=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
WRESTLING GLOBE NEWSLETTER
Thursday April 23, 2009
by Mike Aldren
=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Wrestling Globe delivers all the latest pro wrestling news and analysis direct to your mailbox. It’s read by industry power players, many top wrestlers and thousands of fans from all around the world.
*****
To subscribe email to: [email protected]
Please send any news tips or show reports to: [email protected] Wrestling Globe by Mike Aldren: [email protected]
WWE NEWS
4/22 Raw house show results from Liverpool, England: William Regal over Dolph Ziggler; Beth Phoenix & Santina Marella over Melina & Kelly Kelly; John Morrison over Jamie Noble; Carlito & Primo over Mike Knox & Charlie Haas; Kane over Kofi Kingston; The Miz over Goldust, CM Punk over Chris Jericho; and Rey Mysterio & John Cena over Edge & Big Show.
Notes: I don’t know if this is an indication that they are turning him but Hass tagging with Knox is a strange pairing. They seem to have dropped the deal where he does the legends gimmick. Regal was busted hardway against Ziggler when they clashed heads. Jericho-Punk was said to be match of the night. They did a finish with Ricky Steamboat coming out to distract Jericho enabling Punk to hit his GTS. After the match Punk got on the house mic and talked about idolising Steamboat as a kid.
Noble is back following the stinger he suffered on Raw a few weeks back.
Show drew just under 10,000.
4/22 Smackdown house show results from Birmingham, England: Evan Bourne over Tyson Kidd; Gail Kim & Bella Twins over Natalya, Katie Lea & Maryse; MVP over R-Truth & Shelton Banjamin in a three-way; Finlay over Mark Henry; Jack Swagger over Christian; Jeff Hardy over Matt Hardy; and Triple H & Undertaker over Legacy in a handicap match.
Notes: Arena was close to capacity drawing an estimated 10,000. Jeff Hardy got the biggest pop of the night, with announcer Justin Roberts having the most heat. Globe reader Matt Wall wrote in: “Serious heat for ring announcer Justin Roberts, poor guy. DX’s music hits and the place goes a little wild as it forgets itself, thinking maybe the duo are back together. Roberts then gets on the mic to plug that tickets for the November UK Tour – entitled the DX invasion tour. Don’t think the crowd appreciated it. Big boos also for John Cena. He wasn’t even in the building but a promo for 12 Rounds didn’t go down too well. Interesting mess up before the ECW Title match – Tiffany comes out to do the ring announcing and though Christian’s music starts, she introduces Swagger.
The music continues to play until it’s clearly realised that she isn’t going to correct herself, and Swagger’s music is switched on. No matches really stand out, though the Hardys’ was a good effort, and HHH/Undertaker worked the crowd like true veterans.”
We’re looking for reports from the WWE shows tonight in Glasgow, Scotland and Newcastle, England to [email protected]
We’re also looking for reports from the FCW show tonight in Tampa if anyone is going.
***
Superstars tonight on WGN has the main event of Edge vs. Kofi Kingston, plus Kane & Big Show vs. CM Punk & Rey Mysterio and Hornswoggle & Finlay vs. Tyson Kidd & Natalya.
Superstar Billy Graham was let go from his $500 per week consulting contract. They told him it was a cost cutting measure. I have no earthly idea what his role involved but it was a nice gesture to someone who’s suffered from several health issues over the years. Graham has also cancelled his upcoming trip to New York where he was to be inducted into the Pro Wrestling Hall of Fame in Amsterdam. He cited needing a first class air ticket due to his size but wouldn’t pay the difference. The same issue came up last year when he was booked for the NWA Legends fanfest in Charlotte.
Remember how after Backlash there would be no cross over between brands?
Well they are pushing a U.S. title match between MVP and Dolph Ziggler at the 4/28 Smackdown taping at Madison Square Garden. Sherri Sheppard from The View will apparently be in MVP’s corner.
Rey Mysterio will also be part of the Raw tour in Mexico next month. The Mexican promoters have all the local advertising built around him appearing at the shows. The current booking sheets also list Umaga on the shows but he’s Smackdown too unless they are moving him back to Raw.
Very confusing trying to keep up with all these changes.
Maria Kanellis, Mickie James and Candice Michelle were among those who didn’t travel to Europe. We were told this was to save on costs as there was no plans for them. All three have been working on personal projects of late for life outside of wrestling.
ECW on Sci Fi Tuesday night did a 1.22 rating so Impact has a good chance of beating ECW again this week.
For readers in the UK if you go to www.honeymonster.co.uk and use the answer ‘Feed The Fun’ you are entered into a draw to win a trip to Los Angeles for Summerslam.
Jakks Pacific blamed WWE, Pokemon, Hannah Montana and pretty much everyone but themselves today when reporting a 17 percent decline in revenue in it’s financial results. They reported a first quarter loss of
$10.8 million compared to a $877,000 profit in the same quarter last year. The company appears to be in trouble.
The Belfast Telegraph at http://tinyurl.com/d8r7tv has a story on Finlay coming home with WWE. He talks about wrestling his first match at 14 and says wrestling was all he ever wanted to do.
John Cena turns 32 today.
The Tampa Tribune at http://tinyurl.com/cej9fe has a story on the city being invited to bid on Wrestlemania between 2011 and 2014 as well as the World Cup Soccer tournament.
TNA NEWS
For Impact tonight on Spike there is Jeff Jarrett vs. Scott Steiner; AJ Styles vs. Kevin Nash for the Legends title; Beer Money vs. Lethal Consequences; and SoJo Bolt vs. Taylor Wilde in a Ladder match for a shot at the Knockouts title. There is also the “huge announcement” by Team 3D (it’s not that huge), Bobby Lashley‘s first appearance in the Impact Zone, the debut of the former Trevor Murdoch, a Beautiful People title celebration for Angelina Love, and Mick Foley announces the main event for Sacrifice on 5/24.
Bobby Lashley posted a cryptic message on his website last night: “I have some tough career decisions to make. Hopefully I don’t lose too much sleep trying to figure things out. I’ll blog about those decisions tomorrow.” There is some speculation, although it’s far from confirmed, that since Lashley hasn’t signed a TNA contract that WWE has come in and made a play for him. Story is developing.
Trevor Murdoch debuts on TV tonight as Jethro Holiday. I guess Vince Russo caught an old episode of The Beverly Hillbillies. A lot of people have asked about Lance Cade but we haven’t heard anything about him coming in.
The current plan for Taz is to debut him as the mentor of Samoa Joe. He won’t be announcing or wrestling so it will be interesting to see where he ends up in the long term.
Jeff Jarrett talks TNA growth in an interview with The Sun. When asked about Vince McMahon calling TNA reprehensible: “In one word – laughable.
Honestly he calls us reprehensible? PLEASE! It’s Vince being classic Vince. He knows more than anybody what reprehensible is.” He said father Jerry, 66, is now out of the business and retired. He credited him for scouting Steve Austin back in the day: “Actually I am a fan of Steve Austin – he’s not a fan of me! He’s a paranoid guy and has been since the day he broke into the business. My dad and Chris Adams picked Steve out of a line-up of 30 or 40 students, from Adams’ school, and gave him his break. His two years in the business was for my family – working in Dallas, Texas and Tennessee. Steve didn’t make a lot of money and to this day he resents that.But he’s certainly not going to miss any meals the rest of his life. Some guys lose sight of where they got their start, but that’s fine.” A good read at www.the-sun.co.uk/wrestling
Story on Robert Roode at http://tinyurl.com/d53abp where he blames the Internet for exposing the business. You know, because before the Internet everyone saw it as a legit sport and not entertainment.
Frankie Kazarian said he hopes to return to the ring next month.
Mick Foley is appearing this weekend at the Steel City Con, and also blogs about his TNA title win at http://tinyurl.com/dl2m7z
OTHER NEWS
Jackie Haas, Lizzie Valentine, Layla Milani and Pamela Paulshock will be
appearing this weekend at the Hollywood Collectors Show in Burbank. More
info at www.hollywoodshow.com
Stacy Keibler and Torrie Wilson were pap’d hanging out together last
weekend in LA at www.hellarious.com
Terry Funk, 64, comes out of retirement once again on 9/19 in Superior,
WI at the Wessman Arena. This will be his first match since having a new
knee. Ric Flair is also working the show as the special referee.
The Boogeyman returns to wrestling for a UK tour with Extreme World
Wrestling in July. More info at www.eww-wrestling.co.uk
VH-1 announced they picked up Brooke Knows Best for a second season.
Yay. Hulk will still be making cameos as the deluded over-protective
father who “is beginning to see her as a young woman with a life of her
own,” according to the press release. Sounds creepy. The release also
noted that there will be storylines involving Linda where she patches up
her relationship with Brooke in the midst of the divorce.
Trish Stratus is starting a Yoga workshop aimed at Golfers at her
Stratusphere Yoga Studio in Vaughan, ONT from 5/6. She is having an open
evening on Friday for media.
Some notes from the latest Ring of Honor Newswire: They cancelled the
spot shows on 7/17 in Danbury, CT, 7/24 in Montreal and 9/25 in
Elizabeth, PA… Dave Prazak and Mike Hogewood began voiceovers on the
second 6 weeks of ROH on HDNet earlier this week in Denver. Prazak said
that HDNet has fixed the lighting and crowd noise issues for this round
of tapings and that the show “looks incredible”. The next set of ROH TV
tapings take place the weekend of 5/29 with Ric Flair and KENTA at the
Arena in Philly… El Generico will not be able appearing this weekend
in Dayton or Chicago due to a knee injury. He is meeting with his
orthopedic surgeon today to review his MRI, but as of this morning, he
was still unable to bend his knee or put any weight on it.
Former wrestler Sam Shelton, who is currently in jail for strangling a
teenage girl, is facing six counts of aggravated assault after allegedly
attacking sheriff’s deputies and paramedics responding to his home
several years ago after an overdose on prescription medication. Story is
at http://tinyurl.com/dmugao
Greg Oliver at http://tinyurl.com/cn9qhc has a story on last weekend’s
Cauliflower Alley Club reunion in Las Vegas.
The Indianapolis Star at http://tinyurl.com/chd6h2 has an story on James
Laurinaitis and his family’s wrestling ties.
The former Chris Masters on a tour in Australia and New Zealand is
interviewed at http://www.nzpwi.co.nz. He said he would like another
shot with WWE but wouldn’t rule out TNA if there was an opportunity for
him to go there.
Chris Nowinski’s Sports Legacy Institute is hosting a charity fundraiser
on Friday night at the Revolution Rock Bar in Boston, MA. NFL players
Ted Johnson and Isaiah Kacyvenski will be appearing.
WG Diva of the Day — Torrie Wilson — http://tinyurl.com/c2h965
=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
GOT A SCOOP? SOMETHING TO SAY? CHANGE EMAIL?
We are always looking for readers to send in news tips,
show reports and interviews. Please email your contributions
to: [email protected]
Missed an issue? Go to: http://lists.topica.com/lists/wrestlingglobe
=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
© 2009 Copyright Wrestling Globe Newsletter – All Rights Reserved.