is no such deal.

*****************************************************************

Joe Son, an early UFC fighter who later became a cult pro wrestler in Japan, was convicted on 8/25 of one count of torture in a Southern California trial and faces 15 years in prison based on DNA evidence that was unearthed two years ago in a 1990 gang rape case.

Joe Hyungim Son, in national media reports was noted for playing “Random Task,” a henchman of Dr. Evil in the 1997 movie, “Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery,” without any mention of his link to the early days of UFC or to pro wrestling, where he never worked for a major U.S. company.

Son, 40, had three years ago been in jail on probation violation, after pleading guilty to a felony vandalism charge. The guilty plea required him to submit a DNA sample based on California state Proposition 69, a law that had been recently enacted requiring all convicted and suspected felons to provide DNA samples. Investigators on October 7, 2008, found his DNA matches DNA that was found on the scenes of a 1990 gang rape case in Orange County.

According to police reports, on December 24, 1990, a 19-year-old woman who walking her dog after going to see a Christmas lights show was approached by a man asking for directions, saying he was lost. The police believe at that point that two men, both 23 at the time, one of which is believed to have been Son, dragged the woman into their car. They put her in the back seat and drove off. As they threw her in the car, she dropped her purse, which was never recovered. Her dog that was with her was left behind and never found.

According to police reports the woman was pistol whipped and the men threatened to kill her. Son is being accused of repeatedly sexually assaulting the woman in the back seat of the car. A second suspect, Santiago Gallen, was arrested in 2009, pleased guilty to multiple sex crimes this past January, and was sentenced to 17 years and four months in prison.

After the repeated sexual assaults, police reports said they pushed her out of the car in the streets, naked, with her pants tied around her eyes, and told her that being released was their Christmas present to her. DNA samples were taken but it took 18 years for the police to solve the case.

Son was charged with five felony counts of rape, two felony counts of forcible sodomy, two felony counts of sodomy in concert by force, seven felony counts of forcible oral copulation, one felony count of sexual penetration with a foreign object by force, kidnapping to commit a sexual assault, personal use of a firearm, use of a firearm during a sexual offense and great bodily injury to a sexual assault victim. However, by the time the case came to trial this month, most of the charges were dropped due to the statute of limitations and in the trial. In the trial, he was convicted of torture, but not convicted of conspiracy to commit murder.

Son was the pro wrestling style manager of Kimo for his September 9, 1994 UFC III fight with Royce Gracie, in Charlotte, which is one of the most famous fights in the history of the company. After that appearance, Son himself was used as a fighter on the December 16, 1994, show in Tulsa where he lost in 2:44 to Keith Hackney. That fight was also memorable in the early days because as Son had Hackney in a guillotine, Hackney threw punch after punch to Son’s groin, which at the time was legal. Son was wearing a cup, was not injured from the blows. However, the visual looked so bad that it caused UFC to ban all strikes to the groin. The low blows were played over-and-over again for a few years in television news stories to portray the brutality of UFC.

The fame of being Kimo’s manager and the low blows let him to fight one kickboxing match in K-1 in Japan in 1995, where he was knocked out in the first round. He also fought twice in Pride in 2002, losing in 33 and 54 seconds and finished his career with an 0-4 MMA record. However, in the Pride matches, he came out and fought wearing a thong, which in Japan, garnered a lot of attention and made him a cult celebrity.

He then moved on to pro wrestling, with his gimmick being the guy who wrestled wearing a red thong. His highest profile pro wrestling match was on January 19, 2003, working third from the top on a Tokyo Dome show promoted by the short-lived World-1 promotion, where he lost to a Japanese pro wrestling legend, Shinya Hashimoto, on a show that drew strong television ratings, and also featured Bob Sapp vs. Ernesto Hoost, a K-1 kickboxing feud brought to pro wrestling; Keiji Muto & Bill Goldberg vs. Brian Adams & Bryan Clark and also featured Terry Funk & Heath Herring as an Amarillo-based tag team.

****************************************************************
Money in the Bank

The official WWE first announced report on Money in the Bank, the 7/17 show in Chicago that was one of the best shows in company history, were slightly down from indications a few weeks ago.

The WWE has listed the show at doing 185,000 worldwide buys and 132,000 domestic buys. Those numbers are a strong increase in North America, but not overall from last year’s show, which did 164,000 worldwide and 98,000 domestic. But the July show of two years ago did 267,000 worldwide buys and 166,000 domestic.

Part of the difference in the weakness abroad would be said to have been it not airing as a PPV in the U.K., which is the company’s No. 2 market. But the show last year didn’t as well, and WWE has continued to increase international clearances over the past year. The show was actually up 13% worldwide from last year. Vince McMahon had said they expected and projected a 20% increase. Domestically, they were up 35%, which is substantial, but you are still comparing it to a number for 2010 that was considered disastrous at the time, as it was at the time the fourth lowest in domestic number in the modern history of the company.

It did the second best “B” show numbers of the year domestically. Extreme Rules beat it worldwide but the difference was Extreme Rules was PPV in the U.K. while Money in the Bank was a Sky Sports special) behind only the Elimination Chamber.

The key is what the angle with Punk meant, and far more importantly, the value of a big angle and shooting it for a secondary show. The angle meant something at the time and did move numbers some. It was weird, because there was so much talk, even in some circles mainstream, and huge with at least one aspect of the audience. But the movement of numbers wasn’t there. It was not even one of the top 30 domestic numbers (and even worse worldwide) for “B” shows in the last six years, and really aside from shows with huge angles or unique “B” shows like the first two One Night Stand shows, this should have been at least on par with any of them. The angle meant less for business, and remember, that whatever one wants to say about the follow-through, the issues with the follow through started on 7/25, so that would not have hurt this show. If the follow-through weakened the angle, or if it even matters, will be shown when the SummerSlam numbers come in.

So we are left with a few conclusions, none of which are good. Even an angle that gets people talking a lot can’t move “B” show business even past what would have been a normal level two years ago. So either PPV is a declining business, or at least it is with WWE, and you just have to accept it, or you have to accept the “B” numbers for what they are and try and peak your big angles for the big three or four shows. In hindsight, doing this angle a few weeks later for SummerSlam would have given it a lot more opportunity to help business to a more significant level. In fact, I’d go so far as to say anything resembling an angle you think has real money potential, or a big return, should be saved for the bigger shows that swing people are more apt to consider buying. This was unique because of the venue being Chicago, and for Punk, he had a night that few get and things lined up perfectly and it would be almost impossible to duplicate. So in this sense, I can see why the decision was made. But for business, even though it wouldn’t have had quite the heat, doing the same thing in Los Angeles and with higher stakes because people remember SummerSlam and more people buy it, Los Angeles was the answer. By the time they got to Los Angeles, I really wonder how the “legs” of the angle were doing. Years back, when Steve Austin was brought back on one of the Cyber Sunday or Taboo Tuesday shows and it still bombed, that was when you really got an answer about bringing someone back on the wrong show. Ironically, the return to the ring of HHH is being done at Night of Champions, although not last year, but historically, NOC has been one of the best drawing of the “B” shows.

It’s an interesting lesson that the Money in the Bank concept itself doesn’t work any better as the focal point of a PPV. It’s as close to guaranteed as anything in wrestling of being a great match, because it’s multiple people, lots of weapons, and they load the matches up with good workers. The matches at Mania have almost always been great. The 2010 show was excellent and the 2011 show was even better, among the best PPVs the company has ever produced. But there appeared to be an incredible buzz about the John Cena vs. C.M. Punk title match, and whatever increase there was over last year’s number was far less than most would have expected.

But even past the good match, Money in the Bank should work better than usual since virtually everyone who wins the match is guaranteed a world title run within a year, and often it is the forerunner of someone not thought of as a championship contender, like C.M. Punk the first year he won, and even Edge when he first won (Edge was not at that time a guy people were talking about when it came to being a world champion), let alone Daniel Bryan or Jack Swagger, to be all but crowned as champion. The only exception historically was Mr. Kennedy, and that was because he was injured, as he was scheduled to win the title based on winning Money in the Bank as well.

This year’s show should have beaten last year’s based on lineup, as last year was built completely around Money in the Bank. The hottest program was Nexus, and they were not even wrestling on the show. The title matches were a Cena vs. Sheamus cage match, which was a blow-off, but not promoted as the main focus of television which was all about getting over Nexus for SummerSlam. The other, Swagger vs. Rey Mysterio wasn’t going to mean a thing since Swagger as champion from day one had been booked to fail. The Raw Money in the Bank lineup was Miz (who won), Randy Orton, Edge, John Morrison, Mark Henry, Chris Jericho, Evan Bourne and Ted DiBiase. The Smackdown lineup was Kane (who won and cashed in on Mysterio on the show), Cody Rhodes, Christian, Matt Hardy, Kofi Kingston, Big Show, Dolph Ziggler and Drew McIntyre.

This year’s show had Cena vs. Punk and Orton vs. Christian, plus two Money in the Bank matches. The Smackdown match had Daniel Bryan, Sin Cara, Rhodes, Wade Barrett, Heath Slater, Justin Gabriel, Kane and Sheamus. The Raw match had Alberto Del Rio, Mysterio, Kingston, Alex Riley, Bourne, Miz, Swagger and R-Truth.

****************************************************************

 

[Entropia]

I'm loving the thread title!

WrassleGAF, can I break kayfabe and say that I started a job last week so I haven't been able to be here much during the day and I miss your antics.

Also, thanks for the Wrestling Observer stuff, Plywood.

 

[Plywood]

Ratings

Raw on 8/29 did a 3.10 rating and 4.64 million viewers. While some may blame power outages and such for the rating, it was up from last week and the number of homes watching TV was 73.02 million as compared to 73.13 million last week, so the difference is negligible. The increase looks to be more about the NFL pre-season game being on the NFL Network instead of ESPN, which is in far fewer homes and many USA Network homes didn’t even have the option. The 67-33 male skew was also closer to normal then the fewer male viewers changing the skew like last week with ESPN football. It was the third most watched show on cable.

In the segment-by-segment, Randy Orton vs. Dolph Ziggler lost 276,000 viewers. That continues the steak of people tuning out after the first segment, and missing a great match, but it did much better than last week’s John Morrison vs. Alberto Del Rio match in the same slot. The angle to set up the John Cena & Sheamus vs. Mark Henry & Christian match gained 204,000 viewers. C.M. Punk vs Miz lost 200,000 viewers in the 10 p.m. slot. Now that’s a disaster for that time slot since normal pattern is to gain 500,000 viewers. Sin Cara vs. Jack Swagger lost 423,000 viewers, which is normal for that slot, but that’s usually because the prior slot has a big gain. Kofi Kingston & Evan Bourne vs. Michael McGillicutty & David Otunga and Kelly Kelly vs. Brie Bella gained 244,000 viewers. The Inside Out trailer and Alex Riley video and HHH announcing the new main event change lost 262,000 viewers, but that is to be expected. The Cena & Sheamus vs. Henry & Christian gained 498,000 viewers, which would be below expected for an 11 minute overrun and finished at a 3.21 quarter.

Smackdown on 8/16 did a 1.78 rating and 2.67 million viewers. It was the sixth highest rated show on cable for the night.

MMA Live on 8/16 did a 0.12 metered market rating.

Impact on 8/15 did a 1.22 rating and 1.62 million viewers. It was No. 14 on cable for the night, with Jersey Shore at 8.47 million viewers being the highest rated show. The show did 0.51 in Males 18-34 and a 1.29 in Males 35-49. So the reason the rating was up was the huge increase in the latter demo. Keep in mind that last week’s show, nobody (at least from a statistical standpoint) would have known Ric Flair was back, while this week they would. Given where the increase came from, that is an audience more likely to care about Hogan, Sting and Flair than Males 18-34, which did not do well.

In the segment-by-segment, Jackie & ODB & Velvet Sky vs. Angelina Love & Rosita & Sarita gained 13,000 viewers. Kid Kash vs. Jesse Sorenson and RVD vs. Pope lost 106,000 viewers. Robbie E recruiting Rob Terry and a backstage angle where Rosita & Sarita jumped Love lost 53,000 viewers. To further illustrate why the rating was up, the Hogan, Sting and Flair in-ring segment gained 385,000 viewers, which is one of the biggest gains of the year for TNA, and did a 1.44 quarter. And to illustrate it even more, they lost the same 385,000 viewers for A.J. Styles & Beer Money vs. Scott Steiner & Gunner & Bully Ray. The Eric Young/Scott Baio golf course angle ended up even, no gain or loss. And Kurt Angle vs. Crimson also ended up even, ending with a 1.15 quarter.

The 8/13 WrestleMania special on NBC did a 1.28 rating and 2.06 million viewers, which is an absolutely horrible prime time network rating, but neither WWE nor NBC promoted it all that much. There were places that had reported a significantly higher number based on the overnights, but those were flawed because the overnights just rank the network, and the NBC network did 3.4 million viewers in that hour, but more than half of those viewers were watching NFL preseason games carried on local NBC stations. The 2.06 million is the number of viewers for the show, both the Friday night airing, and whatever replays there were in the markets that aired football. That’s not even close to even the disastrous Strikeforce numbers (1.76) for the Dan Henderson vs. Jake Shields show last year.

RESULTS

8/23 Asahikawa (All Japan - 1,100 sellout): Rene Dupree b Soshun, Minoru & Sho Soya b Kenso & Mazada, Joe Doering b Yasufumi Nakanoe, Kaz Hayashi & Shuji Kondo & Black Bushi b Kai & Hiroshi Yamato & Bushi, Akebono & Ryota Hama b Lee Che Gyong & Takao Omori, Seiya Sanada & Manabu Soya & Taiyo Kea b Suwama & Masakatsu Funaki & Masa Fuchi

8/23 Shimonoseki (Dragon Gate - 500): Genki Horiguchi & Ryo Saito b Susumu Yokosuka & Gamma, Naruki Doi b Rich Swann, Dragon Kid b Kzy, Masaaki Mochizuki & Masato Yoshino b Yasushi Kanda & Akira Tozawa, Cima & BxB Hulk & Cyber Kong b Shingo Takagi & Yamato & Kagetora

8/23 Mexico City Arena Mexico (CMLL TV tapings): Nitrito & Mercurio b Aereo & Pequeno Halcon, Dalis la Caribena & Estrellita & Marcela b Amapola & Princesa Blanca & Princesa Sugei, Dragon Lee & Magnus b Puma King & Tiger, Diamante & Metal Blanco & Palacio Negro b Cancerbero & Raziel & Nobuo Yoshihashi, Angel de Oro & Brazo de Plata & Maximo b Polvora & Averno & Mephisto-DQ, CMLL light heavyweight title: Rush b Mr. Aguila

8/24 Tokyo Korakuen Hall (Pro Wrestling NOAH - 1,000): Ricky Marvin b Satoshi Kajiwara, Taiji Ishimori b Zack Sabre Jr., Akitoshi Saito b Takuma Sano, Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama & Kentaro Shiga b Akira Taue & Yoshinari Ogawa & Masao Inoue, Jun Akiyama & Mohammed Yone & Takeshi Morishima b Kensuke Sasaki & Katsuhiko Nakajima & Kento Miyahara, Go Shiozaki & Shuhei Taniguchi b Yoshihiro Takayama & Genba Hirayanagi, GHC jr. tag titles: KENTA & Yoshinobu Kanemaru b Kotaro Suzuki & Atsushi Aoki

8/24 Kitami (All Japan - 1,150): Ryota Hama b Soshun, Kaz Hayashi & Black Bushi b Masa Fuchi & Bushi, Kenso b Sho Soya, Taiyo Kea & Takao Omori b Manabu Soya & Yasufumi Nakanoe, Akebono & Masakatsu Funaki b Lee Che Gyong b Joe Doering & Rene Dupree & Mazada, Suwama & Shuji Kondo & Minoru b Seiya Sanada & Kai & Hiroshi Yamato

8/24 Shizuoka (Dragon Gate - 450): Yamato & Gamma b Ryo Saito & Naoki Tanisaki, Susumu Yokosuka b Tomahawk T.T., Genki Horiguchi b Dragon Kid, Cima & Naruki Doi b Masaaki Mochizuki & Rich Swann, BxB Hulk & Cyber Kong & Akira Tozawa b Masato Yoshino & Shingo Takagi & Kagetora,

8/25 Huntsville (TNA Impact TV tapings - 3,300/papered): Gunner b Rob Van Dam, Brian Kendrick & Jesse Sorenson b Austin Aries & Kid Kash, Knockouts title: Mickie James b Winter to win title, Christopher Daniels b A.J. Styles, TNA title: Kurt Angle b Sting, Pope D’Angelo Dinero & Devon b Douglas Williams & Magnus, TV title: Eric Young b Robbie E, Angelina Love & Winter b Mickie James & Velvet Sky, Gunner won four-way over Bobby Roode, James Storm and Bully Ray, TNA title: Mr. Anderson b Kurt Angle-DQ

8/25 Tokyo Korakuen Hall (Dragon Gate - 1,200): Super Shenlong b Yusuke Watanabe, Dragon Kid & Super Shisa b Tomahawk T.T. & Kzy, Don Fujii b Kotoka, Cima & Yasushi Kanda b Masaaki Mochizuki & Rich Swann, Naoki Tanisaki b Gamma, Ryo Saito & Genki Horiguchi won three-way over Taku Iwasa & Kennichiro Arai and Susumu Yokosuka & K-Ness, Elimination match: Naruki Doi & BxB Hulk & Cyber Kong & Akira Tozawa b Masato Yoshino & Shingo Takagi & Yamato & Kagetora

8/26 Jackson, MS (WWE Raw - 9,200 sellout): Tag titles: Kofi Kingston & Evan Bourne b Michael McGillicutty & David Otunga, Mason Ryan b Zack Ryder, Kelly Kelly & Eve Torres b Bella Twins, Santino Marella b Jack Swagger, C.M. Punk b R-Truth, U.S. title: Dolph Ziggler won three-way over Drew McIntyre and Alex Riley, John Morrison b Ted DiBiase, John Cena b The Miz

8/26 Mexico City Arena Mexico (CMLL TV tapings - 6,700): Camaleon & El Hijo de Enrique Vera b Apocalipsis & Bronco, Arkangel de la Muerte & Escandalo & Nitro b Angel Azteca Jr. & Angel de Plata & Hombre Bala Jr., Dragon Lee & Sangre Azteca & Stuka Jr. b Nosferatu & Okumura & Virus, El Hijo del Fantasma b Misterioso Jr., Atlantis & Delta & Guerrero Maya Jr. b Dragon Rojo Jr. & Rey Escorpion & Ultimo Guerrero, Hector Garza & Shocker & La Sombra b El Terrible & Rey Bucanero & El Texano Jr.-DQ

8/27 Memphis (WWE Raw - 7,500): Tag titles: Kofi Kingston & Evan Bourne b David Otunga & Michael McGillicutty, Kelly Kelly & Eve Torres b Bella Twins, Jerry Lawler b Jack Swagger, Mason Ryan b Santino Marella, U.S. title: Dolph Ziggler b Alex Riley, John Morrison b Drew McIntyre, C.M. Punk b R-Truth, John Cena b The Miz

8/27 Cape Girardeau, MO (WWE Smackdown - 2,300): Daniel Bryan b Wade Barrett, Brodus Clay b Johnny Curtis, Ezekiel Jackson b Heath Slater, Sin Cara b Ted DiBiase, A.J. b Tamina, Sheamus b Mark Henry-DQ, World title: Randy Orton b Cody Rhodes

8/27 Honolulu (Pro Elite): Joey Palemia, b Chad Thomas, Brent Schermerhorn b Jesse Lundgren, Dustin Barca b Reno Remkigio, Kaleo Gambill b Eldon Sproat, Drew McFedries b Garrett Olson, Sara McMann b Raquel Pa’aluhi Mark Ellis b Jake Heun, Regan Penn b Paul Gardner, Andrei Arlovski b Ray Lopez, Kendall Grove b Joe Riggs

8/27 Mie (Dragon Gate): Cima & Naruki Doi b Gamma & Rich Swann, Masato Yoshino b Hollywood Stalker Ichikawa, Masaaki Mochizuki b Kzy, BxB Hulk & Genki Horiguchi b Don Fujii & Kagetora, Shingo Takagi & Yamato & Dragon Kid b Akira Tozawa & Ryo Saito & Cyber Kong

8/28 North Little Rock (WWE Raw - 5,400): Tag titles: Kofi Kingston & Evan Bourne b David Otunga & Michael McGillicutty, Mason Ryan b Zack Ryder, Eve Torres & Kelly Kelly b Bella Twins, Santino Marella b Jack Swagger, C.M. Punk b R-Truth, U.S. title: Dolph Ziggler b Alex Riley, John Morrison b Drew McIntyre, John Cena b The Miz

8/28 Springfield, MO (WWE Smackdown - 2,500): Sin Cara b Tyson Kidd, Johnny Curtis b Brodus Clay, A.J. & Kaitlyn b Natalya & Tamina, Ezekiel Jackson b Heath Slater, Daniel Bryan b Wade Barrett, Sheamus b Mark Henry-DQ, IC title: Cody Rhodes b Ted DiBiase, Street fight for world title: Randy Orton b Christian

8/28 Yokkaichi (All Japan - 450): Shuji Kondo & Soshun b Sho Soya & Yasufumi Nakanoe, Manabu Soya & Kai b Masa Fuchi & Takao Omori, Akebono b Lee Che Gyong, Kaz Hayashi & Minoru b Kenso & Mazada, Taiyo Kea & Seiya Sanada b Masakatsu Funaki & Hiroshi Yamato, Suwama & Ryota Hama & Bushi b Joe Doering & Rene Dupree & Black Bushi

8/28 Mexico City Arena Coliseo (CMLL TV tapings): Horuz & Trueno b Psycho & Artillero, Pequeno Black Warrior & Astral & Pequeno Violencia b Mascarita Dorada & Demus 3:16 & Electrico-DQ, Sagrado & Fuego & Rey Cometa b El Hijo del Signo & Hooligan & Loco Max, Brazo de Plata & Black Warrior & Valiente b Vangelis & Euforia & Nobuo Yoshihashi-DQ, Averno & Mephisto & Ephesto b La Mascara & Blue Panther & Toscano

8/28 Tottori (Dragon Gate): Naruki Doi & Naoki Tanisaki b Gamma & Super Shenlong, Shingo Takagi b Kzy, Akira Tozawa b Rich Swann, Masato Yoshino & Dragon Kid b Cima & Genki Horiguchi, Masaaki Mochizuki & Yamato & Kagetora b BxB Hulk & Cyber Kong & Yasushi Kanda

8/29 Tulsa (WWE Raw/Superstars TV tapings): Alex Riley b Drew McIntyre, R-Truth b John Morrison, Non-title: Randy Orton b Dolph Ziggler, C.M. Punk b The Miz-DQ, Sin Cara b Jack Swagger, Tag titles: Kofi Kingston & Evan Bourne b Michael McGillicutty & David Otunga, Non-title: Brie Bella b Kelly Kelly, John Cena & Sheamus b Mark Henry & Christian

8/30 Wichita (WWE Smackdown/Superstars TV tapings): John Cena b Wade Barrett, Sin Cara b Daniel Bryan, Beth Phoenix & Natalya b Kelly Kelly & Alicia Fox, Sheamus b Great Khali-DQ, Cage match for World title: Randy Orton b Christian

CMLL

Hector Garza, Ultimo Guerrero and Volador Jr. have been issuing media challenges for a three-way where Garza would put up his hair and Guerrero and Volador would put up their masks. Guerrero said he also wants Atlantis in to make it a four-way.

The 8/26 show at Arena Mexico drew 6,700. Garza & Shocker & La Sombra beat El Terrible & El Texano Jr. & Rey Bucanero via DQ when Terrible and Texano Jr. both gave Shocker low blows in front of ref Tirantes. Even he decided he couldn’t overlook it. Garza and Shocker then both challenged any member of Team TRT to a hair match. The semi saw Los Campeones Justicieros of Atlantis & Delta & Guerrero Maya Jr. beat Ultimo Guerrero & Dragon Rojo Jr. & Rey Escorpion in two straight falls.

The 9/2 show has Ultimo Guerrero & Dragon Rojo Jr. defending the CMLL tag titles against Atlantis & Guerrero Maya Jr. They are also starting a three-week long Champion of Champions tournament. Week one looks to have La Sombra, Garza, Diamante, Angel de Oro, Mephisto, Polvora, Rey Bucanero and Ephesto. Week two would look something like Jushin Liger, La Mascara, Rush, Mascara Dorada, Virus, Averno, and the winners of the tag title match on 9/2. Finals will be 9/16.

That 19th anniversary in the Minis tournament on the 8/21 show was the company rewriting history, because it involved Antonio Pena. CMLL introduced minis in 1989, or 22 years ago, when Pena was the booker and came up with the concept of instead of the traditional midget wrestlers, of using guys as carbon copies of established stars. It was easy in Mexico because of the masks and costuming, but the idea actually dates back a long time. I can remember the Little Bruiser in the 70s being a copy of Dick the Bruiser, for example. Since it was Pena, CMLL instead dates the minis to 1992, when Pena quit the promotion, took the original minis with him, and started using a whole new crop of minis. Three of the originals from 1992 were in the tournament, Ultimo Dragoncito, Pierrothito and Pequeno Olimpico, who in 1992 was Cicloncito Ramirez.


AAA

Damian 666 (Leonardo Carrera, 50) announced he would be retiring soon. According to friends of his, he is serious as he’s physically all beat up from 27 years in wrestling. He may do a show here and there type of retirement like a lot of the older wrestlers in Mexico. It’s expected he’ll handle the office work for the Perros Del Mal promotion.

One of the two big names who has never appeared for AAA from TNA that they were trying to get is Sting, who Dorian Roldan wrote on twitter that they were attempting to get for the Heroes en Inmortales show on 10/9 in Monterrey. While not confirmed, the other big name is believed to be Jeff Hardy. TNA sources had noted AAA has been asking for Hardy for months but TNA wouldn’t send him due to his suspension. That would probably still be up pending the results of Hardy’s legal situation as his next hearing is a month before the show.

The TV tapings on 8/19 in Queretaro drew 7,000 fans, which was okay. Perro Aguayo Jr. returned and he was the healthiest and worked the best since he came back to the promotion. Apparently both Halloween and Aguayo Jr. have been told to take better care of themselves and it appeared both are listening. If Aguayo Jr. is in shape to go, he’ll be featured strongly here. Aguayo Jr. pushed the idea of a company vs. company match where he would face an AAA representative and the winner would own both companies.

9/1 tapings in Toluca has Wagner Jr. vs. Aguayo Jr., plus Jack Evans & Extreme Tiger defending the tag titles against Billy el Malo & Dark Escoria, plus Joe Lider & The Psycho Circus vs. Damian 666 & Halloween & Nicho & X-Fly.

There is a 50th anniversary show for pro wrestling at Arena Azteca Budokan on 9/4.

DRAGON GATE

The next iPPV will be 9/10 from Chicago’s Congress Theater. Lineup will be Yamato vs. Cima for the Open the Freedom Gate title, Pac vs. Ricochet, Masato Yoshino vs. Naruki Doi vs. Sami Callihan vs. Chuck Taylor, Sabu & A.R. Fox vs. Arik Cannon & Pinkie Sanchez in a no DQ match, Johnny Gargano vs. Akira Tozawa and Rich Swann vs. Jon Davis.

ALL JAPAN

The jr. heavyweight tournament starts in two weeks with Jimmy Yang, Kenny Omega and AAA’s Dark Cuervo and Dark Ozz as the foreigners, plus Koji Kanemoto from New Japan.

PRO WRESTLING NOAH

KENTA & Yoshinobu Kanemaru retained the GHC jr. tag titles on 8/24 at Korakuen Hall beating Kotaro Suzuki & Atsushi Aoki in 31:29 when KENTA pinned Aoki after two GTS’s. The show drew about 1,000 fans, a little over half full, even with Kenta Kobashi working the undercard, so Kobashi isn’t likely to mean anything for attendance going forward. The title match was a rematch from 7/30 at Korakuen Hall where Suzuki & Aoki beat KENTA & Kanemaru to win the jr. tag team tournament.

NEW JAPAN

Yuji Nagata promoted a show on 8/30 at Korakuen Hall, drawing about 1,300 fans, featuring Jun Akiyama from NOAH teaming with Nagata to beat Shinsuke Nakamura & Toru Yano in the main event when Nagata pinned Yano. They were pushing the idea after of an Akiyama vs. Nakamura singles match.

Update on the 9/19 show in Kobe has Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Shinsuke Nakamura for the IWGP heavyweight title, Kota Ibushi vs. Kushida for the IWGP jr. title, Togi Makabe vs. Lance Archer, Minoru Suzuki vs. Wataru Inoue, Yujiro Takahashi vs. Tetsuya Naito and Yuji Nagata vs. Hideo Saito.

OTHER JAPAN NOTES

Genichiro Tenryu is trying to put together a 35th anniversary show for November.

HERE AND THERE

Matt Hardy continued to spiral downward. On 8/30, he put up on youtube what looked like a worked suicide note, saying “Goodbye world...My time here is almost complete. I only have a few hours and minutes. . .I loved you all... Regardless of how you felt about me...I’ll miss you all. September 23, 1974 - August 31, 2011.”

Local police received 25 to 30 911 calls about it and they went to Matt’s house as well as Jeff’s house about an hour after he posted it for a suicide call. Jeff’s wife then wrote, “Ugh. So sick of bullshit. Don’t believe everything you read, no matter who writes it or posts it.” “When the cops show up to our house at 11 p.m. for a suicide call, the fucking joke is over. Stop trying to work the Internet. I guess you got what you wanted. Everyone is talking about you again. But it’s not in a good way.” I believe he had been in the hospital until a day or so before and had told some friends about his idea to work the Internet with the idea of saying he was reinventing himself as a person and the old drug abusing Matt Hardy was dead and this is a new Matt. Also, on 8/23, he did a video with his house trashed and acted like some strange entity did it. Then, he legitimately fell down the stairs and was rushed to the hospital. His girlfriend, Reby Sky, then wrote when asked what was going on, said, “Hurt, exasperated, exhausted, furious, tired of being lied to, tired of enablers, Just tired.”

 

[dream]

I think that settles it. I'm making Plywood post it every week from now on.

 

[NihonTiger90]

Joe Son, an early UFC fighter who later became a cult pro wrestler in Japan, was convicted on 8/25 of one count of torture in a Southern California trial and faces 15 years in prison based on DNA evidence that was unearthed two years ago in a 1990 gang rape case.

Joe Hyungim Son, in national media reports was noted for playing “Random Task,” a henchman of Dr. Evil in the 1997 movie, “Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery,” without any mention of his link to the early days of UFC or to pro wrestling, where he never worked for a major U.S. company.

What the hell?

 

[NihonTiger90]

Also, reading the puroresu financial news makes me go

 

[Sanjuro]

What the hell is all that? Why can't there just be a link...gahhhh

 

[Plywood]

Mary Donna Alfonsi, who was one of the top women wrestlers of the 70s and early 80s using the names Donna Christianello, Donna Christian, Donna Christanello and Donna Christantello, passed away on around 8/23 at the age of 69. Her death was believed to have been from a heart attack. She had not answered her phone in a few days and finally someone broke into her place to check on her and found her dead. Alfonsi was one of the top stars of Fabulous Moolah’s stable from when she started in 1963, until the territorial system died in the mid-80s, Moolah going with WWF and her booking wrestlers to different territories. Her heyday would have been the early 70s, when the tag team of Toni Rose & Donna Christanello were the women’s world tag team champions, defending them all over the world as Moolah would book them as her two top women besides herself on tours in many territories as well as internationally. They lost the titles to Vickie Williams & Joyce Grable on October 15, 1973, at Madison Square Garden in a two out of three fall match. They were billed as champions again by late 1975, holding them until Rose retired in 1979.

The two remained good friends and kept in touch regularly. Christantello, or Christanello, she used both names interchangeably in the 70s and 80s, but used Christantello more later in her career, wrestled regularly until probably 1984, when WWE stopped using her, opting for only keeping a few women on their roster and wanting younger women. She did have a final major appearance when they did a women’s match and she worked on the heel team at the first Survivor Series in 1987 and wrestled through 1991. Alfonsi grew up in Pittsburgh and was working as a waitress and she and her best friends were big wrestling fans, going to the live shows in Pittsburgh all the time, as fans of Bruno Sammartino and Buddy Rogers. Once, when she saw two women wrestling on television, her and her friend both decided they wanted to be wrestlers.

The two trained together. Her friend did one match and then never wrestled again. Waldo Von Erich and Klondike Bill, who saw one of her early matches liked her drive and said that to make it in women’s wrestling as a profession, you had to work through Lillian Ellison (Fabulous Moolah), who booked the women wrestlers in most of the territories. She moved to Columbia, SC, in 1963, training at Moolah’s gym, and then went on the road. She also helped train wrestlers (the most notable being Sherri Russell/Sherri Martel) as she lived at Moolah’s home from her start in the business until long after she had retired. She moved back to Pittsburgh in 1999, and lived with her brother. She always considered Moolah as her older sister. I remember seeing her wrestle often in the 70s. I always thought the best worker of Moolah’s stable was Toni Rose, but Christanello was a pro in the ring, a solid worker and was probably Moolah’s second best worker. She had of late worked in the accounting department at a Wal-Mart in Pittsburgh. Her niece wrestled briefly as Angie Minelli.

Mando Lopez, a 70s regular in the LeBell Southern California promotion recently passed away. We don’t have a lot of details, but he was said to be in his early 60s. He mainly worked underneath for most of the 70s, in and out. He did some television for Roy Shire but I don’t know that he ever won a match. In Los Angeles, he usually was a prelim guy but did get some pushes here and there. Once he and John Tolos had a main event feud over the tag team titles against Black Gordman & Great Goliath. He also worked independent Lucha Libre shows under a mask as Super Star, and trained Luchadores at the famed Gil’s Gym in East Los Angeles.

He was almost always a small, underdog babyface, but he was a good worker. He was a stickler for teaching responding to the crowd and apparently was often frustrated with students who were all into high spots but were clueless how to connect with the audience. His favorite wrestling story was going to Texas in the mid-70s, where he did a television shoot against Terry Funk, who was at the time the world champion. The booker, who had no idea who he was or if he could work, told him that since he was working with the world champion, that he was to do nothing on offense and just get squashed. When Funk arrived at the building, he went to Lopez and asked if he had any ideas for the match or any moves he wanted to do. Lopez said, “No, I’m just laying down for you, whatever you like.” Funk shot back, “What’s with your attitude, are you lazy or did somebody tell you that you weren’t getting paid tonight?” Lopez said, “No, the promoter told me I wasn’t to lay a hand on you.”

Funk, who knew him from Los Angeles and knew he could go, said, “You’re a wrestler, you wrestle me, you understand?” Early in the match, Funk told him to shoot a single leg. Lopez took him down and Funk screamed like Lopez had taken out his leg with the takedown. After the match, the booker started swearing up and down at Lopez for not following orders, and threw in some ethnic slurs as well. Funk then walked up and said, “He did those moves because I told him to do those moves. Don’t ever tell anybody how to work a match with me!” Lopez was even more amazed that later in the night, Funk handed him some cash, saying, “That’s my payoff, it’s yours, sorry for the hassle.” The only major title Lopez ever won in Southern California was a one-week run as Americas’ tag team champion, where he teamed with Irish Mickey Doyle to win the titles from Gordman & Goliath on December 9, 1975, and lost them a week later to Tolos & Rock Riddle.

Shane Helms did an interview regarding his recovery from his motorcycle accident. He just got the okay to start putting weight on his bad foot. Because he was confined to his home since the accident, he wasn’t booked until 8/24 from the accident that took place on 5/5, which tells you just how serious his injuries were. He’s facing charges of driving a motor vehicle leading to serious injury (the injuries to his girlfriend, who nearly died in the wreck) and a DWI and has a 9/22 court appearance.

Former pro wrestler Ian Croitoru (Johnny K-9/Bruiser Bedlam) is back in the news regarding the gangland death of Jonathan Bacon, the leader of a British Columbia gang. Bacon was killed on 4/14 in Kelowna in a gangland shooting spree which saw four people with him also wounded, one, a woman, who ended up paralyzed. There have been no charges filed in the death. It wasn’t Croitoru who was involved with the shooting since he is currently in custody for plotting to kill Bacon in 2008. He’s also awaiting trial on first degree murder charges in the shooting death of Jonathan Barber, 24, and attempted murder of Barber’s 17-year-old girlfriend Vicky King. Barber was driving a car believed to be owned by a gang leader when he was killed in Burnaby, BC, while King was driving in a car behind him and was also shot.

Drew Hankinson (Luke Gallows), Sean Morley (Val Venis) and Cliff Compton (Domino) were on a tour of Nigeria this past week during the bombing of a United Nations building in Abuja that left several people dead. And then, the promoters of the tour disappeared leaving them at their hotel but eventually the shows they were scheduled on took place.

Contracts have been sent out to the wrestlers for the prospective Rumble in the Jungle 2, scheduled for Kinshasa, Congo on 10/12 at the 120,000 seat Martys Stadium That’s the show that Bill Goldberg is scheduled to return on. A tour from 10/2 to 10/12 has been arranged for five live shows, three at stadiums, culminating with the big show, and two VIP shows for dignitaries. The country itself is financing the shows as part of a political deal for current Congo President Joseph Kabila, who is behind the show, hoping to use it to help him in his November re-election campaign. Former UPW promoter Rick Bassman is behind the shows although they are trying to keep quiet on them as he told us right now there is nothing yet to announce.

Jeff Katz announced five wrestlers so far for his 13-week season Internet wrestling project, Wrestling Revolution, Tyson Smith (better known as Kenny Omega), Scott Colton (Colt Cabana), Len Olson (a 90s star in Japan as Dr. Luther as well as Lenny St. Clair), Alex Zikos (Alex Reynolds of Mikey Whipwreck’s New York Wrestling Connection indie), Ken Doane (Kenny Dykstra, formerly of the Spirit Squad in WWE) and Hassan Assad (MVP, current Intercontinental champion with New Japan Pro Wrestling). They will tape a complete season over a few days in Hollywood in October.

More notes on the death of Brian “Skullkrusher” Strickland on an 8/20 show in Cape Coral, FL. Strickland, who was in his early 40s and as noted last week, had in the interim had two heart attacks and open heart surgery, was wrestling his first match in several years. The belief is the heart attack, about a minute into the match, was caused by a blood clot in his leg that dislodged. The match was immediately stopped. A firefighter who was there as a fan at the show at The O Bar, jumped into the ring to perform CPR before an ambulance arrived. Strickland went into the ring wearing a shirt, to cover his chest scar from his surgery, but told nobody, and those in the promotion were surprised he didn’t take his shirt off since he never had wrestled with a shirt in the past. New Era Wrestling is a two-year-old local promotion that runs bar shows where there is no admission and the wrestlers don’t get paid, using local wrestlers. With no commission in Florida, nobody is examined and there are no rules regarding having medical personnel at shows. Strickland, who lived in Fort Myers, worked as a truck driver.

Lucha Libre USA, which has continued to tape television, has teased to its talent that there will be the announcement of a new TV deal soon.


Lance Storm noted that he’s had some health issues dating back a few months. He said in early May he started suffering headaches and dizziness after doing some somersaults in wrestling training. He said he would get them in the past fairly often for a moment, sometimes a few minutes, but this lasted several weeks. He said he was suffering symptoms similar to post-concussion syndrome but he hadn’t taken a bump to the head. He said it was bad enough that for the first time in years he stopped going to the gym, for four months, the longest he’d been away from training in 29 years. He has an MRI which diagnosed his problem as a narrowing of the nerve between his C-3 and C-4 vertebrae, but it is not anywhere near something bad enough that he needs surgery. He’s been doing psysiotherapy and has improved greatly, is back in the gym (and even did a short impromptu match with Tommy Dreamer on an indie show on 8/27 in Calgary). He has added some stretches and some new exercises and had to give up swimming. His neurologist gave the same diagnosis.

Not a shock or surprise, but still never welcome news. On 8/20, Scott Hall was supposed to do an indie show in Orlando. His son Cody, who is something like 6-foot-8, and is learning pro wrestling, called up the promotion and said his father was in no condition to appear.

Shannon Spruill (Daffney) was arrested last month and charged with both a DUI and property damage in a case in Hillsborough County (Tampa) in Florida.

Former TNA and ROH wrestler Jimmy Rave (James Guffey) is now the director of the Bartow County (Georgia) Peer Support, Wellness and Respite Center in Cartersville, GA. It’s a mental health/drug addiction treatment facility. Rave is a self-admitted drug addict, saying that by 2009, “I was a complete drug addict to be honest,” he said in the Road to Mania Blog. “I didn’t give a damn about wrestling because I just cared about scoring more pills and numbing myself. Which people probably could notice about what kind of shape I was in and how I looked and even my wrestling. ROH officials saw that and rightfully said hit the road. In turn, I went to rehab, got a job as a director of a Wellness Center, and I now help people realize they throw everything away that they love when they start abusing drugs.”

Emilie Ketcher, the five-year-old daughter of former WWF wrestler and longtime indie wrestler and promoter Steve Gatorwolf (Steve Ketcher) passed away two weeks ago after a massive stroke. She had her first stroke when she was two years old and nearly passed way at that time. What a horrible story.

Torrie Wilson, 36, just shot a photo spread for Oxygen magazine, a women’s fitness mag.

ROH

Added to the 9/17 iPPV show is Shelton Benjamin vs. Mike Bennett, Charlie Haas vs. Michael Elgin, Matt & Nick Jackson (formerly Generation Me) vs. The Bravado Brothers vs. Adam Cole & Kyle O’Reilly in a three-way elimination match. The Briscoes vs. All Night Express is likely to be a ladder match.

In the statement of the month that gets you fired from TNA or WWE, Jay Briscoe on twitter wrote, “To all da hoes, sluts, skanks, he-shes, she-hes and homos that be whorin it up on da east coast, this hurricanes for you. God don’t fuck around.” A few days later, he came back with, “I apologize to everyone for my insensitive comments from June and this past weekend. It will not happen again.”

TNA

Ric Flair was not at the 8/25 tapings in Huntsville even though Flair vs. Sting is coming up. This didn’t have to do with the Grantland.com article as that came out the day of the tapings and he was never booked on the shows to begin with. As far as why he wouldn’t be on shows designed to build to his match, well, this is TNA. The Huntsville tapings drew 3,300 fans. It was some paid, some papered and some discounted heavily. The crowd was up for both shows and the reactions were good, but not at the level of the Fayetteville tapings earlier in the year. Jeff Hardy showed up in good shape and did as good a job as can be expected for Jeff Hardy on his interview, where he came out and apologized for not showing up in condition at the Victory Road match, talking about low points, and asking people to give him one more chance. I think they wanted him to tear up when he talked about screwing up but he couldn’t quite bring it. The big thing was he went out there and asked for the company and the fans to give him one more chance, returning as a face (which at least makes sense since he’s far more valuable in that role). The fans chanted , “One more chance.” The reaction was good enough that it will work on television but not off the charts, and not what some expected.

The 9/11 PPV is still sketchy. The Bound for Glory series will have Bully Ray vs. James Storm and Bobby Roode vs. Gunner, although that could change with Storm having a partial shoulder separation and he should take four to six weeks off, but he may continue working and just take it easy. Even though Crimson is undefeated, he won’t be in the final four as they are selling that Samoa Joe took him out with an injury, which would logically lead to Joe vs. Crimson in October at Bound for Glory. Key word being logical. To me, this tournament completely fell apart early when people saw it was bogus in the sense the matches made no sense, different people had different numbers of matches, some wrestled each other a bunch of times, others never wrestled each other. And then the guy who doesn’t lose once doesn’t make the final four due to an injury angle. I liked the potential of the idea, the fact it could make house show matches significant and make winning and losing mean something, but to do that you have to pay attention to detail and this just isn’t happening. Within a few weeks, nobody cared anyway.

It’s not a tournament, so it’ll be a points deal and whoever ends up out of the four with the most points wins. Since Kurt Angle is scheduled to still be world champion, that would leave Roode and Storm as his most likely foes. Of the two, while a lot of people think Storm has more potential because he’s got more charisma and is a better promo and has the chance to hit a demo pretty well, Roode is the better worker and he’s the one the company since the start of the year has wanted to develop as a main eventer. Other matches confirmed are Brian Kendrick vs. Austin Aries for the X title and Mexican America vs. Devon & Pope for the tag titles. This isn’t definite, but since Mickie James beat Winter for the Knockouts title in the first hour in Huntsville, and then Winter pinned her in a tag in the second hour, it would also logically make sense to do James vs. Winter in a title rematch.

Hogan did an appearance billed as his talk show for fans but it ended up being a pitch to get in on a multi-level marketing business on 8/26 in Greensboro. The event drew about 300 people at $10 a head (there were some who paid $100 for VIP treatment) with Hogan & Bischoff pitching Body By Vi, a company that does protein powder and doing a contest to get in shape to get in on the ground floor as salespeople. Most of the people there were the older Hogan fans, wearing Hogan T-shirts, and even though it was advertised in some places as to what it would be, a lot didn’t know and groaned about it once they saw what it was. Even with the small crowd, they did the entire two and half hour presentation, complete with two screens and airing a Hogan vs. Curt Hennig match from the XWF library which is one of the few things Hogan has rights to use. Hogan had people with him pitching how the product has changed their lives, including two of his nieces and his nephew Mike (former wrestler Horace Hogan), who all work for the company, so either by joining in he got them jobs although it was portrayed that they worked there and he loved the product so much that he came on board. Ed Leslie was also there, although no Jimmy Hart. Bischoff was said to have done a great job as the M.C. Bischoff talked about the days of regional television and said it was that way until Vince McMahon put wrestling on cable, which anyone who followed wrestling would know the first true national show was Georgia Championship Wrestling, which was doing big national numbers years before WWF got on USA. Very few people signed up to market the product.

In building up his appearance in an interview with the local Greensboro News & Record, he said that TNA was an alternative to WWE because they focus on wrestling. “We’ve got a lot of young guys who are pushing hard. And we’re trying to make our own course of destiny and make wrestling matter again. We’re not really focused on skits and entertainment and backstage antics. We’re more focused on keeping the action as much as we can in the ring.”

In hindsight, why they did the “Wrestling Matters” slogan when they continue to produce a product where it doesn’t is beyond me. It’s like the slogan was going to mean something, then you have to make the changes. And if you don’t make the changes, why waste your energy marketing something that it takes one TV show to see isn’t the case?

Aleta Ennis, who worked in publicity and marketing out of Orlando, was the latest person let go from the front office, making four people let go in the last two weeks. They are supposed to be hiring a new P.R. person shortly.

Also let go was Rebecca Treston (Cookie). They had apparently split up Robbie E and Cookie on 8/11. But then, on the 8/18 TV show, they were back together although not getting along and she cost him his match. They didn’t do a breakup angle, but on the 8/25 show, he was there, she wasn’t, she wasn’t mentioned, and he was trying to put together a unit with Rob Terry, whose return to the British Invasion lasted the length of one television clip. Her contract expired and they decided to keep him and not her.

Eric Bischoff is in a court fight over the rights to the name Buffalo Bill Cody Beer. The other person claiming rights to the name is Mike Darby, owner of Buffalo Bill’s Imma Hotel that was built by the real Buffalo Bill Cody in 1902. The bar at the hotel has been selling Buffalo Bill drinks for years, and of late, started selling Buffalo Bill’s Beer. The story in the Wall Street Journal said the judge was supposed to rule a few weeks ago. Darby got his beer to the marketplace first, by two days. However, he didn’t get federal approval of the name. Bischoff got the label approved and applied for a trademark. Instead, the judge ruled there would be a trial to determine who had the rights. There is also a Buffalo Bill’s Brewery in Hayward, CA, which is not named after Buffalo Bill Cody.


For what it’s worth, Angle right now is claiming he will compete in amateur wrestling on 4/21 and 4/22 at the U.S. Olympic team trials in Iowa City and not until then. That sounds ridiculous to just go to the trials without even competing in 16 years. Angle claimed that he has a unique style and doesn’t want anyone to see it before the tournament. He can get into the tournament as a past world champion without having to qualify. Right now he’s 215 pounds, which is very small for the 211 pound weight class that he would be competing in. He said he’s going to double his caloric intake to try and gain weight over the next few months. Jake Varner is the top dog in that weight class in the U.S. right now. I should also note that I regularly read the major amateur wrestling publications and none of the ones I’ve seen have devoted even one word to the idea of Angle returning for the Olympics.

Fan interaction tickets for the next U.K. tour in January have already sold out.

Matt Morgan will be medically cleared to wrestle in two weeks. They did angles with him where Samoa Joe injured him, but that’s all storyline and not because he’s not ready to return. He’s expected to wrestle Joe at the next PPV which should lead to Joe vs. Crimson at Bound for Glory.

Thea Trinidad (Rosita) will be on an NBC network documentary called “Children of 9/11" that airs on 9/5. Her father was killed in the 9/11 attack.

Winter, under her real name, Katarina Waters, is doing an Elvira gimmick hosting horror DVDs. She’ll play an Elvira role where she introduces the movie and adds commentary and will be called “Katarina’s Nightmare Theater.”

8/25 Impact notes. Angle came out and talked about what happened with Crimson. He said he would end Crimson’s career. Crimson said by the end of the night he would earn Angle’s respect. Immortal then came out, including Gunner, who last week on TV in the skit where Sting beat him up, Ric Flair fired him. I suppose they could have done a retake or edited it out, but since it doesn’t matter to them, it shouldn’t matter to us either. Which is kind of the problem in the big picture. Ray started talking to Crimson and they acted like they were going to take Crimson out. Angle stopped him and told all of Immortal to stay out of this and if any of them, particularly Jeff Jarrett, did anything to Crimson they would have to answer to him. I did like that after all that went down between Angle and Jarrett, then even with Angle turning, that they didn’t just forget it as often happens in these situations. Angle told Crimson he was going to make him famous.

 

[Uno Venova]

Thanks Ply, shame that top notch match between Dolph and Ziggler lost viewers.

 

[Plywood]

Backstage, Jackie and ODB were with Velvet Sky since they were teaming together. The angle is that Jackie and ODB are trying to get a job so they are on their best behavior. You can tell that they didn’t want to be nice to her and were holding in attacking her. She didn’t trust them but they said there were two of them and they could attack her and they weren’t and they all vowed to have each others’ backs.

Throughout the show, they kept showing feet walking. It ended up being revealed it was the return of Mr. Anderson, who was said last week to have had two busted eardrums, and would be out for a while (the same weekend he worked all the house shows). And yes, when he came back, he didn’t even have tape around his ears, nor did they mention the injury, nor did he when attacking everyone sell any injury.

Hogan, Bischoff and Flair were backstage. Hogan and Bischoff were mad at Flair for what he did. Hogan said that Sting is superhuman and that he doesn’t feel any pain and that he doesn’t want to wrestle him. He said he was going to settle things with Sting and that Flair had to come out with him. He told Flair not to say a word. Flair promised he wouldn’t, which of course meant he’d be quiet early, lose his cool, start talking and blow the situation.

ODB & Jackie & Sky beat Angelina Love & Rosita & Sarita in 4:11. The story here is the Sky team worked fine together, but Rosita & Sarita didn’t want to tag Love in. Love used her reverse back stabber like finisher on Sky and had her beat, but with the ref distracted, ODB and Jackie gave Love a double team suplex and put Sky on top for the pin. Rosita and Sarita were then mad at Love for losing and walked out on her.

Kid Kash pinned Jesse Sorenson in 3:02 by using the trunks. The only thing we know about Sorenson is that he played quarterback in high school football. This is not enough character development, even though Kash is really good in his role. After winning, Kash did a promo acting like he wiped the mat with Sorenson and slapped him around like he would discipline his kids. Sorenson wanted to get at him but security held him back. This is the same security that can’t even stop a women’s fight.

In the bound for Glory series, RVD pinned Pope in 4:57 using the upside down surfboard (La Tapatia) for the submission. People have seen that move for years and nobody has ever submitted. Plus, you’ve got your own shoulders on the mat doing it. So nobody saw this as the finish. But it’s not like RVD has a submission over and the tournament badly needed some submissions given the premium points for them. After the match, Joe ran in and attacked Pope and put him in the heel hook. Once again, Devon’s sons looked concerned and looked to the back. Devon, who was “injured” and put out of the tournament last week (even though he’s back on TV in two weeks), limped down, but stopped. His kids told him to save Pope so he yelled at them to give him a chair and he then limped to the ring with it and Joe left the ring.

Robbie E did a promo asking Rob Terry to join up with him as his personal bouncer. You know, they can go to the gym together as well. Terry just gave him a mean face but in the end said he would consider it.

Backstage, Love was talking on her cell phone on the couch when Rosita and Sarita showed up and attacked her. Winter made the save, including pulling the blinds off the wall and choking Rosita with them. Finally Hernandez and Anarquia broke it up.

Brooks, in the super skimpy top, bent over in front of Bischoff and asked if she could have her job back as Knockout Law. All of the blood rushed out of Bischoff’s brain with her implants right in his face. Bischoff said he’d make an announcement next week but invited her out for cocktails. She said why not three cocktails.

Hogan and Flair came out and Hogan called out Sting. Hogan was supposed to be making up with Sting but gave this interview talking about Sting losing his mind and such, so if he was trying to buy Sting’s favor, it made no sense what he was doing. Sting then did a goofy promo saying he would bury the hatchet with Hogan if Hogan got everyone in the crowd milk & cookies, rainbows, unicorns, and gave everyone a puppy. Then Sting started doing his Jim Barnett speak and said he should get everyone flowers, then hugged Hogan and kissed him. At that point, Flair lost his cool and started cutting a promo. Hogan got mad since Flair wasn’t supposed to say a word. Flair said that Sting could act crazy, but he’s just as crazy as Sting and has been crazier longer. He said he’s been crazy since Sting was sucking on his mother’s tit. They did bleep that out. Then Flair started saying how the reason he would beat Sting is because at the end of the day, Sting liked him too much to ever hurt him, and when it came time to go for the kill, Sting would back off and then he’d take advantage of it. You know, if that was your game plan for the match, it probably would have been wise to not give it away. At the end Sting said he was facing Hogan at Bound for Glory.

A.J. Styles came out for an interview. He called out Christopher Daniels. Styles asked why Daniels went on TV last week and said that he wanted to have a rematch with him. He said they were friends so why didn’t he just wait for him to make a decision. Daniels then gave this story about how when he lost to Styles at Destination X, he wondered if he still had what it took to compete at the top level. He was in tears, talking about it was the only thing he was good at and the only job he loved. But he said if he couldn’t compete at the top level, he would retire. You’d think Styles could have just told him what level of a worker he was and he’d accept it. So Styles accepted the match and Daniels was happy, wanting it at No Surrender. Styles said that No Surrender was the final four for the Bound for Glory series, and he was planning on being in the final four, so said to instead have it next week.

Scott Steiner & Ray & Gunner beat Styles & Beer Money in 6:04 in a falls count anywhere match. A lot of brawling. Abyss was standing on the ramp watching, with the tease that he’s going face. Good match. Storm and Gunner ended up backstage and Gunner dropped a locker on him. Roode and Steiner also disappeared, leaving Styles with Ray. Ray pinned Styles with the Bubba Bomb. Post-match saw Steiner pull out a table and was about to put Styles through it when Anderson showed up in a humvee and then hit the ring. Anderson threw Steiner through the table. He then grabbed Ray’s chain and pounded on Gunner with it until Gunner was all bloody. Anderson then went after Ray but Ray bailed out.

James talked about her title match with Winter next week and that she was getting back the title.

The Eric Young/Scott Baio segment was next. For all the build, this was nothing. Baio was golfing. Young had to hop the fence. Young approached him and wanted a match and Baio held up his golf club like it was a weapon. Young then took off his shirt and Baio insulted him. For some reason, Baio was running and Young was running. The next thing you know, Young was in a tree jumping off for a crossbody on Baio and Young counted the three for the pin. Then Young ran out celebrating in his underwear.

Crimson beat Angle via DQ in 10:18. Angle made Crimson look okay here. The last two weeks, Crimson has come across like a star. Crimson got a near fall with a spear. Angle came back with the heel hook but Crimson used his free leg to kick Angle and break it up. Crimson used the sky high power bomb, which they call the Red Sky power bomb when Joe ran in. Joe got in Angle’s face after laying out Crimson. Angle smiled and walked off basically telling Joe to do what he wanted. Joe went for a muscle buster but Crimson escaped and started fighting back and Joe bailed, so they look to be going back to Crimson vs. Joe. Joe then attacked him again and threw Crimson into a wall and put his knee on a staircase.

Notes from the 8/25 tapings in Huntsville. The first show, airing on 9/1, had Hogan do an interview and talked about the Flair stipulations for the match with Sting. Angle came out and told Hogan that he would not just take out newcomers, but also take out veterans, and he would start with Sting. This set up an Angle vs. Sting title match as the TV main event when Sting accepted the match.

Gunner pinned RVD in the Bound for Glory series when Jerry Lynn interfered and cost RVD more points.

Bischoff came out with Brooks to address all the knockouts. He said he was putting someone in charge of all the women, teasing it would be Brooks, but instead swerved and announced it would be Karen Jarrett. Jarrett then announced the first thing she had done was signed ODB and Jackie as talent, and she said that Brooks could also get a job as her assistant.

Kendrick & Sorenson beat Aries & Kash when Sorenson pinned Kash after a roll-up.

James pinned Winter after a kick to the head to regain the knockouts title.

Morgan got in the ring and told Joe to come out. Morgan chastised Joe and Joe ended up attacking him. Joe put Morgan’s arm against the post and nailed it with a chair, so when Morgan comes back, it looks like they’ll have a program.

Daniels pinned Styles. The only details we have is that Styles slipped off the ropes and Daniels pinned him. So they may be doing something where it looks like a fluke and Daniels plays it up for more than it’s worth.

Angle beat Sting with Hogan as referee. Angle won due to interference from Immortal and pinning Sting after an Olympic slam on a chair. After the match, Immortal was beating down Sting until Anderson made the save.

The second show for 9/8, the Bound for Glory go-home show, opened with Pope & Devon beating Douglas Williams & Magnus. This set up Pope & Devon for a tag title match against Mexican America for the PPV.

They announced that the final four in the Bound for Glory series ended up being Gunner, Bully Ray, Roode and Storm. They would do a four-corners match on TV, and then do two singles matches on the PPV. How is Crimson, who never lost a match, not in the final four?
Young pinned Robbie E to keep the TV title.

Winter & Love beat James & Sky when Winter blew the mist into James’ face and pinned her.

Aries came out for a promo. Kendrick came out, wearing a suit, talking about their title match. They argued back-and-forth.

Gunner won a four-way over Ray, Storm and Roode when Gunner pinned Ray.

Anderson beat Angle via DQ in a title match when Immortal interfered. They were beating down Anderson until Sting made the save.

The show ended with something they built up over two weeks. The story is that the network gave Jeff Hardy time and he could come out for an interview. Hardy came out as a babyface, apologized for screwing up the Victory Road main event in March. He apologized to the fans, and the wrestlers. He said that he wasn’t asking for forgiveness but said that he wanted one more chance. They go off the air with the fans reaction to Hardy.

UFC/STRIKEFORCE

Some more notes on the UFC/FOX deal. For 11/12, the plan is for a one-hour pre-game show from 8-9 p.m. on Fuel TV, followed by the one hour on FOX and then a 30 minute post-game show on Fuel. So the pre-and-post-game shows look to be on Fuel and not on FOX which is a huge difference. UFC has control of the production for the one hour, while FOX controls the pre-and-post. The idea, because they don’t want the show to go long, is two three-round fights and if they end quick, rolling another fight in from the prelim card like they do on the Spike one hour pre-PPV specials. FX will have control of the production for the Ultimate Fighter, but UFC will have control for the FOX fight nights.

On 8/23, the FOX network sent out an email to its General Managers, General Sales Managers, Program Directors, Promotion Managers, Traffic Managers as well as to Neilsen listing fall schedule specials for Sundays during the NFL season. For 10/30, there is a listing for a show called “UFC Prime Time” that would air immediately after the NFL Sunday post-game show. There is no description of what the show is. The show “UFC Prime Time” on Spike used to be a three-week Countdown show building up a big fight. Dana White then texted us after this went out that this wasn’t true. So either there was a special planned and plans changed (although at least some people who got the original memo haven’t been alerted of a change in plans) or they want it kept quiet until they make the announcement. The email also listed dates for tape-delayed British Premiere League soccer games airing several weeks after the NFL game. Doing a Countdown show immediately after NFL broadcasts would be the best possible time slot on the best possible network to engage the type of viewer who would be most apt to be a UFC fan.

Eric Shanks was talking about doing a talk show with fighters, reporters and even fans for Fuel. Shanks also said that agent Ari Emanuel was the guy who pushed them hard saying how UFC was a brand they should get involved with.

Regarding White saying that FOX was the No. 1 network in the ratings in our lead story last week, technically for the 2010-2011 season, CBS was the highest rated network with a 6.3 prime time average (September to late August, which includes the rerun season) and FOX was second at 4.9. However, in the 18-49 demo, which is where the bulk of the UFC audience is, FOX averaged a 3.1 to a 2.5 for second place CBS, so if UFC was to get a network deal, FOX would be the best place to be.

They’ve slightly lowered ticket prices for some of the live shows and the result has been, at least ticket sales wise, good advances for upcoming shows. Both 9/24 in Denver and 10/8 in Houston have sold 12,000 tickets for $1.9 million. So both arenas will be packed on the night of the show. I don’t have anything for 9/17 in New Orleans. 10/1 in Washington, DC, has sold 6,000 tickets for $500,000 for a Fight Night headlined by Dominick Cruz vs. Demetrious Johnson, so given the main event, I consider that a good number. Tickets go on sale 9/7 (Fight Club) for the 10/29 show in Las Vegas with GSP vs. Nick Diaz and a loaded undercard. The impression I have is the local casinos are considering this one a hot ticket so there were be large blocks purchased right away. The undercard includes Carlos Condit vs. B.J. Penn (if Condit wins, he’ll likely get the next welterweight title shot, if Penn wins, he may or may not), Mirko Cro Cop vs. Roy Nelson, Donald Cerrone vs. Dennis Siver, Cheick Kongo vs. Matt Mitrione, Hatsu Hioki (UFC debut) vs. George Roop, Eliot Marshall vs. Brandon Vera (must win for Vera), Jeff Curran vs. Scott Jorgensen and Tyson Griffin vs. Bart Palaszewski as the major fights.

Really sorry to hear about the death of Jack Shields, the father of Jake Shields, who passed away on 8/22 at the age of 67. Jack was Jake’s manager and adviser and was working on sponsorship business when he got tired and fell asleep, and passed away in his sleep.

In the history of MMA piece last week, we have a few notes. In the Helio Gracie vs. Kato second fight, Gracie won with a gi choke from the bottom, not a guillotine choke. In the second Rickson Gracie vs. Nobuhiko Takada match, Takada did tap. The referee was instructed to stop it immediately when Takada was in trouble so he wouldn’t have to tap (to save his pro wrestling marketability as New Japan wanted to do business with him for Dome shows) but he actually did tap. Regarding Kimo after UFC III, at one point Kimo was scheduled for UFC IV to be in the tournament, in the spot Joe Son ended up taking. I was told later by Campbell McLaren, who ran UFC for a number of years, that Rorion Gracie did not want Kimo back. They may have pressured to get him back, and then he pulled out anyway, but after UFC IV, he was never brought back until Rorion Gracie was out of the picture.

Cris Cyborg, who currently holds the Strikeforce womens’ featherweight champion, finally signed a new deal after a long negotiation period. Nothing has been announced as far as a next match, but Amanda Nunes would be the logical next title challenger. Scott Coker said they are looking at her fighting by the end of the year.

Regarding the UFC/ESPN relationship, there has been talk internally regarding the future of the MMA Live show. There were people who wanted it moved to the Internet from ESPN 2, but it’s ratings, while they look low, are considered good for ESPN 2 in the time slot it airs. Those at ESPN said the issue with Dana White has already been resolved and as far as Sports Center goes, to expect to see the same level of coverage as they love showing the spectacular knockouts and if there is a big fight, Sports Center will cover it.

Shane Carwin, who did a personal appearance with Alistair Overeem over the weekend, wrote that Overeem told him he thought he was close to singing with UFC. The sides talked as soon as Golden Glory realized there was no other viable option for Overeem to make nearly as much money, so they had to agree to UFC’s terms.

For the 8/12 Strikeforce Challengers show in Las Vegas, it drew 1,882 at the Pearl which was set up for 1,948, but only 549 was paid with a gate of $53,670. All the empty seats visible on camera in the lower level during the main event (Jorge Gurgel vs. Joe Duarte) would indicate that a lot of people who got free tickets didn’t come.

Scott Coker on a conference call on 8/30 said that there has been no decision made regarding the heavyweight title that was vacated when Alistair Overeem was fired (Overeem is in talks with Zuffa about returning, so what I could see them doing is bringing Overeem back to UFC as the Strikeforce champion and doing a champion vs. champion match). It would be logical to have the winner of the Grand Prix tournament as the new heavyweight champion, but Coker said that as of right now, the position of the company is the winner of the tournament will not become the new champion.

Marloes Coenen, who just recently lost her Strikeforce bantamweight title to Miesha Tate on 7/30 in Chicago, and was then cut in the Golden Glory purge, will not be back any time soon. She signed a multi-fight deal with Black Eye Promotions in North Carolina and expects to start there in February. At 30, which is the tail end of the marketability and ability phase of a woman’s fighter’s career (women athletes unless enhanced with PED’s have a tendency to peak earlier and wash out earlier, at least as far as real wrestling, the closest sport to this has shown), this is a business gamble. Nobody knows the future of women in Zuffa or of Strikeforce, so this was going to be a tough call. While she did sign a non-exclusive deal with the new promotion that hasn’t run a show (always a gamble to get on board with something like that considering a huge percentage fail quickly), Zuffa is not going to use anyone that isn’t exclusive to them.

Josh Barnett passed his steroid test and has been licensed for the 9/10 show in Cincinnati to face Sergei Kharitonov, so that hurdle is passed. They wouldn’t have booked the show in Ohio if they didn’t know the commission was willing to license him, but they still required him to at least pass a steroid test. With Josh Thomson injured, Pat Healy was called as the replacement and faces Maximo Blanco on that show.

Diego Sanchez claimed that after his loss to B.J. Penn at the end of 2009, he went on a binge, partying, smoking dope and trusted his money to a friend who then embezzled $170,000 from him.

Kevin Iole at Yahoo! Sports reported that Quinton Jackson believes he has a spy in his camp. He believed it was the case because last year, when he fought Rashad Evans, he had suffered a knee injury before the fight, kept it completely quiet, and Evans from the first shot started punching his bad knee, saying nobody had ever punched his knee before, he’d never see anyone use that attack and Evans never punched knees before. Later he said a fan on twitter told him that Jon Jones had a spy in his camp. So he made up a story that he hurt his hand, told his camp, and four hours later Joe Silva called Jackson’s manager, Anthony McGann, and asked about his hand. When McGann asked Silva where he heard the news, Silva said he heard it from Malki Kawa, who is Jones’ manager. Jackson told Iole, “One of my friends was talking to Jon Jones’ manager recently and Jon Jones’ manager was saying that he knows everything that is going on in our camp. He said he had spies in our camp and he knew everything that was going on.” Jackson said the phone call from Silva told him two things, “They have spies in my camp, one, and two, they’re dumb as hell because they didn’t now how to use the information correctly and to wait.” Kawa said he didn’t have a spy in his camp, but he saw a report on twitter that Jackson was hurt and he only called Silva to ask if he was. Evans said he had never heard anything about Jackson having a bad knee. He said he punched him in the knee and saw how he reacted so he targeted it.

Sam Stout pulled out of UFC 137 according to MMAjunkie.com. He was scheduled to face Dennis Siver on 10/29 in Las Vegas. While this was not said, Stout, who was the brother-in-law and one of the best friends of Shawn Tompkins, was really broken up by his death so he may feel it’s early to go back into the cage. Donald Cerrone will replace him, which makes this a key lightweight bout.

Diego Nunes pulled out of the 9/24 show in Denver where he was to face Manny Gamburyan. Gamburyan had already pulled out and they were trying to get him an opponent. He said he had tendinitis in his left arm that was painful, plus some people tried to murder his father so he wanted to take time off from training and see his family.

Randy Harris, who was covering the events, wrote on facebook that he, one of the judges and one of the doctors (Daniel Vieira Silva) were robbed by the police while in Brazil. Later he deleted the descriptions of who he was with.

Justin Edwards vs Jorge Lopez has been added as a prelim fight on the 9/17 show in New Orleans. Edwards was on the last season of Ultimate Fighter.

To the surprise of nobody, Jason Reinhardt, who at 41 was the oldest fighter on the UFC roster since the retirement of Randy Couture, was cut after his loss on the 8/14 show in Milwaukee to Edwin Figueroa. Reinhardt has a 20-3 overall record, but his UFC record is 0-3.

Coming off his win over Amir Sadollah on the 8/14 show, Duane Ludwig is now out due to neck surgery.

Added to the 10/1 show in Washington, DC, is a match with debuting bantamweights Joseph Sandoval vs. Walel Watson. Both will be making their UFC debuts. Sandoval is 6-0 but is new to the sport.

Cyrille Diabate vs. Anthony Perosh has been added to the 11/5 show in Birmingham, England, which is the next to the last Spike show.

The Spike prelims for the 10/8 show in Houston are now official, with Jeremy Stephens vs. Anthony Pettis and Demian Maia vs. Jorge Santiago.

Pascal Krauss of Germany is off the 11/5 show in Birmingham, England, where he was to face England’s John Hathaway.

I’ve been asked this question about a dozen times regarding whether TUF fights when they go live will be considered as fights on fighters’ records. Generally, the semifinals and finals of TUF end up listed on fighter records but up to that point they aren’t listed. When asking Keith Kizer, Executive Director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, he said it would be up to UFC. If the fights are billed as exhibitions, they will not count. If they are billed as fights, then they will count.

 

[funkystudent]

Thanks Ply, shame that top notch match between Dolph and Ziggler lost viewers.

they dont call him the ratings killer for nothing.

 

[spindashing]

Winter, under her real name, Katarina Waters, is doing an Elvira gimmick hosting horror DVDs. She’ll play an Elvira role where she introduces the movie and adds commentary and will be called “Katarina’s Nightmare Theater.”

What?

 

[The Frankman]

Thanks Ply, shame that top notch match between Dolph and Ziggler lost viewers.

... Dolph wrestled himself?

*hits music*
COME ON AND SLAM,
AND WELCOME TO THE JAM,
COME ON AND SLAM,
IF YOU WANNA JAM...

 

[Plywood]

19-year-old Mohamded Ali of Hollis, NY, was arrested on 8/23 and charged with criminal infringement of a copyright for streaming UFC, WWE and boxing PPVs on the Internet for one year. What got him in trouble is not just that he streamed copyrighted stuff, but that he charged money for people to pay for it and made $6,000 in subscription fees.

BELLATOR

The new season starting on 9/10 will be simulcast on both MTV 2 and EPIX, airing on the latter station because it broadcasts in HD. EPIX is carried in about 30% of the cable/satellite homes, and is not carried by either DirecTV or Comcast.

They are in negotiations to try and bring in Shinya Aoki for Eddie Alvarez, their lightweight champion, so Alvarez can try and get his win back.

The 9/24 show, which starts the bantamweight tournament, which on paper looks to be the best tournament in the history of the company, will be from Canton, OH. The four first round matches have Alexis Vila (9-0, a 1996 Olympic bronze medalist in wrestling) vs. Joe Warren (current Bellator featherweight champion, 7-1, the 2006 world champion in wrestling), Eduardo Danes (10-2) vs. Wilson Reis (former Elite XC featherweight champion, dropping down a weight class, 12-3) Luis Nogueira (11-1) vs Ed West (16-5) and Chase Beebe (former WEC bantamweight champion, 18-7) vs. Marcos Galvao (9-4-1, who most feel beat Warren in a recent fight.

Keith Jardine on twitter wrote that he’d been contacted to fight on the 12/17 Strikeforce show, and was dropping to middleweight. He’s got an awfully big frame to be a middleweight, as he wasn’t even an undersized heavyweight early in his career.

K-1/DREAM

Kazushi Sakuraba, 42, has been added to the 9/24 show at the Saitama Super Arena, facing Yan Cabral (9-0). This would be Sakuraba’s first fight since New Year’s Eve when part of his ear was torn off his head in a match with Marius Zaromskis. They were able to reattach the ear with surgery. Cabral is a Jiu Jitsu expert from Brazil who trains with the likes of Marlon Sandro, Jose Aldo Jr. and Diego Nunes.

Former Pride favorite and UFC fighter Kazuhiro Nakamura will face former UFC fighter Gerald Harris on the 9/24 Dream show at the Saitama Super Arena.

K-1 Max is running a show on 9/25 in Osaka with Yuichiro Nagashima, who has been doing a lot of pro wrestling of late.

OTHER MMA

The return of the Pro Elite promotion, headed by T. Jay Thompson (one of the first successful MMA promoters in the 90s with his SuperBrawl promotion in Honolulu) ran at the Blaisdell Arena in Honolulu, with Hawaii’s Kendall Grove beating Joe Riggs with a guillotine in :59. Andrei Arlovski ended his four-fight losing streak, but did not look good at all against unknown Ray Lopez. Lopez was actually working for a choke at the end of the first round. In the second round, the crowd wasn’t happy due to the lack of action. Arlovski finished him at 2:43 of the third round from punches from the mount. Reagan Penn, the younger brother of B.J., made his pro debut, beating Paul Gardiner in 1:10 with a choke. Mark Ellis, who won the 2009 NCAA heavyweight championship, and has been training in San Jose, made his debut beating former college football player Jake Heun in a back-and-forth match ending at 2:29 of the second round. 2004 Olympic silver medal winning wrestler Sara McMann also had a tough fight with Raquel Pa’aluhi with a keylock at 2:53 of the third. McMann dominated the first two rounds but couldn’t put her away. Pa’aluhi got the better of the stand-up in the third, but McMann was able to take her down and finish her.

Amanda Lucas, daughter of George Lucas, beat Hikaru Shinohara (the daughter of the gangster who killed Rikidozan by stabbing him in 1963) on the 8/27 show at Korakuen Hall, winning with an armbar in 4:37. Shinohara is 6-8 and Lucas is 2-1. Shinohara hasn’t fought in three years, and fought at 108 at the time while this fight was at 155.

Jon “War Machine” Koppenhaver, coming off a one year prison term for felonious assault, returns for a show on 10/15 in Villa Park, IL against Gideon Ray.

Andrew Long, 22, who wrestled at Penn State last year, placing third in the nation at 133 pounds, was arrested on sexual assault charges. Long is being charged with allegedly attempting to rape an unconscious woman. He was arrested on 8/12 in a sexual assault that police believe happened that morning.

WWE

The situation with Sin Cara continues to change. The original Sin Cara, Luis Ignacio Urive Alvride (Mistico), returned on 8/20 at the house shows, after serving his 30 day suspension. During the interim, Jorge Arias (Hunico) had been in the role. However, on 8/23, both Mistico and Hunico were brought to Calgary for the Smackdown tapings. Mistico was sent home and Hunico was put in the role.

Hunico then worked with Slater, and Vince McMahon blew his stack. The first match contained several botched spots, so McMahon made them go back out and redo the botched spots. Then, later in the show, he sent the two out there for a third time, this time to do a less than 2:00 match doing most of the same spots they did once or twice before. It was this match and not anything from the first two that aired on Smackdown. Mistico has not been fired, although he is and has been on thin ice since July. McMahon wanted Hunico to project more energy and connect more with the crowd.

Those in the company note that Hunico simply doesn’t have the speed and fluidity of Mistico and can’t pull off the same high spots to make people think it’s the same guy.However, at the arenas when Hunico has been in the role, the crowd reacts thus far to him like he’s a superstar and it doesn’t appear most fans know the difference, even though it seems pretty obvious. They have told Hunico to drop weight because they went him lithe and muscular like Mistico because they want people to think it’s the same guy. On Raw, when pushing Sin Cara, they called him a second generation wrestler (Mistico is, I don’t think Hunico is), that he has his own comic book, was the biggest box office draw in Mexico. For good measure when making things up, claimed he was also the biggest box office draw in Japan and China.

Mistico was popular in Japan but far form the biggest box office draw. He never wrestled in China, although in 2008, he did go to Beijing as a reporter, with his mask (which tells you how big he was) covering the Olympics for Televisa. But there is an internal feeling, at least among some, that Hunico doesn’t have the charisma to stay over. However, they were hoping the Mistico that returned would be a new Mistico when it comes to attitude. Instead, the word around the company was that he showed no remorse, still walked around like he was a star, and has rubbed a lot of people the wrong way.

Another person close to the situation noted that Mistico has a double whammy. Not only was he a star elsewhere, which works against you, but he was a HHH project, and while nobody will ever say so publicly, many in the locker room are very happy to see HHH’s big moves not work out, feeling for years he’s buried people in meetings, including his friends, and is responsible for the depleted main event scene by bad mouthing everyone but a few guys that came up and had his stamp of approval as his own projects (Batista and Orton were his projects while Cena was Stephanie’s, even though it was really Paul Heyman who gave him his first break, but under Heyman he was dying and on the verge of being cut and when Stephanie heard him freestyle, she made him her project).


At this point, they are going forward with Hunico. The feeling Vince hasn’t and maybe won’t get rid of Mistico is that deep down, many believe he’s the only guy who can pull it off long-term and since that decision was made, at least one point it was being thought out again. Although another person said this was not that big of a deal internally and not something many are talking about. Another noted that to bring Mistico back, Vince has to look the other way on things that only top guys get passes on.

I don’t know all the details because aside from the drug test failure, nothing but this being aloof or high maintenance or feeling of entitlement with no specifics has come out other than they were not happy he went to the Mexican media after his suspension and played the “I don’t know what’s going on” card when he did know and had known for some time. That and he still hadn’t learned English so they had to have referee Rod Zapata do all of his matches because he’s the only referee who was bilingual, plus that didn’t allow him to do interviews in English. Then again, Hunico knows English and it’s not like he’s doing any interviews. There’s another very interesting issue. His merchandise selling so well was said to be the only thing that saved him from already being fired, and led to the decision to put Hunico in the spot.

So who gets the merchandise royalties? Right now the decision has come down to this: Embracing a guy who has been a major merchandise seller and possibly can be a major star, especially going forward and with a hole in the roster given Mysterio’s age and injuries; or rolling the dice that the WWE machine can get the gimmick over without Mistico, at evidence of the house shows is that so far nobody knows the difference. There is also a lot of talk and concern about what happens in October when they go to Mexico if there is or isn’t a negative reaction. As for Mistico, if WWE doesn’t bring him back, AAA would definitely use him and push him hard. As for CMLL, they were not happy about the way he left. Generally, Paco Alonso has been very hard-headed when it comes to using people he believes have wronged him, probably more than any major promoter. But with business not doing well, it’s not completely cut-and-dried.

Mysterio had his reconstructive surgery on his left knee on 8/26 in San Diego. He had to get his PCL and ACL completely redone and bone spurs removed. He can’t do anything for three months. Apparently he’s looking at this in the most productively positive manner, happy that he’s going to be home for several months straight, even if this isn’t the way you’d want it to happen, particularly at his age and with his wear and tear. His return looks to be somewhere in the March to May time frame.

Dwayne Johnson on twitter as to why he came back to WWE: “A few years ago, when Cena inexplicably started talking trash publicly, I knew then I could turn this into a massive main event, one that could elevate WWE to unprecedented heights. The timing had to be right though. WrestleMania 27 for me and the fans, the time was right.” Regarding wrestling at the next Mania: “The match itself will be historic. I didn’t come back to WWE to become champion again. I came back for these reasons, entertain the fans like no one else can, elevate the WWE to new heights never before seen, challenge and mentor some of the younger talent, give the millions what they want which is to kick John Cena’s f’n ass.” For what it’s worth, the first time he told me he was coming back was 2009 and it was always about fitting it into the schedule and having the right idea, because he didn’t want to come back and it not be impactful, although at least at the time he said he wasn’t going to do another match.

***********************************************************************
CM Punk and sales/demographics

Some statistics that really shocked me, since the Punk stuff appeared to be so huge on the Internet. As it turns out, for an Internet site like the Observer site, Punk hit a chord but for WWE, that wasn’t the case at all, which basically says the Punk appeal to the “Internet” audience is a complete misnomer. He had an appeal to an audience, but calling it the “Internet” audience is to misread the “Internet” audience. I think he appealed an audience that follows the product very closely, which fits into the Males 18-40 group, and probably to a degree to lapsed fans (I heard a lot of talk from people who were fans for life but in recent years have moved on, often to UFC, and they talked a lot about him), but not enough to make a statistical difference whatsoever in ratings or attendance. That audience is probably your prime PPV audience and he clearly made a significant difference at Money in the Bank in the U.S., but preliminary indicators were not good for SummerSlam so the reaction that he hurt himself with the one audience he appealed strongly to by coming back early may have been the case.

Based on talk I’ve heard, and statistics from our own web site, that was definitely the case with the audience he most appealed to. During July, the WWE site had 12 million visitors, the second lowest number for any month of the last 12, although it was up from June. The decline is not a negative as it’s largely seasonal patterns as July from last year did 11.5 million (that was during the Nexus angle although June was the peak of interest in that), the worst month of that year, but July 2009 did 13.6 million. But page views were down 22% from the same period last year. In addition, web merchandise also had one of its worst months in several years, with 452 orders per day, actually down 7% from last year and 22% from two years ago. So even if the Punk or Sin Cara merchandise is doing well, the company is still down from usual July numbers of the previous two years. The company shipped 263,000 DVD units, and of late, they’ve been selling about 59% of those shipped. The company is no longer listing the best selling DVDs every month.

However, good news is that in refiguring the WrestleMania numbers after more returns are in, they are now up to 1,120,000 buys and 663,000 domestic, beating the worldwide total for the 2005 Batista vs. HHH match of 1,090,000 buys (not the domestic number for that show, which was 720,000). So it is now No. 2 of all-time worldwide behind the 2007 Donald Trump show, which at 1,250,000, it will not catch.

For those concerned, Undertaker is growing his hair back. He’s probably still months away from having enough hair to return.

While Lisa Wright of the Council for Unity sent an apology letter to WWE and the Be a Star Alliance regarding her original complaints regarding the treatment of Vickie Guerrero, the letter seemed to serve its purpose. Since getting the letter, Lawler was told to lay off Guerrero and none of the announcers or any of the babyfaces have been allowed to make any jokes about her looks or weight. WWE also has done no bullying of Jim Ross, which was a weekly thing, since the letter came in. I don’t know if that’s related or not, but the fact they laid off Ross in Tulsa does seem to show a different attitude. The company is very sensitive regarding the idea that what they do in their programming comes across as bullying aside from what be considered normal heat getting stuff expected out of wrestling.

Chavo Guerrero Sr. (Chavo Classic) in Spanish on twitter wrote: “Whoever hired Sin Cara does not know the Hispanic market.”

Matt Polinsky, 27, better known as Pennsylvania independent wrestler Sterling James Keenan, has signed a developmental contract. He’s now using the name Corey Graves. He’s been wrestling for 11 years, mostly in the Pittsburgh area, but has wrestled a lot in the U.K. with the 1PW promotion and has done some work with ROH.

Paul Levesque’s official real world title is Executive Vice President, Talent. He was just awarded 52,339 shares of company stock worth $474,000 as of the weekend.

His next movie, “Inside Out,” gets the limited release on 9/9 (in only nine theaters nationwide) before being released to video a few weeks later. This is the one where he’s released from prison, and instead of meeting up with his daughter and beating up bad guys, now he has to protect his best friend from the bad guys. What is notable is this is the first WWE movie that didn’t have a lot of promotion on television. They started on the 9/29 Raw, just 11 days before the open, while in the past they spent months pushing their moves.

Notes from Raw on 8/29 in Tulsa. Dark match had Riley pinning McIntyre, followed by R-Truth pinning Morrison with a downward spiral in a good long Superstars match.

 

[RBH]

Thanks so much Plywood. Much appreciated.

 

[Plywood]

Raw opened with HHH making the announcement that every Monday night from this point forward will be a Raw & Smackdown super show. The crowd didn’t react nearly as big as you’d think. HHH said that Nash has been lying and he wanted to find out why his best friend was lying to him. Punk instead came out and said HHH and Nash were swerving everyone because they are in on this together. Nash came out to the old NWO theme music, I guess to make sure he felt even more dated. Nash said that he had his driver call up John Laurinaitis and lie about being in a car accident knowing HHH would leave the building to check on him. He said he played the friendship card so he’d have a free path to get at Punk.

Nash said he doesn’t understand why HHH doesn’t let him take out Punk because Punk has been insulting not only him but his wife as well. Nash asked HHH, “What kind of a man are you?” HHH said he’s a man who doesn’t expect to be lied to by his best friend. He told Nash he couldn’t trust him. He told Nash to leave and not return. Nash said he lied about the accident but he didn’t lie about the text, saying it came from HHH’s number. And he said he wasn’t leaving because while HHH was gone, Laurinaitis had signed him to a big money contract.

He said HHH could fire him, but the money was guaranteed and he’d be happy to sit at home and collect it. HHH told Nash he wasn’t going to fire him but to stop lying. Punk then fell on the ground and acted like he was puking. He said nobody is buying this act. He said the kliq is back, and click is the sound of all the remote controls changing channels when Nash is on TV. There was great irony in that given all the people who tuned out when Punk wrestled Miz 45 minutes later. He also said click is what it sounds like in Nash’s knees every time he tries to walk. HHH made Punk vs. Nash, and Punk said doesn’t he have to check with Stephanie first, saying that HHH wears the panties in the family. Nash and Punk were about to go at it when Orton’s music played and he came to the ring. Nash and Punk just disappeared.

Orton pinned Ziggler in 12:26 of an awesome match. Ziggler used the Zig Zag on the floor. They showed Swagger watching backstage on the monitor. Ziggler used a famouser while Orton used a top rope superplex. Orton used a Bruno Sammartino style backbreaker into a slam. Finish saw Ziggler go for the sleeper but Orton escaped and used an RKO. Swagger was backstage smiling when Ziggler lost. Vickie Guerrero was appalled that he lost.

Cena did an interview on Del Rio. Henry came out and said he was going to win the title at Night of Champions and threatened Cena to join his Hall of Pain. Christian came out and said Cena makes him sick because he’s whining and complaining. They threatened Cena but Sheamus made the save. Sheamus is now called “The Great White.” Not sure if he’s a shark or he’s Gerry Cooney. When Christian saw Sheamus he left the ring. When Henry saw Christian was gone, he left the ring as well. Laurinaitis backstage made Henry & Christian vs. Cena & Sheamus for tonight. HHH came in, mad at Laurinaitis for going behind his back, and told Laurinaitis that he had already made the match.

Punk beat Miz via DQ in 13:53. Punk was back doing the Wanderlei Silva wrist roll that Vince didn’t want him doing years ago. He was also doing more copying Japanese spots. He did the Savage elbow and R-Truth interfered for the DQ. R-Truth and Miz beat down Punk. Punk made a comeback and gave R-Truth the GTS. Nash then came down. Punk and Nash squared off but Miz jumped Punk and Nash gave Punk a power bomb.

Sin Cara pinned Swagger in 2:54. Last week Vickie was in Swagger’s corner as his new manager. This week they said how Swagger wants Vickie to manage him. During the match, Vickie came out to scout him. This is as bad as when TNA books backwards. Ziggler started yelling at Vickie for being out there. This distracted Swagger, and Cara used a tornado DDT, a springboard senton from the apron into the ring, followed by the quebrada for the pin. Cara was super over here, more than anyone but Cena.

Kingston & Bourne retained the tag titles beating Otunga & McGillicutty in 2:28 when Kingston pinned McGillicutty with Trouble in Paradise. Lawler spent the match talking about how Otunga & McGillicutty were boring. Cole kept taking about Jennifer Hudson, and they haven’t brought her name up with him in a long time. Otunga then confronted Lawler and knocked off his headset. They’re apparently doing something with Lawler against Otunga in some form.

Brie Bella pinned Kelly in a non-title match in 2:08. Actually, it was Nikki who pinned Kelly after a switch. They showed Phoenix & Natalya, all dressed up, which made little sense given their whole angle is they hate Barbie doll women who get over because of their looks. HHH then announced Punk would be facing him, and not Nash. Talk about a show that made no sense.

Main event saw Cena & Sheamus beat Christian & Henry in 6:40. The show had been running long so this and other matches had the rushed feel to them. Finish saw Sheamus use the Brogue kick on Christian, knocking him into Cena, who used the Attitude Adjustment on him for the pin. This also made no sense with Christian losing the day before he’s getting a world title shot.

Notes from the 8/26 Smackdown show. Not really much of a show. Bret Hart came out and the crowd went crazy. Cole used the “we’re in Bizzaroland” phrase while the crowd was cheering for Hart, who was the babyface. He said Long wasn’t there and HHH appointed him General Manager for the day. Contrary to the report we got, he did not take credit for the live show the next week, only made mention that there would be one. He announced Orton defending against Henry, who won the Battle Royal last week, for the TV next week. Christian came out right away.

He blamed Edge for his loss at SummerSlam, saying he couldn’t concentrate after Edge turned on him. Crowd really didn’t react to that at all. He said he’s entitled to a rematch. Hart said that Christian was becoming an embarrassment, to his friends, to his family, to the WWE Universe and to Canada. The crowd popped at the mention of Canada, but no reaction to WWE Universe. Hart told him to be a man and work his way up from the bottom. Christian said the embarrassment are guys like Bret and Edge, who can’t cope with their careers being over.

He mocked Hart for still wearing a leather jacket and having greasy stringy hair like he was in his 20s and told him to let it go. He said in WWE, he was the only Canadian left who was relevant. Then he showed a piece of paper that he claimed was a court order saying that since he’s the former champion, he’s entitled to the first rematch. Hart said that he’s got his match, but he’s making it a cage match. Crowd reacted good to that.

Henry came out and he was mad, saying he had been with the company for 15 years and has had to deal with blatant disrespect. He said he earned his title shot winning the Battle Royal and if he doesn’t get it, somebody’s getting hurt. He asked Hart to get the winner of the Orton vs. Christian cage match. He said he respected Hart but couldn’t be held responsible for what he might do. That makes no sense on a number of levels. Sheamus then came out and told his story. It was about his uncle who castrated a big, mean black bull and then told Henry, “Don’t make me do the same to you.” Sheamus and Henry went at it and it wasn’t pretty, with Sheamus eventually knocking him out of the ring.

Christian pinned Bryan after a killswitch. Good match. It was funny that Cole made a speech when Booker was talking about how Christian was manipulating the system in going to court to get a title rematch, when Cole noted that every champion always gets a title rematch. It sounded so dumb when the face announcer’s argument makes no sense and the heel announcer makes sense.

Barrett did an interview saying how he’s led attacks on champions and even the chairman himself (another storyline that went nowhere). There was a guy all dressed up in the corner who was never mentioned for Barrett to wrestle. He was never announced. Barrett walked off, refusing to wrestle him. Cole then explained that he should have walked out. Then Booker agreed. I would think when it was scripted, the idea was to get heat (that was an old Ernie Ladd idea that he did in a number of territories, although his version went farther, because wins and losses mattered, and he’d forfeit the match, offer congratulations to the guy for beating him, and then beat the hell out of the guy after his hand was raised). When the face announcer doesn’t sell it to the audience, outrage is not about to happen.

Cara pinned Slater in the third match taped in 1:41 with the quebrada. There was nothing at all wrong with this, although after watching Kelly vs. Tamina and Jackson vs. Khali, both of which went in one take, I can only imagine how bad their first and second match must have been. I mean, no way it was worse that Jackson vs. Khali.

Orton pinned DiBiase in a very good match. Rhodes came out with DiBiase and did an interview saying he performs miracles, saying he’s resurrecting the status of the IC title. Well, that sounded good last week but now there’s no way. He also said he’s resurrecting the career of DiBiase. That may be easier. Orton went to RKO Rhodes but DiBiase saved with a sliding kick. Orton was bleeding from the forehead. Finish saw DiBiase escape the RKO, Orton escape Dream street, Orton duck a DiBiase clothesline and hit the RKO. After the match, Rhodes laid out DiBiase with crossroads and put the bag on his head, so that was the DiBiase turn.

Kelly pinned Tamina with the famouser. This had some out there announcing. First it was said that Tamina played college basketball and once had 69 rebounds in a single game. Do you know how totally ridiculous that was? Then Booker mentioned she must be like Wilt Chamberlain. Then Cole went off, saying this wasn’t 69 points, it was 69 rebounds like Wilt was a scoring champion but wasn’t a rebounder. Booker seemed to back down and mention Rodman instead. Not that this matters, but the person with the most rebounds in the history of the NBA is Wilt Chamberlain (23,924) and Rodman right now ranks in 22nd place.

Mahal did an interview with Khali saying he and Khali didn’t win the Battle Royal because the servant disobeyed the masters orders. He made it clear Khali’s role is to serve him or else he’ll divorce Khali’s sister and leave the family in poverty. They really think through the storylines because that would seem to say Khali makes no money at all going around the world as a WWE superstar if he’s scared the family will be in poverty unless the Mahal family takes care of him. The least they could do is explain it like with Michaels like he made some bad investments, or maybe spent all his money chasing women or having to pay for hospital visits for his sick brother Dave.

Jackson beat Khali when Khali went for a chop, Jackson moved and Khali hit Mahal. That may cause a divorce. Jackson then put Khali up in the rack and Khali tapped. It wasn’t really a torture rack, more like a fireman’s carry position, but with those long legs, just balancing a guy that tall and big is impressive enough. They actually gave them 3:00. Crowd was chanting “Oilers suck.” The match could have been worse.

Main was Sheamus beating Henry via count out in 7:32. Not much to the match. It wasn’t good but the finish sequence went well. Both were outside the ring. Henry undid all the monitors from the table and was going to hit the world’s strongest slam. But Sheamus got out and used a Brogue kick on Henry, knocking him over the table which tipped over. Sheamus threw a chair on him and then jumped in the ring to beat the count. Why Sheamus beats Henry during the period you are building Henry for a title match with Orton makes no sense. They continued to brawl after the match. Sheamus shoved Henry into the post. Sheamus picked up the steps and threw them at Henry, but missed. If you can’t hit a target the size of Henry with giant steps, well don’t let Sheamus ever play darts or any of those throw a pitch carnival games. Henry clotheslined him and gave him the world’s strongest slam on the ring steps as the show ended.

Mason Ryan returned this past week after a hamstring injury that took him out just as they had started doing something with him.

WWE talent has been told not to have any twitter contact with Matt Hardy. They don’t want to have any involvement in any embarrassing Matt Hardy story going forward.

Andy Leavine is apparently serving a 30-day Wellness suspension. The story was going around among the wrestlers two weeks ago but WWE, which has a policy about announcing all drug test suspensions, and never announced it. WWE has not confirmed the suspension. It could be an instance where he’s considered a developmental wrestler and not a main roster wrestler.

There actually has been talk of turning either Kelly or Torres, but they’re not sure which one, other than they would feud. The timing doesn’t make sense since they’re pushing Phoenix & Natalya against Kelly, as well as the Bella Twins against Kelly, so Kelly needs a partner. Torres turning on her would make sense when the Phoenix & Natalya stuff runs its course, but not right now.

Del Rio missed the weekend house shows as well as Raw as he had to return to Mexico to get his visa renewed.

Seth Rollins got some heat for overreacting to a fan on twitter who said he should cut his hair and his beard so he didn’t look so much like Morrison. He responded, “Hey, stupid question answer, no, I had long hair first. I had a beard first. And I can outwork him any day of the week.” He’d have gotten away with those first three sentences. Later he wrote, “To clarify, John Morrison is an awesome dude and is great at what he does. I’m just very confident in myself and my abilities.”

Melina is asking for $3,000 per appearance now that she’s a free agent. Not sure how much business she’s going to get at that price, but when Tiffany was released and was asking $2,500 per appearance, I don’t think she was ever heard from again.

For the Raw house shows this coming weekend, they are advertising “first time ever” with two title matches on the same show, with Del Rio defending first against Punk and later in the main event the winner (Del Rio) faces Cena. They did those at the house shows a couple of weeks ago.

Smackdown crew this week runs 9/1 to 9/4 with shows in Nimes, France, Geneva, Switzerland and two shows in Paris, before returning for TV. The top guys will have straight travel from Paris to Columbus, OH for the 9/5 Raw. The Raw crew runs 9/2 in San Juan, but the rest of the weekend will be in the Northeast.

Maryse had her surgery for an abdominal hernia on 8/24 and should be back in the next week or so.

Kaitlyn made a twitter mistake, sending a message to a friend complaining about her ring music, but it went public. But she did quickly delete it.

Make of this what you will from Melina on twitter: “Has anyone ever had a person in your life that you loved so dearly but they didn’t love you back? Isn’t it the worst. I always wished time could speed up so I could get over the heartache. How did you get thru?” .

Lance Storm had four of his students get tryouts backstage at the tapings last week in Edmonton and/or Calgary.

Chavo Guerrero Jr. on Monday Night Mayhem said he had been thinking of quitting for the last two years.

The 8/8 Raw did 363,000 time delayed homes watching or 10.5% of the total viewers didn’t watch live.

Dick Ebersol is back with NBC Sports as a Senior Adviser. Ebersol and Vince McMahon have been on good terms dating back to them being co-producers of Saturday Night’s Main Event from 1985-90, and they worked together bringing WWE back to NBC in recent years (which didn’t do nearly as well), along with the XFL. Ebersol, left NBC Sports in May. He was negative about UFC, but with UFC not going to NBC and being locked up for seven years, that’s now a moot point.

 

[Striker]

There actually has been talk of turning either Kelly or Torres, but they’re not sure which one, other than they would feud. The timing doesn’t make sense since they’re pushing Phoenix & Natalya against Kelly, as well as the Bella Twins against Kelly, so Kelly needs a partner. Torres turning on her would make sense when the Phoenix & Natalya stuff runs its course, but not right now.

Considering Kelly's in ring talent and acting skills, Eve is a better chance at being a decent heel. They need some decent babyface diva, though. Kelly is not.

 

[Plywood]

Owen Hart and Andre the Giant will not be used as playable characters in the new WWE 12 video game due to legal issues between WWE and the estates of the two wrestlers.

Alex Riley’s father, Kevin Kiley Sr., has been hired as the morning talk show host for WKRK FM in Cleveland, the CBS affiliate which is switching from a music to an all-sports format.

Raw opened on 8/26 in Jackson, MS, drawing a rare house show sellout of 9,200 fans paying $300,000. They also did well on 8/27 in Memphis with 7,500 paying $210,000. 8/28 in North Little Rock drew 5,400 and $163,000.

Smackdown shows were not as healthy. 8/27 in Cape Girardeau, MO did 2,300 paying $65,000 and 8/28 in Springfield, MO, a traditionally good market for wrestling, did 2,500 and $64,000.

Raw in Jackson opened with Kingston & Bourne over McGillicutty & Otunga in a tag title match. Mason Ryan returned and pinned Ryder quickly. Ryan let his hair grow long while he was down so he doesn’t look as much like Batista. Kelly & Torres beat the Bella Twins. Marella pinned Swagger. Punk pinned Truth. Ziggler won a three-way over McIntyre and Riley by pinning McIntyre. Morrison pinned DiBiase. DiBiase was the babyface since he grew up in Jackson. Why he didn’t go over since it’s only a house show and he did so much of the local pub is beyond me. Cena pinned Miz in the main event.


Memphis had some changes. Ryan pinned Marella. Swagger was scheduled to wrestle Ryder. Ryder came out first and was acting like a face and Swagger jumped him and left him laying. Swagger started running down how Memphis has no real men and nobody from Memphis would be man enough to face him. This was the cue for Lawler, who was advertised as being on the show. Lawler got a good reaction, but not overwhelming. Lawler got the pin after a fist drop. Punk pinned Truth. Truth got a lot of heat playing heel to set up Punk. Punk got a good reaction, but not a great reaction. Punk won with the GTS. Ziggler pinned Riley in a singles to keep the U.S. title. Ziggler won clean with the Zig Zag and did the “Follow that” speech. Morrison pinned McIntyre after Starship pain. Cena again pinned Miz on top with the Attitude Adjustment.

North Little Rock was the same show as Jackson with the exception that Ziggler beat Riley and with no DiBiase on the show, Morrison pinned McIntyre. Ziggler came out dressed as Shawn Michaels and cut a promo on how Michaels was a quitter and such and how he was the new show stopper. It didn’t really get over.

The Smackdown show in Cape Girardeau had an issue with Christian, Kidd and Natalya all having travel problems so they had to change up the show. Bryan beat Barrett in a long opener with the LeBell lock. Clay pinned Curtis with a crossbody off the top. Jackson beat Slater with the torture rack. Harley Race came out as the special guest. He gave a babyface speech about being happy to see all the fans, and brought out DiBiase, as a face, and talked about how DiBiase trained at his school. DiBiase said that he was living the dream thanks to Race. There’s an obvious joke in there. Because of Kidd missing the show and Rhodes being moved to the main event, DiBiase had to work with Sin Cara, who beat him with the moonsault. A.J. pinned Tamina. Most likely they were going to do a tag match with Natalya and Kaitlyn (who was also there but not used) involved. Sheamus beat Henry via DQ for a chair shot. Main event was advertised as Orton vs. Christian in a street fight. Instead, Orton beat Rhodes with an RKO in a regular match. Christian arrived to the building and then attacked Orton. Instead of Orton giving everyone the RKO, they brought out DiBiase to make the save for Orton.

Springfield had the originally planned show. Cara pinned Kidd. Curtis pinned Clay, so they just alternated wins here. A.J. & Kaitlyn beat Natalya & Tamina. Post-show saw Natalya and Tamina split up and have a pull-apart. Race and Long came out together. Springfield was part of the old Kansas City circuit that Race worked forever and owned, so he’d be the local wrestling legend. Aksana (who also did a skit the first night) and Slater came out. Slater threatened Race until Jackson ran in. Race then set up Jackson vs. Slater, which Jackson won with the torture rack. Bryan beat Barrett with the LeBell lock again. Sheamus beat Henry via DQ in the same match. Rhodes pinned DiBiase in the IC title match. Orton beat Christian in a fans pick the stip title match. Fans picked a street fight. Only weapon was a street fight. Rhodes ran in to help Christian, leading to DiBiase making the save. Orton won with the RKO.



NO MORE QUESTIONS.

 

[-Pyromaniac-]

Good job plywood, lots of interesting stuff. The Mistico/Hunico stuff is the lulz.

 

[SoulPlaya]

Plywood wins, thank you Ply.

 

[mightynine]

My roommate is watching The Challenge: Rivals Reunion show, and I think they're using Steve Blackman's music for the theme.

ETA: Fine work, Plywood. But we can't have you getting a big head, so off to host NXT for you!

 

[RBH]

North Little Rock was the same show as Jackson with the exception that Ziggler beat Riley and with no DiBiase on the show, Morrison pinned McIntyre. Ziggler came out dressed as Shawn Michaels and cut a promo on how Michaels was a quitter and such and how he was the new show stopper. It didn’t really get over.

What in the hell.

 

[dream]

Basically, I just put Plywood over and made him in rasslegaf and did hay shake my hand no!

 

[Uno Venova]

dream lost his smile.

 

[dream]

yes I said small.

 

[IsayFever]

Clearly I need to spam more like G Fex to get in the hall of shame

 

[Liquidsnake]

My thread, which I remind you I didn't want to make but was forced to make, was successful. We now have a solid rule which Frankman can justifiably snitch with should it be broken. I attribute that to my groundbreaking efforts in the creation of the Stand Up For campaign, which legitimized the existence of Bitmap Entertainment for all of WrassleGAF in the face of those who would seek to marginalize it through perpetuating misinformation about its activities and diminishing its positive influence in communities worldwide.[/QUOTE]


You are my hero.

 

[MightyHealthy]

What the hell?

That is really odd. I read about the arrest, but had no idea it was based upon evidence that was 20 years old...

 

[FallingEdge]

Whatever bro. You all just mad that I am officially a member of Corporate-WrestlingGAF.

 

[Liquidsnake]

Let's all bleed sweat and pay the price of a wrestling lifetime!!!!!

 

[Rafa=FedKilla]

Yeah none of that was in the version of the Observer that I was sent.

 

[Chauncy Talon]

Great stuff plywood. Keep bringing us the news. I am too lazy to look for it.

 

[Kaladin]

So according to that Observer, No Surrender should be...

Sting vs Flair
Bobby Roode vs Gunner
Bully Ray vs James Storm
Joe vs Morgan ??
Aries vs Kendrick
Mexican America vs Devon/Pope
Mickie James vs Winter

Oh well, I'm just going for Sting vs Flair and Aries vs Kendrick anyway. The rest is just gravy.

 

[Chauncy Talon]

So according to that Observer, No Surrender should be...

Sting vs Flair
Bobby Roode vs Gunner
Bully Ray vs James Storm
Joe vs Morgan ??
Aries vs Kendrick
Mexican America vs Devon/Pope
Mickie James vs Winter

Oh well, I'm just going for Sting vs Flair and Aries vs Kendrick anyway. The rest is just gravy.

Why isn't Roode wrestling Bully Ray? They both are #1 and #2 (I haven't watched since after the PPV, no Cable). Since Crimson is gone, Matt Morgan is playing the role of Crimson or is Crimson being Matt Morgan now?

Devon/Pope vs Mexican America? Why is this happening? Somebody enlighten me with this. Why not put Daniels and Styles vs Mexican America to further their feud?

Mickie James vs Winter. Seriously, if Winter don't win cleanly, then why are they wrestling? Mickie James shouldn't be the GOLDBERG aka the Only TOP Face. They need to bring another face up to Mickie James status in TNA.

 

[RBH]

If there was ever an MMA version of Botchamania, the following video would be included:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyDFWwhLc84

 

[HarryDemeanor]

I hope these guys run in during Triple H vs. CM Punk.

 

[jobber]

lol Punk and Nash are in cahoots

 

[EraldoCoil]

That mistico/hunico news pisses me off....

 

[Alligatorjandro]

super dragon

 

[HarryDemeanor]

Apparently the Obi-Wan Krayt Dragon call going around isn't real. In fact, this was the real one after all:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLzzVkpTX5Q

This is probably the best change to the Star Wars movies since Greedo shot first.

 

[Dork Knight]

Apparently the Obi-Wan Krayt Dragon call going around isn't real. In fact, this was the real one after all:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLzzVkpTX5Q

This is probably the best change to the Star Wars movies since Greedo shot first.

WHAT DEY HELL?

 

[IsayFever]

Apparently the Obi-Wan Krayt Dragon call going around isn't real. In fact, this was the real one after all:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLzzVkpTX5Q

This is probably the best change to the Star Wars movies since Greedo shot first.

Man I love Ric Flair. His WOOs inspire me

 

[bean breath]

With Leather's Best and Worst of Super Smackdown is up.

Highlights:

One of the things that made the Best And Worst Of Raw column controversial when I brought it to With Leather was my insistence that The Rock was an overrated, hateful weirdo and John Cena was an under-appreciated franchise player with good intentions. I justified a lot of his actions as those of a champion trying to be a good man in a world of badness. I still think that people only like Rocky because he’s a big enough star to do a racist Chinese voice or call somebody a cooter but not enough of a tabloid presence to get in trouble for it, but Cena … I don’t know. He’s going through a high school thing.

That’s weird to say about a 34-year old 11-time World Champion, but yeah, he’s turning into the kid from the I Learned It By Watching You commercial. Cena had been wrestling his entire career against guys like Umaga and JBL, these wacky, over-the-top caricatures that threatened to destroy John Cena the Character, but never John Cena the Man. I think the decline started with Wade Barrett, funny enough. Cena got into a feud with a gang of guys from NXT who weren’t supposed to have contracts, but they kept showing up on Raw and beating him up … and eventually Wade Barrett got some sort of weird executive power and arranged for Cena to be his f**king literal slave if he lost a match, then warped that into Cena being fired for disobeying him. Cena, being John Cena, went along with it. Eventually it became too much and Cena attacked, sacrificing his career for nobility … but as it turned out, Cena getting fired meant nothing, because being fired didn’t mean he had to go away. He kept showing up, and by proxy of being around got his job back. Barrett was punished, banished even, and something in the back of Cena the Character’s brain said “Huh. Maybe none of this is real.” Like Truman noticing a light fixture falling from the sky. Cena the Character and Cena the Man started to smoosh together.

It got worse when The Rock showed up. Cena was okay wrestling The Miz, a dastardly blowhard with an evil high school jock familiar who took the WWE Championship under nefarious circumstances~. Then Rocky shows up, and Rock’s been gone for so long he’s forgotten that you aren’t supposed to bring up sh*t you don’t want the fans to think. He makes fun of Cena’s shorts, makes fun of the bright colors of his t-shirts, mocks him for being supported by women and children and more or less calls him a worthless f*ggot for like three months. So Cena has to face simultaneous attacks to The Man and The Character, Miz and Riley from one side, Dwayne Johnson “playing” The Rock from the other. It corrupts him further, and just when you think he’s going to settle into a feud about different sizes of Jimmy with R-Truth, he runs missed-leaping-shoulderblock first into a challenge from CM Punk. Punk costs him a match, sits down Indian style on the stage and disassembles the carefully placed world of kayfabe that John had already been struggling with. John has to lie there in a state of semi-unconsciousness and let it seep into his brain like a baby with Mozart held against his mother’s stomach.

And that has led us to John Cena, August 2011.

Cena is crushed between two conflicting personalities — he still wants to prance out to My Time Is Now and toss his shirt into the crowd, but now when someone tosses it back to him, he understands why. Two years ago he would’ve seen Alberto Del Rio and said “you’re rich and you think you’re better than people, but you aren’t better than people!!!” Now he sees Alberto and says “you don’t even own those cars, do you, this is stupid”. That’s why he’s gotten so childish, but can’t stop hurting people. He’s losing his mind. He’s turning into Kid Miracleman, a megalomaniacal superman becoming less and less bound by the mind of a mistreated but good-natured kid. He’s seeing the world around him for what it “really” is, so the guy who two years ago might’ve said “Alberto Del Rio, get out here right now!” sucker-punches the short, wimpy ring announcer who won’t stop talking when he says to as a “message”.

For those of you who don’t watch Smackdown on the reg, Jinder Mahal is a brown gentleman of notable size who speaks in a foreign language, wrestles in little white trunks and is not really that great. Unfortunately, this is what most of you think of when you think of Alberto Del Rio. I got comments on this week’s Best and Worst of Raw saying the best part was that Alberto Del Rio wasn’t there, and I can’t explain it. Alberto Del Rio is a five tool player (wrestling ability, mic skills, charisma, jumping, winking) and the only reasons I can think of for you not enjoying him are “you haven’t been paying attention” or “you don’t like Mexican people”. I don’t want it to be the second one, so I HAVE to think it’s that you aren’t paying attention.

Maybe you are thinking of Jinder Mahal. He just sorta stomps around and uses a full nelson slam as his finishing move, and the only thing more damning than a goddamn full nelson slam is Roll Of The Dice. His version of Ricardo Rodriguez once killed a guy and can only say “bleargh”. He’s the love child of Test and Sonjay Dutt. Is this the guy you’re thinking of? Because Alberto Del Rio is the best thing to happen to WWE in years, and you should wear your glasses when you watch wrestling.

 

[NoRéN]

Apparently the Obi-Wan Krayt Dragon call going around isn't real. In fact, this was the real one after all:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLzzVkpTX5Q

This is probably the best change to the Star Wars movies since Greedo shot first.

I want to hear Ric Flair and R2 have a Woo-off!

 

[Kaladin]

Why isn't Roode wrestling Bully Ray? They both are #1 and #2 (I haven't watched since after the PPV, no Cable). Since Crimson is gone, Matt Morgan is playing the role of Crimson or is Crimson being Matt Morgan now?

Devon/Pope vs Mexican America? Why is this happening? Somebody enlighten me with this. Why not put Daniels and Styles vs Mexican America to further their feud?

Mickie James vs Winter. Seriously, if Winter don't win cleanly, then why are they wrestling? Mickie James shouldn't be the GOLDBERG aka the Only TOP Face. They need to bring another face up to Mickie James status in TNA.

I will try to answer here....

A) I dunno, probably has something to do with Storm being injured and needing to take it easy, but then that would actually make sense.

B) Morgan is due to come back from injury around the time of the PPV, and they recently aired an angle where Morgan stood up to Joe's attacks but couldn't do anything because he was injured. This is leading to Crimson vs Joe at BFG since Joe took Crimson out of the series with an injury angle.

C) TNA is lacking in legit tag teams right now. AJ/Daniels are still in their mini rivalry and Devon and Pope are reaching the point where they trust each other. Seriously, TNA has something like, 3 legit tag teams right now including Devon and Pope.

D) I dunno, I fast forward through knockout crap.

Also: I would hope Jeff Hardy gets to wrestle on the PPV. He's already returning to the road on house shows so he's doing the right things this time it would seem.

 

[KiNeSiS]

because he kind of sort of looks a bit like vince.


same reasion they push Cole so damn hard

Vince Cara!!!!