----Mike Aldren with a new edition of WGN.
WORLD WRESTLING ENTERTAINMENT
10/25 Raw TV results from Green Bay, WI: Heath Slater & Justin Gabriel over David Otunga & John Cena to win the WWE tag titles, Daniel Bryan over Dolph Ziggler; LayCool over Gail Kim & Melina; Miz over R-Truth; Santino Marella over Sheamus; and John Cena over Randy Orton via DQ. Dark match was Yoshi Tatsu over Primo.
10/26 NXT TV results from Milwaukee, WI: Kaitlyn won a costume contest; Naomi over Maxine; Brie Bella over AJ; Maxine won a candy eating contest; and Aksana & Goldust over Maryse & Ted DiBiase Jr.
Superstars on Thursday night has Mark Henry vs. Jey Uso; Tyson Kidd vs. Zack Ryder; MVP (with new entrance music) vs. Curt Hawkins; and Chris Masters vs. Tyler Reks.
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WWE is once again in talks with Dwayne Johnson about making an appearance that would serve to cross promote his next movie Faster, which hits theaters on 11/24. Johnson, who recently finished filming Fast Five in Puerto Rico, last appeared on WWE television in a pre recorded video message during the October, 2009 10th anniversary of Smackdown. He was scheduled to appear on Raw as guest host earlier this year but had to cancel due to movie commitments in Mexico.
King of the Ring is scheduled to return as a one-nght special for the three-hour Raw in Philadelphia on 11/29 at the Wells Fargo Center.
Former ring announcer Michael Porter passed away from heart failure over the weekend in Los Angeles. He was 59. Porter worked for WWE from 1988-1993 primarily on the west coast. Greg Oliver has a nice write up at http://tinyurl.com/374ywpt.
Shaul Marie Guerrero, the 20-year-old daughter of Vickie Guererro and the late Eddie Guererro, has signed a developmental deal, according to people in the company. She has been training with FCW in Tampa in recent week's.
Brian McGhee, 26, who wrestles in the St Louis area as Donovan Ruddick, was also signed to a developmental deal.
The Sun at www.the-sun.co.uk/wrestling has new stories up with Regal and Maryse. The stories, part of a special WWE week, ran in the print edition of the newspaper too, which is a huge deal as The Sun is the UK's biggest selling national paper with an average circulation of nearly 3 million. Regal talks about over coming substance abuse and noted signing a new three year deal. Maryse talks about WWE going PG so they don't do men on women violence on the television shows any more. She claims she never works out and that her diet consists of candy. She also says she has a great boyfriend who involved in the business.
In his latest PR stunt, Vince McMahon, crusader for freedom of expression (I'm joking), filed a lawsuit Tuesday against Susan Bysiewicz, Secretary of State in Connecticut, seeking to overturn an alleged ban against voters wearing WWE garb at local election polls on 11/2. There is in reality no such ban. "On behalf of myself, my company, WWE fans and any Connecticut citizen who wants to exercise their constitutional right to vote, I have filed a lawsuit today asserting that Susan Bysiewicz's directive that allows poll workers to refuse registered voters wearing WWE merchandise the right to vote is a flagrant act of censorship and discrimination," said Vince in a press release issued via WWE.com. Vince had asked the courts for an injunction in response to Bysiewicz's informal conversations with election officials regarding whether WWE garb would conrivine a state law that political signs and messages be kept at least 75 feet away from the polls and that WWE garb could potentially be deemed political because Linda McMahon, former WWE CEO, is on the ballot. Attorney General Richard Blumenthal's office, which would normally represent the secretary of the state's office in court, issued a statement last night saying that Blumenthal has recused himself from the matter. Then later Bysiewicz's sent out an email to registrars, clerks and reporters to clarify her earlier statements making it clear that there was no ban on people wearing WWE garb to the polls. Claiming a victory, Vince responded with another statement posted on the WWE website. "The moment Connecticut Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz issued an un-American, unconstitutional and discriminatory directive prohibiting voters from wearing WWE merchandise at the polls, Attorney General Richard Blumenthal should have immediately stepped in to enforce the law. As a result of the Attorney General’s inaction, I brought suit to enforce these basic, fundamental constitutional rights. Within hours of filing the lawsuit, Blumenthal recused himself, and Bysiewicz reversed her position and immediately notified all Local Registrar of Voters and Town Clerks via email. I am pleased that Connecticut voters have had their freedom of expression and their right to vote restored". UPDATE: A judge in Connecticut this morning did in fact rule that WWE fans could wear WWE garb to the polls.
Blumenthal continues to increase his lead over Linda McMahon in the Connecticut Senate race. Linda now trails by double digits, according to the latest Quinnipiac University poll. A few week's ago Blumethal's lead was just three points.
Chris Benoit's father Michael Benoit appeared for Blumenthal's campaign in Hartford on Tuesday to discuss his problems with Linda McMahon and WWE. He didn't say anything that hasn't been brought up before. Linda later commented on Benoit's visit saying that he was looking for someone to blame for Chris' double murder-suicide. She described him as "bitter", "sad" and "reprehensible"... Irv Muchnick posted a transcript of the Benoit speech at http://muchnick.net/mikebenoittranscript.pdf.
Raw on Monday night did a 3.1 rating averaging 4.6 million viewers. A good number against Monday Night Football. The Giants-Cowboys game did 18 million viewers and reportedly was the fourth most watched program in the history of cable television.
Randy Orton vs. Wade Barrett for the WWE title was announced for Survivor Series PPV on 11/21 in Miami with John Cena as special referee. If Barrett wins the title, then Cena can leave Nexus. If Barrett loses, then Cena is fired from WWE.
CM Punk may be pulled from house shows this weekend with a hip issue. He had an MRI done yesterday. No new update at press time.
UFC President Dana White came out this week and said Brock Lesnar won't be fighting Undertaker for the WWE while he remains under contract to UFC. "Brock Lesnar is still under contract with the UFC... he is not going to wrestle in the WWE," White told TMZ. "He cannot wrestle, box or fight anywhere else.” Meanwhile, Ariel Helwani, the interviewer who captured the Taker-Lesnar confrontation over the weekend, has denied that he was part of any preplanned angle.
Jim Ross adds his two cents on the Lesnar-Taker issue at www.jrsbarbq.com. "I'm not a lawyer and have never played one on TV but Lesnar vs Undertaker seems like wishful thinking," wrote Ross.
Taker has been removed from advertising on all the upcoming European house shows. Much of the advertising on the Smackdown side was built around Taker vs. Kane.
Michael Cole is advertised on the 12/26 Raw house show in New York City to read messages from the General Manager. Oh my.
TMZ at http://tinyurl.com/26zepf9 spoke to Jerry Lawler about working with Jim Carrey as he portrayed Andy Kaufman in the 1999 movie Man on the Moon.
Lawler had a scare over the weekend when his flight into Minnesota for the PPV had to make an emergency landing in Syracuse due to a fire on the plane.
Former WWE wrestler Haz Ali, who wrestled as Armando Estrada, has closed down his Baby's Steak and Lemonade restaurant in Glendale, AZ. Haz wrote on Twitter last night, "RIP to Baby' s Steak and Lemonade. You had a great run but time to say goodbye!"
Former Diva Serena Deeb did an interview for one of her fansites at www.serena-deeb.com. She says she would love to wrestle in Japan. "Wrestling in Japan would be the biggest of those. The respect for wrestling over there is a precious thing and I would be honored to wrestle in front of those crowds. I also think it's something that I want to prove to myself because not everyone can wrestle that style. The best times in my career so far were my times spent overseas, so I also would love to do more tours abroad. Mexico would be great because I am fluent in Spanish so I would be able to use that skill as well." Nothing else said of real note. She praised everyone in WWE, especially the training team at FCW.
FCW ring announcer Ashley Ann Vickers made the finals of the Maxim hometown hotties contest. She's representing Nashville at http://tinyurl.com/34jg3z6.
A 60-minute version of Wrestlemania 26 will air in the UK on Thursday at 5pm on Sky Sports. Replays follow on Sunday at 2pm and on Monday at 11am.
Smackdown on 10/22 did a 1.7 rating averaging 2.6 million viewers.
WWE executives Donna Goldsmith and George Barrios along with Triple H and Kelly Kelly rang the Opening Bell at the New York Stock Exchange this morning to celebrate WWE’s 10th anniversary of trading. Video at http://tinyurl.com/33olhna.
TOTAL NONSTOP ACTION WRESTLING
Impact on Thursday night includes Jay Lethal vs. Robbie E in a street fight; Motor City Machineguns defending the tag titles vs. Generation Me & Ink, Inc. in a three-way; an advertised Jeff Jarrett vs. Mr. Anderson chain match; plus the continuation of the Immortal-Fortune storyline.
***
Jeff Hardy appeared on CBS talk show The Talk on Tuesday. He recorded a video message to surprise an 11-year-old boy named Tyler Wilson, who had his arm broken by a bully in school because he joined the cheerleading team. TNA is flying Tyler to Orlando to meet Hardy at an upcoming show.
Indy wrestlers Jennifer Blake and Brad Idol had tryouts at TV this week. Devon Nicholson, who wrestles as Hannibal in Canada, also had a tryout at the house show in Saginaw on Sunday.
Desmond Wolfe is interviewed in the latest MagicSeen magazine in the UK. He compares magic to pro wrestling. "The two things have a lot in common," he says... "There is a lot of misdirection in magic. It's exactly the same thing in wrestling. There's also the element of performance. Presenting something one way, when in actual fact it is somewhat different. Also both require a lot of skill and years of training." He said that wrestling is 10 percent technical ability and 90 percent showmanship noting several guys, without naming names, cannot really wrestle but have drawn money in the past.
Impact is currently slightly ahead of Raw and Smackdown in Australia in terms of viewership. WWE and TNA programming airs on Fox 8 in the country.
Hulk Hogan is the subject of a new A&E documentary titled "Finding Hulk Hogan" which premieres on 11/17. The film, produced by Bischoff-Hervey Entertainment looks at Hogan's life following his divorce, the lawsuit stemming from his son's car accident, returning to the ring, getting engaged, his faith, and more.
The guy that opened a fake Hogan Twitter, and fooled thousands of people, including some of Hogan's closest friends, is attempting to sell the account for $2,000 on eBay.
OTHER WRESTLING NEWS
Dragon Gate USA presents Bushido: Code Of The Warrior on iPPV Friday night from Fall River, MA. BxB Hulk vs. Shingo; CIMA & Genki Horiguchi vs. YAMATO & Akira Tozawa; Jimmy Jacobs vs. Jon Moxley; Masato Yoshino vs. Austin Aries; Brodie Lee & Akebono vs. The Osirian Portal; Homicide vs. Rich Swann; and Chuck Taylor vs. Ricochet vs. Johnny Gargano vs. Arik Cannon. More info at www.dgusa.tv.
Lucha Libre USA announced a second season of it's Masked Warriors series for MTV2. The next taping takes place on 12/12 at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Sean Waltman speaks on the current state of pro wrestling at http://tinyurl.com/34hr2qm. He compared booking in WWE and TNA to bad porn saying that you cannot have a two hour wrestling show without any wrestling. He said he loves Vince Russo as a person but clashes with him philosophically on creative. He said he loves watching ROH and noted that The Kings of Wrestling, Colt Cabana and Austin Aries were among his favorites.
NBC's Marriage Ref show is looking for couples for a WWE-themed episode. The show presents married couple's problems who are then judged by a celebrity panel. For more info contact joe@themarriageref.tv.
Today's Babe of the Day is Torrie Wilson at http://thewrestlingpress.com/?page_id=298.
