Monday, February 07, 2011

(WGN) Feb 7, 2011: Vince McMahon returns tonight, Edge hints at future, TNA wrestler getting married, Hulk Hogan update, Ric Flair on ESPN, Taylor Wilde retires, Jake the Snake bites back, more...

----Mike Aldren with WGN.

WORLD WRESTLING ENTERTAINMENT

2/4 Raw house show results from Minneapolis, MN: Mark Henry over Zack Ryder; Santino & Kozlov over Michael McGillicutty & Dave Otunga w/ Mason Ryan; Yoshi Tatsu over Primo; John Morrison over Sheamus; Daniel Bryan w/ Gail Kim over Ted Dibiase w/ Maryse; Tamina & Eve Torres over Alicia Fox & Melina; John Cena over CM Punk; The Miz w/ Alex Riley over Randy Orton; and Orton over Riley. The show drew a shade under 6,000 people including comps.
 
2/5 Raw house show results from Rochester, MN: R-Truth over Zack Ryder; Santino & Kozlov over Michael McGillicutty & Dave Otunga w/ Mason Ryan; John Morrison over Sheamus; Daniel Bryan over Ted Dibiase; Yoshi Tatsu over Primo; Tamina, Gail Kim & Eve Torres over Alicia Fox, Maryse & Melina; CM Punk over Mark Henry; The Miz w/ Alex Riley over Randy Orton; and Orton over Riley. Attendance was estimated at 3,000. John Cena didn't appear as advertised due to doing promotion for Gillette at the Super Bowl. Refunds were offered before the bell.
 
2/5 Smackdown house show results from Toronto, Canada: Kane won a battle royal; Beth Phoenix & Natalya over Layla & Kaitlyn; Alberto Del Rio over Chris Masters; Kofi Kingston over Kane; Jack Swagger over Chavo Guerrero; Rey Mysterio over Wade Barrett; and Edge over Dolph Ziggler in a street fight. The show drew 5,000-6,000.
 
The 2/6 Supershow in Philadelphia was the same show as Toronto except Swagger over Masters, and Cena over Punk, and Miz over Orton. The show drew around 7,000 paid which the company was thrilled about.
 
Raw is live tonight from Milwaukee with the return of Mr. McMahon with a big announcement regarding Wrestlemania. This may be Justin Beiber appearing at the show but last we heard a deal had not been done.
 
The Smackdown/NXT taping is Tuesday from Green Bay which includes Edge vs. Dolph Ziggler for the World title with Vickie Guerrero as special referee, plus an NXT elimination.
   
***
 
Edge while in Toronto over the weekend hinted at retirement saying that he didn't have many matches left in the city and hopes that Wrestlemania is coming north of the border in 2012. He said his body is starting to break down and is now at the point where he's considering his long term health. He told one newspaper that he's putting together a list of things he would like to accomplish out of wrestling, and one of them was climbing Mount Everest.
 
Bret Hart (not the wrestler), a long time office employee who worked in the promotions department, quit the company today. Nobody knows exactly why yet.
 
Jim Ross at www.jrsbarbq.com wrote a new blog about attending the Super Bowl. He wrote that he exhausted all his contacts looking for last minute tickets--which ended up costing more than he paid for his first home during the 1970s. He also pushed the idea of Josh Matthews and Booker T as a broadcast team. "Booker will advance even farther when, or if, the SD announce team is perhaps Booker and Josh Mathews, who has improved more than any WWE announcer IMO over the past year or so."
 
Shawn Michaels has starting accepting big money offers for personal appearances. 1PW in the UK and a global engineering firm based in Dubai are among those who have already booked Shawn for their events later this year.
 
Smackdown on Friday night did a 1.97 rating and 3.2 million viewers on SyFy.
 
There is talk of splitting the Usos as a tag team.
 
Vickie Guerrero will be appearing at the FCW shows this weekend in Gainesville, FL and Punta Gorda, FL. There is also a meet and great with Dusty Rhodes before Belltime. Vickie's daughter, Shaul Marie, is in the developmental program.
 
Evan Bourne wrote on Twitter over the weekend that he was was in Las Vegas looking for tickets to the UFC show.
 

TOTAL NONSTOP ACTION WRESTLING
 
2/3 house show results from New Orleans, LA: Tommy Dreamer over Robbie E; Angelina Love over Sarita; Devon over Bully Ray in a tables match with Mick Foley as guest referee; Beer Money over Eric Young & Orlando Jordan; Jeff Jarrett over Samoa Joe; and Mr. Anderson over Matt Morgan.
 
We didn't receive any notes from the 2/4 show in Hattiesburg or the 2/5 show in Pensacola.
 
***
 
Ric Flair was on the phone with ESPN earlier this afternoon taking credit for getting Aaron Rodgers his replica title belt that he was seen with yesterday following the Packers' Super Bowl victory. Flair said that WWE sent Rodgers the belt because he asked them too.
 
James Storm of Beer Money announced that he's getting married to fiancé Dani on 3/20 in Nashville. The couple met over a year ago in Orlando at a television taping.
 
Kurt Angle wrote on Twitter that his Pittsburgh-based production company, Northshore Pictures, is talking to TNA about forming TNA Films. Angle co-owns Northshore with two other business associates which produces direct-to-video movies.  
 
Hulk Hogan is scheduled to return at the 2/24 taping in Fayetteville. 
 
Alison Skipper, who played the role of Chelsea, Desmond Wolfe's valet, looks to be gone from the company.
 
Namco Bandai is currently working on a TNA game for the Ipad and Iphone.
 
Mick Foley will be appearing on Redeye on the Fox News Channel early Wednesday morning at 3am.
 

OTHER WRESTLING NEWS
 
Taylor Wilde (Shantelle Malawski, 25) wrestled her retirement match with Melissa Anderson this past weekend at a ChickFight and Pro Wrestling Revolution co–promoted event. She gave the impression in a post-match interview that she was already having second thoughts about retiring for good. She said she got more emotional than she thought she would and was thrilled that anyone would turn out for her last match. Wilde recently got accepted into the pre-firefighting service at Humber College in Toronto and is on her way to becoming a firefighter.
 
Jake 'The Snake' Roberts was a guest on Live Audio Wrestling last night to discuss his recent retirement at WrestleReunion as well as his well documented drug issues. He said regarding those who criticize his drug problems: "I think it's a joke. I want to reach out there and tell people that I'm suffering from all these demons. I just want all the kids to know out there that it isn’t cool, don’t pick it up and don’t try it because it is torment. Sometimes when you're an honest prick, you get labeled as something else. After all if I'd have done as much as has been put out there that I supposedly did, I would have been dead years ago so it’s been blown out of proportion, it gets twisted, it gets turned, it's all about media having something to talk about you know? Give me a break. I've got a picture of Keith Richards and it says on the front 'The real horrible thing about heroin is sometimes it doesn’t kill you, it makes you Keith Richards' and I've got that in my house. I didn’t do it for publicity (speaking out on drug issues) I did it to help kids and they can whatever they want with it, because I have helped people, I get letters all time and contacted about being honest and doing what’s right, come on give me a break - I wasn't the only wrestler to do drugs." Full audio at http://tinyurl.com/6bhm5vc.
 
The South Florida Business Journal reported that Dwayne Johnson and ex-wife Dany Garcia just sold their Davie, FL marital home for $1.18 million, which they bought in 2000 for $419,900. The Journal wrote that, "The Rock practically delivered the people’s elbow to the housing market."
 
Former WWE announcer Mike Adamle is facing a home foreclosure which he attributes to his wife Kim filing for divorce last May. Story is at http://tinyurl.com/5r9vnlk.
 
There is a special screening of the Memphis Heat documentary on 3/24 in Memphis at Malco Paradiso Theater. More info at http://www.memphisheatthemovie.com.
 
Maria Kanellis is about to launch her own brand of perfume titled 'Signature'.
 
Today's Babe of the Day is Serena Deeb at http://thewrestlingpress.com/?page_id=298.