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WRESTLING GLOBE NEWSLETTER
Monday, April 12, 2010
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Wrestling Globe Newsletter by Mike Aldren – All the latest professional wrestling news and analysis direct to your inbox. WGN is read by industry power players, many top wrestlers and thousands of fans from around the world.
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WORLD WRESTLING ENTERTAINMENT
Raw is on tape delay tonight from the O2 arena in London, England. David Hasselhoff is guest host doing the Baywatch gimmick among other wacky comedy segments. Matches include Randy Orton vs. Batista; Maryse vs. Eve Torres for the Divas title; Evan Bourne vs. Carlito; Sheamus vs. Kofi Kingston; and John Cena vs. David Otunga. Bret Hart is also on the show in a segment with The Miz which we’re told is awesome.
The NXT/Smackdown tapings are Tuesday at the O2 in London. There is also a Raw show tomorrow in Sheffield, England.
***
Ezekiel Jackson said today that he will be sidelined for three to six months following the quad injury he suffered in Glasgow.
Matt Hardy suffered a biceps injury last night in Manchester. He was getting an MRI today to check for serious damage.
Ted DiBiase Jr. was busted open hard way the other night during a Raw show in Ireland. He required several staples in his head to close the wound.
John Cena continues to work through some lingering back issues. He was originally going to take some time off following Wrestlemania but a recent MRI did not reveal any serious damage.
Lance Cade (Lance McNaught), 29, was released again. Michael Hayes pushed for him to be brought back last summer and he was signed in October with the idea he would be built as a top guy on Smackdown eventually working a program with The Undertaker. For whatever reason Vince McMahon nixed that idea and he was sent to developmental although he only worked one house show and was never seen again. He said in December that John Laurinaitis called him and talked about bringing him back to the main roster but that he wouldn’t be a top guy and would have to start from the bottom again. During this time he was having issues with sleeping pills and said he asked the office to put him in rehab.
Soon after completing rehab he was released. He said he was bemused by the decision as guys usually hide their demons for fear of losing their job while he felt he was fired for being open about his.
Courtney Taylor (Beveraly Mullins), 25, was also just released. She was the former Hooters model signed in 2008 who debuted on ECW television last year as a backstage interviewer. She lost her spot to Savannah (Angela Fong) when she took a leave of absence and was never brought back to the main roster.
We’re told there is going to be a renewed focus on the women’s division during upcoming weeks–specifically getting over personalities including those who haven’t had much opportunity of late. The new direction on the Raw side will be built around Eve Torres.
Dos Caras Jr. (Alberto Rodriguez) from developmental, the son of the Mexican wrestling legend, is working the Raw tour this week. He’s been given some ring time with William Regal.
Billy Kidman, currently a trainer in developmental, is working the Smackdown tour this week as an agent. Last we heard which was months ago he was also coming in for PPV’s and doing the important job of timing matches at the gorilla position.
Cody Rhodes is expected to return to television next week following a couple of week’s out selling the punt by Randy Orton at Wrestlemania. He worked house shows this past weekend wearing amateur wrestling headgear.
Cross Rhodes, the WWE biography on Dustin “Goldust” Rhodes, is scheduled for release on 12/7. Author Mark Vancil is working on the project with Rhodes and publisher Simon & Schuster. Vancil co-wrote the popular WWE Unscripted book a few years ago and has several sports-related titles to his name. He said, “Dustin has been fantastic and painfully honest and insightful. It’s a pretty interesting story relative to previous books in this genre, particularly given the family history.”
Charlie Haas encourages Shelton Benjamin not to resign with WWE and join him as a free agent in an interview at http://tinyurl.com/y6p7h7g. He said he’s happy to be gone from WWE because he was tired of the backstage politics saying he spent the last four years miserable but stayed on for the money to support his family. “I asked for my release six months ago, I wanted out. They countered and gave me more money to stay, which was great, and I thank John Laurinaitis [Executive Vice President of Talent Relations] for that. But I was miserable, even the last six months I was miserable. I look at it this way. People were like, ‘why didn’t you leave?’ Well, one, when you have a family, you basically eat crap to support your family, to put clothes on their back, food on their table, just to give them a better life than what you have, so you’ll do anything for your family. So that meant that I had to stick around and be miserable for the last four years knowing that they weren’t going to use me, except to basically job me out. But I have a third kid on the way, I had two daughters over that time, so that’s what I had to do. Eventually you get sick and tired of eating crap and you just got to say enoughs enough.” Hass also said he felt things would have never changed because people on the creative team and Kevin Dunn [WWE producer] didn’t like him and didn’t like writing for him.
Preliminary estimates has February’s Elimination Chamber pay-per-view doing 290,000 worldwide buys, an increase from 280,000 buys in 2009.
That’s a winner when you factor in the new $5 domestic price increase.
The Miz will be appearing on Blue Peter (a popular kids show) in the UK on Tuesday on BBC One at 4.35pm.
TOTAL NONSTOP ACTION WRESTLING
TNA Reaction premieres tonight at 7 ET on Spike before Impact which airs
8-10. It’s TNA’s new way of explaining storylines and selling the
product with talent interviewed in-character.
Impact tonight is a taped show from last Tuesday with AJ Styles &
Desmond Wolfe vs. The Pope & Jay Lethal; Matt Morgan & Amazing Red vs.
The Machine Guns for the tag titles; Jeff Hardy vs. Robert Roode; Team
3D & Jesse Neal vs. The Band; Shannon Moore vs. Kazarian; and Angelina
Love vs. Velvet Sky in a match advertised as Leather & Lace which is
actually a swerve to get you to watch.
Hulk Hogan debuts a new radio show tonight called “Hulk Hogan:
Uncensored” on Sirius 101 from 7-8 head to head against Reaction. A
press release says he will talk about his life in and out of the ring.
So a total work. You can call in tonight at 888-69-BUBBA. He’s doing the
show solo from the same studios as Bubba the Love Sponge.
***
Mike Mooneyham interviewed former TNA booker Dutch Mantel at
http://tinyurl.com/y6ob3bn. The interview was to push Mantel’s recently
published book which contains a selection of road stories from his 35+
years in the business. He talks candidly about his feelings on TNA’s
creative direction and declining television ratings. He says, “I don’t
think they know their audience. In their eyes, if you don’t understand
it, it’s not the writing, it’s you. The joke seems to be on them. I’ve
been around a lot of offices with the death knell, and the TNA office
has got the death knell about it. The only money they’re really making
is off Spike, and if Spike balks, they’re screwed… What a war (against
WWE) this has turned out to be. This hasn’t even been a border skirmish
yet. How can you have a war when one side doesn’t even know it’s going
on?”
Kurt Angle recently got engaged to Giovanna Yannotti, a 24-year-old
model/actress from Pittsburgh. The couple have been dating for a few
months. She played a small role in Angle’s movie End Game and has also
had minor roles in Sorority Row and My Bloody Valentine in 3D.
Angle just landed a role in a film called Beyond The Mat that will
promote amateur wrestling.
Eric Bischoff was working house shows over the weekend to see what
happens on the road. He did the guest referee spot in the main events of
Angle & Jarrett vs. Beer Money. They were raising money at the shows
with Red Cross for the West Virginia coal miners. Bischoff wrote on his
Twitter today that he had just purchased 1,000 copies of his book for
$1.98 (I assume from WWE’s shop website) and was going to autograph each
copy to sell on his website and donate the profit to the miners.
A correction from yesterday. Despite claiming she broke her hand in the
First Blood match two week’s ago, Tara actually injured her hand during
a kickboxing class in her own time. Her fingers were bent backwards but
there were no broken bones. She just completed a weekend house show loop
with no issues.
Kevin Nash is asking fans to come up with a new name for The Band. He
originally wanted to call the group Wolfpac but apparently someone else
now holds that trademark.
Mick Foley said he’s done with TNA for the time being. “It feels nice to
be off for a little while. I enjoyed being part of the show, but I had
been on there for quite a while in a heavily featured role,” Foley said
during an interview with The Pain Clinic radio show out of Rochester,
NY. “I think there’s a reason why TV shows do better when they have a
hiatus every now and then. I guess that’s what I’m taking right now – a
hiatus.” He also talked about recently shooting a web show pilot with
Ken Anderson for Black20.com.
TNA President Dixie Carter said she was sad to hear about the passing of
actress Dixie Carter at age 70 this past weekend. She said she was a fan
of her work. Some people may have confused the two.
Dixie is going to be doing a Q&A column soon for the TNA website. This
should be very interesting as there is never a right answer in her role.
We understand over 2,000 tickets have been sold so far for Sunday’s
Lockdown in St. Charles. The building is being set up to hold 4,000.
OTHER WRESTLING NEWS
Ring of Honor tonight on HD Net has Kevin Steen vs. Eddie Edwards in the
first semi-final of the TV title tournament; Steve Corino vs. El
Generico; and Jim Cornette interviews ROH champ Tyler Black. The show
will also feature footage from the Big Bang pay-per-view from last
weekend in Charlotte. You can still order the show for $14.95 at
www.gofightlive.tv. We’re told the show was profitable in terms of buys
and was in line with Final Battle which would be over 1,000 purchases.
The lucha portion of the show didn’t get over too well which was the
main selling point behind all the local advertising. They drew 800
people to the Grady Cole Center for what was mostly a fantastic
technical wrestling show. The only real negative we heard from people in
the building was a feeling that the show ran a little long at almost
four hours. The announce team consisted of Kevin Kelly and Dave Prasak
who both did a great job.
Texas Stadium, the former home of the Dallas Cowboys, was demolished by
controlled implosion on Sunday. It took approximately 25 seconds for the
stadium to completely fall and was the most sought after news clip in
the world over the weekend. From 1984-1988, the stadium hosted the
annual World Class Championship Wrestling David Von Erich Memorial
Parade of Champions. The initial 1984 card drew more than 40,000 fans,
the highest attendance of any wrestling show in the state of Texas at
that time, to witness Kerry Von Erich pinning Ric Flair to capture the
NWA heavyweight title. SportsCenter on ESPN mentioned the famous match
as the hosts ran down the stadium’s highlights during weekend updates.
Greg Oliver has a story on Matt “Doink the Clown” Borne at
http://tinyurl.com/y8ycrq4 who has reprised his gimmick with a dark
twist on the indie circuit. He expressed disappointment with some of the
younger talent he has recently crossed paths with. “The locker rooms are
much different now than they used to be,” he said, stressing it’s not
necessarily a lack of respect. Mostly, it’s that the younger wrestlers
are “off, into their own thing, not wanting to learn, or just thinking
they know. I don’t know, I really don’t know. It’s hard for me to get
into these young guys’ minds. I don’t know where they’re coming from. I
just know how different it is… When I was young, I was always talking
to the older guys, listening to them, seeking advice … I don’t see it
a lot. There are some guys who are, and I relish that. That’s great. I’m
there for them. But I can’t help somebody who doesn’t want it.”
Becca Swanson, who is one of world’s strongest women, is currently
training at Ric Drasin’s wrestling school in California. She currently
holds several powerlifting world records for women, including the
highest squat (854), highest deadlift (683) and highest bench press
(600). She was training last year with Harley Race in Missouri and hopes
to make it to the major leagues one day.
Pat Kenney (Simon Diamond) and his wife Candice welcomed their first
child into the world today. Quinn Ann Kenney born at 4:33am this
morning.
Ted DiBiase and Nikita Koloff are two more names added to the NWA
Legends fanfest this August in Charlotte. More info at
www.nwalegends.com.
Paul Burchill has just opened a website at www.paulburchillonline.com.
www.wrestlecrap.com just celebrated it’s tenth anniversary which is
quite the milestone. It’s a fun wrestling website which I wholeheadly
recommend checking out.
The Reading Eagle has a story on Andre the Giant‘s legendary drinking at
http://tinyurl.com/y627hxe. George “The Animal” Steele is quoted saying
he thinks that some of the Andre stories were blown out of proportion
while others were true.
Maria Kanellis has just released the first single from her forthcoming
EP titled Fantasy. Her album will be released on itunes on Wednesday.
Wrestlicious is going on hiatus for a few weeks to allow syndicators to
catch up with the cable broadcasters. The group is holding its
first-ever public television taping on 5/28 at the First Avenue in
Minneapolis. For more information go to www.wrestlicious.com.
Today’s Diva of the Day is Joy Giovanni at
http://www.thewrestlingpress.com/DailyDiva.
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