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WRESTLING GLOBE NEWSLETTER
Monday November 30, 2009
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WORLD WRESTLING ENTERTAINMENT NEWS
11/28 Raw house show results from Johnson City, TN: Melina & Eve over Maryse & Alicia Fox; Sheamus over Primo; Santino Marella over Chris Masters; Mark Henry overJack Swagger; The Miz over Evan Bourne; Triple H & Kofi Kingston over Legacy; and John Cena over Randy Orton.
11/28 Smackdown/ECW house show results from Upper Marlboro, MD: Drew McIntyre won a battle royal; Mickie James over Beth Pheonix; R-Truth over Dolph Ziggler; Yoshi Tatsu over Vladamir Koslov; Cryme Tyme over The Hart Dynasty; Matt Hardy over CM Punk; Drew McIntyre over John Morrison via count out; and Rey Mysterio over Chris Jericho.
11/29 Raw house show results from Charlottesville, VA: Mark Henry over Jack Swagger; Melina & Eva over Maryse & Jillian Hall; Sheamus over Primo; Santino Marella over Carlito; Chris Masters over Alex Riley; The Miz over Evan Bourne; Triple H & Kofi Kingston over Legacy; and John Cena over Randy Orton.
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WWE has signed Jillian Beyor to a developmental deal with perks. She is a 24-year-old Bikini model who was named 2008 Playboy Magazine Model of the Year. She also appeared in the CW reality show Beauty and The Geek.
Some notes from the weekend house shows: Rey Mysterio vs. Chris Jericho headlined Saturday night in Upper Marlboro. He didn't work Sunday's TV taping in Hampton but is scheduled for a street fight against Batista next week in Houston where I assume he will be written out of storylines as he is scheduled for knee surgery soon... The Great Khali started back on the road after recently taking time out to have his knee scoped and attend the wedding of his younger brother in India... Maria Kanellis returned as a valet for Cryme Tyme, and worked the TV taping as part of the Piggy James storyline... Carlito also returned and worked a singles match with Santino in Charlottesville... Cena vs. Orton headlined the Raw tour despite the storyline stipulation... Alex Riley from developmental worked the Raw tour... Trent Barrera and Caylon Croft from developmental made their ECW debut at the TV taping. They are the current FCW tag champs as The Dude Busters... Paul Burchill is apparently staying with ECW under a mask.
BskyB announced today it has renewed it's television contract with WWE for another five years. The new agreement which takes effect in January, 2010 through 2015 includes the addition of Superstars and a magazine show called This Week in WWE as part of the new package. That's around 50 hours of WWE TV in the UK each week. They have also quietly increased the number of PPV's airing on Sky Box Office to eight, with the other five PPV's airing free on Sky Sports. BskyB has controlled the rights to WWE programming in the UK since 1989.
Today's Guardian in the UK at http://tinyurl.com/yktdlrd has an obit on Lou Albano.
The Miz, who is battling laryngitis, talked his way out of a traffic violation this past weekend. Miz broke the news himself on Twitter saying, "Just got pulled over. This always happens to me. Let's see if I can get just a warning. Probably not though never that lucky." A few minutes later, he updated with his predicament: "And the verdict is in... not guilty. Well actually I was guilty but was let go with a warning. See there are nice cops out there." Not the smartest thing to Tweet about...
Current line up for the TLC PPV on December 13 from San Antonio: The Undertaker vs. Batista for the World title in a Chair match; John Cena vs. Sheamus in a Table's match for the WWE title; Christian vs. Shelton Benjamin in a ladder match for the ECW title; Chris Jericho & Big Show vs. DX for the tag titles; and not confirmed yet but likely is Michelle McCool vs. Mickie James for the Women's title hopefully not in a Hog Pen.
The title of Steve Austin's next movie is Hunt to Kill which is currently shooting in Vancouver. The film stars Austin as a border guard who is taken hostage, along with his teenage daughter, by a gang of killers. The gang are then double-crossed by another outfit, and Austin’s character is recruited to help track them down to save the life of his daughter.
Hall of Fame tickets go on sale January 15 via Ticketmaster. The ceremony takes place at Dodge Theater in Phoenix, AZ.
The Norwich, CT Bulletin reports, "What once was a flood of would-be challengers to incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Christopher J. Dodd has now evaporated into what is essentially a two-person race -- former Congressman Rob Simmons versus millionaire former WWE Wrestling CEO Linda McMahon." ... Linda is the guest speaker on Tuesday for The Rotary Club of Stamford meeting at 12:15pm at the Holiday Inn Stamford, CT.
The house show scheduled for January 10 in Mankato, MN has been canceled.
Jeff Hardy: My Life, My Rules goes on sale tomorrow although some Walmart stores are already selling the DVD. An interesting note is that "My Life, My Rules" is the slogan of the straight edge culture, and was featured on CM Punk's first ever WWE T-Shirt.
TOTAL NONSTOP ACTION WRESTLING NEWS
Southpeak Interactive sent out a release today confirming the company has acquired the rights to the TNA video game from Midway. The game, TNA Impact: Cross The Line, will be released on PSP and Nintendo DS early next year.
AJ Styles did an interview with Sport FM in Australia and talked about Impact moving to Monday nights to compete with WWE. He said: "A lot of things [wrong] is our production issues. The reason why WWE has been [at the top] for so long is [because] their production is very expensive." He added: "We're working our way up there to get to that point. We just don't have the money they do." When asked about those on the current WWE roster who he thought would be a good fit for TNA he noted Shawn Michaels, Shelton Benjamin, Rey Mysterio, Christian and Evan Bourne.
Bobby Lashley's next MMA fight will be announced later this week. This may signal the end of his TNA run.
Mick Foley revealed his upcoming book will be titled Countdown to Lockdown and announced he'll start blogging soon on the TNA website.
There is a taped interview this week on Impact from Dixie Carter's home where she answers questions from fans who wrote to her via Twitter.
Spike TV will air a four hour TNA special on New Year's Eve from 7pm until 11pm, including a countdown show of the ten best matches of 2009 as voted by fans on the TNA website. Hour two of Impact that night goes head to head with WWE Superstars on WGN.
AJ Styles vs. Daniels and Kurt Angle vs. Desmond Wolfe headlines house shows this coming weekend.
Q&A with Robert Roode at http://tinyurl.com/yctdoa3
TNA has a Best of 2009 DVD out on February 16.
Daffney has donated items for auction to Wrestler's Rescue to benefit Dr. Death Steve Williams who is battling cancer. More info at www.wrestlersrescue.org.
OTHER WRESTLING NEWS
Ring of Honor tonoght on HDNet has Eddie Kingston vs. Claudio Castagnoli; The Briscoes vs. The Dark City Fight Club; Kevin Steen & El Generico vs. The Set; and Austin Aries vs. Colt Cabana for the ROH title. More info on ROH at www.rohwrestling.com.
Brent Albright is still under contract to ROH contrary to reports else where.
TMZ.com at http://tinyurl.com/yhy4tzm claimed Nick Hogan was involved in a minor car accident Saturday night in downtown Los Angeles. The report, citing no sources, no police reports, nor stating whether Nick was the driver, claimed the accident occurred while he was traveling home from a charity event to raise funds for a program that teaches people to drive safely. Reportedly nobody was injured. Nick was convicted of reckless driving in 2007 when he crashed Hulk Hogan's Toyota Supra during an alleged street race in Clearwater, FL. The crash left his passenger and best friend John Graziano with severe brain injuries.
A correction from yesterday in which we noted Kai Maiava, citing The LA Times, as a nephew of Dwayne Johnson. From Jim Varsallone of The Miami Herald: UCLA's Kai Maiava is the brother of former USC football player Kaluka Maiava. Note the different last name spelling to Maivia. I recall Kaluka Maiava at USC was not a blood relative per se to The Rock, but the story was he was related to The Rock. High Chief Peter Maivia and Neff Maiava were very good friends and billed as cousins or brothers, but they were not biologically related - just very good family friends/Samoans. I think Peter helped start Neff's career. He is younger than the former High Chief. I remember reading this. Unless there is other info.... I also remember writing something about it during last season's NFL draft. So the same would hold true then for Kai. Family friends but not related.
Today's Diva of the Day is Terri Runnels at http://www.thewrestlingpress.com/DailyDiva
Gene Okerlund, Jerry Lawler, Dutch Mantell and John Layfield all celebrated birthday's this past weekend. Christian (36) and Tom Zenk (51) both celebrate birthday's today.
The Iron Sheik is shooting a movie soon in Los Angeles. We should have more details soon.
Lilian Garcia sang the National Anthem at the NY Jets game this past weekend.
Former WWE Diva Amy "Lita" Dumas is currently on tour in Europe with her band The Luchagors. All the tour dates including several in the UK are listed at http://www.myspace.com/theluchagors13.
TSN has a story on Trish Stratus teaching yoga to Toronto Maple Leaf players at http://tinyurl.com/yaqs79b.
Mike Mooneyham has a story on Sandy Scott who is battling cancer at http://tinyurl.com/yc6k6a5.
Jim Niedhart headlines for National Wrestling Superstars on December 4 and 5 in Kenilworth, NJ and New Milford, CT. More info at www.nwswrestling.com.
Davey Richards vs. Kota Ibushi was announced for Evolve's January 16 debut show in New Jersey. More info at www.evolvewrestling.com.
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