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WRESTLING GLOBE NEWSLETTER
Monday April 6, 2009
by Mike 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
Raw is live tonight from the Toyota Center in Houston, TX with a rematch of the match you didn’t get to see last night – Carlito & Primo Colon over John Morrison & The Miz for the tag titles.
The Smackdown/ECW tapings is Tuesday from the Frank C. Erwin Jr. Center in Austin, TX with the advertised dark match of John Cena, Triple H & Jeff Hardy vs. Edge, Randy Orton & Matt Hardy.
We’re looking for reader reports from both shows to [email protected]
***
4/5 Wrestlemania 25 PPV results from Houston, TX.
Carlito & Primo Colon over John Morrison & The Miz to unify the tag titles. They bumped the match from the PPV due to time constraints. Matt Striker and Todd Grisham handled announcing for the DVD. The finish was a spot where Carlito speared Miz through the ropes on to the lumberjacks, and then Primo reversed a moonlight drive into a back stabber to pin Morrison. Personally I would have rather watched this than a rocker who was cool 10 years ago. Dolph Ziggler was one of the lumberjacks so he appears to be okay (story we were told was that he was busted hardway and banged up his shoulder at Fan Axxess). The other lumberjacks were Jamie Noble, Great Khali, Hawkins & Ryder, Cryme Tyme, Hurricane Helms, Paul Burchill, Goldust, Charlie Haas, Mike Knox, Vladimir Kozlov, R-Truth, Evan Bourne, Jimmy Wang Yang, Tommy Dreamer, William Regal, Jack Swagger, Ezekiel Jackson, and Brian Kendrick.
The show opened with the Pussycat Doll singing America the Beautiful.
The three-man announce team was Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler and Michael “Vintage” Cole.
CM Punk won Money in the Bank over Christian, Finlay, Mark Henry, MVP, Kane, Shelton Benjamin and Kofi Kingston. This was perhaps second best match of the show. There were several cool spots and you can tell a lot of work went into putting the match together. The only other guys you could see winning this one were Christian, MVP or Benjamin. The crowd really wanted Christian to win and many started booing when it became obvious that Punk was getting the briefcase.
Santino Marella in drag as “Santina” became Miss Wrestlemania winning the Diva Battle Royal. Everyone was brought out during the Kid Rock concert. They should have at least given entrances to the past Divas — Joy Giovanni (who nobody had a clue about although she was backstage at Raw a few weeks ago), Molly Holly, Jackie Gayda-Haas (who looked in better shape than any women on the roster), Sunny (who looked good for her age), Torrie Wilson and Victoria. Trish Stratus coming in fell through but they were working on it up until the last few days. The WWE version as I was told, which I’m very sceptical about, is that she wanted to win the match and that wasn’t going to happen. They had already contacted the other women so they decided to use them anyway and it turned out to be a waste of time and money. The match to me was just a complete trainwreck and you could barely identify anyone. The worst part was Ross, Lawler and Cole being made to look like idiots as they kayfabed that they didn’t know Santina was really Santino. It became worse when the crowd started chanting for Santino. Candice Michelle and Mae Young were ringside as guest time keepers. The current Divas in the match were: Eve Torres, Jillian Hall, Katie Lea Burchill, Brie Bella, Beth Phoenix, Alicia Fox, Gail Kim, Kelly Kelly, Layla, Maryse, Michelle McCool, Melina, Mickie James, Maria, Natalya, Nikki Bella, Rosa Mendes, and Tiffany.
Chris Jericho over Roddy Piper (54), Ricky Steamboat (56) and Jimmy Snuka (65). Ric Flair was managing the legends and Mickey Rourke was sat ringside with Frank Shamrock. Sadly, Piper and Snuka can’t do much of anything any more and looked terrible. Steamboat did most of the work after Piper and Snuka were eliminated. He looked in great shape for his age doing his trademark arm drags, bumped off the top rope a few times, and even managed a plancha to the outside. This could easily have been a pretty decent singles match. In the end Jericho got the pin with a codebreaker. Flair stormed the ring but Jericho laid him out too. He challenged Rourke to get in the ring and Rourke saved face for the legends knocking Jericho out with a left hook. I guess they’re hoping for some mainstream play. Rourke and Flair celebrated and left together.
Matt Hardy over Jeff Hardy in an extreme rules match. Good match for the time they had but the crowd wasn’t all that into it. The story was Jeff destroying Matt with move after move. He missed a leapfrog leg drop from an eight foot ladder over a ten foot ladder. Cole announced it as 20 feet in the air. Matt gained the advantage and won by putting Jeff’s head in a steel chair and using a twist of fate for the pin.
Rey Mysterio, who came out looking like Dink the Clown from Wrestlemania 10, over JBL to win the Intercontinental title. Match was short and sweet. JBL was telling people last night at the Wrestlemania after party that he has wrestled his last match.
The Undertaker over Shawn Michaels in what will go down as one of the greatest matches in Wrestlemania history. Fantastically paced going just over 30 minutes. There was a scary spot when Taker dived over the tope rope and crashed into a plant cameraman. That won’t feel good this morning. The last 10 minutes featured near falls as they took turns to kick out of each other’s finisher. Taker kicked out of the elbow drop and superkick, and Michaels kicked out of the last ride, chokeslam and tombstone piledriver. Finish was Michaels doing a moonsault from the top rope and Taker catching him and turning it into another tombstone. It will be a sad day when these two retire. The streak remains in tact at 17-0.
John Cena over Edge and Big Show to win the World title. Cena did a cool entrance with a hundred guys walking out dressed identical to him to his old music. It was based on something Eminem did at the MTV Music Awards a few years ago. I know some people didn’t like this match but I thought it was really good for the most part. The finish was Cena squatting both Show and Edge on his shoulders for a double attitude adjustment. Edge slipped off so Cena hit the move on Show, and then hit the move on Edge back on to Show.
They announced Wrestlemania 26 for March 28, 2010 in Phoenix, AZ.
Justin Roberts announced the Hall of Fame class of 2009. Austin came out last in his broken Men’s Warehouse suit and then quickly disappeared for a few seconds. His entrance music hit and he drove down to the ring in an ATV for a beer bash. The crowd was really hot for this segment.
Probably the wrong place on the card to have this farewell moment.
Triple H over Rndy Orton to retain the WWE title. They added a late stip that the title would change hands on a countout or DQ pushing the idea Hunter couldn’t the sledge hammer, so of course he was going to.
Anti-climactic finish to the show. The crowd was flat and restless by this point. There was a ref bump when Orton pushed Hunter into Scott Armstrong. He hit the RKO and went to the outside for the sledge hammer, but as he was climbing back into the ring Hunter punted him in the head, hit him with the sledge hammer, and then pinned him with a pedigree.
There will probably be a deal on Raw tonight with Orton crying foul due to the illegal use of the sledge hammer.
***
WWE sent out a release this morning touting Wrestlemania 25 as it’s highest grossing live event in history with $6.9 million in revenue.
They couldn’t claim a new attendance record so they noted in the release that the show had 72,744 in attendance surpassing SuperBowl XLIII in Tampa (70,774). I believe the actual attendance record for Reliant Stadium is a Miley Cyrus concert last year drawing 73,459.
A lot of press on Mickey Rourke today calling him a “sell out” for participating in WrestleMania. TMZ wrote: “Mickey won the battle … but lost a little more of whatever dignity he had left. The only thing faker than Mickey Rourke’s hair — this fight between him and Chris Jericho at last night’s WrestleMania.” WWE was worried right up until Saturday night wondering if Rourke was actually going to show up for the PPV.
There was more drama on Sunday as well a few hours before the show as he was working news reporters at a press conference claiming he couldn’t contractually get in the ring because he’s doing the movie Iron Man 2.
Undertaker spent most of Wrestlemania weekend keeping a low profile in his hotel room icing his knees. The belief is that they are going to have to use him more sporadically than before as his body is so badly broken down.
A photo from the Taker-Michaels match made the front page of today’s Houston Chronicle with a caption saying “Shawn Michaels, the old football player from San Antonio, and Mark Calaway, aka the Undertaker, the old basketball player from Houston, brought down the house Sunday night during WrestleMania XXV at Reliant Stadium.”
JBL wrote in a blog today on the WWE website that he was leaving the
company: “I don’t know what the future holds, never say never in life.
But I have wrestled my last match. Months ago, I picked out this match.
If Eddie Guerrero couldn’t be here for it then my dear friend Rey was the obvious choice, and I’m proud he was. I want to thank the WWE for a great career, for taking a chance on me and allowing me the keys to the car for a while. I will always represent the WWE wherever I go, I am proud of my 13 = years with the WWE. And, I am proud of the WWE for cleaning up a great sport to make it more healthy to everyone that is a part. However, I have no current plans on doing anything in the future on a professional level with WWE. I don’t plan on doing commentary, in fact; it hasn’t even been brought up to me. I don’t plan on being an on air character. I plan on starting the next chapter in my life, and closing the door on this one.” He said he plans to put all his energy into business projects noting a distribution service in Nashville and a beverage company: “You may see me in the WWE again, I don’t know-but that is not the plan. Right now, I have gotten up early today and am ready to go to work on the next part of my life that will hopefully exceed the first part. I have been on the road for my entire adult life.
I want to put the suitcases up and do my best to be successful outside of wrestling, today starts that journey… From the bottom of my heart, thank you for allowing me to be a part of the great theater we call “sports entertainment”, personally I just always considered myself a wrestler.”
Jim Ross at http://tinyurl.com/cnwfm9 also has a new blog up talking Wrestlemania 25. He said the Taker-Michaels match was the best he can ever recall broadcasting: “Old school approach, a magnificent story, amazing near falls, drama, surprises, intensity, and awesome athleticism were just a few of the memorable attributes of this extraordinary contest. Quite simply, its a wrestling match Ill never forget and Ive seen plenty of them. I had immense personal respect for both men going into the match but that respect swelled ten fold when this instant classic concluded. If any young wrestler doesnt thoroughly study this one then they are doing themselves a gross injustice.” Ross also noted he didn’t yet know who would be announcing with him on Tuesday at the Smackdown tapings.
We had emails from some Comcast subscribers who had problems ordering Wrestlemania. Some were told the HD feed wouldn’t be available although it did work for some.
For some reason Molly Holly was wearing a brunette wig during her autograph signing at Fan Axxess on Saturday, and was back to her blonde hair for the Divas Battle Royal on Sunday.
Sports Illustrated at http://tinyurl.com/d9u2ah has a story on Wrestlemania with Jerry Lawler saying Vince promised him a Wrestlemania match but that was three years ago and he’s still waiting.
The Miami Herald at http://tinyurl.com/dbdzl5 has a story on Matt Hardy.
An edited version of Wrestlemania 25 will air on NBC on 8/30 (Sunday) as WWE seem to have given up on the Saturday Night Main Event specials.
Charter are doing a deal where if you order Wrestlemania 25, Night of Champions, SummerSlam and Survivor Series with them you are automatically entered into a draw to win a VIP trip to WrestleMania 26 in Phoenix.
WWE has signed a licensing deal with F.A.B. Starpoint for back-to-school products.
Bret Hart did a radio interview over the weekend noting Dory Funk Jr.
asked him to induct the Funk’s into the Hall of Fame. He agreed to but knew it would never happen as he was told Vince had already picked Dusty Rhodes to induct them. When asked about Shawn Michaels talking about him in WWE Magazine he said he didn’t think he would want to put Michaels into the Hall of Fame saying it was quite a stretch but would be open to clearing the air with him. He also said he had spoken to Vince about putting out another DVD.
The Chicago Tribune at http://tinyurl.com/ct5tjj has a story on CM Punk talking about his rise to fame and straight edge lifestyle.
12 Rounds with John Cena finished it’s second weekend No. 9 at the box office doing $2.3 million for a domestic total of $9,022,000. Race to Witch Mountain with Dwayne Johnson now in it’s fourth week was No. 8 doing $3,351,000 for a total of $58,388,000.
TNA NEWS
Hiroshi Tanahashi beat Kurt Angle over the weekend in Japan to keep the IWGP heavyweight title. The Motor City Machine Guns also worked the show retaining the IWGP jr. tag titles over Prince Devitt and Ryusuke Taguchi.
The TNA website finally removed Karen Angle’s profile from the roster section. She last appeared on TV around six months ago.
Booker T’s fanfest over the weekend in Houston raised over $20,000 for the Fight for Kids Foundation. We received one report. The only complaint that person had was that the event started later than advertised due to just one person processing tickets at the box office.
When the doors opened there were around 200 people coming in at the same time causing chaos. The fanfest drew during the afternoon drew over 500.
All the advertised talent appeared except Matt “Spike Dudley” Hyson who was a no show.
OTHER NEWS
Ring of Honor announced today that Ric Flair has been added to their TV tapings this coming Thursday night at the Arena in Philadelphia, PA. I guess this means Flair is done with WWE for now. Already announced is Austin Aries vs. Roderick Strong; Bryan Danielson vs. Tyler Black; and Kevin Steen & El Generico vs. Kenny King & Rhett Titus as the main events for the next round of shows. More info at www.rohwrestling.com
Columbia Pictures recently reached out to Randy Savage for permission to use his likeness for a new TV pilot.
The Hollywood Wax Museum is selling off a number of life size celebrity wax figures, including Hulk Hogan, on 5/1 at www.LiveAuctioneers.com.
Petey Williams will be appearing at the Gladiators Aztecas Lucha Libre International event in Addison, IL on 4/10.
Kizarny will be appearing at Carlos Colon’s WWC events in Bayamon, Puerto Rico on 4/11, and San Sebastian on 4/12.
Tommy Rich and Molly Holly will also be appearing at the NWA Legends Fan Fest in Charlotte, NC the weekend of 8/7. More info at www.nwalegends.com
WG Diva of the Day — Traci Brooks — http://tinyurl.com/c3j8sb
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