----WGN with Mike Aldren.
WORLD WRESTLING ENTERTAINMENT
11/15 Old School Raw results from Hershey, PA: Dolph Ziggler over Mark Henry; Heath Slater & Justin Gabriel over The Hart Dynasty; Ezekiel Jackson over Brooklyn Brawler; John Cena over Alex Riley; Santino & Kozlov over The Usos; Kofi Kingston over David Otunga; Mae Young over Layla; Wade Barrett over R-Truth; Alberto Del Rio over Sgt. Slaughter; and Daniel Bryan over Jack Swagger.
11/16 NXT results from Richmond, VA: AJ won a knowledge competition; Naomi over Kaitlyn; AJ over Aksana; Naomi won a diss the Divas contest; and Aksana was eliminated.
Superstars on Thursday night includes Yoshi Tatsu vs. Primo and Melina & Gail Kim vs. Maryse & Alicia Fox.
***
The confirmed list of those WWE cut from the developmental program is Devin Allen, Conrad Tanner (Kyle Rasmussen), Cable Jones (Don Moore), Fady Rachmann (Fady Madani), Ron Myers (Ron Price), Rhys Ali (Reon Mahima) and Daniel Skyler. The reason given was that the company needed to trim the roster and after evaluating everyone those who the company felt weren't where they needed to be were let go. The names of Byron Saxton, Lucky Cannon and Eli Cottonwood initially disappeared from the FCW website, perhaps while the site was updated, but those guys were not cut.
Alex Riley (real name Kevin Kiley Jr., 29) was arrested this morning for DUI in Tampa, FL. Riley was busted at 1:14am after cops pulled him over at the intersection of Kennedy Boulevard and MacDill Avenue North. He refused a sobriety test and was taken into custody. At the station he listed his employer as WWE and said he was a pro wrestler. He posted $500 bond at around 9.30am. Riley signed with WWE developmental in 2007 and of late had been paired with The Miz on Raw. You can view his mugshot at www.WrestlingGlobe.com.
Vince McMahon's employment contract as WWE CEO was amended on 11/12. His new deal becomes effective on January 1, 2011 through until December 31, 2013. Vince's base salary will be $1.1 million per year plus bonuses. As with his previous deal, Vince and members of his family will be allowed personal use of the company's jet when it is not being used for business purposes.
Raw on Monday night did a 3.1 rating over three-hours and 4.5 million viewers. The 8-9 hour did a 2.7 while the 9-10 and 10-11 hours both did 3.2... Smackdown on 11/12 did a 1.8 rating and nearly 2.7 million viewers.
The complete line up for Survivor Series is Randy Orton vs. Wade Barrett for the WWE title with John Cena as guest referee, if Barrett wins the title then Cena is free to leave Nexus, if he Barrett doesn't win the title, then Cena is fired from WWE; Kane w/Paul Bearer vs. Edge for the World heavyweight title; Team Mysterio (Rey Mysterio, Kofi Kingston, MVP, Chris Masters & Big Show) vs. Team Del Rio (Alberto Del Rio, Tyler Reks, Cody Rhodes, Drew McIntyre & Jack Swagger); Heath Slater & Justin Gabriel vs. Santino Marella & Vladimir Kozlov for the tag titles; LayCool vs. Natalya for the Divas title; and Sheamus vs. John Morrison.
Jim Ross via Twitter on his Raw appearance: "After 13 months off commentary I was a little rusty on Raw. Hope my work wasn't too bad. Hope 2 get another shot. some day. Who knows?." In my personal opinion, Ross (who was awesome in the no-sell of Cole), Finkel, Okerlund, and Piper last night proved that Old School is cool, and those guys are way and above the best ever at what they do. It's a real shame that in some cases youth and look prevails over experience and talent in WWE.
Mae Young calling LayCool "sluts" and "bitches" popped everyone paying attention backstage. Despite that line apparently not being scripted (although she was told by someone to say that), Vince McMahon thought the segment was a real hoot.
Joey Styles gave away NXT spoilers last night on his Twitter page, writing, "Oh the hell with this, this show was taped over three hours ago. Aksana was eliminated. Who cares?" WWE later apologized calling Styles' actions, "unprofessional and unacceptable."
An injury update on CM Punk. He opted not to undergo surgery, instead going down the rehab route. He will continue to appear on WWE TV during rehab in a non wrestling role. This past week he worked as color commentator for Superstars.
DH Smith visited with Tom "Dynamite Kid" Billington last week while in the UK. Billington, 51, is confined to a wheelchair due to his years of drug abuse and the high-impact style of his wrestling. These days he lives a quiet life in the suburbs of Manchester, England.
While in Atlanta this past week promoting Wrestlemania 27, Triple H and Shawn Michaels suggested that Bill Goldberg wasn't worthy of WWE Hall of Fame induction. Hunter told SB Nation: "As far as the Hall of Fame goes, it's tough. We have a unique business, and we try to do a legitimate Hall of Fame. We try to honor the guys that deserve it. To the guys that go in, it's something special. I heard Hogan shit on it, but I don't think anything is special to him except for money. Like, if you called Michael Jordan to put him into the Basketball Hall of Fame, and he said, "All right, but I'm only gonna show up if I get to play for the Bulls next year." We get that all the time. We call a guy to honor him in the Hall of Fame, and he goes, "I want to do an angle. I want a one-off. I need a hundred grand." So when you say, "What about Goldberg?", no offense to Bill, but you've got guys like Bruno Sammartino that were legends with longevity that should be in there, but they're holding out because they think they've got one more run. Just using Bill as an example, how many years did he wrestle? Not many." Michaels added: "To me, (Goldberg's) not even in the ball park. Not because he's not talented, but greatness doesn't happen in a few years. Greatness is established over a long period of time. We try to promote people and get them over, but you can't do it that quickly. In our line of work, there are other qualities that make somebody viable besides just whether they're tough or not." Now I don't know whether Hunter was misquoted, but I don't think he really believes that Bruno is holding out for one more run. I assume he means that if Bruno isn't in, then Goldberg shouldn't be in either. But when you apply that logic, should anybody be in? The full interview is at http://tinyurl.com/26ooocy. Hunter also notes that he's two months away from being cleared to return to the ring. He said: "I don't know how regularly I'll be back. We made a pact that if one of us didn't recognize it's time to quit, we'd tell the other one it's time. It's a young man's business, and I'm cool with that. I have fun working with the other side of the business, and I don't kill animals or follow sports."
In response to the above story, Goldberg wrote on Twitter, "Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. They do have a point if induction is based on tenure..."
Bret Hart will be appearing in the UK this weekend at Memorabilia Weekend in Birmingham. He will be inducted into the UK wrestling Hall of Fame
Jimmy Yang takes credit for getting Sheamus his job at http://tinyurl.com/2vclkjk.
WWE ally Bonnie Hammer, President of NBC Universal Cable, is gaining more responsibility with the Comcast-NBC Universal merger, adding E! and G-4 to the networks she oversees. Story from the LA Times at http://tinyurl.com/3ylzdne.
TOTAL NONSTOP ACTION WRESTLING
Impact on Thursday night has Jeff Hardy vs. Raven; Matt Morgan vs. Ric Flair; Machine Guns, Jay Lethal & Velvet Sky vs. Generation Me, Robbie E & Cookie; plus news on Final Resolution.
***
Homicide talks about how working here made him miserable at http://tinyurl.com/33ykrrc. He says he misses some of the guys in the locker room and really wants the company to succeed, but gradually he became frustrated creatively. "I'm not going to lie to you, I was telling my girlfriend honesty, it hurts everybody. When I speak the truth, it hurts. I didn't say anything aggressive. I was frustrated in the end... I'm very confident that I can do better. Politics just got me in the butt and just caught me. I was miserable at the end of my days in TNA, I didn't like it." He says his life is drama free working on the independents. "I'm happy with the independent wrestling. To me, independent wrestling means freedom. I'm not saying that when you come back to the indies you can do whatever you want to do, because when you come from TV wrestling, WWE or TNA, you have to follow the business point and also the politics. With independents, it's more like relaxed. You had a hard day at work, you come home, you just want to eat and go to sleep. That's how the indies are. It's just more relaxed."
A&E premieres it's "Finding Hulk Hogan" documentary tonight recapping Hogan's life over the last few years including his divorce and becoming more spiritual.
The second "Hogan and Friends" Q&A event scheduled for tonight in Green Bay was canceled due to, "an unforeseen scheduling issue". A well-placed source tells us that ticket sales were so bad that the Oneida Casino, who was hosting the event, just days ago was giving away comps to gamblers who purchased a certain amount of chips. The Nasty Boys, Brutus Beefcake, Greg Valentine, Koko, B. Ware, Jim Duggan, and Jimmy Hart were advertised as appearing with Hogan. The casino website claims the event will be rescheduled at a later date.
Hogan amended his recent lawsuit against Wells Fargo Insurance Services over his son Nick's accident coverage adding ex-wife Linda to the suit for neglecting her allegedly fiduciary duty to him as his business manager.
The company announced some names for it's upcoming European tour: Jeff Hardy, Rob Vam Dam, Ric Flair, Jeff Jarrett, AJ Styles, Mr Anderson, Mickie James, Motor City Machine Guns, “The Pope” D’Angelo Dinero, Beer Money, Madison Rayne, Shannon Moore, Tara, Kazarian and Angelina Love. The tour includes dates in Lyon and Paris, France; Dublin, Ireland; Berlin, Germany; Glasgow, Scotland; and Manchester and London, England. Tickets can be purchased at http://tinyurl.com/tnauktickets.
Mick Foley at http://tinyurl.com/2g76csm notes that his new book, Countdown to Lockdown, will probably be his first memoir not to the crack the NY Times best sellers list. He says he did all he could to promote the book and was especially happy with his recent overseas book tour.
Foley's book signing at Waterstone's in London was among the highest turnouts they'd ever had at the store along with the likes of major UK celebrities such as Cheryl Cole and Keith Richards.
To tempt people out to the television tapings on Tuesday the company was giving away free DVDs.
OTHER WRESTLING NEWS
Jim Cornette explains his Twitter rage against Canada in his latest podcast at http://tinyurl.com/3277ktp. Basically he was refused entry as a border control agent dug up some assaults committed back in the 1980s. No word yet on whether these were one's that involved a tennis racket.
The George Tragos/Lou Thesz Professional Wrestling Hall announced its 2011 Hall of Fame class which will include Gorilla Monsoon and Dory Funk Jr. along with Jim Ross and Jim Duggan also receiving awards.
Today's Babe of the Day at http://thewrestlingpress.com/?page_id=298.
And finally today... A reminder that we now have a Facebook page which you can access at www.WrestlingGlobe.com. We're posting news and notes 24/7 as well as uploading photos and other fun stuff.
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