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WRESTLING GLOBE NEWSLETTER
Thursday January 28, 2010
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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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Please send all news tips to: you2us@wrestlingglobe.com
WORLD WRESTLING ENTERTAINMENT NEWS
Superstars tonight on WGN has Jillian Hall & Katie Lea vs. The Bella Twins; Chris Masters vs. Chavo Guerrero & Primo in a three-way for a Royal Rumble spot; and Matt Hardy vs. DH Smith.
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Chris Jericho [Chris Irvine] and Gregory Helms were both charged with public intoxication in the early hours by the Erlanger Kentucky Police Department. The drunken due were picked up this morning at around 5am at a gas station, although there is no suggestion that either were driving.
It is expected they will receive a small fine. Jericho and Helms were in that area as Erlanger is close to Cincinnati, Ohio, where World Wrestling Entertainment held its Smackdown tapings on Tuesday. TMZ broke the news first today which is currently splashed on their front page at http://tinyurl.com/ykmt4ot. The TMZ report states that the pair were released on a $120 bond and included photos of their mugshot. A few hours before their arrest Jericho wrote on his Twitter page that he was hanging out with Helms and listening to music. The post has since been deleted. The Los Angeles Times website also has a story on their arrest at http://tinyurl.com/ydtb6od.
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JERICHO AND HELMS ARREST UPDATE
Chris Jericho and Gregory ‘Hurricane’ Helms were engaged in an altercation before their arrest, it has now emerged.
The Cincinnati Enquirer reports that an officer responded to a disturbance at Shell Gas Station in Crescent Springs, KY, just outside of Erlanger, at around 4:45am this morning after two men — Jericho and Helms — began fighting in the back of a cab.
The pair were charged with public intoxication and released after paying $120 in cash. They are scheduled to appear in Kenton District Court on February 16 on misdemeanor charges.
The altercation followed a late night drinking session just a few hours removed from WWE’s Smackdown television taping at US Bank Arena in Cincinnati.
Both Jericho and Helms were “manifestly under the influence of alcohol”
at the time of their arrest, according to Erlanger police spokesman Kevin Gilpin.
“We get there and they basically say Helms kind of turned into an ass and starts kind of getting physical inside the cab,” Gilpin said.
Helms allegedly struck four people — Jericho, a female named Ashley Storer, a man named Gary Kelley, and another unidentified man — who were all traveling in the cab.
No injuries were reported although Helms did have a visible mark on his face in his mugshot.
Assault charges were not brought because the parties concerned refused to press charges.
Helms reportedly fled the scene right after the incident but returned to the gas station soon after, where he — along with Jericho — was arrested for being drunk in public. The unidentified man also fled the scene but was never found.
“He disappeared in the wind,” Gilpin said.
TMZ just minutes ago reported that unidentified man as Matt Hardy citing law enforcement sources.
WWE have so far failed to comment on the situation.
Jericho is scheduled for an autograph signing tomorrow night in New York City while Helms’ next public appearance is Sunday’s Royal Rumble pay-per-view in Atlanta.
Perhaps as a rib, Helms was listed as ‘Superstar of the Day’ today on the WWE website.
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Some concerning news regarding former Diva Torrie Wilson. She wrote on her Twitter page last night that she was alone in her house and felt scared. She said she pulled out her loaded pistol, took the safety off, and the accidentally fired a shot into her bathroom which went straight through her ceiling. Not sure what to make of that. Torrie was hospitalized back in October after she had a bad reaction to some prescription medication she was taking. Some of her friends have noted to us they have been worried about her of late.
Randy Orton recently signed a new long-term contract with the company.
The Honky Tonk Man [Roy Wayne Farris] sent out an email through his webmaster to wrestling media this morning stating that he has declined a spot in the 2010 WWE Hall of Fame. He noted that he was already booked at the Wizard World Comic Con in Toronto for the same dates WWE wanted and changing his plans would result in negative cash flow. He also ripped John Laurinaitis for what he felt was unprofessional treatment he suffered last year at Wrestlemania 25 in Houston. Another deal-breaker was that everyone invited into the Hall of Fame has to sign a contract with a no-compete clause meaning he couldn’t do independent shows for several monhs, so after feeling he was treated badly last year, he decided he had to put his family first. Full blog at www.honkytonkman.net.
ECW on Tuesday night did a 0.9 rating and 1.2 million viewers.
The Futon Critic interviewed Dule Hill about guest hosting Raw and his preparations for the show. He said: “I’m more of an old school wrestling fan… Tony Atlas, Jimmy Snuka, Andre the Giant, the Iron Shiek and all those cats. Ever since [John] Cena came to do the show, though, I’m getting more into the new cats… I had known who Cena was and I knew who a lot of the wrestlers were so it was just exciting for me.
Wrestlers are like a fantasy world for children and adults no matter whether you’re a current fan or you watched years ago but it’s the fact that, ‘Wow, man, I’m with a wrestler! I’m hanging with a WWE wrestler!’
You kind of want to man-up and do whatever they can do, you know what I mean?'”
Several guys on the Raw side are battling a flu bug at the moment.
WWE is all over Atlanta this weekend promoting the Royal Rumble. Legacy will be at the Hawks-Celtic NBA game on Friday doing something on the jumbo tron to hype the pay-per-view.
Maria Kanellis may be off television for a while in March as the deal with her appearing on Celebrity Apprentice prevents her from appearing elsewhere on television during the period in which the show airs.
Celebrity Apprentice premieres Sunday, March 14 featuring Maria, Bill Goldberg, Cyndi Lauper, Bret Michaels, Sharon Osbourne, and Rod Blagojevich, among other celebs.
WWE has a new job listing on its corporate website for a “Logger” which is a paid job to watch WWE programming. The requirements are: Be able to watch hours of WWE footage daily, have strong product knowledge [this is usually a negative], type at a high rate of speed, have strong attention to detail and multitasking abilities [work 16-hour days], and be able to commit to a one-year temporary assignment.
TNA WRESTLING NEWS
1/27 house show results from Cardiff, Wales: Chris Sabin over Suicide & Amazing Red in a three-way; The Beautiful People over Taylor Wilde & Sarita with Hamada as guest referee; Rob Terry over Eric Young to capture the Global Championship; Team 3D & Kurt Angle over Rhino, Hernandez & The Pope in a Tables match; Samoa Joe over Daniels in an ‘I Quit’ match; Beer Money over The British Invasion; and AJ Styles over Desmond Wolf. The show drew 2000 paid. Dixie Carter was walking around at various points and taking photos with people. Kurt Angle got the loudest reaction when he came out. Wolfe and TBI had the most heat due to being English. Another great show top to bottom.
The TNA crew run tonight in Coventry, England. The top advertised matches are AJ Styles vs. Desmond Wolfe, and The British Invasion & Eric Young vs. Beer Money, The Pope & Suicide in a Gauntlet match. The remaining tour dates are Friday in Manchester at the M.E.N Arena and Saturday in London at Wembley Arena which holds the all-time TNA attendance record [8,100] for a live event. We’re looking for reader reports from all three shows to you2us@wrestlingglobe.com.
Impact tonight on Spike TV has The Beautiful People vs. Tara, Awesome Kong & Hamada, and The Machine Guns & Brian Kendrick vs. Amazing Red & Generation Me; plus the fall out from the Orlando screw job and AJ Styles doing more Naitch’n with Ric Flair.
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Regarding March 1 as the next Impact head-to-head against Raw–The plan moving forward is to switch from Thursday to Monday nights on Spike, and to tape television once every two week’s, similar to the original early-90s blueprint of Raw where they would tape every other week at the Manhatten Center in New York City. This would mean they are live one week and tape Tuesday to air the following Monday. That way they can keep costs down and reignite the Monday Night War. A formal announcement is expected soon. Even though there is no real concern from the WWE side it will be interesting to see how they react as things usually get very messy when Vince McMahon thinks he has a fight on his hands.
Rob Terry captured the Global Championship [former Legends title] over Eric Young last night in Cardiff, Wales. Well, EY did say he wouldn’t defend the belt against Americans on American soil. Terry was portrayed as the hometown hero as he’s from Swansea which is about 40 miles from Cardiff. A camera crew taped the title change so I guess he’s keeping the belt for the remainder of the tour and they will explain what happened on television at a later date. Terry wasn’t told they were putting the title on him until the day of the show. He was said to be thrilled.
Vince Russo on his Facebook wrote about being the one to save Bubba the Love Sponge from an Awesome Kong beatdown at the last set of tapings–which is legitimately what happened, apparently in almost comical fashion. The only update we have on Kong is that the company are trying to resolve things with her. She’s actually in a really great position because its obvious they don’t want to lose her and I can’t envision her struggling to find work elsewhere. She has also told people there is no way she would participate in a work/shoot angle with Bubba.
Even so, there are still people internally who believe its all a work, including people who are usually very savvy when it comes to these things.
Dixie Carter talks earning respect from wrestlers at http://tinyurl.com/yansnrh.
A fun note from the fan interaction yesterday in Cardiff. Reader Darren Williams wrote: Bubba Ray sent the security guy around the autograph line giving them all a message. Bubba then stood up and counted to three, and on the count of three the crowd started chanting, “You Screwed Bret!” at Earl Hebner–Earl went red and started laughing. When we got to Earl he was kind enough to sign our program with “I Screwed Bret”.
There has been no explanation to fans in the UK as to why Bobby Lashley wasn’t on the tour even though he is plastered all over the promotion posters in the towns. As noted; Alex Shelley [injury], Kong, and Matt Morgan who’s father is fighting brain cancer, were pulled from the original line up.
Lashley at http://tinyurl.com/yelvqem talks about his upcoming Strikeforce debut against Wes Sims, the cross-over appeal from pro wrestling to MMA and vice-versa, and rumors of Shane McMahon working with the UFC. He put Shane over as a genius when it comes to the entertainment world.
Sharkboy, who is arguably the most underutilized talent in the company, turns 35 today.
OTHER WRESTLING NEWS
Hall of Famer Jack Brisco, 68, is convalescing at home in Florida
following a recent triple bypass heart surgery. His health hasn’t been
good for some time now.
Dutch Mantell at http://www.dutchmantell.com/ posted part two of his
blog on a mid-90s WWF tour of Germany. A very good read. Dutch discusses
the power and influence The Kliq had in the WWF at that time, plus
working in some historic buildings such as the arena in Berlin where
Hitler gave the Final Solution Speech in 1939; The Olympia Halle in
Munich which was two blocks away from the Olympic Village where the
Israeli athletes were murdered during the 1972 Summer Games; brothels in
the Red Light District of Hamburg; passing through where the Berlin Wall
once stood; and the story of a rib that would have gotton people fired
in 2010.
BG James was interviewed at www.InYourHeadOnline.com. He noted he
recently spoke with WWE about going back but, “it wasn’t meant to be.”
He said he feels too old to get in the ring now with younger guys but
believes he can contribute to the business from behind the scenes. He
said his best memories in the business were during the Attitude Era
noting he got a real kick out of selling stunners for Steve Austin.
Dr. Mike Lano at http://tinyurl.com/y8s4o6q has an article on the death
of Bob Shamrock, the adoptive father of Ken and Frank Shamrock, earlier
this month.
A very good interview with Rob Van Dam at http://tinyurl.com/yje2fvf
where he talks WrestleReunion in Las Vegas this weekend and his first
match in North America since 2007. He said he has no plans to be in
Sunday’s Royal Rumble: “I actually thought the Royal Rumble was
yesterday. I thought it already happened. So you can be sure that I
don’t have any plans of being in it. Although last year it was only set
up two days prior to the Royal Rumble. My participation, that is. We’ll
see. I mean, I honestly thought with TNA and Hogan hiring up all the new
guys and making changes I thought that would make WWE up their ante a
little bit, but so far as I can tell I don’t think WWE is sweating TNA
at all. If that remains the case then I don’t think the stakes will be
quite as high as I was hoping for. But you never know, maybe RVD could
be the one that tips the scales. I don’t know. If you listen to the
fans, they seem to think so.”
TNA’s Daffney is also attending WrestleReunion in the Highspots.com
booth with Jimmy Hart and JJ Dillon. More info at
www.wrestlereunion.com.
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette at http://tinyurl.com/ybog76x has a story on
iconic personalities in the area noting Bruno Sammartino and former
wrestling host Bill Cardille.
Today’s Diva of the Day is Mickie James at
http://www.thewrestlingpress.com/DailyDiva.
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