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WRESTLING GLOBE NEWSLETTER
Tuesday January 5, 2010
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Wrestling Globe Newsletter by Mike Aldren - All the latest professional wrestling news, gossip and occasional opinion direct to you. WGN is read by industry power players, many top wrestlers and thousands of fans from all around the world.
TNA WRESTLING NEWS
1/4 Impact TV results from Orlando, FL: Chris Sabin vs. Alex Shelley vs. Homicide vs. Kiyoshi vs. Amazing Red vs. Suicide vs. Jay Lethal vs. Consequences Creed for the X-title in the Dome was a no contest; ODB over Tara to capture the Knockouts title; Awesome Kong & Hamada over Taylor Wilde & Sarita to capture the Knockouts tag titles; Matt Morgan & Hernandez over Raven & Dr. Stevie for a TNA tag title shot; D’Angelo Dinero over Desmond Wolfe; Samoa Joe over Abyss; and AJ Styles over Kurt Angle to retain the TNA heavyweight title.
Impact for January 14 is taped today as Thursday's show will be a replay of last night. The Young Bucks (under a new name we haven't confirmed) are listed on the format sheets to debut tonight against The Machine Guns. Also, Angelina Love is backstage along with Team 3D who just returned from Japan.
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Impact last night did a 1.45 rating over three hours averaging 2.2 million viewers. It's their highest rating in history, which is obviously a positive, and everyone in TNA is celebrating today, but the negative is that viewers tuned out as the show progressed. Hour one delivered a 1.69 rating, the highest rated hour. Hour two slipped to 1.44. Hour three dropped further to a 1.22. The first quarter hour of hour two was the most-watched in company history peaking at 2.5 million viewers for the debut of Hulk Hogan. Hour two also included the least watched quarter-hour for Pope vs. Desmond Wolfe and an A.J. Styles promo. However... 1.45 to 1.5 is a good number which means there will be much discussion over the coming week's whether to make the move to Monday night a permanent fixture. TNA's previous highest rating was a 1.33 and 1.97 million viewers for the April 2, 2009 Impact prior to WrestleMania 25.
TNA owner Bob Carter of Panda Energy along with several Spike TV executives observed the show live last night.
Jeff Hardy agreed to a short-term deal, which was TNA's big surprise along with Ric Flair. Considering that Hardy was the biggest wrestling star of 2009 they couldn't have made a bigger mess of this if they tried. From the debacle in the Dome that Homicide couldn't escape, to the production truck hitting the 7-second delay because fans were chanting "bullshit", to the weird deal with him painting pictures of himself backstage, to the teeny-bopper Cheerleaders as plants, this was arguably right up there with the gobbledygooker in terms of executing the introduction of a personality. I really don't like to comment on booking because that's not what we're about here, and there are enough pundits analysing shows to death, but this, along with the introduction of Flair taking the focus off a tremendous Styles-Angle bout, was just poor on so many levels. Still, their biggest mistake last night wasn't any of this but neglecting to even mention they usually run on a Thursday night.
Regarding Jeff Hardy, he was indicted yesterday in Moore County stemming from his drugs arrest back in September. A grand jury found there was enough evidence to send him to Superior Court. He is facing charges of felony possession of cocaine; felony drug trafficking of opium; two counts of felony possession with intent to redistribute a Schedule III drug; maintaining a dwelling for drug use and/or distribution; and a misdemeanor for possession of drug paraphernalia. A court date will be scheduled next week. Those close to Hardy have been saying for months he will be absolved of all charges but this doesn't look good and the District Attorney in Moore County seems to be going all out for a conviction.
TNA held an Internet press conference following Impact via MyContent.com. Vince Russo kicked things off in full work mode saying he didn't know what to expect tonight. I guess Bischoff did toss out his script. When asked if Impact can compete head-to-head against Raw, he said: "That's not my call to make." Don West was up next shilling TNA merchandise; a limited-edition Hulk Hogan trading card available on the Shop TNA website. Dixie Carter was next. She thought Impact was great and was proud of all the talent: "It was magic, I thought it was really great," she said. "A few things surprised me, but overall I was really, really happy with what happened." She talked about growing TNA one fan at a time and said the signing of Hogan was already paying off dividends: "Whatever we've done or accomplished in the past, it's time for us to try new things and see if they work. You will continue to see surprises and new faces, and as Hogan said, now is the time for everybody, even if you were with us to this point, to step up and take it to a new level." She added that ratings weren't important but the fact they made it this far and were competing against WWE: "Tonight is about giving [fans] the choice. Tonight is about raising the bar on every level. I'm sick and tired of people saying, 'Yeah, I admit it, I'm a wrestling fan.' Why should we have to admit it? Fans should be proud of it. We are a wrestling company, we are writing wrestling shows, tonight's main event was a wrestling match. Thank you to all who watched tonight, to all of our amazing talent, everybody working behind the scenes. We have worked very hard to get to this moment." The rest of the conference was various guys pushing their storylines.
TNA was the No. 1 Twitter trending topic for a few minutes last night. Between the hours of 9 and 11 they remained in the top ten along with WWE... Orlando Jordan and Val Venis were the No 7 and No. 8 most searched terms on Google yesterday which is quite impressive. Jeff Hardy was No. 15.
Frankie Kazarian (Suicide) and Traci Brooks are getting married later this week.
Hogan was said to be surprised by the reaction to his verbal spar with Jeff Jarrett. He was booed heavily when he ripped on Jarrett. The idea was for both to cut babyface promos as the feud moving forward is Team Hogan with Dixie Carter vs. Team Jarrett with Mick Foley.
Brian Kendrick is expected to start here soon. Other new characters introduced last night were Eric Bischoff, Scott Hall, Sean Waltman, and The Nasty Boys, plus Sean Morley doing the Val Venis gimmick, Shannon Moore, and Orlando Jordan who all worked Hogan's tour of Australia back in November. The Nasty Boys vs. Team 3D looks to be a future program along with Pope vs. Jordan, and Morley vs. Daniels.
Tampa radio DJ Bubba the Love Sponge appeared in several segments as a backstage interviewer last night. Not sure he will remain a regular personality. There is a lot of heat on him right now from many different directions over a miscommunication over hundreds of Impact Zone passes he had given to listeners of his show. He said TNA had produced passes for him to give away but when they arrived at the Sound Stage they were turned away. He ran into some of his listeners at the Hard Rock Cafe following the show and he claimed kids booed and spat on him. On his radio show this morning he ripped on Universal and TNA saying, "the guys in charge [Gene Magee, a Universal Studios employee, and TNA staffer Mike Weber] don’t know their ass from a hole in the ground." He claimed he wasn't going to return to Orlando this afternoon unless he received a personal apology. Last night on his Twitter, he wrote: "I want to apologize to each and every fan that got f--ked and turned away today at TNA. Trust me, Dixie Carter would be as upset as I am if and when she finds out. If there is one thing I did learn it's she's a very very remarkable and honest business women. I don't know what my future holds with TNA right now but I'll never speak a bad word about Dixie. Again, I am sorry. Please forgive me."
Apparently A.J. Styles was at the Hard Rock last night telling fans that Bubba was a jerk.
Howard Stern during his radio show this morning praised Bubba. They played clips of his Impact segments as Howard remarked that Bubba's acting wasn't as bad as the wrestlers. Howard's co-host Robin Quivers then ripped on Hogan and compared him to Randy the Ram from The Wrestler.
Hamada appeared to hurt her knee last night during the tag title match. We should have an update later this week.
WORLD WRESTLING ENTERTAINMENT NEWS
1/4 Raw TV results from Dayton, OH: Maryse over Brie Bella to advance in the Divas title tournament; MVP over Jack Swagger, Carlito & Mark Henry in a four-way for a U.S. title shot; DX over Jerishow to retain the tag titles; Sheamus over Evan Bourne; and Randy Orton over Kofi Kingston.
Smackdown and ECW are taped tonight in Louisville, KY, with CM Punk headlining ECW against Mark Henry, and Batista vs. Rey Mysterio advertised for Smackdown with the winner facing The Undertaker at the Royal Rumble. Danny Davis of OVW brought some of his students to TV tonight to work as extras.
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The Raw rating won't be available until tomorrow morning.
Former WWE valet Tammy Sytch ripped on the Bella Twins last night via her Facebook page. She said both twins "got chubby" over the holidays making fun of their appearance. I would have thought she would be the last person in the world ripping other girls for their weight. She also noted something about the twins not being very nice to her when she came in for Wrestlemania last year. She wrote: "There's no excuse for any of those girls in their early 20s to get a little chubby. Wait until they hit 35 and everything slows the f--k down. Then what? They are getting paid to look a certain way. If I was there right now, I'd weigh 118 f--king skinny ass pounds again!"
Bret Hart was honored after Raw went off the air last night. Several guys from the locker room, including the Hart Dynasty, came out and embraced Bret. Mark Henry and DH Smith put him on their shoulders and paraded him around ala Wrestlemania 10. You can watch a clip at http://tinyurl.com/ycgtslf.
Bret stayed at the WWE hotel last night and spent over an hour signing autographs for fans in the lobby. He was accompanied to Raw by his girlfriend.
Stu Hart was announced for the Hall of Fame. This could flip back and forth considering the storyline feud between Vince and Bret but Stu is going in the weekend of Wrestlemania 26 in Glendale, AZ.
WWE acknowledged the passing of Steve Williams last night during Raw. His best work wasn't with this company so the mention was a nice touch. It's just a shame they refuse to acknowledge the deaths of those who did make significant contributions, such as Eddie "Umaga" Fatu. It's a double standard that shouldn't exist, but unfortunately does.
Bryan Danielson worked a dark match before Raw going over Chavo Guerrero... Chavo was raving about working with Danielson after their match and Tweeted that he hoped they could work a 20-minute match down the road.
There was no mention of the whereabouts of John Cena last night as the fear was people would switch channels to the Fiesta Bowl.
JTG of Cryme Tyme has apparently given up his Twitter because he is tired of people twisting the words of celebrities like himself.
Melina is facing an estimated six months on the sidelines after tearing her left ACL last week in Manchester, NH.
William Shatner of Star Trek fame will guest host Raw on February 1 from Nashville.
The Stamford Advocate has an article on Linda McMahon's opponents handling of WWE, demonizing her for the relationship yet enjoying the company's presence in their state. Story is at http://tinyurl.com/y9y5fl6.
OTHER WRESTLING NEWS
The Daily Mail in the UK ran a story about Steve Austin breaking the neck of Sylvester Stallone while filming a fight scene for The Expendables. Stallone says he had emergency surgery and a metal plate inserted in his neck because the scene was so realistic that he suffered a hairline fracture. Story is at http://tinyurl.com/yg2d7d6.
Slam Wrestling at http://tinyurl.com/yatuu4z interviewed Austin Idol about his start in wrestling, surviving a plane crash, leaving wrestling, returning and more.
Rob Van Dam radio tonight at robvandam.com with Paul London, Diamond Dallas Page, Bruce Jingles, Fonzie, and more.
Today's Diva of the Day is Tammy Sytch at http://www.thewrestlingpress.com/DailyDiva.
