=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

WRESTLING GLOBE NEWSLETTER
Thursday May 28, 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: wrestlingglobe-subscribe@topica.com

Please send any feedback, news tips, live event info or interview recaps
to: you2us@wrestlingglobe.com

Twitter with us at http://twitter.com/wrestlingglobe

 

WORLD WRESTLING ENTERTAINMENT NEWS

5/26 ECW TV results from Los Angeles, CA: Kozlov over Russ Taylor & Joey Munos (local indy workers), Evan Bourne over Mark Henry via DQ, and The Hart Dynasty & Jack Swagger over Christian & Tommy Dreamer.

In Brief: Added to the Extreme Rules PPV in New Orleans on 6/7 is Christian vs. Jack Swagger vs. Tommy Dreamer in a three-way for the ECW title in a hardcore match. I am not sure what the difference is between a no holds barred and hardcore match. Not sure WWE does either. The storyline is that Dreamer’s contract expires on 6/6, but he signed a one-day extension, and if he doesn’t win the title, he will leave for good.
WWE runs a second show tonight at Arena Monterrey in Mexico. They also run on Friday at Plaza Del Toros in Queretaro and finish the tour on Saturday at the Palacio De Los Deportes in Mexico City. All the shows were sold out in advance. We’re looking for reader reports to you2us@wrestlingglobe.com.

***

Superstars tonight on WGN has Carlito & Primo vs. Charlie Haas & Shelton Benjamin; Finlay vs. Jack Swagger and the main event of John Cena vs.
Ted DiBiase. We received several reports saying the Cena-DiBiase was the best match of the entire TV tapings on Tuesday.

Some very explicit nude photos of Matt Striker got out on the Internet.
They appeared to have been taken by himself and passed on to several celebrity blog websites by a former partner. The WWE were aware of the photos but it’s unlikely there will be any lasting repercussions. This would have been a bigger deal if this happened to a star on the level of Cena or Orton but I would hope most are not stupid enough to distribute personal photos of that nature.

Triple H called into Dave LaGreca’s XM radio show on Sirius this past week. When asked about Ric Flair returning to the ring he was negative on the idea saying: “As much as I enjoy Ric on the show and I miss seeing Ric Flair on the show, I feel that he was given the ultimate send off in the business. There have been so many guys in the past… they retire and unretire then they retire and they unretire. It’s almost a joke when they un-retire. He really wanted to be the guy who said, meant it, and did it. I don’t know if he misses the business or he needs the money. I’m not sure what it is, but if he’s thinking about coming back there has to be a pretty good reason because he was pretty adamant about that never happening.”

Raw on Monday scored a 3.2 rating while the Nuggets-Lakers game did a 6.9. The show averaged 4.69 million viewers. Historically Memorial holiday editions of Raw are down slightly from the average number. I await the WWE to find some skewed ratings data to claim Raw defeated the NBA playoffs in some way or another.

The wrist injury suffered by Mr. Kennedy taking the RKO on Monday isn’t thought to be serious.

The Undertaker recently underwent arthroscopic hip surgery and is convalescing at his ranch in South Florida. He won’t be medically cleared to return until July/August so in theory he could be back for Summerslam. Several ideas have already been pitched for his return including a program with Dolph Ziggler.

Michelle McCool fractured her nose at the Smackdown tapings on Tuesday.

Candice Michelle is back in the ring working out following an ankle injury.

Kaval (Low Ki) in developmental is still rehabbing his knee following surgery earlier this year. Why he was put there to begin with at his skill level is beyond me.

Sim Snuka is in the doghouse for a reason I don’t want to touch. He hasn’t been used on TV or at house shows for several weeks.

FCW are promoting a special Father’s Day show at the Osceola Heritage Park Exhibition Hall in Kissimmee on 6/19. Gerald Brisco, Mike Rotundo, Haku and Ted DiBiase are coming in as they all have sons under WWE developmental deals. More info at www.fcwwrestling.com.

Former WWE creative member Freddie Prinze Jr. has just landed a gig on the hit TV show 24.

The Hart Dynasty is officially the new group name of Tyson Kidd, DH Smith and Natalya.

Triple H and Michelle McCool are scheduled to travel to Japan today for promotional appearances to push the tour in July. They will also be giving out an award at the Japanese MTV Awards.

There is a tri-brand house show at the Wicomico Youth & Civic Center in Salisbury, Maryland on 7/24 with John Cena & Rey Mysterio vs. Big Show & Umaga; Christian vs. Finlay vs. Jack Swagger; MVP vs. The Miz; and CM Punk vs. Shelton Benjamin.

WWE has added a house show at the Turning Stone Resort & Casino in Verona, NY on 8/2.

Jim Ross noted that due to his new schedule with attending Raw for Superstars tapings he wouldn’t be missing any Sooners games as we incorrectly pointed out. He said he plans to attend every home game as his WWE schedule permits.

The fake Stan Kroenke on Raw was played by Troy Stone, an indy ring announcer for So Cal Pro Wrestling.

Mickey Rourke was sat front row at the Smackdown tapings at Staples Center. He took his seat during the show and left following a spot with Jericho where they had a stare down.

TOTAL NONSTOP ACTION WRESTLING NEWS

Impact tonight has AJ Styles vs. Daniels and Jeff Jarrett vs. Eric Young with the winners getting spots in the King of the Mountain match at Slammiversary; Doug Williams vs. Cody Deaner in a Ladder match; and Angelina Love vs. Sojo Bolt for the Knockouts title. Also on the show, Sting is announced as the new leader of the Main Event Mafia, plus the return of Raven and Shane Douglas and the debut of the former Victoria under her real name, Lisa Marie Varon.

TNA has launched a new video-on-demand video service at http://www.tnavideovault.com featuring PPV’s all the way back to 2004.

An update on Christy Hemme. She was due to meet with TNA officials this week to discuss her future with the company. As far as wrestling goes that appears to be out of the window for the foreseeable future. She was diagnosed with two herniated discs in her neck suffered while training in the ring with AJ Styles in January. She refused to go under the knife instead opting for a procedure called neuro cranial realignment where they basically shove two rods up your nose and blow up a balloon in your head to manipulate your cranial bones to relieve pressure off the neck.
She started working out in the gym two weeks ago. One source close to her thought she was retired from wrestling but Hemme noted during a radio interview last week that she was working hard towards getting back in the ring.

Former WWE wrestlers Elijah Burke and Shawn Spears worked a tryout match for the company on Wednesday. At press time neither are signed.

Abyss filmed an energy drink commercial this week with Monster Energy.

MMA fighter Frank Trigg did an interview with PeoplesDefender.com. On Kurt Angle doing MMA: “I think he realized that coming in with the way the organizations are right now, he isn’t going to get the pay day he would need right now as a fighter. Michael Jordan is the most recognizable basketball player in our time. He went and played baseball and couldn’t pull it off. Just because you are a great athlete doesn’t mean you can excel at another sport. Jordan went from making 30 million plus a year to making 25 thousand or whatever a Single A player makes; that is pretty tough to swallow. That is why he went back to basketball because that’s who he is. The same goes with Kurt Angle. He is making some serious money right now with TNA. He would have to fight 4-5 times a year in MMA to make that kind of money. It’s not really worth it to him.”

Story on Shark Boy at http://tinyurl.com/nnkk6o noting the fire that destroyed his apartment in February was an electrical fire that started in the apartment above his.

A note from the 5/21 house show in Oklahoma City that was attended by Danny Hodge. He has served as chairman of the Oklahoma athletic commission since 2000 that overseas all boxing and MMA events in the State.

Sting, Kurt Angle and Taz will be appearing this Saturday at the Legends of the Ring convention at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, 390 Forsgate Drive, Jamesburg, NJ. Lex Luger, Pat Paterson, Rick Martel and Eric Bischoff are also among those listed as appearing. More info at www.legendsofthering.com.

Lance Storm at http://tinyurl.com/m69xpm talks about how watching Impact drives him crazy.

OTHER WRESTLING NEWS

2006 World Wrestling Legends 6:05 Reunion PPV promoter Frank Amodeo was
sentenced to 22 years in prison and a fine of $180 million after
pleading guilty to charges of conspiracy, wire fraud, failure to remit
payroll taxes and agency proceeding obstruction. Story is at
http://tinyurl.com/m5tzcu.

Mike Hartsfield is planning a tenth XPW anniversary reunion show on 8/1.
Hartsfield worked for the promotion under Rob Black years ago and wanted
to get some of the old crew back together.

The latest drug of choice being used to many women in wrestling is a
weight loss pill called Zylene. The pill is manufactured in Florida and
the main ingredient is hoodia which basically helps suppresses hunger.

Story in the UK at http://tinyurl.com/lw9bxb about a 23-year-old man who
was accused of molesting three teenagers while using the guise of play
wrestling and pretending to be The Undertaker. One of his alleged
victims suffered from severe learning difficulties. The man denies nine
counts of sexual activity with a minor, seven counts of sexual activity
with a person with a mental disorder impeding choice, three counts of
rape, three counts of sexual assault, two counts of sexual assault of a
child under 13, and two counts of rape and inciting a child under 13 to
engage in sexual activity.

Ring of Honor at http://tinyurl.com/rxgp7d posted an interesting video
from the HD Net production truck featuring Ric Flair’s TV debut.

Michael Lohan (Lindsay’s dad) has stepped up to fight Jonny Fairplay at
the Airport Ramada in Philadelphia on 6/20.

Michael Carpenter sent word that Race to Witch Mountain with Dwayne “The
Rock” Johnson will be released on DVD on 6/4.

There is a new www.georgiawrestlinghistory.com audio blog up at
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/PSP with Jimmy Rave and Roderick Strong.

Cleveland All Pro Wrestling run at the high school in Massillon, OH on
6/27 with Butterbean in a bodyslam challenge, TNA’s Madison Rayne, Doink
the Clown, and more. You can email stagelive@live.com for further info.

Diva-Dirt.com presents WGN’s Diva of the Day, Rosa Mendes at
http://www.diva-dirt.com/divaoftheday/

=-=-=-=-=-==-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Please send any feedback, news tips, live event info or interview recaps
to: you2us@wrestlingglobe.com

Missed an issue? Go to: http://lists.topica.com/lists/wrestlingglobe

© 2009 Copyright Wrestling Globe Newsletter – All Rights Reserved.