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WRESTLING GLOBE NEWSLETTER
Tuesday, June 15, 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
6/14 Raw TV results from Charlotte, NC: Miz over R-Truth, John Morrison & Zack Ryder in a four-way to capture the U.S. title; Evan Bourne over Chris Jericho via DQ; Eve Torres & Gail Kim over Maryse & Alicia Fox; Big Show & Mark Feuerstein over Ted DiBiase & Virgil; Santino Marella over William Regal; and John Cena & Randy Orton vs. Edge & Sheamus was a no contest when the NXT guys invaded.
The Smackdown/NXT taping is tonight in Raleigh including Drew McIntyre vs. Teddy Long with the stipulation that if McIntyre wins, then Long is fired as GM.
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For those who missed it, WWE’s storyline explanation for Bryan Danielson is that he was remorseful for the attack on John Cena last week, so the other NXT season one rookies have future endeavored him from the group.
Raw on Monday night did a 3.4 rating and averaged 4.9 million viewers.
Zack Ryder suffered a concussion in the four-way. I believe this happened when John Morrison gave Miz a power bomb on to his head.
NBA legend Michael Jordan was hanging out backstage in Charlotte along with a few Carolina Panther football players.
From the ‘you can’t even make this stuff up’ files… WWEShop.com has just started a Father’s Day promotion where you get 10% off and a free NECK TIE if you spend more than $65. Obviously someone at Titan Towers has a sense of humor.
Calgary-based wrestler Tiger Raj Singh (Yuvraj Dhesi, 23) has arrived in developmental and will be using the ring name Jinder Mahal. He attended a WWE tryout camp last December and impressed officials. He speaks Punjabi which is a huge plus as the company has been searching for another Indian wrestler for some time… Ryan Tran and Daniel Skyler (Ronnie Arniell, 29) were also just added to the developmental roster as refs. Skyler is the former Shawn/Gavin Spears who briefly appeared on ECW a couple of years ago.
WWE registered to trademark “The Network” last Monday which has something to do with expanding the online side of it’s business. Just a day later, Florida-based indy wrestler Michael Stanco, 41, who wrestles as Maximum Capacity, registered the same mark, claiming in his filing that he first used “The Network” in wrestling several years ago.
WWE has also registered “Showtime Percy Watson” (NXT season two rookie) who already has heat on him for something he said/did backstage at TV.
Jim Ross wrote a new blog at www.jrsbarbq.com. He’s in fine form. When asked by an emailer how to become a WWE announcer, he said: “… I strongly urge anyone to first finish their college degree, do all the broadcasting projects one can, even if for free, in any area of broadcasting to be able to make yourself a great ‘reel’, don’t be overly consumed in the genre, don’t have any facial hair, lose any Southern accent, and what ever you do never contract Bells palsy because ‘look’
is crucial. In all seriousness, being a great broadcaster in any genre is as much about natural instincts as any thing.” Ross is also promising a big announcement soon–which may have something to do with a writing gig for a major sports website.
For obvious reasons, Tommy Dreamer was removed yesterday from the Alumni section of the WWE website.
Florence Henderson, who plays Carol Brady in The Brady Bunch, has been booked as guest host for Raw in Lexington on 7/12… On a semi-related note, Tila Tequila has signed to be part of the fourth season of Celebrity Rehab. She reportedly hopes to battle an addiction to prescription pills. I assume this pretty much rules her out of hosting Raw.
The Neal S. Blaisdell Center in Honolulu, Hawaii has been booked for a house show on 8/18. This is becoming an annual trip that everyone wants to work on.
The 900th episode of Monday Night Raw takes place in Boston, MA on 8/30. Told this will likely be another three hour show.
Rey Mysterio was mentioned Monday during a World Cup broadcast on ESPN. A crowd shot revealed two Italian soccer fans wearing lucha masks. One of the commentators then brought up Mysterio.
Big Show will be appearing on Jimmy Fallon late Wednesday night to push his appearance on Royal Pains.
TOTAL NONSTOP ACTION WRESTLING
Scott Hall was told this week that his services are no longer required. This is pretty much to do with his recent arrest and not informing the office, because they were furious when they first read about it online along with everyone else. A new angle will address the tag title situation on Thursday night. This news won’t come as a shocker to most. Hall’s last run with the company ended at the Turning Point pay-per-view in 2007, which he no-showed, claiming food poisoning via text message.
TNA people were raving to us about a Jay Lethal-Ric Flair segment that was shot yesterday for Thursday’s Impact. Some were calling it the best segment in the last five years. Apparently both Flair and Lethal got a standing ovation when they walked back through the curtain afterwards. Flair returns to the ring against Lethal at the Victory Road pay-per-view on 7/11.
James Storm suffered a slight seperation of his right shoulder at Slammiversary. He worked the TV tapings this week so it doesn’t appear he will miss any time.
Indy wrestler Stephanie Yim, 21, had a tryout today working Taylor Wilde. She has a unique look, African American-Korean with huge boobs. She’s been in the business for around two years and apparently has a black belt in Tae Kwon Do.
Dr. Stevie and Raven were brought back this week. Both guys haven’t been used since February. Not sure this is still the case, but at one point there was talk of creating an ECW facton called EV2 or Extreme Version 2.
WWE owns the trademark to “Tommy Dreamer” which may become an issue although Dreamer has been using his ring name since since he started wrestling in 1989.
Xplosion, TNA’s syndicated show for international markets, got a makeover this week and will start to feature more original content with Jeremy Borash handling announce duties with Taz. SoCal Val will act as ring announcer.
The company is looking at locations in Charlotte to host Bound for Glory in October. The 9,000+ seat Bojangles’ Coliseum may be a contender with the idea of building a show around Flair in his hometown.
Regarding Roxxi, she was told she wasn’t going to be booked moving forward due to her appearance. I assume this comment didn’t come direct from Dixie Carter, but that’s what Dixie’s management claimed before her career vs. title match against Rayne on Sunday. In WWE, when Vince decides to fire talent, barring extreme cases, John Laurinaitis tells them that creative had nothing for them or that they were a victim of budget cuts. To say anything else opens up a can of worms and leads to lawsuits. By all accounts we’ve been told that Roxxi has always been a model employee. From shaving her head for little compensation to working through various injuries to dealing with the stress of Kurt Angle‘s wacky ex girlfriend, the general locker room consensus is that she’s been crapped all over, but through all this has never once publicly spoken out against the company, as others have done.
There is a lot of concern about the future of the Knockouts division. The division has been decimated this year with several key departures, and has been on a downward spiral since the firing of agent Dutch Mantell last summer. Mantell would usually put together most of the women’s matches and angles which consistently drew the best ratings on Impact. Present day, it sometimes seems the writing team is going out of their way to destroy that with some really wacky illogical booking. The remaining regulars are Angelina Love, Daffney, Hamada, Lacey Von Erich, Madison Rayne, Velvet Sky, Sarita, Taylor Wilde, and newcomer Rosie Lottalove–nine women feuding over two sets of titles–five of which have been sidelined with injury or have been inactive in recent week’s.
OTHER WRESTLING NEWS
Florida-based indy wrestler Charles Bender passed away after a lengthy battle with cancer on 6/8. He was 35. He is survived by his parents, Charles Bender, Jr. and Mandonna Bender, his daughter, Abbie, and a number of friends and family.
Carl Lewis, 58, was charged with murder in connection with an auto accident last year that caused the death of 22-year old Kentucky indy wrestler Glenn “Ice Pick” Russell, who died in a four car pile-up. Lewis, who was driving under the influence at the time of the accident, has been charged with four counts of wanton endangerment.
Former Northeast indy wrestler Julian Bradley, who wrestled as Kriss Krude, is running for La Crosse State Representative in Wisconsin. Story is at http://tinyurl.com/37em9l8.
Indy wrestler J.D. Maverick competed in Saturday night’s NPC Indianapolis Bodybuilding Championships.
The Ultimate Warrior is trying to sell his ring worn boots from his last wrestling match– the match against Orlando Jordan in Barcelona, Spain back in 2008. The boots were posted on eBay last week for $25,000 and have since been relisted for $10,000. I may be wrong, but I still don’t think he’s going to have many takers at the lowered price.
Jakks Pacific has signed an action figure deal with New Japan Pro Wrestling that will allow them to use promotion’s name and images, and potentially it’s wrestlers on a per-individual basis.
Bob Backlund and Joe “The Assassin” Hamilton are both currently working on new wrestling-related books.
There is a legends meet and great on Thursday night at RP McMurphy’s Bar and Grill located on 2623 MacDade Blvd in Holmes, PA. Guests include Diamond Dallas Page, Jimmy Snuka, King Kong Bundy and some surprises. For more info call 610-583-2254.
Today’s Babe of the Day is Taylor Wilde at
http://www.thewrestlingpress.com/DailyDiva.
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