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WRESTLING GLOBE NEWSLETTER
Tuesday April 21, 2009
by M ike Aldren
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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.
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WWE NEWS
4/20 Raw TV results from London, England: Batista over Chavo Guerrero, CM Punk over Kane, Melina over Beth Phoenix to retain the Women’s title, John Cena over Chris Jericho after Edge ran in, Big Show over Rey Mysterio, and Randy Orton over Triple H after Legacy ran in.
This was the go home show for Backlash on Sunday in Providence, RI. One match was added to the PPV plus Santina — Santino’s “twin sister,” will be doing the kiss cam deal with Khali. I would expect another match, possibly two including something with the Divas, added tonight at the Smackdown/ECW tapings.
At press time the PPV line up is John Cena vs. Edge in a Last Man Standing match for the World title; Triple H, Batista & Shane McMahon vs. Randy Orton, Ted DiBiase & Cody Rhodes with the WWE title on the line; Jack Swagger vs. Christian for the ECW title; Jeff Hardy vs. Matt Hardy in an I Quit match; and Ricky Steamboat vs. Chris Jericho.
We’re looking for reports from the TV tapings tonight in London (main event of Undertaker vs. Big Show) and the Raw house show in Cardiff, Wales to [email protected]
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Nothing announced at press time for ECW tonight other than a Backlash contract signing between Swagger and Christian.
WWE is going with the idea that the draft takes effect after Backlash to explain why wrestlers drafted to Smackdown appeared on Raw last night, and probably vice-versa this coming week. Of course this makes zero sense and I don’t have much faith that they will stick to the draft after the PPV either.
Mike Adamle was a guest on the show Big Ten Quad with Eddie George. He thinks he’s waiting to get written back into WWE storylines. I guess nobody had the heart to tell him.
We’ve received a lot of email on Jeff Hardy. The situation is his contract is coming up and so far has turned down signing an extension.
It’s now become an issue that has everyone in the company talking. A source close to the situation told us he is leaning towards not signing as he wants some time off to do his own thing.
Some more notes from Raw last night. For Superstars on WGN they taped Rey Mysterio & CM Punk vs. Big Show & Kane, and Edge vs. Kofi Kingston.
The matches were taped after Raw so much of the crowd had left despite being asked to hang around. The preshow dark match was William Regal, who got the biggest pop of the night and was accompanied by Lalya, over Dolph Ziggler. The CM Punk-Kane match finish was botched so they had to do the ending again which confused a lot of people. There was also another short dark match after the tapings with Cena over Edge. (Thanks to Damon Alley and Martin Ives)
Ricky Steamboat’s match with Jericho at Backlash will be his first singles in almost 15 years. His last match was with Steve Austin at Clash of the Champions in 1994.
Ashley Massaro on her MySpace said the Twitter account attributed to her is an impostor. She still claimed she has an open invitation to return to WWE any time she wants but can’t as she is under contract with someone else. She didn’t give any details on that project. (Thanks to Jenni Moore)
A company based in Canada called Muscle Flex sent out a release yesterday touting a successful defense of their ‘In the Raw’ trademark against WWE.
WWE announced TV tapings for the November European tour on 11/9 and 11/9 for the first time ever from the Sheffield Arena in Sheffield, England.
WWE reports it’s first quarter results to the stock market on 5/7 with Vince McMahon hosting a conference call to discuss the results. Should be an interesting one.
The former Kizarny (Nick Cvjetkovich) did an interview this week saying it was Vince’s idea for him to talk in carnie: “I know how to speak carnie but it was his idea to do it in my promos. I would have preferred to speak half-English and half-carnie so people could get the gist of what the hell I was saying. But, again, you’re in WWE’s house. You don’t put your feet on their table and eat their food. You want to do things according to how they do it and that’s that.” He said he knew the Kizarny character was doomed before he got released.
At the house show in Austria this past weekend there were flyers on all the seats hyping TNA’s tour in September. This used to happen all the time in the US during the 90s when WWE and WCW ran the same buildings.
The Times and Transcript at http://tinyurl.com/cu6cv2 has a story on Trish Stratus. On the current state of women’s wrestling, she said: “It is disappointing… I think what it is, they have too many women. And I think they can’t even see who’s who because there’s so many of them. I think they need someone maybe that can focus on the women.” She also talked about current WWE Divas who say they are frustrated with the lack of direction.
The 4/17 edition Smackdown did a 2.0 rating.
A young Randy Orton at http://tinyurl.com/dzgqg4
TNA NEWS
Impact is taped today and tomorrow at Universal in Orlando, FL. They are going with AJ.Styles vs. Kevin Nash for the Legends title which is Nash’s first singles match for a long time, and Taylor Wilde vs. Sojo Bolt in a Ladder match with the winner getting the first title shot at Angelina Love. They are also teasing a “huge announcement” by Team 3-D and a Beautiful People celebration.
TNA is claiming the actual attendance for Lockdown at Liacouras Center was 5,454. The paid attendance was somewhere between 3,000-3,500. Due to the papering it was pretty evident from watching on TV that the crowd was mostly casual fans who didn’t regularly watch Impact.
There is talk of Paul London and Amazing Red being brought in as a tag team.
Angelina Love suffered a concussion in the flying bodypress spot where she caught Taylor Wilde. She said she was knocked out and doesn’t remember finishing the match.
Highlights of the Danny Bonaduce-Eric Young match is at http://tinyurl.com/dg4nzj. They didn’t show the part where he was spinning nunchucks showing off to the crowd and then dropped them. In fairness he had a passable match and far better than other Celebs in wrestling matches over the years.
ESPN writer Jake Rossen, who actually used to be a huge pro wrestling fan, ripped Bobby Lashley for appearing at Lockdown: “Lashley popped up during something called ‘TNA Lockdown’ Sunday night, which appears to be professional wrestling slang for ’embarrassment to the human race,’
wrote Rossen. “Lashley greeted former WWE pal Kurt Angle in the ring. I assume some poorly performed theater for the hygiene-challenged ensued… Lashley obviously can do as he pleases to earn a buck, but I don’t think his hybrid career will do the sport of MMA any favors in the States. It’s a deranged spectacle, full of drug-addled performers taxing their adrenal glands in a poorly scripted imitation of athletics. Max von Sydow had the quote in a Woody Allen film: ‘Can you imagine the level of a mind that watches wrestling?’ I really don’t want to try.”
Several MMA websites are reporting that Lashley has signed to fight Bob Sapp on a 6/27 card in Mississippi.
Taz with one “z” is coming in soon but they are going to build to his debut. He was the second former World champion they were teasing at Lockdown, not Stevie Richards.
Christopher Daniels will apparently just be known as “Daniels” from now on. He pulled double duty at the PPV working as both himself in Lethal Lockdown and as Suicide in the X-title match. Frankie Kazarian is expected to take over as Suicide again when he’s healthy.
There is a trailer up for the 5/24 Sacrifice PPV at http://tinyurl.com/cw8a5q with AJ Styles featured in a take from the video game Gears of War.
For those who asked, WWE owns a trademark to the name Cactus Jack, but because Foley used the name before his WWE/WCW days, they can continue to use it.
JAKKS Pacific is planning to market TNA action figures in June 2010 after their WWE contract expires.
OTHER NEWS
Rob Van Dam posted a new blog at http://tinyurl.com/ddt3bo talking about his recent European tour and Test’s death.
There is a really morbid Morphoplex ad with Larry Zbyskzo talking about steroids in a graveyard at www.morphoplex.com
Lance Russell has been added to the upcoming NWA Legends fanfest in Charlotte. More info at www.nwalegends.com
Taz has been added to the Legends of the Ring fanfest next month in New Jersey at www.legendsofthering.com
The Wrestler starring Mickey Rourke goes on sale today at http://tinyurl.com/ck4sdg
Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart will be doing a signing on 4/26 at Collectors Realm in Poughkeepsie, NY.
Evan Ginzburg has a documentary out called Wrestling Then & Now: The Movie where he interviews several wrestling legends while on the road.
You can find out more by emailing [email protected] and there is a video preview at http://tinyurl.com/djjxoa
WG Diva of the Day — Angelina Love — http://tinyurl.com/d6tclz
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