----Mike Aldren with WGN.
WORLD WRESTLING ENTERTAINMENT
1/7 Smackdown TV results from Tucson, AZ: Edge over Kane to retain the World Championship in a Last Man Standing match; Kofi Kingston over Dolph Ziggler to win the Intercontinental Championship; Kingston over Ziggler to retain the IC Championship; Dolph Ziggler over Big Show, Cody Rhodes & Drew McIntyre in a four-way to win a World Championship shot; Michelle McCool over Kelly Kelly; and Alberto Del Rio over Rey Mysterio.
1/7 Raw house show results from Augusta, GA: Daniel Bryan over Ted DiBiase; Santino Marella & Vladimir Kozlov over The Usos; Yoshi Tatsu over Zack Ryder; R-Truth over Alberto Del Rio in a Raw vs. Smackdown match; Gail Kim & Tamina over Maryse & Alicia Fox; The Miz over Randy Orton; then Orton over Alex Riley to get his heat back; DH Smith over Tyson Kidd; CM Punk over Mark Henry; and John Morrison over Sheamus in a street fight.
1/8 Raw house show results from Montgomery, AL: Santino Marella & Vladimir Kozlov over The Usos; Yoshi Tatsu over Zack Ryder; Ted DiBiase over Primo in a dance off and also a match; The Bella Twins over Maryse & Alicia Fox with Gail Kim as special referee; The Miz over Randy Orton; then Orton over Alex Riley to get his heat back; DH Smith over Tyson Kidd; CM Punk over Mark Henry; and John Morrison over Sheamus. Bryan missed the show as he was honoring an independent booking in Boston with Cena Sr. made prior to signing back with WWE in August.
1/9 Raw house show results from Memphis, TN: Daniel Bryan over Ted DiBiase & Primo in a three-way; Santino Marella & Vladimir Kozlov over The Usos; Yoshi Tatsu over Zack Ryder; The Bella Twins & Caitlyn over Maryse, Alicia Fox & Gail Kim; Jerry Lawler & Mark Henry over CM Punk & Husky Harris; The Miz over Randy Orton; Orton over Riley to get his heat back; DH Smith over Tyson Kidd; and John Morrison over Sheamus.
1/8 Smackdown house show results from Lexington, KY: R-Truth over Alberto Dep Rio; Drew McIntyre over JTG; Percy Watson over Chavo Guerrero; Tyler Reks over Ezekiel Jackson; Cody Rhodes over Chris Masters; Kofi Kingston over Dolph Ziggler; Natalya over Layla; Big Show over Wade Barrett; and Edge over Kane in a street fight. The show drew an estimated 5,000.
Raw is live tonight from Nashville (Bridgestone Arena) with the return of John Cena and the build towards the Royal Rumble.
The Smackdown house show tonight in Huntsville, AL (Von Bruan Center) was canceled due to bad weather. The TV taping is still scheduled for Tuesday in Birmingham (Jefferson Convention Complex) with Kane vs. Wade Barrett as the main event.
***
WWE announced the release of it's new All Stars video game for 3/29 which is the week before Wrestlemania. The are doing a deal at KMart where you get $10 off the game if you spend $30 on WWE merchandise. The game will feature over the top arcade-style gameplay with past and present wrestlers as playable characters, as well as commentary from Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler.
Lawler worked the Raw show in Memphis on Sunday so one would assume he's returning to the broadcast booth tonight.
WWE also announced today a new three-year TV deal with Sky Deutschland in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. The new deal includes Raw, NXT, magazine shows After Burn and Experience along with all PPV events--four of which (Royal Rumble, Wrestlemania, Summerslam and Survivor Series) will be carried on Sky Select at an additional cost.
The NBC affiliate in Louisville, KY talked to Ronald Basham and his lawyer about their reasons for filing suit against WWE, Triple H and Dwayne Johnson at http://tinyurl.com/2c5de7a. Basham, now 18, said that WWE "took away my childhood" when asked whether suing the company was the right thing to do after his knee was allegedly injured over a decade ago during the May 2000 Judgement Day PPV. "It really resulted as an assault on a 7-year-old kid," Basham's lawyer added.
Mike Mooneyham wrote an interesting story on Tom Cole and why he supported Linda McMahon's Senate campaign at http://tinyurl.com/256aj5g. Cole was a former WWE ring boy who in 1992 became a media sensation after alleging that he had been sexually harassed by company officials as a young teen during the mid 80s. He later accepted a settlement and enrolled in college at the company's expense, but after a year of failing grades was terminated and blackballed out the wrestling business. In a 1999 interview, Cole said he was bitter at Linda, but in 2010, after the Politico website attempted to contact him about Linda's campign, Cole released a statement through the WWE praising her. Cole says today, "I never really had a disdain for her. I wasn’t happy with the way things had turned out (during the scandal). I didn’t think she was an evil woman, but she had a company she had to protect in any way she could. I guess I would do the same thing to protect certain things."
For what it's worth there has been some discussion over the last week or so about who will be inducted into the Hall of Fame in April. The names brought up most frequently among WWE people are agents Arn Anderson and Dean Malenko along with Lex Luger, Ron Simmons, Honky Tonk Man and former women's wrestler Debra Miceli who performed as Alundra Blayze in WWE and Madusa in WCW.
Great Khali finished as runner up this past weekend in the finals of the Indian version of Big Brother. TV star Shweta Tiwari won the show to become the first ever female winner in the country. Khali is expected back with WWE within the next few week's.
A new Nexus T-Shirt debuts tonight which incorporates CM Punk.
A May tour of Mexico was just announced in the country with dates in Hermosillo, Guadalajara, Mexico City, and Monterrey.
TOTAL NONSTOP ACTION WRESTLING
1/8 house show results from Westbury, NY: Lethal over Kaz; Madison Rayne over Mickie James; Pope over Robbie E; Beer Money over Ink Inc; Jeff Jarrett over Tommy Dreamer; and Jeff Hardy over Matt Morgan & Mr. Anderson in a three-way. Attendance in the town was down on last year due to the weather conditions. 65-75 percent full with a capacity of 3000. Taz also made a surprise appearance.
1/9 Genesis Pay-Per-View results from Orlando, FL: Kaz over Jay Lethal to capture the X-Division title; Madison Rayne over Mickie James to retain the Knockouts title; Beef Money over Machine Guns to capture the tag titles; Bully Ray over Brother Devon via DQ when Devon whipped Ray with a chain; Abyss over Douglas Williams to capture the Television title; Matt Hardy over Rob Van Dam; Kurt Angle over Jeff Jarrett via DQ in an exhibition match; Mr. Anderson over Matt Morgan; and Mr. Anderson over Jeff Hardy to capture the TNA title.
The TV tapings are today, Tuesday and Wednesday in Orlando. To encourge more people to come out the tapings this week they giving away DVDs and doing free autograph signings with wrestlers before and after the show.
***
Impact on 1/6 did a 1.16 rating and 1.47 million viewers--it's highest mark since early November.
Angelina Pivarnick of Jersey Shore fame told TMZ that she's been in talks with TNA about coming in to do an angle with Cookie. A report posted Sunday on the Hollywood gossip site claims that Pivarnick wants to wrestle a live match on pay-per-view. She also wrote on her Twitter account over the weekend that she loves wrestling and her favorite wrestler is John Cena.
Styles was pulled from his PPV match last night due to a knee injury. The company was aware ahead of time that the match with Williams wasn't taking place but opted to keep the news from their audience. Styles recently suffered a tore labrum and hip flexor during an accident outside of wrestling. He'll be sidelined for a few week's so he misses the upcoming UK tour as a result. He's said that if he can't rehab the injury then surgery would put him out for around six months.
Samoa Joe wrote on Twitter that he's currently not booked on the UK tour but would love to do it.
Based on the how Angle vs. Jarrett went down last night one would assume that Karen Jarrett nee Angle is starting back this coming week on television.
Matt Hardy, with a slightly new look (hair braids), made his TNA debut unadvertised last night against RVD. He got a decent reception as a surprise but towards the end of the match both men had lost their heat as it wasn't clear who was supposed to be the babyface and who was the heel. In promoting Thursday's Impact the company is questioning whether Hardy will align with brother Jeff in immortal.
Despite what was said last night Hardy wasn't trending worldwide on Twitter. However, WWE's Tyler Rex made the top ten for a few minutes I guess because at first people thought Hardy was Reks due to the braided hair. The only TNA talent to significantly trend on Twitter last night was Madison Rayne.
Rayne in an interview with Brian Fritz at http://tinyurl.com/25fbpra says she's having the time of her life working for TNA but is planning to go back to college soon because she wants to have a Plan B to fall back on. "I've been given a lot of good opportunities in a short amount of time. But I think a lot of people fail to realize that once you make it where you want to be, when you climb the ladder and get to the top that it doesn't stop there. If anything, it becomes more of a challenge to stay there because now you're in the top spot and not only are you competing with everybody else who wants to be in that top spot but you're competing with yourself to continue to get better, to continue to find ways to stay at the top and stay in the spotlight and continue to be number one. When you're at the top, there's only one way to go and that's down so you have to think of ways and figure out ways to stay at the top for as long as you can. For me right now, I'm trying to just take it all in and appreciate it all but at the same time continue to work my butt off and stay where I am."
Former Knockout Taylor Wilde officially announced her retirement from wrestling today to focus on her academic studies. She talks about her decision to quit the business at www.the-sun.co.uk/wrestling.
TNA PPV is no longer airing on the UK's Extreme Sports Channel, but fans can still purchase shows online. The company is now completely dark while waiting for Sky Broadcasting to assign it's programming to a new home following the shut down of the Bravo channel on 1/1. A new deal is expected to be announced soon to coincide with the UK tour at the end of the month.
The company currently has a promotion with Tom's Snacks with RVD, Pope, Styles, Anderson and Velvet Sky pictured on bags of chips.
Chris Harris and former ECW ring announcer Stephen DeAngelis were among those visiting backstage last night at the PPV. DeAngelis was in town of business as he works for a global communications company.
OTHER WRESTLING NEWS
Guy Coffee, a longtime behind the scenes figure in Memphis wrestling during its heyday was found dead on Saturday. He was 86. It's believed that Coffee took his own life as a gun and suicide note was found near his body. Dutch Mantell on his Facebook page led tributes to Coffee describing him as "a nice man, a respectful man and one who worked very hard."
Valentino Puccio, a Northeast worker who wrestled briefly in ECW and WWE, passed away Friday at the age of 45. Puccio was north of 400lbs and his death is thought to be related to obesity. He broke into the business after training with Johnny Rodz in 1989 and together with his brother Tony formed a tag team called "The Undertakers" until WWE paid them off for the rights to the name in 1990 in order to call Mark Calaway The Undertaker. They went on to work for WWE for a few months as the team Double Trouble but were soon dropped. Puccio was chronicled on the 2008 TLC reality series Inside the Brookhaven Obesity Clinic, where he was once a patient.
Ring of Honor tonight on HDNet includes Roderick Strong vs. Colt Cabana in a non-title match; “The Prodigy” Mike Bennett makes his HDNet in ring debut vs. Nick Dinsmore, and Adam Cole & Kyle O’Reilly vs. Mike Posey & Corey Hollis. More info at www.rohwrestling.com.
Kentucky based promoter Ernest Mack Shell was arrested Saturday night after promoting a show in West Virginia and not having the money to pay the wrestlers he booked. The arresting officer was Deputy W.E. Rose of the Mercer County Sheriff’s Department who had actually been hired while he was off duty to provide security at the show. Rose had by tipped off by some wrestlers that Shell may attempt to sneak out of the building without paying anyone. He charged Shell with 10 counts of obtaining services on false pretenses. Among the wrestlers booked on the show were Jim Neidhart and Dallas Page. Shell is currently held on $50,000 bail at Bluefield City Jail.
The Philadelphia Daily News interviewed Nick Gage from jail about his recent arrest and drug problems at http://tinyurl.com/25prlye. Gage is currently held on $150,000 bail for robbery charges pending a hearing this coming week. He doesn't say much other than saying he's working on getting into an addiction program at the jail.
1/7 Smackdown TV results from Tucson, AZ: Edge over Kane to retain the World Championship in a Last Man Standing match; Kofi Kingston over Dolph Ziggler to win the Intercontinental Championship; Kingston over Ziggler to retain the IC Championship; Dolph Ziggler over Big Show, Cody Rhodes & Drew McIntyre in a four-way to win a World Championship shot; Michelle McCool over Kelly Kelly; and Alberto Del Rio over Rey Mysterio.
1/7 Raw house show results from Augusta, GA: Daniel Bryan over Ted DiBiase; Santino Marella & Vladimir Kozlov over The Usos; Yoshi Tatsu over Zack Ryder; R-Truth over Alberto Del Rio in a Raw vs. Smackdown match; Gail Kim & Tamina over Maryse & Alicia Fox; The Miz over Randy Orton; then Orton over Alex Riley to get his heat back; DH Smith over Tyson Kidd; CM Punk over Mark Henry; and John Morrison over Sheamus in a street fight.
1/8 Raw house show results from Montgomery, AL: Santino Marella & Vladimir Kozlov over The Usos; Yoshi Tatsu over Zack Ryder; Ted DiBiase over Primo in a dance off and also a match; The Bella Twins over Maryse & Alicia Fox with Gail Kim as special referee; The Miz over Randy Orton; then Orton over Alex Riley to get his heat back; DH Smith over Tyson Kidd; CM Punk over Mark Henry; and John Morrison over Sheamus. Bryan missed the show as he was honoring an independent booking in Boston with Cena Sr. made prior to signing back with WWE in August.
1/9 Raw house show results from Memphis, TN: Daniel Bryan over Ted DiBiase & Primo in a three-way; Santino Marella & Vladimir Kozlov over The Usos; Yoshi Tatsu over Zack Ryder; The Bella Twins & Caitlyn over Maryse, Alicia Fox & Gail Kim; Jerry Lawler & Mark Henry over CM Punk & Husky Harris; The Miz over Randy Orton; Orton over Riley to get his heat back; DH Smith over Tyson Kidd; and John Morrison over Sheamus.
1/8 Smackdown house show results from Lexington, KY: R-Truth over Alberto Dep Rio; Drew McIntyre over JTG; Percy Watson over Chavo Guerrero; Tyler Reks over Ezekiel Jackson; Cody Rhodes over Chris Masters; Kofi Kingston over Dolph Ziggler; Natalya over Layla; Big Show over Wade Barrett; and Edge over Kane in a street fight. The show drew an estimated 5,000.
Raw is live tonight from Nashville (Bridgestone Arena) with the return of John Cena and the build towards the Royal Rumble.
The Smackdown house show tonight in Huntsville, AL (Von Bruan Center) was canceled due to bad weather. The TV taping is still scheduled for Tuesday in Birmingham (Jefferson Convention Complex) with Kane vs. Wade Barrett as the main event.
***
WWE announced the release of it's new All Stars video game for 3/29 which is the week before Wrestlemania. The are doing a deal at KMart where you get $10 off the game if you spend $30 on WWE merchandise. The game will feature over the top arcade-style gameplay with past and present wrestlers as playable characters, as well as commentary from Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler.
Lawler worked the Raw show in Memphis on Sunday so one would assume he's returning to the broadcast booth tonight.
WWE also announced today a new three-year TV deal with Sky Deutschland in Germany, Switzerland and Austria. The new deal includes Raw, NXT, magazine shows After Burn and Experience along with all PPV events--four of which (Royal Rumble, Wrestlemania, Summerslam and Survivor Series) will be carried on Sky Select at an additional cost.
The NBC affiliate in Louisville, KY talked to Ronald Basham and his lawyer about their reasons for filing suit against WWE, Triple H and Dwayne Johnson at http://tinyurl.com/2c5de7a. Basham, now 18, said that WWE "took away my childhood" when asked whether suing the company was the right thing to do after his knee was allegedly injured over a decade ago during the May 2000 Judgement Day PPV. "It really resulted as an assault on a 7-year-old kid," Basham's lawyer added.
Mike Mooneyham wrote an interesting story on Tom Cole and why he supported Linda McMahon's Senate campaign at http://tinyurl.com/256aj5g. Cole was a former WWE ring boy who in 1992 became a media sensation after alleging that he had been sexually harassed by company officials as a young teen during the mid 80s. He later accepted a settlement and enrolled in college at the company's expense, but after a year of failing grades was terminated and blackballed out the wrestling business. In a 1999 interview, Cole said he was bitter at Linda, but in 2010, after the Politico website attempted to contact him about Linda's campign, Cole released a statement through the WWE praising her. Cole says today, "I never really had a disdain for her. I wasn’t happy with the way things had turned out (during the scandal). I didn’t think she was an evil woman, but she had a company she had to protect in any way she could. I guess I would do the same thing to protect certain things."
For what it's worth there has been some discussion over the last week or so about who will be inducted into the Hall of Fame in April. The names brought up most frequently among WWE people are agents Arn Anderson and Dean Malenko along with Lex Luger, Ron Simmons, Honky Tonk Man and former women's wrestler Debra Miceli who performed as Alundra Blayze in WWE and Madusa in WCW.
Great Khali finished as runner up this past weekend in the finals of the Indian version of Big Brother. TV star Shweta Tiwari won the show to become the first ever female winner in the country. Khali is expected back with WWE within the next few week's.
A new Nexus T-Shirt debuts tonight which incorporates CM Punk.
A May tour of Mexico was just announced in the country with dates in Hermosillo, Guadalajara, Mexico City, and Monterrey.
TOTAL NONSTOP ACTION WRESTLING
1/8 house show results from Westbury, NY: Lethal over Kaz; Madison Rayne over Mickie James; Pope over Robbie E; Beer Money over Ink Inc; Jeff Jarrett over Tommy Dreamer; and Jeff Hardy over Matt Morgan & Mr. Anderson in a three-way. Attendance in the town was down on last year due to the weather conditions. 65-75 percent full with a capacity of 3000. Taz also made a surprise appearance.
1/9 Genesis Pay-Per-View results from Orlando, FL: Kaz over Jay Lethal to capture the X-Division title; Madison Rayne over Mickie James to retain the Knockouts title; Beef Money over Machine Guns to capture the tag titles; Bully Ray over Brother Devon via DQ when Devon whipped Ray with a chain; Abyss over Douglas Williams to capture the Television title; Matt Hardy over Rob Van Dam; Kurt Angle over Jeff Jarrett via DQ in an exhibition match; Mr. Anderson over Matt Morgan; and Mr. Anderson over Jeff Hardy to capture the TNA title.
The TV tapings are today, Tuesday and Wednesday in Orlando. To encourge more people to come out the tapings this week they giving away DVDs and doing free autograph signings with wrestlers before and after the show.
***
Impact on 1/6 did a 1.16 rating and 1.47 million viewers--it's highest mark since early November.
Angelina Pivarnick of Jersey Shore fame told TMZ that she's been in talks with TNA about coming in to do an angle with Cookie. A report posted Sunday on the Hollywood gossip site claims that Pivarnick wants to wrestle a live match on pay-per-view. She also wrote on her Twitter account over the weekend that she loves wrestling and her favorite wrestler is John Cena.
Styles was pulled from his PPV match last night due to a knee injury. The company was aware ahead of time that the match with Williams wasn't taking place but opted to keep the news from their audience. Styles recently suffered a tore labrum and hip flexor during an accident outside of wrestling. He'll be sidelined for a few week's so he misses the upcoming UK tour as a result. He's said that if he can't rehab the injury then surgery would put him out for around six months.
Samoa Joe wrote on Twitter that he's currently not booked on the UK tour but would love to do it.
Based on the how Angle vs. Jarrett went down last night one would assume that Karen Jarrett nee Angle is starting back this coming week on television.
Matt Hardy, with a slightly new look (hair braids), made his TNA debut unadvertised last night against RVD. He got a decent reception as a surprise but towards the end of the match both men had lost their heat as it wasn't clear who was supposed to be the babyface and who was the heel. In promoting Thursday's Impact the company is questioning whether Hardy will align with brother Jeff in immortal.
Despite what was said last night Hardy wasn't trending worldwide on Twitter. However, WWE's Tyler Rex made the top ten for a few minutes I guess because at first people thought Hardy was Reks due to the braided hair. The only TNA talent to significantly trend on Twitter last night was Madison Rayne.
Rayne in an interview with Brian Fritz at http://tinyurl.com/25fbpra says she's having the time of her life working for TNA but is planning to go back to college soon because she wants to have a Plan B to fall back on. "I've been given a lot of good opportunities in a short amount of time. But I think a lot of people fail to realize that once you make it where you want to be, when you climb the ladder and get to the top that it doesn't stop there. If anything, it becomes more of a challenge to stay there because now you're in the top spot and not only are you competing with everybody else who wants to be in that top spot but you're competing with yourself to continue to get better, to continue to find ways to stay at the top and stay in the spotlight and continue to be number one. When you're at the top, there's only one way to go and that's down so you have to think of ways and figure out ways to stay at the top for as long as you can. For me right now, I'm trying to just take it all in and appreciate it all but at the same time continue to work my butt off and stay where I am."
Former Knockout Taylor Wilde officially announced her retirement from wrestling today to focus on her academic studies. She talks about her decision to quit the business at www.the-sun.co.uk/wrestling.
TNA PPV is no longer airing on the UK's Extreme Sports Channel, but fans can still purchase shows online. The company is now completely dark while waiting for Sky Broadcasting to assign it's programming to a new home following the shut down of the Bravo channel on 1/1. A new deal is expected to be announced soon to coincide with the UK tour at the end of the month.
The company currently has a promotion with Tom's Snacks with RVD, Pope, Styles, Anderson and Velvet Sky pictured on bags of chips.
Chris Harris and former ECW ring announcer Stephen DeAngelis were among those visiting backstage last night at the PPV. DeAngelis was in town of business as he works for a global communications company.
OTHER WRESTLING NEWS
Guy Coffee, a longtime behind the scenes figure in Memphis wrestling during its heyday was found dead on Saturday. He was 86. It's believed that Coffee took his own life as a gun and suicide note was found near his body. Dutch Mantell on his Facebook page led tributes to Coffee describing him as "a nice man, a respectful man and one who worked very hard."
Valentino Puccio, a Northeast worker who wrestled briefly in ECW and WWE, passed away Friday at the age of 45. Puccio was north of 400lbs and his death is thought to be related to obesity. He broke into the business after training with Johnny Rodz in 1989 and together with his brother Tony formed a tag team called "The Undertakers" until WWE paid them off for the rights to the name in 1990 in order to call Mark Calaway The Undertaker. They went on to work for WWE for a few months as the team Double Trouble but were soon dropped. Puccio was chronicled on the 2008 TLC reality series Inside the Brookhaven Obesity Clinic, where he was once a patient.
Ring of Honor tonight on HDNet includes Roderick Strong vs. Colt Cabana in a non-title match; “The Prodigy” Mike Bennett makes his HDNet in ring debut vs. Nick Dinsmore, and Adam Cole & Kyle O’Reilly vs. Mike Posey & Corey Hollis. More info at www.rohwrestling.com.
Kentucky based promoter Ernest Mack Shell was arrested Saturday night after promoting a show in West Virginia and not having the money to pay the wrestlers he booked. The arresting officer was Deputy W.E. Rose of the Mercer County Sheriff’s Department who had actually been hired while he was off duty to provide security at the show. Rose had by tipped off by some wrestlers that Shell may attempt to sneak out of the building without paying anyone. He charged Shell with 10 counts of obtaining services on false pretenses. Among the wrestlers booked on the show were Jim Neidhart and Dallas Page. Shell is currently held on $50,000 bail at Bluefield City Jail.
The Philadelphia Daily News interviewed Nick Gage from jail about his recent arrest and drug problems at http://tinyurl.com/25prlye. Gage is currently held on $150,000 bail for robbery charges pending a hearing this coming week. He doesn't say much other than saying he's working on getting into an addiction program at the jail.
The Kennebec Journal interviewed Honky Tonk Man about independent wrestling, when he will retire, and entertaining fans at http://tinyurl.com/25wvued.
The Hillsborough County Commissioners honored area ring announcer Shannon Rose in Tampa last week with a Commendation for Service to the Community. Rose was honored for his ability to fight EDS (Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, an heritable connective tissue disorder), and his commitment to educate the community about EDS and support those who suffer from the illness.
Today's Babe of the Day is So Cal Val at http://thewrestlingpress.com/?page_id=298
