WORLD WRESTLING ENTERTAINMENT
4/20 NXT TV results from Uncasville, Connecticut: Justin Gabriel over David Otunga; Darren Young over Michael Tarver & Skip Sheffield in a three-way; and Heath Slater over Chris Jericho.
Superstars tonight on WGN has John Morrison vs. Carlito; Goldust vs. Shas Gaspard; and Yoshi Tatsu vs. Zack Ryder.
***
The Raw crew finally arrived home on U.S. soil last night after being stranded in Belfast for several days. John Cena did media interviews on Tuesday noting that he's been on the road since the last week of March and was looking forward to seeing his family. He told Sky Sports News: "I haven't had a vacation in 8 years, so like I said, this was an unscheduled holiday and I was certainly happy to have it."
The title belts used on Raw and Smackdown this week were replicas as the real belts were in Europe due to travel constraints.
Raw on Monday night did a 3.1 rating and 4.15 million viewers. NXT on Tuesday did a 0.9 and 1.2 million viewers.
JTG vs. Shad Gaspard in a strap match and Michelle McCool vs. Beth Phoenix for the Women's title was added to Sunday's Extreme Rules pay-per-view.
There will be Supplement Draft next Wednesday on WWE.com hosted by Howard Finkel.
Negotiations with Bill Goldberg have stalled. He did an interview this week where he was quoted as saying, "I'm going to stand my ground and a deal will be done if it's to my liking and to my liking only." Goldberg was among nine inductees into the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame on Sunday in Commack, NY. "I wanted to try my best to give the Jewish youth something to look up to, someone who's persevered and somehow made a difference," Goldberg said during his induction speech. "What better way to help Jewish youth in dealing with adversity than to parade around the ring on national television in my underwear, demolishing every single person in my path?"
The NXT rookies got a tour of Titan Towers on Wednesday. Many of them were tweeting about getting free DVD's and T-Shirts.
People Magazine posted a blurb on Ryan Phillippe hosting Raw with his MacGruber costars Kristen Wiig and Will Forte. They wrote he was "geeking out backstage" after meeting one of his childhood idols: Ricky "the Dragon" Steamboat.
Joey Mercury worked a dark match at the Smackdown tapings on Tuesday. He told people he was signing back earlier this year as part of The Straight Edge Society. He's changed his look somewhat since his last run. He shaved his head and appears to have bulked up slightly.
Ox Baker was outside the arena at the tapings signing autographs and taking pictures with fans.
The second autobiography of Chris Jericho has been officially titled Undisputed: How to Become the World Champion in 1,372 Easy Steps, due for release in February 16, 2011. I assume they pushed back the release date as Jericho was talking before Wrestlemania about having just a few week's to make the publishing deadline. A description of the book reads: "The eagerly awaited follow-up to the New York Times bestselling A Lion's Tale documents Chris Jericho's meteoric rise to wrestling glory in the WWE. A Lion's Tale gave readers a portrait of Jericho as a young man. Fighting his way through Mexico, rinky-dink leagues and a battery of thieving, sleazy promoters/managers, the book ended with the author's WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment) debut. Never one to leave his fans hanging, as demonstrated by his recent return to wrestling glory, Jericho now tells the story of life in the big leagues. But "making it" in the premier wrestling league in the world comes with its own set of obstacles and hard lessons. Jericho, in his witty, hilarious, and surprisingly endearing manner, lays it all out: the good, the bad, and the spandex."
Jericho's band Fozzy will be playing at B.B. Kings in New York City next Wednesday.
Jim Ross was in Las Vegas this week for the annual Cauliflower Alley Club banquet. He wrote about meeting Awesome Kong and put her over as a future WWE pickup saying Kong would make a great opponent for Beth Phoenix or Nattie Neidhart. Ross also wrote about his desire to re sign with WWE and asked his blog readers to ignore speculation to the contrary.
The WWE stock closed yesterday at $18.50, a $0.92 increase so far this week, taking the stock to it's highest mark in several years.
TOTAL NONSTOP ACTION WRESTLING
TNA is back on the road this weekend in Georgia with shows tonight in Macon and Friday in Albany. Line up is Rob Van Dam vs. AJ Styles; Jeff Jarrett vs. Mr. Anderson; Tara vs. ODB; Abyss vs. Desmond Wolfe; Matt Morgan & TBA (probably Jay Lethal) vs. The Machine Guns; and more.
Jeff Jarrett appeared on the NBC news affiliate this morning in Macon pushing tonight's show. They are doing a promotion where kids 12 and under get in free. We're looking for reader reports to you2us@wrestlingglobe.com.
***
Hulk Hogan filed a lawsuit today against Wells Fargo Insurance Services, reports the Tampa Tribune. The newspaper reports that the suit relates to the 2007 car wreck involving Hogan's son Nick Bollea and John Graziano. Hogan claims that his former insurance company failed to upgrade his insurance when his exposure to risk grew, so had to use his own money to settle an out-of-court lawsuit filed by the estate of Graziano, who was left severely disabled as a result of the car wreck.
A funny note regarding legal letters since the subject was a major story this past week. Bill Behrens, who at one time was TNA's Bookings Director answering to Terry Taylor, noted during his latest audio show that he received a certified letter from a TNA attorney last year. Apparently the company was unhappy that he was writing blogs for a wrestling website and warned him about breaching his TNA confidentiality agreement. The funny note is that he never signed a confidentiality agreement. In fact, he never signed any type of contract with the company during the years he handled third-party talent bookings and assisted in booking live events.
Daffney was injured during a dark match Tuesday night at the Impact tapings requiring an ambulance trip to the hospital. She was working a girl called Betsy Ruth who was on a tryout. Not sure what went wrong. Daffney suffered a bruised sternum and a stinger but would be OK, according to Dixie Carter on her Twitter page. Betsy, a large girl, is a student from Team 3D's wrestling school who works a Baseball gimmick on Florida indies. Local TV news covered the story as well as the Orlando Sentinel. Angelina Love was also injured at the tapings. She suffered a biceps tear and also tore the ulnar collateral ligament in her elbow which will likely require surgery and sideline her for several weeks. The injury happened when she somehow got her arm caught on Tara's knee brace during a match. Daffney and Angelina were scheduled to wrestle each other on the house show loop this weekend but have been replaced by Tara and ODB.
Impact on Monday night did a 0.95 rating and 1.3 million viewers. An improvement on last week. I would except tonight's replay on Spike to do a solid number now that word has spread about the title change.
The Styles-RVD title change was originally slated for the Sacrifice pay-per-view on 5/16. Creative brought the match forward to try to take advantage of WWE's travel plight. Styles wasn't very happy with the way things went down but the idea is that RVD as champion would sell more tickets at house shows.
Hogan is talking about wrestling again. No idea who against but Abyss will be turning at some point.
Jim Cornette talks more Eric Bischoff plus his thoughts on Paul Heyman or Jim Ross ever working for TNA at WhosSlammingWho.podomatic.com.
Dr. Stevie is sat out at home as he's not been in creative plans of late. He was last seen on television trying to calm down an out-of-control Daffney, and was squashed a few months ago when he teamed with Raven against Matt Morgan and Hernandez. If they do the ECW angle one would assume he would be brought back.
Hermie Sadler is racing in the Bubba Burger 250 next Friday at Richmond International Raceway. Sadler will pilot RAB Racing’s TNA Wrestling Ford Fusion.
Ian Hamilton sent in the latest UK ratings data. For the week ending 4/11 Impact did 110,000 viewers (+ 35,000 viewers) plus an extra 89,000 viewers watching replays. Raw did 127,000 viewers for it's live airing and 83,000 viewers watching replays. Smackdown did 104,000 viewers for its first airing and 67,000 viewers watching replays.
OTHER WRESTLING NEWS
Mr. Hito (Katsuji Adachi), who trained Hashimoto and others in Canada, passed away two days ago at his home in Calgary. He was 67. Hito is best known for his work in Stu Hart's Stampede Wrestling, where he won multiple championships. He was highly regarded by Bret Hart as his most significant trainer, who he trained with extensively in Stu Hart's Dungeon. Hart wrote in his book, "People often say to me, where would wrestling be without Bret Hart. But my answer to that is, where would Bret Hart be without Mr. Hito." His death was believed to be related to diabetes, which caused the amputation of his right leg in October 2009.
George Grant, a Gorgeous George impostor from the 1950s and 1960s, passed away yesterday in Columbia, PA at the age of 85.
Scotty 2 Hotty (Scott Garland) underwent back surgery on 3/3. He's needed the surgery for a long time. People who toured with him in Europe last year said it hurt to look at him and he was in constant pain.
LuFisto (Genny Goulet, 30) suffered a minor stroke last Saturday night following a match in Montreal. Goulet, who has a family history of heart problems, will decide whether to continue her career or not, after going through some more tests. Luckily she said she didn't suffer any permanent damage and was back to full strength as of two days ago. She explains the full story in her blog at http://tinyurl.com/22wfywc.
Stacy Carter, formerly Miss Kitty/The Kat in WWE, did an interview this week on Tampa radio. She is working a match this weekend for CCW in St. Petersburg. She noted that she is currently dating Nick Cvjetkovich, formerly WWE's Kizarny, and has been training at Brian Knobbs' wrestling school in Clearwater.
The latest wrestlers writing books are Manny Fernandez and Sean Waltman.
Dutch Mantell posted a new blog detailing his recently new wrestling school at www.dutchmantell.com.
Honky Tonk Man, Jimmy Hart, Hillbilly Jim and Koko B. Ware are talking about forming a band and touring as a singing group at summer music festivals. This sounds like money.
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson is replacing Clive Owen in action-thriller Protection, according to several reputable movie websites. The film is about a twenty-one-year-old daughter of a Mexican judge who's targeted by mobsters (after she sees them kill her father and other family members), and must stay on the run, while an agent (Johnson) tries to protect her and the bad guy is hot on her trail.
Colt Cabana reviews Wrestlicious at www.wrestlingroaddiaries.com... Cabana also talks Ring of Honor returning to Chicago this weekend at http://tinyurl.com/26dur7b.
Dory Funk Jr., 69, teams with Jimmy Hart, 66, on Saturday in Ocala, FL. More info at www.dory-funk.com.
Universal Championship Wrestling is promoting "Slamboree" this Saturday night in Palestine, TX at the Civic Center. Tommy Dreamer, Charlie Haas, Scott Putski and TNA's Rob Terry are all advertised as appearing. More info at www.ucwtv.com or call 903-729-8106.
This is a strange one. Terri Runnels is scheduled for Dragon Gate USA's 5/8 show in Ontario, Canada. More info at www.dgusa.tv.
Big Time Wrestling is promoting a convention on 5/22 in California with Bret Hart, Jake Roberts, The Iron Sheik, Tommy Dreamer, Bob Holly, Paul London, Brian Knedrick, Billy Gunn, Road Dogg, Awesome Kong, Daffney, and many more. Details at www.btwrestling.com.
Maria Kanellis is doing a photo shoot today for the Chicago-based magazines Complete Woman and Sophisticate's Hairstyle Guide.
Today's former Diva of the Day is Joy Giovanni at http://www.thewrestlingpress.com/DailyDiva.
