WORLD WRESTLING ENTERTAINMENT NEWS
2/6 Raw house shows results from Alexandria, LA: Chris Masters over Carlito; Jack Swagger over Santino to win his first match of 2010; Paul Burchill over Johnny Curtis; Divas match but we didn't get names; The Miz over MVP; Mark Henry & ? over Legacy; Randy Orton over Kofi Kingston; and John Cena over Sheamus via DQ.
2/6 Smackdown house shows results from Waco, TX: Kane over Mike Knox; Goldust & Koslov over William Regal & Tyler Reks; Mickie James over Michelle McCool with Beth Phoenix as referee; Cryme Tyme & Maria over The Hart Dynasty & Natalya; Matt Hardy over Finlay; Drew McIntyre over John Morrison & R-Truth in a three-way; Christian over Ezekiel Jackson; and Rey Mysterio over CM Punk.
We didn't receive any reports from the 2/7 Supershow in Lake Charles.
The Smackdown/ECW tapings are tonight in Baton Rouge. We're looking for reader reports to you2us@wrestlingglobe.com.
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WWE production designer Jason Robinson did an interview with Sky magazine in the UK to promote the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view. He noted that the chamber cost $250,000 to construct, takes around 24 ring crew to assemble, and costs the company $10,000 each time they use the chamber as they replace the Perspex in each pod after every match. Robinson also said the chamber is housed in storage in Newark and they have to hire a special 500-foot flatbed truck for trans as it's too wide for the typical WWE ring trucks. "It weighs 16 tons so we're pushing maximum weight limit," said Robinson.
The Elimination Chamber pay-per-view is being marketed in Germany as No Way Out. I assume this is for the obvious reason.
A story on Ted DiBiase Sr. and Jr. at http://tinyurl.com/yjkctrt where they discuss the Wellness Program and suggest wrestlers don't party anymore like they did in the 80s and 90s. I think that's probably true in some respects. Sr. said: "Today, the business has changed, it’s much more corporate... When you go back to the hotel, there is nobody. I don’t know if it’s a well-kept secret, or what. The WWE has changed so much now. They work four days a week, then they go home to their families."
John Cena had his publicist call Hooters in Lafayette yesterday to reserve a table to watch the Superbowl. Cena didn't show up until 11pm but gave the servers a huge tip when he did. Those on his table included DiBiase Jr., Masters, Kingston, Michaels, and a couple of the Diva's. The Super Bowl last night was the most watched show in U.S. television history with 106.5 million viewers. The previous most-watched show was the 1983 finale episode of MASH that did 106.0 million viewers.
Maria Kanellis did an interview on Arizona radio to promote Wrestlemania. She also talked Celebrity Apprentice and noted she got on well with all the other celebs aside from Cyndi Lauper. "It was more like, girls just wanna be mean, than girls just wanna have fun... I still like [Cyndi], I just don't want to work with her again... EVER!"
Mickie James‘ debut country album is titled Strangers & Angels’ and is due for release/download on March 23. She is releasing a track from the album called Are You With Me on February 16 which will be played on country radio stations in Virginia and Tennessee.
The Paisley Daily Express in Scotland at http://tinyurl.com/yln89vc has a story on the NXT Wrestling group noting they have used the name NXT since 2006 and have offered to fight it out in the ring with Vince McMahon for rights to the name. The story noted that McMahon had to ditch the WWF acronym in 2000 due to losing the court ruling to the World Wildlife Fund. On a related note, the change from World Wrestling Federation to World Wrestling Entertainment made No. 7 on Time's new list of Top Top Worst Corporate Name Changes at http://tinyurl.com/m3d72u.
Ron Simmons worked what was billed as his retirement match this past weekend before 900 fans at the Historic Purks International Championship Wrestling show in Cedartown, GA. Lot's of talk that he will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame this year. He will be inducted into the Georgia Sports Hall of Fame on February 20.
Bret Hart commented on meeting with Jeremy Borash in Nashville last week shooting down rumors he has plans to do anything with TNA. He said: "Why anyone would ever think I'd let Hogan and Bischoff anywhere near my Hitman persona again is truly beyond me."
The postponed house show Friday night in Philadelphia was rescheduled for Thursday. Some WWE people are not happy as they will miss Jack Brisco's memorial service... The service is Thursday at 1pm at St. Lawrence Church, 5221 N. Himes Ave Tampa, FL 33614. Phone: 813-875-4040.
WWE talent flying from Los Angeles to Philly on Friday were notified of the house show cancelation at 6am. They had to deboard from their 6.30 flight, but unfortunatley their luggage didn't leave the plane with them. They eventually got their bags back later that night.
Superstars last Thursday night did a 1.0 rating and 1.1 million viewers
Foxy Brown's latest song Let 'em Know contains a line referencing John Cena.
Former Diva Jazz was recently added to WWE's Alumni website.
Chris Jericho's band Fozzy is touring the UK in May with dates in Glasgow, Nottingham, and a double shot in London. More info will be posted soon at www.chrisjericho.com.
Jim Ross noted he was heading to Tampa this week to check out recruits in WWE developmental.
Edge is appearing on Friday night in Melbourne, FL, at the FCW show at the Melbourne Auditorium. The show includes the main event of Justin Angel, Kaval & Bryan Danielson vs. Curt Hawkins, Trent Barreta & Caylen Croft. More info at www.fcwwrestling.info.
Beth Phoenix tweeted over the weekend that a Texas state trooper pulled her over while driving to Dallas and gave her a ticket.
The city of Vancouver has formed a bid committee and is attempting to bring WrestleMania to Vancouver, British Columbia, in either 2013 or 2014. More info at www.wrestlemaniavancouver.com.
Big Show turns 38 today.
TNA WRESTLING NEWS
2/4 house show results from Topeka, KS: Chris Sabin over Jay Lethal; Tara over ODB with Shark Boy as referee; Hernandez & Matt Morgan over Team 3D; Samoa Joe over Abyss; The Pope over Desmond Wolfe; and Jeff Jarrett over Mr. Anderson. Earl Hebner is on the road but they are playing up to the suspension storyline so he comes out to referee a match but Jeremy Borash has security eject him from the building.
2/5 in Wichita and 2/7 in Joplin had the same results. We didn't get anything by way of numbers but Joplin was close to sold out.
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Impact last Thursday night did a 1.2 rating and 1.6 million viewers, down around 15 percent in viewership from the week before.
Jimmy Hart did an interview at http://tinyurl.com/ykl7bzr talking about going to TNA. He tongue-in-cheek tells the story of how Jerry Lawler once told him that Hulk Hogan would never draw a dime in wrestling. Technically Lawler is right, because Hogan was Terry Boulder when he said that in Memphis and the Boulder gimmick never did draw a dime. When asked whether he thinks Hogan will wrestle again, he said: "Please, brother. You know he will. Come on, man. Hulk Hogan, I tell him all the time, every time he walks by that ring he gets goosebumps. You know he’s going to. Those boots’ll be back on before long."
The Honky Tonk Man did a radio interview saying it was Jeff Jarrett who called him in December about the Jakks action figure deal.
Tara chipped some teeth in Wichita over the weekend and underwent dental surgery today. She tweeted this afternoon that she can't do BJ tonight as a result--Brazilian Jiu Jitsu for those with their minds in the gutter.
Ric Flair makes his house show debut this weekend in Norfolk in the corner of AJ Styles.
Brian Fitz interviewed Shane Douglas at http://tinyurl.com/yk6elud. He was fairly critical of TNA television saying Dixie and Bob Carter have made a huge investment on a product that is vastly underachieving. I am not sure many people will completely agree with his assessment, but he said: "I think fans want to see something more realistic with the storylines, force them to think a little bit and get to something that's a lot more old school. That's one portion of the formula that Vince [McMahon] has steadfastly refused to try and Dixie Carter has been unwilling to try. They've tried everything else. They've tried ever flip-flopping move, every kind of iron cage they can build, every tower they can build, every kind of storyline and vignette that can do off of 'sports entertainment' and we're down 10, 15 million fans over the last 10 years. My belief is that old school is where it has to go to bring some of those fans back and create new fans." Again, I personally don't believe in this new school vs. old school mentality. Bottom line--there is good wrestling and bad wrestling. It's just that some people book or write it better than others. Anyway, Douglas also rips on Vince McMahon for his treatment of the ECW brand.
OTHER WRESTLING NEWS
Gene Kiniski is still hospitalized in Bellingham, WA, battling pneumonia and undergoing chemotherapy treatments for cancer. He has lost a lot of weight, but is resting comfortably and is in amazing spirits, according to a close friend. He said on Saturday night: "What a great life--I wish I could do it all over again, I have been everywhere, and got paid to do it, it is just the sh--ts to go out like this." He was very sad to hear about the passing of Jack Brisco and joked that you could make up a hell of a territory with all the wrestling talent that came out of Oklahoma.
There was a G.L.O.W. [Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling] reunion last weekend in Los Angeles to honor Emily Dole [Mountain Fiji] who has been in poor health recently. Many of the original crew were in attendance including Lisa "Ivory" Moretti, Little Egypt, Americana, Gremlina, Beastie, Hollywood, Tulsa, Vine, Evangelina, and Daisy. Former G.L.O.W. director Matt Cimber also stopped by for a few minutes. He is the youngest child of 1960s sex symbol Jayne Mansfield and brother of actress Mariska Hargitay. The reunion was filmed for a documentary. Jimmy Hart, Larry Zbyszko and Johnny Fairplay all gave interviews for the film.
Ring of Honor tonight on HDNet has The American Wolves vs. The Young Bucks; Steve Corino & Kevin Steen vs. Alex Payne & Bobby Dempsey; The Dark City Fight Club vs. The Bravado Brothers; plus an interview with Tyler Black regarding the title match he had with Austin Aries in New York City.
ROH taped television Friday night in Philly for HDNet and quite smartly put the word out they would allow free admission to any WWE ticket holders. Former WWE and TNA wrestler Shawn Daivari made his debut. The Saturday night taping was canceled due to the snow storm and potential electrical issues.
Roderick Strong just signed a contract renewal with ROH.
The controversy surrounding Davey Richards and The Young Bucks [TNA's Generation Me] pulling out of Dragon Gate USA's Wrestlemania weekend shots in Phoenix intensified last week. Richards had verbally agreed to multiple dates with Dragon Gate and Evolve for the rest of the year despite being under contract to Ring of Honor. Dragon Gate had advertised his name for months in Phoenix, but it seems Richards balked on his commitments when confronted recently by ROH lawyers. ROH had previously agreed Richards could work for Dragon Gate although Richards had misrepresented himself to the company and claimed he wasn't under a contract. Richards released a short statement a few days ago saying ROH was his home and he wouldn't be working for Dragon Gate or Evolve. Regarding The Young Bucks, TNA decided to pull Matt and Nick Jackson from their Dragon Gate bookings when they signed with the company. They like Richards had also been advertised for months in Phoenix. However, cooler heads prevailed and now TNA are allowing the Bucks to honor their remianing dates. Dragon Gate booker Gabe Sapolsky wrote a blog praising TNA while alluding to his dealings with ROH as "just plain ugly" writing, "I know my place in the food chain. The issue was finishing up the dates a talent let himself be advertised for. That is all that can and should be expected. Even WWE, which could squash any independent promotion like an ant including DGUSA and EVOLVE, makes sure its wrestlers keep their word and finish advertised dates. That's something I always respected about this corporate giant."
Well-regarded indy wrestler Human Tornado just announced his in-ring retirement from wrestling.
Dwayne Johnson lost an NFL bet with Regis Philbin and made good on it this past week by appearing in a pink tutu in a video on his show.
Tooth Fairy starring Johnson finished at No. 5 at the box office this past weekend grossing $6.5 million for a domestic total of $34 million after three week's.
John Graziano's family is now seeking additional punitive damages from Hulk and Nick Hogan. The family say Nick's driving and Hulk's parenting skills amount to gross negligence. Nick was involved in a serious car accident in 2007 when he wrecked Hulk's Toyota Supra, allegedly in a street race, severely injuring his best friend and passenger, John Graziano, an Iraqi war veteran, who now requires 24-hour-a-day care. Story is at http://tinyurl.com/yaukwnl.
Hulk Hogan's nephew David Bollea and Roddy Piper's son Colt Toombs fought on the same MMA card last Thursday in Lemoore, CA. Bollea beat Tim Denham with an armbar submission while Toombs lost a unanimous decision to Art Becerra. Toombs has recently been training under MMA legend Matt Lindland in Oregan.
Dan Severn talks Brock Lesnar at http://tinyurl.com/yl3pab2.
The Miami Herald interviewed Julie Hart [former wife of Bret] about a book she wrote at http://tinyurl.com/yzpnwas. She told the Herald: "My book is going to be dark. It will obviously surprise a lot of people and family, of course, because those are the first people who are not going to like what you say or don't remember it that way." She said she has been working on the book for six years based on journals she kept since the 80s. Originally her book was a joint project with her sister Michelle [who was once married to Tom Billington, The Dynamite Kid] but her sister backed out. "Biographies are really hard to write. You're really bearing your soul to people, especially your family. They're either going to agree or disagree with what you've written. They'll like it. They'll deny it. It's a tough decision what you're going to say in a book. You want to be remembered for good things because once the story is out, it's out. That's it. There's no turning back." Hart said the book is complete and she is looking for a publisher.
There are a number of wrestling-related items up for sale at http://tinyurl.com/yzbxgp2 -- all previously owned by Georgiann Makropoulos to help defer her funeral costs.
The Las Vegas Review has a Q&A with Colt Cabana at http://tinyurl.com/y85hyoh. Cabana was in town with Mick Foley and Bruce Prichard for a comedy benefit at the Hilton this past weekend. The local CBS news affiliate also interviewed Foley at http://tinyurl.com/yb7bdhd which included some TNA talk.
Mark Nulty has some interesting facts on Jack Brisco at http://jackbrisco.com/thingstoknow.html.
RVD's upcoming movie Wrong Side of Town will be released on February 23 direct to DVD. Dave Batista co-stars with Van Dam and is featured all over the promotional material.
Chris Nowinski of The Sports Legacy Institute did a lot of media during Super Bowl weekend to raise awareness of the institute's research on brain injuries among professional athletes. He said in recent years the NFL and it's players have mostly been supportive of his work. The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review interviewed Nowinski at http://tinyurl.com/yhobmcz.
Jim "Sinister Minister" Mitchell has reappeared on Jeff Katz' Geek Week website at http://tinyurl.com/ye74537.
Tijuana Entertainment is looking for backyard wrestlers [18 and over] in Southern California to be part of a documentary. For more information, email Anna Zukowski at AMZCasting@gmail.com.
The latest edition of www.thewrestlingpress.com is now online with interviews with Desmond Wolfe and Cody Deaner.
Today's Diva of the Day is Karen Angle at http://www.thewrestlingpress.com/DailyDiva.
