tlk23

Multi man matches, tag matches and battle royals would be tricky. And for the formula, your ELO can't go under 1150. 1500 could be our zero. To start at 1500 would be the wrestlers first match in the promotion and then go from there. This could be helpful for that. http://www.thehistoryofwwe.com/1980-2009stats.html I think that title matches should be more, maybe a 2 instead of a 1, but the MMA site in the first post doesn't give added points to title matches.

I have found a site that does the calculations for you, so that is big for me. Let's say I start with WWE or WCW. Should I only do TV and PPV? I would probably do a year-by-year thing where everyone starts at 1500 on Jan. 1st. Or if it is WWE, maybe it would be better to start at 1500 the first show after Wrestlemania. WIN: 1 LOSS: 0 DRAW: 0.5 Would I give more or less of a loss if it is a title match?

I would do all the work. Just seeing if there is enough interest in me doing in and how I would go about it.

Is there any interest in doing an ELO rating for wrestlers? Something similar to this MMA site. http://www.mma-elo.com/me_events.php?id=12482 http://www.mma-elo.com/ http://www.mma-elo.com/ranks.php Basically, each wrestler starts at 1500 and their score goes up and down based on whether they lost or win. It is explained here. http://www.mma-elo.com/about_system.php To make this a very simple case lets assume this is the first fight for both fighter A and fighter B. Due to it being their first fight, both fighters start off with a 1500 rating. If fighter A wins they will gain 16 points and fighter B, with the loss, will lose 16 points. This means fighter A's rating would increase to 1516 and fighter B's would drop to 1484. This is based on a co-effecient of 32. It can be 100 or whatevery number we come up with. With a co-effecient of 100, in the example, with would be winner 1550 and the loser 1450. Thoughts?

With WWE Superstars premiering tomorrow night on WGN, the WWE now has a show on four of the five weekdays with the only open day being Wednesday. With TNA having two hours on Thursday and with at least two 3-hour PPV's a month and MMA, is it just too much. I know that I have rarely every watched Smackdown, because I don't usually get the station, but even when I did, I rarely watched it. I never miss RAW because I have watched it since the beginning and it has become a habit. Luckily, I watched a complete episode of ECW for the first time in a while and am glad that I did. So my question is, is it too much? Is it over saturating stuffing instead of potatoes? Next month, there will be 12 days without wrestling on TV/PPV, while there will be 19 days with some sort of original wrestling programing or a total of 40 hours (More than 50 if you count UFC/MMA) of wrestling. If you were to watch it all, it would be like working a 9 to 5 job for a week by just watching wrestling. Thoughts?

Any new ones coming up?

Great stuff as always. Can't wait for the next one.

I really enjoy reading the old Observers. I say keep going with 88. You will catch up and should get done with 89 by the time next year rolls around.

I love reading these old Observers. Keep up the good work.

Any more?

source: Wrestling Observer Newsletter, PWInsider -- During the 7/31 Impact main event featuring Gail Kim & Taylor Wilde vs. The Beautiful People, Kim was shown hugging a young woman at ringside that looked like a relative of her, or possibly a younger sister. The woman was shown prominently during the match, so it seemed like she was going to get involved. However, the announcers made no mention of her. The woman in question is not related to Kim, but is being considered for a role as one of her "relatives" for television. At the moment, the character is still up in the air, so in case they don't use her, they didn't want to call attention to her on television this early. -- Injured TNA Knockout Mickie Knuckles' TNA ring name has been quietly changed to Moose Knuckles on the roster page. This is the third ring name for Knuckles in TNA. When she made her TNA debut back in June, Mike Tenay called her Mickie Knuckles on commentary. She then appeared at Slammiversary and her name was changed to Moose by The Beautiful People. And now they added her real last name to the Moose name. -- In a correction from an earlier report, Christy Hemme has not been removed from the cover of the upcoming Knocked Out DVD. TNA will be releasing two different covers featuring Christy Hemme & Karen Angle, respectively. The DVD is scheduled to be released on Tuesday, October 7. -- As we reported here earlier his week, former WWE Diva and alleged-escort Ashley Massaro was scheduled to make an appearance at "The Scene" strip club in Long Island, New York Wedesday night. TheSun.co.uk has posted a promotional poster that was used to advertise Ashley's appearance, which can be viewed here. http://img.thesun.co.uk/multimedia/archive...400_554272a.jpg -- Today's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has an interview with TNA star and Olympic gold medalist Kurt Angle. Angle spoke about this year's Olympic games in Beijing as well the 1996 summer games from Atlanta where he won gold. "Sometimes you only have one shot, and if you don't get it right, your whole dream withers away." Regarding the 1996 Olympics, Angle said, "I definitely wasn't the best wrestler in my weight class, or the fastest or smartest, but I was the best conditioned. I actually got more confident as a match went on." The article also notes that Angle "welcomes the chance to prove his innocence" of charges of driving under the influence of alcohol, refusing a blood test and careless driving from September 2007. A nonjury trial before Judge David R. Cashman is scheduled for Sept. 9. http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08227/904124-55.stm -- Former WWE/WCW star, Jorge "El Gigante" González, 42, was on deathwatch as recently as a few days ago due to renal (kidney) complications, reports the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. He's apparently okay now as he was released from the hospital on Tuesday. It was a big news story in Buenos Aries, Argentina since Gonzalez was a national team basketball star in the late 80s before starting his professional wrestling career. His health has deteriorated in recent years due to his overwhelming size (González is legitimately 7-6 ½) as his knees have gotten very bad, to the point that he can barely stand on his own two feet. He uses a wheelchair to get around. -- Former ECW valet and 3PW owner Jasmine St. Claire is working on an autobiography that will focus on her life in the adult entertainment industry, reports PWInsider.com. The book is set to be released next year. St. Claire is perhaps best known for starring in a number of "gang bang" pornographic movies, in which she has sex with large numbers of men continuously without stopping. -- ProFootballTalk.com has an article on former WWE star Joe "Road Warrior Animal" Laurinaitis splitting from the DeBartolo Agency. According to the article, "many in the agent community suspected that the move was nothing more than an end-run around new NFLPA rules that prevented any of them from talking to Joe's son, Ohio State linebacker Jim Laurinaitis, who at the time was a junior." You can read the article at this link. http://www.profootballtalk.com/2008/08/12/...bartolo-agency/ -- Former WWE star Rob Van Dam will be wrestling Kendo Kashin tomorrow night in Japan for the IGF promotion, reports SLAM! Wrestling. -- Earlier in the week, it was believed that AWA promoter Dale Gagne had suffered a heart attack. Gagne posted a thank you note on the AWAStars.com saying that he believes it was a bacterial infection that mimicked the symptoms of a heart attack. Whatever the case may be, he appears to be fine now. -- The latest edition of the National Enquirer has a cover story on celebrity plastic surgery noting former WWE Diva Chyna's extensive facial surgery over the years. The article also notes Brooke Hogan's recent breast augmentation. -- Wrestling legend Wladek (Walter) "Killer" Kowalski, 81, remains in serious condition after suffering a severe heart attack last Friday. He was not expected to survive through the evening. Kowalski was briefly non-responsive, but by Saturday he was responsive to those around him. Kowalski was briefly taken off life support on Saturday, and his heart kept beating on its own. However, he went back on life support by Sunday evening and at last word is in a coma state, reports 1Wrestling.com. -- Eric Bischoff has posted a blog on his website taking aim at the tabloid media. He eventually goes into a rant on Internet sites, specifically taking aim at the Wrestling Observer's Dave Meltzer, who he also ripped in his book. Wrestling valet Missy Hyatt posts commentary on Meltzer's site, and Bischoff takes aim at her as well, calling her a "middle aged, overweight, silicon-laden troll." Bischoff wrote: The wanna-be TMZ's of the world lower the bar even further to get attention and people that can’t find enough negativity to fill the black hole in their own lives, continue to seek out even lower forms of Internet life. Those people need only to become wrestling fans. Once they do, they can seek out Internet sites like Dave Meltzer's that features commentary from a middle aged, overweight, silicon-laden troll whose only real talent was converting her willingness to being passed around by wrestlers as a party favor into a paycheck more than a decade ago. Or worse yet, that headlines bogus "divorce stories" as breaking news only because they didn't bother to do a basic public records check beforehand. They can then subscribe to his 345,000+ word weekly assault on grammar that attempts to be the arbiter of an industry he’s never been directly involved with for "inside information". You can read the blog in its entirety at this link, which is the second one down. http://www.ericbischoff.com/blog.asp?Path=...mp;MaxListings= -- On last night's edition of the Best Damn Sports Show Period, they showed a number old clips of celebrities badly singing "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" at Wrigley Field. Former wrestling star "Macho Man" Randy Savage (with former valet Gorgeous George by his side) did the honors in his trademark gravelly voice in the spring of 1999, and his clip was the first one shown. -- WWE Hall of Famer Bobby "The Brain" Heenan is not doing too well health wise these days as his health is said to be deteriorating‏, according to a report on www.WrestlingEpicenter.com, a site that has interviewed a number of wrestling stars over the past few years. The WWE Hall of Famer's health is so bad that one source told the website that he does not believe Heenan will make it another month. The source said Heenan is now having trouble remembering the people around him. Heenan has been in a Tampa, Florida area hospital since December. He was first put in due to reconstructive surgery on his jaw, after the first surgery was unsuccessful. Heenan was placed in a medically induced coma and was slowly brought out. In late January, Bobby Heenan was brought out, but was unable to speak. He was also in line for some more surgeries to reconstruct his facial features. -- Hulk Hogan's divorce is going back to court. There was court hearing yesterday regarding a dispute between Hogan and estranged wife Linda over a multimillion-dollar condo in Las Vegas he had agreed to purchase three years ago. Other legal motions in the divorce case are scheduled to be heard today in court. You can read The Associated Press' article on the situation at this link. http://www.winknews.com/news/local/26927179.html -- You can see some promotional photos of actor Mickey Rourke in the upcoming move The Wrestler at this link. Most of the photos feature Rourke as the lead character, but there is also a shot of actress Marisa Tomei in her role as a stripper. http://www.firstshowing.net/2008/08/11/new...s-the-wrestler/ -- Gunnar Eudy, the 28-year-old son of four-time World Heavyweight Champion Sid Vicious, as well as indy wrestler Rage (a friend of Sid), are saying that Sid will be back in WWE next month. Reader Charlynn Star sent in the following.. My friend and fellow Sid fan Joyce told me that Sid's son Gunnar Eudy told her that Sid will be back in September the WWE. Here is my friend's myspace. She has Sid's indy wrestler Rage as a friend, Rage is a friend of Sid, and worked with him as a member of Sid's Pride of Brotherhood gang in the indy circuit. She says that Rage has also told her that he'll be returning. http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fusea...endid=382043701 -- Speaking of Sid, he will be appearing on Sid Vicious on the 8/24 NWA show in San Antonio at the Freeman Coliseum. In a battle of former WWE stars, Brent Albright will be defending his NWA title against Trevor Murdoch. Sean "X-Pac" Waltman, Rob Conway, Blue Demon Jr., Adam Pearce and former WWE developmental wrestler Ace Steel are also slated to appear. Also, Murdoch is now spelled "Murdock," so Trevor Murdock will be his name on the indy scene. For more information on the show, visit www.NWAWrestling.com. -- Raw Diva Layla was advertised to appear at the WWE Summerfest event in Venice, California last Saturday, but did not attend it for reasons unknown. She was also not on Raw this past Monday. In other Layla related news, she was seen sitting in the audience for a taping of the MTV show America's Best Dance Cre two Tuesdays ago. You can see her in the background of some shots of Tila Tequila at this link. http://layla-el-fan.com/photos/displayimag...m=270&pos=0 JR's Blog J.R.'s UFC Review Draws Mixed Feedback.. 08/13/2008 As a MMA fan and a customer of UFC PPVs, I recently shared a few thoughts of the Minneapolis event. These were simply my personal thoughts as a fan. Nothing more and nothing less. However, it seems that my long term association with sports entertainment with the WWE is a problem for a handful of vocal MMA devotees. I prefaced my comments that I was not an expert, but simply a fan. Apparently that wasn’t good enough for some. I loved the presentation and look forward to the upcoming Atlanta event. How I referenced B.J. Penn inaccurately can be attributed to attention to detail and writing in the middle of the night. My bad entirely. I still think 2009 is the right time for the Penn vs. St-Pierre fight. Die hards would buy the fight tomorrow, but new fans would benefit from a solid build so that they too could emotionally invest in the matchup. Any one with an ounce of common sense knows that the show biz presentation of pro wrestling knows the distinct difference between MMA and ‘rasslin. Nonetheless, after being a MMA fan since its inception and being around TV production including pro wrestling and football for many decades, a slick television production of any PPV event is an important element of any event with which big money is charged. Most MMA fans are level headed fans of MMA and other sports but the handful of those that rip a guy because of one’s professional background are near sighted and need to get over themselves. I made a few personal observations/suggestions that I felt had merit largely as it relates to TV production. I also made it clear that I really enjoyed the show not that it seemed to matter to some. To the best of my knowledge, no MMA fan was forced to read my blog which was more intended to invite my core audience to sample MMA if they already had not. Upgraded TV production has zero to do w/ pro wrestling but everything to do with broadcasting. Sorry if I offended anyone but I am still under the impression that the 1st Amendment is still in place and one man’s opinion is just that. I like to write about things that I like including football, pop culture, and, of course Bar-B-Q, and will continue to do so. That includes MMA, which I truly enjoy as a fan...not an expert. Boomer Sooner! JR

sources: Wrestling Observer Newsletter, www.pwtorch.com -- Hardcore Holly, who has been with WWE for nearly 15 years, is said to be on the chopping block. Holly's no longer being used and may not be brought back this time around. The feeling is that it would take someone such as Undertaker to speak up for Holly to give him another shot in WWE. Vince McMahon is said to be indifferent to Holly in that he's kept him around for so long, but has never really had any plans to push him. Holly was tapped to be in a tag team feuding with Ted DiBiase and Cody Rhodes, but the feeling is that he wouldn't get the young duo over in the right way. Basically, he'd lose in the end, but make them look bad. Holly has a rep of working very stiff with newcomers and has the old-school mentality that the youngsters have to prove they can survive in the tough profession of professional wrestling. At this point, his only role is to make the newly pushed stars better than they are. Furthermore, Holly did some taped promos before the Cody Rhodes turn, but WWE decided against airing them because they're weren't good enough. Holly turns 46 years old in January. -- Monday's edition of Raw drew a 3.1 rating, a 10 percent drop from the 3.43 figure scored last week. The first hour rating was quite lackluster as the show drew less than a 3.0 rating -- a 2.98. However, the second hour drew a 3.18 rating to bring the overall rating up. The show was watched by 300,000 less viewers than last week. -- Apparently by mistake, last week WWE.com had the profile of Super Crazy in both the SmackDown and ECW sections. His profile was eventually deleted from the ECW section, so that makes him a member of the SmackDown roster. As part of the 2008 WWE Supplemental Draft, Super Crazy was drafted to the ECW brand back in June, but he never debuted on their show. Super Crazy returned to television on SmackDown last week, losing to The Brian Kendrick. -- Former WWE star Shannon Moore has posted a blog on his MySpace page regarding his recent release from World Wrestling Entertainment: Update on Shannon leaving WWE http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseacti...logID=423449870 What's up to all of you that have been by my side for the last 16 years. What I mean by that is thanks for the support. Not as in goodbye, as in stick around because things are going to get fun. The question in a lot of your heads is what is next for Shannon Moore. Where do I start? I am open to wrestle anywhere that I want to as long as it's not on TV. I have already set some things up so I could be coming to a town near you soon. I will put a list of wrestling dates up so you guys will know where to catch me. If you are wondering how to book me if you can't get me directly contact Bill at [email protected] for booking info. The action in the ring will still be there. GasChamber Ink has been on a rapid growth in the last year and a half and I have not been able to sling ink because I have been so busy on the road sense doors opened. That's one thing that I will be working on is Tattooing. So all of you wondering if you could get tattooed by me, now will be your chance. Check out my Tattoo Studio at www.gaschamberink.com. Another project called the Hardy Show that Myself, Matt, and Jeff started when we were away from WWE the last time will kick back into full force. It was much recognized by people and I am going to do a lot of cool stuff to promote it sense I will have no limitations on what I can do for the Hardy Show. If you have not got to take a look at the Hardy Show yet I ask you to please check it out at www.thehardyshow.com. I have feelers in other areas of entertainment that I'm wanting to do but don't have no feedback to update you all with, but as soon as the info is in I will let you all know what is going on. I had hell of a time with the WWE and want to say thanks for the opportunitys that they gave me in the past. To all of the talent that I worked with while I was there I want to say thank you for the good times and the bad. I will keep you posted on different topics and can't thank all of you enough. Shannon Moore will still live and entertain to the fullest and I am ready for one hell of a ride. 2BME Shannon Moore -- Matt Hardy has posted a blog on his MySpace page regarding his upcoming match with Mark Henry at SummerSlam. He also talks about the ECW ratings improving since his move to the brand. Matt wrote: "As you all know, I have the biggest match of my career coming up at Summerslam. I have a chance to become the ECW Heavyweight Champion as I take on the current champ, Mark Henry. It's definitely gonna be an uphill battle, but I like the odds and pressure against me-it makes me perform better. And on top of that, I've got billions of MFers (Mattitude Followers) that have got my back and believe in me. That's MUCH stronger than anything Mark Henry and Tony Atlas have to offer. I've seen a few "MATT FOR CHAMP" signs already, please keep the support coming. I've thoroughly enjoyed my ECW experience thus far-it's been an honor to be one of the high-lights of the show each and every week. Coincidentally, the ratings have improved by almost 50% since the Matt Hardy ECW era has begun, HAHA! Thanks for tuning in and supporting me every Tuesday night on Sci-Fi at 10 p.m." You can read the blog in its entirety at this link. http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseacti...logID=422266851 -- On WWE.com, there's a new promotion for 10% off plus a free pack of WWE trading cards for all orders over $65 at the Shopzone website. In this banner advertisement for the promotion, an image of the trading card of the recently released Ashley Massaro is featured. http://www.wwe.com/content/media/touts/527...5271654/7846128 -- Last week's edition of SmackDown took a plunge in the ratings, scoring a lackluster 2.0 figure. This was the least watched non-holiday SmackDown of 2008. -- At tonight's SmackDown taping in Norfolk, Virginia, WWE developmental wrestler Colt Cabana wrestled in a match. However, he may have been used as a mere enhancement wrestler. He wrestled under the name Scotty Goldman and lost to The Brian Kendrick in a standard match. After the match, Kendrick's bodyguard Ezekiel Jackson attacked Goldman, and that was the end of that. This was Cabana's first match in a WWE ring since signing with the company a few days after WrestleMania 23. Prior to his contract signing, Cabana worked a match or two on Heat as an enhancement worker, losing to "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan in one match. At WrestleMania 22, he made a minor appearance as one of the gangsters who rode a 1930s era car to the ring before John Cena made his lavish entrance. He was also dressed up in a tooth fairy outfit as a fan in the audience on the Halloween 2006 edition of ECW on Sci Fi. He was shown on camera a few times. After inking a deal with WWE, he showed up in Ohio Valley Wrestling before being moved to Florida Championship Wrestling, where's he's currently situated. -- WWE developmental wrestler Bradley Jay also wrestled at tonight's SmackDown taping. He too worked as an enhancement worker, losing to Big Show in a quick match. Jay worked under the name Ryan Reddick and lost to Big Show after a knockout punch. Jay appeared as an enhancement worker on a few episodes of Heat last year, and worked some house shows and dark matches last summer. Bradley Jay is one of the few holdovers from OVW as he's been in developmental longer than everyone else besides Eric Perez, and perhaps Nic Nemeth, although he was eventually called up. Jay signed his developmental contract in December 2005 and still has yet to be called up to the main roster. -- Could Mick Foley already be through with World Wrestling Entertainment? Mick Foley did not appear at tonight's SmackDown taping in Norfolk, Virginia. Tazz took his place alongside Jim Ross for the second week in a row. Also, Matt Striker joined Todd Grisham at the announcers table for tonight's edition of ECW on Sci Fi. It was believed that Foley was only going to be held off television for one week to sell his beating from Edge, but by the looks of things, the removal of Foley from the announcers' booth could be permanent. Last week, Foley told the Long Island Press that there was a good chance he would not be renewing his contract with WWE after it expired on September 1, 2008 because the announcing job wasn't working out too well. Lance Storm Blog Brock Lesnar August 11, 2008 After watching UFC 87 this past weekend I thought should talk a little about Brock Lesnar this week. Brock Lesnar is the biggest MMA PPV draw for me right now. I’ve only paid for 2 MMA PPVs in my life and both featured Brock Lesnar. The obvious appeal is that I know the guy and used to work with him in WWE but that’s not the whole picture. As I’ve mentioned several times before I’m fairly new to the MMA game, and far from an expert, and because of this I enjoy watching fighters that are new to the game. When I watch a guy like Brock Lesnar I’ve seen everything he’s done and know all there is to know about him. I’ve seen every fight Brock has had, so I understand him and want to see how he progresses. Heath Herring on the other hand, I’ve heard about and have seen a couple of his fights but when you look at his career of 42 fights I’ve barely scratched the surface of it and thus am not really qualified to form much of an opinion of him as a fighter. For the price of 2 or at the most 3 PPV events per year I will be able to see Brock Lesnar’s entire career, which I intend to do. With Saturday’s big win Brock’s MMA career record goes to 2-1, which in a strange coincidence is my record over Brock Lesnar in pro-wrestling. I got to wrestle Brock on three WWE house shows when he was first brought up from developmental. These three matches may have been Brock’s first WWE matches and I think they had a lot in common with the fights in his MMA career. After the first match I had with Brock it was obvious that he was a tremendous athlete but he was very green and made several rookie mistakes. He was easy to work with and had talent but had a few holes in his game that he needed to plug. After that first match I talked with Brock, coaching him and pointing out things he needed to change and improve on and I could tell Brock was really paying attention and wanted to learn. The next night we had our second match and everything single point I made the previous night was improved upon. That night I pointed out a few other aspects and the next night he again improved unbelievably. Brock was a prodigy in pro-wrestling, and after watching his match with Heath Herring, this past Saturday, I suspect he is in MMA as well. This fight was so important to Brock’s career and in my opinion Brock did exactly what he needed to do. I will grant you finishing the fight on his own without letting it go to the judges would have been better but I don’t know how anyone could see UFC 87 as anything but a complete positive for Brock Lesnar. Heath Herring was an accomplished fighter with 42 professional fights and was a legit threat to Brock Lesnar, and in his 3rd MMA fight Brock Lesnar completely dominated him. Brock dropped Herring with his first punch and hit him so hard it knocked him head over heels backwards. Brock took Herring down virtually at will and at no point in the fight was Brock Lesnar not in control let alone in trouble of losing. Heath Herring looked to be in great shape and had 20 times the experience of Brock Lesnar and did not manage to mount any offense what so ever. That’s frightening! In this fight Brock showed far more patient and ability to control his opponent than in his first fight and in going the distance he showed he has good enough conditioning to go the distance without running out of gas. This is likely a good thing because until Brock learns some submissions there is a good chance he will go the distance while controlling and dominating opponents, assuming his opponent can survive the punches and knees Brock throws from the ground; OUCH! I would imagine Heath herring is still pretty damn sore from the beating he took Saturday night. Brock Lesnar is definitely for real, and I would imagine this is just the tip of the iceberg of what he can achieve. I still don’t think anyone realizes how explosively fast this guy is and with his learning curve he is going to be absolutely deadly in the years to come. It’s a good thing Pro-Wrestling is a work because if it wasn’t my 2-1 record against Brock would be a big 0-3. Congratulations Brock, and continued success. It was a pleasure to know and work with you in WWE, and I look forward to following your UFC career. You are very much living up to the character and promos we used to joke with you about in WWE. You are the white Incredible Hulk: “BROCK SMASH!!!!!!!!” Lance Storm

Not a lot of new news, just more indepth. News on Flair courtesy of DOI: As you can imagine, Ric Flair is the hottest name for independent promoters today. The DOI has found out a ton of information about Flair's suitors. Flair, who originally was going for $10,000 when he was under WWE contract, is now looking for $15,000-$20,000 per signing. He'll get that money. In the shoot interview warz, ROH, RFVideo & Highspots are all interested in getting Flair. Flair's agent has made it clear that Flair will do one shoot interview, making the interview exclusive to whoever gets it. Right now, ROH has the most leverage, because ROH can offer dates and can offer Flair a package deal. DOI sources have told us that ROH has offered Flair 6 dates (6 different cities obviously) and a shoot interview. Both RF Video & Highspots have offered a ridiculous amount of money for Flair. Realistically, it would make sense for Flair to take ROH's deal if the money is right, as they have more to offer and have the fanbase that would most likely appreciate it the most. From what I heard, Flair wants $50,000 for a 8-10 hour shoot interview. Obviously, this is an astronomical number with really no chance for profit. The only way I can see a Flair shoot being profitable is if it's broken up into 4 or 5 different DVDs at $25 each. Even then, you have to worry about the leeches uploading it on PWTorrents and other bootlegging sites. Alot of indy promotions are trying to get Flair for signings/special ref work. Flair's agents have told indy promoters he will not wrestle. Personally, I could see Flair coming back to wrestle, but only for an international company, or perhaps if the money is right, one last match with Sting in TNA. One prominent indy in the northeast is working on a deal for Flair in the upcoming future and once anything becomes official, we'll have it here. The major shoot interview has turned out to be Kurt Angle. While I love the fact that we're getting an Angle shoot.....I was kinda hoping for Natch.

I can't wait until his DVD comes out: Got this from another forum, but still it's gold.

source: Wrestling Observer, PWInsider -- This week's edition of WWE Raw drew a 3.4 cable rating off hours of 3.32 and 3.54. This is down from last week's 3.6. (Source: Neilson Media Research) -- Devin Cutting sent in word that WWE has announced the following matches will take place this Saturday afternoon at "SummerFest" - a free live event being held at Venice Beach in California: Chavo Guerrero vs. Funaki Tommy Dreamer & Stevie Richards vs. The Miz & John Morrison Carlito & Maryse vs. Jimmy Wang Yang & Eve - Former Diva Torrie Wilson is said to be charging $7,000 to show up to independent wrestling shows. - According to the Vancouver Sun, former WWE star Steve Austin has signed on to star in a new unnamed action movie being produced by Insight Productions. No word on the proposed reality show that was discussed a few months back. -- Umaga apparently got hurt sometime within the last week. We don't know the exact injury at the moment. He missed Tuesday's SmackDown taping as a result. -- Tuesday's edition of ECW scored a 1.5 cable rating, rounded up from a 1.45 rating. -- Larry Zbyszko, Steve Corino & The Patriot will be appearing at the Wrestling Superstars Live event in Indianapolis, Indiana on September 12th, 2008. Go to http://www.wrestlingsuperstarslive.com for info about WSL & http://prowrestlingevents.webs.com for info about upcoming shows. -- Super Crazy's profile on WWE.com is now listed in the SmackDown section. Although, his profile is still listed in the ECW roster section, but it may be an oversight. Super Crazy appears on tonight's edition of SmackDown. http://www.wwe.com/superstars/smackdown/supercrazy/ -- As reported earlier, former WWE star Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson was recently spotted on a beach with a bikini-clad woman by the name of Lauren Hashian. She is the daughter of original Boston drummer Sib Hashian. According to BostonHerald.com, she is 24 years old and was a finalist on the UPN reality show, R U the Girl back in 2005. She is a budding singer who met Johnson when he was in Boston shooting The Game Plan two years ago. According to the website, the two were regulars at an Italian restaurant called Davio's during the shooting of the Disney flick two years ago (Johnson was still married at the time as he didn't announced a separation from his wife of 10 ten years, Dany, until June 2007; the film was shot in Boston in the fall of 2006). Hashian brought Johnson to her Lynnfield, MA residence for dinner to meet the parents. Hashian has since moved to Los Angeles to further her music career. Click here to read an article from BostonHerald.com. http://www.bostonherald.com/track/inside_t...position=active -- Within the offices of TNA, there has been talk of breaking up LAX. Homicide and Hernandez are both against the move, and have been fighting it. TNA President Dixie Carter is a big fan of LAX, thus explaining why they're champs at the moment, as well as their renewed push. No word yet on why they want to split them up. -- Chickfight.tv reported last week that Melissa Anderson (also known as as Raisha Saeed in TNA) suffered a serious leg injury last Thursday during a routine workout at her local gym. Anderson posted the following blog on her MySpace page regarding her injury: Subject: Feeling Better! Body: Hi friends! I just wanted to say Thank You for all the get well messages. I was able to get plenty of rest over the weekend and my leg injury seems not to be as serious as we first thought it was. It's a big relief and I should be back to my old self in no time! I'm finally moving around and was even able to attend and watch the next set of ChickFight tapings. I can't tell you how happy I was to finally meet Holly Hearse in person! She's awesome and is perfect for ChickFight TV! The tapings went really well and I hope to co-host the show with her some time in the future. That's it for now. Thank you for all your support. It means a lot to me. Especially when I was down and out. Take Care and keep checking for more updates on www.ChickFight. TV for the latest news about the show! Cheerleader Melissa -- Regarding Taylor Wilde's first TNA Knockouts title defense at the Victory Road pay-per-view last month, there was some surprise backstage at the total lack of crowd reaction to her. The feeling was that the crowd in attendance were more occasional and not regular TV viewers of Impact, since her title win that aired three nights earlier got over pretty big in Orlando. TNA made the decision to put Wilde over Kong clean a second time with the idea that they had just created a new star. -- IGN.com recently conducted a rare interview with TNA star Abyss, and he doesn't stay in character. He primarily talks about video games -- TNA's upcoming game as well as games from the past. In wrestling video games, he usually picked the larger wrestlers. "Abyss wasn't available, so I don't know. I usually picked the big boys, so maybe Earthquake, Slaughter, Dibiase, those guys. I usually liked to match teams that I didn't see in real-life, so Warrior and Dibiase maybe, someone like that," Abyss said. He also gave his thoughts on seeing himself in the upcoming TNA video game. "Yeah man, it's unbelieveable. I can't believe the technology, and when I saw it on a HD screen, it's amazing that it's video and not reality. The graphics and detail is what amazes me the most. It's top-notch and the highest quality around. It's such a big accomplishment to have a game second to none in the world. It really feels good for the whole company," Abyss said. {Abyss Interview} -- There were some complaints backstage stemming from last week's Prince Justice League (apparent new faction featuring Super Eric, Curry Man and Shark Boy) segments. Some people complained over the company airing a few too many segments on them last week on Impact. -- TNA experimented with putting the women in the main event spot on last week's Impact, and from all accounts it has to be considered a success. The Angelina Love & Velvet Sky vs. Gail Kim & Taylor Wilde match scored a 1.18 quarter, the high point of the show. Traditionally, TNA does not keep its audience through the conclusion of the show. Additionally, the segment gained 118,000 viewers. Here are other ratings notes from the 7/31 show. The Christian & Rhino vs. Beer Money (Robert Roode & James Storm) match for a title shot lost 118,000 viewers. A match featuring Johnny Devine didn't lose viewers for a change. The Johnny Devine & Rock & Rave Infection vs. Shark Boy & Curry Man & Jay Lethal match gained 44,000 viewers. The strongest gain of the show featured Lethal asking Val to marry him again, a Prince Justice League segment, and a Joe & Nash promo, gaining 222,000 viewers. The Booker and Joe in the cage segment, a vignette featuring former WWE star Daivari, and an AJ Styles promo lost 59,000 viewers. The Consequences Creed vs. Petey Williams match lost 148,000 viewers. A Matt Morgan squash match, post-match brawl with Tomko and more Justice League gained 118,000 viewers. The show drew a 1.08 cable rating with 1.6 million viewers. It was the most actual viewers for Impact since February. Impact did a big 1.36 rating among male teenagers, followed by a 1.05 in Males 35-49, the best number in that demo in a long time. The show drew a 0.96 in males 50 and up. The show only drew a 0.60 in the target Males 18-34 demo. -- Lance Cade may be out of action. He broke his nose during a match at last Saturday's Raw brand house show in Evansville, Indiana. He wasn't on Raw this week, likely as a result of the injury. -- Michael Hayes will be taking Freddie Prinze, Jr. under his wing. Prinze, Jr. is slated to work under him on SmackDown. Prinze, Jr.'s hiring was not really a major topic of discussion backstage compared to other mainstream stories involving the company in the past. -- Here are the top units shipped figures for the company's DVD releases so far this year: Wrestlemania 24 (305,000), Triple H (233,000), "Stone Cold" Steve Austin (221,000), The Rock (160,000) and The Hardys (140,000). -- WWE is looking to get as much out of The Great Khali while they still can. The belief is that he won't be with the company for the long haul due to his ailing knees, as they continue to give him problems. Khali was said to not be too aggressive in rehab during his last round of knee surgeries. Nowadays, Khali struggles to get around and people are questioning his long term future in the business. -- SmackDown star Shelton Benjamin is getting pressure to step up his game during his latest push. A number of people believe Benjamin is a great athlete, but that he could be a better in-ring performer if he applied himself more and got motivated. -- WWE.com has a story on Curt Hawkins and Zack Ryder capturing the WWE Tag Team Championship at The Great American Bash. In case you don't know, they made history by becoming the youngest champions to hold tag titles in the history of WWE. Hawkins said, "What we've accomplished is pretty spectacular. I want people out there who are over the age of 23 to stop and reflect on what they were doing at our age, because what have you accomplished? I know Zack Ryder and I are 23 years old and we’re already WWE Tag Team Champions." Amidst online reports of Mick Foley possibly departing from World Wrestling Entertainment, the Long Island Press contacted him to ask him about it. Foley responded to their phone messages with the following statement: "I can't say much until after my contract expires, which is September 1st. But at this point, there is a good chance, through mutual agreement, that I will not be renewing the contract," Foley said while leaving a phone message Thursday evening. "Creatively, the announcing job wasn't working out too well." You can read the article at this link. http://www.longislandpress.com/main.asp?Se...amp;TM=40935.82 - Brock Lesnar is getting a lot of media play in the Twin Cities for this weekend's UFC fight against Heath Herring. "I think I'm still marketable as a fighter, but nobody wants to get behind a guy that's losing," he told the St. Paul Pioneer Press. "I like the pressure. Any athlete to perform at his peak level, is going to have to feel some pressure." Lesnar also discussed his strategy to the fight. "My inexperience showed in that last fight and will show a lot less in this fight," he said. "I've got 15 minutes to win a fight and not one minute. I think you'll see me come into this fight a lot more calm, collected and a little more precise and not so reckless." A source of ours in Minnesota tells us that tere's a lot of buzz in the Twin Cities for the UFC debut on Saturday night. The atmosphere at Target Center is said to be very rowdy and should make for a nice homecoming for Lesnar.

Lance Storm Blog Q and A August 4th, 2008 Q. Wow. Is it just me or did ECW become watchable again once Adamle left the announce team? A: I seldom catch ECW, it has a horrible time slot here in Canada, but I would imagine the program was improved greatly since Mike is no longer at the desk. Q: I have notice you on the Rock's dvd, do you get any royalties for ur brief appearance? A: WWE is very good with Royalties and I get a piece of every DVD I appear on. Q: What are your thoughts now that your good friend and favorite play-by-play man, Mike Adamle, is the GM of Raw? A: I missed the episode of RAW when he was named GM but I think it is an absurd idea. Mike Adamle’s character has been that of a guy with no wrestling background or current knowledge of the sport. He has been pushed as and made fun of for being inept and completely clueless when it comes to the sport of pro-wrestling. So how in the HELL do we get to the point where Shane and Stephanie McMahon decide he should be in charge and running RAW? This is completely ridiculous, and makes me far less inclined to watch RAW. Q: I was wondering your opinion on Tracy Smothers, I've heard several people say he is one of the legit tough guys of the wrestling industry, just wondering if there is any truth to this? A: Tracy is certainly a tough guy. He is like an old pick up truck, after the first dent the rest don’t matter. I think in a fight you’d have to kill him to get him to stop fighting. Q: You mentioned in one of your Q&As that it would be unlikely for Robert Roode to get a title run. Why would that be? A: Do you watch Impact? There are a ton of guys they push more than him, and there are a lot of politics in getting that title run and I don’t seem him having the pull to get it done. Q: What kind of guy is Scott Steiner? In his interviews he's oftentimes outspoken about other wrestlers (i.e. Triple H, Shawn Michaels, etc.)...How do you think he might do against guys like those? Is there any truth to what he says about them also? A: I always liked Scotty and thought he was a good guy. He certainly does speak his mind. Scott is pretty straightforward so I believe there is a lot of truth in what he says based on his personal experiences. Everyone relates to people differently and has different experiences. I’ve heard guys bury one person and then heard someone else praise that same person. Not everyone sees eye to eye. When you ask how “he might do against these guys?” Do you mean in a real fight? In a real fight Scotty would be the last guy standing even if the others were working together. Scotty is a scary man if he wants to be, which is likely why he is comfortable speaking his mind. Q: What do you think of TNA lately (i.e. new talent, Abyss' new look, the segments, matches, etc., etc.)? A: Lately I’ve been hating the show and skipping it frequently. Q: I have a question about the way you kick/stomp. You stomp your opponent the way Davey Boy Smith used to do it, like you hop off your one leg and kick with the other. I always assumed you got this from your instructor, but then I realized Jericho doesn't kick that way, so why do you? Is it just a style choice, or did it just come natural? A: I picked it up from Johnny Smith, here in Calgary, whom I worked with a lot more than Jericho did. I was struggling with kicks until I adapted Johnny’s style, which I was comfortable with. Johnny may have got it from Davey. Q: I read that Marc Mero took issue with some of your comments last year. Has anyone else in the business ever approached you or contact you because you wrote something about them that they didn’t like and/or agree with? A: I’ve received a few responses to things I wrote. Marc Mero and Lance Hoyt, to their credit, were man enough to contact me directly about things I wrote, that they did not like. Hoyt and I actually ended up getting along quite well, and have traded email since. Others have emailed me with compliments for things I wrote. Q: What is the Undertaker like backstage? A: Undertaker is the consummate pro, be it backstage, in the ring, or away from the building. Q: I have noticed that the majority of wrestlers wear their own merchandise (t-shirts or hats etc) to the ring. Is there a strict "in ring" dress code? Could a performer wear a Metallica t-shirt (for example) out to the ring if they wanted to? A: There are issues with outside promotion on clothing, so guys tend to wear WWE merchandise or clothing without prominent logos or advertisements. Q: You have mentioned food / catering ? If so is it any good (ha)? A: It depends on the town and catering company. Some places it is awesome, while others you are stuck eating dry chicken breast. Q: Do they have work out equipment readily available? A: No we have to go to a regular gym to work out. Q: I was wondering if you have met Paul London, and what your opinion is of him both personally and his work. Do you think they should have kept he and Brian Kendrick together? A: I’ve met Paul but do not know him well. I loved London and Kendrick as a team, so I would have been happy if they kept them together and did something with them. Q: I know you must be sick of "how come so-and-so never got pushed" questions, but I unfortunately, have one of my own. Jerry Lynn. Everything he did looked amazing, he told great stories in the ring, and I've heard from you as well as other workers that he worked really safe. Even at his size, it seems like he could still have gotten a leg up just by being able to adapt his style, since he could do high-flying, mat wrestling, chain wrestling, etc. A: My best explanation for this is that Jerry was an Academy Award winning supporting actor and everyone was too busy looking for the leading man to notice. Because of his size and not being that Rock level most electrifying man in sports entertainment, I think he was dismissed as contender for leading man, and no one in power realized how big of an asset the guy really was. Q: Since you and Shawn Michaels both used the super kick how would you rate your kick to his? A: I’d have to take his to fairly judge. I think both look good and I know mine is extremely light, so it would depend how light or stiff his is. Q: I was wondering how do guys that speak different languages communicate with each other in the ring. For example, guys from Japan and Mexico coming to the States and wrestling, but they don't speak English and the other guy doesn't speak their language. A: Clothesline, and Drop Kick are pretty universal, it’s not like we are having deep conversations out there. Q: Out of all WWF/WWE performers since 1985, do you rate yourself as the greatest WWE Superstar never to have performed at WrestleMania? A: Interesting idea. I’d have to check through rosters over the years, there may be someone else who got over looked, but there is certainly the possibility that I am the most talented guy in WWE history to never have a WrestleMania match. Q: Did you ever wrestle against the team of Jimmy Golden and Robert Fuller? If so, what are your thoughts? A: I don’t think I ever even met these guys before, and I definitely didn’t get to work with them. Q: Who was a better combo for the Heavenly Bodies-Stan Lane and Tom Pritchard or Jimmy Del Ray and Tom Pritchard? Why? A: I didn’t see any of the SMW stuff with Stan Lane but I would imagine the combo with Del Rey was better because he worked a lot harder that Lane did back then. Q: In your opinion, why hasn't Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat been conducted into the WWE Hall of Fame? A: I believe the problem was a legal one. From what I understand his ex-wife held the rights to the “Ricky Steamboat” name and they couldn’t use it. I think that issue has been resolved and I expect him to get in before too long. He very much deserves it. You know you have a bad divorce lawyer when you don’t even get custody of your name. Q: Did you ever wrestle Curt Hennig? If so, what are your thoughts on him as a worker? A: I only got to tag with him for the live Heat match before WrestleMania 18 in Toronto. Curt was great. Q: Would you consider going to Japan and wrestling under a mask as "Wasabi Man" only to return to the US as Lance Storm in TNA, then lose a loser-leaves-TNA match and then wrestle there as "Wasabi Man?" Now THAT would be money! A: It would be as much money as Curry Man, although not nearly as entertaining. Q: Was Bam Bam Bigelow the best "big man" you ever wrestled? If not, who? A: He absolutely was. Q: Did you ever wrestle Vader? Thoughts on him. A: I never did no. He was a very good big man, although I heard one who took liberties with smaller guys. Not sure if that is the case, but I’ve certainly heard that often. Q: Did you ever have a singles match with Jerry Lynn? Memories from it if you did? A: Are you serious? I’ve had countless single matches with Jerry Lynn. He was likely my favourite guy to work. Every match with Jerry was a pleasure. Q: Konnan once said he has never worked with anyone who had not used steroids or who had problems with other drugs. I find this hard to believe, seeing as him and CM Punk worked in TNA at the same time. Do you think what he said is true? A: I’ve worked with Konnan so his statement is definitely not true. That being said I have no doubt Konnan believed that statement to be true when he made it. Most guys in the business have at least tried steroids and many also have had or still have drug issues, so in a general sense his statement is fairly accurate. There are a few exceptions and I am definitely one. Q: I don't believe we ever got your thoughts on CM Punk's title win on Raw, so I was just wondering what they were? Personally I am never surprised in wrestling, but this move took me off guard. A: Yah the Punk win surprised me. I liked that it shook up the show but I would have preferred it if they had gotten behind him more and portrayed him as a little more deserving. Q: What is your best singles match in your whole career? A: I don’t think you can pick just one, but the ROH match I had with Bryan Danielson would be up for strong consideration. Q: Did you ever get to wrestle Rick Steiner? If not what was he like in person? A: I didn’t have much interaction with Rick Steiner. I think he was off a fair bit during my run in WCW. I worked with him once on a house show in Johnson City, TN. It was a three way for the US/Canadian Title between Rick Steiner, Hugh Morris, and Myself. I don’t remember anything about the match other than as we went over the match one last time, backstage before going through the curtain Rick looked at me for a long time and then asked, in a very quite serious voice, “What’s your name again?” I still to this day pop at the thought. I guess Rick wasn’t following the product too closely back then. Q: Since the Benoit tragedy, have you used him as an example for his wrestling skills in your Academy or in interviews you give? Do you think that those who keep using and mentioning him as a role model lose credibility? A: I think there is a huge difference between using someone as an example or reference and making him a role model. What he did has nothing to do with how he wrestled. I don’t need to know if Michael Jordan is a good person to want to play basketball like him. If I demonstrate to someone how Chris Benoit threw an elbow, it is in no way endorsing what he did to his family. Q: Have you read any of those controversial books mentioned in "Pain and Passion"? Like "Under the Mat" or "Broken Harts"? If so, what do you think about those? A: I tried to read “Under the Mat” but gave up because it was a complete load of crap. “Broken Harts” I avoided because I was told it was very heavy and quite sad. Q: I just read an online commentary by Ted Dibiase where he basically ran down the training and staff at OVW. He stated that he did not allow Ted Dibiase Jr., to train there because none of the trainers were ever main event guys. I was curious to your opinion on his comments. A: His is not an uncommon view but I think it is a very miss placed opinion. I would rather be trained by say Brad Armstrong (who never main evented) than The Ultimate Warrior (who almost always main evented). Being a Main Eventer or having drawn money in no way qualifies you to train someone nor does not being featured in Main Events exclude you from being qualified to do so. You have to look at the individual’s skills and ability to train. Lance Storm

sources: www.pwtorch.com, PWInsider.com -- TNA drew a solid 1.1 cable rating for last week's edition of Impact. An average of 1.6 million viewers tuned in during the show. At least in total number of viewers, the figure is up from the previous two weeks. The Knockouts were given the main event slot, a match pitting Velvet Sky & Angelina Love against Taylor Wilde & Gail Kim, and they delivered with a show-high 1.18 quarter hour rating. The match did one of the best numbers for an Impact main event, perhaps even ever. And unlike most Impact main events, they didn't lose viewers for a change. The only quarter hour that came close to the Knockouts main event was Q4, which drew a 1.16 rating a Booker T-Samoa Joe in-ring segment, as well as the A.J. Styles promo that followed it and a backstage segment featuring "The Beautiful People" with Shark Boy and Curry Man. -- Consequences Creed is said to be in line for a big push in the coming months. -- Midway Games has plans to do a big media event this weekend promoting the upcoming TNA "iMPACT!" video game. -- The Associated Press reports that World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. declared on Monday a regular quarterly dividend of 36 cents per share on its Class A shares of common stock. The company expects to pay the dividend Sept. 25 to stockholders on Sept. 15. WWE owner Vince McMahon's family has waived 12 cents per share of the dividends. Class A and Class B shares owned by the family will instead receive dividends of 24 cents per share. -- WWE released its second quarter financial numbers this morning and reported a net income of $7 million or 10 cents per share. This figure is below the 12 cents per share that Wall Street analysts predicted yesterday, which sent WWE stock down over 7% on Tuesday morning. In a press release that accompanied the information, Linda McMahon stated, “The Company made important progress in terms of its fundamental operating objectives. We achieved a significant increase in revenue from our international operations, continued the strong growth of our live event, licensing and home video sales, and maintained improved trends in our pay-per-view business." The second quarter financial report can be viewed online at WWE's corporate website at this link. http://corporate.wwe.com/documents/PressRe...toKateFINAL.pdf The following is compiled from several live reports sent in from fans who were at WWE Raw last night from Knoxville, TN. -- Arena was pretty full, as only the upper side opposite the entrance is tarped. -- Cryme Tyme def. Sal Rinauro and some local guy in a squash dark match. -- D'Lo Brown def. another local guy in a dark match. -- Plenty of Ric Flair Woooo's throughout the night. -- Kiss Cam was done by Hacksaw Jim Duggan, and they ended up showing a bunch of guy/guy and girl/girl combos. -- Pops were pretty big for the faces. Mickie James, Batista, CM Punk, Kane,John Cena all got major pops. People seemed really disappointed that HBK wasn't there. -- After Raw went off the air, Cena and Batista showed off a little more, then Bats went back. Cena stayed out and got on the mic, saying that there are certain places he goes where he knows people know where they live. Then he sang 'Rocky Top' along with the crowd to end the show. -- DailySlam.com recently conducted an interview with Sandra Toffoloni, the sister of the late Nancy "Woman" Benoit. Toffoloni has founded an organization dedicated to researching the effects of steroid abuse on the brain and the body called "The Nancy and Daniel Benoit Foundation," which is located at NDBFoundation.Org. She spoke out on the foundation, as well as her sister. She also puts a rumor to rest regarding Daniel. She said: "My nephew Daniel was not sick. He did not have Fragile X, or any other disease or deformity. He was shy, like his Dad, that is all. he was not injected with HGH or steroids or any such thing. This is what's true, we have his medical records as proof and have already made a press statement the general media has chosen to ignore." You can read the interview at this link. http://www.daily-slam.com/2008/08/exclusiv...ndra-toffoloni/ -- Irv Muchnick sent in the following yesterday: I recently filed a complaint with the Connecticut Freedom of Information Commission to compel the Stamford Police Department to release the video of its interrogation last summer of Matthew T. Greenberg - a hapless University of Connecticut student whose Internet mischief has landed him the sobriquet of "the Benoit Wikipedia [link: www.wikipedia.org/] hacker." Pull up a chair while I explain. For the complete column today at SLAM! Wrestling on canoe.ca, Canada's leading interactive news site, go to this link. http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Wrestling/GuestC...04/6348491.html -- Former WWE star Mark Jindrak (now known as Marco Corleone), Shocker (former TNA wrestler), El Terrible and El Hijo del Texano were all suspended for one year by the Tijuana commission because they did spots in a match where all pulled down the trunks of the other, which the commission doesn't allow, reports the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. As a result, the wrestlers will be unable to compete in wrestling events taking place in Tijuana, Mexico for one full year. Davari Interview - Shawn joins the show talking about his debut in TNA in June with the World X Cup tournament. He said he wasn't sure he would have been signed after his debut but it worked out. Shawn gives us his opinion on trained wrestlers being managers in the business. He sees it as an advantage and enhances the match. He talks about coming into TNA as a wrestler not as a manager like he did in the WWE. He feels his TNA run will be a way to reintroduce him to the fans. Shawn talks about what guys in the WWE were fans of TNA and other independents. It's more of being a wrestling fan than anything else. He said some guys in WWE don't even watch their own show. Shawn talks about UFC and why he's not really a fan. Shawn expresses that he's not a really a fan of any other sports. Shawn talks about who he would like to work with in TNA. He rolls off a list of TNA main eventers. He adds Booker T saying that maybe this will happen soon. He runs down the list and gives reasons as to why he would like to wrestle these guys. Shawn worked with Kurt Angle in WWE and Kurt helped get Shawn into TNA and he would love to do something with him. Shawn started in Minnesota and he talks about the insurgence of guys from the area working in the WWE and TNA. Kennedy, Punk, Bam Neely and others. He talks about the indy circuits and how you see the best and worst of what's out there. Shawn talks about the differences in the TNA locker versus the WWE. A very fun interview! Check it out at www.feelthepain.net. -- The Miami Herald has a full-length article on "The Beautiful People," Angelina Love and Velvet Sky. The duo spoke out on a number topics including the women's division of TNA, the high ratings the women's segments have been getting, TNA making history with the women's division, egos in wrestling, who they're TNA characters are based on, how they landed jobs in TNA in the first place, and more. On what sets the TNA women's division apart from other forms of women's wrestling, Velvet Sky said, "The women's division in TNA definitely sets us apart from any other form of women's wrestling because we offer something called variety. None of us looks exactly the same. There's blonde hair, dark hair, red hair, no hair. It sets us apart because we all look different. We all dress different. We all wrestle different, and we don't offer fluff-n-nutter that you see elsewhere. We're hard hitting." Here is what they said on the women getting the main event spot on last week's Impact. "You would never see that, the women be the main event, but the ratings speak for themselves. The guys in TNA work their butts off. There's no doubt about it, but in the history of wrestling, nobody has ever looked at the women," Love said. Sky jumped in to say, "Just because it's such a male dominated business." Love finished her statement saying, "Nobody has ever looked at the women as actual `competition' for the men. It's just always been like, "Oh, the girls' match." Sky added, "Until now. The ratings speak for themselves." They're asked if women's wrestling can be compared to the men's. They say it already has. "It already has. Before the Knockouts division, I would say, 'No,' because look what the prime focus of the competition of women's wrestling was. It was bra and panties matches. It was lingerie. Swimming pools, Jell-O matches, pillow fights. That will not compare to any form of men's wrestling," Sky said. "Now with the Knockouts, we're getting the highest-rated segments on the show. We wrestle, and people want to see us. They're demanding to see us. They're actually tuning in to see us." You can read the article in its entirety at this link. http://www.miamiherald.com/sports/wrestlin...ory/628429.html -- Former WWE tag team The Gymini were backstage at an Impact taping last, reports PWInsider.com. -- The TNA website has posted some new trailers of the TNA "iMPACT!" video game from Midway, which is set to be released in September. You can see the new trailers at this link. http://www.tnawrestling.com/content/view/160/84/ - As reported earlier today, World Wrestling Entertainment released their second quarter financial results. The entire report can be viewed at WWE's Corporate website - click here for that. Part of today's financial news was the PPV buyrates for Backlash, Judgment Day, One Night Stand, and Night of Champions. Some good news for WWE - all four events sold more in 2008 than 2007. Here's the breakdown: http://corporate.wwe.com/documents/PressRe...toKateFINAL.pdf - WWE Backlash: 200,000 buys (194,000 buys in 2007). - WWE Judgment Day: 252,000 buys (242,000 buys in 2007). - WWE One Night Stand: 194,000 buys (186,000 buys in 2007). - WWE Night of Champions: 273,000 buys (243,000 buys in 2007). -- Shark Boy injured his knee at a TNA house show last Saturday night in Laredo, Texas. It was looked at over the weekend and he is expected to be fine for next week's Impact tapings. The criminal investigation stemming from the beating Mike Levy took at the IWA Mid-South "Queen of the Death Match" event in Sellersburg, Indiana in late June has concluded. No criminal charges were filed and the Indiana State Police have dropped their investigation regarding the incident. Levy, an apparent indy wrestler based out of North Carolina, took a huge beating following his match with Mickie Knuckles at the show. The beating appeared to be in retaliation for Knuckles getting a big bump on her head during their match as she was scheduled to get a huge push from TNA at their TV tapings the very next week. Although, Knuckles likely caused the knot on her head herself, as she became incensed at one point during the match and gave Levy a repeated number of violent headbutts. Follwowing his match Knuckles, two IWA-MS wrestlers by the name of Devon Moore & Tank hit the ring and began beating Levy. They also taunted him on how to sell. Levy took some pretty bad shots from them, including two dangerous double stomps off the top ropes onto his head and into a barbed-wire ladder (including one from a none too agile 400-pounder), some unprotected chairshots, and more. Ian Rotten, his young son, and two or three others also got involved, giving Levy some more stiff shots. Sellersburg Chief of Police Russ Whelan said, "They all say — even the young man who was in the wrestling match — that it’s part of the show. I don't know if I agree with that. I've got mixed feelings." IWA Mid-South owner Ian Rotten blamed the police investigation on rival competitors trying to stir trouble, calling it "petty, local politics." Rotten believes competitors sent the video to police trying to get his company in trouble. Rotten said he has put on more than 500 wrestling shows and has never had a problem anywhere else. A few weeks ago, Rotten told the CBS affiliate out of Louisville, Kentucky that the beating was scripted and while it was quite stiff, Levy knew it was coming. Rotten said Levy came back to watch the rest of the show later in the evening. He said Levy is scheduled to wrestle again at a show in Illinois in October. Following the incident, Ian Rotten posted a message on the IWA Mid-South message board in response to the removal of a thread about the Mike Levy incident. He wrote: "If you got s*** you would like to talk about of the Mike Levy deal, then talk about it here. I don't want a separate thread started for just that stuff that people are saying happened, but did not happen just like was already on the thread. If you want the real story, buy the DVD. The kid got an ass whipping for what I, and many others, feel was all the right reasons. He did not go to the hospital. As a matter of fact, he came back after getting cleaned up to watch the rest of the show. He was told he would be brought back and was grateful for that so I guess he could not be too bad off. I promise, (his) face does not look anywhere near as bad as Mickie's does these morning. The kid was not beat up as people are putting it. If he was beat up by the wrestlers who were out there, he be lying in a hospital bed right now. End of story!" On another note, the police chief warned the bowling alley against hosting any more wrestling shows because they were not properly zoned for the IWA-MS event. The venue wasn't cleared for the last show, but they are currently attempting to get the proper zoning permits for future shows. Another IWA-MS event is scheduled at the bowling alley on August 30 and 31. Rotten said the bowling alley is working on getting clearance in time for the shows. They held an event there on Saturday, July 26. You can read The Evening News & Tribune's story on the situation at this link. http://www.newsandtribune.com/clarkcounty/..._218114856.html You can see a video of the Mike Levy incident (this is the same video/URL that was sent to police) at this link. http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseacti...ideoid=38440519 - As we reported here earlier this week, Mick Foley has been unhappy with his role as color commentator on SmackDown! and is considering leaving WWE when his contract expires in the coming weeks. There has been talk of holding him off television this week to sell the angle he did with Edge at the end of last week's Smackdown, but it should be noted that the Edge angle was not specifically written as a way to get Foley off television. The main factor contributing to Foley's unhappiness is Vince McMahon yelling into his headset during SmackDown! broadcast. McMahon regularly feeds lines to and communicates (note: yells at) WWE announcers while they are working and Foley is said to be at the end of his rope. There was an incident that took place several months back while Mick Foley was calling SmackDown! with Michael Cole. Foley felt that Vince got so out of line with his yelling that he called Vince later that night to discuss the situation. Although sources indicate that Vince has toned i down while producing Foley since then, Mick is still bothered by the way he and other announcers have been produced. Foley is expected to appear at SummerSlam in some capacity, but that show is being seen as a possible end-date for Foley if he chooses not to sign a new deal the company. -- As noted earlier, on Sunday, July 6, 2008, Mickie Knuckles broke her femur in her right leg after a botched attempt to dive off a platform onto opponent Sara Del Rey during the main event at an IWA Mid-South show in Joliet, Illinois. The rest of the event was canceled following her injury. Mickie underwent surgery the very next day, although the operation took longer than expected due to the "muscle mass" in her leg according to doctors. Doctors successfully placed a titanium rod in the leg to hold the bones in place while it heals. Knuckles is expected to miss six months of in-ring action, but she said she hopes to be back in three. Anyway, the IWA-MS family is trying to raise money to pay for Knuckles' very expensive hospital bills following the operation as apparently, she doesn't have any insurance. IWA-MS plans on holding a show on Sunday afternoon, August 17th at the very same rec center in which she broke her femur, the Hartman Rec Center in Joliet, Illinois. According to a person who attended an IWA-MS show this past Saturday, they need to raise $27,000 to pay off her hospital bills. For more information on the Mickie Knuckles Benefit Show, click here. http://iwamidsouth.proboards19.com/index.c...amp;thread=4891 -- TNA Knockout Shelly "Salinas" Martinez has been cast in a Fox Reality Channel show premiering this fall called America's Sex Symbol. Traci Bingham will also be appearing on the show. Martinez has posted some photos from the filming of the show on her MySpace page, which you can see at this link. Martinez was a contestant on another Fox Reality Channel show last year, The Search for the Next Elvira, which premiered on October 13, 2007. She was eliminated on the second show. http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseacti...logID=419952239 -- To promote the release of the "Best Of The Bloodiest Brawls: Scars And Stitches" DVD, AJ Styles and Rhino will be signing autographs this Saturday from noon to 2:00 p.m. at a Best Buy in Philadelphia. For more information on their appearance, click here. http://www.tnawrestling.com/content/view/964/84/ -- SLAM! Wrestling has a lengthy story on former WWE Diva Terri Runnels. She talks about her career in wrestling, her family, what she's been up to since departing from WWE in 2004, Brian Pillman, and more. You can read the story at this link. http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Wrestling/2008/07/20/6213881.html -- The Post and Courier has a story on the the man who trained Triple H, WWE Hall of Famer Killer Kowalski. You can read the story at this link. http://www.charleston.net/news/2008/aug/03...my_mat_villain/ -- TMZ.com posted a photo & story yesterday on former WWE star Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson vacationing in Hawaii with his apparent new girlfriend, a woman by the name of Lauren Hashian. To see TMZ's take on the situation, click here. On June 1, 2007, Johnson and Garcia announced that they would be splitting up after 10 years of marriage (and after 17 years together as a couple). They indicated that their parting was amicable and that they would spend the rest of their lives together as best friends. http://www.tmz.com/2008/08/04/the-rock-of-love/ Eric Bischoff Blog "When To Say When"

sources: www.f4wonline.com, Wrestling Observer Newsletter -- The latest issue of Fighting Spirit has an advertisement for DVD releases from the Women's Extreme Wrestling wrestling promotion based out of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The advertisement features two DVD covers -- one featuring a raven-haired woman I can't put a name to wearing handcuffs, the other featuring current TNA Knockout Velvet Sky. Under the guise of Talia Madison, Velvet Sky worked a few shows for Women's Extreme Wrestling wrestling promotion back in 2006. Sky shares the DVD cover with some nameless blonde women, who looks to be a porn star, and is wearing star-shaped pasties. The DVD is called "NUDE AND NASTY" with the tagline "NO MINORS - NO EXCEPTIONS! TOO HOT FOR T.V.!" While some of the women featured on the DVD appear nude one way or another, I don't believe Velvet Sky ever appeared nude for WEW, as she just wrestled on their shows. She probably just has the most name recognition and/or is the prettiest, so they decided to put her on the cover in their recent DVD release. You can see the DVD cover featuring Velvet Sky at this link. http://www.zavvi.co.uk/dvd-0+to+9.99-Sport...33c.r10.1/p.jsf -- TNA papered a swing of house shows in the Carolinas last weekend, reports the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, more so than usual. TNA ran shows in Fayetteville, NC, Florence, SC, and Kenansville, NC, from 7-25 to 7-27. Going into the weekend, the advances were pretty poor for all three cities and it looked like the weekend was going to be the first money losing weekend since TNA started running regular three-city weekend house show loops. However, all three cities had strong late purchases. The show in Kenansville sold 400 tickets the day before the show. Overall, that show drew 1,250 fans altogether. Fayetteville drew 1,800 fans and Florence drew 2,000 fans. -- IGN.com recently conducted an interview with TNA star Rhino. He talks about being friends with Kevin Nash (who interrupts the interview), video games, what steps TNA needs to take to be more successful, and more. On that, Rhino said, "I think going overseas more. This is the first video game they came out with and it took a while to make the whole gameplay work... if we could get 1-2 video games... the network loves us, so I'd like to see us go to Mondays from 8 to 10 to start the Monday Night war over again...that'd really benefit us. We're scheduling more live events, and if we could get that past 100 with 30 overseas, that'd be a good mixture." You can read the interview at this link. http://sports.ign.com/articles/895/895732p1.html -- To confirm a bulletin ECW star John Morrison sent out yesterday on his MySpace saying that for the first time ever, a live edition of "The Dirt Sheet" would be taking place on this Tuesday's edition of ECW, WWE ran a commercial during A.M. Raw last night promoting it. However, "The Dirt Sheet" appears to just be the name of an interview segment they're doing, like "Carlito's Cabana" or Chris Jericho's "Highlight Reel." The commercial said ECW Champion Mark Henry and Matt Hardy would be appearing on "The Dirt Sheet," so it looks like it's just going to be a backdrop to promote their upcoming match at SummerSlam. -- WWE.com has posted their latest "Circle of Champions" story, this time regarding Jeff Hardy. Hardy met an 11-year-old Make-A-Wish child by the name of Mitchell Hannigan before Tuesday's SmackDown/ECW taping in Hershey’s Giant Center. You can read the story at this link. http://www.wwe.com/inside/overtheropes/cir...ffhardymitchell -- SmackDown Divas Maria and Eve Torres were briefly shown getting tans in commercials promoting the second season of Sunset Tan, which premieres tonight at 10:30 p.m. on E!, so you may want to keep an idea on them popping up. I also heard that Candice Michelle appears on the show at some point. The show has at least other two wrestling connections. Tough Enough 4 champion Daniel Puder was briefly shown on an episode last season on a dinner date with one of the stars of the show, or a friend of one of the stars of the show. And in case you don't know, the better looking Olly Girl, Molly Shea, actually tried out for the Diva Search two years ago, the very sam search that discovered Raw Diva Layla El, SmackDown Diva Maryse Ouellet, the still-yet-to-debut Milena Roucka, and the long forgotten former ECW backstage announcer Rebecca DiPietro. Molly Shea was shown on television at the tryouts in California, but didn't make the cut for one reason or another. You can see a screencap of her on WWE television at this link. http://i36.tinypic.com/vrxbo4.jpg -- The theme for WWE 24/7 programming during the month of September will be based around the career of Ric Flair. The theme is entitled "Forever Flair." The synopsis reads: "All September on WWE 24/7 Classics On Demand, it Forever Flair... WOOOOOO! Relive the illustrious career of the 16-time World Champion, the Nature Boy, Ric Flair. See all the championship conquests, his NWA/WCW run with the Four Horseman, the formation of Evolution in WWE and the unforgettable battles with Dusty Rhodes, Harley Race, Terry Funk, Sting, Ronnie Garvin, Ricky Steamboat, Randy Savage, Hulk Hogan and many others." Flair will also be featured as a guest panelist on the roundtable talk show, The Legends of Wrestling. The first episode's topic will be "The Greatest Faction in Wrestling History." For more WWE 24/7 programming details, click here. http://www.wwe.com/shows/wwe247/nextmonth/ -- Former ECW star Kevin Thorn, who is still under contract to WWE, has opened a page on the WWE Fan Nation site. You can see his page at this link, although he hasn't posted anything yet. Thorn was taken off the road late last year and sent to train in Florida Championship Wrestling. However, he hasn't appeared on any FCW shows as of late. He was appearing on some of their shows as late as last May though. http://fans.wwe.com/kevinthorn -- Last night's edition of Saturday Night's Main Event based around actress Jenny McCarthy raising awareness for Autism didn't do too well in the ratings to say the least. For starters, the show finished in last place in its time slot, getting beat out by America's Most Wanted on Fox, Wipeout on ABC, and a show by the name of Flashpoint on CBS at the same time slot. Well technically, Saturday's Night Main Event didn't finish in last place out of all the networks as the show likely beat out the offerings from The CW and MyNetworkTV, so perhaps WWE can take solace in that. Then again, those stations never offer original programming on Saturday nights, so maybe they're ratings on Saturdays don't count. Saturday Night's Main Event drew slightly more than half the total viewership of America's Most Wanted on Fox during the same timeslot. We don't have the exact rating, but the show drew 2.38 million viewers according to this article from TVByTheNumbers.com. http://tvbythenumbers.com/2008/08/03/niels...-bandwidth/4584 Believe it or not, the show got beat out by a recent edition of Elite XC on CBS. More than likely, the rating will come in at a 1.4 or 1.5 rating, by far the worst rating in the storied history of Saturday Night's Main Event. And they were in better time slot this time around too, not at midnight. Saturday Night's Main Event featured Jeff Hardy vs. Edge, John Cena, Batista & Cryme Tyme vs. JBL, Ted DiBiase, Cody Rhodes & Kane, and The Great Khali vs. Jimmy Wang Yang. The TV preview advertised a slew of celebrities (and no wrestlers) including Jenny McCarthy, Toby Keith, Jewel, Piers Morgan, Carmen Electra, Billy Ray Cyrus, and the cast of Nashville Star. It would appear that the lure of celebrities didn't work too well in nabbing the non-wrestling fan. On the plus side, Saturday Night's Main Event was not the least watched show of the evening. The one-hour block of the critically-acclaimed show The Office that aired right before SNME at 8:00 p.m. only managed to draw 1.64 million viewers. In the bad timing department, the Raw section on WWE.com has an article talking about the WWE Universe watching their programming in record numbers. Seeing how last night's edition of Saturday Night's Main Event likely drew its record worst rating in the show's history, technically, that statement is true. -- Jim Ross has posted a new blog on the WWE Fan Nation site talking about a slew of topics including the recent fight between two Carolina Panthers football players, Ron Killings, the WWE developmental system, Mick Foley, Superstar Billy Graham, and more. You can read the blog at this link. http://fans.wwe.com/jimross/blog/2008/08/0...tlehot_prospect Following his departure from the company earlier today, Ric Flair released the following statement: "WWE and I parted on the best of terms. This gives me the chance to pursue new opportunities...corporate speaking engagements, product sponsorships, autograph shows for my loyal fans (who made me what I am today) and film and television roles. My agent and I are very excited about what the future holds!" Wrestling promoters interesting in booking Flair should contact his agent, Elaine Gillespie. She also coordinates bookings for "Rowdy" Roddy Piper as well as SmackDown announcer Mick Foley. Here is her contact information and e-mail address for promoters interesting in booking the one and only Ric Flair. ELAINE GILLESPIE THE GILLESPIE AGENCY, INC. Advertising/Media/Public Relations Booking for Wrestling Legends Mick Foley, Roddy Piper and Ric Flair 3007 Millwood Avenue Columbia, SC 2920 803-779-2126 [email protected] Her agent has also set up a page on Facebook.com for him, so that will be his "official website." His agent plans on posting his event schedule on the page. You can reach Flair's Facebook page at this link. You can also find the page by typing in "Ric Flair, The Nature Boy". http://www.facebook.com/pages/Ric-Flair-Th...Boy/27336722640 - Hulk Hogan was recently interviewed by entertainment news show Acess Hollywood and made an emotional confession about how he is dealing with his divorce with Linda. A video of the interview interview can be viewed at this link. http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en-us&...from=im_default The confession is that Hulk wishes he was still with Linda. Hulk says it's been incredibly difficult dealing with the seperation, Hulk explains, "There wasn't an argument. It was 'I dont love you, I don't want to be with you, I don't want to see you anymore.'" Hulk says things have been made worse by Linda flaunting her new relationship with a 19 year old former classmate of Brooke and Nick's. Hulk denied allegations that the divorce is a ploy to protect his assets from civil litigation by the family of John Graziano. Hulk said the divorce should be a simple process of dividing up their assets but Linda has been going to the tabloids claiming the divorce will be a war and they're burning through money he saved up for his family. - As if Quinton "Rampage" Jackson's wild hit-and-run meltdown from last month wasn't bad enough, things just took a turn for the worse. Holli Griggs, who was 16 weeks pregnant at the time Rampage allegedly sideswiped her Escalade on July 15th, recently suffered a miscarriage. Her fiance, Bill Krebs, tells the Daily Pilot that Holli, 38, was perfectly healthy before the incident, but after the wreck she lost a lot of fluid from her womb and eventually lost the baby. The couple have retained an attorney and are reportedly considering legal action against Jackson. -- Mick Foley is said to be unhappy with his role as SmackDown! announcer and may be leaving WWE television shortly, reports prowrestling.net. Several sources indicate that Foley is fed up with getting yelled at in his headset by Vince McMahon and is disgruntled with the current arrangement. -- PWInsider.com reports that Team 3D's TNA Wrestling contracts expire next month. There has been a lot of speculation in recent weeks as to whether the decorated tag team will remain with TNA or look elsewhere. Paul Heyman Blog Earthquakes fail to register Aug. 4th, 2008 I AM writing this blog after getting home to New York from a trip to California. And in case you heard about the earthquake in Los Angeles, permit me to digress before we even get started! I was in the California earthquake this past Tuesday morning - and I missed the whole damn thing! I am so p***ed. I was in my rental car, and unless it's a "big one", you don't feel it in your vehicle. I've been in tornados, hurricanes, blizzards, hailstorms, winter in Minnesota and a plane landing on a frozen runway in Siberia. But I've never been in an earthquake before. Missed a few of them, never had the experience. So, when I turned from Wilshire Boulevard on to El Camino Drive and noticed people running out of both sides of William Morris Plaza, all I could think of is: "Wow. they're tight on their lunch hour around here, aren't they?" It looked like a typical noon-time rush in New York City but LA is a little more mellow. As I got out of my car, people were rushing over saying "are you OK?" and I had no idea why. I kept thinking "do I look that bad?" I couldn't figure out why everyone was so concerned. Was I pale? Did I look jet-lagged? What was it? It wasn't until I walked into the office that I found out there had been an earthquake. And here I was, right in the middle of it, and I missed the whole thing. Sometimes, even when you win, you lose! OK, sorry for the digression. Let's get back to what I really wanted to write about. WWE imposed its own earthquake on the wrestling landscape when it shook everything to its very foundation with the draft. And the aftershocks of the draft have been nothing short of a gross disappointment. When it was implemented and the changes started taking effect, there was a buzz surrounding WWE programming. CM Punk defeats Edge for the World title? HHH is headed to Smackdown? Jericho is stepping into the lead heel position on Raw, while Rey Mysterio, Batista, and even Kofi Kingston promise to change the Raw landscape? Smackdown gets "The Game," Good Ol' JR, and Jeff Hardy. ECW gets a focus with Mark Henry as its dominant champion. Hey, things are looking mighty "new and fresh" on WWE television. And now, as Rob Van Dam would say, here comes the buzz kill. One month later, and the excitement is just not there in the programming. WWE killed the increase in interest with the manner in which they screwed up their own momentum. CM Punk is being treated as champion the same was Rey Mysterio was. He's painted as an unworthy champion. He's not "the man". He's just the title holder during a transitional period. Now, there's nothing wrong with that but the idea was giving someone "new" the opportunity to sink or swim at a top level. That's interesting to watch. To its enormous credit, WWE has made global celebrities of John Cena, HHH, Undertaker, Shawn Michaels and Batista. Joining that top tier is Edge, Randy Orton, and either MVP or Ken Kennedy, if he can get out from underneath his latest lack of faith from those who make talent assessments. So watching, for example, Cryme Time step up and get the chance to run with Cena or DiBiase/Rhodes being the young punks who are taking over is exciting to the average fan. It brings in more fans, because you've squeezed the juice from the current crop, and need new berries for the cash vine. Watching Punk only get to bide his time as champion? Not exciting. Oh yeah, Rey's on Raw, too. Thought I'd remind you of that, because WWE sure hasn't made a big deal about it, have they? Hey, what about the straw that stirs the Smackdown drink, Edge? Blah. In my opinion, Edge is WWE's best performer (as discussed in a prior blog) and the storyline reason for Undertaker's return makes sense, but the breakup of Edge and Vickie has taken away an act that people truly enjoyed to hate. Edge and Vickie Guerrero were magic together, every bit as compelling and contemptible as the Edge/Lita pairing. Much different in so many ways, but equally as riveting, thanks in major part to the remarkable heel performances by both Edge and Vickie. These two clicked. It worked. They got "over." They were despised, reviled, thought of with vengeful wishes of bloody revenge. And people loved feeling that way for the heels who would surely suffer their ultimate "wrestlefate." Splitting Edge and Vickie has taken a big buzz away. While The Undertaker v Edge in a Hell in a Cell Match at Summer Slam is a huge attraction, and will probably be one of the greatest HIAC matches ever, the excitement surrounding wrestling is nowhere near the level it was a month or so ago. So, what's the upshot? Well, the TV shows have been marginal at best. I'm sure Vince has a grand plan with Mike Adamle, but to the general audience he just plain sucks as a participant on WWE programming. Sometimes, bad is just bad. The Jericho performances have been stellar and Jericho v HBK will do serious business because the heat is being set just right. Plus, Cade is there to absorb some of Shawn's initial fire, to keep even more heat on Jericho. With the exception of HBK v Jericho, WWE's television offerings could and should be a lot better. Adamle, as discussed, sucks. HHH settled into Smackdown way too quickly. His first two months should have been as the outsider making his way onto a show he must now dominate as champion, and the feeling out process with EVERYONE, both babyface and heel. The announcers even feel held back and not inspired by the action, which is not their fault, since presumably someone is yelling at them through their headsets to perform a certain way. The "new talent" should be getting a continued focus on their roll and not just their role. I predict that if SummerSlam as an event lives up to even half its potential, WWE could find itself with the opportunity to really capitalize on some momentum again. It's a stacked card, with a lot of payoffs and storyline-twists that could boost WWE going forward. If not, screw it. Maybe it's time to just watch TNA. Ahem. OK, so things aren't nearly THAT bad. Paul Heyman Blog Lesnar will learn from his failure Aug. 4th, 2008 MY old friend Brock Lesnar will step into the Octagon next Saturday night and I for one am really looking forward to the spectacle. Brock is a driven competitor and he has been "on himself" every moment since Frank Mir snatched his right leg on February 2 in Las Vegas. In listening to Brock's comments, it's obvious to me that the very dangerous Heath Herring is going to face a determined animal on August 9. "I really rushed that fight and made a foolish mistake," Lesnar admitted this week. “I had Frank Mir in a dominant position and I stood up and fed him a foolish amateur mistake." But like any great pugilist, Brock learns from his failures. He vowed to be "a more controlled fighter and a little more relaxed in there. It has to do with putting more time in the gym, trying to polish every aspect of the fight game and trying to better myself every day". Taking this NCAA heavyweight champion wrestler with a legitimate mean streak in him, and continuing his education about the science of modern day cage fighting, could breed an already-explosive but now more knowledgeable fighter. UFC might really be looking at The Next Big Thing, as the WWE once billed Brock. Getting past UFC champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira is another story, of course. Nogueira is on top of his game, at the peak of his skills. Even those who sing Fedor Emelianenko's praises admit Nogueira has matured into one of the best the MMA fight game has ever seen. But that doesn't deter Brock, it only makes him more desirous of fighting the champion. And that, trust me, only makes him far more dangerous. Brock is motivated by the thought of being a lot better today than he was yesterday. He's inspired to be better tomorrow than he is today. And he's obsessed to show such progress, that two days from now, tomorrow's improvement will pale by comparison. “I had a few more months to train," Brock told everyone matter-of-factly on the media call. “If the Brock Lesnar now was to fight the Brock Lesnar then, I would beat him." Memo to the Herring Camp: Bring your A-Game. No one likes to lose but Brock hates it more than others. Every day, Brock is improving. And that's a scary thought.

NEWS and NOTES - Sabu has been calling around looking at getting back in the ring. It was just a few months ago when he was telling people he wouldn’t be able to ever bump again, but now he’s saying with a few months of rest, he feels better, although he still has to limit what he does. - “Get Smart” did $2,272,394 over the weekend for No. 11, and its domestic total is now $124,186,385 and is at around $190 million worldwide. - Bret Hart is in need of a full knee replacement. It’s been something he’s been told he would need for probably 11 years, but he was putting it off until he really had no choice. When he was in Italy on his recent trip, with all the walking on uneven pavement, it had become brutal. Unlike others who get asked this question, Hart was adamant about if he was 20, would he have chosen UFC or pro wrestling: “I’d never do UFC. I wasn’t good enough and I was smarter than that. I have a lot of respect for UFC guys, but I still think they’re not getting the money they deserve, especially when I see them taking all those head shots. You can see the brain cells just vanishing when they get hit five, six times. It’s the kind of brain damage you carry around forever. You can’t put a price tag on your brain and I know that better than anyone else.” On Hulk Hogan’s comments about the problems with John Graziano being God’s will and some sort of retribution or karma on him: “I think he showed his true colors. He’s washed up. He exposed himself. It’s pretty callous. I think he dug himself an even bigger hole on Larry King. He was always selfish. Everything Hogan did was for Hogan.” Hart was respectful to Hogan during the WCW days but the straw that broke the camel’s back was when Hart agreed to do the WWE DVD, and one of the producers played him the clips of the “hit-piece” DVD WWE was going to do on him (similar to Ultimate Warrior) until he agreed. The comments by Michaels he expected and didn’t bother him that much. He was not happy with comments by Roddy Piper but since the two have always been close, he’s willing to say Piper was tricked into it and was led by the questioning, but Hogan’s portrayal of him upset him the most. When asked the wrestlers he considers friends, he said Austin, Edge, Jericho and Piper. - Sylvan Grenier said in SlamWrestling he’d decided to take time off from wrestling and not work indies due to injuries and because he’s started three businesses in Montreal and doesn’t have much free time. He’s got a security company that he started before wrestling and continued to run while in WWE, a supplement company and not sure what the third company is, although he did say he’s thinking of opening a gym, and after all that, said he’s going to start taking indie bookings. His claim for appearing on the Signature Pharmacy list of clients is that the WWE told him he needed to get an American doctor instead of a Canadian doctor. Yeah, that makes perfect sense, the WWE trying to get wrestlers away from drug supplying doctors tells a guy living in Montreal to get a doctor who lives nowhere near Montreal. One of the biggest red flags that should be known at this point is having your personal physician more than, say, a 30 minute drive from your home. I mean, how many people routinely drive two hours in each direction to see their personal doctor? Let alone a guy in Montreal needing to have one in the U.S. He asked around about a doctor, and lo and behold, the doctor he picked ended up being with Signature Pharmacy and thus, when the bust came, his name was out. He noted he did nothing illegal, and technically, that would be correct, as it’s the doctors who were filling the prescriptions without visits from the patients who are the ones in trouble in that case. - Bret Hart’s autobiography is now available for U.S. pre-ordering through amazon.com. The actual U.S. release date is 10/8. It can also be ordered today at amazon.ca and they ship into the U.S. - Stacey Keibler will have a major role in the ABC Family network TV series “Samurai Girl” that debuts next month. They shot six episodes which will all air the weekend of 9/5 through 9/7. She’ll play the rival of the lead star who is the former fiancee of the girl who stars in the show as a Japanese teenager whose father is the head of a Yakuza. Keibler did an interview with WrestleZone.com talking about leaving WWE. She said: “I left the business because of the lifestyle. You don’t have a car or hotel paid for. You get dropped off on a Friday and you have to get around the state. A different city each night. You are away from friends and family. It was really tiring. I wanted to be more normal and sleep in my own bed every night.” She said her dream was always to be an actress and appearing on “Dancing with the Stars” got her noticed. She said even before going on the show she had mentally decided to take a year off wrestling to try her luck in Hollywood, but said the show was great timing or “I would have been any other blonde walking around the streets of Los Angeles. I thank my lucky stars.” She said WWE wanted to renegotiate her contract while she was on the show. She asked for a raise and also wanted first class air travel (which in WWE is reserved only for people who have held the world title or someone they consider special). “They asked me who I thought I was. They told me I was no different from another other Diva.” She said they told her absolutely not when it came to the first class. That probably would have coincided with WWE in the middle of her “Dancing with the Stars” run suddenly no longer pushing her on their shows, because they realized she wasn’t coming back. - Jesse Ventura was on Howard Stern on 7/29 for 90 minutes, which is some kind of a record. Ventura, 57, noted he had a hip replacement six months ago from all the bumps from wrestling. Ventura said that wrestling shouldn’t be able to get away with calling its wrestlers independent contractors because Vince tells them when they are working, who they are working with, everything to do and who wins and loses. When asked about the Iron Sheik, Ventura said Sheik was another one (like Hogan) who wouldn’t back him when he tried to unionize wrestlers and that if the unionization would have taken place, perhaps today Sheik would have money needed for health care and his retirement. Sheik said that Jesse used to be his medicine man (drug dealer) and Jesse denied it. He said the only drugs he ever did in wrestling were testosterone, and only because it was required for wrestling, because you needed it to get big, stay big and to help recover from the nightly beatings. He did his usual spiel about believing 9/11 was an inside job and that Osama bin Laden is dead already but they pretend he’s alive so the country has an enemy. He said he would have won the senate had he run, and he flipped a coin to make his decision not to run, and that if he ran for president, he’d be assassinated. He said if he was a Senator he would demand WWE get investigated for failing to pay proper taxes due to categorizing the wrestlers as independent contractors. He claimed the day after he did Larry King, at 4 p.m., one hour before the deadline to file, he was talking with his wife and they were talking about what to do and she told him to flip a coin, so he did. Well, it makes for a good story. When the subject of UFC came up, he said he doesn’t believe they are real, saying they were “working stiff” because they go 25 minutes and real fights are over in 30 seconds. He noted that living in Mexico now, he has a different perspective saying the U.S. to those outside the country comes off as an arrogant country. - The Boston Herald ran a story on the health problems of Walter “Killer” Kowalski, one of the all-time great heels in wrestling history. Kowalski, 81, is bedridden due to problems with his knees and living in a nursing home in Everett, MA. He would love to hear from any old fans c/o the Everett Nursing Home, 289 Elm St., Everett, MA 02149. Because of his age, overall health and having a pacemaker, doctors won’t operate on him. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported former WCW announcer and highly rated Pittsburgh sports talk host Mark Madden would be signing with WXDX, a rock station that carries the Pittsburgh Penguins, to do afternoon drive-time. The story said Madden reached a buyout deal with ESPN Radio, which was paying him on the rest of his contract after letting him go after he told a joke about Sen. Ted Kennedy’s brain cancer. - Jeff Van Camp, who worked as Lord Humongous in Mid South Wrestling and Alabama in the 80s, is running for sheriff of Santa Rosa County in upstate Florida. Van Camp was pushed from the start due to his size and groomed for stardom as a wrestler, but the road schedule of Mid South and low payoffs caused him to quit the business and go into a career in law enforcement. - Former WCW wrestler and artist Lash LeRoux is running for municipal election in Oxford, AL. - Balls Mahoney was on tour of Ireland a few weeks back, did a brawl outside the building and onto a main street of town which I guess started people on the street enough that police were called and a near riot outside nearly took place. On the same tour, Doug Basham suffered a damaged eye socket, a swollen elbow and a bruised pec, although he didn’t miss any dates. - Tony Schiavone will be the lead radio announcer for the Gwinnett Braves, the Atlanta Braves AAA farm team that plays in the metro area. Schiavone has been working as sports director for WSB radio, although it was WDUN, the newstalk station, is carrying the games. Schiavone’s original love was baseball, although he did grow up as a big wrestling fan in Raleigh. He actually got into wrestling because he was doing the radio announcing for the minor league Charlotte Orioles, who were owned by Frances Crockett, Jim’s sister, and when they found out he had so much interest in wrestling, they brought him in for their regional syndicated show. In 1986, when they took over the TBS time slots, Jim Crockett decided to go with his guy, Schiavone, instead of Gordon Solie, who had been a fixture on the station since the end of 1972. Even though Solie was well past his announcing prime by that time, Solie had a lot of popularity and those were big shoes to fill - Reggie Parks, the 60s and 70s wrestler known for his physique, who is now best known for making championship belts for pro wrestling, boxing and MMA, has made two championship belts for Madonna and is working on a third one. One she wore on the cover of her album. The third belt may be for a Madonna statute in a wax museum. He’s also made title belts for the 2007 Tennessee Titans defensive line and the 1989 Oakland A’s. He made his first title belt in 1962 for promoter Joe Dusek in Omaha when he was working the territory. Parks stopped making WWF title belts about ten years ago over a royalties dispute over sales of replica belts. He said UFC was now his biggest client. He said it takes four people about two weeks to make a custom championship belt, which costs $1,000. He said one particularly elaborate belt for a Japanese promotion cost $12,000. His business started booming with the advent of the Internet and people buying belts from him and his team are usually working on about 20 belts at a time. Now 73, he dates back to being a carnival wrestler before turning pro. - Ed Koskey is now the head writer for ECW, joining Michael Hayes as head writer of Smackdown and Brian Gewirtz as head writer of Raw. - Foley’s contract expires I believe at the end of the summer. I don’t see anyone on the horizon being groomed for the color role, plus who had have better on-air chemistry with Ross so I presume they’ll offer him a new deal. Vince is way more critical of announcing talent, particularly as the show goes on, than he is of main event wrestling talent, so there is likely some culture shock, if that’s the right term, with Foley in the role. Basically the announcers have to learn to react positively to negativity, but since most like the job (the hours are great for the money you’re paid, you get the perks of being featured on television every week, and you’re not getting your body destroyed like almost everyone else on the show–although I suppose Jim Ross’ worsening eye that doesn’t allow him to drive at night stemming from a match contradicts that) you never see anyone voluntarily leaving the position. - Jonathan Coachman is starting with ESPN imminently, but he was removed from the position, although most figured he wasn’t going to sign a new deal when this one came due because he had real sports opportunities elsewhere.

His the trailer, it's pretty long actually http://www.horizonent.tv/screening_area/the_real_angle.html I'd watch it, just from watching it my opinion on him changes. The part where he's sorta drunk with chew in his mouth on the plane.. pretty nasty. Thoughts?

From the newest Observer The original plan was for Punk to go heel and win the Money in the Bank later this year. The suggestion for Punk to win the title the way it went down at first didn’t go over well, but the arguments were made that since the company decided on a youth movement and to shake things up (and it is amazing that the minute they started going with new people on top the ratings started getting a little better) that Punk is the guy to push more than anyone else. The argument is that Punk was more popular than he should have been given his push (true) and that he sells far more merchandise than someone in his position should (also true). Ever since Vince green lighted Punk winning the title, suddenly everyone in creative is 100% backing him. The producers on the other hand were very quiet when they were told, because many of them don’t think highly of Punk’s work, but none of them will ever argue against a Vince direction because everyone is afraid of losing their job. HHH behind the scenes is not a supporter of his dating back to his arrival in the company, and has joked that they now need to turn Michaels heel so Punk can have someone who can work him through a world title match. The Punk not looking strong is part of the Vince directive. Vince believes that Punk as a babyface always clinging onto the belt against “better” guys will cause fans to get behind him in the long run. It was the same idea he had with Mysterio, which in hindsight, most feel was a big mistake, but Vince was also never behind Mysterio as anything but a transitional champion at that time.

source: ProWrestling.NET, PWInsider.com - Tomko is through with TNA. He was saying goodbye to everyone backstage after last night's Impact taping. He'll be working full time in Japan. Tomko joined TNA in November 2006. - WWE issued the following press release this morning confirming that actor Freddie Prinze, Jr. has been hired as a creative writer: Prinze, Jr. Joins WWE Creative Team July 30, 2008 STAMFORD, Conn, July 30, 2008 – Freddie Prinze, Jr., a long-time fan of World Wrestling Entertainment®, joins WWE®’s creative team. Prinze, Jr. will now have a behind the scenes role contributing to WWE’s weekly television and pay-per-view programs. “Freddie Prinze, Jr.’s passion, energy and creativity make him an excellent fit for WWE,” said Chairman Vince McMahon. "Bringing on board an experienced Hollywood writer, actor and producer like Freddie Prinze, Jr. will only increase the level of entertainment to millions of viewers and passionate WWE fans every Monday on USA," said Chris McCumber, Executive Vice President Marketing Digital & Brand Strategy, USA Network. WWE’s programming is seen weekly by nearly 15 million viewers in the United States alone, and in 130 countries around the world (Monday Night RAW®, ECW® and Friday Night SmackDown®). - Kevin Nash left last night's Impact taping early (scheduled to air on 8/7) after being frustrated with the planned finish in his match on the show. Nash balked at the planned finish in his match and left the building a short while later. -- TNAwrestling.com has learned that in the coming weeks, a new event will be announced for TNA's January "Maximum Impact" tour of the United Kingdom! In fact, according to sources in our Live Events department, the additional show will take place in Ireland, along with the previously announced dates in Great Britain and Scotland! Check back to TNAwrestling.com next week for more details! To get your tickets for January's TNA UK tour, visit http://www.tnaliveuk.co.uk. -- TNAwrestling.com announced the following this morning: TNA Wrestling is nearing completion of our brand-new 20,000 square foot TNA TV Studio near our headquarters in Nashville, Tennessee! The new studio will have several editing bays for the creation of our worldwide programming ("iMPACT!", Xplosion, etc) and DVD production, as well as standup/on-camera sets (similar to what ESPN uses). The studio will also house audio areas, a tape library, conference rooms as well as TNA's growing Merchandise Department. For those that have been employed with TNA since the beginning in 2002, this new state-of-the-art Television Studio is certainly a major milestone for our company. -- The official website of ECW star Elijah Burke, TheElijahBurkeExpress.com, was hacked last night. Burke posts blogs on the website, and a blog supposedly written by him claimed he was sideswiped by a car and hospitalized as a result. That is in fact a hoax as Burke is perfectly fine. The hacker then posted a number of racial epithets against Burke. The website was then shut down/put offline to prevent any future issues. -- Former WWE Diva Ashley Massaro posted a blog on her MySpace page this morning saying that she will be back on our television screens "in no time." She seems very excited. Here is what she posted: NEW NEWS! The meds are working! FINALLY!! So happy what a hug weight off my shoulders. I cant tell you how rough it was for awhile butt hings are looking up punkers!! I shoud be back o your television screens in no time! I miss you terribly and want to thank everyone ho showed support and love during this hard time. I truly appreciate it from the bottom of my heart. I LOVE YA!!!! So much to tell you but its a surprize!!!!!!! Drop a line again super soon promise xoxoxoxooox post song mia - paper planes -- Former WWE Superstar Bobby Lashley has relaunched the website of his online supplement company. He is also blogging on the website, but has yet to write a blog. You can find the relaunched website at LashleyNutrition.com Lashley is currently training for MMA and will be fighting for the American Fight League later this year. -- Former WCW World Heavyweight Champion Bill Goldberg as well as former boxer Sugar Ray Leonard are the celebrity contestants for tonight's taping of Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?. The episode should be airing soon. An e-mail was sent out saying that it's the last taping of the season and that all tickets are free. The e-mail also said that the show tapes in Hollywood and the minimum age to attend is 12. -- It looks we've seen the last of Dustin Rhodes, 39, as a full-time performer on national television. TNA removed the profile of his alter ego, Black Reign, from the roster section on the company website earlier in the week, which should confirm his departure from the organization. When you visit his former profile page, for some reason it re-directs to the profile page of TNA Knockout Angelina Love. Black Reign had been off television for three months and counting, his last appearance taking place on the 4/24 Impact during a tag team title tournament. Rhodes debuted at last year's Victory Road pay-per-view to start a program with "Wildcat" Chris Harris. He debuted his "Black Reign" persona at last August's Hard Justice pay-per-view, losing to Harris via disqualification. Later he was involved with the likes of Abyss and Rellik, participating in a "Monster's Ball" match, a "Shop of Horrors" match, as well as a "Match of 10,000 Tacks" match in subsequent pay-per-views. Reign then entered a program with Frankie "Kaz" Kazarian as well as Eric Young. Reign and Rellik lost to Kaz and Young at the Destination X pay-per-view. He worked a few more shows through April before disappearing. Around the time of his disappearance, TNA started devoting more television time to the Knockouts, giving them at least two segments per show instead of one because they often scored the highest-rated segments for Impact. Due to the additional Knockouts segment(s), that basically squeezed out fringe characters such as Black Reign and Rellik from getting any television time. Rhodes was believed to be on a pay-per-appearance deal. -- In the roster section of the official TNA website, the name on the picture of former WWE star Daivari has been changed from his former ring name to "Abdul Bashir" to reflect his new persona in the company. The alt tag of the image actually reads "Sheik Abdul Bashir," but they couldn't fit the text of the entire name into the small image. There is no profile page linked from the image at the moment. Daivari recently signed a contract with TNA, so he's going to be a regular in the company. -- TNA wrestler Matt Morgan made his debut on American Gladiators on last week's show. He quickly defeated his opponents in the jousting event. "To say I'm excited is a huge understatement," Morgan said. "Wrestling is in my blood and TNA will always be my home - and the chance to appear on both TNA and American Gladiators is a major personal accomplishment." Also, he apparently has a TNA nickname in "The Blueprint." TNA has an article, photos and video regarding Morgan on American Gladiators (which you can see at this link), and he's referenced by that nickname. Morgan used "The Blueprint" nickname during his time Ohio Valley Wrestling, but WWE opted not to use it. http://www.tnawrestling.com/content/view/944/84/ Lance Storm Blog Thank You: ROH July 28, 2008 “Sometimes it is better to give than receive”. It’s an age-old saying, but truer words have not been spoken. Last week I wrote about my pending trip to Ring of Honor and how I was making the trip in an effort to give back. To give back to the industry that treated me so well and to help out a company and a locker room I believe in and think deserves it. I was not making the trip because of what ROH could do for me, but for what I might do for ROH. I gave of my time, my knowledge, my experience, and even my body. I received no paycheck for doing so and yet somehow I still came out the better for it in the end. I cannot thank Ring of Honor or the great fans in Toronto and Detroit enough for the experience this past weekend; I truly had the time of my life. Toronto was the show I was most looking forward to and it did not disappoint. Toronto fans showed up in great numbers (1200 – 1500) and were the best and rowdiest crowd I’ve seen since the original ECW One Night Stand PPV. You can’t have a great show without great fans and the Toronto fans did their part to making this show a fantastic event. Everyone just seemed to feed off each other, the crowd fueling the boys and the boys responding to it, which in return produced greater matches and more reaction from the crowd. I was completely over whelmed by the response I received in Toronto. I wasn’t sure what kind of reaction I was going to get when I stepped out in front of that crowd (yes, if you haven’t heard, I played a roll in the show in addition to just signing autographs) and I was absolutely blown away. It’s good to know fans remember and appreciate my past efforts and I can’t thank them enough for the reception they gave me. I got to cut a promo on Larry Sweeney, put the half crab on Chris Hero (something that would come back to bite me in the ass in Detroit) as well as Superkick poor Mr. Hagadorn. It was a bad night all around for Sweet and Sour Incorporated. In addition to my appearance the Toronto crowd was treated to the return of Mark Briscoe, a ROH World Title match, and a ton of other great matches, my personal favourite probably being the Roderick Strong vs. Naomichi Marufuji match. Detroit was not quiet as special for me (Canada is my home after all) but it too was a fantastic night. I had yet another run in with Sweet and Sour Incorporated, although this time I was suffering from dry mouth and a 10-pound tongue and mumbled my way through a horrendous promo. (The PPV is worth ordering just for that atrocity) I did at least managed to get my hands on Larry Sweeney but paid the price at the hands of Chris Hero. For those of you wondering I am not making a comeback, but I do have a receipt penciled in for Mr. Hero to be paid back at some point in the future! There were a ton of great matches in Detroit including the return of Mark and Jay Briscoe to tag team action, Nigel McGuinness vs. Claudio Castagnoli for the ROH World Title, and the match of the night between Bryan Danielson and Tyler Black, who managed to both break the ring and steal the show. This was a fantastic weekend for me and I want to thank everyone in ROH. Thank you for extending me your respect and welcoming me into your locker room. You guys are a credit to this industry, and I was proud to be a part of your show. I hope my advice and feedback benefits you as much as my being around you has benefited me. You have helped recharge my love for this sport and for that I thank you. I hope to see you all again in the future. If you haven’t yet checked out Ring of Honor, you are really missing out!! Lance Storm Jake Roberts RAW Review RAW Review: July 28, 2008 Here we go again! Still very puzzled about the talent list left on Raw. Smackdown is loaded above Raw by a mile. Sure do love the old footage on opening. Maybe someday I could even be on it. Certainly would be proud and don't feel like it would hurt, but maybe the reason I'm not is possibly there might be a small chance of being back on Raw in another way (talent)? Could use it and would love to show the world just how much the gift WWE provided my family, fans, friends and most of all myself wasn't wasted. I will always be eternally grateful for the life saving package provided. Enough of my personal feelings and lets get to the action or lack of. Cena--why do so many guys slip up with interviews and call someone by their first name? I mean, maybe they are trying to show it's personal or even establish friendship. Just don't think I would like being called by my real name. Listening to Cena, wonder who is turning heel? Cena threw the first curve and Batista by laughing gave the 2nd shot. Shane appears, drops the bomb, and sets the table by announcing tag match, not telling CM Punk's World Title match or who new G.M. Is. Like it, oh yes keeps us watching and guessing. Anticipation is the key to excitement. The mind is playing out all the possibilities right now. Kelly Kelly & D.Lo vs Santino Morella & Beth Phoenix Again the face starts the punching. How many finishing maneuvers before a hold? Oops! Weren't any at all. D.Lo came back like a house on fire--fire extinguished pretty quick though. Glamazon and Santino are fun to watch. Loved his reaction to kiss; probably going to be many more episodes. Just wonder where they are headed with it. Maybe hers as champ and him as a male valet? Don't think I would have opened the action up with this match. Better spot in show would have been before the main event. Back in the day we called it the "popcorn match." Lawler & Duggan vs Dibiase & Rhodes Still enjoying the slap.. New G.M. Establishing himself as a comedian I guess because M. Cole, please-- could new G.M. Be Dibiase? Jerry got his spots in and this worked better than I thought. Although might have meant more had they broken M. Cole's arm or hand, that way there would have been visual reminder for a few weeks. Still money has got to be on Dibiase as G.M or Rhodes on 2nd thought. Still got to be Dibiase. Priceless, right. Jamie Noble vs Koki Kinston Guess the G.M. Thought this would be a match worthy of being on T.V. Must say wasn't that horrid for less than 90 seconds. Kinston is exciting and fans are beginning to warm to him. Let's remember we eat what is put on the table. If you're hungry, you will swallow it. Even at best, there have been (3) so called contests (no make that matches) because none were a contest. C.M. Punk vs William Regal Thank you Mr. Regal. You have just rescued me and all the other wrestling fans who enjoy a contest, fight, or match. C.M., welcome to becoming established. This match helped you much more than you think. Sometimes when we can't make those watching believe we are tough, it takes a match such as this to begin to create a fighting champion. May have felt like hell but it helped, believe me! You should thank Mr. Regal for lifting you to another level. Regal, great stuff! Especially the post and kick. Great to see holds applied and worked. Problem is you did more of than we will see the rest of the night. Jericho--headed for Punk to be Champ, then Shawn comes back for one more time around the horn. Just a guess. Punk better off with Jericho than the big boys. Batista, Kane, Cena, JBL, etc. Mickey Jaye vs Jillian Choreographed all the way through. Horrible DDT. Damn, some Dad you are-Peggy Lee grab the thunder and be someone we can sink our teeth into. Edge—Damn, what did you do to deserve this one? Are you auditioning for a soap opera? I'm sure it must feel like it. At least you get Undertaker in a main event. That's money. Look forward to seeing him. That's it ...main event to follow.

I love how Hardy said that Colin was a real "Wildcat" while talking to Chris Harris.

Source: prowrestling.net Contains RAW spoiler 2nd item down JR's Blog RAW Spoiler

source: Wrestling Observer Newsletter, www.f4wonline.com -- Apparently, some people in WWE may be playing an inside joke on ECW wrestler Ricky Ortiz, who recently started on television. On last week's edition of ECW, Ortiz appeared in a backstage segment with Theodore Long and his assistant Tiffany. Ortiz told Long he had ideas for catchphases & nicknames, saying he wanted to be called "The Latin Assassin." Long reminded Ortiz that he has only had one match. Ortiz then told Long he's undefeated. Long informed Ortiz that he will have a chance to make it 2-0 on this week's edition of ECW. His match on Tuesday will be one to watch as it should be a good indication of where he's headed in WWE. Anyway, Ricky's gimmick is said to be based on a developmental wrestler in Ohio Valley Wrestling from a few years ago who was constantly thinking of catchphrases, ideas for T-shirts as well as gimmick ideas when he hadn't really learned to wrestle yet. Ortiz is relatively new to the wrestling business as he trained for a few months in late 2006, debuted in January 2007, wrestled the entire year, and went down with a knee injury at the start of 2008. The injury put him of action for a while, and he only wrestled a few matches in Florida Championship Wrestling upon his return to the ring a few months later. And unlike a number of other recent call-ups, he was brought up to the main roster without having to go through the dark match/house show match trial that sometimes make or break developmental wrestlers. -- Ric Flair was scheduled to make some appearances in Canada in Brampton and Niagara Falls on 8/11 & 8/12, but the dates have been postponed. No new dates have been announced. -- The Register-Herald out of Beckley, West Virginia has a story on Raw Superstar Jamie Noble, who is from Hanover, West Virginia. He talks about how he got into wrestling as well as his career including his time in WCW. The article notes his departure from WWE in September 2004 (Although, never mentioning how his steroid usage at the time came to light following a staph infection on his buttocks. In a 2005 interview, he said he requested the release because he felt he should be punished.) and signing with New Japan a month later. He stayed there for eight months before returning to WWE, never mentioning his time in Ring of Honor, where he became champion in August 2005. The article also said he works behind the scenes with WWE (as a road agent/"producer"). -- Here is the TV preview for tomorrow night's edition of Raw, which will take place in Batista's billed hometown of Washington D.C.: "Discussing rumors of a new Raw GM; Cena and Batista's next step." -- Today is Triple H's birthday, as he turns 39 years old. Today is also the birthday of SmackDown star Shannon Moore, who turns 29, as well as WWE developmental wrestler Nic Nemeth, who is 27. It was also Shawn Michaels' birthday this past Tuesday, as he turned 43 years old. In another birthday note, former WWE Diva Torrie Wilson turned 33 years old on Thursday. Also, The Fabulous Moolah would have turned 85 years old last Tuesday. -- WWE developmental wrestler Johnny Curtis (not perennial ECW enhancement worker James Curtis/K.C. James) is on the road this week with the Raw brand getting some tryout matches. He defeated Matt Striker at both Friday and Saturday's Raw brand house shows in Youngstown, Ohio and Wheeling, West Virginia. -- WWE's apparently teasing a future match between the returning Undertaker and WWE Champion Triple H. Here is what WWE.com wrote in their preview for this Friday's edition of SmackDown: "The news that Guerrero re-instated The Phenom has surely drawn the attention of every Superstar within WWE. But, the first Superstars to take notice were most certainly those on the SmackDown roster who will come face-to-face with The Deadman on Friday nights, including WWE Champion Triple H. But before The Game has to contend with The Phenom, he'll be focused on his match against The Great Khali at SummerSlam." -- Well, it looks Vince McMahon is fine. He offered a comment for a press release the company put out regarding actress Jenny McCarthy's fight against Autism on Saturday Night's Main Event. McMahon said, "Many of our viewers have children or friends who are affected by autism and the WWE is committed to helping fund programs for families in need and advancing research that will help this generation of children." You can read the press release at this link. http://corporate.wwe.com/news/2008/2008_07_22_000.jsp -- In some trivia, WWE television producer Kevin Dunn currently owns $2.03 million in WWE stock, reports the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Also, John Laurinatis owns $739,000 in WWE stock. All of the company's Senior Vice Presidents got stock grants this past week.