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WRESTLING GLOBE NEWSLETTER
Monday, February 15, 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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WORLD WRESTLING ENTERTAINMENT NEWS
2/13 Smackdown house show results from San Jose, Costa Rica: Christian & Goldust over Ezekiel Jackson & Zack Ryder; Matt Hardy & John Morrison over The Hart Dynasty; Beth Phoenix over Michelle McCool; Drew McIntyre vs. Kane was a double count out; CM Punk over R-Truth; Rey Mysterio over Chris Jericho; and The Undertaker over Batista. The show drew around 17,000 people.
2/14 Smackdown house show results from Guadalajara, Mexico: Matt Hardy & R-Truth over The Hart Dynasty; Goldust over Zack Ryder; Michelle McCool over Beth Phoenix; Christian over Ezekiel Jackson; Drew McIntyre over John Morrison; The Undertaker & Kane over CM Punk & Chris Jericho; and Rey Mysterio over Batista. The show drew around 17,000 people.
2/14 Raw house show results from Philadelphia, PA: DX over Legacy; Chris Masters over Carlito; Yoshi Tatsu over William Regal; The Miz over MVP; The Bella Twins & Gail Kim over Maryse, Alicia Fox & Jillian Hall with Santino as the referee; Randy Orton over Kofi Kingston; and John Cena over WWE Sheamus via DQ. The show drew just over 12,000 people.
Raw is live tonight from Des Moines with Jerry Springer as guest host, plus John Cena vs. Triple H, Ted DiBiase vs. Kofi Kingston and Randy Orton vs. Sheamus in a non-title match. The Smackdown tapings are Tuesday in Kansas City with the death of ECW including Christian vs.
Ezekiel Jackson in a hardcore match for the ECW title, and MizShow vs.
Goldust & Yoshi Tatsu for the tag titles. Edge vs. Batista is the advertised main event for Smackdown.
***
Jim Ross at www.jrsbarbq.com/blog wrote that he is bored with asking
questions about his future: “Without question, pro wrestling has been
such a vital part of my life for over 35 years and no matter what else I
may or may not do for a living going forward I will always be a huge fan
of the genre. Being in the wrestling biz and functioning at such a high
level not only as an on air talent but in corporate administration, as
well, has helped prepare me for many possible endeavors.” He is still
contracted to WWE and doubts that will change in the near future. Ross
also wrote that it was travel issues that prevented Ric Flair from
making Jack Brisco’s funeral services, adding, “I wonder why other
wrestlers who live in the Tampa area did not attend the funeral and show
their respect to a great man who was so instrumental in helping many
stars get their start?”
The Extreme Rules pay-per-view on May 23 has apparently been moved to
Detroit. The originally announced location was Oakland, California.
Money in the Bank returns again this year at Wrestlemania. The creative
team has just started putting together qualifying matches for WWE TV
over the next few week’s.
The current plan is for Wrestlemania to be open air at Phoenix Stadium.
The stadium features a retractable roof which takes just 15 minutes to
open or close as the case may be.
No update on the official cause of death of Eddie “Umaga” Fatu. The
Medical Examiner handling the case said today that results are still
pending.
Taryn Terrell [ECW GM Tiffany] is pictured the March issue of Playboy’s
Book of Lingerie. The caption under her photo reads: “Since you last saw
me: I competed for a spot as a WWE Diva and ended up signing a
developmental contract with them. I am now with Extreme Championship
Wrestling, a division of the WWE, where I’m the general manager. I’m
passionate about: Raising money for abused and abandoned children. Fun
fact: I’m a vegan and choose not to eat anything with a face.”
Cryme Tyme, who love porn [more on that later this week] were hanging
out at the XBIZ Awards last week in Hollywood. They were pictured with
Ron Jeremy and a number of adult actresses.
The student paper for Drake University in Des Moines has a story on Eve
Torres at http://tinyurl.com/yzapo6h.
The Daily Record in the UK has a story on Maria Kanellis at
http://tinyurl.com/yze6l63. She talks about how she stays in shape on
the road and puts over Trish Stratus as the greatest Diva of all-time.
Inside Costa Rica has a story on Rosa Mendes at
http://tinyurl.com/yfy2ppx which is actually copied verbatim from her
Wikipedia page.
Triple H was interviewed about the new Mattel action figure line at the
New York City Toy Fair at http://tinyurl.com/ykpfaak.
One of our readers went to a test screening of Sylvester Stallone’s new
action movie The Expendables which premieres in August. Steve Austin
plays a henchman of an evil dictator who is targeted by a group of
merceneraries hired to overthrow him. Austin has a couple of scenes and
a major fight scene at the end of the film. He did a great job,
according to our reader. The film also stars Mickey Rourke, Jason
Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Bruce Willis, Arnold Schwarzenegger,
Eric Roberts, and UFC fighters Randy Couture and Antônio Rodrigo
Nogueira.
TNA WRESTLING NEWS
2/14 Against All Odds PPV results from Orlando, FL: AJ Styles over Samoa
Joe to retain TNA heavyweight title with Eric Bischoff as special
referee; The Nasty Boys over Team 3D for the tag titles; and The Pope
won the 8-man tournament to become No 1 contender for the heavyweight
title at April’s Lockdown PPV.
The television tapings are today and Tuesday in Orlando.
***
TNA announced this afternoon during a press conference with Dixie Carter
and Hulk Hogan that Impact moves to Monday nights head-to-head against
WWE Raw from Monday, March 8, 2010. The plan is to tape television every
two week’s with Impact airing live alternate Monday’s much like the Raw
formula of the mid-late 90s. During the Q&A portion of the press
conference Hogan said that all the WWE talent are cheering them on as
it’s another place for them to work, and claimed, “everyone in the WWE
offices are running around like the building is on fire,” panicking over
the new competition. Dixie talked about wanting to give TNA fans a
product which would make them proud. Hogan gave the analogy that he
wants TNA workers to feel like they are going to church when they come
to work–That they want to be here. “They are a bunch of young guys with
young attitudes and the whole company’s fresh,” he said. “Things are
happening fast and I am really happy to be here.” You can watch the
entire press conference at http://tinyurl.com/yha5rnz.
Variety and The Hollywood Reporter both ran a stories today quoting
Dixie Carter and Eric Bischoff about the move to Monday nights. Robert
Zimmerman of WWE is also quoted saying they aren’t concerned because TNA
is a somewhat different audience to WWE.
Former WWE wrestlers Dave Taylor and 2 Cold Scorpio were backstage last
night at the pay-per-view. Taylor was trying out as an agent which would
be his dream job. His last run in WWE a couple of years ago came to an
end because he ruffled the wrong feathers. He is best known for his
1990s WCW run as Squire David Taylor, in a stable with Steven Regal and
Bobby Eaton as The Blue Bloods. He also had a cameo in TNA as the coach
of Team Britain during the 2004 America’s X-Cup Tournament.
Ken Anderson made the pay-per-view with plenty of time to spare
following travel issues catching a flight out of the Minneapolis
airport. Bob Ryder, who handles travel for TNA talent, described
Saturday as the “worst travel day” he could ever remember.
Jeremy Borash was back on camera last night. Bubba the Love Sponge
tweeted that he took his wife to Wing House for Valentine’s Day. I guess
that means he’s gone and they’ve dropped the planned angle with the
announcers.
Jimmy Hart returned last night to manage The Nasty Boys.
The house show in Belle Vernon, PA on March 13 is canceled. The roof of
the Rostraver Ice Gardens caved in yesterday reportedly due to the
weather during a kids hockey tournament. Luckily nobody was hurt as the
kids were in locker rooms at the time of the collapse.
The house show in Norfolk on Friday night with Ric Flair drew 2,100
people.
So Cal Val will apparently be writing a fashion advice column soon for
the TNA website.
Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley [who is trying to rehab herniated and
bulging discs in his back] were given permission to take a booking with
Ring of Honor in May.
The Destination X theme song is Torn Apart by Atlanta-based rock band
Death On Two Wheels.
OTHER WRESTLING NEWS
Tyler Black won the ROH heavyweight title over Austin Aries on Saturday
night at the anniversary show in New York City.
Rhett Titus and Rasche Brown have both just signed new deals with ROH.
A SAW show in Nashville on Saturday night drew 1,000 people to the
Nashville Sports Arena with Kid Kash, Chase Stevens, Andy Douglas, PG13,
Brian Christopher, Flash Flanigan, Rick Santel, Vordell Walker., and
Dutch Mantell doing color commentary for television. A documentary crew
was on hand taping interviews and auditions for a possible reality based
TV show that will feature independent wrestlers who want to succeed in
the wrestling profession.
Greg Price’s NWA New Beginnings drew almost 400 on Valentine’s Day for
it’s debut event up against the Daytona 500. Tully Blanchard booked the
show. The double main event saw Blue Demon Jr. over Zack Salvation to
retain the NWA heavyweight title, and Phil Shatter won a No. 1
contenders match over Adam Pearce. The next show is March 14.
Scott Steiner is now taking wrestling and personal appearance bookings
through Bill Behrens at showbis@aol.com.
Bill Apter interviews Austin Idol at http://tinyurl.com/yzanccp.
www.clubwwi.com has new audio interviews with Greg Gagne, son of Verne
Gagne, and Robert Gibson of Rock-n-Roll Express fame. This site has bar
none the most extensive wrestler interview archive of any where on the
web.
www.carnagecrew.net has a new audio show online with Tommy Rich and
Jerry Lynn as the call in guests.
New York’s WPIX 11 TV on Tuesday will be broadcasting from the IWF Pro
Wrestling School in West Paterson, NJ. The report airs at 4:55am and
again at 7:25am with trainers Kevin Knight and Jim Powers.
A wrestling convention is scheduled for May 8 in White Plains, NY with
some of proceeds being donated to the Capt. Lou Albano’s former high
school that’s hosting it. Sabu, Vampiro, AJ Styles, and The Pope, are
among those scheduled. More info at www.prowrestlingfanfest.com.
There is a legends convention in Atlanta on March 12-13 at Sheraton
Atlanta Gateway Hotel near the Atlanta Airport. The line up includes
mostly tag teams: The Midnight Express with Jim Cornette, The
Rock-n-Roll Express, Demolition, The Koloff’s, Ivan Putski & Tito
Santana, as well as Mr. Hughes, Tommy Rich, and Johnny Valiant. More
info at www.legendsmania.com.
Fighting Females, an online magazine dedicated to women’s wrestling has
just posted its latest edition online. It’s a news special looking back
at more than seven months of what’s been happening in the world of
women’s wrestling around the world and includes interviews with LuFisto
and Mercedes Martinez. The mag is free at www.fightingfemales.co.uk.
Former WWE Diva Ashley Massaro announced yesterday that she just got
engaged to the love of her life. It wasn’t Matt Hardy or Paul London.
Today’s Diva of the Day is Missy Hyatt at
http://www.thewrestlingpress.com/DailyDiva.
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