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WRESTLING GLOBE NEWSLETTER
Tuesday June 30, 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
6/29 Raw TV results from San Jose, CA: Triple H over MVP; Edge & Chris Jericho over The Colons to retain the tag titles; John Cena over The Miz; Mickie James over Rosa Mendes, Beth Phoenix & Kelly Kelly in a four-way; Kofi Kingston vs. Big Show was a double CO; Randy Orton over Evan Bourne; Randy Orton over Jack Swagger via CO; and Mark Henry over Randy Orton.
Vince McMahon opened the show and said that Donald Trump made some changes before he sold Raw back to him last week, and there was nothing he could do about it. YES, THE OWNER OF WWE IS POWERLESS TO CANCEL ANY CHANGES. Vince explained the changes included a guest GM each week and a fifteen superstar trade. Batista was announced as the first guest GM. He came out in a big suit with his arm in a sling. He announced a four-man tournament to determine who will face Orton at Night of the Champions.
He also announced Orton against three of the new trades in a gauntlet as tonight’s main event. Miz had the match he should have had with Cena at The Bash, but lost, and Triple H beat MVP so its Cena vs. Triple H next week in the finals.
After the tag title match they teased The Colons splitting up, I guess to mess with their dad as he is promoting them as a team next month for his big WWC Anniversary Show in Puerto Rico… Ted DiBiase Sr. was announced as the guest GM for next week… Mickie James won a Divas fatal four-way to face Maryse at Night of the Champions. A couple of nice spots including a quadruple sleeper. Rosa isn’t ready to be in there and even a four-way can’t disguise that… Kingston-Show was a double count out. Show is apparently now in a feud with Kingston presumably for the IC title… Main event was the gauntlet. Evan Bourne was the first guy out to virtually zero reaction. It was like nobody in the arena even knew who he was. Bourne got some offense in but was quickly pinned after Orton hit an RKO from the top turnbuckle. Michael Cole called this move a running bulldog, so Lawler had to agree with him. Swagger was the second guy out. He gave Orton one slam and then stood outside on the ring apron and was counted out. He told Orton that he always liked and respected him, shook his hand, then left. Henry was the third guy. He teased like he was going to do the same as Swagger but when the ref counted to five Henry wagged his finger, climbed back in the ring, and proceeded to beat the crap out of Orton and pinned him with the world’s strongest slam. The crowd was behind Henry as a babyface. I guess this leaves Tony Atlas out of a job.
The Smackdown/ECW tapings are tonight at the Save Mart Center in Fresno, and there is another taping for the week after at the Rabobank Arena in Bakersfield on Wednesday. The double tapings are due to a huge overseas tour coming up including Australia, New Zealand and Japan. We’re looking for reader reports from all these shows to [email protected].
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Gerald Brisco is scheduled for heart surgery on Thursday in Tampa.
WWE.com revealed the names of all the roster trades. To Raw: Evan
Bourne, Mark Henry, Jack Swagger, Gail Kim and Alicia Fox. To ECW:
Shelton Benjamin, Goldust, William Regal and The Bella Twins. To
Smackdown: Matt Hardy, Finlay and The Hart Dynasty. Some of the guys
were told they were switching brands on Thursday (those friendly with
the writing team) while most didn’t find out until they arrived at the
arena yesterday in San Jose.
ECW seems to have drawn the short straw losing its biggest prospects.
Regal over here will provide an upside teaching younger guys in the
Finlay role while Benjamin-Christian will be a fresh program on top. The
Bella Twins were drafted to Raw a couple of months ago from Smackdown
but aside from a split which lasted two weeks they haven’t been used
aside from skits where they sit around and talk about lip gloss. Now
that Helms is returning to the ring they would probably be best served
as interviewers. Goldust will provide the bad comedy lost when
Hornswoggle went to Raw. Also, Gabriel and Ezekiel Jackson are still
waiting in the wings to come back. Smackdown will benefit mostly from
the additions of Matt Hardy and The Hart Dynasty. I don’t know what the
plan is with Hardy as he was just drafted from here a couple of months
ago. The only thing I can come up with is that Jeff really is leaving in
July so with Matt they can rehash the blood feud and do a storyline that
would explain a lengthy absence. The plan with Henry, Swagger and Bourne
to Raw is to get them over to a higher level than they are currently
seen. Easier said than done although Henry is off to a good start. Kim
and Fox will strengthan the women’s division as Maryse, James and
Phoenix don’t really have anyone to work with.
Silvervision at http://tinyurl.com/mqy2de has an interview up with
Christian. Diplomatic as he always is. Some interesting background on
how he found wrestling and his ring name. Ironically he said he would
love to have more matches with Swagger, Kidd and Bourne. He said he
thinks the greatest wrestling match of all-time was Undertaker-Michaels
at Wrestlemania.
The Philippine Daily Inquirer at http://tinyurl.com/mz22ao has a story
on Melina.
ESPN is reporting that the Pontiac Silverdome in Michigan may be going
up for auction. This of course was the site of Wrestlemania III where
WWE to this day still likes to claim the largest indoor attendance
record for a sporting event. The story noted that the structure costs
$1.5 million annually to maintain and that the city has failed
repeatedly to sell the stadium since the Lions left for Ford Field in
2002.
Andrew Whitaker of President of WWE International at
http://tinyurl.com/muv2t4 talks about WWE in India. He said the company
hopes to tour over there in the near future. He also said that they are
looking at opening some merchandise stores in Mumbai and Delhi.
Muscle Flex Inc. at http://tinyurl.com/mf94sw is threatening to go after
WWE for trademark infringement over their use of the word “Raw” in
Canada.
CM Punk has replaced Edge on the promotional poster for Night of the
Champions.
Michelle McCool and John Morrison were chosen to represent WWE on a
celebrity special of Fox’s Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader? The WWE
special will air in the fall.
Smackdown from last week did a 1.7 rating.
The Score in Canada will be airing WWE Vintage Collection on Saturday’s
from 7pm on 7/4. The show already airs in Europe and is hosted by Gene
Oakerlund featuring classic matches.
WWE announced dates and locations today for its next Mexico tour in
October. Tickets go on sale on 7/24.
12 Rounds with John Cena comes out on DVD today.
The Atlanta Journal Constitution at http://tinyurl.com/nq3cex reposted
their story from 2007 about a teenager who edited Chris Benoit’s
Wikipedia page to say Nancy had died 14 hours before police discovered
the bodies of Chris, Nancy and Daniel.
The Daily Telegraph in Australia at http://tinyurl.com/n8oyd9 had a tiny
blurb on Kelly Kelly.
Some interesting data on sports websites that includes WWE.com at
http://tinyurl.com/m6oc4a. WWE claims almost on a weekly basis to beat
all these sites which are actually ahead of them in the most important
key indicator.
TOTAL NONSTOP ACTION WRESTLING NEWS
The TNA website at http://tinyurl.com/mlrdv4 posted an interview with
Dixie Carter. She talks openly about the challenge of creating new stars
and competing with ECW in the ratings. Nothing else really noteworthy or
controversial. On creative, she said: “Today’s fans are smarter, more
involved. They don’t want their intelligence insulted, and we have been
guilty of that at times in the past. Can we please everyone all the
time? No, that’s not realistic. But you have to strive to please them
much more than not.”
TNA gave added a new house show at Expo Center in Belton, TX on 8/30.
OTHER WRESTLING NEWS
The former Mr. Kennedy, Ken Anderson, has been added to the WWC
Anniversary Show next month in Puerto Rico.
There is a story on former WWE/TNA wrestler Mikey Batts at
http://tinyurl.com/lmdwwm looking at his attempt to break into MMA.
Diva-Dirt.com presents WGN’s Diva of the Day, (the site is currently
undergoing an upgrade) at http://www.diva-dirt.com/divaoftheday/
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