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WRESTLING GLOBE NEWSLETTER
Tuesday June 23, 2009
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Wrestling Globe Newsletter by Mike Aldren – All the latest professional wrestling news, gossip and occasional opinion direct to your mailbox.
WGN is read by industry power players, many top wrestlers and thousands of fans from all around the world.
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WORLD WRESTLING ENTERTAINMENT NEWS
6/22 Raw TV results from Green Bay, WI: Jeff Hardy, Rey Mysterio & Great Khali over Edge, Dolph Ziggler & Chris Jericho; Cody Rhodes over Primo Colon; Randy Orton vs. Triple H in Last Man Standing for the WWE title was a draw; Mickie James & The Bella Twins over Maryse, Beth Phoenix & Rosa Mendes; and Big Show over John Cena.
The big news was that Trump “sold” Raw back to Vince for double the price. Average show that didn’t leave me wanting to buy a PPV on Sunday.
Wrestling was good aside from the Divas match which was horrific. Rosa was badly exposed and out of her depth. This week I used my Impact tactic of watching on a 30 minute DVR delay so I can speed through the skits. My head hurts less this way sometimes. Commercial free the show did a 4.5 rating, its biggest number I believe, for a two-hour broadcast since January 2006, so expect another WWE press release before the end of the day…
Smackdown/ECW tapes tonight at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee with Chris Jericho & Edge vs. Rey Mysterio & Jeff Hardy in a cage as the Smackdown main event. We’re looking for reader reports to [email protected] with matches and any off camera notes.
ECW main event tonight on Sci-Fi is Tommy Dreamer & Christian vs. Jack Swagger & Mark Henry.
***
Two hours before Raw went live on Monday night the WWE sent out a press release reporting that they would be refunding $235,000 in ticket sales to fans in Green Bay. The release read: “In the fact or fiction world of WWE, it is a fact that Donald Trump held a press conference today in Green Bay at Austin Straubel Airport. As the new ‘owner’ of Monday Night Raw, Trump announced that all ticketholders to tonight’s Raw event at the Resch Center will receive a ticket refund. The total value of all ticket refunds is approximately $235,000. Raw will be presented commercial free live tonight at 9 pm/8pm CT on USA Network.”
The stunt was designed to garner mainstream publicity and to create Donald Trump as a babyface to foil Vince McMahon. Only half of the plan worked. I can understand the reasoning but this was just such a bad idea on so many levels. Almost nobody touched the story as it came just a few days after an attempt to work the press into believing that the sale of Raw to Trump was legit. Also, the company has spent the last six months cutting costs, so what message does this send to the people in the office now doing the job of two people and working harder than ever? And what message do this send to the talent, the majority of which are privately upset right now because they are earning less money than ever due to PPV buys, live event and merchandise all down due to the economy…
WWE sent out another release today teasing that the issue between McMahon and Trump may be far from over.
Matt Hardy is scheduled for surgery later this week after tearing an abdominal muscle. The injury occurred during a match taped for Superstars on Monday in Green Bay. He shouldn’t miss much time. While abdominal surgery sounds quite nasty recovery is relatively swift. Once sewn up again, and providing that there is no infection or other complication, the ab will heal within days.
Cody Rhodes got his neck checked out today. The doctor diagnosed a sprained muscle so nothing serious.
As announced on Raw, John Cena vs. The Miz has been added to The Bash on Sunday in Sacramento.
Some other notes from Raw. Sheamus beat Jamie Noble in the dark match.
Kofi Kingston vs. MVP vs. Matt Hardy (this is the match he suffered the ab tear) in a three-way for the U.S. title was taped for Superstars.
There were signs up all over the arena telling fans how they can get their tickets refunded. When John Cena threw his cap into the crowd a young kid caught it and tossed it straight back to ringside. Obviously the kid wasn’t in the chain gang. Security then escorted him out of the building. Harsh.
Cena called into Bubba the Love Sponge in Tampa on Monday. He was only on for a couple of minutes but plugged The Bash and the DVD release of
12 Rounds on 6/30. He also talked about getting married to his childhood sweetheart.
I didn’t hear from anyone that she was there but Amy “Lita” Dumas wrote on her Twitter that she was backstage at Raw.
A funny note on Mr. Kennedy. A superfan on the WWE Universe website started a petition to bring him back. It didn’t go to well. The petition was shut down after a few days, not by WWE, but by the fan who started it. They wrote: “Due to lack of signatures coming in I have no choice but to close the Mr. Kennedy petition. Five people signed this week and that’s just not going to cut it. I have contacted the WWE already and we will see what happens from here. Thank you very much for those that signed.”
John Morrison is interviewed on the ESPN website at http://tinyurl.com/mrc8v2. He says his favorite wrestlers growing up were Shawn Michaels, Rick Rude, who he credits for wanting to have great abs, Ricky Steamboat, Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage. He also talked about being inspired by watching Jackie Chan and Jet Li movies.
‘Tweet of the Day’ goes to Chris Jericho: “Sorry for preventing the Great Khali dive tonight. He would’ve done it to, if it wasn’t for my meddling…”
TOTAL NONSTOP ACTION WRESTLING NEWS
Impact for the next month is taped today, Wednesday and Thursday at Universal in Orlando. We’re looking for reader reports from the tapings to [email protected]. The matches taped tonight for Thursday’s show include Abyss vs. Kevin Nash, and Taylor Wilde vs. Daffney in a thumb tacks match.
The live attendance for Slammerivery at The Palace of Auburn Hills was around 4000. The building was set up for 8000. A rep at the box office claimed that they sold all but 200 of the available seats. When we asked for clarification we were told: “The Palace holds just over 22,000 seats, but each artist decides how many seats they want to sell. I don’t believe they were selling the full house for that show.” Well obviously.
A TNA staffer told us that they had around 2200 paid, the majority of which bought their tickets for $7, so that means probably 2000 people got in for free. Apparently the company got a really good rental deal on the building.
The next PPV is Victory Road in Orlando at Universal Studios on 7/19.
Vignettes teasing Taz’ debut will start running on TV shortly. As you would expect they are very orange and include the catchphrase, “survive if I let you.”
Carolina-based indy wrestlers Mikael Judas and Phill Shatter started today at the TV tapings as Mick Foley’s new security team.
The Daily Star in the UK at http://tinyurl.com/nqb8h5 has an interview with Samoa Joe.
The Beautiful People will be signing autographs at The Wrestling Universe Store in Flushing, NY on on 7/25.
OTHER WRESTLING NEWS
Former WWF personality William Snip, better known as Billy “Red” Lyons,
died on Monday following a lengthy battle with cancer. He was 77. Greg
Oliver has a nice story up at http://tinyurl.com/luxojs. Lyons will
probably be best remembered for broadcasting WWF shows from the Maple
Leaf Gardens in the 80s and 90s using his famous catch phrase, “Don’tcha
dare miss it!” He started wrestling in 1956 against the likes of future
World Champions Buddy Rogers and Gene Kiniski. He held several tag
titles with Dick Beyer (his real life brother-in-law), Fritz Von Erich,
Bill Watts, Ray Gunkel and more notably Red Bastein in the late 60s and
early 70s, as The Flying Redheads. He also challenged Jack Brisco for
the NWA title in a 1974 Maple Leaf Gardens main event. He retired from
the ring in 1984 and settled in Toronto as an assistant to promoters
Frank and Jack Tunney. He transitioned to a role as a TV
announcer/interviewer and worked for the WWF up until the mid-90s…
From Mike Mooneyham: Billy “Red” Lyons was an extremely popular
performer and one of many who came out of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
I’ll remember him most for the team he formed with Red Bastien as The
Flying Redheads. The two were main-eventers in Texas during the late 60s
and early 70s and unmasked The Spoiler as Don Jardine there. He was also
a pretty good ice hockey player before turning to wrestling. A very
respected name in the wrestling business for many years.
There was a special memorial for Mitsuharu Misawa at NOAH’s Korakuen
Hall show last night in Tokyo. The show opened with a moment of silence
as Joe Higuchi stood in the ring with a large framed picture of Misawa.
There is a video clip on YouTube at http://tinyurl.com/mxe4tl.
Ring of Honor called its wrestlers today to inform them that they have
canceled their 7/17 and 7/18 TV tapings in Philadelphia. They already
have shows in the can right up until September so the feeling was that
they didn’t want to get too far ahead of themselves in case anyone gets
injured, etc. The next tapings will be the weekend of 8/28 in
Philadelphia.
www.fightline.com interviewed Brock Lesnar, who can be added to the list
of those athletes upset with the President. He said he wasn’t smart with
his money during his WWE run and talked about buying a private plane,
four homes, two Hummers and a Mercedes. When asked if he had saved for
retirement, he said: “That’s private. But if Obama keeps spending our
money like this, I’ll have to fight till I’m 50.” When asked if he ever
did steroids he said he has passed over 60 tests and is blessed with
good genetics: “I bet you I’ve taken over 60 steroid tests. In college,
I had 15 random drug tests in two years. I’ve taken drug tests for the
NFL, the WWE, the UFC. I must be pretty good at masking steroids. God
gave me this body: Are you jealous of it or what? Give me a break… I
got the genetics of–not to get into racism or anything–but I’m built
like a black man. Would you say so?”
The Las Vegas Review-Journal at http://tinyurl.com/lcnd5s has a story on
Bobby Lashley. He fights Bob Sapp this Saturday in Biloxi on PPV.
Lashley said he expects the fight to be a train wreck: “It’s two guys
going out there to bang, and it’s not going to take three rounds to do
it, either, one, maybe two,” he said. There is a video preview for the
fight at http://tinyurl.com/nlyzfo.
There is a new pro wrestling documentary in the works called False
Finish. We don’t know much about it other than several people have
already been interviewed including Ted DiBiase and Jim Duggan. According
to IMDB.com the documentary will look at the lives of “professional
wrestlers past and present; the health issues they face, coming to grips
with their own mortality, and the alarming rate of death amongst the
modern day pros.” Bryce Wagoner is listed as the director who had a
starring role in Gingerdead Man 2: Passion of the Crust. Seriously.
The people behind Hulk Hogan Appreciation Day in Bridgeview, IL on 7/10
sent out a press release. Tickets for the event, at Toyota Park, are $99
which gets you one photo with Hogan (the release notes you have to bring
your own camera) and one item autographed, plus access to meet and
greats with Greg Valentine, Brutus Beefcake, The Nasty Boys, Tito
Santana, Al Snow and Jimmy Hart. For an additional fee there is a
wrestling card although Hogan won’t be wrestling. For more info you can
call 312-559-1212.
Al Snow and April Hunter will be appearing at the Fright Night Film
Festival at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Louisville, KY the weekend of
8/14. For more info you can email to [email protected].
Diva-Dirt.com presents WGN’s Diva of the Day, Rosa Mendes at
http://www.diva-dirt.com/divaoftheday/
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