=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
WRESTLING GLOBE NEWSLETTER
Friday May 29, 2009
=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Wrestling Globe Newsletter by Mike Aldren – All the latest professional wrestling news and analysis direct to your mailbox. WGN is 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 feedback, news tips, live event info or interview recaps
to: [email protected]
Twitter with us at http://twitter.com/wrestlingglobe
We value ourselves on being a free enjoyable read, with new content available almost every day. It takes a lot of time and effort to make this possible. If you enjoy Wrestling Globe Newsletter, then please take a moment to make an occasional donation (however large or small), using the secure PayPal link below. Thank you for your continued support of Wrestling Globe: http://tinyurl.com/cadmvm
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=4304002
WORLD WRESTLING ENTERTAINMENT NEWS
5/28 Superstars TV results: Carlito & Primo over Shelton Benjamin & Charlie Haas; Jack Swagger over Finlay; and John Cena over Ted DiBiase.
5/27 Raw house show results from Monterrey, Mexico: Kofi Kingston over Chavo Guerrero; Santino Marella over The Brian Kendrick in a comedy match; Mickie James (under a mask) & Kelly Kelly over Beth Phoenix & Rosa Mendez; MVP defeated William Regal; Los Primos & El Primo Colon over Legacy; John Cena over The Miz; and El Rey Misterio Jr. & Batista over Big Show & Randy Orton.
The show was sold out. Maryse was advertised but didn’t appear. Match of the night was actually said to be Cena-Miz. Finish in the main event was Misterio doing a frog splash as a tribute to Eddie Guerrero.
We’re looking for reader reports to [email protected] from all the WWE shows this weekend.
The Raw crew runs tonight at the Plaza Del Toros in Queretaro. They finish up in Mexico on Saturday at the Palacio De Los Deportes in Mexico City before an expected crowd of 19,000. Sunday is a travel day to Birmingham, AL for Monday’s TV at the BJCC with MVP vs. Kofi Kingston for the United States title. I also hear they are planning a skit with Santino/Santina claming Vickie Guerrero has a virus far worse than swine-flu building up to their Hog Pen match. Yay.
The Smackdown tours picks up on Saturday running the McKenzie Arena in Chattanooga, TN and they also run on Sunday at the Diddle Arena in Bowling Green, KY. The listed line up for those shows include Edge vs.
Jeff Hardy; CM Punk vs. Shelton Benjamin; and Khali vs. Chris Jericho.
The TV tapings are on Tuesday at the Forum in Memphis whith Jerry Lawler as special referee in a dark tag team cage match of Rey Mysterio & Jeff Hardy vs. Edge & Chris Jericho.
***
Smackdown tonight has R-Truth & Khali vs. Dolph Ziggler & Mike Knoz;
Melina vs. Alicia Fox; John Morrison vs. Umaga; Cryme Tyme vs. Shelton
Benjamin & Charlie Haas; Eve Torres vs. Layla; and the main event is
Jeff Hardy & Rey Mysterio vs. Edge & Chris Jericho. This show didn’t get
rave reviews from a live aspect and the Diva matches are said to be
especially horrible.
The Unforgiven PPV at the Bell Centre in Montreal on 9/13 has been
renamed as Breaking Point. The idea is that the whole show will feature
submission matches. Ironically, Breaking Point was also the name given
to UFC 81 last year that was headlined by Brock Lesnar vs. Frank Mir.
WWE recently sent out a survey asking fans to chose a name for a
submission theme PPV and that was the name most people voted for.
The Associated Press at http://tinyurl.com/nao2px ran a story on Ric
Flair wanting to return to the ring. The story noted that WWE retired
him, so Flair doesn’t consider himself retired. He also plugged his
appearance with Ring of Honor this weekend. Flair has been in
negotiations with several promoters to wrestle overseas. He said the
money on offer is too much to turn down. He was just announced on
Thursday for the Nu-Wrestling Evolution group out of Italy for three
dates in South Africa between 8/30 and 9/1 although the promotional
material doesn’t state that be will be wrestling. The former Rikishi,
Snitski, Big Daddy V, Gangrel and Orlando Jordan are also on the tour.
Jim Ross in his latest blog had this to say on the Flair situation:
“After talking to Ric Flair Monday, I have no doubts in my mind that he
hasn’t wrestled his last bout. I don’t think that his next in ring
wrestling outing will be for WWE but internationally Ric has many
lucrative offers that a 60 year old man with somewhat staggering,
personal financial obligations likely cannot pass up. The sums of money
being purported surrounding these proposed bouts is serious money. These
bouts could theoretically run into 2010. I am not generally in favor of
Ric stepping back in the ring for multiple dates in other’s rings
wrestling who knows who at this point but I also can understand the
financial obligations that Ric has and “getting whole” so to speak at
this stage of his game has credence. Ric shared his potential schedule
with me and he’s going to rack up tons of frequent flier miles in
addition to earning major bucks.”
Fun interview at http://tinyurl.com/llhgre with Mark Henry talking to a
reporter in the Philippines about his work out routine which involves a
lot of eating. It appears there was a language barrier issue as when
asked the heaviest weight he has ever lifted, he said: “A quarter of a
thousand pounds.” 250lbs… perhaps he was talking about eating a
quarter pounder?
ECW on Tuesday did a 1.0 rating.
Finlay does have a legit eye injury which is why they did the deal on
ECW and change the advertised main event to a 3-on-2 match.
Eve Torres has been taking BJJ classes at the Gracie Academy in Los
Angeles. There are several Divas who are regulars at the
Gracie-certified gyms in California and Florida.
Eve and Maria Kanellis attended Melanie Segal’s Celebrity House Party
last night in Los Angeles, a charity function where celebrities get
gifted and pampered.
Serena Deeb still hasn’t signed her WWE developmental deal.
Maryse has just become the longest reigning Divas Champion in history,
having held the title for more than 155 days. Granted, she is only the
second Diva to hold the title after Michelle McCool.
The company has rebranded it’s online video-on-demand website to
www.wweclassics.com. On a side note, 24/7 is currently airing WCW
Slamboree 1998, which of course, has the Chris Benoit vs. Fit Finlay
match erased from history.
Cryme Tyme will be appearing at Stereo One in Cordova, TN on Monday to
host a contest for free tickets to the Smackdown taping in Memphis in
association with CW 30 Eyewitness News.
Rey Mysterio is a special guest at the Premios Deportes Sports Awards in
Los Angeles on 6/25. The show will air on the Univision Network on 7/5.
Jimmy Hart and Jim Duggan will be representing the WWE at the New York
State Fair in Syracuse on 8/29.
Variety ran a story this week reporting that Time Warner is splitting
from AOL after spending nearly a decade trying to build a new-age media
empire. The merger led to Time Warner pulling the plug on WCW.
Rob Van Dam at http://tinyurl.com/p8cx6y talks about his “indefinite
break” from WWE.
The Miami Herald at http://tinyurl.com/kspfee has a story on Chris
Lorio, the lead guitarist of Adelitas Way, about the band’s song
Invincible which opens of Superstars each week. The band also has a song
for Legacy (Rhodes & DiBiase) in the works. Thank God!
TOTAL NONSTOP ACTION WRESTLING NEWS
5/28 Impact TV results from Orlando, FL: Suicide over Amazing Red to
retain the X-Division title; Doug Williams over Cody Deaner in a Ladder
match; Angelina Love over Sojourner Bolt to retain the Knockouts title;
Jeff Jarrett over Eric Young; and AJ Styles over Daniels.
In Brief: Jarrett and Styles won King of the Mountain qualifying match
for Slammiversary. Side stories in both matches. They tried to turn
Young heel by having him attack Jarrett after the match which got more
cheers than boos. Daniels was attacked by the returning Shane Douglas
after his match. Douglas looked very heavy and it was surprising to see
him back as the last time he was here he said publicly that he was at
the point where he couldn’t wrestle without taking pain pills…
Victoria debuted (see below) to confront Angelina Love who has fired
Cute Kip again… Raven, who has dropped weight, reunited with Dr.
Stevie in the deal with Abyss/Daffney… The storyline explanation for
Homicide being gone as well as Hernandez (neck surgery) is that he had a
death in the family… Sting took his spot as the new leader of the Main
Event Mafia. He fired Rocco, Sally Boy and the rats… Foley announced
that because he body is broken down he will only be defending the title
once a year so that pretty much guarantees a title change at
Slammiversary… Lethal Consequences and the Motor City Machine Guns are
joining forces to find out who Suicide really is… Only other item of
note on the show was Team 3D giving Beer Money, INC. a fake check and
trophy for winning the tag tournament.
TNA are back on the road this weekend with two house shows attempting to
cash in on the “Denver Debacle.” They run tonight at the Convention
Center in Pueblo, CO and again on Saturday at the Taco Johns Event
Center in Cheyenne, WY. Anyone who brings their unused tickets from the
rescheduled WWE shows in Colorado get a $10 discount. So you are
basically in for free aside from the hard sell post-show $20 autograph
signings. There is also a $5 discount to college students and military
personnel with identification. The line up includes Samoa Joe vs. Scott
Steiner; Abyss vs. Matt Morgan; Suicide vs. Consequences Creed; plus
Team 3D, Angelina Love, Motorcity Machine Guns, Brutus Magnus, Awesome
Kong, and Eric Young all listed as appearing. We’re looking for reports
from both shows to [email protected].
***
Lisa Marie Varon was referred to as Victoria last night in her TV debut.
I guess they said it once and are waiting to see if they receive a cease
and desist letter. There were also reports in later tapings that will
air over the next couple of weeks that she used the name Tara. We should
have clarification for the next issue. I assume it’s a situation where
they want to own her name for merchandising rights. All that aside she
looked in awesome shape which is pretty much attributed to her MMA
training.
Toby Wachter at http://upperdeckblog.com/?p=671 wrote a blog in response
to the commentary that Jim Cornette wrote on hardcore wrestling at
www.jimcornette.com. Toby is a New Yorker and an ECW fan from back in
the day so they were never going to agree. He does raise a couple of
valid points but I agree with Cornette in that his Smokey Mountain
Wrestling did out draw ECW during the period both were in existence
although years later ECW was more successful at it’s peak.
Wrestling referee Shane Sewell said he left the company and good terms
after his contract expired: “Theres really not too much to tell you
other than my contract with TNA was up for renewal, and unfortunately we
just couldnt come to amicable terms for a new deal. Both sides really
did try to make it work. It was just business, and no painful
behind-the-scenes drama. TNA has some great people in the company, and
it was a pleasure having the opportunity to work with some of the best
talent in the business today.” He said he would be heading back to
wrestle in Puerto Rico.
Victory Road was confirmed to be held at Universal in Orlando on 7/19.
Last year the PPV took place in Houston but now in the current climate
it’s cheaper to produce the show and let people in for free than it is
to take on the road and sell tickets.
There are plans to run Bound For Glory in a major city in October. The
PPV is TNA’s yearly version of Wrestlemania.
Lance Storm at www.storymwrestling.com is boycotting TNA programming as
it gives him nightmares and makes him angry. Seriously.
Kevin Nash is working the IWS 10th Anniversary Show in Montreal on
Saturday. He faces the guy who blames him for ruining his life in 1995,
Pierre-Carl Ouellet. The history lesson is at
http://www.iwswrestling.com/.
Midway Games has put the TNA video game license up for sale to the
highest bidder.
Bobby Lashley was interviewed on fighthype.com to promote his next MMA
fight against Bob Sapp next month. When asked about TNA he said he was
hopeful they could come to terms but won’t be signing anything until
after the Sapp fight.
OTHER WRESTLING NEWS
Some Ring of Honor notes who are taping TV this weekend in Philadelphia.
Ric Flair will referee the Jerry Lynn-Austin Aries match in New York
City show on 6/13… The returning Nigel McGuinness vs. Claudio
Castagnoli was added to the 6/26 show in Detroit… The Take No
Prisoners PPV taped earlier this year in Houston airs on 6/12 on
InDemand, Direct TV, DISH Network, & TVN in the United States and in
Canada on Bell Express Vu & Viewers Choice Canada… Lance Storm vs.
Chris Hero was announced for the 7/25 show in Toronto. Storm will also
face a TBA opponent on the 7/24 show.
ROH TV on HD Net on Saturday night has Kevin Steen & El Generico vs. The
American Wolves in a Tables match for the tag titles; Roderick Strong
vs. Rhett Titus; Sara Del Rey vs. Daizee Haze vs. MsChif in a three way;
and Erick Stevens vs. Sami Callihan. For more info check out
www.rohwrestling.com.
National Wrestling Superstars runs tonight at the Knights of Columbus
Hall in Ridgefield Park, NJ with Bob Holly, SoCal Val and The Patriot.
For more info you can call 732-888-1704.
Steve Corino turns 36 today.
Justin Credible is promoting a fanfest at the Marriott Cromwell in
Cromwell, CT on 8/2. Among those already announced as appearing: Terry
Funk, Dallas Page, Harley Race and Marty Jannetty. For more info you can
visit www.prowrestlingicons.net or email to [email protected].
Colin Delaney at http://tinyurl.com/nsl5v8 talks about his short-lived
WWE run.
http://www.carnagecrew.net has a new show up with Antonio Thomas and
Shayne Maddox.
Torrie Wilson appears on I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here which
premieres this weekend on NBC. All the contestants have been locked away
in a hotel in Costa Rica for the past couple of days before they are
literally thrown into a jungle. If you watch the show you will see what
I mean.
Story on Trish Stratus at http://tinyurl.com/ch7frx who attended the
grand openoing of DiamondBack Golf Club in Richmond Hill, ONT on 3/27.
Diva-Dirt.com presents WGN’s Diva of the Day, Lalya at
http://www.diva-dirt.com/divaoftheday/
=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-