OWW Open Call
OWW is currently looking for hard working, dedicated columnists with good writing skills and people willing to help update the massive profiles sections. We’re also looking for someone who is able to write RAW recaps and send them in Monday Night or Tuesday morning at the tlatest. Anyone wanting to help out can contact Brad at oww@onlineworldofwrestling.com
Jericho & Helms Arrested
Earlier this week after a house show, Jericho and Helms were arrested in Erlanger, Kentucky for public intoxication. The word is a play fight got out of hand in the back seat of a cab and Helms inadvertantly elbowed a woman. The woman wasn’t pressing charges and the duo were held for an hour and released with a fine, which would be less than $200. Apparently Christian and CM Punk posted the boy’s bail. Jericho went without repercussion apparently but Helms was pulled from TV last week and the Rumble this weekend.
TMZ.com jumped all over the story and Jericho, in turn, had their camera crew thrown out of one of his autograph sessions a few days later.
WWE Royal Rumble 2010
A fairly average show with a pretty good surprise ending to the Rumble itself. Edge made an early return from a career threatening Achilles tendon injury to a HUGE pop in Atlanta. Some interesting stories out of the Rumble were Punk (#3) eliminating competition early on so he was in the ring by himself, so he grabbed a mic and cut a Straight Edge promo not once, not twice, but THREE separate times before he was eliminated by Triple H later on. Hunter (8) and Shawn (18) were in fairly early and dominated together, clearing the ring just as Cena’s (#19) music hit so it was the three big stars in together. Michaels eliminated Triple H. Jericho in at #28, right before the suprise entrant of EDGE at #29, who cleaned house and eliminated Jericho quickly (maybe that was his punishment?). Batista in at #30 to eliminate Shawn. Batista, Cena, Edge the final 3 with Cena eliminating Batista and Edge eliminating Cena. Crowd was really hot for Edge, who received a reported 10 minute “Welcome Back” chant after the cameras went off.
Rest of the matches were so-so. Mickie defeated Michelle in 20-seconds to win the Women’s championship and exacted her revenge for the “Piggy James” stuff by beating both Michelle & Layla up post match and then all the face Divas dumped a huge cake on the two women. Good blowoff.
Teddy Long made a match for Miz to defend his US Title against MVP for the first match of the night, which wasn’t advertised. Odd for the SmackDown! GM to book a match for a RAW title, yes? Anyhow, decent opener. Miz retained with an easy roll-up. The two fought later in the Rumble and eliminated each other.
Christian defeated Zeke Jackson in a decent match to retain.
Sheamus defeated Orton by DQ to retain the WWE Championship after Cody interfered. After the match Randy attacked Cody and Ted tried to save him so Randy beat him up, too. Sheamus sneaked into the ring and hit his Mafia kick on Orton after the match. Crowd was mostly dead for the match until Randy attacked Legacy afterwords.
Taker defeated Mysterio in, again, just a decent match to retain the World Championship. Interesting that there was blood that WWE didn’t stop the match to clean up. Taker took a shot in the face from Rey’s knee brace. He could have a broken nose.
As I said, nothing spectacular about the show and a fairly short Rumble at 49 minutes but it was interesting nonetheless. The Road to WrestleMania seems to be kicking off pretty well.
Davey Richards Abandons EVOLVE & DGUSA
Word broke earlier this week that Davey Richards had signed with ROH (it was actually a resigning) and would no longer be involved with either Dragon Gate USA, where he was scheduled to be one of the promotion’s top stars or with EVOLVE, where he was actually one of the guy’s in charge. Both promotions are booked by former ROH booker Gabe Sapolsky. There is said to be alot of sour feelings towards Richards over the incident because he had been giving Sapolsky his word that he’d be available and that he wasn’t interested in “the money” but then he signs with ROH without giving his notice and refusing to fulfill his obligated bookings, which included shows for both DGUSA and EVOLVE in Phoenix, AZ during WrestleMania weekend. He’ll now be appearing exclusively at the ROH event that weekend.
TNA Permanently Moving to Monday Nights & WWE Threatening to Counter
TNA recently announced that they’ll be doing another “Monday Night iMPACT” on March 1, 2010. The company hasn’t said anything official but Dave Meltzer is reporting that this will indeed be the first night of a new, permanent timeslot for the company. There are also rumors that IF TNA moves to Monday nights, WWE will finally give in to USA Network and push the show to 3-hours permanently. USA has been pressuring WWE for 3-hours of RAW for quite some time (hence the reason for the number of 3-hour specials) but Vince has been relunctant to the idea.
ROH Suing Ric Flair
It’s been reported that Ring of Honor has filed a lawsuit against Ric Flair, claiming “The Nature Boy” owes the company $45,000 from the deal that went south between the two companies this past year. Flair had signed with ROH to serve as the company’s “Ambassador,” which included special appearences and autograph signings at several ROH events and appearences on ROH’s TV program. It was rumored that Flair was using the position as a backdoor for his son Reid’s entrance into the company but Reid was busted for heroin possesion before anything ever came of that. The story goes WWE contacted Flair and requested that he not appear on ROH TV because they had upcoming plans for him. Flair dropped ROH like a bad habit and WWE proceeded to use him once or twice then ship him out again, resulting in him signing a 3-year deal connecting him with Hulk Hogan and doing the Australian tour and signing with TNA.
ROH is alleging Flair made off with $35,000 he was paid in advance for TV tapings and $10,000 he was paid for a Montreal appearence that he didn’t show up for. Flair also has an issue with several other people who loaned him money, including Highspots, Inc who are in possession of Flair’s original Doomed Globe NWA Championship.
OWW Radio ft. Rick Martel
OWW Radio had a great interview with Rick “The Model” Martel last week, which is now available to download on the OWW mainsite by clicking the “RADIO” tab at the top of your page, as well as iTunes. If you download iTunes and subscribe to OWW Radio, all new episodes of OWW Radio will be automatically downloaded for you as soon as they’re available so check that out. If you can’t listen LIVE every Tuesday night from 9-11 PM EST, 6-8 PM PST then iTunes is the best way to get your OWW Radio fix.
http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/
You can also find OWW Radio available for free download at our partner site www.ClickWrestle.com
OWW Radio would like to thank this week’s featured guest, Rick Martel. Visit Rick Martel’s official website http://www.rickthemodelmartel.com/ and you can email Rick Martel at rickthemodelmartel@hotmail.com
Be sure to log into OWW Genesis this Tuesday night to check out the latest edition of OWW Radio, which will feature a heavy look at the Royal Rumble and the Road to WrestleMania.
You can contact OWW Radio through all of the following sites –
OWW Radio Toll Free Number 1-866-543-6990 (Open 24/7)
OWW Genesis Forum – http://www.onlineworldofwrestling.com/forums/
OWW Radio Twitter Page – http://www.twitter.com/owwradio
OWW Radio Facebook Page – http://www.facebook.com/owwradio
OWW.com Facebook Page – http://www.facebook.com/owwcom
OWW Radio Youtube Channel – http://www.youtube.com/OWWRadio
OWW Radio Advertising – http://sites.google.com/a/onlineworldofwrestling.com/ra/
Bobby Lashley News
Lashley recently launched a new website for his new American Top Team sponsored gym in Colorado at www.attaltitude.com. You can also find videos of Bobby training for his StrikeForce debut this past Saturday at his main website, www.lashleynutrition.com
Lashley quickly killed his opponent, Wes Sims, Saturday night. Sims, who was on this past season of The Ultimate Fighter, is a big pro wrestling fan and has trained and done some Indy wrestling in the past. Going into the fight he had promised to “drop a big leg” on Lashley during the fight and he even attempted a Test of Strength lock-up with Lashley at the beginning. Lashley paid no attention to the goof, took him down, and quickly scored a ref stoppage. After the fight Sims continued to play the wrestling heel character by protesting his loss, complaining about an early stoppage, and promising to settle up with Lashley later.
I hope TNA doesn’t pick up on this…
Early WWE Hall of Fame 2010 News
In addition to Stu Hart, who I assume was confirmed by McMahon himself a few weeks ago on RAW, another name being bandied around for this year’s Hall of Fame induction is Antonio Inoki. Inoki has apparently been telling Japanese press that he will be inducted this year by Stan Hansen.
Plugs
KayfabeCommentaries.com has a new line of t-shirts focusing on the company’s past DVD projects available now which you can check out at www.heat-wear.com [Thanks to Kayfabe Commentaries]
Promolast Events recently released a video blog with Lex Luger to hype the star’s coming appearence at the Promolast Atlanta Fanfest on June 4/5. Luger talks about several things, including the State of the Business and another Monday Night War brewing between WWE & TNA. You can find the video here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaFx14BVN5s [Thanks to Emilee]
Anyone looking to submit news, notes, or results for the OWW Newsletter, you can send them to owwnews@gmail.com
OWW Genesis
Anyone looking for up-to-the-minute breaking news should considering signing up for OWW Genesis, the Online World of Wrestling forums. We have a news forum that is continuously updated, as well as a very active community where a “Family Environment” is strictly enforced. We keep trolls, drama, foul language, and harassment to a minimum and good, clean, pro wrestling debates and discussions to a maximum.
Some features of the forum include TakeDown, an RP based efed that runs shows once a month; Undisputed, a wrestling debate league which averages one card a month; a Video Vault where matches and segments of wrestling’s past are all compiled in one easy to find place; an Open Forum for OWW Radio discussions; an active MMA community; and what I would consider a group of wrestling’s most knowledgable fans eager to talk and share their knowledge.
Daniel Wade